The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Worst Sports Moments Of 2020 So Far, New NBA "Service", Bobby Bonilla Day

Episode Date: July 1, 2020

Much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas Show. 12 o'clock at H-town. What's happening at Lunchtimers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790. I'm Matt. Ross with a day off.

Joe George filling in for Brendan Riley will be my cohort. producer, my friend. And we look forward to visiting with you today. And frankly, I'm going to try not to make it a depressing show because frankly we've had depressing shows for about four months without sports. But today is July 1st. We are officially, at least as the calendar would say, halfway done with our 2020 year, the worst year probably. I mean, there have been a lot of tragedies over the years, unfortunately. But I mean, pound for pound this year has sucked more than any other year in recent time so joe um i don't believe we have alcohol available uh in the 790 studios at least available to you right this second so i'm

going to drink with you in spirit today and remember we don't want you to drink uh and drive that's number one most important thing but today might be a day that if you're at the house if you're working in front of in your office or in front of your computer and around in the living room or whatever and you listen to the show and for that we thank you today might be a day Joe to day drink and reflect on the awfulness of 2020 I have a cores light in my hand right now I took a picture of it 50 minutes ago I'm going to take a swig real quick refreshing we're going to reflect and so our jobs are to briefly go over everything that has sucked in the first seven months Six months.

And hopefully the next six are going to be a lot better. And certainly, with the return of baseball, hopefully, and certainly the hopeful return of basketball, we're going to have a much better July to December that we've had between January and June. Joe, let's peel the curtain back to the audience. You and I put together a little text thread of things that happened in sports and in life, frankly, in the first six months of the year.

And we just kept trying to top each other of things that sucked more than something else did. the list I have at about nine deep of things that we would talk about on the show that absolutely 100% sucked. Yeah, and it's funny, I still feel like we're missing something. Oh, I'm sure we'll get some things. I just don't know what it is yet. Oh, yeah, that's why when we run through these lists, and we're going to mix it out throughout the course of the show, I will bring up a topic. We'll briefly discuss it.

We'll move on the next one. Plus, we've got a little update on some things, including some comments or my, Mike Dan Tony and Eric Gordon. They spoke today from the Rockets and TOTA centers. The guys are getting ready to leave for Orlando in a couple weeks. By the way, you shouldn't drink beer on the air and then talk, because the burping is going to be an issue. So maybe it's a really slow sip it during a break.

James Click made his first appearance on 790. He's going to be with Sean Salsbury every Wednesday at 930, and we're going to replay them a lot of times and kind of give you the best of what he had to say. so we'll have it for you later on the day. Plus, Joe, I need a math lesson on the Bobby Bonilla contract. For anybody that has followed baseball for any length of time, Bobby Bonilla gets paid a million dollars every July 1st by the New York Metropolitan's.

So I went and read some stories about it, and I'm not a math major. I was never, I was like, my highest level of successful math was probably algebra two. It had to take college, algebra, college, and geometry I sucked that in high school. In fact, I barely passed it. But I was always pretty good with just the good old faction facts of 7 plus 5 and X plus Y equals Z, that kind of thing. I don't understand how a guy that was owed just about $6 million has been paid a million dollars a year for years and will continue to get paid a million dollars a year for many, many years. So I will run through it, and then I'll ask for somebody that has better math skills than me

to help me figure out how in the hell the Mets would allow Bobby Benia until he's like, I think, 75 or 80 years old to get a million dollars a year. I mean, great for Bobby. He never has to worry about ever really doing anything in his life ever again, as long as he can comfortably live on the money he gets every July 1st for the New York Mets. We'll talk about that. All right. Without any further ado, and we didn't do this in chronological order.

We just kind of did it in the, what do you remember most about 2020, the first six months? And this is where, again, we want you guys to day drink as long as you're at home and not driving. That's the most important thing. And if you're missing something or want to add to any of the things we're saying, you are welcome to join us at 713-212-5-790. You can reach out to us on Twitter at SportsMT, at Joe George Radio, and our buddy SportsRV is off today, but you can always reach out to him as well. If there is anything, look, the pandemic has crushed sports. That's the number one story of the year so far in the first six months, right?

I don't think there's even an argument to that. No, not even close. And still to this moment, here we are in July 1st, And even though the first wave has gone through, and then we thought there was a flattening, and then we've seen, especially in the Sunbelt states, our state included a rapid rise, the number of positive cases, even though the NBA has been extraordinarily careful in planning out their return to the NBA and playing in Orlando, Major League Baseball is going to play a 60-game season, and they've been very exhaustive

in their process. Joe, I can't believe there is, I actually can't believe. There are still so many unknowns. I'm not 100% sure we're going to play anything the rest of the year. I have a good feeling we're going to play basketball. I have a good feeling we're going to play baseball. I don't have a wonderful feeling about football, especially on the college side. But it just shows you how this damn virus has taken over.

Have we ever been around in a world of sports where we've been on the unknown more than this virus? Because look, when organizations have labor problems with baseball owners and players, basketball has problems, there's been lockouts and strikes, we knew there would be a return of it at some point. We don't know the eventual return. There are still players in the NBA, even though they were asked last week to declare whether or not they were going to play. There's still a little bit of, not a little bit, there's still a lot of uncertainty, but a lot of decent guys. are going to start playing basketball again. There are a lot of still concerns that the guys get to the bubble in Orlando and test positive while they're there because Orlando and Florida has been one of the harder hit points.

And there's also a lot of concern of, will these basketball players be able to behave themselves, especially those that are playing for a championship, to arrive in the second week of July and not likely leave until the second or third week of October? I don't think whatever in our life, Joe, and you've got a long road ahead of you in sports broadcasting. I'm not going anywhere, hopefully. But, man, I have never been still so more uncertain in my life that I am on July 1st, 2020. Well, and it's that it's every sport. Like, if there's a lockout in the NBA, we don't know what is going to happen with the NBA,

but the NFL is happening at the same time and college football is happening at the same time. Right. This is one of our favorite words, Matt, unprecedented. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't say that word anymore. No, no, no. Because everyone's shut down. And it's everyone has different question marks is you have the bubble system of,

well, guys stay in the bubble. And then you have baseball of, you know, where are they going to play? And how are they going to play? How is the taxi squad going to be used? Like, then they have labor negotiations. All of a sudden now we're going from like no teams in Canada to can Toronto play there to, yes, it looks like the Blue Jays are going to play there. And if you're an NHL fan, it looks like.

it looks like their two hub cities are going to both be in Canada. They're saying the United States is so bad. We're not even coming to this country to play our playoffs anymore. Like, everything about this is all so different because we don't know anything about any sport. It's bizarre what has happened in the first six months of the year. Because, you know, when 9-11 happened and sports were shut down, we knew it would come back.

We just knew that there was a grieving time. There was safety protocols. to be put into place for travel and whatnot. But we knew that sports would resume in a very short period of time, and it did. I mean, obviously, the way that we travel is a lot different today than it was pre-9-11. But we knew there was a return. I mean, I think Adam Silver said everything humanly possible to make the Orlando campus as safe as possible. And as I've said before, and I think Mike Dantone said it today on the Zoom call,

which will let you hear coming up in a little bit, he feels like once you get there, You're in as about as safe a place as possible. Because the only thing I can think of that would make me nervous if I was in the bubble in Orlando is, what about the Walt Disney World employees that are not being tested? What about the Walt Disney employees that are going to serve you food and clean your room? And then they go home to their family where they may be able to give those at Walt Disney employees. I mean, that's at this point would be the only thing because that campus is going to be confined. to a couple of thousand people who are regularly tested two to three times a week.

So if there's any place you'd feel like, okay, I'm going to save haven, it's there with the exception of how big of a risk are you taking by letting Walt Disney World employees serve your food, cook it, come to your room, change your sheets, yada, yada, yeah. Other than that, it feels like it may be one of the safest places on Earth for the next month or Yeah, totally. And honestly, I don't know if their sheets are going to get changed the way they're used to. I've seen people on social media talk about staying in hotels and they're not even getting that service anymore. You have to drop off sheets and things like that yourself and then they're left for you in front of your door at some hotels. Right. So they may not even do that. And with the food thing, it's probably no different than going out to eat at a normal restaurant right now. They're got gloves on. They're going to have masks on and that'll protect you as much as they can. But yeah, there is still this huge. risk and and maybe the bubble is safe but we also don't know how fast the virus would spread if a couple people in the bubble get it and then they are confined

to this bubble like is it just going to become this huge problem we just like you said we just we don't know the answers to some of these questions we're just kind of wait and see and see what's next yeah and I don't want to spend the entire show on this because I feel like we've done it a lot and it's not because I'm not trying to neglect it just it's just kind of a a half year in review, so that kind of has to be the main number one thing. We've got other things to get to. As I said, Mike Dantone and Eric Gordon today spoke.

We'll let you hear from those guys at the bottom of the hour on this show. And then Bobby Bidney and Math, I've got, somebody's got to help me figure out with that. But really, it's about the first half of the 2020 year in one of the worst years we will ever experience between the civil unrest, the health of our country. The economic crush, the unemployment. I mean, if anything can salvage us, it would be maybe just some good old-fashioned live sports, as long as everybody is safe and able to do so. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today.

7-13-212-5-7-90. We attack the next big thing on the list of the year of 2020, and I think you guys can figure it out, especially if you're a baseball fan, what would be the second most important thing that has happened in this calendar year so far, that has absolutely sucked. 713-212-5-790 with Joe. I'm Matt. This is the Matt Thomas Show on Sports Talk 790.

Matt Thomas continues on Sports Talk 7-9. Your rockets, your Astros, your voice. All right, bottom of the hour, we're going to hear from Mike Dantony and Aaron Gordon. They spoke today via Zoom. The only Zooms I've been on so far have been, I did one for the University of Houston with some alums, Bill O'Rell and Robert Floresman-M-L-B networking. The three of us hosted one. We do our Monday night meeting, which we didn't do this past week, get a lot of people out,

so it was just not a great week to do it. By the way, Joe George, you're going to love the next Monday night meeting we do. Uh-oh. It is going to be a match game, the 7-90 match game. I'm a little nervous. Because you're ready. you're ill-prepared to give us funny answers? Yes.

And I've watched as much video as I can, and I'm still not totally sure I understand the rules. Okay. I don't get it why you wouldn't understand the rules. I mean, it seems pretty simple, though, right? Like, I'm just making sure I'm not missing anything. Matter of fact, why don't we later today go over a... We'll do a couple dummy questions.

Okay. So you're going to be a celebrity on this. I mean, I don't know if you can handle the fame of this. Probably not. And we're going to have our listeners be contestants. So I'll read you a match game question, and you've got to fill it in, and the object of the game is for the contestants to match you. All right.

I think we can do this. So why don't we in the 2 o'clock hour run through a couple of rehearsals? So who are the celebrities when we do it on? Well, it'll be the 790 people, you know. And then we'll do as we'll invite three listeners to play. I've already got the questions written. When I can't sleep at night, I write questions. That's my life.

1 o'clock in the morning can't sleep. I'll go into my living room, and I'll get my iPhone out, and I'll start typing up match game questions. Okay. Your life is a newlywed at 1 o'clock in the morning? Probably significantly different. Sleeping? Well, whatever verb you want to choose.

Whatever you want to choose. 713-212.5. 790, 713, 212, 5790. So, Joe, if we've agreed that the sports cancellation is the number one story of the 2020 years so far through six months, the Astros are number two, correct? Yeah, I think there's not really even, I think, I think Kobe is close, but locally the Astros are just much more significant for us. Yeah, and Kobe's certainly up there. one of the greatest of all time, tragically passing away at such a young age. And there's other things to get to.

We've got a significant Houston Texans trail. It's going to be very high on the list as well. But the Astros. I'm so torn because of this. Let me give you a scenario, Joe, and you tell me that if this is not going to potentially play out. If the Astros in a 60-game season win the World Series, we're going to celebrate, correct? Yes. It won't be nearly as exciting because there won't be 40,000 people at Minute Maid Park.

There's not going to be a downtown parade. It'll probably, the celebration will probably be shown on television cameras, and that's it. There'll be no downtown hustle and bustle, people going to bars and high-fiving and hugging each other or vomiting on each other like they did in the first go-around, right? So if the Astros win this and then don't taste another World Series for a significant period of time, hopefully I'm not speaking the truth on this. Could you imagine what baseball historians are going to say about the Houston Astros run as a dominant baseball team in the late 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s? See if this sounds familiar.

Tell me about the Houston Astros between 2017 and 2020. Oh, yeah. Well, in 17, they cheated and they signed stole, and they banged on trash cans, and they won a World Series. And then in 2018, they lost to a really good Boston team, and that's going to happen. And then in 2019, they had a 3-2 series advantage at home against the Nationals, and all they do is win one game in this other ballpark to win another World Series, and they were unable to do it. Garrett Cole didn't pitch in the game.

And in 2020, yeah, they won the World Series, and good for them. but it's an asterisk because the entire season is an asterisk. I don't want that, Joe, but I'm deathly afraid it's going to happen that way. What can we do to make sure that doesn't happen? They got to win one next year, or they got to win another one with 162 games. That's exactly right. So, no matter who wins this thing this year, it's not going to necessarily build a resume, right? because let's say somebody fluky wins it let's say San Diego wins it

or Colorado or Tampa Bay again no one's going to give this full credit it's not an indictment against the teams it's just an indictment against the situation we're presenting ourselves in it's 60 games but the Astros especially it won't do them any good because I guarantee you and again social media plays such a huge role in this that what they're going to do is they're going to do is they're going to to say, oh, look, they had to what they finally won themselves a World Series without the use

of sign stealing. And they had to do it in a 60 game schedule. That's why, if they're ever going to shake 2017 long term, they're going to have to do it in a 2021, 2021, 2022 season, and they're going to have to do it where there's 162 games in front of live fans and to be as authentic of a baseball season as possible. And that sucks. Because you know what, Joseph, that 2017 team was really damn good. Yep. I do think that certain teams, if they win this year,

will be looked upon better than other teams. Like you talked about Colorado and San Diego and those teams, I think we all look at the season and the championship as kind of a fluke, but I still think the best teams, over the last three or four years, if they won a title this year, it still feels more legitimate. And if the best teams from the last couple of years are still in the playoffs,

and there's not just a bunch of random teams, then I think we feel better. Let's say the Yankees win the World Series, but their path to the World Series is, like, the Mariners and the Red Sox somehow, like, they bounce back, and they don't beat anyone of relevance over the last couple years.

They don't beat the Astros. They don't beat the good teams. They don't even beat the A's. If they beat a bunch of nobodies, we look at it differently. If the Astros or the Yankees won the World Series this year, and they go through the other teams. So, like, let's say the Astros, they beat the Yankees, the A's. They beat the top teams in, you know,

major league baseball over the last couple years. I think we do view it differently. It just, it really depends on think on who makes it to the playoffs and how we view the World Series. I view this year is a survival of the finish. My guess is the team that wins the World Series, or at least contends for it, doesn't have any sort of rampant virus spread throughout their team. It's a team that stays healthy. It's a team that doesn't fall out of the protocols that Major League Baseball has put into play.

And also the adjustments from a managerial standpoint. You know, when does a manager give a guy a day off or move him out of the game? a certain position in the lineup after a slump in a 60 game year as compared to if it's slumping in 162 games. When do you pull a pitcher knowing that, you know, sometimes you let them work through their issues or sometimes you let you pull them early because you want to save them for another day? I think the manager and some people argue about how important a manager is to a baseball team. And look, I'm not here to tell any major league baseball.

leader, manager, coach, how important their role or their role isn't as compared to other sports. But I have a feeling that this year, that everything from a managerial standpoint is going to be changed. And I think Dusty Baker will learn as well as every other manager in Major League Baseball this year that they're going to manage differently than they would if it was a regular season. And that's what I'm kind of looking forward to seeing is the different nuances of what Dusty does, what

other managers like Aaron Boone do. How do you change who you are as compared to what you've been in the past? And ultimately, again, as I said, a team that can avoid the virus spreading through their clubhouse where you don't have to go to that taxi

squad. Guys that if they have a sore hamstring instead of going to the 15-day disable list and going, okay, I'll just rest a couple weeks come back, maybe they just take four or five days off, feel better, back out there. That to me is going to be the team or the teams that you're going to see play in the fall classic. I look forward to seeing who that is and I hope it's the Astros.

And ultimately for the Astros, think of it. You know, Carlos Correa's got to play 60 games with this team. If Carlos Correa is going to be seriously considered a franchise asht type player for the Astros, he's got to play a 60. I think George Springer gets a limited option here to show off what he's worth. And that's why I think If he just has an average season that he might be better served and signing just a short-term contract with the Astros, play one more year, get his mojo back if he has to.

Hopefully he doesn't. And then go try to strike it, which. 1227, Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. I'm halfway down with my first course light. If I'd start drinking three or four, you might have to, Joe, take over the show for an extended period of time. That's it.

Only three or four? Yeah, I'm as lightweight as it gets. sorry we talked about this i don't always forget yeah i i have zero tolerance i'm kind of proud of that actually so uh it is a day drinking addition to the show today because i just feel like you just need to other things to get to in the season review we mentioned coby's death we'll get to that a little bit and up next one of the worst trades in houston sports history i'm just calling my shot on that one 1228 on 790 with a message here for cromberg's flags and flagpoles i hope that you're able to decorate your home, your place of business.

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13661, 922, online, Cromberg's Flags and Flagpoles.com. EG, left corner for the career. Hi! And he got it! Eric Gordon here. Listen to Rockas Radio on your smart speaker, just as. Alexa, play sports talk 790 on IHeart Radio. We'll continue our review of the first half of the sucky year that is 20-20 and coming up in a little bit.

In the one o'clock hour, you're going to hear from James Click, the Astros' new general manager. He's going to be on with Sean every Wednesday at 930. We are scheduled to have Dusty Baker with us here in the not too distant future. Look forward to having him with us on a weekly basis here on this program. 713-212-5-790 if you'd like to get in on the show today. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We're unfortunately running through a lot of doom and gloom of the first six months of the year. If there's anything that really was awesome in the first six months, let us know.

Chris Gordy chimes in, Joe. he believes LSU won in the national championship with one of the highlights of the first half of the year. I could give two blanks. I would agree, though, because that was a great game, and I didn't have any rudy interest, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. So it's really the only positive thing.

It's better than Super Bowl, probably. Is a Super Bowl that boring to you? I don't... There's nothing profound from it. I get it. I don't remember it. I'm like trying to think of the Super Bowl right now. Nothing stands out.

But the title game does. It was a great game. It was a lot of fun to watch. I got to be honest with you, if the college football national championship game was the highlight of our calendar year sports-wise, it's been a crappy sports year. Now, granted, Baton Rouge loves it. SEC loves against another national championship of their conference. Well, besides that, what else have we really had? We've had regular season basketball.

We had the Super Bowl. I mean, the Chiefs played great. Like, it was fun. The Niners were just kind of there. They didn't really show. I mean, it was a good Super Bowl. It just wasn't an all-time or anything like that. It wasn't boring like the Rams Patriots Super Bowl.

We didn't have March Madness. We just, there haven't been a lot of sports moments to choose from. That's right. All right. So, Gordon wins. The greatest moment of the 2020 sports calendar, the LSU Tigers winning college football's national championship. The only live sporting event I've attended in the year 2020 was the Royal Rumble.

How was that? I had a, you know, it was a weird day. I had a great time, but it was, I mean, I'm in my apartment with two of my friends and we're finding out that Kobe Bryant passed away 30 minutes before we left. So it was like kind of a surreal day, but I enjoyed it. I thought it was a lot of fun. But it's the only sporting event I bring to you. You bring up Kobe.

I was in Denver and we were already at this Pepsi Center because it was an afternoon game. And we found out about half hour before tip time. In fact, I brought my cell phone out to the court, and I was talking with PJ Tucker and Eric Gordon and John Lucas, and they were looking at my phone like, what? I will save that. We don't mean to be depressed. That's what we've done.

Every time we try to turn something positive, it winds up being something else that sucked in 2020. I did miss March Madness, I will say. I've always been against going to Vegas for March Madness because betting on college basketball just gives me the hebie-jeebies, just because the team could be kicking somebody's ass by 25 points to put their scrubs in it winds up being an 11-point game. But maybe I think I should, you know,

if the rocket schedule allows it, maybe we should go to Vegas sometime and just bet on one amazing Barnes Maness game after the other. And root for the 16C to cover the 23.5 points. I will be gladly willing to go on that trip with you, Matt Tynes. Perfect, perfect. All right, Mike Dan Tony and Eric Gordon spoke today

via Zoom to the media here in Houston. And Mike, you know, Mike 69, years old. He's spry. Got a great wit to him. He's very sarcastic towards me. That's on the here nor there. I was asked today about if he's taking any extra precautions with his health right now.

Well, not more than I'm doing now. I mean, it's I'm doing what following the guidelines like everyone else should be doing. Hopefully they are doing it. And knowing that it's serious and not something to play around with, but at the same time,

we are going into, you know, a safe zone as much as it can be. And I have complete confidence in the NBA, everything they can to keep us all safe, anybody. But it's also individually we have to do what we need to do to stay safe. You know, I'll be wearing masks, which I hopefully, you know, we have a platform around the world, whatever, that everybody in the United States should be wearing masks right now when it's called for, obviously.

But other than that, the social distancing and cleaning my hands and wearing a mask when I'm around somebody and go forward with that. So I think if we all do that, it would help a whole lot going to solving this problem. There was some controversy about whether older coaches would be able to go to Orlando, notably Alvin Gentry, the coach of the New Orleans. Orleans Pelicans, Mike, and then Greg Popovich, who is 71 years old. There's some other assistant coaches that are 60 plus on the rocket side. John Lucas, who's a player development coach. And Rick Carlis, the coach of the Mavericks, was kind of in charge of saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Hey, if our guys are healthy, they need to coach their team. Dan Tony asked about he, as he heard from the league about whether he can indeed go to Orlando. Crickets? which is a good thing. I haven't heard anything. And I, you know, hopefully I don't hear anything. So, you know, they might be trying to get me.

I'm not an anyway, so I'll be in Orlando. I'll just show up knocking on the gate, trying to get in. So we'll see how it goes. I'm not, you know, I got other things to worry about right now trying to get everybody, you know, trying to corral everybody in the end of the fold. But, yeah, it's like, and I get. why they want to be caused. I appreciate it. And that's great. At the end of the day,

it's like, well, you'll meet me in an unsafe environment. It's like, wait a minute, let me in. You know, this is great. And so we'll see how it goes. But other than being a little bit older, I'm ready to go. There's nothing else that I would have a red flag or anything like that. So I expect to go and I expect that it'll be an unbelievable great experience. And, and safe. And hopefully that the product comes out that fans will, you know, in a time that it would be great to have people get excited about basketball and get us on to the next season.

Can I just tell you, Joe, that I can't root for a guy hard enough. I just can't. I want him to win. I want him to coach. I want the Rockets to win. I want the victory for the city. I want it for him personally. you know how there's this there was this huge sentiment around the NFL that the chiefs should win a Super Bowl for Andy Rees and get that can't win the big game stigma off of him

I think it's I think it's the exact same thing with Mike Dantone I really do yeah I think that's fair I mean coached Antonio seems like one of the best guys in the league so besides the fact that he coaches the Rockets he's also extremely easy to root for in every single way he's just not an a hole I can't say that about every manager and coach in the city. I just can't. And so when you have a coach who has had a lot of success but hasn't reached the ultimate and is a guy that is affable, and again, he's not trying to be a media kiss as. I have seen Mike Dantone in front of a microphone for five years, for four years, off of a microphone for four years in every possible scenario.

he's just a genuinely good person. So even though that he has his detractors, and even though he's, you know, that there have been a lack of success of any of his teams going to the NBA finals, I would hope that if you are even just a halfway decent fan of the Rockets and or the NBA, you'd root for him. Now, nobody in LA is rooting for him to do it.

For that matter, anybody that's a team that's really good. Milwaukee's not rooting for Mike Danton. I'm just saying that if, there was anybody you always say Matt can you tell us something about you know that people wouldn't normally know but from watching sports I'm telling you you want to root for Mike Dantone he's just a decent man and I just unfortunately there's just not enough decent men in coaching basketball has a fair number football has very very few baseball's got a pretty good amount but I'm just telling you I've really enjoyed the experience and I want him to stay for the long term I want him to stay as long

as he wants. But I also want him to win a championship. So any of that thought of, well, Mike can't get his team over the top can be a thing in the past. A couple of things. Dan Tony on James Hardin, being ready and healthy to go in the bubble. He'll be ready. And I do think that the biggest thing is, I think rest, you know, he has a tendency toward the end of the year because we use him so much and I use him so much. And that could be one of my problems. At least you guys can't yell at me for using him the last three months too much. So I do think the rest for him, PJ, even Russ to a certain degree, will benefit us and it'll benefit other teams also, but it'll definitely benefit our players that we're going to rely on heavily. So I expect him to be ready to go. And that's why

it's going to be fun to see what happens. How do you handle no fans? How do you handle the atmosphere? A lot of players will play better. I think they'll play better without the constant noise and the barking and all that. Some players might need the energy of the crowd. So that'll be an interesting sideline. But yeah, James will, hey, he's always ready to go. And he'll be ready. I have no doubt like Russell will do it.

When that ball goes up, when it's time to play, well, he's going to be ready to go. And I do think that not having three months of wearing tear on his body, he's going to help it. Yeah, I mean, while we can all agree on that, as also means three months of wearing tear is not on LeBron's body, Paul George's body, Kauai Leonard's body, Chris Paul's body. Unfortunately, Rockets don't get a competitive advantage because Russ and PJ and PJ have been playing games because while the other guys have. But we understand the point.

A couple of things from Eric Gordon. Asked today if it was a tough decision to play basketball this year. Very excited to get back started just to see what our team's all about. trying to achieve a championship. And, you know, just like any other player, it is a tough decision to go out there, you know, leave your families for so long. And, you know, with this virus, it's just at its highest peak,

almost everywhere around the country. And for you to be gone and away from your family, it's tough, you know. But at the end of the day, we know most of us, I would say, are going to go out there and play. And, you know, because hopefully everything out there is the best environment. We know Adam Silver is good at that,

and that's just, but after the day, it is a tough call and a tough decision to go out there for sure. Lastly, Eric, how you feeling? Are you ready to help out this small ball lineup? I'm happy that I'm back to full health as, you know, as I am now, you know, during the season, when you have a surgery during the season, it's always tough, you know. But now I'm back to, you know, myself.

and what I should be doing. And, you know, us playing small ball, we have to, you know, play small ball, play fast, play for one another. And, you know, we should be able to make the game easier for one another as we play. Because, I mean, because we are a dynamic team. So when we play fast and move the ball and, you know, a lot of easy, a lot of things happen, a lot of good things happen. All right.

Your mouth, the basketball God's ears, EG. All right, that is Eric Gordon, Mike Dan Tony from earlier on the Zoom. We'll play some more of their sound throughout the course of the afternoon. 713-212-5-790 if you want to get in. 7-13-212-5. Excuse me. A little over-climpth here. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90 on Twitter at Joe George Radio at SportsMT.

The worst trade maybe in Texans football history. God, I hope it's not one that's worse. We'll discuss that next as we review. the first six crappy months of the year 2020. 1245, Sports Talk 790. It's Matt, and he's back. The Matt Thomas Show on 790. Houston's home for Houston teams.

I was going to go over the worst trade in Texas history, but it's going to have to wait. Joe George, did you check your email a minute ago? I did. There are people in the world that, feel sorry for the NBA players, as they will attempt to go to Orlando, July 7th, 8th, and 9th to play basketball.

And knowing that they can't bring members of their family or any companions until at least what the first round of the playoffs. Am I right on that? I think so. Yeah. Okay. So you're looking at about seven weeks It's a long time, Joe George, seven weeks.

There is something called, and I don't even know what this is. Oh, cams.com. You familiar with the website? C-A-M-S.com, Joe. You know, I cannot say I am. Okay, nor can I. But you know what? This was sent to Gordy, not to him directly, but to, he saw a tweet from somebody that said,

you got to take a load of this. So let me read to you. what CAMS.com is going to do as a service to any NBA player or coach that is in the bubble. It says, hi, wanted to share some news with you following Stephen A. Smith's comments yesterday about NBA players not being able to last three weeks, let alone three months without being able to have sex during the proposed bubble plan for the season restart in Orlando. CAMS.com, one of the world's largest adult camming and casual dating sites, has extended an offer to all NBA players and coaches who will be in Orlando for this year's upcoming season. Considering the very strict social distancing guidelines, the league has laid out, cams.com is offering NBA players and coaches a comped VIP membership to its website

to provide reassurance that whenever they're lonely or they need some extra quote motivation leading up to a big game our camp models will be here for them 24-7 the models can provide companionship fun conversation sexy strip teases and more you can check out the offer letter below we have yet to hear back from any specific players but we remain hopeful that someone will wait to take advantage will want to take advantage of the opportunity here. Let me know if you have any questions or need any additional information. So let's break the letter down a little bit, Joe. If you were to go to cams.com,

would you want companionship from said ladies? Me? Yeah, or anybody. I mean, some will say yes. So you're telling me these NBA players have no friends, that they would think to themselves, I should go to cams.com and see if I can build a relationship with a woman

and just talk things out. Go over the anxiety of what it's like being in Orlando trying to play for it and being a championship. I would hope they don't because they're going to get outed quick. Like this is going to become, hey, Victor Oladipo is on our site now. Yep. You don't want that?

It's a bad idea. Stephen Adams. Thanks for joining us here at cams.com. Next, fun conversation. I don't think that's going to happen on that website. So, pass. I've got to be honest with you, I've never been to cams.com before, but I'm assuming that fun conversation is like 17th on the most important list.

Sexy strip teases. Let's say, um, Anthony Davis goes on to cams.com. Says, hey, what's up, girl? I got a game in two hours. Can you strip for me to help get me, get myself ready?

Is that how that works? And then last but not least, the more part. What exactly would the more be? Companionship I get. Fun conversation? All right. Sexy strip teases? Duh.

What's the more? Do not call me and tell me what the more is. If you like to tweet at me and let me know what you think the more is, then by all means I'll read him as long as they're family appropriate. But I can't imagine the more being anything very helpful for a game day, unless you're just trying to help the guys get over their frustrations. And ultimately, if an NBA player takes advantage of this, he's going to have to use an incognito name, right?

There's no way in the world. Yeah, but if you're going to get it, B, it's being an MBI. player to get it for free. So you can't use an incognito name. I mean, they probably have a list of like, hey, only these people are allowed in. And by the way, cams.com has probably zero interest in keeping this private, correct? No, because they'll go viral if they can put a player on blast. Well, it's not even on blast.

It's moral of, hey, cams.com is here for you. Just ask Janus Adethegumpo. Ask Chris Middleton. ask Joe Ingalls. He's a satisfied customer. And we mean satisfied. I ask one question and we'll move on to some phone calls. Joe, how are these grown-ass men who, let's say, are rather frisky, like most men their age, successful, rich, good shape, athletic condition.

How are they going to behave themselves for weeks and months, much less days? I still think for the most part they're going to. Okay. I think there's a reason why the NBA said they're not going to test for weed. I'll put it that way. I think they'll be perfectly content with what they have at their hands. Hashtag, don't ask, don't tell, basically? Yeah.

I got you. Sean, Northwest Side of the Matt Thomas show. Sean, good afternoon. Hey, what's going on, man? How are you doing today, buddy? Good, buddy. What's up? Hey, man, a real quick comment about the whole cams.com thing. Look, all they have to do is just use the name of one of the kids.

team members that's not going, you know, the eight teams is not going to. You know what I mean? Well, I got one for you. How about using a member of another team and just saying, like, for instance, let's say that, let's use an example of Blake Griffin wants to use it. Instead, he puts the name Russell Westbrook in. Right. That would be hilarious, man.

Look, I got a couple of questions. for you and I'm hanging up and enjoy the show as always. Thank you. I wanted to know, are you and Craig and Bull? Are you guys going to be allowed into the bubble? We are not. Yeah, we are now. We're doing everything from our Houston studios here in Texas.

No broadcasters are going. In fact, I don't even think the national guys are going until towards the end, and I don't even believe at any point will Marv Albert go. So, yeah, everything, at least early on, the regular season games are going to be done from studios, I think both in the network level and certainly at the local level. So do you guys feel like you'll be able to do like accurate calling, you know, from the studio? Selfishly, I'm not happy about it. It's much more difficult.

I've done it before. You can do it. It's just it's just it just doesn't have any. You don't get a real feel because, you know, you put the headsets on and you can hear the crowd. the background or actually you wouldn't be able to because there's no crowd but it's just it's just harder to see there's just nuances of the game that you'd like to be able to see that a television screen maybe won't be able to show you so uh i mean it is what it is uh i mean i'm glad to do still do the job but you know it's not going to be nearly as fun for sure and i hope it's not something

that we do in the long term but under these circumstances this year i certainly understand why they want to keep the number of people in bubble to a limited amount well more question what about the riffs are they going to allow all of the NBA riffs to going to the bubble or it's just going to be a set amount of riffs. And I'll hang up, but listen, but I want to make one more comment.

Man, I think you and Craig do wonderful job and the reason why I'm so adamant about this, because I'm actually visually impaired, but I love basketball, so you guys, you know, help me to see the game. I want to say thank you for that. Well, Sean, that means

a lot to me, and I mean that profoundly. When I try to broadcast a game, I think about those that are visually impaired, and thank you, for the phone call. I try to paint the picture as best I can. I try to give you the moving parts beyond just who has the basketball in his hand. And I try to give you exact measurements of where the guy is, where the shot is taken. Because radio and basketball is just a lost art.

I mean, you know, it's obviously all sports are visual, but especially more so in the NBA with all high-flying dunks and whatnot. But, Sean, thank you very much. Yeah, so, you know, it is what it is. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Thank you for the phone call. We'll get the second hour starting of the Matt Thomas show.

In the next hour, we'll lead off, I promise, with the suckiest trade in Texans history. Also, new Astros general manager James Click makes his first 790 weekly appearance. You'll hear that too. Come on and be a part of our show. I'm going to go get another beer because we are day drinking today on a day where everything in 2020, at least of the first six months, absolutely sucked. 713, 212, 5, 790. 713-212-5-790. It is the Matt.

Tell them to show, we are thankful that you listen to Sports Talk 790 with a message here for TGS Insurance. If you would like to save on your home policy, as you listen to my show, go to your phone right now and text the word money, M-O-N-E-Y to 23-23-23. M-1-2-23. The folks at TGS Insurance will ask for your address. You type that in, and then 15 seconds later you're going to get a quote. It's probably going to save you hundreds of not thousands of dollars. average 790 listener is saving 870 there's a lot of folks that have reached out to me and said matt thank you for tgs insurance i've saved well north of a thousand dollars do yourself a favor

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Is it wrong to put ice in your beer sports, Joe George? In what way? I'm just trying to make it extra cold, if you know what I'm saying. I've never done that. I have had in a hot summer day. There are certain bars that will put ice in like a pitcher of your beer. What about drinking beer with a straw? That's not okay.

I didn't think so. Is that what you doing right now? No. Is it at least a bendy straw? It's not a paper straw, by the way. I hate paper straws. Yeah, they kind of suck. I understand why we're doing it, but they get soggy.

I don't want to go without a straw. I'm a major straw person. I'm comfortable in my heterosexualness to know that I can get away with it, but I do not like paper straws at all. You go to California, it's all you get is paper straws. It sucks. All right. There's a way to segue. Number three on our list of things to get over the review of 2020.

Joe, the DeAndre Hopkins trade still sucks. I mean, really sucks. I don't really know the way to spin it. I don't have any upside. I don't think David Johnson's going to be that good. I don't think the receivers that have been brought in here are going to make up for the absence of DeAndre Hopkins. I'm not going to go glass-half-full in this.

And I'm generally speaking a glass-half-full kind of guy. He, meaning Bill O'Brien, got into a pissing match over one of the best receivers in the game, One of the best receivers that will probably be the, I mean, when you think about it, pound for pound, more productive than Andre Johnson. I know that's taboo to say. But DeAndre got to the end zone. DeAndre's hands were as good as they got. He won more 50-50 balls than anybody I've ever seen in wearing a Houston Texan uniform.

And he's gone because he wanted more money. And look, was he being underpaid? probably for the position. Do the Texans have other concerns, like taking care of Laramie Tunsell and ultimately taken care of Deshaun Watson? But how did it get so bad that the Texans could have said, let's wait one more year. You'll have then at this point two years left in your contract,

and then we can look at our finances and see where we are and go from there. It not only didn't get to that point, at least publicly, it got nasty in terms of his workout habits, his lack of practice skills during the week, the fact that apparently the baby mama's thing came into play, and that all of this undertone written by both of them on Twitter made it just a nasty, ugly, ugly divorce. And while Randall Cobb's going to catch some passes for the team this year,

and, you know, Will Fuller, hopefully will stay healthy, and Brandon Cooks has a history of catching a lot of passes. Now, the Brandon Cooksdale for me isn't terrible. Because, again, if he fails miserably, it's just a one-year hit. Because the Rams are still paying a large part of his contract. But they lost their best guy, and then on top of that, they got nothing in return. Nothing.

A guy in David Johnson, who is way overpaid for what he's supposed to do, and on top of that, was going to fall to another. 3rd on the depth chart for the Cardinal running backs. It sucks. It absolutely sucks. And I don't know short of Randall Cobb and Brandon Cooks, each grabbing 1,000 yards and getting the end zone seven to nine times, if I'm ever going to feel better about this.

And I don't think there's a lot of Texan fans that would argue with me. Even the diehards. Texans Karen, as much as she loves. her Texans, as much as she trust everything that is done on Kirby, you get Texans Karen, a couple of beverages, like a couple of Cori's lights like I'm having right now,

and she'd even say, you know, what they do with my guy DeAndre? He was my guy. And so, I'm sorry. This was another reason why 2020 sucks. You took a guy, I mean, and think about this, Joe,

DeAndre was a huge security blanket for Deshawn Watson, right? Absolutely. It could be disastrous, potentially. How do we know that those guys that I just mentioned are going to be security blankets for Deshaun? He's going to now have to take, not probably,

he's going to have to step up his game in terms of accuracy, getting rid of the football, and or dumping it a lot faster. There will be no room for a lot of improvisation much longer. Because I don't think the guys I just mentioned are going to be able to get the type of separation that DeAndre didn't. And that wasn't because DeAndre was the fastest guy in the league. He was nowhere close.

But he knew how to escape his defenders. He knew to make adjustments on his route. And when Deshaun would throw the ball up in the air, if it was anywhere close to DeAndre, he was going to win the 50-50 ball, probably 99% of the time over the guy that was defending him. And look, I don't have a dog in this fight, but I do in respect that you can, guys love the Texans and you want them to win and be successful, okay, then you have to have

the best players. And when you don't get the best player in a trade, more times than not, you lose the trade. It's just the truth. And Bill O'Brien and the organization will sell this to their blue in the face. You know, they had to look big long term. It just wasn't their plans to pay DeAndre. Okay. But to get rid of him for what you did.

I mean, I'm not even necessarily completely crushing the thought of trading him, but you're supposed to get a haul back for one of the best receivers in the game. And I go back to what Stefan Diggs and that trade from Minnesota to Buffalo, the Buffalo Bills gave the Vikings a good haul, including a first round pick.

The Texans got, as Michael Irvin said, a ham sandwich. It's just, there is no justification for it. there's nothing. There's nothing you can say about the trade that makes me feel any better about today than before. There isn't one person still to this day. I mean, I really like Blacklock.

I think Blacklock's going to be a good player, but, like, that's not, he's a defensive lineman. I mean, the Texans may never have as good of a wide receiver as DeAndre Hopkins in the history of their franchise ever again. You already had Andre Johnson. That was going to be hard to beat. Then you have Hopkins to beat that again. I mean, top five receivers, number one receivers, they don't just come around. Unless Will Fuller is healthy for 16 games. And it can really stretch the field.

Even then, I don't know if he can ever get anywhere near Hopkins and Julio Jones and like the elite guys. That to me is where Bill O'Brien has really got to think about where can I save grace on this one. Save face, I should say. is if Will Fuller has that breakout season. Because when he gets down on a deep route and can catch the ball and outrun his opponents, which he typically has done ever since he's been an NFL player, he's fun to watch. But man, you just can't rely on him.

Every Wednesday and Thursday it felt like for a better part of the last three or four seasons, is Will Fuller available to the Texans this Sunday or this Saturday or this Monday. And you get shoulder struck. shrug you would get the indifference you get the well we hope we get we get him i mean that's not how you build a receiving core there it is a deeper core than it was last year i'm not going to argue that point but deeper doesn't mean it's always better i think the number one intangible in all this is if will fuller has a breakout season when he plays the full 16 if there are 16 games and what they get from brandon cooks

Because I think I know who Randall Cobb is. Brandon Cooks can still move down the football field. The problem is he's just another concussion away from being in that multi-conclusion club. Well, he's in that club. Yeah, he's in that club. And he's also bounced from team to team to team the last handful of years. Why did the alarms go off over on Texanville? Why didn't they?

For any of this? They probably did. I mean, but. I know, see, it is hard because I do feel like if we get Randall Cobb from Dallas last year and not at the end of this tenure in Green Bay, if you get somewhat of a healthy Will Fuller and Cooks is on the field, still, it's like, you have an incredible wide receiver core with great depth of the tight end position. You're often should be incredible.

In all honesty, you're often should be really good this year. But it's just, it still doesn't justify the trade, though. Do you think Bill O'Brien's a guy that when he gets in his car and it says change oil soon, your engine's going to burn? He just goes, oh, screw that, just hits the reset button. And just like waits till his car dies? Yeah. I don't know if he's that. He doesn't take any warning.

He doesn't take warnings very well. Well, no, wait. He traded DeAndre Hopkins three years before he could be asked for really a new contract. does that mean Bill O'Brien does he change his oil like 15 days after he gets it filled Oh Is he is he so on top of it that he's not willing to see that light ever

That he's going you know 30 days 40 days in advance of when he knows he's getting an oil change To make sure he's on top of it But then you know what he does He fills it with really cheap oil Ooh That's a good call Okay so he's early old change guy

But gets the cheap stuff because he wants save money. Yeah. Yep. Or how about this? And Jack does it for him. Or, you know, well, Jack, there's no, there's no question. Jack's changing his oil. No, Jack is actually driving the car to the oil change. Bill doesn't have time to get his oil change. Jack's doing it. How about this? What if he is, I'm going to get my oil changed weeks ahead of time before I get that light show up and I'm going to go, go to Walmart think I'm going to get the cheap stuff, but I'm going to get the most expensive kind where everyone's like, man, don't go to Walmart. They're going to charge you $150 for the same oil that you can get at auto parts store for like $25.

He's buying the expensive package that no one else buys. But like what's the car equivalent to a running back? Like oil is essential to your car. Is, oh, Bill O'Brien's paying extra for like top of the line anti-freeze. Yes. He's paying pretty cheap oil, but for the top of the line, you know, over the top. expensive antifreeze. Yeah.

Okay. I feel like we've just given a car lecture here on the radio show. Bill of the radio show, the Marketplace is going to do that. I can tell you that right now. All right. Staying with the Texans as our year in review continues. You know what happened in late January 2020 after the Texans got their ass beat by Kansas City? They made a shift in the executive chart.

We'll tell you about that in a moment. 114 on the Matt Thomas show. 713-21-2-5-790. 7-13-21-5-7-90. Bottom of the hour, you're going to hear the first visit of, at least on a weekly basis, of James Click, the Astros GM, right here on Sports Talk 790. Next time, tell Alexa. Playing 790 on I-heart radio.

Wherever you are, so is Matt Thomas. 119 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show. We are with you today until 3 o'clock. We're unfortunately going over the first six months of the year. Sucks. 713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Let me tell you this. At underscore CX2 underscore. We were talking earlier about the cams.com website. SportsMTs. Who is Hames Jarden? Hashtag cams.com. That's really funny. That's really, really funny.

You guys are, you never disappoint me. Heber Lanieres says, O'Brien changes his tires yearly with used retreated tires. Joe, that's good, too. He doesn't go get the new ones. He just wants the ones from the scrap heap. I get you. And our friend Joan says, from the day of the trade, I bowed and never return to a Texan's game, still very angry about the trade and still refuse COVID or not to go.

Man, you get Joan mad. You don't want to get her mad. should come with fire and brimstone we appreciate her passion 713212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 and again james clicked for the astro's new GM with his weekly appearance with Sean this morning we're going to replace some of the highlights of that coming up at the bottom of the hour one more thing before we start taking some of your phone calls and the best and worst of 2020 which really there's no best bill o'brien and the Texans, Joe George, give up 51 points, score 7,

and get their ass kicked at Arrowhead Stadium to the eventual Super Bowl champions. So they jump on the plane, they come back from Kansas City, they huddle up at NRG Stadium, Cal McNair, says, you know what? We haven't made it to the championship game yet. All you do is win these division championships.

We don't do squat. We beat very subpar teams in the playoffs. And in return, you're now the general manager. How in the world... Did the Rona do this to Cal McNair? I think that's pre-Rona. No, but I think he might have gotten the pre-Rona. Maybe he was delirious and said,

there's no one else that would ever want my job, as I mean, want the job as a general manager. There's no one else that would potentially ever want to work with Bill O'Brien. So let's give him everything. In the history of sports, I don't know. if there is an organization that has given one person so much power with such limited championships. Even Bill Belichick, who kind of basically runs the Patriots as a general manager and head coach, I mean, he's at least got like six or seven Super Bowls, right?

He's gone to the Super Bowl like 10 times. You know, you gave Red Arbach the keys to the general manager of the Celtics, and he was your coach because the Celtics won basically every championship for about 15 years. Pat Riley became a very successful general manager with a couple of different teams based on his record as being a really good championship coach and a leader of men. The Texans have a bunch of Waldcard wins under their belt and embarrassing losses in divisional round play. And you gave him the keys to NRG Stadium.

I mean, I think Cal's got keys, but I'm not for sure. Maybe when Bill said, I want to be the general manager, and you'll only be allowed to come in when I say you can. This is all on him now. Because no matter what kind of leadership team, him and Jack Easterby are, and whatever they collectively decide, the buck's going to stop with Bill O'Brien. There isn't anybody that's a lieutenant in the Easterby-O'Brien regime.

that could possibly convince them of something that they don't already agree with. So we've already seen it once. They wanted to go get Laramie Tunsel. They did so. And they gave up a heavy price for it, not only financially, but draft picks. Laramie, you got every dollar that you wanted and then some. You better be good. And David Johnson, you're paying him a lot of money as part of that trade.

You better be good. I have little faith. But here's the thing, as Joe has said in the last segment of the show, with all that said, there are parts of this team that can be successful. If Cooks can stay healthy on the field, he will catch passes, he will find the end zone. If Wolf Fuller can stay healthy, we know he still has explosive speed, and his hands are better than they were by the time he first stepped on the football field. Deshawn Watson is looking to play for a mega, mega, mega, mega contract.

he's going to want to step up his game. The offensive line looks like it's going to be better than it was. It was very good, compared to what we thought it was going to be. It's a much better offensive line. You've got the two Johnsons in the backfield that you would hope at some point one of those two guys could have a breakout run. But you just outline my biggest problem with Bill O'Brien as a GM. He did all this work to make sure the offense was still good.

And the defense that gave up 51 points against the Chiefs is still awful. and just not good like just they didn't improve at all and what about the pass rush got worse and blacklock can be good but he's not DJ Reader and we I mean and if JJ is fully

healthy of course the pass rush is much improved but that's a I feel like everything we talk about about where this team could be better than they were a year ago the words if healthy are always in front of a bet every one of the key players absolutely I mean, even Deshawn.

Deshawn has two 20 seals. Even if healthy goes for him. And he had to take a bus to Jacksonville last year. Was that last year? Was that two years ago? Was that two years ago? Yeah. COVID is like messed with my timeline of everything.

You know why? Because two years ago, last year they played in London. So, you know, you're right. If he took a bus to London, I would really be impressive. Be impressive. On the ferry, the whole way across? How long would that take?

Oh, days, right? Well, I mean, people go on a cruise. Do they go to a cruise to London all the time? People go to go to cruises, right? But that would be several days. Right? No, I think you only go to like, I thought cruises only went to like warm places or Alaska. I don't think you cruise to London.

You can't cruise to London? I don't think. I mean, maybe. Well, Google, let me look, Google it right now. Can you cruise to London? I think you and I failed our geography classes. Let's take a look here. Oh, it looks like maybe you can.

Well, then. Why are you making me feel bad? Can you cruise to England? Now, maybe not downtown London, obviously, but... Well, no, but you get off the bus and you keep going. Let's say here, all. Cruises to England, official Norwegian cruise line. The U.S. to England cruises depart from New York, Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami.

Large cruise ships cannot fit up the river to London, so the trips go to Southampton or Dover. South Hampton is 80 miles southwest of London. Harwich is 85 miles northeast of London. I guess I just never thought people would spend money to take a boat to London when you could cruise to. Well, if your quarterback has punctured lungs, what are you supposed to do? Could you... Injured to serve for a week? It would take him like four days to get there and four days back.

Yeah, at the time he got there, you might as well just like have him out for two weeks. That's so funny. Let's go to Brian in downtown on 798-127. Hi, Brian. Hey, what's going on this morning, Matt? How are you doing, man? Good, buddy. What's going on?

Hey, let me tell you something, man. I look at it this way. As long as Bill O'Bonehead is in charge of everything going on over there on Kirby Street, we're AFC South champions forever. Is that badass, man, or what? No, I don't care. How long do we have to put up with it? That's what I want to know, Matt.

Forever. Let me tell you, Brian. Brian, Brian, Brian, Brian. You've been calling me for years asking the same question. I never give you any different results. I tell you the same thing every time. So we're helpless. We're absolutely helpless.

That's the deal, huh? Well, you have two options. You either go and you root and you cheer because they're Houston's team, or you say, screw it, I'm going to watch somebody else, or root for somebody else, or just not watching it at all. I mean, it's pretty easy. If you want to distance yourself from him, you distance yourself from the entire organization.

That's a tough one, Matt. But you can't ask him. Anyway, hey, I love your show. Sorry I keep doing that to you, but anyway, I love you, Matt. All right, Brian, I hear him from you. Yeah, I mean, Brian calls all the time with the same thing. What are we going to do to get rid of him? Nothing.

It is impossible for him being rid of. It just is. Bill O'Brien, like the NWO for life. 129 on the Matt Thomas show. We'll switch to some baseball coming up next. James Click with his first 790 weekly appearance of the baseball season. You'll hear from him next here on Sports Talk 790. Right now a message for hoops, basketball goals, and sporting equipment.

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Hey, this is Whitney Merseys. The Texans disc here. Listen to real Texans talk on your smart speaker. Just say, hey, Google. Play Sports Talk 790 on I. Heart Radio. Time is 133. We are halfway down on the Matt Thomas show.

Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves. Appreciate the interaction on Twitter. And on the phones at 713-212-125-790. 7-1-3-1-2-5-7-90. Every Wednesday, 9-30, live. You can hear a James Click visit with Sean Salisbury, and we will on most weeks on this show play a portion of that. We'll do that starting today when Sean.

and James discuss a variety of topics, kind of big picture stuff, before we get more into the minutia of the day-to-day events of the Astros. But Sean opened the conversation by asking James, did he ever anticipate that we're sitting here in early July with no baseball, especially after we thought originally this pandemic was just going to be a short-term delay to the baseball season? Yeah, we definitely did not anticipate that it was going to last as long as it did. I remember very distinctly addressing the team explaining to them what we knew and what we didn't know about the virus, about the situation. It turns out there was a lot that we didn't know that we didn't know it. We were so far removed from what this was going to look like. We thought it was going to be a couple weeks.

Yeah, I think that's probably about right, and we would get back out there. But, I mean, if you remember in the beginning, there was still talk of playing 162 games. And, you know, that obviously wasn't in the cards for us this year, but we're excited to get back out there. Did Rob Manfred handle this properly from your point of view, this whole overall with the ownership and the way he went about this business? Well, I think you're right that the general managers, by and large, don't really get involved in these kind of negotiations. It's between the league and it's the players association. And, you know, whether it was handled well or not, I'm not concerned with that. We're focused right now on getting back out in the field and getting our safety protocols in place

and making sure that we put these guys in a position to stay healthy. Because if we can stay healthy, then we have a real good chance to get back to the postseason and fight for a championship. Why did you take this job during a time when it would have been easy to say no? Why did you take this job? It's a really good question. For me, personally, it was a new challenge. And it was a chance to change the problems that,

we all face in baseball. You know, as he said, you know, we were very successful the past couple of years in Tampa. And not that that was getting stale in any way, but it's always exciting to me mentally to get a new framework. I talked to Andrew Friedman a lot before taking this job because he went through something very similar when he left Tampa to go to L.A. And so we talked a lot about the, you know, what can come out of that change in your perspective and the new challenge.

But beyond that, you know, I knew that, you know, there were a lot of good people here in Houston, and it was a really good team. And I just wanted to come and help out and try to get us on the right track. Spring training, you're the new GM. Everything's in place. Coming out of the controversy and the commissioners, you know, the penalties they put down. When you stood in front of that team, how was your approach to them and how was it received on how you were going to move forward out of the scientific? stealing problem? Yeah, the approach was, you know, I'm Dusty and I talked about this, and I think Dusty did a

much better job addressing the team and delivering the message, but, you know, we were trying to move past it as best we could. We were focused on the future. We were focused on putting this behind us and trying to get back out there on the field. I think everybody's acknowledged that, you know, the guys, you know, the team, it was wrong. Everybody's acknowledged that it was wrong, but there's nothing that we could do about it to go back in the past and fix it. You know, all we can do is go out there,

play the game the right way, win the game the right way, and hopefully over time we can earn back some of the trust that we all lost from baseball fans. I will preface this by saying I am a, I've known him a long time, and I am a diehard Dusty Baker fan, and I was loving the fact that he was in the mix for the interview.

Why hire him and why is he the best man for this job right now? It's hard to sum up. I mean, you know, first of all, Dusty is a legend. He's been around the game for forever. It's been a joy for me just to sit down and listen to him and just try to learn as much as I can from him and everything he's seen. You know, we didn't know this at the time, obviously,

but the experience that he's had through, you know, work stoppages in the past, you know, in 1981 in particular, the experience he has getting ready to go really quickly, right? A three-week spring training. It is a short ramp up. There's a lot of nuance to that. And nobody here has ever been through anything like that before.

But fortunately, we have a guy like Dusty who's, we've been through that and can say, hey, guys, this is what I did. This is what I did. This is what works. But just beyond that, the perspective that he has, the history that he has throughout, you know, not even just baseball, but through life in America. I mean, most of our conversations aren't about baseball as much as they are the things that he's experienced. in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and on through. And so that experience, that sage voice, the calming influence, the ability to talk to the guys about how to get through all of these crises

that seem like the worst thing that's ever happened. I mean, Dusty can get up there and be like, guys, you know, we'll get through this. I've been through things like this. And it absolutely makes them the right guy for the job. When you talk to Dusty and you guys are actually talking the baseball part of it, how much different is going into a 60 game season for 162 game season in your approach towards pitching changes with Dusty, all those things that go in. Will there be a different approach or is it just 60 games and it's urgent and baseball as usual?

Yeah, that's something that we're talking through every day. And I've been through quite a few pennant races where you wake up on August 1st and, you know, if you're not tied, you're pretty close to it. And so it just harkens back to some of those where, there's an increased sense of urgency. And we have to prioritize every individual game. It can't be a situation where, you know, and not that you ever sacrifice the game, but sometimes you kind of take a little bit of a longer view of things.

You know, the main thing for me is just going to be prioritizing the health of our players because if somebody goes down with an injury, you know, instead of missing maybe, you know, two weeks of a six-month season, we're talking about missing two weeks of a two-month season. And the impact that that has on the overall, you know, the way the team works and the impact that has on the team is obviously magnified. And so we're doing everything we can to make sure that these guys are healthy and ready to ramp up as safely as possible. And I know this is a big part of it, but concern it all, you know, Brent Strom's up in age, but boy, he's the best in the business. Dusty's up in age about the protocol and how you're going to keep an eye on the health or will it, you know, I know these guys will be business. usual, but is there any concern about the age of these, and we saw it happen in Minnesota,

a couple coaches aren't going to be able to coach this year? Any concern going into this? Well, I think all of us are concerned. I mean, obviously they've designated certain people, high risk, moderate risk, low risk, but everybody is at risk. That's why we're in the situation that we're in as a country right now with this virus. And, you know, we're all concerned about it. So it's something that we're going to keep an eye on, but at the same time, we have protocols in place. and, you know, I've personally been through quite a few of them. You know, there are times when I've said, hey, guys, I want to come down to the clubhouse, and I'm told I can't come in because we're already at max capacity, you know,

for social distancing reasons. So we're all taking it very seriously, but these protocols that we have in place, based on what we know about the virus and everything else right now, we have confidence that they are going to keep our players and our personnel is safe as we possibly can throughout this season. We wouldn't be starting up if we didn't think. that these protocols could, you know, prevent the virus from getting in or when it gets in,

contain it quickly so that it doesn't spread and, and, you know, make sure we keep guys safe. Optimism we should have on George Springer being a Houston Astro beyond this season. Yeah, I know it's on everybody's minds. It's not hard to, you go online and you read anything about the team, and I can see all the comments out there.

I know how much people love George. I, you know, I've obviously respected him as a player from a distance and tried to put together some scaffolding reports to try to beat him and it's tough. So it's a conversation we're all looking forward to having. I know that we want to sit down with him and talk about it. And, you know, I think that we were going to get some discussions on that going during spring training once we kind of got through some of the things we had to deal with back then. But this transaction freeze, you know, that took all that off the table. We weren't allowed to have discussions about it. And so it's only been since this past Friday that Major League Baseball has lifted that freeze,

and we've even been able to contemplate having those discussions. And I know that I've talked to Jim about it, and he's a big Springer fan too, and we're going to see what we can do. But those are conversations that we'll have. All right. We'll end with this. Verlander, who's been so special in his career and so special since he's come to Houston, you've run across a lot of good pitchers and seen them.

what separates this guy? Maybe something you didn't know about him until you came to Houston. I mean, you always hear about people's reputations for putting in the work, and you hear about their reputations for their understanding of pitching and the art of pitching, and not even just the science of it, but like the real, the nuances of it, the stuff that's really hard to capture or quantify. You know, those were just so evident in the first. few days that I met him, just, you know, how hard he works and how seriously he takes

this craft. And, you know, I know that I'm talking about these conversations with, you know, Jerry Huntsicker and Dusty and Stromy, you know, guys like Burlander who have been out there for, you know, I don't know what his career endings total are right now, but, you know, that, that kind of thing. Just, just having that experience and being able to talk to him about the craft of pitching. That's really been what stood out to me. That again, James Click from the Sean Salisbury Show every Wednesday at 930. We're happy to replay that for you because you can't catch it then. All right, we're going to do a 790 match game on our Monday night meeting coming up in the next couple weeks. I haven't definitively

given the date on that. But when we do, Joe George will be one of the celebrities to give us his answers. He's a little apprehensive about how to play the match game. We'll give him a little run through next. 144 on Sports Talk 790 with a message for big city wings. If you're hungry tonight for great tasting wings, you got to think of big city wings. If you are in the mood for eight dollar burgers, it's whiskey Wednesday and a burger Wednesday at any of the big city wing locations, eight dollars apiece for delicious wings. And are you ready for this? They have a tremendous selection of drinks to go. You can now get your favorite drinks like margaritas, Long Island's, Dacqueries.

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This is the Matt Thomas show. Matt Thomas. On Sports Talk 790. All right. This is the theme to one of the most famous game shows out there. And it's called match game. It's on

right now hosted by Alec Baldwin, who is no Gene Rayburn, for those of you that are old school match game fans. And we're going to play 790 match game on the Monday night meeting in a couple of weeks. But there's a little hesitancy from Joe George about being one of the celebrities because he's afraid he doesn't know the gist of the game. So it's my responsibility as a major market host and Amanda get my, make sure all of my coworkers are comfortable in which the experience they're about to get into. We're going to give you a little prep. All right?

I think so I'm going to read. I'm going to read some that I've done in the past when I was in Minneapolis. And you just got to fill the answer in and see if it makes sense if the audience would boo you or would say that's a good answer, okay? Okay. So just relax. Remember, there's no... I think it's just because I do not in Florida stories with you going to go so bad. It does go bad.

I know. I mean, it's awful. It's awful. Okay, here we go. Um, the Astros. I'm changing the Twins, the Astros on this. The Astros hired Charlie the Chef as their assistant groundskeeper. It wasn't a good move.

He insists on sprinkling blank all over the grass. Mnour. Terrible answer. Why? What does the chef do? Oh, is chef? Yeah. Charlie the chef.

Salt. There you go. This is going to be rough. It's okay. It was just the first one. I didn't listen well enough. Next. George said...

Me? No, just a different short. Having a female professional wrestler as a girlfriend is trouble. When she told me she wanted to tie the knot, she didn't want to get married. Instead, she just wanted to tie my blanket or not. My... My goodies.

That's not a bad answer. You're catching on. Okay. You're catching on. Let's see here. Let me go with a couple old-school ones, really old-school ones, nothing to do with my Minnesota time. Let's see.

Oh, a bald man complained. My wife thinks my head is an egg. Last night she tried to blanket. Crack it. Crack, fry, poach, all that would have been good. Again, you're doing great. I feel better. Next.

The surgeon said, the man I'm operating on must be a magician. When I reach in a pull out his appendix, I got a blank instead. A rabbit? Yes. So not terrible at this game. No, just what I would do is I would, when we officially announced a date on this Monday night meeting, we play 790 match game. And they're going to be all sports related to Houston-related questions. Because, again, I'm bored at 3 o'clock in the morning.

I'm just typing up these questions. You're going to have to, you know, maybe we'll. watch one or two episodes of match game and just kind of just get with the flow of it. But so far you've done really well? Do you recommend watching older match games or newer match games? They're both good. Okay. Well, that's not true.

The older match games are the classic ones are the really good ones. The new ones are, they're so risque that we couldn't put them on the air. I noticed that. That's why I went with goodies because I wasn't really sure to answer the question. I've actually told this the audience last week. You know what also was getting really risque is a family. family feud. Yeah.

I've seen clips where they push the limit. It's because people are dirtier today. Well, it's because they just run out of questions. Like, name something you put on your Thanksgiving Day table. I mean, who cares? Turkey dressing, you know, cranberry sauce. Boring. The better question is, name something you'd put on your wife to make her Thanksgiving

Day extra special. Cranberry sauce on her breast. You know what I'm saying? That's what they want to do. trying to push that limit. That's Steve Harvey, right? Oh, yeah. Dirty, old man.

Dirty, dirty old man. All right, let's get one more of our 2020. So you pass the match game pre-test. You're going to be great. I'm very happy about that. All right, so far we've talked about sports being delayed, the Astros, Bill O'Brien being named the general manager, DeAndre Hopkins trade.

Where do you want to put Last Dance? that has to be actually something fairly encouraging that we were able to get this documentary put out there a lot sooner than they were probably ready to do so, right? Yeah, I guess it's just like, it's on the positive side, it's Super Bowl, national championship,

and last dance or your top three sports moments of the year so far. What was the top three again? The Super Bowl, the national championship game, and the last dance. If you notice everything else from ESPN documentary series has just fallen flat. Oh. We just got the best and we just were not ready to accept anything less than.

I think they, I'm wondering if they wouldn't feel as bad if they didn't come out right after the last dance. And even the last dance, I feel like didn't live up to the hype for me. It didn't. What? I thought it was really good. I just, I don't know. I think you're being way too difficult. I mean, it was much watched television.

It was so much so it was not must watch an hour later so you can get rid of the commercials. It wasn't a much watch a day later. It was we had to be in front of our televisions at 8 o'clock every Sunday night for like five weeks. Yeah, I just, I wanted more of the Bull story. I mean, I loved it. I loved every second of it. I've saved it on my DVR so I can watch it again. Right.

And it's going to be, for me, like, it's one of my favorite documentaries of all time. And just the length and time it was awesome. What did you want some more Judd Blishler stuff? I thought it was supposed to be more about the story of the last season and how they got there. And I think that was their intention. I think what they probably realized is there was a lot more boring footage than they thought they had. And that's why it became more of the Michael Jordan story.

Yeah, unless you were just going to go through every single player of the team. But I thought they did an effective job of highlighting who was important. Scotty Pippen, Rodman, Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson, Jerry Krause I do think Michael I do think part of it is I really wish Jerry

was alive for the documentary do you think he would have been cooperative yeah because I think he would have wanted to defend himself I mean all that would have had to do was send him like three clips from the first episode I've been like you want to respond to any of this or just let them trash you

well all right let me just play devil's advocate for just a second if he knows that Michael Michael Jordan is, this is all of his material, and there was going to be clearly a huge spin towards pro-Michael in this. Would there be anything that might, that he would have been able to do to change the narrative at all? He could have pinned it on whose fault it actually was. If it wasn't necessarily his fault, like he could have said it came more top-down, like I think it did. I think a lot of this is Jerry's fault, but at the end of the day, I don't think Jerry Rinesdorf wanted to pay people. Yeah, my guess is that Jerry Reinsdorf would have probably told Jerry Krauss.

It's probably in your best interest to say something, right? Yeah. And just, I don't know, I don't, I'm not fond of Jerry Reinsdorf personally. So I think he's allowed his two franchises in Chicago to be mismanaged his entire ownership time, except for when they had Michael Jordan. Look at the 05 White Sox. And the 05 White Sox. The O5 White Sox should have had, should have won multiple titles. and they didn't nothing

nothing to show for it it's so strange they did nothing before and definitely nothing after right yeah they had what there was a lockout the next year or something and then and they were okay but then they just they blew it up and they

and they do it now and like now that he's finally not calling the shots every day for the bulls and the socks it's like finally turning around all right but no I I think everything that would follow it.

Lance Armstrong, the Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa. The Bruce Lee just never appealed to me at all. So it might be a wonderful piece of documentary, but it just didn't wasn't one of those things I wanted to watch. But everything has kind of fallen in flight, at least from ratings

and interest, and certainly on the radio show, interest perspective, since last dance finished on. All right, final hour, Matt Thomas show starts in a matter of moment. 713-212-5-790. We've got a few more topics get to as we run through the sucky year that is 2020. 713-212-5-790.

7-13-212-5-7-90. Also in the next hour, we got to figure out this Bobby Bonilla math because I'm highly confused by it. We'll do that. Final hour, Matt Thomas Show next on Sports Talk 790. Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas Show. Here we go. 202 Sports Talk 790.

final hour of this Wednesday edition of the show. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today. If you want to get in, lines are available. And we are here to kind of recap the sucky first six months of the year. So far we have talked about the Hopkins trade, Bill O'Brien being named the general manager, sports seasons being delayed, the Astero's Suckiness. Let's go to a few more things, Joe George. We mentioned last dance, also in the final segment.

Kobe's passing, not a whole lot more you can say except just a tragedy, and that the legacy of him is going to be, you know, I think the greatest thing we got out of this was we were trying to figure out of way to properly memorialize, you know, his passing. The whole All-Star game event was perfect, right? The MVP award is great. The way they changed the rules up for the game was good. I mean, everything was first class during that entire weekend. yeah it was and it's it's one of those things that happened such a long time ago in this year and everything that's happened since it's it almost gets forgotten it feels like for what's happened this year and but the way they did it was incredible the the the funeral was even the this like having Michael Jordan up there talking about covey and shekeel and it was so memorable like all of that stuff was just honestly it was It was incredible. The way it happened, the way they memorialized him and remembered him and the games we've been able to watch on TV.

That's been kind of a cool part since sports have been shut down. Has it been able to see a lot more Kobe stuff, I think, than we would have before. Sure. Because there would have been normal sports programming that would have had to go on instead. But, yeah, it's still weird to think that he's gone as such a huge fan of him like I am. but they memorialized them the best way they could, I think for sure. And it's funny. I have spent a lot of time watching a lot of old games.

If I watch one more Lakers Celtics game, I'm probably going to vomit because I just, I don't want to watch those two teams anymore. But if there is a special Kobe moment where he scores, like that Utah game, his last game where he scored 61, I mean, pretty damn incredible. When he scored 80 points in the game against Toronto, pretty damn incredible. I don't mind watching that kind of stuff. I just don't want to see rehash of the 2011-12, whatever it was, NBA Finals between the Celtics and Lakers,

because let's face it, they've already had their too much shine as it is. But, yeah, everything that has been talked about, honored, tribute-wise, has been perfect for Kobe and, you know, going to be beloved, obviously, for many, many generations. And I think even the younger fans who didn't get to see him play in person, we'll go back and go, man, I wish I had a chance to see Kobe play in person, I remember seeing highlights or watching a game with him doing his thing. Tom Brady is now a Buccaneer.

I wonder if we, Joe, went back to our old tapes of our show. If any of us predicted Tampa Bay would have been the team you'd have gone to. Here were the teams that I thought were going to be on the radar. Indianapolis, Las Vegas, and the L.A. Chargers. those to me were the ones that made the most sense. Did we ever think Tampa was in play? And did we make the mistake by not seriously thinking that Tampa Bay would have been a spot that Tom Brady would have been able to go out and finish his career?

I'd say no, because the initial betting odds had them as like the seventh or eighth favorite to get Tom. I had San Francisco at the top of my list. I just thought that Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch would look at the opportunity to get Brady and move on from Garoppolo and because I don't think Garoppolo is the guy and I think they probably know that too. So I thought maybe they might go for Brady and move on from Jimmy G. But how do they do that?

How do the Niners do that? I mean, they did go to the Super Bowl. I know. And he was a guy that was traded for a good draft pick. And it was a deal that the Niners paid him a lot of money. I mean, he had a very, would you say what, a very average postseason? Yeah, but if I'm thinking of how the Niners are going to get to where they were, and that was to win the NFC, it was largely because of a very balanced running game and an outstanding defense, right? Yeah, definitely.

I thought Chicago had an outside shot, but I thought Tom didn't really want to go anywhere that was cold. I thought that was going to be like a huge factor. Yeah. And honestly, I never thought Indianapolis made any sense to me. I mean, he rivaled with Peyton Manning for so long. I feel like it would be really odd for him to go to Indy of all places But I don't think why see I don't I don't necessarily buy that I don't I don't think the hated rival

I mean if that was the case of Brett Farber never would have gone to Minnesota right Yeah but see I think he got but he got like cast aside for But hurt for Aaron Rogers I think that's more of a revenge factor Than than Tom's situation see I would have thought it would have been much more peculiar for Tom to go somewhere in the a AFC East. That would have been, you know, Miami would have said, come play with us and come beat the team

that you spent better at a 20 years to winning games with. That would have been way more of an interesting situation. But he didn't want to do that. Indianapolis, I thought that would have made sense. He's got some targets to go to. It's a young nucleus football team. Indoorse can't ever hurt, right?

Don't worry about weather like he had for so many years in Boston. The LA Chargers don't just, I mean, they were going to cut their ties with Philip Rivers and didn't know what they were going to do in the draft. And then Las Vegas, there just wasn't enough people that thought that Derek Carr was going to be the long-term solution. Yeah, Vegas made a lot of sense, but then they quickly, I mean, they brought in Mario-Oto

for Brady was even close to a decision. My guess is maybe Brady told them no. But I think Mario, yeah, I think Mario was signed before Brady. Yeah. Do you think Las Vegas is going to become the free agent destination of a lot of guys? I don't think so. Yeah, I think, Living there, if it was a really great team, it would probably help a little bit.

But if you're just an average football team, which really the Raiders have been for a better part of, what, 20 years, 25 maybe? I don't think the Los Vegas. Now, again, they don't have state income tax. That helps out a little bit. I just don't know if it matters anymore. You know, I mean, it always seems to be about like going to the Lakers. and going out to the major markets and the New Yorks. Right.

I just think the way TV has changed. I'm not sure it matters as much. And I think Tom Brady kind of proves that of. If it mattered that much for him to be in L.A., he could have gone to L.A. You know why it doesn't matter? To prove your point, look at some of the most successful franchises in the last 20 years and where they are. Pittsburgh, would anybody ever think, wow, I can't wait to go live in Pittsburgh? Green Bay, one of the coldest cities on the planet, right?

Where else is a really good team that's not particularly. New England. I mean, before Tom Brady, they had two Super Bowl appearances and no championships, right? Because I don't think you really even, you know, the facility in the stadium is 40 miles from Boston, so it's not like you're living in downtown Boston, right? Yeah. I just don't know if it matters anymore, but I don't know if the Raiders are going to catch the appeal. It's going to depend on what people think of John Gurdon, honestly.

Oh, I think there's zero problem with them being a very successful franchise. First of all, their stadium, I think, is going to be spectacular, from what I understand. Secondly, you're going to have, what does that play seat? 70,000, give or take? I'm guessing, yeah. Okay. You're going to comfortably, if the Raiders so choose, have 20,000 people from the other team that you're at that game every week. Minimum.

Comfortably. I mean, the only time I feel like they're going to have a true home field advantage is against their divisional opponents. You play there once every eight years if you're some of these teams. Like, what happens when, just as from my perspective,

when Chicago plays in Vegas for the first time, it's going to be crazy. Like, they're going to be buying up tickets left and right. It's going to be more Bears fans than Raiders fans because they won't go again for another eight years after that. And I wonder how much the Raiders will preclude that. You know,

like a lot of teams will not let you buy, tickets for your team unless you live in a zip code within that state. Like Pittsburgh fans like to run around the country all over the place and buy and buy up tickets because tickets at Hinesfield are so difficult. Plus they just want to get out of Pittsburgh to see their team on the road. Like, you know, all the teams in the AFC North are relatively close to each other. Like Pittsburgh or Cleveland is like 100 miles from each other, I think, something like that. Cleveland Browns fans, Cleveland Browns won't let anybody from a Pennsylvania zip code buy tickets to their games. But not with the secondary

market. That's not really the case. That's right. You're paying a little bit more. But if you want to directly buy from a team, they're going to ask your zip code and then they're going to shoot you down. And the Las Vegas visitors authority of whatever, or whatever they're called, they want

that to happen. They want when the Giants and the Bears and the Texans and these teams to play, they want those fans to come to Vegas to see the Raiders to play because they want you to be in the casino, you know, Friday, Saturday, go to the game on Sunday, go back to the casino after the game, come gamble at our sports books.

Like, that's what they want from you. They don't, honestly, a lot of them, they don't care if you get so drunk at the, they want you to get so drunk and lose so much at the casino that you don't even go to the game. Yeah, and here's the thing. You're not parking at the stadium. There's no parking spots. So everything is Uber. So you're adding more money to the economy of those respective cities, too.

Because you are bouncing from. one venue to the next and you are staying in the casinos and you are eating you're drinking and you don't and think about this Las Vegas is a city where you don't watch your pennies right you'll buy a $14 beer and not think twice about it because what you're going to do is you're going to say to yourself well I want this beer right now at $14 I'll go make one bet on the roulette wheel and get that money back I think it's a win-win and if I was a sports owner of any organization, I would put my team in Las Vegas in a heartbeat. That's all I always said about Steve Ballmer and the Clippers.

I know they bought the form and they're going to rebuild that and build the Clippers' own arena. If I'm the NBA and Memphis doesn't want to stay in Memphis anymore and they can't get a good deal, I know Seattle's desperately wanting NBA basketball again. I know Kansas City is, but Las Vegas would be a super hot spot. The hockey team does really well. I think the Raiders are going to do very well. I don't think baseball would be able to do it because that's 81 games.

and you've got to build a specific baseball-only structure with a roof because you can't play, you know, that's just too damn hot 99% of the time there. But for the other stuff that you don't only have to worry about, you know, maybe 40 games selling, I think basketball would be an easy, easy win there. All right, 713-212-579 if you want to join us today. 7-13-212-5-790. I want to replay some of the highlights from Eric Gordon and Mike Danton. They were on a Zoom call today with the media.

let you hear from them. But first, Joe and I are going to try to figure out the math about Bobby Bonilla and how he is able to make as much money as he has for the Mets off an original investment because I'm very confused and I need somebody with a little math skills to help me out. 214. It is the Matt Thomas Show. 713-212-5-790. Matt Thomas returns on Sports Talk 790. 19 on Sports Talk 790. I really need your help with a math problem. So if you are go with numbers,

please help me explain this because there's something I can't figure out. I've been trying to read about it all day long, and it just doesn't make any sense. I'll have it for you in just a second. Mike's in Cyprus in 220 on 790. Mike, good afternoon. Hey, guys, how are you? Good.

Hey, what it is, the casinos in Vegas have bought up a bunch of seats at the new stadium to where they are going to be selling the packages for the visiting fans. So, yeah, the business fans are going to be able to get into the Vegas stadium to watch their team play the Raiders. So, yeah, it makes sense. Go stay at our hotel, get three-night's hotel, two game tickets, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that makes sense. He had a deal for a bunch of money and have 8% added to it. the Mets said way back when, you know, 15, 10, 15 years ago, we'll give you a million dollars plus interest per year until it's paid out. And that's why he's got it until 2035.

Like today's Bobby Bonilla Day, he gets like $1.25, almost $1.3 million every July 1st deposited into his checking account. Well, I mean, yeah, I know that. But the dollars don't make sense on this. And that's why I've got to try to figure this out a little bit. Because here's the thing. And I screenshot it. you Mike for the phone call. The hotel combo package makes a lot of sense. Hotel, airfare, ground transportation, and two tickets. If you're the Raiders,

Joe, aren't you just paying, aren't you just gouging the hotels? Is any amount of money you want for these tickets? Yeah, probably. Okay. So let's go to this thing for a second. And again, I feel like I'm missing something, so I need you to help me out with this. So the Mets agreed to buy out in

2000, the remaining $5.9 million on Bobby Bonilla's contract. Instead of paying Bonilla the 5.9 at the time, the Mets agreed to make annual payments of nearly $1.2 million for 25 years, starting in July of 2011, including a negotiated 8% interest. The reason why the Mets thought about this was that they wanted, they had a day, they were in bad financial shape because the Bertie Madoff account and how the Mets ownership group was involved in that. So you're telling me, this is where I need somebody to clarify this, that 5.9 in 2000 is all of a sudden worth a million two for 25 years? I mean, that's $30 million, right? Yeah, they're going to pay them a total of $29.8 million.

And I know that inflation moves the value. Like $10,000 in 1973 is not the same that it means in 2020, right? Okay, we understand that. Even with the interest, why have a huge amount? It's only $6 million. If you said, all right, we need to defer your $6 million. We'll pay you $9 to do it. that would make sense

so they deferred the payment for a decade okay so what's 5.9 in 2000 worth in 2011 what's that worth seven right well if it's 8% every year is it 8% every year is that why it's 30 million again I'm not

I really don't know I'm missing the math on this somewhere I'm reading this brought off the ESPN story. Instead of paying Beninian the $5.9 million at the time, the Mets agreed to make annual payments of $1.2 million for 25 years, starting in July of 2011, including a negotiated 8% interest. So did every year between 2000 and 2011 that 5.9 grew 8%?

I think so. Because that's the only way I can see why this became such a balloon payment. I mean, brilliant move on Binias part. I mean, he never has to really worry about anything ever again. But it just feels like that that's even on a bad loan, that even feels like just an unfair loan. So if you took 8% of $5.9 million, that's about $575,000. You added that every year for 11 years. So that's 10 years of $575.

That's another $5 million. That puts it at $10.9 million. You see what I'm saying on that? We just took the 5.9. We added 8% each year for the next 11 years. That makes the contract worth now $11 million, right? It still doesn't make sense 1.2 for 25 years. So if anybody knows, and maybe there's a Mets fan out there that can help me figure this out,

and after I take my nap today, maybe I'll find out what it is too. It's just, I don't get how one, we can't. pay you $5.9 million right now, all of a sudden turn out to be a deal worth $30 million. And whatever that is, and whatever Bobby, if Bobby Beninia wants to negotiate my next contract for deferred payments, I'd be all for it. Because I don't know, I don't even see, does Benia do anything publicly anymore? No, I don't, he doesn't do interviews, like. I mean, everybody knows July 1st is Barry Bonilla, Bobby. Biniya Day, for sure.

It just to me, I don't, I'm not catching the math on this. So if anybody can give me the reason why that is, please let me know. 713-212-5-790, 7-1-3-21-5-790 because it's amazing work on the behalf of Benia. It's amazing stupidity from the New York Mets. I just don't know that it should be as bad as it is. I know there's a logical answer to it. I just can't figure that out. one. Yeah, and so this all stems from, like I said, Bernie Madoff. So Fred Wilpon, so we accepted

the deal, a deal with Bernie Madoff that was going to get him 10% return on his investments with Madoff. And then that was going to outweigh the 8% he owed Bobby Boneya every day. But obviously we all know it ended up being a huge Ponzi scheme, so it totally backfired on them. But the idea was that they were still going to make a profit on this 8%. Because of that's what the money was going to. That $5.9 million, it sounds like, was to Bernie Madoff. This hurts my head. All I know is that in my next life, I want to come back as a backup quarterback,

a left-handed reliever, and Bobby Benia. Because the man is going to be 72 years old when he gets his last check from the New York Mets. for $5.9 million or was originally. Because that is this deal. In fact, if I, if there were deals being done like that today, if I was a majorly baseball player, I don't want my money deferred forever and ever and ever.

I mean, what a great insurance blanket. I've had a tough year. I had some stocks that didn't work out particularly well. Oh, it's July 1st. Guess what I should have bought a direct deposit? You mean like Max Scherzer, who's going to get $15 million a year from 2022 to 2020.

He's got to be laughing his ass off, right? Yeah. He's really good. Did you know that Ken Griffey Jr. is still getting paid by the Reds still 2024? Yeah, he's what, a couple million dollars a year? 3.6. And KG still is owed money by the Celtics?

Mm-mm. Darren Williams just wrapped up yesterday for getting paid by the Nets $5 million a year. What? Yep. No, one of these sports franchises are so poorly run. The dead money they're spending. The Pat McAfee Show, they came up with this list.

I'm hopeful that most of this is accurate, but Albert Pooleholz for 10 years after he retires from the Angels, he's going to get $10 million a year. God. Like, that's crazy. Joe, I got to tell you something. Do not get in this business long term. You're still young enough if you can become a professional last. No, I don't think I can.

I'm just telling you, there's no money in our business. I know, but I'm only 5'6. Oh, I forgot about that far. All right, maybe Jason and Cyprus can give us a little clarity on this. We'll see what he has to say on Bobby Benia Day. It's just a great day if you're a Bobby Benia. Everybody else in your Mets fan, you're like, damn, we don't know how to spend our money. 229 on Sports Talk 790.

713212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Talk 790, available everywhere with the IHard Radio app. Now number one for podcasting. 233. We're getting some clarity on the Bobby Benia money. See if a couple of callers can help us out. I also got a great article from a person on Twitter.

We'll read to you as well. From what I've just read in the last 30 seconds after seeing the article, maybe the Mets didn't do the dumb thing after all. But let me give it a couple of folks in and see if they have something they can add to it. Jason and Cyprus at 234 on 790. Hi, Jason. How's it going? Good.

Yeah, I was listening. I'm not sure how much else was covered between when I called when I was put on a hole. But I believe in those terms, if it's deferred the first however many years and bill's interest during that time, once they start paying, it doesn't stop accruing interest. So it would be getting 8% until it's paid out. So unless you paid the whole lump sum of it in it 10 years, the deferral period, you wouldn't be out the remainder of the interest. So I think that's probably why it ended up getting to that. Yeah, I've got a good explanation.

Thank you, Jason, for the phone call. I appreciate listening and chime in. Let me get in one more before we get to the paragraph that I was just given. Mike and Memorial on 790. Hi, Mike. Hey, Matt, how are you doing? I'm okay. Thank you.

Excellent, excellent. Well, yeah, he touched on it a little bit there. The article that you probably pulled up is one that I think would be a good starter for it. It's from, I want to say three or four years ago, and they have a good breakdown in there. But basically, you know, it's high value of money. $5.9 million at 8%. That's going to double faster than 10 years. You know, he's not drawing it down that quickly.

And I believe his agent was actually an insurance agent prior to this. And, you know, you're seeing this in basically every pension in America. And it's just kind of a standard annuity contract. and they just got really creative with it. There's some really huge ones out there. Oh, yeah. It's funny. There's a lot of teams.

And thank you very much for the phone call. Mike, I appreciate listening and chime me in. There's actually quite a few guys. We just heard Joe mention it. Here is the story from Business Insider Magazine. It was published July 2, 2013, from a guy named Cork Gaines. It's funny, Joe, I use that name as an alias in the road, Cork Gaines. It goes as follows.

If Bania had accepted the $5.9 million in 2000 and invested the entire amount at 8% interest, the original investment would have grown to, by 2035, $104 million. Instead, Baniya takes his annual payment and invest that with an 8% annual return. He would have $95.2 million by 2013. So in other words, Bonilla nearly lost $10 million by taking the payments instead of the lump sum. More importantly to the Mets, if they invested the $5.9 million and 8% interest in 2000, that money would have grown to more than $14 million before they had to make a single payment, and that money would continue to draw interest even while they are making payments.

By 2035, the Mets would still have $8.9 million left over. in other words if invested at a standard rate the Mets would have actually profited from Bonilla's generosity and the contract was not so dumb after all. The things you learn on this show. By the way, major shout out to Nathan L. 195 on Twitter for sending that to us. We very much appreciate that. Because I think a lot of people are thinking the same thing. You just pay that money off and you're done, but then you don't think about what you would have done with that money.

Presuming that you would have taken that $5.9 million and put it in some sort of investment, either whether it just be a savings account or moved it into something else. Oh, but still, Bobby Bonilla has, I mean, I guess he was generous, saved him $10 million. But aren't we presuming that he would invest in that? Right? That's a presumption. Yeah, that's the presumption, but we don't know that. Most guys, I mean, there's a lot of broke baseball players, a lot of broke athletes, right?

I don't think we can presume that, in all honesty, probably helped Bobby save his money for down the road because he was already making good money as it was. I mean, he was, you know, played for the Cardinals towards the end. He played his best years were in Pittsburgh with the Pirates. So my guess is he already had plenty of money. He was just thinking maybe this is the way to do it so I don't blow this money down the road. but it's interesting again i knew there was an answer to it that would have to make some financial sense and it came down to the

the presumed interest that you would make by putting that money into a particular account all right so thank you to everybody that called and there sent me tweets on that because it's always been one of those things that makes me laugh that here is bobby minne who has not played in major league baseball since 2001 is still getting paid and will be continuing to get paid for another decade or so it's crazy all right couple of the things on our year in review that we've not talked about. Clint Capella being traded. Do you miss him, Joe George?

No. Sorry, Clint. Good luck in Atlanta. Good guy. Missed. He made the most of his abilities here. But crescendoed, right? Was it never going to be a guy that was going to be able to have a jump hook of any more than two feet?

He was a good rim protector. He was a really, really good rebate. rebounder, but his free throw percentage was never going to be spectacular. He was never going to hit the baseline, Jimmy. He was never going to have any moves close to anybody named by Akeem Elijah on. And if he was not involved in your pick and roll, he just didn't give you much offensively except as an offensive rebound and putback guy. But I liked him.

And the fact that matter is, I think with this time away that the guys are going to be able to go have this new training camp down in Orlando and what they're doing, already here in Houston, and they're going to be able to really draw up some schemes and some things that are going to make Robert Covington be and or PJ Tucker even more successful at the five spot than they were before. And the fact of the matter is, I know it might have changed a little bit towards the end because the rockets were really struggling from the losing perspective. Then they would have lost five in a row or something like it before they beat Minnesota.

But the team was blocking more shots per game with. Robert Covington the lineup than they were then with Clint Capella in the lineup. I don't know if that still remains true if you wouldn't look to the stats right now, but if there's anybody that's going to be able to devise an offensive game plan without having to use of a dominant center, it's Mike Dan Tony. So I look forward to seeing what they want to do. The one thing that the Rockets have said, every time you talk to them about what they expect to do down in Orlando,

besides obviously when the championship is run, run, and run. Be even faster than they have been in years past. And I think that's where the time off helps a PJ Tucker. It helps James Hart. It helps Russell Westbrook. And it helps guys that, you know, it helps Eric Gordon, who just could not run the way that he needed to because of the variety of physical ailments he's had in his career.

Health to me is going to be everything. Not going stir crazy is going to be a huge thing for me to do on this. And just how bad do you want it? How many of these guys are going to jump in, get in that bubble and embrace it and how many guys are going to be like when can we get out of here speaking of the bubble we brought this up earlier on the show today it is worthy of repeating again there is a website uh i'm unfamiliar with it i don't know if george is joe's available with it or is into it or not i don't think it is but it's called cams dot com they wrote a letter today

to members of the nba and coaches players anybody that's going to orlando And it says the following. Hi, want to share some news with you following Stephen A. Smith's comments yesterday about NBA players not being able to last three weeks, let alone three months, without being able to have sex during the proposed bubble plan for the season restart in Orlando. Cambs.com. One of the world's largest adult camming and casual dating sites. Have you ever heard the term camming? and they just make that up. I can't say I really have.

I mean, I probably, I've probably seen it talked about online, but I don't know anything about it. Well, cams.com has extended an offer to all NBA players and coaches who will be in Orlando for this year's upcoming season. Considering the very strict social distancing guidelines, the league is laid out, cams.com is offering NBA players and coaches a compt. Ooh, players love comp.

A compt VIP membership. to its website to provide reassurance that whenever they're lonely or need some extra quote motivation leading up to a big game our cam models will be here for them 24-7 the models can provide companionship fun conversation sexy strip teases and more you can check out the offer letter below we have yet to hear back from any specific players but we remain hopeful that someone will take and will want to take advantage to this opportunity let me know if you have been any questions or need any additional information. We've got a minute left in this segment here, Joe.

So as you get ready to get ready for the final segment, I'm going to go to cams.com right now. Oh, really? Yeah. Enjoy. It says, I am over 18 and agree to the viewing of sexually explicit material. Sure. You know what?

It's a good time to take a break on the show. I didn't think. Okay. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212. 5-790. The body types are available at cams.com, hair color, and Joe, your favorite category, Kinks.

Pass. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Final segment, Matt Thomas Show with O'Hare. A couple of comments from Mike Dantone, and from Eric Gordon next on 790. The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 790. I'm going to present this without comment. As a wrap up, the final segment of the Matt Thomas show,

we're going to let you hear from Mike Dantone and Eric Gordon here in just a second. FC Dallas, that's the MLS team, left June 27th to go from Dallas to Orlando because they're going to finish, I guess they're going to start their season, finish it, whatever the hell they're doing. I don't really follow MLS. But they're going to have this big event that's happening at Walt Disney World there. The FC Dallas traveling party when they jumped on the plane, had zero positive test.

They continued to test in Orlando, as everybody is going to be doing. When the players got to Orlando and they tested, two players tested positive. Those players were isolated. The MLS and the Dallas team continued more testing. Four more players tested positive. Unfortunately, Joe, that ruins my assessment that maybe Orlando was the safest place on Earth. but there is no real safest place on earth

okay but once they're cleared out of isolation doesn't that make you feel better still? Sure it does I just the problem is getting to the bubble getting started and get everyone once the bubble is officially corona clear then

I think it's safe but until you get everyone isolated and test it again multiple times to make sure they don't have it there's still that risk that there could be a huge spread. It's totally possible. It sucks because six Dallas soccer players had it before they jumped on the plane and went to Orlando. And I don't know how big of a roster that.

What is it? 20, 23 guys, tops. I don't know. Probably less than that. You see what I'm saying? That's a very, very high number for a small football, for a small soccer team. Yeah. I mean, it's tough.

I mean, testing for some people's taking like 10 days now to get the results back. So if the NBA, I would think they're not going through that because it definitely feels like they're not to make this work. Right. But let's say they're using those rapid response tests. You know, those, the rapid response test, some of the websites that I've been looking at, they advertise it is 100% corrective. It's positive. That's right. correct if it's negative. So if they're taking the

rapid test and putting them on the plane and not the one where you have to wait, then this is totally possible that people are going to get on the plane and expose their teammates and be at practices and expose their coaches before they get to the bubble. Because it's not 100% guarantee on the test, it's this it's the reality they live in right now. And you're just taking a chance. Yeah. All right, couple soundbites. from the Rocket Zoom meeting before we let you run the day. Let's go to Mike Dan Tony on the importance

of the eight games, the seating games, determining where the Rockets will ultimately end up come playoff time. Those eight games, me personally, I'm going to treat them like, yeah, we want to win all eight, and we want to win the scrimmage, and we want to do that. But I'm not going to do that at playing guys too many minutes. I think what's important, and I'll rely on my medical and training staff to tell me the loads that players need to have and try to win in that way. But I do not think that it's a, you know, there's no difference, actually, you're going to have to beat the best teams. Whether it's in the first round, second round, third round, you've got to, you've got to beat

three teams to get to the finals. and it doesn't matter what order you play them in because it's not home court advantage. You're not fighting for home court advantage. So what you're fighting for is to get your guys mentally and physically as ready as they can get. If that means that a player has to play 40, get ready for the playoffs.

The staff will tell me that if he needs to play 30 and rest today or take a day off, then so be it. I'll give me a chance to look at other guys. But for me, the most important thing is, other than momentum and other than having you guys write good things about us, which is what I don't know if that helps us win or not, but is to have a nice rhythm going into the playoffs and guys are physically ready to go. Whether that, whatever that first round matchup is, is what it is. And you can make a case, but this will be better. but at the end of the day, there are three teams that you've got to beat to get to the finals, and no one knows who those three best teams are right now.

What he's trying to say, and I agree with him, you got to beat the other clippers of the Lakers, or maybe both of them, to win the West. So who you play in the first round really doesn't matter. Eric Gordon on if the Rockets should have confidence in him being the X-factor towards a deep playoff run. Well, they know what I mean. to this organization, but you know, you know, year after year I've had good years here. You know, it's just reluctant that I miss a lot of games this year. But other than that, I've had a good ride here here in Houston and I continue to do to bring it to the table

more and more each year. You know, it's good that we've been on, you know, championship caliber teams. But, you know, really nothing has changed since I've been here. It's all, you know, We've always been had teams where we're championship caliber teams and I think I've you know

hit a lot of expectations I've always hit I've always hit a lot of expectations since I've been here so I just continue to feel more and try to win it all right he sounds healthy if that makes it sense he looks good at least the Zoom meeting showed he was in good shape

man we just need to basketball, stay healthy, stay away from the Rona, win basketball games, and bring a championship here to Houston, Texas. Nice and simple. Adam Waxter's up. He's part of the 18, and he'll be with you for the next three hours. Tomorrow, 12 noon, for anything goes Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas. You'll have a great day for Joe George. I'm Matt. Talk to y'all soon. Sports Talk, 790.