The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - YORDAN!! Astros Take Game 3 vs Rangers, Does OKC Finishes Off Spurs?

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

YORDAN!! Astros Take Game 3 vs Rangers, Does OKC Finishes Off Spurs? 

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. In H-Town, good morning, and welcome to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. We came. Can we play the Yordon? Can we play the Yordon from here?

Can we do it? I can't, no. Oh, okay. That goes, it's kind of my fault. Yeah. That's a whole other story. That's fine. Hey, man.

Yordon hit five home runs. Yes. until yesterday I mean I brought this up on Twitter he uses his bat like a pitching wedge with you and I

he just like just a little nice little swing little effortless what you're saying I don't think he's going to worry about oblique injuries don't say that he's had some

I know I shouldn't have said that a couple years ago I don't want to Was it last year or the year before He's had creaky knees I always remember about the creaky knees He's had back He's had hand

He's had oblique He's had it all Hmm But he's healthy now. But this year, he's healthy. Well, he did mention the back-in issue yesterday. Yeah. Well, you know why his backers have been carrying the Astros offense?

Oh, I like that. That's a good line. Write that one down. I tweeted it last night, so you stole my return. Oh, damn it. I didn't see it, but... Uh-huh. Yeah, right.

It's probably all over your four, you tab, seeped into your subconscious, and now you're trying to take credit for it. Typical Matt Thomas behavior. I have you blocked. I don't believe you. You have a lot of people blocked. That's because I still always complain to me about it. That's because I learned from you.

You said block and mute. No, I just mute. Don't even try to put that on me. Yordon Alvarez, 20 home runs. 312 batting average, 1,085 OPS. It's that low these days? 1,085! It's the most, at least in the American League, if not baseball.

And his OPS plus, 100 being league average, 202. He's more than double the values. you have a regular hitter. That's crazy. OPS average, OPS plus average 100. Put that in perspective. He's a 202. That's, I mean, that's insane. I'll give you some perspective. Christian Walker's having a great season. He's at 137. And he's having a good season. That's what I'm saying. If you had a bunch of 137s, this team would be 15 games about

500. Yeah. Instead you got... He's at 202. You got some 49s and some 38s playing six days a week. But that's not here, no there. He's carrying a squad. I freaking love doing on Alvarez. So those of you that have the T-shirts that I put on sale yesterday, I have hit the button this morning. Oh, really? Only three out. Only three back. Only three back. Let's go, baby.

Seriously. This is almost, is it comical? It's an embarrassment. Does it chuckle? You make you, no, you know what? The murder's back and first. Yeah, they are. They're the only team with a positive run differential on the whole division. So as I believe you said earlier in the week, it's looking like Mariners Astros is going to be the race.

Yeah. And by the way, Seattle is still under 500 in first place. Now look, we get this in baseball. We get this, frankly, in sports, not so much NBA because they don't worry about that. But we get that in the NFL every once in a while where a 9 and 18 makes a play. Didn't the NFC South this year kind of suck? Yeah. It's every year.

NFC South's terrible. We have seen, I've seen America League West before the Dodgers bought everybody. winning 82 games and went a division? Yeah, didn't the Astros only win like 88 games when they won the division a couple years ago? But I would even take 80. I mean, 88 and 74 is not bad. If you're winning under 90 and you're winning the division, you're in a crappy division. But this is not epically bad because that would be like a team with a 425 winning percentage.

I mean, the Mariners have won 6 to 10, so they rightly deserve the first spot. The A's are going back to what we thought the A's would be. They can hit, but the kids can't pitch. they're now in second place. Yeah, Mariners won five of the last seven. Yep, they won three in a row, six of their last ten overall. Astros are around there too, though. They won five of the last six, yeah.

Yep. They're Surgeon Stroes. And watching the Rangers, not that I'm going to watch a lot of Rangers baseball, but they kind of look like sad sacks. Do they not? Yeah, this series. They didn't look that sad in the first inning of two days ago. But we saw them two weeks ago.

They didn't look great against the Ranger against the Astros at Diken. They're not that good. And then they went to Anaheim last weekend and lost a series there. I mean, so, you know what? Sorry, Dallas. You can just go, why don't you rerun your parade route through the Arlington pawn shops? Suck it, Arlington. Yeah, suck it, Arlington.

You know what? Aniel Delos Santos with the save, two, five out save yesterday. Saved by committee. What do you worry about? It makes me sad. Not because the circle of trust is not with him. He didn't factor. He didn't.

He was riding the pine. He was eating sunflower seeds. It's crazy. He's a high-leveraged sunflower seed eater. They don't think that he should be in those situations. Clearly. The evidence shows it. I mean, his ERA has been zero, basically.

But he's not being put in the, we go get that fourth out, four out save for us. Ennio Dillo freaking Santos. And Brian King, sometimes you're on the team Brian King train and then sometimes he looks like he's melting literally like butter on the mouth. He's not a high leverage guy. He's supposed to be the seventh inning guy. No, you're right. So, I mean, it's not his fault. He's Brian King.

All right? Yeah. You can't all of a sudden have, I don't know, a foreigner opening when Rolling Stones has been opening the whole show. Just doesn't feel right. How do you like that analogy? It's fine. John did you like that analogy?

It was fine. Not because you are significantly better in analogies than I am. Thank you. But that's more like what I would have said. Why, it's not bad. It's not great. It's fine. It's not great.

Not one of your best work. Stones are supposed to close the show. Foreigner's been opening all tour. Foreigners got a star. They're a little miscast. Forner's got stars too. Yeah, they're not, Brian King. It's not bad. They're not the Rolling Stones. Is Brian? Hold on. Is Brian King the Forner, the Astro? 7-1-3-21, 2-1-2-5-7-8?

The more you think about it. Go ahead. Let it seep into your brain. You're trying to hate. But Forner has had their own shows before. You go to Cynthia. Yeah. Foreigners the last time. But we're in the Big Leagues, baby. Yeah, they can headline in AA. They can headline Corpus Christi. They can headline Sugar Land Smart Financial. All right.

Let me mold this over. Okay, good. Go ahead. Try to poke holes in it. We got three hours and 50 minutes left to do that. Something I just improvved. God. You're the worst.

Well, I just feel like mine get always... I know. Well, I'm just trying to... I'm sorry. Even Triple E was crushing one of his analogies, Jonathan. So that's good. You know what? But he doesn't listen to the show.

I like, do you ever be a listen to believe or not? No. Do you know what gut feelings are? No. That's okay. He's busy. He's up early. I don't listen to other shows.

I do. I'm team 790. I appreciate that. Some of them are, I'm team to keep my head clean. I keep my headspace clean, clear. Yeah. 7-1-3-2.

I'm not saying anything. Mike Burroughs, by the way. Seven innings. Kind of dicey early on? Quality start plus. No, no, no. That's just a regular quality start. Right?

Seven and two? That's a plus. Okay, that's right. Well, you haven't built the scale yet. What I want you to do is I want you to build this scale and then I want you to trademark it. Okay. Because there are going to be other people doing this too.

I'm going to make a wheel. This is going to be other people that are going to try to Jones in on this. That's true. I know there's some experience. That's okay. I ain't worried about it. Oh, when people start making shirts, you're going to be worried about it. Nobody's going to make sure.

When Academy Sports and Outdoors calls you and says, we're going to take your logo and your ID and make money off. That's what Reed Ryan told me. Thanks, Reed. Appreciate you. Wishing him the best. How's he? He's doing fine.

Okay. Dad's one of the greatest pictures of all the time. He's been so okay. Got a great family. All right. 7.13, 2.12. Things you'll never see on the call screen. Brian King is a foreigner.

I like that. I don't know enough foreigner songs, I don't think. And Gary's calling from Palestine. That's not the Gary. I hope not the war-torn area. No, I think he's probably calling from Palestine, Texas. Well, they'll call it, Palestine? That is a good call.

What is it? Palestine or Palestine? I think when in doubt you just put a country twang on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we're in Palestine. Because Palestine automatically brings up like war. You don't want that. Yeah.

Now, is that Terrible Gary or regular Gary? This is regular Gary. Okay. Regular Gary, you're welcome to call the show. I like who you call Terrible Gary because he always crushes you. No, I crush him back. I know. It's good radio.

And I just sit here and it's great. All right, Terrible Gary. You want to call the show. You're welcome to do so. But you're going to, unless your take is horrible. Now, if you have a good take, then we'll let you. come through and I will not crush. But I've been taking, I mean, it's basically,

what's his face, incline, it's terrible. Oh, James, James and Climbler, Jim, how the gambler's doing? Who knows? And who cares? No one does. So your Mount Rushmore are terrible callers. Or Gary and Spring. Brad.

Brad. Gambler, Jim, and Klein. May he rest, Howard and Memorial. Howard just loved Jerry Huntsaker. He didn't call a whole lot in 2017. No, he was not to be. be found. 2016 all the time. 2015, once in a while.

2014, 13, 12, 11, oh, you could, and then, of course, when I was doing the shows back in the late 90, he was called all the time. All right, we got a lot of things to get to today. We got Brian McTagger coming up at 11 o'clock this morning. There is something going on in the SEC, Rossi, that they're

drinking, you know, maybe they're moonshine in the SEC's a little whack. Have you heard about what's going on in Arkansas? And in Georgia? No, but that sentence could lead any number of directions. I know. Two different stories.

Okay. Two different, what in the hell are you thinking kind of things? Mm-hmm. One of them actually will probably, could potentially mean seismic change in college athletics. One is just, and I know Hunter Eurocheck, he's a nice man, but Jesus, I mean, read the freaking room. Hmm.

That's what I'm saying. Okay. That's what we call professional radio teas right there. I'm intrigued. Texans OTAs begin today. Oh, can't wait. You going out there? there? No. All right. I'm busy. I got

I got post game. They're going on right now. You can't be out there. Unless we sent you out there during the show. Oh, okay. They wouldn't let you on. Yeah, I'm here. No lie reports. And I got post game. You got post game night? Yeah. And I got an 8 a.m. flight. Why doesn't Clinton and Wexer ever do that? I don't know. I mean, Wexler somewhat covers other stuff. I mean, he's our Texans guy. He loves the Texans. But Clanton's got no excuse. 713 212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790

if you want to join us through in the X platform or through Instagram. Follow us there. It's at SportsMpti. By the way, my good friend Craig Ackerman has been double-hacked. Please do not vote for his podcast. He doesn't have one. Please do not vote for anything on

if he sends you a DM and doesn't involve sending nudes, don't send it to him because he's been hacked. Can I get to say a quick second on that? Please. These scammers are a scumbag. Look, scammers are scumbags in general. Yeah. But they send these links and they say, hey, could you please vote for me on going for this podcast? Yes.

You're praying on somebody being nice for someone else. Yes. I hate that. If you click on it, you will be hacked. If you get d-mied by Craig Ackerman asking you to vote for him in some podcast thing, it's not him. Yeah. And by the way, good luck. It will take you weeks.

And Stan Norfleet also got hacked recently and sent me the same thing. Yeah, Stan did. FYI, if y'all do click on the link, you do. your Gmail, whatever it's connected to your account, will send you an email if it's logged in. You have to be quick to change that password. No, no, no. Just do not.

Just look, as you know, Jonathan, the only DMs you should be clicking are from a certain group people. Who's that? Who's that? Who's that? They scam two, five. They scam. They do?

They do, really? 1016 on Sports Talk 790. Only free back. Again, completely impossible to fathom. For a team that is still. well under 500 sports RV, but they are. It's just a crappy division. Blessed.

Feeling blessed. Feeling grateful, feeling lucky, Matt. And I know, and let me taste it. If the Astros win a division with them barely above 500, add 500, under 500, I don't care. Now they'll help to play in the wild card round because I'll have the worst record. Yeah. I mean, I would rather them be, it'd be cool if they were like a 95 win team

and strong and good and healthy. But I prefer that. I know. Can't ever think. in life. I guess we can just play anything can happen in the playoffs card. Hunter Brown, who's your two?

Oh, Spencerergetty. We're going to be saying that come October? Well, who would you like to put in that spot? I'm not saying who I would like to. Who do you think it'll be? Can he hold it together this long? He just doesn't have the Major League track record. I mean, he's not going to have an ERA ever under two. I don't think. No, no.

Who would be that guy? I mean, Mike Burles has less experience than he does. No, I guess comparable experience. 132 ERA for Spencer Erigetty. Who would be the number? Okay, playoff started tomorrow. It's Hunter Brown 1 as long as his arm. Yeah, playoff started tomorrow.

It's Spencer, you don't think about it. Who's your game three starter? Mike Burroughs. Mike Burroughs. Game four? That would be Mr. No, the no-hitter, Tatsu E-Mai. No, the wild card's best of three. Yeah.

But you'd have to start probably Tatsui E-Mai in the short, in the quick turnaround. Yeah? feeling good. If you're only as good as your last start, he didn't allow a hit. Matthew. E. Mai, E. Mai, Hater. All right. I see you getting distracted. Good job.

Don't say anything. You're right. Yes, she looks good. Ross, don't say anything at all. Well, he's looking. He's staring. Let him look. It's okay. He's staring mouth agape. At least you didn't say mouth watering. That doesn't really get me in trouble. By the way, my wife was listening to a lot of our show yesterday.

Oh, no. What did we say? Well, she asked about the Brady Bunch movie with a girl I went out with, which wasn't her. We'd be trying to tell you. Oh, man. No, no, no. That's great. No, she has a, she has a, she is not the jealous type.

I don't think she is. Well, she shouldn't. You've been together like 40 years. It'll be, we got married 97, so it'll be 20, 29 years. Yeah. What are you getting her? What are she getting me? She goes on and gets to whatever she wants.

Oh, that's true. Let's talk to our friend. in Palestine, Texas. Gary on 790. Good morning. How are you? How's everything in Palestine today? They're doing good. I'm just a couple of things I want to comment about.

I wanted to welcome the WNBA back to Houston. I remember just like yesterday when Cheryl Swoop's and the comments were so good. And I'm glad to hear the WNBA is coming back. I'd like to hear your comments. And on the Astros, I'm glad to see them improving. but the thing that disturbs me is the walks. They just allow so many walks. And then yesterday, for example, when they lost 10 to 7,

they gave up those early runs and the walks are just bugging me. They could cut down on those walks. You know what, Ross? I think they would win a lot more games. Yeah, Ross. Yeah, Ross. They would win a lot more games. The pitching hasn't been improved.

It has been improved. They've been able to work around some walks recently as well in the last couple days. But through the last run of the rotation plus, It's looking a lot better. They are getting the walks down. And hopefully, as we've kind of been saying all season, Matt, we've seen good starts from Mike Burroughs, but he hasn't been consistent. We've seen even flashes from him, not to the level of what last time, obviously, out,

but at second start that he had in what Sacramento of the season, we've seen him get some outs here and there. But the word of the day is consistency, and we haven't seen that. That's what's going to take for them to turn it around, especially on the pitchings. I don't think anybody's expecting him to throw six no-noes, but I think six innings on a semi-regular basis for a guy that had tremendous publicity and tremendous potential

great history overseas, adjustment periods. Now we're talking about June 1st. There should be a time where he turns the corner and hopefully his next start will be continuing to the big corner turn. Let's go. We're just continuing to collect data

every time they go out there. Right now, Mike Burroughs, feeling good. Gary, got anything else for Ross? Well, I just wanted to get your thoughts about the WNBA Are you guys fans? Yes, you're about it. Thank you, Gary, for the phone call. I will say this.

I called WMBA games 30 years ago. It was difficult. Now, since the comments are coming back, I have watched a fair amount of WMBA this year. Not like I'm going to get home to watch it, but if it's on, I'll put on. You like the sky plus the points? The level of play.

I don't want to sell this. It's improved vastly. I would say a hundred times better. Have you ever seen have you seen games from like 1997 in the NBA? I call,

yeah, but I call it games. I mean, like if the team would shoot 36% for the floor, that was considered okay. Scoring is way up.

I think we looked it up. It was like the average game point scored was like 65. Now it's maybe like 75. I mean, that's a significant jump. Yeah. I'm just

I'm encouraged that the game is better Is that fair to say? Yeah Now the Connecticut Sun Who are the who the comments will be next year are I haven't checked the standings of late But I didn't think they were particularly good to begin with So it is what let me see what the son are doing here

Standings wise The Connecticut Sun who will be the next year They're one and eight So yeah there's going to be some work to be done We can rebuild Just that The number one team in the league is Minnesota So they're averaging 90 points per game.

And they play a 40-minute game, correct? Yeah. Yeah. 90 points a game? This year points are way up. Now, we'll see if it's... Las Vegas is 92 points a game. Indiana, 94 points a game.

A lot of teams are in the 80s. And I can unfortunately, it's 74.7? But that's not here nor there. 2001 was as low as it got 65 points per game. Right now, they're averaging 85 points per game. Last year was 81.7. So, yeah. A little more scoring,

a little more back and forth, a little more pace and space. 713-212-5-790. Shout out to my friend Tillman Fertita. Did you see the news this morning? What happened to Tillman? Is he okay? Everything good in Italy?

He's really good. He just bought Caesars. Wait a minute. He becomes the Italian ambassador and then he buys Caesars. That's pretty funny. It worked out well. All right.

Caesar is not just Caesar's Palace. There is a huge online component. Yes. There are. They have New Orleans casino. They have some. They have all over the country. They have the horseshoe in Lake Charles.

Huge sports enterprise. Yes. Sports entertainment. I'm going to, don't look at the story. Did you look at the story yet? No. I'm going to see how we're going to play. How much did he spend?

I'm going to give you. We talked about it with Gordian before the show. But we didn't talk about the dollar amount. Yes, we did. What did you say? Go ahead. 5.7 billion? No.

That's what he said. It was incorrect. Okay. Six billion? Higher. Higher. What now? Keep going.

What? 15.9 trillion. Uh, that lower than that. Okay. The actual retail price to buy Caesars $17.6 billion in all cash. What was Gordy talking about with 5.7? All cash? All cash.

He's got 17 billy liquid? Oh my God. What? For Tita will pay Caesar's shareholders $31 per share. sharing cash. So if you have any Caesar stock, you are having a wonderful day. Rockets need to be hitting all the aprons. Okay. If he's getting 17 Billy for the Caesars, they need to sign everyone. There are 60 casino resorts and gambling facilities.

Online gaming, sports betting options that will be added to the 600 for Tita outlets, which include amusement, entertainment, aquarium, of course gambling. 17 billion in cash Goodness gracious Lordy Lordy He's doing okay Takes money to spend Is it spend money to make money

Something like that I don't know whatever it is It takes money to make money Mm-hmm Mm-hmm 7-1 3 No money more problems also has been An ancient Brooklyn proverb

So I had not heard that Oh really The things you learn on this show 10 or two You feel like I want y'all every day to learn something about something between 10 and 2, whether it's coming from Ross or something to myself.

713-212-5-7-9-0. By the way, the foreigner reference is starting to gel a little bit more. Oh, your kid's seeping in. I mean, I could have argued. I could have argued with you and said, eh, it's terrible. No, it's starting to hit a little bit. Okay, good.

Brian Kim is Forner. Josh Hater? Rolling Stones. Brian, where are you? Ooh, right now? One hit wonder? Brian and Bray, right now is like current Leonard Skinnerd. There's no original members?

Yeah. My wife bought me tickets to go see the Little River Band. She knows I like the Little River Band. Oh, who doesn't? I said, send the tickets back. Not a single original member of the Little River Band is told me. Oh, really? Yeah.

So I don't want to go see karaoke Little River Band. I want the real Little River Band. Yeah. I can't believe. What? Nothing. Just go and finish. No.

Just say it. tomorrow. Just say it. No, I'm good. Go to Little River Band. Best. Best there ever was. Jonathan, play a Little River Van Van song when we come back, please. Thank you very much. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care like the Logan Van Wye.

All right. Nice. Steve made me say it. Logan Van Wye will be a guest of the A team coming up soon in the next couple weeks. 713, 212, 5, 790 with a message for set these fine jewelry. S-E-T-H-I-S. If you want the best jewelry from the best,

like you want the Mario Romero of jewelers, you're going to go, you want Billy Wagner closers, you want to go with Sethi's fine jewelry, beautiful diamonds, amazing gemstones, lots of different options from watches to pendants, to earrings, to earrings, to necklaces, to engagement rings, to anniversary rings, to buying something for that college or high school

I, George. You're going to do it today, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 o'clock until 6 at Sethi's fine jewelry. Voss Road between San Felipe and Westheimer. I repeat again, Voss Road between San Felipe and Westhammer. Check them out online at SETHIS find Jewelry.com. That's Sethesfinejury.com. Where you'll find something for every budget, for every lifestyle. And if you want to find something, you haven't been able to find something and you want to create something because your wife's been telling you about it to your girlfriend as, they've got a master jewelry right on the premises. That's all at Sethi's fine jewelry. Voss Rovee's roll between San Felipe and Westheimer. This is not, it's not like Little River Band at all.

Oh, this is their, yeah, this is from their latest album. They don't have an hour, do they? Little River Band. Wook-wook-wook. They actually, if they have five or six songs, you'd be like, I'd go see them for a little bit. No, I'm good. Yeah, you would. No, I would.

Yeah. Cool change. What? Yeah, there's a few. Jonathan will play them eventually. Gotta go deep in the archives for the Little Ruffalo. River Band. Oh, my God.

Oh, this is lady. This is good. No, this is this lady? Yeah, this is lady. Isn't it, Jonathan? This lady? Yeah. Yeah.

I'm trying to say the audience, but here you go. We'll play in 30 seconds have we done. This is not my favorite little river song, but I'd listen to it. Ross is huffing and puffing over here. He didn't like it. We have ladies. I'm not doing anything. I've not doing it.

Oh, reminiscing is really good. Reminiscing is a kind of a gym. Reminis. Let's switch this up. Let me tell you something, Jonathan. Stop. Turn this off because people are losing money. Nobody's making love to reminiscing.

I already know what you're going to say. When you put together your video of you and your girl with photos and you put this song behind it, she will start to cry. This is a jam. This is reminiscing on Sports Talk 7.9 of you. I didn't hit the post. Sorry. You have five seconds short. Yeah, it's too short.

This is a jam. I'm listening to my home today. Sorry, your team. I'm listening to a little river band. All right, thank you very much. This is a yacht rock guy. There is not a person in this market that's more yacht rock than me. Period into story.

Adam. You think he's more Adam? No, there's not. I was trying to make you mad. That's rude. I'm sorry. It's not possible. Not possible at all.

All right, 713-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Victor in League City at 1039. Hi, Victor. Hey, guys. Thanks for the pickup. You were talking about the after-exam if they make the playoffs. that you wouldn't care about the record. I wouldn't either.

That's my team. But can I give out some, let's just say that you make the playoffs. I like to give out some awards, if I may. The MVP for the league would be George Alvers. Sion would be, of course, Spencer, Irigetti. And what do you think about George Strata being the manager of the year with all his being through? No, because, you're giving it to his brother, Eric. Thank you, Victor.

No, because Joe Espott has been fired by every Astro fan on Twitter, so you can't give somebody that an award if he's going to have been fired multiple times. Is he getting full credit for this, by the way? They've won five out of less. No, no, no, no. I assume it's been all Joe all the time, right? No, Joe has had nothing to do with this. Okay.

Nor Dana, nor anyone. It's just the baseball gods. The manager, the one who puts a lot of card together out there, has zero responsibility for the team's better players of late. All right. I don't know. I know. That's unfortunate. All right.

1039 sports talk, 790. Brian McTagger joining us in 20 minutes. Rogers with us on 790. Hi, Roger. Hey, what's going on, fellas? Yeah, man, after that bit of news with Tim and for Tita, we should never have a scrub on our team. What are you talking?

He couldn't even get the point guard last year with the big hair to come help us out. And that was nothing. Holy crap, man. This guy stopped treating the Rockets as a hobby, man. That's just one of his business. He's got several business ventures. Oh, my goodness. This guy should, and that's going to be the only way we can even try to compete

and bust out of the West is we have a high-price, high-power team. So, yeah, man, more power too. Tell me, put your money where your mouth is. That's all I got. Let's go. All right, let's go. We're going to go to Las Vegas a lot. Ross, I've already made contact with a...

Oh, when's the sale final? Won't be until July. Oh, later. Well, well, no. When you and I go in 2027, it will be, I'm a downtown guy anyways. Is there any Caesar's properties downtown? I don't think so. Okay.

But, you know, we can always go downtown. We can take a Uber. Yeah, no, I'm a downtown guy. I understand, but just saying. We get the hookup. Let's get that three to two. Let's go. We like the hookup.

I mean, Golden Luggets is obviously a downtown property. Yeah, I guess Forbes was reporting $5.7 billion, so that's what Gordy was talking about. Yeah, the first number I saw. was what Gordy said. But my son, and I looked on a lot of different things. The number is, yeah, I'm still seeing 17 million. He's not in any fake news, is he? Not my son, no chance. No chance of that. All right. Well, we'll figure it out. We need to get the hookup.

Houston needs a hookup. Tell him for Tita. I mean, he's got to be charging up the ranks of like one of the most wealthy people. I mean, he already is one of the most wealthy people on the planet, but he's got to be getting way up there now. Yeah, because I think, and this is not talking exclusively about Tillman, but this is about, it's funny, I was told this by a friend of mine, billionaires, don't want to be just billionaires. They want to be mega billionaires. It's like when they get to, when you reach one billion in assets, you go, you think that's pretty cool. Yeah. The next thing they think about is becoming a 10 billionaire. Yeah. And I think that's what's been in Tillman's mind ever since he's incurred this incredible wealth. So. Yeah. Well, Google says he's worth between 11 and 13, but if he's cutting 17 cash, he's obviously worth more than that. Yeah, that's probably outside of our business expertise, but I just run it off of Forbes. I don't think it was making it up, so...

Oh, man. Good for him. Yeah, good for him. And let's get spending on the Rockets. You're talking about the second apron, basically, right? Yeah. And I think they do get hard capped at some point. Yeah.

Well, let's get capped out. By the way, speaking of cap, Major League Baseball is going to enter. introduce a salary cap to the Players Association today. And we're getting some early word. Jonathan, I think we have the word from the Players Union about the first conversation being brought up about a potential salary cap in baseball. What are we getting here? Do we have it?

We're trying to reach members of the Players Association. We're doing good. Sorry. Yeah, thank you. It's fine. Show your mom ass up, man. Time is on everything. Well, my, yeah, my computer doesn't work.

It's okay. It's all right. You know what? We don't need computers to have a good production of a radio show. We can just use our own human sound effects. All right. We come back. We've got to talk about a couple of things in the SEC that amused me yesterday.

Okay. One is involving an AD who is completely tone deaf. And one is about a president and a football coach that may be tone deaf. Okay. We'll discuss both those things in a moment. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Two different things to get to here.

we welcome you back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We'll have back to baseball with Brian McTagger coming up in the next segment of the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Matt, you got it. You're all right. All right. Ross bought me these, get these heads phone for me, and I'm still just taking me too long to adapt to it. It just is. It's okay.

It's day two. You're going to be fine. Yeah. I believe in you. By like day 26, I'll be great to it. 7-1-3-21. L is for left and R is for right. Yeah, but it's not snug around my ear the way it should be.

But that's not true fault. What do you mean it's not snug? I don't know. It's just a lot of work. Just move on. All right. So let's go to goofy item number one. Okay.

So the SEC television, everybody's TV times for the first three weeks of the college football season were announced. I think yesterday or the day before, two days ago. And so Georgia, Arkansas opens up the year at Utah. That's nice. It's a big 12 versus an SEC game. Okay. And I think Utah has already gone to Arkansas or there's whatever. But it's their turn to go to Salt Lake City.

ESPN put that game on at 9.15 central time, 8.15 in the mountain time. So by the time you play the game and you get dressed and you get on the plane and you fly back to Fayetteville, you're looking at probably a 5 or 6 a.m. arrival time on Sunday. Okay. Them's the breaks. When you go west, you play late games in the west, it happens. You have H played a 930 game against Oregon State last year. stuff happens. Well, the following Saturday,

they play Arkansas, I think plays Georgia, I think the following Saturday. It's somebody big. It's an SEC opponent in the second week of the season. Okay. Okay. Hunter, you're a check. He used to be the 88 U of H. Not there very long. Sent a note out to the public, and he also sent it to ESPN saying

that Arkansas is being treated unfairly because of the TV time on Saturday in Salt Lake City and the relatively short turnaround time by playing the 11 o'clock game on the following Saturday. On the following Saturday? Is he insane? He's insane in the membrane, as the kids would say, right, Jonathan? What?

Maybe. No, no, no. He's nuts. Yeah, that's like 10 years before Jonathan was born. Oh, sorry. It's okay. I tried. It's okay.

Yeah, at Utah, 915 p.m. Saturday, the 12th, and the next Saturday, the 19th, it's 11 a.m. Is it Georgia? Is it playing? Yes. Okay, it's Georgia. Home for Georgia. Yeah. Which is a big game for them, obviously. Yeah, but it's, what? That is what you just said. What you just said is a reaction is collectively what America is going.

What? Okay, so let's wrong with him. So I'm going to explain to you how the college football world works. you play a game on Saturday, whether you're home or road, typically on Sunday. Well, not typically. It's no practice Sunday. It's basically get to the facility. If you want to get a lift in, if you want to go see the, if you're sore for any reason, go see the doctors, go see the trainers, get a massage, get a whirlpool in. It's kind of your day just to recover.

And then you start practicing on Monday. Okay. So they're going to get in at 6 o'clock in the morning. in Fayetteville, right? I mean, that's right. Okay. So the kids go back to the house or their dorms, and they sleep until two or three o'clock.

Then they go get their workouts in, or then they go get their rehabilitation in, four or five in the afternoon. So basically you're at, instead of getting the guys to get their rehabs in at 10, 11 o'clock in morning, doing it at four and five. What are the Toledo Rockets playing on Wednesdays

have to say about this? Dude. So Greg, so tone-deaf. So Greg Sankey, the SEC commissioner was asked about this. And I applaud his brutal honesty. Good. And I'm paraphrasing here on this.

He says, look, we're not thrilled about it. But when you take the check, you give up the times to brought, you give up the opportunity to name the time you want to play. And that's what Greg Sanky said. It's not optim, it's not great. But ESPN is writing us a huge check. We're not going to tell them no. This is absurd.

I don't know. I imagine there are thousands, or not thousands, okay. I mean, a ton of teams who are having shorter rest periods or the same rest periods. I can't believe he came out and said this. He put a release out, he typed out a release. No, it's a whole letter. He went on the University of Arkansas website and the University of Arkansas's Twitter page. And Hunter Eurocheck, again, I like him.

But you don't want to read the replies. The assigned schedule will cost our student athletes Nearly a full day of rest and recovery That they otherwise would have available to them This is not simply a competitive disadvantage It is a genuine welfare issue For the young men who represent our program And contribute greatly to the bottom line of our television partners

Oh brother I couldn't have said it better myself Oh brother What? They're gonna be Neglect unacceptable And this is neglect He uses the word neglect. Yes, he does.

What? Wow. Wow. I don't think people in Arkansas like Hunter Eurocheck. I don't think anybody should after this. Well, they, they, apparently every movie's made in coaching-wise. He doesn't, apparently doesn't get credit for John Calipari.

Okay. Because if Calipari, if Calipari wants to go play coach somewhere else, he's going to the boosters. He ain't, he's going above the 80. He's going to the president. And that's exactly what John. Calderi did. But yeah, that was tone deaf number one.

Tone deaf number two, which might be something down the road to think about, is that the University of Georgia President, Jera Moorhead, J-E-R-E, J-R-E, J-R-E, Jerry? I think Jerry Moorhead? What would we say? J-E-R-E? Jerry. Jerry, Jerry. Is worried about the future college sports, and he is worried about it being completely

an anarchy going on in terms of regulations and funding and rules that he suggested earlier in a week now he's backed off of that about maybe the SEC seceding from the college football playoff.

I saw that. And creating their own 16 team league. He says we're the number one conference anyway. America would love us. No, we wouldn't. If you went to a 16 team league by yourself. We'll obviously get to more to this in the next few hours. That part of the country would like it. But nobody in L.A. would care. Nobody in Chicago would

care. Nobody in New York would care. Franklin, nobody in Dallas would care, or Houston for that matter, unless any name or Texas was involved in it. What I do believe, and I don't believe this is going to happen. But I believe if the SEC, and you tell me if I'm wrong on this or you agree or disagree. Okay. If the SEC said we're seceding, you'd have the Big Ten join them. Yeah, you'd probably you'd need somebody else with them. Now, if you want to put the Big Ten, and the SEC together and create your own 32 team super league. That, to me, has a little more steam to it. But just having a 16-team league to create your own championship, I mean, yeah, Gordy would like it.

Yeah. Tuscaloosa would like it. I'm sure Gainesville will be all-on for it, but collectively America wouldn't care. I mean, this is not going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. This is just talk. Big talk.

So guess who jumped aboard this? Well, well, that doesn't sound too bad. Georgia's football coach. Kirby Smart is like, yeah. You know what, Prez? That sounds like a head not a half bad idea. That's Kirby Smart. This is all talking points.

That's just Kirby Smart. That just shows you how crazy the SEC media is. I got an SEC AD who's bitching about the late game against Utah. Yes. And the early game against Georgia the next week. And then we got an SEC president who's like, yeah, we don't get this system fix, whatever this system is. We're taking off. The last three national champions, what conference are they from?

That would be the big 10. Oh. That's why if there is ever a secession, secession, it would not be 16 teams. It's not happening. It's not happening. Brian McTaggart. Oh, love it. Have you invited him to go watch soccer with you?

I don't know if he's, he is a soccer fan. I know he's a big, he's a Celtic guy. Yeah. Scottish Premier League. By the way, my son was happy that you do not call him to congratulate his team avoiding relegation. Oh. Tottenham almost was relegated this past weekend. Yeah, I know.

I know. I don't know these things? What's what? Father's and sons talk about at dinner time. That's why we call you Soccer Thomas. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We have breaking news of the Matt Thomas show at Ross. That's one. That's two.

Do we do a third? What? I'm scared. First play of 11 on 11 in OTAs. Jalen Petrie picks off CJ. Strowd. Are you serious? Stroud tried to fit an end of the receiver and Petrie was right there. Are you serious right now? Yes, I'm serious. What's wrong with you? We go and cause. We go and discuss about TAs. Matt, we only get 10 minutes a week with Brian

attacker. He wanted to stick around extra for that. Oh my God. I'm sorry, Brian. Brian, you're doing nothing and you hang out in your hotel room anyway. How are you, sir? Good. Well, it is Arlington. There's nothing else to do. But I was a little worried when I was hearing those updates. I'm like, Uh-oh. What did I miss? Exactly. I thought another pitcher ripped his shoulder off the bone or something. No, no, no. No. I just wanted to make sure you knew because I know you are

very in tune with the OTA beat on the Texans that C.J. Stratford and Interception. You need to apologize, Matt. Tomorrow at 1130. Yes. I'll do it. Write that down, Jonathan. Hey, Brian, quick question. I know you have been working with the beat writers over the years in Arlington.

Then they go in the house. I was in the clubhouse. Why do the Rangers insist on throwing to Yorlon and Alvarez at all anymore? Well, I think they are learning their lesson, and I, you know, Skip Schumacher pretty much said that it shouldn't have happened with three-oh count. They were okay with walking him, and so, you know, I don't know if, you know, that reliever was trying to, you know, miss a spot or is like, I'm going to try to sneak one in, but yeah, not a good idea. This guy can cover the entire plate and just with the kind of tear he's on this season you got to be really really careful so yeah

I think if they had a do-over they walking there I mean they walked them with a runner at first just in his last at bat that's he's gonna he's gonna start seeing more of that and you know it's going to be up to guys like Christian Walker to start taking advantage of that is there anything he is seeing or changed anything you're seeing from him because he had the great April early in the month kind of swooned a little bit to the south and then now has picked it right back up. You know, he kind of hinted yesterday that there was a time he got a bit tired. And you remember, he was out the last game in Chicago because he had that, he had that back spasm.

So he was out the last game in Chicago. And then the first three games here, he's hit five home runs. And so he was asked about missing the game. And he admitted he was a bit tired. So when these guys get their days off here and there, I don't know that drives fans crazy, but sometimes they just need them. But I haven't seen anything there. He looks like typical you're down to me.

I mean, he's just hitting everything so hard. I mean, it's not like he's popping up home runs here. Everything is 430, 440. It's 110 plus off the bat. He covers the whole plate. And we hear over and over is just he's not only a slug. This guy's a great hitter. He makes adjustments from a bat to a bat.

Like, you know, he struck out on a slider against the grom. his first at bat. And then his second in bat, that was in his mind. And he was like, maybe I'm going to get this, you know, other slider here. And boom, he did. And he sent it straightaway center off the batter's eye. So there's just not anything he can't do or can't hit at this point. And Brian, you've been covering the Astros for a while, obviously.

Just to put in perspective, his OPS Plus career is 166. That is first in Astros history. Jeff Bagwell is next at 149. So obviously he's got to have a decline phase. and all that stuff. But, I mean, we are literally witnessing Astros history. Can you just, I mean, just kind of put it in perspective of us for us what you've seen. And is he the greatest Astros hitter you've ever seen? Yeah, I think the, he's up there with the Bagwell in 94.

And I pretty, even though I wasn't covering the team, I was at the, you know, I was actually working the scoreboard at the Astrodome. So I was at every one of those games. And this reminds me of that where every game, it's two for three, two for four, Homer, homers just does damage every time. You just can't get him out. That's kind of what it reminds me of. You know, Lance Berkman had stretches like this as well. Back in 2001, of course, you know, Vizio in 97, even though it wasn't the home runs,

but the doubles and just the stolen basism was just a wrecking ball at the plate. You know, he was, he's probably had one of his greatest seasons. And then, you know, the Altuve season of 2017, this is up there. and it might be at the end of the day the best season out of all those. I mean, he's on pace to smash Bagwell's single season home run mark. He's on pace for 50 plus homers,

you know, which would certainly put him at the very top of all those guys. I think his OPS Plus right now for the seasons over 200, which is mind-boggling. Brian McTaggart with us here covering the Astros for astros.com, MLB.com. We got good Mike Burroughs.

We were joking yesterday. Like, are we going to get good Mike Burroughs? And we did yesterday. day. What does that mean to you? What is good Mike Burroughs and how can he keep this up? Yeah, I meant a lot. I mean, the biggest thing was going seven innings, only two runs. I mean, it looked really wobbly early

on, sort of like, you know, EMI on Monday when he had, you know, three of the first four guys walked. Well, Burroughs, three of the first four guys get six things like, oh boy, here we go. But after he gave up that home run to Peterson, he was really good. And, you know,

the rotation has really, really stabilized itself in the month of May for sure. I'm sure they're out of looked it up, but I bet they're ERA and Mays more than a run better than it was, maybe even two runs better than it was in April. And that's a good sign because not only that, you have, you know, Hunter Brown maybe a week or two away from rejoining the rotation, which will be a huge boost. But, you know, Burroughs is settling in a little bit. And even when he gets touched a little bit or gives up a home run, you know, it's been one home run or one inning that's sort of went a rile

him but he's avoided that so far but even when he has those he still goes deep in the games and he's not a guy who's going to tax the bullpen when he's when he gives up some runs in there but he put it all together yesterday and now he's trying to build on this as they get in the middle of the summer Brian we're going to put you in the mind reader bag here for a second uh Brayu's ERA's been really good in fact he's thrown a bunch of BBs but he still continues not to be used in high leverage situations and it's not just a one-off it's a regular occurrence Dillo Santos is finished out games. King has finished out games.

Hell, we had a Asanta finished off the no-hitter. So what's going through his mind and how is Joe explaining what Brian Abraeu's role is? And obviously when you've got Hayter coming back, hopefully in the not too distant future, this will be a moot conversation. But right now, what does the organization, what does Joe think of Abraeu? And what does Abraeu think of a Brayu right now? Yeah, well, we talked to Abrae, and he says he feels better. I mean, he talked a few weeks ago about just not having some confidence in some of his pitches. And so maybe he ended up not throwing as hard, and he's been working through that.

But, you know, Joe looked like for a while he was having a little bit more trust in him. But even though the results are there, you know, the Velo still down. So clearly they don't exactly trust him in these high leverage moments like they have in years past. Or they feel they have better options. I mean, King's been great, even though he gave up a homer yesterday. but, you know, look what De LaSantos did yesterday, you know, a five-out save. And Hader should be back within the next few days. I mean, his last rehab outing is today.

So when he comes back, that's another guy you throw in high leverage, and that might push Abrao further down. There's clearly something that they don't like when he's on the mound. They just don't 100% trust him to throw strikes in key situations yet. But there's going to be a time because other guys are down or the game, you know, a starter goes short, they're going to have to use him. They're going to have to put him in. And he's done a good job in this month in those situations, but he still doesn't look like the Brian of Brayu of past years. And I think they see that too, which is, you know, why we haven't seen him

pitch here in a close game in a while. Brian, also, the outfield in a low perfido maybe coming back. I know he's got a rehab and he banged a ball off of his foot a couple of days ago. But there's going to be movement there. We've already seen Cole moved down. and Cam Smith two days ago in that bad loss hits one. I mean, I think he hit it to Fort Worth. So there's the power is there. We're still trying to figure it out. We're asking Brian Bogosevic about the inconsistencies of Cam Smith.

How do you see things with him right now? Yeah, he just seems to me, he seems to me to be late on a lot of stuff. He just seems to be a tad late. And when he does get on time and gets his timing down and square stuff up, I mean, we saw what we saw there or not. I think he has two of the six longest. home runs in the big leagues this year, 450 plus.

But I don't see Kansas going anywhere. I mean, he's probably the best right fielder in baseball at this point. So his defense brings a ton of value. But, you know, still working with him to try to get the timing down. And, you know, I really thought it would be better at this point

as, you know, we kind of get into the, getting into June and, you know, second year in the big leagues, I thought he probably would have made a little bit more advancements. that he has. So this is something really to monitor as we get towards the second half of the season and maybe in July and August, if he's still struggling, you know, what do you do at that point? Because now you've got almost two full years with this guy. But man, he's so talented and he's got such a good swing. It's just a matter of getting the timing. I know he's worked on different things

with his hands, worked on things with his hips to try to get himself prepared earlier and just has yet to come all together. But he still shows glimpses of the guy they trade her for, and when he does that, it makes you want to keep him in the lineup. Last question for you, and you are welcome to change your mind on this, especially when we get closer to Yonair being able to play. Has Vasquez done enough to make this a split job, or are we too soon to tell that observation? Or do you think that while Christian's been great, the man who should be catching five days a week is Yarnier Diaz? That's a good question. I think Vasquez has done enough. I mean, the Astros have pitched a lot better in May,

and I think some of that is because of having Vasquez behind the plate every day. That's not a knock on Diaz, but I think Vasquez is better back there. And Vasquez is probably not a guy you want starting 140 games just because of his age. And I think the way he was swinging the bat early on so well was because he wasn't playing a lot. But I do think that when Diaz comes back at some point, we'll see more of a timeshare behind the plate than, you know, Vasquez. going back to catching one. So I think Vasquez has earned that. I think the results show

that he's still hitting well enough to where you feel pretty good about putting him in the lineup. But I haven't really heard much progress about Diaz at all with his oblique. I mean, Jose Al-Tubez in Florida hitting and running and it looks like he's going to be back sooner than later. But Diaz

he hasn't heard anything. It's almost like out of side out of mind. Vasquez is doing such a a good job back there that I think they're content to just keep him back there. But yeah, to answer your question, I do think Vasquez has earned it, and I do think he will play more when DS comes back. All right. And very last question. Give me a thought about the best thing about Globe Life field, for those of us have not gone there. I mean, a lot of people make it as a rip-off of

Dykin. A lot of people say you can't say anything nice about Arlington or the ballpark. Is there anything that makes it unique, interesting, fun, a ballpark? Forget about your press box view because the public doesn't care, but just give me something that you go, okay, this is kind of cool. Yeah, the press box view is terrible. which no one cares about, of course. Kind of cool. The answers no, the answers no. I got nothing.

I mean, it has a root-tato barbecue. I'll go with a her-tato barbecue is good. Is hertato barbecue in the ballpark? Yeah. Okay, well, that's, hertato barbecue is really good, so that's got to be it. But, I mean, it's fine. It's not a ballpark you walk in. You're like, wow, this is, I mean, it's just like, it's fine.

It's a ballpark. It's got a roof. We play baseball. True words, never spoken. There it is. Brian McTaggart, looking forward to hearing you on deck tomorrow

from the ballpark with the first place Milwaukee Brewers coming in for a weekend set. How about that? Are you even going to be at the game? I mean, you've been putting a lot of time

and you deserve some vacation time. Well, I will not be there tomorrow, so I'll be glad to talk Brewers Aster's via phone from an underscosed location. So I'll be driving back from Arlinson tomorrow. Oh, okay, very good. And will you be stopping? on the way home.

Yeah, you know, I'm going to stop at Bucky's. You have to, right? Both. Are you going to hit both again? And if I have to go to the restroom, which is probably my age is probably a good chance. Yeah, your prostate's like, you got to go to the bathroom. Tag, safe travels, my friend.

Thank you for the time, as always. All right, guys. Brian McTaggart, MLB. And where did I go that I put the, where did I go during the summertime that I got ridiculed for going to? It was not a Buckees. Oh, you didn't get really?

to Q I don't think. Well, some people You went to Woody's and I went to Woody's yeah, I liked it. Your comments were saying Well, that's why, you know, Buckees are taking the, the business away from the independent

truck stops and, you know. No, I thought you should, show you should be applauded from going. I know, but I got, it was one guy, it was one guy. It was Twitter just destroyed. It's one guy. Yeah, just one guy.

Yeah, what is good? What is and Buckees? You didn't knock a boat out. You got to make two stops, right? I guess so. I just don't get it coming up at the bottom of the hour, Ross. Overpriced nowadays, Buckees.

Sorry. But the bathrooms are so damn clean. Bathrooms are nice. It's true. I'll pay for the clean bathrooms. I get that. And the 40 different flavors of icies? You can't get you?

Not necessary. I don't get icies personally. I love me. You sound like a hater. I'm not a hater. I'm just saying. If I'm, they're fine. What are ice is ever new to you?

I'm drinking calories. It's going to be alcohol in there. Well, you can't be diving in that. All right. 1116 on Sports Talk 790. I just don't get it coming up in 15. 1122 on Sports. Talk 7-90. Thanks again to Brian McTager for joining us.

It's funny. Give us something interesting about the global life field. I don't have anything. I will say this. That is part of the charm that is missing when you build these new monstrosities with all these club seats and you lose a little bit of it, don't you? The big glass wall is cool. I got like these big glass walls out in left field. In the Miami, do they get rid of that club out in left field or that's still there? I don't watch Marlin games. They got rid of that Marlin thing that lights up. up or did they bring it back? I think they got rid of it. I don't know.

But it's funny. I don't know if we ever first, we're going to love our home stadium. Like if we had Ranger fan call the show, oh, you guys, you don't know what talking about. Glob Life Field is the best. It's so quaint and fun and interesting. Like, for instance, for me, I love Fenway Field.

I think Fenway Park's highly, highly overrated. I still haven't been, so I cannot say. It's very uncomfortable. And reality is this, in 2000, 26 we want to be comfortable. Well, we're fatter. Yeah. Now, I'll say this.

I might change my mind if I ever, I will tell you this, if you and I ever make a road trip up to Boston. Okay. My guess is we need to go sit up in the, uh, I thought we are, we're kind of going to Boston. Yeah, you come with you, come in this fall? How far as Providence from Boston? 65 miles.

Okay. We make a little Fenway trip? A little Fenway Brosky's trip. Uh, I mean, yeah. Sit on the green monster? That's what I'm saying. I want to sit in the green monster up on the top of the green monster. Yeah. Okay. Two things I want to do that I've not done. Above the green monster and I want to go sit in the bleachers at Wrigley.

I just feel like there's a completely different vibe out there. Okay. Don't you think? Yeah. You're making out, passing out. Getting rowdy in the bleachers. Yeah. Girls are, uh, it's warm summertime, north side of Chicago. Nice breeze. Hot fun in the summertime. Hot fun in the summertime. 713, 212. John looks puzzled. Yeah. Oh, I think also the, oh, the screen's frozen too. I'm just, I'm just, you know what? What? Just take our vague references and just go with it.

Here's what you should do, Jonathan. You should write everything down that you don't understand about us and go Google it out for the show and like, oh, that makes sense or that made no sense. But hot fun in the summertime, at Wrigley Field makes a lot of sense. Let's go to Michael in the Woodlands on 71911-24. Michael, good morning to you. Hey, what's going on guys? Big fans love the show. Thank you.

Sports show in Houston. Thank you. Hey, I just want to say a few things. I actually went to Global Life last year. And it's kind of cool, man. It's got good AC, but it kind of has like a shopping mall vibe. The concessions are good. They serve a Carbock beer.

I don't think any of the Dallas people know that, that's a Houston beer. So I thought that was kind of funny. That is funny. Yeah, it was. Oh, y'all have Carbog. It's hilarious. But then they had one feature that we don't have.

you can upgrade your seats like during the game. So say you're like in the second level and like the first floor is empty you can like in the app you can upgrade and go that way. I thought they did have that in Houston. I think it was just in the app

or maybe not. I don't know. I love upgrades. Like for instance if airlines would it would do did you upgrade at all or did you just happen to see the option? No, I had good seats but I did see the option. I was like, oh, that's kind of cool.

But another thing, they have Texas Live. I don't know if y'all ever heard of that. Texas? Yeah, it's a bar restaurant area outside the stadium, correct? Yeah, so, yeah, but you literally, like, walk out of the stadium into this Texas Live, and it's like a whole party scene. So that's kind of cool, but it's extremely overpriced. Yeah, it was cool.

And they had they? Like Pudges and Troy Aikman's and. Yeah, it's like a Pudges pizza. there's like a, it's pretty much like Adoles Garcia's testosterone clinic. Yeah. The only thing I wanted to hit on, guys, I feel like the stroves are trending in the right way.

And I feel like when Hader comes back, like that is it. You know, everything's back to normal. What are like three games out, the first, you know, three and a half. Only three back. That's right. Only three back. I think that's going to be the potion that gets us over the edge. Last thing, I just wanted to hit.

hit on. I feel like when Caleb Downs comes to town, he's going to get a pick. Cowboys fan here. He's going to get a pick. Way to ruin the phone call. Yeah, C.J. Stroud doesn't throw picks. He threw one today. In the regular season. He threw one at practice today. That's fine. Jalen Pager's like, I cannot believe you did three breaking news sounders.

Let me tell you something. Oh, I almost did it. It's apology. No, it's not an apology. People want to know their OTAs. No, they do. We can talk about it. But we don't need to re-breaking news. I think it's an important part of the show. With a guest on. But McTaggart knows.

If it was somebody like... Tell him, Jonathan. I thought it would be a Joe Mixing. Yeah, I thought Joe Mixing guy. The news broke that he shot himself in the foot. What did you say, Jonathan? I didn't hear you. Where's my pastry on that, by the way?

I think I've got Jonathan convinced it. He, I think I've got you back on my side again. Yeah, but Jonathan's susceptible to conspiracy theories. He thinks Wilton didn't score. 100. No, no. Okay, look, there's no footage. Okay. There's radio footage. And there's a, there's a thousand eyewitness accounts. Okay. Oh, my gosh. When you said Wilt, what did you say about Wilt originally? What, did he never scored 100? Oh, I thought you were going to say that Wilt slept with 10,000 women. No, no, we're talking to, no, Matt, nobody's talking about that. That's a conspiracy theory.

It's not a conspiracy theory. It's a claim made by Wilt Chamberlain. Which I do not believe. He had 10,000 is a little much. Unless he's knocking out eight a night. Do you know who I argue with this once a year with? Elvin Hayes. Close. Calvin Murphy. Oh, really?

Yes, Calvin swears on it. Okay, well, see, Calvin's probably, swears on it. Okay, Calvin was there. He swears on it like I swear that Joe Mixson shot himself on the foot. Will was known for his stamina. There is my boy. That's what I'm happy about.

Will was known for his stamina. He played a season over 48 minutes a game. Over 48 minutes a game for a full season. I ain't buying it. Will probably had himself quite a few people in life embellish. Rick Flair says he's been with 10,000 women. Woo! That's what he was saying.

Yeah. He had even admitted. He said, look, they weren't all eights and nines. There were some threes and fours in a group. Oh. Don't you take that to the grave? Why? Two fours is an eight.

At the same time? Go to break. Things you don't get. The segment is called I just don't get. What don't you get? Ross, Jonathan, Matt, we're here to help you with things in life you just don't get. 1128 on Sports Talk 790.

Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topic to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends. It's time to say I just don't get it. 1134 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790 is how you reach our show today if you would like to join us.

Every Thursday between 1130 and noon, we kind of sit back and pontificate about things, including things in life we just don't get. Sometimes it's about sports, sometimes about life. Usually it's about life sports, RV, correct? I would say oftentimes, yes. You know, yesterday when I talked about my credit card, suddenly disappearing after they found it. Yes. Isn't the category of things I just don't get? But I move past that.

That is just a bizarre story. The card has been reordered and life is good. Okay. You know what? You got it in your Apple Pay? A new one? Well, no, it's because it's a credit card. I have my debit card on my Apple Pay.

Why don't you get the credit card on there? You get in trouble that way, I think. too free to spend. I don't want to carry interest rate. Okay. Just trying to be fiscally responsible. I carry debt and other things. I'm proud of you.

Thank you very much. Rossi, why don't you get this week? I'm going to go with it. Can we just go with who we mentioned earlier in the show? Please. Our friend Hunter Eurocheck? Hunter Eurocheck. What the hell is he going on?

I mean, I understand maybe complaining about it and it's kind of a shorter turnaround than normal. But going to the, it's hurting the welfare of our players card? What do you have to gain? What is the purpose of this? Why? Those who don't know we're talking about Utah. I don't get it. Arkansas plays at Utah week one of the season.

It's a late night Saturday. The following Saturday is an 11 o'clock start at home against Georgia. A full week later. Full week later. And he's complaining about the short turnaround. I mean, teams play on Fridays. Do the U.S. doesn't open the season on a Friday.

Do they open us? No. Matter of fact, we're the first 11 o'clock game on Saturday that year. But I thought they had a Friday game. They do, but it's not the week. Okay. But yeah. So I'm saying they have a short week. Yeah. But you bounce

back with a longer week after you play that Friday game. But yeah. Again, I have a lot of friends at Arkansas fans. I don't find very many 100 Eurocheck fans. Does he think they have a competitive advantage the next week? Because of the games at 11? Should go both ways, right?

If you get an 11 o'clock game, then you've got an advantage for the next week. You get extra time to recover. then funny that wasn't part of the release oh or the statement it didn't mention that yeah hmm as again Greg sanky the SEC commissioner said

we're not thrilled by this but ESPN cuts our checks remember ladies and gentlemen we talked about this earlier this week about something else when the networks cut like oh the playoff ESPN does not want a 2014 play when ESPN says I don't want a 2014 you are to be a good soldier

they control it yes so I would I would agree with you. I just don't get why a hundred-euro check went down this road to try to explain how unhappy he has about the quick turn. You know, the easiest solution

is, don't play Utah. Don't go to the West Coast. Don't go to the West Coast. Don't go West. They came to your spot. Yeah, can't back out at that point. Yeah. Jonathan, what don't you get, my friend? 713-212-790 for something you do not get in your life. 7-1-3-2-1-2-7-90. I can't understand this bipartisan NCAA. I just don't.

And the people that are backing you, I'm reading on ESPN and the Twitter about the bipartisan. And all these people are in like, oh, good, you know, it's getting out of hand. The government needs to step in. None of these guys are ballplay as well. You guys have never done this. But for the life of me, I do not understand what that is going to change.

You made it into a five-year limit. or they're trying to do so and propose it. What is that going to do? NIL is still going to be a thing. There's still going to be the courts that are, well, I get transferred. Then you have Juko and then you have all these other entities that come into it. But I don't understand it. You can put an age limit.

You can say, okay, you can't be older than 23 playing NCAA sports. That makes more sense. But to still say and still try to make these college athletes to people that are putting their body on the line, the ones that are making the product, that are making everybody this money, are still getting ostracized because they want to transfer and make better opportunities from themselves, and the populace doesn't like it. I don't understand this sentiment. I don't get it.

You know, to me, can I go macro on this with you? They're going to try to get this bipartisan community is going to try to get as much power over the industry of college as like as possible. They're going to win some battles and they're going to lose. That's how I see it. Again, it may be completely wrong in this. But I think they're going to, because there is no regulation, the NCAA has wiped its hands, the SEC and the Big Ten kind of run everything. And maybe there is some government,

and they're thinking maybe a little government intervention would calm down the waters a little bit because it feels like even the SEC's athletic directors and presidents like, this thing is a hot mess. Well, I think this is an attempt to try to put some regulation on this industry and what they get away with and what they don't get away with, I will be determined by court, not necessarily human beings in political office. But to your point, but what's the plus if you restrict it? What is, what are we getting out of that?

What is the plus? Because they don't, because schools do not want to be on the hook for guys running from school to school to school just for playing time. And cash. That's how I can say it. I'm with Jonathan. It's not even going to hold up. There's this guy. I follow a couple of law people and one of them was getting retweeted.

This guy that I don't follow. His name is Tom Mars Law. Okay. And he's a lawyer and he did the commencement speech in Arkansas recently. So I don't know. He's got some notably, 20,000 followers. He says everything in here is just going to be struck down by anything in the Constitution and other statutes and laws. Like he read through the bill and he's like there's no way any of this holds up in court.

So maybe it's just government saying we're trying. Yeah. It's a performative waste of people's time, I guess. But I get the point of let's trying to find something that's not so chaotic because, you know, that's never. going to be a long term. But I don't understand the people that are, oh, yeah, this is, I don't get, what is the plus of, limiting everyone to five years?

Yeah, what's the plus? What if you tear your ACL twice? Are you to rip it at Kelly's and tear an ACL? Then you're really good and good enough at least to be a good college player. But let their, like, Matt, your daughter's going to be an incidentally athlete. Say something happens with the trainers or something she's uncomfortable and she wants to transfer. There's so many things more than just, oh, I want to go play to get better NIL.

Right, right. There's a broad. Again, do you then set up a committee to say, well, why did you transfer more than once? I mean, do you have exceptions or whatever? Yeah, I mean, it's weird. To me, I don't, what they're, again, I'm speaking on behalf of whoever I'm not speaking. Maybe they're thinking, we don't want, like, there have been, who is the, there was a quarterback at Oregon State that played against the Cougars last year. There was a quarterback at Duke. I mean, he's been four or five different places.

Right. And I think they're trying to avoid, my guess would be, John, is they're trying to avoid that? Oh, Malik Murphy? Yeah. Longhorn legend? Why can't he do that? Because in theory, they're saying this is an abuse of power. This is an abuse of what the college football experience should be.

I mean, I'm just trying to throw it out of it. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Malik Murphy's happy and Oregon State was happy to have them. I don't see what the problem is. It's an abuse of the intent of what college athletics was supposed to be. you're supposed to, okay, don't, don't get, don't shoot the messenger here. I mean, I don't get it.

You're supposed to go to class. Okay. You're supposed to play for your school. You're supposed to love your school. And now that you can make some money, you can make some money. But it's not supposed to free. I think the thing is they're thinking about we can't have college athletics be free and see one-on-one every single year.

And that's what it's turned out to be. And maybe that's people are bothered by that. It's just somebody going to their best opportunity. Malik Mershey's best opportunity. He was a backup at Texas. You know what? Duke offers him some money, he goes to Duke. And then Oregon State says, hey, he wants to offer them the max amount of money or whatever.

Opportunity, playing time, all those factors. I don't understand. He's somewhere else, by the way. He moved on where he is now. He moved somewhere else beyond that. Yeah, it looks like he's with the Barcelona Dragons. He's not with Barcelona Dragons. Okay, I made that up.

No, he's still with Oregon State, according to ESPN, but I don't know if that's right. Yeah, this is what the guy that Tom Marslaw said. Just finished reading the Protect College Sports Act Bill. This is a lawyer. lawyer. Sure. Someone could create a bingo card with all the federal laws and constitutional doctrines and amendments this bill would be challenged under if it becomes law.

So there we go. Basically, as I thought, this guy is confirming that this is not going to hold up under any sort of scrutiny. It's going to get challenged to death. And this is just a waste of everyone's time is what it seems like to me. So again, is it just politicians on both sides of parties, just trying to say, hey, we're trying to do the best we can? feels performative and useless.

So let me ask you. American politics. Well, what is the most dangerous thing right now going on in college athletics? If you took a, now again, gambling? Well, is the average human being, and I'm going to assume that those of you listen to our show are average, your exemplary for listening to our show, but the average Joe, or Diane, listen to show right now. What bothers you most about college athletics right now? I can't think of a college football.

I can't think of anything that really bothers me. Because every time the college presidents, athletic directors, meet at these spring meetings, you know, SEC, Big 12 is doing their same thing. Everything's broken and it's worse than ever. We don't have to deal with that. I'm not dealing with transfer recruits. I'm not dealing with recruiting. I'm not going into people's living rooms.

Maybe that's miserable. Maybe it's miserable. Dealing with unlicensed agents. So it doesn't bother me. I get to go and recruit, do whatever it takes and put them on the field. Let's get out of our shoes and let's talk about what bother. We were a head coach at, say, South Carolina. It would be everything.

It would be all those things. It would be the transfer portal. It would be dealing with agents. It would be kids getting misguided by other family members or agents or whatever. But I don't have to deal with that. I don't care. On the Saturday, I'm flipping the game on or I'm going to be in the stands cheering. So let's put this in a nutshell.

The administrators are mad. The presidents are mad. The athletic directors are mad. The coaches are mad. But yet, the television networks are satisfied. Interest is up. Ratings are up. I don't ever watch a college football game much in most power forward.

I don't see the stadium completely full. Right? Yeah. I got corporate sponsorships all over these games. Mm-hmm. And I got the SEC saying we don't want to expand because we got a $20 million conference championship game. So we'll, so, and again, I don't know.

I will this over a lot, ladies and gentlemen. I think about it how crazy everybody thinks it is, but yet we're really not complaining about it. And I'll get granted, if we're Ball State, we're not thrilled. But we thrilled about college like 25 years ago? Probably not. No. Ball State never had a chance anyways.

Sorry, Ball State. No disrespect to you, Colorado State. With this new system, you can at least get a chance. Texas Tech, have they ever won a national championship in football? I'm going to say, no. If I'm ball state, I'm like, let's go to 24. Let's go. Cody Campbell wants to go.

He can get in there and spend a bunch of cash. He can do it. Maybe that's what it is. Maybe all these rich alums that are paying all this money. I'm paying one and I have two million dollars for this roster. And I can't get more than a field goal. Not my problem. Yeah, but every time you go to see these league meetings,

oh, we got to fix this. Everything's broken. All right. You have something you don't get? Let's go. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-1-1-1-11-11-147. The Astros and Yordaam Mania continues more on that in 15 here on 790.

All right, come on now, Houston, Texas. We're here for you. This is the half hour we give you the sage advice at other shows in the marketplace. We won't cuss and discuss whether or not the Texans' offensive line is ready to go. Is that what you want? Is that what you want? No, you want relevant sports commentary and life advice. Ross Villarreal, myself Matt Thomas.

We can talk some OTAs. We can. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got hurt, which means that's it. That's OTA talk concluded. Completed for the day. You know what I don't get. Talk on the in A team, two to six.

I don't, you know what, I don't get, I don't get why Gordy comes in here yelling at me about this, this bill. He's yelling at you. Talk to Ted Cruz, bro. I don't know. He's upset because I want a player to have their personal freedom. Oh, well, what about the coach? He invested, he recruited this player and he got him to commit to the school. Yeah, what about the coach that goes and he signs with another team or he leaves?

Or what if I want to play for a defensive line coach? and then that guy goes to another school. What if I don't like the classes? What if I don't like the campus? What if I want to change my mind? If any 18, 19-year-old can change their mind like a young Matthew Thomas and go from North Texas to Houston, why can an athlete go ahead and do that?

Why are we just trying to control these young players? I don't get it. Imagine you a kid, Ross. I want to go play for Eric Morris at the University of North Texas. Uh-huh. I love me some North Texas Yeah I think the mean green

Are going to do well Hi coach what's going on I'm going to North I'm going to Columbus State See later Oh wow Well bring me with you Yeah I'm in Malik Murphy

Like we were talking about He wants Texas He was the backup And he wants to go And the Duke says We're going to offer him this money So he goes to Duke Now he's Oregon State

says we're going to offer him money So he goes across country to Oregon State Maybe it was a mistake Maybe it was a bad decision Crazy idea Sometimes 1920 year olds Make mistakes Well, and you know, it's funny you say this

Because I'm looking at the world The college softball going on right now Oh, are you really? What are you looking at that for? What do you mean? What do you mean? Hook them horns, baby. Going back to back.

But I just saw that they got seven transfers in there. Yeah. And it's just, and Gordy was in here talking to me as well, but it's, I'm to the point where I don't understand where the pro is controlling it. You know, and like, I just don't. Someone would have to really talk to me about. that because I don't what do you move to look I I used to be of the exclusive belief that you do

when you sign a contract which is obviously a letter intent you should adhere to it but look you have to evolve these coaches will leave at a millisecond a millisecond so if the coaches can leave the players can leave it that's my philosophy on this and the letter is there a buyout that you have to have or there's got to be some sort of restitution usually it's financial I mean that's what it is. I mean, when you are a coach and I at one school, I mean, when Willie Fritz left Tulane to go to the University of Houston, you had to pay

Tulane some money. That's what it is to buy out your deal, whatever, that you've current your contract is your NIL deal, whatever it is, or the money that school gave you, pay it out and leave. It's just not a hard and fast roll. Go ahead.

But I don't, so y'all answer this from me. What's stopping NCAA from letting the transfers happen, but going back to the suspensions. Okay. The year, I think that good, those got struck down in court too. Because it doesn't make any sense. Oh, you got to sit out for a year, yeah.

But you still have your eligibility. Yeah. You've got a way, a semester. Way a year with eligibility? I don't know, that probably gets struck down in court too. NCAA's getting their ass swamped in the Supreme Court for the most part. That's a shame. Corrupt. You know, I keep thinking about when this was all before COVID happening,

and they weren't getting paid. I couldn't imagine the conversations you guys were having compared to them. Well, all I'm saying is I am frankly exhausted with hearing about university presidents, conference commissioners telling me, I mean, if you put, look, Feimbaum's a good example of this. Fine Bomb does these shows, and I turn the TV on our day, every coach goes on a fine bomb show. This system is broken. This is, we got to fix this in it. You guys are the leaders of the pack.

The SEC are the dirtiest of the dirty dogs. Ratings are good. Ticket sales are good. Interest is good. Their salaries are good. The money that their alums are giving them to pay these athletes is good. Why are you talking about being a broken system? If there's anybody that should be complaining about a system being broken, it may be the folks at U.L. Monroe. It might be Ball State.

It might be Connecticut. But for SEC, ACC, for the most part, Big Ten schools be telling me how corrupt the system is and how it's got to be regulated, it's hypocrisy. Like there's people worried about whether or not Dabble Sweeney is illegally recruiting. Guess what? Dabo's probably illegally recruiting trying to poach kids. Just like other schools been trying to poach his kids. They're all playing in the same sandbox, right?

Yes. They illegally recruit even in track. I mean, it's everywhere. College athletics is filthy. So if you don't, if you, and again, do you just let it rampantly continue on? I mean, I would hope that it'd be something we could do. to kind of make it more ethical of a business overall and have some sort of business model, but I don't think there's going to be enough.

You're asking for 140 different schools, at least for that play football, to all adhere to the same rules, and that's just not going to happen. It just not. Why does Florida have any interest in making sure that UNOV has a good competitive chance to win a football game? They just don't have any interest in it. They have more money, more interest, more alums that are asking more of them. They have more money, they have more salary. I mean, look, again, it would mean more to me if you took 40 or 50 schools and said,

hey, let's all collectively get together and say, let's, you know, we need a better shot at this. And the answer would be, and simply it would be like, okay, we're going to give you a 24 team playoff. And then those other 40 or 50 schools that feel like they're being mistreated will go away. You get the 24 Ross. You're going to get an opportunity to get your Arkansas states into the tournament and into a potential playoff. Let's get them in there. It can happen. What happened this past year?

James Madison and Tulane. Liberty? No, Tulane, that's right. Two Lane. All right. We got to celebrate Yoran's weekend in Arlington. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Rocker on the bow.

The first pitch, and this one's lifted to right center field and hit well. Going back on it and in the bullpen in right center field. And the Astros lead two to nothing. On Alvarez's 16th of the year. A bullet to right center field. And this one's hit. A mile to right center field. Over the bullpen and 10 Rosti.

Yordaun Alvarez with a three-run jet, his 17th of the year. A pitcher for the Rangers, it's Jalen Beaks, and Yorda pounds one down the right field line. It's hooking, and it is a fair ball and a home run. Hooked it around the foul. second home run of the game for Yorda Alvarez he's driven in four tonight and it is 9 to 5 Rangers

Yurdon going deep for the 18th time Hitch his hit well to center field that's got a chance 407 is straight away and it's gone Yordon does it again four home runs

in this series and that one was as impressive as any of them and Alvarez hits it well and hits it to right center field. Back is Carter at the wall looking up. See you later. Second home run of it.

This one puts the Astros up. Three to two. He's a one-man gang, if you will. He's getting a little help from his friend, Christian Walker. But yes. Carrying the squad. The best hitter in baseball in terms of OPS, OPS Plus, home runs. With a bad back, apparently.

He's all right. He'll make it. Let's see. How many games is this? he played. Chipp it away, baby. All right, Jonathan, I'm a warrior. This is your early thoughts

about the song? I was playing it this morning before the show, and I'm not going to lie. I feel like I embodied my 70s. I was like, this is what y'all had with the perms and the colorful clothes and all that, the disco. This is probably more. The 80s? It's 80s. It's like 83, 84, somewhere that range. For me, it's all the same. I'm like, same era. Fifty-five years ago,

65 years ago. What's the difference? It was a decade in friends. I really like it though. It's a very good vibe. 1984. June. Yeah. Yeah.

80s didn't do much for me, but that song, that song gets you fired up. You get a little workout going, a little run. Number seven in the United States, number one in Canada. Canadian music is good. The Canadians loved it. Couldn't get enough of that one. They loved that and Brian Adams too, Ryan Ryan.

Of course. They love their Canadian workers. Canadians got some hits, yo. Not you. I'll say, yo. That's terrible. What do you mean? Selim Dion? No, but you went, yo. Let's get to the news at noon.

Okay, fine. Drake? Drake's got the most number one hits of anybody. I think he passed Michael. And Drake loves 28 of the 30 NBA teams. Ironically, that's true. All right, Matthew, yes, the news at noon. You just heard are Yord and Savior. Some highlights for him.

He has five home runs in this Rangers series, helping the Asheros get the win yesterday, 4 to 3 over the Texas Rangers. Mike Burrows was very good, seven innings of two-run ball. Also, I had six strikeouts to lower his season ERA to 5.40. Brian King ran into some trouble, and just as we all predicted in the preseason, Angel de Los Santos comes in and saves the day with a five-out save. But of course, the headliner, Yordaun Alvarez, three for four, two home runs, and an intentional walk.

He is just incredible. Hitting 312 on the season, OPS of 1.085. That is tops in all of the major leagues, Matthew, as the Astros are only three games back. Only three back. Those of you have the shirts, I'll be changing your number here in the next hour or so.

They're still in fourth place. Ain't scared, but they're only three games back. God bless the Sucky A.L. West. God, the AOL. is trash. Do you know that I was going to say about it? Yes, I know. All right. Well, we can move on then, Matthew, because tonight we have a must-win game for the San Antonio Spurs. They are three and a half-point favorites against the Oklahoma City Thunder. As they face elimination, if they're able to win, it will be game number seven on Saturday at Oklahoma City. But tonight, as I mentioned, three and a half-point favorites, San Antonio Spurs. Matthew, your thoughts on that?

The Oklahoma City win the Western Conference tonight in San Antonio. Sorry, Miss the Ultimate's first fan, but you will not see a game seven. I think I'm with you. I want to disagree, but I would love to see Game 7 anyways. Nothing wrong to Game 7's in life. The two best words in sports, game 7? In sports, game 7? Hmm, that's what they...

That's the cliche. The two greatest words in sports, especially from hockey nerds. Hockey nerds. There's nothing better than a game series. of a Stanley Cup playoff series. Collectively, America says no, but that's another here nor there.

Yeah. Game 7 World Series sure went out. Also, I guess kind of in sports news, Matt, your friend, Tillman Fertita. Now, what I'm reading is that it was a $5.7 billion buy of Caesars, but he's also taking $12 billion of debt on. So that's why it's costing him $17 billion to purchase Caesars. He's taking on $12 billion of debt

and cutting a check for $5.7 billion. So that's the cash part of it. To purchase Caesar's Entertainment. Will there be a Caesar's patch on the Rockets jersey? I think Memorial Herman's got it for now, but you know. For now. Yeah, I don't know how long the deals are. Yeah, I don't know.

That'd be smart. You inject a little revenue to yourself. Maybe call it the, yeah, I don't know. Let me tell you something. If someone's smart about this, he will infuse Caesars into your brain as soon. as humanly possible. That's what Manchester City did. United Arab Emirates bought Manchester City.

They also own Etihad Airways. On what? Etty had Airways. It's an airline over there. They flood a Love Field. Owned by United Arab Emirates. And so they spent a whole lot on their jersey sponsor. And then that allowed them to spend more on players.

I love it. Second aid, maybe let's go. By the way, voice of rockets could use a race. Craig Ackerman? He's having his own issues. Poor Craig. He is super hacked. What else did he get hacked besides Twitter? I keep getting DMs from him probably every other day.

On Twitter or where else? Twitter, yeah. I got a couple Twitter ones. I texted him about it. He's like, please report this. I'm trying to fix it. Get it fixed. I can tell you as a double hacky. It's a very, very painful process. Did we ever set up two-factor authentication? With you?

I have such an impossible password. There's no chance I get hacked. What? Yeah. I got rid of Ross sucks and put it something different. You know, let me just tell him. Zinzi is going to keep, you got this two factors because they know every way around it. I can't even hack you right now if I wanted to. No, you can't.

They don't just guess your password. I mean, that's what I do? They feel like you clicked on this thing and then they can go inside. They can get your sign in. No, I'm not clicking on it. That's how you got a hack last time. clicked at the first. You've been hacked twice. You don't try. You're going to sit here and act like your Teflon.

I've learned, I've learned, I've learned, I've learned my lesson. I've learned my lessons. All right, when Bitcoin's back on the M-Sports MT. You're going to act proof when you've been hacked three times now or two? Two. They will not be a third. You got it. Never mind. We won't set it up. We won't worry about it. You're all good. If I could figure out how to do the two-factor, I would do it. I don't know how to do it. I'll help you with it. I've been trying to help you.

Thank you. We'll do it next break. There's your music, dude. That's it? Oh, by the way, I'm going to hit on a gut feeling. I think, no, it may not have been, was it to tell the truth. There are lots of reports about where LeBron may be going to play basketball. He is spreading the word on the streets, whether you believe these streets or not, that he will take nothing but as much money as possible. He is not going to go to Cleveland to take a cheaper deal.

Okay. That his intent would be to go back at the Lakers and make as much money as possible. Because I think he wants, he's looking, I got a couple years left. Lakers can pay them the most. Bird rights. Yep. All right. 1215 on Sports Talk 790.

What y'all thinking about? It should be about Yorda Navarez. Should be thinking about Mike Burroughs and just three back. All right, I want to ask you all a serious question if you're astro fans and you want to answer this question. But I'm only asking for those of you that will be truthful about this. What are you thinking about the team today in terms of them being three back that you weren't thinking about them two weeks ago when they were six and a half out? and getting crushed by Seattle.

Remember that Seattle series? I lost three out of four. Y'all were rather grumpy. I'm going to ask you a very simple question. How are you feeling now? 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Have you changed your opinion?

Now, remember, fandom does change your opinions almost on the daily. How are you feeling right now? Tell me the truth. If you're still not buying into this, Astro run? I can accept that. You're still under 500. The vision's lousy. Or do you want to say, yeah, man, I'm kind of seeing the light of this. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. All right, I pose a question roster, our audience. We got some folks that online. Chris and Allen, we'll get to you guys in a second. I swear we will. So we like call interaction. We don't need to

hear ourselves talk for four hours. And frankly, if we hear ourselves talk for four hours, we don't find ourselves very interesting. But that's why we like to call our interaction on the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. All right. Had your opinion changed after the Astros dropped the three out of four to Seattle? Had my opinion changed?

What was your opinion two and a half weeks ago? Two and a half weeks ago, I thought they were going to struggle to get to 500 by the end of the season. Remember we had talked about before the week started with Seattle 4, and then Texas 3. It was like, that could be the quote-unquote uncomfortable week for Joe Espada and for Dana Brown. Yes? I mean, this is as high on them as I've been because they've won five out of six. That's right.

But there's still seven games below 500. They still have a ways to go. So, yeah, obviously winning five out of six is going to inspire a little more confidence. And what really is helping is Tatsu Yimae has been really shaky. And he threw six innings of no hit ball last time out. Yep. Joe Burrow. I'm sorry, Joe Burrough. Mike Burroughs, I should say, with seven innings of two-run ball yesterday.

Spencer Eric Getty is continuing to get at it. Hunter Brown is now a couple of weeks away. Like, you could actually have a really good solid rotation. And then Yordawn is continuing to be Yoron. He was also slumping a couple of weeks ago. So, I mean, things have turned. Christian Walker was having a May swoon, as was Yordon Alvarez. Remember, they weren't scoring or hitting, and they were running up against some good pitching.

and Joe Ryan was carving them up and Chase Burns of Reds. That's why literally we're awesome. We tell us to folks all the time. And most of y'all get this. This bad boy is called a marathon. Yes. Now, a month ago,

I said the Astros were washed. Yes. Because I have to bring it up. No, it's okay. No, you'd be honest with the audience. You've got to be honest. And I can be that way. I don't need to reinvent the wheel here on this.

Because I have been through a lot of these low slumps. and I have been the leader of the relaxed guys, it's early. But there was a terrible vibe. It was because Emi couldn't find the plate. It was because you had the injury bug kick in for the second consecutive year. You had, what else was going on? Cam Smith was struggling again. You didn't have a definitive left fielder.

You were basically winning games with the worst pitching, it was winning not a lot of games. You were winning some games with a really, good offense and a really, really lousy pitching staff. Oh, Brayne began his implosion at that point. So, for what I saw, it was justified. Yeah, it was. And it didn't feel like they were going to pull out of this,

but they have a lot of good players. They're getting healthier. But really, if you look at that lineup last night, this is still not a major league lineup. That's the thing as we're open and honest. I am loving the fact they're in the American League West. I am loving the fact they're beating up on other second-rate teams. I am loving the fact this team has got a softer June coming up.

What I'm not loving is Seattle's playing better. What I'm not loving is the fact... And look, Alan and Cam and Shoemake... Bryce Matthews. These are nice people, but this is not going to put this team 10 games about 500. Christian Vasco is still going to regress. as well. They've liked him back there, but yeah. And look, and the reality is this, Burroughs is yet to, I mean, Burroughs numbers are still not great,

good yet, really good yesterday. Peter Lambert doesn't have a huge resume of long-term success. Lambagetty, let's go, baby. So I will say, do I feel better? Yes. Am I happy that they're relevant? Yes. Am I happy that I took phone calls last night and two nights before that on the 10th inning show where Clan and Wexer don't work? those and we were very people are feeling better but if they can hang around 500 and do this and get hater back and get altube back whatever the altube is now al tuve is better than brys manthe's

playing a second base there's just no argument to it offensively from from that perspective and brayu continues to pitch better and put him in high leverage situations then i want to see how the astros deal with this do the astros believe in themselves because if that's the case, if all the things I've just talked about, come back into play, they should be buyers of the trade deadline. Buyers? With what? How many teams?

Capital. How many teams buy with a 500 record? The answer is not many. I wouldn't expect, I mean, maybe a bullpen arm or two or something, but I don't know exactly. I mean, they're not going to be like full-on buyers. But they haven't been in the last several years. So I am, I'm like EMI was when he pitched that guy. game before the rain delay. I'm optimistic.

Okay. You can be. I'm still now, of course, the lineup looked, it wasn't as lengthy because Paredes was getting a day off. But your top four, Pena, Alvarez, Walker, Paratus, whatever order you're going to put them in. Then there's just a massive, massive drop-off. Jake Myers hasn't been hitting. Braden Shoemake, okay, he's coming back down to Earth, as we all expected. The dude's not going to OPS 1,000. Cam Smith continues to struggle. Bryce Matthews, eh? Christian Vasquez, me?

I mean, he's been getting some hits, but still, I would say, counting on his bat long term is a mistake. All right, we'll end it out. Thank you for allowing us to do that. It's our pleasure to do that, and you can agree with us or disagree with us. Chris and Stennett will get to you guys coming up. One, two, out of the break. 713-212-5-790.

I feel significantly better than I did before that three out of... When that Seattle 3 out of 4 series with the Astros, that was probably a uh-oh that was the king that was the that was the crescendo of the fire joa spot up fire dana brown's talk conversation

and since then it's kind of slowed down thankfully because those are two guys that probably should at least the bare minimum have the entire season to prove their worth 713-212-5-790 if you want to join us 7-13 212-5-790 1233 on sports talk 790

7-1 3212 5-790 enough of us let's hear from the great people of Houston, Texas, because we are a radio show that likes to talk to people as compared to others that don't want to talk to you. Chris on 790, Chris, good afternoon to you. Hey, guys, how you doing?

Good, what's going on? Hey, what's going on? So you ask me, do I feel better? I feel it depends on what we're going for. I feel better that we don't dump the Astros leaders

and staff and all that business about trading you're on. It feels like we're out of that mode, but if you ask me about the playoffs, maybe we win the West, which is a good thing. But if we go to the playoffs, I don't want to get embarrassed. We don't have a playoff caliber pitching staff. We don't have the depth we need to go into the playoffs. So happy that we're not going to have to just dump everybody and start over. And to be honest, Araggeti, today against Yvaldi, will be the determining factor.

I go on Calci, and I bet against the Astros. What? I bet against it. Yes, I bet against the Astros. So if they lose, I get paid, and if they win, the Astros win. It's a win-win for me. Right. That's a little head.

By the way, if you want to join Calci like you have because you're a smart man, use it code 7-9 to get you a little bonus there. Just saying, saying. Go ahead. Okay, okay, okay. See, that's the deal. But today will be my determining factor. If we win today, I might start betting Astros.

I might. Just today, though, this is it. Even though they got the Milwaukee Brewers coming to town who are a better team record-wise, everything is focused on today's game. That's a lot of pressure on the local nine. No, no, no.

It's more like, it's more like when they swept the Cubs, I raise the eyebrow. And this time, when them beating the Rangers the way they have, if they win today, I will move forward, start betting the Astros.

Up until this point, I've been betting against them. if ergetti can beat evaldi we've not been good against him if he can do that they will change my mind and when they start regressing i'll just turn back i think like i said i think we have a good enough team that we don't have to scratch that start over but i don't know how deep into a playoff run we can go built at a great deadline we need at least two pitchers

thanks chris for the phone call and appreciate you listening um look if you get to the playoffs That's the number one thing. Let's not worry about, well, we'll be happy if they don't advance. I mean, the reality is this, it's still a long shot. I don't know what the playoff odds are. I don't particularly care. But in our human mind, this is not a playoff caliber team as currently constructed.

Now, does Hunter Brown change things? 100 brown pitches every fifth or sixth day? Of course, does your back end of your bullpen automatically improve when Josh Hader's out there? The Josh Hader of old? Absolutely. Because right now, it's a hodgepodge of Dodo Santos and King. and a little mix of a brayu, that's not overly positive. Well, it's an if-then statement.

If the Astros are good enough to make the playoffs, then that means where there are now seven games under 500, they're going to be at least a few games above 500. So we're talking about gaining 10, 12 games above 500. Then that means probably the pitching is improved. They've stayed healthy. And they will be contenders in the American League when you go to a shorter rotation.

If they can climb out of this, then Hunter Brown came back and he was good. Then Spencer Arrigetti kept it up to some degree. And you found something with either Burroughs or Emi or Lambert more consistently. So that's three to four starters that you can toss in a starting rotation in the playoffs. And if they are improved enough to make the playoffs, then they're probably still hitting to some degree. So if they get there, they're going to be alive. They're going to be a live dog. something happened to get them to this role.

Like, you don't play 350 baseball and lose nine in a row and make the playoffs. Exactly. If he might, because the goat regresses and he's shaky and Burroughs never figures it out, then they're not making the playoffs. And we're not doing some moot point. Yeah, don't worry about the playoffs. Let's get the 500 first. Playoffs.

Only three back. Talk about playoffs. Hashtag only three back. We're trying to get the 500. Yeah. Left side of the infield, hit. Anybody in the outfield. Hit.

Cam Smith, please. He's always got, he's hitting 460 foot bombs now. That's in Colorado. But 457 feet in Arlington. Not thin air there, regular air there. No, regular air. Regular air. Regular, dark.

Dank pawn shop air. Yeah. Yeah, it's nasty. Yeah, golden corral air. It's heavy. Air out there in right field. Yeah. Something is wrong with you all.

It's almost like, it's almost like dust in a win, don't you think? Have you been Arlington? Yes, I've been over there Oh, it's sketch as hell Oh, you know it Oh, you can't wait to go back I didn't say, oh yeah, all right, all right I just said, I don't know

I didn't say y'all are wrong You said we're wrong, but you didn't say we were wrong I got you. In no particular order, let me tell you about Arlington. Okay, here we go. This is good and bad. Uh-huh.

Six flags. Okay. Dollar Tree. Pawn shops. Okay. Lots. of stadiums. Yeah.

Nice Walmart next to Jerry World. It is a nice Walmart over there. They'll tell you. Don't park there for the game. They'll tell you. They will tell you. Two most effective Walmarts in America. Most effective?

Most like best spots. The one in Galveston on 61st Street. Okay. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You turn left on 61st and there it is right there at Seawall. And the one in Arlington. Grab your beers, grab your beverages,

You can tailgate you. You can wear back. Transport and all that's right there. I don't know, Ross. He sounds like Mr. Texas to me. He knows the spots. Yeah. All right.

Come on now. You're breaking down Texas Walmart's like that? I can break that. No, you can't do it. He can't. I can't. I don't even,

I zoned out because I was reading the best thing that's you in Arlington. What do you say? The two best Walmarts in Texas are what? Most effective places to Walmart is the one on 61st and C-wall Boulevard in Galveston and the one I heard about it.

Just because they have great location. You can do all of your beach going and just knock it out right there. Perfect spot. That Kroger over there, too, has got a good spot too. You're even talking about. That's because I'd travel these streets Texas. They didn't even make any sense. You're making it as much stronger. There's a

Walmart there on the seawall, so now he's Mr. Texas. That doesn't make it sense. I think it makes tremendous amount of success. Stunna on 790. Sonna, what do you got today? Hey, what's up, Matt and Ross? Hi. Hey, did you

wake up the strippers? Because, man, they ain't out here today. You might have to redo that. Let me tell you some. Hey, let me tell you some. Stunna, I'm working solo tomorrow. I'm going to belt it out at 12 noon like you haven't heard it in a long time. Why, man? Because they ain't making no money today, man.

But, hey, man, this injury bug that's going on. Hey, now I know we got rid of our last trainers. These new ones that we got are. I mean, if they file the same protocol as the last. asses? The trainers the asteris have this year are AI. They've gone off the board a little bit to try something different. I mean,

I'm worried about our injuries, man, even with all our other teams, the Texans, the the Rockets, I mean, it's just something with H-Town going on with these injury bugs thing, man, because, you know, and I'm worried about British.

I still think he ain't healthy enough, but I mean, I don't know. Parades still got that injury. I don't know what it was. HIP. Or what? But I'm worried about it.

No, Perthus is playing. He's not hurt. It's, it's, it's, you got the, you got the, what we call it the side, obliques? Obliques for Altuve and Diaz and back-to-back days. And Jake Myers. And Jake Myers had one, too, but he's fine. Protect Yordon's obliques at all times, at all costs. Yeah. I'm worried about your hand.

I don't think it's the trainers. I think they just are highly trained athletes who are pushing their bodies to the limits for 162 games a year, Stunner. It just happens. Yeah, but they need to do some of that during the off season and not just come back in the yard. Yeah, I don't think they're just sitting on the couch, Stunner. Yeah. 1985 athlete did that. Maybe we need to go back to that.

You know what is, smoking a pack of cigs? You know what? They need to gain some weight. You need some fat. You need some more 12-ounce curls. You need more like Matt Stairs. Me? Many more dad-bods in sports.

Like, bring back Prince Fielder. Well, because they play all year round. I don't see them with no injuries. Well, Cal Riley's known as Big Dumber, and he hurt his oblique, so. Seriously, more dad-bods in baseball. Cal Riley's got a dad-bod. He hurt his oblique.

I have a dad-bought. I don't get hurt. That's because you don't do any physical activity. I walk. To your car. to my house from the driveway more was like this oh I walked during high school this

week and I walked from the stadium to the hotel and back and forth that got me some steps that way oh really yeah you get the blisters and you popped it huh bring that up again I already learned my mistake foot doctor's like come on now terrible always always trying to find a little avenue to take the thing aren't you no you know I'm not I'm out of here bye I'll leave you know what vacation mode see you later

Jonathan Ross is off the next two Fridays. He should be apologizing to me like on Thursdays. You're welcome. You know, yeah, you know what? All right, I'm sorry. Next segment. Yeah, I'm sorry. Didn't I write some, I wrote something down to apologize about two.

We didn't do like at 1.30 today, a special Ross only addition of I'm sorry's. That's okay. I'll get the rest of that done later. Talking to y'all punk asses for a week plus. I'm happy. We won't hear from you. You won't text. You won't respond.

No. Decompress. Relax. Much needed. Sit next to you every day. talking to Jonathan. 713, 2125, 790. You see what it's the bigs?

I was talking to Jonathan. He's saying sorry next to the game. He is so low-key A-hole. He really is. Love you guys. Bye. 1244 on Sports Talk 790. 1248, Sports Talk, 790. A special 130 edition of I'm Sari's with Ross

coming up. 713, 2.1.3.2. One, two, five, seven, really? Yeah, yeah, we'll do. We would, we got four-hour show. We're gonna do. Man, you know what? We'll do, it will not even be a full segment.

140. 140 to 143. I do. Jonathan, we say nothing. We just lend him to apologize for all the rude things he said about us. I got the song ready to. I don't even know. And frankly, it's more than three minutes, but we want to be polite.

Okay, so last night was supposed to be game number four. five of the Eastern Conference finals. Well, it didn't happen because they got their ass swept. The Knicks swept the cab. So Pat McAfee did a impromptu, not impromptu, but a late add-on, and he interviewed a lot of commissioners. He interviewed Rob Manford.

He interviewed a WNBA commissioner. He interviewed the MLS commissioner. And he also interviewed NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Okay. And I was at a restaurant, so I can't take exactly. what the genesis of everything was, but one of the things that kind of caught my eye was the conversation about flopping.

Okay. Now, Shea Gildes-Alexander has been the poster child for this year, but he ain't the only one, and he won't, there's going to be future floppers. Jalen Brunson, Denny Avdia, who else? I mean, James Hardin. The all-time greatest flopper of all-time in my mind is Carl Malone. Ooh, that's a good one.

Because that was, he can't make it the upperm greatest, but the OGs of flopping. I'm going to go Manujinobli. Greatest, greatest flopper of all time. Maybe so. So, when asked about that, he says flopping has been a conversation.

This is he being Adam Silver, the commissioner, the NBA, says there's a difference between selling a call an exaggeration and a true flop. Officials can be fooled sometimes, but our officiating is incredible, says Adam Sover.

I don't think Adam Silver gives lip service. I think he thinks officiating is wonderful. It's difficult. It's the hardest out there. He might believe that because you're biased. You know, you're always going to protect your guys. We all have 100%.

We all have our biases. Correct. But he knows. He knows that there's a lot of people who are not satisfied with all this flopping that is going on. And he is correct in that sometimes if guys don't flop, they don't get calls. Especially

big men, I feel like. Embelishment, for sure. Like Alpern-Shingoons, he's flopping and flailing his arms around because if he doesn't do that as a big man, especially, you're not going to get called. Because it's a congested air in the paint. A lot of times, what will happen on a replay, Matt? We'll see it. Well, he sold it, but that was a

foul. And if you don't sell it, then a lot of times it doesn't get called. So there is some we like to complain about it. We hate flopping, but there is some gray area there. I'm going to give you a blanket question. Is how, is there too much flopping in the NBA today?

In your mind? I would say yes, but I also would say it doesn't keep me from watching. I'll give you the NFL example. Are there too many flags in the NFL? Absolutely. But I'm sitting there on Sunday watching. See, I was like I was feel like, there could be more flags. You were right. Think about the NFL. There could be, but also

it's like, I know, there could be holding on every single play. That's what my point is right about that. But also it's like every time I, like, first week of the season, I end up tweeting out National Flag League. Like, that's what it is. Because somehow you forget and you come back to it. And then there are issues we have a baseball,

but I feel like baseball has fixed a lot of their issues. I mean, you've got the challenge system. That's good. ABS is a huge success. You've got the pitch clock. That's been huge. I mean, what even is our- injuries to say otherwise, but that's gone.

Yeah, that's true. Well, injuries on both sides is maybe that that's more of like the overall health of the league than the actual, when you get in between the lines, like, what is our biggest complaint about baseball? I don't know. Guys aren't flopping around, guys. You know, unless you're just, it's too much to swing in for the

fences and too much striking out, but who cares? That's fun too? Nope. I will say this. You'd be naive not to think in basketball, whether it's college, high school, or the NBA that we focus on primarily, that there is more flopping than there has been ever any point in the history of the sport. Because again, you're trying to sell your call. The thing I would say is, if there is more of it and everybody believes there to be, the why don't we get more flopping technical fouls in games? Rossi, I call 90 games a year. I may have called two flops a year. Yeah, I don't even recall one. But yeah, I'm sure they may have happened. There was one because honestly, the official sign for flopping is kind of weird.

What do they do? It's almost like moving your hand up and down in that kind of motion. It's like a cup check. A little bit. Like a Mitch cup check. And you put your arm out there. It's almost like you're telling somebody to F you with the crossing of the arms. It's like you on 59.

No, I told you haven't been better. On 610, I mean. At the restaurant I wanted to. I'm going to tell exactly how I felt, but that's... It's just difficult. It's the most difficult game to officiate. I would like to see more flopping calls. Wait.

More flop. Oh, you mean more fall? Yeah, like technical foul. Correct. I think, Jonathan, I think if you put it in there once in a while, it kind of keeps guys on edge. the refs know but you're also it's also a skill to trick all these referees because the referees know two guys are flopping

and you know shegilds Alexander you know they show that montage of him falling down every single shot he didn't get a call on the vast majority of those so they are there are calls they're not calling we see flops that don't get called all the time yeah we'll see 10 of them not get called and then when one or two get called we're like oh they're falling for it but as I said before it's time for the NBA and I would bring this up in the off season because they always bring up things to the officials.

I think it's time to start punishing more. I think it has, the league has gotten more physical. They have been calling less fouls. I felt like this year, now maybe it's just Rockets basketball I've been watching, but they're out there mugging dudes and not getting anything cold. I will say this. Very physical. On the other side of it.

Yeah. I don't think, I think a men, Thompson's got to start doing the hands up in the ear and getting, kicking his legs up because a man, I see men after games every time. He gets the hell beat out of him. Yeah, Kevin Durant's getting pushed around. I think they do allow a lot of contact.

Let me ask you an IA. You question though, because I'm young and I guess I'm trying to make this comparison, but were there more injuries and stuff like that when it was a more physical league and that's why NBA has turned to this? No, no, because in the NBA back 30 years ago, Jonathan, you had guys not only getting beat up and playing and playing through it, but they were playing more games. We're seeing the amount of absentee games. I mean, there's no such.

There's more injuries now, but that's also because of how athletes push their body 365 games a year and the pace and space of the league. It used to be, everybody was taking a shot from like 18 feet in, so you didn't have to cover the space. And they had illegal defenses and Zondi, you weren't running cross court for closeouts with everybody's space in the floor like they do. The amount of running and the amount of sprinting they do now is more than, say, the 90s. So there's less games, less contact and fast pace. compared to what it used to be. But there was also physical playback in the 90s too because you had more back to the basket centers.

Patrick Ewing, Akeem Elijah one. You had guys like Mark Eaton. You had legitimate cream for that matter. You had, you had to, when you got in the paint, you knew you weren't coming out without some sort of blemish. Yeah. And it was, they were more physical, like more brutal, yeah, in terms of that way. And it was like national news when Michael Jordan decided to hit the weights in the offseason.

And they're like, oh my God, this has never been thought of before. Michael Jordan couldn't beat the Pistons. Look at him. Look at him. He's bench pressing. It was like national news all over the country. Stories running everywhere. Michael Jordan has bench pressed.

This is unbelievable. They're bench pressing after games now. Like in the middle of games. They're bench pressing. So yeah, they're pushing their bodies harder. I don't want to dumb it down, but I'm going to dumb it down. I think if you give more flops, technical foul flops, we're going to see a dramatic dropping of it

because I think guys are going to be scared about it. Yeah, but I don't think you've got to make it reviewable. I don't know. Because a lot of times, as we said, they're exaggerating contact that exists. And then where do you draw the line of flopping? All right. Basically, it'll start this final hour of the show.

Oh, at 120, 125. What? You have two minutes of apologies. Okay, what did I say? We called you a chimp twice yesterday. I feel like I have a valid. 125. Ross will apologize to us.

Okay, that was rude. At 130, Brian McTaggart's conversation. I'm sorry. What is a believer not today? I don't know. All right. You got about 40 minutes figured out. Final hour where Ross will apologize to Ross and me, primarily me at 125 here on Sports Talk 790.

This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross. Thank God. You know, doing solo shows ain't fun sometimes, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow. You're going to miss me. I don't know about that. Jonathan, you're going to take your chance to shine tomorrow. I know you're going to miss me.

I'm doing the show from the Kingwood Studios tomorrow, too, by the way. Wow. I drive to 37 mile a terrible last drive. Things I do for this show. All right. 713, 212.570 if you want to chime in 713, 212,790. Astros and Rangers, you'll have the on deck at 6? Yes.

I will. Very busy today. Got a pack flying out in the morning. See you later. Are you flying dark breast out there? I am actually. Did you buy it? Did you pay for a seat or did you just go when are you going to go? What do you mean?

Like did you buy it pay for a better seat or are you just going to go sit in regular section? Oh, I signed up. Well, I don't know. I guess I can talk about this. Sure, why not? I signed up for their priority card. So. I'm good.

Oh, that's nice. You preferred seat for free. That's really good. Good for you. and a companion pass And a companion pass? Can I literally go with you tomorrow? Yeah, absolutely.

I got to do the show. Okay. In matter of fact, to show you how much I care about you, I got invited to do a hoity-toity luncheon on Monday. Okay? That's not here. Yeah. What's that I got to do with me?

Well, if you were here, rockets or something? Might be. Yeah, there we go. It was hoity-to-y-to-y. Dang, sorry, Matt. No, no, no, don't be sorry. You get the vacation time. I know your five-diam-d-d-mant Matt.

It has been nice. Biscuit on 790 at 104. Biscuit, good afternoon to you. Can you hear me? No, I cannot hear you. Cougar, Matt. Cougar mad, man. Hey, first of all, Matt, man,

me and my boys, man, be thinking about doing that Vegas thing next year for the Cougars, man, you know. They go there every year. I think it's going to like their third straight year there. They're going to this player's era tournament, yeah. Which I can't believe. I can't believe.

Those who don't know, players era is an NIL tournament where these schools get paid money, and the money goes directly to the players. I didn't think it was going to last more than a year, but it's just going to be its third year, and it's only getting bigger and better, so good for them, I guess. Right. You know, and kudos it. And, Ross, I'm going to push back a little bit, man. I just have to watch the 86 with the Rockers and the Lakers, man.

And sometimes you just forget, man. man, it was way more player movement and ball moving back in the day. I guarantee you it's more passes per possession back then than it is now. You guys was cutting and moving, and nowadays, most of the guys on the week side have just spotted up at a spot. Well, they have tracking data biscuits, so you can push back on me on if you want, but the tracking data says otherwise. Yeah. Well, I'm telling you the data says otherwise. I'm saying it's more passes, possession, more player movement.

than it is today. It's also in a more small compacted space as well. And they was getting them and down the floor, man. The game was like in the 120s. I mean, it was way more entertaining. I mean, you can't dispute that. And then the other thing I know this is. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You can't dispute that, Maddie? Whoa, well, biscuit, biscuit, biscuit. I grew up on the NBA in the 70s and 80s. I called the basketball in the 2026s, whatever you call. And the 1986 Western Finals, not a single team got 120 points. It is, the NBA had... I just watched the game. It was...

And let me just say it is that. It was way... And the inside game is way superior. I mean, it was, man, Elijuan and Ralph and Worthing and Samson. I mean, it was some dunking on me. And it's some nice guys. I'm not saying that they don't have good players today. I don't know.

This magic on the break, three on two, I mean, it was, I mean, it was to me. You see him run out of bounds play. One guy cuts through, the second guy cut through. Then the third guy gets the pass, jump hook. To me, it was more all-around basketball. I'm not, you know, now the Spurs and the OKC, that's much watch TV. Yeah, I was going to say the first, which game went double overtime?

That was one of the best games I've seen in the last 10 years. Was it between those two teams? Exactly. And my last point is, if the refs stop rewarding the flop, then they would stop flopping. The refs got to get more, because I don't know what Alex Silver is talking about,

but I don't, you got three guys out there. Matt, the other night, the guy tipped the ball off the rim. He had it right there, and you don't call it? I mean, it's somebody, what's the dude, Tony? Tony, what I wouldn't even have him anymore.

Don't you argue with Tony Brothers. He'll come after you. I wouldn't have him doing any games, man. That dude would be standing right. there and don't, you know, so the refs to me, and some of the rule changes have changed the NBA for the worst, I think.

But it is still entertainment. When you get Wemby out there, they do as much watch TV. And it's going to be interesting to see how they call it, though, man. Let's just be consistent. That's my only problem is, let's be consistent. Why is one guy getting

all the calls and then other guys is tackle football? You know, but the playoffs basketball is much better than the regular season now. The playoff basketball, in my opinion, is more back to old days. There's more contact allowed. It's more physical. Well, a lot of that is because, and thank you, Biscuit, for the phone call.

A lot of that is because the stars are playing. You don't have guys taking days off. That, to me, is the argument that I would have spent Adam's overtime. I mean, a fishing is going to be tough no matter what. Flopping can be fixed with, can't hand it on some technical files, in my opinion. Yeah. But, but, yeah. Yeah, no. Look, I've watched basketball for 45 years, 50 years.

It's just different. I mean, it's worse. Now, you may have your better stuff. You may be Kareem and Larry and Michael. I get that. But, man, if you sat down and watched this, you would see some incredible playmaking. Now, would you see Shaggildos Alexander going the free throw line 13 times? Yeah, not great. Doesn't help. But I'm sure.

But you could complain about that, about you complaining about, the fact that there were low-scoring games in the NBA in 1987. Except when Denver Nuggets were playing, when they score 135 points, but they wouldn't play any defense. Everybody's got something to complain about something, about the generation they didn't start enjoying their sport in. Yeah, and the referees, I mean,

tell them to stop calling the foul flops, they're getting tricked. They're not saying, man, that was a great flop. Here's a foul call. They're getting tricked. That's the problem. So asking them to discern between a flop and a real foul, that's the crux of the issue in the first place.

They can't do it. consistently. And if you challenge everything, and I love challenges, you'd also be there three and a half hours. And also, you can't, if the game doesn't stop because there's live action, you can't go back, well, I need you to go back to that play two minutes ago and challenge it for me. Right.

It's imperfect. It just is. It's tough. But the league is still in a good place. I'm still enjoying it. It's different. I get it. I understand.

some of you are going to if you lived with Kareem and Larry and Dominique and other folks and Elijah won't for that matter it may not be your cup of tea but trust my eyes that have seen it for 45 50 years it's different it's good

so you know but to your point that Ross is saying like they're getting tricked what was the conversation when James Hardin was doing what he was doing same thing it was the same thing and they also get rid of the he was doing a lot of rip-throughs which they changed that They did the rip through change.

Chris Paul was guilty of that too. Yeah, that was changed. The NBA changed. So maybe it's just a point. NBA, they got to change something. They had to do the same thing. They make a rule change on this flopping.

They got to do something there. You just have guys who are skilled at it. I mean, some guys are better than others, and some guys lean into it more than others, because some guys don't care. How they get to the free throw. Like, James Hart doesn't care. You call him a flopper all the day.

He's going to go 12 to 13 from the free throw line. Can I give you a, this is, is a gut feeling for today, which not should be until Tuesday. How about this? How about so much talk about Shaggildes Alexander's foul baiting is going to result in him shooting fewer free throws

the rest of his career? There may be some officials that are saying, I'm not buying into it. It never happened to James Hardin or Chris Paul, like you said. Or we know, I mean, Denny Avdias feels like the foulbator du jour. He's a fresh new name of the list. He's a new kid in town. Okay, I'm going to go with it.

Jonathan, one year from now, Shane Gales is Alexander will shoot 20% less fewer free throws than he shot this year. And I think that's all that's needed, especially from this season. Because, I mean, especially if OKC wins this championship, it's going to be hard conversations to be like the NBA's turning into this, the rewarding all these bad calls. You know, same with the super team conversations.

I'm just looking, but it's kind of gone down. He went from 10.9 to 8.7, 8.8.8.9.0 this year. So it's gone down a little bit. But, and that's still not the James Hardin level. But here's the thing. It was brought up this morning on ESPN. If you're a 12, 13-year-old kid and watching NBA and you're watching SGA get the free throw line 12 or 13 times

to be successful as he is, we're going to start seeing this in the high school game, in the Little League and the 12, 13-year-old kids. I was seen in the AAU. Nine-year-old, they're doing the same thing. They're flopping, and the reps, even they're rewarding that, you know, the exaggerated contact. Michael Jordan

Free throw attempts per game More than Shea Gilgius Alexander this year in 85, 87, 88, 88, 89, 90 and Hell, Carl Malone folks You guys know this from being

Rocket Utah fans back in the day Carl Malone lived his life with the free throw line. He's just the foul bader du jour to be discussed And the fact of the Michael Jordan Fowlebator, I mean he was getting He would drive 50 times a game

So he would end up I watch a lot of Michael Jordan games. I would not consider Michael Jordan a foulbator. No. All right. One 13. Every now, dude. Once in a while.

I'm going to push your offer. Just call more flops. I guarantee you, you'll see this drop when guys get threatened of technical fouls and kicked out of games. 113. 790. 7.1.3-212-5-790. A couple of things from Texans OTAs want to get to next here. Ross is going to apologize to Jonathan and myself at 125.

130, Brian McTaggard on the best of. of his conversation all straight ahead. But up next, what's going on at Texans OTAs? Sports Talk 790. All right. Texans at OTAs today. Thankfully, no one got hurt. That's the most important thing.

That is the storyline. C.J. Straud did speak. When I asked about the fifth year option being picked up and not a contract extension this offseason, quote, I'll let my agent, David Mulligot, I handle the contract, whatever happens, happens. I'm excited to be a Texan this year and go from there. I.e. he's pissed.

What is he supposed to say? He's not pissed. He's not pissed. I'm just teasing. Come on. David Mulugatta is going to handle it. David Mulugatta is probably shouldn't be happy with CJ for throwing all those picks. Yeah.

That's exactly right. He probably broke his phone. And I think so. Oh, see, Aaron Wilson tweeted this. Okay. Okay. Can I do a, boys, can I do it very late? I just don't get it.

Yeah. Jonathan, you jump out on this too. Because if I should be getting it, then you need to tell me, Matt, get this. Okay. C.J. Stroud on his shorter haircut. I was told people thought I was depressed. I wasn't. I was thinking about cutting my hair for a long time.

Nothing too serious. This is how I grew up. I hate that everything in my life is so public. But I like my hair. My brothers, my sisters, my dad. My close friends say I look younger. I hope that's true. Did somebody ask CJ about getting his hair?

haircut. I mean, clearly. Clearly. I just don't get it. What nerdy water carrier asked CJ about his haircut? I just don't get it. Seriously, Texan reporter dorks. Seriously. Who would have been stupid? It was an all-season story. No, it wasn't. For some people. No, for people that with IQs of 50 or less, yeah, it was a story. It was trending on social media.

That doesn't make it a story. Okay, I'm going to say this again. Did somebody really ask why he got his hair cut? And it may be a friend of the show. I don't know. I just don't get it. We asked Christian Walker about his mustache. No, I didn't.

Some people do. Well, that's what I'm saying. This is me. Me, myself and I. When a man gets his haircut or extends it or puts cornrows in it or puts a headband on. He got asked about his headband. Not me. Not me.

Not me. Yeah, it happens everywhere. Amund Thompson asked about his headband. Jalen Green used to always because he would have braids and then he would be froed out and then he would have like one little twist. When did athletes' hair ever become something that people should be intrigued about concerned about. But this is Aaron Wilson tweeting a response that somebody asked. I don't get why you're so fired up about this. Because it shouldn't matter. I'm on that side here.

I mean, it's just, it's, it's offseason. It's, it's OTAs. Yeah, they are trying to look, they're trying to look for something. It's OTAs. You got nothing at Cory Bob unless you want to ask him about throwing his interception, which I'm sure he's asked about. And some people idolize. As I said, a men Thompson gets asked about wearing his headband, not wearing a headband, braids, not wearing braids. But C-T also did get-Gy. He got a lot of slack for the

manor's hat too, right? They care about what hat he wears, too. Yeah, Christian Walker had a mustache. I can get, 100% guarantee you. I can find a quote from Christian Walker about his mustache. Yeah. Now, the hat thing I can kind of get a little bit more because he was wearing a direct opponent

to a Houston team. I think they were playing the Mariners that weekend or something, right? That to me, I could give a little bit. And then he said, go-ims, which I thought was weird. He was like, I'm the big dumper of the NFL. He said Seattle for life. Okay, no, he didn't do those things. He wanted to wear a pitchfork during the game.

So I'm just saying, I just don't get it. Okay. You know, I don't get it either. Thank you. I'm with you. At least I'm not the only one. It's just, I mean, it just shows you how useless. Look, when the rockets go away, when the season ends,

we don't worry about them until next October. When did these OTAs become, let's talk to these players over and over and over again? How about when the Texans lose in January, which they normally do? We talk to you, I don't know, in August, in July during training camp. It's like spring training. I mean, we go there, Christian Walker lost 10 pounds. We talked to Christian Walker for 10 minutes about he lost 10 pounds. But we don't talk to Christian Walker in November about this.

We talk about it when he's down there getting ready for the start of the season. I told you people that he 100% answered questions about his mustache. I was in the middle of the season. I don't disagree with you on that. I think it's the celebrity angle. I think they see this guy celebrities, not just athletes, and we kind of just see them as athletes.

You know, other people are infatuated just with, you know. It's not a pressing matter, certainly, but it's OTAs. It's not like he just threw four interceptions against Pittsburgh. Like, what's up with your hair? That would be funny.

All right, music off. Change it. What? What now? You got two minutes. My microphone's off. John did not speak. Ross.

Okay, you're going to have to give you some. Sample's You guys are the worst. You know what? You need to apologize For putting me On the spot on Thursday. No, go ahead.

No. All right, any time in here, you're all having days off. We're going to make you apologize. Let's see. What am I sorry about? Okay, I am sorry.

Look, I have had these over-the-year headphones that I've been using them for like two years, and I recommended him to Matt. And so he bought them and it's been two days.

days. No need to apologize. So I'm sorry you can't figure out how to put them on. Oh, look at you. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry that I called you a chimp twice. Sorry. Now, what was the first reason I called you a chimp?

I don't remember why. Doesn't matter. It kind of doesn't mean. Oh, sorry. You're failing this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about calling you a great ape.

I'm sorry. It was probably uncalled. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, see, I would say I'm sorry. I don't really go out of my way to say you're not Mr. Texas, but you always bring it up. And you're the worst candidate.

So I am sorry that I always have to stamp out this fire. Sorry. I didn't light it. But I'm kind of sorry. I'm trying to be more positive in life. And you know, sometimes I backslide, so I'm sorry about that. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry for leaving you for a week.

No, you don't have to be. I'm a little sorry about that. No, you shouldn't be. I will not accept that apology. Yeah. Okay. Well, if there's anything else, I should apologize about him. This was a horrific attempt.

I'm sorry for taking shots at the coogs all the time. Oh, sorry. Turning music off. This is not going wrong. But again, that's because you always try to act like their God's gift to athletics. By the way, our field at TD, UC Stames all screwed up, apparently with some church event. I don't know what the hell happened.

What happened? What? Yeah. They're dancing? They have to fix it. It wasn't a Baptist church. They're not allowed to dance. I don't know what church it was, but there was a turf or grass over there? It's our first turf. Oh, it was the stands, right? The got on balance or something? It's like a hazard.

Read to Joseph Dorte's store. I'll do that for the show. I know it wasn't from the football trophies. Hit the music again. What? You're not on the team? Get ready. Nope, no, no, no, no. You hear that, Coog's fans who destroy me, go destroy him some more.

I'm not Coop fans in general. I mean, the CUSA Championship trophy. Computer dorks. Hey, Conference USA is a good conference. Yeah, I know. It is not a good conference. It's a trash-ass conference. It's a trash-ass conference.

It was a good conference. They messed it all up. It was a good conference. It was a good conference when Houston was in it 20 years ago. All right, I'm sorry. And you know what? I'm sorry for posting the Astros. all-time OPS plus leaders, and there was a certain guy that wasn't in the top 11.

Uh-oh, what did that mean? It was a certain astro. What position do you play? It's like, some left field. Set these fine jewelry. You're going to hear from Brian McTagger next. Get out. Go work on believe it or not.

He's got an email. Our text from a friend of the show cannot reveal his identity. It says, Yordaun greater than OTAs. Rocket's uniform talk greater than OTAs. Hmm. I have seen... They have been teasing. I have seen them.

Oh, wow. I cannot discuss them. I actually signed an NDA. Wow. I cannot discuss them. I will just say they're... You will, A, like them. Okay.

And B, they're not over the top different. That's all I can say. Hmm. Like, remember when the rockets went from ketchup mustard to those blue uniforms with a rocket and that, that was a massive overhaul? Yes. When the Astros got rid of the brick to go back to the orange blue, that was a massive overhaul. I would not consider this a massive overhaul.

Okay. But I think you'll like them. They should go back to the old ketchup and mustard. It's just traditional. Well, they are teasing mustard. Pistons went to that stupid teal and then with the horse on the train or whatever. And then they went back to classic pistons, baby. Like, why can't the Rockets do that?

I think they're going to. Like the Wizards went back, classic. Let's go. No, I want the full basketball logo that says Rockets. H-O-U-S-T-O-N. I think Mitchell and Ness have the copyright on those. It's got to belong somewhere in the rocket. They have to have some of that, too.

They have to probably license it from the rockets. Yeah. They own it. They're the sole proprietors of that? I would imagine. I think you're going to like it. Okay. But if you're looking for a complete overhaul of what you've seen,

I wouldn't call it that even. I like what the Astros did. Back to classic. Orange and blue. They wore the orange again yesterday, even though they lost the day before. What are they doing? Oh, no. All right, here's Brian McTaggart on

why the Rangers insist on trying to pitch to Yordon Averiz. It shouldn't have happened with three-oh count. They were okay with walking him, and so I don't know if that reliever was trying to miss the spot or it's like, I'm going to try to sneak one in, but yeah, not a good idea. This guy can cover the entire plate

and just with the kind of tear he's on this season, you've got to be really careful. So yeah, I think if they had a deal, do over they they walk him there i mean they walked them with a runner at first just uh in his last at bat um that's he's gonna he's gonna start seeing more of that and you know it's gonna be up to guys like christian walker to start taking advantage of that is there anything he is seeing or changed anything you're seeing from him because he had the great april early in the month kind of swooned a little bit to the south and then now he's picked it right back up you know he kind of hinted

yesterday that there was a time he got a bit he got a bit tired and you remember he was out the last game in chicago because he had that he had that back spasm so he was out the last game of chicago and then the first three games here he's hit hit five home runs and so he was asked about missing the game and he admitted he was a bit tired so when these guys get their days off here and there um i don't know that drives fans crazy but um you know sometimes they just need them and uh but i haven't seen anything there he looks like typical you're down to me. I mean, he's just hitting everything so hard. I mean, it's not like, it's not like he's popping up home runs here. Everything is 430, 440. It's 110 plus off the bat.

He covers the whole plate. And we hear over and over is just, he's not only a slug, but this guy's a great hitter. He makes adjustments from a bat to a bat. Like, you know, he struck out on a slider against the grommas first at bat. And then his second in bat, that was in his mind and he was like maybe I'm going to get this you know other slider here and boom he did and he sent straight away center off the batter's eye so there's just not anything he can't do or can't hit at this point and Brian you've been covering the Astros for a while obviously just to put in perspective his OPS plus career is 166 that would be that is first in Astros history Jeff Bagwell is next at 149 so obviously he's got to have a decline phase and all that stuff but I mean we are

literally witnessing Astro's history. Can you just, I mean, just kind of put it in perspective of us for us what you've seen. And is he the greatest Astros hitter you've ever seen? Yeah, I think the, he's up there with the Bagwell in 94. And I pretty, even though I wasn't covering the team, I was at the, you know, I was actually working the scoreboard at the Astrodome. So I was at every one of those games. And this reminds me of that where every game, it's two for three, two for four,

Homer, two homers, uh, just does damn. damage every time. It's just, you just can't get him out. That's, that's kind of what it reminds me of. You know, Lance Berkman had stretches like this as well. Back in 2001, course, you know, Vizio in 97, even though it wasn't the home runs, but the doubles and just the stolen basism was just a wrecking ball at the plate. You know, he was, he's probably had one of his greatest seasons. And then, you know, the Altuvae season of 2017. This is up there, and it might be at the end of the day, the best. season out of all those. I mean, he's on pace to smash Bagwell's single season home run mark. He's on pace for 50 plus homers, you know, which would certainly put him at the very top of all those

guys. I think his OPS plus right now for the seasons over 200, which is mind boggling. Brian McTaggart will is here covering the Astros for astros.m. MLB.com. We got good Mike Burrows. We were joking yesterday. Like, are we going to get good Mike Burroughs and we did yesterday? What does that mean to you? What is good Mike Burroughs? and how can he keep this up? Yeah, I meant a lot. I mean, the biggest thing was going seven innings. Only two runs.

I mean, it looked really wobbly early on, sort of like, you know, EMI on Monday when he had, you know, three of the first four guys walked. Well, Burroughs, three of the first four guys get six. They're like, oh, boy, here we go. But after he gave up that home run to Peterson, he was really good. And, you know, the rotation has really, really stabilized itself in the month of May for sure. I mean, I'm sure they're out of looking it up, but I bet they're ERA and Mays more than a run better than it was, maybe even two runs better than it was in April. And that's a good sign because not only that, you have, you know, Hunter Brown maybe a week or two away from rejoining the rotation, which will be a huge boost.

But, you know, Burroughs is settling in a little bit, and even when he gets touched a little bit or gives up a home run, you know, it's been one home run or one inning that sort of went awry on him. but he's avoided that so far. But even when he has those, he still goes deep in the games and is not a guy who's going to tax the bullpen when he gives up some runs in there. But he put it all together yesterday. Now he's going to try to build on this as they get into the middle of the summer. Brian, we're going to put you in the mine reader bag here for a second. Obray, whose ERA has been really good. In fact, he's thrown a bunch of BBs, but he still continues not to be used in high-leverage situations.

And it's not just a one-off. It's a regular occurrence. De Los Santos is finished out games. King has finished out games. Hell, we had a Asanta finished off the no-hitter. So what's going through his mind and how is Joe explaining what Brian Abraeu's role is? And obviously when you've got Hayter coming back, hopefully in the not too distant future, this will be a moot conversation. But right now, what does the organization, what does Joe think of Abraeu?

And what does Abraeu think of a Brue right now? Yeah, well, we talked to Abrae, and he says he feels better. I mean, he talked a few weeks ago about just not having some confidence in some of his pitches. And so maybe he ended up not throwing as hard. And he's been working through that. But, you know, Joe looked like for a while he was having a little bit more trust in him. But even though the results are there, you know, the Velo still down. So clearly they don't exactly trust him in these high leverage moments like they have in years past.

Or they feel they have better options. I mean, King's been great even though he gave up a homer yesterday. but, you know, look what De LaSantos did yesterday, you know, a five-out save. And Hayter should be back within the next few days. I mean, his last rehab outing is today. So when he comes back, that's another guy you throw in high leverage, and that might push Abrao further down. There's clearly something that they don't like when he's on the mound.

They just don't 100% trust him to throw strikes in key situations yet. But there's going to be a time because other guys are down or the game, you know, a starter or goes short, they're going to have to use him. They're going to have to put him in. And he's done a good job in this month in those situations. But he still doesn't look like the Brian of Brayu of past years. And I think they see that too, which is, you know, why we haven't seen him pitch here in a close game in a while. Brian, also the outfield in a low perfidil maybe coming back. I know he's got a rehab and he banged the ball off of his foot a couple of days ago. But there's going to be movement there. We've already seen Cole moved down.

and Cam Smith two days ago in that bad loss hits one. I mean, I think he hit it to Fort Worth. So there's the power is there. We're still trying to figure it out. We're asking Brian Bogusevic about the inconsistencies of Cam Smith. How do you see things with him right now? Yeah, he just seems to me, he seems to me to be late on a lot of stuff. He just seems to be a tad late.

And when he does get on time and gets his timing down and square stuff up, I mean, we saw what we saw there or not. I think he has two of the six longest home runs in the big leagues this year, 450 plus. So, but I don't see Canada going anywhere. I mean, he's probably the best right fielder in baseball at this point. So his defense brings a ton of value. But, you know, still working with him to try to get the timing down.

And, you know, I really thought it would be better at this point as, you know, we kind of get into the getting into June and, you know, second year in the big leagues. I thought he probably would have made a little bit more advancements that he has. So this is something really to monitor as we get towards the second half of the season and maybe in July and August. If he's still struggling, you know, what do you do at that point? Because now you've got almost two full years with this guy. But, man, he's so talented and he's got such a good swing.

It's just a matter of getting the timing. I know he's worked on different things with his hands, worked on things with his hips to try to get himself prepared earlier. just has yet to come all together. But he still shows glimpses of the guy they trade her for. And when he does that, it makes you want to keep him in the lineup. We're going to think about this this week. What's the comp on Cam Smith?

Is there a guy we have followed and watched in sports Houston-wise that we keep waiting for him to just turn the corner because there are signs of brilliance. And then there is like a lot of signs of inconsistency. We have a lot of players, honestly. John Singleton? Damien Pierce? Oh, okay.

Right? That's not bad. Kind of feel like that way? Gosh, I don't even know. Scott Ellerton. Say you're sorry. Why? Scott Ellerton?

You won the rando 90s Astros picture? Scott Ellerton was a good prospect. And he showed some flashes. Ross is in vacation mode. All right, believe it or not, it's up next. We're playing for you, ready for this? We're going to the Thomas House Vault for this. Okay.

The last time I was on NBA, 2K, I've got some extra NBA 2K video games we're going to play for here today. Okay. So if you are an NBA 2K 26 player, by the way, who's on the cover of that? Shit, Gilders-Elexander. Yeah. I do think we're kind of making a little too much all this. All right.

If you like NBA 2K, I've got some personal video games of mine that I'm wanting to give away, because we gave away all of our prizes earlier this week. Sorry. All the counter tickets were gone for the Motley crew. Yeah, people love those crew tickets. Yeah. So we're playing today. And if we know, if, honestly, if we know any winners, you know, we'll try for tomorrow.

Next week, give away some old smoky charcoal, uh, charcoal, uh, girls, by the way, next week. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports radio game show. We simply called it B, leave it or not. And here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-7-90. 7.13, 212, 5, 790.

Ross, what is the category today? Oh, did this player... Highly Googled, you get two seconds, Jonathan. We're going to buzz them in two seconds. You get one second on this? Damn. I will give you a player. Did this player play both for the Astros and the Rangers?

If they did, you'll say this. Believe it. If they didn't, you'll say this. Should they get three right or two right for this? This is an NBA 2K video game. You know what? You gotta get three right, Jonathan, on this one. Three right.

Three right gets one of my personal NBA 2K video games, and I will actually mail it from using my own postage to your house. I'll make it that simple. You got to play, believe it or not. Here we go. 713-212. What console is it on? Hold on.

Oh, I don't know. Hold on. Let's look. Cameron, my son just sent me a picture of it. So it is, where is Cameron? my tweet. Looks like it's Xbox Series X. Yeah, Xbox Series X. Is that okay or no?

That's why you've got people that. Some people don't got it. Some people do. Xbox Series X. I need one for my GameCube. Damn you. Always looking back for yourself. You don't get anything. You've been bad this week. Ryan on 790. Ryan, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Roy Oswald. Astor and a Ranger. Believe it or not.

Not. He was. Believe it. He's playing. Do you? 790 Cori. You're ready to play Believe it or not? Let's do it.

Carlos Lee, both an Astor and a Ranger. Believe it or not? Believe it. Believe it. Name number two. Glenn Davis, both an Astro and a Ranger. Believe it or not. Not.

Not. All right. Here we go for the NBA 2K. Ravi Grossman, both an Astro and a Ranger. Believe it or not. 100% believe it. Corey's getting an NBA video game. You're welcome.

Going to my personal stash for this. So many people that were so in love with going to see Motley crew. Geo on 790G are ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Tony Usavio, Astro and Ranger. Believe it or not? Not. That's right.

Name number two for the win. Eric Yelding, both an Astor and a Ranger. Believe it or not. Not. Now, the moment of truth for the NBA 2K26. Richard Hildago, both an Astro and a Ranger. Believe it or not. Three knots in a row, not.

Believe it. Oh, so on. Jesse on 790, Jesse, what was your fair part of today's 10-2 radio show? The whole show, Matt. Thank you, Jesse. Dickie Thon, both an Astor and a Ranger, believe it or not. Believe it. No, that's correct.

He got it right. No, no, no, he's right. Name number two. Wadi Rodriguez, both an Astor and a Ranger. Believe it or not. Does believe it. Believe it. Name number three for the win.

Rusty Stobb, both an Astor and a Ranger, believe it or not. Believe it. Another video game headed your way, Jesse. Congratulations. Thank you, Xbox Series X. That's all I got. That's it for the show today. Ross, decompress, have a great time.

Be safe. Hope you don't have massive flight delays. Bring back some stories, we love Ross's story time. He's kind of a private person, but that's okay. Bring us back one story. We'll see. All right, I'm about myself tomorrow,

which means we're going to really make fun of Ross for four hours. Up next, the team on Sports Talk 790.