The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show : Astros Fallout and Silly Love Songs

Episode Date: February 14, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/14/20Good Morning Strippers!Anything Goes Friday! (0:00)Chris Gordy Gives A Spring Training Update (22:23)How Far Will The MLB Investigation Go? (1:14:31)Brian T. Smith Discusses the Astros Apologies as Spring Training Commences (1:22:16)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. H-Town. To a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 with Sports RV and at Pro Nicola. I'm Matt Thomas.

Today was supposed to be a hard-earned day off for your truly sports RV. But you know what? Really? The news of the day, yes, hard-earned. Don't argue with me on these things. You've been on a Johnny Carson's schedule for a minute. It feels like that doesn't, not true at all, not true at all. I'm actually coming to you today from a beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina, where tomorrow, you know, sometimes families celebrate Valentine's Day different ways.

And sometimes it could be. And sometimes your phone goes off in the first segment. That's true. True. It did go off there. Sorry. But I digress. Sometimes you go out and get flowers for your girl or maybe a nice piece of jewelry from Shaw's or dinner or a relaxing massage from Woodhouse. What do I do, sports Harvey? I'm the ultimate romantic. I take my wife to her happy place, Durham, North Carolina for the Notre Dame fighting Irish and the Duke Blue Devils in a college basketball game tomorrow. That's beautiful. Hopefully she doesn't start screaming at whoever the Notre Dame head coach is and get reprimanded by Coach K. Like the Cameron Crazes did a couple of a few of weeks ago. Yeah, we were talking about that at lunch today about how Coach Kay kind of lost his marbles when

attacking his own fan base for all the wrong reasons. Mike Bray is the Notre Dame coach and that will officially end our Notre Dame versus Duke preview conversation. Oh, he's still there? Yeah. Coach K, he's been there a long time. No, the Notre Dame coach. Mike Bray, yeah, he's been there for a while.

Good for him. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't think we're going to be leading up with a lot of that today. We can. I mean, y'all can break down Notre Dame Duke Leggamata. We can break down Texas' big college basketball matchup tomorrow. Who they got? I don't even remember. Hopefully it's an idle game, maybe a buy, if you will. The Baylor game was

really sad early week. I'm not even paying attention anymore. I think it's an easier one. I think it's, is it Iowa State or something like that? I can't remember. But are they ever easy in a Big 12? Are they ever easy for the University of Texas? Well, they're not, yeah. Easy and easy for Texas is two different things. Yeah, Iowa State.

You know what, today is we're going to have a good time today. We really beat the hell out of the Astros in the press conference and all that availability yesterday. Not saying they did it well, not saying they did it horribly. But we're going to certainly get into a lot of that still a little bit today. Probably not as in every single segment. We're going to actually talk some real baseball coming up. 1230. Our buddy Chris Gordy is down with the team in Florida.

And a little bit on the pitching side. We'll get into that. Brian T. Smith will give his perspective on what he saw yesterday and what he's seen so far today at 2 o'clock. But we do want to mix a few other things in the conversation. Thus, Ross, on this Friday and every other Friday in the history of the Matt Thomas show, we ask our audience, I'm setting up the queue here for Nick, to call 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790 because today, like every other Friday, isn't anything goes Friday? Do do do do

Anything goes Anything goes On Friday On Matt Thomas show Oh yeah Well Matt the Anything goes Friday 713212-1-2-5-790 on our phone line

7-1-3-1-2-5-790 On Monday through Thursday Here on the Matt Thomas show He have a longer leased than anyone on a Friday It gets even longer So you can call us Yeah. If you want to talk about, well, there's a lot of more angles that are coming out with this scandal.

Cody Bellinger says that Altuve stole the MVP from Aaron Judge. If you want to talk about that. Mike Bolsinger finally, well, he didn't finally. He spoke publicly. He released an article in the Washington Post where he outlines why he's suing the Astros. If you want to talk about that. Garrett Cole says he didn't see any cheating. So, I mean, there's so many more angles to go with with the cheating thing.

But if you're sick of that, you know, it's Valentine's Day. If you want to talk about your favorite love song, if you need some... Obviously, Matt has great romance tips because he's taking his wife to the Cameron Indoor Stadium, and I'm sure that's going to go over well for him, if you know what I mean. So... You got that right. I'm in a sweet, too. I've done this the right way sports RV.

I spare no expense for her. Fancy Matt. One day. Well, I mean... I just will get one taste of the fancy Matt lifestyle. I did fly United yesterday, and I sat in regular coach. So, I'm downgrading a little bit. But, yeah, if you need Valentine's Day tips, or you know what, should we do some kind of hookup line?

If you're single and you want to hook up with somebody, call somebody out. No, we're probably don't have enough ladies listening. No. I mean, how many ladies we have that are straight up single that listen to the show? Probably very bad. Not that many. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, we have married women that listen to the show constantly. That's true. I think we're number one in the demographic of married. And, you know, we could do, how about this? How much do you all like Jeff Passon? How much do you love and appreciate the journalism and the television things that Jeff Passon brings to the table? What did you do now? Nothing. He's just Jeff Passon.

He's a really, he seems like a really cool, fun guy you'd like to hang out with, really even keeled, not looking to take a story and added to his repertoire so it becomes more and more popular. I mean, he just seems like a really, just a really chill guy. I think Adam Plain would, in many Houston. fans would disagree with you. Yeah, I think it's up. Yeah, I got to the hotel yesterday and put on ESPN and just saw he was on a live shot with Scott Van Pelt. You know, look, he's got a job to do, and he's there to give his opinion.

And look, not everybody that thinks that what I say or do or how I presented is the right thing. I mean, Ross, this may come as a stoner to you, but there are people that do hate me out there. I don't get it because you know me really more often than you do on. I'm not a hateable person. But there are people that really hate me, and there are really people that hate Jeff Passett. And I can kind of see why they hate Jeff Passett.

He's, and look, he's doing his job. I'll say that again. But he's just smart me. Baseball, baseball writers, with the really exception of our local guys. McTaggart, I've known since we were in college, so I'm never going to say a bad word about Brian McTam. Really? Do you guys go to Keggers together?

Kegger's is a strong term. I think he drove down to the U of H, took his classes, and then went back to his house, and I certainly did that too because I didn't live the dormitory life, if you know what I'm saying, at the University of Houston, which now apparently a lot of kids are because it's a great place to hang out and learn and experience and meet that special lady. You see you can be a future cougar on a Valentine's Day. And I think the STD rates are very high there, too. Okay, that's not what we talk about on Valentine's Day. That's what Valentine's all about, Matt. love and making love and sometimes the awkward conversations you have to have after making love. Yeah, I, you know, when you've been married over as long as I have, you don't have those awkward

conversations. It just becomes still silence. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I am lucky that the sports wife that I have like sports, so much so that she's like, I don't need Camby. How about a trip to North Carolina instead? It seems like much, much better idea. So that's where we are today. And hopefully you guys are taking care of your ladies as well on this Valentine's Day. I will say this How much of the time did you spend Ross

after the show yesterday looking at how everybody was evaluating how the asteros did the press conference? I mean, that's what we were in. That's where our show was yesterday. It was grading how they handled it. I thought it was probably a D-D-minus on the press conference side and the availability to the guys and being forthcoming,

much more so in the clubhouse gave them an A. So probably an overall for the day it was probably a B minus C plus, right? Okay. I don't think that actual folks thought that way, yeah. But I think that's how you guys are not. No, all the think pieces are coming out like your boy, Jeff Passon is talking about, I mean, he had an article, let's see, what did he call it?

I think he called it a farce. Yeah. The farce of Jim Crane and the mess that is the Houston Astros column. I mean, if we're in his spot, are we doing this exact same thing? I mean, we can be honest with ourselves. Are we, if we are Smarmy ESPN columnists, are we going to, to West Palm Beach. Are we watching that yesterday? Are we seeing that first in front of us? Are we crushing it too?

Or how about if this were the Nationals? Or somebody that had knocked the Astros out? I don't know. The Royals in 2015 or somebody that knocked the Astros out of the playoffs. Are we retweeting this column? Probably. Here's the thing. And I've been thinking about this a lot. I thought about this a lot yesterday sitting in the back of the plane near the smokers. Ross, the fact is that if the Houston Astros were cheated out of a World Series

by the Washington Nationals or the Los Angeles, Sangers, or any opponent, or the Red Sox or the Yankees in a playouts because we knew of illegal tactics breaking the rules, not cheating, but breaking the rules, we would lose our effing minds. Do you understand this? We would be still...

You know me. You've met me. You know that I carry sports grudges for a long period of time. That's true. My life is a sports grudge. Yeah, you're still mad at Southern Miss for knocking off Houston in the conference USA championship where it was.

Kevin, someone for thinking about taking the deal of A&M before focusing on his own team but that's on the here nor there. He was focused. Southern Mists was just a better team that day. No,

he was focused on real estate in the college station area is what he was focused on. Go ask him, he'll tell you the truth. Will he? He wasn't lacking, preparing for the game.

Of course he was negotiating, but you know, he was still getting a game plan together. No, he wasn't. No. You know for a fact that he didn't game plan at all. I can tell you that the game plan he might have thought in his head. He didn't certainly tell his kids because they weren't ready for it.

Thus, ruining a trip to bat to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl for our BCS busting Houston Cougars. Instead, whatever, it's at the Birmingham Bowl or whatever the hell it was. Who knows? No, it was the fifth most important bowl game. It was the Harding Dallas Bowl or something. That's what Tony Laban made it. Or Ticket City or it was, I mean, it's the same bowl, whatever that crappy bowl in Dallas is. It was a fine bowl at the time.

Now, it's obviously been downgraded since the Cougars have not been in it in several years. But yeah, it was a good bowl at the time. 713-212-5-7-90. That's the realism, is that we would be mad. So you know what I'm going to do because I'm a fair imbalance host? I'm like, you know what I am, Ross? I'm CNN, MSNBC, and Fox all rolled into one. That's what I am.

I'm so fair. I'm overly balanced. I'm going to tell you that if I was in those fan bases or I was covering the team or I was a television or radio broadcaster, I'd be mad. And I'd still be mad. And it would take me a long time. So I'm going to let you do that other team fan bases. I'm going to let you be mad. But I'm not going to let Smarmy ESPN writers or these people that are going in for blood against people that weren't even there.

I'm not going to let that sit either. It's a dark time for the organization. It just is. But just be careful how you do it, especially if your other team fan base, especially when Rob Manfred, probably Ross, should be opening up the investigation to a plethora of other teams down the road. Just saying. Anything goes Friday.

7.13. Oh, here we go. Oh, geez. Where is this been? Right on Q. You know what, Ross, the best thing about our show is? Timing. Timing.

713. 212-790. If you want to get in, anything goes Friday. 7-13-21-5-7-90. I'm Matt here in Raleigh-Durham. Ross and Nick are back in Houston. It is the Matt Thomas show.

We appreciate you listening to Sports Talk 790. Darrell Mori here. Let's go, Rockies. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Oh, what a great American classic song, Ross. According to who? According to America. Really?

Yeah. Nick, you get bonus points. You get to talk as much as you want today. This is only a great American song, according to Teneal. Not even the captain thinks that because he's dead. Well, he's dead, yeah. And by the way, she divorced him because apparently they had a loveless marriage. That's a shame.

I guess the song doesn't ring true then. Wow. When we do worst number one songs of 70s, this is going to be on the list. No, no, no, no, no, no. We're not having that conversation because every number one song in the 70s was awesome. Okay. Except some of that disco crap was bad. I don't know.

I will not let you slander. I will not let you slander the great Tony Tenneal on the Matt Thomas show. It's not happening. Well, this song sucks. All right, whatever. 713-2125. I've been told through my sources. Ross, I cannot mention this as I'm in the Raleigh-Durham area.

That's an airport. It would be like saying I'm in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. You could say that. Why not? Well, because, you know, people here in North Carolina get cranky on these other. People say they're in the DFW. People say they're in the Dallas-Fort Worth area or the Metroplex. So if I said I'm in the RDU, you would understand where I am? I don't know what an Raleigh-Durham is.

Raleigh-Durham doesn't really live up to Dallas-Fort Worth. Not that I'm in Durham, technically. I'm in Durham. Just for those of you playing at home, I'm technically in Durham, North Carolina. Charles, in the Raleigh-Durham area. That's like I am. I'm only 15 minutes away from the Raleigh-Durham airport. That's something here nor there.

Yeah. Did you see KTLA television? That's Channel 5 in Los Angeles. No, I didn't. Didn't catch the newscast there. No, Matt. Let me guess. There are a number of brutal murders.

The weather was good. And there was a cat fashion show. And you forgot mudslides. Oh, mudslides? Oh, no. And fires? Oh, no. And bad traffic accidents.

The traffic was bad. Yeah. Does that do they do? Do they even bother doing traffic ports in L.A.? Oh, let's go to Tav with the traffic there. Yeah, it's bad. It sucks. here's the thing if you're doing television news in los angeles you actually use the traffic as no matter

if let's say there's nothing going on in news like let's say president trump behaved himself let's say that don't be crazy the economy was good and gas prices didn't go way up what else are you going to talk about well you've always got one in doubt your traffic so yeah they do traffic every day because it could be their lead story yeah there's probably seven to eight car fires a day on i10 so yes yes yes don't forget the 405 of you either. Traffic report in LA is probably like, yep, the 15, the 10, the 8, all backed up from anywhere you're coming in.

It's about an hour and a half drive. And also, by the way, guys, yeah, it's simple. It's all during the day, too. Like at 1 o'clock in the morning, 4.05 is backed up. 2.30 in the afternoon, the 105's a hot mess. Okay, so back to what I was talking about. So, KTLA does the news, and they're showing a video of Jose Altube and Alex Spragman's apology yesterday.

they don't I'm looking at the graphic right now it doesn't say Jose Al-Tube Astros second baseman The bottom third as they call it in the industry It does yeah It says Jose Al-Tubei Astros Cheater

I mean Just forget about what the facts are Forget about whether or not you should editorialize On your graphic screen It says Jose Al-Tubei Alex Breggman Astros Cheater That's how L.A. feels

Well, are they wrong? No, they broke the rules. They didn't cheat. Remember? That's what the owner said yesterday. The definition of cheat, this is via Google, Matt, to act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage, especially in a game or examination. But it doesn't mention video evidence. Did they act dishonestly or unfairly in order to gain an advantage? I say yes.

I'm just telling you right now. I'm not calling them. Well, I have called them the cheaters in the past. Here's what we're going to do. When we get down to Florida next week, you and I are going to talk some baseball with these people. Okay. They're going to be like, you're not going to berate me for an hour and a half over stuff I said four days ago? No, we're going to talk some baseball.

Because I think our audience is ready to move on with that. At least most of the audiences. But yeah, if you're watching the KTLA local news in Los Angeles, for those of you on Aheart Radio, listen to us. We thank you for that. You're going to get a steady diet of player with the slug line Astros, cheater. That's how L.A. feels about us. We had Nick Duterteur on the show yesterday, and we know how New York feels about us.

There's got to be a warm spot in this country. And I don't know where it is, but we're going to find it. A warm spot in America that says, you know what, Astros? You said you were sorry yesterday. You apologize for your mistakes. Playball! Let's find out if it's from a Cleveland Indians fan, shall we? Al and, or make it AJ in Cyprus, at 1224 on the Matt Thomas show,

Anything goes Friday. AJ, good afternoon. Let me just go ahead and give you some understanding a little quick. First off, my children are born here in Houston, I believe, in home teams of the rational fans. I haven't had a World Series win since 1948. Yeah, I'm not that old. So in other words, I've never experienced a World Series win. The first time I experienced any kind of a win was not just my Buckeyes in 2002,

but the Rockets when they won their NBA championship. Now, the first time I get to experience a World Series championship, it happens to be the 2017 Astros, which now forever unfortunately, and it's truth, because if I was going to have a team that was going to win the World Series for the very first time

and have a smudge next to it, that's one thing I can say that my 2016 cast team does not have, and that's one thing I'm very happy and fortunate to have. That's one thing Astro fans, you're going to have to realize You're never, ever going to get rid of that smudge because they're always going to stay but next to your championship.

Now, the Jordan years and all that, that's understandable. You play the team against you. You play the team you play against. But this is horrible because now you're forever going to have that, yeah, we're champion. But you got this, that forever will be a smudge against that 2017 championship. And that's just a reality. This is the first big-time team. scandal, scheme,

cheating, whatever you want to call it, breaking the rules since the 1919 White Sox. That's mega huge. Yeah, unfortunately, you're giving us no breaking news, I understand where you're coming from.

Look, Ross, we know this. There's an asterisk going to be next to it. We just do. Now, next to our with our T-shirts you wore yesterday, on our post-show-show video, there's no asterisk on your shirt, is there? No. Not that I know of. No.

It's not going to come. Rob Manfred's not going to come confiscated, is he? No. In the memories, when you were partying with the city of Houston, when they won the World Series, are you going to run around and go, hey, if you were partying with me after game seven victory in Los Angeles, I need to find you so I can put an asterisk on the top of your forehead. You're not going to do that, are you? I was down at the by the ballpark where all the bars are over there.

And remember I was providing live coverage at two. AM and a couple of people cursed. You can get you a Houston Astros shirt. They're on sale. From 2017? Really? No, no, they're new shirts, but they're referring to 2017.

The Houston Asterisks. Oh, that's not a nice. You're suspended. We don't like any of the Dorset kind of commentary in this show. Just look. The asterisk's going to be there. It just is we can be fine with it. Just behave ourselves. That's a new

catchphrase, Ross. We're going to behave in 2020. Is that what it is? Instead of 4 the H? On our best behavior, hashtag. Yeah. Won't be any more from us. Just little team here in Southeast Texas trying to act like grown men and do our due diligence

and play baseball and kiss babies and hug mommas and do some charitable work. Well, they got one that says H-Town, but it's part of the phrase trash town. That one's good. You know what? I'm not letting you buy anything for me. me. I don't want any Christmas gifts from you. I don't want any anniversary of the show. You're

just going to buy the thing that's just going to make everybody feel very awkward. You just gave me great ideas, Matt. Nick, you're an awkward gift guy. You're like, Ross, he's the guy that at the birthday party brings a set of diapers for the guy that turns 50, and he thinks

it's really funny. I'm going to get you a Mike fires, Jersey. Okay. And scene. Us as fans, we as fans want to see that. Sports Talk 790. From the owner to the coach to the players. Your home for your home

teams. Ross, you've ever been a part of a love train? No, Matthew, I have not. Did I catch you off guard by that or something? No. That sounds disgusting. I had some roommates in college get in, never mind.

Yeah, I forget. Well, they were writing this song back of the 70s. What were they thinking about this love train? Um, I don't. I don't know. Do you think Love Train has a different connotation in 2020 than it did in 1975? I don't think so. Great song, by the way.

It is a good song. Great song. The OJs. Yeah, we are two for two in our bump music today. We've done a nice job here. Is Love the most popular word in songs, period? Probably. What's that noise?

I don't know. It feels like we're on an airplane. What's up? Oh. What are you doing? Trying some new technology here. It sucks. Why is this on?

Is this supposed to be on air? No, it doesn't. I can call on a phone. It sounds like you're calling us from an airplane bathroom. Yeah, why are you, are you in a bathroom on Southwest Flight 1640 or something? What the hell is this? I'm on the highway. I can call on the phone if that works better.

Yes, it does. Yeah, get off. Okay. Whatever you're on. What the hell was that, Ross? I was wondering what was going on. I thought he was playing the airplane cab, and I was like, was Matt doing an airplane bit? I mean, if you want to give me some airplane, I give you some Valentine's Day pilot stuff.

No question about that. But, well, folks, on behalf of my co-pilot, Greg, Matt, welcome on sports talk, 790 Airlines, flight to Lovers Paradise. Our flood attendance will be giving you some candies, some sports. Sweet lemonade and all the berry white in your headphones you can possibly stand. So I would you sit back, relax. I'll sit on each other. That's fine. It's Valentine's Day.

You know, like sent on each of their laps. Greg, not getting that dirty on the show. Come on now. It's going to be some natural turbulence on the plane. And by the way, there's a line for the back of the mile high club for some reason. Just be courteous because we are still under FAA by Rule. and regulations. So sit back.

Enjoy this mile high flight. Sports talk. Seven right. Let's try Gordy again here. Okay. So Chris Gordy thinks he can use this show as a guinea pig for equipment. What is this all about? Guinea pig for drive time show.

Yeah. Why don't you try this for the A team later today? Gosh. Hey, just so you guys know, you sounded great. So just letting you know. Oh, good. Well, good. All right.

Let's get to a couple of bits of real news on the app. Astros. And by the way, those of you are holding standby, we'll get to you in a matter of at 713-212-5-790. First of all, tell us the overall tenor of the clubhouse today as compared to yesterday at this time. Yeah, it was night and day. I mean, it was depressing.

It was awkward. It was kind of on your toes yesterday. You didn't really know who was going to talk, what they were going to say. You know, there were angry national media members. You know, there was a guy from, like, the today. day show there, like Kerry something. He was, and he was like grilling Alex Breggman. He's like, you don't feel bad,

you cheated, cheater? I'm like, all right, dude, chill out. But today was way more relaxed, and I described it as kind of back to baseball, and that's kind of what it was today. It was back to talking about, you know, Jose Al-Tube is like, I'll talk, but can we talk baseball? And everybody's like, sure. So,

that's kind of what it was today, back to baseball. All right. So Zach Granky hasn't been there yet. And Dusty Baker it sounds like is not concern at all about this. Yeah, we saw his locker yesterday and today, and I think it was

Brian T. Smith goes, hey, has anything moved in Zach Recky's locker? Wait, has anyone seen Zach Recky? And so they brought it up with Dusty Baker and his media availability, and he was just kind of like, yeah, look, you know, we talked to Zach. He's just, he's not here yet. He said he's going to come next week. So he said,

he's at Grecky, he's fine. Well, we'll, you know, he'll be ready to go when he gets here. I think with all the attention of everything, you know, yesterday and all that, you know how is that correct. He doesn't want to talk to the media. So I think he purposefully didn't want to show up until a week after all this. Probably the right thing to do, especially since he is not anywhere associated with any of this stuff.

All right. Now, give me a word on Brad Peacock. He has been slowed down a little bit, too. Is that accurate? Yeah, they're saying they're just going to take it really slow with him. And with the back injury, there's no telling. you know, if he could hurt it even more or whatever. So they're just going to slow play him a lot.

So what that means is the number five spot, really in the rotation, it's going to be decided between Austin Pruitt and Josh James for the time being, because it would seem like, you know, Orchiti has kind of locked up a spot for now, and obviously McCullors and Granky and Verlanders. So we'll see. I mean, maybe, you know, once he gets out there

and starts throwing some bullpens and maybe throws him some spring, action. Maybe Peacock feels well and maybe he can compete for one of those spots, but it sounds like it's going to be between Pruitt and James, and I asked Josh James, he said he hasn't even talked to Dusty Baker or anybody yet about what his role is going to be

for the spring or for the upcoming season. So, in my mind, it would feel like it's Austin Pruitt's job to lose. It's kind of one of the quiet acquisitions of the offseason trading for him for Tampa, but he's a guy that James Click, the new general manager knows very well.

I'm sure, you know, the expectations from him would be that Pruitt would slide into this rotation. And by the way, you mentioned Lance McCullors. Seeing him throw off at spring training had to be a really positive sign. Was there any limitations? I don't know if you were happy to see him to do it himself, but were there, from what you understand, anything different for a Lance McCuller's workout today, say, pre-Tominy John's surgery? No, not at all.

I mean, he looked great. There were no limitations. He threw a couple more pitches, and I think he was scheduled to throw. So, yeah, no, McCullors looks like the old McCullors. And, you know, he said he's excited to get back out there. He's obviously going to throw a lot throughout the spring. And he said, you know, the spring appearances will almost be like rehab starts for him. So, you know, he's fully on the timetable that they said initially.

He's on track to, you know, start the season off healthy and 100%. I don't know if you know the answer to this. by the way, this is Chris Gordy on a regular phone joining us from West Palm Beach. I guess Jim Crane brought everybody in town a couple days early, and obviously the pitchers and catchers had to be there. The position players, did some of them take off and see in a couple days, or are they, once they got in yesterday, they're now part of working out with the team right now?

No, they're all here. I mean, a Springer, Michael Brantley got here today, and it was funny that he was at his locker when the media came in, and the media was kind of like, hey, can we talk to? He said, if you guys don't mind, I'd rather wait until Monday when I officially report to camp because he's like, I'm kind of here on my own, just voluntarily working out, if you will. So we'll hear from Brantley early next week. But, yeah, I mean, all the guys are there.

Bregman was back out there today, George Springer, Jose Al-Tube. Yeah, basically everybody's here. Ross, you got any questions for Gordy before he jumps on Skype to try to communicate with our show? Yeah, just make sure you flush in the airport bathroom or airplane. Well, we'll bring up, it was brought up to us just a few minutes ago, that Justin Verlander was scheduled to throw today, and he didn't. And Dusty Baker brought up the fact two days ago. He threw 66 pitches, I think they said.

And he basically got out there today and said, you know, I don't feel like they're on that. So they said he's fully healthy. There's nothing wrong there. It's just one of those things. You know, Justin Verlainer, Zach Recky, whatever they want to do here throughout spring, I'm fine with whatever schedule they want to throw on because both those guys are vets and you trust them.

It even seems kind of high that he would have actually throw 66 pitches in a workout in the middle of February. Now, granted, if there's anybody that knows what he needs and how to treat his body and what he's done in all these different years to be him, but that even feels like an inflated number this early. Yeah, well, maybe he did it purposefully so he could skip today and go hit the golf course. Was he wearing his white belt when you saw him last?

He was not. It was funny that he came in and I think Mark Berman approached him and said, Justin, can I get you for a minute? And he's like, you know what? I don't really, I talked a lot yesterday. I really don't want to talk today if you don't mind Mark. And then he put on his belt and headed out to the golf course. Mark said to him, Justin, what are your emotions like when you put this white belt on

knowing that most men under the age of 40 don't wear white belts? It was the same thing like George Springer came out of the shower. and Bourbon ran up to him. And George Sillick, I talked with the media yesterday. I don't want to do it again today. Berman goes, I just have one question for you about baseball. That's fair. He's like, no, but if I do that for you,

all the guys are going to come run over with their cameras. And Berman goes, all right, well, maybe I'll meet you by your car in the parking lot. That's okay. Oh, my gosh. We'll see if you get that later today. All right. Well, so are you staying down there? Are you coming home?

We've not had a definitive word from you on this. Yeah, I'm coming back today. Michael Conner will be back out here on. on Sunday and he'll have you covered on Monday and Tuesday, and then you guys will be here Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Yeah, we're actually going to be there Tuesday, so tell everybody down in Florida. We're coming after them. We're coming with fire and brimstone.

We want everybody to apologize to us directly to say how sorry they are so we don't get our peepees hurt. I think the timing is great for you guys, because I think by the middle of next week, all these guys are going to be open to BS and talking and talking baseball and kind of getting over this whole thing from yesterday. Did you have dinner with Jeff Pass. while you were down in Florida. No, but he has a smarmy SOB. I'll tell you that.

Wear his suit. His wear his sunglasses inside. I was like, who do you think you are? Adam Clinton? Oh, if Adam was only listening. Gordy, thank you very much. Safe travels back. Home. We'll see you next week.

All right, guys. Thanks, and thank you, Carbock Brewing for our coverage down here. Yeah, Carbock Brewing for sure. Thank you for dropping your support in on our shows. Thank you very much. Chris Gordy, live from my guest, Ross, what, the airport laboratory, maybe the concierge lounge, somewhere where he's just trying to experiment with various

radio things to make him sound like he's in completely outer space. It was bizarre, but that's okay. We're the guinea pigs here in the midday, Matt. Yeah, hey, let's try some technology out. What show do we like the least? Let's go the Matt Thomas show. Let's try that one. All right. As anything goes

Friday, we're taking this program to 3. We'll get more on the Astros from Brian T's perspective. He joins us every Friday on the show at 2 o'clock. He was down there yesterday. We'll get his thoughts. We'll get your thoughts, too. Don't forget. It is an anything goes Friday. It's 713212-5-790. This is James Arden. It goes to hard three to shoot. Jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk, 790.

Are you kidding me? Oh, man, we are. This is the best day in the buffer music history of the Matt Thomas. I was thinking just the opposite. I don't care. I care But If there is a BG's tribute band out, we're going to have to go, Ross. Yeah.

The House of Blue's got tribute bands for everybody. Why can't there be a BG's tribute? Isn't there still one BG left? Yes, there is. He's the most talented, actually. He's the most recognizable. Who's that? Barry.

Is he alive? Yeah. He's the last one. Oh, okay. Yeah, the other ones have passed. May they rest in peace. Yeah. And three of the four brothers are dead.

And he was by himself, and he was successful on his own, and then he got caught up in drugs, so that is what it is. All right. Yeah. I don't know what you've done so far, Nick. Yeah, this is a great talk. Nick, I don't know what you've done, but keep going, whatever you're doing. You know, the BGs kind of make the song staying alive, not make a lot of sense, don't they?

Too soon? Yeah, we're real too. 713-212-5-7. I'm coming to you today from Durham, North Carolina. We're tomorrow, we're going to go see Notre Dame play Duke. I'm going to hopefully get a one-on-one with Coach Kay. Hopefully have to be a regular guest on the show. I don't think my chances of that are very good.

I don't think it's going to happen. You should make a piece offering of some jet black hair dye. See, my wife and I argue about that. I think he is dying his hair like 10 times a day. She thinks, because he said there's no dye that it's all blocked. There's no way. He's like almost 70. I'm right with you.

He's 73. Is he that old? Yes. He is dying his hair guaranteed. It's gotten blacker in the last couple of years. Yeah. Guaranteed. Yeah.

Who else is dying their hair that we should, we need to basically, not like call out, but just say, hey, how to give it up? Yeah. I don't know. I'm rolling my gray. Let me take some. I got gray in my beard right now. I'm going to shave it.

That's how you get rid of it. You just don't color it. You just shave it. No, I got gray in my beard as well. I'm rolling with it. It is what it is. I'm a grizzled old man now. That's saying too much.

All right. So, yeah, Coach K, if you listen to the show on Eyehart, do yourself a favor. Go, let it. Don't waste the money. I know you've got a lot of it. You're the highest paid coach in college basketball, but come on now. We respect the white hair. Look what Bob Barker did way back in the day when he got rid of his die.

He became a rock star. He wound up sleeping with half the Barker beauties because of it. Not that the coach K wants to do that, but I'm just saying. Gray and Baller in in 2020, Ross. It just is. Let's go to the phones and talk to some folks here. We'll start with Matt in the Galleria on the Matt Thomas show, 1252 on 790. Hi, Matt.

Hey, Matt. So I want to give some comments. I read the article from Jeff Passon that just came out on ESPN. And it kind of seems like someone in the Astros organization offended him personally because it was scathing to put it nicely. And I was wondering about the Red Sox report. It kind of seems like the MLB is dragging their heels on that one. do you think they're going to end up getting a pass on a lot of this?

No. I think the Red Sox investigation is going longer than anticipated because I think Major League Baseball wants to make sure that they get everything right and they don't leave anything, you know, without undiscovered. I do believe when Scott, when we find out what's happening, it's going to be severe. A lot of people believe, Scott, that because they already fired Alex Cora ahead of time that's going to give them a little reprieve, I don't believe it to be the case.

I think they will be stricken with very similar penalties to what the Astros had. Fine, loss of draft picks, and I don't know what else after that. But, I mean, I don't think it's, well, you got rid of the manager, so you self-imposed the penalty, we're good. I don't believe it to be the case at all. Well, it's going to be interesting to see how the national media treats them if they're as brutal on the Red Sox as they have been on the Astros. But we'll wait and see. Yeah, thank you for the phone. call. Have a good weekend. Ross, I'll say this. Passon has crushed the Astros.

But will he, as long as he's fair, I guess we'll have to accept that, correct? I mean, I don't read Jeff Passon ever because I saw him with the World Series or American Championship Series, and I'm like, that's Jeff Passon. And granted, he does get some stories, so that is what it is. But I guess all I would ask for is for him to be as consistent on crushing other teams like he's crushed the Astros. And look, the Astros is, are to be crushed. I don't think we're not arguing that. Well, we'll see what happens with the red sucks. J.D. Martinez says they weren't doing anything and they'll be fine

and he can't wait until they're cleared of all wrongdoing. Do you believe that? I found it interesting that we'd come out and say that if it weren't true. Well, people lie. Yeah, but why would he come out and say we didn't do anything as they're actively being investigated? Because he's not under oath. and if he wants to go and he can also claim the

well I didn't know this was happening I can't believe my teammates would do such a thing apparently again the video replay center for the Red Sox was very very close to where the dugout was and that the communication lines weren't you know

it wasn't difficult in order for somebody from the video room to convey to the dugout and on the field what was going on so again I'll let the report go out on that look again Jeff Passon is a hired hitman. He doesn't, he's not running nice stories. Yeah, but he doesn't have a vendetta against the Astros, though.

Oh, I think he hates him. Why? Because a lot of media hate teams for one reason or the other. It happens. We're human. If an organization treats us well and gives us stories and gives us access, you're going to treat them with a little bit of a kid gloat. as compared to a team that does not give you access or doesn't treat your best friend well.

I mean, who knows? I'm just saying I'm going to hold out hope that when the Red Sox or anybody else gets the hammer put down on him, that he will come with the same vigor that he has come after the Astros. If he does, then I'll respect the hell out of him for it. Look, I don't expect you Astro fans that like Jeff Passon. He's not been nice to your team. Well, unfortunately, the Astros haven't been very nice to baseball. I mean, he's writing about stuff that's happened.

And then, I mean, yeah, the farce of Jim Crane and the mess that is the Houston Astros is a little bit of strong wording. But I thought, I mean, I think there's a lot of people who were upset with the way Jim Crane handled himself yesterday. No, here's the difference, Ross, is that when you are writing a story, if you're a reporter for a particular service, whether it be ESPN, Sports Illustrated USA Today, you're not supposed to editorialize. Yeah, but this is a column. He's writing a column. A column. Column is different. That is, yeah, opinion.

Right. There's opinion, there's report, and then there's Twitter that is basically 140 characters of, what can you do to get as many retweets and likes and responses? And I don't think he matters, and he doesn't care Ross whether or not he gets ratioed or not. That's not his game. He's just going to, you know, when you get ratioed on something, you just treat it as well. That's just Twitter. most people

Ross that get ratioed on Twitter don't particularly care they got ratio do you think that who's been ratio in the last year on stuff Max Cullerman do you think Max Cullerman cares if 80,000 people tell him to go to hell? No he's making millions of dollars he's making millions

of dollars his network loves him if his network hated him they would tell him to change his tune or you're fired these guys don't care if their ratio. They don't care if they are go away or unlike this tweet or delete your life. They don't don't. They just don't. Jeff Passon wasn't on the radar in sports media in two

years ago except for being a really good writer for Yahoo. He runs to ESPN. Yeah, he's only four foot nine. Yeah, he wears big glasses. Yeah, he may have too many teeth. But he gets on camera and he makes comments and he gets ESPN viewers. They like that. ESPN wants viewers. So, Jeff passing one, the rest of a zero. Is the Matt

Thomas show. 102 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. It is anything goes Friday. Still more reaction from Florida. News of the day, Lance McCuller's through, which is a good sign. Zach Granky did not because

Zach Grinky doesn't want to be there. And when Zach Rankie doesn't want to be there, you don't need to be there. And Brad Peacock's suffering a little bit of a derailment with some neck issues. Don't know exactly when his timetable will be back in camp in terms of throwing. Spring training coverage will continue starting on Monday with Michael Connor in West Palm Beach. Ross and I will be there starting on Tuesday for four days of radio shows. We are very much looking forward to that. It is anything goes Friday in the program.

We have All-Star game this weekend. Ross, you know how I feel about All-Star games. I'm not into it ever, no matter what the sport is. Maybe the baseball All-Star game a little bit because it's as close to a pure game as the regular sport is. Does the Kobe Bryant Memorial new rules for the fourth quarter? Does that impact how you would watch the All-Star game plus or minus? I was probably going to casually watch a little bit of it. Otherwise, I wasn't going to be too engaged.

That's probably still going to be the same case. Usually I'll just see a bunch of people tweeting about it and flip it on, for a few minutes. Yeah. Kind of like the Oscars. I saw it tweet. It was that the Oscars was taking over my Twitter line, and I flipped it on just in time for Best Picture to get announced. Why, you timed that perfectly then, basic.

Yeah, like literally the lady was up there announcing the nominees for Best Picture, and that's when I flipped on the Oscars. I'm going to the Houston Roughnecks game on Sunday night. Oh, wow. Are you going to paint your face in your head? No. Oh, why not? I guess I don't do that when I go to sporting events.

No. Well, thanks for the invite. I guess I could, but I don't think it'd be. No, I've already painted my head once, and it was to lose a bet, and I'm not interested in never doing that ever, ever, ever again. It was a great bet. It was a terrible bet. A stupid decision. There's one of the dumb things I've done in the last decade.

I can tell you that for damn sure. All right, 71321257.9. If you'd like to join us this hour, 713212.5.790. We go to West Paul Beach in an hour from now. Brian T. Smith from the Houston Chronicle for a normal Friday visit with us here. here on Sports Talk 790. There is a major brew ha ha, Ross, developing in the airline industry. I'll explain that on anything goes Friday after we talk to CJ on the southwest side on 790.

CJ, good afternoon. Good. Man, so I'm a little irritated, and I think a lot of Astros fans are. And I mean, let's just be blunt. We all know what we did. nobody's trying to dismiss it, but what I'm not going to do is sit here and listen to a bunch of people that never wanted us to really be in there in the position that we were in any ways to win to sit here and just try to keep the passionless. We didn't. Nobody did. Nobody wants to keep talking about the same thing. Just let us live. That's it for my assholes take. That's all the day I've got to say about that. As far as the rocket, our issue with Mike Dan Tony, and it's because he refuses. to even change up a little bit.

In order for us to win a championship, he's going to have to go to the big throw defenses off. As long as he keeps running small ball 48 minutes, we're not going to be able to win a championship. CJ, I got a question for you. Yes, sir. This small ball lineup hasn't been since November the 15th. You understand this.

Clint Capella played a lot of games with the Houston Rockets. If you are telling me that Mike Dantonie is unafraid of change, I could accept that, except he did just the opposite. He got the orders from the general manager to change up this basketball team because they're moving a center out of the way. So, in fact, they're doing the opposite of what you're just saying. They've changed. Yeah, but what I'm saying is it's been proving in the game that they have played

that, yes, the small ball line of works, but only to a certain extent. You cannot keep playing six-six dudes with seven-footers the whole game. You have to at least switch it up to make the same. defense at least play honest sometimes and to give your team some type of height at least for at least eight to ten minutes of a game how hard is that to do you got isaiah hardinstein he's good enough to play those eight to ten minutes but i don't think he is i don't think he is the rockets don't believe he's good enough have you watched how many nights have you seen isaiah heartenstein get the eight to ten minutes you're talking about hardly ever how many do you think

you think they're doing because they're trying to punish him for being a bad guy You can say the same thing when Ben Tony had Montres Harold. He refused to play him in big moments. When Montres Harold proved that he was at least worthy enough to get some type of minute. And he went to L.A. and what did he do? He flourished because he got to play. You never know what these guys are going to do until you put them in a moment. But Montres Harold.

But Montres Harrell wasn't 6-11. I mean, C.J., I mean, what do you want? I mean, I want the best athletes on the floor. I don't care about their size. Montres is 6-7. Yeah, Montres is not even 6-8, so this is not helping your argument out here. Now, do you want to say- Exactly, but in the San Antonio series that we lost in game 6-7, whichever one it was,

they didn't play Montres-Herald a minute. I think we're losing you. Hey, let me tell you about something, C.J. Thank you for the phone call. I'm going to let you, I want to keep you on the line just in case you can hear us. Montres Harrell's flourished in Los Angeles. can't argue that. Was there a notion in the organization that Montrez-Harrell had a certain ceiling?

I thought he only had a certain ceiling, but I was wrong. Well, he had to be part of the Chris Paul trade. So, I mean, it's not like the Rockets thought he was terrible and letting go. Obviously, you had to give them a commodity, and the Los Angeles Clippers did not say, oh, by the way, why don't you just throw in Montres Harold for blanking giggles? You know what I mean? They saw something in him. And yeah, does Mike Dantonies' rotation shorten up?

It did early in his Rockets coaching career. But there were guys that were given opportunities last year to get rotation time that you just didn't trust. The reason why Daniel House got pulled from the playoff rotation that Golden State Series, Ross, is because he was a horrible defender who made terrible, terrible mental errors. And when you're going against a Golden State team, you've got to be perfect. So what is Mike going to do?

He's going to trust the people that he absolutely thinks. can play against the Super Elite basketball teams. I'm telling you, Mike Dantonie's thought process is, oh, I've got four guys on a bench, they're nice fellas, but I'm just a mean old SOB, I'm not going to play them. If Isaiah Hartinstein doesn't get in the way of his guards and doesn't get in the foul trouble, he's going to get more minutes. But the last two or three times that Isaiah Hartinstein has gotten

any kind of minutes at all. Now, some of it would be in garbage time, but some could be in clutch. He hasn't done much or anything. And so that's the reason why they've gone to this. And oh, by the way, this is not Mike Dantoney saying, Daryl, please trade Clincapella. Mike Dantone had Clincapella running pick and rolls to a tune of double doubles just about every single night. This was an organization that sat in the room, shut the door, and locked it and said, are we good enough as currently put together?

Or do we need one more 3&D long, maybe undersized compared to what Clint is that can help us with a three-point shot that can help us on the perimeter defensively? And the answer probably to that was Ross? Yes, we do. And then they said to themselves, well, who is tradable? We're not getting rid of James.

We're not getting rid of Russ. We can't trade Eric. who's the next highest commodity on the roster that we can get something back in return? Oh, the answer is Clint Capella. It sucks. We're all Clint guys. But if they thought that 3 and D was their most important asset,

still to be picked up, they had to get rid of somebody, not get rid of, but use a trade chip that actually people cared about. And you can't trade Austin Rivers. It's not going to gain anything from the open market on that. You can't trade Chris Clemens or Isaiah Hartenstein Tampo Cepa Losh, you had one trade chip, so you had to use it. And I think the Rockets are happy with what Robert Coveington has done so far as a Houston Rock.

You had to give to get, and you even got leveraged out of a first-round pick. So it stung. But this is the way that they want to play, and this is the way they especially think it helps with Russell Westbrook. And the way that they want to play with the 5-1. You just can't play two non-shooters at the same time. You just can't. It screws up the spacing. It screws up the entire offense.

In 2020, in the way the Rockets play, you cannot have two. two players on the floor who cannot shoot. And when you lost Russ on a back-to-back or James sat for a long period of time, that's what you got. And frankly, again, you don't know about Eric Gordon's situation. Hopefully the leg is feeling good and he's relaxing and be back as good as new or close to it after the All-Star break. But CJ, good conversation.

But Isaiah Hartenstein getting 10 minutes a game at this point has shown no tangible evidence that that makes us a better basketball team. It just doesn't. And that's got a fresh-right Isaiah because I know he wants to play. And you don't want to carry your roster spot and carry this guy for all these years. But if he's not getting a whole lot better, they're not playing him just because he's putting a rocket uniform on. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

At least now we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Merciless. Back to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. Oh, good music on a Valentine's Day. All right, Ross, did you see the video of the man that had a woman in front of him on an American Airlines plane? She reclined her seat.

He was in the last row of coach and, you know, like by the bathroom. And so instead of asking her, hey, excuse me, ma'am, do you mind pushing her seat up? it's hard for me to sit and, you know, fly on this flight. He starts beating her back of her chair like it's a boxing bag. Why does he do that? Because instead of being polite, he just wants to be a douche. D of the Week. But he's not, look. See, this is what I don't get.

Generally, when somebody leans into your, leans their seat back and reclines, it's not in his face. I'm looking at this video right now. Yeah. This is so overblown. People that get mad about the reclining of the seats. Well, you know, I'm team anti-recline. I'm team. If there's an option to recline, go ahead and recline. Okay, well, I mean, the airline business clearly has gone by your rules.

We're getting more and more problems because, frankly, people are, the space between seats is getting smaller and smaller. We're trying to jam more people on planes. That's first of all. Secondly, we're out of shape collectively as a society. That's true. and I don't want to say we're taller than we were 30 years ago, but I believe we are taller than we are 30 years ago. I probably, yeah, I think so.

Okay, I mean, that's a hard one. Yeah, the average height right now. The average height and weight right now is a lot more than it was, you know, a couple generations ago. Especially weight. So, okay. Well, so, yeah, especially weight. So instead of saying, ma'am, I'm really scrunched back here.

Do you mind pushing your seat back up, which could have been a nice, easy, simple way to do this? And I don't even know if the woman would have allowed it. Who knows? We never got to find out because this guy was just beating the hell out of the woman in front, which I don't think it was a smart thing to do either. I'm usually the initial grunt, and, oh, my God, I can't feel my legs, and then I move on after that. That's me.

You grunt at the person? I don't grunt intentionally to them. I just know that they have to know that I'm in pain. Well, give me, give me, like, what do you do? What do you give them? Like, how do you grunt? Do it. Pretend you're the person.

Okay. Go ahead. I am reclining my seat. Oh. No, you do not do that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The worst example of what I just told you I have done is Kim and I were on our honeymoon back in the late 90s, and we went from Houston, Honolulu in Coach.

There was no economy plus back then. It was just either you were in first class or you're in coach, and the two of us were together, and it was awful. the guy was just reclining his seat back, gave zero blanks about me. Granted, like at the time, Ross, I was about 40 pounds heavier than I, maybe even 50 pounds heavier than I worse was today, but that's not here nor there. So this video that is out there has now created a brand new controversy about whether or not you should be able to recline your seats. Well, apparently today, the CEO of Delta Airlines, Ed Bastion, appeared on the C.

The NBC show called Squawk Box. He says it's an etiquette issue. If a passenger knows a tall person is sitting behind them, they should ask permission before they recline. Presumably, that means the person declines, then the passenger can't recline. Meaning that if you are in a position where you'd like to recline your seat, is it proper to ask the person behind you to recline? that's just weird and don't you feel like you're never going to say no just to be polite like if somebody turns around say hey do you mind if I recline

you're going to be like oh sure why not and then as soon as they turn around you're going to snarl at them that's exactly that's Matt Thomas yeah that's fake aggressive passive aggressive lying to people dishonest yes so here's what I have to solve this Ross because that's what they call me in the business they call me the problem solver Do not allow future aircraft to have seats that can recline. End this. Don't recline at all.

We're good. There's no more fights. Nobody's uncomfortable. There's no passive-aggressive. There's no grunting. There's no potential that you're going to have yourself shot on video and it goes on TMZ. Right? SportsMT Airlines.

You know what I'm going to offer you, Ross? Here it goes. I'm going to give you a safe ride from your destination. We're going to offer 12 daily non-stop between Houston and Las Vegas. Number two, we're going to give you nice snacks, like real bags of chips, not the ones that have like four chips towards the bottom. Number three, the first beer is on me. Really?

You're not going to get blank-faced on my airline, but if you want a cold beer to take the edge off or a glass of wine, guess what? SportsMT Airlines are going to do that for you. Yeah, it's going to be like a Sutter's Home or like a Paps Blue Ribbon, though, right? There will be no first class seats on my plane. I'll do it Southwest style because nobody's paying a five first class anymore. Very few people are, okay? But we're going to do assign seats.

But the fifth and last thing is Rossi, you're not going to be able to recline on my airline. Because I don't want to have the negativity that has been pushed on the world because of people that think they can recline with really tall and or fat people behind them. So I'm going to eliminate a potential boiling point on already a very, very uncomfortable situation of being on a plane of strangers going from one city to the next for a lengthy period of time. Sports empty airlines, I repeat, 12 daily non-stops of Las Vegas, two, all-coach seating, three assigned seats, four first beer glass of wines on me, five no reclining i will crush the airline industry on this should probably just get rid of seats

all together and just make a line of cages all the way down the airplane on each side you could probably pick more fit more passengers in that way too stack them you know three high ross comment i got nothing me either 713 212 5 790 713 212 5 790 710 719 geo norse on the Matt Thomas show. Geo, welcome to anything goes Friday. Thank you, guys. Good show as usual. Thank you. Thank you. I just wanted to give my little comment on this whole Astros thing going here.

I have a theory, you know, a different perspective, if you will. Now, when it comes to baseball, even though sign stealing has been, I guess, allowed to a certain extent, it's been that way since the beginning of time when it comes to baseball, correct? Yes. Okay. So why is the emacizing these things? Pretty much doing something that has been going on forever, but only better. Gio, no, it's not only better.

It's just illegal. This isn't a better way of doing. It's an illegal way of doing it. There's a difference. And you know that. I don't understand. I understand. But bear with me here.

Bear with me. Here's my theory now, okay? Bear with me. Now, when it comes to sports, you know, I don't know. When it comes to sports, okay, when it comes to the game of football, basketball, we've seen those sports evolve dramatically, all right? We've, with the rockets with the small ball, with football, with, you know, when it comes to CTE and how different rules and everything, you know, sports evolved. Okay. Now, with the game of baseball, we've even seen that with juice in the balls, you know, pause, you know, and then, you know, so what makes baseball.

think that, you know, sign stealing wasn't going to get, wasn't going to evolve the way it has with the Astros. Now, to me, I sort of blame the MLB for not making, you know, the communication between pitcher and catcher more, more revolutionary, if you will. Like, what did they think was going to happen? You know what I mean? We were just the first to do it. We were probably not even the first to do it.

We were the first to get caught. Okay, now, I just want to get your point on that because that's really what I think. You know, it's been going off forever. Okay, but, yeah, there's a revolutionized it. But, Gio, the thing you continue to miss on this, we all agree. It's been going on forever. We all agree, frankly, Gio, it's going to continue to happen.

What Major League Baseball told baseball teams in 2017 is, we found out what the Boston Red Sox were doing, using Apple watches to gain intelligence. They said any other electronic means in order to sign steal or gain a competitive advantage is going to be treated harshly. The Astros completely disregarded that email and completely disregarded what the commissioner's office had asked every major league baseball team. That's the question.

It isn't an object of every team's done it or they've been doing it for 100 years. They're saying sign stealing via electronic means is no longer going to. to be tolerated and if you do it we're going to catch you we're going to punish you and that's exactly what the asteris did so you can cheat but just don't cheat that way is what they're saying no that's not no sign stealing is not cheating you're not people you cannot use the electronic means that's the cheating part what's not going through here help me please stealing signs has been around since Adner Doubleday, since a Lou Gehrig, if you will,

using, you know, electronic intelligence has not been around since that many years and has not been authorized and has never been endorsed by baseball. And in fact, baseball doubled down and said, do not do it. We caught the Red Sox using their Apple watches. We don't want you to do it again, anybody.

And if you do, we're going to come get you and we're going to take you down and we're going to embarrass you. The Astros disregarded that. And like I said, there will be sign stealing in 2020. There just will be. But you better not use illegal electronic ways to do it. Sports Talk 790, available everywhere with the IHeard Radio app. Now number one for podcasting.

This is Ricky Williams. I may have worn a wedding dress on a magazine cover, but it still looks better than any. outfit Matt can put together. Let your wife dress you, man. Texas fine. Texas five. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. Ross's Delta CEO story is the number one trending store in America. He's basically saying you now have to ask a person behind you for reclining your seat. It is? Yeah. Are you sure it's not just the number one trend for you because you're a travel whore? You know, they tailor the trend sometimes.

They do? Yes. Okay. Well, I'm telling you. My number one United States trend is Valentine's Day. Ooh, okay, I stand corrected. By the way, a lot of you like my idea of 12 non-stops a day to Las Vegas. One of our listeners wants to know if there's service to Tallahassee so she can visit her Nana.

Okay, we can do that. So my airline flies. I don't know. How many, can I fill up multiple planes of Tallahassee? Probably not. What's there? Tell that person to drive. Oh

Hi Matt Thomas For sports MT airlines Where we believe that Oh by way I'm going to add an hour Free Wi-Fi for everybody too Not two hours an hour You can't get your business done in an hour You can't get your social media

And your DMs done in an hour Then you pay for the extra time What if you want to do an ask MT You do it within an hour Yeah One hour is plenty If you want Wi-Fi for two hours Then you're just obsessed about your phone

you can pay the $9 for the last hour. But yeah, for sure, I'm giving you free Wi-Fi, one free beverage, reclinless seats, so there's no uncomfortableness, because you don't want to have to be the passive-aggressive guy in the plate. And we're not going to have some snooty first-class people in the front of the plane who won't stare at you as you walk back to your seat because they think they're better than you because they have a bigger seat. Well, guess what?

You're not paying for that seat. So back off. Everybody's going to sit and coach. We're going to be one big happy family on our flight to Las Vegas or Tallahassee. Why don't I develop? You know what? This is one of the greatest ideas I've thought of. Have an airline that people actually liked.

So so far, Ross, in this decade, I've come up with MT Airlines and RemoteForu. Remote for you. Massive failure. Not really. Stock prices are thriving. Are they? What are you traded on? That sports.

MTF. stock exchange. I'm on the MSRP. That's not, that's manufactured, suggested retail price is not an exchange, Matt. In my mind, it is. Adam and Midtown at 138 on Sports Talk, 790. Good afternoon to you, sir. Let me try this try it one more time. Let's try it a second time. Adam on 790. Hi, Adam. Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Hey, Matt. So I think, I just want to jump on the sign-stealing

situation that you were just talking to the last guy about. I think the hard part people have squaring themselves on this is that sign stealing is legal in the sense that if you do it from second base, right, then you can relay that sign to the hitter. But sign stealing

using technology has literally been going on since 1890 as far back, it's been documented that far back. Using a telescope and buzzing systems to dugouts and binoculars and an outfield scoreboard lights being toggled, Apple watches.

I think Astros fans, it's hard to square why the Astros are all of a sudden the victims of the most severe punishment in the history of baseball for something that's been going on using technology forever, for 120 years. It's pretty simple. Manfred said, stop doing this, or we will punish you. They did not stop doing it, and then they got punished. So the bigger question is why? why is Manfred suddenly changing something that's been going on in baseball forever?

Because in 2017, the Yankees and the Red Sox were using Apple Watches, and they wanted teams to cut it out. So we send a memo to all 30 teams saying, stop doing this and using the technology to steal signs. And if you continue to do it, punishment will be severe. Right. I don't know what the question is. The bigger question is why is it all of a sudden being imposed? Why are these penalties all of a sudden being imposed based on a memo?

If something's been going on in baseball forever, which a lot of the players have come out and said that they use different forms of technology to steal signs since the beginning of time, why is now all of a sudden when Manfred's going to try to reshape the way baseball is done? Because that's his responsibility. He's the caretaker of the game, and as a commissioner of baseball, he believes it electronic measures in order to sign sale and other ways to competitive. advantage is something he doesn't want on his watch. So the coach. So he's fundamentally changing baseball based on his own narrative? No, no, no, no.

No, no. Fundamental advantage of baseball is trying to gain, if you want to gain sign stealing is fine. That's fundamentals of baseball. Using television monitors and cameras and illegal tactics and secretive tactics is not a fundamental part of baseball. And that's the reason why he stopped it. But it always has been. No, it hasn't.

That's the hypocrisy of it. No, no, that's not true. Sorry, guys, that was going nowhere. Yeah, I can't. I can't. No, there's a lot of people like Adam with their head in the sand, and they just say, well, I don't get it. What's the problem? It doesn't matter that people have been doing it forever. It's like when they had prohibition in, like, in 20s and 30s or whenever.

And we had been drinking alcohol forever, and then they stopped it. And yes, a lot of people were bootleggers and Al Capone rose to fame and all that type of stuff, and they tried to get those guys and take them down. So you can be like, well, I don't know. what the big deal is, Al Capone is just selling alcohol. We've been selling alcohol for years. It doesn't matter. The point is they broke the rules.

The point is they changed the game. And Rob Bancourt said, stop doing this, and those rules were broken. I get that everybody's been doing it. I get that it's been done forever. I get that it's widespread. But the fact of the matter is the Astros broke the rules. So they're getting punished. I don't understand why there's this huge disconnect with so many people.

Why are the Astros getting punished? Because they broke the rules. Pretty simple. And maybe you hate this. Maybe you're in the camp of this isn't a big deal because generations of other teams and other teams in this decade have done it. I understand you're mad that the Astros got caught. And you may be another belief of, you know, this is not that crazy. Why not?

Why can't we use technology things? We use technology all the time to improve sports and life. but when the commissioner says you can't you'll stop i'm telling you or you'll be punished yeah this isn't this is not a this is not where you get to vote on whether another commissioner makes sense or not when the commissioner and the baseball office tells you stop doing something or we're going to punish you it you don't get a vote unless the majorly unless every owner goes to the winter meetings and says hey everybody owner one

and owner 30. We're going to vote to let teams use illegal electronic measures, television screens and video cameras to help us cheat. Are you all for it? Raise your hand. Until they do that, the commissioner gains the power and says, you're going to do it the old-fashioned

way. If you want to steal a sign, you're going to steal it the way that they stole signs back in the 1950s and 60s. You're not going to put secret spreadsheets together and have secret video cameras, and you're not going to not adhere to what I ask you not to do.

These majorly baseball teams and the Houston Astros didn't get a vote. They didn't get a vote. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-21-5-7-90. We check in West Palm Beach with the Stros in 15 minutes. It's the Matt Thomas show. We take you today until 3 p.m. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9. 790. Rip it H-Town, like by Slamma-Jama. Yo, what's up? This you boy, Bumbeater Trillo, OG, with the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas. You are now tuned in in Sports Talk 790, man. For your moor sit, ready to go for show.

Love sticks. All right, this song is. What is the greatest song, Ross? Go look it up on Google. The most popular song ever made. the word love in the title. Can I take a guess? Okay.

I'm going to say, first of all, can you get a definitive list? Do you know if there's a definitive list? I'll go with endless love. I don't know. I was going to go with all you need is love by the Beatles. That's a good one. There is a list somewhere on a ranker list, ranker.com, which ranks people votes. I can find it real quick.

Go find it. And you'll do the second. Oh, they put somebody to love by queen is number one. All you need is love by the Beatles. Two, a whole lot of love by the Led Zeppelin as three. Okay. No surprise in that mix for sure, right? I want to know what love is foreigner at four.

Ooh. I want to know. I didn't ask you to sing it. Can't help falling in love with Elvis? No, it's five. Falling in love. Yeah. God, somebody, this list takes a tumble quick.

All out of love, air supply is at seven. So somebody to love by Queen is the most famous. with the word love in the title. According to ranker.com. But you could go find Rolling Stone. I'm sure everybody's got to have some articles. All right, let's go back to the phones. I'm sure the Beatles would lose over there, too.

I'm deciding that when Nick says stuff that's wrong or just makes me mad, that pregnant pauses are okay on the show is all right? Just not too long. Yeah, like three seconds, tops. Let's go to LJ in the Heights. LJ with us at 150 on the Matt Thomas show. LJ, thanks for holding good. afternoon.

How you doing, guys. Just kind of pick up on that last caller, right? Like, I get it. I don't have a problem with the punishment that got laid out because I think, you know, like you said, Ross, I mean, pretty clearly said, don't do this again, or it's going to be a fair punishment. But my issue is with the way these guys are being, I feel like the vilification of the Astros by the media and particularly by other baseball players has been a bit over

the top for something that does seem like, I get it, the methodology used, was against the rules. But like at the end of the day, what was going on is, like, the last caller said, it's like it's something that's been going on forever, and it's a bit arbitrary to me to say, well, you can steal signs this way, but not that way. And I get it. You got punished. You got caught doing something you weren't supposed to be doing.

You got punished. I have no problem with that. But people are acting like this is, I keep hearing it get compared to the Black Sox scandal. That's a team that threw the world series for money. And to me, this is nothing even close to that. I mean, maybe the biggest scandal, but they're not even remotely close in terms of what was actually done. And I don't know. I think that's the thing that bothers me about it.

LJ, you are completely correct. I have never once put the Black Sox scandal and the Astros in the same category because they were for two different ways. The Black Sox clearly did not care whether they won the World Series or not. That's why they took the money through the series. The Astros did it. And again, you're not trying to justify anything. but the Astros' use of this technology was to gain a competitive advantage so they could win a World Series. So you're right.

They're two different animals. They're two terrible stains, but they're two completely different ways of using the term scandal in a particular sport. And I got to, and I mean, look, are the Astros, as far as the code breaker thing goes, right? Like, that's another one where I go. Like, my understanding is, as long as you're not using. that in real time, it's okay. So it's just like, I get that these lines aren't gray. Like, it's very easy to understand what is and is not against the rules.

But at the same time, it's just kind of like, are the Astros the only team in the history of baseball to think maybe it's a good sign, a good idea to try to, like, figure out other team's signs? And, like, are every other team in baseball really so clean that all these players are justified to get up on there? Like, I just feel like there's so much sanctimonious crap coming out of other players in the league. I don't know, man. To me, it just seems like way over the top. And so when I hear guys like

Bregman, who almost seem incredulous in the way that they apologize, like, I wonder if that's not a part of it. Not that I didn't think it came off great, but I wonder if that's not a part of it. It's just like, dude, get off your high horse. Like, yeah, we did something wrong. We got caught. But don't act like everyone that, like, this isn't something that, to some extent, not every other team or a lot of these other teams aren't trying to do as well gain advantage in some way. Well, LJ, I'm going to tell you one thing. Ross brought this up on the show yesterday. Have you noticed how few position players have attacked the Astros during this? Yes.

Well, Cody Bellinger came out pretty strong yesterday, or today, I think. Yeah, but he's just a better Dodger. Yeah, and Kurt Suzuki said something as well. Okay, so it's two out of how many position players in Major League Baseball play baseball? That's true. Well, Kurt Suzuki thinks that the Astros were stealing signs in 2019 illegally. Wow. That's just him throwing that out there.

But, I mean, relatively speaking, we've heard from, if you were to, take every quote from a major league player discussed in the Astros. It's four to one pitchers over position players. Yes. And maybe that should be the ratio. Or maybe it's just the ratio because so many position players have taken the same sort advice that the Astros gave their players and the difference is they didn't get caught and more importantly they know that if they're going to be the ones going out there and saying

these types of things that their team may be next to be investigated. Now that's just hypothesis on my part. I have no evidence that Major League Baseball is going to do much. The only thing we know, Ross, at this point, is that Ross and Red Sox are being investigated. Will we a year from now, make this grandiose guess, will there be another baseball team that will face the type of scrutiny of the Astros and Red Sox have faced in the next 12 calendar months? Or do you think these are the two lambs that are being sacrificed in order to give

one more warning to Major League Baseball teams, you better behave yourself? I don't know. you figure, I mean, because players travel from team to team to team so much. I mean, was it just like such a quick rise and fall that it was in 17, and then it kind of fell and fell off, and when teams caught wind of it in the end of 17, and then they abandoned in a team, and that's that. And so it is going to only be the Astros and the Red Sox and possibly the Yankees or something like that,

and it wasn't as widespread as we thought? Or was this really happening everywhere as we think? Or how about this? Do you think the reaction that Mike Fires has received around baseball is going to preclude guys from talking about their old teams in the future? I don't want to be the next Mike Fires. That could be a possibility too. That's true.

About that. All right, let's get the final hour start of the Matt Thomas show. Kerry says she can't, or is it a boy or girl? I don't know. Carrie says he can't support the Astros anymore. And Jake on the north side believes that Rob Manfred is changing the rules. That's what the pulse of some people around Houston are. and we'll let you guys hear from those folks.

Plus, our friend Brian T. Smith finds himself in West Palm Beach. We'll talk with him next from Florida. It is The Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. Yeah. This is the Matt Thomas show. Oh, the best sports RV right here. This is okay. You like it.

You just can't. You think so? I think you like it. You don't want to admit you like it. Okay. Well, I'm going to, I get a little, I guess a bad news for you. What? You're wrong.

All right. So, Rossi, do you have that list of the top 10 songs of the word love in it? Yes. You do it real quick before we get to Brian Tee? You want all of them or you want the other five? I did the top five, right? And I love for the Beatles. Let's go 10 to 1.

You go 10 to 1? Okay. The look of love, dusty Springfield. Okay. Sunshine of your love, Eric Clapton. Yeah. I'll never fall in love again. Tom Jones.

Eight. Number seven, all out of love, air supply. Number six, and I love her, the Beatles. Great song. And then number five, can't help falling in love, Elvis Presley. Number four, foreigner, I want to know what love is. Number three, a whole lot of love, Led Zeppelin. All you need is love by the Beatles at number two, and the number one,

somebody to love by Queen. Is this song anywhere in the top 100? I'll let you look at it later. I can find it. The bigger question is, is, Okay. Let's ask Brian T. Smith. Brian T. Smith is the biggest Pearl Jam fan I know. Actually, he's tied with my buddy Ed.

Is there a song, Brian, from Pearl Jam with the word loving it? Oh, man. Yes, yes, there is. There is. I know myself. You do? Love Boat Captain. Love Boat Captain from 2002's Riot Act. Yes. Is it one of your favorites?

It's a very good song, and like all their stuff. It's much better a lot. did on record. But yes, there is. Rumor is that Pearl Jam may be coming to Houston this summer. You're going to be in the front row in the Mosh Pit, as a kid say? Well, Matt, if you were doing your job, you would be able to confirm that, considering that you have deep sources embedded throughout Toyota Center and Houston.

So whether they play the Woodlands or Toyota Center, you need to do a grow of favor and give me a heads up before it gets announced because they have a tour coming in there. They have a new record. I'll be seeing them on this tour, but they're going to do a second American leg, Matt. And if you're going to tease a Houston show, you need to confirm it. You know what?

I need to confirm it, and I absolutely have let you down. And I'm sorry. I mean, I'm profoundly because I love the Beatles like you love Pearl Jam. So I have a lot of respect for somebody. Yeah. And don't introduce me by saying I'm tied with somebody for my Pearl Jam fandom. That's not you. know that's the truth though you know that's a truth i've met that guy he's a nice guy but he's kind of an

adult you know he's a uh he's an established adult i i work in journalism but other than that matt i am a just a huge enormous pearl jam fan so i don't don't break me tied i'm number one okay all right all right the number one pearl jam fan brian t smith with us here on the show all right brian so the last 24 hours has been every media member outside of the one of southeast Texas. And actually some in Houston as well that were there with you guys in West Palm. We're grading the press conference. They were grading the availability.

And we all did it because that's what we spent yesterday with. So I'll do, I don't want to spend a lot of time of this because I want to get to phase two. But I thought the press conference was probably a D. The media availability in the clubhouse was an A-minus. Are you close on those grades if you were to grade them that way? Those are fair. I would go down to an F-minus for the first. part and the other is perfectly fine.

Flip the script, Astros or national PR firm that somebody's paying for, you know, whatever they're going to do. The thing is, is what was in the clubhouse was what everyone had been waiting a month for. And it was as real as it was going to get. I mean, you weren't going to have players crying and groveling on the ground, begging for forgiveness, but they were remorseful. They were honest. They didn't say, they didn't read prepared statements.

they didn't contradict themselves. They were as honest as they could be in that situation. I mean, they still have to play games. They're still a baseball team. They're still millionaires playing a game. They have competitive pride. They said as much as they were going to say, and they kept answering questions. I mean, it wasn't one minute, Matt.

It was 10 minutes, 15 minutes. The press conference was an absolute disaster. And that, though, as everyone pointed out, was what was televised live, you know, on MLB network and we're now going to see forever. So again, again, the Astros got it wrong from that perspective, but I think considering how delicate this is and how rough it is, I thought the planters players handled themselves as well as they could have in that situation. All right, so with that being said, and no one knows the definitive answer to this,

but since you're down there and Ross and I are going to go down next Tuesday for the rest of the week, how much will they talk this up not necessarily to us but to every visiting clubhouse how much of a leeway a leash so to speak will they give before it becomes we're not talking about it anymore and when that finally happens will that be with major pushback or would that be with these are just some media that are just looking to start some crap right now

well it's a great question it's already at zero It wasn't brought up today at all. Now, here's what's going to happen. They've already talked about it. I mean, Dusty Baker said that this morning, and it wasn't in a in-your-face Bill O'Brien way. He was just being honest and forthright.

There's nothing left for them to say. They opened up as much as they are going to as professional athletes. And as I said, they still have to play 162 games this year. They're trying to win the World Series and prove everybody wrong this year. There's nothing left for them to say. They're not under oath. They haven't been sworn to immunity. They're not testifying.

The commissioner's report is already out. So unless something comes out about electronic buzzers that contradicts everything that they swore was true yesterday saying that, you know, we never wore buzzers. It's the stupidest thing ever. Unless that comes out, there's nothing else left to say, and they're not going to talk about it anymore. Here's where it's going to change, though. Cody Bellinger, Mike Rizzo. I mean, you know, you see what Bellinger said today about Al-Tube stealing the MVP from Aaron Judge in 2017 that, you know, he lost respect to them. Mike Rizzo, Washington Nationals managers, saying they need to say more.

I mean, he's next door. So all it takes is somebody going tomorrow and asking El-Tube, hey, Cody Bellinger said it's about you. Yeah. You know, what's your reaction? Then it starts to come out more. Here's the other part. Rob Manfred's going to talk on Sunday. and he's still got the Boston Red Sox report hanging over his head, let alone how come Codebreaker wasn't mentioned in the nine-page report.

I mean, that appears to be the heart of all of this from the Astros front office, according to Wall Street Journal. He will dig it up again. So that's what's going to happen, Matt. It's not going to be the Astros. You're not going to go. We're also going to go. Nobody went today and asked them about anything. It's going to be responding to what others say, and then they have to go and play in Oakland, and they have to play in L.A.

and, you know, Dodgers Stadium is the All-Star game. So it's going to be, quote-unquote, outsiders, the national media, others talking. That's what's going to keep this going, not the Astros. I don't think the answer will be next week, but will we get the normal Astros? Because let's face it, Brian. Brighman's gregarious. Correa is always something like you've got a smile on his face. Hoseal Tubis is one of the happiest people.

George Springer's playing video games. I mean, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky group. Look, Justin Verlander's a diva, he'll always be diva, that's not going to change. Zach Ranky's same situation. But how long will you think it will take for the normalcy and the Astros that we have grown to appreciate and the fan base love for them to come out and show who they are again? Or do you think that this has tempered all of that third? It's much more of a business-like atmosphere in that clubhouse.

No, I'm going to give you an answer that I don't think anybody said right now, and this is a revelation, but it's not going to be what you expect. it happened today. Michael Brantley is in the clubhouse, and he showed up for the first day, and he was staring at Bregman, who is a locker away, waiting for Bregman to see him. Bregman didn't know he was there, and then when he saw them, there was a huge hug and smiles and laughs, and they're hanging out again. George Springer was goofing around in the outfit with Brantley.

I wrote a column last year about how close Springer and Brantley and Reddick became. Altuvae was more outgoing today. Breadman was more outgoing today. Matt, these, like, I don't want to say that these guys don't care because we saw yesterday how much they cared, and they know it's about their legacies and what's being said about them. They know all that. But their athletes getting paid, you know, some of them, tens of million dollars to play a game. And they have, you know, there's a lot of drama. It's never as easy to look, but they have pretty incredible lives.

They're insulated in a lot of ways, you know. they're able to live in bubbles. And this has been going on for 20 or 30 years in pro sports. So it's not like they're walking around where their heads hung low and they're ready to quit the game of baseball and go live in a cave. These guys, it already felt like they had kind of moved forward today. And I think that the error would be, not you, but outsiders thinking that it's going to take them months to get back to normal. They were already starting to goof around today because, you know,

They've been living with this for the last month. So yesterday they met with the media. Today they tried to move forward. Last question. James Click was, I wouldn't say attack. That's just too strong of a term. But he was certainly pushed yesterday hard about the two members of the organization that are still with the team that are attached to this codebreaker. Any feel about when James will make that decision about whether or not those gentlemen are still going to be a part of this team for 2020?

Yeah, no, another really good question. I think that it's going to take him time. I mean, now, that announcement could come very soon, but in general, he's still learning names and faces, and the roster. The same thing for Dusty Baker. I mean, Dusty Baker said today, I can't tell you anything about the middle of our rotation,

you know, our four and five spots, because he's still figuring everything out. So the last thing, the stupidest thing James Click to do would be to come in and start firing people when he doesn't even know the story. He's going to take it. time. He's going to figure all this out. Maybe there's more pressure

internally for Major League Baseball. Maybe Manfred said something on Sunday when he meets with the media. I won't be surprised if they move on and they continue to clean house. James, I mean, Jim Crane mentioned that yesterday. But anything that James Click does, anything that Dusty Baker does,

they've got to get their feet a little dirty and start to kind of get their arms around anything before they can start making any decision. You can do a couple things. But they have to know the facts and know what they're dealing with before they start up teasing the media. How long are you down there for?

A few more days. A few more days. So I'll be at Manfred's press conference on Sunday and got a Dusty Baker thing coming in Sunday's Chronicle. You know what? I mean, I covered the worst team in Astros history and I covered the best teams in Astros history and now it kind of feels like it starting from scratch again. And everything was a little fake when it was going.

great. It's a very, very, very unprecedented, interesting time to be around this franchise right now. Well, if you're there Tuesday, you can take Ross and I doing a very expensive dinner after our show, so we'll greatly accept that invitation. Thank you, BTS, and we'll look forward to reading your stuff on The Chronicle this weekend. Thanks a lot, Matt, for having me on. You guys take care. All right, we'll see you later. So Brian Ties with our buddy from the Houston Chronicle with us from West Palm Beach. Back to the phones in a matter of moments. Ross, we have, believe it or not, coming up in 39 minutes. What's today's topic?

Go ahead and hit the crickets, Nick. Timing again is a huge error there. They were there. Hey, we resume on the phones in a matter of moment. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. That was Brian T. You and me and Ross the rest of the way. This is Craig Ackerman.

And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you. Good gracious. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Now, when you think of songs that are perfect or Valentine's Day, Ross, you think of this one, right? Finally, an actual good song on the show. All right. I'm going to read you a story.

It's a very brief one. We'll go to the phones after this, and you tell me, you can't be Houston guy. You can't be, you're going to be as objective as humanly possible about this, okay? I think I'm generally more objective than most, Matt. All right, here we go. Dateline Fullerton, California. Okay. That plays a perspective in this, okay?

Several youth baseball leagues across Southern California are dealing with the fallout from the Major League Baseball team known as the Houston Astros and their cheating scandal. How are they dealing with it? They are eliminating baseball teams, little league baseball teams using the logo, the uniform and the word Astros. Quote From Little League Long Beach Little League President

Steve Klaus Oh my God Parents are disgusted They are disgusted with the Astros and their lack of ownership and accountability We know there's more to this scandal What's coming tomorrow?

The Astros, you got premeditated cheating Long Beach, by the way 560 players 48 teams in recent years they have dropped the names Braves and Indians they are now contemplating getting rid of the name Astros well if the Red Sox get hit and ding next week Rossi they're going to have to eliminate them too

they're going to be down to about the same six teams today from Long Beach Little League field in Long Beach California it's the Mets against the Mets That's fine If that's what the way we want to do I don't know I don't know how much I can bring myself to care about this Then go back to the Colt 45s

Do they still use the white size? That's guns Sorry Can't do that Nick Sorry Yeah What do they just call them You know, make you know what

Because remember back in the day Within the last 10 years There were a lot of major league teams That wouldn't let little league teams Use their names Because for copyright infringement and then all the Little League teams got all mad because they were tired of being the Commodores, you know what I mean? Oh, is that right?

I was the Florida Marlins in the San Francisco Giants back in the day. Well, I was like the Bears when I was like seven or eight. So basically baseball. As in bad news? Oh, we were horrible. We were better. The bad news would have been like a World Series team compared to our squad. But point being is it, major league baseball softened stance.

Look, the way we're going to grow our sport is by having nine-year-olds wear our team gear. the Marlins, the Mets, the Giants, the Dodgers, whatever. They really got upset about that? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. But, heaven forbid, these kids want to have fun and dress up like actual professionals and have a good time. So now we're flipping on this. But I get it. Licensing, whatever.

Yeah. It wasn't a question of not when it was that, you know, are you paying for the logo? Because that's just typical corporate greed. In the East Fullerton League, there were two Astros teams that were replaced with the White Sox and Orioles. The story writes, that's interesting because in 1919, the White Sox were caught gambling and several players were banned from baseball. They still use the White Sox? Yep.

They replaced an Astros with the White Sox team. When the White Sox in 1919, paid, you know, got money to throw a series. They should just go with a bunch of defunct baseball teams that wouldn't sue them. Like the Cleveland spiders aren't going to start some litigation. that's true or like the philadelphia athletics i guess they're in oakland now but yeah the boston braves right now braves is the indian the uh the brooklyn excelsiors brooklyn dodgers yeah or the brooklyn dodgers mess what a mess let's go to uh jake on the north side of the matt thomas show at 223

hi jake good afternoon matt how are you good friend what's going on well i uh i uh i uh i I feel like everybody's missing the point of why baseball is trying to change their persona at this point. Organized gambling, legal gambling, is coming to all the major sports. And Rob Manfred wants to make sure that there's no smudge on baseball's reputation when they start opening little gambling parlors near the ballparks around the country. And that's inevitable. That's coming, and that's going to be here before everybody knows it. I don't understand.

gambling legalized gambling and baseball is coming okay so what does that do with this they want to keep the image of baseball and the appearance of impropriety out of baseball

so allowing anything like this to be not punished goes against their long-term plans to allow legalized gambling well even if there wasn't legalized gambling

gambling, I mean, the commissioner's job is to preserve the integrity of the sport. I mean, if I'm the commissioner, if you're the commissioner, you have to make sure that people are following rules. I don't think future chances of betting on gambling and baseball should be the reason why he's doing this. He would not have turned a blind eye to this if there was no, I mean, first of all, you're presuming that there's going to be legalized gambling in every state, which is not true at this point.

But secondly, it doesn't matter. has nothing to do with this. It's about you have to, if you're in charge of the sport, if you are the, if you're the guard of the sport, you have to make sure the rules are being followed. But he could have done that in a number of different ways and punishing

the Astros with $5 million, punishing the Astros losing their draft picks and suspending the management. It's selling everybody that the sport is going to be squeaky clean from here on out. And that's not the case. They're going to steal signs

this year, next year, and the year after. So I think, you know, where everybody is upset about the hypocrisy of baseball, this just perpetuates it. So the pressure from legalized gambling is making him do something completely out of the, out of the precedents that they've had in the past to make sure that there's no question. No, you're speaking inaccuracies. This has nothing to do with professional gambling on the future of it. This is the commissioner said,

do not use electronic devices in order to gain a competitive advantage. He didn't say, do not use electronic devices because I want to ultimately allow baseball to have people to bet on the sports. And you think it would ever say that? Do you think any commissioner, Adam, the guy in the NBA? Lou, where's my Lou Rolls when I need him? Where is Lou? Good, gracious. Ross, where's Lou?

Hi, Matt. I don't know. He's hanging out. Play this for a long-ass time now. I mean, where? This, that made no sense. My head hurts. Ross talk. Take the next call. I'm taking a call or break. No, we can let Lou take over. This is what he means more, Lou.

This has love in the title, right? He'll never find. Yeah. Another love like mine, right? Or something like that? Another love like mine, yeah. Now I feel better. See, this song does.

No one else. Ross, again, if I miss the connection on that, please tell me. I'll apologize. But I couldn't find the connection of what he was saying. If you just want to put it on their umbrella of integrity, I guess I get where he's going with it, but it's apples and orders to me. Yeah. All right.

We take a segment of your calls next. Jason, Lamont, Howard, Tim, don't go anywhere. More, quick play. Is there another Lou we're all song we can play to celebrate Valentine's Day? Because Lou's the, you know what? I miss Lou. Good man. Great singer.

And loved him to the Mikhailo back in the day. Pre-Ultra. When I listen to the Matt Thomas show, I don't even understand. The Ecclantic Nation. of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas show. Whoever he is. Second floor, hardware.

Whoops, I didn't realize this had a new front. Oh, good morning, Mr. Tyler. Going down. Movie, Bad News Bears. Where do the Bad News Bears going to play? Manjolet game. That would be in the famed Astrodome, the eighth wonder of the world. And who was the team that said, let them play?

Was it the Astros? Yeah. Des is right. Des tweeted me. He said, hey, what about let them play? So now they're going to have to scrub the Astros logo, and they're going to have to get rid of who was in the dugout. Walter Mass out?

Bob Watson was in there. Oh, you mean on the Astros? Enos Cabell? Those guys didn't exist because of this Astros cheating scandal? Yeah, they did. Just as these idiots in the Long Beach, Long Beach Little League want to make this about themselves, and that's fine. Let them do that.

Tonight, from Lones, from the Long Beach Little League field, it's the Apollos against the Silver Stars. Oh, hell no. Who cares? Let them be Astros. They don't want to be Astros. Let them play. Let them put the orange gear on.

They probably didn't want to be Astros before this because they ripped their hearts out in the 2017 World Series. Yeah, let them breathe orange fire in Southern California. You know what Rosswood, they could do is at Little League Astros, were the Astros that can win in L.A. too. Okay, it fell flat. Fair enough. That's fine.

Good one, Matt. That last caller just kind of took. And now somebody's tweeting me about how it is about gambling. What? It isn't about gambling. It's about integrity. The entire Astro situation is about money. Houston is a smaller money market compared to a lot of MLB teams.

We had a dynasty on the way, and the league could not afford to keep that going. That's why we are the scapegoats. Okay. Maybe I'm missing it. And like I said, Ross, that's part of the reason why you're on the show now with me, because you're supposed to check me. You're supposed to say, Matt, you're wrong on this. Okay, I love to tell you you wrong.

I know you do. It's one of my favorite pastimes. You live for it. Let's go to Todd in Georgetown on 790. Hi, Todd. Hey, just listen. I don't know, you know, I already talked about this earlier. I just got on listening now.

But, you know, I know this hitting, the team's got to come out hitting and to make up for the lack of pitching. What are they going to do after first and, you know, Burlander? and then, you know, well, really, their third, fourth, and fifth starters. I mean, are they going to limit McCullors to, what, 125, 150? And then who's going to be the fourth and fifth starters? Well, I mean.

I mean, has there been any talk really yet? Or is it just too early? Well, it's really too early. I know Brad Peacock has a little bit of a neck issue, which is kind of derailed him. But, yeah, I mean, this, you know, Forrest Whitley is going to. be talked about in part of the conversation.

The fact of the matter is, the five that leave the Astros starting rotation, Ross, are going to be nothing close to what might finish it because of, you don't know how many innings guys can go. You know for a fact that Lance McCuller is going to be on a limit.

So, yeah, there's going to be a lot of different folks. You know, the Astros also, in back-to-back years have gone after starting pitching come playoff time and around the trade deadline. So, yeah, I would, first of all, I think you've got to figure out who Dusty Baker trust at this point. You've got to figure out the health of Lance McCullors. And then ultimately, you've got to figure out whether or not Forrest Whitley is a guy that can be thrown on the conversation.

Plus, they picked up that new acquisition. What's the kid's name? That was the free agent signing. I'm drawing a blank here. It was like really under the radar guy. I played for the raise. Oh, I can't remember his name. either. Yeah, I'm drawing a blank on his name. But point being is that

Granky and Verlander are solid 2-1, flip them. And then I think everything else is certainly up for conjecture at this point. But if Lance McCullors can give you, wow, if he can give you 125 innings, that would be actually right about what I'd put him at, right? He's never thrown close to one. They're going to. Yeah. That's 26 starts at about five innings a game, give or take. They're just going to have to score 10 runs a game. Well, I wouldn't say that, but I also wouldn't say, yeah, this team's going to have to for my pet.

I mean, when you lose a guy like Gary Cole, I mean, there's no one person in the world that's going to be able to fix, you know, the amount of innings that he sucked up. And on top of that, the amount of strikeouts in the low scoring games. There's no quite, yeah, there's just no way at this point that anybody within the organization knows exactly, Austin Pru is the guy I was thinking about. Is the guy that was with the race. It's now part of the Astros. So there you have it. Let's continue on the phones.

And let's go to in terms of longest wait. Lamont's with us in Mo City on the Mount Thomas show. Lamont, what do you got today? Hey, man. This is what I got today. I'm going to prove to you guys why this whole Astros cheating crap is water up under the bridge. I don't care about it. The Astros are still a champ.

let's just assume in a world that me and Matt are in our 60s and 70s and Ross is in his early 50s or approaching 60s, and they do a 30-for-30 on it. And we never knew about the cheating scandal ever at all, ever at all. And they did a 30-for-30 on it. And Al-Tubei, a young 40-year-old Al-Tube and Correa and all of the team get up there, and, you know, they, giving documentaries and they started laughing and they say what people really didn't know was that we was using monitors.

Are you mad at that point? Are you mad at that point? That we were still in signs? So you're saying if we didn't find out of this about this 30 years later? 20 years later. 20 years later. 15 years. Huh.

No. Are you mad at that point? I don't know if I don't think the word mad would be. I think we're mad because it just happened just the other day. So, yeah, the answer would be, I don't think we'd be nearly as upset if we found out 20 years later than we would if we found out today. You're right.

The fact that the matter is, the fact that it's a matter is we watch these documentaries and we hear about teams that have sent people over to other teams, hotels and stuff, to do nefarious things with strippers and stuff. And we all laugh at all. In other words, if this wouldn't have never been found out, uh-uh, it would have just been worn up under the bridge. Bottom line, Mike fires is a bitch, and I'm out. I should laugh at that.

Well, there we go. He made his point. Can we... Ross, we need a drop of that. No, we don't. Come on. Bottom line. Well, Bottom line, I can't repeat it.

Oh, my goodness. Let's end this Friday on a high note. Hi, Howard. What do you got today? First of all, I would like to compliment you. I think you used a word. Now I'm drawing a blank on it last week in the appropriate way. Let's go on.

It was a Yiddish word, and you used it very appropriate. What? Hutzpah? Yeah. Becking his oink? Something like that. There was another word. It began with the letter M.

And I, but at any rate, when you're old, you can forget at times. Look, cheating has been going on in baseball since George Washington threw out the first baseball. Whether the balls were scuffed, as they were by Leo DeRosian giving them to the pitcher, why did he ford scuffed the ball? Do you remember when our pitcher Scott was practically undressable? in Shea Stadium looking for the sandpaper, and the guy out in California who taught him the split-finger fastball said that's not the pitch I taught him. Roger what you're talking about. Yes, exactly.

So this thing has been going on. It may stop or slow down for a year or so. It's going to go back up as the cheating ways become more sophisticated. The binoculars will have highly sophisticated lenses. They'll have AI in the lens. And I'm going to make a preposterous prediction, okay, which you'll laugh at. But within 10 years, there'll be a drone flying over a stadium which can read the catcher's signals. They now have drones, the Intelligence Committee, that can read license plates in Moscow from 10,000 feet.

They'll be able to read and they may be able to read what the picture is thinking. But all of this will get more and more sophisticated. And I really regret in some way that Crane didn't play hardball with the commissioner and the other owners of the teams. And I cannot believe that we are the only ones who are manipulating the system electronically. or otherwise to quote unquote cheat. I can't believe it. No, you're not going to believe it because it's not going to happen because you're going to find out the Boston Red Sox is something very similar

to the last couple of years. Howard, thank you for the phone call. Stephen Huffman, we're going to let you go and get you to your phone call next after this break. Plus, Ross, Adam Clayton needs to come in studio earlier. He's got some song he wants to debut on his radio program today, so we're going to let him explain what it is. On this show? I thought he was saving it for his show.

No, as I'm saying, I want him to press him. promote it on our show. Okay, great. As a, we like to call a cross-tees, if you will. Because we're team players here at 790. We wreak of being just great teammates. All right, 713,

2-1-2-5-7-90. We'll skip, believe it or not today because Ross is just lazy. And we will do that. And we'll hear what Ross is going to play. We're going to play one more love song, right? The definitive love song, according to Sports RV, his

choice, not mine coming up next. Plus, more phone calls, and we're going to find out what Adam is up to for his show. It's a Matt Thomas show here today from Durham, North Carolina, on Sports Talk 790. Ride, half the workday is done. Celebrate with Matt. Hey, Matt, love your show. What was it talking about? And by the sound of it, some of you started the party at breakfast. Matt Thomas on Sports Talk 790. This is a definitive song, huh? I think this is a number one love song of all time. This version of this song.

That or I wrestle between this and Nat King Coles when I fall in love, which I think is a classic. This is it. Whitney Houston is it. All right, Adam Clayton, you have a song that you're going to play in your show today. It is not a love song. It is a song when you send it to me, had foul words, and it almost immediately. Well, you know we are an FCC-regulated radio station. Well, I have a producer who's very good at editing such things.

and he does it fairly regularly for our show. Yes. So I feel like we're going to be okay. As long as he's not one of those loose editors, you know what I'm talking about. Leave the first syllable and the last syllable. Oh, it's very lazy. Very lazy editing.

It's like a, you know, in the, you know, the rest. Okay, so you're going to play this song at what time? I haven't determined that yet. I haven't, because here's what I did. I didn't tell Wex about it. So we know how that's going to go over. Right. Oh, my God.

Are you guys going to fight on air or off air? He's going to die from an eye rolling accident. His chronic eye rolling and he's going to fall over dead in the studio. Are you going to be like his mother? You know one day your eyes are going to get stuck that way? I said that to him probably nearly 20 years ago and it hasn't stopped. No, the reason being, I want his organic reaction to this piece. Now, the composer is somebody that is going to remain anonymous.

Okay. But we both know who that will, all of us that are talking right now know who they are. And Wex knows this person very well too. So if you know that person, you kind of, you kind of know what to expect. And so therefore, when I say, hey, we're going to play this song that this person put together real quick. He'll kind of have an idea. All right. What time is Jeff Passon coming on the radio show today?

He has been booked right around never for our show. Okay. And if he were to ever be booked, it would be appointment listening, not for anything that he would say. Now, would you get in a fight with him on air, on Twitter, all the above, none of the above? Well, I would never try to. It's just that the way he is kind of predicates that it needs to happen. You know, like I heard you guys talking earlier. Do not wear my sunglasses indoors.

But when it comes to Jeff Passon, everybody's... That, by the way, was a raw... line, not mine. Gordy line. It's actually a gory Oh, that's where it's gaudy. I was catching shade from Florida. No, that is a situation where everybody and then some would be on my side of things. This wouldn't be one of those, well,

I can see where the other person's coming from. Adam's being a little volatile right now. Everybody hates Jeff Passon. He's a twit. I don't hate him. Yeah, you do. No, I don't. Yeah, you do. I don't like him or love them. I don't hate him either. It's the same thing. Okay.

So Jeff Passon came in right now and brought you all some sandwiches and say, hey, what's up, boys? Let's clear the air. You would be like, no, I'm not eating your sandwich. Get out? Yes. No, Adam's always nice when he meets people in person. That's not true. Yeah, let's break this down. John Middokoff. John Middlecalf and I hate John Middokoff. He's the antichrist. He is. These are all facts. But he was in front of you. You guys are cordial enough. Well, what were we supposed to do? Fight like those two M.M.A. guys that staged it earlier in the day? You and Ramona Schaubrin got sideways and then you want to be

besties with her. Yeah, because I had a steak dinner on the line that you finally paid off about a year later. I did pay off on that one. You're welcome. I mean, if I know that there's something in it for me, of course I'll play nice. But Middilkoff and I were just civil. We did not like each other, and it was very apparent. But we just talked basketball. So, you know, there was nothing to really, you know, it wasn't personal. All right. So you're, you're going to play this song without Wexer knowing about it, and he's going to get upset with you, off air, on air, or none of the above. All of the above. Or both. I don't think he's actually going to get upset. It's, like I said, I'm not trying to keep it from him. It's more.

one of those, I don't want him to hear it until it's on the air. So it's an organic reaction. Organic reaction with Wex. That's a segment every day, Monday through Friday, 3.30 p.m. And I should preface it by saying the nature of this song is a giant bleep you from Astros fans to everyone who's been piling on them for the past 24 hours. That's kind of, yeah, that's the teasing the nature of this piece of music. All right, perfect. Thank you, my friend.

We'll look forward to the show. I'll be listening on IHeartRadio. on my app here in North Carolina. You know it, right? Download it for free. Or I could be taking an app right after the show's over. You decide which one I'm going to do. She'll fall asleep.

It'll be like a lullaby. Hey, can I ask you a question real quick about why you're where you are? Is this a romantic getaway? Is that what's going on here? This is what, yeah. Sportswife. Yeah. So sports wife, this is what gets her going as a Duke game.

You got that right, brother. Well, that got creepy. That was a really weird. You got that right, brother. That wasn't that. It was not. He was very. Very unsettling.

By the way, why are you and Teresa the most psychotic couple at IHeart Radio? I didn't make the caption. But I'm not sensitive, so I get it. I'd like, don't forget it. Just don't forget it. She's stabbing now. Oh, psychotic. Yeah.

Okay. Wait, who said that? Well, both. Some of it on our station? Two different social media accounts associated with Iheart said we were the most psychotic couple at the station. Let me drop a light on that. Then Teresa then put a pair of steak knives out there in an emoji?

I think she put like, 20, if I recall in the comments. Too soon. Okay. Enjoy your lovemaking in Raleigh, Durham, wherever you're at. I'm not making love in Raleigh and Durham, just in one. Oh, boy. I'd only say that because Matt's the kind of guy that would call it lovemaking.

That's enough. I would. No, he would say relations. I've never called it love making in my life. You know to make love? No. Nobody's called it relations outside of the nutty professor movies. If I asked Teresa if she wanted to make love tonight, she would punch me in the face.

What do you want to, what do you call it? I can't say it on an FCC regulated station. I got to go. I do too. I was going to go to Stephen Huffman. Steve, you're going to talk to Adam and Adam, right at the top of the show. Callen wants to play Believe it or not. Yeah, let's play with them.

No, because you were too lazy to put up with a question. Callan, believe it or not. No. Believe it. No, it was a knot. Oh, man. Hell yeah. Billiard Factory

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