Astros Disappoint (Again), A's in Town, Finals Game 2 Tonight, Indiana Bears!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Anything goes.

Speaker 2 (00:00):
Friday edition of the eight Team, It's Sports Talks seven
to ninety. Welcome into the program another four hours as
we take you up until six o'clock tonight and Astros
on deck. It will now be a show previewing the
three games set between the Astros and their hated division rivals,
the West Sacramento Athletics, who come to town for a

(00:20):
three game weekend set hoping to do what the Pirates
just did. Take a series from the Astros. Excruciating series
against the Pirates for many reasons.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
It's good offensive team and they showed it. Astros couldn't
stop him. I said before the series began, they averaged
five runs per game or more, one of five teams
to do it. They scored five runs or more in
all three games and one two of them.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, we were at last night's game death by a
thousand cuts.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
No, they weren't gonna score, they weren't going to win.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Well, but I mean I was just talking about, Okay,
it's manageable, it's one nothing, he can deal with it.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Right then he just kept going, well kaiwait tang, he
burrows the game. He sure he went into the sixth
inning and didn't retire any of the four batters he
faced scored. You can't get batters out past the fifth inning.
It's okay, they've done it before, and it's hard to
get down on tank for the way he has pitched, obviously,
you would have liked to have that inning go a
little bit better. Again, I don't think that was a
mistake to send him out there for the six By

(01:16):
no means when you'd say one nothing game, there's no
reason for it to have been that the Astros. I really,
I'm sure that there's better things in the future for
the Pirates starter, but it didn't seem like he was
in position to shut the Astros down, or the way
the game began, and even the way that he pitched
over the course of those innings that he was out
there for. They only needed two pitchers to get through

(01:36):
nine innings, five from their starter and four from their
mouth content. But they did and it wasn't very difficult
to do.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
So.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
It was probably the least competitive game of the series,
and unfortunately the series and baseball they keep reminding you,
this is what our sport is. Oh, the Astros are
playing the Pirate Pirates. Uh oh. Paul skeins is pitching
in this series. Oh, you mean the game they're gonna win?
Got it check? Nice to know that's the game the
Astros won. That's the game they Astros scored eleven runs in.

(02:04):
And the other two games against Pitcher A and Pitcher B,
the Astros are unable to get enough offense together to
overcome how many runs their pitching staff allowed. A two
series in this homestand in the books, both have gone
poorly because they've lost both of them. They pitched well
against the Brewers and then score enough to win two

(02:24):
of those games. They did not pitch well enough to
win more than one of the games against the Pirates,
and now they have to win this series by sweeping
it or else. It's just kind of a waste of time. Again,
you know, the Astros need to get more than what
they're doing done if they want to make something out
of this season. The longer it goes with a series
loss and a series loss and as quickly as possible,

(02:46):
taking away what you just did. They just came out
of only their second good stretch of baseball. They opened
the year winning five out of seven. They headed back
to Houston for this long home stand having won six
of seven. Those are their two best stretches of baseball
all season. Well, they followed up the first five and
two with a one to nine road trip. One of
the teams they played, the Athletics. Now they've followed up

(03:09):
winning six of seven by opening their home stand up
losing each of the series, going two and four, and
welcoming in a team that they need to beat. A
three game sweep by the Astros changes everything. Mathematically, they'll
have the same record as the A's. Essentially they'll both
be within the same distance of five hundred, they will
have taken the series lead, and they'll technically be percentage

(03:30):
points ahead of them. But without it, none of those
things are true. They won't have a better record in
the season series, they won't be ahead of them in
the standings, they won't hold the tiebreaker. Those things have
to change at some point if you're going to surpass
these teams, and the opportunities to do it in a
head to head matchup, well, there's only one or more
home series against them, and I wish there was a

(03:51):
reason to promote. Hey, they're playing them at home, so
but there isn't. The Astros are equally underwhelming no matter
where they play. Their games at home have been just
as underwhelming is their games on the road, and that
is unfortunate. Usually it's a flip and even worse in
this case, the A's stink in West Sacramento. They're significantly
better when they're not there. Well, they're not there tonight

(04:12):
they're taking on the Astros. Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I don't see any reason to believe anything will change
simply because of how this season is gone for the Astros.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
But I mentioned it yesterday Wingless in the Lamant Wade era.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
So far, I don't think that all of a sudden
it's a I don't even say it's a bad matchup.
There's so many things going on with both teams right
now to even say it's a matchup to begin with.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
So you think that playing the A's is a bad matchup?
It has been. Oh, it definitely a results. They're better
than you. I mean, I'm being dead serious. The twenty
eight and thirty six. I couldn't bring myself to say
about this series, Well, the Astros are hopeful to win.
You know, quite a few games on this series they'll
be playing facing an uphill battle in that every team
visiting is better than them. But it's true. We can

(04:57):
pretend what we're watching. We can take a six run
eighth inning and then you know, eight runs in the
final two innings and an eleven nine unbelievably exciting to win.
One of their twenty eight wins is a freaking no hitter. Yeah,
but they're twenty eight and thirty six. The Red Sox,
the Tigers, the Royals, the Angels, the Giants, the Rockies.

(05:19):
I just ran through the entire list of teams that
are worse than them. That's it, sixty plus games into
the season, less than one hundred games remaining. If you're
not unbelievably bad, then you're not worse than the Astros.
All of those teams I mentioned are more than ten
games under five hundred. Essentially, if you're not awful, you're

(05:40):
not worse than Houston. And that's where they sit, twenty
eight and thirty six, ten and a half games behind
the best teams who they're not chasing, but three games out,
crazy as it sounds, three games out in the wild
card race, but would still have to pass four teams
to get there, and five and a half games back
of the Mariners. It was good day in the American
League West yesterday for Houston, and that if you played,

(06:02):
you lost, if you matter, and Seattle just sat back
there and gained a half a game on everybody by
not playing us not losing.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
It's it's a bleak for Astros fans, because again we've
talked about this intorialist.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
I don't know if it's bleak.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
It is bleak though, because again, well if it's not bleak,
then what you're saying isn't true.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
And what you're saying is true.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
They're not good and if you're not good, you're not
gonna win anything of consequence. But if you have talent
on your roster, you have just enough wins to put
you in the worst place in all of sports, no
matter what the sport, and no matter what the setting
is purgatory.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
That's what the Astros are in right now.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
They're not good enough to get to five hundred, let
alone be a winning baseball team. But they're not bad
enough to be one of those handful of teams you
mentioned that's the worst in baseball.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Sticking for the number one pick in the Major League
Baseball lottery, well, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I'm sure Rob Manford's trying to do everything to dissuade
teams from doing that. That should be his number one
focus as commissioner. Oh kidding, there's a million other problems
the commissioners should be dealing with.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
This is their league. I think it's okay to be
conscared with that.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
The NBA dealt with tanking for a bazillion years, but
this year was the one. Now it's gone too far.
Just as many teams tanking this year as there.

Speaker 1 (07:18):
I mean all we talked about it this year for
really for the first time in the way that we did,
and I do think it was because of this particular
draft class. I don't think anybody disagrees that there are
multiple franchise caliber changing players, franchise changing caliber players in
this draft, not just the guy at the top, and
maybe none of them are is are like Wemby and
none of them are like Lebron. I think that's also fair.

(07:39):
But every other top pick in these recent drafts, or
the third pick, or the fifth pick or the eighth
pick in this draft, that's what it is, and that's
why so many teams went way way into the tanking.
Like honestly, I know teams have tanked before, and I
know it when I see it. I thought this year
was different. I think the league clearly did, as did
the owners of the teams in the league, and so

(08:00):
they went kind of extreme on it. And that's why
I think we're not real happy with the plan they have,
and I don't think it's gonna solve the problem, and
I actually think it's worst problem. It's gonna create problems
that are not good for the health of the league.
Having fans not want to tend your games or watch
your games is bad. And that's what happened this year.
Having an impact who's doing what in the postseason because well,

(08:21):
they just have five gimmea games in the last week
because none of those teams are playing their good, healthy
players because they don't want to win. Yes, that's absolutely
an integrity of the game issue that they wanted to address.
But is it worse than We've got these six to
eight teams that they can't win and they're not gonna
start winning because they keep not winning a lottery that

(08:41):
is so heavily put in place to work against them
winning the lottery, and not just not winning the lottery,
not being anywhere near the top of the lottery, you
could have the third, fourth, fifth worst record in the
league in draft tenth. That's not helpful for parody. I
can't imagine that in any other league. How that would go.
Think about the teams like Baltimore in the NFL last year,
they missed the playoffs by virtue of their kicker missing

(09:04):
on the last play of the season, and then they
are in a flat lottery odds situation, and they could
at the Baltimore Ravens with Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson
and a winning football team. You got a couple of balls,
a couple of the thirty nine balls in the NFL lottery.
You get three of them, and that team gets three,

(09:24):
and these teams get two, and that team gets one.
Good luck, and all of a sudden they have the
number one pick. Yeah, and now Fernando Mendoza is a
raven Wow in that game. You get my point.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
But that's essentially the same exact thing. How does that
make sense? It doesn't.

Speaker 1 (09:38):
Yeah, we'll we'll find out when they execute the lottery.
We've already seen simulations of the lottery. But this whole
conversation began with a discussion about the Astros three game
set with the Athletics begins tonight. Obviously are on deck.
Coverage begins at six o'clock in advance of Peter Lambert's
latest start. Probably have some more updated information on several
rehabbing Astros expected that their former number one catcher Janer

(10:03):
Diaz will be at the plate at some point in
the next couple of days. Maybe some definitive information there.
Jose Altuve, for all I know, could be an Astro
this weekend and what impact that might have, and certainly
should have some intel from last night's Hunter Brown started,
at least from the Astros side, we know how he performed,
we know how throw, how hard is his pitches were

(10:23):
the hardest pitches he threw, and we know what the
outcome was and how many pitches he threw and his
third rehab start. But we don't know how he's felt
today and what their plans are for the future. They
might not either, but it wouldn't surprise me at all
if the next time Hunter Brown was on the mound
it was on a Major League mound pitching for the
Houston Astros. A couple of guests on the way for
us today at four o'clock, we're going to be talking

(10:45):
about this great country of ours. It's the greatest country.
It's the highest country in the world. UFC two point
fifty over at the White House, the resident of our President,
all of our presidents. They've got an event coming up
here soon, and Derek Lewis is a part of it.
He's been on the show before us friend of the program.
Derek Lewis will be joining us on the phone at

(11:06):
four o'clock to talk about that event, among other things.
Three o'clock hour, we will get to dig in even
further on the ketchup and mustard, the new look, new
brand for the Houston Rockets. Both Gretchen and Shecher, president
of Business Operations, and Jose Lopez, Senior creative Director, they
will be joining us in studio.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
The man responsible. I've had this question a billion times,
whoever came up with that dunksture? Not is awesome And
I'm like, yeah, it's Jose.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
We will talk to him at three o'clock again, as
the simulcast begins at three o'clock, so you can feast
your eyes on that. There is some NFL talk, quite
a bit of NFL talk for us to get to
both here locally at the quarterback position and elsewhere in
the league. One of the most famous places in NFL
history comes to the forefront today we will once again
be talking about Hammond, Indiana. Be a part of the

(11:53):
Friday edition of The A Team and if it came
back last week, well it didn't leave. This week. Our
signature segment, the fry A Team Draft. Help us those
that need it come up with the best iconic kids cartoons.
Josh Ac and myself will be drafting kids iconic cartoons

(12:17):
from our television Picture tube over there. There's a reason
for this.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
I'll explain, and Ac will give you the reason for this.
He will explain. Be less enthusiastic about something in your life.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Raise it. My chair is up, my voice is raised.
The sarcasm is like, it's zero point two. This guy
all on today's eighteen to Friday. Enjoy your weekends already began.
It's awesome. I'm fired up.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Let's go people. The head news about the Astros? Which
would you like? First West? Uh, the bad news they
lost the series to the Pirates.

Speaker 1 (12:54):
All right, as I thought the good news.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
By the time, let's just say, by the time the
Knicks have polished off the NBA Championship for this year.
Altuve and Hunter Brown will be back in the lineup
by the time this NBA Final Series has concluded. Yeah,
five games. I think that's a gentleman's sweep. They're returning

(13:18):
the favor from nineteen ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Uh, that would be a feat.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
Lose tonight to go down two headed to New York. YEP,
that's very possible. No way they're gonna win in the house.
Is going to lose in front of me inside MSG
that I root.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Formerican Donald's dad has indicated he will be in attendance
at Game three Nick Spurs, and maybe Game four. There
will be one. It's not an if necessary game, but
he's going or not.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
I love how everybody's like whether or not he should attend.
That's that's my favorite news.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
If it's it's strictly from a security standpoint, I think
it's a totally reasonable question. And we've seen obviously in
our lifetime, especially considering Bill Clinton and his affinity affinity
for Arkansas Athletics. Barack Obama's been to a host of
games NBA and otherwise, and the presidents since security on
a team, well, that's that's very different, you know, this

(14:19):
president has been to several NFL games. You know, it's
funny whenever you go to an NFL game, Major League Baseball,
or otherwise, it matters. Security is insane. Now, maybe I'm wrong,
and there's been others, but just I'm easily picturing in
my mind Barack Obama sitting courtside at an NBA game.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
Not while he was a sitting president though, correct. I
just sitting president has ever been to an NBA Finals game,
which is astounding to me. Well, I mean, I get it,
they have more important things to do, supposedly, but there
are going to all these other events.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
And I've run through all those presidents, and keep in
mind what I've been saying about each one of them.
I think we've we've gone through it. And Biden was
kind of nothing, but everybody else like they really and
showed us all they cared about sports, Like Plint was
clearly a sports fan. Every year Barack Obama was filling
out his bracket, and we all know his Chicago affinity
and he told us about it all the time, especially

(15:15):
when he'd invite the non Bulls to the White House
so he could make some crack about it when they
were there. Visiting, and obviously Trump has made the visits
to the White House with his commentary which is always awesome,
phenomenal for us here on sports talk radio, and his
meals that have been served, They've been a huge talking
point as well. He's also been in office for all.

(15:36):
I mean, it's been a sports with the President in
the last the years we've been doing this. It's been
a nice treat for us. There was a little respite
there that you mentioned, Yeah, there was. I didn't even
I didn't even know what to say. There was no
connection to anything, nothing really.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
First, so when the Astros won their first World Series
and aj Hinch got complimented for skippering, so.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
Well, how about I mean, we did get a jose
Al Tuvey meme, I was amazing, and we you know,
Deshaun Watson, the Clemson quarterback was called out obviously the
other there have been other close to US teams that
have been there, and then obviously everything else that goes
with well, look who wasn't there and why not? Like
Fernando Mendoza is probably the only one I'll care to

(16:17):
bring up. He was busy with spring training. He was
busy with spring training, right coach where's coach. He's standing
right next to you, Setty. He's literally been here the
whole time, and yes, on along those lines, he will
be at the game three. I think what you say
is probably true, and I do hope that it actually
matters in the case of Jose Altuve. And I say

(16:37):
that only I mean he wasn't having an awesome year
like these three players. Three out of the four players,
and Correa doesn't count because he's not coming back. Four
players of miss significant time from the Astros would be
everyday lineup yanderdy Has, Jake Myers, Jose al Tuve, Jeremy Payna.
I think it's safe to say everybody knew they were
gonna miss Jeremy Panna, and he has been fan fantastic offensively,

(17:01):
which they absolutely need since he's returned. It's a missing
ingredient to a strong offense, and he has once again
provided that. I just don't think he could say that
about any of the other three players. Jose Altuve is
again trending towards having a season that's not elites and
certainly not be fitting of the amount of money he's
making or what he has done in his past. Janer
Diaz is a massive, massive downward trend which has started

(17:24):
long before this year, and he's been unable to get
out of it. And Jake Myers is just a bad
offensive player. There's no trend. He's just not a good
offensive option for any team. He might be better than
some of their other options, which is even worse. But
Jose Altuve actually needs to do that because nobody else will.
They need an uptick in what they're getting from that
spot in the order wherever Joe Spott puts it, but

(17:46):
more importantly, whoever's playing second base, Nick Allen, Bryce Matthews,
Braden Shoemake. They shouldn't be competing with Altuve favorably in
what they've provided offensively this year. It should be night
and day between those two groups, non Al two Bays
and Jose. He just has to go with that out
there and prove it when he returns, which could be soon.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Going back to what you said about him just not
having a good year, that's the part of this that
is should be I think the most important. Yeah, his
health and all that is is that goes without saying.
But if you're getting a healthy guy back who's not performing,
then it's no different than if again, I'm not saying
they're the same guy. I'm just making an example. Hey,

(18:28):
jose I bray you he's been out for a while.
It's gonna be good to get him back in the
lineup for what now. I'm not saying how two A
season was going that poorly, but it's it's not out
of line to say he wasn't having a good year,
So putting him back in the lineup is going to
bring you what if you're the Astros trying to claw
your way back just the five hundred.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
I definitely, and I know you're trying to less. It's
just totally non comparable. It's just literally should never be
talked about again in any comparison we have to you
don't because they don't have any players like that. No,
I said, in a comparison to anybody else. They have
not had a player like that since he left. They're
not trying to put a player like that back in
their lineup. The players like that are the fringe major leaguers.

(19:12):
They're Bryce, Matthew, Zach Decenzo, Zach Cole, And that's why
they keep being pulled back out of the lineup, why
they expectations are zero and why they keep going back
down to Triple A. That's a reasonable comparison. Jose Altuve
is down for Jose al Tuov, he's down for a
major league every day second basement. But he's not unplayable.
He's perfectly playable. Every team would play somebody in their

(19:35):
lineup like that, maybe not all of their lineup, and
you need few players to balance it out. And if
he brings a seven h six ops off of the IL,
which is what he had for his forty two games played,
and turns that into seven point fifty seven eighty, that's
perfectly fine. And that is much better than Bryce Matthews
five point eighty and what you've gotten from Nick Allen,

(19:57):
even though it's been surprising. Like Nick Allen, he's really
provided a lot more offensively than I thought. That's true,
but he's not even this year's Jose Altuve. That's going
to change. They're going to get better production out of
second base when he returns, but they need better than
the production he was giving them at second base previously,
in my opinion, and I think there's with maybe he's fresh.

(20:19):
Maybe now he only has to play the final ninety
six some odd or final three and a half months
of the season and just all those things matter at
his age, I'm not. I mean I say it like, oh,
maybe he's fresh. He literally will be fresh. It should help.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, it's kind of It's kind of a microcosm of
how we looked at the Nicks going into the start
of this Finals. They'd been waiting around, they were fresh,
they didn't have as much tread off the tires like
the Spurs. That's their excuse for losing Game one.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Yeah, I'm the bad one, and I knew you didn't
mean it. I couldn't help it. Our excuse for losing
Game one was not being able to hang on to
their multi point lead in the third quarter and their
lead with three minutes to go, not being able to
do it.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
That's their excuse. Well, hopefully it's just a wire to
wire win for the Knicks tonight. That'd be way more enjoyable.
I want four quarters of them leading instead of just
the one.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Really, i'd be down for what we saw in Game one.
Super competitive, highly entertaining at the.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
End of the night, no matter how you get there,
as long as the Knicks have more points on the scoreboard,
I'm gonna be a happy Camper.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Looks like we're diving back into San Antonio for Best
of x this afternoon. Halfway through our number one, we
hit you with best of x SO NBA Finals addition
voices and best of x Yes, that's next the eight
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
I'm very excited about the amount of Charles Barkley being
involved in the NBA Finals, you know, since he hasn't
been since nineteen ninety three. Hey, that's a joke about
him not having a ring. But the mayor clapped back
at him in yesterday's edition of the program, the mayor
of San Antonio, I might add, Gosh, you think.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
The mayor of New York is going to come on
inside the NBA. I hope not. You're a communist. I
can just hear it now.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
But Charles Barkley kind of getting some good natured ribbing
at the hands of the San Antonio mayor is not
where it ends as far as best of x and
just social media not being able to get enough of
this guy, this larger than life personality, being a part
of the NBA Finals set yesterday. This is the first

(22:27):
time that you know, the inside the NBA crew has
been able to provide coverage to a finals because for
all those years TNT, that's where the coverage ended conference finals,
and they would I don't do you remember how they
determined who would get what, like it felt like the
inside the NBA there.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Were a lot of negotiations because of that very thing.
Like it was a very detailed so they were siphoning
off pieces that were worth well, we want in on
the NBA, but we have to get this, and if
we're getting this, then somebody else is gonna be upset.
So they're gonna say, well, then we have to get that.
There was a lot of discussion about it, and that's
kind of the last hang up between all these new entities,

(23:04):
obviously Prime and how TNT was being dissolved into this.
Even with NBA TV basically going away, it's still there
because if you want to watch their postgame coverage you
can because they have about a thirty minute postgame show
and then it repeats for the next eighteen hours straight.

Speaker 2 (23:20):
Oh so it's like watching a Christmas story on December
twenty fifth, all day long.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
It's it's pretty limited postgame coverage. Their host for the
for game one on site. They have a little bit
of a studio show. They're on site. Hosts were Chris
Haynes and DeAndre Jordan. That sounds awful. It was absolutely terrible.
They were conducting interviews, et cetera, and then throwing it
back and forth from the studio and that Haynes is

(23:46):
a print reporter who has now done TV and dere
Jordan is an active NBA player and doesn't do TV.
It was a bit awkward in the going back.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Well, you gotta cut your tea sometime, But again, Charles
Barkley has no cutting of the teeth necessary. This guy
was born to be in front of cameras, born to
be entertaining, even when he doesn't intend to be. In
today's edition of the Best of X is absolutely example
of that.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
It's simply a video.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
If you go to San Antonio, name me the top
two things to do there?

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Ready, go? I don't know what number two is. Well,
the first one is to go I remember it. Oh,
I thought that was number two. It's number one. Okay.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
I've done the Alamo City. Oh did you check out
the basement?

Speaker 1 (24:34):
I have done those two things on numerous occasions, have
taken a tour, been over to the Alamo, done all
that stuff. And I've been to the Riverwalk many more
times than that. So his charles.

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Yeah, it's just a video of him walking walk in
the river Walk. It's one of the things he's doing.

Speaker 1 (24:48):
I saw this yesterday. I saw a couple of different videos.
We mentioned he had caught up with four things. Two fans. Well,
real quick, this is from Playboy Swervo. I want to
give credit where it's due. That's awesome. I can't imagine
whose video it was originally that he took it from
him posted it on his site for it, Well, I don't.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
I think it's his. That's why I'm saying this. It's
got one point nine million views. There's no other entity
labeled in the video like there is when you take
something from someone else. And it's got twenty four thousand likes.
So good for him getting the engagements. Good for him.
Why are you so mad that you didn't take the
video and post it? I mean, I don't know, I
know what you're saying his Playboy Swervo. Does he live

(25:30):
in San Antonio? Is he covering the post season? Is
he there for the NBA Finals? He's got eighteen thousand followers,
he's a basketball Savant. According to him, he puts God first.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
Anything about what he has previously posted suggests that he
went to San Antonio, where he clearly doesn't live, and
shot this video. I think he lives in San Antonio.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
I think a guy who has Lake Show, Raider Nation, Luka, Doncic,
Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James hashtagged in his bio absolutely
oh with by the way, where his location is? It
says follow me with an two eyes emoji. I think
that guy definitely lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
Agree.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
So, now that we've established that playboy Swervo, who, by
the way, is wearing a backwards I believe what Jersey
is that in his who cares? There's enough about this?
He posts this video of Chuck and Chuck's At first,
he's walking around. He's clearly wearing athletic clothes. Right, He's
on a walk. That's what people's normal everything. Yeah, but

(26:29):
a walk like for purpose, not like I'm just walking
around seeing the sights.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
He's wearing athletic gear.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
The difference he's on a walk, he's not walking. He's
on a walk. There is a difference.

Speaker 2 (26:40):
Right, then he gets underneath the bridge, one of the bridges,
because there's several that go over the actual water of
the river walk and he just picks up a chair
that's just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (26:52):
There's there's storage underneath this bridge. Yeah, keep him out
of the weather, that kind of thing. There's restaurants around
that probably have some stuff normally covered and chained, I
would think. But this particular chair is available to be
used as part of his workout during his walk. So
he's pumping iron. If you will afford me to say
the chair is made of iron. He's lifting it up
and down over his head repeatedly part of his workout.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
Well, it must be a heavy chair, because otherwise that
would be just be stupid. I'm gonna lift this very
light plastic chair over my head. They have five pound
and three pound weights at the gym. People use them.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
But it just reminded me.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
I was watching this and we both have daughters at
the University of Texas in Austin, which is like, I
don't know what a forty five minute drive it's an
it's not even an hour, is it?

Speaker 1 (27:38):
From San Antonio to Austin. That seems like I don't
think it's quite that close. But it's close.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Well, it's yeah, exactly, it's it's it's definitely driving distance.
And I'm thinking to myself as I'm watching him walk
along the river Walk, there's all these fans out there,
and it just reminds me. I've been to San Antonio,
like actually on the river Walk, I want to say twice,
and one time. The first time I actually went to
San Antonio was for a like a student trip during

(28:04):
high school and it was in March.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Okay, so this is actually was it was April.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
I remember that because the Rockets were playing the Timberwolves
in the first round of the ninety seven playoffs. Barkley
ironically was on that Rockets team. That's the team that
lost to John Stockton's three pointer to not go play
the balls in the finals.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
I'm not bitter.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
And it was one of those times where, and we
saw this recently, you think, Okay, the warm weather's here
in Texas and then one of those cold snaps hit
and we're at the San Antonio Zoo and it's.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Absolutely freezing outside.

Speaker 2 (28:36):
But I was happy because every other time I've been
to San Antonio it's been got awful hot, like the
depths of Hell.

Speaker 1 (28:43):
Let's turn this into why it's best of X let's
hit the comments. I honestly thought he'd have security with him.
He needs to do some mobility work. Those hips are tight, brozonozempic,
so you have to work out to make it all stick.
Lamo lifting some random chairs under a bridge. That's crazy.
Got to burn those calories. That was accompanied with a

(29:03):
very famously pulled clip from a previous edition of Inside
the NBA when they for some reason brought a shake
weight out and he was using it, using it, demonstrating
how it can be used. Yes, thank you. Umm, someone
was getting inside Charles's head, basically captioning what he was
probably thinking while he was lifting the chair. He's like, whoa,

(29:26):
this chair is kick him out behind. My favorite is this.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Douglas Petrovic weighs in and says, there is an out
of this world German deli at the San Antonio Riverwalk.
Of all the things I've been told, you must go
get this food on the Riverwalk, that's the least predictable
I've ever heard.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
And many people reference this. Inside the NBA with Charles
Barkley has been on the air for two plus decades.
I think it might be more well, then that would
still be accurate. Anything else that he's done ever on
the show that resonates more than his fake hatred for

(30:08):
san Antonio.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
This is number one. It will it will never die.
Eating Choros was pretty close. The manner with which he
did it. He was pantomiming, I'll just leave it at that.
That gift is here, it says, gotta burn off all
those churros. The gift is included. Oh jeez, yeah, what workout?

(30:30):
It's ozempic and surgeries. Ah, that's rude, but making sure
it's way fatter than the average san Antonian. Listen, I'm not.
I mean, all things considered, I don't I don't even
know enough about ozempic to know if it's like a
long term good thing to do. But however, he lost
the pounds that he did, and his keeping them off
more power to him.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
Good for him. Ariel Chuck and the crew enjoying san
Antonio at least once. It's probable they'll make a turn trip.
But it's not guaranteed yet, not until they won a
game in the two three two format.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
I would say absolutely not, but we'll see, all right again,
got some Rockets guests coming up at the top of
the hour. So in the meantime before we get to
the three o'clock segment, we've got a lot of NFL
conversation to load in Baker Mayfield, Texans, OTAs potentially and
Dan Campbell providing us outstanding audio.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
What else is new that's all coming up next the
at once we have.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
The first set of guests arriving at the top of
the hour, Gretchen Sheer and Jose Lopez, the President of
Business Operations and Senior Creative Directors Response or respectively, coming
up at the top of the hour, getting like nothing
but good feedback about the Rockets new gear that just
dropped and the pop up shot today looked like it

(31:56):
was packed even with some weather out there.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
So good on the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Cannot wait to talk about that with those guys coming
up here at the top of the hour.

Speaker 1 (32:04):
We did have.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
I don't know, like if you I was gonna ask
you about this and we'll talk about it later on,
but it doesn't look like it's It looks like maybe
there's some trouble in paradise with Baker Mayfield over in Tampa,
and I just didn't really see this coming. There's been
so much different NFL news, a lot of it negative
in the last thirty six to forty eight hours that

(32:28):
this kind of just came out of left field, or
as being reported out of left field. But I'm gonna
keep an eye on that. I'll just put it that way,
and we'll talk about it later in the show.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yeah, what did happen in the NFL, And that's definitely
something to discuss because people are gonna have some wild
ideas about exactly what that means. Some reaction we gave
it to you earlier in the week from Will Anderson
about the trade that I guess it's okay to say
push them up the ladder. Yes, in the AFC in
terms of edge rushers, Miles Garrett moving over to the

(32:58):
NFC and the fact that they have a relationship with
one another, working out a multiple off seasons together and
sharing some common representation that it was pretty interesting hearing
what he had said today. More importantly for others, like
the head coach of the Detroit Lions, he's now going
to have to deal with that. Dan Campbell was asked

(33:20):
about what his initial reaction was to Miles Garrett com
out over to the AFC and out playing his future
football maybe through twenty thirty eight, because that's how long
is reworked contract is for real, you know how void
years work in the NFL, where you can just blatantly
spend money on a player that's never going to be
there anymore, to skirt this, to utilize the tenants of

(33:41):
the salary cap. Yeah, that's what they're doing. If you
didn't hear that, they reworked his deal as most teams
do when they acquire a player. Pretty much all teams
do when they acquire a player, unless they're being run
by Bill O'Brien and Laramie Tunsel is coming aboard all that.
To get back to what I was sending you to,
what did the Lion's head coach? What was his initial
reaction to this deal?

Speaker 4 (34:02):
He was.

Speaker 5 (34:04):
Not really right, Yeah, I mean, good for them, you know,
I mean they've won it now, right man? So yeah,
I honestly I had none. I mean, it's he's a
hell of a player versus a hell of a player,
you know, and they're two totally different players. But you know,

(34:27):
that was what that was what they felt like they
needed to do, and good for them.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
Many when it joked, oh, yes, they've won it. Everyone's
crowning them. They were pretty darn close. But he also
said what I've been saying. While they clearly different bodies,
different technical parts of their game, they got an awesome player.
They had an awesome player. The Browns have an awesome player.
They had an awesome The quality of talent that swapped

(34:54):
in this deal is incredible.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Yeah, yeah, I'm do you think people are sleeping on
what the Browns got, even though I.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Know the people who are doing AI. I saw one
post of here's what Dylan Gabriel had to say. Came
to practice today and he didn't even ask me for it,
He just took it. He's not wearing number eight. Then
I saw an AI produced video Dylan Gabriel was sitting
at his locker wearing the number eight. Jared Verse, who's
obviously going to wear the number eight or wants to,
He came over to his locker and said, what is this.

(35:24):
He's like, it's my number, it's my jersey. I'm getting
ready for practice. Goes, no, you're not, and he rips
it off of him. Did he punch him? I mean,
it's AI. They probably could have gone that route, but
that's that's why I was asking, No, that's only when
we have stuff from the NBA. So he's right.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
Normally high profile numbers getting changed, there's some sort of
either monetary or whatever exchanged. And then in this case,
I think he was just like, you're Dylan Gabriel, So
I'm not peeking pretty something, I'm taking your jersey. What
are you going to do about it? Nothing exactly, So

(35:58):
that's that's where that went. But that is like vintage
classic Dan Campbell, and as someone who can easily root
for Dan Campbell because he's in the other conference and
isn't a threat until basically you get to the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Texas have played him. Yeah, I don't want to talk
about that night. One two, three, four, five interceptions and
you lost.

Speaker 2 (36:20):
I still can't be you know what. That was one
of the first examples of uh CJ. That's not cool
because he helped them lose that game. He helped him
lose that game for being honest, I suppose, well, he
did throw a soul crushing pick when the guy should not.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
He shouldn't have put the ball anywhere near where he
threw it.

Speaker 2 (36:41):
True, all right, So look, Dan Campbell getting a for
all intents and purposes, stupid question. At least that's how
I think he looked at it. What's your reaction to
this deal?

Speaker 1 (36:56):
That's a totally legitimate, reasonable question, and he gave it
totally legitimate He's a l answer.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
It doesn't I mean, other than he went to another
team in the conference now that's not in your division
and doesn't figure to stand in your way unless you
get to the conference championship. I guess, I mean, I
guess they could play each other.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
If Dan Campbell's walking in their building ever, and certainly
currently and not thinking we're going to win the super Bowl,
I'd be shocked. So the rams matter, Yeah, No, I
know they do. But what I'm saying is the way
he answered that question is an indicator that he's not
blind to social media, because that is what people are thinking.

(37:35):
We said the same thing on our show. They were favorites.
How much have the odds changed? How much have they
gone up? Yeah, he's clearly indicating he's getting the vibe
of why should the other fifteen teams even bother?

Speaker 2 (37:47):
He's be and honestly, he was as polite as he
probably could have been.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
That's what I took away from it.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
That's what I'm saying I think he thought it was
a stupid question in that I don't care about anything
other than the Detroit Lions right now.

Speaker 6 (38:00):
Now.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
I know we always hear that from coaches and we
say it's coach speak, but these guys really are like
laser focused on whatever's immediately in front of them. And
what's immediately in front of him right now is his
team getting better during OTAs.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
Or whatever Rams and Lions twenty twenty six on the schedule. Yeah,
that's fine. So he's not, like you said, super consumed
with playing them. But I'm sure he's super consumed with
the idea that even though we get to open the
season one and oh because we're welcoming in the Saints,
I'll have my eye on them when and if we
reach the postseason.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Yeah, I mean, listen, we will keep we will have
observations all season long about some of these teams that
have made these moves and you know what they're all doing.
But just like Dan Campbell, I mean, our focus is
the Texans right now. Our focus is going to be
the Rockets and their new threads, their new look and
everything that comes with it when we come back. Got

(38:52):
some guests coming up in studio. Simulcast begins, so you
can see them over on sechn as the A team
continues the team, it's Sports Talk seven ninety and sc
h N on the simulcast. That's why we booked our
guests for right now, because what's the use of bringing
in new Rockets gear if he can't see it. So

(39:14):
that's what we did. Gretchen Sheer Jose Lopez of the
Houston Rockets. She is the president of business Operations. He
is the senior creative director. And I want to say
this right off the bat. First of all, you guys
hit a home run or hit up. This is a
running joke on its slam dunk. Dude, it's a slam dunk.

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Yes, they didn't score a touchdown, they didn't hit a
home run. No, they punched it in from the goal line.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Everybody has been asking me who came up with the
dunksternt And so I'm like, I'm gonna give the guy
the credit that came up with the dunksure not since
he's gonna be sitting in the studio. So I wanted
to make sure we did not not get that in
today because everybody loves it and you're the guy, Jose,
You're the guy that did that.

Speaker 7 (39:54):
It was a collaborative I know, I know, yes, it
definitely was a collaborative effort. It happened just started in
twenty twenty, and this was because we were Nike was
doing a city program, so we have to design these
city uniforms.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
And with that came.

Speaker 7 (40:10):
Fly Simon Jama, let's pay, let's pay you an homage
to them, and instead of having a dunking cougar, what
can we have right, So started sketching all these different
astronauts dribbling through their legs, lay up dunking, and we
uploaded this to a server, start vectorizing them. Nike takes over,

(40:31):
starts cleaning it up, starts designing around it, and whila,
such or not.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Appears and then pretty students on the floor at Toyota Center,
which is really cool to see.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Gretchen it is.

Speaker 8 (40:41):
I feel like I deserve credit because only for not
killing Dunkster.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Not that's true.

Speaker 9 (40:47):
I will own it. I will own it. So that
timing like coming when he's talked about working on it.

Speaker 8 (40:52):
They had actually like the the concept had come up
a couple of years before, or at least not dunkst
or not, but like an U of eight kind of
tie in, and some other things took priority.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
A little bit there bit lower.

Speaker 9 (41:04):
Now they can what world can no one ever hear me?

Speaker 8 (41:09):
They And so it came it like it kind of
got tabled for a little bit, came back to life,
and then I had moved. It was the first thing
that I had moved into this role, and so they're
all excited about it, and I was like, you are
dunking astronaut on shorts, like is this where?

Speaker 9 (41:25):
And everyone's like, trust me?

Speaker 8 (41:26):
And I was smart enough to trust the trust the experts.

Speaker 9 (41:31):
But it was. It was.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
It was very unique.

Speaker 8 (41:35):
And very different, and certainly no one had ever done
anything like that before, even even on a city one.

Speaker 9 (41:40):
So it's been so cool to see it take on
a life of its own.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
The most exciting news, I think for a lot of
Rockets fans is that it's now permanent. It's not going anywhere.
It's not just a city edition. It's part of the
new look. I guess the best, most obvious question would
be what has been the immediate feedback you two have
heard from anyone in the organization outside of the organization. Obvious,
but what's after, you know, a twenty four hour period.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Or so, what's it?

Speaker 5 (42:04):
Like?

Speaker 1 (42:04):
What's it? What's the feedback?

Speaker 8 (42:06):
And I think we've gotten a lot of thank yous, right,
like it's oh yeah, ketchup and mustard and duncture not
or like ketchup and mustard duncture.

Speaker 9 (42:12):
Not ketchup and mustard dunct, you're not.

Speaker 8 (42:13):
And so being able to have those as part of
the permanent identity moving forward has been has been great.
And I think Jose gets all the prey right, I
mean as right rightfully, so, so he probably has more.

Speaker 7 (42:25):
I've stayed away from personal feedback. I've stayed away from
social media. Really, yes, I haven't looked at comments. I
probably read three in the morning and then I just
put my phone away because it's been approved, right, all
these gatekeepers everything improved it like getting getting it past
Gretchen Fatida family, NBA. That's good that that is a
slim dunk, right, absolutely, so I think they are very

(42:48):
very important. But just like Gretchen mentioned the color scheme,
fans have been asking for it for years.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
And I've been bugging you about it. You have been
they they know that, Yeah, everyone knows that. Yeah, listened
to this show knows that screaming it. Yeah, gatekeepers, just
for some of the listeners there there's a lot. I
think they know there's a lot that goes into this,
but to the extent that that expands internally all across
the organization, your mets her for Tida's obviously, Gretchen, everybody,

(43:15):
everybody involved. It expands much higher than that. Every time
a team is involved in any kind of new look.
And this is as big a new look as you
can get because everything is changing moving forward, the NBA's
involvement and all that, and making sure what can be done,
what's allowed to be done, and the jerseys have to
be made and warned by the players. There's all sorts
of things that are added into that. I don't think

(43:36):
they want to wear a jersey that has all it. Oh,
it looks great, but it weighs fifty thousand pounds. It's
not comfortable. Here there a little bit of background maybe
in going from point A of even just designing it
to approval one through one thousand, right.

Speaker 7 (43:49):
So I'll talk about the the process of the uniform itself.
Like San Nit and Champion, they were original embellishers of
the NBA. The uniform program. The ribbing very very very tight,
kind of like a polyester. You wash, it starts to shrink.
Nike's all about performance. I'm gonna take a step back.

(44:10):
Adidas and Rebok very very heavy uniform. So t Mac, Yeah,
they wore those. They would sweat and it was a
heavy uniform and they complained about that. So Nike takes
over again. It's about performance, it's light, and it's all again.
The way that the uniform moves. Designing around that template
is very, very tricky, and it's very it's very.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
They have.

Speaker 7 (44:36):
They have these rules and specifics of what you can
and can't do because of the way the trim holes
and the ribbing everything comes into play.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
So that's a whole other story.

Speaker 7 (44:48):
That's like another thirty or an hour of conversation. Now
a lot of credit goes to the Fertidas, goes to Gretchen,
like she said about ducks or not. You know, they
let the experts, you know, go through it, explain the process,
and everybody listened, and there was a few times when
there was a clear no, but there was other times

(45:08):
when they were like, okay, you know, let's hear the explanation.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
What was a clear note.

Speaker 8 (45:12):
I think, yeah, exacinitely, I think some of it, like
you had talked about gatekeepers, right, and like that's definitely
the case.

Speaker 9 (45:18):
Like there are layers of doing it.

Speaker 8 (45:19):
But I think one part that's super important and Jose's
great about this and our design team is is that,
like you can have a design and you can have
a story, and all of that's great, and the story
and the detail is like fantastic, but at the end
of the day, you don't always know the story and
it's got to look good here too, So making sure
that along the way and the gatekeepers weren't always bosses, right,
the gatekeepers were peers and people and other departments and

(45:41):
fans and trusted stakeholders to make sure that like the
thought process of directionally the story or directionally the design
was hitting with enough outside eyes and voices, because if
you're just designing a vacuum and you're not getting other
people's feedback, you can get all the way through it
and it could it can end up missing. So it

(46:02):
was certainly gatekeeping, but also the collaborative process along the way.

Speaker 9 (46:05):
I like this, I don't like this, tell me about this,
and I think the.

Speaker 8 (46:08):
End of it kind of ends up being a morph
of a variety of different directions that the jersey could
have gone in.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
All that being said, the initial part of my question
about that these are jerseys they're playing in. These are Jurseys.
They need to be comfortable. And obviously we know at
least a handful of them have modeled the jerseys and
you must have gotten some feedback from what they think.

Speaker 7 (46:26):
Yeah, players, they were static the first time they put
it on. It was after a game we're playing. It
was a hometown's Hero game. So they come up to
the practice court and we have all the jerseys there.
When they put them on, like their reaction was very positive.
And seeing their reaction that was a slam dunk moment
right like you know what they were saying, how they
were you know, I have to get these color shoes

(46:48):
moving forward, I have to get these type of socks, compression,
what goes good with this?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
They were static so right.

Speaker 7 (46:53):
There and then like you knew that, hey, I have something,
And it's not just whenever you get the Nike samples
in as you look at those and you realize, oh
my gosh, like this is fans are going to love this.
You would show people internally and everybody loved it. You
would show leadership ownership when this when the player saw it,
and that reaction, like there was nothing like that.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
So I have to I have to ask you this
as well, because I've had several people ask me this.
Everybody was wondering, and I've heard you both say some
variance of this. The NBA would not let you bring
back any of the old logos or the logo that
went with these colors, specifically like old the old championship logo.

(47:34):
What was the what's the I guess legalies behind that.
What was the NBA's stance that that they couldn't you
couldn't bring back the old logo because I had people
ask that obviously wanted that logo, but you know, yeah, look.

Speaker 8 (47:46):
I mean there's like everyone loves that, right, It's like
you want a championship in it. It's the first championship
that was ever brought to the city. Like, right, everyone
loves it, Like we get that. Yeah, you can't just
bring it back, right, there's licensing and and people own
it and don't own it like it's a whole thing.
But for us, it was really it's the feeling, right,

(48:07):
It's not the logo, right, people think it's the logo.
It's not the logo, right, It's the feeling, it's the players,
it's the connection, and that logo is connected to championships,
and so for us it was really it's also about
the future. We're not trying to go backwards, we're not
trying to recreate the pass. So how do you bring
that championship mentality? How do you bring that feeling and
emotion from those years, and how do you make sure

(48:30):
that it's set for the future going forward and hopefully
this team, another team in the future is going to
set you know, set the own memories and bring a
new championship and then those memories are tied to this one, right.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Gretchen Scheer, President of Basketball Are Business Operations. Jose Lopez,
creative director for the Rockets, here in studio with this
on Sports Talk seven to ninety pop up ongoing and
going later on into the evening over the George R. Brown,
We have seen plenty of people over there, plenty of
people excited that they are at look what I want
was able to get look at this, look at that,
And I don't think there was any doubt that that

(49:03):
we we'd see that kind of feedback. What kind of
feedback have you already seen from that? It's not on
social media in that way, it's just you know, you know.

Speaker 9 (49:11):
He's on lockdown. It's great. When we went over there,
it's like, you know when you do pop ups.

Speaker 8 (49:16):
In my head, I'm like, Oh, there's gonna be a tent,
there's gonna be retailing, and how they reimagine the space,
like when you walk in there, like it feels like
it's always been a retail store there. And so I'm
just so impressed by our team all the time when
they are able to bring these things to life. And
so we went over there before lunch and I ran
into season ticket holders and folks are there and getting
this wag. Jerseys won't be here until closer to the

(49:38):
season with Nike production, but all of the gear. I'm
wearing this jacket every single day for the rest of
my life. So if all you ever do is see
me in this jacket forever, that that will be the case.

Speaker 9 (49:48):
So jackets, hoodies, T shirts.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Well, it's that patch on your right.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
So I've gotten a lot of the triangle patch though,
which is like the I've gotten more people talk about
that you had a big part to do. Whose idea
was it to do that? Actually, I'll tell you what.
We'll take a break, Becau. We're gonna have you guys
for one more segment, and we're up against it, but
I want to get to that specifically, and then we'll
actually see the jerseys. Tracy Hughes is here. She has
them right now. She's the she's the gatekeeper right now,

(50:14):
she's gonna she's gonna have the threads and she'll let
the she'll let us show them off when we come
back here on a Friday edition of The A Team,
It's SportsTalk seven ninety SEHN seven ninety Space City Home
Network Cheers.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Wex looking good, serving up nice read quite a diner,
not quite a dream shake, but it looks pretty good.
That's one thing we certainly should get into here with
Gretchen and Jose from the Rockets President of Business Operations,
create a services director, the concept behind everything that was
making Houston Rockets fans crazy, excited and angry at the

(50:51):
same time. Teas I cannot wait, I cannot wait, I
cannot wait.

Speaker 8 (50:56):
On paper, when you're like we're gonna do this lead up,
you're like that looks great. And then when it got
so much excitement and so much momentum, even I was like,
uh oh, like this is going a.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Little bit long.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
You're living in that twenty four hour news cycle. Yeah,
so people want it.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
What you did give everybody, especially with some of the
diners setup, is well, whatever it is, I need to
watch it again and again and again and again because
there's so much stuff in there. But the concept behind
Rudy T's Diner and beyond just obviously the connection to
what we've seen now from the new brand. But that
concept has obviously been extremely well received and maybe there's

(51:32):
more to it down the road. Yeah, that's a plan.
That's a plan for sure.

Speaker 9 (51:36):
Yeah, it's been it's been so fun.

Speaker 8 (51:38):
I think when the video and the content team, you
guys know that group, they're so talented. And when I
mean we will say rockets red and championship yellow, right
like when you're putting color palettes together for Nike, saying
ketchup and mustard is like, certainly what everyone's gonna call it,
but you got to kind of level that up a
little bit. So obviously the connection to food and et cetera.
So when they were saying how do we do this

(52:00):
teaser and bring it in there. The idea of this
diner and old friends being together in this familiar place
that people go to hang out, but it being set
kind of in a galaxy and on another planet looking
towards the future was fun. And every time I watch it,
like you we can like we had the the sneak for.

Speaker 9 (52:18):
You guys at the lunch and I watched it.

Speaker 8 (52:20):
I mean it was probably the fifteenth time I've seen
it and since the final version, and I looked at
Taylor and I was like, I never noticed that before.
Like every time you watch it, there's a little something
different that people know.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
The Easter eggs as you called them.

Speaker 8 (52:31):
Yeah, yeah, h little East r egg but different ones
that you that you kind of notice. And if you
go back and watch it again, even after seeing all
of it, you'll probably pick up two things. And it
was really fun watching to see which accounts caught them
and didn't.

Speaker 7 (52:44):
Right, because people would take these screenshots immediately I point
out what was going on, and.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
I saw that if you're eating it, like pictures of that,
and they be like, I think this is it, right.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
And all the jerseys there's a reason why all those
jerseys were on the wall.

Speaker 7 (52:57):
You can go you go back and you'll be like, oh,
there's still something in there that nobody has caught. Right,
So I I again, I'm I don't know. People have
been telling me, hey, nobody has caught this one.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
I haven't gone in What is it? You have to
go back in there? There's so many impression numbers.

Speaker 9 (53:12):
Up we should like one of those what's the what
are the games that you play? Like where it's like
have you.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Found oh yeah, oh the side by side or whatever?

Speaker 9 (53:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:20):
The the jerseys themselves lots of details on them, and
one of them that's it's it's noticeable though it's not prominent.
Is what is adorning them across the front and back? Uh?
Not a pin stripe? If you can explain that's right.

Speaker 7 (53:36):
So here's here's a jersey. Here's our our our icon jersey.
Like I guess a few years ago you can say
this is your row jersey. Right, So your icon jersey
is what represents you as a team. So it's your
color scheme. So these quote unquote pin stripes. Pin stripes
are a lot thinner. This is this is an access role,
an access role which is whenever a rocket goes into space.

Speaker 1 (53:57):
It's it starts slowly, starts turning. That's why broken.

Speaker 6 (54:01):
Right.

Speaker 7 (54:01):
So it's really really unique to us, and it's a
little bit more subtle than the than the blue and
white version that Yaoming wore. And I guess the other
thing that's really important to Houston fans and rocket fans
is a lower case T. You know, we have it
on the We have it on the on Houston and
on rockets. On the Houston one. The original one also
had a lowercase N. We tried, couldn't couldn't make it work,

(54:24):
and a lowercase E. Right, Yeah, so they wouldn't let
you do that.

Speaker 9 (54:28):
No, it's not that they wouldn't. Look like when we
talked about all the different versions, like.

Speaker 8 (54:31):
There were versions of this that were very similar that
did not have the stripes, right, there were versions that
had the stripes Boulder, but maybe didn't have other things.
And it's just finding the right balance of that. And
I think the you know, the uniforms, there was a
time where they were bold and crazy in the nineties,
and then they got pretty streamlined and maybe.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
A little they called it bold and crazy. I called
it ugly and over exactly.

Speaker 8 (54:56):
Then it got a little basic, maybe a little boring,
and so it just we loved like we got to
a place where we really loved it, and it just
like it felt like it needed something different and some
of the some of the versions, like this was Boulder
and it was like the right balance of movement in
the jersey and enough kind of definition and lightness to
it versus just the flats.

Speaker 7 (55:16):
And one of the other things that the NBA does
that people don't realize it's called it.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
It's called broadcast tests. So you get the uniform created.

Speaker 7 (55:23):
Now you have players running up and down the court
to see how how does how does this look on television?

Speaker 1 (55:28):
Flash photography? Is there a sentence to it?

Speaker 7 (55:30):
If you do a flat, if you have flash photography,
does it bounce too much from the camera?

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Does it?

Speaker 7 (55:36):
If you have a blue number on a red background,
it does make your eye shake a little bit.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Can Matt Thomas see it to call the play by play?

Speaker 9 (55:45):
That's part of I mean, that's it's true though. Part
of the testing is how big is it? Can you
see it? Cannot see it? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Some teams don't do a good job of that.

Speaker 8 (55:53):
Yeah, I mean everyone at the end of the day,
it's like you want something that looks good and it's good,
but it's like you're there to watch about it, like
the perform on the courts.

Speaker 9 (56:01):
To stay it has to.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
Stay true with some of the details. Was there anything
that stood out to either one of you that I'm
excited we were able to include this not only on
the jersey, but as part of something that we've been
able to create moving forward beyond the obvious obviously the
dunkstad and the patch itself, which is the new brand.
Things like that. There's some details jersey and shorts that
you know, Again, if we pointed out they'll know you've
put out the press release, they can go to the

(56:23):
pop up and see it and then maybe when it's
in their hands they'll realize it. But something maybe that
needs to be noticed.

Speaker 7 (56:29):
So I will say, like on our statement uniform, our
black uniform, it's very clean. However, the easiest thing would
have been to put that space pattern, I mean the
access roll pattern on this, but the quasars on the
jock tag it says Clutch City on it, and it
has it on all three uniforms. I think this is
a really important symbol because it's it's bookmarked by two quasars,

(56:54):
and it shows our history from San Diego to Houston.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
So if you stretch this quasar, it creates this pattern,
which is a hyper speed pattern.

Speaker 7 (57:03):
Now it's subtle enough, but it's still unique to Houston.
It's unique to the rockets. Another team not gonna do
it because it just doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
I didn't even see that the other day when we
looked at these, I didn't realize that it was different
from the other two which have the original what you
were talking and it.

Speaker 8 (57:18):
Almost like the way that it's we joke all the time,
like anyone ever, did you know what a quazar was before?

Speaker 9 (57:24):
You were gonna know?

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Now right?

Speaker 9 (57:25):
We all know.

Speaker 8 (57:26):
Now right, But like in here, it almost looks like
they're like to me, I didn't when we were designing it.

Speaker 9 (57:31):
I wasn't designing it when we were looking at them.

Speaker 8 (57:33):
But now that it's like here and in person, it
almost looks like it doesn't look like rain drops, right,
but it looked there's movement in it that I think
is cool.

Speaker 9 (57:41):
But from far away you may or may not even
notice that it's there.

Speaker 8 (57:45):
And like the deconstructed rockets on the side of the statement,
like This was really hard to get done in a
way that looked good, that matched the fabric where you know,
it wasn't itchy on the side, like and the way
that it came out is so it almost looks like
a singular piece of cloth, but it's not. And so
from the design process to see this come together, like

(58:05):
the general public may not care, but like for us,
it's super cool that it that it worked through and
down the shorts kind of have the end of the rocket.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
The first thing you said to me the other day
when I talked to you was three years. I think,
like people don't realize you're talking about like what it
looks like under flash photography and what it looks like
under the lights. If you've never been to an NBA game,
you don't realize how bright it is down there. So
some of these things factor in, but like three years
is a long long time to do something like this.

Speaker 7 (58:32):
Absolutely, and people change your minds right right Whenever you're
working on something, you're like, is this a red approach?
And again you show leadership, you show ownership, and sometimes
things went positive and then and then they and then
they didn't. So you constantly you question yourself and as
the season's going on, you get online and people are saying,

(58:53):
bring back catch a bit Muzard. I'm just like, well,
we just released our city uniform, and it is a
long time for all of us to try to find
the right time to work on this. And this was
it's weekend, long hours, it's holidays, it's thirty minutes ing
lunch break, and it's staying you know, after hours, like
the rockets are playing outside of our office and we're

(59:15):
still inside working trying to get this right because we
were waiting for this moment.

Speaker 9 (59:19):
Yeah, I all right, exactly.

Speaker 8 (59:21):
I think some of the fun things on the like
when you say three years, the reality is it's been
done for a year, right.

Speaker 9 (59:26):
It's like you have final testing in tweaks, but.

Speaker 8 (59:29):
Like it's been done right, like how And some stuff
started to leak recently, but like.

Speaker 9 (59:33):
I'm shocked, and stuff leaks all the time, so that's crazy.

Speaker 8 (59:36):
So like last year in the playoffs, we did the
r with the yellow drop shadow in the playoffs like
as a little easter egg.

Speaker 9 (59:44):
And some people notice it something they didn't. This year
we did duncture not right with the yellows.

Speaker 8 (59:49):
It's like there's been certain things if you go back
over the last year that we were kind of dropping
and testing, and so when you know that it's done,
so it's like a two year process. Year done, then
you're kind of building up to how it's going to
release and making sure Nike can deliver on it.

Speaker 9 (01:00:03):
And then you're like, how.

Speaker 8 (01:00:04):
Do we we know where we're going, nobody else knows
where we're going.

Speaker 9 (01:00:08):
How do we make sure that everything we're doing over these.

Speaker 8 (01:00:12):
Next you know, twelve months or eighteen months at the time,
is kind of putting us on the path that gets
to yesterday.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
You got anything else? We could do this forever over
a little bit. We certainly you know, you just mentioned
it when people were going to the playoff games, that's
what was draped over their seats. Obviously there was something
different which we now see a lot more of with
the dunksterret in those particular colors. What is this you
mentioned the pop up shop? Obviously online will be the
availability moving forward, and the jerseys will be ready for

(01:00:43):
obviously they're ordering right now at any timeline on any
of those things that people who have not already gone
down there will not to know.

Speaker 8 (01:00:48):
I would love to give a talk line on Nike
and their jerseys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
As I understand this very hard to say.

Speaker 8 (01:00:56):
Yeah, after the schedules released, before we play our first
regular season game is the window that I feel that
I feel good about. And as soon as we get
a tighter timeline from Nike, will have those available and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
The other thing just online and ready to go as
this gets launched, and that's super exciting. Things are going
on at Toyota Center. We haven't mentioned just briefly, the
construction of what we're all going to start to enjoy.
It is a massive undertaking and I think Rockets fans,
Comets fans will be ready to enjoy what is very
different about enjoying an event, all events at Toyota Center.

Speaker 8 (01:01:33):
Yeah, I mean it's going to be were I was
talking to some folks earlier, like it's like, what's going
on off season must be nice. It's like, Wow, we rebranded,
our franchise, launched New Jersey's the main entrance right now,
Like if you come to a show, we have lots
of concerts, you cannot enter through the main entrance right now,
so you're going to be entering in.

Speaker 9 (01:01:49):
Through other areas.

Speaker 8 (01:01:50):
We will be able to have part of the main
entrance open for the season. So delivering this new vision
of Toyota Center reimagine while still operating is a challenge
in and of itself. Bringing a WNBA franchise and relaunching
the comments is exciting in and of itself, and then
obviously everything that's going on in the Rockets is exciting
and we're joining them all at the same time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Well, you guys were fantastic for taking all the time
to come over here, especially in person. You guys did
a phenomenal job. I think overall everybody is ecstatic about
these So congratulations and enjoy your non off season. So
that is a lot to get to and we'll have
some reaction to that. Gretchen Cheer and Jose Lopez with
the Houston Rockets kind enough to come on by today.

(01:02:33):
We will get back right to it again. The Knicks,
speaking of the NBA, probably gonna go as far as
Jalen Brunson wants to take them, So we'll discuss that
among other things when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety seven ninety X
and AC appreciate you both, Gretchen and Jose for I
hope fulfill you guys in on some of the details
of the new brand, the launch, everything that goes with it.
And again we've posted almost everything we have gotten our
hands on, and you guys have seen a lot of
it via social media, from the Rockets, from others, and
now again today with your hands on some of the

(01:03:07):
other merchandise T shirts, jackets, hats, and everything that goes
along with it. The pop up that we were talking about,
if you were unaware, running throughout the day over at
the George R. Brown Convention Center, Hall D and running
to eight o'clock, so opened at ten. One more appearance

(01:03:28):
by the time we are now talking to you. Vernon
Maxwell said to be over there between four and five signing.
Rudy T, the proprietor of Rudy T's Diner, was there
earlier today Steve Francis as well. And your Rockets are
like everybody else, awaiting the conclusion of the season that's
been over for everybody but two teams for some time,
Nicks and Spurs. Game two tonight, Nicks were the favorites

(01:03:50):
or Spurs were the favorites heading into the series, favorites
again heading into Game two tune out tie the series.
Their point of view was pretty clear after the game,
since multiple players set it, they really think it's them.
We're not worried we didn't play our best Wemby, I
didn't play well, things like that. They believe that, hey,
all we have to do is play better and we

(01:04:11):
will go out and take care of evening up this
series and moving on. Now. I'll admit I think that's accurate,
but it isn't new. It's not new for who the
Knicks beat four straight last series. It's not new who
for the Knicks beat four straight the series before that.
It's really not new for the Hawks, who lost three
straight to close out their series. I didn't realize the

(01:04:32):
Knicks were going to be capable of this when I
watched the regular season, but I can't ignore what they're
doing over and over and over again. I do think
there's a difference when playing the Western Conference powers, whether
it was Oklahoma City or as it turns out, San Antonio,
then playing those three teams in the East that they
got through to get to this point, but a little

(01:04:52):
bit more respect for who they are, the talent that
they have. Last few or a few years, probably three
or four years, most people have mocked Knicks management. You
gave up. What for McHale Bridges, You think Carl Anthony
Towns is gonna put you over the top.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
Yes, and yes and yes. We talked about that yesterday.
Carl Anthony Towns. I've been as hard on him as
any player that we've talked about on this show that
I've been hard on, and not for like a personal dislike,
just actually more about his I mean, the Timberwolf version
of Karl Anthony Towns, could you imagine him, even the
earlier Knicks version of Karl Anthony Towns, could you imagine

(01:05:32):
he being, as one person put it, quote maybe the
secret sauce for beating Victor weibin Yama. And again, it's
been one game. A lot can change. It's a long
way to go. Look what happened after Game one of
the Spurs series against the Thunder. Everybody's like, oh, and
then the Thunder came right back in convincingly one game too.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
So I think what people have to what I would
point out is what he's doing that specific player. He's
trying to win basketball games. It's not trying to outplay Wemby.
He's not trying to match what he did when he
was in Minnesota. He was an elite offensive producer when
he was playing in Minnesota, twenty five points per game,
twenty seven points per game, twenty five points per game

(01:06:13):
multiple times over, multiple time All Star All NBA player
two times before he got there. Now he's made All
NBA once as a nick Last year, when he was
averaging better than twenty four points a game, shooting at
fifty three percent, hitting forty two percent of his threes. Well,
this year, he hit thirty seven percent of his threes.
He barely made half of his shots. He was right
at fifty point one percent. And as the playoffs have arrived,

(01:06:36):
and as they've needed him to do the things that
helped teams win, the way that they're using him, all
of those numbers except his points per game. He's only
averaging seventeen points per game in the postseason. But he's
shooting fifty six percent. He's shooting forty seven percent on threes.
He's a super talent. If he was playing for a

(01:06:56):
Minnesota still or many other teams in the NBA, he'd
be going twenty seven and twelve every night. Might not
be winning, but he's winning. He's part of their formula
for winning.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
They're not hollow stats, and I think that even after
saying all of this about Karl Anthony Towns specifically, I
still feel like the Knicks are going to go as
Jaylen Brunson ghos. I know that sounds that is their
best player easy to say, but it is a combination
of those two. And you know, after so many different versions.

(01:07:29):
And believe me, nobody feels sorry for the Knicks. Okay,
I don't care that it's been this long draft drought
of you know, futility, and James Dolan is one of
the most unlikable owners in the NBA. James Dolan does
things off the court, you know, off away from the
basketball world that make you your skin crawl, all that
kind of stuff. But you know we're talking about here

(01:07:51):
in Houston, at least the San Antonio Spurs. Nobody in
this city that's a Rockets fan wants to see that
stupid franchise up yet another banner.

Speaker 1 (01:08:01):
Nobody.

Speaker 6 (01:08:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Point totals for Victor have been fine throughout this postseason,
twenty six in the first game of this series, twenty
or more in every game of the last series. But
he's now put together two games in his last four
against two totally different defenses to totally different groups of
people defending him. Two times in his last four games,
he's shot under thirty percent. He's seven foot whatever you

(01:08:23):
want to say he is today, and that seems impossible.
He's helping make that happen by taking fourteen threes in
those two games. Fourteen of his thirty six shots are
from twenty plus twenty one to twenty three depending on
if he's in the corner feet away. Why why you know,
he's not gonna push other people around, but he's gonna

(01:08:45):
draw fouls, and he's done a phenomenal job of that.
He's done an even better job of making his foul shots.
This is a quote unquote big I called him a
wing player the other day because that's how he plays.
But he's an eighty eight percent free throw shooter. He's
over ninety percent in this series, was at ninety percent
in the last series. He's gotten better there and he
keeps going there. But twenty two points and twelve rebounds

(01:09:06):
and two blocks is probably not gonna get it done
unless somebody else goes crazy. And I don't know that
they have anybody else that can go crazy, because if
they do, it's probably Dylan Harper and coach Johnson better
get more confident in having him out there offensively and defensively.
Dearon Fox is not gonna go off. He might play well.
I don't think Stefan Cassel from a scoring perspective is

(01:09:28):
gonna go off. Champagnie, same thing, and anybody else. Calton Johnson,
they're gonna do what they do. They're gonna contribute it
in the way that they do. Somebody might need to
take that. I'm definitively the second best offensive option. If
they're going to again. They don't have to turn the
series around. They don't have to over. They could have
easily won this game. Super competitive. We'd be saying all
the same things, except it could be the Knicks trying

(01:09:50):
to even this series up. Not that many people interested
it other than hate watching. I get it, I am,
I'm hate watching. But Game one of this series was
if you're a suit, you loved it. This is good
for the product that they put on display was good.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
Gretchen and I were talking after the last segment off
the air. I won't I won't divulge the exact numbers,
but some of the forecasts for what they're gonna make
in New York when the series shifts to MSG.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
You've seen some of the ticket prices. Well that in
and of itself, we just briefly mentioned it. You know,
every team wants as many playoff games in their home
arena as they can get. Home court advantage ensures that
even have goes this short, you're gonna get them all
those games here, there and everywhere. That's phenomenal. It's different
when it's at Madison Square Garden the first game.

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
Unreal.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
Gait that they're expecting is unreal.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
The numbers, she told me.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Now, it's not happened yet, so we don't know, but
oh my gosh, I mean, you've seen some of these
ticket prices on the second hand part. I thought I
was complaining about secondhand ticket prices for Ella, Langley and Austin.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Nothing. I think there were twenty six people listed on
the celebrities and athletes at Game one in San Antonio.
I don't even know what the number is gonna be
when they post that for games three, Please're gonna have
to make another movie just to pay for these tickets.
Fantastic stuff. There's your thoughts on the on the series.
We have some astros news to get to and it's

(01:11:17):
good news. We'll get to that next. Its probably worth
mentioning as we approach four o'clock. Second of our guests
of our three will join us at the top of
the art. Four o'clock DearS Derek Lewis UFC fighter will
be part of Freedom two fifty South Lawn White House
coming up is South Lawn part of the title. That's

(01:11:39):
where it's being held. Now, I know awesome. Five o'clock
we will visit with chan leron Astros covers the Astros
for the Athletic. Obviously, the Astros are playing tonight the
last three games of the nine game homestand it's not
obviously gone swimmingly, having lost one of the or lost
two of the three games to each of the first

(01:12:00):
two teams to come to town. Tonight, the Astros will
try to begin a I hope sweep of the Athletics
the way they've been playing them might be a bit
much to ask, but batting fifth tonight and playing second
base is jose Al Tuvey what I Maybe they made
the move official earlier today, Zach Decenzo off the roster

(01:12:21):
option back to triple A doesn't mean Nick Allen can't
also still play beat it. Nick Allen he's gonna get
the start at third base, and Joe A. Spotta mentioned
it earlier this week when he was on with Matt Thomas,
that he was likely going to put jord On Alvarez
in the outfield at some point in time during this

(01:12:41):
home stand. Well, some point in time is tonight. Yord
On Alvarez is playing left field tonight, So Peanya Alvarez
Walker Perettis partis will be the d H. He said.
A couple of homers here recently. Jose al Tuove bats
behind him as the second baseman. That's the fifth spot
in the order. Camp Smith, Jake Myers, Nick Allen and
doing the catching for Peter Lambert will not be Colin Price,

(01:13:02):
who made his major league debut last night catching Kaiwai Tank.
So back to Christian Vasquez four tonight's game. Two astros
were added to the roster yesterday. Both of them were
in the lineup as you know, Lamont Wade getting his
first look as an astro in left field. He got
a hold of one of it and win in one
of his at bats, got a hold of one, obviously
not quite the distance Colin Price did reach base via Walk,

(01:13:25):
did bat in the ninth inning after Tremel had reached base,
struck out, and then Jake Myers ended the game rapidly
by grounding into a double playball as a pinch hitter.
The work from Hunter Brown last night specific fifty seven
pitches is what he threw thirty three pitches in his
first outing, forty four pitches in his second outing fifty
seven pitches, and last night's outing he allowed a home

(01:13:47):
run one of the three hits, struck out four, and
worked into the fifth inning recording thirteen outs, so things
clearly went well. BP on the field is where Janer
Diaz at with his You have Brayden Schumak, who had
the doctor strain. He went on the IL earlier this
month or at the end of last month retro. He

(01:14:07):
is in West Palm Beach, so probably not coming back
anytime soon, and honestly, not a whole lot of progress
I don't think yet for Lance mccullor's junior or Bennett's SUSA.
Both just advancing in their throwing progressions, but obviously not
at the point where they're throwing hitters two hitters live
VP or not anywhere near going on a rehab assignment.
In SUS's case as a reliever, it doesn't necessarily turn

(01:14:31):
his timetable so far out of whack a starting pitcher.
If that's what Lance mccullor's junior is expected to return
as obviously, that does throw it much more out of
whack in order needing to be ramped up. So it's probably,
as it was looking like from the onset, a pretty
lengthy stay away from the team. The two other pitchers
who have long been out of action, Renel Blanco and

(01:14:52):
Hayden was Nesky, continue throwing live VP. They've been in
West Palm Beach, and those usually are in advance of
getting to their you have assignment throwing in live games,
if not a simulated game. Being out of West Palm
Beach sometime in late in July might have been the
hopeful return if you thought either one of them going
to make it a contribution to the team, and everything

(01:15:13):
still looks like it could easily be on pace for
that if it happens. Having more options would be good clearly,
especially this last series. They had some pitching issues as
a team, giving up five runs or more in all
three games.

Speaker 2 (01:15:27):
Well, look, I kind of not even halfway joking about
the quick healing powers of Jose Altuve and here we are.
I mean, good grief. I was sort of joking even
though he's done this before, he's had some sort of
ailment or maybe it was a major injury and he's
come back. I think the only thing that actually about

(01:15:49):
al Tuove where it was a significant injury, where it
actually stayed true to the quote unquote traditional timeline, was
when he had that broken thumb. You can't really fake
or fast a broken bone. Sixteen games, that's it, that's it.
Those are the only games he will miss with this injury.
A returning tonight, obviously, I'm not telling you he's going
to play in every single game the rest of the seakon.

(01:16:10):
What I'm saying is when he went out, it was
retro to the seventeenth of May, so he missed two
weeks plus the first less than a week of June.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
That's it. Sixteen games missed. He makes his return. Those
other players we talked about have obviously been out a
significant amount of time. Joey low Berfido the move made yesterday.
He was activated only so he would no longer be
on a rehab assignment, but He immediately was optioned to
Triple A and will continue playing there. I would imagine
that there's still some thought that his rejoining of the

(01:16:40):
team might not be far off. I was talking to
somebody via social media yesterday about, you know, why is
Wade here and what else? Why would they think this
is the idea. I'm a little surprised what they spent
to get him here. Nothing crazy, but you know, spending
a million dollars for a player who's playing no differently
than any of their young players. He's got a back
of the baseball card because he has been a major

(01:17:01):
leaguer and a proven one, but he clearly had not
had a good season the prior year. Nobody had him
on their roster. This year he was in the minors,
not earning a promotion. But Bryce Matthews is also still here,
and at some point, unless he's filling more gaps for
absences and players not available, and now that Jose Al
Tuove is back, that limits where you can put him.

(01:17:22):
He can clearly play center field if you need him to,
very little difference between his bat and Jake Myer's bat.
Optioning Bryce Matthews, though, if you wanted to get another
left handed bat and Joey Lo Praffito back on the roster.
None of them are going to play every day, so
that usually holds value with the Astros management, et cetera.
Joey Lo Praffito is playing every day, and I think

(01:17:44):
they have some value in that, probably to get him
back sooner rather than later.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
Though, well, regardless of who's in or out of the
lineup tonight, it's all about trying to get back on
track and doing something that you haven't done in quite
some time, which is have your way with the West
Sacramento A's it's been a minute.

Speaker 1 (01:18:00):
That's been the case, including this season.

Speaker 2 (01:18:02):
But I don't know if jose Al Tuove's quick healing
power means it'll be a kind of a springboard for
him individually as well, because as we mentioned earlier in
the show, and you guys know all too well, you've
been watching the Astros this season, and you've been watching
them with Jose Al Tuove in the lineup. He just
hasn't had a very good year, but he can get

(01:18:23):
in line because there's a lot of guys that aren't
necessarily having good years.

Speaker 1 (01:18:27):
In twenty twenty six for Houston, it's just as we
said in the opening our it's the down year for
jose is happening this ops is barely over seven hundred.
That's still significantly better than what you're likely to get
out of the players that were replacing him. Yeah, and
that's and I'm hopeful that what he was doing to
start the year forty two games worth of action. I

(01:18:48):
hope that's the worst jose A Tuove of twenty twenty six,
and I think is a reasonable thing to expect. He's
too good. He's absolutely too good.

Speaker 2 (01:18:56):
All right, we will take a quick time out right
here and we will get to our next schedule. Guest
ufc America two point fifty is right around the corner.
Derek Lewis, Houston's own is part of that card at
the White House. We'll talk about that event, his part
of things, and so much more when we come back

(01:19:16):
to start the four o'clock hour here on the program.
Back at it here to start the four o'clock hour.
It is the A Team Sports Talks seven ninety and
sc HN here in Houston. Adam Wexler over there, Adam
Clanton right here, and as promised, we are joined by well,
we're gonna call him a friend of the show because
Derek Lewis has been on with us before. He actually, Derek,

(01:19:36):
you came on with us in person over at DIYK
and Park back in the day before an Astros game.
But this is in anticipation of a completely different type
of USC, a UFC event, I should say, UFC Freedom
twoint fifty taking place at the White House. And I
cannot start without asking you about the fact that your

(01:19:59):
fight was added to the card after President Trump said
why isn't Derek on the card?

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
What did you think when you heard that?

Speaker 3 (01:20:11):
It was pretty crazy because especially with all the stuff
that's going on in the world, with the politics and
the war and all that at the time, and for
him to be stopping and think about me, it's just
like unreally type of failure. It's like unreal that he
even thought about me in that moment.

Speaker 2 (01:20:28):
Yeah, I mean, it's that is he isn't like a
lot of world leaders, if you will, in a lot
of ways. But it feels like what you just said,
a lot of people have that same kind of sentiment
after experiencing, you know, meeting with him or something like that.
But again, going back to the kind of event this is.
Did you ever imagine your wildest dream that just UFC

(01:20:51):
would be doing something like this, let alone you being
a part of the card on the south lawn of
the White House?

Speaker 3 (01:20:57):
Not at all? It was being on or at all,
Like I'm sure a lot of folks didn't think that
something like this will even take place. Maybe a basketball game,
but not no UFC match. So it's gonna be crazy
and I'm just happy to be a part of American history. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:16):
It's a Sunday, June fourteenth at the White House, South
lown as we mentioned right smack dab in the middle
of Washington, DC. The event is going to be broadcast
live exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's a seven fight card
that will include you. Once you found out you were
going to be a part of things, do you prepare
for you know, what it comes down to is business. Obviously,

(01:21:38):
all the pomp and circumstances aside. You've got a fight
to concentrate on. But do you feel like you'll prepare
for it in a different way because it's going to
be not only in this setting, but also in an
outdoor setting.

Speaker 3 (01:21:51):
Our board statings don't mean anything to me because as
you already know. We live in Houston and with any
everywhere here inside a warehouse building like I'll train in,
and so it's like it's nothing new to me. And
also they say it's gonna be a lot of mats
out there, and we used the mosquitoes out here, so

(01:22:12):
it's nothing new. I've been training like this all my
whole career.

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
No, absolutely, I understand that for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
And look, it's it's a uh talk about your opponent
a little bit because you know, described as a as
a rising star, you're the knockout king, though you're you're
the veteran in this situation. Do you look at that
as an obvious advantage or do you look at it
as because you're you're facing somebody that's on the up

(01:22:41):
and up that you have to kind of look out
for that that aspect, that dynamic going into this fight.

Speaker 3 (01:22:48):
I don't think he's a rising story at all. I
just think he's just some one that's got a big mouth.
You know, he's just trying to be more of an
entertainer than a fighter. You know, I don't know, I
just case standing guy. I don't know nothing of them.
I just see see the stuff that you do online,
and I just don't like it. I'm not a fan
of him.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
That's what I like to hear going into a fight.
I don't like that guy, do you think.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
By the way, it's funny you brought that up, because
you'll see this in sports today, and you see this
a lot in the NFL, you see it in the NBA.
You know guys that are that are buddies off the field.

Speaker 10 (01:23:24):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:23:24):
I know that UFC and fighting in general, that's a
completely different concept, but I don't see a lot of
guys that are openly saying, yeah, we're friends, we're buddies,
and it seems like that's the case here as well.

Speaker 3 (01:23:38):
Oh yeah, if it wasn't radio, I would definitely tell
you how I feel about him. But we'll say that
for another show.

Speaker 9 (01:23:46):
No, I hear you.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
By the way, the UFC Freedom two fifty, that's the
event we're talking about. It's coming up on Sunday, June fourteenth.
That's at the White House on the South Lawn right
around the corner, and the event's gonna be broadcast live
exclusively on Paramount Plus. But the press conference is coming
up a couple days before that, and I joked with

(01:24:08):
my co host here saying, you know, they got to
have the weigh in at some prominent location in DC,
and I said, ah, it'll be the Lincoln Memorial. I
had no idea that was actually a case until I
was looking over some notes for this interview. That's a really,
really cool setting, no matter what you're there for. But
I can't imagine it's going to be much cooler than
having a press conference to kind of promote this event

(01:24:30):
right there at such a prominent location in the middle
of DC, which has a lot of prominent locations.

Speaker 3 (01:24:37):
Oh for sure. I already got my MUNTI leged king
speech ready. I gotta give me a speech right there.

Speaker 1 (01:24:44):
Yeah, it's nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:24:45):
That is one of those seminal moments in the history
of our nation where you think about, you know, the
people who have stood there and given speeches like that.
In addition to that, obviously one of the more interesting
scenes from the movie Forrest Gump right there. I mean
it's but it's such an iconic place and you're standing

(01:25:07):
right there and you're promoting a fight you're a part of.

Speaker 3 (01:25:10):
Oh yeah, yeah, I ain't way. It's gonna be a great,
great night, great week, And I'm just so proud of
being America.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
Derek, as my co host was mentioning we had a
chance to meet with you and talk with you. Was
six years ago or five years ago when we were
over taking part in front of an event here in Houston.
I'm curious over your career and being a part of
UFC from either then or the very beginning to now,
what what have you seen as the change is? The
difference is the advancements in the sport that you're a

(01:25:39):
part of. In the UFC.

Speaker 3 (01:25:41):
Oh I think they just UFC executives don't sleep, you know.
I believe that the sport has increased in going up
every year. You know, we're doing big and big events
every year. You know, even whenever during COVID everything was
shut down and they still made a way that there's
something that no one ever done before and got oh

(01:26:04):
Alan out there in Albidaby, and you know then we
end up fighting at the spear like big events all
the time. So I'm saying big improvement there every year.

Speaker 2 (01:26:15):
How much you mentioned UFC executives, and you can't talk
USC without talking about Dana White, but you're probably he's well,
you're probably and a lot of other people who know
him are not surprised at all that he's not only
pulling this off, but the fact that it's going to
be the spectacle that it will be. This has Dana

(01:26:36):
written all over it. Go bigger and better every single time.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:26:42):
And I'm just happy to be a part.

Speaker 1 (01:26:43):
Of it, to mean something to you, to be the
al Teimer when it comes to knockout wins. Nobody's had
more knockout wins than Derrek Lewis.

Speaker 3 (01:26:53):
Whenever they told me I was to knockout, went out.
Never even thought of it. I still don't think I've
ben you know, I'm in the knockout that I have
until someone brings it up. You know, I don't really
think of stuff like that. But it's pretty pretty cool achieved.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
That UFC Freedom two fifty Sunday, June fourteenth at the
White House on the South Lawn in DC. It's a
seven fight car The event will be broadcast live exclusively
on Paramount Plus. Derek Lewis is a part of things. Derek,
we appreciate the time. It's good catching up with you.
And by the way, tell our guy Hunter suggested hello

(01:27:29):
for us. I hope he's taking good care of you,
and I hope he's doing well.

Speaker 3 (01:27:32):
Yes, sir, I appreciate you to us.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
Thanks for having me absolutely, Derek, and good luck at
the fight UFC Freedom two fifty coming up on June fourteenth.
It's gonna be like, even if you're just not even
a casual you're just curious about a spectacle like that,
They're gonna get a lot of eyeballs on this, but
you cannot buy that kind of press.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Now. I do think two things. Having an event at
this sphere, it was unique, and it was not surprising.
This was the g group that was able to pull
it off. This isn't unique in that sense. It's what
you just said, it's going to bring a lot more
people in. I can't even imagine how it couldn't because
it's never been done well, nothing like that that had

(01:28:15):
never really been done either. I just think it's totally
it's just that's a different venue. What do they do
at that venue? Well, they have concerts there, and they
have movies there and productions there. Oh, you mean like
every other stadium that they've been in. Even though I
clearly know I've been to the Sphere, I know how
much different it actually is, and it was something and
it did set itself apart. This isn't like that at all.
A it's outdoors. I think the fact that where it is,

(01:28:37):
I mean, you could have an outdoor UFC fight that's
happened before many times. But yeah, having an event at
the White House is people are going to want to
see what it looks like, even if they're not interested
in the fights. Maybe they're not even staying in to
watch the fights. Maybe they've just you know, they already
have a subscription of Paramount Plus and they just want
to say, no, what does it look like? Okay, I

(01:28:58):
really think once they see what it looks like there,
I'm not gonna say all right, that was all for me.
They're gonna then stay and be involved in what is
to come. And obviously, with Derek being a part of
the card, with him being asked to be part of
the card essentially in a roundabout way by President Trump,
that's pretty cool. A nice card. The fighter that Derek
fought when he was here in Houston after our last

(01:29:20):
visit with him in twenty twenty one. Cyril Gain is
also on the card, the interim heavyweight title fight the
co main event, and I kind of figured that Derek,
as he did then and has done for every year.
And you he's not saying what he said about mister
Josh because he's on an interview with us.

Speaker 2 (01:29:41):
No, he was saying he was being he was doing
the polite version of saying it, because, as he mentioned,
he would tell you how he really felt if we
were off the air, and I believe him because I've
been off the air with him.

Speaker 1 (01:29:49):
Think he'll take that into the fight. Yeah, I'll probably
take it into the way and he'll take it into
the dressing room. He'll take it into the walk up,
and he will take it across the lawn and then
I'll take it into the ring.

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
Not to mention, he'll take it into that press conference.
That press conference will be a spectacle in and of itself.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
Have you been there?

Speaker 2 (01:30:05):
And you have?

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
Have you not?

Speaker 2 (01:30:06):
You've been to DC OH several times. You know how
big the Lincoln Memorial setting is.

Speaker 1 (01:30:13):
I mean, it's a very.

Speaker 2 (01:30:17):
Wide is the best word I can use for it,
because it's such an ominous structure.

Speaker 1 (01:30:22):
They're gonna pack that place though. Fan Fest going on
for both days. Saturday is Sunday at the Ellipse. As
you mentioned, the fight itself on the fourteenth. It's gonna
be awesome. It's spectacles. Probably the least lowest level word singularly,
I could use word. It'll be much bigger than that.
You know, there'll be fireworks of every kind. No, it's

(01:30:44):
gonna be great. Can't wait to check it out. And
thanks again to Derek Lewis, and of course our boy
Hunter's a guest. It's kind of ironic on a day
where the Rockets are coming out with their new threads
and we had some Rockets guests in here. Hunter is
part of our other guests as he came over from
the Rockets to us see and he's just absolutely been
killing it ever since. That's why Dan is on the
cover of Time magazine and Rolling Stone. It's all Hunter.

(01:31:06):
I'm giving him all the credit now.

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
We appreciate the time from Derek Lewis and looking forward
to seeing that coming up on Sunday, June fourteenth. We'll
take a quick time out here. We'll come right back.
We've got our eighteen draft at the bottom of the hour.
But when we return, get ready wex like you predicted,
It's time for the Indiana Bears.

Speaker 1 (01:31:30):
Fday afternoon edition of The eighteen. The Friday eighteen draft
comes your way. Next segment, we'll be drafting the best
iconic kids cartoons. Be a little bit like the Good,
Bad and the Ugly. In my mind, I will be
ugly and finish last, and the two of them will
be in the other two spots. But we'll get there
real quick.

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
When we get there, that draft is in place because
of this weekend's release. Yeah, he's gonna tell you all
about that at four point thirty. Gosh, you know what,
this is a Friday. I'm not gonna allow you to
RNT on this Masters of the Universe parade, A Master's
of the Universe, a child. It is on the line here.
I'm not going to let you disparage it. So let
us know with the draft order, if you could. I'm first,
and then Josh and then the Ugly. So Masters of

(01:32:10):
the Universe will be off the board.

Speaker 1 (01:32:12):
I don't know. Okay, Well, if it is, then I'll lose.
I will still lose. We'll get there in ten minutes.
Timeline eleven sixteen am. This morning, yes yesterday, the Chicago
Bears Board of Directors met and voted to advance our
stadium development project in Hammond Indiana, with the exact site
to be selected. We believe a world class stadium project

(01:32:33):
and Hammond will transform the region connecting northwest Indiana to
the south side of Chicago through the Loop and across
neighborhoods and suburbs stretching north of the city. It will
bring Chicago Land together and deliver new opportunities to its
residents and businesses. That was eleven sixteen am today from
the Chairman of the Chicago Bears and President George H.

(01:32:54):
McCaskey and Kevin Warren, President CEO Kevin Warren. Little over
an hour later, we got a repost. Actually take it back.
This one came in three minutes later. Got a quote
post on the X platform from an at Gov.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
Braun.

Speaker 1 (01:33:12):
He's the fifty second governor of the great State of Indiana.
He's also a proud Hoosier, and he said in quote
posting that statement for the Bears, Hoosiers help me welcome
the Chicago Bears to our great state. We I interject this,
residents of Indiana look forward to building a partnership as

(01:33:33):
strong as the eighty five Bears defense, creating opportunities and
economic growth that will benefit our state and the Bears
organization for decades to come. An NFL franchise in Northwest
Indiana will be an economic boost to the entire region
like we haven't seen before. Thank you to Speaker Houston,
the legislator Mary McDermott. I want to take the Bears

(01:33:55):
Welcome to Indiana. And then the final comments. These came
out just barely an hour over those comments. After those
comments came out, we'll go with at Chicago's mayor. That's
Mayor Brandon Johnson. Oh, his mouth is moving, so he
say lie from the office of the Mayor. Over the
last several years, the Bears have stated their intentions in

(01:34:16):
multiple jurisdictions. Today's announcement is not surprising. It's also not
surprising that bolded Bears officials have stated this vote does
not mean a move to Hammond is a done deal.
Not surprising that Bears officials have stated this vote does
not mean a move to Hammond is a done deal
without a final site selection. Until we see shovels in

(01:34:38):
the ground in Hammond, the City of Chicago will continue
to engage in discussions grounded in the interests of our residents.
We have had this discussion somewhat ingest right here on
this very show. See wex the Bears. It's happening. They
are going to be the Hammond, Indiana Bears. Hib it's happening.

(01:35:01):
The Indiana Bears are going to be a thing. The
Texans are going to play football in the state of
Indiana sometime in the very near future.

Speaker 6 (01:35:08):
And c J.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
Stroud is going to take down Caleb Williams and then
he's gonna big brother him again in the postgame on
field discussion, and then other people get involved. I'm on
the other side of this. There no way the Bears
aren't going anywhere. They're not moving, and people on both
sides of that have have put it out there that

(01:35:30):
there are still two sides to this. This is not,
as the mayor suggested, a done deal. Hoosiers, help me
welcome the Chicago Bears to our great state. Welcome to Indiana,
among other things. Governor Mike Brown, that's what he said
in his statement that you heard us read to you.
I am not changing my mind. So what's gonna happen?

(01:35:54):
Not moving to Indiana? They are doing this is like
the playbook until it isn't until it actually proves to
be true. I'll go along this the whole way until
it actually just like shovels in the ground, suggests how
are you going to get ultimately what you want? The Bears,
the Chicago Bears, and the family that's owned the Chicago

(01:36:14):
Bears for this long, they do two things. They love money,
like all owners of franchises do, and this particular family
they don't want to move the Bears out of the
state of Indiana and out of the state of Illinois
and out of the city of Chicago. So, in my opinion,
how do we get that done? It's not working. It's

(01:36:35):
not working. They're not listening. We don't have a plan.
We have nowhere to go. There is no stadium site
Arlington Heights. Where are you? What are you doing? You're
our last hope to stay here. Get off your backside
and work with us. Please. Oh you're not going to,
then we'll threaten you even harder.

Speaker 2 (01:36:51):
But this has happened before. But it happened with the
team that's playing in West Sacramento. It happened with the
team that used to play here. Clearly it did a
family that owned it. They didn't want to hear reason,
and political people got involved and said things on both sides.

Speaker 1 (01:37:04):
But then it happened they'd also been a well they've
only been here like Bud Adams association with the city,
his personal association was large. Yeah, the team was still
not a heritage franchise and only been around for a
couple of decades, not like the Bears. The Bears in Chicago,
not to me at least, we love them. I'm not
just trying to diss our fans in our city, but

(01:37:27):
I view it as different love and loyalty.

Speaker 2 (01:37:30):
I'll say this, and you can say it's getting political
or whatever. If anybody can screw this up as JB.
Prisker and Brandon Johnson though, those two are like literally
one of the two most brain dead people in government
I've ever seen in any walk on any side of
the aisle, whatever you want to tall.

Speaker 1 (01:37:50):
They're actually like really bad at their jobs.

Speaker 2 (01:37:54):
And when that kind of stuff gets involved with this,
which it has to it always does, I think that
lends itself to this actually going through.

Speaker 1 (01:38:05):
Yeah, and these threats do become less hollow when this
is the first time the Bears board has voted on
any stadium site. These are not we need you to
get moving, These are real threats. They do mean something,
it can happen. They could be leaving. I do understand that,
but I do think this also puts more pressure on
everybody involved, and the Bears are a big part of

(01:38:28):
everybody's involved in not leaving. Like I don't, I don't
want personally, I guess I'm almost saying it without saying
I don't want this to happen. I don't. I don't
wish this on any city that hasn't the fans for sure,
I mean, I don't really think the oiler fans did
anything wrong either. Yes, we had tickets purchased by local
grocer all the time to get games on television, and

(01:38:51):
yes the games were not sold out after you already
knew the team was leaving. But the fans didn't do
anything wrong. And now multiply that by eighty five or
eighty six in your Chicago and the Bears fans and
the loyalty, and I recognize what their stadium isn't but
the Bears, the Chicago Bears not existing in the NFL

(01:39:14):
seems like that can be avoided, even with money involved.
They'll still be called the Chicago Bears. They'll just play
in ham in Indiana. The new Orleans jazz made sense.
Utah jazz makes no sense. But that's only a name
that makes less sense than that. How can you call
them Chicago? But like New York, New Jersey we poke

(01:39:36):
fun at they play their games in New Jersey. That's
not this, that's what they're looking at it as.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
But I do wonder if they would like if the
move actually happens there in Indiana, of all states, like,
we don't think about this as much here. I don't
think but because I mean, Texas is on its own
level when it comes to state pride, I'll everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:39:55):
In a state, including the city of Houston, just wholeheartedly
behind the Spurs state prize.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
That's different. That's different. The Spurs aren't even real. That's
just kind of a They should actually be removed from
the state.

Speaker 1 (01:40:07):
What would you say things, Let's say this happens in
the end of the twenty seven season. It's actually pen
to paper. The shovels aren't in the ground yet, but
it's gonna happen. The stadium lease with Soldier Field, owned
by the City of Chicago, runs through twenty thirty three.
That's the twenty six season, twenty nine thirty one thirty

(01:40:28):
two thirty three. That is eight more NFL seasons. Yeah,
and if they're moving, that will be done. If they're
moving to Indiana, if they're moving to Arlington Heights, probably
would be a similar timetable, but it's a different outcome. Clearly.
If they know and have announced and have started all
the things necessary to finalize they're moving to Indiana, there's
going to be four or five years left on this

(01:40:50):
lease at a bare minimum.

Speaker 2 (01:40:51):
Yeah, No, for sure. Now there, I see what you
did there. They will look at that. The Bears will
look at that as not good. We don't have to
play in some stupid college stadium or some secondary venue
while we build our brand new sparkling palace. But what
I was going to get to is that there's no
way that Hammond or Indianapolis or any other place in

(01:41:16):
that state is going to house the Bears and not
insist that they have the name of the state in
front of it, which will be very interesting because even
the Colts don't have that.

Speaker 1 (01:41:26):
And keep this in mind, when the Texans announced Toro District, Bridgeland,
Bridgeland and NRG Stadium, they're not close. They're in the
same city. Probably take they're in the county forty five
minutes to an hour most days at least to go
one place to the other. There's probably more time or
close to the same amount of time it takes to
drive from Chicago to Hammond, Indiana. Different state, Welcome to Texas,

(01:41:50):
maybe thirty miles away.

Speaker 2 (01:41:51):
That's why I think that somebody's would try to keep
them the Chicago Bears, even though they're.

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
Bear down Indiana be Bears, how has never played The
Cowboys have never played in Dallas. This just in never,
not once Arlington is within barely within the state borders.

Speaker 2 (01:42:09):
Now none of their teams are going to play in Dallas,
not even the hockey team. That's okay, but they're still
going to keep the Stars, the Arlington Cowboys.

Speaker 11 (01:42:21):
With the first pick, and with the second pick, with
the third pick, with the second pick, with the first.

Speaker 2 (01:42:27):
Pick Friday Draft. I don't care what Weck says. I
think that's an awesome intro which you put together. Did
you not that's true?

Speaker 1 (01:42:38):
Why you hate it so much? I mean, in the
all time rankings of the things I've put together for
the show, at ranks right there with the horrible singing.
All right, I appreciate the lyrics that I write. It's
a very wet, blankety Friday, and I'm disappointed in you.
Tell everybody why you're so excited about today's topic, the
category for the Friday Team Draft.

Speaker 2 (01:43:00):
Yeah, because I was born in nineteen eighty one and
as a child of the eighties, who was probably two
three years old when this show started airing its episodes.
Masters of the Universe was what every young boy, red
blooded American male wanted to be. They wanted to be
he man. Heck, the guy's name was Prince Adam. I

(01:43:22):
mean I already had the name and Castle Grayskull as
a Christmas wish list item. I mean, unparalleled in nineteen
eighty three, eighty four in that range.

Speaker 6 (01:43:35):
I got it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
Eventually, I ended up buying all this kind of stuff
for Carson. He had no idea what it was, you know,
those all the characters, but he's never even watched an episode.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
So made me think.

Speaker 2 (01:43:46):
With the release of the live action film, the second one,
by the way, they did one in nineteen eighty seven
starring Von Drago, You remember that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:57):
I remember him as that Fortney Cox was in it.
Remember much of the content of the film.

Speaker 2 (01:44:02):
It wasn't great, but they've got this one coming out
that's it's it's open today, and uh, we're going I
think Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:44:10):
We got tickets for a show on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:44:13):
And it's just like I can't decide if it's gotten
really good reviews, bad review Like people are trying to
make it sound like it's gonna be bad. Like I've
heard good things. So we'll see on that. But it
made me think there's some really iconic cartoons kids cartoons
that we could draft for this week's eighteen draft. And

(01:44:33):
you know, the eighties was definitely, in my opinion, the
heyday of these. But it's open for discussion, to open
for any sort of genre or what's the category, it's
iconic kids cartoons, and then you'll be the judge on
whether or not a selection is acceptable or not.

Speaker 1 (01:44:52):
I mean, this is not a complicated category. All right,
you go first, Josh go second, Universe will go third
and fourth. It's very much like a draft where we
say best players to ever wear number thirty four for
the Rockets, and AC gets the first pick.

Speaker 2 (01:45:11):
Probably pretty good chance there's gonna win other good ones.
I mean there's three on each person's list. So if
you make, you know, good choices here, make good choices, Josh,
you could be the winner.

Speaker 11 (01:45:21):
Josh, Well, you have to consider there's certain cartoons that
is this considered a kid's cartoon that might be the
most popular.

Speaker 1 (01:45:27):
That's why he's a judge. So what do you got?

Speaker 2 (01:45:30):
I mean, I did say iconic kids cartoons, like you know,
if it's Beavis and butt Head.

Speaker 1 (01:45:38):
Ah, is that for like a three, four or five
year old kid? That's what I mean. So don't say that,
even though you weren't going to right, I mean the Simpsons,
I'm wondering, is that a kid's cartoon? There are a
lot of kids as the main characters. Now they don't
drink duff, but they sure are in it a lot.
I mean as a nighttime cartoon, though, is it geared

(01:45:59):
towards children only? That's kind of the theme I'm looking for.
I know, we to eventually get to the criteria in
my opinion, that would eliminate the Simpsons from kind of
how I feel about it. So you can't have it,
and I won't draft it as soon as you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:46:13):
There's like a bazillion other good ones that you could have.

Speaker 1 (01:46:15):
By the way, okay, uh, give me Pokemon. All right,
there you go, Pokemon. See that's more of a actually,
can I change it?

Speaker 11 (01:46:23):
Square, SpongeBob, poke Bob all right, give me give me SpongeBob.

Speaker 1 (01:46:29):
All right. SpongeBob and Masters of the Universe are off
the board. So that's like when you're playing some some
sort of guessing game and someone blurts out the answer
and then somebody else says it's not your turn. Yeah,
and then the next person is like, oh, it's my turn,
but oh well, I'll just say Pokemon R. I can't
draft either one of those.

Speaker 3 (01:46:45):
Were you.

Speaker 1 (01:46:46):
I was not going to draft Pokemon. I was considering
considering SpongeBob. I came up with eleven possible selections. WHOA
I have watched them with any kind of frequency. Maybe
three of them. Wow, maybe Simpsons was on the list.

(01:47:06):
Did you watch cartoons as a kid?

Speaker 2 (01:47:09):
I did, But there's zero chance I will win if
I choose them, because you choose the ones that you
watched me and they.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
Are old old, but so is Masters of the Universe
older older.

Speaker 2 (01:47:23):
Well, you were a kid a little bit before we were.

Speaker 1 (01:47:26):
Nash and I are similar in age, not a huge
merchandising genre launched from these cartoons either.

Speaker 2 (01:47:33):
Well that again, I thought about doing these, but I
would have narrowed it down like a lot of these
that I would like to pick big time sales of
the toys.

Speaker 1 (01:47:45):
Okay, you mentioned the Simpsons wasn't quite geared for kids,
thus didn't feed the kids cartoon criteria. Does Ren and
Stimpy meet the kid's cartoon criteria? That's a good choice,
because I do think. I mean, what what network was
it on?

Speaker 2 (01:47:59):
I don't know, well, Nickelodeon, I guess I think it
was on Nickelodeon, which way more qualifies.

Speaker 1 (01:48:05):
It seems like a kids channel, right, so I can
have it. Yes, I will take Ren and Stimpy. And
what was your first pick? I had Masters of the Universe.
That means I can take Transformers. Yes, that's what I'm
going to do. It is a very very good pick,
so Ren and Stimpy and Transformers. And you know, I
probably should have taken Transformers as a first rounder, but
that's okay, doesn't really matter.

Speaker 2 (01:48:24):
All right, Josh, we're back to you. We do see
that was on my list as well as a consideration.
And now you know, Scooby doo Is, are you talking
about the classic, like with Casey casem as the voice
of one of the characters.

Speaker 1 (01:48:37):
Yeah, the classic, not scrappy Do. That was lame. Like
I said the other day, when they bring in the
young child to the family on the sitcom, nobody likes them.
That's scrappy Doo. What was the kid on the Brady Bunch? Oliver?

Speaker 2 (01:48:51):
Can't stand that guy. I want to punch him anyway.
All right, I'm going eighties again. I'm going with the
heavy hitter in my opinion, and I'm definitely going with
one that not only had a great toy line, but
it also had a iconic sword along with Masters of
the Universe. I'm talking about ex Caliber. I'll put it down,

(01:49:12):
stop it. I'm talking about in a great theme song too.
I might add ThunderCats, okay, sort of omens man sight
beyond sight Okay. Lino held it up above his head
and said, ho, and he, you know, turned into a thundercat.

Speaker 1 (01:49:28):
I considered taking that myself because of where I would
draft again, knowing it would not be there. You needed
a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:49:35):
But that's a good one, all right, final pick, and
so you took Transformers. He took Scooby Doo it's between
my final two that are still on the list. But
I'm gonna go with this because of again the sheer
volume of toy sales teenage mutant Ninja Turtles. Okay, the original,

(01:49:57):
not this garbage that has come out over and over
and over again lately. And who are they again, Dona Tello, Michaelangelo,
Raphael Ye and Leonardo. I would never been able to
do that, Josh.

Speaker 1 (01:50:07):
Your final selection, Splinter was the rat snipe my pick
right there. That's a good one.

Speaker 5 (01:50:14):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:50:17):
I have a dark horse that I think you should
take if you can't think of one. But he doesn't
want to tell you. He wants to tell me, so
take somebody else. I'll just go with Pokemon. Okay. Still,
he liked it so much, all right, I never even
seen it, all right, So you guys can weigh and
if you'd like, if you'd like to help me win
with never the ninth pick doesn't usually put you over

(01:50:38):
the top, okay, And we'll save it for the other side. Okay,
we'll finish off the Friday eighteen draft Kids Iconic Cartoons.
The last selection comes next. Quickly put a rap on
the eighteen Friday draft, and then we will get to
channel room at the top of the hour, jose Al
tuve Makey's return to the Astros only sixteen games needed

(01:51:00):
to recover from the oblique injuries in the lineup tonight.
We will address that, among other things, also Hunter Brown's
immediate future when Chandler joins us at the top of
the hour. One last selection for the Friday A Team
Draft returned last week and now it is here to
stay till football season. Here are my options. Feel free
to weigh in or keep it to yourself if you

(01:51:20):
think it puts me over the top. I actually had
a reasonably good list. More than half of the choices
have been taken. The old school ones. I'm afraid to
take Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny oh yeah. One
of the few that I watched, also old school, all
those Little Blue People, the Smurfs. That was a good one.
That was a Saturday morning yep. And then two that

(01:51:42):
I thought might help the cause, but I did not
watch them. G I Joe, Yeah, I thought that was
going to go off the list early. And Rugrats, which
I didn't think would be a good choice for us
or our audience. Your reaction matches mine. That will not
be my selection.

Speaker 11 (01:51:58):
Yeah, I thought about the people are votevading or on Twitter, right,
so yes, the age group of who would be.

Speaker 6 (01:52:04):
On that app.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
Do you want me to tell you which one of
those you should take? I'm I know what I am taking,
so feel free. Okay, Well, then just tell us taking
G I Joe.

Speaker 6 (01:52:11):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:52:11):
That's the right answer for this one, because I said
I think the eighties were the heyday of kids cartoons
just from the standpoint, just sheer volume of good ones
that were just mega hits. And also that's another one
of those retail monsters they figure. Yeah, plus Sergeant Slaughter was.

Speaker 1 (01:52:31):
Involved, like the honestly the action figure, like it's it's
up there.

Speaker 2 (01:52:37):
I mean, I don't know of all the ones we've named,
I can't think of one that has sold more than that.
G I Joe's are still sold, right, Yes, I mean
it's insane. By the way, I didn't watch it. I
was that GI Joe and Transformers. I watched a little
bit more Transformers, but I never really got into either
one of them to watch them, and I didn't have

(01:52:57):
as many toys of.

Speaker 1 (01:52:58):
Them as I would think I would for the era
I grew up in. There you have it. Yeah, there
you go. Our lists, which will be posted on social
media via Sports Talk seven ninety Masters of the Universe, ThunderCats,
Teenage Mutant, Ninja Turtles, those three or SpongeBob Scooby Doo
and Pokemon or Ren and Stippy Transformers.

Speaker 2 (01:53:22):
Jade Joe, you strike me as someone who actually watched
Ren and Stimpy too, not too much.

Speaker 1 (01:53:29):
Were you more of a Beavis and butt Heead guy? Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (01:53:31):
Yeah, I think we all were, no question about it.
It's even funnier once you get older and you get
the jokes. I suppose you could say that, I mean,
I was a little too young at the time. You
weren't for that exact time period, all right. So Yeah,
as you mentioned, we get to the top of the
hour channel roam with the Athletic a lot to talk about,
well even more than we thought we were going to

(01:53:52):
be talking about. In light of the fact that jose
Al Tuvey is back. We have talked a little bit
about the fact that the Indiana Bear could actually be
a thing and kind of flying under the radar today.
I don't know if I mean Yankees fans definitely don't
feel this way, but even in his own city, he's

(01:54:12):
getting upstaged by the Knicks. Aaron Judge is hurt again,
and this it's a pretty long term injury.

Speaker 1 (01:54:17):
Yeah, a couple of days ago a kind of surface
that the clearly something's been bothering him, and then they said,
I think it's this, and you know, we'll figure it out.
He's obviously not available tonight. And then it turns into
a rib injury four to six weeks with nothing reimaging
sometime late in that time period and then see where
these things are. So two months is very reasonable. It
could be longer. It's probably not less time than that.

(01:54:40):
The amount of time he's gonna miss this season, I
think they'll be fine. Obviously, he's a really good player.
He's had a really good season. Bellinger has been really
really good. Ben Rice has been shockingly good, and as usual,
most of the rest of the players on the team
stink offensively. Outside of Paul Goldchmith. It would be unfair
to not note that he has had a shockingly good

(01:55:00):
bounce back season and now they'll be counting on him.
This is all coming well. Garrett Cole will probably give
up a run this year as so far. Cam Schlittler,
I mean his worst start is still as good a
start as most guys will get. He's been incredible. Max
Freed will also come back at some point, probably around
when Aaron Judge comes around. So I did, of course
see the post from the Yankees fans, a picture of

(01:55:24):
Brian Cashman with a quote above it saying getting Max
Freed and Aaron Judge back is just like getting two
awesome players here at the deadline, which is probably what
the Yankees will do. I don't know that they'll be
big players for other players at the deadline, and they're
clearly in an exceptionally good position from the playoff standpoint.
Whether or not they pass or stay in front of

(01:55:45):
the Rays kind of doesn't matter. The way the rest
of the AL is. The only other team that's even
close to them is another division leader. They're still well
clear of the wild card race. I don't think that
changes with Judge being out, but it does change the
landscape of likely any postseason awards. Pretty unlikely that he's involved,
Extremely unlikely that Cal Ray is involved. All of the

(01:56:07):
votes last year went to cal Raley and Aaron Judge.
Neither will get any votes first place votes for MVP
this year. If he comes back and he keeps mashing.
You don't think that that would mean the rest of
the American League is embarrassingly bad. I'm not voting for
Aaron Judge and his one hundred games of pretty good baseball.

(01:56:30):
If it even reaches one hundred games, Well so, why
was Okay? Okay, that makes sense, But he was the
leader in the clubhouse before he got hurt. I don't
know where that's coming from. Over all over, I didn't.
I pushed back on that this week. Same thing with
Bobby Witt Junior. They're not the leader in the clubhouse.
They're not doing the things necessary to win the MVP,
unless you're telling me nobody is.

Speaker 2 (01:56:51):
If it's a bad field. Sure, I don't think it's
a bad field. The best player on the second best
team doesn't do it for you.

Speaker 1 (01:56:58):
They're not winning because of him. I know that's that's
the key right there. And he has the best pitching
staff in the American League. I know it's going to
be a hard guest based on what we're talking about.
The not Mets, Well, they're in the National League. Well,
I school with the New York team, the New York
Yankees pitching staff.

Speaker 2 (01:57:14):
It's been awesome and it sucks to say it out
loud and mean it, but you know, take heart, baseball fans.

Speaker 1 (01:57:22):
They won't win anything. Yeah that that's never gonna change.
And he's not gonna miss most of the season, come
back late in the season and then go on a
playoff tear like that would be the greatest judge story
of his entire career if that happened. That's not happening.

Speaker 2 (01:57:38):
Well, now they have a built in excuse, like if
they really think like that, they were really as good
as they'd like you to believe Yankees fans, then this
I know he's I'm not saying it's not a big blow,
but their lineup with that pitching should be able to overcome.

Speaker 1 (01:57:53):
That's why I've said it. I don't think this is
going to impact them so tremendously negatively. Now, if there's
something else that happens, then it certainly changes things. The
Yankees and Rays are separated by half a game. The
Yankees have the number one ERA in the American League.
The Mariners lead the American League West. They're second in ERA.
The Guardians lead the American League Central by one hundredth

(01:58:15):
of a point. They're fourth the Rangers are actually third,
but basically the three best pitching staffs are sitting atop
their respective divisions. If you afford for a couple of fudgings,
that's usually and almost always what it's about.

Speaker 7 (01:58:29):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:58:29):
The Rays are doing things a little bit differently. Their
pitching is shockingly more middle of the pack, and their
offense is a little bit better than anybody would have expected,
even with some good names like Diaz and Camonaro both
having very good seasons, and most of everybody else is
somewhere mixed and matched. Good offense, bad pitching. Bad pitching,
bad offense are both that are bad, and that's why
almost nobody else even has a winning record in the

(01:58:52):
entire league, including your astros, who's pitching as they go
into this series today, twenty eight and thirty six fifty
eight more games to go. They are not the worst
pitching staff in baseball because of the Colorado Rockies.

Speaker 2 (01:59:06):
Only that's terrible. It is a weird, weird, wild and
wanky sesion. All right, we'll talk to Chandler Rome about
that and many many other things, all things major League
baseball when he joins us, he of the Athletic via
the phone lines Coming up.

Speaker 1 (01:59:21):
Next the A team on Sports Talk.

Speaker 2 (01:59:25):
It's Chandler Rome, the athletic who joins us via the
phone lines as promised to talk all things Astros baseball. Chandler,
we were at the game last night. It was not
something to write home about. And that's kind of been
the Astros season, kind of one step forward, two steps back,
a thrilling come from behind victory that I'm sure you've witnessed,

(01:59:46):
like on a hand, like one hand, you could count
how many games you've seen like that covering the Astros.
But it just still a series loss. And now you've
got an A's team coming to town. It's kind of
had your number recently. I don't even know what to
make of this ass Show's team, but I do know
that they're happy to get jose L Twoba back in
a lineup at an astronomically faster pace than they probably

(02:00:06):
thought they would astronomical.

Speaker 6 (02:00:09):
I see what you did there, Yeah, good job, good
job A See yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:00:13):
I mean Dusty used to call him a medical marvel
all the time when he managed the team, and it's
right on point. I mean, his recovery from this thing
really surprised a lot of people.

Speaker 6 (02:00:25):
Just within the organization.

Speaker 10 (02:00:27):
You know.

Speaker 4 (02:00:28):
Usually, again, as Alsuve is demonstrating, not everybody is created equal,
but usually a grade two oblique strain is like a
four to six week recovery. Al Twovey missed seventeen games
in twenty days. It's pretty remarkable if you're an a
student listener of the A team, which you should be.
I told you last week that he wasn't gonna go

(02:00:48):
in a minor league rehabits on them, yep, and he
did not. They brought in a couple pitchers to face
him in live vps at Dyke and Park and that
was all he needed.

Speaker 6 (02:00:57):
And he's back in there. And look, he.

Speaker 4 (02:01:01):
I don't think his numbers are near up to his standards,
or at least they weren't before his injury, but just
I mean, just his presence and just the ability that
he has to lengthen the lineup. His upside is far
greater than either Nick Allen or Bryce Matthews, whomever's gonna
whoever is playing second base uh in his stead. So
it's good to get him back, but they do need

(02:01:21):
him to kind of round in the form a little
bit to get closer to what you expect to see
from Josel two Vay numbers wise.

Speaker 1 (02:01:28):
That's what we were talking about earlier. Is it does
it hope that he can or is there a reason
that he can just considering his age, And I mean
it is the fact that he didn't play for three
weeks of significance that he's fresh.

Speaker 4 (02:01:41):
No, I think that'll help, because I'm not trying to
start anything here, But I do know he was dealing
with some other stuff too before the oblique thing happened
against the Rangers. I know he was dealing with a
couple nagging things.

Speaker 6 (02:01:53):
If you'll remember, like.

Speaker 4 (02:01:54):
I think right before that game he got he got
a kind of a random day off that didn't really
see to be planned or anything, but yeah, he had
been dealing with a couple of little nagging things. So
I think, just again, getting three weeks off getting not
the way you want it. Obviously, he never wants to
get hurt. He wants to be on the field all
the time. But I think it could be a little

(02:02:15):
bit of a blessing in the skies that he got
a couple of weeks to decompressed, a couple of weeks
to get everything healthy, feeling right, and getting back in there.
But but I mean, also like the thing you said, like,
I mean, age does come for us all. You know,
you can't deny it. But if there's anyone I would,
if there's anyone I would bet on to defy aging

(02:02:35):
for a little bit longer, it says a l two
they So we'll see, We'll see if he can keep
that going as he gets back into line up.

Speaker 1 (02:02:42):
What was divulged from Joe a spot about Hunter Brown
in his future.

Speaker 4 (02:02:48):
I'm gonna be completely honest with you. I'm not at
the ballpark today. I've got a family obligation this weekend,
so I will not be in attendance to watch the
Sacramento whatever they are.

Speaker 6 (02:02:58):
And New hurts.

Speaker 4 (02:02:59):
But it's sound like, just from looking at the people
that are there, it sounds like there's a decision to make.
Sounds like he could come back and make his next
start in the major leagues. That would be a little
bit aggressive. I don't think it'd be completely out of
the quest. I don't think it'd be completely crazy. He
just probably wouldn't be built up to be a traditional

(02:03:20):
you know, you probably wouldn't see him pitching into the
seventh inning. It would probably be a truncated start, and
you know, they probably would have him on a pitch
count of around sixty five to seventy five pitches, and
then maybe you know, they do have as of this moment,
they do have a pretty large starting pitching surplus, so
they could do it to where they piggyback him with
another guy. If whether that's you know, Mike Burrows, whether

(02:03:43):
that's Emi, whether that's Kaiwai Tang who is used to
coming out of the bullpen. I think that would maybe
be the most likely option, would be Kaiwai Tang, just
giving his ability to come out of the bullpen. But
you know, there's a lot of different things they could do,
but one thing appears clear that Hunters.

Speaker 6 (02:03:59):
He's good.

Speaker 4 (02:03:59):
He's rare to go on the filo, looked good last night,
the results look good. He just it's just a matter
of do they want to build his pitch count again
in triple A or are they are are they okay
with saying you know what, you can only probably give
us seventy seventy five pitches tonight and go do it
at the big league level.

Speaker 2 (02:04:15):
Uh, since you brought his name up, I know there's
just a little less than one hundred games left in
the season. But this is not gone the way either
Mike Burrows or the Astros hoped it would have. What
do you think his future, you know, in Houston? What
can he kind of snap out of this? Is this
just a down year because it's not that he's not

(02:04:35):
having innings where he's not pitching well, and then it
seems like he has the dreaded Burrows inning where he
totally burrows everything.

Speaker 4 (02:04:43):
Yeah, it's been really weird. Well, first of all, his
future and his future in Houston is being in Houston.
He's last four years of team control. And that's why,
and that's part of the reason why they coveted him
so much, is that this was not someone that necessarily
they acquired to be the centerpiece of the twenty twenty
six rotation. It was someone that you look down the
road and this could be kind of a constant, a mainstay.

(02:05:05):
Now they do need him to be better in twenty
twenty six. But yeah, it's interesting watching him because I've
watched he's made I think thirteen starts. I think I've
I've watched eleven of them in person, and it doesn't
feel like he has a five to six ra but
he does, and it's no debating that he's got to
find a way to keep the ball in the ballpark.

(02:05:26):
But you say that, and there's plenty of pitchers that
have gone that have you know, given up a lot
of home runs and been successful.

Speaker 6 (02:05:34):
Justin Verlander is at the top of the list.

Speaker 4 (02:05:36):
He was constantly at the top of the home run
leaderboard every year and he still was winning Cy Young's
as one of the best pictures of this generation.

Speaker 6 (02:05:44):
Justin Verlin.

Speaker 4 (02:05:45):
Most of Justin Verlander's home runs were solo home runs.
Mike Burrows's problem is that he tends to it's his
home runs tend to come a lot of runners on base,
so it's eliminating the walks, it's eliminating, you know, trying
to get a little more were missing, missing a few
more bats, to try to not be so contact reliant,
because there have been times this year where, quite frankly,

(02:06:07):
he's just been unlucky. He's gotten some soft contact that's
just found holes. He's gotten some broken bat hits, he's
been Crawford boxed a couple times. So I don't think
it is as much of a disaster as the numbers
would indicate.

Speaker 6 (02:06:23):
But the numbers are what.

Speaker 4 (02:06:24):
The numbers are, and by this point you kind of
are what your numbers are, and the numbers aren't good.
So he's got to find a way to you know,
maybe it's sequencing his pitches differently. You know, when he
pitched against the Rangers and pitched so well, he pitched
backwards a lot, you know, a lot of spin and
off speed early in the count, and then fastballs at
the end of the count.

Speaker 6 (02:06:42):
So maybe they go back to that.

Speaker 4 (02:06:43):
But I think it's just more a way of he's
got to find a way to limit the base runners
because I think the home runs are just going to
be a thing. The home runs were a thing in Pittsburgh.
I think they're gonna be a thing here too. It's
just finding a way to limit base runners when he
does give them up.

Speaker 1 (02:06:58):
The last gown the mound for the Astra number fifty two.
A little bit different look with his socks yesterday. But
curious what you thought of what he did in this
particular game, and that some could look at it and say, oh, great,
one base runner, three k's all good. I think that's
a foolish way to look at it. But where do
you think things actually stand? With him, and we've heard
from Joe again, We've heard from Dana Brown again. Dana

(02:07:20):
was on with us here in the morning on Wednesday
talking about a lack of conviction or confidence and going
after hitters and really letting it loose. Things like that
were two plus months into the season. All the peripherals,
exit velo, fastball velo, chase with percent, all those things
clearly are different than last year, and the results are too.
Where do you think they are with the brain and

(02:07:42):
where should they be?

Speaker 4 (02:07:44):
I'm gonna say this, and it's independent of the answer
I'm going to get. I thought it looked better last night.
I thought the fastball velo was up. He was like
pretty constantly ninety five to ninety seven, Like it looked like,
oh like it could still be in there. But that
was one out and every one of them before it
did not match that. So look, Josh Hater's back now,

(02:08:07):
So the need to try to thrust Brian Abrady into
a leverage role is non existent. Alan Barsonta keeps pitching
very well. I think, you know, I don't think you're
going to see him pitching the eighth inning anytime soon,
but I think he's certainly working his way up to
throwing more important innings. Look, as long as Brian Abrady's
on the roster, he's going to have to pitch. They

(02:08:28):
can't just ignore him altogether, because that would be, you know,
detrimental to the other guys on the team.

Speaker 6 (02:08:33):
They would be overthrowing overexposing them.

Speaker 4 (02:08:36):
He's just they're going to have to find spots to
pitch him where they feel okay throwing him out there.
And the way that this team plays that they don't
play many blowout games.

Speaker 6 (02:08:50):
We've talked about this before. They score a lot of runs.

Speaker 4 (02:08:53):
I know the offense hasn't been as good as it
was early in the season, but still this is one
of the top run scoring teams in the league. I
know the pitching staff has been better than it was
in April, but this is also still one of the
pitching staffs with the highest eras in baseball. So this
is a team that gives up a lot of runs
and scores a lot of runs. That is the recipe
for not having a ton of blowout games to pitch

(02:09:14):
Brian A.

Speaker 3 (02:09:14):
Brad you in.

Speaker 4 (02:09:15):
So, I don't know if there is a threshold that
Joe Aspata has in his mind of if we're down
this much, if we're up this much, this is when
I want to throw him. But it's clear that there
are other guys on the in the bullpen that have
passed him in the leverage pecking order, and I think
it'll stay that way. And it only it only made
it more, you know, noticeable when Josh Hater is back

(02:09:36):
now and you can really kind of stretch those back
end guys, and it it makes the it makes it
makes Joe able to use those guys in different roles,
and there's just more than to choose from, and Brian A.

Speaker 6 (02:09:48):
Brady's not among them.

Speaker 2 (02:09:49):
Real quick, about thirty seconds, what'd you think about Josh Hater?

Speaker 6 (02:09:54):
It looked good to me?

Speaker 4 (02:09:55):
I was like, I it was weird because like I
barely watched him pitch because I was trying to write
about that frantic comeback.

Speaker 6 (02:10:01):
But I mean, look, he walked a guy.

Speaker 4 (02:10:03):
But I mean, god, I mean he looked like Josh
Hater to me, which is all you can all you
can say after being ten months away away, that's all
the astros want to hear. You looked exactly like you
would expect Josh Hater.

Speaker 2 (02:10:13):
To look, all right, Chandler, we appreciate the time as always,
good stuff as always, enjoy the family obligation, and we'll
see you when you get back to town. All right,
Thanks guys, all right, we'll talk to you next time.
Chandler Rome of the Athletic here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety all Things Astros Baseball. I saw something this morning.
I immediately thought of Wex and the wifey because they're

(02:10:37):
both big fans of this guy. But man former Notre
Dame running back, they knocked it out of the park.
See what I did there with the long trailer for
one of the staple sports video games.

Speaker 1 (02:10:53):
We'll explain when we come back.

Speaker 2 (02:10:56):
Thanks again to Chandler Rome of the Athletic stop by
for his weekly customary visit. All right, I admittedly have
not played Madden in several years. Like several releases, I
used to get it every year without fail. Combination of things.
Just if I even can get my hands on my

(02:11:18):
PlayStation five controller these days, which is very rare. With
the now almost eight year old living in the house,
it's like it's definitely taken off.

Speaker 1 (02:11:28):
It's full circle. He is in it now and I
gotta fight for time.

Speaker 2 (02:11:33):
But if I was still getting it or if I
was debating about getting this year's version of Madden. The
trailer I saw todaily. It's an official revealed trailer for
the game Madden twenty seven. First of all, I don't
know that I've ever seen one longer than four minutes.

(02:11:54):
Maybe I'm just not remembering. Very very long, very very good,
very like a mini movie.

Speaker 1 (02:12:01):
Almost. Yeah, we talked about who the cover athlete was.
It's Caleb Williams. He is featured in the spot along
with basically it all being about his team, the Hamon
Indiana Bears. No mention of the Bears moving to hamm
in Indiana during this four plus minute video. They did
sneak in a little bit of Texans in there if
you've seen it, and I'll have that audio within this

(02:12:21):
long montage. The group at EA and Madden decided to
have somebody run the Bears as the general manager, and
then the coach and then the quarterback. I'll Ingest a
fantastic sports fan. He starred in movies that are set
in Chicago in the past. He was the talent. He

(02:12:41):
brought in all people. He didn't want to be tied
down with having to do the books, Dennis, I'm the
talent they sign up two weeks in advance to see me.
Jennifer Aniston. Vince Vaughan the voice of the teaser trailer
for Madden twenty seven, and he did all those In
this video. He talked very highly of himself, talk about

(02:13:03):
what the Bears are going to do, both with him
as the general manager and ultimately the coach, and then
ultimately icing out Caleb Williams for the starting quarterback job.
Tom Brady makes it appearance. Also. We like listening to
Vince Vaughan talk this way, so we hoped you would
as well. This is a little bit of what it
sounded like. What's there to talk about?

Speaker 6 (02:13:20):
Undefeated season, super Bowl champions. I mean, has any other
team shut out all.

Speaker 12 (02:13:25):
Their opponents during the regular season and through the playoffs
in the Super Bowl before?

Speaker 2 (02:13:30):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (02:13:30):
No, really for the first one.

Speaker 6 (02:13:31):
Oh that'll be a fun trivia question going forward. I'm
a decision maker, That's what I do.

Speaker 12 (02:13:37):
It's not my fault. The rest of the league can't
keep up. Blame them, They really blame me because I've
raced your bar' super high, Caleb. But I'm telling you,
big guys, I love you an. You want to know
how you know I love you because I'm giving you
all my money.

Speaker 1 (02:13:50):
Caleb Williams is Perma Frost.

Speaker 12 (02:13:54):
Look, I'm not some indecisive GM without a plan who's
just gonna pull a forty eight year old quarterback out
of retirement just because I.

Speaker 1 (02:14:00):
Can't checking it out on that backup QB gig.

Speaker 6 (02:14:04):
Yes, you're my guy, and you're in all right, Gracie, and.

Speaker 1 (02:14:07):
You building some specially not a chance.

Speaker 6 (02:14:10):
You totally did the right thing. You're fired, but you
handled it well by.

Speaker 12 (02:14:14):
Defense best Championships. So I stole an all pro corner
from an unsuspected cashle.

Speaker 1 (02:14:19):
He called me brother, And.

Speaker 12 (02:14:22):
This gig is all about keeping your emotions in check. Kick,
I mean, do I deserve a statue next to sweetness?
Come on saying I don't. Maybe you'll get one too.

Speaker 2 (02:14:33):
Maybe that's so good hanging up on Tom Brady, hung
up on Tom Brady and stole our best player.

Speaker 1 (02:14:41):
That was the Texans Angle yep, sketch playing the role
of the person in charge of Texans personnel apparently yeah,
while wearing a which is definitely different from nick old
Cad Stover jersey. And I'm assuming based on what Vince
said and what sketch yelled that they acquire Derek Stingley Jr. Yeah,

(02:15:01):
that would never happen in real life. Also, is I
mean hard to find a corner in the NFL better
than Derek Stingley Junior. I would not call him the
best player on the team, though, Will Anderson Jr. I
would call Will Anderson Junior the best player is sting
number two. I think I'm not necessarily right. That's just

(02:15:24):
what I would do. You can, you can grate it
out any way you want, and think about that Will
Anderson Jr. Is great? Is he the best player on
the team? Is even the best player at his position?
Because you have Daniel Hunter? Do you want to bring
in importance to that conversation best player on the team
that helps you win because he's so irreplaceable. Maybe that

(02:15:45):
gives you and in what they do like they did.
The funny thing is it's not funny, but they rely
on each other. Sting's great. Sting's gonna be greater when
the coach, when the quarterback is running for his life,
when the quarterback is making quicker bad decisions, and Will
Anderson Junior Is going to get that extra step, the

(02:16:06):
extra tick because Josh Allen doesn't want to release the
ball yet, because Shakir doesn't quite have the separation he needs,
He's never going to or anybody else that might be
going up against him. And now that extra tick, that
extra step means Josh Allen just got sacked for the
eighth time. So it does work hand in hand. I
still think the front is what makes the back even better.

(02:16:28):
And without a good front, they don't say, even though
it's true, you can't rush forever, but they do say
you can't cover forever. Yeah, illegal man downfield and some
quarterbacks you can rush forever and you're still never going
to get him. You know, Josh Allen's pretty good at that.
Lamar Jackson's been pretty good at that. You know, there
are quarterbacks that you are rushing forever and your corners

(02:16:49):
have stayed with them, and your linebackers have been good
in coverage, and then Pat Mahomes scorts free and you
gave up seventeen yards on a pass play to somebody
who was covered for five seconds.

Speaker 2 (02:17:00):
We talk about how mentally taxing and frustrating golf can be.
Even hitting a baseball. You know, if you're in a
slump that kind of thing. Nobody I mean, I'm not
saying nobody ever talks about it, but I don't think
it's given enough. Do just how frustrating it has to
be the majority of the time, even if you're one
of the good ones to be. I'll just say a

(02:17:22):
defensive lineman, but you could say a pass rusher in
the NFL. Think about how many times your number one
priority is to get after the quarterback unless you're trying
to stop the run, and.

Speaker 1 (02:17:32):
You get to him one two times a game.

Speaker 2 (02:17:36):
Maybe if you have a really really outworldly game, you know,
three four, but you basically fail a lot every single snap.
You might get close, you might even change the trajectory
of the ball or hit it or but you don't
typically succeed most times you line up for any given
snap of a game. And I think that's very much

(02:17:57):
like those two things I mentioned, hitting a baseball and
anything golf related.

Speaker 1 (02:18:02):
So Will Anderson Junior played in every game last year
m HM. He had regular season six hundred ninety four snaps. Again,
the Texans do rotate pretty good. Usually sixty five seventy
percent is what Hunter and Anderson get, and then they
play their Hunter Barnett and Hunter or Horton and Barnett
and Horton and I'm not sure who this year. So

(02:18:24):
six hundred and ninety four snaps on defense last year,
and he did that while setting a career high in sacks.
He had twelve. So six hundred and eighty two times
he faced either a running play or a pass play
where he did not tackle the quarterback still with the
football and Miles Garrett eighty four times in six hundred

(02:18:44):
and ninety or six hundred and eighty two times in
six hundred ninety four snaps. It's a big reason why
you can't only talk about the number of sacks. You
can't even only talk about the number of tackles for
loss or quarterback hits either. That's why we now talk
about pressures as often as we do. That's not while
we really talk about percentage as often as we do.
So you get a handle on, well, you know, whatever

(02:19:06):
the percentage is that Anderson or Verse or Garrett or
Parsons has, that's number one in the NFL, So you
work off of that. How is everybody else doing? Where
do they all fit? By the way, Michael Parsons indicated
he's not going to be ready for the start of
the season earlier this week. Not a surprise, but much
more of it that much more of a definitive answer
from him.

Speaker 2 (02:19:26):
By the way, are the Packers and Cowboys on each
other schedule this year? They have to be right, they
always play each other. I know they don't always, but
it feels like they do well when they're both good.

Speaker 1 (02:19:34):
They obviously play a little bit more often as first, second,
third place teams, et cetera. If they've finished first or second.
To be good, they finished in the same spot, they
would see each other. They'll play every year that their
divisions match up, quite obviously, and it would be nice
to see what the reaction will be really before the
game hits. What everybody has to say about it, they

(02:19:57):
do meet. It is in primetime, and it is where
it's gonna be much more fun.

Speaker 2 (02:20:02):
It's in Dallas, Yeah, Wellington, technically in Dallas.

Speaker 1 (02:20:07):
They might stay in Dallas. I don't know. They're like
the Hammond Bears. Yes. By the by the eighth week
of the season, the Packers will have played in their
third primetime game. Are they're a good team? I don't
even fault them for it.

Speaker 2 (02:20:21):
By the way, at what point, if any, were you
watching that nearly well over four minutes long trailer for
Madden twenty seven starring Vince Vaughn, and did the thought
cross your mind, Huh, this reminds me of when he
was playing Madden in the Breakup.

Speaker 1 (02:20:37):
Oh, all of it is like these little digital men.
They just you know, everything the way he delivered it there.
He's been in so many movies and so he's done
that style of how he talks in a few of them,
I don't think in that particular scene in that particular movie,
and the fact that his job I think also required
him to talk like that at times and his relationship

(02:20:59):
that's how he talked in that scene, how we talked
in this movie or in this trailer.

Speaker 2 (02:21:03):
Twenty years old this year. Yeah, I remember going to
see it in the theater.

Speaker 1 (02:21:07):
Now in your slow catching up to Curb Your Enthusiasm,
really only watching clips and reels and that's the stories
sat down and Vince Vaughan was really kind of more
than a recurring character late late later on in the series.
I mean, he was in I don't know how many
episodes in a row over one season. It didn't surprise
you when you looked up and saw him. No hung

(02:21:27):
out at the club with Jeff and funk Hauser and
Larry a few times. For instance, they ordered a meal
and the waitress that was delivering it indicated she had
been ill, and they thought, well, I thought you were
just handling things downstairs. She goes, no, I'm up here
now handling stuff il like her stomach was bothering her
and the things that go along with that. And so

(02:21:47):
she delivered their food. A sweat bead dribbled into off
of her forehead, of course it did. And then she
delivered their food and walked away, and they all made
a face that you're currently making. They got up and left,
didn't touch their food, but did Larry say something. They
all just gave a look and like, let's go.

Speaker 2 (02:22:07):
Doesn't seem like a situation of any situation where Larry
wouldn't say something.

Speaker 1 (02:22:11):
In case you missed it. Some items we've not yet
gotten too, and others that need to be revisited, is
what we do. Halfway through the five o'clock hours, still
have one more pair of tickets to go see Motley
Crue on September eleventh, later this year, at Woodland's Pavilion
we'll do that in the final segment of the show.
The same segment of the show, we talk about picture
taking and easy Money Sniper. But in case you missed it,

(02:22:33):
as next the A one Sports Talks ups you missed it.

Speaker 2 (02:22:38):
A week that has been surprisingly jam packed, I think
for this time of year, especially if the NFL variety.
I mean, I know there's OTA's going on. What you
guys have to also understand is anytime I say something
like that, hey, there's a lot going on, wex is
gonna be like, of course there is.

Speaker 1 (02:22:56):
There always is.

Speaker 2 (02:22:57):
He will think that the All Star breaking Major League Baseball,
the deadest week in sports on the calendar is jam
packed of stuff.

Speaker 1 (02:23:04):
A handful of items we might have missed here on
Sports SOX seven ninety help part of in case you
missed it, and again a reminder continue listening. If you've
been listening this hour, something we've discussed will be the
subject of the question we'll ask next segment. So you
can win your way to go see Motley Crue. You
can't still buy tickets to the Motley Crue concert, We'll
give you diets. In the final segment of the show,

(02:23:25):
Josh start us off.

Speaker 11 (02:23:27):
Yeah, let's jump in here. The first one on our
list this is this was something AC put together, right,
I see.

Speaker 1 (02:23:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:23:34):
So, I mean there's lots of versions of the story,
like why aj Brown is out of Philly, right, But
I don't know that I saw this coming where he
was not only the leaker, but he kind of to
some extent says he was the leaker of some of
that information coming out about his departure from the Eagles,

(02:23:55):
some of the.

Speaker 3 (02:23:56):
Things that was done.

Speaker 5 (02:23:57):
It was purpose give us a place.

Speaker 10 (02:24:00):
I know, if I say something in the media, I
know it's gonna prepare prepare us to work on it.
Because now everybody's talking about it, you know, so it's like,
are we gonna really fix it or not. We're not
trying to truly get better. I'm not saying any word,
but if you say what you need to say in
the media, which I won't do it anymore, but it
gives everything.

Speaker 1 (02:24:18):
Ladies.

Speaker 10 (02:24:18):
Personally, isn't always a bad thing. Nothing I ever said
was for personal game. It was always to hip his
team win.

Speaker 1 (02:24:25):
Now you said he was the leaker. He's talking about
speaking of the media. Is he like he's not really
leaking anything. He's putting it out there like agents do,
like players do, to create a well oh this is
not going well, maybe they need a divorce. Sounds that
sounds like what he's saying, right, uh yeah, not like

(02:24:45):
he's trying to get information from somebody who's allegedly having
an affair with from another team and then putting it
out there to their benefit. So using the media, yeah,
absolutely uncommon and sometimes we don't realize it at the time,
which is kind of what he's getting at.

Speaker 2 (02:25:05):
But he like, where does it?

Speaker 1 (02:25:08):
Why do we think he's unhappy? Why do we think
he's disgruntled? Well, because of how he acted and things
that he said. He says it was done purposely to
give us a push get me out of here. He's
James Harden. Yeah, yes, James Harden gave the situation a
big old this. Fine if you want to say that,

(02:25:30):
and even if you want to admit that.

Speaker 2 (02:25:31):
You did that, and he clearly did, but don't say
in the same breath, well, it was never a selfish thing.

Speaker 1 (02:25:37):
That's exactly what it was. That's all it was.

Speaker 11 (02:25:39):
There's some too to this, right, Yeah, if you get
me the ball more, we're gonna win. I'm trying to
help the team.

Speaker 2 (02:25:45):
Listen, I'm telling you right now, all the elements are there.
They continue to stockpile the Patriots are Their fall from
glory is going to be studied.

Speaker 1 (02:25:54):
They are going to have a terrible season. I do
have to give too credit for this. It's so common.
It happens all the time with wide receivers. Yeah, divas,
and yet, as Josh accurately said, he associates it with
Terrell Owens like everybody else that does it. AJ Brown's
is the latest diva behavior, Diva things said in the media.

(02:26:18):
Everything about it, give me the ball more. They It's
never going to be attached to anybody else. I don't
know if this is always.

Speaker 2 (02:26:24):
Attached to to Yeah, well, when you do push ups
in your driveway with your agent on camera, like in
your he was so over the top about it.

Speaker 1 (02:26:33):
But here's the deal.

Speaker 2 (02:26:34):
Of all the names we can mention, and the list
is long and illustrious of that guy at that position
doing that thing, it's hard to and again I'm talking
about guys who actually do this. Because Jerry Rice is
the greatest of all time at the wide receiver.

Speaker 1 (02:26:48):
Posis also got he moved on a couple teams told diva.

Speaker 2 (02:26:51):
Nobody that made such a ruckus was as good as
t O either ever, not even close. Like the we
talk about balancing the baggage versus the performance. He always
when he was healthy, he answered the bell every time
he was awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:27:08):
And I still think AJ Brown there and any other
recent diva who's moved out of town, they weren't causing
quite the disturbance intentionally football wise within their team, Like
was he clearly did that. There, they can get over this. Oh,
there's nothing he didn't. He wanted this. He wasn't gonna
get this, so he's going to make sure everybody knew

(02:27:29):
about it. And I'm on my way someone, you're ready
for a super hot take?

Speaker 6 (02:27:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:27:33):
I always do this kind of thing when I don't
have numbers in front of me. I I don't want
to say he's overrated. I'm not gonna go there. But
the amount of that has come from this, I don't
think AJ Brown's worth it. It's part of the reason
I think they're going to have a down year in
New England. If he was too good, I might actually

(02:27:56):
be concerned as a Texan fan, but I just don't
think he's not a guy that's the last piece for them,
like they're looking at it. And with everything that's happened
with Rabel and with Drake May, he's almost due to
come back down to Earth and the sketch all that stuff,
I just wouldn't be shocked. I'm telling you, I wouldn't
be shocked that the Patriots have a spectacular fall, all.

Speaker 1 (02:28:16):
Right, Josh? Before we get to the next one, you'd
name off the receivers who have more yards receiving than
AJ Brown since twenty twenty two. AJ Brown's at five
thy thirty four?

Speaker 6 (02:28:26):
Oh man?

Speaker 11 (02:28:27):
Were we talking like Jamar Chase? And that's one justin Jefferson.
That's two, man, But none of those are.

Speaker 1 (02:28:35):
Halfway there to the entire list of four. Yeah, four
receivers with that's number three. But how many of those
seasons did he play in Philadelphia? That's the year he
got there. Okay, I keep forgetting how long he was there.
If I'm not mistaken, I'll double check. Yeah, the other
one over from Tennessee, the guy who catches passes from
Dak Prescott, Ceedee Lambe. Those are the only four receivers.

(02:28:57):
So there's only five receivers in the NFL since twenty
twenty five thousand yards receiving. He's number one among them
in yards per catch. And it's a group of the Browns,
Amon ra and aj Cede Lamb, Jamar Chase Justin Jefferson.

Speaker 2 (02:29:11):
That makes it seem like he's pretty awesome. Yet the
Eagles were like, yeah, we're good, get out of here.

Speaker 1 (02:29:16):
They also won one and went to another with him,
but not until he got Sekwan Barkley. I think there,
in case you missed it, there might be other reasons
why things didn't work out inside the Philadelphia locker room.

Speaker 11 (02:29:28):
Yeah, what else, Let's do a little segue here. Ac
thinks that Eagles could be a team that take a
downturn here. This article is on ESPN taken from worse
to first, ranking NFL's most likely turnarounds. They have the
Giants on this list at number three. I don't know
you think the Giants even have a chance in this division?

Speaker 1 (02:29:48):
Or remind our listeners and ourselves Cardinals, Saints, Lions, Vikings
both last place teams Giants. Those are the five teams
that finished in the last place in their respective division.
The Raiders, the Titans, the Browns, and the Jets. The
four teams that finished last place in the AFC NFL

(02:30:09):
standard trends say one of the teams that finished last
will finished first the following season. It happens almost every
single seas sometimes two or three times it happens. I
would not make the Giants my guess. I would tell
you that right now, But that means I have to
have somebody better totally cheating to take a team in
the NFC North. The last placed teams in the NFC

(02:30:30):
North both won nine games and both finished only two
wins behind the division leader. Those teams, it's pointless for
this exercise to choose them. Panthers, Bucks, Falcons all went
eight to nine. Can the Saints win the division as
a six win team from last year? That would be
my guest. That's such an awful division except for the Bucks.

Speaker 11 (02:30:53):
I mean, I think we all agree that the Giants, Saints,
and Lions are the only ones that have even have
a chance.

Speaker 1 (02:30:58):
Why so high on the Giant You're not alone, but others.
I'm just curious, why is John Harba this many wins?
For some reason? I respect what he did in Baltimore.
He was trying to win games with Lamar Jackson. Many
coaches would do that he's gonna get the Giants to
what like Jackson Dart is awesome for what they used

(02:31:20):
to have for as unexciting as quarterback play was for
Please don't make us have another season with Daniel Jones,
but rank him put him with the rest of the
thirty two starting quarterbacks. Is he really that high? Rhetorical
He's nowhere near the top of that list. Why are
they gonna win the division? They have the worst quarterback?

(02:31:41):
I don't think they are. I don't know they're not
gonna win that division. Do they have the worst starting quarterback?
Jaden Daniels, Dak Prescott, Jalen Hurts another rhetorical question.

Speaker 2 (02:31:49):
Yeah, but I do think they are going to be
doing this, and I do think I think hardball has
a lot to do with that.

Speaker 1 (02:31:58):
They've got good players. They're lying really good defensively. They
have added talent. I do think that if Milik Neighbors
is healthy and as a monster sized, if they've put
some good talented players, younger players. I don't know that.
I love their whole roster, and I'm still a little
bit amazed at their belief and their general manager. Still
they probably would say, hey, if we can go ahead
and not be on hard knocks anymore. Ever, again, if

(02:32:21):
he's our GM, that would be awesome because so many
things have come out that just don't make them look
very good, and Sakwon Barkley was one of the first
eye popping items on that list. Final segment of the show.
One of the featured players the Rockets used this week
to launch their new brand, their new logo, their new identity.
You saw him in his familiar number seven, and then

(02:32:44):
the paparazzi saw him as well. He's red going out
to get some food. Talk about that next the final
segment of the show. Week here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety three more games on the Astros home stand,
first of which is tonight over at Tiken Park. They
lost to of three to each of the first two
teams to visit town, the Brewers and then the Pirates.

(02:33:06):
Peter Lambert will try to get them off this series
a little bit better and hopefully they can win a series,
maybe have a winning homestand they'll need to sweep the
A's to do that, and he gets the ball tonight
against Oakland. He will have Jose Altuve behind him playing
second base. He makes his return after missing sixteen games
with the oblique injury. Neither of the two Astros who

(02:33:27):
made their debuts with the team are in the lineup tonight.
Obviously they're both available. Colin Price was making his major
league debut when he played for the Astros last evening,
catching Kaiwai Tang and the relievers that followed, and Zach
Decenzo was the corresponding move, by the way for Altuve
being activated. He step back to Triple A. No definitive

(02:33:48):
decision on Hunter Brown's next appearance, but everything has looked
very good health wise, stuff wise, everything's trending properly. Just
a matter of if they want him to start his
next game with the Astros, knowing that he's a little
bit limited from how deep he can get into the game,
pitch count, et cetera, after making just three rehab appearances.
But good news on that front and he's probably well

(02:34:09):
definitely the next pitcher that will make his way back
for Houston. Have a chance to get you out to
go see Motley Crue return of the Carnival of Sins Tour.
Tesla and Extreme will be with them September eleventh, Woodland's Pavilion.
You can find tickets and purchase them at ticketmaster dot
com or you can win them from us right here.
If you've been listening to the show this hour, you
will know the answer to this question about something we discussed.

(02:34:32):
It was actually last segment seven one three two one
two five seven ninety for you to dial in. And
when we're talking about AJ Brown, AJ Brown utilizing the
media in his mind to help foster a deal, quicker
path out of Philadelphia by kind of pushing this by
using the media and how things just weren't working out there,

(02:34:53):
et cetera. He was what I think we both referred to,
all three of us referred to as a diva, and
he plays the wide receiver position. It is not uncommon
to have that label dropped on you as a wide
receiver in the NFL. A lot of them are great,
and then a lot of them want huge contracts and
ultimately play elsewhere because of it happened here in Houston,
it happened with one of the rams great receivers, DeVante Adams.

(02:35:16):
Many many examples of it. But when we call a
wide receiver a diva and we describe their activities, it
is almost always associated with one very very special wide receiver,
and we mentioned it by name last segment? Who is
that wide receiver most often associated with the term diva?
If the word diva was looked up in the NFL

(02:35:38):
Dictionary and a picture accompanied that entry, and it was
a picture of a player at wide receiver, it would
likely be this player. Yeah, no question about it. Seven
one three, two one two five seven ninety Who did
we say that player? Was a last segment? And you
can go see Motley Crue all right and the rest
of the crew. Speaking of divas. Uh, you know my

(02:36:02):
utter disdain for Victor wibin Yama. Correct, You do not
seem like you're a fan of the player and the
hype or the person and his lack of humility.

Speaker 2 (02:36:17):
That's the one thing about him that's not likable, that's
for sure. Yes, that's my perception and mine alone, along
with a lot of other people. So this is something
that I am willing to do at any given time.
I just don't want people to think that I'm one
sided or devoid of being able to see the other
side of things or positives about things and people I'm

(02:36:40):
not a fan of. And I found something I genuinely
like about Vicky.

Speaker 1 (02:36:45):
Do you know what it is, not until I looked
up the link you put on the show.

Speaker 2 (02:36:50):
Victor wibin Yama's agent says he refuses to do endorsement
deals with.

Speaker 1 (02:36:57):
Soda companies.

Speaker 2 (02:36:59):
Quote they all want him, but Victor will never sell
soda because he doesn't want to kill the kids.

Speaker 1 (02:37:08):
End of quote. This is what you gets, what gets
you on his side.

Speaker 2 (02:37:12):
Well as someone who again that last part, because he
doesn't want to kill the kids.

Speaker 1 (02:37:18):
Now, those of you who tuned in literally at the
second you just said he doesn't want to kill the kids,
we're talking about San Antonio Spurs Center active for tonight's game.
Young man Victor webbin Yama. A quote within the article
written about him from his agent says, he doesn't want
to kill the kids.

Speaker 6 (02:37:38):
Is that right?

Speaker 1 (02:37:39):
Because of the.

Speaker 2 (02:37:39):
Amount of sugar and just bad things all around that
are in sodas, which, by the way, I'm a connoisseur
of I haven't had one in a very long time.
But over the years you've watched me drink how many
Doctor peppers? It's been a lot. But here's the thing,
there is something to that. I do feel way better
now that I haven't been drinking any I've lost weight.
It's it is a real thing. They are loaded with

(02:38:03):
not only sugar, but like high fruit toase corn syrve.
But bad stuff for you. But the comments, as per usual,
are the best part. Do you remember that claymation ad
for Sprite that Lebron did, He was a spray He
endorsed Sprite a lot, did different commercials a little bit
like but not Christmas one like Little Penny. Correct, it
was Christmas theme this one. Somebody attached to gift from

(02:38:26):
that and said, let child murderer. That's just terrible.

Speaker 1 (02:38:31):
And then of course the quote within the article from
his agent, we're not gonna mix his image with sodas
like and he said Coca Cola. They all want him,
but Victor will never sell soda because he doesn't want
to kill the kids.

Speaker 2 (02:38:45):
Yeah, but then somebody brought up a very good point
that completely negates this, and I can go back to
hating him the rest of the weekend his game two
stars tonight. Victor has a brand deal with Nike, right,
and it's a cartoon where there's a giant, fat slob
of a human being that is holding a swoosh from
Nike as if it's a weapon. And about to swing

(02:39:06):
down on a bunch of kids that are in a sweatshop,
and the quote says, just do it. It's funny stuff. Man,
he doesn't only killed kids. Victor Wimnyama, Uh death, what
a great tagline.

Speaker 1 (02:39:20):
I mean, I can understand dentists or doctors for different
reasons saying maybe not so much soda, We need to
brush your teeth a little bit more often with all
of what's in your soda. And then a doctor for
if you're drinking too much death by soda. Well, I
believe now you should hate him for this.

Speaker 3 (02:39:43):
I do.

Speaker 1 (02:39:43):
You should hate him for not wanting to be an
endorser of SODA's and saying it that way because he's
so full of himself that he thinks a kid would
be so into anything. Victor says that he would reach
the point of it's time to get this kid buried
because he had sodas to the point that he's not

(02:40:07):
with us anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:40:08):
Fly Higher sixty seven agrees with that. Oh look at
his agent leaks some bs to save his pr generational management.

Speaker 1 (02:40:15):
This article was written and published on the fifth of
June of this year, that's today, after his last game,
which was not good.

Speaker 2 (02:40:25):
Hey, whight have to do and make a big thing
about this? Hey, everyone, look how morally pure I am.

Speaker 1 (02:40:30):
They were coming after him before he got to the NBA,
and he kept saying, no, I can live off my
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars salary for my French
basketball team, Skincare Sodas. They all wanted him, but he declined.
We will have much more on Victor Webbin Yama and
the Astros, Texans, Rockets, et cetera when we're with you
again next week. Enjoy your weekend, Enjoy the Astros on

(02:40:52):
Deck show on all the Astros baseball we have for
you all weekend long, right here on Sports Talk seven
ninety

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