Another Astros Loss (After Delay), Imai Showing Promise, McCullers to IL

Tuesday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler discuss the Astros dropping the series opener to the Twins, weigh in on Tatsuya Imai's latest start, and share their thoughts on Lance McCullers Jr. hitting the IL with shoulder inflammation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
After two o'clock on a Tuesday afternoon here on the
at XAC and Josh here with you, looking forward to
the next four hours with you, will take you just
actually past six o'clock this evening a few minutes as
we'll get you into the Astros on.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Deck show, just like we did yesterday.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Although we would love to be leading you into an
Astros game in which they win, that did not happen yesterday.
Tatsu Emi back on the mound for the fifth time
for the Astros in his career. Better than some outings,
but a typical result when he has been out on
the mound. They did not come up with much offense,
certainly none while he was out there, and he allowed

(00:34):
two home runs to a guy who's been in one
of the worst slumps in Major League Baseball for the
last month. And the Astros head to the field tonight
hoping for two things, a victory and no one hour
and fifty seven minute rain delay, which is actually the
reason why tatsu Emi did not pitch more than four
and two thirds worth of baseball last night. They decided

(00:54):
with two outs and a runner on in the bottom
of the fifth inning in a three to nothing Twins
League that that was the time to go ahead and
put the tarpa on the field, even though the heavy
rains were far away from landing on the field at
Target Field, they did obviously arrive and kept the two
teams off the field for quite some time. But when
they returned, both teams scored three times, but the Astros
already down three, so they lost six to three and

(01:16):
that's where they sit nineteen and thirty heading into Game fifty.
Can't imagine anybody who was asked before the season to
predict the Astros record after fifty games would have said, well,
in Game fifty, I'm predicting they will get their twentieth win.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Still a possibility.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
It's also a possibility they could still only have nineteen
wins after fifty games this year. And that's what will
happen if they do not win tonight. Lance mccullors Junior,
I will get the ball for the Astros hope to
build on his last start. He get to have two
back to back strong starts. I will obviously get you
into the Astros on Deck show around five thirty and
take you into the broadcast this evening, so that certainly

(01:54):
sits in front of us and I would expect some
roster moves to be made today since both Jake Myers
and Nate Pearson are with the team in Minnesota but
not on the active roster. They're there to be on
the active roster. There was just no reason to make
that move yesterday. We hope to be joined by Braiden
Shoemake and expect to be joined by Astros infielder Braiden
Shoemake a little bit later on the show, sometime probably

(02:16):
in our number one, but when we have the info,
we will share that info and then you get to
listen in with our conversation with one of the newer
Astros traded for him in season, and he's been an
everyday player almost ever since then. Because of all the
injuries to all of their infielders that aren't Christian Walker,
Jose al Tuve, Jeremy Pana, and Carlos Korea all time

(02:38):
spent on the IL. The rest of the season will
be Korea's time spent on the IL another five six
weeks minimum probably for Jose Altuve's IL stint. And last
night was game number eleven on the season for Jeremy Payne,
You who just came off of his il stint news
in the NFL. We brought a bunch of it up
yesterday and there's still more of it concerning where some

(02:59):
of their jewels events are headed and some other on
field activities, including your Texans and in and around this division.
Teams are in their OTAs, not Houston yet. They will
have their set of first set of OTAs coming up
next week, Mandatory mini camp not long after that, so
we can cross check some of the comments being made
by CJ. Stroud's teammates. He's locked in, he's a different player.

(03:23):
He's been hitting the weight room, he's been here since March,
all the good stuff, and we'll get a look at
him on the football field, hopefully during those sessions coming
up next week. And obviously the NBA is trying to
whittle their team, their field of four down to two
and one game into one of the conference finals series.
Is where we sit today. Game one for Eastern Conference

(03:44):
Finals is tonight, the fourth seeded Calves and the third
seeded New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden tonight. Unlikely
they'll be able to match what we got last night.
I certainly think nobody will need a bib tomorrow morning
like most people do this morning. But rebounds in a
Western Conference Finals game is not is very very good.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Fine, it's very good.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
And the San Antonio Spurs have a one game to
none lead, delivering the Thunder their first loss of this
postseason and doing a lot of the things that nobody
else has been able to do to the Thunder thus
far one game in to a series I would have
expected to probably go a good distance. The Thunder will
now need to win a game to ensure that that happens.

(04:30):
But certainly a lot of chatter about the MVP uh
having his worst game of the postseason just minutes after
he received his MVP award in front of his home
fans and everybody else expecting a ninth consecutive victory for
the defending champions.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Well they did not get it.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Many opportunities to get it done in regulation or overtime
number one for both teams, and ultimately it's the Spurs
who come out of Game one with a one game
to none lead. Well, all those things come on in seven, one, three, two,
two ninety.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Schmorgshborg, you know I'm glad you said the bib comment
because it's about time somebody took that stance on this situation,
and we may or may not get to that later on.
I need to ask a dumb question going way back
to the beginning of your monologue there, and I know
this is I know the answer to it before I
ask it. This is Astro's weather related When it's a

(05:24):
situation like that and you know the rain is coming,
I know the answer to this is, Well, it's gonna
inconvenience so many people that had tickets to a blank
and blank start time for the game if you were
to move it up so that you can get the
game in and not be waiting around for an hour
and forty five minutes and finishing the game close to
midnight and all that kind of stuff even later where

(05:45):
they were, I believe, why, why is that such a
big deal, seeing as how you're inconveniencing the people that
then show up at the normal time and have to
sit there and get soaked.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
Well, inconveniencing them is one thing. They're already gonna a
come in my opinion, this is my opinion on the answer.
The games at seven o'clock. Great, I'll go to the
game at seven o'clock, just like I planned. I know
there's rain coming, might be a rain delay.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Might not.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
People who are planning to go at seven o'clock and
you all of a sudden tell them it's at five o'clock,
that would be a bigger deal to me, But I
don't even think that's much of a consideration for Major
League Baseball. I think major League Baseball and the umpires
and everybody involved looks at the weather report and says, yeah,
we're headed into a game that's probably going to see
some rain in it. If it's the rain we're expecting,
maybe we can play through. If it's worse, then we're

(06:30):
probably going to have to stall the game and have
a little bit of a delay. But we also think
that the rain is going to subside, so the game
will start today and then it'll finish today, and that's
all I think the main thing that they're looking at.
It's also the first game of a three game series.
I think that plays into it a little bit. They
would definitely not want to impact the game on Wednesday.
Most of the time, it happens to be that the

(06:51):
Astros getaway Day game is in front of an off day,
so it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
But I think the team would prefer to play that
game and get out and take advantage of their first
off day in fourteen days, if at all possible. But
I think they had a pretty good idea that the
rain would come, and it potentially would be delayed, but
it also would come and go so they could finish
the game. And I think they don't really care what

(07:12):
time the game ends if it's reasonable. I think before
midnight is definitely reasonable. We're talking about adults here. It
goes up till me.

Speaker 2 (07:20):
If it goes to an extra ending, you better have
that gift run around there. But so we can get
out of here sooner. You see how the looks in
the hindsight.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
It's not so they can get out of there sooner.
It's so they don't run through everybody's pitching staff. That's
one of the reasons. I think that's the main reason,
but it's not the only reason. I mean, technically, there's
no question it's part of the reason that you're bringing
up because they're so focused on getting people in and
out of the ballpark, you know, the pitch clock and
everything else that goes with it. Yes, it's going to

(07:49):
likely mean instead of a fourteen inning game that runs
four hours and fifteen minutes, probably going to be a
ten inning game that runs two hours and fifteen minutes.
I definitely think that's an element of it, all of
it together, Like last night, I didn't never even considered
it as a tough decision, or could they have done
something differently, played in an outdoor stadium, whether it had an impact,

(08:11):
they sat through a rain delay and they finished. All
I thought about was it really it impacted both teams,
clearly because neither team was going to have the same
pitcher returned to the game. I thought it impacted the
Astros because they're not as good, because they have bigger problems,
especially when it comes to pitching. The Astros would have
almost assuredly given Emi the sixth inning, and unless things

(08:35):
blew up from where he was with two outs in
the inning and a runner on first at the bottom
of the fifth, he gets out of that inning with
five to ten pitches more needed. He could get out
of the inning in one pitch, and he would have
been sitting on seventy five pitches.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
After five innings.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
He would have gone out there for another inning, which
means now you're probably eliminating different pitchers from even being
asked to pitch, and most importantly, you're eliminating Jayden Murray
from being asked to pitch. I mean, I can appreciate
Jason Alexander being on the roster, so now Jaden Murray
probably isn't their worst option, but last night he was
probably their worst option. And he went out there and

(09:07):
immediately gave up six straight runners reached base against him
in the only full inning that he pitched, and they
scored three more runs. So instead of a three to
nothing game, it's a six nothing game. I know, the
Astros offense is stinky. Although their runs per game went
up by a tiny tiny amount. They were averaging two
point seventy five runs per game in May last night

(09:28):
they got three, so just by the tiniest margin, it
went up a little bit. You're not gonna win many
games like that, but it's a lot easier to win
if you don't see six nothing on the board. I mean,
all you're asking for Murray really is three outs. He
got the first out without even throwing a pitch. He
picked the runner off as soon as the rain delay ended,
so he got to go to a clean sixth inning

(09:49):
hadn't thrown any pitches and he just can't get outs,
and he walked batters. Guess what both batters did after
they walked, They both scored. They just have two too
many holes in their roster, and last night the pitching
holes stood out there much of the rest of the game.
They're hitting holes. As soon as you get past the
fourth hitter in the Astros order, you feel pretty good

(10:10):
about it. And last night the fifth hitter in the
Astros order was Zach Decenzo. He hit into a double
play twice. Guess what that means. There were runners on base,
and in both instances there were runners in scoring position
and on base. First time was with the bases loaded,
the second time was with the runners on first and second. Clearly,
both times there were either one or no outs in
the inning. That's the fifth hitter in your order. And

(10:32):
I don't blame Joe. I don't know what else you
want him to do five, six, seven, eight, nine in
your order, just on an everyday basis.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Right now, they're not very good players offensively. And I'll
tell you, and we'll get into this in the next
segment when we talk a little bit more about Tatsuya
Emi and where he stands right now on May nineteenth.
We're not even to the point where the Astros are
quote unquote bad. Their record's bad, it's among the worst
in baseball, but it's not I don't think that. You know,

(11:02):
this isn't one hundred loss season bad Astros like we
saw just before the Astros went on this Golden Era run.
And that's the scary part as we continue to discuss
a very disappointing so far start to the twenty twenty
six campaign. All that and more coming up here on
a Tuesday edition of the program, The A Team on

(11:24):
Sports Talk a Tuesday edition of the program, It's Sports
Talk seven ninety. It's the A Team. He's Wex, I'm
a c as. We'll get you into game two of
this three game step between the Astros and the Twins.
Coming up with the Astros on Deck Show at five thirty.
By the way, had a couple of people reach out

(11:44):
yesterday to ask me if we were going to discuss
something that happened within pop culture realm. I'll just leave
it at that. Yes, at four o'clock we will discuss that.
I will love it, Wex will hate it, but he'll
go along begrudgingly, and it will be a good time
by everybody. Can't wait four o'clock. Write it down? Can

(12:06):
y'all tell how excited he is right now?

Speaker 1 (12:08):
I'm just it's amazing to me that what happened in
this event is referred to as pop culture.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
It is, though it just can't be. It's inappropriate, it's
it's just not right, but it is. I can explain
four o'clock fifty different ways. It's to it at four o'clock.
So we have been remarked for that. Write it in
your calendar, as Teresa would say, Yeah, I've got it marked.

(12:36):
I told you, why didn't you put it in your calendar?
I don't have a calendar. What's a calendar. It's all
appear and if it's not, sorry, all right. We have
been reduced to hoping for progress, improvement, positive vibes. That's
where we're at with Emi right now. He did pitch

(12:57):
better last night? Isn't it fairness that before the rain delay?

Speaker 1 (13:02):
I think it's absolutely fair to say that. Like I said,
I think that was a mere typical six inning, three
run outing, which isn't awesome. Not looking forward to spending
eight million dollars on pitchers, they can only go six
innings and deliver you a four p fifty era, which
is what a quality start of six innings and three
earned runs allowed is. That's bad, that's not good. That's
back of the rotation or getting replaced in the rotation caliber.

(13:22):
But it's still a huge step forward, and any team
will probably take it from the end of their rotation
if you're getting ace level work from the front, if
you've got a couple of days where a bullpen isn't
used heavily, and then this is a day where they're
using a little more, but six innings from your starter
the way things are right now in Major League Baseball
is probably what most teams would take almost no matter
what came on the other end. But it's much more

(13:43):
inside what actually took place. And the Twins are I mean,
I don't want to give you the quality of team
that they faced, because unless you're playing the Rays or
the Yankees, you're playing the exact same quality tam They're
all the same. None of them are awesome, none of
them are great, nobody has a great offense. They're all
the same. So shutting any of them down is roughly
the same. They swung at nineteen pitches last night and

(14:05):
missed them. That is a huge indicator that he was
doing things correctly, that he was sequencing pitches correctly, that
he was probably pitching from in front, which he was,
which meant they needed to swing at his pitches and
were in a hole so they couldn't wait and see, Oh,
is that still going to be in the zone. I
better make an early decision. No, it's nowhere near the zone.

(14:26):
And I just struck out. He didn't walk any batters,
He didn't gift the game to the opponent, which is
what he's been doing most of this year as long
as he's pitching in a major league ballpark see West
Sacramento's success. That was the one really good outing that
he had. Those are the things I would look at.
You know, it'd be nice if he didn't let a
guy who was just absolutely in the tank take him

(14:49):
over the wall twice. I knew Josh Bell was in
a slump. I had not spent the time to look
at how deep his slump was until after forty percent
of his home runs were hit last night. Three home
runs on the season and in his last thirty one games.
I mean, I know I did it to cam Smith
the other day and looked up the numbers, and I
didn't for a non astro, and I probably should have.
There couldn't be more than five hitters that were in

(15:11):
a bigger slump in baseball than Josh Bell hitting one
forty seven with zero homers and an ops in the
mid four fifties for better than a month.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
Is that bad? It's unbelievably bad. How are you in
the lineup almost every day? And he was.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
But the first pitch he hit out was definitely not
where you'd probably want it, and the second pitch he
hit out that probably was.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
It was not a strike.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
It was a pitch in a two strike count that
you want a chase. Now, bigger, taller hitters above the zone.
Maybe it's not ideal, but he had an opposite field
home run on a pitch not even close to being
a strike turned into a three to nothing game. Those
two swings put all three runs on the board for
the Twins yesterday against Emi. He had he had good stuff.

(15:58):
He threw good stuff. He made them swing and miss
a lot. He wasn't in trouble in any of the innings,
even the innings where the runs scored. It just wasn't
what you need. It was just a lot better than
what you've seen, and the signs of him throwing major
league caliber pitches as in, I can get major league hitters.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Out, that was what was on display last night. Yeah,
I just it sucks because that was the guy that
was doing the damage and for all the reasons you
just mentioned, and when you put that up against it's like, Okay, well,
this guy's had these struggles, this guy's finally pitching decent,
and for that to be the guy that does it

(16:37):
to him on a night like that is just kind
of a tough pill to swallow. Yeah, you got to
take advantage.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
You'd like to be just the next in line, the
last thirty starters who'd faced him and taking care of business.
Nobody had let him go over the fence. Hardly any
hits were even obtained a crued by Josh Bell, but
he also Tatsuya had not allowed a home run in
his first eight and two thirds first three outings as
a major league pitcher. Not a lot of innings and

(17:03):
not a lot of stuff there, clearly, but he's now
allowed a pair of home runs in each of his
last two innings. Also spanning that same amount of innings
eight and two thirds, four home runs allowed in eight
and two thirds. But if you want to look at
the positive, and that's who you're talking to, mister positivity
here on the A team driest blanket ever. His walk
totals in his five starts four three four three zero

(17:27):
zero walks last night, five strikeouts, nineteen swings and misses.
He had ten total swings and misses, and his last
two outings combined, he only had thirty two swings and
misses in the previous twelve and two thirds that he'd
thrown all year, and a third of that he got
nineteen more last night.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
More of that, please, that just sucks. That's just like
because of what you're saying, it's showing. It's not like marginal.
That's like a really really good bounce back for him
under the circumstances. Pitch like that.

Speaker 1 (17:59):
The rest of the way, everything will be fine bingo,
But it also won't come measure out to what they
really actually need from him. I mean, it's saying it's
fine is a backhanded compliment.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
It sounds like Matt Thomas is involved.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
It's you need better results, Like most of what I'm
telling you is well, it looks good and he got
swings and misses and it's clear he has good stuff.
Oh so he's Mike Burrows. That's bad. That's not good.
Mike brands stuff. But you can't pitch to a six
cra all year. And Emi did lower his ra Now

(18:32):
it's in the eights. He went in in the nines.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Way to go. That's progress. Progress, By the way, progress
isn't good enough when you're making eighteen million a year.
I know that's not insane money, but it's not. It's
has change in my opinion, it absolutely is. Like how
many pitches you think make eighteen million dollars a year? Well,
I don't know, to be honest with you, who's the
highest paid pitcher in baseball? And you can't say, show hey,

(18:56):
because that doesn't count, you know what I mean? Like,
it's not a normal pitch. He makes two million, he's
not one of the highest paid you know what, Dodger
front office. I don't want to hear that from you,
Like who's the highest paid ace?

Speaker 1 (19:09):
Well fromber went on very close to the top of
the list with his near forty million dollars.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
AAV and how going well?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
He had so many good starts at the beginning of
the year all but it's one of his first five
starts was bad.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
The other four were all awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Right now he's having the Hey, look, it's as you
would like to say, and I would like, No, it's
you want to say, Oh, it's inconsistent Fromber. No, it's Fromber.
It's Fromber.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Yeah, you don't need an un identify the way. It's
not bad Fromber. It's Fromber.

Speaker 1 (19:40):
You don't need an identifier. This is this is who
he is. He's pitching to a poor era. He's having shorter,
poorer outings as frequently as his good outings. And the
Astros there were some time earlier this year. I can't
believe the Astros didn't sign him, look at their pitching steps. Yes,
even though we could not have been louder for all

(20:00):
of the months from June of last year, when you
knew he was going to be a free agent, and
you knew you hadn't agreed to a deal, and you
knew they really weren't even negotiating to try to find
a deal, did we ever ask, even because we couldn't
have gotten an answer, Hey, what did you what? What
was your initial offer? What did they offer you fromber
and your agent?

Speaker 2 (20:16):
What the astros? What is your offer been? Next to nothing?

Speaker 1 (20:20):
If anything did you would just push a yellow tablet
across the table with a number on it of the
offer you they they did not want him to pitch
for them next pleased.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Admit though that part of that was the foregone conclusion
aspect having nothing to do with anything from his baggage standpoint,
like you just it was a it was more of
a money thing.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
If you had him an offer, it would have been ridiculed,
I'm sure in the media once it was told to
everybody by the agents as a low ball offer like Carlos,
because it's like Alex different you wanted those players back,
true and their presence.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
The offer you.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Would have given him was, We're going to make an
offer because that's what we should do, and if it works, great.
We know you're gonna get more. We know you're gonna
get way more, and we know we're not. You're not
gonna be here, but why bother?

Speaker 2 (21:08):
All right, So there you have it. Okay, we will
take a quick time out, we'll come right back. We'll
continue some astros discussion. We are again scheduled to be
joined by Braden Shoemake at some point, hopefully this hour,
but we'll adjust on the fly. It's kind of a
kind of a topsy turvy schedule with what happened with
the rain delay last night, so keep an eye out
for that. And there's always any number of topics to

(21:30):
get to outside of the Astros as we continue here
on a Tuesday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Halfway through the opening hour of the program, in light
of our expectation of an interview, no best of X
lined up here for you, but plenty of things to
discuss seven one, three, two, one two, five, seven ninety. Obviously,
Astros baseball still at the forefront. The NBA's Eastern Conference
Finals begin tonight Cavs nick's Western Conference Finals. They needed
fifty eight minutes or fifty six and a half or

(22:00):
before these Spurs pulled away enough to land win number one,
seven wins away from San Antonio winning the title, three
wins away from eliminating last year's champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder,
Victor Wembenyamau. Obviously, if you are unaware, then you're just
not really intentionally not paying attention. But it's pretty much

(22:20):
all anybody can speak about since last night's game, and
I totally get it, that is what they should talk about.
You've heard from me about a little bit of my
amazement at how negative so many people that are involved
in the sport are about the sport at times. So
I don't really think it's so much of an issue
for something good to happen and people be overly excited

(22:42):
and positive about it all with a relative degree of sanity. Clearly,
but forty one points, twenty four rebounds, three blocks, only
three turnovers in a game that his team goes double
overtime to win. I will say one thing about the
game itself before focusing on CHET or SGA or when
for that matter. They learned mid afternoon, the Thunder learned

(23:04):
that they would not be facing the Aaron Fox. The
injury that hobbled him a bit though he played in
the final game of their last series, kept him off
the court last night, so Dylan Harper stepped into the
starting lineup, and while the Spurs did have probably far
too many turnovers than they would normally expect to be
able to win a game against the team as good
as the Oklahoma City Thunder, with I have a very strong,

(23:29):
strong belief. I don't even feel like it's a bold
prediction the Spurs if they didn't know it already, and
I bet you they did, because most people around the
league probably do. They do not need the Aaron Fox
to beat the Thunder or anybody else. They literally don't
need him at all. That's how good they are. And
I honestly think they could be better without him. And

(23:51):
that's what you saw last night, able to do things,
I think defensively because he was not out there, able
to commit more minutes to players who are really good.
If you want me to pause on saying better than him,
I guess I will. But if you watched this postseason
or just last night, and you don't think the number

(24:11):
two overall pick Dylan Harper is better than dearon Fox
when it comes to helping his team win. If you
want to go that route, I don't know what to
tell you, because he is. And that's what was on
display last night. You know, Harper is in a starting role,
Harper is asked to play a ton of minutes. And
Harper was the second biggest reason why they did what

(24:31):
they did last night. He had played almost forty seven
minutes of basketball during the fifty eight minute double overtime game.
He is one of their ball handlers along with Stefan Cassel.
Essentially those two do the bulk of the work setting
things up, running through their offense, bring the ball up
the court, et cetera. Also, he's in isolation a ton,
which means he's basically trying to break his man down
one on one with the basketball. In those forty seven minutes,

(24:54):
he turned the ball over one time. His backcourt teammate
turned it over eleven times. And that's why people will
be saying between now and tomorrow night's game two, this
is where they missed the Aaron Fox and I guess
that's okay, But I'd rather have a guy that can
go out there and score twenty four points, hit all
of his free throws, grab eleven rebounds, dish out six assists,

(25:14):
and steal the ball seven times, then giving a lot
of those minutes too. Dearon Fox, just me personally, and
obviously the performance from probably you could say everybody that
they had in different forms of how they're supposed to
help the Spurs win, they all did their job and
that was the biggest difference the Spurs players pretty much
to a man, maybe outside of the injured Luke Cornett,

(25:35):
who was disastrous, but they're very good underrated. Coach recognized
that pretty quickly, so he barely played. The Thunder had
multiple players who were borderline no shows. Chet Holmgren was
not a borderline no show. He was an absolute no show.
That was a disgraceful performance from an all star level player.

(25:55):
And he wasn't even defending or often being defended by
Victor Wembley and Yama.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
You only got twelve minutes out of Isaiah Hartenstein because
Alex Caruso was insane last night and they didn't even win,
And that was largely because the MVP matchup the Defensive
Player of the Year on one side the MVP on
the other, not that they're matched up in the way
that people will talk about today Dream versus David Robinson,
because those are two players that were battling for the

(26:25):
award and play the same position and aren't. I won't
curse WIMPs, and we'll actually guard each other. And that's
why I brought up Chet and Victor not necessarily guarding
each other as much as you would expect them to heck.
Alex Caruso was basically the defender for Victor much of
the night. But shake gillis say Giljess Alexander was bad.

(26:46):
You can pick any adjective that means bad, and that
would be the description of how he played last night.
A little bit better down the stretch, fourth quarter, et cetera.
But as a star level player, which is what he's
been the last several years, maybe his worst postseason performance
period missing sixteen of his twenty three shots, turning it
over four times, a minus fifteen and is almost better

(27:08):
than fifty one minutes on the court in a double
overtime game. Bad basketball from their best player, they lose.
We've talked about this a lot over the years.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
When the Rockets were a championship caliber team before twenty eighteen.
You know, the Harden years of Chris Paul I think
were the closest they got back to that in the
mid nineties and really just throughout the nineties. The part
of the reason that there wasn't that dream matchup between
the Rockets and the Bulls was because the Seattle Sonics
were always the Rockets kryptonite, and if you ran into

(27:41):
the Sonics in the postseason, you probably weren't getting out
of the Western Conference. It happened in ninety three, it
happened in ninety six. On either side of their two
championship seasons. They were just a bad matchup for Houston.
They always were. They were a bad matchup, specifically for
Hakim Elijuan, because they were allowed to illegally defend him

(28:02):
because for whatever reason, the officials just wouldn't call it.
Back then. The Rockets then of course made a trade
for Charles Barkley, and then they couldn't beat the Jazz,
which they had never had a problem with before. I
say all that because the NBA playoffs are always about matchups.
It sounds cliche, it sounds lazy, It sounds like that's obvious,

(28:23):
but it is. And right now, you know, the Spurs
are the Thunders Sonics, if you will. They don't have
an answer for them. They have it in the regular
season this year, it's now extended into the postseason and
if they don't figure it out, they're not going to repeat.
It sucks because you lose either way. If you're a
Rockets fan, I hate watching this. That's why I'm not

(28:45):
watching it. I'll I would, I would have to be
hate watch wouldn't even come close to describe what it
would be like if I sat down and watched this crap.
I can't do it because I think the product's awful.
I know I'm in the minority. It was so amazing,
double overtime. He's the greatest player. I don't want to
hear any of that. It's just not I'm not into it,
but I do. I can see, having watched these two

(29:09):
play each other all this season, that that's exactly what
the SGA could have the game of his life. I
don't know that it's going to matter. Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
I don't think it's quite that lopsided. The numbers back
you up. They've played six times, the Spurs have won
five of those six games. Only three of those games
have happened since Christmas.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
And then two of them happened in a row.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Three of them happened in a twelve day period before Christmas.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
The only reason it's kind of skewed. But then you
see last night happen. They led them all night. The
Spurs led all night. It wasn't like I'm not saying,
it was like a double digit lead and they were
dominating them. And all that, but it just always felt
like they were keeping them at arms length.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Well, they had the lead multiple times in the last
five minutes of the game, and an overtime and I
mean Wenby hits the thirty five foot or to tie
the game. The Thunder were in front.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, but for most for the majority of regulation, it
was the Spurs out in front by a couple of
buckets at minimum.

Speaker 1 (30:02):
Yeah, seems unlikely either thing will happen again. Wemby going
for forty one and twenty four or SGA missing sixteen
of twenty three. Doesn't seem likely that either of those
things will be repeated, though. I do think the Thunder
are okay to a certain extent defending the way they
did with the people they did on Wemby, And I
do think the Spurs believe they have the right group

(30:25):
of wings to defend Sga the way that they did
last night. A bunch of different bodies out on him,
Carter Bryant among them. They're almost all of them very
young and still learning how to not leave your feet,
not allow the jump into fouls, not allow the fowls
to look like you've done something when you haven't. And
it wasn't a huge issue in last night's game. This

(30:45):
forced him into a lot of tough shots, which many
nights he makes. Anyway, he did not. I don't think
this series favors the Spurs yet. I do think the
Thunder win tomorrow night, and I think for those that care,
you're in for a long, entertaining series.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
All Right, we have a little bit of late breaking
NFL news. It's it's I think it's pretty pretty big.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
Well, I already know Aaron Rodgers signs, so I actually
am excited for news that is not about him.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
It's not about him, and it's not about the Steelers,
but it is concerning a team in the AFC that
may or may not stand in the way of the
Texans doing what we hope they accomplished this year. So
we'll get to that coming up next. In the least
surprising news about this particular player, headline chiefs Rashi Rice
ordered to jail to miss OTA's and Mini camp.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
I saw the story earlier, and most people believe this
will have zero impacts other than the time missed. Unless
he's impacted by his thirty days in jail. I don't
know what the hell that'll go for him. But this
is basically a he violated his probationcuse which was forbidden.

(31:57):
And so as of today and through I think June sixteenth,
he's in jail and they will have some on field
activities at their practice facility at their home base where
he will not be available to them because he is
in jail. All of this stemming from something that happened
now over two years ago in March of twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Okay, March of twenty twenty four. As you mentioned, he
was the driver of a Lamborghini SUV that was going
one hundred and nineteen miles per hour on Dallas's North
Central Expressway. Let me just stop right there. Have you
ever driven in and around the Dallas area where there

(32:40):
wasn't a humongous traffic jam regardless of where you were?
And I know we've got our traffic issues here. Dallas
is the pits in no matter where I go, what
side of the city as I'm driving through there, what
route I try to take, there's always I don't know,
other than the fact that it's an expressway, so it's
like a toll way. I'm assuming I don't know how
he got up to one hundred nineteen miles per hour.

(33:02):
I don't know how he got up to like nineteen
miles per hour in Dallas in some places, but it
led to a multi car crash that left multiple people injured.
And don't forget I think he got out and just
started running down the street after it happened, just ran
away from the accident that he caused. How do you

(33:24):
get a third degree felony in which you basically got
probation and screw that up, especially doing something like this,
It's so easy not to.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
All of the above s. He's someone who doesn't know
right from wrong. So he did another wrong thing.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
It's just like, and you're right.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
It probably didn't know it was wrong to drive at
that speed in anywhere, but certainly there. He didn't know
what was wrong to flee the scene. He didn't know
what was wrong to violate his probation. He did all
those things.

Speaker 2 (33:54):
So he's an idiot. I'm just these are all facts. Oh,
I diagnosed it. He's an idiot to be an idiot
to do all these things. I love driving fast one
hundred nineteen eh, not on a public roadway. I don't
think maybe if you're doing a pace car type situation
on a racetrack. It's just like, and you're right, it

(34:15):
probably isn't going to affect.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
That five games suspension is what he got for the
incident that you mentioned vehicular wise, and it doesn't seem
based on what many people have already weighed in on
that it's this particular violation, probation violation is going to
send the league into additional punishment, and I can pretty
much guarantee you there will be no punishment from his team,

(34:39):
and usually it's not even a team thing anyway. They
they can't, they're really not in position to do that anyway.
The league actually does a pretty good job of worked.
He doesn't work at the League office. He doesn't have
to hang out with those people. He's not going out
there and practicing with Roger Goodell and the rest of
the people that work in the league office. These are
his teammates. These are the guys that count on him

(35:01):
who clearly can't when he's not with them. But it
allows the team not to have to be the punisher.
So if the league doesn't do anything, the team won't
do anything and he'll return for I think this puts
him out for all of their on field work prior
to camp. But if there's nothing else there and he
comes out of jail, okay, then he'll be ready for camp.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Well, you know, And a lot of times we kind
of laugh off these types of activities in the offseason
for veterans, especially like they're just the level of importance
for guys in his position as a as a player
that's been around and has performed well to very well whatever.
But usually the people skipping out or not taking them

(35:43):
as seriously or whatever the scenario is. The alternative to
that is not spending a month in jail.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, I don't know how many people in the Kansas
City media will be asking him like they will other players,
what did you do this summer? Because they'll now know
the answer now I want them to answer for it.
I mean, I'm kind of split in the middle on that,
especially when it comes to quarterbacks. But overall, you know,
I can't mean this is the team we cover, this
is the team we know the best. And it was

(36:09):
still pretty good attendance when Bill O'Brien was the head coach.
It's sensationally attended the non mandatory portion of the off
season by the Houston Texans under Demiko Ryans because they
give a bleep. Yeah, because they want to win, because
they believe in why they're there, and they're not necessarily
participating in every single moment of every single activity that

(36:30):
takes place during the off season, but they're there, they're around,
they're working out, they're following the programs that they and
the team have decided on for their own personal workout plans.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Whatever those might be.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
They're there because they care about winning and they believe
in that making a difference to winning. Not every player
does in every organization, not every quarterback does in every organization.
The NFL is a little bit I think you have
to be a little bit forgiving from the personal individual
selfishness age because of the way contracts work in the NFL.

(37:03):
I don't really like to get down on players who
have played three, four, five, six, seven good years and
they're like, will you please give me some guaranteed money
for the next several years.

Speaker 2 (37:13):
I'm giving you everything.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
I cannot go into another I've got to stand my ground,
and there's just so little for players to stand. I
don't really begrudge them when they do it. But again,
the camp that will take place here the off season
activities that are not mandatory for the Texans. I'll take attendance,
and then I'll find out that the four players I
didn't see on the field were inside the bubble working
out or doing a different program that had them off

(37:36):
the field. They're going to have nearly one hundred percent
attendance at the Texans offseason program like they usually do
under Demiko, and they will probably go back to the
playoffs like they have one hundred percent of the time
under Demiko.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
I do wonder what kind of season this is going
to be for the Chiefs, not because of this necessarily,
although this doesn't help that.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
I think it's going to be extremely entertaining because their
last game of the season is going to matter the
play I'm just saying they're gonna be anything. They're going
to be in a battle to make the playoffs this year.
I could tell you for the last however many years.
Of course, they're one of the top seven teams in
the AFC, no question. I can't tell you that this year.
Joe Burrow's team might be in the top seven. Lamar

(38:16):
Jackson's team might be in the top seven.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Look at their division. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (38:18):
I mean they might be the third best team in
their division. I don't think they're the first best team.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
No, the Broncos are probably gonna be that until proven otherwise.
He's the best quarters.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
Gonna have a huge bounce back here. They could have
a four win improvement and miss the playoffs. Yeah, no,
that's that is a very plausible scenario. We'll have to
shelve that for now. We'll get to the simulcast reset.
Get you caught up on.

Speaker 2 (38:41):
A little June Astro's situation, because I think it's a
very very pivotal time as we continue here on the
EIGHTEAM Team Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network
simulcasts underway, wex and AC with you on a Tuesday
edition of the program. All Right, so it's May nineteenth,

(39:05):
which means we're getting closer and closer to June, and
I think that's the i'd call it the breaking point. Like,
I know, Hunter Brown's expected back relatively soon once the
calendar flips. I know you got Jeremy Panna back last night.
Jake Myers isn't far behind him. Hey, if you want
to get really glass half full, Tatsuya Emi looked good

(39:28):
in his limited action. I would say better. In his
limited action last night before the rain delay, he wasn't unplayable.
How about that? That's actually progress for a guy you're
paying eighteen million a year. But I feel like, you know,
even with everything going in the astros, favor and stay
with me. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's what
WEX keeps bringing up. If your name isn't the New

(39:52):
York Yankees of the Tampa Bay Rays, you're basically in
the same boat, the mediocre canoe of suck. And you know,
I say that because you're mediocre, then you basically do suck.
But everybody does, and so you're not out of things.
But I feel like you know, you're only you can't

(40:12):
say it's early anymore, that's out. But as you get
into June, if you don't start making up these ten
games under five hundred, you're gonna start running out of
time sooner rather than later. And I'm just hoping that
at least from a pitching perspective, because we all know
we're not going to probably see jose Al tub until July,

(40:33):
for example, But from a pitching perspective, separate and apart
from the lineup, the trickle down effect kind of happens
for you and you start having some breaks go your
way for a change for a staff that just has
been underwhelming and or completely injured to start the year.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
They're pitching is better than their hitting. People don't really
realize that. So I'm gonna tell them they're pitching is
better than their hitting. They're pitching just average. Their hitting
is awful, awful, second worst in baseball this month and
it's May nineteenth. If that doesn't change, then they're just
gonna be treading water. And they're also not getting closer
to five hundred while everybody else is also losing. They

(41:14):
haven't turned the corner that they won a series. Well,
what do they do in the series before that? They
lost three or four? What have they done in the
game after that? They lost another game? So that's four
losses in five games. That's not balanced out by winning
two out of three. That means you're headed in the
wrong direction. Still, that means you're still losing more than
you're winning. What about the series before that? When they
opened up this thirteen game stretch of baseball every day? Yeah,

(41:38):
they beat the Breads ten nothing. Then what wh then
they stopped scoring runs again and they didn't win any games.
They're falling further away. They're still playing bad baseball. They're
under five hundred again this month. They're not dreadfully under
five hundred this month. But you're not gonna make up
any ground by losing more than your winning. That's still
the issue. And like I said, I can't imagine that

(41:59):
Jake Myers and and Nate Pearson are spending more free
time in Minnesota today. There's no reason for them to
be there if they're not active. Today should be the
day that they're active. Nate Pearson should be available to
pitch out of the Astros bullpen today. Last pitched on
Sunday for his last rehab appearance. Jake Myers last played
on Sunday for his last rehab appearance. And both are there,

(42:19):
so I would expect two more roster moves to come today.
It is interesting to me that they had Jason Alexander
come up yesterday. I guess kind of is some sort
of safety net, but they only had three more days
of baseball until the off day on Thursday. And I
mean I would assume he's on his way back after
one day, because that's the move I would make. Jayden
Murray pitched yesterday, so maybe the thought is they do

(42:41):
that those are your two options, basically on the pitching side,
and to get Jake Myers into the active twenty six
man roster.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
That seems rather simple.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
You basically never play Shay Whitcombe for good reason, and
I would assume that is the play. Not only that
Jake will probably be in the lineup tonight, you maybe
get a steadying influence things go a little bit better
for him than they have for some of the other
players that have been out there. I do think Bryce
Matthews is playing a little bit more consistently, a little
bit better contact. Have you heard from Zach Cole the

(43:12):
other night he had his walk off hit, he had
a three hit game. A couple of the interviews he's
given since then, he's fully cognizant of his outrageously high
wiff rate, and he's I got to make more contact.
I have to have more competitive at bats. I have
to be in better situations where if he's throwing strikes,
I'm swinging. If he's not throwing strikes, I'm not. And
they just have too many players. Because I mentioned those

(43:34):
two guys first. Trying not to kill Cam Smith for
the second consecutive day, but he's in that very same boat.
That's three batters in your lineup pretty much every day.
You're getting a nice break with what Braden Schuemach has
provided for the team. You're getting a nice break and
what Christian Vasquez has provided for the team. And Vasquez
knocked in the first run in yesterday's game, but that's

(43:55):
not nearly enough. You're counting on now Payna, per Alvarez,
and Walker, which is I think what he'll Joe will
trot out there again tonight. It's what he did one
through four last night, and I think with Payna back
and wanting to have Perettas hit ahead of Alvarez, I
think that's what he'll go with. Those guys essentially have
to carry the team. The other team knows that the

(44:17):
other team's pitching them accordingly, and in the few opportunities.
Christian Walker came up later in the game with an
opportunity to drive in a run, and he did. Unfortunately,
the first time he came up with the bases loaded
and nobody out, he had one of the weakest contacts
of his entire season and had a light pop out second,
which was followed by Decenzo's double playball lined into a

(44:38):
double play, bases loaded, nobody out, facing a prospect who
has not stretched out, who has only thrown a handful
of innings at the major league level this year for
the Twins. He was on the ropes after three batters,
having hit one of them and walked another, and he
had a four pitch walk to Alvarez in front of Walker.
There's a lot of debate about what to do when
you're the next hitter a loaded you got a four

(45:01):
pitch walk to Alvarez, who he probably pitched around to
a certain degree. Do you swing at the first pitch
because you know the pitchers like, well, I can't walk
this guy.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I got nowhere to go.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Do you expect him to go fastball so you just
go ahead and get ready to swing and you do it.
Or do you make him throw a strike? Do you
make him get back on track. He's the one who's struggling.
Do you try not to help him by just kind
of making that swing decision early? You can go either
way with it. Walker swung at the first pitch he
saw and went back to the bench after the first
pitch he saw, and they ended up not scoring.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Yeah, listen, going back to what we were talking about
with the timeline of some of these injuries. When Hunter
Brown comes back, and I've said this all along, Yeah,
it's great. You know you're gonna get him back, the
name on the back of the jersey, all that kind
of stuff. You're assuming he's going to be the awesome
Hunter Brown, and I have no reason to think he
won't be. But there is a ramp up period even

(45:55):
after he's ramped up to make that major league level
reday for this season, and that's gonna be the first
and foremost thing where you're gonna get that trickle down
effect if you want it. Burrows pitching better than he
had been, I never know what you're gonna get with
Lanceman callers. Junior Spencer Arighetti has been amazing. I mean,

(46:17):
he's been awesome every single time out. And then whatever
whatever EMI is going to be this season, I feel
like it's a Jackal and Hyde situation at best right
now until further notice. But the first step will be
getting that Hunter Brown slot taken care of and what
you're expecting from him, and then hoping, like you said,

(46:37):
the offense catches up to the pitching now.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, and I don't know when or if that's gonna happen.
That's the main issue for me. The only thing you're
getting back offensively, you got back last night, and in
the process you also put something away. You put the
Altuve bat away, and you brought back out the Payna bat.
The bottom five guys in the order are gonna be
the same five guys we have today and for I
don't know how much longer. Unless Jake Myers is really good,

(47:03):
and he hasn't proven to be for multiple seasons, you're
still looking at the top four in your order. The
only guys you think you can count on Pereties isn't
even having a good season. Payne is obviously only played
eleven games, So two of the four guys I'm saying
you're counting on, they haven't done a whole lot this year.
And then you got Alvarez and Walker, who had a
fantastic start. Their numbers are still good overall, but they
clearly have not had a good last twenty five thirty days,

(47:25):
certainly not for the way that they were playing before that.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
So it's still going to be the offense that we
saw have.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
To be any of the year a mirage, a facade,
not not who they were going to be, No way
we should have expected that to continue.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
But they're better than this, right, even with some of
the injuries, they have to be okay.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
So your lineup could have been when the season began
and then you had two three weeks of season, you
didn't feel this bad about cam Smith. You had Carlos Korea,
and you had Jose Altuve and Alvarez was playing out right.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
Again, not like Alvarez.

Speaker 1 (47:58):
I know, we think he's awesome and all, but nobody
plays at that level for an entire season, right, not
even for two months.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
He did it for one month.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
So you take those three guys out and you bring
down Jordan Alvarez and the only thing you've added is pena.
It's tough to maintain that when there We've had some
Astros lineups over the years, especially with injuries over this
golden era of Astros baseball. I mean, where we knew
the bottom of the order wasn't getting it done. The
pitchers knew that on the other side, the managers on

(48:26):
the other side, and you kind of felt like once
they get past this pocket, well they until they flip
the order back over, nothing's gonna happen, and you're not
gonna set the table for Altuve and Paena or whoever's
at the top of the lineup either. And I don't
even think the bottom of the order has been quite
that bad for such a long period of time, because
there's been moments of each of those players I mentioned,
But as an overall look at who they are, it's

(48:46):
five guys plus Vasquez and shoemake seven guys battling for
five spots, the majority of whom are got a six
hundred ops with no power, and they're batting two hundred.
It's hard to generate a lot of offense unless the
big guys are crushing.

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Yeah, I and the Jordan Alvarez, that's the probably the
most painful thing that you mentioned there, because yeah, we
all know he is awesome, but you know, regressing to them,
I don't think regressing to the mean even applies to him.
He's just regressed so far underneath the average for him,
I mean, not for a normal Major league every day

(49:25):
bat in a lineup like it. Almost to the day
they gave him that award for March in April, it
went into the toilet. I mean he's hit some home runs,
but I'm just saying, like his his numbers across the
board are so much the opposite of what they were.
I'm not looking for him to I mean, be great

(49:45):
if he kept up his March April pace. But I
was just thinking, maybe, you know, normal, yord On, this
isn't normal.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
It's it's not it's too much, like it's too small
a portion airline up. He could be great, he could
have had another great month. They'd have a few more runs.
I don't know that the wind total would be different.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
That's and that's the toughest pill to swallow. That's just
where they are right now. And that's why I say,
like June, once the calendar flips to June, with all
this kind of stuff we're talking about, it's gonna be
it may or may not determine whether or not there's
some sort of minor fire sale. I don't think they're
gonna trade you out on Alvarez or anything like that,
but they'll end up being sellers at the deadline if

(50:25):
something doesn't change.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
I don't think there's any doubt about it. They should
be sellers at the deadline. If they are sitting in
fourth or fifth place, many many games under five hundred.
We'll see if that is, if that's any different, and
I do expect to and definitely will be joined with
some comments from Brian bogus Sevic coming up at the
bottom of the hour here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
The eighteen on segment.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
And I wondered why the Astros brought Jason Alexander up yesterday.
Maybe some sort of insurance for well, maybe it was
Lance mccullis junior, since according to Shandler, Roma obviously is
covering the team with the team. He's been scratched from
his start tonight, and Jason Alexander will now make tonight's
start for the Astros. Mccullors pitched pretty effectively his last

(51:12):
time out, which was his first start after a not
so good start, which in part was due to the
index finger fingernail issue, but it appeared that he had
pitched through that well enough to be expecting him to
make his next start, which up until a few minutes
ago we expect he would make, but now that will
not be the case. He had not missed a start

(51:34):
this season, was set to make his ninth start of
the year this year, but instead his two and three
record and six point eight six ERA will not pitch tonight.
Joe Spotta not yet commenting on exactly the reasoning behind it,
but Jason Alexander will.

Speaker 2 (51:50):
He'll start for the first time this year for the Astros.
It's just a I mean, I know he's got to
be more frustrated than any of us. It's just hard
to imagine that being us.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
We had a bunch of different issues last year which
clearly were nothing like his previous season's long issues that
knocked him out. I mean, he went to the to
the IL three different times last year for non major,
typical unfortunate lancemc colors type injuries. And I don't know
anything yet, but I'm willing to wager nothing that it's

(52:24):
one of those types of setbacks, just a starter or
two type of thing.

Speaker 2 (52:28):
I hope.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
I guess it could have happened during the week when
he threw a bullpen session, because it was a couple
of days after that, or when we learned about Hunter
Brown's situation, which ultimately meant he had to be scratched
from his start. Wasn't day of, but felt something when
he threw and a couple days later the Astros made
a move to indicate that hopefully this afternoon, not too

(52:50):
far from when Joe Aspata is speaking, we'll get some insight.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
Yeah, not a great I mean, when's the last was
twenty one the last time Lance McCullers Junior had an
issue free wired to wire basically season for the Astros.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Uh probably relative in his case because even wired to
wire for him, twenty one was his season or career
high in pretty much everything.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
I know.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
He pitched in twenty two, and he pitched well because
he's the reason. He's one of the reasons they got
to the World Series. Let's face it, right, he threw
less than fifty innings that year. He threw one hundred
and sixty two innings in that twenty one season that
you referenced. He led the league in walks, so he
was obviously out there enough to do that, But one
hundred and sixty two innings is a not a super
crazy high total. He made twenty eight starts. You know,

(53:37):
if you lead the league in starts, it's probably thirty
two or three or four. So for the most part, yeah,
that was a fully healthy, pretty much available season. Seven
innings have shut out ball in the clincher in Seattle
because he started that gigs You know me? Was it six? Huh?
Who didn't somebody have seven in that game? I mean,
after all, it was eighteen innings. I feel like somebody

(53:58):
had seven for the Astros. Was that Luis? Uh?

Speaker 4 (54:03):
Not?

Speaker 2 (54:03):
In relief? I think he gave him five? Okay, I
don't remember him pitching in the Yankee series. I know
it was only four games, but he had to have
had a start there, right.

Speaker 1 (54:13):
Yeah, he was awesome against Seattle. He was not very
effective against the Yankees. Five run or four runs in
five innings and he was incredibly ineffective.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
Yeah, we know what happened Philly. It was doing this
throughout the playoffs. But yeah, I don't know that you win.
I know that you don't win that World Series without
what he did in that Game three. That was the
I mean again, that place was ready to blow the
not top off. I don't know how you would describe it.

Speaker 5 (54:38):
Well.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
And then the time we're spending on Lance here, considering
I heard a moment of the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross got all. They didn't obviously know anything about Lance's
situation and now we do, but they brought up this
idea curious your viewpoint on this. Lance McCullers junior probably
is in his final season with the Astros one way
or another. If his final season is cut short, whether

(55:01):
it's injury or they just don't can't give him the
ball every fifth or sixth day, and he's released. I
don't think there's an avenue where he returns to the
Astros next year. He might not play baseball next year,
or he could sign elsewhere. Lance McCullers junior being honored
with an orange jacket and heading into the Astros Hall
of Fame, do you believe that will happen? They had
a brief debate and wager on that this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Of course, they had a wager. Where's the steak dinner?

Speaker 1 (55:27):
I believe it was a chicken fried variety? Really, I
think because I think he was trying to mix their
other nonsense where they're talking about cream and brown gravy.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Gosh, this sounds good right now. As these types of
things go, as time goes on, I believe this happens
a lot with presidents. By the way, as time goes on,
people look back on ten years a little bit more softer,
and when you start thinking about I know you got

(56:02):
to get through all the injuries during the late stages
of his career, But what did I just do. I
went back in one playoff run, just one season. Now
it happened to be a championship season, and he happened
to get shelled in the World Series. But his pitching
in that Seattle Game three, and then think about all
the times he's been on the mound for a pivotal moment,

(56:24):
and I realized they haven't all been good. He was
the starter for Game seven against Tampa Bay. You had
battled all the way back from an three deficit. He
was your starter that year that you were just a
whisper away from another World Series, even though it was
a fake one. He's on the mound in Game seven
at home against the Yankees in twenty seventeen. People forget

(56:44):
that he pitched his balls off in that game, twenty
seven straight curve balls and all that. Are you talking
yourself into it? No, I think he's got it. No,
I think he's gonna wear an orange jacket. I do too,
because of what I'm talking about. With the time that
goes by, you know, you gotta have the dust fast
to settle you have to forget about it being one
of the worst contracts Jim Crane has ever given out

(57:05):
relative to the production you've gotten. Has nothing to do
with the guy has nothing, But I just think he's
done too many positive things to not have that be
the case when all of a sudden done four or
five years from now, when it happens.

Speaker 1 (57:17):
I think there's a couple of elements there beyond that,
who's in and what kind of hall of fame they
have created and what they want to.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Do with it. It's not crazy exclusive. How many guys
from this run aren't going to be wearing one of
those jackets? And that's what you have to ask yourself.
It's a very simple way to go about it. I
don't amm Mabon.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
I mean, he probably goes into the Fast Food Texmex
Hall of Fame for his stolen base in that particular
World Series.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
Who is the centerfielder that was fast as all get out,
that scored a run against the Braves? Oh my gosh,
I feel like he played for Toronto after that, You
know how I'm talking about centerfielder.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
I mean ti Oscar Hernandez certainly wasn't the guy. He
played for Toronto after Houston during the Run of Greatness,
it was Miles Strong.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
No, no, no, no, no, no, Hispanic player. It's not Willy Tavaris. No,
you guys. It's like he wore orange gloves. It just
I can see his face. I can see the.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
Slide off far down the list of if you were
rostered by the Astros during the Golden Era, you're making it.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
I'm pretty sure he was the starting center fielder in
most games of the twenty one World Series against the Braves.
All right, well we got listeners, Siri. That's the one
I'm trying to think of. He's not going in with
an orange jacket.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
He's a bad baseball player, very fast running feet. He
started on a World Series team. He did Lance mccauller's juniors.
There's three players in Astro's history, Astro's history that strike
out more than ten batters per nine innings.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
He's one of them. The history of this.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Unbelievably legendary roster of pitch excellence, it's him, JV and
Billy Wagner. Two of them will be in the actual
Hall of Fame. Billy's there now, thankfully, Justin and JV
will soon be and Lance McCullers junior is going, and
I don't even think it's a debate now. They had

(59:18):
to debate on the previous show because they disagreed. I'm
sure you can guess which one said yes and which
one said no. You brought up the contract and I
don't we're not voting on it. The fans aren't voting
on it. It's a team situation. I don't think that
anybody even considers how much money you made or how
much value they got for the contract they gave you.

(59:39):
Did you play good baseball for this team? Did you
mean something to the fans of this team, did you
mean something to the organization? And did you have enough
years of that that warrants you being honored, No question
about it. Look at who they've already honored. You think
Lance mccullor's junior rates lower in all those categories than
some of them. And it's I'm not sure trying to

(01:00:00):
bring guys down so we can bring somebody up. But
they're all going to the same place. We're gonna catch
a quick break here and hopefully be joined by Braden
Shoemake on the other side here right here. On Sports
Talk seven to ninety and also via the simulcast on
Space City Home Network the A on the eighteen Tuesday
afternoon Astros Baseball coming your way this evening. Adam Wexler

(01:00:23):
and Adam Clanton here with you and happy to be
joined by Astros infielder Braiden Shoemake. Appreciate you making some
time for us and our listeners this afternoon in advance
of tonight's game. Certainly, one of the questions I knew
needed to be asked is having come over to the
Astros organization in April, have you had a chance to
have family and friends make the two hundred and sixty

(01:00:44):
one mile drive from Wiley to Houston to see you
play at dyk And Park.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Yeah. I've had quite a bit, a bit of family,
my wife's family from up and Melissa as well. We
got some family in the Houston area too, So it's
been good. It's been good to be a lot closer
to home and be able to see some familiar faces
and continue to play well.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
So from Wiley to Aggie Land to several stops in
the major leagues, nowhere near Houston, and then the Astros
acquire you in trade from the Yankees. Dana Brown who
drafted was part of the group that drafted you there
in Atlanta. You get to come back to this organization,
this area. What was your first thought when you heard
about you had just been traded to the Astros.

Speaker 3 (01:01:23):
Yeah, I kind of came out of nowhere. I was
getting ready to play a Sunday game and Syracuse, New
York and got that phone call. And I didn't really
know what to think at the time. I didn't know
where I was going, what I was doing, but obviously
was excited. My parents were excited when I talked to them.
My wife was sleeping, so she didn't get to find
out till the morning. But everybody was happy. Everybody's excited,

(01:01:43):
and they said I was ready for a fresh start
at a place like this.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
Was Was there any scenario pardon for me my attempt
at comedy? Was there any attempt or possibility that there
would just be a note left by her head?

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Sorry? Hun traded to Astros see as soon?

Speaker 3 (01:02:00):
Yeah, well we were. We were on the road, so
I wasn't with her. She was at home with my
two boys. So I called her. I called her eight times.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
She didn't answer any So is that like when when
she forgets her phone after she's giving you a list
at the grocery store. You've probably seen them meme by now, Yeah,
I mean, but that's herm Anyway, she when time you
go to bed, she puts her phone across the room.

Speaker 3 (01:02:23):
I tell her all the time, like, if somebody needs
to get in touch with you, you're gonna have to
have that. But she's like, Nah, nobody's needed to call
me sleep.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
The only part is when they do that, and then
they also don't they don't plug it into charge it,
and then they complain about how their battery is low.
At least that's my wife.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
This, Yeah, it happens everywhere.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Hey, uh, growing up in Wiley, did you did you
root for the Astros when you were when you were.

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
A kiddo, when I was young young actually, h most
of my family we had some Master of fans, but
most of my family were Ranger fans. So like, as
a young kid, probably up until high school that too,
I kind of was following, But once I got into
high school and into college, I didn't really follow them

(01:03:08):
or a specific team too much.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
When you consider the path to Houston, where you've clearly
now with the Astros this last roughly month or so
you've got a real opportunity to play nearly every single day,
Like you've played multiple positions, which obviously you've shown the
ability to do so throughout your professional career, but making
these stops, being a former first round pick, having so
much success in college station with Texas A and M.

(01:03:32):
You know, as things have turned out, how do you
visualize how do you kind of rationalize how your professional
career has gone as you now arrive here as an
almost everyday player with the Astros.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
Yeah, it's been it's been a while, and it's been
a crazy, crazy ride, you know, trying to obviously get
to the big leagues and stick is the hardest part.
I always said getting there is not the hard part,
it's staying. And I didn't necessarily know how true that
was until I got my first taste. And that's absolutely
the case. You got to perform every day you got

(01:04:05):
you know, every day is a new day, but you
got to come in and help the team win, whether
it's with that or with the glove or on the basis,
you gotta do something to help the team win. And so, yeah,
it's been a crazy ride. It's been a wild one.
But I wouldn't. I wouldn't change it.

Speaker 6 (01:04:22):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
It brought me here, and I'm super excited about that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:25):
You mentioned the leather. It's got to be fantastic to
have not one, but two amazing guys that play your
primary position that you can talk to in Carlos Koreer
and Jeremy Paigne. Has that been, uh something you've been
able to take advantage of? How's that? How's that gone?

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Both those guys are are pretty easy going guys. I
would assume, Oh, yeah, there, both.

Speaker 3 (01:04:47):
Of them are fantastic. I've gotten I mean I really
obviously until Carlos had gone down, I got to spend
a lot of time taking ground balls with him and
picking his brain on things that he likes to do
out there, and with Jeremy as well. He's been around
I'm in with a bent probably the last couple of
weeks taking ground balls and stuff with us before he

(01:05:08):
went on that rehab assignment. So gotten to pick his
brain too, and just trying to figure out a little
nuances of playing the position that that make them so
good at it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:17):
Talking with Braden Shoemake Astro's infielder here on Sports Talk
seven ninety of the other infielder, and he's rarely referred
to as that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
Jose Altuve.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
Steve Sparks, Astros radio broadcaster, was on the station yesterday
talking about how it's quote unquote his clubhouse and that's
why the belief is that so many new players are
able to come in here and often thrive and certainly
enjoy their time here. I'm just curious about how that
had played out for you once you arrived here and
had a chance to talk with Jose al Tuve or

(01:05:46):
have him, you know, come talk to you just about
you know, being an Astro.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
Yeah, Jose is the one of a kind guy. Obviously,
he said that he's a great clubhouse guy. Carlos is
another great clubhouse guy. We have a bunch of that
in that locker room, a bunch of guys that believe
in each other and want nothing but the best, nothing
but the best for each other. So they made it
really easy to kind of come in and be yourself.

(01:06:13):
Don't have to do any more or be any less
of who you are, Just be yourself and you could
fit in pretty easily here.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
We were actually talking about that very thing on yesterday's show,
because after Spencer arraghetti start on Friday. He was kind
of unprompted and talked about the clubhouse atmosphere, how it is.
I mean, there's tons of vets in there, whether they're
healthy right now or not. And how you guys do
have that belief in each other. I mean it's got
to obviously it sounds cliche, but carry you at a

(01:06:43):
difficult time in the season like this, where things just
don't seem like they're going your way more often than not.
But I mean I believe that he sounded very sincere
about it, and it seems like that's the kind of
clubhouse would Did you agree with his comments when you
saw them.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
Yeah, we have full confidence in every one of the
guys that we roll out there on the mountain. Every
guy that gets into the box or is making a
play in the field lead full confidence and everybody in
that clubhouse. This is like I said, it's a great group.
Not only a great group of guys, but they were
really good play players in that clubhouse. So it makes
it a lot of fun to go to war with

(01:07:19):
every day. And yeah, I mean maybe the things haven't
done how we wanted them to yet, but this clubhouse
is really good. The players in it are really good players.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
One of the other players in the clubhouse upon your arrival,
and then he almost immediately was on the il. I'm
sure your passive cross. He's been around enough. But you know,
I thought this was the case, so I went and
looked it up to make sure. When you wrapped up
your college career with Texas A and M, it was
June second of twenty nineteen. You were the leadoff hitter
for Texas A and M. And in that game which

(01:07:49):
in the postseason, which ended your season, you lost to Duke,
and the leadoff hitter in that game was second baseman
Joey lo Berfito.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
Has that come up at all?

Speaker 3 (01:07:58):
Oh yeah, we've talked about it. We've talked about it.
They got it. They didn't just end our season, they
got us twice in that reginal This.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
Is something that again for how good that season was
for you and your team, and how good that team was.
I imagine, even though you knew what was coming in
your professional future, probably that had to sting, right. And
now you see him roaming around this clubhouse you're in.

Speaker 3 (01:08:22):
Yeah, no, I mean, anytime your season ends the things
for sure, but look, they out, they out played us
most times we played them. We played a ruler the
day before the day before, earlier that day and you know,
we hit a walk off your Angelam to beat West
Virginia at their own place, and then turned around and
played them, and we kind of felt like we kind
of ran out of gas as a team, and they

(01:08:44):
took advantage of that and they played good ball. So
there's only so much you can do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
Bitter is not the word here, but there's something there,
the very heavy sigh, like if you you guys need
to like have a talk about this.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
I think we've talked about it. Oh, we've talked about it,
but we laughed about it because it was obviously. I
think the thing we were laughing about more than anything
is that he was playing in the infield. Now he's
a fantastic outfielder. Guy, I could do it all.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
Give us a little thought quickly on the on field stuff.
We haven't gotten into that a whole lot before we
let you go. What you've been able to, you know,
get in the lineup almost immediately with so many openings
and injuries, but you've taken advantage of that opportunity. What
do you think about how you've performed offensively. Is anything
changed with your approach? Have you learned anything from the
group you're working with here, because you've obviously had the
success that's kept you on the lineup most every day.

Speaker 3 (01:09:34):
Yeah. I mean, obviously this with our coaching is our staff.
They've kind of put together plan and stuff to go
in with each guy and where we're hunting what we're doing.
We're looking for how we're going to attack certain pictures
and and then just fine tuned swings and trying to
be short and quick to the ball as you can,
which I felt like I did well there for a while.

(01:09:56):
And of the last three or four days, I kind
of gotten out of my approach, done some things and
run myself into a little bit of trouble, which is
stuff that's completely fixable. So that's also something that's encouraging
as well, knowing that I'm doing it to myself. So yeah,
I mean it's been fun. I said, I'm trying to

(01:10:16):
just help this team win anyway. I don't care what
that way is, whether it's coming off the venture, whether
it's starting games. I tried to make that very clear Joe, like,
whatever whatever you need me to do to help this
team win.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
I'm fully brought into that well break and we certainly
have enjoyed your time here about a month now here
as a Houston astro. Look forward to more of it,
look forward to a chance of getting to talk to
you out in person at the ballpark soon, and glad
our listeners had a chance to get to know you
a little bit here this afternoon. Appreciate the time and
enjoy the game tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:10:47):
Absolutely, thank you, guys. You got it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Braden Schumach joining us here on Sports Talk seven here
on the eighteen the A We're aware one of his
three home runs and astros hit off show, Hey TONI,
We'll ask him about that next time.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
I may or may not have dropped a comment on
his Instagram account during the break on that very home
run video. It's a good one and it was a
really nice visit with him.

Speaker 1 (01:11:11):
You just add Brayden Shoemake on the program a minute
ago if you'd like to catch a listen to that, obviously,
among the many things we'll posted throughout the day right
there on our site and via the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Subscribe to the program.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
That's the kind of stuff you'll get in addition to
the show in its entirety. We obviously did not ask
him if he was on the know, in the know
about what is up with Lance mccullor's junior, though the
word from the Astros is not your typical release about
a change to the lineup tonight. From the Astros, we've
announced that Lance mccullor's junior has been scratched from his

(01:11:44):
schedule start tonight. Jason Alexander were starting his place. Will
announce further information, including roster moves, prior to tonight's game
against the Twins. Still six forty first pitch, we'll get
into Astros on deck at five thirty. I've told you
a couple of times, but I expect was they already
intended to activate both Jake Myers and Nate Pearson now

(01:12:07):
if they had not made the corresponding moves official yet,
which is very possible, especially if this Lansome Colors junior
news wasn't new news to them, and maybe there was
us whatever's going on known by the team in advance,
it might be different what these moves might be to
get those players there that'll be perfectly well equipped to

(01:12:27):
handle tonight's game. But if it is something beyond skipped
start or two. We should know sometime before first pitch.

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
I'm hoping it's not a long term deal. I'm hoping
it's not the latest just I hesitate to say devastating setback.
I don't know how any of it. Probably if it's
that variety, it's a career ending setback. That's why. That's
why I'm saying, I hope it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
That he's done more than any player that immediately comes
to mind in any sport that I can think of
since I've been here in Houston, to try to make
a go of a career that could have easily been
over many more times than one or two or three.
And his credit, by the way, that's hard mentally, wow you,

(01:13:15):
no matter how many times they explain how hard it is,
it's harder. It's very difficult to get through things like that.
And he made it back, and he obviously had some
good moments, not only a couple of times last year,
a couple of times this year. Just being back is
a great moment. And hopefully it isn't anything like that,
because to go through it again stage your career, stage
of your life, wife and two daughters, I'm not sure,

(01:13:37):
and his love for Houston and likely desire to not
leave Houston period professionally or personally could certainly weigh into
all those things, but we're kind of going a little
too far yet.

Speaker 2 (01:13:49):
We don't know what the situation is. No very close
friendship with Carlos Korea, by the way, I mean they
and when Carlos was in Minnesota, these two were still
very thicke as thieves, I mean just that's been a
mainstay between those two. So to see them both on
the shelf, regardless of the degree with which we're talking

(01:14:10):
about Lance mccullor's injury, we obviously know that Carlos is
not coming back this season. So that's been rough, one
of many rough subplots, not just this year, but last year.
I'm kind of getting tired of it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
Yeah, if you missed it earlier, the Twins sent out
a release that's almost similar in theme. They had like
eight roster moves in advance of tonight's game. One of
them was Royce Lewis, who was not in last night's lineup,
being sent down so he could get more work and
try to kind of recover mentally as much as physically
from what his you know, Torpedo in another one of
his seasons. He has a sad injury history on his side.

(01:14:45):
Byron Buxton was active already, but he wasn't in the
lineup last night. He is tonight batting lead off for
the Minnesota Twins. Cody Clemens there, clean up hitter, and
they bumped Josh Bell up for some reason in their lineup.
He that's the third tonight, I think the he hit
two homers yesterday and behind the plate, hopefully incorrectly challenging
pitches while he's back there. Victor Carrattini starts to night

(01:15:08):
against his former team. It hurts if you also saw
it last night or heard it last night. Ryan Jeffers
was batting last night against the Astros, took a swing,
stayed in there, took a pitch, took a practice swing,
and told the umpire he needed a minute, and then
told him he needed another minute, and he walked to
the dugout. He walked to the dugout because he knew

(01:15:29):
something was wrong with his hand, and he went immediately
down the stairs into the clubhouse. They brought it, obviously
a replacement hitter, and that was part of their announcement today.
It's a hammetbone fracture and he's out for quite some time,
probably been one of their more definitely one of the
more consistent offensive players, but will not be out there
tonight or for the remainder of this series and beyond.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Real quick, we were talking about this last week with
the schedule release in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
Yeah, I now know how to predict wl wl wwwll
W W w W doing this w l WW twelve
and five.

Speaker 2 (01:16:13):
You forget sometimes that Brian Cushing who was the star
of the release video, even though there's been many.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Yeah, if it was a television show, would have said
the Texans schedule release starring Brian Cushing, featuring nobody else
all Cushing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:28):
He was drafted in six, I believe, no seven. He
was definitely not six. That was Casserly's last draft. A
few years later, his future brother in law was drafted
by the Texans. And you forget sometimes that they are
related by law, if you will, by marriage. Yes, yeah,

(01:16:49):
that's what I mean. Each married sisters of each other,
So they're brothers in law. Well, they gave they gave
JJ Watt the content if you will, to get his
action to his brother in law increasingly getting bloodier.

Speaker 1 (01:17:06):
Yeah, we explained it to you the other day, but
didn't play any of the audio from it. The Texans
schedule release included Brian Cushing screaming through each game week whatever,
here's who we're playing, and he was featured prominently only,
and a camera was on him because he introduced himself
as a player who did this and got bloodied because
of that, and that's what he continued to do, getting
bloodier and bloodier and crazier and crazier over the course

(01:17:29):
of the schedule release video, which they had JJ watch
while he was miked up.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
I'm Brian Cushing. You may remember me from Absolutely Losing
It on Sundays. For the twenty twenty six Houston Texans
schedule release.

Speaker 7 (01:17:41):
How did you get Brian in a suit?

Speaker 2 (01:17:42):
That's what I want to know. Buffalo Bells, New York Giants?
Why did you whisper? I feel like less is more here?
Week ten, Cleveland Browns, Week twelve, Baltimore Ravens, sixteen Eagles,
seventy Packers eight day Dians like a psycho.

Speaker 7 (01:18:01):
So you gotta understand, Brian's my brother in law, so
I see him every day. That's just him in real life.
That's that's funny. I can't believe you got him in
a shertain time.

Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
That's great, which he then ripped off Hulk style at
the end of the video, like j is jj uh.

Speaker 2 (01:18:19):
Will he be working on Thanksgiving this year? They have
one of the games.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
If I'm not mistaken, I was gonna say, like that,
doesn't you imagine got it?

Speaker 2 (01:18:27):
But I think he would, right. But can you just
imagine like Thanksgiving dinner table? Then you know they're gonna
spend it together.

Speaker 1 (01:18:34):
Think about what it would have been like when they
were eating the amount necessary to eat as football players.

Speaker 2 (01:18:40):
Consuming is more like it just absolute behemoths. Now they were.

Speaker 1 (01:18:44):
They were on opposite sides of the locker room, but
the way it was situated back then, essentially all the
defense was on one end and all the offense was
on the other end. So they were they were there,
and we both really like to hit people hard. They
were very good at it. They're very they would Texans.
We talked about the Astros Hall of Fame. The Texans
Hall of Fame is very, very different.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
It is super exclusive, yes, in that it's two players
and one other person. So who didn't play two other people? Oh,
that's right, that's right, I forgot about you. Sorry, Janis
sorry about that. All right, four o'clock hour is upon us.
That means it's time to visit Orienthal. We take a

(01:19:27):
look back next the A team on Sports Talk seven
ninety for Underway Here on the eighteen Sports Talks seven
ninety sc HN already had a conversation with Brayden Shoemake.
We will catch up on some of what Brian Bogus
Sedek had to say earlier today and his visit on
the program talking about EMI when we replay a portion

(01:19:49):
of that next segment. We have talked extensively about the
Astros current plight, and we got the unfortunate news the
Lance mccullors is has been scratched from his start and
is probably going to spend some time on the shelf.

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
Yeah, I don't know anything beyond he's been scratched. Do
you know that Jake Myers has officially been activated? Since
he's in tonight's lineup. He is in center field. He
will bat in front of Branden Shoemaker. Shoemakes in the
eighth hole. Vasquez will catch for Jason Alexander, who makes
his first start of the year for the Astros. He's
made two appearances this year, but it's first start this year. Meyers, Shoemaker,
Vasquez at the bottom, Walker, Descenzo and cole Go four

(01:20:29):
five to six, and as we suggested earlier that the
top of the order would remain unchanged, Paina Peretis Alvarez
obviously mentioned Walker already. They're the ones who will try
to score on Zebbi Matthews for the first time this season.
Zebby will be making his second start of the year
for the Twins. He han't had a particularly strong career,
considering he was one of the Twins' top prospects, but

(01:20:51):
pitched very well in his rehab assignments attempting to recover
from his shoulder injury or peck injury that kept him
on the shelf. But the start of season and through
seven shutout innings against the Marlins and his only major
league appearents so far, so they'll be the first if
they score against him this season.

Speaker 2 (01:21:09):
Well, I believe it was last year. I think it
was last year that a recurring character on the show
call that a recurring character on the show, like it's
a real person. I'm just I did just.

Speaker 1 (01:21:25):
Watch private parts for like the nine billionth time the
other day. He had recurring characters on his shows throughout
the years of developing his radio program. Fred helped him
out with a lot of the voices he had a
lot of. You know, Robin was there helping with voices.
Jackie the joke man was helping him. I don't I
mean recurring characters on our show. They would probably just

(01:21:45):
be your characters or recurring topics of conversation. Oh, I
thought you meant like Donald and Chef d maybe Jeff Passing,
But they're real people.

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
Your Jeff Passing is underrated.

Speaker 1 (01:21:58):
I don't care what I got a yesterday when we
were talking about how mad I was at Bill Belichick
for being normal only part of the time, and I
did a little grumbling Belichick, and someone said, ah, WEX
doing a great Belichick.

Speaker 2 (01:22:12):
Yeah, I appreciate that. I'll bring it out again later today.
You'll have to stay tuned. No, it's funny because I
got a couple. I got multiple one hundred people surveyed.

Speaker 1 (01:22:23):
Top five answers on the board most often recurring themes, storylines,
topics on the A team.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
Go guarantee this is number one on the board. It
should be if you've been listening to us for as
long as we've been on the air, which is a
while now. OJ Simpson passed away last year. It was
a big day on the show in that it was
just a big topic of conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
The defense team for OJ Simpson a little bit concerned
that the family of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman
will be in the courtroom during the trial. They've cited
insert Norm McDonald joke, it's my lucky stabbin hat.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
They're afraid he'll realize how much more he still has
to do. Killing people. Of that defense team, I believe
Carl Douglas and Bob Shapiro are the only ones still
with us.

Speaker 1 (01:23:16):
Last thing I will say to interrupt what will be
a full on Clinton on OJ's segment.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
You host sports talk radio.

Speaker 3 (01:23:24):
Uh huh.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
You bring up the OJ Simpsons saga and all too
much a lot. So when you hear dream Team, what
do you think of ninety two Olympic basketball team, not
his legal team. He was the only one calling them
Matt as he was on trial for whacking his wife
and her friend. I will have you know, if you

(01:23:46):
search a dream Team on the Google machine, the first
thing that comes up mj nineteen ninety two, United States
Men's Olympic.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
Basketball Christian Lightner's team, Good job, All right, what do
we got? Well? What are we talking about to Warrenthal? Today?
Not yet yesterday? When the news was broken late in
the show, by the way, and that's where I started
getting text messages like did you guys talk about this?
And if you didn't, you'd better tomorrow. I'm not even kidding,
that's what That's one of the text messages the show

(01:24:14):
they do. Apparently, back on May twelfth, this happened, Detective
Mark Furman passed away and by the way of the
investigating detectives that arrived on not one but two scenes
that night, back in June of nineteen ninety four. Now
there's only one of those that is still with us,

(01:24:34):
and I can't remember his name. He's the one that
was talking to OJ while he was in the driveway
in the Bronco after the chase was over. Van adders
dead and now Mark Furman's dead. He died of an
aggressive form of throat cancer, and he had been hospitalized
having done some cancer treatments for a week before his death,
and just elected not to keep going. He was seventy

(01:24:55):
four years old, and he, of course is the one
that was on tape uttering awful phrases of a racial variety.
He says was part of a screenwriter's play. I don't know,
like you couldn't make an excuse for what he said.
It wasn't just the word itself, it was everything that

(01:25:18):
came with it. But that's all Jonathan Cochrane needed to
turn it into a full blown racial trial that had
nothing to do with the murders at the end of
the day. And that's what happened. I mean, if you
actually paid attention to it, that's exactly And listen, his
job was to provide reasonable doubt. And if you can

(01:25:39):
paint a investigative detective who discovered one of the bloody
gloves on the scene as a full blown racist who
would flame frame a black guy, well then of course
you're going to do that. And that's exactly what he did,
and much to the chagrin of people who were just
nauseated at the thought of OJ Simpson being some sort

(01:25:59):
of of civil rights hero when he lived in Brentwood,
California and avoided his hometown and where he came from
and everything about it for basically his entire adult life.
I could see where they've been. Not to mention, Ronald
Goldman's dad was very upset about how that whole thing
went down, rightfully, So, yeah, absolutely, that's I've always felt

(01:26:20):
the worst for their family in this whole thing. But yeah,
did I guess? I just he looked younger than seventy
four in my opinion. He had done some like some
TV hits, and had done some he had written some
books and that kind of thing. But he had been
living in Idaho, of all places, after retiring from the
LAPD way back in oh was it August of ninety five.

(01:26:43):
I can't imagine what forced that retirement. I know it
seems like forgery, among other things.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
Reasonable place to go hang after being so in the
public eye for a short period of time.

Speaker 2 (01:26:54):
You remember Robert Durst, the big or heir to the
of some New York real estate tycoons, I do, and
after killing people, he decided to get lost and disappear
to Galveston, Texas, where he was living as a mute

(01:27:15):
death woman. Down in Galveston.

Speaker 1 (01:27:20):
Yeah, where Charles Barkley thinks some NBA teams should go
when their season ends.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
With that dirty ass Watta have you read Mark's book?
I haven't. I've heard about how aedy right?

Speaker 1 (01:27:30):
Just the one I think the one you'd be interested
in is titled Murder in Brentwood.

Speaker 2 (01:27:35):
What's that about?

Speaker 1 (01:27:37):
It was written in nineteen ninety eight, but basically it
was defending himself against the claims claims of what a
fraud and taking the Fifth to avoid prosecution for perjury,
et cetera, under the advice of my legal team.

Speaker 2 (01:27:50):
I like to I would like to insert what does
he say? Insert my Fifth Amendment privilege, I believe is
what he said, over and over and over again.

Speaker 1 (01:27:58):
You read very well known writer Helter Skelter fame the
Buliosi book on Orange Juice? Is this the one where
out rage the five reasons why OJ Simpson got away
with murder? Keep going, that's the title of the book.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
I know, keep going. I'm intrigued.

Speaker 1 (01:28:16):
He blamed the writer, blamed the verdict on an incompetent jury,
prosecution and.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Justge no way the jury in which one of the women,
who was about ninety six years old when they interviewed
her for the documentary, was like, well, yeah, this was
for the Rodney King riots. This is why we voted
this way?

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
What and he wrote other than when a killer is
apprehended in the act, I have never seen a more
obvious case of guilt. All of the evidence, not some
or most of it points irresistibly to Simpson's guilt, and
his guilt alone.

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
I haven't read that.

Speaker 3 (01:28:48):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:28:49):
My favorite part was like, well, DNA was new in
nineteen ninety five, they didn't know what it was. His
blood's everywhere. It's like a one in a billion chance
that his blood and the two other people who he
whacked to death with a knife were in one place.
Where was his blood everywhere? And where's everywhere? All over?
All over?

Speaker 6 (01:29:08):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:29:09):
Her house, his house is, his bathroom, his house, in
her bathroom. Why wouldn't his blood be at his house
and her house? Not that blood on socks that he
wore while he was killing them? Were those socks and
shoes or No? They were in ugly ass Bruno Marley
shoes as he put it, his words, not mine, Bruno Marley.

(01:29:30):
I would never the singer. No, that's Bruno Mars Marlee.
I think that's how you pronounced it. Did you read
Journey to Justice? Who wrote that? Johnny Cochran? What did
he say, uh, the glove doesn't fit. You must have quit.

Speaker 1 (01:29:44):
The end, he denied playing the race card and maintained
that the LAPD tried to frame Simpson.

Speaker 2 (01:29:51):
Really he denied playing the race car, even though another
member of his defense team, Bob Shapiro, said, we played
it from the top of the deck.

Speaker 1 (01:30:01):
All right, So for the final few seconds of this segment,
I'll run through the rest of the books.

Speaker 2 (01:30:05):
Have you read any of them? I have some of them.

Speaker 1 (01:30:07):
Have you read Shapiro's book, which one was that they
were searching for justice? The Search for Justice?

Speaker 2 (01:30:13):
I didn't read that one. Marsha's book, which one was
that without a doubt? No, didn't read hers Darden's book.
Definitely didn't read his. Hey, try on the glove, see
what will happen? Idiot? It was called in contempt, no kidding.

Speaker 1 (01:30:26):
He attributed the acquittal to poor stewardship by a star
struck judge Eto and a dysfunctional and uneducated Jerry you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:33):
Know who's I did definitely read that guy who liked
to do bad things while on a zoom. His name's
Jeffrey Tubin. He's the books. The book he wrote was
what the documentary was based on check that he's a
lousy human being, but he wrote a good book.

Speaker 1 (01:30:50):
So Mark Furman dead at seventy four, may he rest
there you go? Good, good topic, good shows, good sudden.

Speaker 2 (01:30:56):
Who's the next? I'm just kidding. That's terrible, but it's
Op Shapiro. Not surprisingly, TMZ has the reaction of the
Goldman and Simpson families to the death of Mark Furman.
We won't go into that, Okay. TMZ's awful. Like Harvey
what is his name? Harvey Levin? Not a great guy

(01:31:18):
by all accounts. Just I mean, he's very successful at
what he does if you're into that sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:31:26):
Very good in the uh for the water bottle industry,
if you've ever watched their telephons, always like as are
all of the people on the show, and they're cubbies
and their cubbies they're cubicles.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
Yeah, they're cubicles or they have their meetings. Cubbies is
like what Carson would put his backpacking when I took
him to pre cables probably a better term. Yeah, it's uh.
By the way, I don't know how you feel about this.
It's this is the exact opposite of Matt Thomas. For example,
if I never go talking about twenty twenty six, Okay,
if I never go to Los Angeles again for the

(01:32:03):
rest of my life, I'd be fine with that. Are
you a fan?

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
I mean I've been. You went recently, because you toured Sofi,
toured so far, went on a sort of a West
Coast type of vacation. So LA was one of the stops.
Been to LA for Lakers games, Rockets games. Sorry, La,
did you hear I've been to LA for Comets games?

Speaker 2 (01:32:24):
Okay? Did you hear Laker girls at any point? Well,
when I got you.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Guys know this, used to host a radio program that
was in the evening, which meant.

Speaker 2 (01:32:36):
It's the night shift.

Speaker 1 (01:32:37):
It would be you might have a game on immediately
after that which I was broadcasting. Comments were one of them,
Rockets were among them. So when I was in LA
and on the air in the evening.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
I would set up on press row right next to
the whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:32:57):
The guys that handle the basketball, the referees, water, all that,
the people that worked the scorers table, they were to
my immediate right. And I'm doing the show before any
players have even arrived at the arena.

Speaker 2 (01:33:08):
But who is at the arena?

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
Who is getting ready for their nights activities. The players,
the Laker girls.

Speaker 2 (01:33:14):
Oh, yes they were Paul Abdul still that part of
the squad or was it not quite that old? No,
they were working on their routines.

Speaker 1 (01:33:21):
The game operation staff was working on their lighting setups
and some of the game ops things they were doing.
But yeah, I was speaking about sports while watching the
Laker girls get ready for basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:33:34):
What an awful gig you had? Yeah, been at least fine.
I'm not gonna live there. So did you stay downtown
when you were there? I think so? You didn't stay
in Brentwood. Well, I didn't fly with the team when
I was doing the comments.

Speaker 1 (01:33:48):
I came like day of game or the day before,
And I don't think I stayed in the same hotel.
I think it seemed a lot closer to the ostracized
see than the arena necessarily. But the other times I
stayed with the team and not we were not downtown.
We weren't even in Los Angeles.

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
Who was the best running back in USC history? Marcus
Allen or the juice, Probably Charles White, maybe Lendell White.
He wasn't the best, Okay, Reggie Bush. Reggie Bush actually,
well he didn't have as many yards. He's just he
was dynamic. Heah the best prospect we've ever seen. But
they didn't play four years by the time he came

(01:34:28):
around as.

Speaker 1 (01:34:29):
Much as we only talk about OJ Simpson for his
murder trial and acting. He was a very very talented
running back in both college and the NFL, which two
doesn't really matter anymore, nor should it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:43):
It gave him a heisman, they did, and then they
took it. Didn't he try to take it also? Well,
then he tried to take it back and that's when
he really went to jail.

Speaker 1 (01:34:56):
Murder two times. No, you're free to go, but the
rill your stuff, back your stuff. Let's go ahead and
send you to the big house.

Speaker 2 (01:35:04):
Throw the throw the book at him. Yeah, they did that.
They sure did. All right. We were talking earlier about
uh EMI and there's market improvement. Let's just put it
is that. The most PC way to describe how last
night went for him? Five stars. He's coming off of
his now second best that's all you got? What yesterday

(01:35:26):
was the second best body of work? What do you
think Brian bogus Sevic had to say about it?

Speaker 1 (01:35:30):
He joined The Matt Thomas Show with Ross earlier today,
talked about a couple of different things. You can catch
the whole interview at Sports Talk seven ninety dot com
or via the iHeartRadio app. A portion of it here,
which does begin with discussion about the work turned in
last night from totsu Emi.

Speaker 4 (01:35:45):
I definitely thought that it was a positive start. I
think that he first of all, looked more confident in himself,
looked more confident in his stuff. There was some real
you know swing and mys ask back to it, especially
with the slider. Some of that had to do with
just the general shape and break of the pitch. A

(01:36:07):
lot of it had to do with the fact that
he was in the stripe zone more and in you know,
a haad an account, and in positive situations where he
could entice hitters to chase a little bit. I think
that just his overall you know, competitiveness in terms of
looked like he was there to get hitters out and

(01:36:27):
not trying to solve some puzzle that he was fighting
with himself mechanically or otherwise. I think those are all
huge positives. And I think really really what I thought
was a little bit kind of an under the radar
positive is he gave up the two home runs, but
it never really scared him off of what he was doing.

(01:36:48):
He went right back into the zone. He went right
back to those pitches and those locations, which is what
he's going to have to do. I think, you know
something that he is really trying to understand and work
through is, yes, you're facing.

Speaker 2 (01:37:01):
Major league hitters.

Speaker 4 (01:37:02):
Yes it is a step up in competition, but no,
they're not perfect and you still have to go after them,
and you still have to throw what are maybe hitable
pitches that maybe they're gonna get you every once in
a while, but that's just kind of the way it is.
And on the whole, you'll be better if you continue
throwing strikes and attacking. And I think he did all
of those things. So yeah, certainly a lot more than

(01:37:23):
his last start. This is definitely something to build off
of and there's a lot of good stuff to take
away from it.

Speaker 8 (01:37:30):
Last thing about him, he's got to be feeling better
and he probably has had very few smiles since donning
a Houston Astros uniform. So whatever it was, whatever the
philosophy was, whether it was not looking at intelligent reports,
maybe staying with two primary pitches, which I thought he
got a thirty one in yesterday. It was at least
a sign to say, you know what, go back out
there in five days and build off of that.

Speaker 4 (01:37:52):
Absolutely, and there's really there's no workarounds to him not
being a part of it. You know, if this team
is going to get on the right track, this team
is going to try to get back into a playoff picture,
it's going to be involve him in a big way.

Speaker 3 (01:38:06):
It just has to.

Speaker 4 (01:38:07):
I think that's a lot of the reason why with
the way his minor league starts were going on his
rehab since they just brought him back anyways, because it's
kind of like we just got to figure it out
and there's no way around it. I do think he
was smiling and in good spirits postgame talking to the media,
which he hasn't been, you know, all season. And another
thing I think maybe the emergence of Spencer Araghetti, who

(01:38:29):
looks like he's a real number two option. Once you
get your number one option back in Hunter Brown, maybe
it eases some of the pressure oni my to go
out there and say, Okay, I don't have to be
a cost type of picture. I just have to be
a better version of myself and contribute and do what
he did yesterday, which is just give the team a
chance to win.

Speaker 8 (01:38:49):
I kind of like Cam Smith in that seven eight
nine range. I don't feel dropped the nine bad at
eighth yesterday. That feels like until Jake Myers is already
put the uniform on. And there are some tough decisions
to be made about where Cam spends the next few weeks,
whether it's staying with the big league team or going
back to get his mojo down at the mono leagues
that low leverage spot and the line up maybe best

(01:39:09):
for him.

Speaker 4 (01:39:11):
Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean, you don't want to keep
any more pressure onto him than he's already feeling and
putting on himself, because nobody wants to break out more
than he does. But if you can get you know,
the top half of the lineup working as it should
and Jeremy really settles things in the leadoff spot and

(01:39:32):
slot guys in behind that, and then you know, we
see what Joe Spot has been doing and trying to
play hot hands in the middle of the line of
the If and if that continues, then you just go
with Cam down in the bottom third, do what you
can to contribute. If it's if it's one for three
with a walk and a blooper. Great, if you can

(01:39:53):
work a walk and get on base and steal a
base and make a play in the outfield that you
know as much as working from canis gets you out
of slumps, as much as getting your confidence back works.
It works you out of slumps feeling like you're contributing.
There's nothing worse than walking off a baseball field after
an zerover four. You haven't been on base, your uniform
is still clean, and you just feel like you didn't

(01:40:14):
even play. So just just finding ways to contribute, finding
ways to feel like it was a productive day. That
can lead to more confidence, that can lead to better swings,
that can lead to working your way out of a
slump as well. And they just got to, you know,
continue to try to put him in situations where he
feels like he can contribute and be part of the team.

Speaker 1 (01:40:35):
Interesting in that last part of the conversation talking about
Cam Smith, Cam and Bryce are the two outfielders or
infielder outfielder in Bryce's case that are not in tonight's lineup.
The outfield from right to left tonight is Decenzo Myers
and Zach Cole. I'm interested that Decenzo's and right Cole
is in left Jason Alexander is making the start. I

(01:40:57):
would expect that those three outfielders will have a bit
of work tonight. And they're also batting five, six, seven
in the lineup tonight. Decenzo's fifth, Cole is sixth. Myers
bats seventh. Three left handed bats in the lineup with Alvarez,
Cole and our friend Braden Shoemak, who's playing second base
again tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:41:15):
He bats eight.

Speaker 1 (01:41:16):
Right hander Zebbie Matthews on the bump for the Minnesota Twins.

Speaker 2 (01:41:20):
He's taking Zebbie over the wall. He's a friend of
the show. Now he has that eighteen karma.

Speaker 1 (01:41:25):
If he does, he would slide into third in homers
this season with the Astros, Walkers and what nobody else
has more than four? He would hit his fourth. Oh
if he hits Okay, still, yes, Perettis has four, he's next,

(01:41:46):
Come on, e Soak, get it together. They need a
few of those. Obviously, we will hit you with our
signature segment. That's Tuesday, So that's say what next.

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:42:07):
A lot of different directions to go here, often we
like to do what it says, say what indicates.

Speaker 2 (01:42:13):
We'd love to play some audio for you, and we will.

Speaker 1 (01:42:16):
But one other story from the NBA side, off the court,
it's been an ongoing story. Two different stories kind of
rolled into one. For the Portland Trail Blazers. It's not
very often that the head coach for your team is
gone after one game, uh huh. But it was the
case for Chauncey Billups. So the next eighty one games

(01:42:36):
plus playing plus playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:42:38):
I did not go as he planned.

Speaker 1 (01:42:40):
Was with interim head coach and former Rockets assistant coach,
former NBA player Thiago Splitter. Now Tiago has kind of
gotten thrown into the other story with the Blazers. They
were under new management. They have a new owner. I'll
move you to Austin, just watch, and he has made
some interesting financial decisions.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
He is trying to stretch the dollar. I guess you
could say in a nice way, my favorite part of
that story. Did you see where he was approached or
confronted or whatever about how like I guess ancillary employees
weren't accompanying the team on a road trip, and he

(01:43:23):
was like, well, this is because he comes from a
hockey background, right, well, the hockey, yes, he does, minor league.
If I recall it wasn't an NHL team, I don't know,
but point being, that's not how they did things there.
And his answer to that question from the media member
or whatever was basically something to the effect of, well,
I guess the NBA just wastes money that way. And

(01:43:43):
I'm paraphrasing because a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
Of the gist of it and HL side and hockey side,
there's much players who are not going to be on
the playing roster, scratches and otherwise, and sometimes they aren't
traveling with the team because of that. This is a
little bit of an issue on the two way players
who were not l the way players not eligible to
play postseason basketball. So okay, well then why bother sending
him on the trip. But they do serve a purpose

(01:44:08):
at practice and other things, so you can do it
however you want. He's trying to, you know, why pay
for this if I don't have to. They had the
issue with staying an extra day at one of their
road trips, which turned into well we the hotel did
not allow for late checkout for a handful of the
rooms they were in, so they had those staff members

(01:44:30):
just hang out in one of the ballrooms they still
had booked, so for however many hours, they had to
move out of their hotel room and move into a ballroom.
They weren't sleeping there, but that's where they had to
be housed. There's been a bunch of different items that
have come up. I have to believe the people in
Portland that aren't fans of their new owner have a
very easy nickname for him. His name is Tom Dundon

(01:44:55):
dun Don. I mean, it's writing itself right, dumb dumb owner.
It sounds too easy and the latest. And I don't
know much more about it than what one of the
Blazers beat writers posted. He said was told around seventy
people were let go today. This is about two hours ago.
In the Blazers layoffs on the business side know some

(01:45:17):
of the names that I would respect to them. I'll
let them announce it when and how they will all
falls in line with all Right, here's how you used
to do things. I'm looking at the balance sheet and
I'm just walking in the door and two things here,
you're gonna know who the boss is now, And I
don't think we need to spend all this money on
are what we're doing here. This is the highest of

(01:45:40):
high minor league sports. Stuff like this, one person doing
eight jobs, three other people doing fifteen jobs happens all
the time. There's not a lot of money in it
to be made. You're not generating a ton of money,
and you're trying not to spend a ton of money
depending on.

Speaker 2 (01:45:54):
What portion of the major league outfit owns you. Minor
league hockey very similar.

Speaker 1 (01:45:58):
This is the highest level and the biggest generating basketball
entity that there is. As they are entering and continuing
through the most lucrative television deal that the league has
ever seen by a lot and he's come in as
new owner and says, well, I mean that's great and all,
but I can certainly make this even better by limiting

(01:46:21):
our spending.

Speaker 2 (01:46:23):
Look, nobody wants to hear it. Gay a day spending,
our front office personnel spending. Nobody wants to hear this.
But a couple things. Number One, if and when he
leads Portland to championship glory, which would be the first
time since the late seventies, if you think you have

(01:46:43):
a bad Rockets fans, nobody's gonna question any of this.
And by the way, someone who did something similar before
said championship glory was Jeff Luno. Now, I don't know
if it was as I'm not saying it was as
intense as this, but I do know that he's, so

(01:47:05):
to speak, trim the fat in areas he thought it
needed to be done when he took over as general
manager for the Astros. For Jim Crane, I know that
it's a little bit different, but it's not. I don't
think it's nearly as. I don't even know if cutthroats
the right word to use here.

Speaker 1 (01:47:20):
You can set up your baseball operations however you see fit.
This is the entire organization. This is someone from completely
Where Where did Jeff come from? Saint Louis the Saint
Louis Cardinals baseball team? Hm?

Speaker 2 (01:47:36):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (01:47:36):
And where is this owner coming from? Who Jim Crane, No,
the owner of the Blazers. Oh, he's not coming from
another NBA outfit and watching what they did and said, man,
this is dumb. I can't wait to own my team
so I can do it.

Speaker 2 (01:47:47):
The right way. He's owning it like he's running it
like it's a normal business, and it's not.

Speaker 1 (01:47:53):
I would be really, really surprised if the dumb dumb
ownership produced a.

Speaker 2 (01:48:00):
NBA championship, let alone multiple.

Speaker 1 (01:48:03):
I think I'm confident saying Portland will never be moved
to the Eastern Conference. H that's a long ways and
I think they're pretty far away. They might have one
of the league's brightest young foreign stars, but I'm not
sure what else you really are are in place to

(01:48:23):
build around, and you're making it out to be a
place nobody's gonna want to work for, even though these
are exclusive opportunities. Everybody wants to work in sports, and
I'm not sure who's gonna want to play for unless
he's doing all of this so he can say, luxury
tax aprons, spend all. I've got the money, let's put

(01:48:45):
this roster together. I don't care about paying this tax
and going over this and do that. Yeah, I'm capped
out here, but we're gonna be one of the big
You also have to get the other player on the
other side of the deal to say, yeah, if you're
getting the same offer from Portland and somebody else, you're
a max player or whatever it is.

Speaker 2 (01:49:01):
And free agency. I don't I don't think you're choosing Portland.
Did you watch the Joe Blazers documentary on Netflix? No,
it was well done. If you didn't know everything in
the documentary all already like I did, it didn't really
tell me anything new. But one of the things it
talked about was who was I can't remember who their
GM was, Steve Patterson. Does that sound right?

Speaker 1 (01:49:26):
I don't know that he was in that role when
he had anything to do with their organization.

Speaker 2 (01:49:31):
If he did, I might be mixing him up with
another player or GM of that time period. But he
came in and basically had a blank check oh the time.

Speaker 1 (01:49:41):
Yeah, I know, I remember what you're saying. I didn't
realize that those eras matched up.

Speaker 2 (01:49:44):
But he was using it on players that had serious
character issues, question marks, and they all came together to
win a bunch of games and get arrested. A lot
were talented. That was a talented group, really talented, oh
very and then they brought in the Nanny style, I
mean the Kobe Stopper, Ruben Patterson, great individual. Yeah, I

(01:50:05):
didn't realize the Jail Blazers was that time period?

Speaker 3 (01:50:08):
You know me?

Speaker 2 (01:50:08):
In years? It was, yes, it was the early two thousands.
Put it that way, all right, we will. I guess
that's say what for today. But there is a guy
that I think could realistically never play again in the
NFL if this year doesn't work out, believe it or not.

(01:50:31):
And who that is? Next? It is the eight team
Sports Talk seven nineties Space City Home Network as CCHN.
We will get you to Astro's on deck coverage coming
up at the bottom of next hour. In the meantime,
I was reading an article earlier today on the Cleveland Browns,

(01:50:51):
because I really enjoy reading about the Cleveland Browns. No,
there's a Texans tie obviously, that trade, as the Haslums
refer to it, a big swing and a miss.

Speaker 1 (01:51:03):
Yep, the owners of the Bucks refer to that trade
as a big swing and a miss Jimmy haslm oh,
he owns the Browns two.

Speaker 2 (01:51:11):
The Milwaukee Bucks, just to be clear, not the Bucks
of the NFL. He can't own two NFL teams at
the same time. Yeah, although it'd be funnier if he
did own the Bucks in the NFL, because then he
would own two teams with the same name. It would
be funny, hilarious As a matter anyway, I am of
the opinion I know he's young, still, I feel like

(01:51:34):
if Deshaun Watson doesn't win the starting quarterback job in
Cleveland this year, he might not play in the NFL
ever again, because how bad would you have to be
to not beat out shad Or Sanders and the other
crap they have in that quarterback room.

Speaker 1 (01:51:50):
He I could much more likely see him win the
job and be replaced because he plays poorly than not
winning the job outright.

Speaker 2 (01:52:00):
Like if they go through is to lose. At the
beginning of the season, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:52:04):
See enough from Shador that suggests he should beat out
somebody who I have seen something from now as Browns.
If you only compare the two of them as Brown's quarterbacks,
Shoulder definitely is in a fair fight because Sehaun Watson
as a Cleveland Browns quarterback has not been good. He's
not even been close to good. He's he's been one

(01:52:25):
of the worst quarterbacks in the league since he arrived there.
He hadn't played a whole lot. He's basically played a season.
He has played nineteen games in a Brown's uniform, and
he's been bad. He doesn't throw the ball well, he
doesn't connect on his throws very well, he was one
of the most accurate passers in the NFL for the

(01:52:46):
three full seasons he played with Houston. Remember he started
as a rookie after the first half of the first game,
but only played half the season because of his knee injury.

Speaker 2 (01:52:54):
Then he was the starter for three straight years.

Speaker 1 (01:52:56):
He completed almost sixty nine percent of his passes in
those three years. His first year in Cleveland fifty eight,
the next two years sixty two, and in the current
NFL those numbers are bottom ten. They're awful, they're unplayable,
which is exactly what he's been. And his last year

(01:53:17):
in Houston was twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, twenty two,
twenty three, twenty four, twenty five. Five seasons have passed.
He's five years older than when he left Houston, and
he has zero football of consequence good football since then.
It's actually pretty rare. This is Michael Vickl, Like, how

(01:53:38):
is he going to return to form? How's he going
to get back going?

Speaker 2 (01:53:41):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:53:41):
He's been around the league, and he's been around a team,
and he hasn't spent time in prison, although he had
some legal issues. You could say some is being inaccurate.
A lot would be much more accurate. But I still
don't know that you have a real splitting the reps
off seat. He's in splitting the Reps training camp, and

(01:54:03):
he's out played, outperformed, carries more weight in the locker room.
Probably does come into this a little bit. You've got
a new head coach. You probably want to get behind
the guy that the players believe in. Now, if one
guy seriously outplays the other, well, then that's who the
players that you have on the team, the offensive players, certainly,
that's who they're going to believe in, and that should

(01:54:24):
be your choice. If it's much closer race than that,
And it's clear that inside that locker room, the guys
who spent one year or their first year with shaduer
and believe in what he's trying to do versus guys
who spent that much time or more with Watson, could
be better, could be worse.

Speaker 2 (01:54:39):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:54:41):
But he loses the He finishes the year not playing
football in Cleveland, not having the job, not being the
number one.

Speaker 2 (01:54:48):
And then goes where It's a great question because I
think that people would be enticed by his like think
about this, for example, what are we always talking about Pittsburgh.
Would Pittsburgh, having played against him, and that well, having
been in the division with him, take a flyer on him.
There's one other element of this.

Speaker 1 (01:55:08):
When he goes to camp and is in a quarterback
battle and is on the field and is healthy and
is participating, and then is playing in games preseason or otherwise,
he's gonna have a lot more media interviews finally in
his time now, he clearly had several over the last
few years.

Speaker 2 (01:55:23):
But that part of bringing him to your team.

Speaker 1 (01:55:25):
Yes, here were years past, all of those lawsuits, for sure,
but you have to bring this player into your organization
for all the things baggage that it comes with it
as a potential number two, Why would you even bother.
He's not coming to anybody's team if he's not the
quarterback in Cleveland, nobody's bringing him into battle for their job.

Speaker 2 (01:55:48):
Yeah. No, that's a good point. That's what I'm saying.
This is why I go back to the original sense.
I think that's reasonable.

Speaker 1 (01:55:53):
It's crazy because I know how much talent we clearly
saw in his age too, and maybe the injuries are
a little part of it because they were throwing related
injuries shoulder.

Speaker 2 (01:56:03):
Yeah, but he's also had two acls he ripped. Yeah,
but that doesn't hurt his ability to throw the ball
where it's supposed to. I don't think.

Speaker 1 (01:56:09):
I know he can't plant the same way. But he'd
already recovered from both of those to the point that
that was he had an issue.

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
He had the one here that was non contact and
all that, and then he recovered, and then he had
one there, and then he ripped it again when the process.

Speaker 1 (01:56:22):
ACL and college ACL with the Texans, and then it
was an achilles.

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
Was it not with the Bible?

Speaker 3 (01:56:27):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
You're right, it was the achilles and then he reaggravated
it during the rehab of said achilles. That's what it was.
You're right, you know what.

Speaker 1 (01:56:35):
He probably will not well, I take it back. Now
that we have a seventeen and eighteen game season, there's
a chance it will get topped. His four eight hundred
and twenty three yard season with the Texans. In that
last year, it's like the greatest season any quarterbacks had
with this team, including Matt schaub By a lot like.

(01:56:56):
He also had thirty three touchdown passes and only seven
picks and ran the football and they won four times.

Speaker 2 (01:57:03):
See four times. If CJ could just rediscover his rookie
year behind this line with this running game, I mean,
come on, man, is that too much to ask? Forty
one hundred yards?

Speaker 6 (01:57:13):
Come on?

Speaker 1 (01:57:14):
Well, sometime during camp, I'm sure it will come up.
I'll ask one of the CJ's new blockers, wat Teller,
who he thinks will win the Cleveland Browns quarterback job
because he was there last year with both of them.

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
I am begging you to ask him that and then
play the audio on our show. I mean maybe when
it's just me and me and what off the record? No,
I didn't say that. Are you gonna record it? Are
you just gonna I'm just saying, why carry the message.
I give it to everybody, so you're getting an exclusive?
What you're just saying? One on one?

Speaker 3 (01:57:48):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (01:57:48):
Can I get a one on one with him? And
don't let anybody else come over here and start feaving
my audio. I probably wouldn't say that. I would.

Speaker 1 (01:57:54):
I'd probably just stare at people. I mean, there's at
least two understood what's happening. If it's truly a one
on one, nobody would do that. There's some people that
would they would understand what's happening. Hey, get out of here,
That's what I would say to those people.

Speaker 2 (01:58:08):
You know who you are. But yeah, I feel very
strongly about that. I don't even think that's a terrible prediction,
because again, who are we talking about beating out?

Speaker 1 (01:58:18):
It's I just don't I couldn't tell you what but
Deshaun will be and I can't tell you for sure
that there's not improvement to be There is improvement to
be made. I just don't know that shoulder makes it.
I told everybody this last year on the show, and
I still can't believe it now. I mean, Dylan Gabriel
is bad. I cannot believe that was their choice. There's
no way I can. I wasn't there. I don't cover

(01:58:40):
that team. There's no way Dylan Gabriel was out playing
Shouldur at practice as the backups during camp and during
the portion of the season, which again they barely get
any reps. But man, I cannot believe they went with
him for as long as they did. I mean, if
you like five yard passes and terrible offense and the
inability to move the ball, then Dylan Gabriel.

Speaker 2 (01:58:58):
Is your guy. That is your guy. They are a
very poorly run organization.

Speaker 1 (01:59:03):
New management, new coach, all good, all right, set to
finish fourteenth, fifteenth maybe in the AfD.

Speaker 2 (01:59:09):
Good one lass team in the AFC to worry about
for Houston. All right, Football at five coming up next.
Not only will we explore a certain Hall of Fame
quarterbacks commencement speech, well he's not in the Hall of
Fame yet, but he will be, but also more known
as a roaster these days. That's this is exactly right.
But also some really really shocking news. The NFL remains greedy.

(01:59:34):
All of that coming up next the on Sports time,
before we get to some fun with real audio. I
know this is going to surprise you. Wex. It came
down the news official like minutes ago.

Speaker 1 (01:59:52):
Joe spot a meeting with the media before tonight's game. Yeah, yes,
go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:59:58):
The NFL.

Speaker 1 (01:59:59):
Oh oh, I thought you were going to say that
Lance mccullor's junior was scratched with the shoulder inflammation.

Speaker 2 (02:00:04):
Well I had an idea that it was that, but
I didn't want to say it until Joe did. He did.
Shoulder inflammation is not good.

Speaker 1 (02:00:12):
That's catching through this for a while and he's on
his way back to Houston to be evaluated by team doctors.

Speaker 2 (02:00:19):
All right, Today, the NFL approved the ability to play
as many as ten international games starting in twenty twenty seven.
That is up from, of course eight previously. Peter O'Reilly,
who is the executive vice president of Club Business, International
and League Events, said at the NFL's Spring league meetings

(02:00:43):
there's a path to ten international games in twenty twenty seven,
and went on to the league went on to say
they voted to strip team's ability to protect any home
games from international play. Previously, teams could protect two games.

(02:01:05):
I mean, let me start at the beginning. You said
up from eight?

Speaker 1 (02:01:09):
Yes, okay. This season, the NFL will play three games
in London. Will you keep itally for me?

Speaker 2 (02:01:14):
All right? That's three.

Speaker 1 (02:01:16):
They'll play a game in Mexico City, Rio, Melbourne, Madrid, Munich,
and Paris.

Speaker 2 (02:01:23):
That's nine. Is one of those not international.

Speaker 1 (02:01:29):
Say the names again, London, Mexico City, Reo, Madrid, Melbourne,
Munich and Paris Mexico City. I mean, I'm a dumb person,
and I'm really dumb when it comes to school stuff
like geography.

Speaker 2 (02:01:42):
Well, when you fly, it's listed on the.

Speaker 1 (02:01:44):
NFL dot com site as the twenty twenty six NFL
International games. There are nine of them, so ten would
be up one right.

Speaker 2 (02:01:55):
Oh yeah, I see what you're saying here. Well, play
as many as ten, meaning they could have played I
guess as many.

Speaker 1 (02:02:04):
Kind of slow playing this. I keep thinking they're headed
towards eighteen. They're gonna have an eighteen week schedule. We're
gonna open the season, and they might not be every week. Yeah,
because you might have it does make sense if you're
gonna have it.

Speaker 2 (02:02:13):
Asking if like Mexico City was international around, I'm like,
did you need a passport to get there? It's international thought? Geez, Okay,
I'm just trying here. Okay, So this was not unexpected.
It's more money to be made.

Speaker 1 (02:02:26):
But they wouldn't be doing this if there wasn't more
money in their minds to be made, whether it's growing
the game or just the simple uh financial cash flow
of it, I guess.

Speaker 2 (02:02:35):
But now you can't protect any games. You have to
play these games. You have to, and if you don't
want to, then you're fired. I mean, I don't know,
like you can protect two games now you can protect zero.
So if I were to.

Speaker 1 (02:02:51):
Rank them from likeliest to be want to buy the
team to be protected. I would assume now this is
an interesting one. The best matchup internationally probably is the
Rams Niners.

Speaker 2 (02:03:05):
A Rams home game, if you will, which is insane
because it's a division game and they're a Super Bowl contender.

Speaker 1 (02:03:11):
But a Rams home game at so far against the
Niners is full of Niners fans, And so the Rams
that don't mind taking this game there right.

Speaker 2 (02:03:25):
Yes and no, they probably don't mind it from the
standpoint that you're pointing out. They definitely mind it from
it's way more important than any of the other non
division games on your schedule. Therefore, you would like to
have everything as normal as possible, and that is anything.
But when you travel international, no matter where you are.

Speaker 1 (02:03:42):
Steeler, Saints, Commander's Colts, probably Falcons, Bengals, probably Raid is
the worst draws If Steelers are Cowboys, Ravens good draw,
Lions Patriots good draw.

Speaker 2 (02:03:56):
Texans Jags is not a good draw. Texans Jags would
probably be on the fourth fourth Jags are involved. By
the way, if the NFL came to Houston and was like, uh,
you can't protect your games anymore. You have to play
these games. And if I'm cal well, if I'm Hannah,
I'm saying, okay, fine, we're playing the Jags wherever you're

(02:04:16):
taking us. It would be a counterpoint if you will.

Speaker 1 (02:04:21):
There be some constraints. Obviously, one team's not gonna play
that many.

Speaker 2 (02:04:26):
Houston wants to go to Jacksonville and they don't want
to see them here either. Yeah, it's the owners have
agreed to all this stuff. This is like when Ari
said I didn't go to the game because they were playing.

Speaker 1 (02:04:35):
The Bobcats don't even exist anymore, right, But I like,
this is just so like, are you hurt by games
being played so many different nights of the week? Are
you hurt by games being on so many different networks?
Are you hurt by eight thirty International game? Thirty AM
International games? And I'm saying this out loud to fans, right,

(02:04:56):
do you feel this way? Because we're not talking about
the players players, we don't need to ask that question.

Speaker 2 (02:05:01):
They hate it, all hate it, but.

Speaker 1 (02:05:03):
They are going to agree to it all when they
want other things in their CBA to go their way.
So it's really about the people that they're catering to,
which should be the people that are spending all their
money on it is this a turnoff for them. Is
this to the people that they think keeps their game afloat?

Speaker 2 (02:05:19):
I would have I'm dead serious when I say this
is not for effect anything. I would have far less
of an issue with an international, because that's what's talked
about in this article. I would have far lesser of
an issue. I won't have any issue at all, as
a matter of fact, for US international super Bowl versus
any of these regular season games. These these regular season games,

(02:05:41):
to me, at least if you're a contending team, are
far too important to be jerking with the players and
the organization involved, especially in division games like the one
you're talking about with the Rams and Niners have the
championship wherever, it doesn't matter, you're gonna be there for
a week before that anyways. That takes care of the flight,
you know, time zone, all that kind of stuff would
be fine for the players, I think.

Speaker 1 (02:06:01):
And I haven't read anything from your friend Amy Adams
Strunk yet, your friend, but what they always say they
were awarded thirty two to nothing the vote in favor
of taking the Super Bowl to Nashville for the twenty
thirty Super Bowl. Whatever's going to come out from anybody
with the Titans, organization, the NFL, et cetera.

Speaker 2 (02:06:19):
This is awesome. This is going to bring in insert crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:06:22):
Number of billion or million dollars to our community when
you bring the super Bowl here. They're not sending the
super Bowl to random international city by taking it away
from one of their twenty nine cities, thirty cities. They're
not going to give that money away. Why not, because
there's way more money to be made on a week's

(02:06:43):
worth of the Super Bowls in our city for the
city and the team versus. And we'll just send the
Eagles and Texans to London to play in the super Bowl.
The NFL is gonna make that money regardless, and then
they're going to charge give it to who them right,
So this city of Nashville's getting nothing, so they we'll

(02:07:04):
care super Bowl thirties in Nashville get or Super Bowl
whatever number it is. In twenty thirty they're getting this.
Everybody's making money in Nashville. Now it's all gone.

Speaker 2 (02:07:14):
So we can put the game in Munich. But the
only people that lose are the obviously the thirty two
NFL cities. But the league's not gonna lose. They're gonna
get that much. If the league's not in charge, it's
the owners that are in charge.

Speaker 1 (02:07:26):
Each individual team's owner is not going to vote to
take the game out of one of their cities.

Speaker 2 (02:07:29):
And the league owners need to tell their little whipping
boy Roger Goodell, who says in this article, according to
the Associated Press, and if the commissioner Rajagodeal has said
sixteen international games is.

Speaker 1 (02:07:40):
The goal, he wants this every single week, So I
had it at eighteen Sixteen's definitely where they're heads.

Speaker 2 (02:07:45):
So basically every week of the NFL season, they're going
to have a stupid eight to thirty kickoff somewhere or whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:07:53):
No problem, Hey, mid eight thirty am bootball, noon football,
three o'clock football, seven o'clock football. We'll talk about it
on Monday.

Speaker 2 (02:08:04):
Can't wait, or just play all the games here, because again,
the funniest part about this is when they start flirting
with well, you know, I mean, we might have to
put a team there someday.

Speaker 1 (02:08:14):
Why which of these teams, which of these cities that
they're going to Rio, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, London,
many have been there before, And do any of them
strike you? Is I cannot believe they're going there, because
I want you to tell me where you think they're
going next.

Speaker 2 (02:08:28):
That makes no sense. I'll tell you. The one that's
from a travel standpoint just outrageous is Australia. You know,
a longs to fly there has to be at the
beginning of the season, and it is. Are they going
to the Far East?

Speaker 6 (02:08:42):
They're not going to China because we can't go to
China and tell everything settled in China.

Speaker 2 (02:08:50):
I just went to China. Uh, I don't know, Like
I just feel like that's like the most anti Chinese
thing ever. We're gonna bring our violent, ugly American sports
major that they haven't. Are they going out to Italy?

Speaker 3 (02:09:04):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
No, no, Well, Rome would be cool like the Roman Colisseum,
even though you can't play in there. If you've ever
been there, it's just impossible. I'll tell you what a
cool place would be, though. Didn't we just like take
over some country? It's green and some of the north somewhere, Okayland.
I bought it. I bought it with my own money.
It's not taxpayers. It's like the ballroom. I think uh

(02:09:27):
Tokyo would be outstanding. I could, but in this article.
It says Asian markets. The Asian markets.

Speaker 6 (02:09:33):
Such as Japan quote have complexities do to travel, but
are important.

Speaker 2 (02:09:39):
Of course they're important. They're the best. I just feel
like we're the best. I thought, make Tokyo great. There's
not a country that's hot right now than the USA.
I think that Japan and specifically Tokyo, which is, by
the way, I've never been there. It's so on my
bucket list. It's clean a f and they like punish

(02:10:00):
people for like they're like Singapore. That's what Ryan Weis
told us, right, I think, so yeah, oh yeah, yeah.
He loved it, and he I think I actually asked
him should be my next? And he goes absolutely. He
could not recommend it strongly enough. I would go. Tokyo
has insane venues too. I think the Tokyo Dome is there.
That's like a big I'm not sure the capacity. But

(02:10:21):
if I'm the NFL and I'm trying to figure out
a market I haven't gone to where, I don't know.
I don't know if the Japanese culture is into football.
I thought this was right.

Speaker 1 (02:10:30):
I just throwed the wrestling you wrong. What was the
attendance at the Douglas Tyson fight. It was at the
Tokyo Dome. M h, God had to be like ninety
just a singular event, which an NFL game would be.

Speaker 2 (02:10:44):
I haven't seen the number yet. Oh why don't you
google it real quick? We've got time. I don't know
the answer. You're not doing anything else over there. I'm
just curious. I think it was a big It was
obviously a huge, huge deal. Tokyo Dome is a stadium,
it's not arena, and I don't know the status of that.
I mean, it's been around a long time. If Tyson

(02:11:07):
was fighting in his heyday there nineteen ninety, yeah, that's
a long time ago. But that's where I go. If
you were, if you were asking me, which you're not, Roger.

Speaker 1 (02:11:15):
Well, there's seven more to add to the current nine,
and they can repeat these cities again and they still
need seven more stops or multiple stops in cities other
than London.

Speaker 2 (02:11:28):
League's growing international profile has led to questions about whether
a Super Bowl will be played on foreign soil. O'Reilly said,
that's quote not a front burner issue as of now,
but it's tim a back burner and it could be
moved very.

Speaker 1 (02:11:41):
Quickly, roughly forty thousand attended the very obvious Buster Douglas knockout.
We all know it is coming, predictable and all of
that stuff. We'll get to the best quarterback to ever
lace them up in the NFL. Telling the young people
of our great country in one particular place what to
do with their lives.

Speaker 2 (02:12:01):
We'll do that next a time at a calendar where
a bunch of celebrities get up and they do commencement
speech is at big time schools across the country. I
vividly remember Jerry Seinfeld getting up in front of Duke
a couple of springs ago. That was a good one.

(02:12:22):
But I did not have Tom Brady at Georgetown on
my BINGO card. Did you have an identifier in front
of Tom's name? Doctor, Yeah, I'll let doctor Tom Brady.

Speaker 1 (02:12:38):
As you'll hear here a couple of snippets from his
conversation with some of the best and brightest about to
hit the workforce from Georgetown University. Doctor Tom Brady did,
in fact need the commencement speech there. And you usually
work in a joker too, in Tom's case. You have
plenty of them. We've heard a lot of them, probably

(02:12:59):
not play as well at this event as they have it.
Now you hobbit recent events when he's been roasting people,
but some of the same targets. So as he got introduced,
he came right out of the gates and dropped a
joke on someone who knows quite well.

Speaker 2 (02:13:13):
Can it is now my.

Speaker 7 (02:13:14):
Pleasure to introduced to you Georgetown's newest slum doctor, Tom Brady,
who will deliver the commensal the job.

Speaker 2 (02:13:26):
I love you too, so yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:13:28):
I usually don't do well with compliments, so egon, thank
you so much. I had a coach for twenty years
that told me how I was every day. Never in
my wildest dreams that I think I'd be giving a
commencement speech.

Speaker 1 (02:13:42):
Think about what the reserve quarterbacks were thinking. This guy
is awesome, We're killing it, we're dominating, winning super bowls.

Speaker 2 (02:13:54):
I can't unseat this guy. And the coach thinks he's bleepy.
What does he think of you? What does he think
of me?

Speaker 1 (02:14:02):
They went after a lot of backup quarterbacks during Tom's
time there and shuffled several of them off. One of
them looks like he's finally about to retire. Jimmy Garoppolo.
Jacoby Brissette is holding out. He wants more money from
the wait for it, Cardinals, and it's fine on his end.

(02:14:26):
I don't blame him at all. You're the Arizona Cardinals
and Jacoby Brissett is holding out from playing.

Speaker 2 (02:14:35):
For you, maybe you're not running your franchise. Well, he
did come away real quick. Yeah, if you're the Pittsburgh Steelers,
Aaron Rodgers or Jacoby Brissette, I bet you the money
is pretty couragers now not his prime. Yeah, yeah, I
bet you.

Speaker 1 (02:14:51):
Jacoby ends up playing and starting for the Cardinals, probably
for roughly the same money on a yearly basis.

Speaker 2 (02:14:57):
He probably gets an additional year or two. You should
not be doing his expansion in the NFL. You can't
even fill out all thirty two teams with a functional quarterback.

Speaker 1 (02:15:06):
Time for Zinger, number two for Jordan Hudson's boyfriend thanks
to Tom Brady.

Speaker 9 (02:15:13):
Sometimes in life you have to put the numbers aside
and ignore the odds.

Speaker 2 (02:15:18):
You have to make the tough choice.

Speaker 9 (02:15:20):
You have to try your best and to fight your
hardest to win, because the only thing worse than losing
the biggest game of your life is losing respect for
yourself along the way.

Speaker 1 (02:15:32):
It's pretty good so far right. I think it's super motivational.
It's a good message to share, and I'm sure fifteen
years from now, when some of these CEOs are running
their companies, they will say, I remember what Tom Brady
had to say, and he continued, I.

Speaker 2 (02:15:46):
Wish you nothing but the best of luck.

Speaker 9 (02:15:49):
I want you to challenge yourself with ideas that are
uncomfortable and people who push you to be your very best,
even if one of those people is a cranky old
code who cuts the sleeves off his sweatshirt and screams
at you all day, do your job. Okay, that's too specific,
and my experience, you guys get.

Speaker 2 (02:16:07):
The point too specific. I wonder who he was talking about.

Speaker 1 (02:16:12):
Uh, that guy who was really really awesome in talking
about he's undefeated as Jets head coach earlier this week.

Speaker 2 (02:16:20):
I remember now, I remember who it was. Good stuff
from Tom. By the way, I have to say this
because I've seen the video of this, so for those
of you who have also seen these comments, I mean,
he's up there, he's wearing a little, you know, dinky
outfit that these people wear.

Speaker 1 (02:16:38):
His gown, Yeah, no cap, but a gown, but a gown.
He looked kind of like, not as chiseled as he
usually does. He thought his face was fat. Yeah, huh,
you didn't.

Speaker 2 (02:16:51):
He just walk the carpet like all leather. Well, he
was just most of Kevin Hart. And look, I mean,
the the cheekbone definition was on point with all the
carving he had done.

Speaker 1 (02:17:03):
I know he's not the same age as all those
dream teamers you were talking about earlier, but he's not
a kid anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:17:12):
Yeah, but look at the picture. Didn't retired at age
thirty six. No, but look at the picture of him
at the Combine versus like his last year in the NFL.
It's not even remotely close. He's starting to look a
little bit more like the Tone photo. He looks like Pillsbury.
He will turn forty nine years old in August, well

(02:17:33):
tb twelve and needs to tighten things up. He's fine.
I think he's He's right, he's good. He has a
lot of money too.

Speaker 3 (02:17:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:17:42):
I mean, now that wasn't nearly as embarrassing as what
happened with Jackson Smith and Jigba. This is a weird one.

Speaker 1 (02:17:50):
NFL honors a big event they hold right up against
the super Bowl, and I feel pretty certain when you
when you make your way up there and you accept
your award. CJ and Will Anderson did after the twenty
twenty three season, and Miles Garrett did this year as
the Defensive Player of the Year in the NFL. See
a defender, they hand you something, don't they as a

(02:18:13):
trophy now with a plaque it you. We had an
MVP award announced earlier this week in the NBA, and
it was leaked and obviously the person that wanted already knew,
and I know. We had a golf tournament, big golf tournament, championship,
golf tournament. They handed out their award, the Big Wannamaker Trophy,
and usually during the late stages of that golf round,

(02:18:34):
we'll see the.

Speaker 2 (02:18:37):
Person in charge of engraving the new.

Speaker 1 (02:18:39):
Name on it, like do they not know who won
the award the night of the NFL Honors and what
they do for a living when they hand it to you,
isn't your name already on it and the award you
won already on it? Or do they say this is
a dummy award? In four months or three months, will
mail it out to you. Keep an eye out for it.

(02:19:00):
Jackson Smith and Jigba took to the Instagram platform ig
and he pointed out a couple of items that were
on the trophy. He was sent he was the offensive
Player of the Year in the NFL and Player of
the Year player one word of second word the third
word year fourth world. Mistakes made in both instances, and

(02:19:24):
he read, I really want to.

Speaker 2 (02:19:26):
Expose them, though, this is is you disrespectful guys? Defense?
Come on, bro.

Speaker 4 (02:19:35):
One word?

Speaker 1 (02:19:37):
They had the year as one word and he was
pointing at the trophy where it said underneath Jackson Smith
and Jigba defensive player of the Year. Now it's this
is a mistake. Calling it disrespectful makes it sound like
he thinks this was an intentional, intentional move made by
who at the league. H Someone with the Niners call

(02:20:01):
in a favor with their friend from San Francisco that
works in the award engravement department of the NFL or
the third party engraver Like disrespect.

Speaker 2 (02:20:13):
They made a mistake.

Speaker 1 (02:20:14):
It stinks makes you mad. I guess they'll get it corrected.
But intentional disrespect for you because.

Speaker 2 (02:20:22):
You maybe it was a Patriots fans better about the
recent loss in the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (02:20:28):
Yeah, I don't know, but if you were wondering how
Seattle would replicate there, everyone hates us and all the
way to a Super Bowl championship. There's a chip on
his shoulder. Now the entire league is disrespecting JSN. Wait,
do you see what he does this year? Wait until
you see how angry he plays football this year and

(02:20:49):
dominates again. I do hope he plays very well. I
do hope he is a finalist for Offensive Player of
the Year again. And I do hope he jokes about
this at the appropriate time. Yeah, I hope I win
the award. Maybe they'll get it right this time. Maybe
they'll know how to spell player of the year. Maybe,
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:21:12):
This is pretty embarrassing for the league, of course it is.
How long have they have they issued an apology yet?
And if they haven't, why is it taking them so long?
Where would the issue? Where would it come from?

Speaker 3 (02:21:22):
You know?

Speaker 2 (02:21:22):
A statements schefter.

Speaker 1 (02:21:24):
The league has released the statement they apologize to Jackson
Smith and Jigba for pretending he played defense.

Speaker 2 (02:21:31):
The NFL has come out and said, you're not Miles Garrett.
I don't know, they probably should. Somebody needs to apologize
for it. How about personally what are they gonna do
call him? Yes, but a statement is more public. Why
do you have to make a public apology? I think
personal people will see it. Yes, but you're you're trying
not to appease the people. You're trying to appease the

(02:21:53):
person you've offended. Well, you're trying to disrespected. You're trying
to keep up appearances, so to speak. I saw the
state if they put out. It would have been nice
if they would have reached out to me personally. But whatever,
I'm just here to play football. We're gonna hear that
in about a week. And then if he does get
a personal phone call, well, it would have been nice
if they had released a statement so that all people
could have enjoyed my proper apology I received, or if

(02:22:16):
he keeps it to himself, nobody even knows, well, he
didn't keep this to himself.

Speaker 3 (02:22:19):
He did not.

Speaker 1 (02:22:20):
We will have an update on Lance McCullers junior, who
is not starting the game tonight, although he was scheduled
too earlier.

Speaker 2 (02:22:27):
Today.

Speaker 1 (02:22:27):
We'll do all that and get you set for baseball
with the Astros on Deck Show Astros and Twins Next

Speaker 2 (02:22:35):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety