The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show : Misinformation and Double Secret Probation

Episode Date: February 27, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/27/20Astros Misinformation and Embellishment (10:09)Double Secret Probation (20:56)Office Bathroom Etiquette (28:47)What Sports have changed the most in last 25 years (1:00:36)Tech on Westbrook will not be rescinded (1:16:15)

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. Good afternoon to you. And welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Alongside, friend, Patriot, Noble Steed, Ross.

There's a name. I don't hear that often anymore. I know. That's fine. It was terrible anyways. I don't do it that often. And Nick Lowe, Contrarian, king of maybe awkward phrase here and there,

multi-segment suspension provider. He's in the segment suspension Hall of Fame. Yeah. I don't think I've suspended. He's going to be like Russell Westbrook after he gets a couple more technicals. I suspend him more from segments than I've ever heard from you. That's a crazy thing. Yeah, is it going to be like a Russell Westbrook situation

where the more technicals he gets, the more suspensions and he's going to be gone for like a whole show? By the way, I think he's going to get. get that one rescinded. We'll see. Help me out because, again, I'm not paying attention. Once a basket is scored, I'm thinking about where the ball's going next. I'm not sitting there staring at him. Did he

deserve the technical yesterday? I didn't think so. So, Russell Westbrook through, it was a layup, right? Right. And he screamed and won in the air, flexed, and kind of just went about his way. But he got a technical for it. And the referee said he was taunting his opponent. My guess is that

also could be part of the, well, you done it a lot already in the game. Don't do it again, and he may have done it again kind of thing. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, a lot of people are saying it's going to be rescinded, but we don't know. He's too away from being suspended. Yeah, that's why I hope it does. Now, a really crafty NBA player, especially along the lines of Russell Westbrook would do it on a night where the rockets have a back-to-back effect. He's really pissed. He might just get it out of his system. The problem is, while we wouldn't necessarily care that he misses a game, especially in back-to-back, it is a paycheck. It is a check. Yeah, and then if you get two more after that, then you're

get another game. Yeah. Now, fortunately, it all gets, uh, the slate gets white clean come playoff time. But if you're getting seven technicals in the playoffs, you really have anger management issues, i.e. Dremont Green. Hashtag Rashid Wallace. Yeah. I mean, the greats of the sport, don't brag about missing games in the postseason. And didn't, wasn't Dremon, didn't they miss, didn't he miss a game six against Miami? Uh, it was against Cleveland. when they came back from 3-1. Yes. And a lot of people, including me,

I remember saying multiple occasions. If Draymond Green plays in that game, the Golden State Warriors win yet another championship. Yeah, well, that was when he was touring the country and kicking everybody in the nuts. Like, he deserved that one. Yes, probably so. Not probably, likely so.

It's funny, you don't hear much about Draymond Green anymore. Now the Warriors are the worst team in the NBA. Is Steve Kerr still a great genius coach? Yeah, what are you all, what is your general take? by y'all in there in the audience because Steve Kerr was three years ago the greatest coach

ever to coach in the NBA. Then he loses Clyde Thompson. Kevin Durant goes and Steph Curry gets hurt. Draymond Green maybe takes a step back. And now they have far and away the worst record in the NBA. Okay, let me ask you this. Who is the greatest coach in the history of the NFL?

Bill Belichick. Glad you answered it properly. What if Tom Brady had missed? I don't know, 40 games in the last three seasons, four seasons, because of a variety of ailments. And let's say his replacement was, I don't know, Brian Hoyer.

Well, we know that they did go 11 and 5 with Matt Castle. So we do have that sample. That was, that's, but that's over, how long has Tom Brady been in the NFL? Since 2000, I mean, since 2001 is when he took over. So we're talking about a night, we're talking about a guy that missed 15 games over 19 years. That's not an externally big.

sample size. I almost feel like that Belichick would need one more massive Tom Brady injury or maybe he just goes and play somewhere else in 2020. Will we ever find out how truly great Bill Belichick is with a quarterback that's not

truly the greatest that ever played in Tom Brady? I mean, how great would Phil Jackson have been without Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaq and Pippin? Did he ever coach? You know, he coached the CBA. That's how he got his start way, way back in the day. But to Phil

well, you know what? He did one of those bad Kobe years when it was like the Shmush Parker era. Ooh, that's too soon for those Laker fans. That is a very interesting debate you could have, you know, they have debates that when you go to the bar and have a couple of pops and eat some fried pickles,

Ross, you think to yourself, what who is the best coach that could be the best coach as long as he didn't have the great player on his team? I think maybe you have to go to the college ranks for that type of stuff. Like Nick Sabin, his players change over all the time.

Mike Sheshefsky's been doing it since, what, the 70s, and he's been successful, and his players are changing. In the last few years, your players are changing every year. It probably is easier to do in college, and it would be in the pros. I would think on the basketball side, Larry Browns has received won a lot of basketball games, both of the pro and college level, with different teams, different levels, high-in college basketball,

mid-level college basketball, mid-level NBA. Belichick's been able to grab onto that. He did win a playoff game in Cleveland, which is saying. Oh, my, who remembers that? It's kind of difficult to do. Who was his, let me try, what year was that? Does it say, do you know what year that was when Belichick won? I think it was visiting his quarterback.

I think it was Vinny Testa Verde. I was going to say Testa, or maybe Kozar somewhere in that, in that vein of quarterback. But yeah, he was fired in Cleveland, correct? Yes. So somebody thought. that this guy couldn't do it. Bill Belichick took the right job at the right time and had this young quarterback who wound up

being the greatest of all time. All right. On the show today, we have got a pulpery of topics to get to. One of them about the Rockets last night. Very impressive win against Memphis Grizzlies. Rossi, I'm a huge John Morant fan. He was

a non-factor last night. Didn't do anything. It was Vinie Chesterverdy for the 94 Browns, where he made the divisional round. And also a bit of Mark Ripien. Ooh. That's been chills on the back of your spine, then. All right.

So last night, the Rockets get the victory. Russell was terrific. Rossi, and I mentioned this very briefly before we went on the air today. And, you know, Farbe from me to ever come on and go, this is the god-awful Rockets team. It's a fun team to watch right now. I wasn't miserable watching the early Rockets, but I will be safe in telling you that I'm probably having more fun watching Robert Covington, Jeff Green, a small sample size of Amari Carroll, Austin Rivers, Russ is attacking the basket.

And last night, Russ and James were incredibly efficient in disposing of a good, far be it great Memphis basketball team that has been beset by injuries and the fact that they took John Moran out of his game early on. And it was just a very impressive win. Never really allowed the Memphis Grizzas ever getting involved in the contest, make it close, and the Rockets are creeping up on the number three seed in the Western Conference and have a chance to maybe get that three seed as soon as late next week when the Rockets host the LA Clippers here in Houston. First things first, Boston Saturday in Bean Town and the

Knickabockers on Monday in New York City. One of those is a big game, one of them is not. But yeah, I mean, they're definitely looking good. They're looking 140 points last night, like you said. The depth, Matt, I mean, I feel like we've been tricky. into saying this is the deepest Rockets team we've ever seen when they added guys like Joe Johnson and whoever that big man was who never played. But, I mean, the depth of talent is looking just about as good as we've seen

in the James Hardin era. And Russell Westbrook is playing out of his mind. He's not taking threes. At least when he's taking them, he's doing a better job of them being corner looks or catching shoot looks, not doing a lot of spot-up ones, which is good. James Hardin was making his threes.

This team, and we've said this, this was without Eric Gordon when this team is firing on all cylinders they can beat anybody are they the best team in the NBA probably not but they can beat anybody they're very dangerous 713-212 5790s

how you reach our show today I have to do a PSA which is in the business a public service announcement for something that I told you all don't spend a lot of time

retweeting on things but I'm seeing stuff now involving the Astros that I is, Rossi, when you think of Mr. objective, you think of me. Yes. I mean, that's the phrase that comes to mind. What's the Cougars record going to be this upcoming season? They're going to be 12 and 0, maybe 13 and probably at least in the division and the quarterfinals of the national championship. How's the basketball going to do?

Well, they're going to go at least final four. I'd expect them play on championship Monday. They're going to be this year's Texas Tech. Okay, go on Mr. Objective. So Mr. Objective is going to tell you that this stuff involving video and the Astros and every cable channel and every local TV station and everybody, it's got to stop because you're losing credibility. And I'm looking straight at you, Sportsnet, New York. It's... We will discuss in a moment.

713-212-5-790. 713-212-5-790 Astros, buddy U of H-Grad Tex-Mex connoisseur Well, is there anybody more Houston than Matt Thomas? No way.

Back to the Matt Thomas show. Apple, George Sprayer, to hit the ball of 17,000 miles in response to the booze. All right, enough is enough. I'm not going to say I'm mad as hell I'm not going to take anymore because that's just going to not do any good here in the month of February. I might be at that point, gentlemen, in May or June.

This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Good afternoon. Now everybody. 713, 21, 2,125.790 if you want to get in. I believe that was the Mets broadcast on SportsNet in New York. That's the home of the Mets. And I believe that was Gary Cohen that did the pub I play, one of the most respected television broadcasters out there. For those of me that did not see the video, and these are little clips that are shown up on Twitter all the time,

it's George being booed at the Mets Astros game yesterday in Port St. Lucie. They had a split squad game. Booying is fine. People are going to boo the Astros today. They're going to boom the next two weeks. They're going to boom Ross for the next two to five years maybe. If you're booing in five years, you need to get over yourself. My point is.

Sign people who are booing Carlos Beltran a decade later. Maybe they were right. You know what I'm saying? That's true, actually, I guess. So here is, and, you know, If you don't know George Springer, then you're going to make what Gary Cohen just said on the broadcast. But if you've watched George Springer under any circumstance for any of... How long has George been the Major League?

Five or six years now? Somewhere in that neighborhood. I mean, he's not... He's been on World Series. He's been on the game of the week. They're on Sunday night baseball on a fairly irregular basis when there's nothing Yankees and a Red Sox playing, right? George Springer has a reputation for swinging out of his shoes. It's been that way when he was a rookie.

He's now been the major league six or seven years. He is in that position. I think this will be a sixth year professionally. What Gary Cohen did is he got suckered into the, hey, it'd be easier for me to say the booze of Port St. Lucy, Florida, got to George Springer. When, in fact, if you did any homework about George Springer, you would know that George Springer does this. I don't know, once a week. Minimum.

At least, that's right. We're going to have a problem this year, Houston, Texas. And this is not, and I don't want to speak on behalf of Ross and Nick, but I'm going to speak on behalf of myself. The Astros cheated and cheated badly and are going to get booed. And I don't necessarily blame America for booing the Astros. It is what it is. They're ashamed of themselves, and they're going to be shamed.

but this narrative that is out there that anything that is even the slight bit awkward about the asteros, whether it's a player being hit by a pitch in a spring training game, whether it's being booed, whether it's George Springer is so mad that he got booed by 3,075-year-olds in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that he's going to swing as hard as humanly possible, so much so that he drops to a knee is patently ridiculous.

So that's what gets me upset. Not that people are going to say the Astros have an asterisk next to their name. Okay? I can't control that. And frankly, if I'm out of town guy, I'm doing the exact same thing. I'm not going to say that fans across the sport are not allowed to, able to, and shouldn't boo the Astros. That's not me. but what I'm telling you is do not come across whether you are a talk show host, a columnist,

a play-by-play broadcaster, and go and start assuming things that are not in evidence. And if you would have done any bit of homework about George Springer or, I don't know, watched him in the last five years, you would know that he does it, as Ross said, at least once per week. I had it once per week. I think you're probably right. almost once for game. And that's what's going to, Ross,

excuse me, I'm sorry, that's what's going to to piss me off this year is there's going to be a lot of misinformation, embellishment, and,

hey, I need something to fit my narrative. That's what's going to bother me. Not the booing. Not people saying it's a tainted year. Not people saying the asteros should give the trophy back. Not saying there should be an asterisk.

When you give out information that is erroneous, false, it makes you look bad and makes me your very even-keeled sports M-T not particularly happy it's just it's bad right now

and it's probably not going to get better anytime soon and the problem is you're asking people what you're asking people and what I'm asking of people too Matt is to be smart and to be logical about a lot of this and that's just not going to happen everybody's being emotional about this and like you said you're making such a leap when you come out and say, well, George Springer wanted to quiet the crowd with a big swing and swing out of his shoes.

Where does that come from? How do you just make that up in your head and invent that and put those two to two together? It's ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. And then every time somebody's getting hit, like guys who you've never even heard of who are minor league in camp invites or who are not going to make the team getting hit by pitch and they're going to, oh, look at all the hit by pitches. Or Alex Breggman getting hit on a three-two count by a break. Breaking ball. Breaking ball by a pitcher that had at least the uniform number of 75.

On a three-two count. The guy waited for the three-two count to hit Bregman. This is going to drive me crazy this year. Yeah, I know. And I'm just telling you, I'm going to yell a few more times. And it's not great for my voice. I got two jobs. I got to make sure the full throat is good all year long.

But I thought yesterday, and I'm not attack at Twitter person. And I'm like, but I was just thought, yes, it just really was poorly said, poorly tweeted, and came from ignorance. Now, if you, now, if the play-by-play guy, and again, look, we all say things on game broadcast that sometimes, Ross, you wish you could take back right away. As a play-by-play broadcaster, that happens to me. Hell is a talk show host. There are things that I might say today at 1226 at 1240. I'm like, I wish I wouldn't have said that. Okay, that happens.

You don't have to qualify. This guy's an idiot. Well, I'm not talking about this guy. He's a very good broadcaster. He's an idiot. But he made a terrible assumption that George Springer, in late February, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, thought to himself, God, I've got to show these blue hairs in poor St. Lucy, Florida, that their booze are going to be changed to ooze and Oz when I take this Mets pitcher deep. at their ballpark.

It's ridiculous. It would be like this, Ross. It would be like Russell Westbrook going to Oklahoma City to play in a preseason game next year and scoring 37 points in a game and go and see what y'all miss in Oklahoma City. It's just the logic behind, oh, he must be mad because the fans are booing him. now he's going to do something out of his norm, which is not his norm. No, it would be like Russell Westbrook going to Oklahoma City or not even Oklahoma City anywhere and getting fired up and getting a technical foul.

And then the broadcaster saying, wow, he really wants to win this one. He is really trying to shut up the crowd. Or Russell Westbrook always gets fired up and always wants to always get the technical fouls. Or he rocks the baby. Right. Flexes his muscles or whatever, you know. It's what he does. It's, I just.

Imagine if Carlos Gomez were up there. Because here's the thing. And that's why I want y'all to hopefully handle it the way that I'm going to handle it. Look, if Anaheim and Oakland boo the hell out of the asteros next week and the first week of the, actually, it's technically the second week of the regular season, that's within their rights, Ross. Everybody's going to do that. You can't be, come on, Ace, fan, you're better than that. No, you, no, that's not true. That is, that is well within their right.

But don't create a narrative that is based without facts. and if you would have done any bit of homework about George Springer, who has been a major league player, this isn't his second year, this isn't a third year, he's been around for quite some time. In fact, this is his last year of arbitration, so he'll be a true free agent after this season. This is who he is, who he has been. And it's not like the Astros never get on national television.

It's not like the Astros and George Springer have never been seen swinging hard. It was absurd, and sometimes it just gets you, and it got me yesterday. And maybe that's a fault on my part. No, it's going to be bad. But we're definitely going to have to wrestle with this probably throughout the season, maybe longer. So all I will say is this, ladies and gentlemen, is if it's this way right now in the preseason slash spring training, imagine how it's going to get come regular season, especially when the Astros leave a different ballpark, not name it made. 1228, the Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790.

713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 is how you reach our show. If you want to reach out via Twitter, you can do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV and at Pro Nick Lowe, 150 today. Non-Florida Stories. And for the first time in the history of non-Florida stories, gentlemen, and I've already told us to Nick Ross. You need to know this as well.

We're staying in H-town for a non-Florida story from me. and this one is about as hard to fathom as you could possibly fathom, but yet we fathom here. Sports Talk 790. Product with a grand slam! Home of your Astros. All right. One little smaller bit of Astro stuff.

And we can always talk Astros. I like to talk about the season itself. Justin Verlander is pitching right now in a batting practice to his teammates. Everybody that was worried about the report yesterday, of strain groin or whatever it was. Justin didn't want to pitch tonight. Tonight game. Ross, these baseball pitchers are routines.

His routine is get up in the morning, have breakfast, kiss his beautiful wife, his beautiful baby. Oh, are they out there? Just stay with me on this. I'm just making this up. How do you think you got a strain groin? Go ahead and do it, Ross. What?

Good question, Nick. That's not what I was looking for. Oh. You try to throw me off, don't you? He's suspended for the segment, I guess. He gets up in the morning. He has his breakfast, kisses the babies, kisses his wife, goes, hits golf balls, put a white belt on, goes and pork works out, and then comes home. He has no interest in pitching at a 6 o'clock game in the East Coast tonight.

No chance no way. So he's just being a diva? Yes. Justin Verlander? Yes. I have no firm evidence of this. But if somebody's groin is hurt or hamstring or whatever he's calling it... They're probably still not throwing a bulldog.

They're not throwing a bullpen session today. Ask LeBron James. Speaking of LeBron, we'll get to this a little bit, really fast. Were you surprised there has been so much secrecy about whether or not he was at Kobe's celebration? I haven't really been following that story. I haven't really either. And my wife asked me about that yesterday. He goes, why would he hide that?

And I didn't have an answer for that. You realize, these athletes, when you get to the super stratosphere of divinness, you just act differently, right? All right, we'll move on to that. All right, John Heyman, douche. I mean, here it is. You know, this is the guy that writes for MLB.com. He's written for 10 different things, so he never can keep a job for more than six weeks.

He's out, y'all are tweeting him, retweeting him. If I wanted to know what John Heyman thought of, I would look at him and tweet. I do follow him. If it makes anyone feel better, there's no doubt Astros players are suffering from their shenanigans. Some of them seem sad. With others, it feels like they've lost their edge. Prediction.

It's going to be a long season, and they will very unlikely underperform. Oh, my God. February 27th. Not March 27th. Not April 27th. Rossi, not July 27th. February 27th, John Hammond, who was in the lot clubhouse with you and me last week, who was afraid to talk to any player.

He went from one room to the next. didn't speak to anyone is making this assumption based on talking to no one. Yes. I'm going to have to. And I love those of you that I follow on Twitter. I'm turning off more retweets by the day. I just can't do this. I can't have John Heyman walking into a clubhouse at 8 o'clock in a morning when guys are barely awake, getting their breakfast, putting their uniforms on, going to the cage, and giving me this grandiose.

There's doubts. there's guys suffering from their shenanigans. Some of them seem sad. Others feel they've lost their edge. It's February 20... What is it? 27th. In my next life, Ross,

I'm coming back as national whatever. National talk show host, national columnist, national reporter, because, man, it is so damn easy to go in to some somewhere where you don't talk to a soul, you don't get the lay of the land, and you get to go into your Twitter account where 85,000 to 150,000 people follow you, and you get to type up crap, and it's treated as gospel.

I like the secret double secret probation that Jim Crane is on. Do you see that tweet from him? I do not. Okay. You want to read that online? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Hold on.

Let me go back to his page. First of all, he looks nothing like this Bitmoji that's in his Twitter account, but that's okay. even if bans were possible and very likely they were not. How do we treat Altuve, Reddick, Aoki, and other hitters who didn't want the trash can bang? Or how about new players told by Beltran and other leaders, it was the way to go? Bregman was in his first full season. And here comes this Jim. If someone feels underpunish, it is owner Jim Crane, who should, one, feel responsible.

Two, apologize to the Dodgers and Red Sox and Yankees. And three, understand that the sign stealing did impact the games. At the very least, hopefully MLB has him on Secret probation. What did Rob Manfred put Jim Crane on secret probation? Well, let me tell you why that sounds absurd. But look, let's be brutally honest. There have been double secret probation in sports forever and ever and ever.

Are you talking about Michael Jordan and David Stern? Maybe. We don't know that. You're right. We don't. I don't believe that conspiracy theory, by the way. Okay. Do you believe that? David Stern, grab the New York Knicks frozen envelope?

That one, I kind of believe a little more. See? But that's not secret probation. Oh, that's like double secret, hey, we're going to wink, wink, take care of you. That one seems a little more plausible. But who's a raw man for its boss? The owners. Mm-hmm.

Of which one is Jim Crane? He's one 30th of it, but he's still part boss. Okay, what does secret probation entail? Don't act up for five years, or are we going to take the team away from you? Yeah, be acquired. And what if he's not? They're going to make him sell the team? Depends on what he does.

And look, I'm going to have to believe what Commissioner Manfred put out there. Yeah. That's what I... And that's the thing. It's not like he didn't get punished. Yeah. He had to fire the architect of his championship team. He had to fire the leader of his championship teams.

He gave up the maximum allowable fine, $5 million. And we say, oh, well, $5 million. There's nothing. Ask Jim Crane if he would like $5 million. Let me tell you. Five million dollars. going to hurt. No matter who you are. No matter who you are. I mean,

Warren Buffett would be hurt by $5 million being taken away from him. Exactly, because there's another opportunity to make $10 million with investments or whatever. So, I mean, so that's a big fine, and you're losing draft picks. How is it, how is Jim Crane not getting punished? Now, if you want

to say you wish you would have been more remorseful and not said that it didn't impact games, I'm with you on that. I understand that. Was the press conference a D-minus? Yeah, was. Yes, absolutely. This was.

I mean, you even had, we didn't necessarily spend a lot of time on this, but even Carlos Correa, when he was going at Bellinger and all that stuff, he said, Jim Crane didn't know what he's talking about. He literally said that. Yeah. That they did help us. Which, A, is relieving, a sense of relief because if the owner was all into this, this would really make him force a team.

And B, it also does show you that maybe Jim's got to really keep an eye on his baseball operation side much more than he did before. And I think Jim would be the first say, I got to do a better job of that. 1242, the Matt, Tom. Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. Rossi, we asked the question where LeBron was during the celebration life for Kobe. PD and Magnolia knows the answer to that question. What?

Okay. I'm a little doubtful myself, but you know what? Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Matt has eye trouble. He's having trouble seeing Dallas win anything anytime soon. Sorry about that, friends to the North. Back to the Matt Thomas show. All right.

We do talk sports, what, 98% on this show? Please let me handle this for just 90 seconds. Nick, you got in on late on this because you weren't in the same location I was. I went to the bathroom during the break. This is what it is. Get in there and go to the stall and go to the urinal. And there's someone in the Den of Doom doing the Den of Doom things. Okay.

This person had music on. my feeling is this you're in an office bathroom you are taking the den of doom to a new level the rule should be get in get out was it mombo number two yes I don't know if it was I was I was I meant the song they were playing oh no no no I don't I don't even know what the song was okay my question is this even if you got to be in there for a while do you have to entertain yourself Because, I mean, look, let's be honest, we've all looked at our phones when we're doing what we have to do. Maybe we're sending a text. Maybe we are sending an email.

Maybe we are checking Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat, whatever your social media platform of the day happens to be. Were they playing do, do, do by the police? No, they were not. So they play this song. And I don't even know what it was. I was so stunned by it. And then Nick walked down. Slaugasted.

And then you heard another song with some rap with Chris Weber's name in it. Nick, that's the part where you jumped in. Did you find it to be a little peculiar that whoever that was and that person, I don't even know who it was, would put music on while they're doing his thing. No. And it is weird. It can sometimes happen accidentally if you're scrolling through Twitter or Facebook and someone just has music in the background of a video.

That's happened to me before, and I feel a little weird playing music in the stall. I understand that, I mean, I don't want to hear anybody else's music. That's why if I have to do the deed, I usually go to the private unisex bathroom over there and sneak that one up. So that's just you and you, you, you're alone. Yeah, that one's a lot better. Yeah. I can do whatever I want in there. Problem is that door doesn't lock.

Yes, it does. It does. Oh, it had in the past. It's always locked. Okay. Somebody walked in on you before? Not like I was walking in two different people in West Palm Beach. That was interesting.

All right. You're refreshes on that story. That's okay. Matt kept on busting into people at the 7-Eleven. We went to the 7-Eleven. I tried to go to the bathroom twice. I saw one woman. I actually saw two women, one early 30s and one probably in mid-70s in a short period of time.

Yeah, Matt was about to be in a Florida man purve story. Busting in people in the bathroom. I just feel like that if you're in a community bathroom where it's not, you're really not in control of it. I mean, you have your own stall that. Yeah. I don't know getting out to VH1 behind the music and playing some of your songs. for iPod or your phone is not their most polite thing to do. You got to go to town and you don't want people to hear you ripping it.

So you're telling me that the songs covered up the noise? Okay. Now, way back in the day, this is why newspapers were good because you could bring the newspaper and read is all you want to and didn't have to make a sound. At least he'd get us some courtesy flushes though if you're going to do that. If you're going to be sitting in your own filth. I'm just saying that. Get in, get out. And if you really need to use the phone, make sure it's on silent because just hearing music while someone's trying to urinate, it's just, it's a little awkward.

Now, what if you had walked in and he was playing the Beatles? Would you've been upset then? No, because it's the greatest rock band of all time. So, yeah, all bets are off on that. Little love me do. Oh! Sorry about that. All right.

P.D. and Magnolia joins us on the Matt Thomas Show at 1252. To PD, good afternoon to you, sir. Hey, what's up, man? I'm just doing a radio show. Was that dude tapping his toe? No, he was not. Okay, that's a good sign.

Hey, you know what's going on with LeBron? He's playing for the top seat in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers, yes. Yeah, I know that, but you know how he's hooked up? He wants to be a movie star? He actually is, what was that movie he was in with, uh, The date, oh, what was that called? What the female comedian? What's her name?

Amy Schumer. Amy Schumer. I was in the big one bit. That'd be rude. Bill, yeah, he was very good in that movie, by the way. Okay, but he's a Disney guy, isn't he? Who knows? Well, you remember that game they used to have two years?

Traymer. Oh, where's Waldo? Yes. Yeah, I'm here. That's what it's about. What is what about? Oh, man. That thing.

while he was trying to be incognito at the funeral the other day. Oh, he sure telling me that he was really there, but was just trying to hide? Yes. For a movie role? He's making a movie. Mark this tape, I'm telling you, it's the truth. So you're saying that LeBron James went incognito to Kobe Bryant's celebration of life in order to further his movie career.

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. In what way? How does this, I don't understand? How's this helping his movie career? You've got to find this like lumberjack looking dude that's skinny? He didn't look like a lumberjack, but okay. He's going to be like the where's Waldo? So he's doing Where's LeBron?

It's a movie. Yeah. And one of the places where you find him is at Kobe Bryant's celebration. Yeah, because he didn't want to be seen. You know, he had like a hoodie on, didn't he? We don't know. That's why we were asking about it. that.

All right, Pedy. Anyways, how's your love life going? Petey, more importantly, nobody cares about this. Why don't want to hear about your love

life? Stu. I'm involved in a I got me hooked up with a stalker. Oh, wow. What happened? I had to take

some evasive actions. Really? First of all, define evasive. Oh, no. You got a stalker after you? Did you make a restraining order? Oh, I had to change the lock

for my house, though. You don't want, yeah, you don't want to involve the authorities with anything you do, I understand. How did you find her on plenty of fish? Yeah, we were together a year, man. Wow. She flipped out

on me. Because of? She had surgery, and then she had surgery here, and then she went to Maryland because her daughter was having a baby and was back surgery. And she started leaking this yellow stuff out of her back. And seen.

And seen. Thank you, Pee. I felt like we asked one too many questions. You never ask too many questions of PD. When he goes to the leaking something, it means let's get back to sports. That's what the show is all about. Sports, sports, sports, sports. And PD calls.

And PD calls. And non-Florida stories coming up in 55 minutes. I don't understand how leaking something yellow out of her back whilst we're being a stalker. I don't even care. I need more details. No, you don't. Call it. Call him.

Call them on your own time. Call them on the Nicolose show, which I believe is Thursdays at 3 a.m. here on 790? I hope not. I don't work at 3 a.m. That's true. That's true. All right. 713. 2.125 at 790. I would like to throw a question out, and I don't know if we'll gain any traction

on it or not, but would you say, Ross, there were a fair number of detractors when Clint Capella was traded from the Houston Rockets of the Atlanta? Yes. Oh, I like this. Are you asking for open apologies? I would like, for

some of you, if you can do it to admit you were wrong. Because Rossi, the Rockets are better without Clint Capella right now. I agree with that. I don't know how much better. I'm not saying that we should start the parade route right now, although it would be great to do it, because I think I'd get at least like a little bit of an engine to myself. I don't think they're winning the championship.

You shut your mouth. Okay. But I think there are some of you out there that would like to apologize. say, I was wrong. If you are one of those people that said, I think this is an unmitigated disaster, I think it's time for you to apologize. Can you do it? Do you have the stones to call 713-212-5-790 and say, yeah, Matt, I was wrong.

This is, this is Tillman trying to cut. In fact, it's a bigger lineup. And while, yeah, they're under the salary tax, uh, luxury tax threshold. It doesn't particularly matter. Because right now, they're playing better basketball than when Clint was playing every single night. So if you're one of those people, I'd like you to fess up. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

Second hour, Matt Thomas Show next on Sports Talk 790. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Well, today's a hot. day in Houston, Texas. Do not under any circumstance. Port on Channel 2 right now. It's not because they don't do a great job

with New. Well, they do an okay job on news. Their sports department is wonderful. We love sports. We love Randy and Wex and Vanessa and another dude. They have a sky cam. Their helicopter view over 610, I believe the Clinton Drive is the that's east. So that's 16. 10 east.

Which, by the way, if you're listening and driving, avoid the area at all costs. Do not. I repeat, do not get on 610 eastbound. East side. East side, period. It looks like a north or southbound. It looks like a 3 or 4 mile radius, right?

I don't know. Just stay off of 610. Let me just put it to you this way. And I'll do this as politically, okay. Nick, first of all, I'm about to block you on Twitter. I just saw what you just put up there. Don't do that.

You don't like that? No, it's gross. 610 East Side is full of blank. Literally. Right, Ross? That's what we're assuming? It's, that's what it looks like.

It looks like sewage. It looks like sewage. It's disgusting. I'm changing the sports side. I was hungry, but not anymore. Yeah, they went that. They're rescuing people, so thoughts and prayers out to those people. They are rescuing people out of blank.

If you're stuck on traffic on 610 East, how does it smell? Call in 7.1, 3, 2,000, 2, 5, 790. No. The Nicolae Show, Thursdays at 3 a.m. Sports Talk 790. Don't, don't call it. Don't call him. 713, 2, 1,2, 5, 790. Oh, poor, poor 610.

All right, Rossi, we ask people to come to apologize. Will we have apologetic people to say, yeah, they were wrong. The Rockets currently as put together are, ready and look like they're going to make a nice, at least interesting playoff run. Okay. Let's see. What are the people have to say? The results are people have called in.

Marvin and Spring at 104 on the Matt Thomas show. Marvin, good afternoon to you. Hey, hey, what's going on? What you got today? Hey, I can admit, man, I was wrong. For real, when they traded a compelling, I just figured that the season was over with, for real, for real. because, you know, traditional basketball needs a big man, right? In theory.

And remember, let's be honest, Marvin, the Los Angeles Lakers are a legitimate threat because their low post play has been so good. Between Javelle McGee, who's, you know, as is, pretty decent player, Dwight Howard's been good. I mean, they've got a big front line. They've got who's the kid out of Utah? Third-year player. I'm drawing a blank. who's the Utah

Yeah, the Lakers Who's the guy The University Utah Third-year player Kyle Kuzma Kyle Kuzma Yeah I mean

I know he was Utah Yeah he did They got a really big front line Which they used to their advantage LeBron No small kid himself So yeah Right

Right Size can help There's no question But I'm saying It doesn't necessarily mean It's a death And the rocket's been able to prove that Right

Right Right Because like they're totally them said, like, y'all have to, they have to keep up with us now. So it's like, looking at the game, man, they're 100 miles on hour for real, for real. So it's like, you know, I'm really stoked to see what's going to happen in the playoffs. And, you know, I'm an average rocket playing. I've been riding with them since the early 90s, you feel me?

So go rockets. We got this. All right. Thanks very much of the phone call. I hope he's right. Because Ross, here's what's going to happen. if it does work out and this team wins at least the Western Conference, it may be one of the best all-time mid-season moves ever.

Yes. Now, if they're out in the first round, do you think it, let's be really honest on this, if the Rockets do fall in the first round, my guess is it's not because of the size disadvantage. My guess it'll be because Russ and James don't have good series. To me, Ross, as much as people want to debate and whether or not they can live with Robert Covington playing serious minutes

and PJ Tucker playing serious minutes in the low block position, whatever you want to call it. The Rockets are only going to go as far as Russ and James takes them. I really do believe that. That's true, and they're going to go as far as the defense is going to take them, and it's been solid with Robert Covington. The percentages of shots that they're giving up haven't been great, but they're getting a lot of turnovers,

and they're turning those turnovers into a fast break basket. And at this point, a grand, when you take on the same team four, five, six, seven times in a series, things have obviously changed. But at this point, the rebounding battles, which they largely lose, haven't hurt them. Now, a team like Golden State, if you gave the Golden State Warriors teams of two or three years ago, if you give Clay Thompson and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant third and fourth chances off rebounds, Ross, they're going to crush you. but there isn't. I mean, if Cantavius Colwell Pope is given three and four opportunities,

there's no guarantee he's going to make that jump shot. If Rajan Rondo is given a third opportunity, that doesn't mean he's going to make them jump shot, right? There are very few teams that you feel like, and this is my opinion, there are very few teams in the last 10 years that you could say, well, if you give them a considerable advantage on the offensive board, you're guaranteed to lose. The only time I can think of

would be the sharpshooting Golden State Warriors where Steph Curry is not going to go down on the floor and miss five and six three-pointers in about a 45-second stretch. You give them second and third chance opportunities and Clay in that group two, they're going to make you pay. Kevin Durant may not give up the top of the key jumper or the three-point shot and drive

or pull up on that mid-range. If there was a team that offensive rebound would haunt you, it would be the Golden State Warriors. That is in a case in 2020. because the Rockets have played big teams since this change. Denver's big. Utah's big. Eta Lakers are big.

And they've got victories against all three of them. That means it's going to necessarily guarantee a success in a seven-game series. But the wins the Rockets have picked up have been in this last two, three-week stretch of time have been against some of the most elite teams that they would theoretically face come playoff time. I can't wait to see what's going to happen next Thursday when the Rockets. and Clippers play at Toyota Center. Before that, one huge game with Boston Rockets already disposed the Celtics once before this year. We're up in Beantown on Saturday night. Let's go to Mike in Missouri City at 108 on the Matt Thomas show. Mike, good afternoon. How are you? Wonderful.

Bless me, Matt, broad sins. This is my first confession. Well, Mike, first of all, you have tremendous stones for calling this show and doing this for us, so we're going to let you have the floor, my friend. Well, when the trade was announced, I really, couldn't believe it. I thought we were going to get the same Robert Covington. We were, I mean, Covington that we had when he initially played for the Rockets. And I thought not having a true five on a team was ridiculous. And I thought there were, that Tillman at the last 11th hour would make some trade. And the date after the deadline was up, I couldn't believe that he didn't. but what amazes me now is that the Rockets have turned into the most entertaining team in basketball to watch.

And it's opened up the floor where Russ plays, you know, downhill all he wants. And it turns the ISO game from Hardin that was basically what we were known for into a greater entity. It's more of a team, it's more of a team experience and a watch. even though, you know, I thought giving up 20 rebounds when Capella left was going to make a big impact, it didn't. To see them go into L.A. and beat the Lakers on their court, playing this new pocket rocket, Sal Ball was incredible to me. And I just want to say, I think Russell Westbrook is the most exciting player to watch in baseball, a basketball right now. I was wrong.

Mike, I appreciate your honesty, my friend. That's why you're always welcome on the show. Thank you. All right. See later. Look, I don't expect Ross a lot of people who do do that. Because look, if you don't like the Rockets, it's not because the Rock is getting run to Clint Capone. Charles Barkley.

You don't like them because you don't know that James and Russ are going to be able to coexist come playoff time. You don't believe that Mike Danton can get over the hump. That's what that is. By the way, there was a guess that I think Sean had on his show, maybe it was yesterday or the day before, that compared Mike Dantonie to Andy Reid. Fair or not fair?

Likeable guy, maybe not the best scenario, needs a championship, and once he does, he becomes a super elevated coach beyond him one he already is. I guess I could see that. That's not unfair. Andy Reid got his, though. I don't know if Mike Daintone's going to get his. Yeah. How about a guy like Don Nelson never won a championship, right?

Jerry Sloan never won a championship. There are some rarefied, amazing coaches in the history of the NBA that don't have a title to them. Lenny Wilkins won one, back with the Sonics back in the 70s, but he coached for 30 years. But that's what in players and coaches, that's it at the end of the day. You can have all the individual accolades you want in James's category, points, rebound. on assist, coaches regular season wins, all-star appearances, coach the year awards. Comes down to how many rings you have. So, yeah, I don't know if a lot of people did it, but I can tell you that a lot of people

that were fans of the Rockets were like, what is the team doing? The team is doing is it's playing a different brand of basketball. James looks more efficient. Russ looks way more efficient. And you know, another thing has happened during this time when I brought this up with Coach Jan Tony a couple times. The turnover count for the Rockets. I don't know if it's just indirect response to that, but the turn

they're taking better care of the basketball. And the extra passes in there and play, too. It was not good last night, but that was more. I mean, they got up 35 and just started, they're throwing the ball away. It did. But yeah, for the most part, they have been a lot better with the turnovers and that's just been, it's just been better

offensively, for sure. Defensively, kind of a mixed bag, but it's been a lot more fun to watch. It's been efficiency. It's been Russell Westbro. is just, I mean, one of the greatest talents, one of the greatest getting to the basket, when you know that's all he's going to do. He might take him mid-range here and there. He's not been shooting threes, and he still just gets to the basket in traffic being a one-man fast break. It's just incredible to watch Russell Westbrook on a night-in-night-out basis.

Again, his 0-60 is not slowing down whatsoever. 13 minutes past the hour of 1 o'clock. It is the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2.2.7-1-3-1. 2.5.790. We have non-Florida stories coming up at 150 today. Believe it or not at 252. You guys in between at 713-212-5-790. Are you becoming fatigue like I am about every time an Astro game is played in spring training when someone gets hit by a pitch or someone gets booed is an indictment on the entire 2020 season. That's how at least feels like to me. This is Craig Ackerman. And the Rockets get the job done. Oh, here's another new catchphrase I have for you.

Good gracious. Good gracious! You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Nick, is it safe to turn on 11, 2 or 13 right now? Let me take a look. Yeah, it's an issue watching local helicopter updates on the various TV stations because of the problem on the 610. That would be no.

Rossi, there's some stuff that I just never want to ever see again, and that would be what 610 East is right now. It's a sewage slushy right now. They keep saying water main, but... I don't believe that. It looks like... Okay, I'm sorry. It's a water main that burst with brown and green water.

Oof. Not good. Not good at all. It's still bubbling up out of the ground. All right. Non-Flority stories are one half hour. This actually, this will not be a bad non-flora story if we wouldn't for today. It's live on the scene.

So other people, other news stations. I can't make the story. No, you can't. I do have a Houston story. non-floor story for you coming up at 150 this afternoon. Mine's from Scotland. Yeah, all right. Scotland. Scotland. You're going to do it in a Scottish voice? Probably not. Very good. That's a tough one. 713-212-5-790. I have a serious question for the city of Houston and for you two because you're right there in front of me. How much combine are you watching?

I'm going to tell you how much I've watched. Yeah, past tense. How much have you watched since the beginning? I'll give you over under 0.5 seconds. Yeah. Are we missing? something because let me tell you there are for instance there are friends of mine that like matt you don't appreciate soccer for this this this this and this and this and you would be included in that mix true um you've got your head in the sand that's okay there are some people that say you don't appreciate hockey for this this this and this and this and i'm going to change that we're gonna really Craig Ackerman and i are going to see the flyers rangers sunday in new york city because i think live hockey is significantly better than watching it

let's go to soccer game in england can we just go down the street The dot cheaper? It's a little different. Talent level is a little bit different. That would be like saying instead of going to an NBA game, let's go to high school game. Ooh, that's what you just claimed the MLS as? By the way, did you see the MLS owners yesterday got together and their seasons opening up this year this week? And they're saying that soon MLS will overtake majorly baseball is the most popular sport.

Oh, okay. Yeah. Let's calm down. You're high. I love, I really do love European soccer. The MLS product is just not good. Okay. I'm not watching the Combine.

I don't know if it's because I just don't like seeing guys in their underwear running around because I feel like there's been a lot of things that have done that have been hurtful to guys at Combine that shouldn't be. Like if the difference between a 4-3 and a 4-4 impacts guys multiple grades, where I like to see what these guys do in the football field and whether or not they're really going to be able to catch the football and escape defenders and whether they're just running as fast as they humanly can, this time of year is going to make that big a big of difference. But I think number one reason why, Ross, I'm not into the combine is that I've got no interest in third and fourth and fifth round players. I think I'd be interested if the Texans had a first round pick and we had a kind of, we knew what they needed and it'd be good to see these

guys maybe in that situation. I think the Texans not having a first round draft pick has ultimately affected and stunted any sort of, you know, I'll put the NFL network on for a little bit see what's going on. I think that's definitely hurt. But also, it's not necessarily something I get into in general. I know there's a lot of people who are draft Nix and they like to break down tape and look at all this stuff and the combine or whatever. And the combine, I think most people recognize this is not the whole piece.

You look at the tape first and then kind of get a little bit more of information from the combine and the tests and all that type of stuff. It's just not something I get into. If you want to get into that and all the draft, it's more power to you. It's just not my thing. Yeah, I don't think it makes you, it certainly would make you a smarter football fan. But when football to me is about the weekend before the draft

and trying to guess what your favorite team is going to do, I think this year's free agency is going to be very, very interesting, not because of left tackles or linebackers or even running back to wide receivers. We've got some heavy, heavy hitters that could be playing somewhere else after playing for their football teams for a long period of time. The two names that come to mine, obviously, are Tom Brady and Philip Rivers.

I mean, those two gentlemen have been etched with their franchises for 15 years plus. That, to me, is interesting to see what those guys end up, who courts them, how much money they're going to get. But guys out of the fourth round that may be a backup lineman or a special teams guy, I mean, it feels like to me, and this might be wrong, because I'm not a combine watching guy. But I feel like if you're really awesome, you're not the combine. Or if you're there, you're just doing the interviews. You are not doing a lot of time running the various different drills because agents have said it's going to probably hurt you more than it's going to help you. I don't know.

I mean, I'm not educated enough to answer that question, but it doesn't seem like a whole lot of guys are sitting out drills and stuff like that. I don't know. I saw one player, and it was just on a crawl that was basically not going to take part any of the drills. So I just, it just to me It was just one of those situations that Unless it's a really, like if there's somebody That's a great unknown Like did Joe Burroughs hand size

Which has been probably the number one story so far Joe Burroughs handstize Has been the number one thing That has affected the any talk of the Of the Combine so far And that whether or not this guy's hand size Is going to ultimately hurt him No, it's not going to

It's a piece of information The 40 is a piece of information the short shuttles a piece of information. The interviews are important. The wonder lick, all that stuff. It kind of matters. But at the end of the day, if the film is good and the talent is there, they're still going to take guys. Guys have run slower or faster than expected, and maybe doesn't necessarily affect their draft that much.

The hand size is not going to affect the draft that much. One of the things they're looking for, like, you know, if a guy does 25 reps of the bench press instead of 22, that's not a big deal. But if a guy shows up and he's a lineman and he does like eight, then that's a problem. Those are red flags. Those are types of work ethic types of things. It's what they're looking for. Yeah. Yeah.

But I just, NFL Network to me, and I think I said this two or three times a year, is it just doesn't, it doesn't impact me as much as, and maybe because I'm in the NBA, I like to watch other NBA games. I'm in a minority on that.

But I think MLB Network does the best job. I agree. I like their program. The NFL Network guys are, hey, I'm just looking to get 10 minutes of airtime. Like I don't, when I watch NFL network coverage, am I, is Dionne Sanders really doing the homework? Is Michael Irvin really doing the homework on this? I don't think so.

I feel like the guys in the MLB network when they're talking about things really have a pretty good feel of what they're doing. That doesn't mean the combine shouldn't be watched. It doesn't mean that if you watch the combine that you're a bad person. Matter of fact, you are a smarter person. Yeah, good for you. It's not my thing. And I'm with you. Yeah, I'll watch MLB tonight.

I'll watch, what's that one after that quick pitch? Yeah. Usually have an attractive young lady. Let's be honest. The reason we're watching quick pitch is because... Quick pitch is not bad at all. There's a de facto rule by the NMobile network that you must be at least a nine and a half to host that show. Whoof. Minimum.

I have never seen a non-attractive women. Hazel May or... I know's girl. I mean, they're all just lovely, informative, knowledgeable. But the programming is good, Matt, is what I'm saying. And they don't look bad either. Doesn't hurt. Yeah, I'll watch a little quick pitch.

I'll watch the Mamblbee tonight. I don't really watch much of anything on NFL. NFL or NBA. NFL to me would be maybe the like at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning you want to watch Kurt Warner and say a couple of things. But that's really about it. The only thing I watch on NBA TV is some hardwood classics. You give me some like 1997 Bulls and Rockets or something like that.

I'm on it. I told you that one time we were in Toronto, an NBA classic had on Rocket Suns. And I had never seen. It was like one top of. the key, 17-foot jumper. And I was getting hives. It's different sports. It really is. It's interesting. Is there another

sport that has changed its game plan more than the NBA from 1995 to 2020? We're talking 25 years. Guys would be open at the three-point line and take a dribble to get closer. Thinking it's a better shot because you're closer. Higher percentage. 130 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-212-5-790.

713-212-5-7-9. That's a great question. What sport has changed more in 25 years? I think the answer is basketball. Baseball is the least, probably. And football's been a lot different too, though. The passing game is crazy now. You didn't see RPO's in 1995.

Right. And you certainly didn't see teams. You saw a lot of quarterbacks under center. Now it's more teams that are not, are taking it from the shotgun than they've ever had before. Lance McCullors. Hey, Slans from colors. Back to Matt Thomas. Turnball, swinging a mid-strike three.

On Sports Talk 790. Your home for Houston Astros baseball. 136 on the Matt Thomas Show. Nice to have you all with us. Rossi, we got to mention this a few times. Yes, Matthew. We are going to have our first ever Matt Thomas show, Sports RV, 9 ball tournament.

Yes. Going to play some pool at the billiard factory location, 6911 Cypress Creek Parkway. It's going to be on Friday, March the 13th. We'll do our show from there at noon to 3. Then we'll go take a nap. Friday? The 13th.

Okay. Nothing wrong with that? No. We have a great time. Cypress Creek Parkway location, 6911. We are looking for, I think, it's six to eight people to compete in our tournament, to caution nothing. We're going to feed you local utilities.

We're going to make you have a couple of. Pop's. Wonderful. Can I make a custom order? Are we just going to, they're just going to provide us? No, no, we can do what you want. What do you want on your pizza? That doesn't really matter. I want eggplant parmesan. That's a good parmesan. That's a good eat. So we're going to have a contest for you guys to join us in this event. You have until March 9th, which I believe is what next Monday. We're from Monday. We've got another seven or eight days. We're going to choose six players from

online. Then on tournament day, we're going to broadcast noon to three. And we're going to choose two more people that day. Wonderful. Total of eight plus you. You and me make 10. There's 10 of us going to play in this thing. And we're going to play in games, right? Yes. So I should be out in five minutes. We're going to have college basketball tournament games on TV.

Wonderful. We're going to feed you. We're going to give you some soft drinks. Can't give you booze, but whatever. Can we be BYOB? I guess you could. Can I flask it to the billiard factory? I don't think of mine.

As long as you don't vomit on the billiard factory. Well, I better not bring it in. Hey, our winner is going to get a super foosball and or a air hockey table. So you get a foosball or a hockey table. If you win. If you beat us. Free. Tickets to a baseball game.

Wink, wink, wink. A professional Houston team. Really professional. Really good one. And a dinner at El Tampa. What? That's just for like the top three or four minutes. No.

I'm going to go practice. That's fine. I'm going to be like Rocky in the woods, lifting up tree trunks and shoveling snow getting ready for this. And I'll be Drago. Taking roids? I will destroy you. Do you want to be Drago? Didn't turn out well for him.

That's true. It didn't end well. And plus he got roided up. Okay, I'll be Rocky too. I've actually been. Clubber Lang. Clubberlang won the first fight. Okay, yeah, it's true. So if you like... Pain.

Is that your prediction for this tournament? I like it. So if you like to... If you play pool. Yeah. They want to play with us. How do you sign up? You go to Sports790.com on the contest page.

And you look up, win a spot in our billionaire factory, nine ball tournament. tournament and we'll draw the names one week from Monday. And then we're going to compete on the 13th at 6911 Cypress Creek Partway. Now, if you don't win via entry, you come see us there. We're going to draw two more names at the Billiard Factory. So we'll make it eight people plus you and me makes 10. We're going to have a great time.

Billiard Factory on March 13th. If you can play in our tournament, go to register at our website at Sports790.com. Let's go to, oh, by the way, we were talking about sports that have changed the most. I think my buddy Jody's listening to show says golf's changed. The equipment has dramatically changed in 25 years. I mean, everybody's hitting longer, I guess.

Everybody's longer. The equipment's better, and they're in better physical condition. That's true. Way, way, way better. John Daly's not out there smoking half a pack of sigs on the... Craig Stattler. I mean, all those guys that are winning golf tournaments

that were like 285 with Dunlap, you know? I mean, no. Phil Mickelson. He's never felt. Yeah, that's true. 713-212-1-2-5-790 Brandon and Katie the Matt Thomas show. Brandon, good afternoon to you. Hey, Matt.

Hi. I got a couple of thoughts for you. The Capella trade. I think that they got far too little in return for Capella. Covington is a nice piece to have, but if you tried to flip him for something else, I don't think you would get even close to a Capella. back. Let me tell you, first of all, you're right. The trade in terms of Capella for good salary,

double, double guy, block shots, remember tank. But they weren't looking, I think they were looking for a piece to a puzzle that was going to help them win a championship. I don't know if Robert Coveington five years down the road is an architect of a championship rocket's team. They're looking for the here and now. I think this was done to win it right this second. And maybe the Rockers would disagree with me on that. But I think it was more about what are we going to do now to try to beat the Lakers as compared to worrying about what we're doing two or three years from now. Yeah, I totally agree.

I mean, it kind of goes back to the whole Rudy Gay for Badiye trade. I mean, Gaye's still in the league putting up really effective numbers. And I think, I don't know how long Badiye's been out, but it seems like a decade. So I just saw it was kind of one of those trades where it was very short-sighted. and if it doesn't work this year, what do you do? When it comes to the system that they set up, it's really enjoyable to watch if they're hitting shots. It's miserable to watch when they're missing.

And it's just like, God, I will just flip to another station if they just go cold. So that's my rocket thoughts. The other thing is I called the other day about what fans are responsible for when it comes to the Astros. And I just read an article, said that they've already been hit seven times, I think, in five games. Right.

And I would assume the guys getting plunked are not even, they probably weren't even on the team in 2017. That's right. Yeah, a lot of them weren't. Yeah, and Bregman was hit yesterday. Altuvie's been hit. Springer, I think,'s been hit. But, yeah, there has been nothing in spring training to me that has come across as, hey, we got some guys in Iran Major League Baseball, though, trying to get their early digs in.

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. I was going to say, at what point do the Astros kind of retaliate? if this trend continues, obviously, if it's just, you know, I find it hard to believe that these are just balls, like, you know, unless they're curve balls that are flying into the back, but beyond that, if they're fast balls and they're nailing these guys on a pace of, you know, one and a half per game, I would just check them with you and see, hey, man,

at what point does, like a McCullors or something, just starts drilling them back? And I wouldn't put past plans to take up a board for it. Okay, let me, you know what, this is a great question. want to see, I'll get Ross, Nick, I need you to be serious at this next segment. Oh, we got Florida stories coming up. Hang tight for this. Yeah, forget what I said.

Don't be very serious. No, you can't be serious next segment. Well, let's open the 2 o'clock hour with that question. If you're the Astros and you are getting plunked, is semi-regular too strong of a term? Once every three days? We'll see. Well, we know how many times they got hit what, like 66 times last year?

Yeah, so that's once every two and a half. games, right? Give or take? Yeah. 2 o'clock. Oh my God. This is just too much. Stan, because I want to see if our opinions are the same on this. Also, in the 2 o'clock hour, I'm going to do something that I'm probably disagree with our good friend Adam Clinton about the Astros and the mentality. I'll explain that. But we got Florida, non-Flority stories coming up. And this is a, I got a good one here from Houston, Texas. It's next at 143 here on Sports Talk 7.90.

Hey, it's Carmelo Anthony. The Matt Thomas Show continues. On your home of the Rockets. Sports Talk, 790. Yes. 149 on the Matt Thomas show. We got a couple of conundrums on the Astros to discuss top of the hour. One about how you think...

Conundrums. How you fans react to the criticism around America. Oh, boy. And whether or not the Astros, how thick of skin should they have if they continue to get bean and how should they handle it? That's coming up at the top of the hour. Gentlemen, my non-Florida, the story this week comes from. from Houston, Texas, and it comes from the city of spring. Here it goes.

A spring woman. Her name is Stephanie Hunter. Ross, she's 27 years old. Okay. Is she hot? Um, no. That's not very nice. Stephanie, if you're listening, I'm sorry, but you're not hot.

Stephanie Hunter. What I call her? No, that's... Oh, yeah, Stephanie Hunter. We probably have like dozens of Stephanie's listening, Matt. We have probably one at least. A spring woman, 27-year-old Stephanie Hunter, attempted to illegally open up a line of credit and steal someone's identity. Okay.

When a Stephanie Hunter is 27 and steals identity, she's probably stealing the identity of what? Another 27-year-old woman, right? Or a woman of some age. Okay. No. She went after the name Tilman Fertita. Okay. Stephanie told investigators that she purchased the mogul's sensitive information on the dark web

and applied for a bank credit card and line of credit with a popular furniture store. The companies approved both applications, but LifeLocked, a credit and identity monitoring service, spotted problems with the application and alerted Fertita directly, police said. Tillman Fertita's got LifeLock? If you're worth that kind of cash, yeah, you need LifeLock. Good for him. Hunter allegedly used Fertita's name? his social security number and other personal information on the application.

Wow. However, she created a fake email address with the username for Tita.tta.t 57 and used her own home address in spring for the application. Fertita called deputies of the Harris County Precinct 1 Constable's Office who arrested Hunter on an unrelated warrant and questioned her about the credit lines in October. Then when she admitted to the scheme, that's what she did it. She was charged with fraudulent loose of identifying information and using a false statement to obtain credit. You got to have major balls or stones or whatever you want.

Or you're just stupid. Or you're just incredibly stupid. First of all, you cannot go to Tillmanfurtita at yahoo.com and use that as your email address. Not that she did, but secondly, if you're going to steal identity, you're going to steal somebody that's worth, I don't know, $3 billion? Wouldn't the alarms go off immediately, boys? on that one? You probably want to aim a little lower. Yeah, I mean, she's wanting to buy at a

high-priced, a well-known furniture store. I wonder if it was Mattress Mac. We don't know that for fact, but Tillman's got, he supplies beds and couches for hotels across the world. He probably has

a manufacturer's creating everything. He's not going to a furniture store to buy furniture, right? I'm just trying to put the logic behind this. At what point to somebody say, I just don't think this is you. Maybe some people don't know who Tillman is. It'd be like Timman go into an H-E-B to buy 3,000 steaks. Very hungry. Or I need to fill up Maestro's, or I need to fill up Mortons today with my steaks. Or saltgrass. Yes. It just didn't make any sense. And how it got as far as it did, there should be a lot of people

ashamed of themselves. But 27-year-old women should not be impersonating what Tillman's got to be, what, it has been 60 somewhere in that range, I guess? Multi-billionaires. It never pans out. And that's might not afford a story. 62. Right. That's worth of 4.8 billion.

I expect that to skyrocket. 4.8 billion. Oh, Lordy. Ross, you're next. Okay. Well, Matt, as you know, you know what yesterday was? It was Ash Wednesday. That's correct.

And what does one do on Ash Wednesday, Matt? You get, what do you call it? Ashes. Well, you get some ashes. And you also give up something for 40 days. Do you give up anything for Lent, Matt? I did. Carbs?

Not after a good start. Oh, okay. Thanks for not. Well, one Pope Francis spoke in Vatican City yesterday for Ash Wednesday, where he normally prepares a speech and talks about it. Well, apparently he talked about Lent and how it's a time to give up useless words, gossip, rumor, tittle-tattle, and speak to God on a first name basis. He went on during his speech.

We live in an atmosphere polluted by too much verbal violence, too many offensive, harmful words, which are amplified by the internet. Today, people insult each other as if they were saying good day. So in this speech, King, or I'm sorry, not King, Pope Francis, has urged people to stop trolling others on the internet, and specifically Twitter, whereas he's had issues. So that's my story. Whether you want to give up fatty foods or perhaps, I don't know.

What else would you give up, Matt? Chocolate. Booze. Booze. Swearing. Pope Francis wants you to give up trolling people on Twitter. Yankees fans aren't going to do that. No, they got too much material.

Sorry to hear about Luis Everno, by the way. That's my non-flora story. Next, Vatican City. Wrap it up for us. All right. story comes from Dunfermline, Scotland. Oh boy, is this confirmed?

It's a bunch of crap. It's on the BBC, so I trust them. 47-year-old Matthew Davies decided to be a good idea to go try and rob a bank. So over at the, I guess, the bank of Dunfermline, he walked

in with him, he brought a meat cleaver and a pillowcase. He's going to use the pillowcase. to hide his identity from cameras and witnesses and use the meat cleaver to threaten the employees into giving him money. So he walks in, pulls out the meat cleaver, throws the pillowcase over his head, but he forgot one thing. He forgot to put eye holes in the pillowcase. Realizing that he couldn't see, he had to pull a pillowcase off, thus revealing his identity, went ahead and completed the robbery, got about 2,000 pounds, but was quickly found after.

the police could very easily see his face and locate him to arrest him. So, long story short, don't forget to cut the eye holes in your mask. A longer story shorter, just buy a ski mask next time. They have the eyes already poked out for you. He might not have the money for a ski mask. He was robbing a bank. And that, my friends, is this week's non-forter stories. Two issues on the Astros to discuss.

One, how are we going to treat being the head? hated guy. That's what the Astros are, and it's fan base, frankly. And how long should the Astros, and how should they handle, if they're going to be pegged at with a baseball over and over and over again?

This is the Matt Thomas show. Breaking news, Matthew. Well, turn your microphone on. How big of this? Bit breaking news. On a 1 to 10 scale, maybe a 2? Oh, so you guys are going to sell something to the audience. It's really not there. I'm not selling it.

She's breaking news. Go ahead. The NBA, this is according to Mark Berman. The NBA has confirmed the technical given to Russell Westbrook last night. Stans is called. What? It will not be rescinded. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. I told you don't assume it was going to be rescinded. Well, I know. All right. So if he gets two more, he has to miss a game. I thought, was that 14 or was that 15? Yeah, it was 14. Okay.

And once he gets a 16, that's when he gets the... He needs to cool it. How much do he make a year? What's he making around? Is he 35 million? 35-ish, yeah. So let's put our U of H math together on this. 35 million divided by 82.

Oh, I hate to do it. We look up music. That's just... I'm not going to do that. I'm doing it right now. Go ahead. 35 million. You don't know where that music is.

Do, do, do, do, do. 35 million divided by 82. Do do do do do do. Holy crap. $427,000 is a missing game check. Wow. Ross, I don't, Russ and I are not friends. Why not?

It just hasn't worked out that way. He's making 38 this year, by the way. 38.5. Oh, well, then let me reconfigure here. 3850000 0000 divided by 82 so if he gets suspended one game

because of too many technical files it's going to cost him $469,000 that's one Bentley truck and change as I said before we're not friends I feel like we should be friends because then I would never

worry about ever paying for a meal again okay because when you're out with somebody that's super rich like that You as a common or as a poor cannot pay for a meal that Russell Westberg wants to eat. So my goal is for Russ and I to go have lunch or dinner sometime and him pick up the check. That's how it works. That'd be nice.

What if he just gets up and leaves and leaves you with his ridiculous bill? You can't have that happen. He wouldn't allow that. I'd have to go to social media right away. Right away. That's... Ross, he cannot get any more technical fouls. That's a lot of money.

I don't care if he's a multi-guzillionaire or not. To miss out on $469,000 because you got two main technicals, Mrs. Westbrook will not be happy with that. He needs to control his anger. He needs Matt to take a Matt therapeutic school. Well, you know what? We're going to Boston tomorrow, and he and I'll talk this out. Oh, yeah.

Maybe you can go to the encore out there with him. Hmm. Should go out there. Get a lobster roll and go to the new casino in Boston. Another reason why is you guys go to Boston to see the assesion. Astros and Red Sox. No one will boo the Astros and there's a new casino there. Yeah, that trip's happening. I've been looking at flights already. Yeah, really? Okay. And that's also a Memorial Day weekend.

So I don't have to take as many vacation days. But the airfare and hotel might be more expensive. I guess I'll have to go Thursday or Tuesday or something. I'll miss you. Will you? You'll be fine. I'll be fine. All right. So here are the two things. We had a caller before we did now in Florida stories. Ask us about what is the property. thing to do with the Astros when it comes to

how many bean balls can you take? And beans are all determined, hit by pitch. Rossi, this might be the wrong answer, but I'm going to go with the very first thing I thought of. They have to let the commissioner handle this. I don't think they're in any position for Lance McCullors or for Justin

Verlander or anybody else to say, I got this. You know how sometimes they say in baseball they police themselves? this is an extraordinary situation. I don't think the Astros can police themselves because from a public perception, they're going to lose that battle. Most fans that believe in hitting a player

to kind of say, uh-huh, I see what you're all about, are not going to say, well, if you'd give it, if you take it, you can also give it out too. I think they'd be hurt even way more if they started to get into a bean brawl war. This is the thing, though. I mean, if guys are going to start hitting guys like crazy,

you think Justin Verlander and Zach Rinkie and Lance McCullors are just going to sit there and take that? No. There's going to be retaliation. That's why I said it's my first time. I don't think this is going to be as crazy as everybody thinks. I really don't. I think because if you want to hit us,

you're going to get hit by those three guys that I just mentioned. If you're going to get a stiffer fines and penalties and suspensions. And I think for the most part, you have the, like Tony, Clark going from to every of the MLBPA going to every team and talking to them about this. I don't think this is going to be a huge thing. I think everybody's just overblowing this. Because guys who we've never even heard of are getting hit in spring training. Of the seven guys, only, I mean, Al-Lez-Diaz was an email of the team.

Altuvae got hit on the foot. Well, here's the thing. And Breggman got hit on a three-two breaking ball. I do agree with you what you're saying that this is being way overblown. But the question was thrown to us. What if it becomes an issue? If it does, how do the Astros effectively answer it? I think here's how they do.

You hit them back. I think Dusty Baker says, all right, commish, what do you want us to do? If you can't control the rest of the union, then we'll handle it. I think he, along with the players, give a very serious yet stern warning of we're not going to be battering rams all year long. We're not going to just keep taking it because you feel like it's the best way to retaliate for us. stealing signs. That's why I think the commissioner has to be very proactive, very quickly on this. That's why I think it's not going to be that big of an issue.

I don't. All right. The second thing I want to talk about, this is where I want to get you guys involved at 7132-1-2-1-2-5-790. You know, Adam Clinton, he does the afternoon show here on 790. Adam Clinton, very, him and Rex are very popular duo. They call themselves the 18. That doesn't ring a bell.

I think Adam and Teresa, however, friend of theirs that are selling these shirts with hate us with the Astros logo on it. And look, I can't tell you what you should and should not do. We have just our own opinions on this. I don't know if I'm buying one of those shirts.

What if I bought you one? I'd probably wear it. Is it cotton or is a polyester blend? No, no. Point being is this. You and I have agreed on one thing about this whole scenario. The only way we as either astro fans, people that cover the team, or the Astros themselves, are ever going to shake themselves of this story? What's the one that we've been saying since day one? Win a bunch of baseball. Just win, baby. And so I think you have to be consistent with that. If the number one thing you want in order for people to stop talking about

the stealing of science and the thought of cheating and what the things they were doing is win O'Neatural in 2020. So I would actually disagree with a long-standing thought of let's get a bunch of shirts out there, let's be the Astros World Order, let's be this, let's be that. I don't think

that Bregman and Correa and the rest of the folks want this he hate us moment. They don't want to be the bad guy. being a bad guy is is cheating and getting away with it they cheated and didn't get away with it that doesn't make him the bad guy that makes him a guy that obviously somebody snitched so i don't think the astros world order or that hate us is the way to go now i'm just

one man's opinion yes but i i get where you're coming from this is the thing yeah no matter what the astros do people are going to hate them So then that's what some people are saying is just embrace it. If they came out and apologized stronger or they did come out and apologize and people are going to hate them anyways. Or if it's people that aren't even in team, Led Miss Dia is getting hit, guys you've never heard of in spring training getting hit. And people are celebrating that on the internet. And literally ESPN SportsCenter is tweeting it out for retweets and it has like 7,000 retweets. Then everybody's going to hate you no matter what the entire season.

So just rather than getting mad about it, just embrace it. I think that's what that sentiment is, and I'm okay with that. Yeah. There's nothing you can do. To each of them. They're going to hate you no matter what. But don't you think that pushes that envelope of we cheated, we don't care? I guess so, because that's not how I feel.

It's not. I am, as a diehard Astro fan, since I was seven years old, I'm embarrassed by the actions of the baseball team. That's the reason why I'm not going to put a shirt on that says, Astros World Order, hate us. If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. I don't want my baseball team to be identified with that. But I'm going to ask this question. I can't tell you how to feel.

And my belief maybe is not the majority of what you guys are driving around with right now. Do you want the Astros to embrace the, you know what? Embrace the hate? If you don't accept our apology, be damned with you. because Ross, there is a certain segment of that population out there. If you apologize for something over and over and over again, and I say I do not accept, at some point I'm going to say, screw you. I tried.

That happens with us all the time. So if you're in that, we say we're sorry, you don't accept it, you don't understand we're trying to change our ways, then we're going to be our own people. That's why you wear the shirt. Yeah. But if I'm the Astros to the players, I'm not wearing that.

I'm not getting close to that. I am acting like choir boys. Because we got reputations on the line, frankly, Ross. And think about this. We got Hall of Fame candidacies on the line for at least Jose Altuve. And maybe Alex Bregman. Probably Bregman. Maybe Correa down the road.

If you can stop being so injury, bro. Well, if you stop being on IP and stop getting massages for people, the Astros told him not to get massages for it. I thought you couldn't stop being IP. If you're IP, you're IP. I think 162 games this year. 1505 games makes you non-IP.

So inconsistent. You know, that's what they call me here. Mr. Consistency. Hey, this is Joe Green. Sports Talk 790 is your home for Houston Rockers basketball. I don't know what you do in life to think to yourself.

I need to clean up 610 East Loop and Clinton Drive. I don't know what those people make, but it's not enough. Channel 2 is interrupting days of our lives for this. how important it is. Are you upset? You got to reset your recording? I don't watch days of our lives.

Oh. Oh, it's Bold and Beautiful and Young and the Restless. Okay. Get your soap opera. I'm sorry. But let me ask you this, Nick. Was little Nick Lowe at the age of five years old when he was growing up when you living on the farm in Nebraska and you thought to yourself, I want to be a hazmat

cleaner. Uh, no. I want to clean up crap off a major freeway. When we say six-den stinking, It literally does. Ross, this is the poor people of East Houston. This is disgusting. That have to live along.

First of all, who lives along East Loop and Clinton? That's a heavy industrial area, right? Is that right? I don't know. I don't know. There's a lot of neighborhoods. Sure. What I'd like to do is I'd like to call for Iowa in his report, but nah, I'm good.

Won't take it. It looks like about, what, a mile? Is that like about a mile of 16? No, not even a mile, I wouldn't say. Okay. Maybe half a one? It's still getting deeper, right? Is it?

is there's still a big gurgling, bubbling mass in the center of it? Switching to some weird foot fetish. Yeah. So you're saying... It changed their feed from the 610 to some

women's feet. So you're saying that 610's in a bunch of deep blank. Yes. Water main break. Uh-huh. Wink, wink. Yeah, he's sewage water. Gross. Brown and green.

If that's what they're drinking in the 610 east side, get out of there. Derek and the Galleria, how's your water? What's going on, Mr. Thomas? I'm well. Okay, so let me just say this, because I'm very upset. The last segment that you just had, your intelligence, you have a very intelligent

take on it. No, I don't want my team to look like that. No, I don't want that image. And that's a very intelligent. That's a good thing to say. That's not good for the kids to see. But then, this is not just. starting. This is starting

and it's going to get worse before it's going to get better. Ross. This is not overblown, bro. They are tagging the Astros with these balls. How many times do the Astros have to get hit before a propensity of violence starts

to happen? How many times I don't care if your name the back on your name is your judge just because you don't make a couple of million dollars, you hit a ground man with a baseball. Intentionally. And do you think this is going to stop? Do you think this is overblown? People are warning that.

These grown men feel like the Astros cheated them and this is their payback, bro. This is not nothing to take. This is not nothing that's under the radar. This is something that serious. Somebody's going to get hurt. And I'll tell you what, I'm a grown man. I play baseball. I know

you through that baseball at me. On purpose, I'm coming after the mile. I'm quite sure I'm not the only person that feels like that. I'm quite sure the Astros. All of them not going take that, bro. This is going to get way worse before it gets better. Mr. Thomas, you said, Rob Manfred

needs to do something about this. Let me tell you what he did, Mr. Thomas. He opened up Pandora's box and what's coming out of it is the nastiness, weirdness of baseball. He should not have done that. He could have handled this a totally different way.

The GM, the owner of the Astros could have handled this a totally different way, but this has started something in the league. that we haven't seen in a long time and that's violence. Over and under on how many bits carrying balls there will be this year. Over and

under, and I'm going to get out the line, but over and under, how many Astros will get hit before the All-Star break? It's already like eight of them. This is serious, Rossville, Real, and this ain't no joke, bro. Say, yeah, who's in your baseball? All right, calm down. Well, the over-under has been set at

83 and a half. So if you want to go bet on that, and if you're convinced... 83 and a half. They got hit 60-something times last year. So, I mean, yeah, if you want to go bet on it, yeah, if you're convinced that this is going to be a huge deal and they're just going to get pounded in submission, go bet on it. But this is what I'm saying. Do you think Alex Breggman? No, no, hold on.

You think Alex Breggman got hit on purpose on a three-two count on a breaking ball? You think that was, he was getting targeted? Do I think, no, I don't. I don't think he was getting targeted. But five out of those eight, they tried to hit the Astros, bro. And don't try to come up for him, Ross, man. Who covering up for who? Stop covering up for.

Seriously, Ross. Opposing Astros spring training AA pitchers? Yes, this is just... I'm well. I'm telling you, Ross, I'm telling you something. Look, this is just the start. You said that it's not going to be bad.

You said this is going to buy out. I don't think it's going to be as bad as everybody thinks. Okay. What I'm telling you, Ross, this is going to get way, way worse before it is going to get better. Hey, man, that's my time. I love y'all. I talk to y'all later, Mr. Thomas. Hey, Ross, I love you too, man.

But come on, man, this is more serious than what you're going to say, bro. Yeah, Ross is way serious. Thank you, Eric. That's the truth. Thank you, Frank. Why didn't you tell me you were part of the conspiracy, Ross? I'm covering up for Marlins and Cardinals' pitchers. I didn't know that.

I guess I found out today. I think it's going to be overblown. I don't think it's going to be a big deal. That's my opinion. Well, I think it's going to, there will be incidents. Something's going to happen. Something will happen. I just don't think it's going to be, I don't think we're going to be,

I don't think we're going to be sitting in the middle of August and still just being dogged and coming on here every week. Like, well, another Astros got hit. Another player got hit. Another brawl. I don't think that's going to happen. If they let it get to that to August, that means Rob Manfred did not step in.

That's what I'm saying. It's not going to happen. He's going to. It's not going to be as big as an issue as we think right now. Yeah. April will be the most interesting month. Let's face it. We've already gone through this.

We went through this yesterday. We're curious what Oakland thinks, because they have those Vuvazelahs and drums. We curious what Anaheim thinks because Dodger fans are going to infiltrate their stadium. We want to know what Texas does. We want to know what New York does. But New York will not be until...

Well, is that Mets series? That's in New York, right? We figured that out, I think, is what it is. So there's a short series of the Astros playing in New York against the Mets. Yes. And then they don't play the Yankees until the final week of the regular season.

So by that time, you would think it would dissipate it by then, or at least larger part of it is. Yeah, we'll see. And Boston fan, Angles say crap. Oh, sorry, 610 East Side. Red Sox fan, Angles say nothing because at some point they're going to be punished for Major League Baseball whenever that comes down. Let's go to Larry and Clear Lake on the Matt Thomas show. Larry, good afternoon.

Oh, what's up, M.C.? Hi. You got to go Coogues. Hey, just speaking here, man, you know, like, first game of the year you have, you know, Lance McCuller's first start, right? and let's just say Mike Trout is up and so a curveball gets away from Mr. McCullors

so that's a warning right there right so what happens after that if they throw it up and I'm just you know putting things out there and such y'all talking about that today and everything so

what happens if we're the first one to you know Lance McCuller closed a lot of curveballs and hit somebody and so, you know, then the shoes on the other foot about, you know, what their pitcher is going to do. So I just stone that out, just see what your comment is, and I'll hang up and I'll listen.

Thank you. I appreciate it. Lance nor anybody else in the Astros is going to throw up players to get ahead of the game. If Lance McCullors hit somebody, it's because the pitch got away. Or he just hates that person in general. He's not, Ross, he ain't doing it. to say, all right, you think you're going to come after us.

We're the badasses. We're the NW. He's got a preemptive strike. Yeah, there's none of that. Zero. No chance. Who is he? It was like Mike Napoli that he hit and that was the come after me, bro.

And then afterwards he's like, oh, I just wanted to smell his cologne or whatever. Yeah. It's quickly forgotten. Point being is this. The Astros are going to, for the most part, keep their, I think, keep their heads down and try to play baseball and stay out of the headlines. because the headlines are coming after them. From the booze to the chance to if the team gets off to a lousy start, to what Dusty Baker says,

to what the new general manager does, James Click, to what Bregman or Correa say anything about anything. Their best mode is to win baseball games, play between the lines, smile, kiss a few babies, shake some hands, and behave themselves. not only for their own public image, but because probably Jim Crane told them to. So I don't want to create the artificial drama here on this. But yeah, Lance is going, here's the thing, gang.

The Astros are going to hit players. I'm going to presume and just call me naive if you have to, but 98% of them are going to because it's an accident. They're certainly not going to do it to say, we're the badasses here. You want to come after us? We'll start that first. I don't imagine that to be the case. at all. Five, four, three, at two.

Les Joel Green. The Matt Thomas show continues. Three-quarter, nothing but. On Sports Talk, 790. Milo! On with your Rockies. 235, Sports Talk 790. The Matt Thomas show continues.

We're going to leave Ross alone this second because he's busily putting together an amazing addition to believe it or not, which you'll hear every day at 252 right here on Sports Talk 790. Tomorrow, Chris Gordy is going to be in with Ross for a couple of hours, and Adam Wexler will stop in. I've got to the Rockets are leading earlier for Boston than anticipated, so I've got to jump with them. So I'll be with you back Monday from New York City. We're hopeful the Rockets that we will be celebrating a rocket victory over the hated Boston Celtics, which is a game on Saturday night. By way, did you see me in action just a couple days ago, Ross?

Do you hear how great I was? Matt. Got a report going number 21, Matt Thomas. Ross, yeah, I'm going to take this and go as long as I can't, because I have a feeling that, Ross, that Matt Thomas may not be in the league for 10 or 12 years. You're going to be flashing the pan probably, but that's okay, Matt. Nick, from here on out, instead of playing sound bites of old people that aren't playing with current Houston teams, just play Matt Thomas Raptor soundbites.

How many of those do we have? Go to YouTube, you can find plenty of them. he's amazing and he'll be in Houston and I'm going to have do I excitedly call his name now the floor for the Raptors number 21 Matt Thomas or do I sell it because I'm an entertainer these are things I think about when the Raptors and Rockets play each other

later this year if I can get him you know like you know I have identity theft if I can get some credit off of his NBA account I mean he's making more money than I am yeah he's a fringe NBA player player, but he's probably making pretty good, you know, what is the minimum salary in the NBA? Probably a half a million bucks. I'd switch for that in a heartbeat. You should probably troll him.

No. Call him Matthew Thomas. Well, only our mothers call ours Matthew. You never noticed that? Did your, like, does your mother ever call you by your just short and original name? No, it's always by your long name. And if you're in real trouble, they throw in the middle name. Ooh, I don't think my mom's going to Matthew Lewis probably since I was 11.

I've done it to you. You have. You were really mad at me. Butch on the Woodlands at 238 on 790. Hi, Butch. Hey, how you doing? Good. What's going on?

Well, I just wanted to comment on what the caller a couple of calls ago said. Born and raised in Houston, been an Astros fan my entire life. and so, you know, I kind of got, you know, sense on what was going to happen this year. But I'm kind of the same way as he was. I mean, you know, we've only played a handful of preseason games, and I think there's been one player hit in every game so far this year. And, you know, I know, you know, it wasn't a shot to the head. You know, they didn't knock a guy, break his ribs,

or hitting him in the head for a concussion. But there's a pattern that I knew it was coming. I just didn't know how long it was going to go on. And every game, at least one guy is getting plunked. And, I mean, if somebody doesn't step in, then I'm kind of like the caller a couple of calls ago. This is going to get out of hand. I really butch, and if you know what,

If I'm naive about this, I want you to call me and out me. I don't believe the number of players that are being hit in spring training have anything to do with the Astrosine ceiling, at least in spring training. I really don't. No, they don't. They don't. You're exactly right. You know what?

Like you said a few calls ago, you know, the names on the back of the jerseys, they're not hit, you know, they hit out too. They hit Bregman. But, I mean, you know, they have hit a bunch of different guys. And I keep hearing the minor league pitchers. But, I mean, it just looks like, you know what, we're not hitting you to hurt you. We're not hitting you to put you out for the year. But we're hitting you just to let you know that we don't like what you did.

I mean, whether we throw a curveball and hit you in the foot or we throw a slider that hit you in the back end, you know what? You're right. You know, they're not coming at them with fastballs to the head and fastballs in the rib cage and that kind of stuff. But it just seems like every game we play, somebody's getting clunked, and it's like an ongoing thing. And like I said, even in preseason, is it going to finally stop? Or is, like the caller said a few calls ago, or are they going to have to make it stop? I think, again, the trigger is going to be very short. Thank you, Butch, for the phone call.

I think the leash is very short for any pitcher in the regular season. If we saw a trend of Max Scherzer, if we saw a trend of the super elite pitchers, if we saw Garrett Cole throw against the old team, I would have a much bigger alarm going off in my head. But if you went, just go look at the number of players that have been hit and who's been throwing at them. I just don't count guys with their uniform jerseys of 57 and higher trying to hurt Astra players. Those are guys that are pitching to try to impress scouts that are trying to impress their general manager, their pitching coach, their model league coordinators. They're not going to gain any points by going after a major league baseball player.

So I will say this. And like I said, if the time comes where I need to change my viewpoint on it, I will gladly do so. I find no correlation to the number of players being hit in this spring training to what happened in 2017. The only reason why it's being brought up is because we're getting sucked in by media sources that really do believe there is something associated with guys being hit by pitches.

242. The Matt Thomas Show. Final segment continues in a matter of moments. with a visit from Ross and believe it or not, and your phone calls at 713-212-5-790. If you think I'm being naive, call me out right now. But I'm telling you right now, gang, pitchers are experimenting with curb balls and sinkers and sliders in the month of February. Things are going to go a little haywire. I don't have some AA minor league prospect for the Mets thinking I'm going to gain some ground in my future as a major leaguer by plunking Alex Bregman or Jose Altuve or George Springer.

I think we're letting the mass media out there that say, oh, they got hit again. Something must be going on. Affect some of people's decisions about whether or not the Astros are really being targeted. Spring training ain't the time for that. They're going to go out for the Astros. They're probably going to do it when the games count. And when, frankly, the stage is much bigger.