Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam, raised by Earl
Nolan Hockey, volted by the magnificent roller coaster ride.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
That is Houston sports.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking Your Teams.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A teams A.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
It's a Thursday edition of the eight Team.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety soon to be on Space
City Home Network, and either one of those mediums was
a good way to watch that absolute beat down last
night of the Chicago White Sox. I feel good today
Wex We are one day closer to an epic Metallica show.
I feel very confident in saying it's gonna be the
(01:12):
best one I've ever seen. We have an NBA Finals
in which the underdog now has a two to one
series lead because they keep messing around with the narrative.
I don't think there is a narrative. We're talking about
Indiana and OKC. The ins narrative. Well, I can't say
it's the the bigger market team.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Is actually in the league.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
Yeah, the market size is not relevant. There was a
pretty heavy, heavy, heavy favorite yeah all year long, and
they went into this series as a heavy favorite.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Then they've been out played.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
But I'll tell you what last night is what should
have happened the night before and the two other times
they played in Chicago. It finally happened. They treated them
like the third world citizen team.
Speaker 6 (01:53):
That they are nice to get going early, and nice
when your pitcher gets going early, especially one of the
three non traditional astro starters, meaning they're here because of
attrition to the rest of the staff. No offense to
any of the three of them. But obviously, if this
astro staff was healthy, as it was at the beginning
of the year, none of them were in the rotation
then Ryan Gusto was an astro at the time and
(02:15):
his earner's right to keep pitching. This was a very,
very very much needed evening of baseball for him. It's
a major league team, so I certainly am not going
to have anything negative to say about it. He threw strikes,
he threw strikes past hitters, He hit his spots, he
didn't walk hitters, had just the one walk, struck seven out,
gave up a couple of runs after his team had
(02:37):
comfortably put him in front, and that's what got going
in the first and third innings, put a couple of
runs on the board in the first Christian Walker completed
his four rbi evening by the third inning with the
double and the homer, and you're on easy street the
rest of the way. It's good that you played add on,
it's good that the bullpen did what it always does,
pitches without allowing runs. And you get to go into
this game this evening hoping to continue to do what the
(03:01):
best Astros teams of this golden era have done. And
it is the simplest way to crush your division and
put yourself in position to avoid the wildcard. Just keep
winning series. They're not gonna sweep the White Sox. They
didn't sweep the Guardians, they didn't sweep the first team
they visited on the road, the awful Pittsburgh Pirates. But
they won those series, and with a win tonight behind
(03:23):
fromber Valdels, they'll do the same.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
They'll go six and three over those nine games.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
They'll move to eleven games over five hundred at Dykin Park.
These are the things that points you to the postseason,
points you to spending your time watching the Wildcard round.
They actually only have the fourth best record in the
American League one wildcard team is a half game ahead
of them. George Springer's team, Carlos Correa's team is probably
(03:48):
going to come to Houston rather unhappy in that they're
only down twelve in the sixth inning of their game
today in Minnesota to the otherwise hapless can't score Texas Rangers.
Rangers will put thirteen on the board. It's only the
sixth inning, so I think the Twins won't be too
pleased about how they come to town for their three
(04:08):
game series coming up this weekend.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
You've already beaten them in their building.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Guess what two out of three, which is almost all
of the Astros series this year, win or lose, and
you got a chance to do that to them as well.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
The only thing that would be better if it is
if somehow the Twins came back. Oh my god, did
you imagine?
Speaker 6 (04:28):
If the Rangers will be very very much a one
of a kind major League Baseball happening.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
It really would.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
What's the biggest comeback in Major League history in a
regular season game?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's gotta be bigger than that.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
I don't think it's bigger than that, because it takes
you a while to build that lead and then you
only have so many innings to come back from it
because you're further into the game.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Right, I don't know for sure.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
I could throw a guess at you, but I'm gonna
I would have guessed it's it's not bigger than twelve.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Yeah, we need to look this up. We'll find this out.
These very important information, by the way, and you'll see
this at the.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Want the Twins to come to town with that kind
of happiness and momentum? Or are you wanting the Rangers
to lose?
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Like?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Who cares me?
Speaker 6 (05:09):
I'm already at the point in the season. I've reached it.
I'm not scoreboard watching Rangers games, Angels games, or Athletics games.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
But the way the Mariners and the Angels have been
playing in the way that by the way, Rangers have
what four wins in a row and this will be five?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I think the Rangers.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
If the offense for the Rangers totally comes around and
all three of the pitchers that started the year so
well continue to do that, the Astros would have to
be concerned those things are not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Well, Seeger is still out, is he not?
Speaker 6 (05:41):
No, he's playing Okay, to fully come around. He's hitting
rockets all over the place with regularity. You know, roid
guy whatever his name.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Is, Adulus Garcia, mister cycle. He's hit one over the fence.
So I'm not I'm only concerned if those things.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
Their offense probably will come around, and they might even
make a deal for an offensive player. But the caliber
of pitching they got is beyond believe. The comeback has begun.
Like Jacobs just scored another run. Yes, it's now thirteen
to two. Man, they're down eleven. They have two on,
none out. We will absolutely keep you up dated.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Look at how dejected the Rangers pitcher is leaving the game.
He knows what's about to happen. It won't be on him.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Well, they're they're leaving him on base. I didn't see.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Yeah, there all the runs he could be taxed with
is four. If another ten come across after that, then
his win will become a no decision.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Unbeknownst to either of us. And like I was about
to say, you will see this, uh when the simulcast
gets underway. The theme of the day with our wardrobe
is a little bit of a throwback. You've got the
Kobe Stevens what would you call that. It's like because
(06:54):
it's got a lot of everything the Houston. I mean
there's the Astrodome is on it, but there's sort of
it's too stuff.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
It's all Houston.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
Yeah, but it's different phases of Houston because there's a
shuttle on there and there's also the be some one
bridge logo.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Shuttle is still current kind of, I mean they have one?
Did they have them? Didn't?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Didn't NASA get annexed and now Elon runs everything with
as far as when we go to space?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Is that how it works?
Speaker 6 (07:19):
Now you're gonna have to ask somebody who has those answers.
I got them, definitely not me.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
And then I'm I'm wearing the batting practice Nolan Ryan
Jersey today.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
So it's a very ultimate Houston print polo.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's what I'm wearing today. Love it.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Shout out to Kobe Stevens. We're idea, guys, We've got
something We're gonna run by him.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
He doesn't even know about yet.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
In the meantime, yes, we have an NBA Finals game
to talk about. We have a series lead for the
Pacers to talk about. It is not all good news
on the Houston sports front and I mean, I hate
to go completely heavy in the first segment, but come on,
Jimmy Ward, what are you doing?
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Yeah, I no, don't know obviously everything that took place,
but when a player is arrested overnight, there's a obviously
to go along with an arrest, there's a mugshot and
we'll get into the details of that that are known
based on the police report of Montgomery County police report
from five point thirty this morning for some sort of
(08:14):
domestic incident strangulation if you read the wording of it,
is what has been alleged, and the NFL and the
Texans are aware of the situation and do not have
a comment at this time. At this time is reference
to this morning when they first put out those respective statements.
Jimmy Ward was not seen during any of their on
(08:36):
field work in front of the media, did not participate
in those though he finished the year with a foot injury,
so likely case that was it very unrelated off field
and on field incidents or appearances. I should say I
was curious about the need to get him under contract
for an additional season last year before the season started,
(08:59):
which is why he is to a Houston Texan. I
thought that was an interesting choice for the Texans to
make one that was not necessary. And because of my
thoughts then and this unknown, fully unknown situation, I do
not think Jimmy Ward will be a Texan in twenty
twenty five. No, I already didn't think that, to make
myself clear, but because I don't want the convicted before
(09:22):
we know all the facts is not the way to go.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Not fair.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
But I don't believe he will be here. Yeah, I
kind of tend to well, I do agree, especially that
last part. It was like, when you're this is the
I hate to say it.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Being here, by the way, doesn't excuse or are we
don't care? I still care. This is very bad thing
that he's alleged to have that part.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Of no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
And then that's I think that, well, it should go
without saying, but I guess in today's day and age,
you kind of have to clarify something like that. But
I it is the seedier, nastier side of the business
we talk about every day in that if he was
more talented, if this were Jalen Peatrie, if this were
Derek Stingley Junior, do you think it's different.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
Yes, it is, And I hate even hypothetical because you
just attached their names to it.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
I'm secondary that are really really good.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Why I tried to separate it right out of the gate.
Jimmy Ward, thirty three year old Texans reserve safety, wasn't
gonna make the team. In my opinion, there would be
no reason for him to be here for a lot
of football only related reasons.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
He's constantly hurt.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
He's a dangerous player because he hurts other players, sometimes
his own teammates. And they added CJ. Gardner Johnson without
losing anybody else in the secondary of value. I know
Eric Murray got a fat contract to leave, which doesn't
do anything.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
M J.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Stewart is still here. They drafted a new safety who
clearly will make the team, at least just from a
number standpoint.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
He was gonna have a hard time making the team
to begin with. I would like I'm saying, I just
don't think it would have been here anyway. It doesn't
excuse the altercation in any way. But if it did not,
if those things weren't in place, and now you are
talking about a different caliber player, it's becomes a much
more difficult decision, and we can't act like it doesn't
because we know how sports are, especially the NFL, and
(11:20):
the number of players required to outfit your team and
the lack of ability to find players like that as easily.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So yeah, I think it's pretty obvious.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
I don't know if I would say it's from a
Texan standpoint, because they've had very few instances where it's
actually come down to I'm shocked to this player still
on the team. They've had players involved clearly with some
different things, and most of the time they haven't been here.
After that, other teams, we have concrete evidence he was
involved in this. This is how the case went, this
is how the NFL viewed it, and he's in their
(11:50):
lineup this week.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
It just also keep in mind that he wasn't at
any OTAs or mini camp practices the last three weeks.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
I'd mentioned that as the onset of this. The you know,
the on field activities that we saw, which was multiple
times each week, he was not a part of that,
and the foot injury that ended his season last year.
Something to note, he's been to the facility. Aaron Wilson
John Alexander both reporting on this from this morning. He
had been there for rehab instances and getting better and
(12:23):
typical or off season preparation for a player who is
under contract for the upcoming season. But the twenty five
twenty twenty five Texans SAMs Jimmy Ward seems likely.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
All right, We've got a lot to talk about, so obviously,
and we will get to all of it on a
Thursday edition of the program That will include a replay
of Brian McTaggart to visit on the station from earlier today,
and a whole lot more on a Thursday edition of
the program.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
The Aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
It is the a Team Sports Talk at seven ninety.
It's a Thursday edition of the program. The the fact
that the Astros did last night what I thought they
were going to do in the opener is kind of
one of those frustrating scenarios. Everything that happened in the opener,
(13:33):
and that includes, you know, Lance mccullors and everything that
goes into that. I was texting somebody last night, not WEX,
and I was like, ah, this is more like it,
and I got the response, gave us a one night reprieve,
because that's that's kind of how people felt, because they're like,
why didn't you do this in the other three games
that you lost to this awful baseball team. I know
(13:54):
the Rockies exist, but come on, man, this is the
al Rockies.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
They're definitely not the Rockies. I know they have good
young pitching, because they prove that they're like, they're just
nowhere near. I said this last hour when I filled
in a little bit with Ross, they're not. They just
simply aren't as bad as everybody thinks. Their record stinks,
but they just aren't as bad as everyone thinks. And
then the opener of this series really definitely showed you
one reason why, and that's why baseball is unlike all
the other sports.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
They have one really good starter. Guess who pitched in
the opener.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
They're one really good starter, and he was really good,
and the Astros did not get to him. They looked
like they could and looked like they were going to,
and they had a bunch of traffic, but he was
able to get out of it. And they hit into
three double plays throughout the course of the evening, which
is something this team will do a lot, especially when
they're putting guys on base, because it's pretty hard to
do that when they aren't. But last night they last
night's game was way more out of the ordinary than
(14:45):
the ordinary Astros. They had eight extra base hits. They
don't do that at seven doubles, they don't do that.
Everybody was hitting. Basically multi hit game for you. You
get a multi hit game, and you'll get a multi
hit game, and you'll get a multi hit game, and
Christian Walker you get four RBIs first time all season
he's driven in more than three runs in a game. Well,
(15:07):
very very much out of the ordinary for the Astros,
no matter who the other team is.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
I feel like, and this is what sucks about the
type of season he's having, both for him and for us. Frankly,
I feel like every time he has a game like this,
and I'm not gonna say whoa because there's so few
and far between, but they're not consistent either that I
feel like we have this conversation, Oh, it was nice
to see Christian Walker contribute. You know, It's like it
sucks because everybody, most of all him, knows that this
(15:35):
is not the norm, and so it's it's almost like
you can't enjoy it because you.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
End up getting fixated on well, why doesn't you do
this more?
Speaker 5 (15:44):
And I don't feel that way, and I know others don't,
but I think some people probably think that way sometimes
when he has a night like he did last.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
Night, mixed in a strikeout to try to temper everything,
you try to you know, eight extra base hits in
a game for the Astros, that's the best. That's the
first time, second time they've done that this season. It's
very very much out of the ordinary.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Yeah, well again, I'm not gonna it was like, Okay,
so when McCullers had a really great outing his last time,
well it was against the Athletics, noo.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Lastly, starts were outstanding. You gave him six innings. One day,
you gave up three runs. The other day you gave
up no runs. It was great. He had nineteen strikeouts
and twelve innings. He was pitching great. He was throwing strikes,
he was getting ahead of hitters, and he was putting
hitters away. He did some of those things in the
opener of this series, but he wasn't putting hitters away,
and he had his highest walk total of the season.
These are things that make it difficult. But had the
(16:41):
Astros mixed in a few extra base hits against Smith
and the opener they might have been able to win
a five to four game or win a six to
four game. Clearly, the offense didn't show in the first game.
And you're not just gonna say, well, their pitcher was
too good. He's good, he's not unbelievable, he's not unhittable,
and he's far from unbeatable.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
But their offense is what it is this point in
the season.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
I think we've seen enough of them to say until
yord On Alvarez comes back and either only starts hitting
well for him or because he's in the lineup now,
it makes things easier for other because the others, because
the pitchers have to focus a little bit differently.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Where he slots in the order.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
Does that impact, you know, the three guys in front
of him, if he ends up being the cleanup hitter,
how much does it change the pitches that Jose Altuve
is going to see where they're a little more reluctant
to have him chasing pitches because if he lays off,
then all of a sudden, now he's on base two.
You know, Jeremy Paania batting lead off with yord On
Alvarez batting somewhere behind him is something we haven't seen.
(17:36):
We haven't seen a whole of I've certainly not with
a good yard on Albert. We haven't seen it period.
We've seen him batting in the two hole in front
of Alvarez thanks to Dusty, and it was awesome. So
Painia batting in front of Alvarez in some capacity seems
like it could pay off very very well. If it
pays off now like it paid off, then.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Are you ready for the dumbest but yet needs to
be asked question out the return of Jordon Alvarez?
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Sure, I'm ready. It's not gonna change anything, is it.
That's uh? I don't even what do you mean?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Okay, when was Paanya inserted into his current role? Was
Jordon already out? I believe he was because he's been
out a while, but I I could see where it
was like bumping up against it.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Maybe.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
But it doesn't matter because the Jordon we're talking about
this year is the only one I never want to
see again.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Well, I don't think you will see him again once
he gets back, because now we know what was wrong
with him exactly. Had to have been injured, Like you
don't have a player that's that Like all this talk
about Juan Soto for example. And then I saw this
this headline last night. It was this graphic. Oh, he's
finally starting to look like the seven hundred million dollars.
What are you talking about? Like he had a stretch
of he wasn't superhuman, Okay, So either something's wrong with
(18:53):
people like that or they're just getting acclimated. That's why
Christian Walker in some senses has been frustrating. Although he's
not on the level of those two guys as a hitter.
But like I fully, I'm not even kidding when I
say I think he's going to hit a home run
in his first game back. He did it the last
time he was back from his oblique so you know,
I just but then you start talking about the batting
order and everything else, and baseball is weird sometimes. What
(19:16):
I'm saying is I love this version of Jeremy Pania,
and I want this version to not only continue, but
like continue to get better too.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Five games, that was it. He was batting lead off
in front of Alvarez for five games.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
In front of a guy who had a broken bone
in his.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
Hand, several spots in front of him. Yes, yes, to
be specific. The game before Payna moved to the leadoff spot.
It was Altuve, Alvarez, perettist Paena in the lineup one, two,
three four.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
And we're not even you know, on a night where
it's so we've been on the air twenty five minutes
narrowly and we have not mentioned the fact that JOSEL.
Tuve now has twenty three hundred.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Hits, Like I am me hmm, here comes before last
night's game, the only two active Major leaguers with two thousand,
two hundred and ninety eight hits. Where Jose Altuve and
Freddie Freeman and now they're the only two active Major
leaguers with twenty three.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Hundred hits or more like? It makes me different, man,
it makes a difference.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
You can't move.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
On up on any littlebody is going to games before
Nobody is going to the game holding a two and
a two and a nine and a nine cutout her.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Here's why I don't like it.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
It makes me feel like everyone is dumb. What do
you mean, because we can't keep track of anything unless
it's a nice clean number. It just looks better. It's
just another one. You don't have to get twenty three,
one hundred and one hits after tonight. You don't have
to rain on every parade. I'm just telling you, I
know what's the fans can hold up twenty three hundred
all they want. But you just got done saying he's
(20:49):
one of two. He was one of two two weeks ago. Also,
he was one of two a month ago.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
When you open up presence, do you like.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
He's gonna be one of two for the remainder of
his career? He's two, Freddy's one. Are you hearing this
in here? I swear to god, it could be Christmas.
It could be Christmas morning, and you would be like,
if he passed him, that would be something. He'd be like,
look at all this paper we got to pick up.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Now, No, there's no paper to pick up because as
soon as it comes off the box, it goes right
into the garbage bag because you're standing there with it, yes,
because of course, and you have to crumple it up
to its tiniest amount of space.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
You know, I'm not getting a second trash bag. I
wish this was televised right now so you could see
me dying inside. Even though I know you're not gonna
use them again. I'll save the bows they'll go in
a separate bag.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Dumb. Oh my gosh. Okay, Well when you.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
Make them yourself and you spend all that time folding, increasing,
and why would you want to do it again the
next year or for the next gift? Yeah, wrapping gifts. See,
I'm with you. There, we got a closet full of
gift bags. I ain't wrapping gifts. No, I can't open
the bag hand it to them.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I'm an idiot. I'll probably put tissue paper in there. Now,
I'll put tissue paper in there, and then I'll throw
it away.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
People people who are willing to take the time and
YouTube do exist. And I still can't rap presents and
I never will. I'm forty four years old. I'm not
starting now. It's like drinking. Why would I start now?
It's a cal Rippians streak. Hey, Brooklyn, get in here.
I bought all these Could you please wrap them the best?
Speaker 4 (22:20):
She does? Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
The bag has a nice bottom, it stands up, it's
got a handle. You can write on it. It's fine.
Speaker 7 (22:26):
Usually it comes with a small little card you can
just put two from.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
You can also write on the bag.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
So when he's fine, when we get to the end
of hose on to his career and he's sitting at.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
With a bag of goodies, not a rapped present. Oh
my gosh. So when he winds up with two nine
seventy eight hits.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
The dumbs that vote for the Hall of Fame will
think he's a lesser player because of he doesn't have
the nice neat number plateau.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
But more importantly, what are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (22:56):
It won't make any difference to me.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
He's a Hall of Famer if he finishes with twenty
nine oh seven or thirty three thousand and six. It
doesn't change his career to me. It will to them
because they're dumb.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
Jeff Bagwells in the Hall of Fame without five hundred
home runs, so come on, like cauz Altove absolutely belongs there.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
Yeah, and it shouldn't be. Oh, he's in the three
thousand club. I know yesterday is in the twenty nine
ninety eight club. Can you seriously, I'm gonna I think
I'm gonna open up the twenty nine ninety eight club
down down at the ballpark if I can drum up
enough money.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Ay Mark with ramshirts, are you listening? Can we get
that shirt printed up soon? Because he's doing it again.
He's being wax.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
I mean, I get it, it's nice, and you know
what else, like these clubs are gonna be obsolete because
nobody's gonna do these things. What do you mean on
the pitching side for sure? Like justin Verlin, Oh my god,
it's nice in all that you want to but he
got no chance, and nobody else that's pitching does either.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Well, you can't when you don't pitch. I just saw
another draftic today. Oh, he's nearing his return. That's like
the story of his career the last five years.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
All major leaguers season in war that are forty that
are forty two years old. Let me guess I left
a part. I left something out all among the same age.
No sureser leads all major leaguers in war for forty
year old.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Oh my gosh, oh boy.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
All right, well, we're two segments in, got a long
way to go.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
I'm sure Kate will get with Mark over at ram
shirts and print shirts for JV that says the two
hundred and sixty seven club.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I don't guess Mark five more wins.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
I don't want to speak for Mark, but I do
think I can speak for him when I say, I
think he'd like that if kate with him about a shirt.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Did you all see this?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Day, four hundred people were arrested for things that they
said on social media. History repeats itself, type Benuel's succeed
Never doubt that you're.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
The on plus one, Yo, the best.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
X.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Nothing's gonna ever talk you know, YO, the best.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
X post an every single day, YO, the best of
X breaking the entire internay.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety. It
is the best of X several candidates. I can tell
you this just on the surface, I am enjoying. And
the other day, it was yesterday, I was getting my
coffee and a guy walks into the establishment which shall
(25:45):
remain unnamed until I start sponsoring the show in a
PACER's T shirt. And you just don't see that often
in Houston, Texas, but you can tell there's a very
prominent member of the total news NONSPSE sports journalism side
of the world who's a huge Pacers fan and is
going all in attending games and whatnot and making it
(26:08):
very obvious on their social media. They're a huge fan
of the Pacers. It's made for some good online fodder.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
And we were. By the way, Cole's very excited about this.
Hell yeah, I am.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
You just love the fact that the Pacers are up
to one in this sear.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
Oh my god, Tyrese Haliburton getting their respect he deserves.
And I ought to hear New York Knicks fans screaming.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
That we made you.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
He didn't make anything other than a bad decision to
fire your head coach. I didn't even a worse decision
to go into this offseason with no contingency plan. Just
sit down and shut up, New York. I told you WEX.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
This playoff run has single handedly turned me into a
Tyrese Haliburton fan.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
So among these candidates, what do we have on best
of CKS? Well, something that.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Something that Cole sent us last night kind of had
to do with this and hockey. He's always bringing hockey
to the table, the fact that first take is debating
the fact that and specifically which Morris brother was it
that said it's way more demanding basketball and takes more
athleticism to play than hockey.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Yeah, Best of X is normally something that's entertaining, something
that gets you talking something we might may or man
out otherwise talk about, or something we would not necessarily
even see a lot of It's in the replies and
the comments. Unfortunately best in most senses, it's kind of
like the worst remarkable. Remarkable doesn't always mean something great happen.
It can mean I can't believe that that's remarkable. It
(27:40):
was awful in this case, Yeah, worst of X comes up.
What the people in charge of micing people up at
ESPNR doing to us doing unbelievable. They're micing people up
to talk about the games from on site. We'll call
them the pregame, halftime and postgame crew. They're micing people
(28:01):
up on a daily basis to sit next to Molly
and mad Dog and steven A and listen to the
three of them scream while they talk. And they're picking
the worst people. The people in charge of saying, man,
we gotta get this person in there, why no reason?
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Have you heard them before? Nope? Do they have good opinions? Nope?
Speaker 6 (28:22):
Are they compelling? Uh huh, oh well we should get
them in for sure? Well yeah no, but you say
that jokingly.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
I wouldn't even be shocked if that's the meeting in
the boardroom, because that's what it looks like with the
final results.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
The meeting is I'm gonna go into the room and
I'm gonna sit down, and I'm gonna get on my phone,
and then someone's gonna come in here and say, Hey,
the agent for so and so, who has absolutely no business.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Being on TV wants to be on TV. Done.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
You mentioned this the other day, and I think we
were talking off there, but it might have been. I
can't remember the dynamic between Kendrick Perkins and Bob Myers.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
It was on the air because I don't normally rip
apart broad casters when it's not necessary. And I even
told you when I did it that's why I could not,
But then I watched the next segment and I couldn't
not do it.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
It's just bad.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
It's honestly, I'd say it about our jobs and the
people that sit in the booth and do play by play,
sit in the booth and do analysis, many of whom
have way more experience because they've played the sport they're
talking about. I don't know any experience other than prior
to professionally those sports.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
So yeah, there's there's a difference there.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
And they do something, and you know, ESPN is saying, man,
if we can just pay Tony Romo eighteen million dollars
to do this, No, you can't. CBS is going to
do that instead, and we can just pay Tom Brady
hundreds and hundreds of millions.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
To do this. Why why are you doing this?
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Especially the Fox and ESPN are different in this regard,
but this can't be a good financial move for Fox,
just like it's all these terrible financial moves for ESPN.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
And what we're talking about is totally separate.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
They're not losing any money by paying Hedrick Perkins or
Marcus Morris or Bob Myers or anybody else they could
afford to do that. It's the outrageous money. I'm telling
you this again. I told you the day that he
finally got into the booth after finishing his NFL career.
The number of people that are watching the best game
of the week broadcast by Fox is not going up
(30:21):
by any significant number because Tom Brady is the other
voice in the booth. It's absolute lunacy that you're spending
any of this money on that instead of doing all
that you could with the money you're wasting on Brady
jj Watt. I just talked to him yesterday about his
broadcasting career.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
By the way, Skinny jj Watt's bothering me, I'm not
saying that he's supposed to look like he did when
he played Yes you are well.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I mean him look fifty pounds overweight.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
No, but he looks like he's lost even more weight
since the end of the season.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
I think I think he's trying to look less losing
weight guy because he let his hair go a little
bit wearing a vintage Texans T shirt when he was
out there. He didn't look that small when he shook
hands with Daniel Hunter, so that's something because he should,
everybody should.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
He has him on height.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
I think Hunter right now can probably throw the iron
around a little bit better. But I don't think CBS
is viewing audience for whatever crew JJ's on is going up.
People are gonna watch the game that JJ does, the
game that's that Tom Brady does because it's the best
or second best matchup of the week, because their fan
base wants to watch that game. I'm not trying to
(31:28):
insult them, I'm insulting their employer. It's total nonsense. ESPN's
doing something completely different. They have to fill twenty four
hours a day, and they don't seem to care if
it's good or not bingo.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
And this is why I'm.
Speaker 6 (31:43):
Talking about the like they're trying to talk about sports
just straight up and alys is correct the games they're watching,
or general topics about sports, and as you brought up
the hockey baseball thing, and they're just I mean, yes,
you're going to get people to disagree with you, but
not in the way you want, not in the debatable
kind of way, not in the entertaining, informative, well informed
(32:05):
back and forth. More of the why is this person
saying this on television?
Speaker 7 (32:09):
They're going to tell you to sit down, shut up,
and why the hell are you even having an opinion
to begin with.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
But it's why Best of X exists.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
There's no way I would ever know anything that's being
discussed on Screaming Stephen A. Smith, Louder, Screaming Mad Dog Russo,
Moderating Molly and whoever the guest of the day is.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
I would never know it's on their show. If not
for social media, if it weren't for Elon Bien, I'm
not watching it.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
I can't watch it when when they go from Sports
Center to get up to that, it gets turned off.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Even though it's just in the background.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
I don't want to hear the yelling well non stop
about nonsense.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
There is one other aspect of this I want to
get to in the next segment, but it's as it
pertains to the future of not necessarily sports broadcasting, although
it will, but specifically the NBA, because I do think
the NBA has an image problem. In the end in
the finals have just exacerbated all the things that are
wrong with the for product itself and how it's marketed
(33:06):
or in this case not marketed. And I'm not just
talking about no logos on the court. We'll explain when
we come back.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
The at on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
If you don't know this theme song, well your childhood
just wasn't as awesome. But the reason I'm having cold
play this is because stemming from a last segment, you know,
you kind of broke it down in the most cliffs
notes Layman's terms possible about the current product that is ESPN.
(33:45):
And I'm not talking about just NBA coverage. I'm talking
about just in general. It's watered down and it's bad.
And that's when they're talking about sports.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
I mean, I think, quite honestly, the other Scott van
Pelt's portion of ESPN is great job and the people
he doesn't have all these other people, he has Tim
Leglern or somebody else's player. And then the NBA TV
portion of the coverage, which has included Charles Barkley, has
included Kenny, has included Shack and Grant Hill, Dennis Scott,
(34:19):
host of others. Their coverage of these three games is
light years better. Yes, everybody's not doing an awful job,
known in only the network that's carrying the games that
you have to watch to watch the games.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
But some of the more prominent shows NBA or otherwise
that aren't associated with some of the people you just
mentioned are bad. They're just bad. And the thing about
Barkley and the inside the NBA, like I have never
hoped harder for, And this is a very tricky scenario
(34:53):
that I don't really think there's been a lot of
There's not a lot you can compare it to, but
I've never hoped more that one entity that's now the
quote governing body over this product that is completely light
years more successful probably than anything ESPN's ever produced. It's
not Monday Night Football? Is that fair to say? Inside
the NBA is the is the best sports studio show
(35:15):
in the history of sports?
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Okay, I would agree.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
I mean, I don't if we can argue we don't
need to, not you and me, because we don't need to.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
We both know.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
I mean, there's some because of the length of time
we've been around, and others like the NFL today is
probably something is great consequence.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
But pound for pound and Emmy for emmy, there's not
anything that's gonna be able to say, oh, we're better,
like clearly, head and shoulders.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
It yes in their time, clearly, And that's why it's easy.
This is nobody's even close.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
But the reason I say all that is to say,
I hope they leave it alone as much as they can.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, you know, I know, right.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
But having said all that, the NBA on NBC has
and the NBA because of this, has a real opportunity
here to like fix your brand. And I don't think
it's all bad, but I do like if you think
that it's just been great since David Stern stepped away
as commissioner, and I'm not even absolving him of everything
(36:10):
because towards the end there and he made some decisions
that weren't awesome. But in large part I don't. I'm
not a huge fan of Adam Silver's tenure as NBA
Commissioner in the in this as so much as some
of the stuff as far as marketing and just the
brand itself of the NBA has gone. I just think
they've had some missteps and they could have done things differently,
(36:34):
and they're not even necessarily like major things, but had
they gone this way, and if they had zigged instead
of zagged, you wouldn't have the overall collective eh. Because
it's easy to point to the finals right now and say, well,
of course the numbers are down. It's Oklahoma City in Indiana,
But that's just a flawed way of thinking if you
want to try and be one of the big boys
in sports.
Speaker 6 (36:54):
It's a shame because the games. Game two is not
super entertaining. Games one and three were. Game one was
one of the better final games finals games we've seen
in the last handful of years. And last night's game
was very, very competitive, and you didn't know it was
gonna win until the fourth quarter, and plays were made
and the you know, the best of the pacers as
they won the game.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
They were there as much as Tyre's.
Speaker 6 (37:15):
Halliburton deserved criticism for close to a no show performance
in Game two. They showed up for Game three in
a monster way. They made plays to win. They had
to beat Oklahoma City. That's what I've liked about this
Finals series. In the two games they've won, they had
to go and beat them. I mean, Oklahoma City did
beat Indiana in game two. I don't think they they
(37:36):
were pressed into where, well, we have to outplay you
just outplayed them.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
They didn't. They didn't come correct.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Oklahoma City could have easily won all three games, but
Indiana outplayed them when it mattered most, when time was
running out, and when the plays needed to be made,
they made them. They took those games. I don't think
they stole those games. They took those games. That's what
should make it entertaining, fun and a lot of discussion
about it and a lot of interest in it. You
(38:02):
mentioned one aspect of who these teams are and their
fan bases and their market size, and I definitely think
another part of it is, you know, just think to
how much we talked about it on Monday and Tuesday
and Wednesday hardly at all, because there's zero momentum in
any series, no matter how great it is. If we've
just seen three triple overtime games, we're definitely not going
(38:23):
to talk about it tomorrow at all because it would
have been two days since that game and we're not
looking forward to the next game.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
In this instance.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
This is actually the only instance where there's not two
days in between games, So maybe that's different, but seven
games thirteen days, not hard play off day, play off day,
play off day, and that's how.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
It used to be. Though they don't want that.
Speaker 6 (38:43):
This could go from the fifth to the twenty second,
which doesn't sound like a lot more time, but it
clearly is.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
Well, I mean, if you're sitting there and you're an
executive and you're saying, well, see, we're taking up almost
the entire month, it's not how it works, man, especially
in twenty twenty five, Like the attention spans are nothing.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
And because the end of the finals, no matter when
it is, if it's June, it could be the next game,
game four, or it could have been a couple days
before that. If they didn't have all these off days, well,
the draft and free agency is here, like it's five
minutes top of us. Yeah, no matter what day it
ends in June, if it ends on the fifteenth or
it ends on the twenty.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Second, it's right there.
Speaker 6 (39:19):
You're not going to lose any of the Well, I
don't have to think about basketball for you better because
it's right here.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yeah, the future literally of your sport.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
So yeah, the present has some issues and the future
clearly has some issues, and we'll see what changes are made.
I hope, I hope they're getting into a conference room
and putting their heads together about that kind of thing.
We are going to put our heads together and get
you to a televised version of the show. The rest
of the way. You can keep it right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety but you can also see us
(39:50):
on Space City Home network when the simulcast begins. Next segment,
three o'clock hour is straight ahead.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
The eight on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your Team.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
So Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen eighty.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's the three o'clock hour.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
It's a Thursday edition of the program, and it is
on your television in addition to being on Sports Talks
seven ninety. It is the a team wex ac Cole
Thompson with You seven ninety. As I mentioned on your
radio or your iHeart Media iHeartRadio app. It's free to
download and you should probably put the Sports Talk seven
ninety preset position at one also simulcast on Space City
(40:46):
Home Network. We're taking you until six o'clock tonight where
it's the rubber game between the Astros and the White Sox.
I know what you said in the first hour, and
sure it sounds like it's true, but I'm sorry I can't.
We'll get their record and say, huh, Chicago White Sox
aren't that bad. They're better than the Rockies. I'll give
them that.
Speaker 6 (41:06):
Chicago White Sox minus fifty seven run differential. The Washington
Nationals also minus fifty seven run differential. White Sox are
seven games seven and a half games worse than them. Overall,
they're expected win loss based on those figures I gave you,
otherwise would be identical.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
They've had bad luck.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
They've played way better lately, which we all know because
we mentioned that here on the show. They're not a
good team. Don't get me wrong. The ass lost to
them when they weren't playing well. How did you think
they were gonna fare when they were playing much much better?
The Astros are better than them. They're gonna win the
game today, hopefully, and we'll finish the sad, sad season
series against the White Sox with three wins and three losses,
(41:48):
and they'll be just fine.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
They'll move on and.
Speaker 6 (41:50):
They'll try to see if they can hit the pitchers
who pitch for the Minnesota Twins. The pitchers who pitch
for the Minnesota Twins gave them all of seven innings today.
They've had to get two innings from non pitchers. Heck,
the Rangers are throwing a non pitcher in their lopsided
game today, but the.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Twins come to town beginning tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (42:10):
Fromber Valdez throws tonight arguably the best stretch he's ever
had as an Astro, and there have been several very
very good ones. Obviously, He's thrown a no hitter and
nearly followed it up a couple starts later with another one.
He's been awesome lately, and I don't see any reason
for that to not be out there again tonight. That
changes everything on a daily basis in Major League Baseball,
one of the best versions of the Astros. Because he's
(42:32):
on the mound, Well that's who the White Sox have
to deal with this evening.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
I love the fact that it's Fromber and and the
way you said it matter of factly. Yeah, they should
probably win this game. It has as much to do
with him being on the mound as anything else. But
I felt that way going into the opener of this series,
and it just it just didn't go that way. Because
Luise Robert Junior likes playing the Astros.
Speaker 6 (42:54):
Aren't we Aren't we going into Lance mccullor starts guessing still,
Oh yeah, Unfortunately, like tonight, I don't feel like we're
guessing with fromber might he might not be great, but
I would be surprised if he were not, based on
these plays. A nice surprise to see that Jeremy Pania
mild surprise is in the lineup tonight and batting lead off.
Obviously he had some sort of issue minor as it
(43:15):
was when he tried to make that spectacular play way
behind second base to try to field and throw out
a runner. Stayed in the game at that point in time,
and ultimately was pinch hit for when they were way
in front. He's batting lead off again today. The soon
to be American League All Stars starting second baseman is
in left field today, Jose Altuve, of course batting third.
(43:36):
Janner gets the work as the cleanup hitter again today.
He'll do the catching for fromber Myers, Kartini Smith and
Brendan Rogers going to play a second base tonight for
the Astros and bat nice.
Speaker 5 (43:48):
Looking ahead to the series with the Twins that follows
tonight's matchup. In case you were wondering, I don't think.
I think this is fairly obvious just because of the
way things have mapped out. But Brian McTaggart just tweeting
that the rotation will be Colton Gordon and the opener
Hunter Brown Saturday, and then Friend of the Show Brandon
Walter on Sunday.
Speaker 6 (44:08):
As we mentioned, Yeah, I mean it was not stated
explicitly by the Astros until today, and so I get
that they have already had already said when we're going
with a six man rotation and we know what everybody
slots in through the math, this is always going to
be the way they were going to slot it out. There,
but they're recently released. Awesome game notes include Colton Gordon,
(44:33):
Hunter Brown, and Brandon Walter rounding out the starters this series.
Chris Paddock, Joe Ryan, and Simeon Woods richardson starters for
the Twins.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
You know, it's amazing about those notes, and I don't
know how many people, just on average, actually get to
see them because they're sent to media primarily. They have
been in five point font at best an entire page
like an encyclopedia for every single game for as long
as I can remember. And you've been doing this longer
(45:05):
than I have, so I'm sure you can attest that
it was that way since the day you started.
Speaker 6 (45:09):
The format that they use at astros, it's been in
place for a long time.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
I mean, it's I would say it's a one pager,
but it's not. There's way more behind it, but it's
just the front page, is what I'm really emphasizing when
I say this.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
I mean it's like it's insane.
Speaker 5 (45:24):
I guess they I guess the intention is to get
as much information as possible on that first page.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
I suppose.
Speaker 6 (45:30):
I mean that's where the easy reference things that you
usually hear from the broadcasters, radio and TV right out
of the gate. You know, record when they've done this
record in their last five record on their last road trip.
All those numbers are put on that front page for
a reason.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Yeah, so White Sox finale tonight, and then the Twins
and Carlos Correa coming into town. One of the more
I would say awesome bobbleheads that we've seen upcoming. First
of all, Jeremy Paine, is are accurate. Well we always
talk about it. Bobblehead doesn't really look like this guy.
(46:06):
They got the face and the abs, I think pretty accurate.
But the Hawaiian shirt strong and very strong, and what
does it have? Has the uh? One one way's pointing
to Houston and the others pointing to.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
Man.
Speaker 5 (46:18):
I was gonna forget this. I saw the image last night.
But yeah, that is going to be a pretty hot item.
I would assume at Dyke and Park.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
I want it.
Speaker 5 (46:27):
I mean, I like I normally. I've got a whole
collection of bobbleheads that unfortunately, because of how I've kind
of rearranged my room where I would display them, I
don't have a really place to put them right now,
but I've kept them in immaculate condition because someday I
think I will, but I this is what I would
like to have. You know, it's more of the creative
variety I.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Just wanted because it's Hawaiian shirt.
Speaker 5 (46:50):
Well well I knew that, so, uh, giveaways are always
good and you saw obviously this upcoming father By the way,
we think of the Father's Day hat this year, I
don't we talk about this like for five seconds every year.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
I'm not a fan of this year's I don't like
the color scheme the Father's Day hat. Yeah, they'll be.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Wearing on Sunday during the game in across Major League Baseball,
I think, I don't know. I haven't seen any other teams,
but it's like this teal situation, and I just I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (47:18):
I'm not a huge fan of it. I didn't really realize.
Speaker 6 (47:21):
I think when I saw what you sent, because I
think you sent it to me, I thought it was
a July fourth hat.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
Yeah, you know what, You're right it is because the
Father's Day hat is basically just blue bingo. And I
mean they do they did something a little bit funky
with the logo, but yeah, I think you're right, it's
the July fourth hat. I was mixed up, but that's
coming soon, and I don't like it.
Speaker 6 (47:42):
I am interested to see what people think of the
two thousand and five commemorative hat collection, the astros a
visit to the World series that has some Killer Bees
aspects to it, and there's four different varieties of it,
and I think it's awesome and a tremendous design.
Speaker 4 (47:59):
But I can't help but think as they.
Speaker 6 (48:01):
Either talk about it in the booth or maybe we're
talking to Jeff, he'll say, huh, two thousand and five
World Series Killer Bees.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
I'll take one of those.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Yeah. The funny thing about the Killer Bees moniker, nickname,
whatever you want to call it, is it evolved over
the years. Bagwell and Bigio are always a part of it,
but Berkman wasn't always there.
Speaker 6 (48:21):
My personal opinion is Lance Berkman is the only other
true member, even though Derek Bell and Sean Berry existed.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
But Derek Bell, how long was he here?
Speaker 7 (48:33):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (48:33):
Not a long time? But during that era of Killer Bees?
So did you only count hitters as part of the
Killer Beast?
Speaker 4 (48:39):
Of course? Okay?
Speaker 7 (48:40):
Because I always thought Brett Backey was a killer Bee. No,
Brandon Backy, Yeah, why not in different era?
Speaker 4 (48:48):
Yeah, that too. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (48:50):
Brandon Backy was just all he was was the most
underrated member of that staff for several years.
Speaker 7 (48:56):
Exactly, which is why I said he was a killer
Bee because he was underrated. But he long in that
category with the Beam.
Speaker 5 (49:03):
You disagree, though I disagree he look in that World Series.
I'm still of the firm belief since you brought up
two thousand and five that if the stupid Albert Poolhole's
home run wasn't hit and they win that night and
thus win the series, then they go Royo's while starts
(49:25):
in Game one. I'm not saying they win that series
against the White Sox, but it remains one of the
most competitive sweeps. That sounds so pathetic, but it really.
I mean, if you watched all four games, it just
it's not like they just boat race them.
Speaker 6 (49:40):
Right, And I totally agree, and we've all had those
same thoughts. It's hard to rationalize it that way. Even
though it sets up very well for you, it could
certainly change the outcome of Game one. He pitched all
of the starters you wanted to use in the series. Pitched,
and you didn't win any of their games.
Speaker 5 (49:56):
Well, Clemens got hurt with a hamstring injury, which a
lot of peopleeople attributed to the cold weather in Chicago.
It was rainy, I believe before game one or during
Game one, So he just I mean the guy. Go
back to that season, go back to the series prior,
go back to the Atlanta series.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
He was a warhorse. I he was awesome.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
The only thing that could have taken him down, as
he was still very much in his prime, or I
thought he was, was something flukish like that, and I
think if because of course Game two temperature was like
ten to fifteen degrees higher and it Yeah, so roy
OL's wat would have been nice in that situation. Also,
(50:38):
the game would have been over in about an hour
and a half like all of his starts. He was
ahead of the clock era, the pitching clock era, and
he definitely worked quickly. I was like, oh, the game's
over in an hour and fifty eight minutes. Oh roy pitched.
That's why I get it now. So anyways, yeah, walk
down memory lane a little bit there from two thousand
(50:59):
and five, which I can't believe that that was twenty
years ago now twenty.
Speaker 6 (51:03):
Years ago for them, thirty years ago with the Rockets
still watching daily highlights of this is what the Rockets
did in this finals game, and this is when Clyde
Drexler went coast to coast and still had enough Jews
to throw it down. Yeah, it all happened about thirty
years ago, So new memories. Well, yeah, the Astros have
made them. It's time for those others to join. And
(51:23):
the Texans, we've talked about a little bit more on
their situation as they had out of camp, what might
need to be done to the roster to get them
in a better position once they get back for training
camp and get ready to we'll see other teams in
a joint practice situation.
Speaker 4 (51:38):
That, among other things.
Speaker 6 (51:39):
In the actual game itself, last night's Game three, what
does it say about the remainder of this NBA Final series?
Speaker 1 (51:46):
That's next the a t on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (52:00):
Real quick, we were talking earlier about the NBA and the
coverage around the Finals and just in the league in general,
before we get to last night's game. I just came
across this exchange and you may or may not be
familiar with these two people that were going back and forth.
(52:21):
Noah Dalzel, she I believe works for SB Nation and
covers the WNBA, but she also does some Celtics coverage
for that team and does.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
A Boston podcast.
Speaker 5 (52:36):
And she's got I think thirty three thousand followers or
something like that. She and Alex Golden, who is more
on the Pacers side of things. He's more of a
I think he's I don't know if he's a local podcaster,
but a little bit. He's there in Indiana. Yeah, he's
a little bit lesser known. I guess nationally. I guess
I would say, she said. She started, She said, in
(52:58):
an idea, he said, she said, yeah, exactly. Wow, in
an ideal world, what does ESPN coverage on the morning
after a great finals game look like for you? It's
almost like their ears were burning. And this was from
hours ago. I didn't see it, but I just happened
to see it when we were talking about what we
were talking about, like almost a minute after the segment
was over. So she goes into an ideal world, what
(53:18):
does ESPN coverage on the morning after a great finals
game look like for you? And he said, Zach Lowe
and then parentheses imagining firing that guy and Tim Legler
breaking down how the game played out, diving into specifics
of the adjustments made from previous games, and highlighting the
great things that happen. Then bring on a guest who
covers each team for the local beat to get more
(53:39):
in depth analysis. Since they've built relationships with the players
slash team and know them better than anyone else.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Seems easy, doesn't it.
Speaker 6 (53:48):
I mean, I do think there's an element of some
of the other players being involved, like even Marcus Morris,
so I think it's not very good. I think he'd
be a whole lot better if they even in this
exact scenario. If he's out there with these two players,
if they're breaking down something, put them at the big
screen and say this, that and the other. Well, he's playing,
(54:09):
he's currently playing, so to speak, he's he knows this
generation of players very well. He's played with a lot
of these guys, he's played in this era. I do
think you can get out of the players, whether they're
poorly chosen or not, much better analysis and addition to
your broadcast studio if you utilize them properly. The way
they utilize them is this, say whatever you want, throw
(54:29):
something against the wall be loud.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
Perfect, that's you're not getting much. You're getting less.
Speaker 6 (54:35):
Actually now I can't help but hear that because my
blanket is still wet. So two people that cover the
two local teams are suggesting they should bring people on
from the local teams to enhance their coverage. It's smart, well,
but work as your own agent.
Speaker 5 (54:50):
I know that sounds very obvious the way you're framing it,
and it is, but like the alternative is what we
have now and it sucks.
Speaker 6 (54:57):
Yeah, what this would do is would give you some
nuts and bowl and some insight into the teams. Like
you just said that, they would want to get rid
of them as fast as they could so they could
start yelling at each other.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
Again.
Speaker 5 (55:06):
Yeah, you're you're paying Steven A. Smith how much money?
And he's not even referring to one of the principal
players in the series by the correct first name.
Speaker 4 (55:15):
It happens.
Speaker 5 (55:16):
Look, it happens to me on this show. But I'm
not getting paid twelve million a year.
Speaker 6 (55:21):
I Heeart it was an accident. I'm sure maybe if
I was quickly corrected and moved on.
Speaker 4 (55:26):
I just it's to me.
Speaker 5 (55:30):
And again, we're in the NBA Finals, right now, regardless
of what the teams are. And this is why I think,
and it's a it's a lazy way to go through
proverbial life as the NBA as an entity. This is
why I think they wanted Steph Curry. This is why
I think they wanted Lebron James. And it's not because
(55:52):
it's a better product, it's just because it's familiar.
Speaker 6 (55:55):
Well, it gives them that additional super popular legacy topic.
There's no legacy topic for this year's finals. Everybody that
wins is going to win it for the first time.
There's no legacy that they're cementing.
Speaker 4 (56:05):
Or imagine that.
Speaker 6 (56:06):
Nobody's talking about where SGA fits on the all time
list of great players.
Speaker 5 (56:10):
Yet, well, how does all these other guys start getting
into those conversations?
Speaker 4 (56:14):
Though? That's the part that they're forgetting.
Speaker 5 (56:16):
At one point, Steph Curry was a guy who couldn't
stay healthy because his ankles were glass. Now he's the
all time greater shooter, like you had to That didn't
just happen overnight.
Speaker 6 (56:27):
And his first Finals appearance probably didn't sound like his
next four.
Speaker 5 (56:33):
No, but man, they were insufferable pretty early on.
Speaker 6 (56:37):
They also finished the deal and we're looking at a
thunder team as an overwhelming favorite for seven months down
in this series because they've been outplayed. There's no injury situation,
there's nothing flukish about this. The other team's just played
better than them at the most important time of a
close game.
Speaker 4 (56:56):
Twice.
Speaker 5 (56:56):
Funny you mentioned that when talking about Steph Curry as
he's the only guy to ever blow a three one
lead in the finals. His team are winning seventy three
games in the regular season.
Speaker 6 (57:05):
Yeah, and I wanted to bring some of what Charles
had to say the other day, but I didn't. I
think there's a point to be made. It's the same
one I keep making over and over and over again.
I applied it to the Rockets for many years when
they were among the best teams in the NBA. This
regular season dominance is fooling people. I don't care that
you went sixteen to zero against the four worst teams
(57:27):
in the West.
Speaker 4 (57:27):
That's totally irreleative.
Speaker 6 (57:30):
And when you're playing teams that every I was talking
to somebody yesterday about the Rockets, and you know where
they fit in and the end of the season and
the postseason, well, the Rockets won fifty two games because
they tried to. They out played They played harder than
their opponents fifty times in eighty two games during the
regular season. They didn't play harder than their opponent one
(57:50):
time in the postseason. Because everybody's playing hard in the postseason.
Maybe you catch a night where a team starts so
badly you just run them over, and people want to say, well,
they didn't bring it and they didn't play very hard. Well, yeah,
the game kind of dictated that. I don't think teams
don't come to play in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
The huge, huge, huge.
Speaker 6 (58:06):
Advantage the Rockets had over teams in the regular season
was they cared about winning more than they did. They
played harder than they did. We said it all year,
and it was true, and then it equalizes. Well, the
same element is true when you're eliminating all these riff
raft teams, you're not playing riff raft teams in the postseason.
The Thunder went eight to zero against the Clippers and
Grizzlies during the season. Well, they caught the Grizzlies in
(58:28):
the postseason. Guess what they did. They beat them four
more straight times. They didn't play the Clippers in the postseason.
They would have, but the Nuggets eliminated them in seven games.
They were five hundred against the Nuggets in the regular season,
and then what happened They went to seven games with
them because they're not a pushover. Nobody regular season loser,
and then they obviously they won the Western Conference finals
(58:49):
fairly convincingly. Well, now they're again they're not playing a pushover. Yes,
being favorites is fair. Being overwhelming favorites is absolutely where
they should be invincible. I said this during the year.
They're not unbeatable, no matter how great their record was,
and they lapped the Western Conference.
Speaker 4 (59:08):
They lapped them. They were way better than clear superior
conference to the East, by.
Speaker 6 (59:12):
The way, Well, question, some of that has to not
be looked at that way when you're only playing the
best teams. The last three rounds, they've only played great teams.
They went eight and four against the Nuggets and Wolves.
They've now gone overall nine and six. When you add
the Pacers series to it, nine and six, that's not
(59:32):
one of the best records in the NBA. Granted it's
because of who they're playing, but the series specific numbers
they matter. Oklahoma City, they've come out to play all
three games they're plus twenty three in the first quarter.
They've had the advantage under the composite for games two
and three, or the second and third quarters as well,
but by much smaller margin. Outscored the Pacers by three
(59:52):
in the second quarters and by seven in the third quarters.
And they've been outscored by twenty seven an average of
nine points per game in the three fourth quarters. Whatever
number was there in the game two lopsided affair should
clearly not impact.
Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
This in any way.
Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
But you know, they scored eighteen points last night. They
can't close well, it matters when you do.
Speaker 6 (01:00:16):
Get came back against them in the fourth quarter. This year,
you got to bring your best all four quarters. Granted
you might be able to win a game in the
first three and not have to care. But they got
outscored by twelve points or more twice last night, second
quarter and fourth quarter. They took the lead to the
fourth quarter of a Game three when the series was
tied at a game apiece, and they got outscored by
(01:00:36):
fourteen points. And their work in the fourth quarter is
what I was leading to when I said what we
know about this series, which might tell us something about
this series. One for three three points in the fourth
quarter for Shay That was not as aggressive as he
needed to be. That was not including I guess you
could say he wasn't involving the rest of his teammates.
(01:00:57):
The team only went six of seventeen, turned it over
five times, they missed all of their threes. I think
it's very good defensively and probably very underrated even this
far into the playoffs. Well, Oklahoma City is a good
defensive team also, right, So how did the Pacers shoot
better than sixty percent from the floor, better than sixty
percent from the three point line in the final twelve
(01:01:18):
minutes of the game, because.
Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
That's why they won? Do you mean to tell you
what I think? Why is this not gonna happen again?
Or again?
Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
And then all of a sudden, the Pacers, for the
first time ever are holding that trophy.
Speaker 5 (01:01:28):
Rick Carlisle can coach, been saying this for twenty years now.
I wanted the Rockets to hire him badly.
Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
Way wait wait.
Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
Wait, fired somebody and he was hired and they wanted
permission to talk to him.
Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
I'm talking about the last time the Pacers fired him,
because that happened and he was available, and they ended
up getting hired by the freaking Mavericks and they almost
won because of him?
Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
Or did they win? They won? I thought it was
Avery Johnson that was coaching. Then when they won, he.
Speaker 6 (01:01:53):
Had the I think it's kind of an other side
of things. Wasn't Avery Johnson the coach of the sixty
seven when Mavericks that lost to the Warriors?
Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
And Dirk had to accept his MVP trophy in his
side room, like right.
Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
To the game you're in a playoff game. Yeah, I'm
not in the playoffs anymore. We know, Hey, come over
here this room with me. There's curtains.
Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
I am.
Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
I'm not trying to go crazy here, but the idea
of the Thunder are not going to win the title.
I hope people realize this is a real thing.
Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
It's a higher than they've ever been.
Speaker 6 (01:02:29):
They got another game in Indiana and the Pacers could
again take a three games to one lead in their
postseason series. They've been up two games to one in
all of them so far, obviously, including this one.
Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
We had a Gordian here for his weekly visit and
he let us know he was going to be out
in the Bay Area. You know where he's at was
just a couple hours ago.
Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Some more drinking some wine.
Speaker 5 (01:03:03):
No, although he did tell us that he'd be uh
doing those types of things. I can't imagine that was
his plan, seeing is how he's there with his wife.
He went to the full househouse.
Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
Would you go there, like, is there something to do
besides drive by it or walk by it?
Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
Well, there's a hill where they had the picnic in
the opening credits. But yeah, for the most part.
Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
You're I mean, it's not a like a tour is it.
Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
I don't think you can go inside and see if
Jesse and the Rippers are rehearsal.
Speaker 6 (01:03:29):
I think I've been in the area when we were
out in San Francisco, you know, driving down the Windy
Windy Windy. Yeah, we've been in the area. I don't
think we specifically drove by it. There's nothing to do,
and you go.
Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
To the bridge, uh Gay Bridge with the lookout and
all that. Maybe I'll tell you what see, That's what
I was gonna ask. Are you a person that goes
to touristy things when you go to places, Yeah, pretty much,
and you go to the normal ones, not me where
I'm like, hey, let's go to Nicole's condo.
Speaker 6 (01:03:57):
That doesn't seem very touristy. It Actually, it doesn't seem
like it. I wasn't the only one that did it
while I was there. What what's significant about where she lived?
She died there her condo? Yeah, well what's the Brent?
Speaker 5 (01:04:10):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
Okay, I see what you're saying. It just it all
blends together. For someone who doesn't live, breathe, and die,
everything that goes.
Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
Oh, maybe you should.
Speaker 6 (01:04:17):
It feels like the area where the spatters were found.
Uh huh doesn't seem very condo like outside the front door.
Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
It just not.
Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
It strikes me more of a yeah, Brentwood, big big,
huge lot.
Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
No, I wouldn't. I would say home home. It was
a condo, I believe you. You know what.
Speaker 6 (01:04:38):
Today's the day, uh, the anniversary of what the double murders? Oh,
today's the day June twelfth.
Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Yeah, they happened tonight, Oh around ten thirty or so. Gotcha.
Speaker 5 (01:04:48):
There was an aikita with a plaintiff whale. According to
the guy on the stand in the trial, there was
a what an akita, which is a type of dog.
Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
Okay, what a whale like the noise that it was making.
Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Plaintiff whale. That's how I was described. It was very
upset about wimpery.
Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
Yeah, yeah, got it.
Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
Oh and there was also two male voices, one of
which said, Hey, hey.
Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
I think that was Jews. Just kidding. I think it
was Ron Okay, how do we have the voices? Somebody
heard them? A witness? Yeah, tonight.
Speaker 6 (01:05:17):
I mean I watched the trial and all, but I
don't remember the specs like you do.
Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
Yeah, because I'm a weirdo.
Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
I mean I was working at the time. But again,
we were all watching it. Yeah, you were working. I
was an adult.
Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Where were you working though? Was that when you were
at the Greenway? Yeah? For the yeah, the future name
of the conference room when the verdict was relayed to
the public.
Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
That's where you saw it, like like the was this
like a merchandising meeting?
Speaker 4 (01:05:47):
You were in. The entire staff was in the conference
room to watch it.
Speaker 5 (01:05:51):
I forget that, like whole like the complete gross national
product went down the toilet for those like ten minutes
to sit down and watch that.
Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
I mean it was. It was broadcast in Times Square.
It's a big deal. It was the first reality television
show yeah, Lanceto was one of the first stars. What
an idiot? How many things did he do wrong in
that trial?
Speaker 8 (01:06:14):
Brah?
Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
Nothing all good?
Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
But yeah, uh what was it thirty one years ago?
Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Tonight than me?
Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
So yeah, thirty one years ago. Cole was not working
at the time. I was not in the works maybe,
but not working. I wasn't walking yet.
Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
When's your birthday? I'm not gonna tell you you you
gotta guess it. I forgot June twelfth. There we go.
Speaker 5 (01:06:38):
No, it's not today. That's my dad's birthday, which was yesterday.
Happy birthday to mister Thompson. Not you, not me, thank god,
not mister Cole Thompson. That's his Twitter handle.
Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
Yeah, oh, well, today's a good day for you.
Speaker 6 (01:06:51):
Then. I mean, we got two and a half hours
of talking about OJ left. So well after we're appropriate.
Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
After the Astros take care of the White Sox tonight.
Speaker 6 (01:06:59):
Do you think OI have shown up for mandatory and
voluntary offseason workouts as a team guy.
Speaker 5 (01:07:05):
Especially during his forty nine ers days, he fairly showed
up for the games.
Speaker 7 (01:07:08):
Well, he's too busy filming the naked gun movies, right,
Not yet, he.
Speaker 5 (01:07:12):
Was he was trying to already procure his fame, much
like JJ Watt's doing.
Speaker 6 (01:07:17):
Now we're led to believe he will not in any
way be a part of the new Naked Gun movie
other than being teased in the trailers. That can he
be a part of it when you say he's going
to act in it or you know, greater than what
we've seen.
Speaker 4 (01:07:33):
You know what? And this might be an unpopular take
because each of the three main cop characters.
Speaker 6 (01:07:39):
Are no longer in the movie. Yeah, so they're all
going to be referenced.
Speaker 5 (01:07:43):
He'll be referenced, Leslie Nielsen will be referenced, for sure,
for sure. But honestly, if you want to be the
type of irreverent comedy that the originals were, you want
to stay true to that. Honestly, they would have if
they had been remaking made up original version of the
Naked Gun movies, and they were doing it back then
(01:08:04):
when those movies were coming out, they would have absolutely
made some sort of reference to the former cast member
that was a double murderer.
Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
We already know everything we need to know about this movie.
He was guilty in the civil suit. How long do you.
Speaker 6 (01:08:17):
Think it would have taken you to guess what extremely respected,
multi millionaire, earning lead actor in movies and film for
decades would have been cast as Frank Dreben Junior. How
many guesses would it have taken before you got to
Liam Neeson?
Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
Like a thousand? I actually could have guessed in five.
The thing is, are they gonna make his hair white?
Speaker 5 (01:08:42):
Because if they did that, it's actually like passable to
look sort of.
Speaker 6 (01:08:51):
Taken for all of his great comedic work movie. I mean,
he's not a He is very good in comedic roles
because he's.
Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
So obviously once a straight actor. But once he got
on the phone and said, I.
Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
Have a very specific set of skills, skills that I
have acquired over a long period of time.
Speaker 6 (01:09:09):
That type of gun wielding cast member is a killer, right,
This gun wielding cast member is a joke?
Speaker 5 (01:09:18):
Like you took the wrong daughter of all the daughters
you could have kidnapped in that film?
Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
Why did you take Liam Neeson's.
Speaker 7 (01:09:23):
He did tell you he was gonna find you and
he will kill you. Yeah, but did he not? He
left the line?
Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
Then he did three times, two sequels after the original.
Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
He could see the other two. By the way I
saw the second one, I didn't never see the first
Somebody Taken in those movies too, there was like, you.
Speaker 5 (01:09:40):
Don't have to always do it, you can't help yourself.
I actually I like, is the third one even worth watching?
I would watch it because I actually I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
I have no idea. The second one pissed me off
so much. I don't watch. Why did the second one
make you mad? Because it's just the same movie.
Speaker 5 (01:09:55):
But it's And by the way, isn't his wife in
those first two films?
Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
Uh? What's her name? Wonder Woman? No, it's Jean Gray
from the X Men movie. So it's not what is
it Gado? Gal Gado? That's who I'm trying to think
of Jackson?
Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
Okay, oh yeah, but she's good looking too, and they
kind of look similar, right, they don't look anything alike.
Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Okay, maybe I'm misremembering.
Speaker 7 (01:10:15):
No, but okay, Liam Neeson, why is he cast? It's
close to Leslie Nielsen? Duh, I don't think that. Our
video producer, Brett and I were having a conversation just
about this movie right before we came in here to.
Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
That the New Naked Gun. Yeah, when does it come out?
By the way, I don't even know at this point. Okay,
in the next year.
Speaker 7 (01:10:37):
I know that, So thirteen months from now we can
talk about the New Naked Guy.
Speaker 5 (01:10:41):
Like have they wrapped production or are they still shooting
post production? Okay, interesting, I'll tell you something else that's uh,
probably going to surprise you. I don't think I've ever
sat through an entire one of those films.
Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
You get all the jokes without it, you're fine.
Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
Well, I've seen the clips of OJ obviously because they're
prominently yep.
Speaker 6 (01:11:00):
Former ASTROS Executive's finest movie Reginald Jackson.
Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Oh that's right, he is in that in that movie.
Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
Don't call him a former ASTROS executive, that's what he was.
He might as well have had a personal services contract.
I'll head to something I texted my peeps about that
to him. We come back something that only a C
loves but hopefully you guys will too.
Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
The a T on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (01:11:34):
Four o'clock hours right around the corner. It will include,
among other things, a look at the most overlooked teams
in the NFL heading into twenty twenty five, which will
most assuredly amuse my co host when we get to
one of those.
Speaker 4 (01:11:50):
Five looking forward to it. But in that vein. You
were talking about talking about Reginald Jackson.
Speaker 6 (01:11:57):
So the other day I got a text from Buddies.
It was Reggie Jackson's post on x inkc at Royals
Yankees game and ran into this great football player. It's
always exciting watching you play. It was a picture of
him and Pat Mahomes. Mahomes and his Royals number fifteen jersey.
Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
He was at the game.
Speaker 6 (01:12:17):
I responded with former Astros personnel executive with Texas Tech Softball.
Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Lover accurate, accurate, all of it accurate.
Speaker 6 (01:12:25):
He was there for the demise of the Texas Tech
softball team. Greatest team program history fell the Longhorns for
the national title season in the SEC. To remember this
just means more. I guess that takes me to something else.
You brought up Gordy earlier. Chris's vacation in Gordy was
on the X platform earlier yesterday. It's been a big
(01:12:48):
week for scheduling in college sports. Today, the Big twelve
schedule matrix came out for men's and women's basketball. So
the Cougars know which teams we'll be visiting Houston once,
which they will be going once in which places, which
teams they will see twice during their conference schedule. Yesterday,
the Longhorns announced as much as they could about their
(01:13:12):
entire football schedule from a kickoff time at standpoint, did
stamp a couple of games with actual kickoff times and
otherwise put a flex on it. They're either playing at
two thirty or five o'clock, or it's at night. They're
playing sometime between five and seven. So we already knew
who the Longhorns were playing in football. This is not
new news. Their schedule has been out for quite some time.
(01:13:35):
The kickoff times, not even all of them, and not
even definitively when they will kick off or what networks
they'll be on. But just a little bit of additional
information maybe for those that are trying to figure out
how to squeeze all their visits to college football games
they want. We already know who's visiting Austin, who they're
playing in dall Arlington, and we know where they're going
(01:13:58):
to visit to play their other games before they get
the playoffs in the NCAA Championship game. So William Luci
posted that is a very light home schedule back on
June eleventh, yesterday, and it was quote tweeted by at
Chris Gordy earlier today, I'm just noticing Texas doesn't play
(01:14:20):
a home game of DKR between the twentieth of September
and the first of November, and the home slate of
San Jose State, UTIP, SAM, Houston Vandy, Arkansas, A and
M not a ton of exciting matchups. So I'll actually
try not to be too harsh. Because he did open
it with I'm just noticing, I still couldn't help myself
(01:14:41):
and responded with the schedule has been out for quite
a while now. I guess it just means more when
we know some kickoff times to point out how unexciting
it is.
Speaker 5 (01:14:50):
But you know that that whole exchange originated from what
an aggie obsessing over the Longhorns.
Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
And again he gets no reprie because the schedule's been
out for how long? This is a very light home schedule.
I know it's a fact. When nobody's debating it, nobody disagrees.
The Longhorns have a chance, a chance to make a
clean sweep at the games in Austin this year. It
(01:15:19):
just might happen that they win all their home games,
maybe just maybe.
Speaker 7 (01:15:24):
Literally outside of two games. Everyone knew what the home
schedule was last year.
Speaker 6 (01:15:29):
I have flipped the schedule matrix for the SEC dictated
that here's what we plan on doing this year, and
we'll use that flipped model for the upcoming year as
we maybe make our way to a nine game conference schedule.
We don't know what the Longhorns are going to look
like this year. We've got a brand new starting quarterback
who started games last year and made plays last year
(01:15:50):
and helped them win games last year, but clearly was
not getting all or nearly anywhere near all of the reps.
Does this take us to the Brian Kelly comment about Arch,
I mean, it seems like it would fit here, right. Yes,
what did Brian Kelly say about Arch manning.
Speaker 7 (01:16:05):
He's not ready to crown him the next great savior
of college football in Layman's terms, basically in a comment
comparing him him to Garrett Nussmayer.
Speaker 6 (01:16:15):
His guy, My guy's been through it. He knows what
it's like. Arch doesn't know what it's like here in
the SEC. I mean it's the same story as Texas
doesn't know. Arch knows it's going to be difficult. Arch
knows these are good teams. Just like Texas did before
they played any conference games in the SEC, and then
(01:16:37):
what happened?
Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
What quarterback does know what it's like before he knows
what it's like, that's my question.
Speaker 6 (01:16:41):
But he's saying it like wait till he finds out
and he looks at his team's record and they're seven
and five because they can't win in the SEC.
Speaker 5 (01:16:50):
And we're supposed to think that Brian Kelly's the foremost
authority on doing just that.
Speaker 4 (01:16:55):
He is how long has he been in the SEC? Now?
Speaker 9 (01:16:57):
This is her?
Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
What? This is your four? He's got it. He's been here.
Speaker 6 (01:17:01):
Record, he's their record's good, they've been good.
Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
Ten and three, ten and three?
Speaker 6 (01:17:08):
What's his signature? We don't that's that is nonsense. No, no, no,
we don't care about any of that stuff. All we
care about is what it means. And Cole you know
it means more. The nine and four, I want to
know what is conference record is only because the rest
of the schedule that everybody else in college football plays
conference games, non conference games, playoff games, and otherwise mean less.
Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Only the SEC games just means more.
Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
Needs to go the way of Brat Summer and other
stupid monikers.
Speaker 4 (01:17:38):
What's brat summer exactly? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. You know,
what is it? Tell me? I don't know.
Speaker 6 (01:17:43):
I'm intrigued. Rat summer sounds fun, it sounds stupid, it
sounds very Brian Kelly's SEC teams have won seventeen of
their twenty four games.
Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
How many championships has he won at LSU since all
of the pomp and circumstances around three years?
Speaker 4 (01:17:59):
Man's well, how.
Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
Many years did it take Nick Saban to win after
it got to Alabama?
Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
Four?
Speaker 5 (01:18:04):
Okay, so he's got one more year and then I
don't want to hear it. This is it, this is it,
and then you're fired.
Speaker 4 (01:18:09):
This is it.
Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
That you're done. Take SEC media days. I anticipate Cole
that you will be there, right, I'm going to do
everything in my power to be there, and you'll put
you in coaches. Will will you get a chance to
speak with and ask questions of personally? If I get
the opportunity all sixteen so sixteen times on behalf and
as you represent the A team, you will even though
(01:18:32):
you'll get side eyed, the sids will want to escort
you out. The other members of the extremely storied media
group that's there with you will gifaw and let out
deep breaths of derision on our behalf. You will ask
each SEC coach if in fact it means more, If
it means more, yep.
Speaker 4 (01:18:53):
Can you do a montage their responses?
Speaker 6 (01:18:56):
I mean, social media is king and this is just
right up social media's alli.
Speaker 4 (01:19:01):
Can you do that for us? And make sure you
do it before Gordie does. That's the main thing.
Speaker 5 (01:19:05):
I gotta be good and and I want you to
go ahead and predict right here today. Since we're on
the subject, who's gonna give you the best or most
viral worthy response?
Speaker 7 (01:19:15):
Well, probably because I know him, Shane Beemer, He'll smile
and laugh his way through a tremendous answer.
Speaker 6 (01:19:22):
Get our favorite guy will give you a good answer.
Eli will give you a great answer. I you exactly
who you were referencing friend of the show. I'm gonna guess,
like us, not meaning to be mean to anyone, I'm
gonna say that maybe Billy Napier will give you the
worst answer.
Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
I think I'll go well, personally, maybe Billy Napier sounds
like he was a gunfighter in.
Speaker 6 (01:19:42):
If you can invite all the SEC coaches and the
history of SEC football. To answer that question, the best
answer as we hit the four o'clock hour would come
from Ed Orseronne.
Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Absolutely the eight on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
Ninety two, lifelong Houston's sports guys named Adam Talking.
Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
Your team's.
Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.
Speaker 5 (01:20:13):
It's the four o'clock hour here on the eight team,
Sports Talk seven ninety and Space City Home Network. Before
we go any further, because I know he's watching right now,
shout out to my main man, A Don, who is
in town. The Metallica show this weekend is going to
be fantastic.
Speaker 4 (01:20:33):
I cannot wait to see him there.
Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
And now that I know he's watching, I have to
look at the camera and say, what's up, a Don?
Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
He cracks me up.
Speaker 5 (01:20:41):
Sending pictures as we get a lot of these, and
we've told you about this and we love them. If
you're watching the show on Space City Home Network and
you see us, absolutely send us a picture of the
setting you're in and where the screen is, and obviously
what you're doing, which a lot of times wex includes
having adult beverages, although I cannot confirm nor deny whether
A Don is doing that right now, we've talked a
(01:21:03):
lot about the Astros trying to get the series win
against the Chicago White Sox. Tonight, we've talked a little
bit about the NBA Finals, not only how lackluster this
I don't say lackluster the series has been, but I
think that I think that a lot of people just
thought the Thunder were gonna come in and roll over anybody,
Pacers or otherwise that made it to the finals, and
(01:21:26):
we're I'm not I'm not gonna say it's a fatal
flaw of the Thunder yet, but if they lose the series,
it absolutely will be. They can't close games with regularity,
and it feels to me, especially when you look at
quarters one through four of just let's just take last
night's game their mo is and against every team, not
(01:21:47):
just in the NBA Finals or the playoffs, race out
to a seemingly insurmountable lead and then hope you can
just kind of coast your way home. At least that's
how the box score would read if you just took
a glance at last night game, especially to part where
they score eighteen in the fourth quarter. But it's like
you can't do that, especially against the one team this
(01:22:09):
postseason specifically, is known for fantastic comebacks.
Speaker 4 (01:22:14):
You're not scared of anybody.
Speaker 6 (01:22:15):
It probably can't take the lead to the fourth quarter
in every game of the series and be down two
games to one. That's probably not the way to do it.
So finishing off wins that are right in front of you.
They have failed to do that in this series. Been
a couple of instances of that, of course, during their
postseason run twice against Denver, one of those in overtime.
One of them obviously the just this was coaching. You know,
(01:22:38):
you've complimented Rick Carlisle and deservedly so. And I think
Mark Daniel's decision making down the stretch of one of
those losses to Denver where they kept fouling and kept
doing things that made it easier for Denver to make
that comeback, well, that's coaching malpractice. I do have to
give Rick Carlisle some credit because we brought it up
on the show and it's this same so clearly he
(01:23:00):
obviously said with the intention of having it play out
a different way. You know, Shay Gilgess, Alexander clearly has
been awesome this postseason. He opened up the finals with
individually two pretty outstanding performances.
Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
He made twenty five of his first fifty one shots.
Speaker 6 (01:23:15):
He was shooting, you know, the way you would hope
your MVP, your best player, filling it up. Averaging thirty
six points a game, most points ever for a player
in their first two NBA Finals games. And so Rick
Carlisle reaches the podium after Game two, after the sixteen
point Oklahoma City victory to even up the series, a
thirty four point game for Shay, and he says, you
can pretty much, you know, pencil him in for thirty
(01:23:36):
four every night and then you see where it goes
from there. And Shay scored twenty four and last night's
lost to the Pacers, he shot nine for twenty, which
is not very far off from his other performances, but
he just simply wasn't nearly as effective and six turnovers.
He didn't have a six turnover game this postseason before
(01:23:58):
last night. Definitely played his worst game of the Finals.
And other than the game where he and his teammates
weren't asked to play very much because they were getting
beaten so bad in Game three against the Timberwolves, this
was you know, he's probably had two bad games, And
I know twenty four points is good, but this was
one of two I would call bad games.
Speaker 4 (01:24:20):
That's how good he's been, and that is still a
difference between him and Tyrese Haliburton.
Speaker 6 (01:24:23):
Tyres Haliburton has not had that few games that have
gone that well. He got a tremendous amount of help
from everybody else in their game two victory. Didn't get
a tremendous amount of help from everybody else in last
night's loss. They need him to be great most nights. Honestly,
they've had so many lopsided games. Even in this postseason.
He's been so great so quickly his overall end of
(01:24:44):
game performing. He could have forty five point games this postseason,
but some of those games have been so lopsided. Chet
Holmgren going six to fifteen, going zero for six from deep,
taking an hour to launch a three pointer so Miles
Turner can block it, and then you get it back
and drive on Miles Turner just so he can block
(01:25:05):
it again and knock it out off of you. He
had twenty points, but I don't know that I would
say he had a good game. Jalen Williams probably had
a good game. Their overall game, Pacers credit for this.
Oklahoma City's not playing like the Thunder we've seen most
of the year, sharing the basketball, tons of movement, tons
of great looks, obviously, tons of makes. They still made
(01:25:27):
forty six percent of their threes, but they only scored
one hundred and seven points and they only had sixteen
assists on their thirty seven makes. That's not very Oklahoma
City like. And this is how it should be. You
shouldn't be playing like you did all year because you're
playing only the same team over and over and over again,
and that only team you're seeing is awesome.
Speaker 5 (01:25:45):
Let me ask you this as we kind of transition
into what the Rockets may or may not do this
offseason and when they may or may not do it.
If the Thunder what's been their rep fair or not
the last several seasons regular season team and they can't
finish well now they're not being able to finish in
playoff games and specifically in finals games, and all we
(01:26:09):
ever hear about is all of the assets that Sam
Presty has, and on and on and on and on.
Speaker 6 (01:26:13):
If they were still super duper new to this true
like this is your two I know they made the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
The year between.
Speaker 5 (01:26:21):
When you win sixty eight games, the standards and the
expectations are raised. Rockets just found that out the hard way.
You were out in the first round as the two seed.
I know it's not the same, but fair or not,
that's how people look at it. So would they, meaning
Sam Presty, shake it up if they lose this series.
I know that seems like knee jerk and stupid and
(01:26:44):
not staying the course as we have seen Mike Malone
and Thibodeau and maybe even the Rockets make big changes
over the course of Some of them have already happened.
Some of them may happen. I just wonder if the
thunder think, Okay, well, why don't we just go get Yannest.
We've got the assets to do it.
Speaker 4 (01:27:05):
We'd be shocking to me.
Speaker 6 (01:27:06):
I'm not saying it's impossible and it's not worth having,
and they're like, let's go get Durant and they did.
Speaker 4 (01:27:14):
It was crazy. That's weird, how I man. I hear that,
and I do think it's different.
Speaker 6 (01:27:19):
Like I look at Durant going to the Warriors and
think it's impossible for them not to win, and I
don't look at Giannis going to the Thunder and think
the same thing.
Speaker 5 (01:27:31):
So you think as because of the type of player
he is, basically ye oh, he would change Like I'm
looking at the Thunder win or lose this final series.
Speaker 6 (01:27:41):
They shouldn't be making any significant changes anybody's contracts up.
Maybe there's no way to work it out, and they
have to go a different direction with their seventh most
important player, This player off the bench. This players are
gonna get more minutes next year. But their group is
this is a championship team, and everybody knows it doesn't
mean you win the championship. A lot of championship caliber
raw don't win championships, maybe never win championships.
Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
But you know, you have we know what we're seeing.
They have a championship roster.
Speaker 5 (01:28:06):
So having said all that, and it's all true, and
I agree with all of it, but you're mean, you're
gonna tell me right now that if Milwaukee calls up
and they're like, all right, we'll give you Giannis, we
want chet Holmgren, and we want I don't know, I mean,
without knowing the numbers of the salaries and all that.
I mean, Sheet's still on his rookie deal.
Speaker 4 (01:28:25):
Yep. But like that's a win win for both sides.
Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
Well, you're if you Milwaukee's getting a young, talented player.
Speaker 6 (01:28:34):
Huge win for Milwaukee if you believe in him. But
it's a huge risk even if you believe in him
because the injury part of it. Okay, but now you're
from the city's case. If you believe in chet, aren't
you shortening your window? You're bringing the window down.
Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
Maybe, but aren't you making sure that that window is ironclad?
Speaker 4 (01:28:51):
Championship?
Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
You're gonna stop shake Gildess Alexander lobbing to Giannis on
the break every night.
Speaker 4 (01:28:56):
No, you're not. I think that the press he would
do it this way.
Speaker 6 (01:28:59):
Andy's a defense to find a way to get Yannis
in there and talk, you know, press conference, and he
says no offense to Janis. Obviously we love having him here,
but our sole purpose in landing him was just to
keep him from being on any other team because they're
all trying to catch us.
Speaker 4 (01:29:13):
But now they can't.
Speaker 5 (01:29:14):
Okay, but what do we keep talking about, like with
with the Rockets in Phoenix, like their trump card is
that they have Phoenix's picks. Well, Oklahoma City's trump card
when talking to any team is we have all the picks.
It's like Dennis Leary, We've got the bombs. Like, they've
got all these picks from all of these deals they've done,
(01:29:35):
and I just why wouldn't they shoot for the stars.
It's very much Durant esque, except for they won sixty
eight instead of seventy three, and they maybe won't blow Well,
they're not gonna blow a three one leagu because they
haven't had a three one lead and they can't.
Speaker 6 (01:29:48):
Now they do have a lot of picks and quantity.
It's a little bit more of a discussion to say
how good are these picks.
Speaker 4 (01:29:57):
That's true because of who they are.
Speaker 5 (01:29:58):
But if you're Milwaukee and you're to retool anyways, and
let's just say for the sake of argument, Giannis comes
to management says, I want out because Damian Lillard is
effectively dead.
Speaker 6 (01:30:08):
Yeah, quick quick run through of some of this Oklahoma
City asset pool as they get in the Janna Sweepstakes
per the A team, Right, they have two first round
picks this year. This is what we always talk about, yep.
Fifteenth and twenty fifth. In the future, they have all
seven of their own first round picks coming up in
twenty twenty six, the second best team in the Western
Conference will give them their pick. That's Houston. It's top
(01:30:28):
four protected. Also is still the Chris Paul trade. The
fifth best team in the West, the LA Clippers, unprotected,
they'll give them their pick. So that's three first round picks,
none of which will likely be in the lottery. Now
they get a top eight protected from Utah, but they
probably won't get it because it will be in the
top eight.
Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
Yep. And I could go on and on and on,
and that's kind of my point.
Speaker 6 (01:30:48):
Now, they have a ton of technical assets in first
round picks, but when they're not likely top first round picks,
they don't carry as much weight. And we don't have
to continue you and go on and on about it's unbelievable.
He's giving himself a ton of extra chances and they
have the best roster.
Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
But so he's done a great show.
Speaker 5 (01:31:07):
Other teams would then maybe turn around and take them
in other deals because you have them now instead of
Oklahoma City. There's always somebody that'll take a flyer on
a first round pick for sure.
Speaker 4 (01:31:17):
Side.
Speaker 5 (01:31:17):
I mean, if I were them and they fall short
for whatever reason and you want to get even better
than you already were. There's a few players that could
probably you could actually say, would do that.
Speaker 6 (01:31:27):
Kevin Durant to Houston, maybe, Brian McTaggart to the airwaves
here definitely.
Speaker 1 (01:31:32):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 6 (01:31:42):
Baseball over to Tyking Park again tonight. As we continue
here on the eighteen, wexa ce Cole with you. We'll
get you into the Astros on deck show at six o'clock. No,
there're seventy to ten first pitch from ber Valdez to
close out the White Sox series as they.
Speaker 4 (01:31:54):
Welcome in the Twins tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (01:31:56):
Twins got smoked today by the Rangers. Rangers last couple
of days, I guess have figured out a way to
score some runs and it's certainly impacting their ability to
win games. The Twins, like I said, a pretty good
baseball team. After the Astros ran through them in Minnesota.
Opening road trip of the season to Astros took two
(01:32:16):
out of three. We'll try to do at least the
same this weekend. The last nineteen days in the majors
has seen the American League West change dramatically. As we
get into the thoughts of Brian McTaggart from MLB dot
Com covering the Astros. The Astros haven't even been the
best team in baseball, close but not quite. They've gone
(01:32:37):
eleven and five over those last nineteen days. There's a
bunch of teams eight of them. Eight teams have won
eleven games or more, and none of them, of course,
are in the Astros division. The Astros are three and
a half games out of first place behind the Seattle
Mariners at that time, and in just the time it
took the Astros to go eleven and five, the Mariners
have gone four and thirteen. A's have gone four and fourteen,
(01:32:59):
Angels and Rangers have gone eight and nine, all under
five hundred, which is exactly where all four of those
teams are currently overall for the season. And the Astros
entered play today with a four game lead in their division.
That's where the conversation begins with Brian McTaggart his weekly
visit on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Just Ross
today for that portion of their program. Are the Astros
(01:33:24):
going to run away with the American League West? What
say you, mister McTaggart.
Speaker 9 (01:33:29):
Well, unless the Mariners make changes, then probably yes. I mean,
they they didn't make any offensive improvements in the offseason.
Jerry Depoto thought, you know, it was kind of banking
on getting healthy and having some guys have bounced back seasons. Now,
you know, cal Rally's cal Rally's been really good. JP
Crawford's been good, but Julio Rodriguez doesn't play like a
star anymore. And you know, they went out and brought
(01:33:51):
back Polanco, who got off to a really hot start,
but he's cooled off. You know, they signed Donovan Solana,
who's terrible. Mitch Garver hasn't been good. I mean, they
just can't score. Their bullpen hasn't been great. I mean,
you know, they have a pretty good closer, but and
then they've had injuries to the rotation, which they didn't
have last year.
Speaker 4 (01:34:07):
So they're just not a good team right now.
Speaker 9 (01:34:10):
So the Astros will play them after the All Star
break in Seattle, you know, with a chance to put
more distance between them and the Mariners, and they get
next week to get the Angels on the roads, so
they're going to start facing some of these teams.
Speaker 4 (01:34:23):
Had the head.
Speaker 8 (01:34:24):
Quality stuff from Ryan Gusto last night. Where do you
think his leash was? Before that started. Obviously it's longer now.
Speaker 9 (01:34:31):
As in terms of staying in the rotation, yes, yes,
well I think it was long because they don't really
have anybody else and now they're in this six man rotation,
so they really had nowhere else to turn. I think
unless he just went out there and you know, picked
one or two innings, then you would really have to reassess.
But the fact he had career hides and innings pitched
and pitches and strikeouts, you know, fastball hit ninety seven.
Speaker 4 (01:34:54):
He was a lot more aggressive.
Speaker 9 (01:34:55):
You know, it helped when he had a three yeero
lead in the first inning, But it's definitely something for him,
a build on.
Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
That's sort of.
Speaker 9 (01:35:01):
The pitcher that we heard when they put him in
the rotation, that he was capable of pitching like that
hadn't die yet. But you know, like I said all along,
there's sort of at the tail end of their starting
pitching depth here, so there's not a lot of places
for them to turn right now.
Speaker 4 (01:35:13):
You know, maybe that'll change.
Speaker 9 (01:35:15):
If they if they get an arm at the deadline
Righetti back in July.
Speaker 4 (01:35:18):
Maybe we'll see.
Speaker 9 (01:35:19):
But you know, I didn't think Gusto was in real
danger to go anywhere because there were no other.
Speaker 8 (01:35:24):
Options Christian Walker and Janner Diez with Good Knights. Walker
the headliner, of course, but the two hard hit, hardest
hit balls were off the bat of jan or Diez,
and feels like we've been here a couple of times
with both of them saying, Hey, is this the jumping
off point for a turnaround to their seasons?
Speaker 4 (01:35:41):
What are you feeling on both of those guys? Yeah,
you're right.
Speaker 9 (01:35:43):
I mean, if this happens like once every week, where
one of these guys has a good game or hits
the ball hard, you're like, Okay, maybe this is it.
But you know, Yanner hit a couple of balls hard
the night before as well. You know, Walker really crushed
his homer. I think it was almost one away off
the back. And then I think one of the things
in Joe Spotted brought this up too, was his third
(01:36:04):
hit was a little bloop single to right field, and
he had just been not getting those. He'd really been
not getting the brakes on balls that weren't hit hard,
or pop ups or things like that. So I think
for him that was probably as encouraging as the home run, like, Hey,
I'm finally starting to get some breaks here in a
three hit game. But yeah, if you're the ass Stars,
you can only hope it's you know, this is the
(01:36:25):
one they turned around and start building on, because man,
if you get those two guys going, you know, the
five six spots of the order wherever they're at, and
you get jord On by healthy and playing like Jorda,
then you got a real chance to run away with
the division.
Speaker 8 (01:36:39):
Brian mctagger continuing with us here on a Sports Talk
seven ninety Jeremy Panna a couple of hits again, hitting
three twenty two and just keeps on doing it. Should
be an All Star at the short stop position. What
do you think is the biggest reason for his breakout,
whether it be changing approach or maturity or I mean
just a little bit luck, or what do you think
(01:37:01):
is happening with Jeremy Peniy that's leading to this.
Speaker 9 (01:37:04):
Well, I think you hit on the two biggest, biggest things.
I mean maturity. This is his fourth year now, and
you know he came up and had a pretty good
rookie year and then we all know what he did
in the playoffs, and he sort of had similar years
the next two years. You know a couple of years
ago that the power went away in the second half.
So he came to camp last year in twenty four
and changed his stance. Seemed to work pretty well for him,
(01:37:24):
but I think he made have you know, he kind
of worked on that a little bit more and just
tried to just try to refine his stance and his
approach to where he could see the ball better, and
that's worked out for him. I think once he starts
getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the
player that I know I can be. But you know,
props to him because you know, he's really worked hard
the last couple of years to try to get to
(01:37:45):
that next level, and it looks like he's gonna be there.
I mean, certainly seems like him Bobby Witt or Jacob
Wilson of A's or probably your three best shortstops in
the American League at this point. So I don't know
if they'll take three short stops. I mean, I'm guessing
they probably will, but Paya deserves a shot to be
in the All Star Game, and who knows, maybe he starts,
maybe he gets enough fan votes to start, and know
(01:38:06):
the Royals vote pretty well, it'll be interesting to see
what kind of voting support as players get. Not that
they have that many All Star caliber players, but just
I mean, is are people in Sacramento going to rush
and punch.
Speaker 2 (01:38:19):
The balance online?
Speaker 4 (01:38:19):
Who knows?
Speaker 9 (01:38:20):
But yeah, Penya certainly deserves to be in the All
Star Game.
Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
I'd say they'll probably vote for Judge. Out there in
West Sacramento. Remember when they introduced the idea that this
was going to be their new home and the person
at the podium that was so excited to bring baseball
to West Sacramento.
Speaker 4 (01:38:35):
It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 6 (01:38:36):
You can come see the Athletics play, and you can
come see some great players like Aaron Judge. Wait for
the other team they beat your team here, well, in
West Sacramento.
Speaker 5 (01:38:47):
It's what you have to sell sometimes when your product
isn't sellable, if you will.
Speaker 6 (01:38:52):
The All Star vote is interesting, and we were talking
about it the other day. Jose Al Tuvey's run of
All Star Game appearances might come to an end, and
I really didn't think much of it because it seems
so obvious. Even though there aren't a host of awesome
outfield voting options. Aaron Judge is a really, really good one.
(01:39:15):
And Byron Buxton, who I wasn't too super pleased with,
is continue to put up numbers that suggest he's probably
worth voting for. Speaking of the A's, I think one,
if not the only participant they have. Jacob Wilson's probably
gonna make it, so maybe Tyler Soderstrom doesn't, but he's
put up numbers worthy of that. And where would al
Tuva rank among these outfielders, It doesn't matter because he's
(01:39:39):
on the ballot at second base. I don't know if
everybody knows that that's when you go to vote for
your All Stars, and it's not that you go to
the Astrodome and then you go up to the top
of your row and take fifteen paper ballots out of
the ballot box and go back down under your seat
and ask your parents if they have a pen so
you can poke through all fifteen ballots at one time.
Speaker 4 (01:40:00):
Sounds like you've done this before, Glenn Davis and Bill
Dorian and the like.
Speaker 6 (01:40:05):
You just go on to your phone or computer or whatever,
and you just here's who I'm voting for the second
baseman in the American League this year. Trying to keep
Jose Altuve from being the selection at second base, Well
they stink.
Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
There's really there's no obvious choice.
Speaker 6 (01:40:28):
I mean, the best ops among second basement is the
Twins Willie Castro. All six of his home runs have
helped contribute to that, and his fifteen RBI hasn't played
the entire season. Brandon Lowe has six thirteen homers and
thirty six RBI. That leads the way in those categories.
He'shiting two forty six, He's got an ops in the
(01:40:49):
seven forties. I mean, Jose Altuve's numbers aren't I popping either.
His nine home runs are second among second basement. He
has not played half of this he has even played
a third of the season at second base. But if
you're voting on second baseman, the vast majority of the
(01:41:09):
millions and millions of voters probably don't even know it.
And they're gonna look at Andresamenez and Michael Massey and
Daniel Schneeman and Lennon Sosa, and they're gonna say, oh, yeah,
I know, josel Tuve. He gets my vote at second
base in twenty twenty five. I can't wait to see
these first returns and see exactly where he's placed in
(01:41:32):
the hierarchy of this first go round. I'm shocked. I'm
absolutely shocked. He's sitting there at second base on the ballot.
Speaker 7 (01:41:40):
There will be one other person He'll be competing with, Clabor.
Speaker 4 (01:41:44):
Torres, because he's a Yankee former Yankee.
Speaker 6 (01:41:49):
He's having an okay season, probably a worthwhile at second
base all Star season for the Tigers, but mainly because
there's no competition there, and I don't know that don't
really usually say when they're going to do it. It's
just all probably on a Tuesday. Probably next Tuesday would
be my guess.
Speaker 5 (01:42:05):
I'm curious just because I had no idea that he
was listed there.
Speaker 4 (01:42:09):
Well he is, I bet you, he leads.
Speaker 6 (01:42:13):
We shall see. We'll get to our signature segment. It
is Thursday. We ask what's up with that?
Speaker 4 (01:42:19):
Next the A on.
Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
Sports Talk seven ninety a new signature segment called what's
up with that? What's up with that? What's up?
Speaker 4 (01:42:39):
I say, what's up that?
Speaker 6 (01:42:44):
Signature segment time the Sucky, sultry Tones of Yours Truly
introduced this Thursday signature segment.
Speaker 4 (01:42:50):
It is what's up with that? Something going on in
the world or sports world.
Speaker 6 (01:42:55):
We have to scratch our head about need a little
help understanding, or just merely want to point it out.
Speaker 5 (01:43:02):
Well, it is a topic that you could say is
maybe the if not one of the dead horses on
this show.
Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
We have beaten it to a bloody pulp.
Speaker 5 (01:43:14):
We have talked about it ad nauseum, and we will
continue to do so as the implementation sooner rather than
later of the Automated Ball Strike System. I'm not sure
if you're aware of a new poll by The Athletic
that came out one hundred and thirty four players major.
Speaker 4 (01:43:37):
League Baseball players.
Speaker 5 (01:43:38):
Yeah, an anonymous poll responded to the poll, an eye
popping sixty three point four percent said they don't want
robot umpires calling balls and strikes, and only seventeen point
two percent voted in the positive, while nineteen point four
percent said they weren't sure if they wanted the ABS
(01:44:01):
system implemented.
Speaker 6 (01:44:02):
Every time we have this conversation, I try to point
out that we don't always have some numbers. It's a
fairly small sample size. There's twenty six Major leaguers on
each team, there's thirty teams. There's a lot more than
the number you just gave out that did respond, But
it's a pretty significant majority that says, Nah, it doesn't
(01:44:24):
bother me at all. In the eighth inning of games,
when the three to two pitch that's four inches off
of the plate as I throw my bat and elbow
guard to the dugout, the umpire then says, strike, You're out.
Speaker 4 (01:44:34):
Doesn't bother me at all.
Speaker 5 (01:44:36):
Yeah, guess he wasn't one of the ones that responded
to the anonymous poll. Now, I'll give you exactly one
guess as to what position this player that provided this
quote plays.
Speaker 4 (01:44:49):
Let's say, of course, quote.
Speaker 5 (01:44:51):
It has been or it has proven ineffective in TRIPAA
and everywhere they tested it. Why would you remove the
human element? Game will fundamentally change in a way that
fans are definitely not going to like. It will make
injuries and the competitive nature of the game worse. There
will be fewer balls in play and the games take longer.
Speaker 6 (01:45:12):
All proven, so whatever position this player plays was one
hundred percent joking, dead serious.
Speaker 4 (01:45:24):
How do you know that? Well, he didn't say I'm joking.
Speaker 6 (01:45:29):
Well, in the article, the next line says the pitcher
then laughed, Maybe he is being but all proven injuries
will be worse. Like he's saying things that make no sense,
and yet.
Speaker 5 (01:45:44):
He's saying things that are in line with the voting results.
Speaker 6 (01:45:48):
Well, we talked about it, I think a couple of
times since it has been tested, and I still don't
agree with the players on why they continually at numbers
that's sixty percent in this at least in this poll
that they want. They call it human element, to absolve
them of what it is. They're saying, we want mistakes,
that's what the human element is. And what they're also
(01:46:11):
saying is we want the positives of it. Like every
single pitch that's out of the strike zone that gets
called a strike, We're like, how can you do that?
And every single pitch that's so clearly inside the strike
zone maywhile a player storming off the mound this week,
cursing but trying not to get ejected, when he threw
this huge looping curve that absolutely positively was one hundred
(01:46:34):
percent the entire ball was well inside the strike zone,
and the umpire just stood there because and then he
had to throw another pitch and he had to give
the hitter another opportunity. I think they feel they these
pitchers for sure, and then by the same token, the
hitters that are up there, they don't seem to mind.
It doesn't bother them, and they get over it. Like
(01:46:54):
JP Crawford, who's extremely mild mannered, absolutely lost it this
season within the last two weeks because an umpire did
such a terrible job calling balls and shrikes in his opinion,
and umpires will go back and look at it and say, hey,
I missed it. Players will go back and look at
it and say he was right. It happens, but they
do this and then the next day they're fine. They
(01:47:18):
just go to the next umpire and he'll make his mistakes,
and then they'll go the next day and then the
next Like I think what they really want is to
get rid of the bad umpires, and they really truly
don't believe the league is full of bad umpires. They
want these select five to ten guys. He's definitely last
DSCB Buckner. I mean, we could the sense they're always
(01:47:40):
at the root of this. It's why their names come
to mind. It's why Angel Hernandez name always came to
mind because he was.
Speaker 4 (01:47:48):
So often the subject.
Speaker 6 (01:47:50):
So clearly we're not talking about borderline calls or we're nitpicking.
These were blatant misses and they do have data. Unfortunately,
it's different data than Major League Baseball uses. Because Major
League Baseball is the nicest entity ever to work for,
especially when you have a union, as long as you're
not the players. Yeah, because the Major League Baseball umpire's
union is gifted so much. Here's the strike zone, but
(01:48:14):
we're going to give you an extra three inches in
every direction. Now, we won't grage you down for it,
but if it's close enough.
Speaker 5 (01:48:20):
Here's And this is the most maddening paragraph of this
article or this article about the article that I'm reading
other downsides of the ABS system that we're cited by
the players. I'll just never understand this loss of the
human element. I can stop right there and say, why
(01:48:44):
do you need the loss of mistakes?
Speaker 4 (01:48:46):
Right?
Speaker 5 (01:48:47):
What they're saying, thank you, a decrease in the value
of catchers who are good at framing.
Speaker 4 (01:48:51):
Pitches, cheating, thank you.
Speaker 5 (01:48:53):
See, just keep doing this because you're proving my point
and hitters becoming less aggressive when they know that pitchers
won't be able to get a strike call with the
pitch just off the edge of the plate from a
generous umpire, What is not wrong with that sentence?
Speaker 4 (01:49:08):
Good?
Speaker 6 (01:49:08):
Take your walk, Yeah, you can throw strikes because if
you keep walking when a walk is as good as
it is not hard.
Speaker 5 (01:49:14):
This is like, this is just the least difficult concept
to ever Maybe these guys.
Speaker 6 (01:49:19):
And I also say, I won't like it when the
strike zone is the same every day.
Speaker 4 (01:49:23):
I will hate that, right, you know, consistency what that's called.
Speaker 6 (01:49:27):
I'm gonna be so I'm gonna have so much extra
time on my hands because I won't have to look
to see who the umpire is that day behind the plate,
because I already know it's the same umpire every day.
Speaker 5 (01:49:37):
Automated the NBA, where a charge is apparently subjective at times,
as are various forms of contact depending on the size
of the person you're being officiated, you can actually make
it consistent, at least in one part, the most important
part of the game you play by giving everybody the
same fundamental baseline.
Speaker 4 (01:49:59):
Of a strike zone.
Speaker 5 (01:50:00):
And yet sixty plus percent of these guys are apparently morons.
Speaker 6 (01:50:04):
Yeah, Framing is the is the big one for me.
Why why is framing exist? Because you know the umpires
are going to be fooled if you're good at it,
Just like in the NBA, wanting to do you're trying
to tell them there they can't see what they're seeing.
I mean, I watch games and catchers frame pitches over
and over and over, and it absolutely ticks me off,
especially the ones who take balls that are nowhere near.
Speaker 4 (01:50:25):
The strike zone and try to frame them.
Speaker 7 (01:50:27):
Like.
Speaker 4 (01:50:27):
The question is, why doesn't it tick them off? I
don't know, I just should.
Speaker 5 (01:50:32):
This is why I'm like, I'm asking, seriously, our Major
League Baseball players dumb.
Speaker 6 (01:50:37):
They're just mad that I've actually worked within the rules.
I've been a catcher since I was a little kid,
and I've perfectly crafted this skill and I'm really really
good at fooling the empires, and you're taking it away
from me.
Speaker 4 (01:50:49):
So I don't like it.
Speaker 5 (01:50:50):
So players don't want their sport to be improved, what's
up with that?
Speaker 6 (01:50:54):
This pretty seems like a fairly simple concept, at least
to us. They've taken the human element out at the
because the human element means mistakes, and they've taken those out.
Speaker 4 (01:51:05):
But not here, not behind home plate.
Speaker 1 (01:51:09):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety so football at
five is rapidly approaching. But to give you a little
we'll wet your appetite here. I told wex that his
h his eyes would bug out.
Speaker 4 (01:51:25):
Of his head when I gave him this list.
Speaker 5 (01:51:28):
Pro Football Focus to who has spent an Enorman an
inordinate amount of time on our show and discussion recently
came out with Dalton Wasserman came out with a list
of five teams that will be overlooked this upcoming NFL season,
And they're in alphabetical order this way, so I'll just
(01:51:52):
list them off. The Bengals, the Cowboys, the Cults, the
forty nine ers, and the Seahawks. Does anybody jump off
the page.
Speaker 6 (01:52:04):
At you on this show? Yes, the Cowboys? Should we
play the I mean, if that's what we're talking this
is a heck of a tease. It feels like we're
eating everything right now, We're not just getting the appetizer.
Speaker 5 (01:52:16):
Well, I just, you know, figured we could set it
up properly, because then I could give you the actual
meat and potatoes of why they think the Dallas Cowboys,
in any way, shape or form, are going to be
overlooked in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (01:52:32):
I can't wait for the meat and potatoes of it.
Very intrigued.
Speaker 6 (01:52:36):
Five teams that I don't believe the Texans Ravens, Eagles, Commanders, Bills,
Chiefs should be worried about in any way.
Speaker 5 (01:52:48):
You guys are like dead set on a couple of
things in that I feel like the AFC North is
getting a ton of attention from this show this year.
You both think that Aaron Rodgers is absolutely m I
said the rape, Did I say the benk? I said
the Ravens Only? Well, I don't, They're awesome. I'm just
giving you the division breakdown right now because I am
always like, hey, I think the Steelers with Aaron Rodgers
(01:53:11):
are probably going to be better than a lot of
people are thinking they will be.
Speaker 4 (01:53:14):
They won't see.
Speaker 5 (01:53:16):
It's it's very black and white with the two of
you and me on this issue of the AFC.
Speaker 7 (01:53:21):
North pick a different division. I can guarantee you all agree.
Speaker 4 (01:53:24):
With Well, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (01:53:24):
I'm just not like ready to set in stone that
the Bengals are going to be like these awesome contenders.
Speaker 4 (01:53:29):
Either, right.
Speaker 6 (01:53:30):
But you're picking a an Aaron Rodgers Mike Tomlin led
team over a Joe Burrow Zach Taylor led team.
Speaker 4 (01:53:36):
That's that's what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (01:53:37):
Well, the team that I'm picking didn't even have Aaron
Rodgers last year and they did make the postseason and
the Bengals didn't.
Speaker 6 (01:53:42):
And as I said earlier on a completely different topic,
and then what.
Speaker 5 (01:53:46):
Yeah, it's fine, but that that's kind of the argument, right,
we're talking about which one of these teams is.
Speaker 6 (01:53:52):
If as we would say here, I don't really care
if the I mean, I'm not jumping through hoops that
you've made it.
Speaker 4 (01:53:58):
I know what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (01:53:59):
They're not They're not capable of doing anything. Not to mention,
while they still feel confident that TJ. Watt will get
a deal done and they feel I'm glad they feel confident,
but the most important player on your entire roster doesn't
is very happy with you.
Speaker 5 (01:54:15):
When did he get hurt last year? How many games
were left in the season, roughly do you remember, I'd
have to look like.
Speaker 4 (01:54:20):
It was TJ. Watt. It was. It wasn't like the
Lions with.
Speaker 6 (01:54:28):
No he played in seventeen games, okay, but he he
was out.
Speaker 7 (01:54:32):
He was filled with the peck injury throughout the season.
I think that was it.
Speaker 6 (01:54:35):
But he didn't miss blow out crazy You're out for
a while.
Speaker 4 (01:54:39):
Some reason. I thought hest was out there.
Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
And again this is not. This situation with his contract
is not atypical. It's just your usual this guy's do
money and the team's not wanting to pay it up
that we see all the time.
Speaker 6 (01:54:57):
Yeah, that's probably, I guess accurately issues in Pittsburgh with
some players. You know, Okay, you're really really good, like
in New England, we'll just go ahead, go somewhere else.
But they usually do right by a player like this,
and I ultimately think I'm glad that they feel good
because I do too.
Speaker 4 (01:55:12):
But you know, back to the topic.
Speaker 6 (01:55:15):
I forget that Aaron Rodgers is better than the guys
they've had, because I think that's fair.
Speaker 4 (01:55:20):
But what is it saying? What do you like about
Aaron Rodgers? What do you like about what you've seen
from him?
Speaker 6 (01:55:24):
What makes you think he's going to make plays in
the framework of an NFL game ten times out of seventeen,
and they're going to get their ten wins, and they
go to qualified for the playoffs and they're going to
play the Ravens and Bengals and beat them one or
two out of four times.
Speaker 4 (01:55:37):
I guess that what I'm banking on.
Speaker 5 (01:55:40):
Outside of obviously health, which you could say that with
any quarterback or any player in the NFL at any
stage of their career. But just set that aside. Let's
say he stays healthy, which wasn't the case in New York.
He was last year, his most recent year. I know
he's coming from New York, which is a disaster of
an organization and has been for a long long time.
(01:56:02):
The Jets were a disaster before Aaron Rodgers set foot
in the organization.
Speaker 4 (01:56:06):
Stop.
Speaker 6 (01:56:06):
He made sure they would have less of a chance
to win by literally everything he did. I'm not going
to say here history, no, No, I said less of
a chance to win, Okay, which is why they got
down to five and twelve within starting every.
Speaker 4 (01:56:20):
Game, absolving him of blame.
Speaker 5 (01:56:23):
But I'm not going to sit here and act like
there aren't certain organizations Cleveland included, where they find a
way to screw it up every time, and it happened.
It's a big part of its ownership, which was clearly
a factor here.
Speaker 6 (01:56:36):
Let's just talk, So what was screwed up last year?
How did they find a way to screw it up?
What did they do wrong or what injuries kind of
set them back or the coaching change they made obviously
in season, Why did they have the wrong guy.
Speaker 5 (01:56:50):
I don't know, because I was never as big on
him and on Robert Sala as you were going in.
I mean it was his first time. I'm not listen.
I'm gonna be consistent about is I'm worried about a
guy I like in Aaron Glenn. I think he's going
about it the right way. But until you're not the
Jets anymore, you're the Jets no matter who your coach
or who your quarterback is.
Speaker 6 (01:57:11):
Well, his his problem is the same as Roberts problem. Yeah,
they don't have one. Well, yeah, yes, Robert saw his
entire tenure with the Jets was played without a starting
quarterback who can win.
Speaker 5 (01:57:22):
Yes, but we can't sit here and act like we
weren't all saying Rogers or no rogers that they had
a good roster around him before they got before he
got there, because they.
Speaker 6 (01:57:32):
Did, Yeah, exactly. And then what did he do to
the roster? He just set that up brilliantly.
Speaker 4 (01:57:37):
Yeah, did what every other quarterback has done at the roster.
Speaker 6 (01:57:40):
Nobody gets the ability to make players get there like
Aaron Rodgers did.
Speaker 4 (01:57:44):
I'd like this guy, he's yours. How about this guy,
he's very.
Speaker 5 (01:57:47):
James Harden him very much so, except James at the
top of his game. What's that headed to Pittsburgh now? Well,
but the thing is Pittsburgh is not going to do that.
They never have and they never will no matter who
you are. That's part of the mystique of that franchise.
They're the opposite.
Speaker 6 (01:58:04):
If they win with Aaron, just like they won with Russell,
just like they won with Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph,
it'll be the exact same formula. Is there going to
make games? You're gonna have a hard time scoring on us,
You're gonna make mistakes against us. It's gonna be an
unfun game to watch. They're gonna be mistakes made by
our team as many as there are by your team.
And hopefully, when the final zero's hit the board, we've
(01:58:26):
got twenty and you've got seventeen.
Speaker 5 (01:58:28):
Isn't Russell Wilson, which is the most recent example you
could possibly make in that he played there last year?
Isn't he the perfect example to back up what I'm
trying to say, which it might end up not being
the case. I'm not saying again, Aaron Rodgers had plenty
of blame to be put in his corner as to
why things didn't go right, not only in New York
(01:58:50):
but also at the end of his Green Bay tenures.
Speaker 6 (01:58:52):
Zero level of doubt zero to one hundred that Aaron
Rodgers is better than Russell Wilson?
Speaker 4 (01:58:58):
Is there zero doubt? Are you fifty to fifty on that?
I think.
Speaker 5 (01:59:05):
I tend to lean towards fifty to fifty because of
what his age is. But it's Aaron Rodgers compared to
Russell Wilson at the end of their careers.
Speaker 6 (01:59:16):
Default the Russell Wilson era in Pittsburgh was after he
took over for Fields, they basically won every week and
then they lost every week. They were four and two
when he took over, and they won six out of seven,
and then they lost four straight weeks and then a
fifth week in the playoff.
Speaker 5 (01:59:30):
Who's going to be better at the very, very very
end of their career Aaron Rodgers, And I just think
Aaron rodgers resume says he will be.
Speaker 6 (01:59:37):
But it's not a very good level. It's barely middle
of the pack maybe in the NFL. So there you go.
We teach it's a football segment by talking football. So
when we come back you guessed it.
Speaker 2 (01:59:49):
The age on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
Ninety Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A team,
all right?
Speaker 5 (02:00:15):
That music means that we continue to talk about the
NFL Football at five, although this will not be the
Pittsburgh Steelers segment that last segment was.
Speaker 4 (02:00:25):
Instead, this will be the Dallas Cowboys segment. No, not really.
Speaker 5 (02:00:28):
I mentioned that Pro Football Focus had listed five teams
that were going to be overlooked heading into the twenty
twenty five NFL season, according to one Dan Dalton Wasserman
and just in like short order here at the very
top of the article, they talk about the Bengals being
(02:00:51):
set up to bounce back in short order, Cincinnati dropping
seven of its eleven one score games last season, and
should experience positive aggression through the elite trio of Joe Burrow,
Jamar Chase, and T Higgins. I don't even know what
that means. Positive regression.
Speaker 6 (02:01:08):
Well, basically it's what we talk you know, team other
than the Chiefs, whose people still can't figure out keep
winning one score games for a reason. It's not a
fluke and it doesn't automatically. Oh well, you got unlucky.
You're gonna win your fair share. They're going with the
ladder there. The Bengals are gonna win their fair share.
Speaker 5 (02:01:24):
Uh, Dak is back and so is Dallas. The Cowboys
are poised to return.
Speaker 6 (02:01:29):
Kyards Talk seven ninety Your Southwest, your deep.
Speaker 7 (02:01:33):
Southwest, Telly for your Dallas.
Speaker 4 (02:01:35):
Sports Did you intentionally do that? Let's talk Cowboys football
here on Sports Talk seven ninety Sleeper teams don't sleep
on Dak in Dallas. Tell us why it's so dumb.
Dak is back and so is Dallas.
Speaker 5 (02:01:50):
The Cowboys are poised to return to form in twenty
twenty five after a lackluster year spurred by injuries on
both sides of the ball. Now, to be fair, he
talks about the fact that Dak Prescott recorded the worst
Pro Football Focus passing great of his career before his
season was curtailed due to injury.
Speaker 4 (02:02:11):
At least he's being honest. Dak sucked before he got hurt,
and therefore the Cowboys.
Speaker 6 (02:02:16):
Suck relative to his elite performances previously regular season performances.
You said he had his worst season, still probably better
than Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers and many others.
Speaker 5 (02:02:26):
Well, I didn't say that, they said you said it
to the listeners. I was passing along. I was the messenger.
Don't shoot me.
Speaker 6 (02:02:32):
By the way, the Bengals are destined for greatness this
year because they have new plans on how to get
ready for their season. If you missed that earlier today
when Zach Taylor met with the media joint practice, uh huh,
not doing that. Starters sitting out preseason games like usual?
Uh uh, they're gonna play more in preseason games. Practicing
in the afternoon when it's a little bit warmer in Ohio. Nope,
(02:02:54):
we're going to practice in the morning. Started ozhing two
of the last three years, not this year.
Speaker 4 (02:03:00):
Imagine why they get ready.
Speaker 6 (02:03:01):
For the season. Everything is going to be fine in Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (02:03:04):
Imagine thinking that Cincinnati afternoons are too hot and so
you need to practice in the morning as opposed to morning.
Speaker 6 (02:03:12):
I took liberties with that. I mean it just said.
He just said they'll have more morning practices. I don't
know if that was his reasoning for it. Maybe he
thinks people are more alert in the morning. Maybe he
doesn't want people drinking coffee before they practice, and if
they go early enough, maybe they won't.
Speaker 4 (02:03:25):
I don't know. Well, he wouldn't have to worry about
that with you a lot. That is true. You hate
coffee and everyone who drink.
Speaker 6 (02:03:30):
Football as an adult, which I don't do. Yeah, oh
watch it, he'll be there in the morning. I couldn't
handle it.
Speaker 5 (02:03:39):
So he's in this paragraph on the Cowboys, he's he's
mounting this like contingency plan. It sounds like in case
things go wrong again. Well, it's all injuries. I mean,
the injuries just could sit. They just continue to mount
as the season went on. Michael Parsons got hurt or
(02:04:00):
any of that. Man, The Cowboys just weren't very well
put together last year. That's why they went out and
you know, got George Pickens for example. That's why I
mean all of this stuff he's talking about, Well, they're
gonna bounce back, Becau Dak is healthy. Well Dak was
healthy and Ceedee Lamb was healthy and they weren't winning.
And George Pickens is a nice pickup, I guess, But
(02:04:23):
I don't know, man. I think Dallas, like a lot
of teams, is only going to go as far as
their defense because they're just even if they're like two
seasons ago when they were awesome, they were just they
they never lost, especially.
Speaker 4 (02:04:42):
At home, and then it was just so laughable.
Speaker 5 (02:04:44):
It was so Dallas the way they lost at home
in the postseason to the Packers. All of that stuff
that he's mentioning, that's gonna happen this year because Dak
is back, and did happen in twenty three when Dak
was having a great year. That's like the very that's
very Oklahoma City thunder regular season of him argue, they
don't get it done when it matters.
Speaker 4 (02:05:03):
Well, but they weren't.
Speaker 6 (02:05:04):
They did win twelve games each of those three years,
but nobody regarded them as the best team in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (02:05:09):
Dallas Cowboys fan right now, how much they give a
crap about what you just said. I'm not picking on you,
but that just sounds all Look at all the games
we won this year, and.
Speaker 4 (02:05:18):
I'm saying the opposite. They weren't.
Speaker 6 (02:05:20):
Because they won those games doesn't put them in any
kind of Oklahoma City class. They were just a playoff team.
They're just like the other seven teams in the West
this year. Yeah, maybe things will work out first, maybe
we'll win. They were just one of everybody winning even
with twelve wins.
Speaker 5 (02:05:31):
Yeah, but winning twelve games is different than winning ten games. Well,
sure it is.
Speaker 6 (02:05:35):
But do you remember those years of people saying I
expect the Cowboys to win the NFC, Well, nobody other than.
Speaker 4 (02:05:45):
They say, but they say it in September. It dies
down after that. That's even worse year.
Speaker 6 (02:05:50):
Now we know they won twelve of seventeen, we know
where they finished in the division, we know what seed
they have, and now we're not saying it like yeah,
I know.
Speaker 4 (02:05:57):
Point we don't think so either.
Speaker 5 (02:05:58):
You know what's funny? At what point is this like
get in their own heads? If it hasn't already.
Speaker 6 (02:06:03):
You said it already, you answered your own question. Of
course it's in there their heads.
Speaker 5 (02:06:07):
But this has happened over the course of several eras
Jerry's head the whole time.
Speaker 6 (02:06:13):
Right, but the only that's the only constant from a
in their head, it's not. It wasn't in Da Dak
said before he went to the postseason and fell short.
It wasn't in Tony's head before he went to the
postseason and fell short. It for the players, it comes along.
I don't want to lessen the impact that I personally
think George Pickens can make. I know his numbers weren't ideal,
(02:06:34):
and I know there's baggage, and I know there's issues
of making sure the focus is always there and the
team aspect of it, but the talent's undeniable the most.
There have been some pretty good number twos with CD,
you know, maybe some better than others. Maybe they made
mistakes with some of who the guys they've let get
out of town, but none of them compare to what
(02:06:55):
Pickens is capable of, and that has to be considered
by other offensive coordinators. Finally, if you were gonna get
if you were gonna get beat by Brandon Cooks or
Michael Gallup or any of the assorted number twos, then
you would if you leave that to chance this year,
and now that number two is George Pickens, you're you're
going to get beat by him in the literal sense
that he's helping them beat you in that game. Not
(02:07:16):
just well I kept seee Lamb from beating us, Well
you didn't keep the Cowboys from beating you, and they're
just it's much more difficult. I'm not saying there'll be
more potent. They've had some unbelievably successful offenses. When the
Saints coach was running things there and even with Mike
McCarthy at times. But you got also considered the other
moves they made which lessen the impact of George. Do
(02:07:38):
you expect the Cowboys to be better running the football
this year? The best player they had running the football
last year isn't there and they did not replace them
with somebody better.
Speaker 4 (02:07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:07:48):
The last paragraph says there are rightfully concerns about the
Cowboys' ability to run and stop the run.
Speaker 4 (02:07:56):
Okay, but other than that.
Speaker 6 (02:07:58):
Like, I just think I haven't studied it enough to
be super definitive. But it seems reasonable to argue their
overall rosters worse than.
Speaker 5 (02:08:07):
Last year, even with the addition of Pickens. Yes, exactly,
and in a healthy Prescott, because I do feel like
he's an addition because of how much time he missed.
Speaker 6 (02:08:15):
I think this is fair, and being that the sec
has been discussed at length this day and every day
and should be the best running back they have is
Longhorns rookie Jaden Blue, the woman the most upside for sure.
I think he should be their best running back this year.
I liked Javonte Williams and maybe there's some long term
(02:08:37):
recovery from injury that were not affording him the luxury
of because he's not as far removed from it as
like Nick Chubb getting to the bay.
Speaker 4 (02:08:44):
Well, now I'm myself again. Maybe that's what they're hoping for.
Speaker 6 (02:08:48):
But man, nobody churns up zero yards per carry like
Javonte Williams.
Speaker 4 (02:08:53):
Did with the Denver Broncos these last couple of years.
Speaker 6 (02:08:55):
If you want to get a first down, you can
hand it to him on first second down and you'll
be looking at four and ten.
Speaker 5 (02:09:03):
Now we joke about overlooked and cowboys, because the cowboys
are never overlooked because they're the cowboys.
Speaker 4 (02:09:08):
It's just disgusting.
Speaker 5 (02:09:10):
But like some of these other teams he's talking about,
like for the Colts, for example, all eyes this summer
will be on the Colts brewing quarterback competition.
Speaker 6 (02:09:20):
How to use that word, because I don't hope it's
not controversy usually quarterback controversy. It is a competition, and
so far it's between Daniel Jones and nobody.
Speaker 5 (02:09:29):
Right, And that means doesn't that in and of itself
mean that Anthony Richardson's already not the guy?
Speaker 6 (02:09:35):
Well he's not healthy. If he's healthy by training camp
then none of this stuff matters. But they don't know
that he will be well.
Speaker 4 (02:09:41):
Even if he is, though, why did you bring in Daniel.
Speaker 6 (02:09:44):
Jones Because you want a quarterback competition if if that's
all you're getting at, Yes, there is one. He's not
the starter unless he earns it. Daniel Jones can absolutely
beat him out with his play. They can absolutely go
in that direction. Shane Stiken could make him the starter
at any point. The Texans and Colts don't get together
until the very late stages of the season. They play
him twice in six weeks. I feel pretty confident guessing
(02:10:05):
that Anthony Richardson maximum plays the Texans once.
Speaker 4 (02:10:10):
He might not play them at all.
Speaker 5 (02:10:11):
That's a very unfortunately for him, that's a very fair thing.
Speaker 6 (02:10:14):
He starts the year as the starter and doesn't stay healthy,
or he's already been benched, or Daniel Jones' flat out
beat him out and they've played average enough football that
they didn't make a switch at quarterback. Because by the
second part of the season, when you're in you know,
game twelve through seventeen, you kind of know where things are. Are.
Speaker 4 (02:10:29):
You still on the hunt, and they probably will be.
Speaker 5 (02:10:32):
I actually agree with two of the teams that he
put on this list the forty nine ers, because that's
a team that actually, like I mean, that was a
ton of injuries.
Speaker 6 (02:10:41):
I mean, Juwan Jennings a lot, brought a lot because
nobody else was there. And I'm not sure how it's
gonna look this year. I think moving on from Deebo
was probably smart. Not sure about moving on from some
of the others. But the biggest thing there is is injuries.
They did have a ton and the most significant one. Well,
what if it's fine this year. What if Christian McCaffrey's
(02:11:01):
fine this year? That kind of changed the light.
Speaker 5 (02:11:04):
It'll piss me off since I drafted him last year.
Number one do it again? Uh, Seattle Seahawks, I'm not
doing that well because if.
Speaker 6 (02:11:11):
Lama Sam Darnold not make the playoffs, of course he's
gonna make it.
Speaker 4 (02:11:14):
Always makes the playoffs because he's the man. I think
Arizona's gonna better than Seattle by a long shot.
Speaker 7 (02:11:20):
I think Arizona's playoff team this year. That's a bold
go bigger, go home Boys. I mean that division is
such crap.
Speaker 4 (02:11:30):
Though, Why do you THINKUYS said they were a playoff team?
Speaker 6 (02:11:33):
Well, we shall see. This is why it's entertaining. This
is why we talk about a year round. That's why
football at five exists.
Speaker 4 (02:11:39):
Here on the eighteen, the eighteen.
Speaker 1 (02:11:43):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (02:11:55):
It's the eighteen Sports Socks seven ninety Space City Home
Network final score tonight in the Astros White Sox game.
And don't laugh because they lost the first game and
then it was a ten to two drubbing last night.
So somewhere into I got to in fact, before you
give me your answer.
Speaker 6 (02:12:12):
Huge prediction time here on the A team predicting baseball scores.
Speaker 5 (02:12:15):
I'm gonna tell you a text I received during Tuesday's
loss because I lamented and was like, this is ridiculous.
I cannot believe that Luis Robert has two of his
six home runs against the Astros in two different games
or two different series this year. And this person wrote
back and I quote, they'll probably win nine to four.
(02:12:37):
The White Sox are awful. Okay, So now having given
you all that knowledge, big big moment here on the show,
U six to one, really yeah, even though five of
the last in the Astros game have scored two runs,
including each of the last three, I'll go.
Speaker 4 (02:12:59):
Six to one.
Speaker 6 (02:13:00):
Isn't it feel like because I don't think it's it
could be a homer, but just be the one.
Speaker 4 (02:13:03):
Because he's not.
Speaker 5 (02:13:04):
Because yeah, because he's such a ground ball pitcher that
the only way most people do get runs off of
him these days is taken him out of the park,
and so you.
Speaker 6 (02:13:12):
Just hope that that is his last start. There was
just basically this happened, and that happened. All of a sudden,
two runs had come across the board, but it was
of no concern.
Speaker 4 (02:13:20):
I go four nothing.
Speaker 5 (02:13:22):
I mean, I'll take a no hitter. I predicted the
last time you pitched, he almost got it. Well, he
has twice this year. Two of his first three starts
entered and left without allowing any runs. Every other time
at least one has come across.
Speaker 4 (02:13:38):
I feel good, and I agree with what you said earlier.
Speaker 5 (02:13:41):
Even with all of the things he has accomplished, which
does include I think people sometimes forget he was the
guy that was on the mound for the clincher in
twenty twenty two against the Phillies, and he was awesome.
Speaker 6 (02:13:51):
Some people forget he was on the mound when they
opened up their wild Card series last year against the
White Sox. Hey man, Tigers, See I forgot. I was
about to say, you forgot who they were playing. We
don't need that type of negativity.
Speaker 5 (02:14:03):
Last season sucked from start to finish.
Speaker 4 (02:14:06):
It did. Four months of these six months were pretty often.
Speaker 5 (02:14:10):
Here in Houston. We don't get excited about making the postseason. Now,
yeah I'm not. No, that's great. You came back from
ten back, but why were you ten backs? Man?
Speaker 6 (02:14:19):
As you say all the time, it's it's a tough
sled to go through a baseball season with no hope.
And the Astros only in their worst season during this
entire run. In my opinion, they only had no hope
for thirty six games. The other one hundred and twenty
six game there was for month after month after month
after month, all the way into winning the division.
Speaker 4 (02:14:40):
Again't remember there was a lot of hope. You would
know this too.
Speaker 5 (02:14:43):
This was it worse or not as bad as when
they put the tombstone on the front of the Chronicle
sports pages.
Speaker 6 (02:14:50):
It was the same thing. It was from fifteen to
thirty two. I think this team can win a World Series.
And then this last Astros team, now they only finished
with the third best record in the AL last year.
That's why they obviously were playing in the wildcard third
best of the three division winners, but the way they
played to get there, they were the best.
Speaker 4 (02:15:07):
Team in the American League. They were arguably the best
team in baseball for three months.
Speaker 5 (02:15:11):
They just ran into a buzzsaw with the best pitcher
in the American League last year short series.
Speaker 6 (02:15:15):
Their pitcher out pitched yours, and then all of their
pitchers because they only had one starter last year, out
pitched yours. It was very Kevin Brown in ninety eight.
I mean, you just didn't need a whole lot to
beat Houston. You only needed to win two games. It's
just like I said earlier this week, I wish they
would devise a system, and I know that the way
that they're going to think to do it. The way
(02:15:36):
to keep teams from playing in short series is to
expand the playoffs and eliminate teams that rest a week,
get the off week, get a bye, the teams that
finished first and second. That's the only way I think
they'll believe they can actually do that and avoid a
one game wildcard as we used to have, or a
three game wildcard series. It's just not fair to what
(02:15:59):
the sport is you start five or six guys all
year long.
Speaker 4 (02:16:04):
And then you're not. It's just it's just not it's
another it's not meant for this sport.
Speaker 5 (02:16:10):
It's another thing that baseball does that is so unnecessarily stupid.
Speaker 4 (02:16:14):
It makes you bash your head into a one.
Speaker 6 (02:16:16):
The necessary part of it is if they say, all right, WEX,
you're right, it is stupid. So these four teams, so
they're gonna play five game series, and then the other
four teams or two teams in your league, they're just
gonna sit back.
Speaker 4 (02:16:28):
And wait and wait and wait and wait forever.
Speaker 9 (02:16:34):
Ends.
Speaker 4 (02:16:34):
What's the happy medium? Then you add two more teams
and nobody gets an off week. What's wrong with that?
They get more revenue.
Speaker 6 (02:16:41):
So then when I think we're headed, I baseball had
something over the other sports for such a long time.
Speaker 5 (02:16:46):
College football does this in like five seconds every year, not.
Speaker 6 (02:16:48):
Making it better. It's just making it more money. So
it's making it better, it's making better. Case of but
you're you know in baseball, when it was you win
the division, you make the playoffs, and when you don't
win the division, your season's over.
Speaker 4 (02:17:01):
That was awesome.
Speaker 6 (02:17:02):
I agree, and WO were going back to that, and
then you added the wild card round, and then you've
added the Yeah, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger,
and to the point where like in the NBA now,
because of the play in tournament, there's thirty teams, ten
of them, only ten of them have their season end
at game eighty two. The other twenty have more basketball
(02:17:22):
to play.
Speaker 4 (02:17:23):
That's another thing that's wrong. It's just like the the.
Speaker 5 (02:17:27):
The nd season tournament. You're putting band aids on cancer.
Speaker 6 (02:17:33):
Basically, well, they just don't have any value in the
complex of the You in order to get to the playoffs,
you've got to do this. No, what we'd rather see
is more teams in the mix in March and April,
because let's say only twelve teams in the playoffs in
the NBA, or you know, we sixteen or whatever, twenty
make it now kind of sixteen eventually of advance, Well,
(02:17:54):
they're trying to keep more teams in it. Like the tanking,
that's part of the angle of it, I guess, because
certain teams. You'll look the way Philadelphia was finishing, and
look the way Dallas was finishing.
Speaker 4 (02:18:03):
A year ago.
Speaker 6 (02:18:04):
You know, we're at this point in the season where
I don't know that we can win it, So can
we manipulate the final month of our schedule. So we're
in a good position to keep our pick because it
has these protections on it. Because if this is what's
happening there, they're trying to keep more teams into trying
to win and trying to make the playoffs. And that's
what the whole idea of the play in tournament is.
It's I guess in their mind. I'm sure they believe
(02:18:27):
it's working. I just don't like seeing that many teams
get there, and we all know at the end of
the playoff sequencing the teams that are well definitely nine
and ten, they're not playoff teams. They didn't they didn't
do what you'd expect the team to need to to qualify.
Here's what you need to do to qualify for the
playing tournament in the NBA. Not be embarrassingly bad. You
(02:18:50):
can be bad, you can lose more than you win.
You can be six to ten games under five hundred.
But that's all it takes. That's all we want you
to do this year, and you'll make the play in tournament.
That's not key. Being bulls fans interested in their season.
That's not keeping more eyeballs on the games they're They're bad.
They're bad at basketball, and that's what they do. They
should not be advancing to anything.
Speaker 5 (02:19:10):
Yeah, it needs to mean something when you make the
playoffs in any sport. I think it still means something
in football, but that's almost like its own category because
football is such a violent and taxing physical game that
you know, their problem is that they're awarding the wrong
(02:19:31):
team's home court in the first round or home field.
Speaker 6 (02:19:33):
Let's say the the you know, Grizzlies are forty and
twenty eight heading into their final fourteen games of the
season trying to make the playoffs. They're gonna make it.
They're in a really good spot. They're twelve games over.
That's what the Seattle Seahawks were at the end of
the season. They were ten and seven. They didn't make
the playoffs. They tied for the division title. They didn't
make the playoffs. That's good. Yeah, me, it just means
(02:19:58):
more Rex exactly. That's what it means. The mean again,
and that's why I hate them.
Speaker 5 (02:20:02):
Well, that's why I hate the play in because you're
taking a league that already has too many teams making
the postseason half and then you're adding two more teams,
well three, Really, it's just I don't know. It's that's
why I talk about gimmicky stuff with baseball. I get
on baseball more about that because we're always told about
(02:20:23):
the traditions that it's steeped in and all that. The
NBA has never been upty in that way. But the
NBA is constantly bringing up the rear in the Big Three,
and they wonder why, and so instead of addressing the
actual problems, they're just throwing more gimmicks out there to
see if it's gonna stick. It's just a bigger version
(02:20:44):
of their stupid All Star weekend. Well let's just change
it up and do this over here. I know a
skill composition. Well that was sort of cool and novel
for like a day. All right, Well, this year we're
gonna do us versus the World. It's gonna be the
same ending. And I sound like I'm bagging on the NBA.
I love the NBA. I love this game, but it's
like you're not addressing the problem in each of these
(02:21:07):
And as usual, the NFL's king even when they try
to do something.
Speaker 6 (02:21:13):
We'll eventually get there. It's because of what it is.
Speaker 5 (02:21:16):
And the NFL's got the worst All Star weekend because
it's not really an All Star game and.
Speaker 6 (02:21:20):
They know it, and so they nobody cares about it,
and they're not trying to make you care about it.
Speaker 4 (02:21:25):
Right, it is what it is.
Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
As Matt Thomas, they said having a game was dumb,
so they stopped.
Speaker 5 (02:21:31):
Yeah, and the Pro Bowl games are no special feature.
But and then when consultants came in and be like,
you want to try and make this better, they go,
it's fine, not quite.
Speaker 4 (02:21:41):
Basically, they don't care.
Speaker 5 (02:21:42):
You're right, hey, let's have them throw these footballs through
a moving target.
Speaker 6 (02:21:46):
Woo, asking a physical game their players to go play
an exhibition game after your season either ended a month
ago or just ended, and you're super disappointed. It's a
I can't halfway play football, either I'm playing or not,
And they went the right direction. You don't have to.
You can throw footballs, you can play kicksand or whatever
(02:22:06):
it is. We have games to be played for you
at the Pro Bowl games. We shall see it is
five thirty we will hit you with in case you
missed it.
Speaker 2 (02:22:14):
Next the AED on Sports Talk seven ninety scare right
to it.
Speaker 6 (02:22:24):
Undoubtedly some major news items we've not had a chance
to get to, or others we've only briefly touched upon
or not in quite some time.
Speaker 4 (02:22:30):
It's in case you missed it. What do we have today, Cole, Well.
Speaker 7 (02:22:33):
We got an update, and it's not a pretty one,
but we do have an update on the situation surrounding
for the time being, Houston Texans defensive back Jimmy ward
who was arrested early Thursday morning.
Speaker 4 (02:22:44):
He is now dealing with third.
Speaker 7 (02:22:46):
Degree assault charges on a felony domestic violence charge. Recently
was released on bail at thirty thousand dollars. Phone calls
made it back Nollia, Texas this morning around five thirty
he was booked.
Speaker 4 (02:22:57):
Remember last season he played in ten games. He was
fielded on as a captain.
Speaker 7 (02:23:01):
Siety won year extension during the middle of the season.
They bring him back in twenty twenty five. Was not
available for any part of OTA's in mini camps. They're
now facing more charges. According to Sports Starks of the nineties,
Aaron Wilson Texas safety Jimmy warder ret lease from Montgomery
County jail on a thirty thousand dollars bond set by
Meg Strake this afternoon.
Speaker 4 (02:23:21):
He currently is facing.
Speaker 7 (02:23:22):
Third degree felinary charges after allegations that he choked his
fiance and his baby mother.
Speaker 6 (02:23:28):
Yeah, deputy is saying assaulted, strangled, and threatened by her fiance,
which is Jamie Ward.
Speaker 5 (02:23:34):
Not great, not great at all. We covered this earlier,
you mentioned this. I agree. I don't think he was
going to wind up being on the team anyway. I
don't think this is going to help that cause. And
it's just a very very unfortunate situation. He is what
rehabbing because is of foot surgery, foot surgery, and.
Speaker 4 (02:23:56):
You know, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:23:57):
I'm sure we'll find out more about the circumstances around
this incident, but I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:24:03):
It's just ugly. There's nothing really else to say about it.
Then what else do we have? Do you guys?
Speaker 7 (02:24:08):
Remember back in what was in twenty sixteen, there was
a rumor that Joey Bosa wasn't gonna sign his contract
with the San Diego Chargers and so he was gonna
re enter the draft in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4 (02:24:20):
Yeah, stuff that never happens, I remember. Yeah, Well it may.
Speaker 7 (02:24:23):
Actually happen because Shamar Stewart, who we talked about yesterday
not signing his deal, but the Cincinnati Bengals who ac
the more and more I see what's happening out in Cincinnati.
I'm laaning with you that Joe Burrow's not going to
the playoffs this year.
Speaker 4 (02:24:35):
Oh because Samar Stuart Well, just stay with me.
Speaker 7 (02:24:40):
He left a mandatory mini camp on Thursday over his
contract dispute. The reasoning behind this contract dispute has nothing
to do with the guaranteed money.
Speaker 4 (02:24:48):
What the Bengals are doing.
Speaker 7 (02:24:49):
Is they're trying to put in a clause that will
say we will not pay you if you somehow suffer
a season ending injury. So it doesn't matter if you're
on our facility, it doesn't matter if you get in
a car wreck, it doesn't matter if you're driving to practice.
If something happens to you, we are not going to
be willing to pay that injury settlement.
Speaker 4 (02:25:08):
He wasn't here.
Speaker 7 (02:25:09):
Today, so we're just focused on the guys.
Speaker 4 (02:25:10):
That were said coach Zach Taylor.
Speaker 7 (02:25:12):
He had a mixed comments regarding the former Texas.
Speaker 4 (02:25:15):
A and M Star. These are conversations that have been going.
Speaker 7 (02:25:17):
On for a while, and remember Earlier this week, Shamar
Stewart remembered the media and said he does not know
when he plans on actually returning to practice, but he
will not budget until the addendums of this contract are finalized.
Put in a play and one of the big things
is everything surrounding an injury settlement.
Speaker 6 (02:25:35):
I mean, I know, not to minimize how awful it
looks for both sides and not. It sounds like an
awful way to go about. Hey, welcome to the franchise,
except and it feels like there might be a different
way to handle it if you're Shamar, especially since I
really don't think there it doesn't have any nobody in
this system currently has any leverage as rookies. The way
(02:25:59):
that the salary straws ructures put together now, the threat
of going back into the draft seems pretty hollow. I
don't think that's any way to further your NFL career
by working out all year, working out for a year.
Speaker 7 (02:26:11):
Would you just trade him now to another team and
just get what you couldn't return.
Speaker 6 (02:26:15):
I would absolutely consider it, as the Astros did this
many years ago. What do I don't know the answer.
What do the Bengals get out of this. If he
shows to go back into the.
Speaker 7 (02:26:27):
Draft, they get a compensation pick now, which is yeah,
I think it's a round two pick.
Speaker 4 (02:26:31):
I don't think it's around one, right, and it's not
in the top five. So then you weigh that again
definitely not.
Speaker 6 (02:26:37):
You weigh that into Okay, if we trade him, what
are we getting versus if we let him do what
he wants, he goes back in the draft and the
compensation we get. But you also have to work the
timeline into that, because the compensation you're going to get
is off into the future.
Speaker 4 (02:26:50):
Hey, trade you make now presumably is for something.
Speaker 6 (02:26:52):
If it's next year's draft, maybe it's comparable from a
timing standpoint. Trey Hendrickson not being a Bengal in twenty
twenty five, that might help keep them out of the playoffs.
Shamar Stewart not being there in twenty twenty five. I mean,
wasting a top pick is bad. I get that, but
I don't know that that's what keeps them from being
reasonably good defensively when their offense probably has to carry
(02:27:15):
the load, just like it has most of the burrough time,
not all of it, at most.
Speaker 7 (02:27:19):
Take it this way, Now, we look at different perspective
of you just spent a lot of money on two
wide receivers and to make your quarterback happy.
Speaker 2 (02:27:26):
But you are more.
Speaker 7 (02:27:27):
Than just t Higgins, Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow. So
what is it going to say to free agents who
are now looking at the situation?
Speaker 4 (02:27:35):
If you get.
Speaker 7 (02:27:35):
Injured, if you fall down your stairs, if something happens
to you, we don't want to go ahead and right
you would check because if you're not playing for us,
doesn't that hurt the team? Not just this year but
every single year when it comes to.
Speaker 6 (02:27:46):
It only hurts them in twenty sixes, Like we're talking
about the twenty twenty to five Bengals making the playoffs,
all the stuff you're talking about in free agency, et cetera.
Unless you're talking about some Nick Chubb caliber still available
free agent, it affects them in the future. Honestly, it
doesn't affect them at all. Is this new to agents?
Speaker 4 (02:28:05):
Hey?
Speaker 6 (02:28:05):
The Bengals sucked to work with, not new, Nothing new
goes backuade a new way to help prove it.
Speaker 4 (02:28:12):
What else do we have?
Speaker 7 (02:28:13):
So the Astros, at least in my opinion, need a
starter now. They don't need a frontline starter, they need
a back end starter, a usee Ki Kuchi of swords,
and one name to pay attention to should be Aaron
Savale of the Milwaukee Brewers. Because of the right hander
recently asked the club if he could be traded at
some point before this year's deadline. His spot in the
(02:28:34):
rotation got taken over by top prospect jak Mscarowski last
week from Triple A Nashville.
Speaker 4 (02:28:40):
He has now moved to the bullpen, not having about
his role in the bullpen.
Speaker 7 (02:28:43):
This past season, had a one to two record with
a four point four to nine ERA in five starts.
Over on his career, he's forty and thirty seven with
the four h six career ERA, but trips in Cleveland,
Tampa and the Brewers who were traded for late last
July to help them get over the hump.
Speaker 4 (02:28:58):
And win the NL Central. Just a name that is
very unhappy.
Speaker 7 (02:29:02):
With the situation that could be someone the Astros make
a phone call for low tier prospect, get him in
the building, have him as your number five starter. If
things go south with what we are seeing from other
guys outside Ryan Gusto.
Speaker 6 (02:29:16):
His eight million dollar pro rated salary for this year
would be a humongous hurdle for the Astros who are
up against it, to say the least in some sort
of acquisition debatable, but he's probably having one of his
least successful seasons. I'm more of an odd man out
than he's pitching so badly, but he definitely has not
pitched well. Thirty year old last year of his deal. Yes,
(02:29:40):
these are the types of players that usually are available.
I bought the same thing about him for what he
had been doing, but he's just not been particularly effective recently.
And I think adding a five million dollar player, whatever
the number is, whenever they get him, presumably, I don't
know how they do that.
Speaker 5 (02:29:58):
Yeah, Jim Craine is not going to even flirt with
that unless it's say ironclad, this is absolutely going to
help the team.
Speaker 4 (02:30:05):
I don't know where the you know what are you
moving out to counteract that?
Speaker 6 (02:30:09):
Obviously, they traded Rafael Montero way earlier this year for
a small amount of relief, and I'm not sure where
other substantial relief can come from, especially for what you're saying.
And I agree, he's not frontline material. He's the number four,
number five guy.
Speaker 4 (02:30:26):
So you can't afford to pay that guy that much money.
Speaker 6 (02:30:28):
If I'm not saying it's what I would do, I'm
just saying that's how they are currently operating.
Speaker 4 (02:30:32):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 6 (02:30:34):
And by the time this happens, presumably your next guy
in line, Spencer Araghetti, who makes less than a million,
is now the fourth guy, with Lance being.
Speaker 4 (02:30:43):
The third trade act position. But the other part of
is that you're really gonna go.
Speaker 6 (02:30:47):
I mean, they went out and got you, say, Kakuchi
last year, and they spent the money needed. They had
three prospects that the Blue Jays wanted. I just I
can't imagine this is the guy. It's definitely a name
to watch. He's absolutely going to be traded, and no
question about it, He'll be in somebody's rotation that's not Milwaukee.
Speaker 4 (02:31:05):
Just don't think it'll be here in Houston.
Speaker 2 (02:31:10):
The ad on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 5 (02:31:13):
Ninety following Flex's six to one prediction and calls for
nothing shutout. As we wind down the show in the
anticipation of the finale between the much I mean, this
(02:31:35):
was a huge series this year.
Speaker 4 (02:31:37):
It was circled on the calendar.
Speaker 5 (02:31:39):
Friends and family were flown in and you needed to
get I mean, it's the tickets are hard to come by.
Let's face it, White Sox, that's Troe's. I can't even
finish it with straight face. The series, Well, of course
you were. You're a professional White Sox hater.
Speaker 4 (02:31:54):
That is not true.
Speaker 7 (02:31:55):
Good serve my professional Cubs hater. How dare you same difference?
Speaker 4 (02:31:59):
There is not.
Speaker 7 (02:32:00):
There's a giant difference. The Pope is on one team side.
Speaker 5 (02:32:02):
Guess what we here in Houston as baseball fans hate
both of your teams for various reasons. Actually, I think,
I mean Astros fans should probably hate the White Sox more.
Speaker 4 (02:32:15):
But I know they don't because of all the years
in the NL Central.
Speaker 5 (02:32:18):
Yeah, I definitely should hate the White Sox more, but
the weren't the team that kept you from winning the
World Series in five. That was the other Chicago team.
Speaker 4 (02:32:26):
No, the White Sox are the team they should hate
the most.
Speaker 5 (02:32:28):
Oh, I thought you said the Cubs really? Because of that,
all those battles with.
Speaker 6 (02:32:36):
The Cove carry Wood's ridiculous afternoon of baseball doesn't make
me hate the Cubs more.
Speaker 5 (02:32:40):
Thin Carry He was thin as a player, Well he
got fat after and then the Astros future manager ran
him into the ground like he did all his starting pitchers.
Speaker 4 (02:32:51):
Oh, that is inaccurate.
Speaker 5 (02:32:53):
It's not really Dusty Baker didn't run his pictures into
the ground.
Speaker 6 (02:32:58):
It's like his REP all right, Am I wrong? I
thought his REP was winning? No, his REP was almost winning.
I don't think that's going to be on his Hall
of Fame plaque. I think the winning will be.
Speaker 7 (02:33:09):
No.
Speaker 5 (02:33:09):
He was the Dallas Cowboys of Major League Baseball until
he came here. He won a lot in the regular
season and found ways to lose in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (02:33:15):
Not really, well, what did he? I mean? He that's
not true.
Speaker 6 (02:33:20):
The Cowboys are falling flat on their faces, like as
soon as they get there, in dramatic, unbelievable at home fashion.
Dusty's teams never won a World Series in baseball the
hardest one.
Speaker 5 (02:33:32):
To win, Yes, it is the hardest one to win.
Speaker 6 (02:33:38):
The best teams in baseball have a very low winning
percentage in terms of World Series, and like the same
for the other two sports.
Speaker 5 (02:33:44):
Right, And like we were talking about earlier, he was
doing a majority of his not quite getting it done
in a time where it was much much harder and
meant so much more.
Speaker 4 (02:33:53):
We let's just make the postseason it's just difficult. It's baseball.
It's just the nature of the sport.
Speaker 5 (02:33:57):
Well, he should have twenty three. He went there for nineteen,
but even twenty one, like, it's just I don't know,
they were injured in twenty one, So I don't usually
get as upset about that one. Twenty three is kind
of like low key creeping up on nineteen. I'm still
not as bitter because the nineteen team is the best
(02:34:19):
team in baseball to never win a championship.
Speaker 4 (02:34:20):
It's not even close. They were very good. They were No,
they were better than very good. They were great. They
were the best team to never win a championship. I
mean argument, I.
Speaker 5 (02:34:30):
Was who was I talking about the other day? And
the graphics that you would routinely see put up during
regular season games by whatever they were calling the channel
at the time. It wasn't quite Space City yet, but
it was like twenty seven Yankees, you know, thirty two whatever,
and then the Astros or the Astros were at the
top of whatever list they were talking about.
Speaker 4 (02:34:51):
There was so many different statistical just insanities. You know,
they went ten and eight in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (02:34:58):
The twenty or the eighteen team, yep, see That's what's
so impressive about the second title team.
Speaker 4 (02:35:04):
They didn't even lose until they got to the World Series.
Speaker 5 (02:35:09):
They swept the Mariners at.
Speaker 6 (02:35:12):
Eight o'clock because they were dominating teams, or they were
winning late and crushing those teams in that spirit. Game
one in Seattle, well, game one against Seattle.
Speaker 5 (02:35:21):
And they were down them three nothing in Game four
in Yankee Stadium, and then Jeremy Panier was like, no,
I'm gonna get it.
Speaker 4 (02:35:28):
I'm gonna go ahead and hit a three run bomb here.
Speaker 6 (02:35:30):
I mean they had to go the full boat with
the Rays in twenty nineteen. They needed the whole series
five games. Yes, well, they had awesome pictures that year. Okay,
I mean we act like what they did in the
year the year they won the title in twenty twenty two, Like,
how do you get It's almost impossible to get better
than they want to?
Speaker 5 (02:35:50):
Let you know what saying that the Rays in that
first round five game of course series, that game five,
which I believe Garrett Cole started and just flung filth
he did and he did that was the only game
where going into it during that playoff run, I had
a little bit of doubt in my head.
Speaker 4 (02:36:11):
You were facing elimination.
Speaker 5 (02:36:12):
Yeah, it's dangerous, but you were facing elimination basically the
entirety of the World Series because you were down.
Speaker 4 (02:36:19):
Oh two, any did your mind?
Speaker 5 (02:36:21):
And I thought they were gonna win every one of
the the last five games.
Speaker 6 (02:36:23):
Every time the Garrett Cole game you're mentioning, did anything
ease get a little bit easier for you? After they
opened the game with a single, single, single, double, single
four run first?
Speaker 4 (02:36:34):
Did it make it a little easier knowing that he
was on the mound?
Speaker 6 (02:36:37):
Yes, he had already gotten through his first shutout inning
of the seven. He would twirl. He gave up a
run in one of the eight innings he pitched. He
did give up two hits that day, two hits.
Speaker 4 (02:36:47):
I hope you know.
Speaker 7 (02:36:48):
I'm getting vehemently more mad the way you talk about this,
because they should have won a.
Speaker 5 (02:36:52):
Serious because Washington Walgreens saw any other sport they would
have and would have easily Max Sure are in his
stupid different colored eyes, stupid Anthony Rindone who's done nothing
but be injured.
Speaker 4 (02:37:06):
Since Howie Kendrick had never did anything after that one.
Speaker 5 (02:37:09):
Howie Kendrick's stupid foul poll home run go directly to
you know where Washington Walgreens. I hate that team. I
mean they don't, they mean nothing. It's just they were
the team that was in the way and found a way.
Speaker 7 (02:37:23):
Well, you know what's even funnier is that most teams
afterwards stay at least somewhat irrelevant for two or three years.
Speaker 5 (02:37:29):
Yeah, they stated a cliff. They did the Florida Marlins
and fire sailed it. And you remember where we were
sitting on the surface of the moon for the for
the World Series like we would every year.
Speaker 4 (02:37:40):
You remember that Howie Kendrick home run? Remember it? Remember
what we did? Are you kidding me? And hit the
foul pole.
Speaker 5 (02:37:47):
Yeah, that's an impression of us in the section because
of where we were sitting.
Speaker 6 (02:37:51):
Well, one of that was just one of the four
Astros home games where they allowed five or more runs
to the Nationals. They're unbelievable, can't hit troops, super star
pitching staff and gave up five, twelve, seven, and six
runs to the Nationals and their four wins. Here at
then minute, Mabe I hate him.
Speaker 4 (02:38:10):
And Zach Greenky had a two to one lead going
into the gase.
Speaker 6 (02:38:13):
I mean, what do you expect when you start in
those four games, Garrett Cole, Verlander twice and Grenky, Why
would you think you'd win? Why would you think their
offense would be absent?
Speaker 4 (02:38:21):
This is why I hate baseball. I just you love baseball?
Shut up, Cole? I do, I do. It's just so
try to sell yourself why you hate it so much? Well,
I do hate bad baseball.
Speaker 5 (02:38:34):
And Wex will tell you that because he's known me
for twenty plus years and I've he knows what it's like.
Speaker 4 (02:38:39):
When do you feel like you should.
Speaker 6 (02:38:41):
Win the World Series when you're in that seven game
series and Garrett Cole has the same number of wins
as Jose Archidi and Josh James within that series?
Speaker 4 (02:38:49):
Is that sound right? James?
Speaker 7 (02:38:51):
Wow?
Speaker 6 (02:38:51):
The astros first World Series win in twenty nineteen came
from Josh James.
Speaker 4 (02:38:57):
Because it was tied when he came into what inning.
Speaker 6 (02:38:59):
It was the obviously the first game in Washington, Okay,
the Astros had to had to go to the pen
after four and two thirds of Zach Greenki's work, and
after Josh James threw eight pitches to finish the fifth inning,
he walked away four innings and many minutes later, the
winter Is that.
Speaker 5 (02:39:19):
The game that that Bregman hit the Grand Slam? Or
was that Game four?
Speaker 4 (02:39:23):
It was not this game? Okay? That was the two v.
Homer game, wasn't it. I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (02:39:29):
Game four was when Orchidi absolutely was flinging his own
filth as a rookie.
Speaker 6 (02:39:34):
All Right, what are they going to fling tonight? Presumably
filth at the Chicago White Sox. No hit or from
ber deck Astros.
Speaker 2 (02:39:42):
Next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam, raised by Earl
Nolan Hockey, volted by the magnificent roller coaster ride.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
That is Houston sports.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Chill lage down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking Your Teams.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A teams A.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
It's a Thursday edition of the eight Team.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety soon to be on Space
City Home Network, and either one of those mediums was
a good way to watch that absolute beat down last
night of the Chicago White Sox. I feel good today
Wex We are one day closer to an epic Metallica show.
I feel very confident in saying it's gonna be the
(01:12):
best one I've ever seen. We have an NBA Finals
in which the underdog now has a two to one
series lead because they keep messing around with the narrative.
I don't think there is a narrative. We're talking about
Indiana and OKC. The ins narrative. Well, I can't say
it's the the bigger market team.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Is actually in the league.
Speaker 6 (01:34):
Yeah, the market size is not relevant. There was a
pretty heavy, heavy, heavy favorite yeah all year long, and
they went into this series as a heavy favorite.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Then they've been out played.
Speaker 5 (01:42):
But I'll tell you what last night is what should
have happened the night before and the two other times
they played in Chicago. It finally happened. They treated them
like the third world citizen team.
Speaker 6 (01:53):
That they are nice to get going early, and nice
when your pitcher gets going early, especially one of the
three non traditional astro starters, meaning they're here because of
attrition to the rest of the staff. No offense to
any of the three of them. But obviously, if this
astro staff was healthy, as it was at the beginning
of the year, none of them were in the rotation
then Ryan Gusto was an astro at the time and
(02:15):
his earner's right to keep pitching. This was a very,
very very much needed evening of baseball for him. It's
a major league team, so I certainly am not going
to have anything negative to say about it. He threw strikes,
he threw strikes past hitters, He hit his spots, he
didn't walk hitters, had just the one walk, struck seven out,
gave up a couple of runs after his team had
(02:37):
comfortably put him in front, and that's what got going
in the first and third innings, put a couple of
runs on the board in the first Christian Walker completed
his four rbi evening by the third inning with the
double and the homer, and you're on easy street the
rest of the way. It's good that you played add on,
it's good that the bullpen did what it always does,
pitches without allowing runs. And you get to go into
this game this evening hoping to continue to do what the
(03:01):
best Astros teams of this golden era have done. And
it is the simplest way to crush your division and
put yourself in position to avoid the wildcard. Just keep
winning series. They're not gonna sweep the White Sox. They
didn't sweep the Guardians, they didn't sweep the first team
they visited on the road, the awful Pittsburgh Pirates. But
they won those series, and with a win tonight behind
(03:23):
fromber Valdels, they'll do the same.
Speaker 4 (03:24):
They'll go six and three over those nine games.
Speaker 6 (03:27):
They'll move to eleven games over five hundred at Dykin Park.
These are the things that points you to the postseason,
points you to spending your time watching the Wildcard round.
They actually only have the fourth best record in the
American League one wildcard team is a half game ahead
of them. George Springer's team, Carlos Correa's team is probably
(03:48):
going to come to Houston rather unhappy in that they're
only down twelve in the sixth inning of their game
today in Minnesota to the otherwise hapless can't score Texas Rangers.
Rangers will put thirteen on the board. It's only the
sixth inning, so I think the Twins won't be too
pleased about how they come to town for their three
(04:08):
game series coming up this weekend.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
You've already beaten them in their building.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Guess what two out of three, which is almost all
of the Astros series this year, win or lose, and
you got a chance to do that to them as well.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Well.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
The only thing that would be better if it is
if somehow the Twins came back. Oh my god, did
you imagine?
Speaker 6 (04:28):
If the Rangers will be very very much a one
of a kind major League Baseball happening.
Speaker 4 (04:33):
It really would.
Speaker 5 (04:34):
What's the biggest comeback in Major League history in a
regular season game?
Speaker 4 (04:37):
It's gotta be bigger than that.
Speaker 6 (04:38):
I don't think it's bigger than that, because it takes
you a while to build that lead and then you
only have so many innings to come back from it
because you're further into the game.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Right, I don't know for sure.
Speaker 6 (04:48):
I could throw a guess at you, but I'm gonna
I would have guessed it's it's not bigger than twelve.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Yeah, we need to look this up. We'll find this out.
These very important information, by the way, and you'll see
this at the.
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Want the Twins to come to town with that kind
of happiness and momentum? Or are you wanting the Rangers
to lose?
Speaker 7 (05:07):
Like?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Who cares me?
Speaker 6 (05:09):
I'm already at the point in the season. I've reached it.
I'm not scoreboard watching Rangers games, Angels games, or Athletics games.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
But the way the Mariners and the Angels have been
playing in the way that by the way, Rangers have
what four wins in a row and this will be five?
Speaker 4 (05:26):
I think the Rangers.
Speaker 6 (05:28):
If the offense for the Rangers totally comes around and
all three of the pitchers that started the year so
well continue to do that, the Astros would have to
be concerned those things are not going to happen.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
Well, Seeger is still out, is he not?
Speaker 6 (05:41):
No, he's playing Okay, to fully come around. He's hitting
rockets all over the place with regularity. You know, roid
guy whatever his name.
Speaker 5 (05:51):
Is, Adulus Garcia, mister cycle. He's hit one over the fence.
So I'm not I'm only concerned if those things.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
Their offense probably will come around, and they might even
make a deal for an offensive player. But the caliber
of pitching they got is beyond believe. The comeback has begun.
Like Jacobs just scored another run. Yes, it's now thirteen
to two. Man, they're down eleven. They have two on,
none out. We will absolutely keep you up dated.
Speaker 5 (06:14):
Look at how dejected the Rangers pitcher is leaving the game.
He knows what's about to happen. It won't be on him.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
Well, they're they're leaving him on base. I didn't see.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Yeah, there all the runs he could be taxed with
is four. If another ten come across after that, then
his win will become a no decision.
Speaker 5 (06:34):
Unbeknownst to either of us. And like I was about
to say, you will see this, uh when the simulcast
gets underway. The theme of the day with our wardrobe
is a little bit of a throwback. You've got the
Kobe Stevens what would you call that. It's like because
(06:54):
it's got a lot of everything the Houston. I mean
there's the Astrodome is on it, but there's sort of
it's too stuff.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
It's all Houston.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
Yeah, but it's different phases of Houston because there's a
shuttle on there and there's also the be some one
bridge logo.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Shuttle is still current kind of, I mean they have one?
Did they have them? Didn't?
Speaker 5 (07:13):
Didn't NASA get annexed and now Elon runs everything with
as far as when we go to space?
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Is that how it works?
Speaker 6 (07:19):
Now you're gonna have to ask somebody who has those answers.
I got them, definitely not me.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
And then I'm I'm wearing the batting practice Nolan Ryan
Jersey today.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
So it's a very ultimate Houston print polo.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
That's what I'm wearing today. Love it.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Shout out to Kobe Stevens. We're idea, guys, We've got
something We're gonna run by him.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
He doesn't even know about yet.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
In the meantime, yes, we have an NBA Finals game
to talk about. We have a series lead for the
Pacers to talk about. It is not all good news
on the Houston sports front and I mean, I hate
to go completely heavy in the first segment, but come on,
Jimmy Ward, what are you doing?
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Yeah, I no, don't know obviously everything that took place,
but when a player is arrested overnight, there's a obviously
to go along with an arrest, there's a mugshot and
we'll get into the details of that that are known
based on the police report of Montgomery County police report
from five point thirty this morning for some sort of
(08:14):
domestic incident strangulation if you read the wording of it,
is what has been alleged, and the NFL and the
Texans are aware of the situation and do not have
a comment at this time. At this time is reference
to this morning when they first put out those respective statements.
Jimmy Ward was not seen during any of their on
(08:36):
field work in front of the media, did not participate
in those though he finished the year with a foot injury,
so likely case that was it very unrelated off field
and on field incidents or appearances. I should say I
was curious about the need to get him under contract
for an additional season last year before the season started,
(08:59):
which is why he is to a Houston Texan. I
thought that was an interesting choice for the Texans to
make one that was not necessary. And because of my
thoughts then and this unknown, fully unknown situation, I do
not think Jimmy Ward will be a Texan in twenty
twenty five. No, I already didn't think that, to make
myself clear, but because I don't want the convicted before
(09:22):
we know all the facts is not the way to go.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Not fair.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
But I don't believe he will be here. Yeah, I
kind of tend to well, I do agree, especially that
last part. It was like, when you're this is the
I hate to say it.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
Being here, by the way, doesn't excuse or are we
don't care? I still care. This is very bad thing
that he's alleged to have that part.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
Of no, no, no.
Speaker 5 (09:46):
And then that's I think that, well, it should go
without saying, but I guess in today's day and age,
you kind of have to clarify something like that. But
I it is the seedier, nastier side of the business
we talk about every day in that if he was
more talented, if this were Jalen Peatrie, if this were
Derek Stingley Junior, do you think it's different.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
Yes, it is, And I hate even hypothetical because you
just attached their names to it.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
I'm secondary that are really really good.
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Why I tried to separate it right out of the gate.
Jimmy Ward, thirty three year old Texans reserve safety, wasn't
gonna make the team. In my opinion, there would be
no reason for him to be here for a lot
of football only related reasons.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
He's constantly hurt.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
He's a dangerous player because he hurts other players, sometimes
his own teammates. And they added CJ. Gardner Johnson without
losing anybody else in the secondary of value. I know
Eric Murray got a fat contract to leave, which doesn't
do anything.
Speaker 7 (10:49):
M J.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Stewart is still here. They drafted a new safety who
clearly will make the team, at least just from a
number standpoint.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
He was gonna have a hard time making the team
to begin with. I would like I'm saying, I just
don't think it would have been here anyway. It doesn't
excuse the altercation in any way. But if it did not,
if those things weren't in place, and now you are
talking about a different caliber player, it's becomes a much
more difficult decision, and we can't act like it doesn't
because we know how sports are, especially the NFL, and
(11:20):
the number of players required to outfit your team and
the lack of ability to find players like that as easily.
Speaker 4 (11:28):
So yeah, I think it's pretty obvious.
Speaker 6 (11:30):
I don't know if I would say it's from a
Texan standpoint, because they've had very few instances where it's
actually come down to I'm shocked to this player still
on the team. They've had players involved clearly with some
different things, and most of the time they haven't been here.
After that, other teams, we have concrete evidence he was
involved in this. This is how the case went, this
is how the NFL viewed it, and he's in their
(11:50):
lineup this week.
Speaker 7 (11:52):
It just also keep in mind that he wasn't at
any OTAs or mini camp practices the last three weeks.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Yep.
Speaker 6 (11:58):
I'd mentioned that as the onset of this. The you know,
the on field activities that we saw, which was multiple
times each week, he was not a part of that,
and the foot injury that ended his season last year.
Something to note, he's been to the facility. Aaron Wilson
John Alexander both reporting on this from this morning. He
had been there for rehab instances and getting better and
(12:23):
typical or off season preparation for a player who is
under contract for the upcoming season. But the twenty five
twenty twenty five Texans SAMs Jimmy Ward seems likely.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
All right, We've got a lot to talk about, so obviously,
and we will get to all of it on a
Thursday edition of the program That will include a replay
of Brian McTaggart to visit on the station from earlier today,
and a whole lot more on a Thursday edition of
the program.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
The Aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
It is the a Team Sports Talk at seven ninety.
It's a Thursday edition of the program. The the fact
that the Astros did last night what I thought they
were going to do in the opener is kind of
one of those frustrating scenarios. Everything that happened in the opener,
(13:33):
and that includes, you know, Lance mccullors and everything that
goes into that. I was texting somebody last night, not WEX,
and I was like, ah, this is more like it,
and I got the response, gave us a one night reprieve,
because that's that's kind of how people felt, because they're like,
why didn't you do this in the other three games
that you lost to this awful baseball team. I know
(13:54):
the Rockies exist, but come on, man, this is the
al Rockies.
Speaker 6 (13:58):
They're definitely not the Rockies. I know they have good
young pitching, because they prove that they're like, they're just
nowhere near. I said this last hour when I filled
in a little bit with Ross, they're not. They just
simply aren't as bad as everybody thinks. Their record stinks,
but they just aren't as bad as everyone thinks. And
then the opener of this series really definitely showed you
one reason why, and that's why baseball is unlike all
the other sports.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
They have one really good starter. Guess who pitched in
the opener.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
They're one really good starter, and he was really good,
and the Astros did not get to him. They looked
like they could and looked like they were going to,
and they had a bunch of traffic, but he was
able to get out of it. And they hit into
three double plays throughout the course of the evening, which
is something this team will do a lot, especially when
they're putting guys on base, because it's pretty hard to
do that when they aren't. But last night they last
night's game was way more out of the ordinary than
(14:45):
the ordinary Astros. They had eight extra base hits. They
don't do that at seven doubles, they don't do that.
Everybody was hitting. Basically multi hit game for you. You
get a multi hit game, and you'll get a multi
hit game, and you'll get a multi hit game, and
Christian Walker you get four RBIs first time all season
he's driven in more than three runs in a game. Well,
(15:07):
very very much out of the ordinary for the Astros,
no matter who the other team is.
Speaker 5 (15:11):
I feel like, and this is what sucks about the
type of season he's having, both for him and for us. Frankly,
I feel like every time he has a game like this,
and I'm not gonna say whoa because there's so few
and far between, but they're not consistent either that I
feel like we have this conversation, Oh, it was nice
to see Christian Walker contribute. You know, It's like it
sucks because everybody, most of all him, knows that this
(15:35):
is not the norm, and so it's it's almost like
you can't enjoy it because you.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
End up getting fixated on well, why doesn't you do
this more?
Speaker 5 (15:44):
And I don't feel that way, and I know others don't,
but I think some people probably think that way sometimes
when he has a night like he did last.
Speaker 6 (15:50):
Night, mixed in a strikeout to try to temper everything,
you try to you know, eight extra base hits in
a game for the Astros, that's the best. That's the
first time, second time they've done that this season. It's
very very much out of the ordinary.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Yeah, well again, I'm not gonna it was like, Okay,
so when McCullers had a really great outing his last time,
well it was against the Athletics, noo.
Speaker 6 (16:19):
Lastly, starts were outstanding. You gave him six innings. One day,
you gave up three runs. The other day you gave
up no runs. It was great. He had nineteen strikeouts
and twelve innings. He was pitching great. He was throwing strikes,
he was getting ahead of hitters, and he was putting
hitters away. He did some of those things in the
opener of this series, but he wasn't putting hitters away,
and he had his highest walk total of the season.
These are things that make it difficult. But had the
(16:41):
Astros mixed in a few extra base hits against Smith
and the opener they might have been able to win
a five to four game or win a six to
four game. Clearly, the offense didn't show in the first game.
And you're not just gonna say, well, their pitcher was
too good. He's good, he's not unbelievable, he's not unhittable,
and he's far from unbeatable.
Speaker 4 (16:58):
But their offense is what it is this point in
the season.
Speaker 6 (17:00):
I think we've seen enough of them to say until
yord On Alvarez comes back and either only starts hitting
well for him or because he's in the lineup now,
it makes things easier for other because the others, because
the pitchers have to focus a little bit differently.
Speaker 4 (17:14):
Where he slots in the order.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
Does that impact, you know, the three guys in front
of him, if he ends up being the cleanup hitter,
how much does it change the pitches that Jose Altuve
is going to see where they're a little more reluctant
to have him chasing pitches because if he lays off,
then all of a sudden, now he's on base two.
You know, Jeremy Paania batting lead off with yord On
Alvarez batting somewhere behind him is something we haven't seen.
(17:36):
We haven't seen a whole of I've certainly not with
a good yard on Albert. We haven't seen it period.
We've seen him batting in the two hole in front
of Alvarez thanks to Dusty, and it was awesome. So
Painia batting in front of Alvarez in some capacity seems
like it could pay off very very well. If it
pays off now like it paid off, then.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Are you ready for the dumbest but yet needs to
be asked question out the return of Jordon Alvarez?
Speaker 4 (18:03):
Sure, I'm ready. It's not gonna change anything, is it.
That's uh? I don't even what do you mean?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Okay, when was Paanya inserted into his current role? Was
Jordon already out? I believe he was because he's been
out a while, but I I could see where it
was like bumping up against it.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Maybe.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
But it doesn't matter because the Jordon we're talking about
this year is the only one I never want to
see again.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Well, I don't think you will see him again once
he gets back, because now we know what was wrong
with him exactly. Had to have been injured, Like you
don't have a player that's that Like all this talk
about Juan Soto for example. And then I saw this
this headline last night. It was this graphic. Oh, he's
finally starting to look like the seven hundred million dollars.
What are you talking about? Like he had a stretch
of he wasn't superhuman, Okay, So either something's wrong with
(18:53):
people like that or they're just getting acclimated. That's why
Christian Walker in some senses has been frustrating. Although he's
not on the level of those two guys as a hitter.
But like I fully, I'm not even kidding when I
say I think he's going to hit a home run
in his first game back. He did it the last
time he was back from his oblique so you know,
I just but then you start talking about the batting
order and everything else, and baseball is weird sometimes. What
(19:16):
I'm saying is I love this version of Jeremy Pania,
and I want this version to not only continue, but
like continue to get better too.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (19:24):
Five games, that was it. He was batting lead off
in front of Alvarez for five games.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
In front of a guy who had a broken bone
in his.
Speaker 6 (19:31):
Hand, several spots in front of him. Yes, yes, to
be specific. The game before Payna moved to the leadoff spot.
It was Altuve, Alvarez, perettist Paena in the lineup one, two,
three four.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
And we're not even you know, on a night where
it's so we've been on the air twenty five minutes
narrowly and we have not mentioned the fact that JOSEL.
Tuve now has twenty three hundred.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Hits, Like I am me hmm, here comes before last
night's game, the only two active Major leaguers with two thousand,
two hundred and ninety eight hits. Where Jose Altuve and
Freddie Freeman and now they're the only two active Major
leaguers with twenty three.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Hundred hits or more like? It makes me different, man,
it makes a difference.
Speaker 4 (20:17):
You can't move.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
On up on any littlebody is going to games before
Nobody is going to the game holding a two and
a two and a nine and a nine cutout her.
Speaker 4 (20:26):
Here's why I don't like it.
Speaker 6 (20:27):
It makes me feel like everyone is dumb. What do
you mean, because we can't keep track of anything unless
it's a nice clean number. It just looks better. It's
just another one. You don't have to get twenty three,
one hundred and one hits after tonight. You don't have
to rain on every parade. I'm just telling you, I
know what's the fans can hold up twenty three hundred
all they want. But you just got done saying he's
(20:49):
one of two. He was one of two two weeks ago. Also,
he was one of two a month ago.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
When you open up presence, do you like.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
He's gonna be one of two for the remainder of
his career? He's two, Freddy's one. Are you hearing this
in here? I swear to god, it could be Christmas.
It could be Christmas morning, and you would be like,
if he passed him, that would be something. He'd be like,
look at all this paper we got to pick up.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Now, No, there's no paper to pick up because as
soon as it comes off the box, it goes right
into the garbage bag because you're standing there with it, yes,
because of course, and you have to crumple it up
to its tiniest amount of space.
Speaker 5 (21:24):
You know, I'm not getting a second trash bag. I
wish this was televised right now so you could see
me dying inside. Even though I know you're not gonna
use them again. I'll save the bows they'll go in
a separate bag.
Speaker 4 (21:36):
Dumb. Oh my gosh. Okay, Well when you.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
Make them yourself and you spend all that time folding, increasing,
and why would you want to do it again the
next year or for the next gift? Yeah, wrapping gifts. See,
I'm with you. There, we got a closet full of
gift bags. I ain't wrapping gifts. No, I can't open
the bag hand it to them.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
I'm an idiot. I'll probably put tissue paper in there. Now,
I'll put tissue paper in there, and then I'll throw
it away.
Speaker 5 (22:03):
People people who are willing to take the time and
YouTube do exist. And I still can't rap presents and
I never will. I'm forty four years old. I'm not
starting now. It's like drinking. Why would I start now?
It's a cal Rippians streak. Hey, Brooklyn, get in here.
I bought all these Could you please wrap them the best?
Speaker 4 (22:20):
She does? Yeah.
Speaker 6 (22:21):
The bag has a nice bottom, it stands up, it's
got a handle. You can write on it. It's fine.
Speaker 7 (22:26):
Usually it comes with a small little card you can
just put two from.
Speaker 4 (22:29):
You can also write on the bag.
Speaker 5 (22:30):
So when he's fine, when we get to the end
of hose on to his career and he's sitting at.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
With a bag of goodies, not a rapped present. Oh
my gosh. So when he winds up with two nine
seventy eight hits.
Speaker 6 (22:47):
The dumbs that vote for the Hall of Fame will
think he's a lesser player because of he doesn't have
the nice neat number plateau.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
But more importantly, what are you going to do?
Speaker 4 (22:56):
It won't make any difference to me.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
He's a Hall of Famer if he finishes with twenty
nine oh seven or thirty three thousand and six. It
doesn't change his career to me. It will to them
because they're dumb.
Speaker 7 (23:06):
Jeff Bagwells in the Hall of Fame without five hundred
home runs, so come on, like cauz Altove absolutely belongs there.
Speaker 6 (23:11):
Yeah, and it shouldn't be. Oh, he's in the three
thousand club. I know yesterday is in the twenty nine
ninety eight club. Can you seriously, I'm gonna I think
I'm gonna open up the twenty nine ninety eight club
down down at the ballpark if I can drum up
enough money.
Speaker 5 (23:25):
Ay Mark with ramshirts, are you listening? Can we get
that shirt printed up soon? Because he's doing it again.
He's being wax.
Speaker 6 (23:32):
I mean, I get it, it's nice, and you know
what else, like these clubs are gonna be obsolete because
nobody's gonna do these things. What do you mean on
the pitching side for sure? Like justin Verlin, Oh my god,
it's nice in all that you want to but he
got no chance, and nobody else that's pitching does either.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Well, you can't when you don't pitch. I just saw
another draftic today. Oh, he's nearing his return. That's like
the story of his career the last five years.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
All major leaguers season in war that are forty that
are forty two years old. Let me guess I left
a part. I left something out all among the same age.
No sureser leads all major leaguers in war for forty
year old.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Oh my gosh, oh boy.
Speaker 5 (24:15):
All right, well, we're two segments in, got a long
way to go.
Speaker 6 (24:20):
I'm sure Kate will get with Mark over at ram
shirts and print shirts for JV that says the two
hundred and sixty seven club.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
I don't guess Mark five more wins.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
I don't want to speak for Mark, but I do
think I can speak for him when I say, I
think he'd like that if kate with him about a shirt.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Did you all see this?
Speaker 3 (24:46):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
Day, four hundred people were arrested for things that they
said on social media. History repeats itself, type Benuel's succeed
Never doubt that you're.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
The on plus one, Yo, the best.
Speaker 7 (25:05):
X.
Speaker 4 (25:05):
Nothing's gonna ever talk you know, YO, the best.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
X post an every single day, YO, the best of
X breaking the entire internay.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety. It
is the best of X several candidates. I can tell
you this just on the surface, I am enjoying. And
the other day, it was yesterday, I was getting my
coffee and a guy walks into the establishment which shall
(25:45):
remain unnamed until I start sponsoring the show in a
PACER's T shirt. And you just don't see that often
in Houston, Texas, but you can tell there's a very
prominent member of the total news NONSPSE sports journalism side
of the world who's a huge Pacers fan and is
going all in attending games and whatnot and making it
(26:08):
very obvious on their social media. They're a huge fan
of the Pacers. It's made for some good online fodder.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
And we were. By the way, Cole's very excited about this.
Hell yeah, I am.
Speaker 5 (26:23):
You just love the fact that the Pacers are up
to one in this sear.
Speaker 7 (26:26):
Oh my god, Tyrese Haliburton getting their respect he deserves.
And I ought to hear New York Knicks fans screaming.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
That we made you.
Speaker 7 (26:33):
He didn't make anything other than a bad decision to
fire your head coach. I didn't even a worse decision
to go into this offseason with no contingency plan. Just
sit down and shut up, New York. I told you WEX.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
This playoff run has single handedly turned me into a
Tyrese Haliburton fan.
Speaker 4 (26:50):
So among these candidates, what do we have on best
of CKS? Well, something that.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Something that Cole sent us last night kind of had
to do with this and hockey. He's always bringing hockey
to the table, the fact that first take is debating
the fact that and specifically which Morris brother was it
that said it's way more demanding basketball and takes more
athleticism to play than hockey.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Yeah, Best of X is normally something that's entertaining, something
that gets you talking something we might may or man
out otherwise talk about, or something we would not necessarily
even see a lot of It's in the replies and
the comments. Unfortunately best in most senses, it's kind of
like the worst remarkable. Remarkable doesn't always mean something great happen.
It can mean I can't believe that that's remarkable. It
(27:40):
was awful in this case, Yeah, worst of X comes up.
What the people in charge of micing people up at
ESPNR doing to us doing unbelievable. They're micing people up
to talk about the games from on site. We'll call
them the pregame, halftime and postgame crew. They're micing people
(28:01):
up on a daily basis to sit next to Molly
and mad Dog and steven A and listen to the
three of them scream while they talk. And they're picking
the worst people. The people in charge of saying, man,
we gotta get this person in there, why no reason?
Speaker 4 (28:19):
Have you heard them before? Nope? Do they have good opinions? Nope?
Speaker 6 (28:22):
Are they compelling? Uh huh, oh well we should get
them in for sure? Well yeah no, but you say
that jokingly.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
I wouldn't even be shocked if that's the meeting in
the boardroom, because that's what it looks like with the
final results.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
The meeting is I'm gonna go into the room and
I'm gonna sit down, and I'm gonna get on my phone,
and then someone's gonna come in here and say, Hey,
the agent for so and so, who has absolutely no business.
Speaker 4 (28:45):
Being on TV wants to be on TV. Done.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
You mentioned this the other day, and I think we
were talking off there, but it might have been. I
can't remember the dynamic between Kendrick Perkins and Bob Myers.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
It was on the air because I don't normally rip
apart broad casters when it's not necessary. And I even
told you when I did it that's why I could not,
But then I watched the next segment and I couldn't
not do it.
Speaker 4 (29:09):
It's just bad.
Speaker 6 (29:11):
It's honestly, I'd say it about our jobs and the
people that sit in the booth and do play by play,
sit in the booth and do analysis, many of whom
have way more experience because they've played the sport they're
talking about. I don't know any experience other than prior
to professionally those sports.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
So yeah, there's there's a difference there.
Speaker 6 (29:28):
And they do something, and you know, ESPN is saying, man,
if we can just pay Tony Romo eighteen million dollars
to do this, No, you can't. CBS is going to
do that instead, and we can just pay Tom Brady
hundreds and hundreds of millions.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
To do this. Why why are you doing this?
Speaker 6 (29:47):
Especially the Fox and ESPN are different in this regard,
but this can't be a good financial move for Fox,
just like it's all these terrible financial moves for ESPN.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
And what we're talking about is totally separate.
Speaker 6 (29:58):
They're not losing any money by paying Hedrick Perkins or
Marcus Morris or Bob Myers or anybody else they could
afford to do that. It's the outrageous money. I'm telling
you this again. I told you the day that he
finally got into the booth after finishing his NFL career.
The number of people that are watching the best game
of the week broadcast by Fox is not going up
(30:21):
by any significant number because Tom Brady is the other
voice in the booth. It's absolute lunacy that you're spending
any of this money on that instead of doing all
that you could with the money you're wasting on Brady
jj Watt. I just talked to him yesterday about his
broadcasting career.
Speaker 5 (30:36):
By the way, Skinny jj Watt's bothering me, I'm not
saying that he's supposed to look like he did when
he played Yes you are well.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
I mean him look fifty pounds overweight.
Speaker 5 (30:47):
No, but he looks like he's lost even more weight
since the end of the season.
Speaker 6 (30:51):
I think I think he's trying to look less losing
weight guy because he let his hair go a little
bit wearing a vintage Texans T shirt when he was
out there. He didn't look that small when he shook
hands with Daniel Hunter, so that's something because he should,
everybody should.
Speaker 4 (31:06):
He has him on height.
Speaker 6 (31:07):
I think Hunter right now can probably throw the iron
around a little bit better. But I don't think CBS
is viewing audience for whatever crew JJ's on is going up.
People are gonna watch the game that JJ does, the
game that's that Tom Brady does because it's the best
or second best matchup of the week, because their fan
base wants to watch that game. I'm not trying to
(31:28):
insult them, I'm insulting their employer. It's total nonsense. ESPN's
doing something completely different. They have to fill twenty four
hours a day, and they don't seem to care if
it's good or not bingo.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
And this is why I'm.
Speaker 6 (31:43):
Talking about the like they're trying to talk about sports
just straight up and alys is correct the games they're watching,
or general topics about sports, and as you brought up
the hockey baseball thing, and they're just I mean, yes,
you're going to get people to disagree with you, but
not in the way you want, not in the debatable
kind of way, not in the entertaining, informative, well informed
(32:05):
back and forth. More of the why is this person
saying this on television?
Speaker 7 (32:09):
They're going to tell you to sit down, shut up,
and why the hell are you even having an opinion
to begin with.
Speaker 4 (32:14):
But it's why Best of X exists.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
There's no way I would ever know anything that's being
discussed on Screaming Stephen A. Smith, Louder, Screaming Mad Dog Russo,
Moderating Molly and whoever the guest of the day is.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
I would never know it's on their show. If not
for social media, if it weren't for Elon Bien, I'm
not watching it.
Speaker 6 (32:33):
I can't watch it when when they go from Sports
Center to get up to that, it gets turned off.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Even though it's just in the background.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
I don't want to hear the yelling well non stop
about nonsense.
Speaker 5 (32:46):
There is one other aspect of this I want to
get to in the next segment, but it's as it
pertains to the future of not necessarily sports broadcasting, although
it will, but specifically the NBA, because I do think
the NBA has an image problem. In the end in
the finals have just exacerbated all the things that are
wrong with the for product itself and how it's marketed
(33:06):
or in this case not marketed. And I'm not just
talking about no logos on the court. We'll explain when
we come back.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
The at on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (33:24):
If you don't know this theme song, well your childhood
just wasn't as awesome. But the reason I'm having cold
play this is because stemming from a last segment, you know,
you kind of broke it down in the most cliffs
notes Layman's terms possible about the current product that is ESPN.
(33:45):
And I'm not talking about just NBA coverage. I'm talking
about just in general. It's watered down and it's bad.
And that's when they're talking about sports.
Speaker 6 (33:54):
I mean, I think, quite honestly, the other Scott van
Pelt's portion of ESPN is great job and the people
he doesn't have all these other people, he has Tim
Leglern or somebody else's player. And then the NBA TV
portion of the coverage, which has included Charles Barkley, has
included Kenny, has included Shack and Grant Hill, Dennis Scott,
(34:19):
host of others. Their coverage of these three games is
light years better. Yes, everybody's not doing an awful job,
known in only the network that's carrying the games that
you have to watch to watch the games.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
But some of the more prominent shows NBA or otherwise
that aren't associated with some of the people you just
mentioned are bad. They're just bad. And the thing about
Barkley and the inside the NBA, like I have never
hoped harder for, And this is a very tricky scenario
(34:53):
that I don't really think there's been a lot of
There's not a lot you can compare it to, but
I've never hoped more that one entity that's now the
quote governing body over this product that is completely light
years more successful probably than anything ESPN's ever produced. It's
not Monday Night Football? Is that fair to say? Inside
the NBA is the is the best sports studio show
(35:15):
in the history of sports?
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Okay, I would agree.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
I mean, I don't if we can argue we don't
need to, not you and me, because we don't need to.
Speaker 4 (35:22):
We both know.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
I mean, there's some because of the length of time
we've been around, and others like the NFL today is
probably something is great consequence.
Speaker 5 (35:30):
But pound for pound and Emmy for emmy, there's not
anything that's gonna be able to say, oh, we're better,
like clearly, head and shoulders.
Speaker 6 (35:39):
It yes in their time, clearly, And that's why it's easy.
This is nobody's even close.
Speaker 5 (35:44):
But the reason I say all that is to say,
I hope they leave it alone as much as they can.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Yeah, you know, I know, right.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
But having said all that, the NBA on NBC has
and the NBA because of this, has a real opportunity
here to like fix your brand. And I don't think
it's all bad, but I do like if you think
that it's just been great since David Stern stepped away
as commissioner, and I'm not even absolving him of everything
(36:10):
because towards the end there and he made some decisions
that weren't awesome. But in large part I don't. I'm
not a huge fan of Adam Silver's tenure as NBA
Commissioner in the in this as so much as some
of the stuff as far as marketing and just the
brand itself of the NBA has gone. I just think
they've had some missteps and they could have done things differently,
(36:34):
and they're not even necessarily like major things, but had
they gone this way, and if they had zigged instead
of zagged, you wouldn't have the overall collective eh. Because
it's easy to point to the finals right now and say, well,
of course the numbers are down. It's Oklahoma City in Indiana,
But that's just a flawed way of thinking if you
want to try and be one of the big boys
in sports.
Speaker 6 (36:54):
It's a shame because the games. Game two is not
super entertaining. Games one and three were. Game one was
one of the better final games finals games we've seen
in the last handful of years. And last night's game
was very, very competitive, and you didn't know it was
gonna win until the fourth quarter, and plays were made
and the you know, the best of the pacers as
they won the game.
Speaker 4 (37:13):
They were there as much as Tyre's.
Speaker 6 (37:15):
Halliburton deserved criticism for close to a no show performance
in Game two. They showed up for Game three in
a monster way. They made plays to win. They had
to beat Oklahoma City. That's what I've liked about this
Finals series. In the two games they've won, they had
to go and beat them. I mean, Oklahoma City did
beat Indiana in game two. I don't think they they
(37:36):
were pressed into where, well, we have to outplay you
just outplayed them.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
They didn't. They didn't come correct.
Speaker 6 (37:42):
Oklahoma City could have easily won all three games, but
Indiana outplayed them when it mattered most, when time was
running out, and when the plays needed to be made,
they made them. They took those games. I don't think
they stole those games. They took those games. That's what
should make it entertaining, fun and a lot of discussion
about it and a lot of interest in it. You
(38:02):
mentioned one aspect of who these teams are and their
fan bases and their market size, and I definitely think
another part of it is, you know, just think to
how much we talked about it on Monday and Tuesday
and Wednesday hardly at all, because there's zero momentum in
any series, no matter how great it is. If we've
just seen three triple overtime games, we're definitely not going
(38:23):
to talk about it tomorrow at all because it would
have been two days since that game and we're not
looking forward to the next game.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
In this instance.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
This is actually the only instance where there's not two
days in between games, So maybe that's different, but seven
games thirteen days, not hard play off day, play off day,
play off day, and that's how.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
It used to be. Though they don't want that.
Speaker 6 (38:43):
This could go from the fifth to the twenty second,
which doesn't sound like a lot more time, but it
clearly is.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
Well, I mean, if you're sitting there and you're an
executive and you're saying, well, see, we're taking up almost
the entire month, it's not how it works, man, especially
in twenty twenty five, Like the attention spans are nothing.
Speaker 6 (39:00):
And because the end of the finals, no matter when
it is, if it's June, it could be the next game,
game four, or it could have been a couple days
before that. If they didn't have all these off days, well,
the draft and free agency is here, like it's five
minutes top of us. Yeah, no matter what day it
ends in June, if it ends on the fifteenth or
it ends on the twenty.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Second, it's right there.
Speaker 6 (39:19):
You're not going to lose any of the Well, I
don't have to think about basketball for you better because
it's right here.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
Yeah, the future literally of your sport.
Speaker 5 (39:28):
So yeah, the present has some issues and the future
clearly has some issues, and we'll see what changes are made.
I hope, I hope they're getting into a conference room
and putting their heads together about that kind of thing.
We are going to put our heads together and get
you to a televised version of the show. The rest
of the way. You can keep it right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety but you can also see us
(39:50):
on Space City Home network when the simulcast begins. Next segment,
three o'clock hour is straight ahead.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
The eight on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your Team.
Speaker 3 (40:09):
So Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen eighty.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's the three o'clock hour.
Speaker 5 (40:22):
It's a Thursday edition of the program, and it is
on your television in addition to being on Sports Talks
seven ninety. It is the a team wex ac Cole
Thompson with You seven ninety. As I mentioned on your
radio or your iHeart Media iHeartRadio app. It's free to
download and you should probably put the Sports Talk seven
ninety preset position at one also simulcast on Space City
(40:46):
Home Network. We're taking you until six o'clock tonight where
it's the rubber game between the Astros and the White Sox.
I know what you said in the first hour, and
sure it sounds like it's true, but I'm sorry I can't.
We'll get their record and say, huh, Chicago White Sox
aren't that bad. They're better than the Rockies. I'll give
them that.
Speaker 6 (41:06):
Chicago White Sox minus fifty seven run differential. The Washington
Nationals also minus fifty seven run differential. White Sox are
seven games seven and a half games worse than them. Overall,
they're expected win loss based on those figures I gave you,
otherwise would be identical.
Speaker 4 (41:26):
They've had bad luck.
Speaker 6 (41:27):
They've played way better lately, which we all know because
we mentioned that here on the show. They're not a
good team. Don't get me wrong. The ass lost to
them when they weren't playing well. How did you think
they were gonna fare when they were playing much much better?
The Astros are better than them. They're gonna win the
game today, hopefully, and we'll finish the sad, sad season
series against the White Sox with three wins and three losses,
(41:48):
and they'll be just fine.
Speaker 4 (41:49):
They'll move on and.
Speaker 6 (41:50):
They'll try to see if they can hit the pitchers
who pitch for the Minnesota Twins. The pitchers who pitch
for the Minnesota Twins gave them all of seven innings today.
They've had to get two innings from non pitchers. Heck,
the Rangers are throwing a non pitcher in their lopsided
game today, but the.
Speaker 4 (42:08):
Twins come to town beginning tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (42:10):
Fromber Valdez throws tonight arguably the best stretch he's ever
had as an Astro, and there have been several very
very good ones. Obviously, He's thrown a no hitter and
nearly followed it up a couple starts later with another one.
He's been awesome lately, and I don't see any reason
for that to not be out there again tonight. That
changes everything on a daily basis in Major League Baseball,
one of the best versions of the Astros. Because he's
(42:32):
on the mound, Well that's who the White Sox have
to deal with this evening.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (42:37):
I love the fact that it's Fromber and and the
way you said it matter of factly. Yeah, they should
probably win this game. It has as much to do
with him being on the mound as anything else. But
I felt that way going into the opener of this series,
and it just it just didn't go that way. Because
Luise Robert Junior likes playing the Astros.
Speaker 6 (42:54):
Aren't we Aren't we going into Lance mccullor starts guessing still,
Oh yeah, Unfortunately, like tonight, I don't feel like we're
guessing with fromber might he might not be great, but
I would be surprised if he were not, based on
these plays. A nice surprise to see that Jeremy Pania
mild surprise is in the lineup tonight and batting lead off.
Obviously he had some sort of issue minor as it
(43:15):
was when he tried to make that spectacular play way
behind second base to try to field and throw out
a runner. Stayed in the game at that point in time,
and ultimately was pinch hit for when they were way
in front. He's batting lead off again today. The soon
to be American League All Stars starting second baseman is
in left field today, Jose Altuve, of course batting third.
(43:36):
Janner gets the work as the cleanup hitter again today.
He'll do the catching for fromber Myers, Kartini Smith and
Brendan Rogers going to play a second base tonight for
the Astros and bat nice.
Speaker 5 (43:48):
Looking ahead to the series with the Twins that follows
tonight's matchup. In case you were wondering, I don't think.
I think this is fairly obvious just because of the
way things have mapped out. But Brian McTaggart just tweeting
that the rotation will be Colton Gordon and the opener
Hunter Brown Saturday, and then Friend of the Show Brandon
Walter on Sunday.
Speaker 6 (44:08):
As we mentioned, Yeah, I mean it was not stated
explicitly by the Astros until today, and so I get
that they have already had already said when we're going
with a six man rotation and we know what everybody
slots in through the math, this is always going to
be the way they were going to slot it out. There,
but they're recently released. Awesome game notes include Colton Gordon,
(44:33):
Hunter Brown, and Brandon Walter rounding out the starters this series.
Chris Paddock, Joe Ryan, and Simeon Woods richardson starters for
the Twins.
Speaker 5 (44:41):
You know, it's amazing about those notes, and I don't
know how many people, just on average, actually get to
see them because they're sent to media primarily. They have
been in five point font at best an entire page
like an encyclopedia for every single game for as long
as I can remember. And you've been doing this longer
(45:05):
than I have, so I'm sure you can attest that
it was that way since the day you started.
Speaker 6 (45:09):
The format that they use at astros, it's been in
place for a long time.
Speaker 5 (45:13):
I mean, it's I would say it's a one pager,
but it's not. There's way more behind it, but it's
just the front page, is what I'm really emphasizing when
I say this.
Speaker 4 (45:21):
I mean it's like it's insane.
Speaker 5 (45:24):
I guess they I guess the intention is to get
as much information as possible on that first page.
Speaker 4 (45:30):
I suppose.
Speaker 6 (45:30):
I mean that's where the easy reference things that you
usually hear from the broadcasters, radio and TV right out
of the gate. You know, record when they've done this
record in their last five record on their last road trip.
All those numbers are put on that front page for
a reason.
Speaker 5 (45:44):
Yeah, so White Sox finale tonight, and then the Twins
and Carlos Correa coming into town. One of the more
I would say awesome bobbleheads that we've seen upcoming. First
of all, Jeremy Paine, is are accurate. Well we always
talk about it. Bobblehead doesn't really look like this guy.
(46:06):
They got the face and the abs, I think pretty accurate.
But the Hawaiian shirt strong and very strong, and what
does it have? Has the uh? One one way's pointing
to Houston and the others pointing to.
Speaker 4 (46:18):
Man.
Speaker 5 (46:18):
I was gonna forget this. I saw the image last night.
But yeah, that is going to be a pretty hot item.
I would assume at Dyke and Park.
Speaker 4 (46:26):
I want it.
Speaker 5 (46:27):
I mean, I like I normally. I've got a whole
collection of bobbleheads that unfortunately, because of how I've kind
of rearranged my room where I would display them, I
don't have a really place to put them right now,
but I've kept them in immaculate condition because someday I
think I will, but I this is what I would
like to have. You know, it's more of the creative
variety I.
Speaker 4 (46:48):
Just wanted because it's Hawaiian shirt.
Speaker 5 (46:50):
Well well I knew that, so, uh, giveaways are always
good and you saw obviously this upcoming father By the way,
we think of the Father's Day hat this year, I
don't we talk about this like for five seconds every year.
Speaker 4 (47:01):
I'm not a fan of this year's I don't like
the color scheme the Father's Day hat. Yeah, they'll be.
Speaker 5 (47:06):
Wearing on Sunday during the game in across Major League Baseball,
I think, I don't know. I haven't seen any other teams,
but it's like this teal situation, and I just I
don't know.
Speaker 4 (47:18):
I'm not a huge fan of it. I didn't really realize.
Speaker 6 (47:21):
I think when I saw what you sent, because I
think you sent it to me, I thought it was
a July fourth hat.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.
Speaker 5 (47:29):
Yeah, you know what, You're right it is because the
Father's Day hat is basically just blue bingo. And I
mean they do they did something a little bit funky
with the logo, but yeah, I think you're right, it's
the July fourth hat. I was mixed up, but that's
coming soon, and I don't like it.
Speaker 6 (47:42):
I am interested to see what people think of the
two thousand and five commemorative hat collection, the astros a
visit to the World series that has some Killer Bees
aspects to it, and there's four different varieties of it,
and I think it's awesome and a tremendous design.
Speaker 4 (47:59):
But I can't help but think as they.
Speaker 6 (48:01):
Either talk about it in the booth or maybe we're
talking to Jeff, he'll say, huh, two thousand and five
World Series Killer Bees.
Speaker 4 (48:08):
I'll take one of those.
Speaker 5 (48:09):
Yeah. The funny thing about the Killer Bees moniker, nickname,
whatever you want to call it, is it evolved over
the years. Bagwell and Bigio are always a part of it,
but Berkman wasn't always there.
Speaker 6 (48:21):
My personal opinion is Lance Berkman is the only other
true member, even though Derek Bell and Sean Berry existed.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
But Derek Bell, how long was he here?
Speaker 7 (48:33):
Uh?
Speaker 6 (48:33):
Not a long time? But during that era of Killer Bees?
So did you only count hitters as part of the
Killer Beast?
Speaker 4 (48:39):
Of course? Okay?
Speaker 7 (48:40):
Because I always thought Brett Backey was a killer Bee. No,
Brandon Backy, Yeah, why not in different era?
Speaker 4 (48:48):
Yeah, that too. I don't know.
Speaker 5 (48:50):
Brandon Backy was just all he was was the most
underrated member of that staff for several years.
Speaker 7 (48:56):
Exactly, which is why I said he was a killer
Bee because he was underrated. But he long in that
category with the Beam.
Speaker 5 (49:03):
You disagree, though I disagree he look in that World Series.
I'm still of the firm belief since you brought up
two thousand and five that if the stupid Albert Poolhole's
home run wasn't hit and they win that night and
thus win the series, then they go Royo's while starts
(49:25):
in Game one. I'm not saying they win that series
against the White Sox, but it remains one of the
most competitive sweeps. That sounds so pathetic, but it really.
I mean, if you watched all four games, it just
it's not like they just boat race them.
Speaker 6 (49:40):
Right, And I totally agree, and we've all had those
same thoughts. It's hard to rationalize it that way. Even
though it sets up very well for you, it could
certainly change the outcome of Game one. He pitched all
of the starters you wanted to use in the series. Pitched,
and you didn't win any of their games.
Speaker 5 (49:56):
Well, Clemens got hurt with a hamstring injury, which a
lot of peopleeople attributed to the cold weather in Chicago.
It was rainy, I believe before game one or during
Game one, So he just I mean the guy. Go
back to that season, go back to the series prior,
go back to the Atlanta series.
Speaker 4 (50:13):
He was a warhorse. I he was awesome.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
The only thing that could have taken him down, as
he was still very much in his prime, or I
thought he was, was something flukish like that, and I
think if because of course Game two temperature was like
ten to fifteen degrees higher and it Yeah, so roy
OL's wat would have been nice in that situation. Also,
(50:38):
the game would have been over in about an hour
and a half like all of his starts. He was
ahead of the clock era, the pitching clock era, and
he definitely worked quickly. I was like, oh, the game's
over in an hour and fifty eight minutes. Oh roy pitched.
That's why I get it now. So anyways, yeah, walk
down memory lane a little bit there from two thousand
(50:59):
and five, which I can't believe that that was twenty
years ago now twenty.
Speaker 6 (51:03):
Years ago for them, thirty years ago with the Rockets
still watching daily highlights of this is what the Rockets
did in this finals game, and this is when Clyde
Drexler went coast to coast and still had enough Jews
to throw it down. Yeah, it all happened about thirty
years ago, So new memories. Well, yeah, the Astros have
made them. It's time for those others to join. And
(51:23):
the Texans, we've talked about a little bit more on
their situation as they had out of camp, what might
need to be done to the roster to get them
in a better position once they get back for training
camp and get ready to we'll see other teams in
a joint practice situation.
Speaker 4 (51:38):
That, among other things.
Speaker 6 (51:39):
In the actual game itself, last night's Game three, what
does it say about the remainder of this NBA Final series?
Speaker 1 (51:46):
That's next the a t on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (52:00):
Real quick, we were talking earlier about the NBA and the
coverage around the Finals and just in the league in general,
before we get to last night's game. I just came
across this exchange and you may or may not be
familiar with these two people that were going back and forth.
(52:21):
Noah Dalzel, she I believe works for SB Nation and
covers the WNBA, but she also does some Celtics coverage
for that team and does.
Speaker 4 (52:34):
A Boston podcast.
Speaker 5 (52:36):
And she's got I think thirty three thousand followers or
something like that. She and Alex Golden, who is more
on the Pacers side of things. He's more of a
I think he's I don't know if he's a local podcaster,
but a little bit. He's there in Indiana. Yeah, he's
a little bit lesser known. I guess nationally. I guess
I would say, she said. She started, She said, in
(52:58):
an idea, he said, she said, yeah, exactly. Wow, in
an ideal world, what does ESPN coverage on the morning
after a great finals game look like for you? It's
almost like their ears were burning. And this was from
hours ago. I didn't see it, but I just happened
to see it when we were talking about what we
were talking about, like almost a minute after the segment
was over. So she goes into an ideal world, what
(53:18):
does ESPN coverage on the morning after a great finals
game look like for you? And he said, Zach Lowe
and then parentheses imagining firing that guy and Tim Legler
breaking down how the game played out, diving into specifics
of the adjustments made from previous games, and highlighting the
great things that happen. Then bring on a guest who
covers each team for the local beat to get more
(53:39):
in depth analysis. Since they've built relationships with the players
slash team and know them better than anyone else.
Speaker 4 (53:47):
Seems easy, doesn't it.
Speaker 6 (53:48):
I mean, I do think there's an element of some
of the other players being involved, like even Marcus Morris,
so I think it's not very good. I think he'd
be a whole lot better if they even in this
exact scenario. If he's out there with these two players,
if they're breaking down something, put them at the big
screen and say this, that and the other. Well, he's playing,
(54:09):
he's currently playing, so to speak, he's he knows this
generation of players very well. He's played with a lot
of these guys, he's played in this era. I do
think you can get out of the players, whether they're
poorly chosen or not, much better analysis and addition to
your broadcast studio if you utilize them properly. The way
they utilize them is this, say whatever you want, throw
(54:29):
something against the wall be loud.
Speaker 4 (54:32):
Perfect, that's you're not getting much. You're getting less.
Speaker 6 (54:35):
Actually now I can't help but hear that because my
blanket is still wet. So two people that cover the
two local teams are suggesting they should bring people on
from the local teams to enhance their coverage. It's smart, well,
but work as your own agent.
Speaker 5 (54:50):
I know that sounds very obvious the way you're framing it,
and it is, but like the alternative is what we
have now and it sucks.
Speaker 6 (54:57):
Yeah, what this would do is would give you some
nuts and bowl and some insight into the teams. Like
you just said that, they would want to get rid
of them as fast as they could so they could
start yelling at each other.
Speaker 4 (55:05):
Again.
Speaker 5 (55:06):
Yeah, you're you're paying Steven A. Smith how much money?
And he's not even referring to one of the principal
players in the series by the correct first name.
Speaker 4 (55:15):
It happens.
Speaker 5 (55:16):
Look, it happens to me on this show. But I'm
not getting paid twelve million a year.
Speaker 6 (55:21):
I Heeart it was an accident. I'm sure maybe if
I was quickly corrected and moved on.
Speaker 4 (55:26):
I just it's to me.
Speaker 5 (55:30):
And again, we're in the NBA Finals, right now, regardless
of what the teams are. And this is why I think,
and it's a it's a lazy way to go through
proverbial life as the NBA as an entity. This is
why I think they wanted Steph Curry. This is why
I think they wanted Lebron James. And it's not because
(55:52):
it's a better product, it's just because it's familiar.
Speaker 6 (55:55):
Well, it gives them that additional super popular legacy topic.
There's no legacy topic for this year's finals. Everybody that
wins is going to win it for the first time.
There's no legacy that they're cementing.
Speaker 4 (56:05):
Or imagine that.
Speaker 6 (56:06):
Nobody's talking about where SGA fits on the all time
list of great players.
Speaker 5 (56:10):
Yet, well, how does all these other guys start getting
into those conversations?
Speaker 4 (56:14):
Though? That's the part that they're forgetting.
Speaker 5 (56:16):
At one point, Steph Curry was a guy who couldn't
stay healthy because his ankles were glass. Now he's the
all time greater shooter, like you had to That didn't
just happen overnight.
Speaker 6 (56:27):
And his first Finals appearance probably didn't sound like his
next four.
Speaker 5 (56:33):
No, but man, they were insufferable pretty early on.
Speaker 6 (56:37):
They also finished the deal and we're looking at a
thunder team as an overwhelming favorite for seven months down
in this series because they've been outplayed. There's no injury situation,
there's nothing flukish about this. The other team's just played
better than them at the most important time of a
close game.
Speaker 4 (56:56):
Twice.
Speaker 5 (56:56):
Funny you mentioned that when talking about Steph Curry as
he's the only guy to ever blow a three one
lead in the finals. His team are winning seventy three
games in the regular season.
Speaker 6 (57:05):
Yeah, and I wanted to bring some of what Charles
had to say the other day, but I didn't. I
think there's a point to be made. It's the same
one I keep making over and over and over again.
I applied it to the Rockets for many years when
they were among the best teams in the NBA. This
regular season dominance is fooling people. I don't care that
you went sixteen to zero against the four worst teams
(57:27):
in the West.
Speaker 4 (57:27):
That's totally irreleative.
Speaker 6 (57:30):
And when you're playing teams that every I was talking
to somebody yesterday about the Rockets, and you know where
they fit in and the end of the season and
the postseason, well, the Rockets won fifty two games because
they tried to. They out played They played harder than
their opponents fifty times in eighty two games during the
regular season. They didn't play harder than their opponent one
(57:50):
time in the postseason. Because everybody's playing hard in the postseason.
Maybe you catch a night where a team starts so
badly you just run them over, and people want to say, well,
they didn't bring it and they didn't play very hard. Well, yeah,
the game kind of dictated that. I don't think teams
don't come to play in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (58:05):
The huge, huge, huge.
Speaker 6 (58:06):
Advantage the Rockets had over teams in the regular season
was they cared about winning more than they did. They
played harder than they did. We said it all year,
and it was true, and then it equalizes. Well, the
same element is true when you're eliminating all these riff
raft teams, you're not playing riff raft teams in the postseason.
The Thunder went eight to zero against the Clippers and
Grizzlies during the season. Well, they caught the Grizzlies in
(58:28):
the postseason. Guess what they did. They beat them four
more straight times. They didn't play the Clippers in the postseason.
They would have, but the Nuggets eliminated them in seven games.
They were five hundred against the Nuggets in the regular season,
and then what happened They went to seven games with
them because they're not a pushover. Nobody regular season loser,
and then they obviously they won the Western Conference finals
(58:49):
fairly convincingly. Well, now they're again they're not playing a pushover. Yes,
being favorites is fair. Being overwhelming favorites is absolutely where
they should be invincible. I said this during the year.
They're not unbeatable, no matter how great their record was,
and they lapped the Western Conference.
Speaker 4 (59:08):
They lapped them. They were way better than clear superior
conference to the East, by.
Speaker 6 (59:12):
The way, Well, question, some of that has to not
be looked at that way when you're only playing the
best teams. The last three rounds, they've only played great teams.
They went eight and four against the Nuggets and Wolves.
They've now gone overall nine and six. When you add
the Pacers series to it, nine and six, that's not
(59:32):
one of the best records in the NBA. Granted it's
because of who they're playing, but the series specific numbers
they matter. Oklahoma City, they've come out to play all
three games they're plus twenty three in the first quarter.
They've had the advantage under the composite for games two
and three, or the second and third quarters as well,
but by much smaller margin. Outscored the Pacers by three
(59:52):
in the second quarters and by seven in the third quarters.
And they've been outscored by twenty seven an average of
nine points per game in the three fourth quarters. Whatever
number was there in the game two lopsided affair should
clearly not impact.
Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
This in any way.
Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
But you know, they scored eighteen points last night. They
can't close well, it matters when you do.
Speaker 6 (01:00:16):
Get came back against them in the fourth quarter. This year,
you got to bring your best all four quarters. Granted
you might be able to win a game in the
first three and not have to care. But they got
outscored by twelve points or more twice last night, second
quarter and fourth quarter. They took the lead to the
fourth quarter of a Game three when the series was
tied at a game apiece, and they got outscored by
(01:00:36):
fourteen points. And their work in the fourth quarter is
what I was leading to when I said what we
know about this series, which might tell us something about
this series. One for three three points in the fourth
quarter for Shay That was not as aggressive as he
needed to be. That was not including I guess you
could say he wasn't involving the rest of his teammates.
(01:00:57):
The team only went six of seventeen, turned it over
five times, they missed all of their threes. I think
it's very good defensively and probably very underrated even this
far into the playoffs. Well, Oklahoma City is a good
defensive team also, right, So how did the Pacers shoot
better than sixty percent from the floor, better than sixty
percent from the three point line in the final twelve
(01:01:18):
minutes of the game, because.
Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
That's why they won? Do you mean to tell you
what I think? Why is this not gonna happen again?
Or again?
Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
And then all of a sudden, the Pacers, for the
first time ever are holding that trophy.
Speaker 5 (01:01:28):
Rick Carlisle can coach, been saying this for twenty years now.
I wanted the Rockets to hire him badly.
Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
Way wait wait.
Speaker 6 (01:01:36):
Wait, fired somebody and he was hired and they wanted
permission to talk to him.
Speaker 5 (01:01:40):
I'm talking about the last time the Pacers fired him,
because that happened and he was available, and they ended
up getting hired by the freaking Mavericks and they almost
won because of him?
Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
Or did they win? They won? I thought it was
Avery Johnson that was coaching. Then when they won, he.
Speaker 6 (01:01:53):
Had the I think it's kind of an other side
of things. Wasn't Avery Johnson the coach of the sixty
seven when Mavericks that lost to the Warriors?
Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
Yeah, that was awesome.
Speaker 5 (01:02:04):
And Dirk had to accept his MVP trophy in his
side room, like right.
Speaker 6 (01:02:08):
To the game you're in a playoff game. Yeah, I'm
not in the playoffs anymore. We know, Hey, come over
here this room with me. There's curtains.
Speaker 4 (01:02:17):
I am.
Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
I'm not trying to go crazy here, but the idea
of the Thunder are not going to win the title.
I hope people realize this is a real thing.
Speaker 5 (01:02:25):
It's a higher than they've ever been.
Speaker 6 (01:02:29):
They got another game in Indiana and the Pacers could
again take a three games to one lead in their
postseason series. They've been up two games to one in
all of them so far, obviously, including this one.
Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (01:02:52):
We had a Gordian here for his weekly visit and
he let us know he was going to be out
in the Bay Area. You know where he's at was
just a couple hours ago.
Speaker 4 (01:03:01):
Some more drinking some wine.
Speaker 5 (01:03:03):
No, although he did tell us that he'd be uh
doing those types of things. I can't imagine that was
his plan, seeing is how he's there with his wife.
He went to the full househouse.
Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
Would you go there, like, is there something to do
besides drive by it or walk by it?
Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
Well, there's a hill where they had the picnic in
the opening credits. But yeah, for the most part.
Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
You're I mean, it's not a like a tour is it.
Speaker 5 (01:03:26):
I don't think you can go inside and see if
Jesse and the Rippers are rehearsal.
Speaker 6 (01:03:29):
I think I've been in the area when we were
out in San Francisco, you know, driving down the Windy
Windy Windy. Yeah, we've been in the area. I don't
think we specifically drove by it. There's nothing to do,
and you go.
Speaker 5 (01:03:40):
To the bridge, uh Gay Bridge with the lookout and
all that. Maybe I'll tell you what see, That's what
I was gonna ask. Are you a person that goes
to touristy things when you go to places, Yeah, pretty much,
and you go to the normal ones, not me where
I'm like, hey, let's go to Nicole's condo.
Speaker 6 (01:03:57):
That doesn't seem very touristy. It Actually, it doesn't seem
like it. I wasn't the only one that did it
while I was there. What what's significant about where she lived?
She died there her condo? Yeah, well what's the Brent?
Speaker 5 (01:04:10):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
Okay, I see what you're saying. It just it all
blends together. For someone who doesn't live, breathe, and die,
everything that goes.
Speaker 4 (01:04:16):
Oh, maybe you should.
Speaker 6 (01:04:17):
It feels like the area where the spatters were found.
Uh huh doesn't seem very condo like outside the front door.
Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
It just not.
Speaker 6 (01:04:26):
It strikes me more of a yeah, Brentwood, big big,
huge lot.
Speaker 4 (01:04:32):
No, I wouldn't. I would say home home. It was
a condo, I believe you. You know what.
Speaker 6 (01:04:38):
Today's the day, uh, the anniversary of what the double murders? Oh,
today's the day June twelfth.
Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
Yeah, they happened tonight, Oh around ten thirty or so. Gotcha.
Speaker 5 (01:04:48):
There was an aikita with a plaintiff whale. According to
the guy on the stand in the trial, there was
a what an akita, which is a type of dog.
Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
Okay, what a whale like the noise that it was making.
Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
Plaintiff whale. That's how I was described. It was very
upset about wimpery.
Speaker 4 (01:05:03):
Yeah, yeah, got it.
Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
Oh and there was also two male voices, one of
which said, Hey, hey.
Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
I think that was Jews. Just kidding. I think it
was Ron Okay, how do we have the voices? Somebody
heard them? A witness? Yeah, tonight.
Speaker 6 (01:05:17):
I mean I watched the trial and all, but I
don't remember the specs like you do.
Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
Yeah, because I'm a weirdo.
Speaker 6 (01:05:22):
I mean I was working at the time. But again,
we were all watching it. Yeah, you were working. I
was an adult.
Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Where were you working though? Was that when you were
at the Greenway? Yeah? For the yeah, the future name
of the conference room when the verdict was relayed to
the public.
Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
That's where you saw it, like like the was this
like a merchandising meeting?
Speaker 4 (01:05:47):
You were in. The entire staff was in the conference
room to watch it.
Speaker 5 (01:05:51):
I forget that, like whole like the complete gross national
product went down the toilet for those like ten minutes
to sit down and watch that.
Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
I mean it was. It was broadcast in Times Square.
It's a big deal. It was the first reality television
show yeah, Lanceto was one of the first stars. What
an idiot? How many things did he do wrong in
that trial?
Speaker 8 (01:06:14):
Brah?
Speaker 4 (01:06:14):
Nothing all good?
Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
But yeah, uh what was it thirty one years ago?
Speaker 4 (01:06:21):
Tonight than me?
Speaker 6 (01:06:22):
So yeah, thirty one years ago. Cole was not working
at the time. I was not in the works maybe,
but not working. I wasn't walking yet.
Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
When's your birthday? I'm not gonna tell you you you
gotta guess it. I forgot June twelfth. There we go.
Speaker 5 (01:06:38):
No, it's not today. That's my dad's birthday, which was yesterday.
Happy birthday to mister Thompson. Not you, not me, thank god,
not mister Cole Thompson. That's his Twitter handle.
Speaker 4 (01:06:48):
Yeah, oh, well, today's a good day for you.
Speaker 6 (01:06:51):
Then. I mean, we got two and a half hours
of talking about OJ left. So well after we're appropriate.
Speaker 5 (01:06:55):
After the Astros take care of the White Sox tonight.
Speaker 6 (01:06:59):
Do you think OI have shown up for mandatory and
voluntary offseason workouts as a team guy.
Speaker 5 (01:07:05):
Especially during his forty nine ers days, he fairly showed
up for the games.
Speaker 7 (01:07:08):
Well, he's too busy filming the naked gun movies, right,
Not yet, he.
Speaker 5 (01:07:12):
Was he was trying to already procure his fame, much
like JJ Watt's doing.
Speaker 6 (01:07:17):
Now we're led to believe he will not in any
way be a part of the new Naked Gun movie
other than being teased in the trailers. That can he
be a part of it when you say he's going
to act in it or you know, greater than what
we've seen.
Speaker 4 (01:07:33):
You know what? And this might be an unpopular take
because each of the three main cop characters.
Speaker 6 (01:07:39):
Are no longer in the movie. Yeah, so they're all
going to be referenced.
Speaker 5 (01:07:43):
He'll be referenced, Leslie Nielsen will be referenced, for sure,
for sure. But honestly, if you want to be the
type of irreverent comedy that the originals were, you want
to stay true to that. Honestly, they would have if
they had been remaking made up original version of the
Naked Gun movies, and they were doing it back then
(01:08:04):
when those movies were coming out, they would have absolutely
made some sort of reference to the former cast member
that was a double murderer.
Speaker 4 (01:08:12):
We already know everything we need to know about this movie.
He was guilty in the civil suit. How long do you.
Speaker 6 (01:08:17):
Think it would have taken you to guess what extremely respected,
multi millionaire, earning lead actor in movies and film for
decades would have been cast as Frank Dreben Junior. How
many guesses would it have taken before you got to
Liam Neeson?
Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
Like a thousand? I actually could have guessed in five.
The thing is, are they gonna make his hair white?
Speaker 5 (01:08:42):
Because if they did that, it's actually like passable to
look sort of.
Speaker 6 (01:08:51):
Taken for all of his great comedic work movie. I mean,
he's not a He is very good in comedic roles
because he's.
Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
So obviously once a straight actor. But once he got
on the phone and said, I.
Speaker 4 (01:09:04):
Have a very specific set of skills, skills that I
have acquired over a long period of time.
Speaker 6 (01:09:09):
That type of gun wielding cast member is a killer, right,
This gun wielding cast member is a joke?
Speaker 5 (01:09:18):
Like you took the wrong daughter of all the daughters
you could have kidnapped in that film?
Speaker 4 (01:09:22):
Why did you take Liam Neeson's.
Speaker 7 (01:09:23):
He did tell you he was gonna find you and
he will kill you. Yeah, but did he not? He
left the line?
Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
Then he did three times, two sequels after the original.
Speaker 4 (01:09:33):
He could see the other two. By the way I
saw the second one, I didn't never see the first
Somebody Taken in those movies too, there was like, you.
Speaker 5 (01:09:40):
Don't have to always do it, you can't help yourself.
I actually I like, is the third one even worth watching?
I would watch it because I actually I really enjoyed that.
Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
I have no idea. The second one pissed me off
so much. I don't watch. Why did the second one
make you mad? Because it's just the same movie.
Speaker 5 (01:09:55):
But it's And by the way, isn't his wife in
those first two films?
Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
Uh? What's her name? Wonder Woman? No, it's Jean Gray
from the X Men movie. So it's not what is
it Gado? Gal Gado? That's who I'm trying to think
of Jackson?
Speaker 5 (01:10:09):
Okay, oh yeah, but she's good looking too, and they
kind of look similar, right, they don't look anything alike.
Speaker 4 (01:10:13):
Okay, maybe I'm misremembering.
Speaker 7 (01:10:15):
No, but okay, Liam Neeson, why is he cast? It's
close to Leslie Nielsen? Duh, I don't think that. Our
video producer, Brett and I were having a conversation just
about this movie right before we came in here to.
Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
That the New Naked Gun. Yeah, when does it come out?
By the way, I don't even know at this point. Okay,
in the next year.
Speaker 7 (01:10:37):
I know that, So thirteen months from now we can
talk about the New Naked Guy.
Speaker 5 (01:10:41):
Like have they wrapped production or are they still shooting
post production? Okay, interesting, I'll tell you something else that's uh,
probably going to surprise you. I don't think I've ever
sat through an entire one of those films.
Speaker 4 (01:10:54):
You get all the jokes without it, you're fine.
Speaker 5 (01:10:56):
Well, I've seen the clips of OJ obviously because they're
prominently yep.
Speaker 6 (01:11:00):
Former ASTROS Executive's finest movie Reginald Jackson.
Speaker 4 (01:11:07):
Oh that's right, he is in that in that movie.
Speaker 5 (01:11:09):
Don't call him a former ASTROS executive, that's what he was.
He might as well have had a personal services contract.
I'll head to something I texted my peeps about that
to him. We come back something that only a C
loves but hopefully you guys will too.
Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
The a T on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (01:11:34):
Four o'clock hours right around the corner. It will include,
among other things, a look at the most overlooked teams
in the NFL heading into twenty twenty five, which will
most assuredly amuse my co host when we get to
one of those.
Speaker 4 (01:11:50):
Five looking forward to it. But in that vein. You
were talking about talking about Reginald Jackson.
Speaker 6 (01:11:57):
So the other day I got a text from Buddies.
It was Reggie Jackson's post on x inkc at Royals
Yankees game and ran into this great football player. It's
always exciting watching you play. It was a picture of
him and Pat Mahomes. Mahomes and his Royals number fifteen jersey.
Speaker 4 (01:12:15):
He was at the game.
Speaker 6 (01:12:17):
I responded with former Astros personnel executive with Texas Tech Softball.
Speaker 4 (01:12:21):
Lover accurate, accurate, all of it accurate.
Speaker 6 (01:12:25):
He was there for the demise of the Texas Tech
softball team. Greatest team program history fell the Longhorns for
the national title season in the SEC. To remember this
just means more. I guess that takes me to something else.
You brought up Gordy earlier. Chris's vacation in Gordy was
on the X platform earlier yesterday. It's been a big
(01:12:48):
week for scheduling in college sports. Today, the Big twelve
schedule matrix came out for men's and women's basketball. So
the Cougars know which teams we'll be visiting Houston once,
which they will be going once in which places, which
teams they will see twice during their conference schedule. Yesterday,
the Longhorns announced as much as they could about their
(01:13:12):
entire football schedule from a kickoff time at standpoint, did
stamp a couple of games with actual kickoff times and
otherwise put a flex on it. They're either playing at
two thirty or five o'clock, or it's at night. They're
playing sometime between five and seven. So we already knew
who the Longhorns were playing in football. This is not
new news. Their schedule has been out for quite some time.
(01:13:35):
The kickoff times, not even all of them, and not
even definitively when they will kick off or what networks
they'll be on. But just a little bit of additional
information maybe for those that are trying to figure out
how to squeeze all their visits to college football games
they want. We already know who's visiting Austin, who they're
playing in dall Arlington, and we know where they're going
(01:13:58):
to visit to play their other games before they get
the playoffs in the NCAA Championship game. So William Luci
posted that is a very light home schedule back on
June eleventh, yesterday, and it was quote tweeted by at
Chris Gordy earlier today, I'm just noticing Texas doesn't play
(01:14:20):
a home game of DKR between the twentieth of September
and the first of November, and the home slate of
San Jose State, UTIP, SAM, Houston Vandy, Arkansas, A and
M not a ton of exciting matchups. So I'll actually
try not to be too harsh. Because he did open
it with I'm just noticing, I still couldn't help myself
(01:14:41):
and responded with the schedule has been out for quite
a while now. I guess it just means more when
we know some kickoff times to point out how unexciting
it is.
Speaker 5 (01:14:50):
But you know that that whole exchange originated from what
an aggie obsessing over the Longhorns.
Speaker 6 (01:14:57):
And again he gets no reprie because the schedule's been
out for how long? This is a very light home schedule.
I know it's a fact. When nobody's debating it, nobody disagrees.
The Longhorns have a chance, a chance to make a
clean sweep at the games in Austin this year. It
(01:15:19):
just might happen that they win all their home games,
maybe just maybe.
Speaker 7 (01:15:24):
Literally outside of two games. Everyone knew what the home
schedule was last year.
Speaker 6 (01:15:29):
I have flipped the schedule matrix for the SEC dictated
that here's what we plan on doing this year, and
we'll use that flipped model for the upcoming year as
we maybe make our way to a nine game conference schedule.
We don't know what the Longhorns are going to look
like this year. We've got a brand new starting quarterback
who started games last year and made plays last year
(01:15:50):
and helped them win games last year, but clearly was
not getting all or nearly anywhere near all of the reps.
Does this take us to the Brian Kelly comment about Arch,
I mean, it seems like it would fit here, right. Yes,
what did Brian Kelly say about Arch manning.
Speaker 7 (01:16:05):
He's not ready to crown him the next great savior
of college football in Layman's terms, basically in a comment
comparing him him to Garrett Nussmayer.
Speaker 6 (01:16:15):
His guy, My guy's been through it. He knows what
it's like. Arch doesn't know what it's like here in
the SEC. I mean it's the same story as Texas
doesn't know. Arch knows it's going to be difficult. Arch
knows these are good teams. Just like Texas did before
they played any conference games in the SEC, and then
(01:16:37):
what happened?
Speaker 5 (01:16:38):
What quarterback does know what it's like before he knows
what it's like, that's my question.
Speaker 6 (01:16:41):
But he's saying it like wait till he finds out
and he looks at his team's record and they're seven
and five because they can't win in the SEC.
Speaker 5 (01:16:50):
And we're supposed to think that Brian Kelly's the foremost
authority on doing just that.
Speaker 4 (01:16:55):
He is how long has he been in the SEC? Now?
Speaker 9 (01:16:57):
This is her?
Speaker 4 (01:16:57):
What? This is your four? He's got it. He's been here.
Speaker 6 (01:17:01):
Record, he's their record's good, they've been good.
Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
Ten and three, ten and three?
Speaker 6 (01:17:08):
What's his signature? We don't that's that is nonsense. No, no, no,
we don't care about any of that stuff. All we
care about is what it means. And Cole you know
it means more. The nine and four, I want to
know what is conference record is only because the rest
of the schedule that everybody else in college football plays
conference games, non conference games, playoff games, and otherwise mean less.
Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
Only the SEC games just means more.
Speaker 5 (01:17:34):
Needs to go the way of Brat Summer and other
stupid monikers.
Speaker 4 (01:17:38):
What's brat summer exactly? Nobody knows. Nobody knows. You know,
what is it? Tell me? I don't know.
Speaker 6 (01:17:43):
I'm intrigued. Rat summer sounds fun, it sounds stupid, it
sounds very Brian Kelly's SEC teams have won seventeen of
their twenty four games.
Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
How many championships has he won at LSU since all
of the pomp and circumstances around three years?
Speaker 4 (01:17:59):
Man's well, how.
Speaker 5 (01:18:00):
Many years did it take Nick Saban to win after
it got to Alabama?
Speaker 4 (01:18:04):
Four?
Speaker 5 (01:18:04):
Okay, so he's got one more year and then I
don't want to hear it. This is it, this is it,
and then you're fired.
Speaker 4 (01:18:09):
This is it.
Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
That you're done. Take SEC media days. I anticipate Cole
that you will be there, right, I'm going to do
everything in my power to be there, and you'll put
you in coaches. Will will you get a chance to
speak with and ask questions of personally? If I get
the opportunity all sixteen so sixteen times on behalf and
as you represent the A team, you will even though
(01:18:32):
you'll get side eyed, the sids will want to escort
you out. The other members of the extremely storied media
group that's there with you will gifaw and let out
deep breaths of derision on our behalf. You will ask
each SEC coach if in fact it means more, If
it means more, yep.
Speaker 4 (01:18:53):
Can you do a montage their responses?
Speaker 6 (01:18:56):
I mean, social media is king and this is just
right up social media's alli.
Speaker 4 (01:19:01):
Can you do that for us? And make sure you
do it before Gordie does. That's the main thing.
Speaker 5 (01:19:05):
I gotta be good and and I want you to
go ahead and predict right here today. Since we're on
the subject, who's gonna give you the best or most
viral worthy response?
Speaker 7 (01:19:15):
Well, probably because I know him, Shane Beemer, He'll smile
and laugh his way through a tremendous answer.
Speaker 6 (01:19:22):
Get our favorite guy will give you a good answer.
Eli will give you a great answer. I you exactly
who you were referencing friend of the show. I'm gonna guess,
like us, not meaning to be mean to anyone, I'm
gonna say that maybe Billy Napier will give you the
worst answer.
Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
I think I'll go well, personally, maybe Billy Napier sounds
like he was a gunfighter in.
Speaker 6 (01:19:42):
If you can invite all the SEC coaches and the
history of SEC football. To answer that question, the best
answer as we hit the four o'clock hour would come
from Ed Orseronne.
Speaker 2 (01:19:50):
Absolutely the eight on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1 (01:19:55):
Ninety two, lifelong Houston's sports guys named Adam Talking.
Speaker 2 (01:20:02):
Your team's.
Speaker 3 (01:20:05):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.
Speaker 5 (01:20:13):
It's the four o'clock hour here on the eight team,
Sports Talk seven ninety and Space City Home Network. Before
we go any further, because I know he's watching right now,
shout out to my main man, A Don, who is
in town. The Metallica show this weekend is going to
be fantastic.
Speaker 4 (01:20:33):
I cannot wait to see him there.
Speaker 5 (01:20:35):
And now that I know he's watching, I have to
look at the camera and say, what's up, a Don?
Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
He cracks me up.
Speaker 5 (01:20:41):
Sending pictures as we get a lot of these, and
we've told you about this and we love them. If
you're watching the show on Space City Home Network and
you see us, absolutely send us a picture of the
setting you're in and where the screen is, and obviously
what you're doing, which a lot of times wex includes
having adult beverages, although I cannot confirm nor deny whether
A Don is doing that right now, we've talked a
(01:21:03):
lot about the Astros trying to get the series win
against the Chicago White Sox. Tonight, we've talked a little
bit about the NBA Finals, not only how lackluster this
I don't say lackluster the series has been, but I
think that I think that a lot of people just
thought the Thunder were gonna come in and roll over anybody,
Pacers or otherwise that made it to the finals, and
(01:21:26):
we're I'm not I'm not gonna say it's a fatal
flaw of the Thunder yet, but if they lose the series,
it absolutely will be. They can't close games with regularity,
and it feels to me, especially when you look at
quarters one through four of just let's just take last
night's game their mo is and against every team, not
(01:21:47):
just in the NBA Finals or the playoffs, race out
to a seemingly insurmountable lead and then hope you can
just kind of coast your way home. At least that's
how the box score would read if you just took
a glance at last night game, especially to part where
they score eighteen in the fourth quarter. But it's like
you can't do that, especially against the one team this
(01:22:09):
postseason specifically, is known for fantastic comebacks.
Speaker 4 (01:22:14):
You're not scared of anybody.
Speaker 6 (01:22:15):
It probably can't take the lead to the fourth quarter
in every game of the series and be down two
games to one. That's probably not the way to do it.
So finishing off wins that are right in front of you.
They have failed to do that in this series. Been
a couple of instances of that, of course, during their
postseason run twice against Denver, one of those in overtime.
One of them obviously the just this was coaching. You know,
(01:22:38):
you've complimented Rick Carlisle and deservedly so. And I think
Mark Daniel's decision making down the stretch of one of
those losses to Denver where they kept fouling and kept
doing things that made it easier for Denver to make
that comeback, well, that's coaching malpractice. I do have to
give Rick Carlisle some credit because we brought it up
on the show and it's this same so clearly he
(01:23:00):
obviously said with the intention of having it play out
a different way. You know, Shay Gilgess, Alexander clearly has
been awesome this postseason. He opened up the finals with
individually two pretty outstanding performances.
Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
He made twenty five of his first fifty one shots.
Speaker 6 (01:23:15):
He was shooting, you know, the way you would hope
your MVP, your best player, filling it up. Averaging thirty
six points a game, most points ever for a player
in their first two NBA Finals games. And so Rick
Carlisle reaches the podium after Game two, after the sixteen
point Oklahoma City victory to even up the series, a
thirty four point game for Shay, and he says, you
can pretty much, you know, pencil him in for thirty
(01:23:36):
four every night and then you see where it goes
from there. And Shay scored twenty four and last night's
lost to the Pacers, he shot nine for twenty, which
is not very far off from his other performances, but
he just simply wasn't nearly as effective and six turnovers.
He didn't have a six turnover game this postseason before
(01:23:58):
last night. Definitely played his worst game of the Finals.
And other than the game where he and his teammates
weren't asked to play very much because they were getting
beaten so bad in Game three against the Timberwolves, this
was you know, he's probably had two bad games, And
I know twenty four points is good, but this was
one of two I would call bad games.
Speaker 4 (01:24:20):
That's how good he's been, and that is still a
difference between him and Tyrese Haliburton.
Speaker 6 (01:24:23):
Tyres Haliburton has not had that few games that have
gone that well. He got a tremendous amount of help
from everybody else in their game two victory. Didn't get
a tremendous amount of help from everybody else in last
night's loss. They need him to be great most nights. Honestly,
they've had so many lopsided games. Even in this postseason.
He's been so great so quickly his overall end of
(01:24:44):
game performing. He could have forty five point games this postseason,
but some of those games have been so lopsided. Chet
Holmgren going six to fifteen, going zero for six from deep,
taking an hour to launch a three pointer so Miles
Turner can block it, and then you get it back
and drive on Miles Turner just so he can block
(01:25:05):
it again and knock it out off of you. He
had twenty points, but I don't know that I would
say he had a good game. Jalen Williams probably had
a good game. Their overall game, Pacers credit for this.
Oklahoma City's not playing like the Thunder we've seen most
of the year, sharing the basketball, tons of movement, tons
of great looks, obviously, tons of makes. They still made
(01:25:27):
forty six percent of their threes, but they only scored
one hundred and seven points and they only had sixteen
assists on their thirty seven makes. That's not very Oklahoma
City like. And this is how it should be. You
shouldn't be playing like you did all year because you're
playing only the same team over and over and over again,
and that only team you're seeing is awesome.
Speaker 5 (01:25:45):
Let me ask you this as we kind of transition
into what the Rockets may or may not do this
offseason and when they may or may not do it.
If the Thunder what's been their rep fair or not
the last several seasons regular season team and they can't
finish well now they're not being able to finish in
playoff games and specifically in finals games, and all we
(01:26:09):
ever hear about is all of the assets that Sam
Presty has, and on and on and on and on.
Speaker 6 (01:26:13):
If they were still super duper new to this true
like this is your two I know they made the playoffs.
Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
The year between.
Speaker 5 (01:26:21):
When you win sixty eight games, the standards and the
expectations are raised. Rockets just found that out the hard way.
You were out in the first round as the two seed.
I know it's not the same, but fair or not,
that's how people look at it. So would they, meaning
Sam Presty, shake it up if they lose this series.
I know that seems like knee jerk and stupid and
(01:26:44):
not staying the course as we have seen Mike Malone
and Thibodeau and maybe even the Rockets make big changes
over the course of Some of them have already happened.
Some of them may happen. I just wonder if the
thunder think, Okay, well, why don't we just go get Yannest.
We've got the assets to do it.
Speaker 4 (01:27:05):
We'd be shocking to me.
Speaker 6 (01:27:06):
I'm not saying it's impossible and it's not worth having,
and they're like, let's go get Durant and they did.
Speaker 4 (01:27:14):
It was crazy. That's weird, how I man. I hear that,
and I do think it's different.
Speaker 6 (01:27:19):
Like I look at Durant going to the Warriors and
think it's impossible for them not to win, and I
don't look at Giannis going to the Thunder and think
the same thing.
Speaker 5 (01:27:31):
So you think as because of the type of player
he is, basically ye oh, he would change Like I'm
looking at the Thunder win or lose this final series.
Speaker 6 (01:27:41):
They shouldn't be making any significant changes anybody's contracts up.
Maybe there's no way to work it out, and they
have to go a different direction with their seventh most
important player, This player off the bench. This players are
gonna get more minutes next year. But their group is
this is a championship team, and everybody knows it doesn't
mean you win the championship. A lot of championship caliber
raw don't win championships, maybe never win championships.
Speaker 4 (01:28:03):
But you know, you have we know what we're seeing.
They have a championship roster.
Speaker 5 (01:28:06):
So having said all that, and it's all true, and
I agree with all of it, but you're mean, you're
gonna tell me right now that if Milwaukee calls up
and they're like, all right, we'll give you Giannis, we
want chet Holmgren, and we want I don't know, I mean,
without knowing the numbers of the salaries and all that.
I mean, Sheet's still on his rookie deal.
Speaker 4 (01:28:25):
Yep. But like that's a win win for both sides.
Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
Well, you're if you Milwaukee's getting a young, talented player.
Speaker 6 (01:28:34):
Huge win for Milwaukee if you believe in him. But
it's a huge risk even if you believe in him
because the injury part of it. Okay, but now you're
from the city's case. If you believe in chet, aren't
you shortening your window? You're bringing the window down.
Speaker 5 (01:28:47):
Maybe, but aren't you making sure that that window is ironclad?
Speaker 4 (01:28:51):
Championship?
Speaker 5 (01:28:52):
You're gonna stop shake Gildess Alexander lobbing to Giannis on
the break every night.
Speaker 4 (01:28:56):
No, you're not. I think that the press he would
do it this way.
Speaker 6 (01:28:59):
Andy's a defense to find a way to get Yannis
in there and talk, you know, press conference, and he
says no offense to Janis. Obviously we love having him here,
but our sole purpose in landing him was just to
keep him from being on any other team because they're
all trying to catch us.
Speaker 4 (01:29:13):
But now they can't.
Speaker 5 (01:29:14):
Okay, but what do we keep talking about, like with
with the Rockets in Phoenix, like their trump card is
that they have Phoenix's picks. Well, Oklahoma City's trump card
when talking to any team is we have all the picks.
It's like Dennis Leary, We've got the bombs. Like, they've
got all these picks from all of these deals they've done,
(01:29:35):
and I just why wouldn't they shoot for the stars.
It's very much Durant esque, except for they won sixty
eight instead of seventy three, and they maybe won't blow Well,
they're not gonna blow a three one leagu because they
haven't had a three one lead and they can't.
Speaker 6 (01:29:48):
Now they do have a lot of picks and quantity.
It's a little bit more of a discussion to say
how good are these picks.
Speaker 4 (01:29:57):
That's true because of who they are.
Speaker 5 (01:29:58):
But if you're Milwaukee and you're to retool anyways, and
let's just say for the sake of argument, Giannis comes
to management says, I want out because Damian Lillard is
effectively dead.
Speaker 6 (01:30:08):
Yeah, quick quick run through of some of this Oklahoma
City asset pool as they get in the Janna Sweepstakes
per the A team, Right, they have two first round
picks this year. This is what we always talk about, yep.
Fifteenth and twenty fifth. In the future, they have all
seven of their own first round picks coming up in
twenty twenty six, the second best team in the Western
Conference will give them their pick. That's Houston. It's top
(01:30:28):
four protected. Also is still the Chris Paul trade. The
fifth best team in the West, the LA Clippers, unprotected,
they'll give them their pick. So that's three first round picks,
none of which will likely be in the lottery. Now
they get a top eight protected from Utah, but they
probably won't get it because it will be in the
top eight.
Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
Yep. And I could go on and on and on,
and that's kind of my point.
Speaker 6 (01:30:48):
Now, they have a ton of technical assets in first
round picks, but when they're not likely top first round picks,
they don't carry as much weight. And we don't have
to continue you and go on and on about it's unbelievable.
He's giving himself a ton of extra chances and they
have the best roster.
Speaker 4 (01:31:06):
But so he's done a great show.
Speaker 5 (01:31:07):
Other teams would then maybe turn around and take them
in other deals because you have them now instead of
Oklahoma City. There's always somebody that'll take a flyer on
a first round pick for sure.
Speaker 4 (01:31:17):
Side.
Speaker 5 (01:31:17):
I mean, if I were them and they fall short
for whatever reason and you want to get even better
than you already were. There's a few players that could
probably you could actually say, would do that.
Speaker 6 (01:31:27):
Kevin Durant to Houston, maybe, Brian McTaggart to the airwaves
here definitely.
Speaker 1 (01:31:32):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 6 (01:31:42):
Baseball over to Tyking Park again tonight. As we continue
here on the eighteen, wexa ce Cole with you. We'll
get you into the Astros on deck show at six o'clock. No,
there're seventy to ten first pitch from ber Valdez to
close out the White Sox series as they.
Speaker 4 (01:31:54):
Welcome in the Twins tomorrow.
Speaker 6 (01:31:56):
Twins got smoked today by the Rangers. Rangers last couple
of days, I guess have figured out a way to
score some runs and it's certainly impacting their ability to
win games. The Twins, like I said, a pretty good
baseball team. After the Astros ran through them in Minnesota.
Opening road trip of the season to Astros took two
(01:32:16):
out of three. We'll try to do at least the
same this weekend. The last nineteen days in the majors
has seen the American League West change dramatically. As we
get into the thoughts of Brian McTaggart from MLB dot
Com covering the Astros. The Astros haven't even been the
best team in baseball, close but not quite. They've gone
(01:32:37):
eleven and five over those last nineteen days. There's a
bunch of teams eight of them. Eight teams have won
eleven games or more, and none of them, of course,
are in the Astros division. The Astros are three and
a half games out of first place behind the Seattle
Mariners at that time, and in just the time it
took the Astros to go eleven and five, the Mariners
have gone four and thirteen. A's have gone four and fourteen,
(01:32:59):
Angels and Rangers have gone eight and nine, all under
five hundred, which is exactly where all four of those
teams are currently overall for the season. And the Astros
entered play today with a four game lead in their division.
That's where the conversation begins with Brian McTaggart his weekly
visit on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Just Ross
today for that portion of their program. Are the Astros
(01:33:24):
going to run away with the American League West? What
say you, mister McTaggart.
Speaker 9 (01:33:29):
Well, unless the Mariners make changes, then probably yes. I mean,
they they didn't make any offensive improvements in the offseason.
Jerry Depoto thought, you know, it was kind of banking
on getting healthy and having some guys have bounced back seasons. Now,
you know, cal Rally's cal Rally's been really good. JP
Crawford's been good, but Julio Rodriguez doesn't play like a
star anymore. And you know, they went out and brought
(01:33:51):
back Polanco, who got off to a really hot start,
but he's cooled off. You know, they signed Donovan Solana,
who's terrible. Mitch Garver hasn't been good. I mean, they
just can't score. Their bullpen hasn't been great. I mean,
you know, they have a pretty good closer, but and
then they've had injuries to the rotation, which they didn't
have last year.
Speaker 4 (01:34:07):
So they're just not a good team right now.
Speaker 9 (01:34:10):
So the Astros will play them after the All Star
break in Seattle, you know, with a chance to put
more distance between them and the Mariners, and they get
next week to get the Angels on the roads, so
they're going to start facing some of these teams.
Speaker 4 (01:34:23):
Had the head.
Speaker 8 (01:34:24):
Quality stuff from Ryan Gusto last night. Where do you
think his leash was? Before that started. Obviously it's longer now.
Speaker 9 (01:34:31):
As in terms of staying in the rotation, yes, yes,
well I think it was long because they don't really
have anybody else and now they're in this six man rotation,
so they really had nowhere else to turn. I think
unless he just went out there and you know, picked
one or two innings, then you would really have to reassess.
But the fact he had career hides and innings pitched
and pitches and strikeouts, you know, fastball hit ninety seven.
Speaker 4 (01:34:54):
He was a lot more aggressive.
Speaker 9 (01:34:55):
You know, it helped when he had a three yeero
lead in the first inning, But it's definitely something for him,
a build on.
Speaker 4 (01:35:00):
That's sort of.
Speaker 9 (01:35:01):
The pitcher that we heard when they put him in
the rotation, that he was capable of pitching like that
hadn't die yet. But you know, like I said all along,
there's sort of at the tail end of their starting
pitching depth here, so there's not a lot of places
for them to turn right now.
Speaker 4 (01:35:13):
You know, maybe that'll change.
Speaker 9 (01:35:15):
If they if they get an arm at the deadline
Righetti back in July.
Speaker 4 (01:35:18):
Maybe we'll see.
Speaker 9 (01:35:19):
But you know, I didn't think Gusto was in real
danger to go anywhere because there were no other.
Speaker 8 (01:35:24):
Options Christian Walker and Janner Diez with Good Knights. Walker
the headliner, of course, but the two hard hit, hardest
hit balls were off the bat of jan or Diez,
and feels like we've been here a couple of times
with both of them saying, Hey, is this the jumping
off point for a turnaround to their seasons?
Speaker 4 (01:35:41):
What are you feeling on both of those guys? Yeah,
you're right.
Speaker 9 (01:35:43):
I mean, if this happens like once every week, where
one of these guys has a good game or hits
the ball hard, you're like, Okay, maybe this is it.
But you know, Yanner hit a couple of balls hard
the night before as well. You know, Walker really crushed
his homer. I think it was almost one away off
the back. And then I think one of the things
in Joe Spotted brought this up too, was his third
(01:36:04):
hit was a little bloop single to right field, and
he had just been not getting those. He'd really been
not getting the brakes on balls that weren't hit hard,
or pop ups or things like that. So I think
for him that was probably as encouraging as the home run, like, Hey,
I'm finally starting to get some breaks here in a
three hit game. But yeah, if you're the ass Stars,
you can only hope it's you know, this is the
(01:36:25):
one they turned around and start building on, because man,
if you get those two guys going, you know, the
five six spots of the order wherever they're at, and
you get jord On by healthy and playing like Jorda,
then you got a real chance to run away with
the division.
Speaker 8 (01:36:39):
Brian mctagger continuing with us here on a Sports Talk
seven ninety Jeremy Panna a couple of hits again, hitting
three twenty two and just keeps on doing it. Should
be an All Star at the short stop position. What
do you think is the biggest reason for his breakout,
whether it be changing approach or maturity or I mean
just a little bit luck, or what do you think
(01:37:01):
is happening with Jeremy Peniy that's leading to this.
Speaker 9 (01:37:04):
Well, I think you hit on the two biggest, biggest things.
I mean maturity. This is his fourth year now, and
you know he came up and had a pretty good
rookie year and then we all know what he did
in the playoffs, and he sort of had similar years
the next two years. You know a couple of years
ago that the power went away in the second half.
So he came to camp last year in twenty four
and changed his stance. Seemed to work pretty well for him,
(01:37:24):
but I think he made have you know, he kind
of worked on that a little bit more and just
tried to just try to refine his stance and his
approach to where he could see the ball better, and
that's worked out for him. I think once he starts
getting confidence, then he realizes that, hey, this is the
player that I know I can be. But you know,
props to him because you know, he's really worked hard
the last couple of years to try to get to
(01:37:45):
that next level, and it looks like he's gonna be there.
I mean, certainly seems like him Bobby Witt or Jacob
Wilson of A's or probably your three best shortstops in
the American League at this point. So I don't know
if they'll take three short stops. I mean, I'm guessing
they probably will, but Paya deserves a shot to be
in the All Star Game, and who knows, maybe he starts,
maybe he gets enough fan votes to start, and know
(01:38:06):
the Royals vote pretty well, it'll be interesting to see
what kind of voting support as players get. Not that
they have that many All Star caliber players, but just
I mean, is are people in Sacramento going to rush
and punch.
Speaker 2 (01:38:19):
The balance online?
Speaker 4 (01:38:19):
Who knows?
Speaker 9 (01:38:20):
But yeah, Penya certainly deserves to be in the All
Star Game.
Speaker 6 (01:38:22):
I'd say they'll probably vote for Judge. Out there in
West Sacramento. Remember when they introduced the idea that this
was going to be their new home and the person
at the podium that was so excited to bring baseball
to West Sacramento.
Speaker 4 (01:38:35):
It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 6 (01:38:36):
You can come see the Athletics play, and you can
come see some great players like Aaron Judge. Wait for
the other team they beat your team here, well, in
West Sacramento.
Speaker 5 (01:38:47):
It's what you have to sell sometimes when your product
isn't sellable, if you will.
Speaker 6 (01:38:52):
The All Star vote is interesting, and we were talking
about it the other day. Jose Al Tuvey's run of
All Star Game appearances might come to an end, and
I really didn't think much of it because it seems
so obvious. Even though there aren't a host of awesome
outfield voting options. Aaron Judge is a really, really good one.
(01:39:15):
And Byron Buxton, who I wasn't too super pleased with,
is continue to put up numbers that suggest he's probably
worth voting for. Speaking of the A's, I think one,
if not the only participant they have. Jacob Wilson's probably
gonna make it, so maybe Tyler Soderstrom doesn't, but he's
put up numbers worthy of that. And where would al
Tuva rank among these outfielders, It doesn't matter because he's
(01:39:39):
on the ballot at second base. I don't know if
everybody knows that that's when you go to vote for
your All Stars, and it's not that you go to
the Astrodome and then you go up to the top
of your row and take fifteen paper ballots out of
the ballot box and go back down under your seat
and ask your parents if they have a pen so
you can poke through all fifteen ballots at one time.
Speaker 4 (01:40:00):
Sounds like you've done this before, Glenn Davis and Bill
Dorian and the like.
Speaker 6 (01:40:05):
You just go on to your phone or computer or whatever,
and you just here's who I'm voting for the second
baseman in the American League this year. Trying to keep
Jose Altuve from being the selection at second base, Well
they stink.
Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
There's really there's no obvious choice.
Speaker 6 (01:40:28):
I mean, the best ops among second basement is the
Twins Willie Castro. All six of his home runs have
helped contribute to that, and his fifteen RBI hasn't played
the entire season. Brandon Lowe has six thirteen homers and
thirty six RBI. That leads the way in those categories.
He'shiting two forty six, He's got an ops in the
(01:40:49):
seven forties. I mean, Jose Altuve's numbers aren't I popping either.
His nine home runs are second among second basement. He
has not played half of this he has even played
a third of the season at second base. But if
you're voting on second baseman, the vast majority of the
(01:41:09):
millions and millions of voters probably don't even know it.
And they're gonna look at Andresamenez and Michael Massey and
Daniel Schneeman and Lennon Sosa, and they're gonna say, oh, yeah,
I know, josel Tuve. He gets my vote at second
base in twenty twenty five. I can't wait to see
these first returns and see exactly where he's placed in
(01:41:32):
the hierarchy of this first go round. I'm shocked. I'm
absolutely shocked. He's sitting there at second base on the ballot.
Speaker 7 (01:41:40):
There will be one other person He'll be competing with, Clabor.
Speaker 4 (01:41:44):
Torres, because he's a Yankee former Yankee.
Speaker 6 (01:41:49):
He's having an okay season, probably a worthwhile at second
base all Star season for the Tigers, but mainly because
there's no competition there, and I don't know that don't
really usually say when they're going to do it. It's
just all probably on a Tuesday. Probably next Tuesday would
be my guess.
Speaker 5 (01:42:05):
I'm curious just because I had no idea that he
was listed there.
Speaker 4 (01:42:09):
Well he is, I bet you, he leads.
Speaker 6 (01:42:13):
We shall see. We'll get to our signature segment. It
is Thursday. We ask what's up with that?
Speaker 4 (01:42:19):
Next the A on.
Speaker 2 (01:42:22):
Sports Talk seven ninety a new signature segment called what's
up with that? What's up with that? What's up?
Speaker 4 (01:42:39):
I say, what's up that?
Speaker 6 (01:42:44):
Signature segment time the Sucky, sultry Tones of Yours Truly
introduced this Thursday signature segment.
Speaker 4 (01:42:50):
It is what's up with that? Something going on in
the world or sports world.
Speaker 6 (01:42:55):
We have to scratch our head about need a little
help understanding, or just merely want to point it out.
Speaker 5 (01:43:02):
Well, it is a topic that you could say is
maybe the if not one of the dead horses on
this show.
Speaker 4 (01:43:11):
We have beaten it to a bloody pulp.
Speaker 5 (01:43:14):
We have talked about it ad nauseum, and we will
continue to do so as the implementation sooner rather than
later of the Automated Ball Strike System. I'm not sure
if you're aware of a new poll by The Athletic
that came out one hundred and thirty four players major.
Speaker 4 (01:43:37):
League Baseball players.
Speaker 5 (01:43:38):
Yeah, an anonymous poll responded to the poll, an eye
popping sixty three point four percent said they don't want
robot umpires calling balls and strikes, and only seventeen point
two percent voted in the positive, while nineteen point four
percent said they weren't sure if they wanted the ABS
(01:44:01):
system implemented.
Speaker 6 (01:44:02):
Every time we have this conversation, I try to point
out that we don't always have some numbers. It's a
fairly small sample size. There's twenty six Major leaguers on
each team, there's thirty teams. There's a lot more than
the number you just gave out that did respond, But
it's a pretty significant majority that says, Nah, it doesn't
(01:44:24):
bother me at all. In the eighth inning of games,
when the three to two pitch that's four inches off
of the plate as I throw my bat and elbow
guard to the dugout, the umpire then says, strike, You're out.
Speaker 4 (01:44:34):
Doesn't bother me at all.
Speaker 5 (01:44:36):
Yeah, guess he wasn't one of the ones that responded
to the anonymous poll. Now, I'll give you exactly one
guess as to what position this player that provided this
quote plays.
Speaker 4 (01:44:49):
Let's say, of course, quote.
Speaker 5 (01:44:51):
It has been or it has proven ineffective in TRIPAA
and everywhere they tested it. Why would you remove the
human element? Game will fundamentally change in a way that
fans are definitely not going to like. It will make
injuries and the competitive nature of the game worse. There
will be fewer balls in play and the games take longer.
Speaker 6 (01:45:12):
All proven, so whatever position this player plays was one
hundred percent joking, dead serious.
Speaker 4 (01:45:24):
How do you know that? Well, he didn't say I'm joking.
Speaker 6 (01:45:29):
Well, in the article, the next line says the pitcher
then laughed, Maybe he is being but all proven injuries
will be worse. Like he's saying things that make no sense,
and yet.
Speaker 5 (01:45:44):
He's saying things that are in line with the voting results.
Speaker 6 (01:45:48):
Well, we talked about it, I think a couple of
times since it has been tested, and I still don't
agree with the players on why they continually at numbers
that's sixty percent in this at least in this poll
that they want. They call it human element, to absolve
them of what it is. They're saying, we want mistakes,
that's what the human element is. And what they're also
(01:46:11):
saying is we want the positives of it. Like every
single pitch that's out of the strike zone that gets
called a strike, We're like, how can you do that?
And every single pitch that's so clearly inside the strike
zone maywhile a player storming off the mound this week,
cursing but trying not to get ejected, when he threw
this huge looping curve that absolutely positively was one hundred
(01:46:34):
percent the entire ball was well inside the strike zone,
and the umpire just stood there because and then he
had to throw another pitch and he had to give
the hitter another opportunity. I think they feel they these
pitchers for sure, and then by the same token, the
hitters that are up there, they don't seem to mind.
It doesn't bother them, and they get over it. Like
(01:46:54):
JP Crawford, who's extremely mild mannered, absolutely lost it this
season within the last two weeks because an umpire did
such a terrible job calling balls and shrikes in his opinion,
and umpires will go back and look at it and say, hey,
I missed it. Players will go back and look at
it and say he was right. It happens, but they
do this and then the next day they're fine. They
(01:47:18):
just go to the next umpire and he'll make his mistakes,
and then they'll go the next day and then the
next Like I think what they really want is to
get rid of the bad umpires, and they really truly
don't believe the league is full of bad umpires. They
want these select five to ten guys. He's definitely last
DSCB Buckner. I mean, we could the sense they're always
(01:47:40):
at the root of this. It's why their names come
to mind. It's why Angel Hernandez name always came to
mind because he was.
Speaker 4 (01:47:48):
So often the subject.
Speaker 6 (01:47:50):
So clearly we're not talking about borderline calls or we're nitpicking.
These were blatant misses and they do have data. Unfortunately,
it's different data than Major League Baseball uses. Because Major
League Baseball is the nicest entity ever to work for,
especially when you have a union, as long as you're
not the players. Yeah, because the Major League Baseball umpire's
union is gifted so much. Here's the strike zone, but
(01:48:14):
we're going to give you an extra three inches in
every direction. Now, we won't grage you down for it,
but if it's close enough.
Speaker 5 (01:48:20):
Here's And this is the most maddening paragraph of this
article or this article about the article that I'm reading
other downsides of the ABS system that we're cited by
the players. I'll just never understand this loss of the
human element. I can stop right there and say, why
(01:48:44):
do you need the loss of mistakes?
Speaker 4 (01:48:46):
Right?
Speaker 5 (01:48:47):
What they're saying, thank you, a decrease in the value
of catchers who are good at framing.
Speaker 4 (01:48:51):
Pitches, cheating, thank you.
Speaker 5 (01:48:53):
See, just keep doing this because you're proving my point
and hitters becoming less aggressive when they know that pitchers
won't be able to get a strike call with the
pitch just off the edge of the plate from a
generous umpire, What is not wrong with that sentence?
Speaker 4 (01:49:08):
Good?
Speaker 6 (01:49:08):
Take your walk, Yeah, you can throw strikes because if
you keep walking when a walk is as good as
it is not hard.
Speaker 5 (01:49:14):
This is like, this is just the least difficult concept
to ever Maybe these guys.
Speaker 6 (01:49:19):
And I also say, I won't like it when the
strike zone is the same every day.
Speaker 4 (01:49:23):
I will hate that, right, you know, consistency what that's called.
Speaker 6 (01:49:27):
I'm gonna be so I'm gonna have so much extra
time on my hands because I won't have to look
to see who the umpire is that day behind the plate,
because I already know it's the same umpire every day.
Speaker 5 (01:49:37):
Automated the NBA, where a charge is apparently subjective at times,
as are various forms of contact depending on the size
of the person you're being officiated, you can actually make
it consistent, at least in one part, the most important
part of the game you play by giving everybody the
same fundamental baseline.
Speaker 4 (01:49:59):
Of a strike zone.
Speaker 5 (01:50:00):
And yet sixty plus percent of these guys are apparently morons.
Speaker 6 (01:50:04):
Yeah, Framing is the is the big one for me.
Why why is framing exist? Because you know the umpires
are going to be fooled if you're good at it,
Just like in the NBA, wanting to do you're trying
to tell them there they can't see what they're seeing.
I mean, I watch games and catchers frame pitches over
and over and over, and it absolutely ticks me off,
especially the ones who take balls that are nowhere near.
Speaker 4 (01:50:25):
The strike zone and try to frame them.
Speaker 7 (01:50:27):
Like.
Speaker 4 (01:50:27):
The question is, why doesn't it tick them off? I
don't know, I just should.
Speaker 5 (01:50:32):
This is why I'm like, I'm asking, seriously, our Major
League Baseball players dumb.
Speaker 6 (01:50:37):
They're just mad that I've actually worked within the rules.
I've been a catcher since I was a little kid,
and I've perfectly crafted this skill and I'm really really
good at fooling the empires, and you're taking it away
from me.
Speaker 4 (01:50:49):
So I don't like it.
Speaker 5 (01:50:50):
So players don't want their sport to be improved, what's
up with that?
Speaker 6 (01:50:54):
This pretty seems like a fairly simple concept, at least
to us. They've taken the human element out at the
because the human element means mistakes, and they've taken those out.
Speaker 4 (01:51:05):
But not here, not behind home plate.
Speaker 1 (01:51:09):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety so football at
five is rapidly approaching. But to give you a little
we'll wet your appetite here. I told wex that his
h his eyes would bug out.
Speaker 4 (01:51:25):
Of his head when I gave him this list.
Speaker 5 (01:51:28):
Pro Football Focus to who has spent an Enorman an
inordinate amount of time on our show and discussion recently
came out with Dalton Wasserman came out with a list
of five teams that will be overlooked this upcoming NFL season,
And they're in alphabetical order this way, so I'll just
(01:51:52):
list them off. The Bengals, the Cowboys, the Cults, the
forty nine ers, and the Seahawks. Does anybody jump off
the page.
Speaker 6 (01:52:04):
At you on this show? Yes, the Cowboys? Should we
play the I mean, if that's what we're talking this
is a heck of a tease. It feels like we're
eating everything right now, We're not just getting the appetizer.
Speaker 5 (01:52:16):
Well, I just, you know, figured we could set it
up properly, because then I could give you the actual
meat and potatoes of why they think the Dallas Cowboys,
in any way, shape or form, are going to be
overlooked in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 4 (01:52:32):
I can't wait for the meat and potatoes of it.
Very intrigued.
Speaker 6 (01:52:36):
Five teams that I don't believe the Texans Ravens, Eagles, Commanders, Bills,
Chiefs should be worried about in any way.
Speaker 5 (01:52:48):
You guys are like dead set on a couple of
things in that I feel like the AFC North is
getting a ton of attention from this show this year.
You both think that Aaron Rodgers is absolutely m I
said the rape, Did I say the benk? I said
the Ravens Only? Well, I don't, They're awesome. I'm just
giving you the division breakdown right now because I am
always like, hey, I think the Steelers with Aaron Rodgers
(01:53:11):
are probably going to be better than a lot of
people are thinking they will be.
Speaker 4 (01:53:14):
They won't see.
Speaker 5 (01:53:16):
It's it's very black and white with the two of
you and me on this issue of the AFC.
Speaker 7 (01:53:21):
North pick a different division. I can guarantee you all agree.
Speaker 4 (01:53:24):
With Well, I'm not.
Speaker 5 (01:53:24):
I'm just not like ready to set in stone that
the Bengals are going to be like these awesome contenders.
Speaker 4 (01:53:29):
Either, right.
Speaker 6 (01:53:30):
But you're picking a an Aaron Rodgers Mike Tomlin led
team over a Joe Burrow Zach Taylor led team.
Speaker 4 (01:53:36):
That's that's what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (01:53:37):
Well, the team that I'm picking didn't even have Aaron
Rodgers last year and they did make the postseason and
the Bengals didn't.
Speaker 6 (01:53:42):
And as I said earlier on a completely different topic,
and then what.
Speaker 5 (01:53:46):
Yeah, it's fine, but that that's kind of the argument, right,
we're talking about which one of these teams is.
Speaker 6 (01:53:52):
If as we would say here, I don't really care
if the I mean, I'm not jumping through hoops that
you've made it.
Speaker 4 (01:53:58):
I know what you're saying.
Speaker 6 (01:53:59):
They're not They're not capable of doing anything. Not to mention,
while they still feel confident that TJ. Watt will get
a deal done and they feel I'm glad they feel confident,
but the most important player on your entire roster doesn't
is very happy with you.
Speaker 5 (01:54:15):
When did he get hurt last year? How many games
were left in the season, roughly do you remember, I'd
have to look like.
Speaker 4 (01:54:20):
It was TJ. Watt. It was. It wasn't like the
Lions with.
Speaker 6 (01:54:28):
No he played in seventeen games, okay, but he he
was out.
Speaker 7 (01:54:32):
He was filled with the peck injury throughout the season.
I think that was it.
Speaker 6 (01:54:35):
But he didn't miss blow out crazy You're out for
a while.
Speaker 4 (01:54:39):
Some reason. I thought hest was out there.
Speaker 5 (01:54:44):
And again this is not. This situation with his contract
is not atypical. It's just your usual this guy's do
money and the team's not wanting to pay it up
that we see all the time.
Speaker 6 (01:54:57):
Yeah, that's probably, I guess accurately issues in Pittsburgh with
some players. You know, Okay, you're really really good, like
in New England, we'll just go ahead, go somewhere else.
But they usually do right by a player like this,
and I ultimately think I'm glad that they feel good
because I do too.
Speaker 4 (01:55:12):
But you know, back to the topic.
Speaker 6 (01:55:15):
I forget that Aaron Rodgers is better than the guys
they've had, because I think that's fair.
Speaker 4 (01:55:20):
But what is it saying? What do you like about
Aaron Rodgers? What do you like about what you've seen
from him?
Speaker 6 (01:55:24):
What makes you think he's going to make plays in
the framework of an NFL game ten times out of seventeen,
and they're going to get their ten wins, and they
go to qualified for the playoffs and they're going to
play the Ravens and Bengals and beat them one or
two out of four times.
Speaker 4 (01:55:37):
I guess that what I'm banking on.
Speaker 5 (01:55:40):
Outside of obviously health, which you could say that with
any quarterback or any player in the NFL at any
stage of their career. But just set that aside. Let's
say he stays healthy, which wasn't the case in New York.
He was last year, his most recent year. I know
he's coming from New York, which is a disaster of
an organization and has been for a long long time.
(01:56:02):
The Jets were a disaster before Aaron Rodgers set foot
in the organization.
Speaker 4 (01:56:06):
Stop.
Speaker 6 (01:56:06):
He made sure they would have less of a chance
to win by literally everything he did. I'm not going
to say here history, no, No, I said less of
a chance to win, Okay, which is why they got
down to five and twelve within starting every.
Speaker 4 (01:56:20):
Game, absolving him of blame.
Speaker 5 (01:56:23):
But I'm not going to sit here and act like
there aren't certain organizations Cleveland included, where they find a
way to screw it up every time, and it happened.
It's a big part of its ownership, which was clearly
a factor here.
Speaker 6 (01:56:36):
Let's just talk, So what was screwed up last year?
How did they find a way to screw it up?
What did they do wrong or what injuries kind of
set them back or the coaching change they made obviously
in season, Why did they have the wrong guy.
Speaker 5 (01:56:50):
I don't know, because I was never as big on
him and on Robert Sala as you were going in.
I mean it was his first time. I'm not listen.
I'm gonna be consistent about is I'm worried about a
guy I like in Aaron Glenn. I think he's going
about it the right way. But until you're not the
Jets anymore, you're the Jets no matter who your coach
or who your quarterback is.
Speaker 6 (01:57:11):
Well, his his problem is the same as Roberts problem. Yeah,
they don't have one. Well, yeah, yes, Robert saw his
entire tenure with the Jets was played without a starting
quarterback who can win.
Speaker 5 (01:57:22):
Yes, but we can't sit here and act like we
weren't all saying Rogers or no rogers that they had
a good roster around him before they got before he
got there, because they.
Speaker 6 (01:57:32):
Did, Yeah, exactly. And then what did he do to
the roster? He just set that up brilliantly.
Speaker 4 (01:57:37):
Yeah, did what every other quarterback has done at the roster.
Speaker 6 (01:57:40):
Nobody gets the ability to make players get there like
Aaron Rodgers did.
Speaker 4 (01:57:44):
I'd like this guy, he's yours. How about this guy,
he's very.
Speaker 5 (01:57:47):
James Harden him very much so, except James at the
top of his game. What's that headed to Pittsburgh now? Well,
but the thing is Pittsburgh is not going to do that.
They never have and they never will no matter who
you are. That's part of the mystique of that franchise.
They're the opposite.
Speaker 6 (01:58:04):
If they win with Aaron, just like they won with Russell,
just like they won with Kenny Pickett and Mason Rudolph,
it'll be the exact same formula. Is there going to
make games? You're gonna have a hard time scoring on us,
You're gonna make mistakes against us. It's gonna be an
unfun game to watch. They're gonna be mistakes made by
our team as many as there are by your team.
And hopefully, when the final zero's hit the board, we've
(01:58:26):
got twenty and you've got seventeen.
Speaker 5 (01:58:28):
Isn't Russell Wilson, which is the most recent example you
could possibly make in that he played there last year?
Isn't he the perfect example to back up what I'm
trying to say, which it might end up not being
the case. I'm not saying again, Aaron Rodgers had plenty
of blame to be put in his corner as to
why things didn't go right, not only in New York
(01:58:50):
but also at the end of his Green Bay tenures.
Speaker 6 (01:58:52):
Zero level of doubt zero to one hundred that Aaron
Rodgers is better than Russell Wilson?
Speaker 4 (01:58:58):
Is there zero doubt? Are you fifty to fifty on that?
I think.
Speaker 5 (01:59:05):
I tend to lean towards fifty to fifty because of
what his age is. But it's Aaron Rodgers compared to
Russell Wilson at the end of their careers.
Speaker 6 (01:59:16):
Default the Russell Wilson era in Pittsburgh was after he
took over for Fields, they basically won every week and
then they lost every week. They were four and two
when he took over, and they won six out of seven,
and then they lost four straight weeks and then a
fifth week in the playoff.
Speaker 5 (01:59:30):
Who's going to be better at the very, very very
end of their career Aaron Rodgers, And I just think
Aaron rodgers resume says he will be.
Speaker 6 (01:59:37):
But it's not a very good level. It's barely middle
of the pack maybe in the NFL. So there you go.
We teach it's a football segment by talking football. So
when we come back you guessed it.
Speaker 2 (01:59:49):
The age on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
Ninety Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A team,
all right?
Speaker 5 (02:00:15):
That music means that we continue to talk about the
NFL Football at five, although this will not be the
Pittsburgh Steelers segment that last segment was.
Speaker 4 (02:00:25):
Instead, this will be the Dallas Cowboys segment. No, not really.
Speaker 5 (02:00:28):
I mentioned that Pro Football Focus had listed five teams
that were going to be overlooked heading into the twenty
twenty five NFL season, according to one Dan Dalton Wasserman
and just in like short order here at the very
top of the article, they talk about the Bengals being
(02:00:51):
set up to bounce back in short order, Cincinnati dropping
seven of its eleven one score games last season, and
should experience positive aggression through the elite trio of Joe Burrow,
Jamar Chase, and T Higgins. I don't even know what
that means. Positive regression.
Speaker 6 (02:01:08):
Well, basically it's what we talk you know, team other
than the Chiefs, whose people still can't figure out keep
winning one score games for a reason. It's not a
fluke and it doesn't automatically. Oh well, you got unlucky.
You're gonna win your fair share. They're going with the
ladder there. The Bengals are gonna win their fair share.
Speaker 5 (02:01:24):
Uh, Dak is back and so is Dallas. The Cowboys
are poised to return.
Speaker 6 (02:01:29):
Kyards Talk seven ninety Your Southwest, your deep.
Speaker 7 (02:01:33):
Southwest, Telly for your Dallas.
Speaker 4 (02:01:35):
Sports Did you intentionally do that? Let's talk Cowboys football
here on Sports Talk seven ninety Sleeper teams don't sleep
on Dak in Dallas. Tell us why it's so dumb.
Dak is back and so is Dallas.
Speaker 5 (02:01:50):
The Cowboys are poised to return to form in twenty
twenty five after a lackluster year spurred by injuries on
both sides of the ball. Now, to be fair, he
talks about the fact that Dak Prescott recorded the worst
Pro Football Focus passing great of his career before his
season was curtailed due to injury.
Speaker 4 (02:02:11):
At least he's being honest. Dak sucked before he got hurt,
and therefore the Cowboys.
Speaker 6 (02:02:16):
Suck relative to his elite performances previously regular season performances.
You said he had his worst season, still probably better
than Russell Wilson and Aaron Rodgers and many others.
Speaker 5 (02:02:26):
Well, I didn't say that, they said you said it
to the listeners. I was passing along. I was the messenger.
Don't shoot me.
Speaker 6 (02:02:32):
By the way, the Bengals are destined for greatness this
year because they have new plans on how to get
ready for their season. If you missed that earlier today
when Zach Taylor met with the media joint practice, uh huh,
not doing that. Starters sitting out preseason games like usual?
Uh uh, they're gonna play more in preseason games. Practicing
in the afternoon when it's a little bit warmer in Ohio. Nope,
(02:02:54):
we're going to practice in the morning. Started ozhing two
of the last three years, not this year.
Speaker 4 (02:03:00):
Imagine why they get ready.
Speaker 6 (02:03:01):
For the season. Everything is going to be fine in Cincinnati.
Speaker 5 (02:03:04):
Imagine thinking that Cincinnati afternoons are too hot and so
you need to practice in the morning as opposed to morning.
Speaker 6 (02:03:12):
I took liberties with that. I mean it just said.
He just said they'll have more morning practices. I don't
know if that was his reasoning for it. Maybe he
thinks people are more alert in the morning. Maybe he
doesn't want people drinking coffee before they practice, and if
they go early enough, maybe they won't.
Speaker 4 (02:03:25):
I don't know. Well, he wouldn't have to worry about
that with you a lot. That is true. You hate
coffee and everyone who drink.
Speaker 6 (02:03:30):
Football as an adult, which I don't do. Yeah, oh
watch it, he'll be there in the morning. I couldn't
handle it.
Speaker 5 (02:03:39):
So he's in this paragraph on the Cowboys, he's he's
mounting this like contingency plan. It sounds like in case
things go wrong again. Well, it's all injuries. I mean,
the injuries just could sit. They just continue to mount
as the season went on. Michael Parsons got hurt or
(02:04:00):
any of that. Man, The Cowboys just weren't very well
put together last year. That's why they went out and
you know, got George Pickens for example. That's why I
mean all of this stuff he's talking about, Well, they're
gonna bounce back, Becau Dak is healthy. Well Dak was
healthy and Ceedee Lamb was healthy and they weren't winning.
And George Pickens is a nice pickup, I guess, But
(02:04:23):
I don't know, man. I think Dallas, like a lot
of teams, is only going to go as far as
their defense because they're just even if they're like two
seasons ago when they were awesome, they were just they
they never lost, especially.
Speaker 4 (02:04:42):
At home, and then it was just so laughable.
Speaker 5 (02:04:44):
It was so Dallas the way they lost at home
in the postseason to the Packers. All of that stuff
that he's mentioning, that's gonna happen this year because Dak
is back, and did happen in twenty three when Dak
was having a great year. That's like the very that's
very Oklahoma City thunder regular season of him argue, they
don't get it done when it matters.
Speaker 4 (02:05:03):
Well, but they weren't.
Speaker 6 (02:05:04):
They did win twelve games each of those three years,
but nobody regarded them as the best team in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (02:05:09):
Dallas Cowboys fan right now, how much they give a
crap about what you just said. I'm not picking on you,
but that just sounds all Look at all the games
we won this year, and.
Speaker 4 (02:05:18):
I'm saying the opposite. They weren't.
Speaker 6 (02:05:20):
Because they won those games doesn't put them in any
kind of Oklahoma City class. They were just a playoff team.
They're just like the other seven teams in the West
this year. Yeah, maybe things will work out first, maybe
we'll win. They were just one of everybody winning even
with twelve wins.
Speaker 5 (02:05:31):
Yeah, but winning twelve games is different than winning ten games. Well,
sure it is.
Speaker 6 (02:05:35):
But do you remember those years of people saying I
expect the Cowboys to win the NFC, Well, nobody other than.
Speaker 4 (02:05:45):
They say, but they say it in September. It dies
down after that. That's even worse year.
Speaker 6 (02:05:50):
Now we know they won twelve of seventeen, we know
where they finished in the division, we know what seed
they have, and now we're not saying it like yeah,
I know.
Speaker 4 (02:05:57):
Point we don't think so either.
Speaker 5 (02:05:58):
You know what's funny? At what point is this like
get in their own heads? If it hasn't already.
Speaker 6 (02:06:03):
You said it already, you answered your own question. Of
course it's in there their heads.
Speaker 5 (02:06:07):
But this has happened over the course of several eras
Jerry's head the whole time.
Speaker 6 (02:06:13):
Right, but the only that's the only constant from a
in their head, it's not. It wasn't in Da Dak
said before he went to the postseason and fell short.
It wasn't in Tony's head before he went to the
postseason and fell short. It for the players, it comes along.
I don't want to lessen the impact that I personally
think George Pickens can make. I know his numbers weren't ideal,
(02:06:34):
and I know there's baggage, and I know there's issues
of making sure the focus is always there and the
team aspect of it, but the talent's undeniable the most.
There have been some pretty good number twos with CD,
you know, maybe some better than others. Maybe they made
mistakes with some of who the guys they've let get
out of town, but none of them compare to what
(02:06:55):
Pickens is capable of, and that has to be considered
by other offensive coordinators. Finally, if you were gonna get
if you were gonna get beat by Brandon Cooks or
Michael Gallup or any of the assorted number twos, then
you would if you leave that to chance this year,
and now that number two is George Pickens, you're you're
going to get beat by him in the literal sense
that he's helping them beat you in that game. Not
(02:07:16):
just well I kept seee Lamb from beating us, Well
you didn't keep the Cowboys from beating you, and they're
just it's much more difficult. I'm not saying there'll be
more potent. They've had some unbelievably successful offenses. When the
Saints coach was running things there and even with Mike
McCarthy at times. But you got also considered the other
moves they made which lessen the impact of George. Do
(02:07:38):
you expect the Cowboys to be better running the football
this year? The best player they had running the football
last year isn't there and they did not replace them
with somebody better.
Speaker 4 (02:07:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (02:07:48):
The last paragraph says there are rightfully concerns about the
Cowboys' ability to run and stop the run.
Speaker 4 (02:07:56):
Okay, but other than that.
Speaker 6 (02:07:58):
Like, I just think I haven't studied it enough to
be super definitive. But it seems reasonable to argue their
overall rosters worse than.
Speaker 5 (02:08:07):
Last year, even with the addition of Pickens. Yes, exactly,
and in a healthy Prescott, because I do feel like
he's an addition because of how much time he missed.
Speaker 6 (02:08:15):
I think this is fair, and being that the sec
has been discussed at length this day and every day
and should be the best running back they have is
Longhorns rookie Jaden Blue, the woman the most upside for sure.
I think he should be their best running back this year.
I liked Javonte Williams and maybe there's some long term
(02:08:37):
recovery from injury that were not affording him the luxury
of because he's not as far removed from it as
like Nick Chubb getting to the bay.
Speaker 4 (02:08:44):
Well, now I'm myself again. Maybe that's what they're hoping for.
Speaker 6 (02:08:48):
But man, nobody churns up zero yards per carry like
Javonte Williams.
Speaker 4 (02:08:53):
Did with the Denver Broncos these last couple of years.
Speaker 6 (02:08:55):
If you want to get a first down, you can
hand it to him on first second down and you'll
be looking at four and ten.
Speaker 5 (02:09:03):
Now we joke about overlooked and cowboys, because the cowboys
are never overlooked because they're the cowboys.
Speaker 4 (02:09:08):
It's just disgusting.
Speaker 5 (02:09:10):
But like some of these other teams he's talking about,
like for the Colts, for example, all eyes this summer
will be on the Colts brewing quarterback competition.
Speaker 6 (02:09:20):
How to use that word, because I don't hope it's
not controversy usually quarterback controversy. It is a competition, and
so far it's between Daniel Jones and nobody.
Speaker 5 (02:09:29):
Right, And that means doesn't that in and of itself
mean that Anthony Richardson's already not the guy?
Speaker 6 (02:09:35):
Well he's not healthy. If he's healthy by training camp
then none of this stuff matters. But they don't know
that he will be well.
Speaker 4 (02:09:41):
Even if he is, though, why did you bring in Daniel.
Speaker 6 (02:09:44):
Jones Because you want a quarterback competition if if that's
all you're getting at, Yes, there is one. He's not
the starter unless he earns it. Daniel Jones can absolutely
beat him out with his play. They can absolutely go
in that direction. Shane Stiken could make him the starter
at any point. The Texans and Colts don't get together
until the very late stages of the season. They play
him twice in six weeks. I feel pretty confident guessing
(02:10:05):
that Anthony Richardson maximum plays the Texans once.
Speaker 4 (02:10:10):
He might not play them at all.
Speaker 5 (02:10:11):
That's a very unfortunately for him, that's a very fair thing.
Speaker 6 (02:10:14):
He starts the year as the starter and doesn't stay healthy,
or he's already been benched, or Daniel Jones' flat out
beat him out and they've played average enough football that
they didn't make a switch at quarterback. Because by the
second part of the season, when you're in you know,
game twelve through seventeen, you kind of know where things are. Are.
Speaker 4 (02:10:29):
You still on the hunt, and they probably will be.
Speaker 5 (02:10:32):
I actually agree with two of the teams that he
put on this list the forty nine ers, because that's
a team that actually, like I mean, that was a
ton of injuries.
Speaker 6 (02:10:41):
I mean, Juwan Jennings a lot, brought a lot because
nobody else was there. And I'm not sure how it's
gonna look this year. I think moving on from Deebo
was probably smart. Not sure about moving on from some
of the others. But the biggest thing there is is injuries.
They did have a ton and the most significant one. Well,
what if it's fine this year. What if Christian McCaffrey's
(02:11:01):
fine this year? That kind of changed the light.
Speaker 5 (02:11:04):
It'll piss me off since I drafted him last year.
Number one do it again? Uh, Seattle Seahawks, I'm not
doing that well because if.
Speaker 6 (02:11:11):
Lama Sam Darnold not make the playoffs, of course he's
gonna make it.
Speaker 4 (02:11:14):
Always makes the playoffs because he's the man. I think
Arizona's gonna better than Seattle by a long shot.
Speaker 7 (02:11:20):
I think Arizona's playoff team this year. That's a bold
go bigger, go home Boys. I mean that division is
such crap.
Speaker 4 (02:11:30):
Though, Why do you THINKUYS said they were a playoff team?
Speaker 6 (02:11:33):
Well, we shall see. This is why it's entertaining. This
is why we talk about a year round. That's why
football at five exists.
Speaker 4 (02:11:39):
Here on the eighteen, the eighteen.
Speaker 1 (02:11:43):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.
Speaker 5 (02:11:55):
It's the eighteen Sports Socks seven ninety Space City Home
Network final score tonight in the Astros White Sox game.
And don't laugh because they lost the first game and
then it was a ten to two drubbing last night.
So somewhere into I got to in fact, before you
give me your answer.
Speaker 6 (02:12:12):
Huge prediction time here on the A team predicting baseball scores.
Speaker 5 (02:12:15):
I'm gonna tell you a text I received during Tuesday's
loss because I lamented and was like, this is ridiculous.
I cannot believe that Luis Robert has two of his
six home runs against the Astros in two different games
or two different series this year. And this person wrote
back and I quote, they'll probably win nine to four.
(02:12:37):
The White Sox are awful. Okay, So now having given
you all that knowledge, big big moment here on the show,
U six to one, really yeah, even though five of
the last in the Astros game have scored two runs,
including each of the last three, I'll go.
Speaker 4 (02:12:59):
Six to one.
Speaker 6 (02:13:00):
Isn't it feel like because I don't think it's it
could be a homer, but just be the one.
Speaker 4 (02:13:03):
Because he's not.
Speaker 5 (02:13:04):
Because yeah, because he's such a ground ball pitcher that
the only way most people do get runs off of
him these days is taken him out of the park,
and so you.
Speaker 6 (02:13:12):
Just hope that that is his last start. There was
just basically this happened, and that happened. All of a sudden,
two runs had come across the board, but it was
of no concern.
Speaker 4 (02:13:20):
I go four nothing.
Speaker 5 (02:13:22):
I mean, I'll take a no hitter. I predicted the
last time you pitched, he almost got it. Well, he
has twice this year. Two of his first three starts
entered and left without allowing any runs. Every other time
at least one has come across.
Speaker 4 (02:13:38):
I feel good, and I agree with what you said earlier.
Speaker 5 (02:13:41):
Even with all of the things he has accomplished, which
does include I think people sometimes forget he was the
guy that was on the mound for the clincher in
twenty twenty two against the Phillies, and he was awesome.
Speaker 6 (02:13:51):
Some people forget he was on the mound when they
opened up their wild Card series last year against the
White Sox. Hey man, Tigers, See I forgot. I was
about to say, you forgot who they were playing. We
don't need that type of negativity.
Speaker 5 (02:14:03):
Last season sucked from start to finish.
Speaker 4 (02:14:06):
It did. Four months of these six months were pretty often.
Speaker 5 (02:14:10):
Here in Houston. We don't get excited about making the postseason. Now,
yeah I'm not. No, that's great. You came back from
ten back, but why were you ten backs? Man?
Speaker 6 (02:14:19):
As you say all the time, it's it's a tough
sled to go through a baseball season with no hope.
And the Astros only in their worst season during this
entire run. In my opinion, they only had no hope
for thirty six games. The other one hundred and twenty
six game there was for month after month after month
after month, all the way into winning the division.
Speaker 4 (02:14:40):
Again't remember there was a lot of hope. You would
know this too.
Speaker 5 (02:14:43):
This was it worse or not as bad as when
they put the tombstone on the front of the Chronicle
sports pages.
Speaker 6 (02:14:50):
It was the same thing. It was from fifteen to
thirty two. I think this team can win a World Series.
And then this last Astros team, now they only finished
with the third best record in the AL last year.
That's why they obviously were playing in the wildcard third
best of the three division winners, but the way they
played to get there, they were the best.
Speaker 4 (02:15:07):
Team in the American League. They were arguably the best
team in baseball for three months.
Speaker 5 (02:15:11):
They just ran into a buzzsaw with the best pitcher
in the American League last year short series.
Speaker 6 (02:15:15):
Their pitcher out pitched yours, and then all of their
pitchers because they only had one starter last year, out
pitched yours. It was very Kevin Brown in ninety eight.
I mean, you just didn't need a whole lot to
beat Houston. You only needed to win two games. It's
just like I said earlier this week, I wish they
would devise a system, and I know that the way
that they're going to think to do it. The way
(02:15:36):
to keep teams from playing in short series is to
expand the playoffs and eliminate teams that rest a week,
get the off week, get a bye, the teams that
finished first and second. That's the only way I think
they'll believe they can actually do that and avoid a
one game wildcard as we used to have, or a
three game wildcard series. It's just not fair to what
(02:15:59):
the sport is you start five or six guys all
year long.
Speaker 4 (02:16:04):
And then you're not. It's just it's just not it's
another it's not meant for this sport.
Speaker 5 (02:16:10):
It's another thing that baseball does that is so unnecessarily stupid.
Speaker 4 (02:16:14):
It makes you bash your head into a one.
Speaker 6 (02:16:16):
The necessary part of it is if they say, all right, WEX,
you're right, it is stupid. So these four teams, so
they're gonna play five game series, and then the other
four teams or two teams in your league, they're just
gonna sit back.
Speaker 4 (02:16:28):
And wait and wait and wait and wait forever.
Speaker 9 (02:16:34):
Ends.
Speaker 4 (02:16:34):
What's the happy medium? Then you add two more teams
and nobody gets an off week. What's wrong with that?
They get more revenue.
Speaker 6 (02:16:41):
So then when I think we're headed, I baseball had
something over the other sports for such a long time.
Speaker 5 (02:16:46):
College football does this in like five seconds every year, not.
Speaker 6 (02:16:48):
Making it better. It's just making it more money. So
it's making it better, it's making better. Case of but
you're you know in baseball, when it was you win
the division, you make the playoffs, and when you don't
win the division, your season's over.
Speaker 4 (02:17:01):
That was awesome.
Speaker 6 (02:17:02):
I agree, and WO were going back to that, and
then you added the wild card round, and then you've
added the Yeah, it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger,
and to the point where like in the NBA now,
because of the play in tournament, there's thirty teams, ten
of them, only ten of them have their season end
at game eighty two. The other twenty have more basketball
(02:17:22):
to play.
Speaker 4 (02:17:23):
That's another thing that's wrong. It's just like the the.
Speaker 5 (02:17:27):
The nd season tournament. You're putting band aids on cancer.
Speaker 6 (02:17:33):
Basically, well, they just don't have any value in the
complex of the You in order to get to the playoffs,
you've got to do this. No, what we'd rather see
is more teams in the mix in March and April,
because let's say only twelve teams in the playoffs in
the NBA, or you know, we sixteen or whatever, twenty
make it now kind of sixteen eventually of advance, Well,
(02:17:54):
they're trying to keep more teams in it. Like the tanking,
that's part of the angle of it, I guess, because
certain teams. You'll look the way Philadelphia was finishing, and
look the way Dallas was finishing.
Speaker 4 (02:18:03):
A year ago.
Speaker 6 (02:18:04):
You know, we're at this point in the season where
I don't know that we can win it, So can
we manipulate the final month of our schedule. So we're
in a good position to keep our pick because it
has these protections on it. Because if this is what's
happening there, they're trying to keep more teams into trying
to win and trying to make the playoffs. And that's
what the whole idea of the play in tournament is.
It's I guess in their mind. I'm sure they believe
(02:18:27):
it's working. I just don't like seeing that many teams
get there, and we all know at the end of
the playoff sequencing the teams that are well definitely nine
and ten, they're not playoff teams. They didn't they didn't
do what you'd expect the team to need to to qualify.
Here's what you need to do to qualify for the
playing tournament in the NBA. Not be embarrassingly bad. You
(02:18:50):
can be bad, you can lose more than you win.
You can be six to ten games under five hundred.
But that's all it takes. That's all we want you
to do this year, and you'll make the play in tournament.
That's not key. Being bulls fans interested in their season.
That's not keeping more eyeballs on the games they're They're bad.
They're bad at basketball, and that's what they do. They
should not be advancing to anything.
Speaker 5 (02:19:10):
Yeah, it needs to mean something when you make the
playoffs in any sport. I think it still means something
in football, but that's almost like its own category because
football is such a violent and taxing physical game that
you know, their problem is that they're awarding the wrong
(02:19:31):
team's home court in the first round or home field.
Speaker 6 (02:19:33):
Let's say the the you know, Grizzlies are forty and
twenty eight heading into their final fourteen games of the
season trying to make the playoffs. They're gonna make it.
They're in a really good spot. They're twelve games over.
That's what the Seattle Seahawks were at the end of
the season. They were ten and seven. They didn't make
the playoffs. They tied for the division title. They didn't
make the playoffs. That's good. Yeah, me, it just means
(02:19:58):
more Rex exactly. That's what it means. The mean again,
and that's why I hate them.
Speaker 5 (02:20:02):
Well, that's why I hate the play in because you're
taking a league that already has too many teams making
the postseason half and then you're adding two more teams,
well three, Really, it's just I don't know. It's that's
why I talk about gimmicky stuff with baseball. I get
on baseball more about that because we're always told about
(02:20:23):
the traditions that it's steeped in and all that. The
NBA has never been upty in that way. But the
NBA is constantly bringing up the rear in the Big Three,
and they wonder why, and so instead of addressing the
actual problems, they're just throwing more gimmicks out there to
see if it's gonna stick. It's just a bigger version
(02:20:44):
of their stupid All Star weekend. Well let's just change
it up and do this over here. I know a
skill composition. Well that was sort of cool and novel
for like a day. All right, Well, this year we're
gonna do us versus the World. It's gonna be the
same ending. And I sound like I'm bagging on the NBA.
I love the NBA. I love this game, but it's
like you're not addressing the problem in each of these
(02:21:07):
And as usual, the NFL's king even when they try
to do something.
Speaker 6 (02:21:13):
We'll eventually get there. It's because of what it is.
Speaker 5 (02:21:16):
And the NFL's got the worst All Star weekend because
it's not really an All Star game and.
Speaker 6 (02:21:20):
They know it, and so they nobody cares about it,
and they're not trying to make you care about it.
Speaker 4 (02:21:25):
Right, it is what it is.
Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
As Matt Thomas, they said having a game was dumb,
so they stopped.
Speaker 5 (02:21:31):
Yeah, and the Pro Bowl games are no special feature.
But and then when consultants came in and be like,
you want to try and make this better, they go,
it's fine, not quite.
Speaker 4 (02:21:41):
Basically, they don't care.
Speaker 5 (02:21:42):
You're right, hey, let's have them throw these footballs through
a moving target.
Speaker 6 (02:21:46):
Woo, asking a physical game their players to go play
an exhibition game after your season either ended a month
ago or just ended, and you're super disappointed. It's a
I can't halfway play football, either I'm playing or not,
And they went the right direction. You don't have to.
You can throw footballs, you can play kicksand or whatever
(02:22:06):
it is. We have games to be played for you
at the Pro Bowl games. We shall see it is
five thirty we will hit you with in case you
missed it.
Speaker 2 (02:22:14):
Next the AED on Sports Talk seven ninety scare right
to it.
Speaker 6 (02:22:24):
Undoubtedly some major news items we've not had a chance
to get to, or others we've only briefly touched upon
or not in quite some time.
Speaker 4 (02:22:30):
It's in case you missed it. What do we have today, Cole, Well.
Speaker 7 (02:22:33):
We got an update, and it's not a pretty one,
but we do have an update on the situation surrounding
for the time being, Houston Texans defensive back Jimmy ward
who was arrested early Thursday morning.
Speaker 4 (02:22:44):
He is now dealing with third.
Speaker 7 (02:22:46):
Degree assault charges on a felony domestic violence charge. Recently
was released on bail at thirty thousand dollars. Phone calls
made it back Nollia, Texas this morning around five thirty
he was booked.
Speaker 4 (02:22:57):
Remember last season he played in ten games. He was
fielded on as a captain.
Speaker 7 (02:23:01):
Siety won year extension during the middle of the season.
They bring him back in twenty twenty five. Was not
available for any part of OTA's in mini camps. They're
now facing more charges. According to Sports Starks of the nineties,
Aaron Wilson Texas safety Jimmy warder ret lease from Montgomery
County jail on a thirty thousand dollars bond set by
Meg Strake this afternoon.
Speaker 4 (02:23:21):
He currently is facing.
Speaker 7 (02:23:22):
Third degree felinary charges after allegations that he choked his
fiance and his baby mother.
Speaker 6 (02:23:28):
Yeah, deputy is saying assaulted, strangled, and threatened by her fiance,
which is Jamie Ward.
Speaker 5 (02:23:34):
Not great, not great at all. We covered this earlier,
you mentioned this. I agree. I don't think he was
going to wind up being on the team anyway. I
don't think this is going to help that cause. And
it's just a very very unfortunate situation. He is what
rehabbing because is of foot surgery, foot surgery, and.
Speaker 4 (02:23:56):
You know, I don't know.
Speaker 5 (02:23:57):
I'm sure we'll find out more about the circumstances around
this incident, but I don't know.
Speaker 4 (02:24:03):
It's just ugly. There's nothing really else to say about it.
Then what else do we have? Do you guys?
Speaker 7 (02:24:08):
Remember back in what was in twenty sixteen, there was
a rumor that Joey Bosa wasn't gonna sign his contract
with the San Diego Chargers and so he was gonna
re enter the draft in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 4 (02:24:20):
Yeah, stuff that never happens, I remember. Yeah, Well it may.
Speaker 7 (02:24:23):
Actually happen because Shamar Stewart, who we talked about yesterday
not signing his deal, but the Cincinnati Bengals who ac
the more and more I see what's happening out in Cincinnati.
I'm laaning with you that Joe Burrow's not going to
the playoffs this year.
Speaker 4 (02:24:35):
Oh because Samar Stuart Well, just stay with me.
Speaker 7 (02:24:40):
He left a mandatory mini camp on Thursday over his
contract dispute. The reasoning behind this contract dispute has nothing
to do with the guaranteed money.
Speaker 4 (02:24:48):
What the Bengals are doing.
Speaker 7 (02:24:49):
Is they're trying to put in a clause that will
say we will not pay you if you somehow suffer
a season ending injury. So it doesn't matter if you're
on our facility, it doesn't matter if you get in
a car wreck, it doesn't matter if you're driving to practice.
If something happens to you, we are not going to
be willing to pay that injury settlement.
Speaker 4 (02:25:08):
He wasn't here.
Speaker 7 (02:25:09):
Today, so we're just focused on the guys.
Speaker 4 (02:25:10):
That were said coach Zach Taylor.
Speaker 7 (02:25:12):
He had a mixed comments regarding the former Texas.
Speaker 4 (02:25:15):
A and M Star. These are conversations that have been going.
Speaker 7 (02:25:17):
On for a while, and remember Earlier this week, Shamar
Stewart remembered the media and said he does not know
when he plans on actually returning to practice, but he
will not budget until the addendums of this contract are finalized.
Put in a play and one of the big things
is everything surrounding an injury settlement.
Speaker 6 (02:25:35):
I mean, I know, not to minimize how awful it
looks for both sides and not. It sounds like an
awful way to go about. Hey, welcome to the franchise,
except and it feels like there might be a different
way to handle it if you're Shamar, especially since I
really don't think there it doesn't have any nobody in
this system currently has any leverage as rookies. The way
(02:25:59):
that the salary straws ructures put together now, the threat
of going back into the draft seems pretty hollow. I
don't think that's any way to further your NFL career
by working out all year, working out for a year.
Speaker 7 (02:26:11):
Would you just trade him now to another team and
just get what you couldn't return.
Speaker 6 (02:26:15):
I would absolutely consider it, as the Astros did this
many years ago. What do I don't know the answer.
What do the Bengals get out of this. If he
shows to go back into the.
Speaker 7 (02:26:27):
Draft, they get a compensation pick now, which is yeah,
I think it's a round two pick.
Speaker 4 (02:26:31):
I don't think it's around one, right, and it's not
in the top five. So then you weigh that again
definitely not.
Speaker 6 (02:26:37):
You weigh that into Okay, if we trade him, what
are we getting versus if we let him do what
he wants, he goes back in the draft and the
compensation we get. But you also have to work the
timeline into that, because the compensation you're going to get
is off into the future.
Speaker 4 (02:26:50):
Hey, trade you make now presumably is for something.
Speaker 6 (02:26:52):
If it's next year's draft, maybe it's comparable from a
timing standpoint. Trey Hendrickson not being a Bengal in twenty
twenty five, that might help keep them out of the playoffs.
Shamar Stewart not being there in twenty twenty five. I mean,
wasting a top pick is bad. I get that, but
I don't know that that's what keeps them from being
reasonably good defensively when their offense probably has to carry
(02:27:15):
the load, just like it has most of the burrough time,
not all of it, at most.
Speaker 7 (02:27:19):
Take it this way, Now, we look at different perspective
of you just spent a lot of money on two
wide receivers and to make your quarterback happy.
Speaker 2 (02:27:26):
But you are more.
Speaker 7 (02:27:27):
Than just t Higgins, Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow. So
what is it going to say to free agents who
are now looking at the situation?
Speaker 4 (02:27:35):
If you get.
Speaker 7 (02:27:35):
Injured, if you fall down your stairs, if something happens
to you, we don't want to go ahead and right
you would check because if you're not playing for us,
doesn't that hurt the team? Not just this year but
every single year when it comes to.
Speaker 6 (02:27:46):
It only hurts them in twenty sixes, Like we're talking
about the twenty twenty to five Bengals making the playoffs,
all the stuff you're talking about in free agency, et cetera.
Unless you're talking about some Nick Chubb caliber still available
free agent, it affects them in the future. Honestly, it
doesn't affect them at all. Is this new to agents?
Speaker 4 (02:28:05):
Hey?
Speaker 6 (02:28:05):
The Bengals sucked to work with, not new, Nothing new
goes backuade a new way to help prove it.
Speaker 4 (02:28:12):
What else do we have?
Speaker 7 (02:28:13):
So the Astros, at least in my opinion, need a
starter now. They don't need a frontline starter, they need
a back end starter, a usee Ki Kuchi of swords,
and one name to pay attention to should be Aaron
Savale of the Milwaukee Brewers. Because of the right hander
recently asked the club if he could be traded at
some point before this year's deadline. His spot in the
(02:28:34):
rotation got taken over by top prospect jak Mscarowski last
week from Triple A Nashville.
Speaker 4 (02:28:40):
He has now moved to the bullpen, not having about
his role in the bullpen.
Speaker 7 (02:28:43):
This past season, had a one to two record with
a four point four to nine ERA in five starts.
Over on his career, he's forty and thirty seven with
the four h six career ERA, but trips in Cleveland,
Tampa and the Brewers who were traded for late last
July to help them get over the hump.
Speaker 4 (02:28:58):
And win the NL Central. Just a name that is
very unhappy.
Speaker 7 (02:29:02):
With the situation that could be someone the Astros make
a phone call for low tier prospect, get him in
the building, have him as your number five starter. If
things go south with what we are seeing from other
guys outside Ryan Gusto.
Speaker 6 (02:29:16):
His eight million dollar pro rated salary for this year
would be a humongous hurdle for the Astros who are
up against it, to say the least in some sort
of acquisition debatable, but he's probably having one of his
least successful seasons. I'm more of an odd man out
than he's pitching so badly, but he definitely has not
pitched well. Thirty year old last year of his deal. Yes,
(02:29:40):
these are the types of players that usually are available.
I bought the same thing about him for what he
had been doing, but he's just not been particularly effective recently.
And I think adding a five million dollar player, whatever
the number is, whenever they get him, presumably, I don't
know how they do that.
Speaker 5 (02:29:58):
Yeah, Jim Craine is not going to even flirt with
that unless it's say ironclad, this is absolutely going to
help the team.
Speaker 4 (02:30:05):
I don't know where the you know what are you
moving out to counteract that?
Speaker 6 (02:30:09):
Obviously, they traded Rafael Montero way earlier this year for
a small amount of relief, and I'm not sure where
other substantial relief can come from, especially for what you're saying.
And I agree, he's not frontline material. He's the number four,
number five guy.
Speaker 4 (02:30:26):
So you can't afford to pay that guy that much money.
Speaker 6 (02:30:28):
If I'm not saying it's what I would do, I'm
just saying that's how they are currently operating.
Speaker 4 (02:30:32):
There's no question about it.
Speaker 6 (02:30:34):
And by the time this happens, presumably your next guy
in line, Spencer Araghetti, who makes less than a million,
is now the fourth guy, with Lance being.
Speaker 4 (02:30:43):
The third trade act position. But the other part of
is that you're really gonna go.
Speaker 6 (02:30:47):
I mean, they went out and got you, say, Kakuchi
last year, and they spent the money needed. They had
three prospects that the Blue Jays wanted. I just I
can't imagine this is the guy. It's definitely a name
to watch. He's absolutely going to be traded, and no
question about it, He'll be in somebody's rotation that's not Milwaukee.
Speaker 4 (02:31:05):
Just don't think it'll be here in Houston.
Speaker 2 (02:31:10):
The ad on Sports Talk seven.
Speaker 5 (02:31:13):
Ninety following Flex's six to one prediction and calls for
nothing shutout. As we wind down the show in the
anticipation of the finale between the much I mean, this
(02:31:35):
was a huge series this year.
Speaker 4 (02:31:37):
It was circled on the calendar.
Speaker 5 (02:31:39):
Friends and family were flown in and you needed to
get I mean, it's the tickets are hard to come by.
Let's face it, White Sox, that's Troe's. I can't even
finish it with straight face. The series, Well, of course
you were. You're a professional White Sox hater.
Speaker 4 (02:31:54):
That is not true.
Speaker 7 (02:31:55):
Good serve my professional Cubs hater. How dare you same difference?
Speaker 4 (02:31:59):
There is not.
Speaker 7 (02:32:00):
There's a giant difference. The Pope is on one team side.
Speaker 5 (02:32:02):
Guess what we here in Houston as baseball fans hate
both of your teams for various reasons. Actually, I think,
I mean Astros fans should probably hate the White Sox more.
Speaker 4 (02:32:15):
But I know they don't because of all the years
in the NL Central.
Speaker 5 (02:32:18):
Yeah, I definitely should hate the White Sox more, but
the weren't the team that kept you from winning the
World Series in five. That was the other Chicago team.
Speaker 4 (02:32:26):
No, the White Sox are the team they should hate
the most.
Speaker 5 (02:32:28):
Oh, I thought you said the Cubs really? Because of that,
all those battles with.
Speaker 6 (02:32:36):
The Cove carry Wood's ridiculous afternoon of baseball doesn't make
me hate the Cubs more.
Speaker 5 (02:32:40):
Thin Carry He was thin as a player, Well he
got fat after and then the Astros future manager ran
him into the ground like he did all his starting pitchers.
Speaker 4 (02:32:51):
Oh, that is inaccurate.
Speaker 5 (02:32:53):
It's not really Dusty Baker didn't run his pictures into
the ground.
Speaker 6 (02:32:58):
It's like his REP all right, Am I wrong? I
thought his REP was winning? No, his REP was almost winning.
I don't think that's going to be on his Hall
of Fame plaque. I think the winning will be.
Speaker 7 (02:33:09):
No.
Speaker 5 (02:33:09):
He was the Dallas Cowboys of Major League Baseball until
he came here. He won a lot in the regular
season and found ways to lose in the postseason.
Speaker 4 (02:33:15):
Not really, well, what did he? I mean? He that's
not true.
Speaker 6 (02:33:20):
The Cowboys are falling flat on their faces, like as
soon as they get there, in dramatic, unbelievable at home fashion.
Dusty's teams never won a World Series in baseball the
hardest one.
Speaker 5 (02:33:32):
To win, Yes, it is the hardest one to win.
Speaker 6 (02:33:38):
The best teams in baseball have a very low winning
percentage in terms of World Series, and like the same
for the other two sports.
Speaker 5 (02:33:44):
Right, And like we were talking about earlier, he was
doing a majority of his not quite getting it done
in a time where it was much much harder and
meant so much more.
Speaker 4 (02:33:53):
We let's just make the postseason it's just difficult. It's baseball.
It's just the nature of the sport.
Speaker 5 (02:33:57):
Well, he should have twenty three. He went there for nineteen,
but even twenty one, like, it's just I don't know,
they were injured in twenty one, So I don't usually
get as upset about that one. Twenty three is kind
of like low key creeping up on nineteen. I'm still
not as bitter because the nineteen team is the best
(02:34:19):
team in baseball to never win a championship.
Speaker 4 (02:34:20):
It's not even close. They were very good. They were No,
they were better than very good. They were great. They
were the best team to never win a championship. I
mean argument, I.
Speaker 5 (02:34:30):
Was who was I talking about the other day? And
the graphics that you would routinely see put up during
regular season games by whatever they were calling the channel
at the time. It wasn't quite Space City yet, but
it was like twenty seven Yankees, you know, thirty two whatever,
and then the Astros or the Astros were at the
top of whatever list they were talking about.
Speaker 4 (02:34:51):
There was so many different statistical just insanities. You know,
they went ten and eight in the playoffs.
Speaker 5 (02:34:58):
The twenty or the eighteen team, yep, see That's what's
so impressive about the second title team.
Speaker 4 (02:35:04):
They didn't even lose until they got to the World Series.
Speaker 5 (02:35:09):
They swept the Mariners at.
Speaker 6 (02:35:12):
Eight o'clock because they were dominating teams, or they were
winning late and crushing those teams in that spirit. Game
one in Seattle, well, game one against Seattle.
Speaker 5 (02:35:21):
And they were down them three nothing in Game four
in Yankee Stadium, and then Jeremy Panier was like, no,
I'm gonna get it.
Speaker 4 (02:35:28):
I'm gonna go ahead and hit a three run bomb here.
Speaker 6 (02:35:30):
I mean they had to go the full boat with
the Rays in twenty nineteen. They needed the whole series
five games. Yes, well, they had awesome pictures that year. Okay,
I mean we act like what they did in the
year the year they won the title in twenty twenty two, Like,
how do you get It's almost impossible to get better
than they want to?
Speaker 5 (02:35:50):
Let you know what saying that the Rays in that
first round five game of course series, that game five,
which I believe Garrett Cole started and just flung filth
he did and he did that was the only game
where going into it during that playoff run, I had
a little bit of doubt in my head.
Speaker 4 (02:36:11):
You were facing elimination.
Speaker 5 (02:36:12):
Yeah, it's dangerous, but you were facing elimination basically the
entirety of the World Series because you were down.
Speaker 4 (02:36:19):
Oh two, any did your mind?
Speaker 5 (02:36:21):
And I thought they were gonna win every one of
the the last five games.
Speaker 6 (02:36:23):
Every time the Garrett Cole game you're mentioning, did anything
ease get a little bit easier for you? After they
opened the game with a single, single, single, double, single
four run first?
Speaker 4 (02:36:34):
Did it make it a little easier knowing that he
was on the mound?
Speaker 6 (02:36:37):
Yes, he had already gotten through his first shutout inning
of the seven. He would twirl. He gave up a
run in one of the eight innings he pitched. He
did give up two hits that day, two hits.
Speaker 4 (02:36:47):
I hope you know.
Speaker 7 (02:36:48):
I'm getting vehemently more mad the way you talk about this,
because they should have won a.
Speaker 5 (02:36:52):
Serious because Washington Walgreens saw any other sport they would
have and would have easily Max Sure are in his
stupid different colored eyes, stupid Anthony Rindone who's done nothing
but be injured.
Speaker 4 (02:37:06):
Since Howie Kendrick had never did anything after that one.
Speaker 5 (02:37:09):
Howie Kendrick's stupid foul poll home run go directly to
you know where Washington Walgreens. I hate that team. I
mean they don't, they mean nothing. It's just they were
the team that was in the way and found a way.
Speaker 7 (02:37:23):
Well, you know what's even funnier is that most teams
afterwards stay at least somewhat irrelevant for two or three years.
Speaker 5 (02:37:29):
Yeah, they stated a cliff. They did the Florida Marlins
and fire sailed it. And you remember where we were
sitting on the surface of the moon for the for
the World Series like we would every year.
Speaker 4 (02:37:40):
You remember that Howie Kendrick home run? Remember it? Remember
what we did? Are you kidding me? And hit the
foul pole.
Speaker 5 (02:37:47):
Yeah, that's an impression of us in the section because
of where we were sitting.
Speaker 6 (02:37:51):
Well, one of that was just one of the four
Astros home games where they allowed five or more runs
to the Nationals. They're unbelievable, can't hit troops, super star
pitching staff and gave up five, twelve, seven, and six
runs to the Nationals and their four wins. Here at
then minute, Mabe I hate him.
Speaker 4 (02:38:10):
And Zach Greenky had a two to one lead going
into the gase.
Speaker 6 (02:38:13):
I mean, what do you expect when you start in
those four games, Garrett Cole, Verlander twice and Grenky, Why
would you think you'd win? Why would you think their
offense would be absent?
Speaker 4 (02:38:21):
This is why I hate baseball. I just you love baseball?
Shut up, Cole? I do, I do. It's just so
try to sell yourself why you hate it so much? Well,
I do hate bad baseball.
Speaker 5 (02:38:34):
And Wex will tell you that because he's known me
for twenty plus years and I've he knows what it's like.
Speaker 4 (02:38:39):
When do you feel like you should.
Speaker 6 (02:38:41):
Win the World Series when you're in that seven game
series and Garrett Cole has the same number of wins
as Jose Archidi and Josh James within that series?
Speaker 4 (02:38:49):
Is that sound right? James?
Speaker 7 (02:38:51):
Wow?
Speaker 6 (02:38:51):
The astros first World Series win in twenty nineteen came
from Josh James.
Speaker 4 (02:38:57):
Because it was tied when he came into what inning.
Speaker 6 (02:38:59):
It was the obviously the first game in Washington, Okay,
the Astros had to had to go to the pen
after four and two thirds of Zach Greenki's work, and
after Josh James threw eight pitches to finish the fifth inning,
he walked away four innings and many minutes later, the
winter Is that.
Speaker 5 (02:39:19):
The game that that Bregman hit the Grand Slam? Or
was that Game four?
Speaker 4 (02:39:23):
It was not this game? Okay? That was the two v.
Homer game, wasn't it. I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (02:39:29):
Game four was when Orchidi absolutely was flinging his own
filth as a rookie.
Speaker 6 (02:39:34):
All Right, what are they going to fling tonight? Presumably
filth at the Chicago White Sox. No hit or from
ber deck Astros.
Speaker 2 (02:39:42):
Next the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.