The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 10-16-19

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 10/16/19Game 4 is postponed, Blame It On The Rain (0:00)Reid Ryan Discusses The Updated ALCS Schedule and Yankees Fans Behavior (19:42)Joel Klatt Joins Matt To Talk College Football and Officiating (35:53)What You Talkin' Bout AJ Hinch (54:30)Aaron Reiss : on Ka'imi Fairbairn "Texans Still Believe In Him" (1:11:54)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-2-H-town. What's happening in luncht timers? Good afternoon and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Racing back Gardner, still going back at the wall, looking up. See you later.

Suveid with his 12th career postseason home. And the Astros go up one to nothing. One two is a breaking ball. That's drilled deep down the right field line. And you can kiss it goodbye. Into the second deck. Reddick with a homer and the Astros go up two to nothing. Gonna get away from Sanchez and go to the screen.

Altuveo score on the wild pitch. Back to back pitches by Zach Britt in the dirt. And that one finally gets away in the Astros score and make it three to nothing. Blame it on something. What do you want to blame on on Ross? Do you want to blame on Ross? The rain. The precipitation.

But whatever you do, enjoy a two games in one lead. This is not a good song. I think it's really actually catching. Brown ball left side, Gregman to his left. He grabs it, throws on a move to first, a scoop by Gurriel in a low throw,

and that is the ball game. The Houston Astros taking two games to one lead in the American League Championship Series as they win game three by a final of four to one. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't listen to this every day. I'm not putting into the top five rain songs of all time. Ooh.

Did we do that once? On the Fantasy Five? Yeah. Yeah. I think we did. Did we? I think so. I think I took Riders on the Storm and Texas Flood and won.

Yes, you did. It was weather-related. We didn't just have to be rain. And you took its raining man or something like that. Nick, you liked it? one? Well, it has its purpose. I give it that. For the radio. Yes. I like it for the radio. I wouldn't be at home. I wouldn't be on my drive home and just listening to. I wouldn't jam this. No, this is, this fits the mode of what we're going to talk about. I'm not heading to a road trip to Austin and popping this on in the mixtape. I'm not asking you to. I'm asking to, does this song fit what we're talking about, which is the fact the Astros have a 2-1 lead and there will be no game number four. So the meteorologists were right. They had this pegged last Sunday. So, you know, even though meteorologists had the luckiest jobs on Earth, they do get some things heard.

Whoever originally forecasted this to be a day of rain in New York was absolutely right. I was trying to figure out how it was 100% two days ago, and then I checked it yesterday and it was 70%. How does anything ever it come down from 100%? What did you look at? I saw 100 every single time I looked. I looked yesterday. I have a Yahoo Weather app. I looked yesterday at New York.

It's because rain percentage change. makes no sense at all. It's based on historical data and based on when the situation is exactly as it is right now most of the time it rains. Yeah, but then give me 99%.

Whatever he said. Don't give me 100. If you're giving me 100 and it doesn't rain, that's just stupid. Anyways. Well, it's going to rain and we will find out in a matter of moments how bad it's going to rain. We were supposed to have AJ Hinch with us at 1230 today to preview

the game. Yeah. And I still thought as about half an hour ago we were going to. But he's nailing up the windows in his hotel room, so he's busy? I don't know. I don't know what he's doing, but it's going to be, actually, he's going to be doing a conference call with Major League Baseball in 25 minutes. So what we're going to do is we're going to flip. We'll have A.J. with his tomorrow. And then we will have Reed Ryan in his, and AJ's spot today coming up in 25 minutes.

Reid Ryan, who's with the team in New York, obviously. And the president of the Houston Astros with us here on Sports Talk, 790. Beautiful. We got a really busy show. One o'clock, we'll have Joe Klapp for college football. We'll check in on the Texans with Aaron or Reese at 2 o'clock. And then we can't believe it or not. So we've got a busy show.

Hey, gang, your Astros are up two games to one. Let's not, the rain will be its own animal. I mean, the four consecutive days and who to pitch whom and yada, yada, yada. That's fine. Your Houston Astros went to New York City with apparently the rudest fans in America. poor Josh Reddick was getting crushed all the things that he was saying about how bad it was. I know Michael

Connor and Chris are sitting in the Palatio right field upper deck with pigeons. With pigeons. And they were talking about how bad it was up there with their fan base around there. Julie Morales tweeted out about her. She went to just go get some food and she apparently was getting the business from the Yankees fans. She tweeted

that. How many likes and I think she's got over, I saw 2,500 either likes or retortals. tweets off of just that one little simple statement she had. It was crazy. I'm just going to tell you this. New York is a wonderful town for a lot of things. Politeness is not one of them. Yeah, she got 4.5,000. 4,500, yeah. 4.5K is what it says. Anyways, decided to get a churro during the delay.

Forgot how brutal Yankees fans can be. Thoughts and prayers to anyone who wore Astros gear to the game. P.S. The Chiro was Oreo, and it was delicious. Oreo Chiro, it does sound delicious. Yeah, it does sound good right now. Anyways, Yankees fans, and they're cheering when Bregman gets hit. They're throwing trash on the field when the tag play that Yule made at first base was the correct call, and they challenged it. And I can't remember who the runner was it in Carnacion or whoever it was.

Whoever it was running to first base got tagged out. And that was the right call. And then they're throwing trash on the field. They got to stop play because these idiots are throwing stuff onto the field. Let me tell you something in New York. if you listen to us right now, y'all are idiots. Straight up idiot. Listen to me right now.

This is a straight path to anybody listening to us on IHeart Radio. Y'all are idiots. Come at me too. I don't care. Yeah. When something gets reviewed and it gets properly overturned, what is in your head that you're like, you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to throw trash onto the field. That's going to make things better. And I'm going to lead the stadium after the game, my wife was showing me this yesterday, where this woman is just MF and the Astor. I was like, wait a minute, your team lost yesterday, and y'all are MF and the Astros suck, Granky suck. I mean, not great.

Garrett Cole sucks. Everything sucks. Your team lost yesterday. They scored one run. In theory, you're supposed to be Uber quiet, not Uber boisterous. Sucks to be them. So here is the reality of everything. No game today.

Game four starts normal time tomorrow, which will be 7 o'clock our time. Game 5, which will be Friday now, is a 6 o'clock first pitch. So no day off. If this series does go 7, and hopefully it does not, there will be four consecutive days of baseball here on Sports Talk 7.9. And four consecutive days. And the flight, so the game goes at 6 on Friday. Now, again, these are major league baseball players making millions of millions of dollars.

living the laugh of luxury on a chartered airplane. So they're not jumping on spirit or looking for Southwest to find their own seat assignment. You know what I'm saying? So the game ends at six, right, Ross? Or starts at six? Eastern time. 7 o'clock Eastern time on Friday.

Game goes four hours, puts at 11. Blank, blank and shave till 12. Media responsibilities, 1230. You get on the bus at 12.45 to get to, I'm a presuming Newark Airport that puts them at 130. wheels up at say 2.15. Three hour flight makes it 5.15.

You back the hour away at the central time. 4.15, they're getting into Houston. Why are we going to New York, Newark instead of LaGuardia? LaGuardia close off night flights. What about JFK? Same difference. It would be the same distance. Yeah. So, yeah, Newark.

When we go to New York and play rockets, we have to fly to Newark. Because that's the airport that's open. Let's take the train. 4 a.m., yep, and then the night game. Yeah, that'll be fine. Four o'clock to come back for a seven. I mean, it's not optimum. Nobody would actually want this to happen, but it's going to happen.

So here is it. Zach Rankie starts game four. Yes. Justin Verlander starts game five. Who gets to come home early, Ross, for game six? You know, pitchers will come home because they don't want to go through the tough travel. Who would come home on game six? We'll discuss that and discuss it.

awesomeness. You don't have to be scared. This is a good problem to have. Who should come home early? The entire bullpen? Just win the next two games. Or a certain amazing right-hander who was effectively wild yesterday. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. This is The Matt Thomas Show. The Matt Thomas Show continues on Sports Talk 790 where Rockets and Astros play. And real Texans talk. Let it play. Betty paint. Let you love rain down on me. 1220 on Sports Talk, 790.

A rain out for game number four tonight. Everything gets pushed back. But we're going to still talk about the excellence it was game three. We want you guys involved as well. It's 713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-7-90. Ross, I effectively called Garrett Cole effectively wild. And he admitted his first inning yesterday was rough.

And we had to make some big pitches in some spots. You know, the first inning, DJ did a great job on a good low-and-in fastball to drive it up the middle. Just classic DJ. Judge put us in a hole, beating the shift. I don't know if he was trying or if he just got it off the end of the bat. but woke the fans up. Still playing with the lead at that point, but needed to make some pitches.

Fell behind Glaver. Wasn't going to mess around there. Just on to the next one and made another good pitch to D.D.D. to get out of it. And the Astros survived. Garrett Cole. If that's the worst of Garrett Cole, Ross,

he's so ridiculously good. You can say both things. He was great, and he had an off day. He was off. That was not the garicle we've seen the last three months. But yet there was nothing but goose eggs up. The only run given up was the Joe Smith home run that he allowed.

The Glaber Torres. That's it. It was the definition of battling out there. That's what he was doing. And that's what October is. That's a supreme pitcher being put in adverse conditions, yet still thriving. Was it five walks last night, I think? Yes, five walks.

Most guys that walk five usually give up the same number. of runs to be truthful. Yeah, five walks, four hits, only seven strikeouts. He was human in every way, but then zero runs, zero earned runs in seven innings pitch. And that's basically what you look at at the end of the day. And that's the bottom line. And he was great. And it was 112 pitches he threw.

And you saw Joe Smith coming, gave it the home run. Harris gets the final two outs of the eighth inning. And then Osuna just was just kind of matter of fact, I'm going to throw him the heat. You're going to swing at it. You're going to induce some lazy pop flies and the Astros walked out of there with a 2-1 victory in front of almost 49,000 people. Yeah, two pop-ups and a ground out really quick. Real nice. For Roberto.

Like, no must, no fuss, no base runners, none of this. I mean, how many pitches he threw? He threw eight. Okay, yeah, it didn't seem like a lot. Eight pitches from Roberto Osuna, in and out of there. That guy and then the five outs that he got the other day as well, he's been pretty good the last couple of times out. So far in the playoffs, except for that one shiki outing. in what was that game two of ALDS or whatever it was.

He's been pretty much nails. Isn't it amazing the depression that laid over the city of Houston after being beaten 7-0 in game one to the amazing optimism? You know what it is? It's because your bullpen's done just fine. You've gotten just enough pop. And as we kind of tease it out the last couple of days, you get to throw Verlander twice and cold twice in a seven-game series.

You're expected to win every one of those four games, which means you win the series. It doesn't necessarily have to work out there. It might. You'd rather it not. You'd like to be able to say Zach Granky can give you a chance. And now becomes announcement time for the $64,000 question. Granky tomorrow.

Yes. Game five, Verlander. Win. Series over. If it's not. I don't want to hear any of that, Matt. Here it comes. I don't want to hear you that negative talk.

It's not negative. It's just the reality. If you have to go sat. Now, if you go six, answer my question, Houston, Texas, do you want Garrett Cole on three days rest, or do you want a bullpen game and save the bullets for a potential game seven? So let me give you what I would do. I think the three-day rest bit has been proven to me not so optimum,

especially because Garrett was effectively wild yesterday. Okay? I go bullpen game if they win and feel very comfortable about it I go bullpen game in game six and if something is leery and makes me nervous then I go to Cole at some point in game six

see that was the reasoning why Hinch went with Verlander in game four though even though they were up to one in that series as well he said Hinch said you know what if I'm going to go with them At some point anyways, I might as well have him go through his starter's routine and get ready and then start the game and see what he's got. I know. Just like I said in the ALDS, let's just sweep them. And so you don't have to worry about it. That didn't happen.

Just win games four and five. So you don't have to worry about six. Keep that if necessary asterisk up there until the very end. Can I just tell you I want to do everything humanly possible for Garrett Cole not to pay? pitch on short rest. Is that is that saying too much? Maybe, I mean, maybe if you're up 3-2, AJ wouldn't do it. If they're down

3-2, Garrett Cole is starting game 6. It's an elimination game for somebody either way. You, you man. Then you're going bullpen game for game seven. The plan is to win game six. And then you're nervous as hell about game

seven. What kind of rest would Grinky be on then. He's pitching tomorrow. He's on regular rest. No, no, tomorrow he's on regular rest. I mean, for a game seven, he'd be on three days. Oh, no. Friday set. Yeah, it'd be Granky on three days. I don't like Granky on three days' rest. Just win games four and five. Okay. Trey and King won't on seven out of. Hello, Trey. Good afternoon, guys. Hi.

You kind of stole my thunder there, but that's exactly what I was wanting to talk about. And I agree with you, Matt. I think I don't like this decision starting Grinky tomorrow against the Naka who pitched so well, and now he's at home. And if it's three, two Yankees going back, Cole has to pitch game six. And who are we going to pitch in game seven? I just, I mean, the only thing I think is positive about this is maybe your kitty gets to pitch. If he does have to pitch, he gets to pitch in Houston versus in that place in Yankee Stadium, which is obviously tough.

but I don't understand this. No, I don't mind this at all. I don't mind this decision at all because I think that you want to put the foot on the throat of the Yankees. If you can grab two wins in New York, I think you're feeling really good about yourself. And they think the chance of winning a second game in New York is better with Granky Verlinder combo as compared to bullpen Verlander combo. I'm not the problem. I'm just thinking about down the road a little bit. Yeah, I will stay firm on this one.

I don't mind Gazette Grinky going tomorrow at all. This is why you brought the number three guy in. It's why you made you July 31st deadline to pitch in the big moments. This is why he's making $35 million. You have to have him. He has to be your guy, Trey. He just has to be. Well, you know, for him, this is why he's making 35.

He's not pitching like he was signed that way anymore. And he pitched a good game, six and gave up three quality start in game one. But Tanaka was incredible. I mean, he was just filthy. And I don't know. So the question that would be is, is Tanaka going to be as filthy as he was four days ago? Well, no, but Grinky could go out there and go eight in the third with no hit. He could do that also.

I don't see that happening. Neither one of them is giving you a track record to say that they're going to repeat their performances. Agreed. So that's why I think you have to go with. Well, I mean, the Yankees are in a bad spot here, too. They're going to have the bullpen game somewhere, too. I mean, and they're having a bullpen game somewhere. good.

Yeah, but the aster's got into them. Yeah, that's true. I mean, they have. I mean, these are two best teams, so it is, you know, it's going to happen. You have to, and I'm going to get shut down. Somebody's going to get hit. Thank you, Trey, for the phone call. It's a good point.

He's good arguments. I'm not in nothing wrong with this. But you have the advantage of starting pitching. You have three starters you absolutely trust. The Yankees have two. By them pulling James Paxon, as early as they did, they don't have the trust factor in him. Severino's arm just can't, you know, again, he got a lot deeper. He got him five.

But that's all he's going to give him. You have the advantage in the starting pitching. I think the Astros have to act like they do. And I think this example is, this decision is making them say, yeah, we have the better starting pitching. We think we can get to our, we can keep our star out there longer than yours. And if that is the case, even though the Yankee bullpen is good, a matter of work and overwork is going to eventually hurt them. Yes, they deserve to die. And four games in a row, four days in a row, I think it tips the scales to the advantage.

manager of the Astros as well. Yeah. Citizens of H-Town. Welcome the president of your Houston Astros. Hail to the chief of Crush City. How about the Houston Astros? Astros president Reed Ryan on 790. It's brought to you by Expedity, the future of awesome. Time is 1235.

Let's go to the streets of New York City. We were going to have AJ Hinch join us here, but sometimes Major League Baseball, like said, we're going to take the manager over his weekly radio hit. Okay, fine, whatever I'm MLB. So we've brought in the ace of the business operations. He's out of the bully, isn't he? He's out of the bullpen.

Reid, tell us where you are at this exact moment right now. I'm on Madison Avenue looking down the street at the, I think that's the Chrysler building right now, but just been out of some lunch and I've been on my cell phone a lot today. How's the weather right now as we speak? Yeah, it's starting to sprinkle a little bit, very overcast, and they'll be made the right call because it looks like it's really getting sucked in here for the rest of the night. Well, first of all, congratulations on the victory.

Second of all, did you and Jeff go get some exercise this morning, according to his Twitter account? We did, so I didn't want to be an over-poster, but yesterday on the bus, or whatever day we wanted to do, so I was making for. Jeff Luno and I both own Pelotons, and so does Deroa and Goa, our traveling secretary. And so we're always sitting along the road, and most of the hotel will have one or two, so we've shown up at the same spot before.

And so Jeff goes, hey, you want to go do Peloton today? And we thought we might rain out today. And I was like, yeah, and we had a special deal set up, and we joined the alley with a class over at Peloton, on and they gave us some swag, and we crunched for a while as good way to start morning. It was, and it was a certainly great way to celebrate last night's victory. Let's get to more logistics of this. The thought of the game is going to be played at 7 Eastern on Friday, 6R time.

Was there any thought of it being played earlier so everybody get it back, or is this television and sometimes dictate that more than anything else? Yeah, so that's from the topic of discussion. Had the national series still been going on, we would have played earlier in the day, And we put it in this first game. Absolutely one game. It's about a national audience. It's about, you know, Fox maximizing their, you know, the TV revenue.

And so that broke us at, you know, 6 o'clock Central, 7 o'clock Eastern. So it'll be a long night. We'll get in real early Saturday morning. And then obviously if games seeed Saturday and Sunday, we will have those. The times are out. So it will be 7 o'clock, 7.07 Saturday and 637 Sunday, if needed. So, you know, perfect world. We take care of business the next two days and don't have to worry about.

Reid Ryan, President of Business Operations with us here on the Matt Thomas show from New York City. I read a lot of reports about verbal and things being, verbal abuse and things being thrown on the field at Yankee Stadium. you know, obviously being a road team as difficult as it is in the postseason, but anything that can be done is it gave New York a very bad look yesterday. Yeah, you know, this is something that falls under my preview, and so we've had some calls today. You can ask you about it tomorrow. He'll go into a little more detail about what was set on the field.

Matt, this is the fifth time I've been here for a playoff here. There's a couple of the Rangers when my dad was over there as president, and then obviously 15, the wildcard game, 17, the ALCS, and back here for the ALCS. And it's one of the best baseball venues in the game because the fans are so passionate. Like passion often comes a lot of, you know, things that we wouldn't see in Houston of people throwing stuff

and hurly insults and all that kind of stuff. And so the people in the bullpen and the security guards and they're do a really good job, But it's the folks up in the stands and people on the aisles, whether they're ushers or security, that pretty much just let it go. And, you know, we have beer thrown on us. We've had bottles thrown at us. I read it had all kinds of stuff thrown at him last night.

And it's just part of coming to New York. And hopefully the league now is realizing that, you know, we need to do a better job of making sure player safety is at the fourth of this game. Those two guys are above the first row in the right field deck when Reddick makes the play at the wall. I was really scared we were potentially headed for some sort of fan interference or something, and thankfully it didn't happen. But I don't want, and you don't want anybody that's watching, whether you're a fan of either one of the two teams or not. We don't want anything fan interference-wise is a determined a very important game. So I just hope that that's as close as it got yesterday. Yeah, I do as well.

And hopefully, you know, what was said by Josh. resonated with the league. I know I got an email this morning from them and we've been looking at it today and trying to find exactly what we can do about it. So, look, because we're going the right direction here, we just need to take care of business. You know, Grinky will be throwing Thursday and Verlainters will be throwing Friday, and so it gives us a couple of great shots. You've got two former Sy Young award winners going for our side, and look, Grinky pitch really good is first time, you know, only three runs and six. I'll take that again. Bat seem to be coming alive. And so our position much better today than after game one in Houston.

All right, we'll let you go. Brave the elements the best you can. You know what? Napping in New York with the 2-1 series lead with the rain is not a bad idea. So maybe you can decompress a little bit. Well, I don't know about that. I'm going to try to keep myself busy today. But what I will say that is tomorrow at 9 a.m., world series tickets still on sale.

So for those of you that are season ticket holders, with the Astros, you will get a link to be able to buy tomorrow. And then in the afternoon, the standing room only will go on sale. So if you're curious about Astros tickets, it's Astros.com backslash postseason. And go ahead and get on there. That'll give you all the information and go ahead and get registered. And you know what? We've got to start planning for it. There's a good shot.

We're going to be there. I hope it is the case. Last question for you to run. where will you guys be on terms of having discussions about the roof being open or closed, especially if the weather is conducive for it next week? Well, you know, this is a unique situation. I spent last week with MLB, and MLB has control the postseason games. They make the call today on to postpone.

But my point to them, and under the Rob Manfred era, he's been really accommodating to us closing the route. And the point I've had with MLB has been, look, you know, why do we want? want to have sun in someone's eyes or, you know, Twilight, or now we have wind that affects a pop-up or affects a ball blowing in or out for either team. These are two best teams in American League. Let's just close the roof. Let's have the same conditions for everybody and know that we don't have to worry about any of that.

And so hopefully that's what we'll continue because these teams are so elite. And we're looking at some, you know, how many Hall of Famers are on both these teams? it's amazing the guys that are on this field. I don't want to have loops deciding a championship series for these teams. All right, we'll leave it at that. Thank you, Reed. Safe travels back, and let's not worry about six and seven. Thank you for the time, my friend.

All right, man, see you. You got it. Reid Ryan, President of Business Operations for the Astros, whether it's from New York City. So it sounds like the organization wants the roof closed. Yeah, it makes sense. Louder, and then all the factors that he talked about is you can control the game more.

It's more a controlled environment. it's almost like now if I was to build a baseball stadium or any stadium I wouldn't even worry about making it retractable these today's athletes love closed facilities and I guess the only reason why you would close that you'd have a minute you'd have a retractable is if you wanted to have grass on the field short of that in any other place but yeah I don't I think minute made with the roof open doesn't make it sound any less crowded I mean noisier I just you know but you know that's just me

I'm also not the one playing and not been the one and been the element. I haven't played the elements for five and six months. Yeah, I think it's cooler to play under the elements and under the stars and all that type of stuff for big games. And the good year blimp shots look better. That's what that's what Verlian is like, man, I've got to pitch this game. I hope people on Fox are getting a really good view of things right now. All right, back on the phones. We're going to talk some college football in 15 minutes.

You want to lead off with the what happened in the Oklahoma Texas game? I already told you what happened. They got beat on both sides of the ball. They got beat on both offensive and defensive. defensive lines. They were lucky to be in that game, thanks to turnovers, and they couldn't stop anybody, and the run game was horrible except for Rocheon Johnson in the second half. That's in 15 minutes. It's the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790.

Baseball, football, basketball in Houston. Home for your home teams. Time is 1250. AJ just had a conference call. Yes. And what we're going to do? Yes. is at 130.

We're going to do a rare edition of what you're talking about, which talking about, AJ. I'm very much looking forward to that. So, Nick, make sure your slugs don't give away anything that I would give away to Ross.

Big deal. The big problem is I got to make sure I don't list to see anybody on Twitter. Yeah, I haven't yet. Turn your Twitter off for 40 minutes. I'll be extremely vague. Yeah. Are you new here?

Yeah. I can't do that. All right. So we'll do one o'clock. You got Joel Clat. 130. We have what you're talking about Bill. All right.

I want you talking about AJ and Aaron Reese at 2 o'clock for some NFL conversation. Okay. Are the Texans the second best team in the AFC right now? Answer my question. Don't hedge. Yes. They're not. Who's better?

Wow. Exactly. It's not, it's, I don't want to. You can't say Kansas City. Two straight losses and the team that you're saying that is not as good. Right. They beat you on their home field. The only team with a better record, the only two teams with a better record than them are the Patriots and the Buffalo Bills.

So are the Texans better than the bills? The bills are actually solid. Stop what I just said. Let me rewind. The Texans right now was still a lot left of meat on that bone. Are the second best team in the AFC. Yeah. As of right now.

As of right now. If we're doing the unrottoned five. If Baltimore played Houston right now, who wins that game? A neutral field? Neutral field. That's a close one. It's close. Really close.

Coin flip. Baltimore. I was actually just going to give you point differentials where New England Patriots are far away number one in AFC in the AFC. Number two is the Ravens with a plus 44. Texans and chiefs are tied for third with a plus 28. Texans are up there. They're tier two AFC contender. Jimmy in Indiana on seven on eight. Jimmy, what do you have today? Hey, how y'all doing today? Good. Quick question. Scenarios here.

the Astros lose tomorrow, would you pull Verlander and save them for game six? No, there's no. No. I want Justin Verlander in Yankee Stadium pitching a game five. Absolutely. No pulling. It's already been determined. There's no hedging. Not at all. Right. One other question for you. Okay. Why don't the Astros have an app? They do. I can't find it if they do. Yeah, I think they do. I know there's a rocket No, there may be an MLB app that connects you to the Astros? Yeah.

That's how it probably works. I don't know if the Astros have their own. The Rockets have one. The Texas have one. You know, and I can listen to games on their apps, but I can't listen to the app. Oh, that's because they want to charge you for it. That's why. Yeah.

Yeah. Go to the MLB. I did actually find another app where I can't listen to them, but. Yeah, MLB app's going to charge you, usually during those season it's about $10 a month. I think it's, I thought he's 20, like, like, 20 for the whole season or something like that. So you may have to pay 20 to just. for a handful of games. But you know what? That's $20. That's one meal. They want your dollar-dollar bills, Jimmy.

There you go. And I figured out why the price of beer has gone up at the stadium right now. Because of inflation? No, they're saving money, man, for coal. That's an interesting point. Thank you, Jimmy. Rossi, if I wanted to offer Garrett Cole right this moment, six years, $180 million. He would say thanks, but no thanks. I'm getting more money somewhere else. that's that's exactly right folks or at least longer deal

maybe not more AAV as the kids say average annual value that's a that's why we need game six and seven at home for Jim crane he's how much money he's gonna make off

of each of those games need game seven of this series and game seven of the world series to get crane some extra dollars in that piggy bank God it's I mean let's

I mean let's start thinking about 2020 for a second because this is what we like to do before Joel Klaq comes on is we just want to just make y'all crazy we're talking about $28 million for Verlander, 16 for Brantley, Redick is still on the hook for 13

let me try to think who else is. I looked it up there. They're at 156 next year. That's pre-arbitration for Correa and Springer. They call adjusted salary for the purposes of the luxury tax or whatever they call it. Verlinder's 33, Altube 29, Grinky 24. I got news for you, friends.

Alex Spragman at $13 million is underpaid. He's going to bump up the years up. The Astros right now on the books. Now, things can change with tenders and whatnot. And not everybody is on a six-year frequency. But right now, the Astros on the books next year, we'll have eight players unless they pick up an option for Davinsky at $2.8 million, which I don't believe they will do.

Mm-hmm. So Verlander, Granky, and if you were to give him $30 million, you're talking $63 and $24, that's $87 million on three pictures.

Yeah. They're going to be at $200, around $200 million without Garrett Cole, it seems like. Let's not worry about this anymore because it just makes me sad. He's going, do you think he used this here?

I don't know. Do you think he used to noses our range for a desk? I don't think so. Do you think we're going to get five million callos saying that if Jim Green doesn't really want to win? Oh, no. I hope we don't get that. If Jim Crane really believes in championship, he'll sign Colin. And all green has proven to us.

He likes to win and he wants to win. Yeah, he's going to pay $33 million for Justin's a provider next year. They traded for Grinke. That was his idea. We probably should stop whispering. Okay. Let's go. Now we're talking college football with Joel Clatt.

Brought to you by Dos Ekes. Official beer sponsor of the college football playoffs. And there we go. There we go. Now, this is some college football music. OU and Texas, brilliantly called by Gus Johnson and Joel Clack. We got to bring that up. This week's game not nearly as sexy.

I think West Virginia is a 33 and a half point dog at Oklahoma. I see 34. So, Joel, you're going to have your filler material ready for that bad boy? How are you, Joel? I am working hard on some filler material. Come on now, that's not nice for West Virginia. West Virginia's got a shot, right? No.

No. So you've seen Hertz, what, twice so far this year? What are you thinking? Three times. Yeah, I have. And I thought that last week he actually reverted to some bad habits. and it wasn't just the turnovers. Obviously, the turnovers are not great.

And fumbles are fumbles and you just got to secure the ball better. The decision to throw the ball back across the middle of the field late into the end zone was obviously a, I mean, just a ridiculously poor decision. Having said that, though, the offense did move up and down the field. Now, I thought that the score was not indicative of the game that I was watching. I thought Oklahoma was much more dominant, even on the offensive side. And what they did is they turned the ball over twice in the scoring area, and then they had to kick a field goal on another red zone possession. So now you're sitting there with three points out of potentially 21.

And that was why the game was the way that it was. But Hurt specifically, he has a tendency early in the season against Houston specifically. He would see a read, not like it, and take off. And then versus UCLA, you would see a read, maybe get the two and take off. And then what he started to do is develop his progression a little bit. And he was hanging in the pocket and he was allowing the offense to work for him schematically. And then he was using his legs as a last resort. Quarterbacks that use their legs as a threat one and as a last resort, too,

I think are more effective and can create more damaging plays for the defense because it's more demoralizing. What happens is that the defense has to do everything right. Everything right. They take away the first option. the second option, the third option. And then all of a sudden you make them wrong after they've been right with your legs. And that's when I think running and scrambling is most effective outside of the quarterback design run. But what I saw last week is I saw him take off a little early a few times.

And it's to be expected. You're going to revert back to kind of what you are naturally in those big moments. And I thought that he did. So we'll see how he moves from here. Like I said to begin, though, they still played really well. On the flip side, Joel, what do you think was the issue with the Texas offense? It just felt like the offensive line was getting whipped, and Sam Ellinger didn't throw a touchdown, and even the passes he did complete were short ones and didn't connect on a couple of long tries.

Just overall your thoughts on what happened there? Nothing went well for Texas. I thought that their wide receivers played really poorly, really poorly. They were not creating any separations. and then when they did, there were far too many drops. And in a big game, when you're playing a team that you need to upset, you can't miss opportunities, even if it's for a first down on a second down play or so on and so forth. And so they didn't play well.

I thought that Sam, for the most part, actually played pretty well. His offensive line was atrocious. And the thing that bothered me for Texas is that it was the exact same stuff that they were struggling. with protecting Sam Ellinger in the LSU game. And I pointed it out a couple of times on the broadcast, but it was a very simple stunt where they bring the defensive in, and they loop him around and bring him kind of right up the middle or in the A-gap. And then they crossed the face of everybody else, and they could not pick it up.

And it just got home countless times, regardless of who was in it. And I thought Neville Gallimore, the nose tackle for Oklahoma, just totally owned that offensive line for Texas. and I thought they played really poorly outside of a couple of drives where Rochon Johnson kind of bounces out and makes a play and then in another series where they got some tempo going. But outside of a couple of series, they just really didn't play well. With very few sexy games on the schedule,

I want to bring up a big picture topic. And it's something we talked about on my show the last couple of days. Joel, you and I are about the same age. We watch football at the same time. Fisciating has been something he kind of just, just roll your eyes with and you hope the advent of instant replay would help. We've seen the NFL this year. Completely butcher what exactly is a reversible pass interference call.

Then work comes out today. The athletic director of Texas Tech, Kirby Hookah gets fined $25,000 for his comments about officiating, which means my son's tuition at Texas Tech's not going to go up because they have to pay the fine. And I don't want to put you in an uber difficult spot, but you've never been afraid to talk about the big issues. Yeah. No one can find me. Listen, I'll say whatever I want. I don't care if you full-time these people in college and pro.

I don't care if you go find a new batch of younger, more athletic guys. We have a, and I don't want to know if the word epidemic is a problem, but we've got a real problem in this country, finding good men who are really smart and want to do their jobs the best they can, being able to live up to the moments of these big-time college and pro football games. Yeah, part of it, I mean, there's a lot to unpack in that answer. I mean, are there really poorly officiated games going on? Yes.

Did we see one Monday night? Yeah, that was atrocious, candidly. There's been far too many missed calls, situations, and college football. All of that is true. It's also true what you said right at the end, that we have not been able to develop or find better or more officials. Part of that is our own fault. Hear me out.

When you go to any, and I'm Adam now, when you go to any youth, you know, contest, whatever sport it is, at the very lowest levels, parents are the worst. They shout at these kids trying to officiate. They scream and yell because they think their kid is more important than God. and candidly it drives people out of the entry-level point in officiating. People are terrible to high school officials. Coaches are terrible to these high school officials. They expect perfection when perfection is not anywhere attainable because these people are still trying to develop. So those are the people that eventually become, you know, NCAA officials.

I don't walk in and say, hey, I want to be a college official. It's like you've got to have some level of experience, right? Here's a, for instance, one of my longtime childhood friends is Corey Blazer. Do you know that name? Oh, my God. He's the one that screwed up in the baseball game the other day. He did. He's an umpire in the big leagues.

Corey and I started umpiring with a few other of my friends when we were, you know, 13 years old. And we would umpire the eight-year-old games and things like that to earn a few bucks on the side. And he turned that into a career. He started doing it and continued to do it into his high school days. And then even in college, he would go. And when he was at Colorado State University, he would go and umpire in the summer. And then all of a sudden he became a minor league umpire. So I tell you that example, to tell you, like, he's officiated his entire life, right? So is he going to make mistakes at times? Sure. And that's to be expected. But why would anyone do that nowadays?

I wouldn't. I mean, look, I tell people, I tell people don't get, people terrible. Don't get in the radio business because half people hate you. I mean, they just do. They think you're the worst sports host in America. I was like, my son's in tech, like, should I get into sports? I said, no, don't do it. It's funny because Corey got the assignment to work game

three of the American League Championship series, or game two, excuse me. And he calls out Gary Sanchez and Sanchez is all mad at him. The previous pitch, Corey calls a foul ball when there was no way in the world that ball hit his bat. So for a guy that is as good as he is, and has been grated out as good as he is, he still made a mistake in a very, very impactful baseball game.

Right. And you know what? That's to be expected. And I don't understand. And here's the problem with replay. And replay now has been instant replay, has been, you know, in most of these sports now for going on over a decade. I remember I was playing when it was brought back into college football. And so that's early 2000s. And so now, what we've done is we've taken away the element of sports that, like, hey, things like that are going to happen, right? And now the expectation is that it's absolutely perfect all the time. Well, that's unattainable, folks, even with replay, because the parameters in replay don't allow you to replay every single call. And we tried to expand it into, you know, pass interference.

and I'm sure this is not all you wanted to talk about. But yes, isn't an epidemic? Absolutely. Can we just blame officials? No. It's partly our own fault. One, our expectations are way out of whack. And two, when people are trying to get a start in that career, we treat them like dirt at the lowest levels of sports.

All right now, back to the football field. How do you like the rankings right now in the Associated Press top 25? It's not the end all. But how do you like how things have sized up? And if you're Georgia, are you just sick to your stuff? on how things turned out last week, especially when it comes to a battle of field goals. So, yeah, I mean, lots to get into there as well. The A people is really bad.

It's garbage. The fact that 11 people, it is. I mean, the fact that 11 people voted for Clemson as the number one team in the country, there's not one reason you can give me of why they're number one without bringing up the national championship a year ago. It's supposed to be that way. It's not supposed to be that right. That's exactly right. Every year should be its own year. That's exactly.

And this is my whole problem is that we've placed the burden of proof on teams like Wisconsin and Penn State who have been dominant teams to this point, dominant teams. And by the way, played a more difficult schedule than Clemson. And yet the burden of proof is on them in order to what, you've got to prove that you're going to pass Clemson based on what we thought Clemson was going to be. Let me just give you this as an example, okay? kind of a close your eyes type of example. Imagine if, imagine if we had Ohio State ranked number one in the preseason. And Ohio State, with all these returning players and great players, in particular on defense, four of the top 20 recruits in the country in 2017 are now starting on the Ohio State defense.

Imagine if they had played below expectation to this point. And one of those wins that they had while being undefeated was a one-point win over Indiana. Imagine that for a moment. Would we be criticizing them? Absolutely. Would they still be getting first-place votes? They better not be, because other teams have been more dominant. It's absolutely atrocious that 11 – those 11 people should have their votes stripped from them.

And everyone says to me, well, that poll doesn't matter. You really think that the 13 committee members don't watch for them. football in the first half of the season with at least some framework in their mind of what they're watching. They are not aliens. They don't drop down in week six or seven of the season and then all of a sudden say, hey, what's been happening? Everything that they've been watching has had some form of subconscious bias attached to it. And that framework or bias is established by this horrendous poll that we trod out there like it's any good. 11 people voting Clemson, number one. Give me a break.

Well, that must be the Columbia Sports Media right there. Joel, you always bring it, my friend. Safe travels this week. And like I said, continued success with the filler material. And I hope that you've been studying your XFL draft. Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 7-9th. Your rockets, your Astros, your voice. 122, Nick Ross, Matt with you on a Wednesday edition of the show.

If you've not heard, he'd been napping. because rain like this makes you want to nap. We've got a postponement of tonight's game number four. So game four will be Thursday, game five will be Friday. Saturday, if necessary, will be game six in Houston, game seven in Houston as well. And of course, all the games right here on Sports Talk, 790. Game number four, which is tomorrow night,

will be at normal scheduled time, which is seven o'clock card time, an hour earlier on Friday. What's talking about AJ coming up at the bottom of the hour? Texans update. Aaron Reese at 2 o'clock Wonderful I just Look the Texans need their shine

I just can't find it When the Astros were playing for a World Series You know what I mean It's gonna happen It's a long season I mean I think most people understand The Texans are doing okay

Big win against On the road at Kansas City But this town right now is about baseball But we're gonna mix it in Because we as a radio station And a show can do a little bit of everything Three hour show We can talk a little Texans every now

We can mix it in for sure So we'll get that And again I thought Joel Clause is always fantastic. But he's, to the point he was saying, why would any 11-year-old dream of, except Matt, mean, dream of becoming an umpire or referee?

So you want to spend your entire life being verbally abused by thousands of fans, medium players? He's so right about these parents, in these Little League parents, going after referees and getting in fights. I mean, look, I like that they get some fights in their own video because then we can post them on the What's on Matt's Mind Show page.

Sports70.com. But other than that, it's just, what is going on with these Little League? parents. It's everybody I've ever met in my life said I'm not being, I'll never be that parent. My beautiful wife. She gets after it. She gets after it and did in the past. But she always makes a men's phone. Does she? She'd like bake some lemon squares or something. No, she'll talk. You know, she talks to. She's, she's talked to anybody person, including talk to person on the airplane, which I'm done, that's the opposite of me. Oh, come on. You got to tell her to stop that. No, that's her

life. I can't tell what to, you know, if she wants to have conversation, it's not her life. She's affecting negatively other people's lives who are just trying to have a peaceful silence on the plane. Not from seat to see. What percentage of people do you think like talking on planes? 25%. Those 25 should be fine. You know what they should do? Rather than a smoking section like they used to do on the planes, they should do a talking

section. Actually. If you want to talk, you can sit in like rows 23 to 28. That's actually not a bad idea. I have one better. You know, you have the air conditioning above you? You have a flight attendant call button. Yeah, you just call for a conversation.

I'm willing to talk to you. If the red light is on, do not speak to me. It's like the poncho's Mexican flag. You raise the flag if you want to talk. That's right. If you're up for conversation, the green light is on. If you do not want to be disturbed under any circumstance, the red light. Or you can put it on like the thing on your hotel room.

Do not disturb. Or disturb. Yeah, exactly. Peacefully sleeping. Like, listening to a podcast. This is a great idea for a non-busy sports. We need to save this. Bill and Cyprus at 126.

Hi, Bill. Good afternoon. I just wanted to throw something by it because I really don't know the answer to this. But is it against the MLB rules or regulations or whatever to start a fun like here in H-town called C- I'm going to be really honest with you, Bill? If I need a city of Houston to start a go-me, go-go-me, go-fell. fund me count for $30 million. It's probably going to be for better education and people that are sick and people that need

it, not a ridiculously awesome right-handed pitcher. But, you know, you could certainly silence the complainers say, have you contributed? I think so much of that guy just ran through my mind. But I understand what you're saying. I don't disagree with that. Yeah. It's nice that you would say something like that. And I'm sure Garrett would appreciate it.

but I'm not going to first of all it's never going to happen secondly that's not even on the top of my list if there are kids with cancer or haven't been you know they're just way more important in the list

than making sure Gary Cole sticks around he's just trying to have fun Matt make a joke that's tired and not that funny but we appreciate him thank you Bill for calling let's go to Jesse in the east end on 790 hi Jesse

Jesse oh Jesse was a friend mind. I wish I knew the words of the song because it's so popular in the 80s and it's always on my mind. Oh, I wish I took Jesse's call. You did take Jesse's call. And he's not there at all. I tried, Jesse. What in her activity? Why can't I get a phone call like that? Oh my gosh. Jesse's girl must have been pretty hot. Jesse's girl is one of the most popular songs in the 1980s. Period. End of story.

Yeah. Not a one-hant wonder, but certainly not a 10-hit-wonder. What's you talking about A.J. Have we ever done which time about AJ before? Yeah, I think so. Okay, we're going to redo it again in a matter of moment. 7-13-212-5-7-90. This is number 34, Ricky Williams, your teams, your town, your voice all day.

This is Sports Talk 790. Real Texans talk here. 135 on Sports Talk 790. Thomas show we are very thankful that you are spending part of your day with us. If you'd like to join us, you can do so at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-5-7. We just haven't bragged enough about game three performance. Garrett Cole, Josh Reddick left out for dead because everybody hates Josh Redick. Everybody hates Rightfield, period. Yes. And he's been great. So let's, we'll do a little more honoring of that in the 2 o'clock hour.

But right now, we test Ross on an occasional basis with Bill O'Brien. and see how he can pick out the quotes and see if he knows exactly what's going to be said. And we'll do it now with the Astros manager. We present to you a rare edition of... What you tell you, what you job about? AJ Hinch. I like it. Rossi, 33.6 seconds.

You know, because AJ is never going to be 10 seconds. AJ is thoughtful. He's very talkative. And A.J. will be with us tomorrow on the show at 1230. I mean, in a good way. How beneficial is this proponent? postponement, 33.6? Well, it's good for us

and that we can get Grinky in there, and he's obviously a guy that we brought in to make these types of starts, and he's going to be good, and there's less uncertainty for these next couple of games. You're going with him and Verlander, and obviously that's a plus, but the Yankees are going to get some rest as well, so they're going to get to NACA,

so it's going to be a difficult task either way. How beneficial. You know what? It gives everybody a day off, and kind of an opportunity to collect ourselves before game four. It changes our pitching a little bit. How beneficial it is is probably easier to answer after I see how guys perform and how the pitching plays out. But I guess it's kind of a wait-and-see.

But it does solidify who we start in game four and game five without having to go to a bullpen game. One to five stars, Nick. he gets two, maybe two and a half. Yeah, go to two. You should have gone to the if you had solidifies pitching as your lead narrative, you'd have gotten

four stars on it. I did mention that well, they get a day off too, and he said it benefits. That's why you're getting two and a half stars. It should be at least, you know, a little bit. All right, next up. What you do you draw my? What you draw my? AJ Hitch. 22.9

seconds. Zach Granky in four, Verlander in game five, was at an easy decision. Yeah, it didn't take a lot of thought. I mean, you're putting two of the best pitchers in baseball on in games four and game five. These are veteran guys who have done this before, who have pitched in big games. So it didn't take a whole lot of thought for me to go with it. And I'm feeling confident these guys will perform well.

Yeah, very easy for us. It was our plan if this happened. It's Zach's normal day. He was going to pitch on Thursday, no matter what game number it was. JV on regular rest in game five, the sooner that we can use. use, you know, our best pitchers, the, you know, the better for us. It was an easy decision. Pretty easy we'll lay up for you.

I wanted to get your mojo back a little bit. Oh, please. Yeah, it was good. Thank you. Give you four. I'll give you four as well. All right. Now, this is where we've got a couple more left.

We're going to get a little more of a challenge for you. Let's get the next one in. Here we go. What you're doing? What you're job? How much of a concern is four straight games? It's not that much of a concern. It's something that we've done a lot of times,

and we'll be prepared for it. You've got to remember, the other guys got to go four days as well. I mean, they've been using some pitchers and going into their bullpen earlier than we have, so I think it helps us, honestly, because we got some guys in Grinky, Verland, or Cole, they can go deep into games.

So I think we'll be fine. It's baseball. We've played four games before. We'll think if you look at it based on how the games play. out, but we haven't even played game one of a potential four-game a stretch. So right now our goal is to win the next game.

But we play four games in a row all the time during the season from the beginning of this stretch. It's not that daunting for us. We should do it all the time. It's something that players are equipped to handle from the very beginning. But it's

really a non-topic. You started out sluggishly, rallied and then dissipated. So two and a half stars. I'll give you three. You got most of it. All right. Last one, this is a very challenging one.

Okay. This is 43. Let's get the liner out first. Here we go. What you're doing? What you draw a mouth? Hey, J. Forty three point one seconds.

Hmm. It's meaty. This is meaty, which gives you a little bit of a rope here. Are we wrong? wrong in saying that this is not a normal four-game series. What? Are we wrong in saying this is not just a normal four? The next four are not going to...

Is that right, Nick? The next four are not going to be normal games. They did not want to let up on this four-game series topic. Meeting two in New York, flying two more, no-off days in between. I'm assuming is where he's going. I mean, yeah, obviously it's not normal. It's different circumstances. but the Yankees have to deal with their own adversities.

We have to deal with our own adversities. We've played four games. It's just baseball. And, you know, we're not that worried about it. It's just trying to win the next game. We don't even know if we're going to play four games. So we're going to try to win the next two. That's the plan.

And then we'll go from there. And if it ends up being going back to Houston, we've played four games in a row before. I think I've not heard this. I think you're going to win this one. This could be a potential five star. Well, we don't have a choice. It is what it is the way the schedule is.

And so we're not going to panic about it until we know what's in front of us. And we're not going to talk about games two, three, and four until we get through the next game. It's just not our mentality to worry about the things you're talking about. I mean, we're here to win and win as fast as we can. If it takes all four games and our bullpen gets used a lot and our pitching gets used a lot, and that's what it's going to take to get to the World Series. But honestly, it's not something that we're going to talk. about internally going into the next

game in this playoff series. It's just not. Yeah, I'll give you. That's pretty good. It's really good. Thank you. You did well. I feel like we can play what you're talking about AJ once in a while. I'd be okay. I would love to. 142 on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to get in, you can do so now to honor everything that was great. We need to do a two o'clock salute. We've not played any of the highlights. We did actually the very beginning show. With Aaron Reese? Oh, we got Aaron Reese at 2 o'clock.

So we can't do it there. You can do it. We can do it. We'll do a new... 220. We need a definitive song for the 220 bump to play great highlights in the game yesterday. Because I don't want to talk about rain forever. Okay.

So 220. If y'all can send me a tweet at SportsMT, what song would be the most perfectly played music? It could be a New York song with Astro highlights over it. Something about winning or taking a lead. Celebrating. It could be shutting up the haters. It takes two. because it's a second win.

That's true. Give us a definitive song and there's no vote to it. If we find one then I say, hey, Ross, we're going with this one. He'll go, okay. 713-212-5-790. It's Matt and he's back.

The Matt Thomas Show on 790. Houston's home for Houston teens. There is a story. I don't know how much people care about this one way or the other, but there is your story in the New York Post today about how E.S. SPN might be changing up its Sunday night baseball lineup because of the fact that Jessica Mendoza has a special assistance role with the New York Mets and that Alex Rodriguez has a special assistance role to the New York Yankees. There's biases?

Yeah, and I guess apparently it's more pronounced with Mendoza than it is with Alex Rodriguez. They may pull Alex off the broadcast because doing those games weekly, you have to really prepare and. be in advance, and I guess preparation hasn't been his strong suit, like most good millionaires, calling games. Yeah, he'd be better off doing a studio show. He's not breaking down film of, like, Stephen Mats, starting for the Mets on a Sunday night football game. Yeah.

And as I've said before, and it hasn't really been a huge conversation piece. There are broadcasters that work for local teams that also do national broadcasts. That, to me, is a different separate animal than a local than a broadcaster who actually is involved in the intelligence of a baseball team. having Jessica Mendoza and Alex Rodriguez contribute to what the Yankees and Mets may or may not do as an organization baseball-wise is absolutely a conflict with them working in national broadcast.

Okay. So what are they going to go with? I don't know. They're just saying they're thinking about it. It doesn't mean they're going to do it, but it's just interesting that came out today. So I don't know if people care about that kind of stuff about it. So it was interesting that we are seeing intelligence in terms of working for teams, maybe affecting broadcast. Who do you think of the broadcast so far? I've thought Joe and

I love John Smolts Joe's fine to me I don't bother me at all Yeah I like the pregame I love Big Poppy on the Fox pregame show Sometimes it's under hard

To understand what he's saying But that's actually part of the enjoyment of it Just trying to figure out What he meant to say Well how it actually comes out Yeah He also said they weren't going back to Houston Was he right

Best part was Kim told me She says yeah Alex Rodriguez is like Saying yesterday Hey Okay big Poppy but you're in our joint now, you're in our house.

This isn't the same. And he goes, you know, I actually liked playing here. I think I hit 34 home runs in my career in New York. Yeah, he did okay. It's funny. He was there asking him about the shift, too, because remember he was one of the OG. He was the OG of shifts. Yeah.

It really shouldn't be called a shift. It just be called being big poppyed. Or the Ortiz's. Ortees sounds a little bit different. Ortiz. You want to get Ortiz? I don't want to get Ortiz, especially with you in the same room. Carl and Dickinson at 150 on 790.

Hi, Carl. How are you doing today, boys? I'm not calling about Sparky today. Sparky's here straight up, so we're going to keep winning. But I'll just let you know, y'all do a great job. And I would like to see Mr. Ford maybe running a national game. He's really good. I don't like his sidekick too much, but I like him.

Dang. And I just think y'all do an outstanding job and the Astros. I mean, I hadn't listed baseball in 30 years. I was a football nut. I cannot stay away from the radio list of you guys and also watching the games. It's fabulous. That's nice to say. It's absolutely fabulous.

Y'all do a great job over there. Like I said, Sparky's ear straight up. We're going to keep on winning. Okay. That's the rule, folks. Those of you're just joining us, Sparky. Spark is being what? Carl, his dog's name is Sparky.

Oh, I'm very confused. Well, that's why I was trying to explain to the audience. Okay. We have people calling and telling us... That's a good dog name. Sparky. It's 1975. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Carl's going old school. Sounds like it could have been like Richie Cunningham's dog name or something. You know, this is so minutia. If you can name Richie Cunningham's older brother, I'll give you 10 million M.T. bucks. Oh, okay. Because the sister was Joni.

Yeah, of course. He had an older brother who you only saw on the very first season of Happy Days. Giermo. It's not Gierma. You think a Midwestern family in 1950 named their Kid Giermo. Okay. I mean, that's a guess.

It's not what I would have called the top guess. Okay. I have not watched a full episode of Happy Days ever. Okay. You're not missing all. Well, actually, it was a pretty decent show. The answer, I wonder if anybody on Twitter can get it real fast. Do you want to give a prize to somebody that gets it?

Um, I don't know. matter of faith you think people you think someone would know the answer that right away what do we have for fries i'm sure we can get somebody right now okay let me try let me try let me call him right now 790 good afternoon what do you need the name is chuck for richie cutting hands brother all right you win and i want to uh i want to talk about rockets if you have time my friend please do go for it you know uh i'm excited about the upcoming season i'm a little disappointed the green is out and i think he's going to miss the year sounds like being a local local boy we kind of need him off the bench.

But how do you feel we're going to work together with Hardin and Westburn? Do you feel like it's going to be okay? Yeah, I'm very excited. I was excited when the thought even came into mind. I know that Mike Dantone is one of the best offensive minds in the history of an NBA. I can comfortably say that. And he figured out a way for Chris and James to work together. And frankly, you're getting a younger, better score,

a little bit more of everything than Chris was, especially in the year two. I mean, the wrestles. an upgrade, right? That's great. Now, who do you think is going to have the ball on their hand the most? Hmm. I think they have to debate that. Okay.

They have to debate. Okay, well, I appreciate your wisdom on the Rockets. I enjoy talking about it. Well, thank you. And congratulations. We're going to give you a gift of some sort. I don't know what it is, but if you name Chuck, you win a prize. So congratulations on that.

Hey, that's pretty bad if I know who Chuck is. Well, I mean, you really. You know who Laverna and Shirley's boyfriends were? Well, it won Lenny and Squiggy. Yeah, that was kind of who it was. Oh, no, I think, I think Levern made out with Lenny one time, but that's about it. Well, do you remember they came on the Happy Days and actually we're dating Fonzie and Richie? That's right. That's how they got that on the show to begin with.

Hey, man, we can talk all day. Yeah, but I think 80% of the audience wouldn't care. Thank you anyway, my friend, I'm going to put you out hold. How about that? Give the man a gift for minutiae's TV trivia. Let's go Squiggy. We don't have great nicknames anymore for today's characters, do we? No.

This problem, my guess, is 80% that would be people consider them racially insensitive. Russell Westbrook took 11 threes in his 25 minutes against the Raptors in the preseason. And how do you do? What was shooting percentage on those? He made three of them. So that's, what is percentage on? Part was one for eight. That percentage is probably like 28 or something.

27, 28? Yeah, somewhere in that neighborhood. You know what? When you play games in Japan, the ball's going to be different. Is that what? Yeah. The air is a little thicker.

Yeah, 27.27%. Okay. He's just working up the kinks. I'm a little worried. I don't want... I don't run. Russell Westbrook taking 11 threes in any game. He can't make them.

Okay. I hope you're wrong. Evidence would say that he's probably not going to be a great three-point shooter. Yeah, evidence of his entire 10-year career. Hopefully the rockets in their metrics will tell him where to shoot the Is he going to listen to metrics, though? He needs to. Does he want to ring? He's a guy who plays with such passion and he's such a fireball of energy.

I think he's more of... And you had Kevin Durant getting an argument with Matt Moore of C... or you formerly a CBS with the Action Network about analytics and feel and all that type of stuff. I think he's going to be in that realm. The numbers don't mean anything to me. I'm Russell Westbrook. I'm going to be taking all these shots. I'm a little worried about it, Matt.

That's all I'm saying. Need that worry, my friend. Not that it's not going to worry. Not that like they're going to go 42 and 40 or something like that. They're going to win 50 plus games without even trying because they're going to out talent most of the majority of the team. What if I told you? When we get into the first and second round of the playoffs is what I'm worried.

What if I told you they don't know they answer that question yet? I don't think they do. And there will be tough. Their kinks will be worked out. I wouldn't be surprised they struggled out of the gate. When Chris Paul first got here, the first couple of games, they went up, ripped off a long winning streak, but that was after playing about 500 ball. And then there was also an adjustment period.

I mean, at any time. Well, here's the thing. You know your first three opponents are? I think it's New Orleans, Milwaukee, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City right out of the gate. Okay, they'll go two and one. Then a five-game road trip. Four game. You're not going to see me for like a week.

You're going to miss me? I'll be a fine. I'll make it. 156. We'll start the final hour. We'll talk to Aaron Reese on the Texans. Those of you on hold, hang time, will get to you. And what, Ross, what is today's edition of believe it or not?

All things. That sounds very hesitant. All things with the Hong Kong and China situation. Coming up on, believe it or not. You know what? I don't know if anybody wants that. We all need a breather from that. Is the Matt Thomas show.

The Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 with Ross and our producer Nick Lowe. I'm Matt Thomas. Let's spend a few minutes talking to our buddy, Aaron Reese, who was nice enough to move around his schedule a little bit because of the Astros and all that good stuff of the press conferences and the afternoon game yesterday. Aaron is with us here on the show. Aaron, I have a very simple question. Don't mealy mouth around it.

Let's go. Are the Houston Texans right now as we speak the second best team in the AFC? Oh, right now as we speak, I would say yes. I don't know if they will be by the end of the season. I think that ultimately if everything comes back together for the chiefs, health-wise and stuff. I still pick them in a playoff game. But I think right now you can't say that.

Obviously, they just beat the Chief. All right. We all watch the game on Sunday, so no need to recap things. But what has turned things around? Do you think it's offensive line protection getting acclimated with each other? Is it Deshawn making wiser decisions? Is it the fact they're taking advantage of turnovers? Give me one or two things, as you see, has seen this team. I mean, look, go into Kansas City.

I don't care if Mahomes is on 100% and whatnot. That was a quality football win for that franchise. Totally, totally. Yeah, I mean, I think obviously the line is playing better. All the advanced metrics and like tracking data and stuff. I mean, everything suggests that the line is legit, you know, if not above average, at the very least average. But he's helping his own cause, getting rid of the ball quickly two weeks in a row now. And I think what you saw that was impressive in the Kin City game was, you know,

They had built in ways for him to get rid of the ball quickly. I mean, he was taking advantage of a lot of hot routes, DeAndre Hopkins on Blitzes, and then, you know, those easy completions to Darren Fells and Kiki Guti up those RPO's, like just behind the line of scrimmage or just past line scrimmage. So, I mean, he wasn't having to rear back and challenge them deep in order to, in order to be effective and obviously protect his body. But, you know, when he has taken the deep shots with play action or whatever, I mean, they have protected them well. So I think, I think you, maybe you don't want to say the line is

amazing, but it's clear that like the line is obviously improved and that has improved to him. And they all work in conjunction with each other. And that's the reason why they were able to beat up on Atlanta and the Kansas City victory. So let's do this. If Atlanta sucks and Kansas City is slumping, how much do you put into this game? Because if you win this game, not only do you have a nice size leading in the division, but you've grabbed another intra-division win, which really can help you all come playoff time. So, or at least in tiebreaker standpoint. So do we want to put a lot into this game, or do we want to say, hey, wait a minute,

this is a close division. The Colts are better than advertised. They also won in Kansas City. So even if the Texans lose this week, there shouldn't be a lot of hatred out there because the Colts are feeling the same way the Houston Texans are right now. Yeah, I mean, I don't think one way or another, you've got to say that if they I wouldn't say that if they lose, it's like, oh, the last win is invalidated or anything of the sort. I think the coach are a good team, and I think ultimately now with the trade of Jalen Ramsey to L.A.

and then the Titans making their changes in the quarterback. I mean, this seems like kind of a two-team race to win this division. Obviously, a win here would be huge put the Texans in the driver seat and stuff. But, I mean, it's not like they need this before they enter a really, really rough stretch. They're going to play the Jags in London. The Raiders are better than people expect. but, you know, they get them at home. So I think that, like, if they lose this guy,

by the means falling, or it doesn't mean that you shouldn't feel good about what they showed in the Chiefs. I think that was an impressive performance without doubt. Yeah, speaking on that, Aaron, it was impressive because to me, if I would have told you before that game, the Texans are going to be trailing 17 to 3 after the first. You're going to have multiple drop touchdowns by Will Fuller and D'Andre Hopkins.

You're going to have a lot of penalties. Kimey Fairbairn's going to be missing kickes. If I told you all of that, you would have said that the Texans lost in a blowout, but they did not. They just look like the better team over the course of the four quarters. Right, completely. And that's what I mean. I mean, even if you want to say the chiefs are banged up and all those things, which are true for sure.

But the Texans, I mean, they obviously, you know, beaten by one score in the end, but they really kind of kicked their butt. I mean, they were, if Will Fuller doesn't drop those three touches, you know, some of those, at least one of those, two-score game, DeAndre Hopkins doesn't drop that one over the middle. You know, that's another score, most likely. And, you know, and then Deshaun isn't throwing those picks. And I think just the makeup of the game looks a lot differently. If some of those things go their way, they really, it doesn't, kind of, the score doesn't reflect how much I think they really dominated them outside of the opening,

you know, three minutes or whatever. So, no, I think it was, I think it was by far the best one of the season. What do we know about Titus Howard right now? Yeah, you know, partially torn MCL, so he's not going to play. for a while. And then Bradley Robey also, they expect them to be outpriced after the buy. So those are some tough injuries of both ends.

I mean, Howard was really coming into his own at right tackle. And then Roby was, you know, I think playing pretty well in a one year, kind of proved a deal, earning himself a good contract after this season and really looking good in the slot. The good news from both of them is that mostly on the office line, you know,

Roger Johnson at right tackle, he's held up pretty well on the opportunity he's had. I think that the line is good enough elsewhere, it's not like he's creating some massive problem. Corners a little more iffy, in my opinion, but Lonnie Johnson, the rookie, he's had some good flashes here recently. Will we see Jay Joe this week? Yeah, I was just a practice, and the portion of open to media, he was participating. Okay.

I don't know what the reaction was from your Twitter followers, but when he didn't start against Kansas City, there was a little bit of a sign of relief, and Tyree Kill certainly made things miserable early on. So what is his value right now, as you would assess him at this point? You know, I mean, I think he's not, he's not obviously, he doesn't have the speed to hold up with a lot of these guys. I don't imagine that even if he does play that he's going to be the guy taking on T.Y. Hilton, one-on-one as much as T.I. Hilton would probably love that. But, you know, I think there's something to be said for just having kind of like a stabilizer there and a bit of a leader and all those things because, you know, you look at the, like, who's going to say he doesn't play. I mean, the corners, you're talking about them playing, or Lani Johnson, a rookie, Philip Gaines, who signed with the team a week two after they cut Aaron Colvin. And then Keon Crosson, who really doesn't have much defensive experience.

They traded for him from the past because he was a special team guy who kind of, from what I understand, basically, developed as a corner faster than New England anticipated. They didn't have a need for him. So the techings took him, but, I mean, it's not like he's a guy that is really proven as a corner. So it's kind of a, you know, even if that group is okay, talent-wise, I mean, I think you're talking about guys that really have no chemistry together or very little chemistry together, very little experience with Romeo Cornell, and very little experiences in general in terms of like reps in the NFL as starters. So, you know, I think Jay Joe still holds value in that way, even if he's not going to be the guys in the lockdown half the field or whatever.

Aaron Reese with us from the athletic. Aaron J. Reese, R-E-I-S-S. You can find him on Twitter. Aaron, are we surprised that Kami Fairbearer and are still a Houston Texan today? No, you know, I think from what I understand, you know, the Texans, they kind of still believe in them. He's made some big kicks for them in the past, and, you know, they changed holders, and there definitely has been, I mean, that missed field goal was the weights were pointed inside, and his problems only really started when they changed punters and changed holders. So I think they want to see this through probably like another week or so and go from there if the problems continue. But, I mean, obviously, it can't last much longer. But I'm not surprised that it's lasted this week. It's, you know, the kickers world's kind of crazy.

You're a hero. Guy who's hitting everything. And then six, seven calendar months later, he's on the edge holding on for his job. You mentioned the laces. Are we really going to blame that for a lot of it? I mean, four missed extra points. That's very troublesome for me. The missed field goals are going to happen.

But the extra points really have to put Bill O'Brien's decision-making skills. into whether or not to go for 2.9 into question a lot sooner than it probably should be. Right, for sure, especially when you consider, you know, how effective of a runner, Watson can be in the red zone and just kind of all the options they have offensively with the tight ends being effective to the way they have been early this year. Yeah, I mean, you know, you're right. The PATs, that's probably on him. I mean, he's missed as many PATs now as I think he did more than he did all last season. He's time for the lead in PATs. So he certainly can't be on very thick of ice, but we've still got the job for now. All right.

Last question. Have you played out the Colts Texans game in your mind a few times? And what do you see? You know, I see the Texans winning another impressive one. I just think that, I don't know if this offense is really clicking. And, you know, the Colts defense will be tough. But I think that they've figured some stuff out here in terms of how to handle blitzes, which was kind of the biggest issue for them.

Carlos Hyde is not appearing to regress anytime soon, and I think that they're going to kind of take a lead here in the division. And Bill O'Brien's probably telling a lot of people to suck it right now, yes? He hasn't still me that, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was telling some people that. All right, we'll leave it at that. Aaron, have a great week. Thank you very much for the time. Safe Travels, Indianapolis.

We'll talk again next week. Yeah, thank you. You got Aaron Reese from the athletic Aaron J. Reese on Twitter. 212 is our time. Now, Ross, you're the only person that's, I put a question out to name a song. I actually got two. We got Republica ready to go. That's by ATX Hobo Girl.

Abon, Ronam wants Microchip League, New York Groove by Craig Hevelotti, our buddy from The Chronicle. And then you want a culture club song. Just a suggestion, Matt. You don't have to take it. We're going to choose one that's not yours. You can do karma chameleon if you want. Oh, then that, if you're going to play a culture club song, that would be the one to play. That is for sure.

Give us a song. In matter of fact, Nick, go look at my Twitter mentions. Can you do that? You picked the song, but it's got to be nothing that Ross selected, but one of our listeners have. Is that fair? And we're going to play some astro highlights, take some more phone calls to 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9. Next time, tell Alexa.

Playing 790 on I-heart radio. Wherever you are, so is Matt Thomas. That's hit in the air and pretty deep to left center field. Racing back Gardner, still going back at the wall. Looking up, see you later. Into the bullpin. Jose Al-Tube with his 12th career postseason Homer. And the Astros go up one to nothing.

One, two, it's a breaking ball. That's drilled deep down the right field line, and you can kiss it goodbye. Into the second deck. Reddick with a homer, and the Astros go up two to nothing. And it's going to get away from Sanchez. as it go to the screen, El Tuveo will score on the wild pitch. Back-to-back pitches by Zach Britton in the dirt. And that one finally gets away in the Astros' score and make it three to nothing.

Breaking balls hit well to left field. That should get a run in. Tagging at third base is Brantley. Gardner's got it and he'll lob it into the infield. As Brantley will score easily, a sacrifice fly for Gurriel. The Astros lead it, 4 to nothing. round ball left side regman to his left

he grabs it throws on the move to first a scoop by gurell on the low throw and that is the ball game the Houston Astros taking two games to one lead in the American League

championship series as they win game three by a final of four to one anybody clapping 220 on 790 believe it or not today it's all things about

Joe Madden he's got another managerial job he's going to be the American League West you like Joe Madden you're going to see a lot of him signing a new deal today to become the manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheimmer, just to play an old L.A. Angels. Doesn't really matter.

Guy gets jobs. Unlike Cubs fans loved him out for the World Series. I think Cubs fans didn't even like him during the World Series. No, he's getting around. Managers, I mean, they just, how much is managering matter? This time of year, a lot. You think so? Absolutely.

Okay. Yeah, I do. Of the three, who does the most work in the preseason? Oh, preseason? I go NFL head coaches. You mean pregame? Anything, anything before the start of the season. Oh.

Training camps, exhibition. Okay, sure, yeah, NFL. You get to install the... And during game and the week games, during weeks, yeah. Okay. During the games, regular season, who works the hardest? The manager, the head coach of the basketball team, or the head coach of a football team? football. You think so?

NFL, yeah. Okay. I'll give you that. What's the pitch? What's the baseball manager doing? Well, he's also lining up guys when to start, when to give rest. I mean, we talk to AJ Weekly about this. Okay, yeah, I understand. I just think an NFL game planning week to week is more involved. That is a great job of skippering.

I know you do it. He does do a great job of skippering. I do think the NFL head coach has the most work to do. but I do value what a manager has to decide this time of year. How long to go with somebody, when to pinch hit. Look at what Aaron Boone and look at what Kevin Cash of the Yankees and Ray's have had to do to try to figure out when to go to guys in the bullpen because they are void of an extra starter they would like to be able to go to. That does take some decision-making.

I'm not saying they're not making decisions and they're just sitting there. They're making millions of dollars. I'm not saying that you're not. But I am absolutely giving, I do think managerial decisions in baseball. postseason are very much pronounced. Okay. You disagree. I think a lot of them are ABC.

I don't think not in the regular season, I may give you that. In the postseason, I think everything is second-guess. You even alluded to it when we talked about Osuna going in for five outsides. But yeah, you're going to go with Osuna. That's just, that's what you do. You don't have to. You didn't have to. You could have kept Will Harris out there longer.

Okay. You could have, I guess. But like, you know, Garrett Cole's done after seven innings. You just go with that. I mean, that's to me, it's not that difficult. I don't know. Yeah, I think the value of a good manager in the postseason is very much an asset to it or a detriment to a team.

I think most of the manager's value is, in 162 game grind, is keeping the guys motivated and keeping everybody fresh and feeling good or whatever. Like basically creating a culture. I think that's the most difficult thing a manager does. probably in baseball. In football, you don't do that because, yeah, in football, it's about the right plays, using your challenges, calling your timeouts, but again, the head football coach, in theory, is not supposed to be calling the plays. It's your offensive coordinator and your defensive corner. You're supposed to be more to administering. It depends on who you are.

It doesn't work in that way here, but it is what it is. It's working. Marvin and Madagorda 2.23 on 7.9. Hi, Marvin. Hey, good afternoon, guys. Hey, a couple things. For me, postseason, it's baseball. I mean, It's the appropriation of football during the week because you're playing once a week. Yeah, that's such strong. But there's a lot more that goes behind the scene in a game. You know, I mean, let's say, for example, Saturday night, keep the game close. I mean, you got, sometimes you've got to have a short lease.

And, I mean, you don't want to discourage anyone, but it's postseason. Granky gets in trouble tomorrow. You know, he's got to have a short lease. You bring him Presley and he makes it worse, you've got to have a short lease. I mean, you know, when you know that you've used guys like Jill Smith or, I don't know, James, you know, Will was doing good. It's timing. It's all about timing. And there are challenges. There's times of challenge. And, you know, what about that play? Where girl, I tagged the guy on the helmet. It didn't look like it for us. But, I mean, it's a lot. But football goes to that a lot about whether not a ball is in bounds or whether it's caught, whether it's past interference.

I will say that Bill doesn't have to worry about personnel decisions as much as a baseball manager would do, especially when it comes to pitching staff. But it's all different. Thank you, Marvin, for the phone call. I appreciate it. Again, we're splitting hairs over this. You're not going to be able to win postseason games,

no matter what the sport of you have inadequate coaching. You just aren't. Yeah. And I think Joe Madden, frankly, has got that kind of that reputation of winning, despite the fact that maybe some of his decisions haven't been great. I think in all three sports you can win despite the head coach. Is Doc Rivers won in 08?

Is he like a fantastic? As relative to the average of these guys being the greatest coaches at what they do. I like Doc Rivers. I don't know. I would not consider him a bad coach. Okay. Is Eric Spolstra? Is he like just some wizard?

Okay. Yeah. Now, ultimately to your angle. Okay. It's all that the athletes. Tyron Lou is a championship head coach. Is he some wizard of basketball? I think Tyron is.

been thought of very highly in the NBA circles. LeBron left and he got fired in like 10 games. All right, Marvin, wanted to finish something. Marvin, did we forget to talk about something you really know? I figured back in off what you and Ross would talk, but I'm going to ask you something. Answer me seriously from your time, and this is definitely my time. Have you ever seen anybody that's been a bigger liability

behind the plate than Gary Sanchez? You know, it's funny. I said, thank you, Marvin, for the phone call. I tweeted yesterday. He's not any better. He's a butcher back there. Nick Totaro is our buddy. He said, oh, he's getting better.

No, he's terrible. He's terrible. And he's not even hitting either. He's doing a good job arguing with what's his name, Cory Blazer. That's Joe Klatz, buddy. Yeah, I didn't know. They grew up together. Isn't that crazy story?

Small world. Let's go to, yeah, Sanchez not. I mean, when he's on, you can live with his woeful defense, but his bat's been really silent so far. Here's a man who's excited about his Astros up two games to one. Hi, Howard. Yeah, I was listening. You were talking about what players are earning and attendance. The attendance of the Astros, even with the fantastic season they had, was down 4%.

Friends of mine who can afford it and have had season tickets, they say the price has doubled in two years. And there is a limit to what people will pay for these tickets. number one. And I can be wrong on this, but corporations cannot deduct, as they used to, the price of tickets against entertainment, that this is not allowed in the bill that that was passed in Congress. So this may well curb what people, what corporations and a number of tickets that will be sold. the Astros are still in the top, I think, 9 or 10% of tickets sold. But they did drop, even though you would expect, they would have an increase in attendance with tremendous 107 game wins.

Howard, I've got a question for you. May I play a song to finish our conversation? It's probably going to make fun of it. No, no, no. First of all, you'll never make fun of on this show. But what you essentially have done is you have taken an awesome moment of a two games to one lead and made it about a 4% dropping tickets. Yeah, I mean, come on. 40,000.

You know what, Howard, have a great day. I want to give you something to get you fired up. Oh, boom, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong. Here come the astros burning with desire. Here come the astros, bringing all his pride. Here come the Astros I've been on their mind Here come the Astros number one every time

Go Go Astros Have won 107 games this year The Astros had the best record in baseball The Astros defeated the Tampa Bay Rays In a hard-fought tooth-and-nail battle of five-game series And every game was sold out, by the way. The Astros got down one to nothing to the Yankees, scoring zero runs getting blanked.

They have rallied by winning two in a row. They've got Zach Grinky and Justin Verlander going in the next two games, and we're calling about ticket prices. Are you so that much ingrained in being negative in your day-to-day life that you cannot call and congratulate this lineup? or Garrett Cole for fighting his ass off and walking five guys but still going seven innings and not giving up a run. You can't call about that.

You can't call about Jose Altuve having 12 postseason home runs or Josh Redick one sending one over the fences. Or Carlos Correa's walk off in game two. We're going to call about ticket prices, Howard. That's on your agenda. But Ross, cotton candy went up by a dollar. beers are more expensive too Howard somebody's got to pay

for this $200 million payroll If you want to get a What's the tomato juice drink Buddy Mary? $17 But you get a lot of fresh vegetables in it Andy Martino is a writer for sny.

TV that's I believe the Mets TV stage One of their cable channels up there They carry the Mets games Andy says And I'll read along with his story Yankee players and coaches became angry with the Astros during game one of the ALCS when they noticed a whistling sound of the Astros dugout, which they believe was an over-the-line example of sign stealing and a violation of the game's unwritten rules.

According to three sources, a Yankees coach noticed a whistling sound of the opposing dugout on certain pitches on Saturday night in Houston. The Yankees started yelling across the field and people in the dugouts argued back and forth. One source says the whole dugout was pissed, everyone was chirping. For several years, widespread suspicion has followed the Astros about aggressive sign stealing, especially at Minutemate Park. Although most teams engage in some form of this activity, several executives and current former players said on Wednesday that whistling was over the line. Quote, they've been doing it for years, an alleged executive from another team, when asked about the whistling. I would consider whistling a tired act that goes beyond what is acceptable, said another major league executive.

If the Astros or anyone else was doing it, it would be considered a break in the unwritten rules. I have not been a part of any team that use a whistle from the dugout for pitch type or location. A major league coach, not the Yankees, noted the unproven suspicions that the Astros use cameras to get signs. They are NASA, the coach says. If a pitcher is tipping and the players can see it from the dugout, no biggie. If they get it from somewhere else, that's dicey. Which we've said before. If they're putting cameras in spots

we're not supposed to put cameras to steal the signs, then that's douchy. It is. Yes. Of course. They're stealing signs. It's working so well that they scored zero runs, and then three and then four. Seven runs and three games. I think there's ripping signs left and right from everybody. There is paranoia around the sport of baseball right now.

good. Keep on the edge. Please. Please, please, please, please. Do not believe first of the Astros are whaler than thou, okay? Because they're not. But please don't believe that everybody else plays by the same rules either. This sports are nothing but cheaters. It's just what you can get away with and what's legal and what's not. So the sign stealing has the Astro scoring seven runs in three games and then the Yankees only scoring two runs in one. one run in the last game. Correct. That's all because of sign stealing. Correct. Okay. Man, oh, man.

There's some serious paranoia. Let's go to Tom and Cyprus at 240 on 790. Hello, Tom. Get my call. Great to hear your show. Hey, I want to drop something on you guys. No matter who makes it to the World Series in the American League, we know that either one of those teams are going to have home field advantage.

What do you think of the nationals bringing in? Bryce Harper, throw out the first pitch on game three. I think that would be great. First of all, you think he'd do it? Or you think they'd ask. Just wanted to throw that on you, and I'll hang up and listen. Ross, I'll let you answer that. Okay, I kind of blanked out.

What's the question? It was like... The caller suggested the Nationals call. Former National Bryce Harper. Yes. To throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Game 3 of the World Series between hopefully the Astros and the Washington Nationals.

Yeah, that doesn't need to be addressed. That's not happening. Maybe they get Donnie out there. Donnie Trump out there in D.C. throwing out the first pitch in game three? Oh, my God, no. Why not? Obama?

went out there. George W. Bush went out there. Do you want a massive delay in the game? What do you mean? Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Mm-mm. George Bush did in New York. I know. Barack Obama did it. Where? He was wearing a White Sox hat, right? Was that in Chicago?

Yeah, and he was terrible throwing the first pitch. No, I wasn't. I think he was fine. He floated it in there, but it was a strike. It was a strike full 90 feet, too? Yeah. Or 60 feet, six inches. I don't know about that. Okay. No. No Trump. Under any circumstance, pitching a ceremonial first pitch at any of the games. You think he's got a sidearmor?

What do you think he's like he's got over-the-top breaking ball? Do you think you'll ask? I'm Donald Trump, and I approve this message. See? He wants in. Let's get Don't meet with Trump. It's bad politics. I think it's a disgrace. You think it's a disgrace if they don't ask you.

Believe me. Oh, believe me. Here's what we'll do. You go waddle out there. Let's get the a... the World Series, and then we'll play Guess the Netsh the National Anthem Singer, guess the play ball guy. Do I have a chance of any of those?

No. Okay. And guess a ceremonial first pitch person. Quiet, quiet, quiet. Clay Walker. Excuse me. My turn. Clay Walker.

If Ivanka won my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. Geez, that's the most uncomfortable one. Hit that one more time. It's like a chess player, Grandmaster, playing against a checker. I think we need to get Donny T. out there. There's no chance. I will make a lunch bet where you that Donald Trump is not. Now, he will be at the games, but he will not be throwing out any ceremonial first pitch.

I mean, obviously, you've got to beef up security. Oh, Lou now. Excuse me. My turn. See? It's his turn. Could you imagine the security for a first pitch with helicopters and any sort of? There's precedent for this.

It's going down to tubers. Yeah, it's not happening. Let's play, believe it or not next. 243 on Sports Talk, 790. For week, believe it or not? Not. Believe it. He does.

I've told you once in a thousand times. You've got to know who likes the cycle and who doesn't. Dude, ride his bike to Wrigley. Chris on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Joe Mann was the first manager in Major League history to ban smokeless chewing tobacco in both the dugout and the clubhouse. Believe it or not.

Not. That is correct. Congratulations. All right, let's remind you about TGS insurance. There are three people listen to this show right now that have saved incredible amounts of money on their home insurance. The lovely Loretta P from Manville saved $1,590 in her home insurance. Charles M from Houston saved $1,44 on his home insurance. Christina W from Humble saved $1,358 on her home insurance. How'd they do it?

They got to their phones and texted the word money, M-O-N-N-A. EY to 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23. And get with TGS insurance. They want to see you. They want to give you your good rates. And they'll give you these rates on the best home insurance policy out there in 15 seconds. All it takes is a text. You send them their address shortly after that. In 15 seconds later, they're saving you big time on the money. M.O.N.E. Y to 23, 23, 23 to save big on your home insurance with TGS insurance. A.J. Hanch is on the show. Dr. Roto. on the show. Dana Holgerson, Ross and Nick myself, Rotten 5. We've got a busy Thursday. Get you ready for game number four. Weather permitting, but it sounds like the weather will be a lot better tomorrow

than it is today. A team is up. They're going to work a full three-hour show, and it's next. I know. Stunning. I'm Sports Talk 790.