The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show: Extra Inning Baseball, Eric Gordon, Kevin Eschenfelder

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. I'm in my way I'm making. Is the Matt Thomas show. 12-01 in H-town. What's happened in lunch timers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Tuesday edition.

The Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 with our producer Joe George, filling in for Nick low. My co-host, my friend, my pal, not that Joe isn't, but Rossville or reality certainly as well. I'm Matt Thomas. Great to have all of you with us. Gentlemen, how are things on this glorious Tuesday afternoon? Things are good. The weather is good. I'm alive and well and healthy. So is most everyone I care about. So I got nothing to complain about Matthew. How do you feel about you and I continuing to be 38 miles apart from each other? It's fine. Smells better in here.

It took you one minute to say something to root about me, right off the get-go. Did you have the under or the over or the under? It's funny. We're doing bets on everything these days. Everything is a bet. How are our Taiwanese baseball teams doing? Did you get a scoreboard update for today's show? I did not.

I think I was looking at the wrong league when I went to Taiwan baseball, because remember I gave you a bunch of team names? I think those were wrong. Oh, because I did shoot of retweeted a video of the, The first home run hit in the Taiwanese baseball league yesterday. I think they have more regular names than what I was reading. I don't know. I was on Wikipedia, which you know, Matt, that can be dicey.

Yeah. Wikipedia, a great resource for, believe it or not, not so much anything else. All right, we'll have to that draft. We'll have to, what's that? What, the great resource for what? Believe it or not? I'm not familiar with that. Oh, you will be once we get back to normal life.

Should we give away, like, things that we have up in the studio? What do we have? We got a roll of chlorox disinfectant wipes. Let me tell you. Got a can of some serious. Serious dollars. We can play, believe it or not, for this, it's about a third of a bottle of Purell. Is your credential in there from the arrows?

Yes, my arrows credential is in here. Let me tell you all something. If we gave away a 12 pack of Charmin, it would be the biggest hit out there. That's true. Maybe we can do that. We got to bring Believe it out back. We just Matt Thomas will Venmo you $50 if you win. that's actually not true

but the thought was certainly there if I could Venmo somebody some toilet paper I would do that you should send them money for toilet paper I got a family of five that needs toilet paper we're eating a lot more than we used to so to speak and on that note

all right so on the show today we continue our series of people we miss hearing from our friend Kevin Ashenfelder from AT&T Sportsnet. If you were to have the goats of studio hosts in Houston Sports History, Kevin's on that Mount Rushmore list, correct? Sure, yes. And he was on last night, on our airwaves last night. Yeah, we had the Cougar throttling of the University of Oklahoma.

Well, throttling is a little aggressive, but... Well, I mean, it wasn't that. Was it 33-23 or something like that? Yeah, and it could have been a lot worse, but not for a fumble in the end zone. So, yeah. Yeah, I was a little bit more. listening. I listened enough to hear Oklahoma score on their opening drive, which made me happy. But it was a different ball game after that. That's true. And they had two awesome running backs,

a really good quarterback, all three in the pros. And our little football team, the team doesn't know how to quit, the team that continues to give 100 every single day. Led by Tom Herman. Tom Herman led them to the promised land, and then he went on to bigger and better things. And you're welcome. Thank you. You're absolutely welcome. Yeah, appreciate it. come to the University of Houston, take because they're jelly. And, you know, we just keep on, keep on. No, it's more of like U of H is like the farm system, right? I mean, they're the small, they're the stepping stone school.

They have to do the hard part of vetting and finding good coaches. And then once they're kind of good, they have to go on to a real sports program and they graduate. Basically, you're the worst part of America because when you guys can't find your own good coaches and staff and whatnot, you go to other schools that do it right. and you just say, hey, we'll buy you out. You're like the mafia. You're like the Cordellione family. You're going to take from us and you're not going to give us anything in return. Yeah, you have Hs like the community college, right?

They feed into the bigger programs. So they're like the HCC to the University of Houston. All we want to do is schedule you guys and we can beat you. And by I'm guessing 12 to 17 points, take your paycheck, take your kids lunch money, move on. but you know that hasn't happened they're too scared your words not mine or you guys or you guys who are too busy scheduling Prairie View

well who is the the juggernaut that was at Darrell K last year who can recall I believe Tulane was one of them that was yeah and then there was also I think this program called LSU played there yeah have you heard of the LSU Tigers

Matt and then the long run got the B down their life. It was a close game. It went to the fourth quarter. That's true. With the eventual national champions. So nothing wrong with that. All right. So Kevin Ashtonfelder joins us on the show on people

we miss hearing from. That'll be at 1 o'clock. People we miss Making Baskets is a new series we start today. Eric Gordon joins a program at 2 o'clock this afternoon to find out what's going on with him and life is an NBA player with no NBA games.

I know a lot of people guys are trying to look at what's happening with the Chinese Basketball Association using that as a kind of a cross-reference point as to what the NBA is going to do. There is a story today on ESPN that essentially says the CBA, the Chinese Basketball Association, is pushing back

a few more weeks. They were going to try to start up again. Before everybody got nervous about whether it's disease or whether it's quarantines or vaccinations or whatever, the main reason why they are cutting back and not being able to start on time is because it's very difficult for their players to get back into China.

I'm going to assume, gentlemen, that international travel, especially to China, has been all but cut 100%. So that is the biggest sticking point about getting these guys back. So while, again, it's not encouraging because I think we were looking for a little ray of sunshine from the CBA, it's not because they're worried about fans and stands or they're worried about whether or not the players will stay healthy. It's not getting enough of their players back into their country. So that is kind of the news on that. I know that Rob Manfred's been speaking the last couple of days.

He continues to remain encouraged that there will be baseball again. He's kind of keeping it close to the vest about how that's going to happen. The only thing we've seen publicly, at least in reports on the USA today, have one group of teams going to Florida, one going to Arizona, and then another plan has been sending all the teams to Arizona. So really there's nothing new on that. is something new, however, when it comes to a former short-term astro, but recognized more for his days as a member of the Boston Red Sox. We're speaking of not Jeff Bagwell, but we're speaking of

Steve Pierce. Steve Pierce, who was named the MVP of the World Series, officially announced his retirement yesterday on a radio show in Boston, and they were kind of replaying highlights of their 2018 World Series, unfortunately, at the hands of the Houston Astros. He had three home runs and eight RBIs in a game. Actually, he beat the, not the Astros, beat the Dodgers. They beat the Astros in the ALCS. So as they're doing this show, he comes on and says, hey, I just won't you all know I'm officially retired.

Well, during the broadcast, and I've been still trying to look for the audio of this, and I know that Joe's looking for it as well. And I'll just read the quotes off of the story that I saw this morning. asked during this conversation about whether or not the Red Sox illegally used replay, the replay room to help them steal signs in order to help them win games not only in the regular season but in the World Series. Pierce on WEEI Radio says the following. That's such a joke to us.

When it came out, we were all kind of joking about it. We just want this to pass us. We want it fair and square. Whatever they accuse us of, we were all kind of like, I can't believe this is even an issue. Once a report comes out, we're all going to be free. Ross, your early thoughts on that two-sentence quote there from Steve Pierce. Okay.

It's probably the strongest statement than anybody's come out with. It seems like baseball's been holding on to this for a while. I don't know exactly what they're waiting for or if they don't want to release it now, or they're waiting for the season or whatever. But it seems to be that the reports have come out. I mean, it was a Ken Rosenthal or Jason's tart, you know, one of those guys. Yeah.

Saying that it wasn't going to be as severe as the Astros and it wasn't as serious. So, I mean, we'll have to see. If he's coming out and saying this, you have to believe there's some semblance of truth to it because it would obviously be found out that he has no clue what he's talking. If baseball came out and hammered the Red Sox after he said this, he looks like an idiot and he loses all credibility. Yeah. So I have to take what he says on its face.

But does he worry about whether or not what he says today? Let's say that's just the opposite. I mean, when anybody go, oh, Steve P. you're an idiot. I mean, Steve Pierce is beloved by the Boston Red Sox, regardless of what he says on a radio interview or not. I don't know Steve Pierce. I don't know a whole lot about him. If he is wrong on this and he's an idiot for him to be coming out and saying all this type of stuff. So I do have to take it on his face and on its face and saying, I don't know if they're going to be completely cleared of everything. But it's probably going to be a much lesser extent of what happened with the Astros in 2017. A couple more quotes from him. You don't like it, especially we were the champions and individuals. I have that award and we have this floating over our head when we just had such an unbelievable season.

We had the perfect team and great camaraderie with everybody and then this gets thrown out there. We're just like, what the heck? Well, let me ask you this before we take our first break of the show. If there's nothing that happened, are the Red Sox asking Alex Cora to resign slash you're fired based off what he did with the Astros? or did he bring this methodology that he used with the Astros to the Boston Red Sox? I don't know. Is there enough shame in what he did with the Astros to cost him a job after leading that team to the World Series? I would say yes.

I would say even if he did absolutely nothing with the Red Sox, then him being affiliated with the 17 Astros would be enough for him to basically make them part ways. I would agree. And then I think there's also the factor of what if he lied about it? What if, like, you know, Red Sox ownership confronted him and said what really happened? And he said nothing. And the report comes out. You know, if you lie to your ownership about something this big, they can't trust you.

So it could be something like that as well. Or the thought of, well, if he did it with the Astros, at what point is he going to try to do it with the Boston Red Sox? And we don't need this in our clubhouse. We don't need that stigma of the 2017 team coming into our clubhouse. So, yeah, maybe so. what I do want to know is, and what are y'all thoughts on this, why is Major League Baseball holding on to their ruling? And why are they waiting for a resumption of the season to then announce what's going on?

It's because they know that anything they announce the Red Sox would be a number one headline? Or is there a timing issue to this that I'm just not aware of? What would be the benefit of waiting to announce the Red Sox decision and or punishment, if there is any until the resumption of the baseball season. My feeling is they're doing it. They don't want to say anything because they know that if they say something now, that's all people are going to talk about when it comes to baseball for the foreseeable future. 1213 is our time.

It is the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. If you'd like to join us, 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-790. If you want to reach out to us via email, it's mt at sports-790.com. but the easiest way to get a hold of us is through our Twitter accounts at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Joe George Radio. 1 o'clock, Kevin Ashenfelder from AT&T, 2 o'clock. The Rockets Eric Gordon.

It's a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show, and this is Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. We had a good visit on our Monday night meeting last night. If you missed it, we do it every Monday night either at 7 or 8 o'clock, depending on people's schedules. And you go to our Facebook page, Facebook.com slash Sports Talk 790. It was Adam Sager, Sean Salisbury, Adam Wexler, myself, and Joe George. Joe, your former cohort that you used to work at the other place,

and now the same stage of a different show. I asked Ross what bizarre shows they're watching that you would never admit publicly, but you do now. Sean had the winner of all of them. he watches Cupcake Wars What? Yep. Sean Salisbury.

I watch the Food Network a lot. And I'm not ashamed to admit it, so that's why I didn't include the Food Network in my answer. But I don't watch Cupcake Wars. What is Cupcake Wars? I don't know. I watch Chopped and, like, Guys, Grocer Games. I'm all in my stuff.

I'll watch a little chopped and a little, what's that one, cutthroat kitchen? Cutthroat Kitchen's good. But Cupcake Wars? I don't know. What the hell is that? Chop the one. You don't know what it is.

Is chop the one that you're given a bunch of items that you normally would throw away? You'd make a meal out of it? Kind of. Yeah, they're like random items that you wouldn't normally cook with. They're like, yeah. Usually kind of bizarre. Yeah, here's some beats and here's some ginger root and some like cinnamon. Cinnamon.

Yeah, go ahead and make something good out of it. Okay. That's one of our Kim's friends from high school was a finalist one of the episodes. Oh, really? Well, they've got like a thousand. I feel like we all, everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody. who's been on that show. Yeah, I'm telling you.

My thought on Cupcake Wars is, I haven't ever seen it, that it's probably a, it's pretty self-explanatory. No, I don't get it. There are two cupcakes, they, it's like chopped, but with cupcakes? I guess. I think Cupcake is the perfect dessert. It's the right size. You get the moistness of a cake and the deliciousness of a frosting.

Nah, cakes better. I mean, I would disagree. I mean, I guess I'm pro Cupcake. I mean, I like cupcakes. We did cupcakes for instead of cake for my wedding. And that was a way better option, I think. Really? That's probably cheaper too, right?

It was cheaper, but it was like, because then you can do more flavors. And that's why I like cupcakes. You can go somewhere and get multiple options. Okay. Yeah, no, there you go. The show is similar to chopped. So there you go. It's basically a chopper with cupcakes.

Okay. I don't know. Strange ingredients. My show, I told the audience on our Monday night meeting, I've been watching a lot of Lifetime Movie Network shows. Oh, boy. You get caught one of those rabbit holes. Wait a minute.

You were doing that before the pandemic. That's true, but I'm watching much more of them. I think I've memorized half the episodes now. A bridge too far, and it's like something about some guy cheating on his wife or something? My stepmother is a killer kind of thing. Right. You know why they're so good is because the show goes, There are always two hours.

You know, you know that there's going to be some terrible things that happen in the middle. Somebody's going to get blackmailed. Somebody is going to get caught, is going to be arrested for the murder or the crime that didn't commit. And then they all come back and everybody is either dead or arrested by the time the show's over. It's a nice, tidy two-hour episode. It doesn't keep you hanging, so to speak. Okay. It's not a multi-part mini-series, if you will.

Correct. Okay. You get in and out two hours, Bada-boom, Bada-Bing. And what was your show, Joe, that you admitted that you admitted that you, you don't, you're watching that you want to know about. Your lady was making you watch that though. Yeah, but I mean, I still kind of enjoyed it.

Like, there's still part of me that. It wasn't terrible. And then Gray's Anatomy is what we're on right now. Yeah. But you got skipped over. Y'all were alternating. I know. See, you got to put your foot down. You can't do. You're setting a precedent early in the marriage. You can't set

the precedent that you're getting walked all over, Joe. It's because I'm giving her this is a, this is a partnership where I'm giving her the time to watch these shows now because when all these sports comes back, she's screwed. She's going to be able to watch television again. Is she a sports

fan? No. Oh, no. What are you doing? Actually, I kind of like it that way. I could see that separation. She enjoys sports and she watches them, like she'll watch them with me, but she's not invested. Yeah, so you want to be like, get out of my hair for a little while and you go get some alone time or hang out with the fellers. Yeah, so

I kind of, I don't know, I don't want to talk sports when I go home. So she'll give you, so if we said, let's go to a bar and watch some games. She'll give you no grief over it. No. And she would come with and totally enjoy herself, too, if it wasn't just like a guy's night, but she's not invested in the teams.

Does she like to gamble? No. Even better. You're not going with us to Vegas this fall. Well, we've got to keep an eye on Joe, though. I'm still going. Oh, hell yeah, Joe, you're going. No question about that.

You know what, it'll be our wedding gift to you for a wedding we weren't invited to? I've only been to Vegas once. So I'm excited. And last time I went there was, for work. It's the goat. It is the goat. It's overrated, but that's okay.

You know what? I'll take Lake Charles and just drive. Yeah, exactly. I'll just take it for now. Here's the thing. When Louisiana gets sports gambling, we're done with Vegas, Ross. We really are.

For the most part, yeah. I'm okay with that. Vegas is just, it's just such a money grab. Everywhere you turn, it's exhausting. Unless you're spending a ton of money, which means you're gambling,

which means you're probably losing a ton of money gambling. Well, the only reason why I do love Las Vegas so much is because it's so grandiose and everything. It's the biggest shows. It's the biggest casinos. It's the best restaurants. It's the hole-in-the-wall places. It's a fantastic people-watching city. By hole-in-wall, you mean subway?

Or Sparrow. Yeah. Or Johnny Rockets, if you will. Johnny Rockets, if you will, yes. We have to go to Johnny Rockets when I go with you guys. Of course. I didn't know what it was when you guys were talking about it. I looked into it.

I was like, I want to go to Johnny Rockets. It's pretty good. I mean, Johnny Rockets can cook. I've only had about half blackout, so, I mean, take that with a grain of salt. I'm sorry, why? Well, then I'll have it half blackout with you. There you go. It'll be pretty solid.

Let me tell you, we go to Johnny Rockets, Joe. You will go, and then when they go out to dance in the middle of their cooking your food order, you will dance with them, and we will shoot video of it. It will go viral immediately. Deal. See? I'm not paying for my drinks that night, then. Fair enough. 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-2-5-7-90. Let's go to Cecil. First up on the Matt Thomas show. Cecil, good afternoon to you. Good afternoon. You know, I just left my brother's house. Yeah, his mask on. I had my mask on.

We're a year apart. And I'm sitting two. I said, man, we've never, well, it's three of us, brother. I said, man, we've never had to walk around with masks on. and he quickly reminded me, he says, you remember when you were 17, I was 16, our old brother was 18, we won't mass back then. I said, shut up, man, we agreed we weren't going to never talk about it.

No more, okay? That crime stop was warned may still be out. But, that was too many years ago. But look, let me say this. You guys are doing an excellent job, but at some point, we're going to have to talk some real sports. I mean, I'm reduced to watching soccer.

soccer in Barcelona, because that's the only thing active is going on. And you guys are doing a great job being creative and innovative, but at some point, let me use this analogy. The foreplay is going to have to stop, and you've got to come on with it. Can you relate to what I'm saying? You want us to stop having a four play on a radio show? I'm using it metaphorically. Yeah, man.

Stop teasing it, man. There's nothing going on. I'm enjoying you guys. I love you guys, but not having some kind of last sport, some kind of way, is, is, is, is, uh, and maybe I'm just, you know, a pessimistic person. It's killing me, man. It's killing me. You know what I'm saying?

Uh, I think we have a pretty good feel of what you're talking about, Cecil. I let me tell you, uh, Ross and Joe and myself, we are blessed, uh, to be able to have this position to hosting a radio show every day for three hours. as compared to most of the world is either losing their jobs or working and to protect our country or to take care of us in hospitals

and clinics and, you know, shelter and whatnot. So we definitely know what we are in the pecking order. But we also know that this is, you know, when Ross and I were young people deciding we wanted to get in this business, we didn't think we would spend an entire

month with a sports talk show with the word sports not being the number one part of it. So, yeah, I understand what you've done. Yes, the breaking new sounder is in. We should tell Ross to Cecil that, yes, it is not the easiest thing in the world to do a three-hour sports show with those sports. That's your breaking new sound. Oh, there we go. I think we make it easy, Matt. You know what? I haven't had, I haven't been to a show with you yet, whereas, like, this is slow and I'm going to do with this thing. Yeah, I'll be really honest with you.

It is, it's a nice little getaway. for me personally. And, you know, now that I'm doing the shows here from the Kingwood Studios, it's even with the door closed, it's even a little bit more of a nice getaway. But, yeah, look, you'll never going to hear me complain about what we get to do every day for three hours. I'm just not going to do it because there's so many, I mean, I've been watching, and maybe it's to my detriment boys,

I'm watching way more news than I ever have before, and to see people in hospitals and to see the amount of masks that are being produced by people and companies and clinics and these drive-through people that are getting their test done. I mean, there are so many more important things going on in our world than us trying to occupy three hours of radio spots. So if this is what we can do to entertain and get us away from that a little while, I'm glad to accept that responsibility. Yeah, I know. You miss games. I know.

You miss, you know, I know that the NBA horse competition is not satisfying your sports needs. By the way, that's on the night, Ross. The number of minutes. Did you, DVR? Did you go back and watch any of that, by the way? I didn't. last night, no. See, I feel bad because I feel like that that was my fault for giving you a bad lead into

what you might have watched. It wasn't you. It was the entirety of Twitter. It was all of Twitter, Matt. It's not your fault. Okay, I just want to make sure. Did you see it, Joe? Oh, no.

So you're not, neither one of you're going to give it a chance tonight. No, I'll try to. I'll flip it on if I remember. I think I might watch it tonight because I expect the production quality to be better. Like a lot of the issues people had, I think they'd be able to fix them after the first go-round. Because here's the thing. There are some TV shows. I mean, not some.

There are most TV shows, whether they're on sports channels or they're on news channels, that you can send really good cameras to, like, if you ever watch Stephen Colbert, he's got a really high-end camera in his house. It doesn't look grainy. It doesn't look like it's on a delay. Now, the Internet's still going to be the Internet. But if you thought something was very important to a particular network, you could send the top shelf cameras.

You know the ESPN Disney's got everything. It just did it a disservice the other night by shooting these horse games. What was the equivalent of your iPhone? And now, for a little local TV station that's trying to interview with somebody for 30 seconds, it's no big deal. But you're trying to occupy people's time for two hours with these grainy, delayed, echoy. It's just the production value was so bad. that I not only with that but the games were so bad that's the reason why I think a lot of

people got turned out by it because it was just hard to physically watch plus there was lag in action it wasn't on the edge of your seed there was downtime there was you know yeah just was it was a you know they always said a good job good effort you just couldn't say that about the horse and maybe tonight maybe I'll give it five more minutes maybe they have stepped up their production value but if any indication of of what we saw Sunday's coming back tonight, it's going to be a hard watch for a lot of people. But you know what?

Like our man Cecil, he's just missing sports, as are all of us. 1231. The Matt Thomas Show continues. 713-212-5-790. College football returning. Russell Westbrook with a huge donation to the Rockets and the city. Very cool. We'll discuss those things next.

Kevin Eshenfelder, AT&T Sportsnet in one half hour. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Here in H-town, we're social distancing experts. We've been socially distancing ourselves from Dallas since 1836, which is one of the reasons why we've never had an STD. The Houston Sports Talk continues on Sports Talk 790. We're on Sports Talk 790. Good afternoon, everybody.

Beautiful day outside. Go out for a walk. You bring your walkman with you. Do people even have walkmen? more, Ross, to listen to radio? I guess you listen to your phone on the R-Hart radio app, right? Nobody has a Walkman, Matt.

No. Nobody, so everybody's listening to radio and music on their on their phone. No Watkins whatsoever. I mean, no iPod. I do actually want an iPod. I want iPods to come back.

I'll put it in my car. Smaller? Yeah. Okay. So it just holds a bunch of music. I don't have to worry about anything else. I just be afraid if I lose it. All right.

Are you ready for a totally preposterous story? Yeah. Now, you know that I am a fan of professional wrestling. Of course. I don't necessarily am a huge fan of today's professional wrestling, but anything between, say, 1980 and 90 when I was a kid or a young adult, I lived it. Okay? That's my go-to. I get caught into YouTube rabbit holes of old wrestling and love listening to podcasts of old stars talking about their days. So the WWE has this contract with a USA network, okay? And part of their contract is you need to be on as live as humanly possible. Live matches.

Now obviously things have changed that, you know, they used to be in front of crowds. Now it's in their studios in Orlando. But what they're essentially saying is when they signed this deal originally, they want you in arenas with live people. None of it's rehearsed or protected or edited. They want live as it is. They think it's part of the charm of these shows. And the same thing goes with Fox when they run their Smackdown show on Friday.

Well, obviously, this virus thing has made travel to Orlando very difficult for the different wrestlers that live around the country. And they had been doing WWW had, excuse me, WWE had been doing tape shows. well Vince McMahon the chairman of the WWE had been receiving a lot of pressure to put live shows back on so yesterday WWE RAW which is on USA had live wrestlers in a live performance and there was no tape delay there was no editing there was no this was recorded four or five days ago and some of the wrestlers were upset about that because they had to figure out a way how to travel to Orlando and look people don't want to leave their homes leave their families air travel has been big time restricted So yesterday, the state of Florida, Ross, you're not going to believe this. I don't know if you saw the story or not. I know Joe's a wrestling guy, so he's seen this.

The WWE was designated as an essential business yesterday. I did see that. Essential businesses that are supposed to remain open during Florida's stay-in-home order include health care, financial, energy, food, communications, which is us, transportation sectors, and now, Ross, you can add the WWE. And soon the UFC? Because I'm assuming Dana White's going to jump all over this, right? Probably so.

Now, you can Josh all you want about how ridiculous that is. Apparently, they are considered essential, quote, because they are critical to Florida's economy. You're going to have to walk me through that one. So they'll declare baseball essential business. Absolutely, they will. Is this a good thing then for sports coming back? So, I don't think it's bad. But remember, WWE, who by the way just had a member of their staff, two members

of their staff test positive for the virus, you know, just got this clearance. So I don't know what kind of hoops somebody went through to make this happen, but they did. Here's the best part. I want to read you this statement from the WWE, and you call BS whenever you think I need to stop. Are you ready for this? Here it goes. WWE in a statement yesterday said the following. We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times.

BS. No, you can agree with that. We are producing content on a closed set with only essential. personnel and attendance following appropriate guidelines while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of our performers and staff. As a brand that has been woven into the fabric of society. Okay. BS. WWE and its superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination,

and perseverance. BS, BS, BS. Now, Rossi, I love me some wrestling. Yes, you do. You love watching oiled up men in their underwear more than anybody I know, Matt. Well, maybe not as much because, again, I'm not watching the current stuff. I'm Clinton. Okay, probably Clinton.

You're speaking of Adam Clinton. But to say the WWE is woven into the fabric of society? A little much. It's mom, it's apple pie, and it's the four-figure leg lock. Figure four. Well, whatever. I got close. I was hoping that I would get close.

Yeah, you did get close. I'll give you credit for that. I mean, they do have the longest running television show in the history of television. Not that I agree with them. No, no, no, you do agree with it. You just came to its defense. No, I'm just saying they have the longest running show in the history of television. Monday Night Raw.

Is that right? Maybe besides Monday Night Football? Yeah. I think you're confusing. How long is, I feel like, I guess, when did Monday Night Football start? The Simpsons has been on since the 80s. Yeah, WW has been on since the 70s and the 80s, too. Raw has been on since 93, according to Wikipedia.

Yeah, Monday Night Football in 1970. Yeah, the Simpsons were in like in the 80s. They're still on. Yeah, Simpson, when you think of the five longest shows running, you would have to be Simpsons, WWE Raw, Monday night football. I'm assuming some law and order of some sort, right? Probably.

That's what, you or whatever? Yeah, what would be the fifth longest show? Episodic 60 minutes, for sure. Yeah, they're probably up there. Yeah, that makes sense. So, Meet the press is number one.

Is it really? They've been on since 1947. I had not thought of it. That makes a lot of sense. Okay, so the point Ross I have is today's show's been on since 52. Yeah, WWE Raw is down the list. But it's still, I mean,

among stuff in the line in this century, for sure. Yeah, but they're way down the list. I love, generally speaking, wrestling. But it's not woven. I mean, most people don't like wrestling. I know that may be hard for people to understand, but there are more Rosses than there are Matt and Joe's. That's everything, though.

But it's not woven. That's true. It's definitely not woven. It's not woven. I mean, it can be woke, but it can't be woven. I don't think it's either. So, so crazy. All right.

Let's go to Bobby. in spring on 790. Hi, Bobby. Hi, I just want to ask Matt where the year of age football season start on time what to deal with that. That's a great question, Bobby. We'll address that when we return. Will college football start on time? We'll discuss that next and more phone calls.

In a moment, 1243. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show. 713212-5-790 and on Twitter at Joe George Radio at SportsRV and at SportsMT. A message here for Oops Steam Cleaning. Many of you are spending almost every hour of your day in your home. The least you can do is have clean carpets. The least you can do is call my friends at Oop Steem Cleaning

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The no-damned sports pandemic. I'm not leaving my house. Luckily, the most infectious lineup in Houston sports continues. Now. Peers masked, rubber-gloved, but still Jesus-sandled, Matt Thomas. sanitize those toes, would you? You don't know where they've been. All right, 1247 on the Matt Thomas show, Joe George and Ross back in our 790 studios.

I'm here in the Kingwood Studios on Sports Talk 790. 713212-2-5-790 Kevin Eshenfelder from AT&T Sportsnet to join us in about 15 minutes. Guys, I've been trying to push the agenda along, not because I'm trying to advise them of this, but I'm just saying that I don't think college football has to worry about a calendar. do you because they're not sharing building they're not sharing facilities with anybody else in 98% of the country uh i mean somewhat yeah there are some contingencies that they would have to be worried about as far as i mean how long are they going to go with the basketball season and academic stuff i mean i'm sure there are a lot of things that they have to figure out but i would think of all the concerns

the dates would be the least of their worry unless You start putting everything between, say, October 1st and January 31st, you're going to have a potential sports logjam, which would then mean there's not going to be enough places to put these games on television, right? I mean, how much is it for baseball? Let's say the same thing. They own most of their own buildings, right? And they're mostly baseball-only facilities.

How much is Minut made getting used on a given year? No, I think the biggest issue on. The stray fight here. My guess is when it comes to facilities for baseball, they're in the same spot with the exception of weather becomes a problem. You can't play Major League Baseball in theory December 19th in Cleveland. You probably shouldn't be playing college football in February in Pittsburgh or anywhere up Notre Dame or whoever. Well, the only difference in that I would think is that those schools have all played under adverse weather conditions before. Yeah, but you're talking about the one

You don't want to play in Alabama in June And you're talking about the Big Ten playing every single week The Big Ten and the ACC Like every single week you're playing in snow possibly Instead of it being like a one week thing or two weeks at the end of the season Yeah, that's true That's true But I think they can take they would rather

Well I mean my thought is they're going to take their chances on If they have to delay and get a full season in As compared to saying well We're fighting the clock It's December 1st and we only play two football games. Would they, would it be permanent like how we've talked about and Matt, you said you're hopeful the NBA could just use this to put like a Christmas start date for the NBA? Would this permanently move the college football calendar then?

No. Because I don't know how it's safe then to tell 18 and 19 year old kids that your season is going to end in, you know, June and you're going to play football again in August. No, no, no. I would think if college football is going to play a season with fans, they've got to have this thing done because here's the they don't want to have college football run into March Madness. So, I mean, I'm not, I'm not advocating a just whenever you can get it going going. You know, you can't merge those two events because there's so much money into the March

madness that you're not going to bump any of those games off for college football games. I would just think probably, I mean, let's put it this way, guys. Let's say they started the college football season instead of, well, they usually started. Labor Day weekend. What if they pushed it to say October the 15th, you would then go, that would be a six-week delay. That would mean then you would then be crowning your national champion

and around the Super Bowl time, maybe the weekend after. And those games are typically in Dome Stadiums. And realistically, how many schools, I mean, you said Big Ten, yes, ACC, yes. Who else would have really, really nasty weather? Maybe some of the Northwest schools, Seattle, Utah, snows, BYU. But you know what? I think they would rather take their chances and get it right and get people in the stadium

than try to push for a regular start date and have nobody in the stadium. Because I said, and maybe I'm wrong, I'm not an economist when it comes to college sports, but I would think empty college football stadiums would. destroy college football programs in terms of the revenue that is brought in. I mean, tell me how the University of Alabama is going to fund its gymnastics team if there's not 85,000 people at Bryant-Denny Stadium. Tell me how Ball State is going to support their basketball program when they don't get $1.2 million from Michigan to play football.

And Michigan is not going to pay $1.2 million. They're doing it because they're buying a win, but they're also the same time buying it because they can put 100,000 people to Michigan Stadium that will easily cover the cost of that $1.2 million. I think college football, more so than anything else, needs a stadium with people in it, maybe even way more so than the NFL and the NBA. Agree or disagree. I guess so when you think about the fact that they subsidize these other sports,

but it'll be interesting to see the long-term economic impact and how long this last because I've always been of the opinion. This kind of ties into me, Matt, the paying the athletes type of deal, right? Yeah. You always talked about how well you can't pay the athletes because if you have the football, then you have to, they have to pay for all the other sports. But I mean, before all these huge million-dollar TV deals, there were other sports, other collegiate sports.

There was college football before there was major TV deals. There was volleyball and rowing and all those types. Those were all sports that existed before large TV deals. So I wonder, I mean, how much is it going to affect them? And how much of it is like the million dollar locker rooms and stuff like that? I think that's the stuff. That's where all the TV money goes, right? So that you can get all the recruits and you pay your coaches and $9 million a year and all that type of stuff.

Well, yeah, think about this. What was the athletic budget at the University of Texas in 1968 with Darry Royal? Probably not a whole lot. And he was still able to get all the kids he wanted, still competed for a national championship, still had lots of fans. This need now in 2020, it's been that way probably for about 20 years now, to have the best locker room, to have everybody have their own iPads, to have meal service 24-7, to be able to not only treat the football players that well,

but frankly, any athlete that competes in a collegiate sport that well. Because what you can't do in 2020, frankly, is the football team gets three square meals a day, and the golf team gets sack lunches. So that's where I think the big difference in today's athletic budget compared to 1968. They still wanted the best players, still want to have the best facilities, but they are now having to make sure it's taken care of for everybody and not just the football team.

But you're right. Those sports went on. And D.K.R. wasn't making $6 million a year. Oh, we forgot about those salaries, those coach. And oh, by the way, how much is DeKare's assistance making back then in 1968? Yeah, you didn't have a million-dollar assistance back in those days. Did you see the Cincinnati soccer program already got cut today, their men's soccer team?

They already said that they can't afford it anymore, so they wiped it off. It's gone. No, with no thought of returning, correct? That's the way the, what I read from the press release from the university president and the athletic director, they didn't sound like there was a return coming. It sounded kind of like the XFL, that it was just gone, that their soccer programs done. Yeah, seeing things drop like flies around here.

Fletcher, Baytown at 1255 on 790. Hi, Fletcher. Hey, how's going? I called the other day with a not such a good topic to talk about. It kind of died. I'm hoping to stay. Maybe this will create a little bit more conversation. Right now with Russell Westbrook being on the Rockets and, you know, the whole small ball thing,

which I think is exciting brand of basketball to watch. But in particular with Russell Westbrook, I'm wondering how the advanced stats are coming out with him. Because to me, he seems to dominate the ball even more than James. Barton does. He's awesome at attacking the goal. He's very athletic, but it seems like the rockets, to me, are starting to have some of the same problems that the Thunder had when Durant was there and even after Durant left with Westbrook having the ball so much. It seems like that they're giving up actually a little bit more overall than they would have. Like, they dominate with Chris Paul, and I'm not saying he's better. I'm just saying he might

have been better at deferring to Hardin or something like that. So I just wonder what your thoughts are. And I hope you got to say great day. Thanks, Fletcher. Frankly, boy, guys, I forgot what the Rockets play like these days. It's been so long. Russ was having a really up and down first month this season. But really, after about December 15th, he's been amazing.

incredibly efficient scoring as one of the highest numbers he's ever had and he gave up the three-point shot that was a blessing of disguise we'll get more to this a little bit out because I've got a guess coming up at the top of the hour

but no I think everything that Russell was going to bring to the team he has done so and then some especially because his co-number one his co-alpha dog has had a couple of streaks this year where he has really really struggled from the field. Kevin Ashtonfielder will join us from AT&T SportsNet next.

Second hour, Matt Thomas Show starts momentarily on Sports Talk 7-9. Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas Show. If you were to build a Mount Rushmore of television personalities in sports in the last, I don't want to age Kevin Ashenfelder, but it's got to be, see, 25, 30 years. of working for all the variety of regional networks in our community. Am I right, Kevin Ashenfelter, 25, 30 years? Is that giving you proper claim?

You are so full of bull. Why? Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore? Come on, man. Yeah, that's been, yeah, right at about 25 years. Because when I think of studio host in the history of this community, you, Hannah Storm back on the old Channel 20 Vision days.

Yep. Barry Warner did it for a while, and there's nobody else, right? I think you're probably right. I'm thinking about that. Yeah, I'm full time. It's been right at 25 years. Yeah, it's been a long time. But, no, I'm very, very, very, very fortunate. And you knew that the Matt Thomas show was woven into the fabric of society. Yeah, just like the WWE. We're a central business. You are. You're very essential. And you know what? I consider you, we're not, we don't just know each other. Now we're friends, right? Yeah, we've been on show it for a long time, yes.

Yeah, okay. You've broken bread at my house. Do you realize this is the first time I've ever been on the Matt Thomas show? Is it really? That's a huge problem on my part, then. No, it may speak more to your guests than me, better than you. Hey, we should mention, and Ross talked about this earlier. He loved listening to the University of Houston beatdown of the Oklahoma Sooners yesterday,

or last on our radio station. That was a fantastic, that was the most fun season. I've ever been around a college football team, A, because the opponents were really good. Remember, that was a year. Didn't we go to Louisville like the next week and win there too? Are we mixing my seasons up? You're mixing your season.

Beat Louisville the year before that at Louisville. Okay. Remember Louisville wouldn't come to Houston until November. So they were at Houston in November, and they were like number four in the country and knocking on the door as far as the playoffs are concerned. And they sack Lamar Jack. I think it was 31 to nothing at halftime.

They just blew Louisville off the field. But yeah, you know, it was really cool last night. I've never heard myself do an entire game. And, you know, I've heard highlights. But that was really neat to be able to sit there and just go on the I-Hard app and listen to it. I listen to 790 and listen to the whole game. Just a lot different perspective than something I've never been able to do before. That was fun.

And it's weird because I've had seven. a lot of other broadcasters said the exact same thing to me. We don't like listen to ourselves. Like we're going to have some rocket replays of some games. Like James is 61-point game. I called that one in New York. I did a Rockets playoff game that's going to be on. I've been on with Craig a few times.

I don't like listen to my own voice on a game call because I'll sit there and go, why did I say that? Or am I painting the picture accurately? So, yeah, it's a little different to hear yourself in a repeat mode. And speaking repeats, you guys at AT&T are putting together some classics. How deep is the library? Can you go back to super old stuff? Are you kind of keeping it to what's going on the last two or three years?

We are trying to dip our toe into going deeper as far as working with the NBA. That is hopefully that is still to come. We're still working on that. But right now we're replaying all of the wins from the rocket season and then all of the Astros wins from 2019. And what's really cool is not only can you see those on the, network. But our Instagram live, we do an Instagram live. Kaylee does it for the Rockets on Mondays and

Wednesdays and Julia Morales does it on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Astros. And they do have a little 15-minute deal leading up to the game and kind of just catching up with some of the executives and some of the players. That's something certainly worth checking out. It's very casual.

Kind of gives you an idea what these guys are up to right now. And that can be on the AT&T Instagram and of course every night with the Reak game replays. I want you to tell the audience, because you have been a studio host for every team in the state, it feels like, right? There isn't a team you have not been a studio host for. You were in Dallas quite a while working with HSC, and I know it changed to Prime, and it had a variety of different network names.

Tell the audience the challenges you would have when you would work a Mavericks and a Spurs game on the same night, or maybe on back-to-back nights. You want to know what the greatest challenge was? And the worst, I'll tell you, this was the worst, Matt. was the year of the shortened NBA season. Because if you'll remember, the Knicks would play at San Antonio on Tuesday. They'd play in Dallas on Wednesday, and they'd play in Houston on Friday. And then it would be whatever the other two teams, whoever was in Houston would be.

They rotated, and I was doing spurs, rockets, and Mavericks. And the biggest thing for me was doing a half-type show and remembering which audience or which game I was doing. You know, or the Rockets playing the Celtics tonight because I was doing the rockets in Nix last night now that Knicks are playing at Dallas. And it was just a, that I would literally put a, you know, on my, on my sheet, I would write Knicks, Spurs, because that was a half time I was doing. But keeping up with all the games and, you know, that was the, that was the difficult part. But yeah, there were times that was, and I also did Dallas Stars, Texas Rangers.

Of course, obviously the Astros. And, yes, it was a little. head spinning from time to time. I was worried about remembering who was playing and who the announcers were, so I wouldn't be throwing it to Bill Brown when it was Bill Worell or that kind of thing. Visiting with Kevin Eschenfelder from AT&T Sports Network

in our series of people we miss hearing from. Calvin Murphy's, you've worked with him for a long time. Has there been a day where you just, when he walked in, had the suit that you were speechless, or is it now just so common that he wears stuff that you just, nothing would phase you at this point? Nothing would phase me at this point. I like it when he wears the,

he'll wear those dual-sided sequins. So right before we go on the air, you know, so it'll be a white jacket. But right before we go on the air, I'll take like four fingers and rub it up the side of his arm or something like that. And then he's got like a force little, you know, gold stripes on it. So, you know what, Merck is a, he is a, quite a character.

I love that guy. And, you know, we have a lot of fun. And, you know, I talked to him just the other day. He is something else. And his suit, it's amazing how many people in, you know, the basketball NBA fandom that know Calvin is the guy with the crazy suits rather than the guy that was basketball Hall of Fame. It's crazy because I've been watching a lot of old Rocket games just to kind of catch up on things.

I'm frankly bored. and we just forget how wonderful of a player he was, not only as good as he was, but there weren't a lot of guys 5 and 11 and under that are in basketball's Hall of Fame today. Nope, not many. I think that's what Tiny Archibald, I don't want to go through,

but tiny archibald, maybe Bob Trujoozy, there's not many, and he was something else. And you know what was really cool was when I started watching rockets, I'm obviously older than you, and I started watching Rockets when they'd hop off, pavilion. And some of my earliest sports memories, I can remember Wilk Chamberlain playing there, and Jerry West. And, you know, I was a little young to be able to, you know, kind of grasp

the whole thing as far as who these guys were, but I certainly remember it. And that was when Murph and, it was Murph and Rudy T. And they were the team. This was even before Moses Malone. I'm talking about going back to the Mike Newland, Dave Wall, Mike Dunleavy, you know, Kevin Cooner, Ed Ratliff, easy Ed Ratliff. I mean, I can go back to those days. That was kind of when I cut my teeth on starting to follow the NBA. Could you imagine the NBA playing in a college arena like they used to back then with a logo on the floor of University of Houston or the Atlanta Hawks played at Georgia Tech's facility with the big Georgia Tech logo in the middle?

Can you imagine that happening today? Well, actually, probably this year, yes, I could certainly imagine. Which goes to the next point. And look, I've always been curious about your thoughts about the television industry and how games are produced and the latest technology. And frankly, AT&T is not afraid to put equipment in and to give you some incredible looks of things in slow-mos. Have you had much conversations with your producers and the higher upset AT&T about if they go to no games with fans and we're all watching them, whether they be in high school gyms, the NBA arenas, in Arizona, what kind of television nuances or potential challenges we could have when we get the resumption of games? Has that been talked about much at your local level?

Not, not really. And I'll tell you why it's almost, you know, is it a wasted effort to worry about something that you're not sure is going to happen yet? Because we don't know, nobody knows what's going to happen yet. This has all been so unpredictable, obviously, who knew we would be there. I mean, if I had told you this, you know, eight weeks ago, nobody would believe what's going on right now. So, no, we haven't really talked much about that. But, you know, speaking to your point, what I've really enjoyed watching is some of those old games like you were talking about and how things have changed so much. You know, I was watching a baseball game from 1979 the other day, and Jack Brickhouse was calling the game. You know, he would, at the top of the eight, it's three o'clock here in Chicago and WGN, Chicago. He would do the ice during the baseball game.

It says it's no graphics. And if you listen to the announcers, no stats. I mean, you got an average, how many home runs and how many RBIs that the batter had. And you knew the basically the record and the ERA of the pitcher. Man, once you got past that, there was just nothing there. And it's interesting to see how that has changed. You know, another thing that's really changed too, and this kind of struck me, as I was watching an old NBA game, and there was a timeout called, and they were like two coaches.

There was a head coach and an assistant coach. You know, now it's this puffy of guys that go out there and suits and everybody's got a clipboard. It's a stark difference between what it was, you know, 25, 30 years ago. Well, I want to say even as late as say during the Rockets, late 80s runs, the Western Conference Championship team, that Bill Fitch had Carol Dawson and Rudy Tom Donovich, and that was it. that was it. Don Chaney. I was talking. I was telling Don that one day. I was like, you know, the weirdest thing I was watching one of your games, you know,

you guys called time out, and it was you and C.D. And Rudy, and that was it. And, you know, it was three of you, and there was no, nobody else. And, you know, it was, it was just, it just looked really strange. I know those are kind of, you know, odd observations, but it was, it was just a weird look. Now you have so many guys that you don't even know what, I don't even know what a lot of them. even do. But yeah, it was strange. Well, I know that you're somewhat enjoying the downtime with your wife and your family,

but I will say this. I hope that you're incredibly busy, I don't know, in the next 45 to 60 days, because you might, as a television partner for both the Astros and Rock, it's just like us here on 790. We may have nonstop games on at weird times, which, frankly, I will take at this point. I mean, I could see if they really do go to Arizona, Kev, and the Astros are playing the Padres, it could be an 11 a.m. first pitch because my guest is mid-May in Phoenix, Arizona, you don't want to be playing outdoor baseball. And that's what the situation would be. So it could be an adjustment for all of us. I think the live games, especially for our radio station, your network would be certainly something we would aspire to have very soon.

You know kidding, man. Bring it on. It's going to be when it is, when it does come back around, the busier the better. ready for it. Certainly, I would not make a good lottery winner. I'm not good at just sitting around doing nothing. So, yeah, it's, I say bringing on. Well, tell the family we send our best. Thank you, friend, for joining me on the show for the first time. And I would think when we get these games going again, we shall have you on a second time. Is that all right with you? All right, Maddie. Good talking to you, buddy. All right, buddy. Thanks very much. Our good friend, Kevin Ashenfelder, from AT&T Sportsnet, joining us here on the radio show. Jeff Passon, our buddy from baseball, with an update.

date on that sport. That's straight ahead. 114 on the Matt Thomas show with a message here for bronze roofing. If you are spending a lot of time at your home, which clearly most of us are, and you're looking to see that everything in your house is working properly, that would include your roof. And if you've not had your roof inspected or you feel like there's something wrong with your roof, I want you to call bronze roofing.

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No watermelon. Ah, Granny Smith, Apple. Yep. The Houston Sports Talk continues on Sports Talk 7-night. Thanks again to Kevin Ashtonfell over joining us on the people we miss hearing from series. 713212-1-2-5-790. We'll have Eric Gordon for the Rockets coming up in 40 minutes. Ross, some devastating television news is coming down

last handful of minutes here on the radio program. How devastating, Matt? I mean, it depends on if you are a friend of the show God-friended me. So then I would be a friend of a friend of God. Correct. It is a show that I have never watched, never been curious about. thought the premise was completely stupid,

and it's gone after two seasons. How you feeling that? Are you okay? I know you've been a little upset. I would like for those of you that are friends of the show to call and tell us what your favorite God Friend of Me episode was. 713. 212-5-790. Joe, you were recently married,

thus you lost the control of the remote control. How many episodes of you and the new Mrs. George watched of God Friended Me? Zero. So you're at a zero. I'm at a zero. Ross is at a zero. Is there anybody that doesn't have the great taste that have watched at least one episode of Godfriended me? Ross, the television gods are not treating that amazing series with great acting, great plot.

amazing direction. It's giving it its proper due. I know, Matt. You're going to be fine, though. He'll make it. Okay. Let's move on. I just wanted to give a quick tribute to God, friend of me on CBS.

Jeff Passon, would you call him a friend of the show, Ross? We conversed with him a little bit, and we got to know him a little bit in West Palm. Do you think we should try to get him on? We hung out with him almost every day for like a week. I asked you if you wanted to get him on, and you said no. Because people hate him on our arms. audience. So what?

If people hate him, then we can have them on and it'll be funny. Okay. I will try to book him for later this week. Okay. Either later this week or early next week. My goal is to get Jeff passing on the radio show and hopefully he's not wearing a tie and a suit. Because every day in spring training, it was one of the most awkward things for him in

full three-piece suit going into a major league baseball clubhouse during spring training. Do you think he was doing that, Ross, because he wanted to look over professional or he wanted to show people up? because he wanted to be professional, Matt. It's 50-50, probably. I like Joe's answer better. Who is he showing up? The rest of those media clunks that were in shorts and sandals.

If you were feeling bad, that's on you. I just felt like he was overdressed. Yeah, don't the baseball players probably relate to the sandals more than the three-piece suit? Well, not the sandals Matt's wearing. Hey, Alex Breggman didn't take any shots at my... Wait a man. Breitman didn't take any shot at my foot gear yesterday on the show. Well, that's because he went in front of you.

So you'd say he was in front of me, take a shot at it. He might have. Fair enough. All right. So Jeff Passon was on ESPN this morning and asked about the plans for maybe Arizona or an Arizona-Florida combo and how if there are no fans and it's just the games with ambient noise, how are you going to make this an even better made-for-TV production? You know, Graney, it's really interesting to hear Woge talk about two things. Time and creativity. Time is not quite of the essence for Major League Baseball right now,

is it's trying to figure out how to proceed. Rob Manfred went on Fox business this morning and was talking about how they don't have a plan set in stone or chosen at this point. They haven't committed to the Arizona plan. They haven't committed to going to Arizona or Florida. And instead of committing to that, what Major League Baseball is doing in some places is putting its resources behind how to make the game better if and when it comes back. We have to recognize these games are probably going

to be played Greenie in empty stadiums. What they're asking at Major League Baseball right now is how do we take advantage of these empty stadiums to make for a better product on television? Where can we put cameras? What can we do, for example, with extra innings? You know, Justin Turner, the Dodgers third baseman, came out last week and said, hey, if we get to extra innings, why don't we turn it into a home run derby? It's an idea that to baseball purists and traditionalists sounds completely ridiculous on its face, but has been embraced at some levels at Major League Baseball. So when you're trying to bring a sport back, not knowing when it's going to come back, because

you want to do it safely, because you want to do it the right way, you have to spend your time thinking about all of these other ideas and how to roll the game out right if and when it does come back. Guys, I ask your first thought opinion of Home Run Derby in Louis the 11th inning. I love it. Cheesy. I like it. I like it.

I'm okay with the like why don't they start putting people on base? Nobody wants to be there after the, what? But you're okay with Home Run Derby? Yeah. Because I like hockey. What? That is ridiculous. Why, they do it in hockey and soccer.

They do shootouts. It just, it would be a shootout. Well, I'm not going to put hockey and soccer on the same pedestal as major league baseball. I will 100% agree with Ross. The 11th inning, the last out of the 10th starts at second base. I'm all for that. But home run derby?

Ugh, what a cheapen way to end a game. I mean, I'm okay with anything. Does anybody want to be there in the 13th inning? Nobody's going to be there, Ross fans. Broadcaster, yeah, that's true. But in a regular scenario, fans, broadcasters, players, like the guy at the concession stand,

nobody wants to be there when a game is dragging on in baseball. I'm okay with them ending these bad boys. And you know what? I would take a home run derby over a 15th inning. I'm telling you, boys. It's a waste of everybody's time.

How many games in baseball? How many other are played? You play, there's 16, 162 games. 15 times, right? Because you don't play 30 teams, 162 times, right? What's a total number of games in baseball? And what percentage of those games are going to the 13th inning or longer? I don't know.

Just throw up. Would you say 5%? 96%. 5% of games go more than 13 innings. Yeah. No, it's probably less than that. Okay. I think 5% is probably a little lot.

If I would guess like one. So we're really going to dumb-dify the game. over a 1% margin here? Well, that's the point. If it's only affecting 1% of the game, what's the big deal? But if you're going to play double hudders every day, you have to change things. You have to do things differently if they're going to be playing double hatters

and they're going to be squeezing in games, less off days. They can't afford to have one single game go 20 innings. But you are literally adding an element that has nothing to do with the previous nine innings of the game. There's no home run derby in the fourth and eighth. You play a regular old baseball game, and that's why I think I would could easily, a matter of fact, I would even say this when we get back to normal playing game. The 11th inning, the previous out of the 10th, start the second base, speed things up a little bit. I could see that, but I don't know if I want to go from this batter versus pitcher, defense, shifting, stolen base to,

let's just send up our three biggest hitters and then each get five. I mean, it's so out of the norm of the rest of the game. Or at least in overtime in college football, you still run plays. Granted, it's a 25-yard line, but you're still running, running plays, passing plays, you're kicking a football. There is a – this becomes nothing – maybe I'm just trying to overdiagnosis, but the home run derby has no baseball-y-type features, except you're going to send your pitching coach out there to throw 65 mile an hour or pus

so the guy that's going to hit it 400 feet. I don't like it. Maybe it's just me. But if you want to alter, I get it. Seven-in-ning double-headers, probably going to have to. Don't think it's good for the long-term, but at least this season I can get that. My point is, at least if you put a runner at second base, you're not destroying the essence of the game in the 11th inning. And, you know, even though you're saying, man, it's only 1%.

It just, it seems very video gameish to me. And we have baseball fans to listen to us. What do you all think? Would you want to be able to see a game wrapped up with a home run derby? I'll give the audience three options. Home run derby, put a runner at second, or you know what, guys, it's 1% of baseball games. Live with it. play the 11th inning, the 12th inning, the 13th inning,

like every other inning in the game. So if you have a thought on that, what would you like to see? Now, maybe we're talking about just this year, because everything is up for conversation this year. By the way, they were talking, you know, Passing was talking about, what do you think about putting microphones on the players during the game? We'd be okay with that, right? There's nothing wrong with that.

Putting the microphone what? On the players? Like you do during the All-Star game. I bet the players aren't going to be with that. I wouldn't think the players would want to do that. I don't know if I want them broadcasters talking to them. No, no, no, no, none of that. I'm talking about just general, hey, here is Springer going back.

I got it, I got it, I got it. Or, hey, let's shift this way. Kind of a little behind-the-scenes stuff. I don't think anybody would be adverse to that. Now, you know, you'd like to get it between pitcher and catcher, but that's definitely not going to happen because then you'd be worried about people stealing signs and we're stealing intelligence and whatnot. But I could see an outfielder out there in right field with a microphone on.

Just kind of, you know, now again, you have to edit it. I don't think you'd be able to air it live. But, yeah, I think baseball, I think ESPN, Fox, are going to have to think of some things out to the box to keep people interested, especially if you're talking about baseball games that are starting at odd times during the day. Because as much as we would, the thought of us watching an 11 o'clock baseball game sounds good, most people by that time, hopefully when we're playing baseball, are going back to work. So they're going to have to figure out intricacies of, hey, you don't want to miss this 2.30 game because we're going to have X, Y, Z microphone, or we're going to have this angle which nobody else can ever see.

I don't know. I'm just thinking of outside of the box ways to amp up a broadcast because there will be no crowd chance. There will be no ambiance of that. But what I don't want is, I'm not a fan of home run derby, period. But to end a baseball game, I just think it cheapens the game. But you know what? That's just my opinion. What is your opinion?

713, 212, 5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. If I gave you three options, home-run derby, put a runner in second, or just keep things as is, how would you want to see it? 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It's 133 with Eric Gorby. and one half hour here on Sports Talk 790. So when there's no sports, what do we talk about? Hmm, maybe Netflix binge talk.

No, no, no. Kids driving us crazy talk. Yeah, that works. Hand-wash talk. There's a new favorite. What's new on Pornhub Talk? Have you seen the one with the nurse? Oh, sorry.

You should wash your hands. You dedicate. Sports Talk continues on Sports Talk 790. Previous liner. Good work, Mike Bogin. Stay busy out there. Perfect. 138 on the Sports Talk 790.

Major League Baseball thinking of innovative ways to keep us interested. What are we missing, boys, before we go start taking phone calls? What are we missing from a broadcast? That would help if we're trying to separate a normal baseball game than watching game after game after game from a spring training facility. Do we need anything else? Because camera angles are pretty good, right? We see everything.

What are we missing? I don't know. I think I'm the wrong person to ask because I think baseball's perfect as it is. So I wouldn't change anything. You know, one thing I do look forward to seeing, and they were going to put this in this season before we got postponed, is that umpires are going to have microphones to explain themselves on calls. that's going to help

because instead of us putting our hands up in the air going, what did you see or what did you didn't see, they're going to have to speak. Like, guys, how excited to you about having Joe Wes explain to you an umpire call? I'm not that excited. He'll have his guitar out.

He's not going to play music, Matt. Why not? There would be interesting, though. It would be interesting. But as far as what they're going to try to show us, I mean, I guess you could put a dugout came in there, but they're not going to want that being alive.

I mean, they do that anyway. That's how the whole home run thing got started with every time an Astor, a home run would ever go pose of the camera. So that's nothing new. I think they're just worried about games going super long, and that's why some baseball players are saying, hey, let's end this bad boy into home run derby. There isn't a need to go 14, 15 innings, which I understand that.

But I think home run derby just is so far away from what the normal game is. So do you do it in like shootout style? Like you send five guys up there and they get one swing? Yeah. Interesting. I think that'd be awesome. But just one swing, that's all they get? Yeah, make it just like a hockey shootout or a soccer shootout.

One swing. Well, how about one out? So three, so like, okay. Like you, well, you know, in a home run derby, if you hit a line drive to, you know, right center or whatever you're out. Yeah. So one out. So he can take some pitches. Yeah, but one swing, not one pitch.

Right, right, right. So it would be like Yordon would go up, have one shot at it. Yes. Then Mike Trout would go up and have a shot at it. Okay. And you go best out of three. Yeah, I would say three of five. I would say percent five up there.

So you're not counting. Everybody's getting just one swing period. Well, yeah, right. And do it like hockey. Make it one time only. If it goes over the fence, then that's one. But let me ask you this. What's the success level of a guy that knows he's going up for one swing and one swing only to hit a home run?

Doesn't it take a few swings to kind of get in the mojo going a little bit? I don't know. You got to hit one on your first one, Matt. That's how it goes. You guys are further in my point. I think that's kind of awesome, actually, now that I think about it, you would watch that and you would be entertained by it. Of course I'd watch it.

I'd like it, though. You would get used to it. Give me a runner at second base in the top of the 11th. I mean, a runner is second base is a bastardization of the game anyways. It's not as bad as this is. You're just throwing guys on base for free? Yeah, to speed the game up. That's all the home run derby is doing.

No, but the home run derby is nothing like anything else in the previous nine innings. At least my formula, it is an assemblance of a real game still. What if Verlander had to be in the home run derby? It was pitchers home. You know, you said Zach Grinky up. I've never suspended you from a segment, but Joe, you've been suspended. like Nick does. Putting Verlander up there.

Is that how we're going to get it, guys? We're going to run out of players. We're going to have to go to pitchers at home runs. I think it would be awesome. It'll be 4.30 in the afternoon in Phoenix, 127. If you're tied, you go through your position players, and then eventually you would start over. I wouldn't think you're one and done like Nick's, I mean, like Joe says.

All right, let's go to a Joe on the west side at 141. Hi, Joe. I'll tell you a change that would make baseball more interesting as far as I'm concerned. is a camera on the catcher's mask. And you're looking right at the pitcher. You're in front of the umpire. We've had the same view of pitched baseballs since, what, like 63, the centerfield camera. You don't know what the depth is.

You know, did the ball curve out of the strike zone? Did it nipped the corner? You put a camera like Fox does, like on the ground, you know, like around, you know, home plate or whatever. Put that on the catcher's match. and then you would really be able to see balls and strikes and you'd see it from a different angle. It doesn't have to be every pitch, but I certainly think that would be a lot better than just that center.

I watch baseball all the time. That center field camera behind the pitcher. Somebody hasn't been improved on that. Yeah, I mean, you could probably, and look, I'm not a television expert, but my guess is is you could have a very, very small camera right above the catcher's mask, right? But the problem is if you take, you know, he flings the mask off guys to go catch a foul ball. Is that camera going to be destroyed? How do you protect the camera?

I'm sure to be fine. I mean, you probably just wouldn't have that as a default. You could use it for replays or something. They have done catchers. They have done cameras on the mask and ump cams and stuff like that. Maybe ump cams will be better because at least he's not throwing his mask off. Even when he takes his mask off, he's holding it at his hands. Well, he's got to throw it off when he's yelling at the manager or something.

Are we seeing yelling managers anymore? We've lost that. That's what instant replay is destroyed. The good old-fashioned fights. That's fine. All right. You can still argue. That's true.

144 of the Matt Thomas Show. Brian and Steve will get to you. Also, there is a major league eating competition that's going to be done on YouTube. And I have to tell you, we'll tell you about this after we talk to Eric Gordon. But apparently the foods that are going to be eaten are a big old can of, I don't think I want to be involved with it. Foods that you would not normally be a part of a eating contest are going to be a part of the quarantine eating challenge with Major League eating. We'll discuss that coming up in about a half an hour from now. This is Matt Thomas show.

Eric Gordon, 15 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. Sports canceled. Quarantine, baby. All right. Dude, it couldn't get any worse, huh? DeAndre Hopkins being trained. Coach Billy O says, hold my beer. What?

Let's see what the fuck they know. The Houston Sports Talk continues on Sports Talk 790. By the way, Bill O'Brien's going to have a Zoom meeting with the media on Thursday. Really? 11 o'clock. Are you going to be involved, Matt? I am going to listen to it. Yes, yes, I am.

Oh, you're not going to ask a question? Well, I could. about, you know, does he find, does he think that there's more offensive or defensive players? It would be more to help the Texans in this upcoming season, right? That's the question you're asking for. Is that correct? Doesn't matter, Brian. Why don't you give me a question?

I'll ask it. What do you want me to ask him? How many teams did you discuss the DeAndre Hopkins deal with? How many do you think he'll allow before he'll say enough of this? I'm not talking about DeAndre anymore. Hey, Bill, can you spell a trade for me? Probably capital T, capital R. etc. What I can tell you is anytime we make a trade, it's for the capital T, capital E, capital A, capital M.

Let's go to some folks that have been patiently waiting. Let's say hello to Brian and Edo. Brian, are we going to, do we need to fix the extra inning problem in baseball if you believe there is a problem? Well, I do think at times it does get long. And so I don't think you're gimmicking up the game too much if you did go to the second base rule start. You get one clean inning. You give them the 10th, play it as it is. But then in the interest of time, and I know the advertisers probably wouldn't like it as much, but just to speed games along,

especially if you get travel days and things like that or you have double-headers, you know, to try and just speed the game up in general. I don't think going to second base in the 11th is a terrible idea. I don't think it's overly gimmicky. I mean, and then for the playoffs, you go back to the normal style. I mean, the NHL goes that with their regular season. They have the post-game shootout,

and then when the playoffs start, they go back to regular sudden-death hockey. They take away the shootout, and they go back to right. You know, and so when the playoffs roll around, you take away that mean at second, and you play it out normal. You know, that's when the game means the most. And actually, the last caller, I guess, is Joe.

Actually, I had that idea while I was waiting on holders, micing up or putting a camera on the catcher or even say like the manager like if they go out for a visit or the pitching coach or somebody like that. So you can kind of hear some of those nuances maybe that's going on. And, you know, it's only good for the television broadcast. Obviously, you know, I don't know, they probably wouldn't go for. But you can at least kind of get a sense of your own TV of what's been talked about. Like, what is the strategy going on? I think that would add some depth in that to the game.

And I missed a conversation. I got in late yesterday. You guys were talking about just the refreshing beer in that. The way I was going, I know it's hard to find here in Texas, but you can actually go across the border to Louisiana and get it jingling. A good yinling beer. I love it. It's just a good crisp refreshing beer.

You can drink here around. I've never had one. By the way, Brian. It's a good East Coast beer. Anytime you're in the East Coast, Miami, Philadelphia for basketball, you can find it very prevalent on the East Coast. It's a Pennsylvania-style beer. It's really good.

All right. So to go back to the original point, you don't mind the second base guy. I'm going to assume you do not like the home run derby exiting of a game. No, I think the home run derby – I mean, look at how long sometimes the home run derby laugh. Because, I mean, let's say each guy goes three for three, and then you're matching and going, you know, two for two, two for two.

You know, the Astros get two, the Angels get two. The Angels get three, you know. those games could almost last you're talking an extra half hour possibly there's, you know, just off the bat. I think then that starts to make a little too gimmicky, or at least if you're putting a runner on second,

they still have to bring him in, you know, a fact why isn't going to do it. I don't even think, you know, or maybe even if you went, you know, Beer League softball, you went two on, you know, and you even give him one out. So that way it speeds it up even more.

So one in a second, but, you know, you get an out. Would most teams take that? They say, hey, I feel confident in two batters or whatever it takes. I can get that guy in from second, even with one out, you know, if you want that option. Yeah. But if you just, the visiting team gets the option, but then the home team has the same option. All right. Well, yeah, I don't know if I want to give out free outs because then that makes innings go faster.

I just, again, I don't want to overdo it. I just know that I think putting a runner at second, one ground ball, one sack fly of any normal distance, and the chances that runner is going to come home. So at least you're, I feel like you get a better chance of scoring if you start somebody at second base. And of course, one base hit of any good distance gets that runner home. Let me get one more in before we get to Eric Gordon. Stephen in Richmond on 790 at 153. Stephen, what do you got today?

Hey, I'm going to weigh in on the extra inning deal. The last two callers both made really good points. I think the catcher's camera would be super cool, especially you could put it, you know, screen and screen. You may put it in the corner, and it's not every single pitch, but it would be a lot cooler to see the trajectory of that baseball coming in. because we're all, you know, couch umpires at home, but you really can't tell exactly where a pitch is missing, you know, in that typical center field camera. So I like that idea.

As far as, you know, making these games a little more exciting, if the impetus for this is to, you know, speed it up, you know, I guess the runner on second isn't a bad idea. But for this year, when baseball does come back, you know, I think fans are going to be happy just to have the game to watch. They'll deal with the extra innings. And, you know, I've said it a bunch of times before. I'm old school.

I'm a young guy, but I'm old school. You know, when I go to the ballpark or when I turn on AT&T sports, I'm locked in for three and a half, you know, maybe not locked in, but I'm prepared for a three and a half four-hour game. So I don't like, you know, catering too much. But for this year, I think fans would be happy. just having the game, and you don't really have to do too much extra, in my opinion. Yeah, thanks, Stephen, for the phone call.

To Joe and Ross, do we even have that many people that love baseball complaining about extra innings? Or are we just going off of what one player said because he doesn't like playing an occasional 12th inning game? I don't think most people like 12 inning games. Well, I don't think anybody goes, I can't wait for this thing to go 12. I'm just saying, does it bother the good baseball fan? It bothers me.

I don't know if you would call me a good baseball fan. I mean, I don't, I don't hate it. I don't lie. Yeah, it's annoying, I think. I don't love it either. I don't mind as much at home. I don't like it at the ball yard, the ballpark. It's not good at the ballpark.

Yeah, at home, you're okay. I know you don't like it when you're doing the post game show, Matt. Oh, especially sucky Astros of the early 2010s. Yep. After you always text you. Who's that? Oh, you, you did. Tell him what you would text me, Ross.

I smell extras. That was the phrase. Okay, what were they just ending in a tie for the year? I actually am okay with ties. And they did like half points. No, no, no, no, no. That actually wouldn't bother me either. No.

I'm just saying, just for one year. For one year only. No. About between seven, I looked at some, the internet says between seven and a half to 10% of games go extra innings. And about half of those are over after the 10th. Okay. So we're looking about, what, 3% of games that go more than 10,

give or take? Give or take, yes. Yeah, that's not an incredible number. And frankly, this year, I don't think they need to be worried. The reason why I would probably think they'd be worried about timing is that they're going to try to play two or three games on the same field in the same day. They don't want to be backlogged. So a 15-in-game in the first game screws everybody else up because

you're going to be worrying about television. Like, for instance, if they played a game at 10 o'clock Phoenix time, and it was Angels versus Mariners, or let's say East Coast teams, Cubs versus Mets, and then they played a game at one, because a 10 o'clock game got pushed back, then you've got to tell those other two audiences, well, we're not only not starting to 2 o'clock. That's where I could see you need to get this game finished up.

And that's why I think they will figure out some way to make sure these things don't go super extra long. Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets joins us to start the final hour of the Matt Thomas show. Do not go anywhere. This is Sports Talk 790. Yeah. I'm on my way I'm making you. This is the Matt Thomas show.

Two o'clock, Sports Talk 790, the final hour of the Matt Thomas show gets underway with a visit with our good friend. a man who is one of the great three-point shooters in the NBA, and I miss saying EG 4-3, 4-3, 4-3, 4-3. Right now I'm just saying EG, just relaxing in his home. Eric Gordon on the Matt Thomas show. E.G., what's a good word today? Man, nothing much, man. Just another day in paradise doing the same old thing.

See, you're laughing. That makes me sad. What the hell are... Seriously, do not lie to the audience. What have you been doing? I mean, obviously you're working out, staying in shape. But what's the rest of an Eric Gordon day? The rest of my day is, you know, watching some movies,

playing video games a little bit with my brother and just being around the house. Man, this is, you know, different times. And, you know, it's just you can't really do much. And I'm trying to avoid, you know, I'm just been staying around the house and avoiding running around on the streets. Could you have played in an NBA, 2, contest or are you not are you good enough to do that? No, I don't even play NBA 2K man and plus I mean

I just can't play but I'd really I'd rather play like a Call of Duty or something like that I never was really into 2K. Yeah I tried to do the play-by-play of an NBA 2K game and it worked for a while but everybody's numbers had changed so like Dwight Howard was wearing like 67 for the Lakers and it kind of threw my game off a little bit so I don't know what number you'd be but what about this horse thing? You watch watching it on ESPN the last couple days?

No, I didn't, but I did care about it. You know, man, we just need this stuff to get back to reality, man. We do. We just need that's all that really matters at this point is, you know, when can we get this thing back into reality? Hey, Eric, if ESPN calls you for something, just tell them you're very busy. Just make some crap up. I don't care what it is.

Just say no. Don't do any of it. It's not worth it. me it's bad program right right I'm just been chilling then I ain't been doing nothing too much just staying away and hopefully you know things could turn around and get back with the season or whatnot let me ask you this uh who are you talking to I mean are you getting updates do you not want to know are you staring at Twitter calling your friends call labor people how are you kind of keeping up the day and what the league's thinking about oh we're definitely getting updates you know as

you can see, you know, they always talked about, you know, how the players like do their payment plans or whatnot. But it's really hard to say, man. You know, everybody's for sure optimistic, but I don't think you can, I don't think you can really 100% say that we're going to have a season or whatnot. You just don't know yet until, you know, times get better or, you know, because, you know, people, you know, from, you know, our government and the higher-ups in NBA from Adam's, I guarantee they have. some kind of, you know, they know what's going on as it day to day to day in this world and, you know, and us players and whatnot, you know, we're just

hoping that we're just optimistic and hopefully things can, you know, resume back to play here in the near future. Eric Gordon with us from the Houston Rockets on Sports Talk 790. I got to answer, you asked this question, when's the last time you played a game in front of no fans? I'm going to assume that it had to been

maybe some AAU days in a gym. It's been a long time, right? Oh, for sure. You know, all the thing I can think of is, you know, maybe a scrimmage in high school before the season gets started, maybe having a couple people inside of an AAU game, but other than that, man, I can't remember. Like, in college, when there was a game, there was a game. It was packed out. So, you know, it's been a very long time. So that that would be, and definitely in the NBA, that would be so unusual. I mean, so unusual. Yeah, it's really, really bizarre to think about it.

But again, to get you guys back on the floor is I think it's the most important thing. You grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana, I mean, one of the big basketball states. How crazy was it? Look, you're a rock star in the NBA, but was it crazy being a high school star in Indiana knowing how important that sport is of that state? It is because still to this day, they never forget their Mr. basketball or any top player that came out of Indiana. Any other Indiana player could tell you that that's played an NBA or any other high level.

They will always be remembered. And it was just great growing up in Indianapolis where, I mean, let me tell you this, when I was in high school, everybody that was in our county, that was our rival, had an NBA player. Like every game I was running into a, I got that played an NBA, whether it was George Hill or Jeff taking Courtney Lee. or Gordon Hayward at Brownsburg or Lawrence North where they had Mike Connolly and Greg Golden. So it was just every game you had an NBA potential NBA star in high school that you were going against. So who was the youngest player you ever went against that you can remember that you now play against now? Is there anybody like maybe in fifth or sixth grade, maybe junior high, high school? How far back can you go back with somebody that you played with in the league?

Well, Romeo Langford played on my AAU team, and now he's with the Celtics. But me to actually play him and be around him, and one is RJ Hunter. He played, you know, he was with the Rockets for a short period of time, and then he was with the Celtics for a short period of time. Him, Yogi Farrell. Oh, yeah. Who else? Well, hell, you're college.

Oh, yeah, that's a good group. What about my producer, Joe George, is telling me that you and Derek Rose would get after it back in the day. Tell me about those matchups. Oh, yeah, me and him really used to get after each other in high school because we definitely wanted to show who was the best guard in the country. And the next thing you know, after our junior years, we was like, man, we got to stop being competitors and be teammates. And, yeah, for that summer, I mean, it was one of the most fun summers I ever had in my whole basketball career. I mean, we traveled around the country with six or seven guys, had these, and we played, we hooped in T-shirts and these, we had these white shirts, and we just went around the country just destroying people. So it was just a bunch of good times, being him had a lot of, we've been close and we're still close to this day.

and it was just fun times. How's he occupying his time right now, same way you are? Oh, it got to be, got to be, you know. You got to be very cautious for sure because, you know, you never know what they say here in a month or two. You know, they say, oh, you guys got to start working out together, quarantine, start working out together. And you've got to be healthy.

Well, you know, there's been a lot of different things out there about how the league resumes, whether you'd, keep you guys in the same city or you all run to Vegas now. There's a part of me that's selfish about Vegas, but part of the fun of Vegas, E.G., as you know, is getting out and getting around a little bit. It sounds like the Vegas plan would be basically arena to hotel back to the arena. I mean, have you mentally prepared for that being a possibility?

Hey, man, that would limit all distractions. I think that would be good for the league. And then you, and then without fans, as much as we want to have the fans there, if they're not the fans there, you get to see real dynamics on, you know, how players operate and how teams operate. And you would just focus in on what teams, on what we're doing. So, I mean, I think that'll be good. That'll be a really good plan for us. But as long as we get back on the floor and finish the season out, that's what really matters.

And you never know, man, this could be, that could be our only option. So it's funny because you're the first player I've heard. It's been kind of optimistic about it. That's kind of cool that you'd bring that up. I never thought of it that way because I don't know if you know this, E.G., but I do like to go to a casino once in a while. And I don't know if I'd be able to behave myself for like three months in Vegas if I couldn't go to a place to throw the dice a little bit.

Well, I don't know. You know, I'm just saying if they ever said, hey, you know, we're going to resume season. We're going to resume it in Vegas. been at a location, one location, I bet you will still see a different Vegas. There might not be everything going on, you know. Yeah. It could be, but it might, it might or might not.

Well, you know what is? Vegas will still be a different. That's true. I still think that what you're saying, and a lot of other players in the league are saying is you just don't want this thing to end the way that it's, you know, you want to crown a champion. You don't go through training camp. You don't play 75% of your games for it to just be stopped. somebody's got to be crowned a champion.

And I think that's overriding sentiment with you and your players. Would you guys agree on that? Yeah, there has to be a champion. And, you know, it's just so close. Every average team probably had, what, 16, 17 games left, and it was just getting so close to where the excitement really happens. And then this happens. And, you know, but, you know, safety is first.

But, you know, we definitely got to figure out how to find a way to get this, the crown somebody. All right. Last thing I've left for I let you run. I've always been a proponent of December start date to crowning a champion in August. I just think y'all play some great basketball, and because football and college football dominate those first two months that it kind of gets lost in the shuffle. Any thought one way or the other about a December start around Christmas and then crown that champion around Labor Day? Or do you kind of want to keep things where it is with the calendar? No, I think I would like for it to change.

I really would. I think I really do like that to have that season start in December, like on Christmas, late December, and end in early August or maybe even late July. I like that better. I mean, it does suck because it'll, the only thing that sucks is it'll go into the summer, but at the end of the day, man, you know,

you still get the same result. You still get a lot of free time, but I think we should start in December. that would be really well. That will do everyone well. I think so. I think it will make the league a lot more popular when that Christmas started to get.

It's kind of like the unofficial start of the season. You're talking to any of your teammates? So what's everybody hanging out and doing? Are you all zoom in or anything like that or just kind of just texting and talking that way? Yeah, they have this on a couple of Zoom. Yeah, we've got together a few times. But, you know, same old, same old.

we're just all waiting for this get over and hopefully get back to plan. But everybody's doing the same thing, you know, trying to figure out ways to stay in shape and, you know, also be healthy at the same time during this time. So everybody's doing the same thing, just laying low and chilling. Does Mike Dantonia know how to use a Zoom? Oh, I see. He's pretty savvy now. He's pretty savvy.

So he, I'm pretty sure he for sure knows how to. Man, his crossword game must be Uber strong right now. Would you agree? Oh, no question. You know he's finding every puzzle in the newspaper or whatnot every day. So he's finding something different. I know. Hey, stay safe, my friend.

I miss our role with you all on the road. I want to get you guys playing some games again. Go get that championship. And we look forward to seeing you play some games in the next two distant future. Thanks for taking a few minutes of your time for me today. Oh, yeah, appreciate it. Thanks for having me. All right, it's Eric Gordon, Houston Rockets with us here on the Sports Talk 790.

2.13 is our time. Mike Dan Tony, the greatest puzzle solver in the NBA. They should come as zero surprise in any of you. Back with a very, very awkward eating contest. Rules on that, plus your thoughts about what Eric had to say, how do you fix spring training or the baseball games it may go extra innings if they indeed go to Arizona and or Florida exclusively. Anything is fair game.

713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Houston Sports Talk for lunch. Matt Thomas returns. On Sports Talk 790. 27 in the Matt Thomas show. Thanks again to Eric Gordon for joining us. Gentlemen, I was a little surprised at Eric's answer about,

he would like Vegas because it would keep guys solely focused on two things, living, eating, or three things, living, eating, and playing basketball, that the rest of the world, when you run around the league to different cities, pose perhaps different distractions. He felt like to him that would be 100% basketball and not much else. I like that. Eric Gordon's all in on basketball. He's ready to go back.

He's ready to get locked in. Me too. Although I don't want to go to Vegas. You just want fancy Matt lifestyle. That's fine. Well, I just want basketball. If I got to stay here, I'll live with that. Yeah, they'll let you stay here.

You can do that. You can call the games from the TV, from the TV feet. My guess is that probably would happen anyway. I mean, I don't know if we'd be considered essential or not. I don't know. I don't know how central you are, Matt. Sorry. Let me tell you something, ladies gentlemen.

And no matter what I do or try to do or believe in myself, I know that there's one person that could knock me down a peg. I mean, somebody's got to do it, man. It's my cohort at Sports RV. Follow him on Twitter for random Texas basketball takes and shots at me. Yes. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

Rossi, are you a big fan of competitive eating contest? I used to watch the hot dog contest every year. I don't know when's the last time I actually sat through one. Joey Chestnut just questions that bad boy every year, right? There was an outlier like three, four years ago, I think. He's like the World Chamberlain of the contest. He just owns it. If you're Joe George, that means he's the most overrated of all time at it.

That's not true. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sorry, Joe. I didn't mean to tell on you. That was a dry snitch. You believe that Walt Chamberlainment was the most. overrated player in NBA history?

That's not what I said. I believe that's exactly what you said. I just said, I don't think he's a top five player of all time. Hold on. We're walking back. We are bat pedaling hard right now. I say he's overrated, yeah. You?

We are Dion Sanders in coverage backpedaling right now. We are. But yeah, I said he's overrated. Let me tell you who I believe Joe George thinks is top five. Oh, boy. BJ Armstrong. Yes. Bill. Both Paxons.

Bill Cartwright. Bill Cartwright, Bill Weddington, and Will Purdue are his top five. You lucked out Michael. No, I didn't. I know that you're top five, fringe guy. I'll throw Scotty on that overrated list. Oh, okay. Whoa. I think Scotty's criminally underrated, actually. I would have liked to see Scotty without Michael.

I really be curious. He did. I mean, in 95, they won 55 games, and he scored over 20 a game. he's one of the best defenders of all times. And didn't Phil Jackson asked Tony Kukho took a shot in the game, and he said, no, I'm not going to sit this one out. Yeah, well, I didn't say he had a great attitude. Okay.

So let's get back to this. Or 94. They're 94. Scotty Pippen average 22 a game. 8.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists. I just remember when the NBA had their 50 and 50. I remember him being number 50. Scotty Pippin?

Yeah. I thought the one everybody was upset about was, well, they didn't number them, right? No, I thought, I think, but the two of the list. I thought Shaq was 50 because he was. It's like tears in the league. He was very young, yeah. Yeah, but you look at where he is now. You knew he was going to get there and he did.

Yeah. My 49 and 50 were James Worthy and Scotty Pippen. If I remember that right. I think Scotty Pippen is probably one of the top 20 players of all time. By the way, we're going to get an NBA 75 and 75 pretty soon, right? Aren't we approaching 75? why I would hope so. Yeah, it's got to be coming up fast.

So James Harden can make it. But they're not going to take anyone off that original list, right? No, no, no. You're going to add 25. No. They would take a bunch of dead guys and disgrace their names and take them off the list. No, but if you think Scotty is 50, then if there's 26 better players, then couldn't you take, I mean, I don't think they'll take people off.

Let me tell you something. Russell Westbrook's better than Scotty Pippen. Agreed. Russell Westbroke is going to supply it. What? Oh, yeah. I don't know about that. Triple double MVP season?

Absolutely. Scotty Pippin's not going to be 50 in his list. He's going to be more like 73. 71. I think you guys are way, it's like I just said, underrating Scotty Pippin. He's one of the best defensive players of all time. Yeah, he's a great Robin. He was a fantastic Robin.

So who's the worst player they add then to the 75? I mean, look at these 50 and 50s. I mean, Dirk's going on there. Russ is going on there. James is going on there. Patrick, is Patrick Ewing already on that list in that 50? First 50?

Let's go to some of these guys on the 50 at 50. Who is Billy Cunningham? Oh, Guard in the NBA, a long time. Is Billy Cunningham a 50-50 guy? I remember him more as a coach than I do as a player. Okay. I guess Sam Jones won a bunch of championships. Celtics, yeah.

Earl Monroe. Is he way better than Scotty Pippen? again nobody's numbering we're just doing it for the sake of arguing so but let's let's say let's think about who's going on the next 25 give or take and we don't want to I want to spend the whole segment but I mean just okay you're sorry with Tim Duncan Derek David Robinson Kobe was David Robinson on the original one I don't have to listen me he was David Robinson was I pulled it up David Roder Cobes was on the original Hakee Oge one's on the original uh yeah I

Kobe, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Alan Iverson, LeBron James, obviously. Paul Pierce is on that list. Steph Curry, no, no, no. I'm saying he would be on the new one, probably? Kevin Garnett. Yeah, KG has to be on that. Tracy McGrady? He's in the Hall of Fame.

How about Mitch? How about this one, Mitch Richmond? Oh, I thought you're going to say Mitch Album. No. No, he's not going to think of that. Dwayne Way, we mentioned him, right? I don't think we did, but. Wade is in.

Mitch. It's going to be on the 75 and 75. Okay. I'll be curious if Bosch makes it. Uh, no. He doesn't deserve it. Mitch Richmond or Chris Bosch. I say Mitch Richmond.

I'd have to look at Mitch's... Grant Hill. Does he make the list? No. See, I... We talked about this, Ross, when we... When I brought up my disdain for Walt Chamberlains over Hypedness. Oh, my God.

Bill Walton doesn't deserve to be on that list. I'm okay with that because he was injured the whole time. And then... So if Walton's on there, then Bosch should probably be on there. I would say if Walton's on there, then you would go, McGreney needs to be on there. Is Walton really on that list?

Yeah. Bill Walton won an MVP or two, right? He had one really awesome team that was a 77 blazer. Yeah, and then his legs fell apart. He helped the 86 team off the bench, but he was a six man of the year then, right? Yeah, but by no means was he a dynamic. He was a much better college player pound for pound than he was pro. Yeah, I mean, he missed four seasons while he was in the NBA.

Well, yeah, his legs are broke down on him. Wow. So I'm okay with leaving him off, actually. But he was already on there, so you can't. I'm not going to take him off now. No, he can't take him off. Once you're on, you're on. It's like being a Supreme Court justice.

Ray Allen, yes? Yeah. Reggie Miller, already on the list? Steve Nash. Ooh, Steve Nash. He's got two MEPs, so probably. I'll tell you what, boys, this next one, when do we do for 75? Well, the 50 and 50 was 97.

So we're looking at 2020, right? Yeah. So we're looking at two years. It's going to be tough at in 25 because there's going to be great. There's going to be a lot of guys. We'll figure it out. That are going to say we were better than those schmows that are like Billy Cunningham like you were talking about. Let's take Al Greer off the list.

Sam Jones, you're out. George Miken, I guess we can leave him. We opened up a Hornets nest, I believe. Any chance, Yowell is gone. No, no, yeah. Get him out of here. No. Gary Payton's got to be on that list, right?

Yeah, probably. Because you're taking 25, you're only going to take 25 out of the next 25 years. That's a, ooh. That's tough. I'm still mad at the disrespect Scotty Pippen was getting. How many times this guy out first team all defense? He 10 times he was on the all defensive team. Okay, Rudy Goberra's going to be a multiple times defensive player.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did Rudy Gobert average 27 and 7? How many times did Scotty Pippen average 27 and 7? Okay, actually, maybe never. Okay. Hold on, 27. He did 27 and 8. I'm sorry, 27 and 5, 27 and 6. Yeah, he's had some good seasons.

He's great. I'm not arguing that. but but but but but i'm telling you if you had to number them one to 50 pippin was 49 i think worthy was i think pippin was 49 and worthy was 50 i think you're out of control i think you're crazy over over howe greer or whatever well i can't speak to those well you just put in how grere in front of him so you are okay here's it i'll do i'll move out for your sake to make you happy yes i'll put scotty

pippin up a little higher thanks you put him ahead of how grere why do you really hate Hal Greer. I don't hate Hal Greer. It's like real disdain over there. The Hal Greer hate is strong. I've had enough. For years, Hal Greer has been overhyped, and I've had enough of it, and I'm not going to take it anymore. How do you feel about Billy Cunningham?

I'd rather have, I think Scotty Pippen's better than Patrick Ewing. Patrick Ewing's on 50 of 50. Clyde Drexler? Clyde better. I mean, Pipin better, sorry. What? Yeah. Let's go. Ross is getting spicy today. I don't think so. I think I'd take Clyde over Scotty.

What the hell is it Dave Bing? I already asked you that, I think. Scottie better, Dave Bing? Dave Bing. I believe you played for the St. Louis Hawks, if I'm correct on that? He played for the Pistons, the Washington Bullets, and the Celtics. No championships, seven-time All-Star. Okay, you know what?

I stand corrected. Ladies and gentlemen, I close this segment out by saying Scotty Pippin was number 34 out of 50. You know what? I'll take that. That's fair, right? All right, we'll get a couple of phone calls, then. We'll try to get this story in about the Big League eating. How do we get into this from the NBA 50 and 50?

I don't know. That's why this show is amazing. We segue from one incredible topic to the next. Sports Talk 7 outing at 229 with a message here for Oops, steam cleaning. If your carpets have not gotten the attention they deserve because of just you being lazy, you don't want to go to the store and get one of those machines. Let oops come to your home. They'll practice social distancing.

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All right, all right, all right. Now pass that over here. You know what, Ross, sometimes we do radio, like, go in the past to discuss things. just went ahead of ourselves. We just created 2002-bit radio for, or 2022-bit radio for the Matt Thomas show. We're going to argue about the next 25 for a long period of time. Also, by the way, you did go 27-7 in 1992 with Michael Jeffrey Jordan on the team. Yes.

Okay. He's one of the top 50. I didn't argue that, but I remember doing sports radio back then thinking we had to take the bottom five. but I remember Pippin. Well, everybody's probably pissed off because he was towards the end of his career. Well, 97, he was still kicking. But then, you know, I'm sure he's not thought of in a great light in Houston after the debacle of his Houston Rockets career.

And then the years of being on ESPN, the jump, just dogging the rocket. Yeah, no, don't get me, he's very ignorant when it comes to all that, but the man had a great courier. You know what I watched a little bit of last night? It was just because I was flipping the channels. You know, Dirk Nabiski's last game, the Mavericks was last year, and it was after the final regular season game. Apparently, he brought in, they brought in all of his childhood heroes.

Okay. I'm going to give you this list, because I would ask you to guess them, but I don't think you could guess them. The one that was the somewhat obvious one was Detloaf Shrimp. They're both from Germany. Remember him, right? Yes. I hated Debtlef Shrimp and his stupid haircut and the Sonic. I hated the Sonics as well.

Yeah, everybody hated the Sonics, especially if they beat the Rockets in the playoffs. other people that were there Sean Marion and Jason Terry were two of his longest teammates they didn't speak they just came out there other people that spoke at his retirement this was just last year Charles Barkley they brought Larry Bird in

the one that made really bizarre sense Sean Kemp he must have as a kid loved Detliff shrimp so much much that he wound up being a big-time fan of Sean Kemp, too. I had not seen Sean Kemp in years. Remember towards the end of his career he was bouncing from team to team to team?

Yes. And also impregnating women from women to women to women. He was bouncing from womb to womb to womb as well. Boom to womb to womb. But he was out there talking. And I was like, I would never have envisioned, hey, who was a finesse big man who liked to shoot jump shots and didn't like to necessarily attack the glass? class. That's the anti-Shone Kemp. But yet,

Dertr Niviske is one of his all-time favorite players growing up as a kid was Sean Kemp. That's interesting. So I just thought it was bizarre for that collection of guys to be on the floor. Speaking of overrated, Dirk is going to go down his overrated because he never played a lick his defense in 20 years. Just saying. Let me tell you, I'm not putting him. in my top 20.

Matter of thinking, if we're doing a 75 at 75, he's probably in the, he's probably in there. 40 to 50 range, right? Oh, he's definitely in. One of the all-time, all-time great scores in the longevity and all that type of stuff. But never thought about playing defense, never thought about.

It just wasn't his fault. He just didn't have his feet. He couldn't defend. Well, most seven-footers can't defend it. Yeah, I mean. All right. Let me, we got, let's see, we got a couple of calls a good to before we wrap things up. Let's say hello

to John and Beaumont at 237 on Sports Talk 7. I think, John, what do you have today? Hey, what's going on, MT? We're doing well. Thank you for calling. Oh, yeah. Hey, what do you think about this whole DiBocleodian playoff deal?

Playoff show on Nickelodeon. It's completely ridiculous. Exactly. I'm thinking, And the way they want to have Hannah Barberra up on there and Sesame Street and all that going on the sidelines. Yeah, we're probably in that conversation. All right. Hannah, what do you have to have?

Hannah Barbera and who else did he have? I mean, the NFL deserves the jokes on this, right? Rossi, I could understand him putting a Thursday night game on Nickelodeon. Now, by the way, we should have, for those we don't know, one of the playoff games next year is going to be. on Nickelodeon. It doesn't mean exclusively on Nickelodeon. It's going to be just a younger person's broadcast on Nickelodeon. CBS is also going to have the game, too.

It'll be a simulcast with just different audio. But why would they choose a playoff game? Why would they choose a playoff game instead of just a regular old? I mean, are 11-year-old going to be like, hey, let's go outside and play. or hey, I want to get on my TikTok. No, wait a minute. I've got Mario Lopez doing the play-by-play on Nick Unicin-Loleon Jr. I'm going to watch that instead.

The thing that's crazy is all we have is these television network executives that just keep trying to reinvent the wheel on trying to attract younger viewers. I just don't know if Nickelodeon's a way to do it. The games are, again, again, regular season game, preseason game, I'm okay with that. but you're putting a playoff game on to basically get 14-year-olds to get away from TikTok, good luck with that. But my guess is, in all honesty, it's going to be younger sportscasters, right? They're not going to put cartoon characters on calling the game.

That would make it a complete farce. That would be pretty awesome, actually. I suggested, do you know the group Dude Perfect? They could do it, for sure. And because they have a TV show on Nickelodeon. I think or as they used to. Right. Matt loves watching them in arenas. They actually know what they're talking about.

They know sports. Like they're very relatable. So, I think that would work. Joe, they're not going to play by play. I mean, they're not going to, you know, dude perfect number one's going to say not second and 10 for the 19 receivers. I mean, it will be just them watching the game, my guess. Yeah. It's like a Twitch stream.

They're just going to watch the game and talk about it. Plus, I hate those guys. I don't want to watch them. That's because they're Aggies. No, it's because I'm insanely jealous that they're millionaires off of throwing stupid footballs off the stadiums. Unreal. So annoying. I tell you, I want to see too

out of jealousy. I totally admit it. I just hate those guys because I'm jealous. Oh, you went to their tour show? Yeah, by the way, it's nothing like their TV show. Nothing. Because the things they were trying to do. Didn't they just watch videos of their videos while you're in the arena?

Yeah. I'm like, I'm telling Peyton. Payton, is this what you really wanted to see? Yeah, but they're not doing much. I'm like, yeah, we're just like watching a video stream of their most awesome acts and they come out and do these regular acts. and like, man, I can do this in my backyard. That's what I'm thinking.

That's why I'm jealous because they're millionaires off of this stuff. It'd be like going to see Paul McCartney or Elton John in concert and then playing only songs from their minor hits that they weren't very good. It was like, well, I'm saving the good stuff for our videos. It was terrible. And yet, I went. Yeah, yeah. And how many people were there would you think?

10,000? Hashtag dad of the year. hashtag they're doing okay for themselves, those dude perfect guys. That's true. Jeff in downtown, hi, Jeff. Hey, you guys doing? Good. I just pulled this out of my hand.

I don't think Dr. Jay put in any defense either. I know he's not the same position as Dirk, but his knees were shot by the time he got to the NBA. He was still great, but his greatness was troubled in the ABA, just as far as watching the guy play with the basketball. Dirk was a better shooter, obviously, but as far as guys that, he was a guy that, he was probably. I would put up against Pippin, the Buster, Gus Johnson, Jamal Wilkes, maybe even Sean Elliott and Rudy T. Was that list just put together by position, or did they just slap Pippin on that? No, they just, they slapped it together.

25 years ago, they took 50 NBA journalists. I don't know how many, maybe there were 50 NBA journalists and said, put together your list, and they just put up, you know, every player got points. And so if you were the number one player of all time in their mind, and they didn't never announce who got what votes, but they just put the top 50 vote getters in there. I don't think he would make the list today. I think he's kind of a forgettable player.

Dr. Jay? No. Dr. Jay would be on the list for sure. Dr. Jay, forgettable? No. Multiple-time All-Star NBA champion, basically one of the greatest early dunkers in the sports history, maybe still one of the greatest dunkers of all times.

I think if you're doing like NBA icon, Tons. Dr. J is on the short list, short list, right? Dr. J is not getting kicked off the list. This topic is going to be what we're going to talk about all summer in 2020. Joe George, you're ready ready to, ready to throw wilt off the list, even though you can't. I'm not going to throw wiltz off the list. Yeah, you are. You love Hal Greer over Wilts Chamberlain.

Admit it. No, I'm going to try to fire Bill Walton off the list, though. I'm okay with that one, actually. I'm going to trade injured player for injured player. So give me Derek over Bill. Oh, please. There's your Chicago reference, man. I know you wanted one.

Here's Joe George. Lori Marketing, top 50 all the time. Joe Keem Noah. You know, I actually. Zach Levine, the greatest dunker over Dr. J. I actually really want the Rockets to trade from marketing. Dougie McBuckets. Is he going to be up there?

He sucks. He's had good games against the Rockets. I remember one game. It was maybe it was this year or last. and was like, Doug McDermott. Is he in the league still? Oh, yeah. Doug McDermott.

Doug McDermott. I mean, he was like, I called, was he, is he either with the Knicks or was he? He's in Indiana Pacer right now, which seems very appropriate for him. Very appropriate. Or Utah. He's got to go to Utah next. Utah or Indiana. Final segment of the bad topic shows straight ahead 244 on Sports Talk 790.

Hey, it's Coach Dan Tony. Step back three and the quarter is good. Matt Thomas, my favorite voice in Houston. Now, that's the Lord's exaggerating. Back to the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. Time is 248. The Matt Thomas Show continues. 713, 212, 5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-790. We had Kevin Ash and Felder on from people we miss hearing from segment. That was at 1 o'clock today. That interview available at Sports 790.com. Also, my visit with Eric Gordon, which has had at the top of the 2 o'clock hour. That's also at Sports 790.com. Ross, what is on the nightcap today between 6 and 7 right here on 790? Wonderful, intriguing conversations, great sports talk, and probably Eric Gordon.

How did the U.H pregame show go yesterday leading up to that big match? We didn't end up doing it. We just figured nobody cares about the U of H Cougars football. also. I'm just kidding, Matt. No, I don't remember. We got into some discussion about something else. What was it?

Oh, the 93-year-old lady who got a beer delivered to her door. That took precedent over the U of H pre-game. And if we could drink, how long it would take Ross on it to drink 150 beers? Yeah, Matt. If I said, can you drink 150 beers in, now people obviously don't do this at home. Always drink responsibly and plan for a safe ride home. How long would it take you to, if Coors Light showed. up at your door like they did for this 93-year-old lady with 150 beers, how long before they're

gone? Am I trying to do it as fast as possible or just on a normal situation? First, let's say normal situation. I could have two at lunch. Okay. Two at dinner. Yes. And one more.

It's like slim fast. You want a slim fast plan and a sensible dinner. I could do six, I could do a six pack a day. Because I don't think I would get tired of drinking it. So 25 days? 10 or 11. Yeah. Okay.

What if I told you, what if I needed you to get it done in 10 days? 150? And I'd give you a thousand bucks. Probably I could do it, yeah. 15 a day, Matt, you think you could do that? See, when I was talking with Joe about it yesterday, I was like, I could probably, you know, drink 20 a day, 25 if I really had to. But the problem is, though, I'm old now and I get two-day hangovers. So I don't know if I could do that for seven straight days.

I'd probably die by the end. No, no, no. No, no. No, no. Now that you put it that way, there's no chance I could do with that with that. If I wasn't an essential worker and I could just stay at home and just drink like this 93 old lady is doing, I could definitely do it under a week. You'd start getting the shakes after like the four days. I have no tolerance.

Yeah. I haven't had tolerance and I started drinking way back of the day. Yeah, you said wasn't your New Year's resolution for like 2019 to drink more? To drink more. And I had ended quickly. I was slowing my words. I was saying inappropriate things. You started FaceTiming at 1 a.m.

It was awkward. I was DMing you for some ungodly reason. I don't know what that was all about. No, honestly, no, I couldn't do it. I can comfortably drink a six-pack. What if I said I was going to give you $5,000 to do it? It's 15 beers a day? For 10 days.

I mean, you can do 30 for five days if you want. 15 a day. I mean, as much as that sounds appealing, I could say yes, I want to do it, but I probably would fail you. All right. Well, I rescind my offer. I won't fail you, Ross. I feel like, Joe, you can do it. There's other things, there's other gluttony things I could do.

Like, if you said, what would be 150 of something in 10 days? I can eat 150 double cheeseburgers from McDonald's. No way. Yeah. 150 double cheeseburgers over 150 Quarze lights Now wait a minute

150 double cheeseburg That's a lot There's no way in hell You're doing with that Matthew What you're talking about? I'm trying to think of something that I love so much That I could eat

And drink and that word about it I mean McRibbs Gross I'm glad you're on the right side of history Joe McRibs are disgusting And Matt loves them

Y'all are nerds And you're snobs Your snobs your food snobs America loves three things I'm not a food snob. Mom, apple pie, and McRibbs. No. No.

I think I've done this before. I'm just putting a poll at Sports RV. McRibb. Don't do it. I'm going to take the L. I don't care. I don't care. Since you and I've been working together since 2010, I've sold you on three things.

Love your family, love your country, and love your McRib. I made it very simple. McRib, yes or no. I'm going to go vote right now. Patrick and Bel Air on 790 and 253. Hello, Patrick. Patrick. Hey, Matt, I just want to say I've been a forever listener.

I've listened to all the Vince Young talk, all the match job is not elite, the Bunt talk. But in the last two weeks, the fact that we have discussed the location of hookers and Hannah Barbera, I'm not really sure if we can go anywhere else for this show. This may be the Marconi a winning show today with the Hannah Barbera talk. I never thought we would get there. but today we have gotten there, and I feel like I may have to go drink 150 Coors lights just to celebrate his day.

Yes, sir. Patrick, I'm going to tell you something right now. There are lots of radio shows, and I won't name names, that are doing boring-ass draft talk, that are doing hate Bill O'Brien, which we will do plenty of that, trust me. But you know what? We've got to change things up. We've got to be a little bit different, and that's why this show should win a Marconi. You're not going to find.

Mick Ribs, Hannah Barbera, top 75 at 75, Hal Greer bashing on any other radio show. Parity. Tag Marconi for match. And good guest. Look at our guest list.

We are not messing around with guests. We have put nice people on and have something to say. Nobody else doing it. Nobody I tell you. And people are stealing my bits about our Monday night meeting, too. Stop it other people out there. Stop bit stealing. I'm done. Damn, bit.

Steelers. Bits Steelers. Matt, you did not invent Zoom meetings. No, with our station we did. No other stations were doing Zoom meetings. Oh, are other stations doing that now? Oh, yeah. Don't get me started. Bit Steelers.

And you know who you are, bit Steelers. Hey, calm down, Matt. Matt, are you going to be upset if we played, believe it or not on the 18 tomorrow? You can't play. There's no prizes. Well, we'll just play. We'll just answer questions. No, we've already tried the shout-out thing. It doesn't work.

Wow, you're getting a 48% yes on the McRib right now. Is that higher than normal? This is shocking. I don't know. I don't remember what it was. No, it's usually about 30%. So, yeah, the answer is yes, you're getting a higher number. We'll see how it shakes out.

It's a long pole, Matt. That's what he said. McRib for life. Tomorrow, Dusty Baker is going to speak to the meeting. We'll play some of his clips of that. Kind of just an informal thing. Bill O'Brien talks on Thursday. Ross tomorrow, let's come up with some questions we want to ask Bill O'Brien.

Okay. You can ask me them as what you're talking about Bill. Ooh, I love the idea. Speaking of the A team, Adam Clanton, Adam Wexler, they are the A team, and they're up next. Talk to y'all tomorrow at 12 noon. The nightcap of sports RV at 6 here on Sports Talk 7-9.