2017 Astros Look Good, Brice & Yordan Bombs, NFL Meetings

Tuesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to Lance McCullers' dominant start, the offense looking impressive, NFL meetings, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If it sounds like I'm in a fantastic mood, it's
because I am.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:05):
I can't speak for Adam Wexler. I'm always in the
same mood. It's always a good mood.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
But I can tell you this after last night's twenty
seventeen throwback, I'm feeling good, man, I am flying over.

Speaker 4 (00:18):
You're doing in twenty seventeen? What about Bryce? Well, he's
doing Wait, hang on.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
You a member of the Dodgers organization yet in twenty seventeen,
that's when they made the deal?

Speaker 1 (00:28):
Right, Yeah, well he wasn't doing what he did last night.
Where I think Todd Kallis had to change his pants.
I can say that, right, it's the two o'clock hour.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
We're not on TV yet. I think you can say
change your pants twenty four to seven?

Speaker 5 (00:40):
Oh baby?

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I mean he and Jeff both came on glued because
he hit it to the moon but lower than the roof. Correct,
those are the parameters in DK and Park. No, I
I'm gonna be careful how I say this. I have
it on good authority. Are boys feeling good? I'm talking
about the starting pitcher last night? He is, man. I'll

(01:06):
say this and I know, a lot of people are
sour on lancema Colors, which just doesn't make sense to me,
because injuries are not a player's fault. If you go
injury yourself, that's one thing. But if you've got a
hampering type of situation, which he did, you know, similar injuries,
and it's just his body's not cooperating, for lack of

(01:28):
a better way of putting it, and he's answering the
bell as much as he can, and he's working his
balls off in rehab, and he's, you know, not, he's
not separating himself from the team, and he's I just
don't know. I get how people get frustrated, especially with
the money and all that kind of stuff, But I mean,

(01:50):
I've seen way worse examples of guys who either weren't
as committed to the comeback, or weren't as good a
team guys, or all that kind of stuff. And Ryan
Pressley the other day talking about what a great teammate
Lance McCullers Junior has been. Do you know how hard
it is to be a good teammate when everything is
not going your way personally on a baseball team, especially

(02:10):
as a pitcher, especially as a high paid pitcher. All
of this is to say it's one game, it's his
first start of the season, but this guy two thumbs
in this. This guy right here was very happy for
Lance McCullers last night.

Speaker 4 (02:23):
Yeah, the one game angle of it, I think that
definitely plays. Is something he talked about after the game,
after going seven innings, striking out nine, getting seventeen swings
and misses. He talked about knowing about this start for
two weeks, preparing for the start for two weeks. They
set up the rotation a certain way. He knew he
was going to face Boston to open up the season,
and so he had a lot of time to look
at them and make up plan together. He also mentioned

(02:45):
some very positive things about working with Jiner. I thought
he did a fantastic job of helping them stick to
the plan, as in, sometimes you plan for this and
you put all this work in and then you get
out there and it just kind of goes away. And
he said he did a really good job of not
letting that happen for the two of them working together.
And they've not worked together a ton, obviously, with Lance's
inactivity over the time that Yaner's been the catcher for

(03:07):
the Astros the primary catcher. So just that is maybe
one little tiny aspect of what was the sensational performance,
one of the best performances in Major League Baseball in
twenty twenty six. Quite honestly, it's early in the season,
so no one's throwing more than seven innings. There have
been a handful of starts as strong as this one,
and it certainly fits there with it, just one little

(03:27):
tiny piece of it that just might not be the
same the next time around. Normally you have until your
next turn. He's not looking at how the Colorado Rockies
or the Athletics go about their business. They've got two
more games with Boston today and tomorrow, and then three
starting Friday with the Athletics. His turn would pop him
into that spot in West Sacramento. So he hasn't put

(03:49):
a whole lot of thought into that, but he put
two weeks worth of thought into this team. Outside of that.
One thing was obvious and it seemed like we were
seeing it during spring training and then even in the
game here. Dyke and Park he has better stuff. That's
just the plain, simple truth of it all. You know,
last year when he pitched extensively for him for the

(04:10):
first time in years. He just didn't and it showed,
and it happens to a lot of pitchers. You know,
we'll come in here after a day say, and I'll
say it was pretty clear he just didn't feel like
attacking hitters because he didn't trust his stuff. He didn't
believe that he was going to be able to get
guys out or be able to get them to get
themselves out.

Speaker 3 (04:28):
Just didn't believe in his stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
And it's very difficult to go through an outing, whether
it's out of the bullpen or certainly as a starter,
multiple times through the order and make it work for
you because you have so little confidence in things. And
it's just about what he had, what his stuff was.
He throws harder, there's more bite on his pitches. He
has an arsenal that I think he can actually scrap
this pitch if he doesn't like the shape of this,

(04:50):
and not throw this as often as he might have
in the last start, which in turn keeps the hitters
guessing even more than they might have already. You could
very easily just hang out and say, well, Lance is
gonna throw strikes today, and then he's gonna fall behind
because I'm gonna be patient and then I'll wait for
him to attack in the zone. If he doesn't, I'll
take my base. That was twenty twenty five, and it
was very, very difficult to do that. It took less

(05:12):
than one batter to see that was not gonna be
the case this year. He absolutely carved up Anthony to
open up the game and just never stopped. So that
was super, super fun to watch for everybody in attendance
and obviously everybody listening right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Great way to open up a series, Great way to
extend what you'd been doing to close out the series.

(05:32):
With the Angels eight runs or more in three consecutive games,
last time they did that was twenty twenty four. They
didn't do that one instance last year with the offense,
they had guys in and out of the lineup every day.
And even with the way they've handled Jeremy Payne, which
actually five games in, makes more sense than when we

(05:52):
initially thought how they were gonna bring him along. You
need somebody's to make it work. You can't score eight
runs with one guy carrying the offense. It's clearly that's
no longer the case. Had one home run in four
games against the Angels, and then hit four in yesterday's game,
a pair from al Tuve his usual work, a big
bomb which we mentioned from Jordan Alvarez, also his usual work,

(06:15):
and a rather unexpected first of its kind first home
home run in the Major League career for Bryce Matthews,
to the tune of four hundred and thirty four feet.

Speaker 3 (06:27):
You don't normally see guys hit balls like that, you know.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
No daters often end up off the Community Leaders scoreboard
or on the train tracks, down the line, or into
the second deck above the Astros bullpen, or where Jordan
hits them, not necessarily where Bryce Matthews hit it, and
Todd and I'm sure Robert, Steve and Jeff all this.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Was a no dabt.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Or as soon as you heard the crack of the bat,
you know that ball had been launched out over the
stadium and by the gas pump out there, they're positive.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Eight runs scored.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
Again, made it easy on the pitching staff and the
pitching staff because they obviously had to already make a
move to bring up Bolton and send down Row just
to make sure they had fresh arms. They needed two
of them. Lance's right arm and Ryan Weiss's right arm.
Weiss got the final six out without any issue whatsoever.
This bullpen is definitely constructed, very very differently than in

(07:20):
years past. Weiss tang blue Ball among those who can
pitch additional innings and just go and get in their
three outs and calling it a day. To that end,
AJ blue Ball expected to join the A team in
twenty minutes. He's our best of X Today two thirty
we will talk with Astro's reliever, AJ Blueball.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
I we do obviously when we do the player interviews
during the season, inevitably it turns a lot of times
into somewhat of a reliever.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Th On Man.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
We've had some really really good personalities, especially in the
last year, and a lot of them have returned.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
We spoke with them briefly last year on the program,
same format. Bennett SUSA was great.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
I do remember that specifically all these guys, so looking
forward to that and looking forward to I mean, it's
just crazy, like this is why I came in And
I know this is like a running gag on the
show almost but this is why I came in the
other day, and I'm like, come on, man, because I'm
not even talking about Lance.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
I'm talking about the offense because.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Last year you just knew, well, they're hurt, like a
lot of the guys that would be doing this kind
of damage were out. And I know it's the first
couple of games of the season and basically half of
the third game before they came around. But TK and
Blummer were talking about this on the television side last night.
We knew this offense was capable of doing this, And
this is what I mean. I'm not expecting eight nine

(08:41):
runs every single night. But like you said, with the Angels,
at least with that team, you're gonna have to legit
outscore them, like outgun them. But why do you have
to just always rely on elite pitching. I know you
always have and that's been a big part of this
run by the Astros till Caid also rely on elite offense,

(09:02):
and I think they have the capability at least to
have that this year, at least top heavy.

Speaker 4 (09:08):
Yeah, six runs per game is what they're sitting on
five games into the season. That's fourth best in Major
League Baseball. That's second best in the American League only
to Tampa.

Speaker 5 (09:15):
So again, it was.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
Tough watching them not get really really didn't get anything
going on opening Day, so that was obviously the second
day of the season. They had plenty of opportunities. They
hit the ball hard, just baseball season stuff. They didn't
land where they needed them to, and they weren't really
in that game because of it, And then every day
since you know they're they're again. A four home run
day is kind of an anomaly for any team, but

(09:38):
they scored twenty runs without the benefit of a home
run in the two games prior, because everybody was a
part of it. Even if you weren't getting hits, who
were finding way on base, they're taking the extra base.
They are a base stealing threat. This year when the
balls bounced away from the catcher, Jose al two base
taking his extra base, and even last night josel two
actually didn't take his extra base on what otherwise any

(09:59):
other year. I think Jose would have tried for the
double on that ball he hit between the first basement
and the first base bag, but William Abra who was there,
and so you didn't. Maybe things are turning in the
right direction on a two homer night for him. The
items of the day, in addition to the astros. That'll
be a heavy dose of them over the course of
the afternoon. It gets you set for Rockets Knicks tonight,
first of back to back for the Rockets at home

(10:20):
Bucks tomorrow night. The NBA story from last night and
how it impacts them in the standings, Kd's place in
twenty twenty six among the game's elite, I'm curious what
everybody thinks that place actually is. And the league meetings
on the NFL side finally produced some answers to certain things.

(10:41):
Some adjustments to how the game is officiated have now
been pushed through. Demiko Ryan sat down for some coffee
with the media that was attending and shared some thoughts
on the new running back situation, the new offensive line group,
and kind of the state of the team, how they
addressed free agency, and where the things stand before they
reach the NFL's draft. It is Tuesday, three weeks and change,

(11:04):
three weeks and two days from the NFL Draft, which
will begin first round of it, which the Texans currently
are a part of with a selection. We'll see if
that's the case on draft night, but April twenty third,
they will try to outfit the rest of their team.
Not much left for them pre draft in regards to
free agency, but there will be other players added, undoubtedly

(11:24):
over the course of time, not just through.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
The NFL's draft. So a bunch of things to get to. Today.
We'll hear from Demiico Ryans.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
We've got aj blue ball coming up at two thirty,
and we're just underway here on the eighteen. Pretty obvious
after listening to us what we thought of Lance mccullor's night, Well,
he'll tell you what he thought. The key to his
success was last night Next Bay at you here just
getting going here on a Tuesday afternoon edition of the eighteen,

(11:50):
game six of the Astros seven game opening season home stand.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
They have three trips to make.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
On their next road trip, they'll be and West Sacramento
to get things started after an off day on Thursday.
They will be in Colorado Monday through Wednesday, and then
they go to Seattle for an extended stay Friday, Saturday,
Sunday and Monday for their first road games of the season,
all ten of them, to see how things stand on
both sides of it. Here at home, things have gone

(12:18):
well enough for them to be well tied for the
Major League League and wins nobody's won four times yet
in Major League Baseball, the Astros and a host of
teams have three. The Rangers the only team in their
division with three wins and not two losses.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
They are three to one.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
The Astros and Mariners have won three of their first five,
the Angels have won two of their first five, and
the Athletics have won none of their first four. And
that's how things shake out with a few games left
in the regular season, not standings watching yet, and I
have not calculated the Astros very unnecessary magic number, but
seven innings of baseball being pitched by your starter, that's

(12:56):
now four times.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
That's it so far. Season started on Wednesday, It's now Tuesday,
one complete week.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
Although granted only two teams played on Wednesday. Only four
pitchers have started and been able to get twenty one
outs In their first start of the season. Lance mccullors
became the fourth pitcher to do that, just one of
two in the American League to do so. Four hits allowed,
was not in trouble in fact, and faced the minimum
through the first six innings. A little bit of trouble
in the seventh might have been able to get out

(13:24):
of it with the one play that Carlos said, very
clearly with his body language and then verbally after the game,
would have liked to have made on a spectacular diving
stop on a hot shot up the middle that he
fielded cleanly but wasn't able to pluck from his glove
cleanly enough to turn two. Still got the lead runner
over at third base, and again damage limited to just
the only run that Lance mccullors would allow.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Pretty obvious.

Speaker 4 (13:47):
Like I said, most everybody around Lance, his teammates, the fans,
our listeners, ourselves pretty pleased with what they saw and
certainly can see really really good things coming in the
future for Lance, should this type of stuff keep coming
out of his right shoulder, right elbow, and right hand.
What did he think was one of the biggest keys
to how he performed against the Red Sox last night.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Well, let's hear what Lance thought.

Speaker 6 (14:11):
Yeah, I'm trying to you know, I'm trying to force contact.
You know, we have such a good defense, and I
think I've shot away from it for so long, just
feeling like I got a first pitch of the at bat,
I gotta go for strikeouts, and so, you know, I
think when they when the opportunities present themselves, you know,
you go for it, but we're trying to make quality
pitch to get it. But I really don't not worry
about the strikeouts. I want to force contact, want to

(14:33):
be in the zone and want to let.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
The defense work.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
So when they're there, you.

Speaker 6 (14:38):
Know, and you make a good pitch, sometimes you get them.
Sometimes they didn't get them. You know, they made a
lot of you know, good to strike you know swings
and got some you know, weak contact for some outs.
So just being aggressive, standing in the zone, not not
not not chasing, I trying to get too far ahead
of the at batch, just focusing on the pitch.

Speaker 4 (14:54):
Just to shade over ninety miles an hour on the
average exit vlow off of batted balls off of Lance
on a night where he got seventeen swings and misses.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
He was exceptional.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
And did you hear that little part that alluded to
one of the best parts of the game. He was
talking about the defense getting to work. I think this
Carlos Korea experiment at shortstop is going to be Okay.
That was a hose job. I mean that turn, that
spin to make the throat of first.

Speaker 4 (15:27):
I think cam Smith probably could have made that kind
of throw. I mean, he's the right fielder, after all,
that's where Carlos was.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
That's why he gave him a high to five in
right field after he made its vintage man.

Speaker 4 (15:37):
Yo mentioning it after the game, Lance, that's he said.
As soon as the ball's hit, you know, I'm thinking,
where's it going to?

Speaker 3 (15:45):
You know, is he there?

Speaker 4 (15:46):
He says, Carlos is in a full sprint from moment one.
As soon as that ball is hit. We're talking about
the one that was on the second base side of
the infield and well deep into the outfield, and Carlos
to chase it down, was able to spin and fire
a strike to Christian Walker, a little bit of a
stretch from Walker and you just barely record that out. Yeah,
the Astros infield at defense over on that side for sure,

(16:09):
and really, I think they're gonna be fine at second base.
I guess I can wait, but I can't when Essak
Perettis was traded to the Astros as part of that
deal with the Cubs, and what are they gonna do here?
And he's over third base and his altuove move the
outfield so Estak could play some second and that's where
we are now this year, and he's played some second

(16:30):
I just didn't understand. Oh, well, the scouts don't think
he can play second base. Nobody's asking him to go
win a Gold Glove over there. He has very soft hands,
he has very good feet. He's just not gonna have
a whole lot of range. He's not gonna be an
ideal chase everything down second basement. But their infield defense
this year is going to be awesome. Perettis was good

(16:51):
at third base, Korea is elite at third base, Penya
is elite at shortstop, and Christian Walker is as of
a scooper as probably Juli Uriel was. And those are
the ways you save your pitchers, save the error, save
extended innings, get out of innings. They're gonna be just
fine there. And last night was really the first night
overall that it was truly on display, and probably a

(17:14):
hat tip to their other infielder that was playing last
night in left field, Bryce Matthews threw an absolute dart
to second base and Trevor Story, I guess with his
swimming lessons. Unfortunately he was able to avoid the tag
of Altuve, but that was pretty nice to see a
guy who's learning to play the outfield at the major
league level, which camp Smith did a year ago, and

(17:35):
he looks every bit like he can handle it.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, it was again so much vintage, and yet that
aspect right there kind of looks towards the future. And
it was just, again, I don't remember last season a
night like that. I know they probably had one, but
there was so much health problems from the very start

(18:01):
of the season that it's hard to remember. And I
just feel like, and again, Jerry Penny didn't play in
last night's game, so it's not like they're completely healthy.
But what you just got done talking about defensively, and
again what I was talking about earlier in the segment
from a standpoint of potential offensively, I just, you know,
I'm not saying that we have to have We're gonna

(18:22):
be greedy here in Houston, but certainly after the run
they've had it you could sound selfish, but I just
want a little bit more health than last year, and
I think the potential to do something majorly more impressive
than twenty twenty five is right there.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
There's no question about it.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
We'll probably see where things stand with Josh Hater over
the next couple of days as they get ready to
go out on the road. Remember they played tonight and
then it's an afternoon game tomorrow against the Red Sox.
They have a day in between their next game, which
is nice for how they want to set things up.
And that's it really sets you up for these two
games on a night where you're playing the night and

(18:58):
then the day following that. You just did to go
into your bullpen, and the way that things had started
this year, you knew you would. I mean, you got
five and two thirds from Mike Burrows and the other
three starters prior to Lance didn't get you through five innings,
didn't get fifteen outs.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
So that's a lot to lean.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
On everybody who's I know they were relievers, and I
know it's a little bit different from a preparedness and
stretched out standpoint and giving everything.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
Yeah, but this is still all there.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
First and second, in Brian kings case, third appearance of
the season. Already they needed a break, and that's what
you hope somebody in your rotation can do regularly.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
It's usually they got at the front of the line.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Hunter Brown and Lance each struck out nine batters in
their first starts of the season, Hunter couldn't get through
five innings because his high pitch count lance wasn't usually
diving deep into counts. You know, two to one pitch
now it's three to one. Now he's back in the count.
He was ahead so often there weren't that many full counts.
He obviously only walked the one batter, only gave up

(19:53):
four hits, and had several double play balls to wipe
out runners. The Astros are number one in Made League
Baseball and turning double plays this year. Right back to
what I was talking about, their infield defense is going
to be phenomenal, and that's kind of important when you
see other teams giving outs away and not making plays.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
And you saw a lot of it in the opening series.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
I'm sure we'll see more of it as they get
through some of these teams, especially right now. I don't
know what yet to make of the A's, but I
don't think their strength is going to be their their
infield defense, and I know the Rockies probably not either.
We'll see what happens when they get to Seattle. Got
a huge hit last night from Cal Rawley, last swing
of the night.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
That's great for them. Hey, I win either way Yankees
or Mariners lose.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
Not really yet, I mean, I don't know. Maybe they
will compete with the Yankees for a wild card spot.
I like the way you see they're really competing with
the Mariners for the division spot.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Yeah, I'm just saying in that game last night, either
way I was able to win. But yeah, it's it's
that is going to be the series where I mean.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
I know we're gonna we know so much more about
the Astros today tomorrow. Right the seven games that happened
before they get to Seattle. That's nine more games. You know,
you're fourteen games into the season. You're almost one tenth
of the way through before that first four game series
with Seattle. So I think we'll know a lot more
about both teams by the time we get there. The
health of each team, obviously, it will probably change a
little bit between then and now. The Astros bullpen has

(21:21):
been used quite a bit. AJ blue Baugh among those
that have already made a couple of appearances. He's gonna
make an appearance on the A team. He's number one
in your heart's number sixty nine right there on his back,
AJ blue Baugh.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
He joins us.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Next the eight.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Well, we hope to ask you initially, you're just a
handful of games into the season, you've been able to
get out there twice. We'll take you back to the
opening appearance for you right there at Dykin Park. I'm
sure that was exciting in and of itself. You're on
the opening gay roster, it's opening day and then there's
runners on first and third and you got to come
in and keep the game tied at zero.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
How'd you feel as you headed out to the mound?
And I imagine you felt awesome some as you headed
back into the dugout after that inning was complete because
you got the job done.

Speaker 7 (22:05):
Yeah, I mean to say I felt amazing. As an understatement,
that was that was some of the most adrenaline field
pitching I think I've ever had. And uh, honestly, I
was just I was very happy that I could get
out of that with a zero and keep the runs
off the board and and really put a cap on
Hunter's great pitching performance.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
But you live for adrenaline moments like that, Oh, one
hundred percent.

Speaker 7 (22:31):
That's that's why we do what we do.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
You know, no, absolutely, there's no comparison to it, But
you know there is Baseball is such like golf, such
a mental game at times, and sometimes in those situations
you worry to the anticipation point about it not going
well for you.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
But you know, when you do get it to go,
it's like the highest euphoria.

Speaker 7 (22:53):
On it's It's such an unbelievable feeling. I feel incredibly
blessed that I get to feel that so often.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
What'd you think about how you prepared for this season?
You got a little bit of taste of major League
baseball last year. You obviously had some important instances where
they needed you to come up and pitch for them,
and you did, and you pitched well. And then you
went into this off season obviously would seem like to
me a little bit different in that you'd had that
taste and maybe knew a little bit more about what
it takes to get things done. How did you feel
about your preparation when you went into a spring training

(23:22):
where you basically had to pitch your way onto the team,
which obviously you did.

Speaker 7 (23:29):
You know what, It was super rewarding and fulfilling to
go about the off season with such a calm in
my mind, not because I don't care, but because I
think my motives changed, and you know, being a professional
baseball player is one of the biggest blessings that I
could ever ever ask for. But on top of that,

(23:53):
why I'm playing baseball at the highest level. I think
it was the more important question I focused on this offseason,
and you know, I felt, uh, there was a moment
last year where where I had this this overwhelming feeling
of you know what, why are you doing what you're doing?
And you know, I felt super selfish that it was
because I wanted to be great, and which you know

(24:15):
isn't a bad thing, but I just felt wrong for
thinking that. And last year I had a nice chat
with God and and he pretty much was like, play
for something bigger than yourself. And in a nutshell, I
flipped that switch towards the towards the end of the
year last year, and it sort of changed the season.
So you know, I took that straight into the off season,

(24:36):
and obviously, you know, I had the intention of making
the open day roster. That that's that's been a dream
of mine. But at the same time, like at the
end of the day, that there's so many uncontrollables that
can happen before I would make it or wouldn't make it.
I decided to leave that up to God. So I
did what I could, and I controlled what I could control,
and He took care of the rest. And I couldn't

(24:58):
be more thankful for for what He's done for me
this offseason, the spring training, and so far the season.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
Now, I'm only guessing. I can't speak for you.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
I'll ask your answer on this, but I'm I'm assuming
when you took that approach, I'm guessing a weight was
probably lifted on you.

Speaker 7 (25:14):
Personally, you could say that it was. It was such
a rewarding feeling. I wish I wish everyone could feel it. It
was actually right around right before my Miami outing, but
a little bit before that, when I was still on TRIPLEA,
where I was like, man, I feel so lost right now,
and I made that switch mentally, I didn't change anything

(25:36):
I was doing physically Physically, I didn't change anyway I
was approaching the game. All I did was change my
mental side of the game. And from that point on,
it just it felt like I was pitching with a purpose.
It felt like I was I was glorifying him and
everything he did, and that's truly what I'm trying to do.
I'm I'm I'm out there, but I'm just a vessel
for for.

Speaker 5 (25:57):
What his glory can do.

Speaker 7 (25:58):
You know, there's so many things in my life where
I almost feel like I had to get extremely lucky
for even to you know, to get to Milwaukee and
play Division one Baseball, to get drafted and you know,
come up through the miners at the Astros. You know,
there's so many things that had to happen so perfectly
for me to do that to where I feel like
it has to be God working through me, so it's

(26:19):
only right for me to do the same thing for him.

Speaker 4 (26:23):
When you consider your path here we're talking with aj
Blueball Astros pitcher, Astros reliever.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
You're drafted by the Astros.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
Like you said, it's during an era where the Astros
are one of the best teams, if not the best
team in baseball. There obviously are talented and doing things correctly,
especially when it comes to pitching, which is why they've
developed so many pitchers. How does someone who joins the
organization and tries to make their way up the ladder
view things knowing that a this team is super talented,
so the road to pitching with this team could be difficult,

(26:52):
or b they do a lot of things with pitchers
that make them reach their utmost potential.

Speaker 7 (27:00):
Yeah. I mean, I had a screenshot on my phone
at twenty twenty two when I got drafted at the
end of that season, and the Astros pitching staff ranks
first in almost every single category for the MLB that season,
and I'm looking at it, and there's two ways I
could look at it. There was, Wow, I have a
lot to go through to the big leagues, or Wow,

(27:21):
I have an opportunity to learn from some of the
best pitching coaches in the league and come up through
that system. And you know, I chose to look at
the second one and just kind of buy in to
what they're trying to do. And you know, because Milwaukee
did so many great things for me, But at the
same time, I still felt like there's so much room
for me to grow. And I still feel that way.
I still feel like there's still a future evolution of

(27:44):
myself that I haven't even unlocked yet. And but yeah,
looking back on it, it's super rewarding to know that
I bought in and you know I did basically, you know,
I was like, you know what you tell me.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
What to do.

Speaker 7 (27:59):
I'm want to do it and and here I am,
and I couldn't be more thankful.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
From being a panther to being an Astros. You mentioned Wisconsin,
Milwaukee a couple of times, A lot of different faces
in the current Astros bullpen. Uh have you been able
to get to know some of these guys? You know,
a guy like Ryan Weiss was pitching overseas. Several pitchers
who obviously weren't a part of this organization at all
last year are now out there in the bullpen with you.

Speaker 7 (28:26):
Yeah. No, it's it's super cool. Just you know, I
feel like you can learn so much from from people
who come from different places. And you know, me and
Me and Weiss are throwing partners, me and in my
head lockers right next to each other in spring training.
You know, I got to know Ochred and King a
little bit last year a bray. You greeted me every

(28:46):
morning with a smile. Name Michael Munos. He's my He's
my locker buddy in the in the locker room, like
there's a there's so many cool guys out there, and
it's super cool that you know, I could strike conversation
up with anyone to end walk away with it feeling
like I just learned something.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Well, it's a really interesting group.

Speaker 4 (29:05):
They have done a lot of things to try to
make sure this team is set up to pitch well
regardless of what happens. You've been a big part of
that earlier first two appearances here this season, and I'm
sure there's many more to come, maybe even this afternoon
over at the yard, AJ, we certainly appreciate you taking
some time to share some thoughts with our listeners here
on near your home for Astros Baseball, and we look

(29:26):
forward to doing it again soon.

Speaker 7 (29:28):
Sounds awesome. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
You got it. AJ.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
Blue Baw has the Astros and everybody else's other twenty
five teammates out to a three and two start this season,
a win and a loss on his ledger as he's
pitched extremely well. The only pitcher other than Cody Bolton
who has not appeared in a game yet that's yet
to walk about her he throws strikes.

Speaker 5 (29:49):
We like that.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
I think Josh Miller and Joe Spotta, and Dana Brown
and Jim Craine the former pitcher like that as well.
We'll catch up with somebody every week. The Astros will
have some, but he joining us or the Matt Thomas
Show each and every Tuesday most of the time, all
throughout the season right there in that time Slider possibly
at one thirty. So we appreciate Aj there a little

(30:10):
bit about what he had to say obviously when we
come back, and a little bit about what is on
tap tonight for the Astros. Another strong pitcher on the
other side. Last night, the Astros took care of Ron
hare Swarez rather easily and surprisingly what's on tap for
them tonight.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
We'll talk about that next.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Thanks again to aj blue Ball, Astro's reliever, for joining
us on the show last segment. Twenty five years old
and he's joining an organ It was great to hear
him talk about, you know, looking at the staff or
the organization he's going to be going to in twenty
twenty two. And it's funny because he's like, I mean,

(30:49):
they had one of the best staffs in baseball that year.
That wasn't even like their fourth best in my opinion.
Over the in the World Series, must have been pretty good.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
That's what's crazy.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
I mean, the nineteen squads probably tops as far as pitching,
although like I told, like I talked about last week.
I believe it was Jeff Luno once said he thought
that twenty eighteen was the best team of all time,
top to bottom. But yeah, Garrett Cole at the peak
of his powers as an Astro with facial hair, and
Justin Verlander was still doing his thing. And Wade Miller

(31:22):
was the third guy in that rotation?

Speaker 3 (31:24):
Was he not? That's not correct.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
Wade Wade Something, Wade Space m I l was correct,
Wade Mill sap Miley, Wade Miley. Yeah, I knew it
was Wade Something, but uh, he kind of fell off
after that. He had his moments with the Astros and
a few other teams. He bounced around a little bit,

(31:47):
but held some rotations together during his time.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Then they got Zach Gerenky. Of course that year, you
loved that deal with the deadline.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
They gave away players who amounted to amazingly nothing. The
least harold the picture that our player in that deal
had the best major league career was Josh Rojas. He
was a middle infield or a utility player. He's having
a very good minor league season and seasons with the Astros,
but he wasn't a hot prospect, a top prospect. They
figured he would be a utility player, which he was.

(32:15):
He played for the Mariners and a few other teams.
Very very well. Seth Beer I believe, was in that deal,
and he obviously as a top Astros pick and prospect,
never mounted anything.

Speaker 5 (32:26):
JB.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Bukoskis a right handed pitcher who had some injury issues
but just never really could could cement himself as a
major league or very brief spot there. And Corbyn Martin
I think was the fourth pitcher involved in that.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
It's impressive to me how many of those deals, not
just Jeff Luno but James Click after him.

Speaker 3 (32:46):
The Astros made.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Where they didn't really it just hasn't the they haven't
come home to roost basically.

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Well, I didn't look at this because I wasn't thinking
it would come up today. But JV is in Detroit,
where the Astros got him from secutest route to make
his way back to Detroit.

Speaker 3 (33:07):
He made his season debut.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
He's able to do so in the UH in the
Detroit area, and everybody was, you know, they're all looking
forward to it. I believe his first start of the season,
his battery mate was the catcher that he was traded
for that's pretty funny. Like I said, I didn't really
look into it. I was just falling along with the
start of his season. It was actually in Arizona.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
I forgot.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
He has not pitched yet in Detroit and didn't pitch well.
Gave up five runs the first two innings. Was able
at least to get the team to the uh to
the fourth inning.

Speaker 5 (33:36):
Nope.

Speaker 4 (33:37):
Dylan Dingler was his catcher yesterday. Jake Rogers, Franklin Gutierrez,
and Daz Cameron. I think Franklin Rodriguez maybe were the
three players that they moved to Detroit for him. Obviously,
none of them. Jake is a major leaguer. He's a
he's a catcher for a good team. I don't want
to be too mean. You know the Hall for Garrett Cole,

(33:59):
it did include Joe Musgrove. It was a huge part
of several very very good teams here in Houston.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
One time to pitch his best seasons not in an
Astros uniform, in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Oh, no question about awesome.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
He has battled injuries, but he has been fantastic. But
you know the rest of the lot that went to
Pittsburgh there again, just fringe players. At best here they
they I mean, there was a worthwhile deal for the Padres,
but are the pirates in that instance? But the players
just did not come out to much of anything. So yeah,
it clearly it seems even better. It didn't really matter
if they did. This isn't like the Christian Vasquez deal.

(34:34):
The player you're trading for is as baseball people would say,
a slam dunk, a touchdown. You're not wondering, I wonder
how Zach Grank you can work out here. I hope
Garrett Cole works out because look at what we gave up.
There's no doubt what you're getting is incredible.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Am I wrong in remember? Am I misremembering? Will your
a bray you was dealt?

Speaker 7 (34:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (34:57):
He was actually the player I was less upset about.
I knew how good he could be. But Emanuel Valdez,
I believe, was the other player that went to Boston
in the Abrai deal, and I thought, well, this guy's
killing it. They guy's an extra base machine, and you're
getting a guy who's gonna be with you for a
couple months.

Speaker 1 (35:13):
This was the March Treres deal Jim Crane did not
want to do because he would have had to have
given up. Who was it, Jose Erkidi. Yes, that's exactly
who it was. I just read this the other night,
and here he is. I mean, I mean, yeah, you're
very different acquisitions. Contrere's is he's a legit starting caliber

(35:36):
baseball player as he is to this day now. Christian
Vasquez was a backup level catcher then a little bit
better than he is now, and he's a backup level
catcher now. The player you were hoping to get was
a bona fide plus level player to Treres. The player
you ended up getting was he helps put twenty six
guys on the postseason roster and if all goes well,

(35:58):
he'll barely play, which is exactly what I Obviously, he
played a role as the backup catcher and did have
some key moments. It's just a very different quality of
player they looked to add initially versus who they ultimately got.
And I don't think the Astros are regretting it too much,
even though Will You're a bray You is like, as
you said, he's he's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
He is the best player on their team right now.

Speaker 5 (36:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (36:19):
I don't know that it lasts a whole year, but
he's also a very good player regardless, he's going to
try to win a third Gold Glove already if he
can do that this year, and currently he's just killing it.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
He's mashing everything in a row, by the way, if
he does yeh, the last two seasons. But yeah, I
doubt they're upset by It's Boston's so weird because they
had Bregman last year and they had a good season
and they looked prime for another one and then it
was just Bregman's going to go to the Cubs. Now,
I just the end of his career. I just would

(36:50):
not have predicted this. But we'll leave it at that.
We will take a quick one here, we'll come right back.
We'll get you simulcast over on the Space City Home
Network side of things, and we'll listen to Todd and
Blummer have a couple of moments over Youjrdan's greatest hits,
because they had another one last night and he certainly
gave them a reason to all of that.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Coming up next in three o'clock hour, it.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
Is the A Team, It's Sports Talks seven ninety, it's
Space City Home Network, straight up three o'clock here in
the h coming off a fantastically feel good, let's put
it that way, win last night by your Houston Astros
in the opener of this three game set with the
Boston Red Sox eight one the final home runs for everyone,

(37:39):
you get one, you get one Oprah style two for
Jose al Tuve by the way. But again, as we
talked about in the first hour, absolute electric outing from
Lance mccullors junior. If you tried to script it, if
you're him and you tried to script that, I don't
know that you could have done. The only thing only
complaint he or anybody else would have had a probably

(38:01):
would have liked to have not had that one run
come around. I mean, that's picking knits at its finest,
his last inning, a little bit more traffic than he
would have liked, but just absolutely nasty stuff. And again
for a guy who's gone through as much adversity as
he has from a physical and injury standpoint, you had
to feel good if you're an Astros fan, especially a

(38:23):
longtime Astros fan, and particularly during this run of Astros baseball,
to see a guy like that have that kind of outing.

Speaker 4 (38:30):
All right, let's be real, first of all, in about
half an hour you're gonna hear manager Joe spott at
talk about that very thing that you just talked about.
He visited with the Matt Thomas Show with Ross earlier.
His weekly visit should be tuesdays throughout the season, and
we will bring you a portion of that interview. But
specifically among the things he discusses is that very point
you just made about Lance. The be real part of
it is he does that he comes off the mound.

(38:52):
He has screamed multiple times, you're my dog over there
to Carlos.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
On one of his plays.

Speaker 4 (38:58):
He commented on the last he had because it was
a swing and miss, he thought it was actually a
foul tip, and then he realized, well, it's not so
awkward anymore.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
I thought it might be, but Geyner caught it. So
it is over.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
The outing is done, and I can walk off the
mound and all the congratulations although this is great, they
won the game. He's talking about it after and at
some point in his mind, and I'm sure at some
point in Josh Miller's mind, same thing for everybody in
uniform and the fans and now maybe in US as well. Awesome,
this is sports, So go do it again. That's what
everybody will be looking forward to. And I think, maybe

(39:32):
most importantly, Lance, let's go do this again. Let's not
make this Things just worked out for me that day.
I was really fresh, and I knew that team very well.
I put in a lot of work for that one start,
and things worked out. Let's let's go out and make
a habit of this, and that's what every good pitcher does.
And remember there was a time where when it was
his turn in the rotation, when he was getting the

(39:53):
ball in game one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
of a postgame series, you felt awesome about it. You
felt like good luck to those guys. I mean, you
might not have liked facing this guy before, Lance, or
you might not like we're Lance.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
He was great and he can be that again.

Speaker 4 (40:09):
I think if the stuff that he had last night
is what he can maintain over the course of a season.
It wasn't it didn't work out. It wasn't a They
made plays and he had luck. The stuff was good
he had. I used the word nasty. He had nasty stuff.

Speaker 5 (40:25):
I mean, it's set's work.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
He has better stuff than he's had since he got hurt. Initially.
It's the best of he's had since then, and was
it was it the injuries that were keeping that stuff
from surfacing or was it something else.

Speaker 4 (40:38):
In my opinion, it's what comes from it, and he's
talked about it. It wasn't necessarily that he pitched hurt
when he came back each time. It was that he
wasn't able to pitch healthy for a long enough period
of time that his whole mindset was, I'm just trying
to get healthy, right, spend an off season where you
finished the season healthy, You go into the offseason healthy,

(41:01):
you don't face any setbacks. You can actually work on
pitch shape and mechanics and repeating delivery and even some
of the he really has a pretty full arsenal. They're
not a pitch he can't throw, truly. I mean, maybe
he doesn't have an invisible like Javier and a few
other very unique pitches, but he really can throw more pitches,

(41:22):
and he just threw all them for the most part,
either four strikes or in pitchers counts where he had
the advantage. They were guessing, you know, Robert and Steve
and Todd and Jeff I think all commented on it
at different points during his seven innings. They were swinging well, why,
because he was throwing so many strikes. You could sit

(41:42):
there and just go back to the dugout after he
throws three pitches for strikes that you don't swing at.
But ultimately you're in a hitter, you're in a pitcher's count.
You have them guessing, you're having a night where the
control is with you. So you can throw a pitch
that looks like a strike an awfully long way, maybe
for about fifty four feet, and then all sudden that
bite that it's got on it, especially with those lefties,

(42:02):
especially early in the game, Anthony and Duran, they're swinging
at pitches they would otherwise what was I swinging at well?
Because it looked good for so long, which is very
unlike what I think he was doing. You know, last
year they had movement, but the movement was so violent
and so early, they just didn't look like strikes on
their way to the plate. So you just wait for one,

(42:23):
and ultimately they weren't coming. They were coming fast and
furious last night.

Speaker 1 (42:27):
Speaking of fast and furious, I mean every time he
does it, and I'm not just talking about last night.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
I really anytime the ball comes off the bat of
Jordan Alvarez.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
You're just aware that that's a different sound that you're
gonna hear from most hitters in Major League Baseball. There's
just select few people where you hear the sound like
a Barry Bonds, for example, Mike Trout in his prime. Yeah,
I said in his prime, because yeah, so a couple.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
Of days ago. Yeah he did. He is in his prime.

Speaker 3 (42:56):
It looks like once again.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
Yeah yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
And of course show Hayes won these guys, I think,
I mean he hits team shots.

Speaker 4 (43:02):
Well, you're you're going through the audio part of it,
the sound off the bat, and if you were paying
any attention to his time with the Angels against Houston
and other team so clearly his time with the Dodgers,
and it was just so on display during the World
Baseball Classic.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Same thing.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
It's you don't I wonder if he has enough on
this one. I wonder if he got enough of it.
You never, I mean, they're just laser beams. That's what
Jordon's been doing here so far this season. So let's
hear what it sounded like. We'll start right here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety. The Astros managed to only
score one run despite a single followed by a single,
followed by a single to open up the game.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Last night, Carlos Korea the lead.

Speaker 4 (43:42):
The cleanup hitter did get that first run of the
game home, but hit a new double play doing so.
So when jord On Alvarez stepped to the plate looking
for his second hit of the night and his second
at bat with a runner on and Lance mccullors now
threw a couple of shutout innings, only one nothing game
when he hit home run number two, here's the pitch.

Speaker 8 (44:01):
Breaking pitch hammered right, bim gone.

Speaker 9 (44:12):
Way up there.

Speaker 4 (44:14):
So Steve at the air at the end there he
made sure everybody was aware listening and not being able
to see it. That was way out of there. And again,
that was Jordon's second homer of the season. It was
only the Astros second homer of the season. It's game
five and only hit one against the Angels and they
hit four last night.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
So that's what it sounded like.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
You were right here with Robert Steve here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. What did it sound like if you
were right here on SCCHN listening to Todd Kallis and
Jeff Blum as Jordon stepped to the plate. Remember it's
only one nothing. As you hear this, just like it
was a minute ago when we played the radio call.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
I say this to opposing broadcasters sometimes I'm waiting, Oh.

Speaker 7 (44:56):
Baby, oh baby, jat want.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Bad.

Speaker 4 (45:12):
They were talking about Babe Ruth during the game last night.
Uh yeah, oh baby baby, page baby baby. As we
do now as a staple of the A team. We
did it yesterday with the calls from the Yukon Duke game.
We'll do that regularly here on Sports Talk seven ninety

(45:34):
and s EHN.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
It's awesome. Todd, Jeff, Julia.

Speaker 4 (45:40):
The people that are on the radio side, Robert and Steve,
they have seen so many games, They've been on the
field or in the booth for so many games for
this team and and involved in many other teams with
their roads to hear as a ballplayer in both Steve's
case and Jeff's case, as broadcasters elsewhere with with the others,
and they're amazed by what they're calling. Amazed by it.

(46:04):
I've never seen this before. This is extraordinary.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
It's never though Gonda Top when Jordan hit it to
where now stands. The michelob Ultra Lounge didn't even exist
when this happened. As a matter of fact, the seat
I believe was changed, or at least it was.

Speaker 4 (46:25):
It was labeled, well, there was a seat that it
hit and they labeled it. But then they put some
more amenities in the building and had to readjust its
positioning and recognition. But yeah, it was just a couple
of years ago. This is a young thin Jordan Alvarez,
he was twenty two. He got a hold of one
and this is what it sounded like again, TK and Jeff, Oh.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
My goodness, are you kidding me?

Speaker 10 (46:52):
This ball is odd way out of here.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
What is the longest mo broun to that three of
the tall I don't think a ball's ever landed up there.

Speaker 2 (47:03):
Particuling.

Speaker 7 (47:05):
I cannot believe why we're witnessing with this twenty two
year old. Oh my goodness, that was the top deck
of the stadium.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
I can't even believe what I saw.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
What's where this Paul Lance up? Here's no way, like you,
they don't believe way. It's just insane.

Speaker 1 (47:28):
And again you said it, he's he's a baby when
he's doing this.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
That was September ninth, twenty nineteen. That was home run
number twenty four in Jordan's career.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
I'm sorry, but like his twenty nineteen season, he had
fifty homers, twenty seven in the minors, twenty three more
with the Astros.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
I'll met.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Look, we had some anticipatory debuts, Carlos Correa. I vividly
remember Alex Bregman. All these guys came up. It was
appointment viewing the night he came up to the majors.
Because of what you just said. He was destroying baseballs
and sugar Land. It wasn't even fair. It's like fishing

(48:12):
with dynamite.

Speaker 5 (48:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (48:16):
For this, I think much most of his work I
could be I think so it didn't really matter. He
could have gone to the Astrodome and hit upper tank shots.

Speaker 4 (48:26):
Last night's homer was one seventy two. As he makes
his way up the Astros all time list.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Like health is the only thing that keeps him from
obliterating records like that. Well health and keeping him in
an Astro's uniform.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
Yeah, he's got a ways to go up the Astros
leader board. Uh, it wasn't Corpus, but it also wasn't
sugar Land. I knew Sugarland wasn't right. They weren't there yet. Oh,
it was in round Rock really and it was twenty
three in the minors, twenty seven with the Astros.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
So I pretty much got none of that right. We'll
come back.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Here on the A team and continue with the discussion
on all things your local teams meetings for the league
on the NFL side. So an opportunity to hear from
Demico Ryans. Why is David Montgomery the guy the man
they went after to tote the rock for them next year?

Speaker 3 (49:13):
He'll tell you next.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
It is the A team, it's Sports TX seven to ninety,
it's Space City Home Network. It's been a minute since
we've talked to a little Texans football. That'll change soon
as we are how many days now wex? I know,
you know the exact day. How many days are we
away from the NFL Draft? Even Matt can do this mass.

Speaker 4 (49:36):
Today's the last day of March and the drafts on
the twenty third of April.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
So how many days away is it?

Speaker 5 (49:43):
We are?

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Maybe twenty four days away? Twenty three days close? Really close?

Speaker 4 (49:47):
Well wait again, there's twenty three days from today is
the draft? In twenty three days we'll have the draft.
April first is tomorrow and twenty two days more. We'll
get to the twenty third Thursday, April twenty third, we
will get Actually, it's happened both ways. The Texans have
traded out of the first round before the draft happened.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Did that two years ago?

Speaker 7 (50:09):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (50:09):
They've traded out of the first round the night the
draft happened. That happened last year, So I think there's
a reasonable likelihood that could still happen this year. Both
Nick Cassario and Demiko Ryans taking part in league meetings
this week. Nick was one of I believe twenty eight
general managers to be seated and in place for the

(50:30):
annual General Manager's photo. Demiko Ryans was one of thirty
coaches to sit for the always scrutinized NFL Coaches Picture.
Two coaches couldn't make it, one from each conference. It's
become a somewhat of a story for one of the
two of them. I didn't even I couldn't even figure
out who the other one was that wasn't there until
I scoured over the picture enough. Sean McVay of the Rams,

(50:51):
who's obviously there, was not in the picture. I haven't
heard the reason why, but.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
I have a theory okay.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
And it became a story because Todd Munkin wasn't there,
the new head coach of Deshaun Watson.

Speaker 3 (51:04):
And he coaches other Browns too.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
He also coaches Dylan Gabriel and Miles Garrett and Shade
Or Sanders.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
And JJ's brothers, Nemesis, Miles Scarett, same thing. So he
wasn't there because he got a haircut, and he got
a haircut so he could take the picture. But well,
the meetings are out on the West coast, so I
can absolutely one appreciate this. I believe PT Pacific Time

(51:36):
got the best of Todd Munkin, head coach of the Browns.

Speaker 3 (51:38):
I think there was a little confusion.

Speaker 4 (51:40):
But however, I have learned that I believe the pictures
here's when we're going to take the picture was actually
changed at some point during the day the last couple
of days, four days ago, a week ago, I don't know,
and I think that might have created additional confusion.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
They all travel with PR staffers.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
I've seen some of the videos of the people that
are sitting in the conference rooms, the ballrooms where they're
interviewing coaches. I saw one of Nashville's finest pr members
Everett Geerlings, who now works with the Titans and used
to work here with the Texans. He was walking around
with the very large member of the AFC South Coaching fraternity,

(52:20):
Robert sala Omar is there repping the Texans and making
sure Demiko handles all needed obligations, including that visit with
the media. Right there at the table, he was asked
some questions by Lions media about why they like David
Montgomery and wanted to get some intel on what they
got in jew Scruggs. We'll play neither of those sound
bites because Dimko was also asked by the local media,

(52:43):
Aaron Wilson, a few others there as well, So Aaron
repping Channel two on US here at Sports Talk seven
ninety asking him about that very specific reasoning behind why
is it that you guys went out to trade for
and acquire David Montgomery where we work as deal and
obvious sleep with a hint in his question about you
know why they're in this position to begin with with

(53:05):
Joe Mixon being unavailable to them and making that decision
to move on and why the decision to move into
demo territory.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
Definitely tell first and foremost Joe.

Speaker 9 (53:15):
I think the world of Joe and what he was
capable of doing for our team. He's an outstanding player,
outstanding you know, energy provider for our team.

Speaker 2 (53:24):
But you know, losing him was tough. Had to be
able to come back this year. And that David Montgomery
you called knuckles.

Speaker 9 (53:30):
That's good. We like that physical praying, the football that
he bring. But the consistency. David is consistent runner. He
knows how to get more than what he's blocked for,
very consistent efficient. So I'm excited to work with him.
You know, first meeting him, he's all football. He's serious,
he's locked in, he's all football, and he's eager for

(53:52):
that opportunity right to really be that guy.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
What knuckles, It's what Davis said himself.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Aaron did present that nickname to Demiko okay, so that's
why I think he repeated it in his answer. We
know Aaron Aaron does that from time to time. Yep,
Stone Cold Jones one example of that, and it.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
Kind of took people back when he did it. Who huh, Well,
they're just not.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Used to hearing Aaron deliver those kinds of statements because
he's just so low Key.

Speaker 4 (54:17):
And in the case of in the case of Knuckles,
I think because of the magnitude of success that Sonic
and Knuckles, Gibbs and Montgomery had for an extremely successful
team for a couple of years, everybody knew that. I mean,
I've been watching Chris Jones Rex Shop on the defensive
line for the Chiefs for years.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
I did not know.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
He was stone Cold Jones until I looked at his
Instagram handle after Aaron called him that any question to
cj it is accurate, it is on point.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
I just was unaware of it. I just knew he
played really, really good football.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
But the two parts of Domiko's answers, obviously, the first
part is what they hope to get back to. At
the very least, I'm sure they'd be thrilled if they
found a player more successful than Joe Mixon. I don't
think they will. But football's out there to be played,
and you know, the line that he'll be running behind
in the offense that he will be in is different.
Joe Mixon didn't play in Nick Cayley's offense. Joe Mixon

(55:12):
played in Bobby Slowek's offense. Joe Mixon didn't run the
ball behind Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller and tay Ersery
and Jake Andred. He literally ran the ball, but behind
none of these players. Ed Ingram the entire line he
had Titus Howard, but the line that David Montgomery have
will have nothing but players that Joe Mixon had and
he didn't. So there's a lot of changes there. So

(55:34):
I would say there's there's a chance that David Montgomery
could be that. And they seem inclined because they didn't
rely on free agency. They said, this is a player
we bet is available, this is a player we can get.
We're more than happy to part with some assets to
do so nothing I think too significant.

Speaker 5 (55:52):
And here he is.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I wonder, and I think I asked you this the
day that you know it was revealed the Texans had
gotten Montgomery, because you've often said, like, for example, who
is the defensive lineman that went to sign with the
Bengals Sheldon Rankins.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
Yeah, maybe that was from the Texans.

Speaker 4 (56:12):
Yes, yeah, he was signed in year one with Demiko
and then went away in year two because he got
a better deal he thought from the Bengals, more money.

Speaker 3 (56:21):
It didn't work out.

Speaker 4 (56:22):
Also had some injury issues and they let him go
after one year of his two years. He resigned with
the Texans, and then he re resigned with them again
this offseason.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
I just I wonder sometimes when guys, and this is
a free agent signing only, so let's let me put
that and preface this by saying that I wonder how
much they actually think about the quality of the team
they're landing with versus I'm gonna get paid. Like you've
said before, doesn't matter if the team sucks, because I'm

(56:51):
gonna get paid because this team is the one that
has the money to offer it to me, and maybe
other better teams don't. A lot of times that is
the case because they're busy paying all the other good
players on their team and that's why they're good. But
I do wonder sometimes, like in this case, it's not
so much the team isn't good because they clearly are
in their defensive super Bowl caliber. What kind of line
am I going to be running behind? Because everybody's gonna

(57:13):
be They're gonna have their eyes on me because I'm
the big fish acquisition at my position this offseason, And
so I wonder how much he thought about that.

Speaker 4 (57:20):
Well, And unfortunately, in both of their cases, they weren't
in that position. Joe Mixon was going to get released
by the Bengals and the Texans didn't want him to
hit free agency, so they reached out Nick said, well,
what if we give you this, can we just have him?
And they said sure, and they traded him. So he
really wasn't in the mindset of well who am I
running behind?

Speaker 3 (57:38):
He was traded.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
Now, obviously he also got his deal reworked, which kind
of does answer your question in the same way with
David Montgomery, he might have been let go, but I
think they were pretty confident they could move him rather
than needing to release him, and they ultimately moved him
to the Texans. Well, his deal also got reworked. Now,
to me, that basically means they play in the NFL

(58:00):
and they're smart, and so are their agents. I'm not
really looking at what team I'm on and who I'm
running behind. Can I have some more money?

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Please? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (58:08):
I can't go into a year without it. They can't
go into the final year of a contract if I
can avoid it. And you just think you might chance
it for me, So let's do it. There's eighteen running
backs who've run for at least four thousand yards since
twenty twenty. Both Joe Mixon and David Montgomery are among them.
Of those eighteen, Joe is seventeenth in yards per carry

(58:30):
at an even four point zero, and Montgomery is fourteenth
in yards per carry at four point two. Joe ran
behind the Bengals line and the Texans line, and Montgomery
ran behind a very good Lions line and a mediocre
Bears line in those seasons.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Well again, the Texans offensive line before and after the
acquisition of David Montgomery has changed significantly.

Speaker 4 (58:53):
Yeah, David Montgomery came here via trade and looked at
what they did last year, who they had last year,
and then said, I don't really think it matters because
I don't know who's gonna be here next year. Titus
Howard had been moved on from not officially, but obviously
everybody knew that the ed Ingram situation wasn't in its
final stages yet, and two more players have been added
since then, much much change. What does it look like

(59:14):
to run behind the current Texans offensive line? I don't know, Yeah,
nor does anybody else.

Speaker 5 (59:20):
Nobody does, including Demko.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
By the way, all right, we will switch back to
some Baseball Conversation literally Joe Aspata he joined the station
earlier today. We're gonna hear some of what he had
to say about last night's fantastic win, and a whole
lot more when we come back here on a Tuesday
edition of the program.

Speaker 10 (59:42):
The ad on Sports Talk sevens halfway through our number
two here on Sports Talk seven ninety and sc HN,
will you catch Astros Baseball?

Speaker 4 (59:49):
Both placed us here later on this seven We'll get
you into the on Deck Show, and we obviously also
have Rockets Basketball for you this evening. They've got the knicks.
You can catch Rockets Nicks right here on Sports Talk
seven to nine. You can catch Astro's Baseball the on
Deck Show at six o'clock right there on News Radio
seven forty k t r H. The conundrum of how
to get everybody into the lineup when they're healthy is

(01:00:12):
back in place tonight. Jeremy Pane will lead off in
bet Or and play shortstop. Isach Perettis will be available
for Joe spot I would imagine, but he is not
in tonight's lineup.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Joe A.

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
Spotta had his weekly visit on The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross and the conversation we have for you here.
Portion of it begins with looking at how fun for
many different reasons. Last night's eight to one victory over
the Red Sox.

Speaker 11 (01:00:37):
Was, yeah, Coore, I'm making those plays a sure, let's
not take away from that bomb that your done. Hid
glad that this one did not hate the roof almost
you know, he almost looked like it was going to
hate the roof. And getting also contribution from some of
the young players man, you know, Bryce Matthews, just just
everyone putting, putting a little bit in there, just to

(01:00:57):
contribute and help us win some games with really happy
the way we are we're playing right now, Lance the Colors.
My goodness, how phenomenal he was last night. Really pick
us up. We really needed an outing from him like that,
and he delivered.

Speaker 8 (01:01:11):
You know, when we were down in West Palm with
you in February, he was very reflective about his season.
I had his fit as past and his future. What
has it been like watching him in that month of
spring training gain the confidence for you to put him
in that opening starting rotation.

Speaker 11 (01:01:27):
You know what, I think Lens understands the pitcher he
is today right for him to you have success. He
needs to be the guy that controls the game from
the very first pitch, and how you do that is
attacking the strike zone. It's when Lance's attackses out the

(01:01:47):
zone like he did yesterday, He's able to command the
a bat. He's able to control the game fast both
for strikes. Really good change up the sweeper effect this
because everything was looking the same right, everything was coming
out from the same lane, executing pitches, heading the count
effrishing from the very get go. I think he knows

(01:02:10):
that that's the picture he needs to be to be successful,
and he's not running away from it.

Speaker 7 (01:02:15):
No.

Speaker 12 (01:02:16):
One of the reasons I really root forer Lance is
obviously because he's been here for so long and part
of these championship runs. But just to me also seems
like such a great dude and teammate. So if you
could just expand on that and just give us your
thoughts on what type of person he is.

Speaker 11 (01:02:33):
Yes, and you know, we all we're all rooting for
him because what he what he has done for this organizations,
what he's done in our community, and what he means
to to the club. Now, you know, great teammate, great
father man of faith. This guy's packed some big games
for us. I've been here for nine seasons right now,

(01:02:53):
this guy has been in the biggest games, Uh, this
organization has had since I've been here. And also I
think it from the other side when I was with
the Yankees, how we dominated in the LCS. So he's
still in there. That guy's still there and just getting
that out of them because he's fully healthy and he's

(01:03:15):
frame of mind, he's such it's a really good place
that I think he's going to help was winning now
is you know, build him from this hour thing right,
not try to do anything different, right, I get ready
for his next start and feel from this and because
the stuff is there.

Speaker 12 (01:03:31):
Astro's manager Joe Spotted was here on Sports Talk seven nine.
Let's go to the other holdover from the twenty seventeen
championship team, jose A l two a couple of home runs.
I mean, obviously we've talked about a lot about him
over the years, but just just at the play to
approach seems like some more patients from him. How much
of is it is it the same old jose Al
tuove and how much of is it kind of a

(01:03:52):
new slant on things?

Speaker 11 (01:03:54):
You know, I think it's the new slam zone things.
I think you know patient. You know, we've been seeing
a lot of pitches here the last three games, and
then that's been something that we highlighted in the off season.
We're preaching to our hitters, let us control the back
like forcing the pitchers to make pitches. We know our strengths.
Stay within yourself. We have a really good lineup. If

(01:04:17):
you don't do the damage, the guy behind you will
do the damage. If they don't, if they choose not
to pitch someone, we are capable of having enough definitely
our lineup that the next guy is going to do it.
And that has been the theme here for the first
few games. Contribution from the guys in the bottom. So
when al Tuobek comes up to the plate and Jordan

(01:04:39):
comes to the plate, there's traffic on the basis, there's
people on the basis, and we've been carrying out our
game plan very very well the last couple of games.

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 8 (01:04:50):
You know about Jeremy's finger, and you've used him a
couple of times day off here and there. What have
you been told. Do you visit with him on the daily,
How much does he want to test it? How much
do you want to see a tested at least early on.

Speaker 11 (01:05:02):
You know, we all want to see Jeremy in there
every single day. He wants to be out there every
single day. But we're doing much best for Jeremy in
our club right now. We want to build his body.
You know, this is not about the finger right now.
It's about his full body. You know, his legs, he's
you know, he's all for body. We want to make

(01:05:22):
sure that eating really had a long like A's springs
training to really build off. There was a little post
even though he was on the basis, he was in
the weight where he was taking ground balls, but heating
really had a big build up towards the NF camp.
So we want to make sure that we do that.
We were hampered about injuries last year guys, and I
want to be really smart about you know, the volume

(01:05:44):
of games that this guys are getting. And also we've
been playing some long game see in the last few days,
So we want to be smart to make sure that
this guy's stay healthy throughout the season.

Speaker 8 (01:05:54):
A brak you second performance, the velocity was down and
and I trying to make too much of that because
it could be a gun. It could beired arm, you
were quoted as saying, and like you'd interpret it for
us a little bit that it's more of a mechanical
than it was about just the arm. So where where
are you with him? And what was that mechanical adjustment
you think he's going to make him You don't tell us,
but what is it right now?

Speaker 11 (01:06:15):
Well, so I'll have to share that with you. You
know in a post game after he's got outing. I
had a conversation with very my office it and I
wanted him to be handed with me. You know, it's
a are you healthy? It's it's a skip. I'm healthy,
I'm one hundred percent for right now, I'm battling some
mechanical issues. And you know, Briana brow Is it's a

(01:06:36):
huge human being. And you know next overbody lower half,
there's got to be coordination and there's got to be
You've got to be uh, the secret needs to be
right right before he's delivered. Would be working out in
front right now, he's opening lower half too quick, arm
size dropping and he's yanking everything. You don't really see
Briana bread. When Briana brew is making gloss side, that's

(01:06:59):
it's a sign of he's spinning too quick, he's opening
too quick now when he's missing armside right when he's
heart ninety eight to the top of his own now
he's finishing out in the front. So he was walking
me through that. He knows why he needs to be
working on and as coaches, and we're going to help
him through that right through videos, you know, through blackground.

(01:07:22):
And but I'm not concerned at all. It's it's just
it's what happens early in the season, like just so
I could hit her. My timing is not down, it's
not quite there yet, and you need to continue to
give him opportunity because we know how good he is.
We can't win without Brian and brow. That's just the
bottom line.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
Very simple stuff. There are two things we need to
hit on on the other side of this from Joe Aspata.
The last thing he just mentioned very very very very
clearly we can't win without Brian a brave so we'll
address that and also his thoughts his description of what
is the situation with Jeremy Penya mentioned before we heard
from Joe that Jeremy is in the lineup, batting lead
off and playing shortstop. So a thought or two about

(01:08:02):
the handling of both of those two players. Moving forward
for your astros, as we return here on the A
Team spot, his visit Tier on Sports Talk seven ninety
each and every Tuesday joins the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
If you want to catch the interview and it's entirety,
we'll just tune into The Matt Thomas Show with Ross,
or subscribe to their podcast, our podcast everybody here at

(01:08:22):
Sports Talk seven ninety and catch it via the iHeart
Radio app. Two things on the injury front, although it's
not really fair to include Brian Abray you there and
obviously Jeremy pang You two things he talked about before
we get into that should mention not How'm sure how
many people were aware that Zach Cole got hurt while

(01:08:42):
playing the opening three game series with the Space Cowboys.
I noticed that he had left the game, but didn't
really know the reason why Sunday afternoon. The reason why
is because the starting pitcher for Round Rock threw a
fastball at his foot and it hit him, and he
has a bit of an issue and he is on
the minor league il because of it. It's a fifth

(01:09:05):
toe fracture on his right foot, so no real definitive
timetable on that. He homered in his first bat of
the season there for the Space Cowboys, and obviously he
would love to be back with the Astros at some
point this season. I don't think this will derail that opportunity,
but for the time being, obviously it has. And the
comments from Joe on Jeremy Panyon, he basically flat out

(01:09:28):
said he's not out of the lineup because there's anything
going on with his finger.

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
There's no concern about where things are with that.

Speaker 4 (01:09:34):
It sounds like it's much more about, well, he was
on the baseball shelf for three weeks. He had his
last spring training at bat the first week of spring training,
obviously got very little work when he left for the WBC,
and that he was hurt during their exhibitions before the exhibition,
and so he just hasn't played baseball. He's been running,
he's been doing drills, He's obviously done everything. He took

(01:09:56):
extra abs, he's even played in two games. But when
we heard them just us on opening day they would
bring him along slowly, it just meant he was gonna
miss some games. I think my immediate assumption was, well,
they're all going to be in a row. If he's
gonna miss five games, then he's out till when the
second series, the third series. In the Astros mind, it
was more like he's just not gonna play every game, right,

(01:10:18):
and so he will be in for the third time
in their first six games tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
I feel a little silly because that's a very feasible
scenario that we just never, at least not verbally here
on the show thought of. It was the one scenario
we didn't bring up.

Speaker 4 (01:10:35):
And in his case, because of his you know, the
fact that it was not a leg related injury. These
days where he's not in the lineup and not expected
to play, if they need him to run the bases,
he absolutely could. If they need him to stay in
the game, he absolutely could. So I don't think he's
been unavailable, And that's where I probably was very you know,

(01:10:55):
that's what I always think, Oh, this player can't go,
he's not in the lineup, and I didn't know otherwise
he's essentially he's probably always been available. Even in the
three games that he was not in the lineup for,
it's just they had not needed him. I've had a
couple of games that weren't wide, wide margins of defeat
or victory that he I guess he played him, but
they haven't needed him in the days he hasn't been
in the lineup.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Yeah, Like if Carlos.

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Korea, God forbid, and I don't even like to put
this out in the universe had some sort of catastrophic
injury or just couldn't play for whatever reason, Nick Allen
would come in and you would say something like that,
but he would be he would be capable of Yeah
if press And I think what they've been able to
do is avoid the il, get him out there during
this opening homestand and you know, they got a game today, day,

(01:11:38):
game tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
Maybe this is all by design.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
He plays tonight, he sits tomorrow, he rests on Thursday
with everybody else because there's no ballgame.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
And then maybe they feel confident that, Okay, he's good
to go.

Speaker 4 (01:11:47):
He's he's pretty much an everyday player, and then they'll
have to address the problem that obviously joins that, and
that's how do they get everybody into the lineup. Which
ballparks are more conducive to having yord On Alvarez in
left field, The one they play in at home is
and that's why he's been out there a couple of times.
Bryce Matthews has proved himself to be very helpful in
the games he's played. Joey low Berfido is in the

(01:12:09):
lineup today in left fields. They once again are facing
a right handed pitcher. So I mean things have worked
out very nicely, but it still will be a daily issue.
If Jeremy Pannier returns and stays healthy, and so does
Walker out to ve Correa Perettis Albarez, it would be
an everyday puzzle piece to fit it all together, depending

(01:12:30):
on where they play and how comfortable they are putting
yord On out there in left fields. He will not
be a player that is not in the lineup. His
bat should and I think will be in the lineup
nearly every single day. He is healthy for not saying
he's playing one sixty two, but he still could.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
What's the number where you would be most shocked that
he he hit that number this year games played? Mm hmm,
just because of his track record, and I mean the
very very top.

Speaker 4 (01:12:59):
End of it would probably like eight because that means
eight games, well, that just means he never got hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
They just had four days. Ever, got hurt that he
would only get four days off. I mean when he
was signifty.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
But what are you sitting him for if he's the DH,
If his hands don't hurt and his legs don't hurt,
why is he on the bench completely. Well, yeah, he's
not going to get hurt if he's not used at all.
But that's the beauty of the designated hitter spot. You're
keeping that player off of his feet.

Speaker 7 (01:13:28):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:13:28):
KD had an interview with Arson the other day. Arson
judge and he was talking about their respective sports. They
were talking about it. You know, he's saying, Kdi, you're
running around for all the time that you're on the court.
I'm playing a baseball game for three hours in the
majority of it. And they were standing up while they
were talking. He was mocking this. This what he does
during a baseball game. He just stands there. He's standing
in the outfield. He's ambling to his left, he's ambling

(01:13:51):
to his right. He's watching strikeouts. He's watching his left
fielder make a play, he's watching his shortstop make a play.
You're standing, you're on your feet. Listen to the exact
words that Joe uses when he gets guys out.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
Of the lineup. We want to get him off their feet.
He's being literal, but he doesn't need him to sit
on the bench.

Speaker 5 (01:14:08):
The whole game.

Speaker 3 (01:14:08):
You can go out there and back four times. That's Jordon.

Speaker 4 (01:14:11):
Jordon should not be out of the lineup completely more
than you know, five to ten times tops. If there
are no injury issues for him those days you want
him off his feet. Great, he's your DH, the best
hitter on the team, and I still maintain and he's
showing it this year. He's the best left handed hitter
in the American League.

Speaker 1 (01:14:28):
I with each passing game and I know he's available,
but not in the lineup tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:14:35):
Like I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
Aren't you glad? Aren't you really glad they didn't trade
Esoc Perettis.

Speaker 3 (01:14:40):
I said it many times, I'll say it again, yes,
and I thought it would have been a huge mistake.
If you can't dumbest somebody to take Christian Walker, fine,
then he's not traded either. But moving on from Esoch
Perettis means you have to get a player as good
as Esok Perettas into your lineup as an everyday player
in your spot's obviously are availed. They're in the outfield,

(01:15:00):
you're very limited because you're hoping to not want Cam
Smith out of the lineup.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Now you could trade for a center fielder. I would
assume that Jake Myers would then be in that deal.
So maybe you're moving on from both Esac Perettas and
Cam Smith and Jake Myers. But that means the quality
of that player better be really, really good.

Speaker 3 (01:15:18):
Last year, all the way back to last year, his
only year with the Astros, Esach Perettas was an All Star.
He's good, he helps you win, he matters in your lineup.

Speaker 4 (01:15:33):
You don't usually move on for players like that when
you don't have to clearly, and they moved on from
Kyle Tucker circumstances there were more about well when we
do lose him, what are we gonna do? And you
could actually argue that's where you are with Esach. Remember
he was about to go through the art process and
they actually agreed to a deal with a second year
attached to it with the mutual option. So he's in

(01:15:56):
a comparable situation. Now he's not nearly the player that
Kyle is, I don't think. But just look through the
last three days, they've scored eight runs in or more.
In the last three games, they've scored thirty runs this year.
He's been in the lineup every day. He gave them
the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning of
a six to six game with a single with two
got double in front of Joe Adell that knocked in
two runs.

Speaker 3 (01:16:17):
He helps. You're better because he's here, And again they
all knew it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:21):
I go back to my original thought, it's just that
is the dumbest reason to trade someone of his caliber.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
Well, we just can't figure out how to do our line.
Yourd on Alvarez was big, poppy, absolutely completely incapable of
playing anywhere but dhr then I could understand it.

Speaker 5 (01:16:37):
But he's not. He's not at all.

Speaker 1 (01:16:40):
And you've got to get that bat in the lineup
every single day that you can, except for tonight unless
you need him. Apparently, Space City Home Network Simulcass continues.
If you're watching along, love it, if you're watching or
listening or both, which I guess if you're watching or
doing both, wex over there ac right the four o'clock

(01:17:01):
hour underway as we kind of reset a few things
we've been talking about, especially the fact that just a
great I just feel like the throwback is the great
term to use for last night's win for the Astros.

Speaker 3 (01:17:12):
It's one game, it's very early on the season.

Speaker 1 (01:17:15):
But I love the fact that Lance mccullors did what
he did and looked the way he did doing it
last night. I also loved the fact that the sense,
basically the latter stages of Saturday night, this offense is
unstoppable x.

Speaker 3 (01:17:30):
You cannot stop them. You can only hope to contain
this Astros offense.

Speaker 4 (01:17:33):
Eight runs yesterday, twenty runs in the two games to
close out the two victories against the Angels Saturday and Sunday.
That's twenty eight of them over a three game period.
The Astros have scored eight or more in all three
games of that period. They didn't do that one time
last year. Last time they did that was at the
late stages of twenty twenty four. I don't expect it

(01:17:53):
to happen a bunch this year. And I don't think
the offense that we're seeing that's averaging six runs per game,
which is fourth best in baseball, and they have a
shutout in there, I don't think that's likely where they're
going to be all year. Clearly, the majority of their
offense is healthy. And it's like I said earlier, I
don't know who. You'd look at, maybe Cam Smith and say,

(01:18:14):
you know, things will get better for him, as in,
he hasn't gotten off to a tremendous start. But you
got two home runs yesterday for Altuve and he reached
base five times, had four hits again, forty second time
in his career he's done that. So all of a sudden,
he is the team leader in hits. He's the team
leader in ops. He's the team leader in batting average,

(01:18:34):
he's the team leader in slugging. He's the team leader
on base percentage. Jose Altuve five games into the season. Again,
that's not likely to continue, but it's a very good
thing to see after a pretty lackluster to be nice
a spring for him. That's why you don't want to
base anything on it. It's why I take the path
that I do through spring training. Coverage doesn't matter, It really, really,

(01:18:56):
really really doesn't matter. I'm sure hitters are working on
things that he may not know about. I'm sure hitters
are trying to get as comfortable as possible by the
start of the season, not by the start of their
random game in Lakeland, not by the start of the
sixth inning of a game in dead Eden, but by
the time they have regular season baseball games in front
of them.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
That's when they want to be tuned up.

Speaker 4 (01:19:17):
Christian Walker's spring was totally uneventful from a statistical standpoint.
He was if you only cared about the numbers that
he posted from a hits and on base percentage and
slugging and average, and.

Speaker 5 (01:19:30):
There's more to the numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:19:31):
You can look deeper into exit velo and things like that,
and strikeout percentage if you want. But it's also spring training.
The Astros leader in extra base hits, it's Christian Walker.
All of them are doubles. But as Ac and I
were mentioning to one another last night, he sure likes
to hit long, long, long doubles at Dyke and Park

(01:19:52):
brad Ostmas like, was it over.

Speaker 5 (01:19:54):
The yellow line?

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
Was it under the yellow line? Did it hit off
the cement facade? Should that be reviewed? He's hit two.

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
I know he thought the first one a couple of
days ago was a homer. I'm not sure if he
one hundred percent thought yesterday's double was going to be
a homer. Like as in he cadillacted or something or
home run trotted for a ball that stayed in the park.
But he's making connections. And I was a little concerned
yesterday and only because negative Nelly creeped into my brain. Oh,
Christian Walker's off to a good start.

Speaker 5 (01:20:20):
So Joe A.

Speaker 4 (01:20:20):
Spottam moves him up in the lineup, and then what
happens an out followed by two strikeouts for Christian Walker,
and the look on his face after the second strikeout
was like, I've seen that before and I don't want
to see that again. And I'm sure Christian was some
part of them was thinking similarly. And then in his
finally bad he absolutely smashed smoked that double and was

(01:20:41):
pumped about it and he should be.

Speaker 5 (01:20:44):
Yeah, he has.

Speaker 4 (01:20:45):
He has looked very good, whatever the results have ended up,
as he's looked very good so far this season at
the plate.

Speaker 5 (01:20:53):
I uh, this is a very all too early.

Speaker 1 (01:20:56):
It's not a hot take, it's just a it's more
about the early nature of it because were a handful
of games in. But I, first of all have a
confession to make. We talked about Christian Walker all summer
or all off season long, and there's nowhere to go
but up with him after what happened here in Houston
last year.

Speaker 4 (01:21:14):
It just I mean, he had a bad first sixty
seventy games pre All Star Break, first three months wherever
you want to put the cutoff in there. He had
an exceptional next two months and he was still pretty
good in the final month.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
So he had the parts of two different seasons last year.
Who is he going to be this year? In the
back of my mind this is my confession part.

Speaker 1 (01:21:34):
I wasn't worried normal, but I was low key concerned
that Altuve was going to not do this but just this,
you know, and he still could. I mean again, two
home runs last night. That's fantastic. It's gonna not happen
very often this season in all likelihood. It's not twenty seventeen,

(01:21:55):
even though it felt like it. But between that and
Christian Walker and then just you know, I I feel
like there's all these things that if they go just right,
not only are the astro is gonna be much better
than last year, they're gonna win the division. And I
have no doubt about it. It's not even about Seattle,
It's about Houston. It's always been like that for me.

(01:22:16):
I've never like, yeah they went out and got who
did the Mariners go.

Speaker 5 (01:22:20):
Out and get him?

Speaker 3 (01:22:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:22:21):
Donovan that the Astros were obviously interested in and they
had the division like they won by a thread, and
the Astros had all the like when a team comes
back and says, yeah, we had injuries concerns last year, Well, yeah,
you had a guy or two. The Astros had like
a litany of them a mass unit. So I've always

(01:22:42):
felt like, if you just get that health back with
what they have on this roster. Yeah, there are some
questions on the pitching side of things, but I just
felt like their offense and what it's actually done the
last handful of nights is gonna be more the norm,
or at least more consistently that versus Opening Day for example.

Speaker 4 (01:23:01):
Yeah, there were definitely some concerns about al Tuvey, and
I had them for the same reason.

Speaker 3 (01:23:04):
It's just he's trending in that direction. He's not each
year he gets older, just like me, just like you,
just like one hundred percent of our listeners and viewers.

Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
It's bound to happen at some point. You wonder how
quickly it comes, and what he's been doing at least
early so far, this seaton. Remember he only had three
hits in the first four games, and then he had
four more yesterday, So all of a sudden, he's seven
for seventeen. I mean, things changed dramatically with one really
really good afternoon with the Astras have done pretty much
since the opener is give themselves opportunities to put runs
on the board. What they scored in six of the

(01:23:33):
eight innings last night, or were five of the eight innings.
They had five consecutive multi run scoring innings. Of the
innings they scored in on Saturday and Sunday, I think
if I calculate it correctly, they are one of four teams.
They're one of seven teams averaging at least eleven at
bats a game with runners in scoring position, meaning they're

(01:23:57):
on the base pass they have the opportunity, they're creating traffic,
they're putting stress on pitchers, and while their numbers aren't
at the top of the league, they're also not at
the bottom of the league. They're doing just fine with
runners in scoring position, like Heet' to homer with runners
in scoring position, which would really.

Speaker 3 (01:24:11):
Blow any game or inning open, but that'll come.

Speaker 5 (01:24:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:24:15):
I look, I don't so many things go into it.
I think so Crochet pitches in the finale tomorrow, correct.

Speaker 3 (01:24:22):
Ye, Burrows and Crochet tomorrow, Bayo and Hunter Brown tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
See and right there, I'm not worried about Hunter. I'd
like him to go longer than he did in his
first game.

Speaker 7 (01:24:31):
I know.

Speaker 3 (01:24:31):
I would imagine he'll give up a run this year,
but he hasn't so far.

Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Yeah, and Burrows, I feel like another guy that how
could you not have a bounce back performance?

Speaker 3 (01:24:39):
And he wasn't even awful. It just wasn't what I
expected it was. It was mediocre.

Speaker 7 (01:24:46):
Is that fair?

Speaker 4 (01:24:46):
He got more outs than anybody who has pitched other
than Lance.

Speaker 3 (01:24:51):
He got him into the state.

Speaker 5 (01:24:55):
It's hard.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
It's again, it's one night's one and a half, one
night's work.

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
Okay, let me ask you this then, who had the
less mediocre night between he and Dave Four's starter.

Speaker 5 (01:25:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:25:07):
I think all three of the starters in between Yesterday
and Hunter were bad, all of them.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Okay, Javier was not used a mediocre No talking a
mediocre about that.

Speaker 4 (01:25:15):
Yeah, but it's also the first game I didn't expect
Javier gave you five innings.

Speaker 3 (01:25:20):
I would be like, well, that's great. This is Game one.
He ended up giving you four and two thirds. You
can't see EM.

Speaker 11 (01:25:26):
I might.

Speaker 3 (01:25:27):
He didn't record it out in the fourth inning and
his opening start. That's probably never gonna happen again, not
even just this year. It might not literally ever happen again.

Speaker 1 (01:25:36):
Yeah, no, I could see that. But I feel like
all three of these guys also are very capable. Of course,
their rotation didn't change in five days. I was bullish
on what I think they can do then, and I'm
still bullish on it after each one of them's got
in the pill. I say that about EMI, but I
have like no sample size to go on to really
say that with authority the other two at least I do.

Speaker 4 (01:25:58):
I mean, it's it is difficult, and it's why people
kind of struggle with the Rookie of the Year's thing
with players who are professional baseball players in the highest
possible league Ndia Rose, except it's not Major League Baseball
if you're playing somewhere else, it is professional baseball. He's
facing professional hitters, he's facing men, He's not facing twenty

(01:26:18):
and twenty one year olds, and you know, for a player,
he's facing guys that, also, like EMI, are gonna end
up as major league players, more and more of them,
and then I hope people can recognize what we just
saw with what you know, Shae Wikham's playing for Korea
and obviously show he's playing for Japan, and I think
more people saw their players play in the World Baseball
Class that get to get a little bit of an

(01:26:39):
idea of what Weiss is pitching against every day, what
Emi and Yamamoto with the dog, this is who they're
up against every day in the for several years. In
most of their cases, He's not twenty two years old,
so I have a plenty of faith that Emi knows
how to pitch at this even higher level.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
And I said that about Burrows. It's kind of the
same for those two. The sample size or the track
record or whatever you want to say. At least with
Christian Haavia, you have a real bona fide track record,
even if it's pre injury.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
Burrows is limited just because last year's first real major
league time, but you know, half a season of pretty
good work in Pittsburgh, and I do think the Astros
will help unleash some of the things that maybe would
not otherwise have happened there. I mentioned this link because
Burrows had mentioned it. Some work that was done for
a short time Brent Strom was with the Pirates, and

(01:27:28):
I think there's some things that helped him there that
will end up helping him here. And we had aj
Blueball on if you missed it earlier at two thirty,
you can catch that via the app at Sports Talk
or iHeartRadio app or right there on our side at
Sports Talk seven ninety or our YouTube channel be posted
there shortly as.

Speaker 3 (01:27:42):
Well, if not already.

Speaker 4 (01:27:44):
There are things that happened here in Houston with the
pitching coaches you get to work with, and you recognize
that this team has they've manufactured greater success. They're not
creating it out of thin air, but they're taking what
you have, what they see, and making it even better.
Almost every single time, whether you were in the organization
for three to four years, whether you came outside, whether

(01:28:05):
you were international, they could very well do the same
thing for tatsu Emi for all we know, again a
little bit different animal, but I don't really question their
methods because they've done nothing but succeed with them. So
Astros and Red Sox Game two, Game six of the
homestand coming up tonight, over at DIYK in Park. We
are gonna switch into the NFL a little bit, but

(01:28:27):
we didn't get into the coach's picture, and there's always
something fun to talk about that Tamiko was in it.
We usually get into a wrestling conversation who could he
beat who could he beat up? We don't necessarily have
to go that route, but I would say it's a
good news situation that the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:28:39):
Aren't the Lions, and I'll tell you why next. I
see if I can say this delicately.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
We're about to talk Lions football right as it relates
to the Texans. Of course, yeah, obviously, because we bring
it back to the local teams. I have it on
good authority that a member of the Lions organizations family
is watching us right now in Space City Home Network.

Speaker 3 (01:29:09):
I think that's pretty cool.

Speaker 5 (01:29:10):
Did I do it the right way?

Speaker 4 (01:29:12):
It was very well said and as accurate and shout
out the watching also part of the Texans family.

Speaker 3 (01:29:18):
Yes, once upon a time, Once upon a time.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
So Lions football makes its way onto the show today
because I've talked about them quite a bit since they
were so forthcoming with inside stuff, their creative department, their
digital team, they would take us inside their thoughts, their process,
how they did what they did, and why they did it.
With Brad Holmes, with Dan Campbell, with everybody, even though

(01:29:42):
they weren't the featured team on Hard Knocks, and I
couldn't get enough of it.

Speaker 3 (01:29:46):
And it also happened to be while Brad.

Speaker 4 (01:29:47):
Holmes, their GM and their whole program was well rising
to the top, the Lions have been phenomenal. They have
found talent all over the place. They've cultivated an exceptionally
talented roster. I think when they lost so many coaches
during the offseason, where Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn left
and they both took some coaches with them, that's both

(01:30:07):
coordinators out at the same time and coaches and styles
with them, I do think that set them back a
little bit, but that's okay. That's typical business operations in
the NFL. You know, you have good coaches, you have
good success, they go elsewhere. Everybody's used to that what.

Speaker 5 (01:30:24):
I think that the.

Speaker 4 (01:30:24):
Texans have done very well here, and even though I
think it's sometimes to the detriment of the cap and
the dead money situation. Nick Cassario's handling of players and
player contracts always seem like the players and the agents
that they're dealing with should be. I'm not gonna say
they're jumping for Joy and they're you know, they're writing

(01:30:46):
books about how awesome he is. But I think they
handle their players well. I think they handle them well financially.
You know, if you've played well and it's in season,
and we can go ahead and again help ourselves maybe
with how we distribute the money, but in turn, you're
getting a contract extension for another year. It's what they
did with Tommy Tozi, It's what they've done with a
host of other players most of the time.

Speaker 3 (01:31:07):
On the positive side, I don't think the.

Speaker 4 (01:31:09):
Jimmy Ward contract worked out for anybody but Jimmy Ward,
even though he never played. It's just a bunch of
money that he was not on the field for. And
I didn't understand the reasoning behind it. But you're not
going to hit a home run. You're not going to
bout a thousand every contract. They've treated, in my opinion,
their players very well, and I think that kind of
stuff does matter. We spent a lot of time talking
about how the Ravens handled the trade with Max Crosby,

(01:31:31):
and I keep saying it doesn't matter, and I really
don't think so, because of all the other things that
you've done, they can lay the groundwork for not having
real concerns if players and agents are considering coming through
Houston and then they're here and they're getting contracts where
he worked and there's.

Speaker 3 (01:31:44):
This signing bonus, and this is what we want to do.

Speaker 4 (01:31:46):
I could be wrong, because I don't know every player
and how they feel about Houston and their GM and
how they handle personnel. But it seems like they've done
right by just about everybody that they could. And certainly
you want to do right by the team. That's who
you're who's paying, trying to make it a work environment,
a which we know is very good here in Houston.
It's all supposed to breed success. So do you come

(01:32:08):
after your player's money after you feel like, well, legally,
we have every right to it if it's really not
necessarily the right thing to do. That's what the Lions
are doing, and that's what the Lions have done. We
talked about it last year when their center retired and
then he tried to come back, but he couldn't because

(01:32:28):
his body just wouldn't let him. So Frank rag Now,
as it was written about in the Free Press today,
is dealing with the Lions asking for his signing bonus back,
a little you know, amount of money that was given
you signed the contract. You're supposed to play here for
this number of years. Here's the signing bonus, which I
would think from a player's standpoint is, well, I've it's

(01:32:50):
a signing bonus.

Speaker 5 (01:32:51):
What have I done.

Speaker 3 (01:32:53):
I've completed the process of signing, so it's my money.
I pinned a paper, give me it.

Speaker 4 (01:32:58):
And a team could say, well, yeah, you've got the
signing bonus to fulfill your contract. So if you don't
fulfill your contract, well okay, then then we'd like some
portion of it back or all of it back, or
however each individual player will deal with. This is also
not the first time the Lions have done this, and
we know about the Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson in
their situation. Like, there's still things that linger from all

(01:33:19):
of these instances that absolutely are gonna rub people the
wrong way. And in this particular player's case, if doctors say, look, man,
you have to retire. You can't get back on the field,
I would hope the team wouldn't go after his money.
But that's not what's happened here, even though that's exactly
what literally has happened. He can't play, he's his body.

(01:33:40):
He can't put himself through that to get back on
the field anymore. Even though he's played through you name
it and then some you know, he's basically the he's
gotten hit in the throat to the point where he
could barely breathe like he's played through a lot, and
his teammates know it, his coaches know it, his GM
knows it, and the owner knows it. But without a
doctor saying you can't continue, so you retire, they appear

(01:34:04):
to want to take his money back.

Speaker 3 (01:34:06):
We've got a fancy doctor's note without a fancy doctor.

Speaker 4 (01:34:09):
That's again, I do see it from both sides, but gosh,
the bigger picture and Jason Kelsey who played the very
same position in the NFL. You know, lengthy posts on
the X platform are usually a little bit tough to
get through because our short attention span. This is a lengthy,
five full paragraph commentary from Jason Kelcey about who this

(01:34:30):
player is, why he obviously retired. He's not trying to
get over on the lions and take their money. And
he's probably done that too. He maybe he will do it,
even do it during Master's coverage, which Jason Kelsey will
now be a part of this year.

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
Do we have to have people out of their element
in all these places? By the way, Nate Barlson.

Speaker 3 (01:34:50):
If you're entertaining, it can work well.

Speaker 4 (01:34:52):
Nate's in a situation where they want him to be
more and they always have and that's why he keeps
getting all these gigs, and with Ernie Johnson giving some
of his time up, this is an in house cold well.
I mean, they want a host out there and he's
having to reign in a group of people that this
is tough. It should make you appreciate Ernie because you
know it's not straight up inside the NBA on this set.

(01:35:15):
But that's also part of why it's difficult. So you
got Clark there, and you got Kenny there most of
the time. Kenny missed a bunch of games early and
Renee Montgomery filled in very well for him, and you
got Charles. And in Charles and Kenny's case, I'm sure
Kenny's attached to college basketball and attached to UNC Charles
and he Alway's got a son who's going through all

(01:35:35):
this and it's a big deal.

Speaker 3 (01:35:36):
He's going to Carolina. But Charles doesn't.

Speaker 4 (01:35:39):
Charles likes basketball, He covers the NBA, He gives commentary
on college basketball for two and a half weeks a year,
and you're trying to guide this person through a program.

Speaker 1 (01:35:50):
But going back to the signing bonus, I mean, I'm sorry,
this is going to sound like super basic, but it's
the truth. Signing bonuses are what you get in the
NFL because you play in the NFL. In other words,
this is a violent game. Shelf life is X amount
of years. So rod tidwell, what am I going to

(01:36:12):
feed my family on what you get me? It has
to be that signing bonus because everything else can be
taken away just like that. And now you're coming after
that as well. That's where he's coming from. Yeah, so
take it from again. I'll read you a portion of
what a former center said about this center who now
is also a former center. Jason Kelsey says, in the
spirit of the agreement, you know, I get that the

(01:36:33):
team has the right to ask for the money back,
but I think it's bs. It wasn't just some player
deciding he didn't want to play anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:36:40):
It wasn't that simple.

Speaker 4 (01:36:41):
These signing bonuses are there to protect players from the
inevitable injuries they.

Speaker 3 (01:36:46):
Incur on the field. Basically what I just said, that's
exactly what you're saying.

Speaker 5 (01:36:50):
That is the point to make. That goes back so
far in the league. This is the history of the league.

Speaker 4 (01:36:56):
So you're thirty one of thirty two GMS and you
have you know, Frank was there for some of your
best seasons, like in Lions history, some of your best seasons,
And you're going to tell everybody that's in the current
locker room, many of whom are former teammates, it is
that you're going to get the money back from Frank
because it's your right.

Speaker 1 (01:37:15):
And what are they saying in that locker room amongst
themselves and to themselves right now? Who's to say they
wouldn't do that to me? And this is what the
Ravens were trying to put out there that they feed
you know, some people feared would be the case. We
don't want to do business with the Ravens because of
the Max Crosby deal. Oh yeah, well, the Lions are
taking back signing bonuses how do you like them?

Speaker 5 (01:37:35):
Apples?

Speaker 4 (01:37:35):
So if only we could find a player that played
with Frank and it's been with the Lions through all
of this, but it's playing for a new team this year.
Oh there's a mister Alex Anzelon linebacker who signed with
the Tampa Bay Bucks this offseason. He took a quote
post of the article that was written about this and
he said the following played through fractured throat one week

(01:37:57):
postminiscus cleanup with stitches barely out, broke my throat, inoperable, unrepairable,
tow et cetera.

Speaker 3 (01:38:04):
And then he says, hey, let me get that pro
rated signing bonus back. How much is the signing bonus?

Speaker 4 (01:38:09):
Again again the specific part. I don't know the exact figure,
but roughly what are we talking about?

Speaker 3 (01:38:15):
Five million? I think it's less than that, but more
than one. Like how hard up for you are you?
It's really it's kind of not even I wouldn't think
it's even really about that. It is a principal move.
It's a good chunk of money. This is like quibbling
over re signing your deep snapper.

Speaker 4 (01:38:33):
Is it like saying we're the most profitable printing money?
Sports entity that's ever existed here in America. But we're
not giving the officials what they think they deserve.

Speaker 3 (01:38:46):
That's exactly what it is. It's just so gross.

Speaker 1 (01:38:50):
Hey, listen, this could be any NFL team, And by
the way, I wouldn't put it past any of them.
I don't even think. I mean, it is a Detroit
issue because that's who we're talking about. But that's the
other thing. This is a copycat league.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):
Wex Again, every situation is very individualized. So I'm not
saying it's never happened here or elsewhere, but not to
this extent, with this very specific set of circumstances with
a player who obviously was big, big, important to what
they've liked to do there and now obviously cannot. We
mentioned everybody in the sports landscape here in Houston. Rockets

(01:39:22):
and Knicks go tonight. We did get the return of
one potential MVP in the NBA, one of the best
players in the league. He returned to the lineup off
the bench. Why We'll tell you next.

Speaker 10 (01:39:36):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety y what
Odin I did?

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):
Now say what.

Speaker 4 (01:39:46):
Signature segment time on a Tuesday, we hit you with
say what usually somebody in the sports world or close
enough to it, says something that makes you go, huh,
what did I hear?

Speaker 5 (01:39:56):
What I think I heard?

Speaker 4 (01:39:58):
We need to censor that. That's what happened today because
of what happened yesterday. The NBA season is winding down
eight nine seven games remaining for most teams Rockets with
eight remaining, three at home, two on the road, and
then three more at home. One of those games they
play at home on the final home stand of the
season will be against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Timberwolves right ahead

(01:40:20):
of the Rockets now, since they were victorious last night
while the Rockets were idle. They edged past the Mavericks
by thirty. I got a text about last night's game
from a Mavericked fane and he said this was game
was played in Dallas, and I take him at his word.
I don't want to put the Rexler research team on
this to the fact check him. He said the last

(01:40:41):
time the Mavericks won at home, Anthony Davis was on
the team. No way, it's only been since the All
Star break. This team stinks mid February though it is April. Basically,
that must mean they're on a ten to eleven game
home losing street, it must mean they suck.

Speaker 1 (01:40:56):
They do.

Speaker 4 (01:40:57):
The Minnesota Timberwolves went four and two in the six
games that Anthony Edwards missed. One of those four wins
we know all too well about happened back just six
days ago when the Rockets had a thirteen point overtime
lead with three to zero one on the clock.

Speaker 3 (01:41:15):
It did not win that game.

Speaker 4 (01:41:16):
That's never happened before in NBA history. But four and
two without your best player is pretty good. And they've
been pretty good without him this whole season, which is
rather remarkable. He will play in Game sixty for himself
on his way to trying to get to sixty five
so he can hope to land some consideration for MVP,
which he won't win, but likely a spot, let's say,

(01:41:38):
on an All NBA team, which we still have a
discussion topic about that in the future. But he returned
to the lineup last night. He played twenty two minutes,
and for the first time all season, Anthony Edwards came
off the bench. I thought, when I did look at
last night's box score, I kind of do that a lot.
Box scores and press conferences are kind of my thing.

(01:42:01):
He came off the bench seventeen times as a rookie.
When he was nineteen, the number one overall pick. He
had not come off the bench in any game for
five seasons going into yesterday's game when he came off
the bench, So I did think that was odd. I
didn't think there was a minutes restriction reason behind it,
But I certainly didn't think I would really need to
find out the answer. Now that I have the answer,

(01:42:22):
I really don't think I needed to find that out.
But after the game, he was in the Wolves locker
room and he was asked about the reasoning behind him
not starting the game. Mike Conley, the Elder Statesman who
started against the Rockets, Well, Ae was out, ant Man
was out. He ended up getting the start last night
as well, while Aunt made his return. The response to

(01:42:44):
the question of why did you not start tonight in
your return, this is the answer we got from Anthony Edwards.

Speaker 2 (01:42:52):
I was taking a yeah, but yeah, like I said,
Mike held it down from me.

Speaker 4 (01:42:57):
Mike held it down for him in the starting lineup.
And if you thought that was an odd thing to
have happened, and the reason behind it, even though it's
not crazy to think you just weren't physically quite ready,
even though you knew what time the game started, but
your body did not did not kind of go along
that same clock for you. Someone dug up an old

(01:43:19):
high school story of Anthony Edwards playing before his year
at Georgia and before he got to the NBA, and
pulled an excerpt out of that story that indicated his
coach said, that's not abnormal.

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
This is he wasn't obviously he was talking about a situation.

Speaker 7 (01:43:37):
Next.

Speaker 4 (01:43:37):
This is a six year old article or longer, and
this is you know, at the time it was. It
was not that out of the norm for him to
prepare for a game, making sure his body was in
line and would cooperate for the next at least till halftime.
You would think by taking care of things before tip off.
I'll be honest with you, is it pertains to this?

(01:43:58):
And I think, for whatever reason, I don't know why,
I feel like this happens more in baseball.

Speaker 3 (01:44:05):
There's just more downtime.

Speaker 4 (01:44:06):
Well, it should never happen in baseball. You always have
an opportunity to take care of it. If you're the DH,
no problem. Well, yeah, if you're the starting pitcher or
any one of the eight players that are in the field.

Speaker 3 (01:44:18):
Well you're not up to bat. My spot's not up
for seven.

Speaker 4 (01:44:21):
You're saying you don't want to get caught in there
when it's time to go back out to the field.

Speaker 1 (01:44:25):
If the DH is the only thing where that's basically
fool proof, because I mean, let's talk about what we're
talking about here. You know that's not necessarily just a
half inning situation. Sometimes then you would want to take
care of it in advance. If it can be, then
you make sure it is. But bottom line, I think
it just that can be the end of your day.

Speaker 3 (01:44:45):
Where is he?

Speaker 4 (01:44:46):
Hey joe, Hey, Omar, where is this guy? Well, he's
not ready to go back out there? Well, they're not
going to hold the game for him. Can I get hey,
Joey low praffito, you're going in?

Speaker 3 (01:44:57):
How does this not happen more in sports? That's my question.

Speaker 4 (01:45:01):
We're sitting here two o'clock to six o'clock. We have breaks,
and if you so choose during our four to five
minute break to use the facilities, usually can take care
of that in that amount of time. If I mean,
our listeners don't have a camera on us during those breaks,
most of the time. I rarely get up out of
this seat from two to six. We're also not miked
up during those breaks like Bobby Durst or Frank Dreven

(01:45:26):
Rockets basketball Tonight, I'll be at too at a center.
I'll get my dinner and I will headed to my
seat five six o'clock. Let's say, for me on the
air at six thirty, I won't get out of my
seat till ten forty five. I won't get up to
go to the restaurant. I won't get up to go
to get a drink. I won't d any At least
we sporting events are way less than our talk show

(01:45:46):
of four hours or a broadcast of that amount of
time I managed to do.

Speaker 3 (01:45:50):
It has to have been a time where, even if
that's not what you were doing, you had to go yes.
On occasion it might come up.

Speaker 11 (01:45:58):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (01:45:58):
Matt is usually usually accommodating.

Speaker 4 (01:46:01):
Well, that's the thing, Anthony Edwards, Matt, myself, yourself, they
know what's they know their schedule.

Speaker 3 (01:46:07):
This is when I have time to take care of this.
But over the next three plus hours, I really don't.

Speaker 1 (01:46:12):
I better take care of it now because if your
color like we are it's very different stepping away and
missing some of the game as opposed to if you're
the play by play guy.

Speaker 4 (01:46:22):
That's where it's nice that there are two of us
work in the broadcast. You can maintain all the professionalism necessary. Now,
quite frankly, this particular player. I know some players can
say some crazy things, but if you're just strictly looking
for the loosest cannon from an NBA interview standpoint, especially
if he's not at the.

Speaker 5 (01:46:41):
Podium, he's top three, he's top one.

Speaker 4 (01:46:43):
Like you might get a weird answer from somebody or
someone who's going on a rant about something, But if
you want straight up cursing and bleeping necessary commentary, because
he just talks in that way, even with reporters, even
when he knows the cameras on, even when he knows
the quote unquote red light is on.

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
That's just what he does. It's unfiltered, it's unabashed.

Speaker 5 (01:47:04):
It's usually fair.

Speaker 3 (01:47:05):
I had to go to the bathroom. How like any
other player I would think could have easily said that.
He probably didn't even consider saying that. No, that wouldn't
be colorful. Why didn't you start?

Speaker 1 (01:47:15):
I was in the restroom, but That's not how he
would say it, clearly, I man, I love Anthony like
he is he is. If he wasn't as awesome as
he was as a player, this, obviously he wouldn't get
away with it.

Speaker 3 (01:47:32):
I don't think it would be much more difficult. I
don't think there's much question about that whatsoever. But his
return of the lineup also means the obvious other thing.

Speaker 4 (01:47:40):
Unless he gets hurt again or has some major internal
combustion issues, he should play against the Rockets on April
tenth and the second to last game of the season.
Much more on your Houston astros and the rest of
the lineup beyond Jeremy Pania and why they're out there tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:47:58):
That's next.

Speaker 7 (01:48:00):
Off.

Speaker 1 (01:48:00):
How much of your personal time have you spent on
the latest car flipping incident for Tiger Woods.

Speaker 4 (01:48:08):
Oh, the memes have been there. A lot of people
have put the previous mug shots together. This is arguably
the greatest golfer ever, certainly the greatest golfer of many
of our listeners sports viewing lifetime. Obviously, Jack Nicholas is
still the leader among major winners, but this is a

(01:48:30):
phenomenal golfer.

Speaker 3 (01:48:32):
He's known because he's really good at golf and he's
made a bunch of money doing it, and he has
I'm losing count number of mug shots. Yeah, that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:48:43):
When you have the mugshots to choose from, things are
probably not going well for you. But here's the deal.
And I know that as soon as we heard about this,
especially when we heard the detail that the SUV he
was driving in would, by the way, was a range
Rover in case you're wondering, rolled over after clipping a

(01:49:05):
trailer being hauled by a truck. I know what we
all thought, and there was any number of I mean,
we talked about it on the show. What we thought
was accurate. He was under the influence, or at least
is alleged to have been. He has not been proven
guilty this time, Yeah, but he was last time. The
good news is that's not the real story.

Speaker 4 (01:49:27):
The Dui police report was released today. Woods eyes were
said to be bloodshot, glassy, and quote extremely dilated. He
had something in his pocket, two of them, two white pills,
deemed to be hydro codone. The officers observed Woods as lethargic, slow,

(01:49:50):
and quote sweating profusely. And I think this is the
line item you were looking at, Woods says he glanced
at his phone when the car ahead of him slowed down.
The said truck and trailer glanced down at his phone,
according to the report, which obviously that's what he told them.
Nobody else would have the ability to tell them that,

(01:50:12):
whether it happened or not, and I'm sure it did.
That's what Tiger said.

Speaker 1 (01:50:16):
Looking down at a cell phone and changing the radio
station he didn't like the song that was on, or
it was a commercial.

Speaker 3 (01:50:23):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:50:23):
I mean, I'm not advocating for how to distract yourself,
but keep your eyes on the road. And I think
many people who are familiar with their vehicle of choice,
the one that they drive, they've got themselves trained to
not necessarily need to take their eyes off the road
to do many of those things. Even utilize their phone
certainly if you're talking on it, but changing the station,

(01:50:46):
lifting the volume up a little bit, you don't really
need your eyes your steering wheel usually as the.

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
Control in range and whistle.

Speaker 4 (01:50:52):
Nonetheless, the idea that he was under the influence, as
the officer said that day, because he declined the urine test,
and because he was not under the influence of alcohol.
He took the breathalyzer and he blew a zero's across
the board. They don't believe alcohol was involved in any way,

(01:51:13):
but under the influence there's no a at the end
of DUI. It's not under the influence of alcohol. It's
under the influence. It's a very very broad umbrella.

Speaker 1 (01:51:24):
And Woods was also sweating profusely, by the way, in
case we didn't mention that. But he is, as you mentioned,
he's widely considered as one of, if not the greatest
golfer golfers of all time, and you could argue that

(01:51:45):
had he not had injuries sustained both on the golf
course but also I think you know, one of these
recks was really bad, and he had the traud installed
in his leg to stabilize.

Speaker 5 (01:51:58):
All that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:51:59):
He probably cheated himself out of how many more major championships.

Speaker 3 (01:52:04):
Uh, that's it's definitely a factor.

Speaker 4 (01:52:07):
I don't know that if the number necessarily changes tremendously
just because of when and where in his career timeline wise,
they took, I mean injuries for sure, the back and
things like that, even his personal issues.

Speaker 3 (01:52:21):
I mean, I was right in the middle of his prime.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
I mean, we're talking about mug shots and we're talking
this guy held a press conference for what reason, to
apologize and try to get the public back on his
side with his mom sitting right there on the front row,
for his transgressions, both meritally and just the fact that
he's been deemed to have been an addict, a sexual addict,

(01:52:47):
a sex addict.

Speaker 3 (01:52:48):
He's addicted to a lot of things. Well, that's the
thing here, That's what I think has happened here. Again,
it's definitely taking a leap.

Speaker 4 (01:52:54):
I don't know the circumstances here, but they definitely could
fall into place and complete the puzzle he's trying to
play in the masks. He just got back on the
TGL course if you will, this past week, and he's
in pain for a lot of things that he does.
He goes out and plays golf even though it hurts.
And one way you combat that is by taking painkillers like.

Speaker 3 (01:53:13):
The two found in his pocket. Yes, So if you're
going to do things, they clearly impair your ability to
operate a vehicle and everybody knows it, and Tiger definitely
knows it and he's been through this before.

Speaker 4 (01:53:24):
Well, then don't do both. I mean, if you need
to be on pain medication, go ahead. I'm sure it's prescribed.
Maybe it isn't. Either way, then don't don't do the
other thing. Or if you want to drive, then don't
be on the painkillers.

Speaker 1 (01:53:37):
Well, the thing is, like all this is always about
how he could hurt himself when you start talking about
I mean he clipped another vehicle.

Speaker 4 (01:53:45):
This like, if the other vehicle didn't have a trailer,
odds seemed very good he would have clipped the vehicle.
The trailer was what was clipped and flipped tiger. Neither
party was hurt. But if the trailer's not there, well,
at what point does he begin the swerve? Does he
begin the swerve at all?

Speaker 1 (01:54:03):
And here's the thing, And it always seems it's an
inordinate amount of times where this scenario unfolds in this way.
The person who's under the influence that causes whatever happens
from a vehicle collision standpoint, they almost always walk away.

Speaker 3 (01:54:21):
And almost always when someone is.

Speaker 1 (01:54:24):
There's a fatality or a serious injury, it's almost never
the person that caused everything.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
And I hate that and I don't get it.

Speaker 1 (01:54:32):
I mean, I understand that like sometimes being under the
influence of something means that you are somehow less susceptible
to certain injuries because you're just not I mean again
a fender bender. You tense up because you see it's coming.
That's a completely different scenario than if you didn't see
it coming. People talk about that all the time, chiropractors

(01:54:52):
and you know, doctors that have to see you because
you are rear ended by somebody going fifty miles an
hour even sometime. I just I'm afraid that's gonna be
what happens, and then he's gonna be known for something
that's way, way more nefarious than he liked sex a

(01:55:12):
lot while he was the greatest golfer in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:55:14):
Well, each time he's had something like this, and there
are different varieties of it, I think the goodness in
people myself and others think Okay, this is it, and
there just never seems to be an end to it all.
And it's really I think it's be very frustrated for
the people closest to him, and then it's now frustrating
for everybody that's anywhere near him, wherever he might be,

(01:55:35):
because this is menace like behavior, maybe not intentional, but
That's exactly what it is.

Speaker 3 (01:55:40):
As you described final hour of the show on the horizon.

Speaker 4 (01:55:43):
The NFL is busy making their game better and something
we talked about yesterday with the can we get some
help from the league office in game please and thank you,
they'll be doing that. We got some walk up music
around Major League Baseball to get to and of course
we still have tickets to give away see DC tickets
to give away in this five o'clock hour.

Speaker 3 (01:56:03):
That is a fact that's coming your way here on
the A team.

Speaker 1 (01:56:09):
The eight Sports tax seven ninety Space City Home Network.
Wex has stepped aside. He is on his way down
to Toyota Center, where the Rockets and the Knicks will
get together for their final meeting this season, pending a
rematch of the nineteen ninety four NBA Finals, which we
all love, no in love here in Houston. But since
it is football at five skits is something we talked

(01:56:31):
about yesterday. So first and foremost, I don't know how
it's gonna go. I know that, uh you know, the
NFL's the owners meetings are underway and they're going on
in Phoenix right now. And yesterday we were talking about
the fact and I love the language that was that
was used.

Speaker 3 (01:56:50):
NFL.

Speaker 1 (01:56:52):
Rich McKay, who is the co chairman of the NFL's
Competition Committee, said that the NFL owners are quote along
about the state of negotiations with their officials they're referees,
and that NFL Executive Vice President Jeff Miller said today
owners are quote insistent upon a new CBA that provides

(01:57:17):
avenues to improve the state of NFL officiating. That's where
we are in these negotiations, according to Miller, and that's
exactly where we're going to stay. According to Verbage. In
the rule the first rule of couple that they approve today,
staff members in New York could alert a replacement referee

(01:57:38):
because again, they're gearing up for replacement officials to be
a part of the twenty twenty six NFL season if
they can't get this thing done. And the fact that
they're bringing these guys in, like you know, combing college
football officials and lists of college football officials to see

(01:57:58):
which ones would be the best, that tells me this
is more than just a backup emergency plan. This could
actually happen. I mean, it happened in twenty twelve, so
it's not act like this hasn't happened before. But one
of the things in the first rule, and we talked
about this yesterday, staff members in New York could alert
a replacement referee if they see clear and obvious evidence

(01:58:20):
of an uncalled foul for roughing the passer, intentional grounding,
or an act that would normally lead to disqualification.

Speaker 3 (01:58:28):
So, in other words, basically the three.

Speaker 1 (01:58:33):
I don't want to say they are the most obvious calls,
but I mean, we all know what roughing the passer
really is.

Speaker 3 (01:58:40):
I mean sometimes there might be a gray area.

Speaker 1 (01:58:43):
Intentional groundings pretty self explanatory, provided you know what the
tackle box is, and of course an act that would
normally lead to disqualification seems pretty obvious too. But nevertheless,
we're staff members in New York could alert a replacement referee,
and I listen, I don't know how this is going

(01:59:04):
to go from a actual physical standpoint, like how they're
gonna need this out. Those staff members would also be
permitted to alert replacement referees that a flag shouldn't have
been thrown if there is clear and obvious video evidence
that quote at least one element of the foul called
is not present. So they're already admitting, Yeah, these are

(01:59:27):
gonna be lesser quality officials that we bring in here.
These aren't gonna be the real McCoy. These aren't gonna
be guys that you can trust most of the time
to get the call right. And as it were, because
of that, we're going to allow other people back in
New York to be able to alert them. I don't
know if that means it's a headset. I don't know
if that means there's some sort of buzzer situation. You know,

(01:59:51):
since Yankee fans like to bring that up so much,
whatever it is, they're gonna be able to basically butt
in if they feel like it's necessary, which should be.
I mean, I'm guessing that wasn't the case back in
twenty twelve when that game was basically decided between the
Seahawks and the Packers on whether or not the catch

(02:00:14):
was made, and these guys just couldn't make a clear
concise decision as to whether or not it was a
catch to you know, decide the ballgame. I don't think
anybody was buzzing in from New York with their opinion.
So that's a change. And by the way, those the
fouls that are eligible for an alert. So the people

(02:00:35):
in New York, whatever they're going to do, however, they're
going to get a hold of the official. These are
what's eligible. Twisting, pulling or turning the face mask, roughing
the passer, intentional grounding, horse collar tackles, illegal contact, pass interference,
and disqualification, many of which are very common fouls throughout

(02:00:56):
any NFL game. And they're basically saying, we don't trust
these replacements enough to even do this the right way
to the point where or to the extent where we're
not going to be able to have somebody buzz in
and say you missed that one.

Speaker 3 (02:01:11):
That's just crazy to me.

Speaker 1 (02:01:13):
The fact that you're in this scenario to even you know,
have this be a thing, Josh, is incredible to me.

Speaker 12 (02:01:20):
Such a flex here by the NFL, right Like, we're
gonna hold these guys' hands because we know they're not
going to be as good as you, because we don't
want to have to pay you guys extra money. Pretty brilliant, right,
That's some leverage right there. Hey, we know they're not
going to be good, so if they screw up, we'll
just let them know how they screwed up from New
York and we'll move on with the game.

Speaker 5 (02:01:38):
We don't need you guys to be that good at this.

Speaker 7 (02:01:40):
And I do.

Speaker 1 (02:01:40):
I mean, there is no doubt in my mind that
if this is a scenario that unfolds, First of all,
you have to have the replacement officials officiating games to
begin with for this even to be a thing.

Speaker 3 (02:01:52):
I'm hoping it doesn't get to that point.

Speaker 1 (02:01:54):
But again, like I said earlier, I feel like the
fact that we're talking about this means that it's seriously
in danger of happening.

Speaker 3 (02:02:01):
And I do mean danger, But like, you know, what
are you gonna how is how efficient is it going
to be?

Speaker 1 (02:02:09):
In other words, because I'll say this, the best part
so far through a handful of games of the Major
League Baseball season is that the ABS system is exactly
as expedient as we thought it was going to be.

Speaker 3 (02:02:22):
Like if you ever went I don't know if you
did this, Josh.

Speaker 1 (02:02:25):
I clearly remember I went to one of Justin Verlander's
rehab starts in sugar Land a couple seasons ago when
he was trying to, you know, work his way back,
and I was I don't know if the I guess
the word would be impressed, but honestly shocked at how
efficient it was, to the point where I came in

(02:02:47):
the next week on Monday Show and I was like,
why aren't they doing this.

Speaker 3 (02:02:51):
In Major League Baseball?

Speaker 5 (02:02:52):
Again?

Speaker 3 (02:02:53):
It was so fast.

Speaker 1 (02:02:54):
It's just like it is now tap on the head
or whatever you got to do to indicate you want
to challenge, and it's like takeing a matter of seconds.
Why did why they didn't implement this so much sooner?
And so all of that is to say I don't
I mean, NFL reviews seemingly take so much longer, if
for no other reason than the sheer amount of field
you have to cover to get over to a review

(02:03:15):
situation like it's a big field, and I just I
wonder what the efficiency will be. The other additional rule
or change that they approved after the two minute warning
or in overtime, the list of called or uncalled penalties

(02:03:39):
that league staff members could provide referees with would expand.
So I gave you the list, then it expands, whether
it's after the two minute warning or in overtime, to
include unsportsmanlike conduct based on punching or kicking at an opponent,
during kicks. League staff members could also consult on the
leverage and lead being rules. Well, my question would be,

(02:04:04):
why is that only allocated to after the two minute
warning or an overtime? Is a punch thrown with seven
minutes to go in the third quarter not as severe
as one? You know, Like, how do you That's just
so arbitrary to me, Like it's I get what you're

(02:04:25):
trying to do. You're trying to, you know, call this
stuff out, But why why the expansion for those particular
set of violations only after two minute warnings or an overtime?

Speaker 3 (02:04:40):
It's just I don't know. And then finally, one more thing.

Speaker 1 (02:04:42):
Throughout a game, league staff members could assist on discerning
whether a foul should be classified as roughing or running
into the kicker, cause you know, we have to differentiate
between which is which I thought running into the kicker
was roughing?

Speaker 3 (02:05:00):
Am I am? I ridiculously naive and and not thinking
that I'm it's.

Speaker 12 (02:05:05):
A it's close. You're splitting Harris there. Yeah, But I
mean I guess if you just kind of bump into
him and he falls over, versus just sells it. Yeah,
if he sells it, versus you just knock the crap
out of him that they want to make a difference there.

Speaker 5 (02:05:18):
But you're right, but that is one.

Speaker 12 (02:05:20):
Don't you feel like whenever a Texans kicker is punting,
or it's the other way around, say the Texans are
rushing the punter and he kind of sells it and
falls into it and they call roughing, you freak out.
I don't mind that they're gonna try and button that
up a little bit.

Speaker 1 (02:05:32):
Man every time, Like every time the Texans are, you know,
gunning after a punt, uh and the and the the
punter goes down for any reason, whether it's spectacularly flailing
or you just hold your breath. You just wait for
the flag. You wait for the graphic come up, come
up on the on the screen, or see the flag

(02:05:55):
like it's just soul. It is a penalty laden league.
And I guess maybe I have PTSD from Larry Tunslin
company on the offensive, Like it's just so many I'll
say this since we're on the subject of penalties, and
I didn't plan on talking about this, but it is
so true.

Speaker 3 (02:06:12):
Like it's kind of like the Rockets turnovers.

Speaker 1 (02:06:15):
You just go into a game a lot of times
knowing that even though you love damik O Ryans and
you feel like he has absolutely changed and or harbored
a much better culture here in Houston. Good lord, his
teams are so undisciplined at times when it comes to penalties,
it's just a flag fest every single week.

Speaker 12 (02:06:36):
And every kickoff return, right, oh my god, I expect one.
Every kickoff return, you expect some kind of holding that's
gonna bring it back in. And often on punt returns,
but especially on kickoff return you're you're like oddly satisfied
when it doesn't happen.

Speaker 5 (02:06:49):
Yeah, yeah, you're like, did I miss something?

Speaker 1 (02:06:51):
Yeah, Like I'm enjoying this way too much that they
just kicked off and nothing happened, And I hope that.
I don't know what can be done. I mean, it's
obviously not all on de Miko, but the buck stops
with him. I just hope that that's cleaned up somewhat
this year, and maybe the offensive line improving will will

(02:07:12):
be a big part of that, since so many of
them were false start at times.

Speaker 3 (02:07:17):
But they pick a penalty, the Texans will get it.

Speaker 1 (02:07:19):
So anyways, just a little bit of what's coming out
of the owners meetings, I know, I know, it's not
draft talk, and we're not to the draft yet, but
we are getting closer, and I cannot wait to see
what really the roster begins to take shape, especially for
this Texans offense. Be very interesting to see what goes
down later. I'll basically say this month, even though it's

(02:07:42):
still March, it's technically March for a few more hours,
and then we've got the draft in April. All right,
we'll take a quick time out. We'll come right back.
There is a closing pitcher. There's a closer, I should say,
in Major League Baseball who has entered the awesome walkout
music chat.

Speaker 3 (02:07:59):
We'll explain next.

Speaker 10 (02:08:02):
The eight on Sports Talks.

Speaker 1 (02:08:04):
That's Sports Talk seven ninety. It's Space City Home Network.
A pair of Psychedelic Furs concert tickets coming up on
May twenty third at the House of Blues. Tickets are
on sale at ticketmaster dot com, but you can win
a pair of them right here. Coming up in the
final segment. You're gonna want to listen to what we

(02:08:27):
talk about right now, there's your hint.

Speaker 5 (02:08:31):
All right.

Speaker 3 (02:08:33):
In the pantheon.

Speaker 1 (02:08:35):
Of all time closer entrance songs, everybody is basically give
or to. I mean, it's all subjective, but Mariano Rivera's
inner Sandman is always going to tug at my heartstrings
because I'm a Metallica nut, but I get it, especially

(02:08:59):
since it's that song off of that album. You know
what's the best is when Metallica fans get all snobby
and elitist on you.

Speaker 3 (02:09:07):
Well, it was only the first three albums. Okay, after
that they suck stop.

Speaker 1 (02:09:11):
But again, the tempo, the feeling it gets, I mean,
that's just one of those all time songs, and in
this case, because he was so dominant and what they
were trying to do when he was coming out of
that bullpen, it's again, it's one of the all time greats.
But it's hardly the only option out there. And when

(02:09:35):
you start talking about, for example, the San Diego Padres,
well you're immediately gonna think about historically a guy like
Trevor Hoffman who came out to Hell's Bells. And there's
this article that was written in The Athletic about, first

(02:09:56):
of all, a guy who I can't believe is a Padre.

Speaker 3 (02:09:58):
Let's just start right there.

Speaker 1 (02:10:01):
Or the Astros are about to go play the Athletics
and they're one of the young up and coming teams
in Major League Baseball, not just in the AO West,
not just in the American League. They are one of
the up and coming teams in Major League Baseball, which
wasn't always the case, is very very recently. They got
a lot of young talent, got a lot of young
pitching talent, got a lot of explosive hitters. They strike

(02:10:25):
out a ton, as wex so astutey pointed out, I
believe yesterday, but at one point they had Mason Miller
as their closer. Mason Miller, big scary dude, throws like
one hundred and twenty miles an hour, just an absolute beast,

(02:10:47):
and he has apparently debuted the song blind by Corn.
He came out at Petco Park and a shadowy image
of a grim reaper appeared on the jumbo sized video board.
And then, after a minimal this is all in the article,

(02:11:09):
a minimalist but menacing build up of symbols and guitar riffs,
the guttural opening line of corns blind blared throughout the stadium.
And that was the scene Saturday night, as Mason Miller
jogged in from the bullpen for his first save, opportunity
as the San Diego Padres full time closer. And I look,

(02:11:34):
I'm not even in this article actually alludes to this
as well. Mason Miller is not even the biggest Corn fan.
But it just kind of worked. And I'm I'm of
that opinion too, Like it's fine, you know, I recognize
that they have a huge following and that they've got
some tracks that absolutely will get me out of my seat.

Speaker 3 (02:11:55):
I get it now.

Speaker 1 (02:11:56):
There's just not my cup of tea most most of
the time. But you can't deny that it works. And
what's interesting is that this article kind of goes down
the list of some of the best I guess, not
just songs, but then the settings that they elicit, and

(02:12:16):
like Thunderstrucks, one Miller had actually been Josh Hater did this,
and I think Josh Hater settled on Firemen by.

Speaker 3 (02:12:28):
Oh geez, why am I drawing a blank on this, Josh?
And you're not gonna be able to help me out?
Are you?

Speaker 1 (02:12:34):
Is it?

Speaker 6 (02:12:35):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (02:12:36):
And I can't it's Wayne right, So it's little Wayne,
isn't it? Maybe I can't remember now? And I know
with Korn you get the you know the are you ready?

Speaker 10 (02:12:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:12:46):
But she is pretty cool. That's when all the heavy
music comes in.

Speaker 1 (02:12:49):
I'm gonna get clowned for this already know. But Astros
fans are gonna absolutely destroy me, and that's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:12:53):
I deserve it.

Speaker 1 (02:12:55):
But again, like this is a big deal now in
these stadiums. I mean, look, Johnny Cash from Ryan Presley.
If you had told me on the initially, on the surface,
that's gonna be his walk up song or that's gonna
be his entrance music from the bullpen, he'd be like.

Speaker 3 (02:13:12):
Really that slow Johnny Cat.

Speaker 1 (02:13:15):
But it became an organic thing, and I think that's
why it was so effective because eventually he had the
the flashlights on, the cell phones out. And again, none
of this works. If the guy comes in and blows it.
He's gotta be dominant. So if you're a closer in
Major League Baseball and you're not like basically automatic most

(02:13:37):
times out, I wouldn't even I mean, that is such
a superstitious slash karma thing to jack with you. But
but again, this is Mason Miller. The guy throws like
one oh three in all round. It's not one twenty,
but it's one o three. He'll run it up there.
Sometimes he'll get to one oh five. He's a guy
that this absolutely works for. And this is the part

(02:13:59):
of the article I was talking about. Miller twenty seven
wasn't exactly a corn fan. He just knew the song
offered something right away from the tents opening to lead
singer Jonathan Davis's iconic are You Ready, which Josh just mentioned,
and he goes it was a little scary for sure.
It kind of captures a good, ominous vibe coming into
the game, but it made me think about it, Like

(02:14:23):
Billy Wagner came out to any inner Sam man here
in Houston, and a lot of people tries, oh, he's
trying to copy Mariano River, but he was so good
that it didn't matter. Like he's that's the astros best
closer of all time. I'll say Ryan Presley's second just
because of sheer numbers, even though Ryan Presley was pitching
and pitching well. I might add in far more important

(02:14:46):
games and games of much bigger magnitude. I mean, Ryan
Pressley closed out the second World Championship on the Mound
at at the time, and it made park for your Astros.
There's not a lot of things that can top that.
He was on the front cover of the sports page
the next day. That's outstanding. And again going back to

(02:15:06):
his entrance music, it's not exactly like a fire you
up type situation.

Speaker 3 (02:15:11):
It's more of a slow burn. But it worked.

Speaker 1 (02:15:14):
And I think Josh haters, you know, when he comes
back first time he comes out to close a game,
especially after being shut down last year and then beginning
the year on the injured list, that's gonna be pretty
electric at dyke And Park because they'll shut the lights down,
they'll put the fire effects on the ribbon around the
stadium and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:15:31):
That's gonna be cool.

Speaker 5 (02:15:32):
Oh yeah, and you did get it right. It's it's
Fireman Lil Wayne Wayne.

Speaker 12 (02:15:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:15:36):
So Eric texted in and said the same thing. I
shout out to you guys for letting me know. I
thought that's what it was.

Speaker 5 (02:15:40):
You nailed it, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Speaker 12 (02:15:43):
But wouldn't you say that like Ricky wild Thing Vaughn
invented the walk out music for a closer when they
play wild Thing in Major League.

Speaker 5 (02:15:51):
That's the thing.

Speaker 1 (02:15:52):
Like and see, this is why I hate the Wex
isn't here right now because he would totally know something
like this because he's sports almanac. Is that the first
time it was really even a thing and that was fake?
That was a movie, Like did pictures not do this before?
Because obviously music has been played in stadiums since forever.
But I just don't know if that particular scenario started

(02:16:16):
more after that, or at least became more and more
common after that.

Speaker 5 (02:16:20):
Movie that was nineteen eighty nine.

Speaker 3 (02:16:22):
Man, geez, really yep? I mean, I guess that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (02:16:28):
And how cool is that scene? By the way, It's great,
It's amazing. The extras did their part. They understood the
assignment the crowd. Oh yeah, they understood their assignment.

Speaker 12 (02:16:37):
Yeah, and they're only shooting like part of the stadium
to make it look completely full.

Speaker 5 (02:16:41):
But they nailed it.

Speaker 3 (02:16:42):
You know what he was here talking about Charlie Sheen.

Speaker 5 (02:16:46):
He was here for.

Speaker 1 (02:16:48):
I think it was the TriStar show. It was one
of those autograph shows, probably about a month ago. And
I feel like I went to the show that he was,
but he wasn't there that day because I was there
to meet you know, it was a wrestling situation.

Speaker 3 (02:17:04):
I think it was the same show, but it might
have been a different one.

Speaker 1 (02:17:06):
But I regretted not going because even though he's like
a total disaster and by all accounts hasn't been the
best guy at times, Like he's such an iconic, slash
eclectic legendary pop culture figure. Like that's just one example.
I mean, how many Charlie Sheen insane stories do you

(02:17:27):
know about? Did you watch that documentary about him?

Speaker 12 (02:17:29):
I did, And it's so wild that Brian, Brian Wilson
is the one that told him all the Tiger Blood.
So he's like, oh, you got adonnas DNA, you got
tiger blood running through you. Man, Wilson of Beach Boys.
Now the Beard the Giants closer, Baby.

Speaker 3 (02:17:43):
All the Giants closer. I thought you were talking about Bryan.
A lot of people thought that, but yeah, I'm getting.

Speaker 1 (02:17:48):
It mixed up because Brian wasn't Brian Wilson the one
that was like linked up with like Charles Manson, which
one of the Beach Boys was like they were living
in the same house.

Speaker 3 (02:17:56):
That that's definitely true, all right. I totally screwed that.
That's twice that's tookes this segment for me.

Speaker 5 (02:18:02):
That's bad.

Speaker 12 (02:18:03):
Well, only three until you're out, so that it's fine.
I think you have to say, Charlie Sheen really great
athlete actor.

Speaker 1 (02:18:09):
Yeah, an eight minute he was believable in his as
a baseball player and not only player, a Pitcher's one
thing to like that.

Speaker 3 (02:18:17):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, I mean it was it was very obvious.

Speaker 5 (02:18:20):
So I don't know, I like it.

Speaker 1 (02:18:22):
I like Mason Miller doing that. I still can't believe
the Athletics traded him. And we'll see where it goes
for here. But yeah, props to Petco Park, which is
a great ballpark. By the way, if you've ever get
a chance to go see a game or just go
to San Diego in general, you definitely should.

Speaker 3 (02:18:37):
All right, well, take a quick time out. We will
come right back with some of the things we have
not gotten to to today. It is in case you
missed it.

Speaker 2 (02:18:43):
It is next.

Speaker 10 (02:18:46):
The eighteen.

Speaker 1 (02:18:49):
That music could only mean one thing. It's signed for
the latest installment of In case you missed it. Some
of the things we have not talked about or didn't
talk about enough in Josh's opinion.

Speaker 3 (02:18:58):
And uh so with that we hand the floor over
to one Josh Jordan.

Speaker 5 (02:19:04):
Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 12 (02:19:05):
One thing I did want to hit on from our
previous segment. We were talking about Charlie Sheen and being
in Major league and pitching and everything. He did play
in high school he was a pitcher, and he said
that he actually juiced up and took steroids a way.
He juiced up and took steroids for the role in
major league and that's why the pitching looks so accurate.
He said he was able to get his fastball into
like the low eighties, and he said that's why it

(02:19:28):
looks so good. But he also talked about that what
was so hard was that you did have to kind
of be an athlete because they're shooting a movie, right.
So he's like, they'd make me come out and throw
like a hundred pitches. He's like, some days it'd be
even more and I'd just be gassing it the whole time,
over and over again, because you know, they want to
shoot it from all these different angles.

Speaker 11 (02:19:47):
Right.

Speaker 12 (02:19:47):
So he said he was having all kinds of arm
issues because they were having to do so many takes.

Speaker 1 (02:19:53):
Tommy John surgery because you were in major league, right,
would be totally believable. That's funny, And why am I surprised?
It's a foreign substance. Of course, Charlie Sheen did it
like he's gonna have a problem.

Speaker 12 (02:20:07):
And when he was asked about why he went so
nuts during all the winning and all that stuff, He's like, well,
I was doing a lot of cocaine and testosterone.

Speaker 5 (02:20:14):
Probably not a good combination.

Speaker 3 (02:20:16):
No, probably not, But that doesn't surprise me at all.

Speaker 5 (02:20:18):
Nice, No, but what would be a good combination for
the Chiefs?

Speaker 12 (02:20:22):
Like that little segue there, I do Andy Reid saying
Justin Field's more than a gadget guy. But he also
said he wouldn't bet against Patrick Mahomes. We know the
timeline it can kind of vary seven to twelve months
with an acl he had, he injured it later in
the year, but they're not ruling him out.

Speaker 5 (02:20:40):
What are the chances you think Mahomes is ready to
go week one in? Is that a good idea?

Speaker 1 (02:20:45):
The good idea part I can't speak to because, I mean,
that's your franchise quarterback that you've invested five hundred million in.
And if you want to rush him relatively speak, I mean,
it's all subjective. I mean, depending on which doctor you
talk to, that's your prerogative. But again, this guy was

(02:21:07):
basically rehabing on the surgery table, right, like I've never
seen I've never seen something like that in my life.
He's injured on a Sunday, I believe. I think it
was a Sunday game. He I think had the surgery
like on Tuesday of the same week. Something ridiculous. It
was like a handful of days.

Speaker 5 (02:21:28):
Yes, And he was.

Speaker 1 (02:21:29):
Rehabbing basically the minute he had clearance from doctors, which
wasn't that long after the operation.

Speaker 3 (02:21:38):
Patrick Mahomes being ready for opening day.

Speaker 1 (02:21:41):
Considering that timeline is not to me out of the question,
but whether or not it's a good idea is And again,
everybody's individual is an individual case. Everybody's different, everybody's body
is different, all that kind of stuff. Maybe he responded,
maybe his body responds better to medicine and modern medicine

(02:22:03):
and the surer.

Speaker 12 (02:22:03):
I don't know, but man, you nailed that. I just
looked it up here. So he tore the ACL and
LC on December fourteenth.

Speaker 5 (02:22:11):
You were right.

Speaker 12 (02:22:12):
He had he had the surgery to repair it from
the injury twenty four hours later.

Speaker 1 (02:22:17):
Not even two day yeah, not even waiting for the
swelling to go down. Geez, well, I mean, I guess
there's already trauma there. Let's go ahead and get in
there and do it. Look, it doesn't modern medicine. Since
I just mentioned this and it sounds cliche, but it really,
I mean, it's insane what they can do now. And
I like, I remember this the Rockets back in the

(02:22:38):
day when Clyde Drexler was was on the team after
the championship seasons, he had his knee like scoped or
something like, not even an actual I mean that's a procedure,
that's technically a surgical procedure, but it was more about
like draining it, I think, and just kind of cleaning
it up. And I remember at the time, this is
obviously like nineteen ninety six, nineteen ninety seven somewhere in

(02:22:59):
that he was out for like six weeks. You do
that now you might miss a game, Like if you
drain you have your knee drain you sometimes you can
play that same you know, twenty four hour period. Yeah,
so it's not out of the question. I mean, we
were talking about Fred van Vliet flirting with coming back.

(02:23:19):
I don't the timeline didn't really sync up. But look
at Jason Tatum. Yeah, remember when Adrian Peterson came back. Well,
he's just a different he's a freak. He've rushed for like.

Speaker 5 (02:23:29):
Two thousand yards after like nine months.

Speaker 1 (02:23:31):
Over rehab and then played like ten more seasons because
he was the bionic Man.

Speaker 12 (02:23:35):
Yeah, I guess it's it's just kind of that Adonnis
dna is Charlie Sheen was talking about.

Speaker 1 (02:23:41):
The funny thing is as spectacular a play or plays
as Pat Mahomes has made in his career, and as
much as he's elusive and all that is it.

Speaker 3 (02:23:54):
This is gonna sound bad.

Speaker 1 (02:23:55):
I don'tkay, he just doesn't. Athletic is not necessarily the
word I would use. And let me explain he's not.
He's not Michael Vick.

Speaker 3 (02:24:06):
You know he's not. It's it's it's a different athleticism.

Speaker 7 (02:24:10):
I guess.

Speaker 5 (02:24:12):
Yeah, Like yeah, like almost like when you've.

Speaker 1 (02:24:15):
Got like James Harden has that old man YMC a
game that you know, certain aspects of his game that's
that's always going to serve him well, like deep into
his career. Like it's not the traditional sense of like
I said, Michael Vick like would just do stuff. It
would be like, oh my gosh, my jaws on the
floor as a quarterback at what he just did. You
have those moments with Mahomes, but they're not like sheer

(02:24:38):
athleticism so much as oh my gosh, he threaded the
needle on that pass that he just kind of shuffled,
you know.

Speaker 3 (02:24:43):
It's it's more like quirky stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:24:45):
I guess I'm not saying he's not a good athlete,
but I guess we will find out the ultimate question
as to whether or not he his body's gonna respond
to to this timetable.

Speaker 12 (02:24:55):
Yeah, he's really good at taking advantage of angles that maybe,
you know, just use a as much speed as he
needs in that situation.

Speaker 3 (02:25:02):
And flirting with the sideline like it's a tight wire.

Speaker 12 (02:25:05):
Yeah, and diving at the last second and saying he
gets hitting the head, that's awful. Yeah, that'll probably be
happening right away, whether it's whenever he comes back, that'll
be happening.

Speaker 5 (02:25:14):
He breathe on him.

Speaker 3 (02:25:14):
It's a foul, it is.

Speaker 12 (02:25:16):
And then finally for our last one, old Jerry Jones,
what do you think he's a What he's trying to
do here ac not pay somebody a bingo? So he's
trying to get George Pickens to ditch his agent and
extra bonus points if you can guess who his agent is.

Speaker 7 (02:25:32):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (02:25:33):
Former Texans quarterback.

Speaker 12 (02:25:34):
Had that agent, David Mulu, Yes, sir, and he's telling
him like, hey, if you ditch your agent, you're gonna
get more money negotiating with me because he won't get
his cut.

Speaker 5 (02:25:45):
Remember he tried that with Micah Parsons. It didn't go
so well that time round.

Speaker 1 (02:25:48):
I mean, in all seriousness, he has been one of
the most successful agents in recent memory.

Speaker 3 (02:25:58):
Like he's up there with the to the best now
because of what he can get his clients.

Speaker 1 (02:26:04):
And I mean, technically, I guess Jerry's right, especially since
you're negotiating with a team that plays in Texas.

Speaker 3 (02:26:14):
But like, come on, that's just Jered. That even for Jerry,
this is pretty slimy.

Speaker 12 (02:26:22):
You know, like, yeah, that'd be like Scott Boris, I'm
gonna fire you because we're about to go into negotiations.

Speaker 5 (02:26:29):
That's the whole reason you have that guy.

Speaker 1 (02:26:31):
Do you imagine Jim Crane doing this or I'm just
trying to think of somebody that would and he I
just don't think he would. That's pretty Uh, that's very
Jerry of him, let's put it that way, it's almost
like the older he gets, and he's old by the way,
the older he gets, the the cheaper he gets.

Speaker 3 (02:26:52):
Relatively speaking.

Speaker 1 (02:26:54):
That is very interesting that he's trying to do that
and yet doesn't surprise me at all, because pound for pound,
that's Jerry's mo o. Especially at this point in his
ownership of the Dallas Cowboys. There's a whole legion of
football fans in this state that can't wait until he
doesn't own that team, and frankly until his team has
nothing to do with that team. Uh, his family, I

(02:27:16):
should say, has nothing to do with that team, but
they ain't going anywhere. All right, We're gonna give away
those Psychedelic Furs tickets and wrap things up on a
Tuesday edition of the program that is Straight Ahead.

Speaker 10 (02:27:28):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven eighteen.

Speaker 1 (02:27:31):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety, it's Space City Home Network.
And as I mentioned, we have one pair of Psychedelic
Furs tickets. That's May twenty third, House of Blues, Love
that venue.

Speaker 7 (02:27:43):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:27:43):
Ticketmaster dot com. Tickets are on sale.

Speaker 1 (02:27:46):
There or you can win him here seven one three
two one two five seven nineties A telephone number seven
to one to three two one two five seven ninety.
A couple segments ago, we were talking about some of
the great all time entrances for closing pitchers in Major
League Baseball, and we were talking about this because former

(02:28:09):
Athletics and current Padres closer Mason Miller has adopted a
new song, complete with everything all the pomp and circumstance
that goes with a walkout entrance for when he closes
games there at Petco Park for the Padres.

Speaker 3 (02:28:27):
Name that corn song.

Speaker 1 (02:28:29):
See I even gave you the name of the band
called Josh Jordan at seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. Tell him the name of the song
that Mason Miller is using to enter the stadium or
I guess exit the bullpen is more accurate to close
out games for the Padres. And you will be going
to Psychedelic Furs on May twenty third at the House

(02:28:51):
of Blues. By the way, I'm told we have ACDC
tickets will be given away, so stay tuned for those
as well. But today you got the Psycho del first. Okay,
this is something I wanted to get to real quick
before we head out. This is a documentary that I
was like, Okay, I watched this guy play. I see,
I'm getting to the age now I'm old enough to

(02:29:15):
where I'm seeing documentaries made about guys that I watch
play during their career and it sucks and getting old
isn't fun from that standpoint or several others. So all
you young'uns out there that are listening and hearing me
say this, uh, it's coming for you. And I was
the same guy in my twenties listening to sports talk

(02:29:36):
radio and thinking, oh, I'll never be me.

Speaker 3 (02:29:38):
But here we are. One of those guys is lamar Odem.

Speaker 1 (02:29:44):
Now, I was never particularly a Lamar lamar Odein fan,
and actually I really didn't really care for him, not
that he was like on my you know, vaunted Clanton
hate list sports hate list, but you played for the Lakers,
so what was what was there like?

Speaker 3 (02:29:59):
And then.

Speaker 1 (02:30:00):
He's just a disaster of a human being from his
just personal life standpoint by all accounts, and I know
people that know him, he's like everybody loves the guy,
like great guy to get along with that kind of stuff,
but he's just such a walking disaster. Well, the Netflix

(02:30:21):
has come out with this new documentary and it's called
Untold The Death and life. You know, normally it's life
and death untold, the death and life of lamar Odom.
And again when it comes to the NBA in particular,
it's very rare that you can tell me a story

(02:30:42):
that I didn't already know, especially about any time between
nineteen ninety four and today, for example, and just watched
that much. And then obviously I've broadcast NBA games, but
I didn't know this story.

Speaker 3 (02:30:58):
And this is pretty wild.

Speaker 1 (02:30:59):
So we all know what happened with lamar Odom and
the Bunny Ranch, the or I guess it's called the
Love Ranch. I'm sorry, I was mistaken about the name
of the brothel outside of Vegas he was found in.
Did you guys realize when they found him, Obviously he
was unresponsive. I didn't, actually, or I had forgotten at

(02:31:21):
least the statistics of the atrocities. Physically, he had suffered
from twelve strokes and six heart attacks. Let me say
that again, twelve strokes and six heart attacks. They placed
him in a medically induced coma, and apparently Kobe Bryant,

(02:31:43):
of all people, flew out to Las Vegas when this
happened to help Chloe Kardashian, who was Odom's partner at
the time.

Speaker 3 (02:31:53):
They weren't married, but they were together and I think
they had children.

Speaker 1 (02:31:57):
Decide whether or not to perform a risky surgery on
Odem's collapsed lung.

Speaker 11 (02:32:03):
Like what, So.

Speaker 1 (02:32:08):
He's found at the Love Ranch about eighty miles outside
of Las Vegas, unresponsive, twelve strokes, six heart attacks. Can't
say that enough. They placed him in a medically induced coma.
So he's unconscious, his body is failing, and apparently Bryant
was one of his closest teammates.

Speaker 3 (02:32:25):
I did not know that either.

Speaker 5 (02:32:27):
I knew I knew that Kobe was.

Speaker 1 (02:32:28):
Close to Derek Fisher, which that's a whole other story,
but I didn't know he was tight with with lamar
Odom like this, and the pair him and Chloe Kardashian,
Kobe Bryant, Chloe Kardashian ultimately decide to move forward with
the surgery, which was successful, but it left lamar Odom

(02:32:53):
in a coma for three to four days and a base.
Apparently after the procedure and his coma like he came
out of it, lamar Odom quote ripped the tubes out
of his neck, looked at Kardashian and said hey baby
before passing back out. And quote from Kardashian was that

(02:33:16):
I was there for about four months with him every
single day. We were determined to get him walking and
moving again. And apparently it was not the overdose or
any subsequent intervention that pushed lamar Odin to make a change,
but rather a dream in which Kobe himself appeared to

(02:33:40):
lamar odem in this bring in this dream and said
lo or lo, the afterlife is not what people make
it out to be. I'm just like, what, there isn't
a part of this story that isn't absolutely knock down,
drag out fantastic.

Speaker 3 (02:33:59):
And I mean again, this is what they do.

Speaker 1 (02:34:02):
So when I go back to the beginning of the
segment where I was like, hey, it's rare that you
can find something that I didn't already know. Well, that's
the whole point of a lot of these documentaries, right
like the OJ documentary that I always talk about, and
I always bring up the one that ESPN did, like
the eight parter.

Speaker 5 (02:34:18):
You had to.

Speaker 1 (02:34:20):
Really dig deep to find stuff I didn't already know,
and they did success Boom won an Emmy. This isn't
even what I was like all right, I could take
it or leave it, Like, let me see what the
returns are.

Speaker 3 (02:34:34):
Now. They've got me. They hooked me, I admit it.
They have done their job.

Speaker 1 (02:34:38):
The people, these people at Netflix have me wanting to
watch Untold the Death and Life of Lamar Odom like
Kobe's flying out like Kobe. There are so many Kobe
stories about his career, both on and off the court
obviously that are just in saying, and I somehow didn't

(02:35:02):
know this one. I don't know if anybody did, like
it may have may very well be common knowledge, and
I just didn't know that. But like, wow, he's in
a coma and Kobe's flying out with Chloe, or at
least flowing, flying out there to meet Chloe Kardashian in
the hospital where she would stay for four months plus

(02:35:24):
to try and basically nurse him back to health. And
that Lamar says after he came out of it, he
had a dream in which he saw Kobe saying the
afterlife basically isn't what it's all cracked up to be,
and that's what made him push forward.

Speaker 3 (02:35:39):
It's just incredible. Now I want to watch it, So
there you go.

Speaker 1 (02:35:43):
Maybe maybe I'm doing a free PSA for Netflix, but
I will definitely I think it dropped today, I think
it's out.

Speaker 3 (02:35:51):
I will definitely be taking that in.

Speaker 5 (02:35:53):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (02:35:54):
There's there's my there's my tease for it. We got
to wrap it up here.

Speaker 1 (02:35:59):
We've got Rockets basketball coming up here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. Obviously Ross has got you covered there, and
then WEX and MT on the call from Toyota Center.
We will be back again tomorrow after the Astros talk
to you, then

Speaker 10 (02:36:16):
The eight once