The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show PODCAST : Bully Beltran, Oliver Luck

Episode Date: February 12, 2020

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 2/12/20Is Carlos Beltran a Bully? (0:00)Do You Like To Watch The Rockets? (22:02)Oliver Luck Discusses XFL After Week One (1:01:29)Dave Hudgens Is The Latest Former Astro To Apologize (1:22:52)Aaron Boone Weighs In on Astros Cheating (1:42:57)

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12.03 at H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. I am sick of this doom and gloom. And I'm not talking about the weather.

Gang? Mabby brutally on the weather. with you as compared to being slightly honest with you? I would hope so. This Astro stuff sucks. It's exhausting. It is getting worse. There is nothing at this point that I would not be surprised by.

Every single day there is something new coming out that makes everybody look awful. Everybody. players, ex-player, front office, manager, other teams. These have stories out of the athletic. Good gracious. Guys and gals,

I love y'all. We are a family, at least the 12 to 3 family is. I meet some of you sometimes. We do things socially sometimes. We do events. We see each other ball games. So we're a little family. very dysfunctional one we can be at dysfunctional times we're actually very functional most of the time

our little family yes sitting around you know how you have some turmoil in your family whether it be a loss of a job or there's a divorce in the family or some or somebody's got you know maybe you got a DUI mean these are terrible things and i'm not trying to put this in the same road but we're sitting around our couches in our little family in our house ross and we're just shaking our heads at this that a close friend of ours, we'll call them the Houston Astros, littered, littered with, I mean, lies, secrecy, illegal tactics. And then we've got 40-something-year-old fat Carlos Beltron, not 25-year-old in his prime Carlos Beltron,

the fat one who was so bad they retired his glove because they knew he wasn't going to play in the outfield anymore. Ross, they took this 40-year-old, brought him to the team because of a quote-unquote good veteran influence, and if you want to believe the story, bullied the 2017 Houston Astros. Now, I didn't bully a bunch of numbers. 19 and 20 year olds.

Grant, it was a younger baseball team. It was a younger Bregman. It was a younger Springer. It was a younger Altovae. It was a, who else am I in the young group? Well, Vernlinder wasn't young, but he was already well in. It was already well in the place by the time he got here. Josh Redick was here.

Brian McCann was here. So I'm supposed to absolutely 100% believe that pudgy not can't can't move around guy who played once a week quasi DH quasi outfitter for a while came in and said

hey y'all you're behind the times when I was at the Yankees we were doing a lot big crazier blank than this time for you to catch up time for you to play with the big boys with the way that you are stealing signs

and anticipating things am I supposed to believe that Rossville are you supposed to believe well you're thinking the stories made up? Not made up. But am I supposed to believe that these young men who are getting better and better and learning and maturing and playing great baseball?

We're supposed to just swallow their tongues and not say a word about any of this? I think so, yeah. I mean, if Beltran was, the word used was steamroll. How does a 40-year-old who doesn't play steamroll anything? Because he's setting all this stuff up and getting it all organized and people are using it. and then they say we should stop. He says, no, we're going to continue to do it because apparently it's been done before. Clearly, there was stuff happening with the Yankees as well when he was there.

God, this stinks. I think this is more like everybody was doing some semblance of this, and then Beltran came and kicked it up a notch. God, I just, every day, Wall Street Journal, right, right, right, athletic, right, right, right. we have people that are trying to make stupid jokes about problems on Twitter this is absolutely I couldn't even fathom how bad this got and Rossi I feel like there's more coming

I wonder that's that's one of the things I wonder is is this just the the damn breaking and everything is flowing out right now where we had a trickle and it's going to continue to get worse and worse and worse and more stuff is going to happen because one of the things that I'm thinking about as well as more more people are coming out

and more people are talking about this is when is something going to come out about other teams more than already has? These last couple of things have mostly just been Astros, right? No, Red Sox have been mentioned a lot. They have.

This story about the Yankees, basically, this is what we did in New York, is not putting a particularly good shine on them right now. But that's the kind of presumption we've had from day one on this is that this the Houston Astros were not the only team that was involved in high level ways of stealing information. Right.

Bell Turner came here for a year and then he went back to the Yankees, right? Yeah. As a special advisor. In fact, last year, the New York Yankees played the Boston Red Sox in the series in Paris, was it London, right? Remember those high-scoring games?

Yeah, everything was here. Every game was like a football game. It was like 21 to 15. Alex Cora, who was the manager of the Boston Red Sox at the time, basically talked about how competitive the New York Yankees were during all this, and Alex, giving props

to that special assistant for the Yankees, Carlos Beltron. That's a good offensive team. We know that. They're a lot better than last year. The attention to detail is phenomenal. I was joking

with somebody that their biggest free agent, acquisition is Carlos Beltron. You know, he, I know how it works, you know. He's helping a lot. You know, they're paying attention to details, and we have to clear, clean our details. It was eye-opening the last two days from top to bottom. And I'm not saying, you know, devices, all that stuff.

It's just stuff that the game will date. dictate and we'll scream at people. And he's right there. And throughout the evening, you know, I was, I was looking. And I saw it, you know, and right now there are a lot better than us. So we need to get better. He's exactly talking about intelligence. There's no, there's no question in my mind. He's talking about intelligence. Right. But if he knows that Beltran is involved in sign stealing, then then he shouldn't he relate that to it? as players and they should be mixing everything up and changing signs often and all that type of stuff? In theory, yes, what he's doing instead of saying we're going to start doing it our own way

so we can counterintelligence what they're trying to do is my impression. Well, he's saying we have some things we need to clean up. I think that means maybe that could just mean that could mean tipping pitches or not mixing the signs out. Right. But I think evidence will be shown that Alex Cora leading the boss in Red Sox had his own video scheme going. Of course. And that they need to make sure their system is up in order so they can balance what the Yankees are trying to do. Well, then he should know that they should be mixing up their pitches or mixing up their signals as much as possible.

Yeah, you're right. So I'm wondering how much, I mean, and did they have equipment in London? Oh, I think that they had a video feed in London? The stories you're reading is these things are happening on the road, not just at home facilities. Yeah, so I'm, let me tell you something, Ross. I am presuming everything that I'm hearing has some truth to it. Okay. And you're going to have to prove you being the world of baseball is going to have to prove

that the things that we're hearing are not true, which is then going to give social media an opportunity to do a variety of crazy things that we're at least going to have to entertain the thought of those things being accurate, sadly as that is to say. this is awful so if you've I know you've many of you've heard by now the Astros pitchers and catchers

were to report today Jim Crane has asked the entire team to be there they will not speak today they will speak tomorrow Chris Gordy from our staff will be in Fort Lauderdale and he'll be down there starting coverage tomorrow for us what do you want to hear

what can you you say. And I'm not necessarily talking about just Astrofans, because like I said, I think the easiest thing for Astro fans is just to be ready for the start of the season, right? Season can't come fast enough. But what are they going to say when ESPN, ABC, CNN, every, Ross, every network is going to be there tomorrow. Every one of them.

Because it is unprecedented that an owner of a baseball team summons his entire team to be there on a particular day without the player. Players Association saying, you can't force our guys. You even heard a whisper about that. When the owner calls and says, get your asses down to Florida, most of them do anyway. Most of those guys get there anyway ahead of time. But this was, it felt like to me from what has been told and reported on ESPN today, that this was a, you need to be here because we're going to talk this out today,

and then you're going to speak to the America tomorrow. Not just media, it's America. American sports fans are going to hear from the Houston. an Astros at the first time. What do you want to hear? 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Do a group of very successful

major-league baseball players come in front of a microphone, Ross, and say, we were bullied by Carlos Beltron. Because that's how the latest report sounds like that Carlos Beltron told them too bad, you're going to take this intelligence,

and you're going to run with it. I don't think it was Carlos Beltron versus the world. apparently Brian McCann said something later on. And said, stop. Right. Well, right. Or said, hey, maybe we should stop. And he said, no.

That's right. I don't think there was like a full-on mutiny and everybody is, it was Beltran against the world and most guys were into. But it was Carlis Beltron walking in the clubhouse, shutting it and saying, we're going to do this. And 23 or 4, 5, 6 players said, okay. Except my fires, but that was two years too late. 1214 on the Matt Thomas show, 713, 212.

579. 713212-5-790. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. It's your home. Fastos baseball. Time is 1220. I wish the weather would start improving because I think it makes it easier to have sports radio shows. You look outside, Ross, it's doomy and gloomy.

Maybe the trip to Florida won't be the worst thing. Next week for you and I. temperatures in the 80s, you and your banana hammock, we're good to go. A lot of photos, a lot of visions of grossness. Okay. Looking forward to it. Can't wait. All right.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to reach out, Twitter, you can at SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at Pro Nick Lowe. So by the time this show resumes tomorrow in the noon slot here, Ross, we will have heard from Astros. Yes. We don't know if it's one.

one, five, eleven. Right. How many pitchers? How many position players? I don't know. No, I don't know. I don't know. Do the Astros even know?

Do you think they've got, they sat around in their power? I know. We know all their public relations people very well. There is no guide to fixing this. Unless you go to like to one of those crisis PR people, they'll charge you a lot of money. And whether the Astros use those people or not, we'll never know. So as a forgetting about talk show host, forgetting about the point of it being, conversation pieces for the show.

As a baseball fan, as a sports fan, both as a Houstonian and as a non, what do you want to hear? Can they come completely clean tomorrow? And everybody go, you know what? This is terrible. I can't believe you all did this.

But thank you very much for finally coming forward because there's still a great amount of America sports fans, especially outside of the 7132-8-1832 that want blood. from ex-players, current players, front-office people to large amounts of fan bases. Is there anything they can do? We use a phrase in sports, winning the press conference.

When a guy gets hired, he's so dynamic, he's so good that, man, you, like for instance, Dusty Baker won the press conference when he was hired as a manager not too long ago. Is there anything the Astros can do tomorrow to win the media availability, which would be for the first time as a collective group since all this game. down. No. I mean, they can, what could they possibly do? That's what I'm asking.

I think I don't think it's possible for them to become completely clean and 100% clean about everything. Because I think that could maybe open. I mean, that's if there's so many ifs. If something happened in 2019, I don't think they're going to divulge any of that. Yeah. I think they can come out and be more remorseful and do maybe somewhat of a, like a what an AJ Hinch type of. situation was with Tom Verduci in the interview

is say, I'm remorseful, we should have done more, we shouldn't have let this happen. As far as 2019, we're going to point to the commissioner's report or something like that. I don't know. There's nobody that has got their pitchfork out right now and ready to storm

Commissioner Manfred's building with how angry they are about the Astros and players not being punished and all that type of stuff, who is going to watch anything that the Astros say tomorrow and then just completely back off and say, you know what, I'm on the Astro side now. It's okay. Let's move on. Let's start healing or whatever. The one thing I don't think they can get away with, and I don't know if they'll try to, is here we are today. We're going to say our piece about this, and then we're going to be done with it.

I think that could come across as a backfire move. Now, do they want to get into it 45 days from now, 90 days from now at the Ulster break? Of course not. I think playing basically, bowl heal those wounds. But what you don't want to do is of an organization who is obviously got to work on its public image can't put a time parameter around this. And so I hope tomorrow when they do speak that they don't put themselves in a position to go, okay, this is our day. And if you come to our clubhouse again, you can't ask about it. And I think most of that will be from the national side.

Because once the local guys get there, I think, like you and I go next week, next week I've got to interview those players. Every time we have a baseball player on for the next six months, if we talk to Alex Bregman on August of 19th, I'm not bringing this up again. I wouldn't, yeah. There's going to be a certain shelf life. There's no need to.

There's nothing new. He's going to say, probably. I mean, yeah. So when does that shelf life end? Who knows? Again, playing baseball is going to do a lot of this, especially if the team is doing really, really well. Because you would think it's going to be the most pristine, clean clubhouse you'll

find in baseball because of this. So I'm just curious to see what parameters they put on it, who they put out there. And as a caller brought up yesterday, Ross, Justin Verlander is one of the most outspoken baseball players. And even though he got to the scene here very late in 2017, like August 31st, he was still around it. He still know those guys. He knew what was going on.

How forthcoming will he be for someone that isn't afraid to give his opinion on a variety of topics? That'll be interesting. 713-212-5-790. I ask you folks, because you are the customers, frankly. I mean, there can be a lot of people like, like Ross, there can be people right now in Cincinnati that are pissed off at the Astros, but they don't follow the Astros. They don't watch the games.

They don't buy the tickets. They don't buy the gear. It's the customers that will decide how the Astros are handling this. What are you as customers, listen to the show, listen to the games, go to the games, buy the gear, buy the, whatever. What do you want to hear tomorrow? Because right now we're in a guessing game. Because I don't have the answer.

I don't know how forthcoming they're going to be. I certainly don't know how long they're going to be. Who's going to speak? And maybe that's still part of the discussion matter between Jim Crane and the players who are meeting today in West Palm Beach. Sebastian in Jersey Village at 1226 on the Matt Thomas show. Sebastian, what do you got today? Do you think that since the a show's going to talk tomorrow about the scandal

that maybe they would regain respect back from everybody that they lost it from? Well, that's a large, wide statement. Everybody, I would say no. In fact, I would say most people, Sebastian, outside of our area, Southeast Texas, are going to say fooey on anything the Astros say tomorrow. There's nothing tomorrow I think the Astros can do that's going to satisfy America. Now, it may calm down some anger. it actually may make more people upset.

But I don't think tomorrow, whatever he's said and done, is going to make America go, okay, you apologize, play ball. I think it's going to be a long, long process. It's probably going to take this entire season. And it's going to give every fan base that watches an Astros game when their team is the home team and the Astros the Road team, one chance just to boo the hell out of them. How hard do you think it'll be this coming?

All-Star game with it being in L.A., how do you think it'll be? Oh, Dusty Baker is going to get crushed. Thank you, Sebastian, for the phone call. Isn't that crazy, Ross? Dusty Baker is going to represent the Astros in the All-Star game. One of the nicest people in the world. He's going to run out there in an Astros uniform. That's cool.

Oh, I think it's going to be very cool because I think we're going to grow up really like Dusty Baker. I already like them. I really do. You know what I'm saying? I just want to make sure his dogs are okay. Anybody that wears a Dodger or Astro uniform in Los Angeles, whoever gets represented is going to, like here's what I've envisioned. I've been,

I've had strange sleeping habits the last, I don't know, five years of my life. Is everything okay? No, I think it's not. I'm having way too many nightmares. So the last time I was thinking, will there be a concerted effort for thousands of fans, especially in the noise of your ballparks, to get the cheaters chant going?

Probably. Who's going to go for? I mean, just you mean the All-Star game or in general? I'm talking about in general. Yeah. It won't take long. It doesn't take much.

One word. It'll be every time, yeah. That'll happen. You ready for that? Yeah. You ready for that to be? Are they going to do it every game, every single? Is they going to do it for 162?

I think so. For nine innings? Great question. I don't think it's going to be that big of a deal. Well, I think I think the chant will be, it won't be 40,000 strong, but you'll hear chance every, like if you watch, the first Astros Road game is the Angels. game. We'll hear. It'll be pronounced. Of course. Go up there and win games. Hit the ball over the fence. Don't steal signs. No whistling. No batting. I mean, just

actually they should. They should start just doing that type of stuff. Start banging on like the bench with a bat or whistling and clapping. You think we were bad in 2017. Yeah. Look what we're doing in 2020. You should get a little like radar. Get a little satellite dish out. Like Alex Bregman on the bench. No. I get head, get a headset and a satellite dish. No Apple watches, no iPads, no TV monitors. Like a 007 watch where the antenna comes up? Don't think it's going to work that way. 1229 on the Matt Thomas show, 713, 212, 5-790.

Carlos Correa drills this one. 790, give your strokes on the radio. And that ball is gone. Sports talk 790. It's your home of Astors baseball. A lot of you want to get on the baseball stuff. It's good because tomorrow the Astros are going to speak. Chris Gordy from our staff is in transit as we speak to West Palm Beach.

Ross, you and I will be there starting Tuesday of next week. Okay. I'm kind of bummed because you won't get to see the lighter side of spring training. And my guess is three or four years from now, you probably will. But hopefully. It won't be this year. You'll say that for sure. Hopefully this will be my first spring training.

Hopefully not my last, Matthew. Well, nothing you could do. I don't think they could cause you. One other thing I got to mention on the Rockets last thing. Good one over the Celtics. we as society get really upset at other people's media. You ever notice that, Ross? For example.

Bill Simmons crushing the rockets yesterday. I don't know if he crushed them. Oh, please. He doesn't like it. He definitely said they were unwatchable. Yes, that was last week. And then he puts a Twitter question on it. Do you like the way the rockets play?

Yeah, he put a poll question. There's no bias in that. He just put the yes or no. Oh, stop. What? You know what he's doing. He's trying to troll. And it worked because a bunch of people got mad, including our own very Adam Clinton.

Yeah, Adam Clinton was very upset. He says, do you like watching the Rockets? That's just a straightforward question. He never puts questions up, but do you like watching the box? Of course. Well, he's just wondering if people like watching the Rockets. Bill Simmons. There's a people that have it in their head that they don't like watching the Rockets,

but a lot of times because it's media pushed. Did you like the game last thing? I did. It was amazing. It was fun game. It was good. Yeah. So guess what, Bill?

I can't wait for you to go on Twitter today. Do you like watching the San Antonio Spurs? These games have all been interesting and intriguing with the small ball stuff with adding Covington. Well, except for the Phoenix game. That wasn't that intriguing. I don't even get that one. That wasn't intriguing. But yeah, I think these have all been very interesting games to watch and fun to watch.

And the little chess match cat and mouse between Mike Dantone and the imposing coaches. I think it's been fun. It's been very fun. And it's just the back-to-back game tweets. from Bill Simmons is, I mean, I didn't give him two blanks. I mean, I just, but I know a lot of people do. I don't understand. But he's going after him.

And I'm like, why? Why are you doing this? For somebody who loves the nuances or purportedly loves the nuances of basketball, I mean, you should, if you get into basketball, you should love what the rockets are doing, or you should at least be intrigued by it or fascinated by it. And frankly, if you were a James Harding Guy Ross, you thought he dribbled too much and shot too much, this offense right now with Russ is taking possessions away from James. Russ has been taking more shots than James over the course of this going on.

And I mean, you do have guys who are catching on who think this is interesting or at least are fascinating. Even if you don't think it's going to work, I think just from a basketball standpoint, you should just be intrigued by it if you like basketball. I think people who already don't like basketball and who say, like there's people who are tweeting, Matt Moore, you know, who we've had on here a few times before. used to write for CBS. Like, he's defending the Rockets. And there's people in his mentions like, oh, this is just unwatchable.

And then they'll admit, oh, I haven't watched a game in two years. Yeah. Those are the people who are all mad at this and shaking their fists. They're not even watching the games. Like, they're not actual NBA fans. They're people who don't like the NBA anyways. And it's like another thing that we can crap on and say, oh, well, they're not even playing a center. This is, this is terrible.

I'm not watching this. Well, you probably weren't watching already anyways. Yeah. I'm saying is that, you know, you're going to have a bias towards your local team. you're going to like whatever they do. If the Rockets ran triangle offense or boxing won or went four corners and they won, you wouldn't care. But I just, the national narrative of, let me run to my Twitter account as fast as possible to tell you how much I don't like something. But yet I'm watching because remember he said just a few days ago, he wasn't watching the Rockets anymore.

And yet when his beloved Celtics were on, he was watching. Yeah. Well, I mean, he's going to watch him when they play the Rockets. So I get that. He's just a troll. He, well, it's just, he's just old man shakesfist at cloud right now, I guess. And I like, I read his book of basketball. I loved his writing.

I don't think he's been good. Like the HBO show got canceled. Very quickly. Like a millisecond. Yeah. I don't think he's good as, as a much of a podcaster. He gets good interviews, but I don't think he's that much of a podcaster. He's not good on TV.

He just go back to writing and doing his own thing. Now he's like a Hollywood diva or something. Yeah, it's just, it's just kind of bug me. I don't let those things typically bug me, but I thought yesterday was, Why are you doubling down on this? Mike and Cold Spring on the Matt Thomas show, Mike, thanks for holding. Good afternoon. Hey, how you guys?

Good, what's up? Hey, I just want to talk about the Astros a little bit. Sure. First off, I enjoy the show. I listen to 7-9 y'all day long. Thank you. I'm a 61-year-old, huge Astro fan my whole life. I'm from Texas.

Always will be in Texas. But I'll be honestly, I don't think you just take the rules season away, but I'm really disgusted. In my mind, it's like they didn't win it. It just infuriates me all this stuff. on that. I don't know what I'm saying. It's hard to stand up to a guy that calls Deltranth. Somebody should have like the old saying, if your friend jumped up to your mom and you say, if Johnny jumped off the cliff, he wouldn't jump off the cliff,

that's exactly how I feel. Somebody should have stood up. Yeah, I don't think it's that easy, frankly. I think it's a major league clubhouse where you're supposed to trust the veteran that comes in because he's been there and done that. You have a young team that is experiencing this tremendous success after all the years of utility. I'd like it to be able to say, Mike, it's as easy as you described it. I don't think it is. But it also at the same point shows to me that, you know, at some point when you get good and you are a team on the verge of doing something special, you don't want anything to derail that. And if you've

got somebody in your camp that is trying to use artificial intelligence and send you in a direction that ultimately you're going to get caught for it, and there's nobody in that clubhouse that a million years would have ever thought, we're going to get away with this. There's just no way. people leave clubhouses all the time, Ross. People loose lips all the time. Sink ships. No, I think one of the things is, though, is because I think this was somewhat widespread and happening everywhere else.

And that's why probably Carlos Beltran didn't think it was that big of a deal. But also to the caller's point, if Brian McCann says we're going to stop doing this, and Beltrane says no, then what does he want? I don't understand what the players are supposed to do. Are they supposed to wrestle Carlos Beltran? A.J. Hinch destroyed the monitor twice. Are they so, I'm wondering, I mean, at the risk of losing a clubhouse and causing more discord, what more could have you? Here's what I want, and Mike, I'm going to give you a chance to finish.

You're saying you wanted the players to step up, and these types of stories that are coming out in the last couple days are making the players look worse and worse. Is that what you're trying to convey? Definitely. Yeah. I think that's accurate. To do the right thing is not easy. A lot of times it's very difficult, but so much they've done the right thing. Yeah.

Thanks, Mike. that's that's the core of it ross whether we understand why they did it i mean if we had a co-worker here at the radio station we have a list of our live commercials and says you don't have to do those commercials the other station doesn't do it other cities other stations they don't do the commercials so you don't do them i think it's more of like like in a in a classroom or something or like if you're cheating off because because this is an escalation it didn't just all of a sudden Nothing happened. Nobody ever looked at signs. Nobody ever stole signs. And then all of a sudden, Carlos Beltran comes up with this brilliant, newfangled idea all out of his own volition.

It steps, right? Okay, we're going to have a guy in second. We're going to do this. Okay, then it goes up and it escalates. Okay, we're going to, they're doing the advanced scouting with the code breaker. We're going to be looking at other, which is totally illegal. They could look at the signals after the fact and then try to break them down. And then now it escalates. Okay, how do we relay this to people in real time? Okay, we're going to do. the whistling. Okay, we're going to do clapping. Okay, now we're going to use Apple Watchers. Okay, now we're going to use the, they're using the phone, the challenge phone, or whatever. Okay, now we're going to use this trash.

It was an escalation. And at some point, A.J. Hinch, you know when things slowly escalate, there's a point of no return, but it's harder to recognize when it goes step by step. Does that make sense? Yeah. So in that conversation, you just said, then the person that should have stopped as every step escalating, was the manager of the baseball team.

Let's say, well, we already do this. We already videotape them. Well, you know, in the 80s, Larusa was getting a video thing. So we're doing this. Like, it's not that big of a deal. And then it escalates, escalates. And the big tipping point should have been the Rob Manfred memorandum in 20, 17 that says, cut this out.

That's when everybody should have stepped in. Or AJ or Jeff or whoever should have stepped in and said, we cannot do this. Two teams have gotten dinged. it's going to get worse. There isn't anybody involved with this that should be sitting there going, well, you know what?

It was out of my hands. Manager, players, as these stories come out. And that how one 40-year-old part-time player commanded such authority in a clubhouse.

Even to Brian McCain who was a veteran. That's, I mean, Brian McCann doesn't look great on this at all. He's supposed to be the wise, sage, catcher, leader of the team. And he allowed it to continue. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets basketball,

I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. So the Astros and Pitchers and Catchers will report today. So will the position players? Isn't it funny how Major League Baseball is like, excuse me, you're not allowed to do that. You're hearing none of that whatsoever. Jim Crane says, get your ass to West Palm Beach.

We got to talk. we had to have a talk, folks. Do you hire a crisis management team on this? I'm sure. This feels way above the pay grade of a normal PR department. Not that Gene Dyes and his crew don't do a great job. Of course. But this is, I mean, there are firms that handle this kind of stuff for a reason, right?

I think everybody's going to be really well coached. Today is where everybody's, or wait, what is it? When they're speaking? Tomorrow or tomorrow? Tomorrow morning. Yeah. But they want them there today. Yeah.

Yeah, today's coaching day. today is let's go over this PowerPoint of what we are to say and what we are to not say, how we are to steer conversations, how to deflect. They're going to be practicing. Remember that the hard knocks where Bill O'Brien was coaching his players on how to deflect? Right. That's what's happening right now. You and I are going to decide tomorrow because we're going to have all this audio how genuine these guys are or if it just sounds overly rehearsed.

Okay. So should we do believe it or not? Believe it or not what he says? I am very remorseful. Believe it or not. That's America's fast-growing sports game show. That's true. And it's very subjective

as you and I will be the ones to decide. Let's go to Mo City. Randy on the Matt Thomas show at 1250. Randy, what do you got today? I think as American citizens, we can be real difficult. I mean, we're disdain about the assholes cheating, but we have a president who seat.

But we say anything about that. We both for him. Is that difference? Can you tell you? Tell me, it's cheese, the team or what? I'm not connecting the two. Somebody voting for the Astros? Hello?

Yeah, I can't understand why we can't, we accept a president who cheat, but not a baseball team to teach. Very fakeness. I think people are upset at the president. I think 45% of America's, 45% of America's mad at the president. Well, that's a whole bunch of people that are not upset with the president. No, 45% are very happy with the president. 45% of America is very unhappy with the president, and 10% of America doesn't care either way.

I think it's a disgrace. I don't think those numbers are exactly. Do you think it's half and a half with the assholes? I think it's more people that don't like the Astros right now than it is. I would agree with that. So it's going worse for the Astros than it even is for our president. Randy, would you say the Astros are Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN? And do you want them impeached?

Do I want the Aeros impeached? Sure. I don't know if you want to remove them from office. But Randy, let me ask you this. If the American League wants to impeach the president and remove it from office, but the National League doesn't, then we're kind of stuck, right? Yeah. Then what you do is let the people decide.

right? Is there an electoral college with this? I think we have one. The A's get more votes because they're small market. I'm serious, guys. You know what I mean? The people, they don't mind the president cheat. It's okay.

Everybody does it. All right. But it's not okay for the baseball team to do it? This is not. Wait, wait, wait, Rainey. If I ask 10 people, did the president cheat? Five people are going to say yes and five are going to say no. So why should I take your word over somebody else's?

Well, you can say the same thing with the ask? No, there's complete evidence that the asterer's cheated. Complete 100% evidence. Oh, that was no evidence that the president cheated? The House of Representatives said, hold on, hold on. The House of Representatives said yes. The Senate said no, so it's a tie. Oh, wow.

I know how you voted the end of that. How do I vote? You become very famous. He hung up on me. He has a great job of skippering. He doesn't know how I voted. I do. You actually know the answer to that question.

No, I don't actually. I'll tell you right now. I don't care. Are you sure? I'd be happy to tell you how I voted. Go ahead. I didn't vote. Racism.

I'll tell you how I voted as well. I didn't vote either. Yeah, I didn't vote. I was, I abstained. If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. I'm a conscientious objector to terrible politics. I don't participate in the corrupt system we currently have in America. Sorry.

But wasn't my point right? If the National Link says yes, the American League says no, it's a tie? I don't know. Just saying. We have some bad umbraes here, and we're going to get them out. I just feel like we took the call for you to play some sound bites. I know that's why we did it. You were just doing it that way.

But I'm okay with that. C-note on the west side of the Matt Thomas show. C-NOTE, what do you got today? Matt, how you doing? I want to look at another perspective, man. where's Alex Cora and calls Beltran right now? Shouldn't they be having a Mike stuck in Nate? You know, right, and they grill because they got away with the bank rivalry

and Alex Breckman and Springer holding the bags, and they got to suffer. Dustin Baker got to come in here because he's going to have an astro uniform on. He's going to get booed and ridiculed and suffer because of the uniform. He's coming in trying to clean up a mess that was left by the preempt. previous manager that didn't have the guts to get up to his player's face and say, stop it. That's it. Yeah, he knocked it down two times. He destroyed evidence twice. Destroyed three times, four times, five times, six times, ten times. Destroy it. Keep on destroying it. If you were the manager, beat a man. But Beltran and Corr have walked Scott three from this.

Ain't nobody looking at that. Well, I actually am I disagree with you a little bit. C-note, Carlos Beltran lost a managerial opportunity. And, oh, by the way, C-note, he's never getting in the Hall of Fame. Never, ever, ever going to get in the Hall of Fame. I got that. I understand that part. But I'm saying they still, they're sitting and they mansion somewhere, don't have to face no more media.

Yeah, they're going to suffer and not be allowed in baseball again. But I'm saying it's going to be Gregman, Altuve Springer, stuck with the mics in their mouth. and they didn't incorporate this. They didn't start this. But in their defense, this will end for them fairly shortly. This will end after a series of length of time,

where Carlos Beltrain cannot go get a job in baseball because they're going to say, wait a minute, you are the ringleader of this terrible scheme that put a black eye over all over the sport of baseball. Those guys can still play. Those guys can still make money. Those guys will be able to get past this eventually. They will get past us now.

Yeah, they're going to get passive, but, you know, they got to go to New York. They got to go to L.A. They're going to get battery thrown at them. They're going to get throw pitches up under their chin. They're going to suffer, man. We're going to see the Astros as a villain team for the first time in our lives. That's exactly right. I can't argue with you on that at all.

Thank you for the phone call. We'll start the second hour of the Matt Thomas show. In a matter of moments, I'll over luck in a half an hour, but really a lot of baseball to get to because we're on the eve of hearing from the Astros for the very first time. What are we to expect? Is the Matt Thomas Show. It is 102 on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross with you.

Nick, producing the radio program. We are looking forward to visiting with you between now and three o'clock. We've had some interesting calls. We didn't realize that we get Donald Trump involved in the Astros. but that gave Nick a chance to play some Donald Trump sound bites. You shouldn't treat people that way. Do you spend an hour a day trying to find fresh soundbites? Because you probably could between what the president has to say every day.

Wrong. I can't wait. The debates are going to be just gold. Cannot wait. And yeah, honestly, and maybe we're bad Americans, Ross, but United did not vote. No, it's fine. It's a corrupt, broken system that I refuse to be a part of. That's my opinion.

Absolutely 100% whole. horrible candidates. And I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. And that's something that Nazi Germany would have done and did do. There, here we go. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90.

All the media that was down in West Palm today looking to get a player interview, players, were told, do not go there. Intense security, apparently, West Palm Beach at 15 Park. Really? Intent is a strong turn. It's West Palm Beach. What are you doing? It's a bunch of, it's a bunch of 70-year-old people.

with flashlights. Maybe one West Palm Beach County Fire Department. Okay, so I can outrun them is what you're saying. I've seen you. I can outrun a 70-year-old. Are you going to have jeans on or are you going to have a sweatsuit on? Probably sweatpants. That's normally what I wear.

That's more normal day-to-day. I want jeans three times to work this day. Nobody's even giving me a metal. I need 30 seconds of serious time, if you don't mind. Forget back the phones. Tonight I'm going to be at Locatellis on Frye Road in Cyprus. And you know Locatellis has been a new member of our 790s. family, we appreciate it. And they came to me and said, Matt, there is a situation that happened.

Carly Taylor was a young woman who passed away on Christmas Eve while celebrating her birthday. Uber tragically was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. And the family obviously wasn't prepared for this. Nor would anybody be prepared for this. And the thing that Carly loved was two things. Locatellis was her Italian hangout for her and her friends and family. And she loved the Houston Astros. So tonight, I will be there from 5 o'clock until 7.

I can't stay much later than that because I've got another thing to get to. But we're doing a little fundraiser for her family to take care of expenses and get them back on their feet because obviously they were just devastated by the loss of a daughter and friend. So Locatellis on Fry Road in Cyprus, I'll be there from 5 o'clock until 7. I'm bringing some silent auction items with me. one is in a hollow frame autograph framing of Elijah one, Nolan, Nolan, Ryan, Earl Campbell, all 34s, all autographed.

So that's one of our nice, nice prizes. I have an autographed baseball from Michael Brantley. I'm bringing with me. I have an autograph baseball of Alex Brugman. I'm bringing with me. I am bringing our state four tickets to an upcoming Astros game from our station. I'm also bringing a pair of tickets for the Rockets game. That's also going to include dinner for two.

for you to go to Landry's, any Landry's concept of your choice. Plus, you can take a picture with you and your guest on the court with me, not with me, but I'll take the photo for you on the floor after the game. So there'll be some other things as well, but we're just trying to help out a family that is still to this day, obviously, devastated the loss of a friend, child selfishly, just taken away from us way too soon. So Carly Taylor, a little family celebration. that'll be tonight, 5 o'clock until 7 at Locatellis on Fry Road in Cyprus. There's four locations, but to go to the one on Fry Road, I'll be there from 5 o'clock until 7.

So if you live in the northwest part of town, North Area Town, come have some pizza. Everything that, 50% of all the restaurant orders placed tonight are going to go to Carly's family. So if you can do that tonight, if you live on the north side of town, I love to meet you, say hello, and I'm bringing some really cool gifts with me. Locatellis on Frye Road in Cyprus. back on the phones we go at 713212-5-790. Mike's been with us on the west side. Mike, thanks for being patient.

You're on 7-90. Good afternoon. Matt, how are you, bud? Good. Sir, what's going on with you? Hey, just want to chime in on this Astros deal. You know, you seem to that ballpark and stuff. But here's what going to happen, I think. You know, the actual say they'll say their peace tomorrow.

But then as soon as the Red Sox punishment has come down in the next week or so, the spotlight's going to head to Boston, I think. And as soon as we start playing games, we're going to be all right. Yeah, they're going to have to deal with a little conversation on the road when they get to these new cities and stuff. But I think it's all going to pretty much as the season goes on, it's going to wear out because that flashlight and spotlight going to be on Boston now because it's a bigger market. You know, Mike, thank you for the phone call. I appreciate your wedding. My friend.

Good to hear your voice. I guess Ross, the biggest thing that could potentially help the Astros is if this becomes a much more discussed with other teams conversation. If the Yankees get investigated, if the Red Sox can investigate, because there is this underlying tone out there that everybody's doing it. And it's easy to go to that. Well, everybody's doing it.

Somebody had to get caught. But if they really do find five or six other teams that use this sort of intelligence to gain an advantage, it will take some of the, not a lot of the sting, but some of the sting out of what's going on to the asteros. The astros are getting hit hard because they were the first, and they were the ones that received a serious penalty. But if the Yankees, Red Sox, and I won't even name other teams, but there's certainly

an undertone that the Red Sox certainly did something. And if you read the athletic report, the Yankee, Carlos Beltrane got his bells and whistles and tricks from the New York Yankees. Yes. So that might help a little bit. I think that that will help, yes, if it comes out about more teams. and I'm curious of why it kind of has it. Don't you feel like if you're an astro or if you're Alex Bregman

or if you're Brian McCann or Carlos Beltrane? And your name has already been smeared. Like especially if you're Beltran, your name has already been smeared. You've already been let go from the match. You're not getting a job anywhere else. When is he going to have some kind of tell-all and say, hey, we were doing this with the Yankees?

Hey, I was just doing what other teams are doing. Hey, I heard about this and that. And so I think eventually maybe that will happen where it's going to be more teams. But the best cure-all, and I just tweeted about this is winning. Win games. Just go out there and win.

Win your division. Go out there and show everybody that you can still hit. Show everybody that you can still be one of the best teams in baseball, that this is your talent that's shown through. The reason you run the 2017 World Series is because you're a really good team. Just be like the Patriots. They've had SpyGate and Deflake Gate and all these other things happening and all these, the bills accusing them of stealing's signals.

And what it was, there was one after that that came out against the Bengals. Bengals and the Patriots. They've had multiple, all this stuff happens. And you know why we sweep it all under the rug for the most part? It comes up as a footnote. But the first thing we talk about is championships. Because they win. That's why again, when college teams get busted for tutors writing papers or money being under the table

to various athletes and teams lose, you know, 11 wins or they lose a national championship, it doesn't necessarily hurt that bad because you can't get rid of the memories. Like, for instance, Rossi, if your beloved Texas Longhorns, oh boy, playing USC, and half of the Texas Longhorns are receiving cash under the table. Only half? Okay, 75% of them. And that championship against USC was taken away, the Rose Bowl victory. Would you be like, oh, man, I wish our team would have won the national championship,

year or in your mind there always have been the national champion yeah they'll always be the national champion there's only going to be a certain amount of state i might have known somebody who known somebody who helped Vince young academically that comes as a complete surprise complete surprise did that person help Vince young in the time management category that is a definitive no geo on the north side at 111 on the matthomas show geo what do you have today mattie t and sports r z doing. We're great. Thank you. What's going on, my friend? Nothing much, man.

Just wanted to switch up to the Rockets real quick. Quick question. What is up with all the hate on our rockets, man? Is this a small ball? Is it the hardinators? Is it the Westwood haters? It seems like there's just

always hate on our team, man, and I just don't get it. See, I was on the Bleacher report page this morning, and, you know, I seen that they had Russell and James, they combined for 78 points. This is amazing, by the way. So I went to go look at the comments,

and everybody's ragging on us, talking about, oh, they both are combining for 42 fritos and they flop, and they are, it's all about free throws to them. And I'm like, man, what are y'all mad at? Are y'all really mad or upset that they just mastered the art of creating contact and get into the free throw line? isn't free throws a viral part of basketball? Like, if this was Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum or Koward and Paul George or LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined with 78, this could be no hate at all.

Well, LeBron gets, here's the thing, Joe. I'm going to give you many layers to that answer. And thank you for the phone call. LeBron gets plenty of hate. Yes, he does. Steph Curry gets plenty of hate. Any superstar gets hate. Okay.

Mostly from Adam Clayton for stuff. Well, you can find him weekday of three to six. But the Rockets are hated. Absolutely. They are 100% hated. And this isn't Myabic Matt Thomas talking or Houston sports host or Rockets Home Play by Play Announce. This is me being an observer of all social media, television, print.

The Rockets are hated. They just are. But it doesn't make me less. enjoy the games. I don't, I'm not, I'm not embarrassed to work for them or call games for them or root for them when I was a kid or root for them as an adult or talk about them as a talk show host. Sometimes you just hated. I think it's a lot of it is because they're doing something that's different. Doing something. They're shaking, they're rattling cages. They're saying we're going to do something. First of all, the first thing that they did was different was the three point revolution.

Everybody's like, well, this can't work. Jump shooting teams are never going to win the championship. And everybody did it. And yes. and then a jump shooting team in the Golden State Warriors won a ton of championships. It helped that they had some of the best shooters that ever walked their planet. Right. And then, I mean, you have this, now this revolution, not necessarily a revolution, but different way of thinking. One of the things I love, and it doesn't, you know, obviously it hasn't resulted in a championship. But Darry is always looking for the next thing.

He's always looking for the next edge. And the three-point edge isn't there as much anymore because other teams have caught up to it. Other teams are doing it. So now you say, hey, we're going to do this. we're going to tailor to our talent and we're going to play a little bit different. And Mike Dantone and Daryl Morey both not afraid to think outside of the box. But when you have some outside of the box thinking, it's always get off my lawn. This isn't the way we've always done it.

So I don't like this. And James is not friendly? That's true. He's a little, he's just a decent different cat. Russ is not overly friendly? Right. Man, but I just love the passion that he plays with. He puts the English on that layup, the reverse layout that he spins.

It's just so fun to watch. Oh, my gosh. And getting in Rudy Gobert's chest and making layups and then walking down and rocking the baby. And then getting in one layups and looking at Rudy Go Bear and going all day, all day. I just love that. And just from a man Gio who just called him, any others that feel the same way. It's okay. It's okay to be the bad guy.

Yes. Heels and wrestling get cheered on. So do heels and basketball. And how about Lance McCullors? Hey, it's Lance McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas. Curr ball swinging a mid-strike three. On Sports Talk 790.

Your home for Houston Astros baseball. Time is 120 on the Matt Thomas show. Ross, Nick, Donald Trump soundbites, and you at 713-212-5-790. I feel like we need some Texans news at some point so Nick can get to his batch of Bill O'Brien's soundbites that he's not played in like four or five days. It's going down to tubers. Is Cal McNair going to say? anything or Cal spoke at that

Houston deal downtown that's true the Houston Sports Awards don't know don't really recognize it but yeah

yeah so he spoke he's done why is it because they didn't give you Houston radio personality

of the year they should have if they did you would recognize it wouldn't you I'd go would you wear tucks

um yeah I would when's the last time you wore tuxedo uh well that's a great oh it was at a university

of Houston Gala. Okay. Were you P. What do you call it? MC? MC? Maybe. I was going to say not P.A. MC. Were you master of ceremonies? Matter of fact, Bill O'Rell got elected into the Hall of Honor. Okay. When did they put you in there? It's going to be a while. Oh, dang. Is Jim Nansen there? I'm sure. Well, don't they, don't, don't, don't they know you're the voice of Houston Sports? I'm just here with you, noon to three. Yeah, sorry. See? Doesn't hell does it. That's not a nearly as impressive thing.

A resume does it. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. If you'd like to reach out via Twitter, you could do that as well. At SportsMT, at SportsRV, and at ProNiclo. Is there anything else I've not? We've mentioned a little bit about the Rockets, a little bit about Bill Simmons. Oliver Lex going to join us to bottom the hour for update on the XFL.

Is anything else going on? Well, we'll talk a little more about the caller that was talking about how everybody is hating on the on the Rockets, and that's what doesn't make sense to me, is people who are intrigued at basketball and follow basketball and who write books on basketball like Bill Simmons should absolutely be fascinated by this type of stuff. Like Rudy Gobert being the primary defender on Russell Westbrook. That's crazy to me.

Or the doubling stuff and the James Hardin and flipping everybody around and the chess matches, other teams going more to the post and trying to get Alley-UPS and sometimes it works, but a lot of times the rockets are forcing turnovers off of it. I think it's been fascinating. Now that this matters, but I'm going to run through 10 names, just 10, of national television personalities. Okay.

And you're going to tell me, in five words or less, how they feel about their rockets. Charles Barkley. Hates them. Shaquille O'Neal. Doesn't like them. Stephen A. Smith. I think he's not been on board with most of the stuff, but I don't really watch a whole lot of his stuff. Max Kellerman.

That guy's an idiot. I don't care what he thinks. Probably hates the Rockets. I don't know. So I've gone four deep and you've not found... Who is... The only person I can think of that's involved with a national broadcast that involved with basketball

that I think halfway can understand what's going on, is Jeff Van Gundy. I'll go with Kenny the Jets. Yeah, but I don't understand half what Kenny the Jet's saying. Yeah. I think he just intentionally plays the middle of matter what the topic is.

Well, he talked about earlier in the season how the Rockets were his championship pick. I think that's a fantastic. Well... He backed off since the trades. So. I don't think, well, sorry to say this, Matt. I don't think the Rockets are winning the championship this year,

but they're going to be fun. They're going to be entertaining. They're going to push teams. And they could, if they just get hot from three and the crazy stuff happens, they can make some moves. They're going to be intriguing. They're going to be fun. I want a deep playoff run.

Can I? It's one simple man asking for one simple thing. They're the five seed right now. It's going to take a little bit of work to get to that four. That would be beating the, you, you, What do you call deep? Conference finals? That's deep, I would say.

Yes, conference finals does, it's history repeating itself. Don't squinch. Okay. That's not going to happen, Matt. Are you sure? No. Playoffs start tonight. One versus eight.

One versus eight is Lakers Gris. Okay. Who's four five? That'd be a fun series, too. John Moran. Four, five is. Jazz hosting the Rockets. Okay.

Rockets can beat the Jazz in a seven-game series, regardless of it was a home court? They're going, they would. I truly do believe they would beat them in a seven-game series. As long as Bollyan Bogdanovich. So you're basically saying you've got to get out of the 4-5 because you want to avoid the Lakers as much as you can. I would like a 2-3, but then you're probably, hopefully the Nuggets would be the team that, well, not hopefully. I guess hopefully the Clippers would be the team that fell so you can get Clippers in L.A. L.A. in the first round. I mean, second round, because the Clippers, I think, would cause some problems for the Rockets as well.

I'm not as scared of the Nuggets. I'm not as scared of the Jazz. I'm not as scared of the Mavericks or whoever else is involved. The Thunder. There's no other team in the Western Conference that legitimately scares me except the Los Angeles. L.A. and L.A. Clippers don't scare you? I don't.

Not as much as the Lakers do. Okay. Kauai and Paul George and Trez. Remember what Paul George did to knock the rockets out of the 10? Two seed last year. That wasn't fun. No. By the way, there's a story in USA Today opinion piece by Gabe L-A-C-Q-U-E-S. La Chairs.

That's a serious French name. Good gracious. Opinion. The Astros face a long road to redemption. Here's how they should address the cheating scandal. He says, first and foremost, I'm just taking the leads. Don't equivocate. Don't equivocate what?

Among the most unseemly comments of the Tom and Flap was an initial. statement where the assistant GM apologized for inappropriate language, but a heartbeat later went to the husband and father card. Read the room, know that right now you are reviled. Is that a word, reviled? Wear it and own it. No, what aboutisms. Nobody cares about anybody else. There may be a time for others, but in the absence of specific allegations or proof, that time has yet to arrive. heads down back to work. It may seem like a long road,

but it will get longer in the absence of proper contrition and humility. Three things he says. Head back to work, know what aboutisms, and don't equivocate. Think they'll read it? No.

This is going to be a huge test for this organization. I'm not talking about just 25 players. I'm talking about everybody that's got an opinion on this thing. Let's go to Matthew in League City. Hi, Matthew. Hi, what's going on?

I had a question about, may I was going to say something, Houston sports are so hated because I think we're the best city for sports. I think it's... Because, I mean, Boston's pretty good, but I don't know. Okay, I'll accept that. We are the best city for sports. You hear that? We have a University of Houston football team that's excellent in football and basketball.

We have excellence when it comes to our Houston Texans, back-to-back AFC South champions. We have the Houston Rockets, who are number five C in the West. We have the Houston Astros, defending America League champions. Maybe Matthew's right, guys. I'm not sure if you guys watch the film.

People are just jealous of us. Jealousy. Stop being jealous. In New York City with your Wall Street Journal, in your Washington Posts. Yeah. Stop being jelly. That should be the phrase. You know, if you're going to have hashtag for the age?

Yeah, they should change it. Every sports team in this city should be Houston Astros baseball. Hashtag, don't be jelly. I think it should be hashtag, you big mad. This is Craig Vigio. Vigio, Vigio. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. Oh, we're having some fun.

You're home of the Stroes. We'll get more to the unfortunate disaster that is daily news dump on the Astros. But right now, we'll talk about some positive things. First and foremost, the first weekend of the XFL came across as a, I think, a pretty resigning successful mark, no matter with the venue, especially in Houston, Texas. Oliver, like joining us from the XFL, the Grand Puba. Oliver, is the press conference the worst kept secret tomorrow, or can we talk about it right now? It's the worst kept secret in the history of professional football. But let's just talk about it tomorrow if we could.

All right, very good. Needless to say, TD, UCU studying was the place to be. I'm taking my middle son, my 17-year-olds like, Dad, I've got to go. So Sunday, we're going to the big game. Give me your, look, you're going to be very happy with everything that turned out and got a lot of room for growth. But give me your biggest surprise from just the logistics and the game itself from week one of your season. So we were, as you'd expect, you know, pretty pleased. with the results, you know, the quality of play I thought was good.

I thought quarterback play, by and large, you know, was good. And quarterback play is so important, right? You know, when folks, you know, first see a new league, I thought, you know, the games had a lot of excitement. There was parity, with the exception of the New York game that got out of hand a little bit. Kevin Gilbride, another old Euler coach, you know, assistant coach, really lit it up and beat Tampa Bay pretty soundly. But other than that, the games, you know, were close going into the fourth quarter.

You know, the coolest part, here I am in D.C. at the Defenders game on Saturday. And it was right before the roughneck's game. Cardale Jones hits a couple of nights passes, maybe three, four minutes into the first quarter. And the almost 20,000 fans there start to chant MVP. You know, they were giving like to this team, right? They didn't know Cardale Jones from the Man in the Moon probably. Right. You know, first three or four minutes of the, you know, existence, if you will, of the team in Washington.

in D.C., but it was great to see fans come in there, have fun, chant, get excited, you know, very affordable tickets, as you know, $20, $25 gets you in the building, good seats. So it was just kind of fun to see the fans of these various teams that have adopted these teams and begin to sort of put life into what had really just been a brand, right? Just a logo. And it certainly was the case, and now you're getting social media involved. You've got an XFL app I want to get to in a second, but I do want to say, I did not attend the first game.

I wanted to see it on television. First of all, Fox and ESPN did a great job of their presentation. It had a real feel of an NFL week look to it. I don't know if that's what you want, but it had a sense of professionalism that maybe the other leagues didn't have. I loved the fact that I could hear the play calls. I love the fact that I could see the challenge center in play. I love the different options for the extra point.

I love where the guys are lined up on kicks, which is, I think, is interesting. in placement and then for safety. I'll say the only thing that I thought was kind of tough to watch, frankly, Oliver, was the ability for the silent reporters to go talk to these players and coaches in both good times and in bad. What was your feeling as you watched maybe a kick or two go astray, and then immediately Brock Hewer is going to talk to that guy?

Yeah, you know, I don't disagree with you a little bit because it is tough, particularly when you just made a bad play. And like I can remember making a lot of bad plays. from the way. And you come off the field and all of a sudden, boom, there's a, there's a microphone right in your face masks, so to speak. So that's a challenge. But, you know, as we talk to Fox and the ESPN and put all this together, there was a real

desire to get authenticity, right, to get the real sort of brutal authenticity that you get from a football game. And, you know, that's the good and the bad, right? We even had, you probably may have heard this, had an F-bomb dropped, you know, during one of those segments because a guy had just been flagged for, you know, for a penalty and he comes off and he's, you know, he's totally mad of himself, right? You know, it happened to drop an F-bomb that made it through the sensors.

So that's a concern, but overall, I think the access that we want to provide to the fans, that authenticity, that sort of outweighed everything else. And we just have to be, you know, we've got to train up our players and our coaches, you know, to know, hey, you've really got to control your temper. But ultimately, fans tell us they want to see what it's like in the sideline, what it's like in the huddle. They want to really have that sort of authentic feel for what players and coaches are going through. And, you know, it's a new world, right? You know, you and I are both a little bit older than the millennials sort of playing the game now. So, you know, they may have a

different view of this. In fact, our players love the fact that there's, you know, sideline folks down there because, you know, that's just part of the world that they grow up with now. Oliver Luck is the commissioner and CEO of the XFL with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Oliver, you've got a new app out. I know they were pushing it quite a bit. during the television broadcast, but you're trying to get people not only involved in the stadium, but on their phones as well. Yeah, this is a Play XFL app, which can be downloaded at no cost, and it allows you to predict scores, predict winners, and there's a $500,000 prize package that's a part of that.

So, you know, this is in a sense one of the ways that we're trying to engage the gaming community, the sports wagering community. Obviously, people gamble on football, duh. We've known that forever, and we want to be very upfront and straightforward with that. community. So I would encourage folks, there's no downside at all. You know, download the app and predict the games and enjoy it. It'll be, it's kind of a fun thing. I'm going to assume you've had a conference call with either all the coaches or player personnel GM folks. What was their biggest challenge? Because there are obviously some nuances, different things that a June Jones or a Norm Chow or Bob Stoops that aren't accustomed to. What was the biggest change for them that they had

to kind of get used to? So, yeah, all during training camp, but we started early December, had mini camps, December, training camp, January. And I think the biggest thing, really, for our coaches to adapt to was the 25-second play clock. You know, contrast that with the 40-second play clock in the NFL. It's tight, right? 25 seconds, you've got to make your decision as a coach where play you want to run. You've got to get that into the quarterback quarterback quarterback's got to call that play. You've got to get up to the line of scrimmage.

You know, you need at least four or five seconds at the line of scrimmage. to make your checks, right, to get out of the bad play, depending on how the defense sets itself up. So that probably was the biggest, you know, change. So, you know, the guys calling plays, the coaches calling the offensive plays. They have to be ready immediately when the previous play, you know, and no exact. And that took a little bit of time. That took a little bit of time. I was happy to see we only had, I think, one, the way of game during the entire weekend, you know, this past weekend.

So that was good. But I think our coach, our play callers and our quarterbacks, offenses, they've had to adapt to that. So far, so good, but that was probably the single biggest sort of change from what most of these guys have been used to. And, of course, you know, it was either major college guys like Bob Stoops or Petro Hamilton or, you know, pro guys like, you know, Gil Pride and June and others. How do they like having just two timeouts in each half?

They didn't mind that so much. You know, they just basically said, hey, we have to be smart with how we do this. and we want to save them until, you know, that end of the second half, end of the game situation. So that didn't seem to be too much of a big deal to them. All right. The last question, and this is when you've gotten 500 times from sports host and marketing people. Everybody gets a good first kick. First week, good pop, good coverage.

What are you now as a sports executive for decades now? What is week two and three like going to be for your league in terms of maintaining the good momentum because I know television ratings were good? crowds the most part were good. What's the next level in, say, the next two or three weeks? It's just trying to maintain that same kind of positive momentum, I'm assuming? Yeah, so there'll be an inevitable dip in ratings, I think, and maybe even in attendance, because there's a curiosity factor, week one.

We accept that. But this weekend, I'll be up in Seattle on Sunday. They're going to have over 30,000 people in CenturyLink for the Dragon's Home Opener. So I think we can, you know, fight that a little bit. All we need to do, really, is play good quality football, exciting games, you know, we're developing slowly but surely our own stars, right, guys like, you know, PJ Walker, you know, the Houston quarterback who just, you know, was an awesome player, you know, this past weekend, our star of the star of the week. And it's just about playing continually good, crisp, watchable,

fun, exciting football. And I think that's, that's, that, that'll maintain our ratings, that'll maintain our attendance at a level that, you know, we think is, is sufficient in order to, to really build a strong foundation for this thing. We also realize, though, you know, a year one, first year out, we're going to need a year two and a year three to really establish ourselves. Vince McMahon, who's, of course, our owner and founder, told me multiple times he's in this for the long haul. So we can afford to, you know, to be smart and not chase, you know,

a sugar high, so to speak, right? Yeah. But we'll try to build a strong foundation. Well, I'll just say I got a 17-year-old at home that's very excited about checking out the first game of this weekend. So you get the young generation hooked. I think it's, again, off to a great start. I love the logo. I love the color scheme.

The people that were at TDUCU Stadium seemed externally fired up, and I think that's probably a good place to watch a lot of X-F football between now and the end of the year. Oliver, thank you for the time, my friend, and we look forward to hearing the grand announcement tomorrow officially. Okay, thanks very much. You'll be surprised. No, I won't.

There's no surprise. Zero surprise. Thanks, Oliver. All right, Oliver, see you. All right, Oliver, the commissioner. and a CEO of the XFL joining us here on the show. And yeah, tomorrow they're going to announce the championship games in Houston. It's not a bad deal, right?

I don't know. I don't know if you'd want to have it necessarily at the home stadium where the higher seat is, but maybe that could be the case with the beloved Houston roughnecks. When I listen to the Matt Thomas show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas show. whoever he is. All right, so top of the hour,

I want you all to hear some comments from Dave Hudgens. You know Dave Hudgens is, the guy you always, people would always want fired. That's exactly what I was going to say. And then you say, name what Dave Hudgens does. I don't know,

but I want the hitting coach fired. Yeah, I was going to say, I know who Dave Hudgens was, but I think a lot of the fans of my, that's the only job where people want you fired and they don't even know your name. Pitching coaches,

too, don't forget that either. But mostly hitting coaches. But it's not Brentstrom. It was a superstar in this town. Let me tell you something. Brentstrom is not going to ever pay for a meal again, or he can work as long as he wants to. Right.

He's the exception rather than the... Yeah, most guys want pitching coaches, especially hitting coaches fired. And they want them replaced by Hall of Fame hitters that we used to play with the team. Well, you know, why don't you get Jose Cruz to come down there and do it? Okay.

Well, people would call the tent that he can say, I'd say, well, you want the hitting coach. Well, what has he done wrong? Well, they're not hitting. Well, it's okay. What's his name? I don't know. That's your job to figure out his name.

And what if I told you they have like the best OPS in the entire major leagues? I don't know what OPS is. Well, it's a baton average. Now, you do know there's some metrics that I find totally ridiculous. Okay. I exit VLO, I think, is absurd. Why? What's absurd about it?

It's just, who cares how it leaves? If it leaves, it leaves. Why not? Why do you care about pitch? Do you care about the pitch speed? Yeah. Why do you care about them? That's the same thing.

Because I don't... How fast is going out, how fast is going in. But I don't, but I don't let a successful pitcher determine how fast he throws. If he gets out, he gets outs. That's true. So that's how I feel about hitting. But miles per hour is sexy and it's fun and it's more information. If you, if somebody's hitting a ball 110 miles an hour, they barreled it up.

Guess what? So that's good information. 110 mile per hour pitch can go right to the third baseman's glove for a nice strong out. Well, 99 mile an hour pitch can go over the fence. That's, you're right. I don't put much value in it. So what's the difference? Exit Velo, but I didn't try to sell you that Miles Prower was sexy.

Okay. I'm just telling you that these two new number, like spin rate, spin rate to me is a little more intriguing because it does show a sincere movement of the pitch. And how pitchers, the way he's spinning the baseball, show, has a dozen of a dividend, i.e. Garrett Cole. His spin rate has gone up, what? Significantly since being a Pittsburgh pirate, thus his strikeout numbers. Exit Velo to me doesn't do much for me.

I know it's important. I'm just telling you this is just my own personal. Having high exit Velo is good. Jordan Alvarez's exit Velo is one of the best in baseball, and that's a good thing. And he couldn't hit in September. That means he's hitting the ball. He didn't. Well, the exit Velo was low then.

And then launch angle, another one of those things. Either you hit it or you don't. Okay. I wish baseball was so slow that you could go. Well, I need to move my bet ever so slowly up to the north. two degrees. I'm just telling you, I'm in a minority on this one. No, it's not about being in the morning.

I'm just saying it's just information. It's not going to hurt you. But it's not going to keep you up at night. But it does in a day baseball broadcasts. And I never, I told us Jeff. I said, Jeff, I said, this is interesting for some. But for me, it's, you know, a lazy can of corn pop fly that the wind carries it out of the ballpark, still in 313 feet home run. I don't care what the X velocity is or the launch angle is.

If it leaves the park, it leaves the park. It's just more information. Yeah. Well, sometimes we don't need as much information. Okay. Sometimes you, do you want to know how the sausages are made every time? Yeah, why not? Nobody does.

Nobody ever says, man, I wish I knew how my sausage I'm about to eat was made. It's just, I think it's just as relevant as pitch speed. And pitch speed can sometimes be overblown. Of course. Because let me tell you, there was a pitcher, Ross. I think he had a cup of coffee with the Astros, too, named Kyle Farnsworth. Yes, he did. a very small cup of coffee.

Kyle Farnsworth. Like to fight. Was aggressive. Kyle Farnsworth would throw 102 miles per hour on a regular basis. It was fast. It had zero movement.

It was very predictable. And the reason why Kyle Farnsworth for most of his major league career got beat up pretty good because 102 only did you so good. Billy Wagner had a 99 mile per hour fastball on a regular. But he had a slot of that bit

He had a straight basketball too. I thought you were going to go with 100 miles Giles. That's actually not a bad example either. Hover miles Giles, that ball moved zero. Any one number or... Zero spin rate. It doesn't ever tell you the whole story. It's a piece of information.

Batting average is one piece of information. You can have two guys hitting 300, but if one guy is hitting more home runs and getting on base more and walking more, then he's a better hitter. So it's only one piece of information. And my general assumption is if something's at a high X velocity, Then somebody smack the hell out of it.

Exactly. That's all it is. It's just saying. But the guys on AT&T, like, oh, that exit velocity, 126 miles per hour. Wow. That is a great exit velocity. Wow. Wow.

That's amazing. Yeah, what's wrong with that? If somebody throws 100 and... It's an over-sail. If Oroldus Chapman's throwing 102, you're like, wow, okay, that's cool. No, I know. I think Orellas Chapman, last time I remember I rolled his Chapman throwing a pitch 1002, Jose, Othube. That was a slider.

Whatever. You know my trip. Because Jose got it re-related on his buzzer, so we knew it was coming. Don't say that. I'm just kidding. Oh, my God. Send your complaints to add sports RV. Don't even do that. Okay. So we're going to hear some audio from Dave. Don't call me Huggy Hudgens. Okay. I don't know what they came from. The top of the hour. Hudge and don't call me Vanessa. Yeah. Ooh, she's nice, but I'm digressing. Any relation? No, I'm sure not. Although Hudgens isn't the problem. So we're going to hear from him.

He's with the Toronto Blue Jays now, and he's going to apologize. Just like everybody that hasn't played for the Astros or coach for the Astros the last couple years is apologizing. Wait a minute. What? I'm sorry to interrupt everything. They're rebooting a honey. I shrunk the kids. I didn't watch it the first time.

Oh, I did. I loved that movie when I was a kid. Everything is getting a reboot. Can we do an original idea once, Hollywood? No. I like reboots. Yeah, you do. You like reboots and rehashes and late-

I like reruns. Sequels. You wouldn't believe this, but back. When I was a kid in the 80s, the TV shows would be rerun. You know how there's like the, there's all these women talk shows and stuff? You know, like the talk and the view and all that. They would rerun episodes of Happy Days, the Jeffersons, all in the family. Like the new ones that just ran or something?

Like three or four years old. Like if the Jeffersons were on mainstream, like it was 1986, they'd run 1981 episodes. They'd do that. That's what I would come after, home after school, watch Save By the Bell. I'm talking about a network TV. They would do this. Well, you usually be on like 39. Or Oopin.

Back when 20 was UPN. No, 20 Vision. That's what 20 used to be. It was 20 Vision. Then it was Oopin. Nobody called it UPN. I swear they had a promo. They were like, we're Oopin. And it was like kids dancing around and stuff. I promise you.

Well, they should have just stuck with 20 Vision. Alex Cora, the manager at the time of the Boston Red Sox. They played the New York Yankees and a pair of games in London. They were high-scoring games, and the Yankees swept those two games. not mistaken, correct? Alex Cora talking about Carlos Beltram being a huge addition to the New York Yankees organization. Remember, he was an active player at the time. That's a good offensive team.

We know that they're a lot better than last year. The attention to detail is phenomenal. I was joking with somebody at their biggest free agent acquisition is Carlos Beltran. You know, he, I know how it works, you know. He's helping a lot. You know, they're paying attention to details, and we have to clear, clean our details. It was eye-opening the last two days from top to bottom.

And I'm not saying, you know, devices and all that stuff. It's just stuff that the game will dictate and will scream at people. And it's right there. And throughout the evening, you know, I was looking and I saw it, you know, and right now they're a lot better than us. So we need to get better. He is so measured in that conversation, right? He's not talking about devices. He's, we need to be better.

He wants to be better, which means make sure they figure out a way to not steal our material anymore. And we're going to make sure that we can steal theirs, allegedly. You hear the Aquamanial laugh? Those people that were in awkward media laugh mode Didn't even realize what they were awkward media laughing about. That was an awkward media laugh, wasn't it? Think about that. They were chuckling about pudgy

Carlos Beltron being a special advisor going, oh, he couldn't possibly help. When do you keep mentioning his weight, Matt? Because he's not thin. Don't fat shame Carlos Beltran. I didn't say, call him fat. I called him pudgy. I'm not a fan of Carlos Beltron right now.

I get it. He went to the Astros Clubhouse and said, hey, I'm 225 hitting guy I've been around forever, you listen to me or did they just want to use him? Is he the scapego now? Could he be the fall guy? The fall guy?

Could Carlos Beltrane be the fall guy for this group of young Astros and said, you know what? Well, this blame me old guy. We're going to ask Chris Carter. He went a part of the team in 2017. No, I mean the NFL player who says, get you a fall guy.

Remember he was at the rookie summit and he was everybody to get him a fall guy? Yeah, he's not around anymore. He burns bridges ever where he goes. Worst interview of a Hall of Fame player I've ever had in my entire life. I was openly rooting for him not to get in

and he eventually got in. He's a Hall of Famer though. He has, but he's a Hall of Fame jerk. That's why it took us so long to get in. First ballot. All right, 158. Let's hear from Dave Hudgens, the Toronto coach,

who was a part of the Astros team in 2017. Nick is chopping up some of the sound from that today. 713, 212, 5-790. 713-212-1-2-5-790. Is the Matt Thomas show. Time is 203. Time to recharge the final hour of the show. Guys, in 22 hours, we're going to react to what the asteros have to say.

Let's right now before we hit her Dave Hudgens, who's now the bench coach of the Toronto Blue Jays. are we going to come completely satisfied isn't a question isn't a possibility are we going to feel better worse or the same today about what

has happened because here's how you feel better thanks guys for coming out in the clear we don't endorse it we're sad that you did it you put an asterisk on your franchise but thank you for saying what you said worse would be

them being aloof I'm not going to answer that. Next question, please. Indifference is players will typically say, I'm paraphrasing, hey, we're sorry for what we did. We can't get into a lot of details on it because the commissioner's office told us not to,

but we're sorry and we're hoping to be better. That would be an indifferent texture to how we react to what they say tomorrow. So where are we going to be happier? Not happy. Are we going to be madder? indifferent or the healing process officially begins tomorrow? What's your guess?

Between those three options, I would say completely indifferent. I don't think you're going to get really in-depth answers. No details will be brought up. I don't think it'll be just a generic apology. Okay. 713-212-5-790. Will we feel better, worse, or indifferent? 20 hours from now.

Because they're going to speak probably 7.30, 8 o'clock, our time tomorrow, maybe even a little bit sooner. Chris Gordy is on his way to Fort Lauderdale as we speak or to get up to West Palm Beach. Ross, what do you think? Feel better, feel worse, or the same. Probably indifferent. I think most people aren't going to be affected either way. I think I'm the same way. I'd like it if they just all threw Carlos Beltran under the bus. That'd make it more interesting. Well, here's what to make it more interesting. You know what they would do? Hey, everybody. Carlos Belltry made us do this, and here's what he made us do.

They run through the entire run down. The only way you really go, you really is mind-blown, is that they really open up. But my guess is they're not going to really open up because they're deathly afraid of their images. The images of an astro fan right now about Alex Breggman, Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve, George Springer, Michael Brantley, although he went a part of the 17 team. Josh Reddick. We still love them, right? We still want to hear from them.

We're still going to root for them. It's going to be opening day coming up in a month from now. There is nothing that's going to not want to have Astro fans cheering on the top at the top of their lungs. Correct? They can't ruin that. Am I right about that? I agree. So no matter what they really say, they can't really necessarily gain any brownie points.

I don't know. I guess it's just to make everybody else. The people were like, oh, the Astros haven't showed any remorse. Oh, the Astros are... Who's asking for that, Ross? like Bill Plashky and stupid columnists across the country. Like, oh, they're not showing anywhere more since it's terrible. The Astros are bad people.

So I think they are, there is, they do have to come out and apologize. Do I have to come out and say, we're sorry? And then everybody will just move on. All right. Dave Hudgens is the pitching coach. Not pitching. He's the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. He was a hitting coach for the Astros.

I'm going to play, uh, wow, we're going to play nine sound bites of this. We'll go quick. These are sound bites. from Dave Hudgens today at Toronto Blue Jays camp in Dunedin, Florida. Dave says he regrets not doing anything to stop what was 2017. Yeah, I just really wanted to take this opportunity to, you know, discuss what's going on with the Houston Astros. I was asked during the off season by Major League Baseball to be a part of that investigation

and I cooperated with them. I really can't discuss the content of what the Major League Baseball, you'd have to go through them. But, you know, the biggest thing I think is I regret and sorry that we, that I didn't do something, do something more that, you know, to stop that when it was actually happening. I think something could have been done, but we didn't. And now, you know, we're dealing with this. Is he in a lumber yard? Yeah, that's a good question.

That did sound like a wood saw in the back, maybe a circular saw. Was he at the Home Depot? The rest of the cuts have less background. Well, that's too bad. Is that like having sound bites with sound effects in the back? Dave was asked when he first knew it was happening. Well, I first, I can remember sitting in the dugout and hearing a bang. And, okay, didn't really, you know, nothing.

And then if you heard it a few times. And then I asked somebody, asked one of the players, what's going on? What's the, what's banging? And I said, let him know when a breaking ball's coming. Hmm. Okay. And, you know, I just went from there. So that's kind of the first time. I can't remember exactly when it was in the season,

but it was sometime during the regular season. All right, Hudgens asked on Carlos Beltron's influence over the team. Obviously 20 years in the big leagues, he had tremendous influence on the players. There's no doubt. But that being said, if somebody would have went and if we would have talked to him and said, look, this probably isn't right. We probably shouldn't be doing this. I have no doubts that he would have pulled the string in.

And I know there's articles, Brian McCann went to him and those things. And I wasn't really in that loop, so I don't know exactly what happened there. But, you know, Carlos did have tremendous influence in that clubhouse. And rightfully so, he's earned it over 20 years. He had the rightful influence to corrupt a locker room or a clubhouse in a system. Okay. 20 years, you get to do that, Ross. You've been to major league baseball for 10 years.

You can't corrupt a clubhouse. You can't corrupt the baseball system. You can't create artificial intelligence. You've been in 20 years. If Carl's Beltron endorses it, you should do it. That's a weak. It just is. Okay.

Agree or disagree? I guess. I mean, it's just the way it was. Like I said, I think it was, it was an escalation of stuff that's been happening for years. That's why it was easier for people to say, you know what? This isn't that much, this isn't that much different than what we were doing before. Well, I'm glad you feel that way, because next. time I ask you to do something unethical in the radio business.

Wouldn't be the first time? Because I have more experience than you doing the radio business. I'll do it. I know you would. You don't take much. Two more soundbites I want to play. What stopped AJ Hinch from ending it? I think we know the answer.

I mean, that's a good question. And I really, I can't even really remember why we didn't know why we didn't talk about it. I really can't. It was just, you know, one of those things that was happening that you heard and you went. And, you know, is it helping? Is it not? We hit better on the road than we do at home. But, I mean, obviously, it's something that's not right.

And it shouldn't have been done. And we should have nipped at the butterly. Now, here comes the big one, because Hudge has been with many, many teams over his career. He was asked how widespread this is throughout baseball. And, of course, I can't fire it. Here we go. Let's fix this once and for all. I'll set it up again.

How wide? was this in baseball? I don't know exactly what's going on. I mean, every major league player is looking for an edge, and they're looking for something, but you don't want to cross that line. And I think every veteran player and every good player is looking for an edge.

They're looking for an edge at second base. If the guy's tipping a pitch, I want to get an advantage if he's doing that. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If it's live feed, it's a different story. And there's a certain element that crosses the line, I think, that shouldn't have been done. But I think a lot of teams, a lot of teams are trying to, you know, they'll look at our guys and see if they're tipping. Or if we're not, you know, if our signs aren't right, if we're, you know, one finger or fastball and two is a curve, they're going to give it.

So I think it goes on. But there's certain things that shouldn't go on. That didn't do much for me, did it? I mean just said certain things go on I think I was wondering what direction he was going to go with that and say you know come out and say this is not happening anywhere

this is only the Astros but he didn't do that no that's why again if Commissioner Manfred really want to open up this investigation he's going to find a lot more teams and that's what some Astro fans are banking on that we're not just the only bad guys in the group we were just the ringleaders of it

the lead dog the ones that got caught first. Oh, man. Tomorrow, very interesting day. I'm sure Friday would mean much more of it. We'll have it for you all the coverage from spring training beginning tomorrow right here on Sports Talk 790. Our time is 212. If you'd like to chime in, did Dave Hudgens say anything to you that made you go, okay, now I understand it. I think he was trying to be as politically correct as possible, but yet at least have his voice heard. because, again, anybody attached to the Astor's organization during that time is going to be asked about it. You might as well get out of the way early in spring training. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holgerson.

Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume. He's a big old... The Matt Thomas Show continues on Sports Talk 790. 217. 2017 on The Matt Thomas Show. Ross and Nickalongside, I want to remind you again, I'll be at Locatellis on Fry Road in Cyprus tonight 5 o'clock until 7 there's a benefit for carrie le Taylor who was tragically murdered on christmas eve diehard astro fan a member of the locatelli's local group of friends

um just viciously viciously murdered on christmas eve and i'm very very sad to hear about her situation with her family and we're trying to help her out a little bit her family a little bit 15% of all restaurant orders tonight at locatellis on fri road and cypress will go towards her family. I'm bringing some auction items with me. I'm bringing an autographed baseball of Alex Bregman, Michael Brantley. I have a pair of rocket tickets, which will include your chance to come down the court and get a picture after the game. I'm going to throw a $100 gift card into landrys on top of that. I'll have a pair of four pair of Astro tickets to a future game this season. And I have also a portrait of Elijah Wan, Campbell, and Ryan. They're not like,

you know, glossy, but just a photo of those three, they have all signed it. So you have a photo, and I think I put it on my Twitter account earlier. All three have signed it. It's from the Rockets. And I want to thank the Rockets and the Astros for delivering a couple of great goodies for me. And that will be tonight, 5 o'clock until 7. We're trying to raise money for a family that lost their friend, lost their member of their family on Christmas Eve. Just a senseless, senseless tragedy. So I don't do this very often. And I just let this one hit home a little bit,

especially because all of us around Christmas time, miss our loved ones, especially in the brutal way that she was murdered. And want to help out the Taylor family the best I can. So tonight, five o'clock until seven. If you live in the north side of town, come by, get a pizza, get 15% towards sending the, there's all different types of specials.

And remember, 15% of all the restaurant orders will go to the Taylor family. So Locatelli's in Cyprus today, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. and I'm bringing some goodies with me. Let's go to the phone, see what you guys are thinking about. We'll start with Matthew in downtown on 790. Matthew, good afternoon.

Good afternoon, sir. How are you today? What's going on? Just a few things for thought. You know, number one, I was just wondering with Mike Spires. I mean, would he have come forward with that if he thought his team was cheating too? I really don't think so. And I think that, you know, this is a...

a pretty serious offense. I mean, I played competitive sports all my life, and I think baseball is all about not knowing, you know, what pitch is coming in. And I'm just curious if that all the players were involved, or I can't imagine there were a few that said, you know what? I don't want to know what pitch is coming in before I'm ready to swing, you know? And so I think that this public relations stuff is trying to rely on the complacency of Houston fans. and I'm still pretty upset about it and I don't really think they've been punished and I myself feel that I'm going to ban the Astros

whether they miss me or not but I'd like to hang up and just listen to your thoughts my friend. Yeah, thank you for the call. I think most Astro fans are upset and embarrassed. I would say most of them are ready to move on. Unfortunately, you don't get the vote. You don't get to the side

when everybody moves on. tomorrow could go a long way towards that, especially with the Houston fan base. There may be people tomorrow that see these comments Ross that come out of Florida, and they may be more mad. There's a chance of that. I think there will people who'll be mad no matter what.

Does Dave Hudgens saying what he said make you feel better about the Astros? Probably not. Max Sassie today announcing that he was sorry. Here's what we've got. Ross, we have an endless dream of X Astros saying they're sorry. Well, I'm sorry that it didn't help Max Sassy hit better. The views reflected by Ross did not mean anything.

Although, was that the year that he was actually solid? I forget. He had one year when it wasn't completely awful. Here's the quote. As a younger guy was called up in August of 2017 and saw what was going on. When you're a lower man on the totem pole, you just show up and you'd go out there and play. I apologize to all those around the game, the people who were affected by. by it, the fans, coaches, especially the kids who look up to us, were supposed to set an example

and do the right thing. We didn't do that. The commissioner ran his investigation. I didn't see anything going on past 2017. There's stuff coming out that is new to me, too, that I'm just seeing like everybody else, that I was never fully aware of. You have to... He was on the team last year, right? Yeah. So what he's saying is there could have been other things going on that only a select few were aware of and a part of. I could believe that too, right? Okay, yeah. There's nothing that I can't at least not fathom. The buzzer thing to me seems completely absurd,

but how in the world can I completely dismiss it? I can't. No, I can't either. I don't think it happened. I think it is a conspiracy theory, but I don't, I can't just flat out say 100% for 100% certainty it didn't happen. What if it was happened?

What if it was true? The buzzer thing? Yeah. That crushes Jose Altuve's legacy. And Jose, to me, doesn't seem like a guy that is that desperate. Yeah, but you look at the guy, the breaking down of the trash can banging and all that type of stuff, Jose Altuve really wasn't participating in it. Yeah, which is to Matthew's point.

How many guys actively participated to it? How many guys took advantage? Yeah. Nobody knows the answer to that. And the man for report, the original man for report says they banned it in 2018. They felt like it was often incorrect and distracting more than it was helping. So they didn't do it. So that's why you had to, Ross, shut the clubhouse door and say, stop.

This isn't helping us that much. Somebody had to. Whether it was an MVP candidate, whether it was a rookie of the year candidate, whether it was a young brooding star, who they were about to win 100 games for the very first time in their careers. Well, they did. I mean, they apparently went to Beltran and said stop, and he said no. So then what do you do?

Fist fight him? Restrain them. Destroy everything. Hinch, destroy the monitor twice. Say, I'm going to the, I'm going to the commissioner or Luno or Crane. Because you don't do, you don't do that in the clubhouse. There's so much 2020 on this, you know, looking back kind of thing. Well, I mean, what if they would have done it?

They would have done the unconventional thing and said, we're going, Beltron, we're not letting this happen. Beltron could have been by himself thrown under the bus, kicked out of the team, and this would have been not nearly the impactful event that we've seen here the last six months. He wasn't acting alone, though. There were guys who were on board with it.

It wasn't 24 versus 1. So maybe that's the reason why I brought up in the last segment. Maybe this is, he's the fall guy for this. That maybe there were quite a few people that were into this. Was Josh Redick involved? I mean, this is a veteran guy. Josh Reddick could have stood up and said, look, I've been in baseball seven, eight years.

This isn't going to fly on my watch. If you want to say the young guys couldn't do it, they're a veteran guys. Brian McCann could have been even more of an A-hole than he was. He wasn't an A-hole. He was a veteran guy that went to Beltran and said, we need to stop this. And I guess that's as far as it went.

That team, Justin Verlander could have said something, right? I think I would think so. Well, in 17, he had just gotten. there. August 31st. It was more of, I mean, it was Al-Tube. And Al-Tube apparently wasn't participating that much. And it was supposed to be his clubhouse. Furlander has said that.

When he got there, it was at the El-Tuvae's team. He was the leader. And Jose wasn't 22 years old either. True. He's been with his team most of the decade. He had enough moxie in terms of his reputation, his ability to work, the respect that he had, that if Jose would have stood up and said, look, but Carlos, we love you, but this This is not how we're doing it.

There's also the story of Jose revering Carlos Beltran. Remember that story in the players. For sure. When they first sat down and found out Carlos Beltran was going to be an astro, he and Correa and Altuve, he being Beltran, they all had a dinner together. And like two minutes into pleasantries, El Tuve is like saying, how am I going to get better? And then maybe that's where Beltran was like, I got a little something for you. We all have had heroes in our life that when we meet them for the first, second, third time get to know them a little bit, we lose a little bit of the respect we have.

But since they're our heroes, we trust they're doing it the right way. Yes, I think there was a little bit of that. I think you could certainly put that in perspective. 227. We've got three phone calls to get to. We will get to all three of you in this next segment. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Believe it or not, topic today at 252 is...

I was about to ask you, go ahead and hit the crickets, Nick. We need something quack, quick. Quick and quack. Left side to Westbrook on the baseline for the tie. He makes it, and he's fouled. This is Russell Westbrook. One thing's for sure, I did not get my amazing style from Matt Thomas. Oh, hammer job.

All right, the calls are going to, I promise. Here's Aaron Boone, Yankees manager. This is Big Media Day today and obviously tomorrow the Astros will get their turn. Here is Aaron Boone on if he's, convinced the Astros did not use buzzers. Was it last season we're talking about? I think, yeah. This is last season. No. I mean,

that's certainly one of those great unknowns. And certainly, you know, I've spent time as I'm sure a lot of people have, you know, wondering all the things that could have potentially been going on and probably will never know for sure,

frankly. The range of emotions has been huge. You know, you're mad, frustrated, disappointed. but you also know there's a time to move on and there's, you know, I don't really dwell in the things that I don't really am able to control. So I look at it now as it's time to move on and look forward and we have a great team in that room

and we know the sky's the limit for that team and we have championship aspirations. He's also at a Home Depot. They're moving things from one aisle to the next. It's not like they're in a warehouse because the forklift's going He went pretty quickly to the let's move on card. Don't come knocking on our door.

Exactly. Didn't it seem a little bit like that? Aaron asked his respect for Hinch, Cora, and Beltron changed. Look, those are still guys I consider friends. You know, I've struggled like I'm sure a lot of people have with kind of making sense of it all. trying to kind of wrestle with my emotions and in a way get some clarity. I don't think you ever totally get there, and that's okay. You know, I think as human beings, we all fall down and we all fall short and none of us are perfect.

So there's always, you know, hopefully I treat people. with a grace that would reflect that. But, you know, it's been a little bit of a struggle for me and how I make sense of it. And please do not come to our clubhouse. Please do not look at any of our films.

I think we need to move on. We need to forgive and forget. That sounds like a husband who comes, like whose wife comes home. Like he's been cheating on his wife and her wife comes home. Did you hear? Did you hear that, you know, Dave down the street?

He's been caught cheating on his wife. He's like, wow. We just move on from this. We need to move forward. Nobody's perfect. People are flawed. Dave is still a friend of mine. I have just secured the third sound bite.

Aaron, anything going on with your ass with your Yankee clubhouse? I'm just going to move on. Nothing to see here. We're clean as a whistle. Go Yankees. Those guys are still friends. They're still friends of mine. They taught me all the tricks I know today.

David and Katie at 236. Hi, David. Hi. Hey, first time I call her long time, Mr. I love the show. Thank you. On Ross's note, if my wife cheats on me, can I sue the Astros? You should. After all the information that I've gathered and everything that's come out, I really think the management should just take down any banner that has to do with 27

And I know you're not going to get the money back from the players and the rings and all that. But I mean, I don't want to take my son to the stadium and see anything about 2017 in that stadium. I've been a fan for about 20 years. And that's just my personal thought. And as far as Carlos Beltran goes, I don't think he should ever be in the Hall of Fame. Statistically, he might be on the fringe. But he was a great five-to-a-player when he played. and his prime, and he would have been, he could have been a great coach, too.

He definitely would have been on the fringe. That's just my opinion, but now he's throwing all that out. Yeah, thank you, David, for the phone call. I'll get some other folks in. I'm not in the mood to take away things. I'm not. I may be hypocritical for me to say that, but I'm not taking the stats away. I'm not taking the banner down.

I'm not taking the rings away. That's just me. Let's go to Kevin in the Heights at 238, huh, Kevin? Hey, Matt, as you guys were kind of hinting that, I mean, it seems kind of ridiculous now when you look back in 2018 and Carlos Beltron was a special advisor, quote unquote, you know, with the Yankees. And so, you know, not only that, but the Yankees having been caught in previous years before 2017 for sign stealing, I mean, I just, do you think they'll ever open up an investigation into the Yankees? MLB is just making, you know, the scapegoat out of, out of the ashes, make the example, and they're just going to like, like, the Yankees just want to move forward and not think about it. Second, and then I've had a comment is just to remind everyone that when Mike fires through that no-hitter,

it was a good chance he had pintar, and so I think we should take away, we should take away his no-hitter from him. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, like I said, I don't want to take away everything, because if that's the case, you'll take away every single thing. Ross, I do believe the Yankees will be up for conjecture on this. I think that other teams will be up. If there is this, these stories of the last 24 hours, Wall Street Journal and especially the athletic are doing the Yankees no favors, especially with two former Yankees in that Astor Clubhouse prior to 2017. I really like Aaron Boone. Those guys are still my friends. I think, you know, we have to move on.

We have to look towards the future, man. Time to heal. Howard on 790. Howard, what do you got today? Oh, boy. I'll leave the rockets and baseball to another time, but the biggest problem that professional sports in my eyes is going to face, based on my own experience, is the rampant gambling that's coming down the pike.

And I was involved in the point-shaving basketball scandal of the 50s. Yeah, through my father. What were you doing? Were you alone, sharking? Were you rattling in cages? Were you shaking people down? My father knew, may rest in peace, knew the people. What happened was it started up in the mountains, what they called the Catskill Mountains,

and they used to hire, the hotels would hire the college basketball players, and some of the pros, and they were there to play basketball, and they were there to keep the ladies happy. And what happened was hotels would play each other, and there would be a point spread. In other words, Grossingers would be favored by 10 over Concord. And someone would come to them and say, look, if you only win by five, there's 100 in it for you.

Well, that went on involving NYU City College, Fordham and St. Johns, when these schools were powerhouses. It was the day when the African-American basically stayed in the Northeast in New York and did not go south to the schools. And what happened was the bookies in the garden began to notice that the games were not going the way they were supposed to go. And they went to the DA of New York and complained. And that's when they started the investigation.

of the kids playing basketball. All right. Thank you for that. Let you mull over that, what Howard said. This, what? I don't know. Is this the godfather theme? It is.

One of your favorite movies. You said you're a fraud. You didn't go watch the movies. You said you were going to, didn't you? Yeah. You didn't. I did. Test me.

No, you didn't. Give me a question. Who sleeps with the fishes? Yo, this is Bunby. And my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America. Matt Thomas, Matt Troyes. Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. I would definitely call myself reckless and ratchet.

You hear none of those things. Why not? Maybe after a couple smearing off Ices. Man, y'all are really in... To next two days, it's going to be crazy. I was supposed to take Friday off. But, Ross, you don't need to work together on Friday, too. You just can't get enough of me.

I understand. I'll actually be in Raleigh, North Carolina, so it'll be very far away from you. You just want to talk to me, though. Yeah, but it's also a hot-button day, so to speak. What are you doing to rally, North Carolina, Matt? We're going to see Notre Dame play Duke on Saturday. Oh, really? That's cool.

This is my fourth trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium. It is, it's everything you think it is. And you don't even a Duke. You don't like Duke, right? I mean, but. No, they suck. Is that on a is that on a anywhere of your bucket list of places to go watch a game? No, I'm not a bucket list guy.

Are you really? Nick, you a bucket list guy? I mean, yeah, if you're going to buy me tickets, how much these tickets run me if I was going to buy them? Very expensive. Way out of your price range. Yeah, no. I don't plan on buying anytime soon, so no, I'm not worrying about my bucket list. Which is a bucket list?

Give me anything on any bucket list. I want to go to Fenway. I want to go to the Kentucky Derby. I've been to Riggily. I want Kentucky Derby. I don't know if I want to go to the Masters or not. There's a lot of walking around. They're going to make me take the service entrance.

Stop. I want to go to a Kentucky Derby. That's it in terms of being in a place. But if you're a basketball fan, pro or college, you've got to see a game at Cameron Indoor. Everything is advertised. I'm just not that type of person to say, I have to do this before I die. I want to know what it's like to have only one job. Me too.

That'd be cool. Me too. Me too. You know, we're the hardest working trio in Houston Sports Radio. That's a fact. God knows it's not the A team. Are they even on today? I don't know.

Maybe there's some Texas basketball game we can run at four. A. Big 12 tournament coming up in a couple of weeks. Oh, poor you. Stephen Unbold, before we get to believe it or not, hi, Steve. I wanted to talk to you about the Astros, but since you mentioned Cameron, Indoor Stadium. you know who went there this year and beat the Dukies?

No idea. Lumberjack. I have no clue whatsoever who the Lumberjacks did that. Nope, no chance. Yeah. Anyway, my dad used to say on any given day, one team could beat another. It happened. Well, thankfully, Duke beat the tar out of Florida State a couple of days ago.

Florida State Community College. So it was a nice way. All right. We can hit that all day. Listen. The guy that I'm, you know, I'm not letting assers off there. They did wrong, okay? But Rob Manster, come on, man.

You're going to investigate a couple of balls, those investigate them all. Geez, you're going to tell me the rest of these guys, the rest of these teams are choir boys? I don't think so. No, I don't think that's the case. They all got some dirt in the closet. Yep, thank you, Steve.

I appreciate it. One more before we get to believe it or not. Tommy Westside on 7-0. Hi, Tommy. Hey, Matt, how you doing? Good, friend. What's going on? I wanted to comment on the buzzer situation or the allegations about buzzers.

And I don't understand after all the post-game celebrations and the guys going into the clubhouse undressing, you cannot tell me with all the media and photographers around those guys that they couldn't, someone couldn't have spotted something. No, that's actually not true. Those guys can, first of all, you get a 10-minute cooling-off period, then they go eat, then they go shower, or they can go. Major League clubhouses have plenty of hideable places. Trust me on this. That's where steroids became such a big deal.

They didn't do it in front of the media. They did it in front of their bathrooms or in their showers or whatever. Yeah, as much as access that media gets to tell you the truth, Tommy, it's really easy. In fact, today's baseball athlete hides more than they talk. talk to the media anymore, which is kind of sad, but that's just who they are. So, yeah, there's plenty of places they can get away with it. Okay. That was my comment.

Yeah, I'm sorry to break that to you, but that's the case. Yeah, you don't see them for 10 to 15 minutes, sometimes even 20 minutes, because the manager always speaks first, then you go to the clubhouse after that. So, yeah, it's very easy. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest-growing sports game show. typically call it be believe it or not and here's how it works you'll call 713 212 5 790 7 1 3212 5 790

today's edition of believe it or not is brought to you by woodhouse day spas pernuch gift card for the gift of relaxation at houston woodhouse spas.com the category today is was this player at some point on the 2017 Houston Astros if he was you'll say this if he wasn't you'll say this to believe it or not so whether or not this player was on the 17 Astros win your prize, Ross, what's the prize? Matt, I've got a four pack of tickets to see the University of Houston Cougars basketball team take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes Wednesday, February 19th, 8 p.m. tip at the Fertita Center. You really should get all eight of these right in order to win tickets, just saying. Isn't it golden hurricane, by the way?

Yeah, no S. Just golden hurricane. It's my copy. That's fine. Paul on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Right-handed pitcher Yandel Gustave was an asteroid. in 2017. Believe it or not. Not.

Yeah, it was. I should also say this means playing. There could be somebody who was on the roster but didn't play a game that year. Either took it at bat or pitched. Right. Okay. Thank you very much with the clarification. Joe on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Jordan Jankowski, right-handed pitcher,

a part of the 17 team. Believe it or not. Not. There he was. Pitch three games. 12 BRA. Rob on 790. Rob, your favorite part of the radio show today? All the shade for any teams from Gotham City.

I hate all of them. Josh Fields with the Astros in 17. Believe it or not. Oh, he was here for a while. I'm going to say for that year, not. That is correct. It was the Dodgers. Statement number two for the win.

Teasca Hernandez, a part of the 17 team. Believe it or not. I'll say yes. Believe it. Congratulations. And we like you for your anthem hate for your Gotham hate. on 790. You ready to play, believe it or not? Paul.

Believe it. David Polino, right-handed pitcher, part of the 17 team. Believe it or none. Believe it. Left-handed pitcher Framber Valdez, a part of the Astros team in 2017. Believe it or not. Not. I'm fine.

Sorry, let's go to Becky. Becky, you ready to play, believe it or not? Becky. I'm ready. Right-handed pitcher Brady-Rodier. Believe it or not. Not. He was on the 16 and 19 team, ironically.

Statement number two for the win, right-handed pitcher Deion Diaz. Believe it or not. Believe it. Believe it. Nice job, Becky. Where's that from? I don't even know what's talking about.

You don't? Becky what? Somebody always says on Becky. Yeah. No, not. Oh, my God, Becky. Look at her butt. Like that?

Maybe that's it. All right. That's it for the show. Hey, reminder. She looks like one of those rap guys, girlfriends. Reminder, Locatellis, if you're north side of town, then I come see us at Cyprus, between five and seven, I'm bringing a bunch of great silent auction items, Astros tickets, rockets, tickets. I've got a portrait of all three Hall of Famers that are number 34.

I have autographed baseballs with Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman. We're having special food specials tonight, and 15% of all the proceeds going tonight from the restaurant owners will go to Carly Taylor's family, who was tragically lost her life on Christmas Eve. So it's a little benefit tonight. Five o'clock until seven. Cyprus, location of Locatellis on Fry Road. If you can come by, I would greatly appreciate it. Look forward to seeing all of you between five and seven.

A team is up next. Back tomorrow. We're Rossi. We're going to hear from players. For the first time, we'll be for the last. A team next on 790.