Hoops, Homers, and the Houston Hustle

Join us as we discuss the latest in sports and more! We dive into the rockets' performance in Orlando, break down the Astros and Jose Altuve’s impact, and talk about the key moves the Texans should make this offseason.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan multify the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports.
Chill lge down for the only home grown afternoon team
is talking your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are

(00:33):
the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
It's two o'clock on a Wednesday in Houston, Texas. Welcome
into the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety. He is Adam Wexler.
My name is Adam Clanton. We are taking you up
until five o'clock ish, a little bit before then when
the Astros and Mets will get together for spring training action.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
But in the meantime we have a lot to get to. Today.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
There is well, they made it official. They already made
it official, but you've got to actually finally hear from
Derek Stingley Junior, fresh off signing his brand spanking new
contract extension, which I like the way wex has been
talking about it this whole time. When all is said
and done, no matter if he never plays another down
for the Houston Texans following this deal, he'll have played

(01:24):
eight seasons in a Texans uniform, and that is a
very good thing for what I think and I think
Wex believes this and a lot of other people that
believe this is the best cornerback in the NFL, and
he'll be the highest paid for like two seconds and
then somebody else will replace that deal. But good to
see that today. We will obviously hear it from him.
We will get you ready for Rockets v. Magic later

(01:46):
on tonight. It's an earlier game, and it's the first
of two straight games that the Rockets will have in Florida,
where they traditionally don't play very well for whatever reason.
I'm just kidding, I know what the reasons are. But
hopefully they will get an eighth consecutive win. I think
that was kind of lost in the shuffle the other
night because things went so poorly for them for the
most of the first part of that game, and then

(02:06):
they won in overtime. Oh by the way, that was
their seventh consecutive win. So we will obviously tackle that.
Lance mccullors and a lot of other things. I'm very happy, though,
very very happy, not only that I didn't have to
wait another day, but that they are absolutely beautiful. I
don't know if they'll wear them as much as they
wore the last City Connect jerseys.

Speaker 4 (02:27):
I hope they do same plan.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, but I mean how many seasons that they go
with these because it was multiple for the other ones.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
I don't think it's any different, but I could be wrong.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, Like, well, you know, in the NBA you come
up with a new one like every year most of
the time.

Speaker 4 (02:41):
That doesn't happen in Major League Baseball. Yeah, three year
run for the last go round a lot. The program
was launched in twenty twenty one. Astros released their initial
edition in twenty twenty two and wore through the end
of last season. Mondays for those jerseys and the new
City Connect two point zero have been released. You can
see them all over our socials and our site at

(03:02):
sports talk seven ninety dot com and many other places.
Are individual sites as well. And I do believe my
initial reactions, not my personal reaction, but the reactions that
have been given back to me from some of those
social postings are overwhelmingly positive. Can't make everybody happy. I

(03:23):
have responded to at least one person with hey, look
it's Debbie Downer. But I'm doing that as we speak. Actually,
it does appear that they're well. First of all, we
know they're gonna it's going to go well. People almost
always can't get it. Hey, it's new, I gotta have it.
It's I gotta have it first, and the Astros are
definitely offering you that opportunity to get it first. We

(03:45):
are about a little under ten hours away from the
store at Union Station opening up eleven fifty nine this
evening and all the way through the twenty four hours
that follow all day Thursday into that midnight out a
couple of more opportunities on Friday and Saturday on site
over at dyk In Park, but the Union Station store

(04:06):
at Dykin Park will be open for all of your
purchasing pleasure for the city Connecting Uniform. Lots of great
details there always are. It was one of the things
I probably appreciated most about the previous version, with everything
that was paying respect to and paying homage to and
why is this there? And why is that there? The
A and Astros well, you can find it in some

(04:27):
places in the city connect Gear, but not across the
chest on the jersey, and I believe again people kind
of like it. We talk about it all the time,
We abbreviated all the time, and our conversations we speak
about it all the time, the Stros, as they say,
I'll take their words. The phrase Stros has always been integrated,
integrated into our fan culture, with STROS prominently featured on

(04:50):
the chest. It's the first time the organization has formally
adopted the fan driven nickname, and naturally it's crossed your chest,
so they're keeping it close to our heart.

Speaker 3 (05:01):
You brought up something about that, and this is super semantics,
so of course it's on the a team putting an
apostrophe there.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
I think, and sometimes when I'll write it, other people
will write it if you look at I don't know
that it's used very often and properly written articles, not
that there have any very many people writing properly written
articles about a baseball team anymore, but it's been there
at times. It doesn't belong there here, which is why
it is not stuff on the hat the neckline. They're

(05:30):
the mission patch. If you've seen their release of all
the graphics with Christian Walker and Jeremy Panyon fromber and
that guy that wears number twenty seven in the outfield
for the Astros, Josel Tova, among others. Get there are
a lot of different little pieces and I don't necessarily
mean not prominently displayed, but there is a lot to

(05:51):
look at on these generally cream colored, white colored, light
colored jerseys and designs. The hats very multicolored with the
A logo on it. There's stuff on the belt loop,
there's stuff on there's some trim around both of the sleeves,
and down the side there's all sorts of goodies for you. Well,
I have a question on that.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
I mean, this is very very, you know, super in depth,
but it is so on a lot of these there
are hidden gems like that, like, for example, this year's
Rockets City connect jerseys have Hakeem and Clyde's autographs stitched
onto them. Even the replicas you don't have to get
an authentic one because lord knows, the price differences in

(06:32):
some of these is very vast. But there is something
really cool on the bottom of this version of the
City Connects. It's got the star that you're talking about.
It's definitely an ode to the late nineties, but it's
the orange version of that star, not gold and glittery,
so wex can actually stomach it.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
And underneath that and.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
This is again this is like where the little tag
is on the bottom it says we choose to do
things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
That's the jock tag. Should I read that in the
proper accent, because yeah, I'll tell everybody what's it about.

Speaker 5 (07:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:09):
It captures a moment in history for Space City. That's
our city. You know. John F. Kennedy delivered his historic
space travel speech. Clanton probably knows this on September twelfth,
nineteen sixty two. I even know it was at Rice University.

Speaker 5 (07:24):
No.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Another instance in which he left our city alive in
the heart of Houston.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
It codifies our city as mission control, resilient, our people,
our organization that pursues betterment through hard work and the
relentless pursuit of excellence. That's there his speech. As you
just read. If you'd like to reread it differently, feel free.
You don't have to.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
We use to do things not because they are easy,
but because they are hard.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
There you go. We'll get some of the other presidents
on the show a little bit later. Today. There's stuff
on the belt Loop the ht X I think is
very noticeable and addition to it becoming more and more popular.
But like we said, I do think it's gonna be
very well received. We'll probably be a great scene for
the next twenty four hours over at a minute May Park,
And again the plan as was the case for the

(08:13):
last three years with the previous edition, they will wear
their City Connect uniforms for the first time opening weekend.
If you extend opening home stand I should say Monday
against the Giants. They will be worn at Monday home
games throughout the seasons season and there's all sorts of
special things going to be going on with the launch
of this. There's even a City Connect weekend April eleventh

(08:36):
through thirteenth, though, so that means throughout that weekend, all weekend,
they will wear those jerseys.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
That's see, I know that I'm asking for a lot,
and I'm already getting a lot. Wearing these every Monday.
That's the least that all these teams should do. Now,
some of these teams come out with them and they're
like the Rangers last version whatever that like, I mean
that was an absolute disaster, was But like whatever they are,

(09:03):
I think you should lean into them more often like that,
where Okay, this whole weekend we're wearing these, and.

Speaker 4 (09:07):
You should do that multiply.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
So one hundred and sixty two games I know there's
only half of those who play at home, but you
know what, wear them on the road a little bit.

Speaker 4 (09:14):
Why not? Yeah, Angels will be in town that second
home stand. It's only three games there, will wear them
all three games Friday, Saturday, Sunday, April eleventh through thirteenth,
and again Monday, the thirty first of this month. Again,
they're playing baseball that counts this month, just like the
Dodgers and Cubs. And that will be the first game

(09:35):
of the series against the Giants probably and not yet definitively,
but probably the first start of the season for Spencer Arraghetty.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
I that couldn't be more appropriate. I mean, I love it.
It's gonna be cool to see every guy in these.
That's the thing. If you're not a pitcher that starts
when you're wearing these, don't you feel like I mean,
you're wearing it right, but you're not on the field
that night necessary, So don't you kind of feel left
out if it doesn't act, you know, happen to fall
on your start date.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Yes, I guess, but your I mean, these are the
things that need you feel left out. In the one
hundred and twenty eight games you don't appear in already.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
But you wear the jersey at least your costume as Yeah,
you wear your costume. One hundred starting pitchers, one hundred
and sixty two game season. Let's say you start thirty
two times, one hundred and thirty times. You put on
your undergarments, you put on your stirrups, you put on
your socks, you get your cleats all shined up, you
put on your undershirt, you put on your jersey, you
put on your hat. Why you're You're definitely not playing.

(10:38):
There's no way you are playing that day under any circumstances.

Speaker 4 (10:42):
Eighteen inning playoff game in which you're Roger Clemens.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Again, that's not part of the one sixty two that's
in the postseason. When starters actually do get asked to
pitch on days they would not normally pitch. Sometimes they
get asked to go to the bullpen and warm up
and maybe come into the game. But during the regular season,
the day after Hunter Brown throws a gym, he's not playing.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
The next day, he's not playing the day after that either.
Now he might need to wear that awesome UNI to
go throw his bullpen and to play long tossed with
fromber in the outfield in between watching Spencer and Renell
and Hayden and Lance pitch. Yes seeing Lance pitch something
we obviously need to discuss. He'll get a chance to
wear those City Connect uniforms because he's gonna be on

(11:20):
the Astros this year. Everything went well for him yesterday.
We'll dig in on what he had to say and
how he felt about things and his next step after
the first step off of the mound with a baseball
in a game that came out of his arm and
went towards home plate and had batters in the batter's box.
He did that for the first time in nearly nine
hundred days yesterday for his team. Bury me in the

(11:45):
h in the City Connect uniforms if you must each
TX so we like it. We'll talk about Lance mcculors.
We will weigh in on some thoughts about the future
with Derek Stingley Junior holding it down for the Texans.
Other moves made by the team this offseason usually mean
money moves made another one of those, so we'll get
into that and a host of other things, including their
former third basement. Finally telling us the information we did

(12:07):
not yet have definitively as it relates to hey man,
were the Astros your next choice? All those things still
to come on the horizon, including Best of X and
Wednesday's BS Here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Ninety Hi, kids, it's a Wednesday edition of the show
Sports Talk seven ninety eighteen, coming at you until five o'clock.
I misspoke in the first segment and I was called
to the mat for it, and I have to correct it.
We're making way for Rockets basketball around five o'clock, not
Astros baseball. That'll be over on KTRH on tape delay.

(12:47):
But we will have obviously Rockets Orlando Magic coverage for
you beginning at five o'clock today. It's an early tip
because they're in Florida, although that doesn't apply on Friday night.
NBA TV picked up that game. I don't know if
that's why it didn't change the time. That's that's why
I thought, okay, but why are they having it at
seven instead of yeat?

Speaker 4 (13:05):
The announcement from the NBA said the Rockets game against
the Magic on Friday, with the game time unchanged, will
remain on their flagship radio station, Sports Talk seven ninety
and will remain on their home owned television network, Space
City Home Network. Also, by the way, if you live
somewhere else and don't get those those stations and don't
realize how awesome, the iHeartRadio app is where you could

(13:27):
be listening to everything we produce here. Especially since Sports
Talk seven ninety is number one on your presets. You
can go ahead and listen to it there, or if
you really wanted to watch it on NBA TV, you
can also do that. That was the NBA announcement.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
I mean I shouldn't probably no changes, no changes for
our people here who have grown up and continue to
love their.

Speaker 4 (13:46):
Hometown Houston Rockets as they go for maybe a ninth
consecutive win. Should they beat through Orlando Magic for the
third consecutive time when they play them tonight?

Speaker 3 (13:56):
What like NBA TV, much like NFL Network, this is
not relegated to one net. I think MLB Network's the
best by far of all the networks for leagues.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Do you not agree with that? Well, what they do,
they've started to do a whole lot more of it.
What NBA TV really provides. It's like last night. If
you are an NBA fan and you don't have League Pass,
but you're paying attention to things. Okay, this game's close,
this game's really close. Oh my god, this game's super
close and late. Maybe I don't know if it's a
national game, should I should I fire off on ESPN,

(14:26):
Should I head on over to TNT, or maybe maybe
I'll check in NBA TV. NBA TV almost always has it,
whether literally they're carrying that game that night as an
alternate broadcast because they don't take games away from local TV.
If it's on NBA TV, it's also in both of
the local markets, and they're not a national network that
potentially takes a game off of Space City Home Network,

(14:48):
So they either have the broadcast or they're sitting at
a desk with two analysts and a host and they
let's check in on the final sequence here, let's let's
get a live look at what's going on here. So
you can almost always catch it. And that's what I appreciate.
I want to see that if I'm not already finding
it myself through League Pass or whatever other means. And

(15:08):
the NBA app now offers a whole sorts of that
stuff as well. I try and you know, the Minnesota
game earlier this week when they lost in overtime to Indiana.
I saw it live. It was there, you know, picking
up some of the other games this week, And this
is something we're gonna do more and more of because
even on the nights where the Rockets don't play and
the Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Lakers don't play well, you still

(15:31):
need to pay attention to teams that could catch some
of these teams. And they were on the court last night.
Golden State, as we guessed yesterday, did sit Steph Curry.
Then Milwaukee still couldn't beat them, so Golden State got
another win. The Clippers hosted the team with the best
record in the East. I still hesitate to call them
the best team in the East. The records, the streak,

(15:52):
what's that? Don't they have a losing streak now? The
Cavs after their second fifteen plus game winning streak. Yeah, probably, Well,
they lost two in a row, that would be a streak.
They did lose to the Clippers last night. The Clippers
are in position to make a difference in what the
Rockets see in their half of the bracket. Are certainly
even with their matchup. As you head into play tonight,

(16:13):
with those teams I mentioned the Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies, and
Rockets all playing again. They all had a game two
days ago the off day, and then a game again tonight.
Golden State and Minnesota both have forty wins. They're six
and seven. The Clippers have thirty nine wins. They're eight.
The Rockets are two. They have forty four wins. Five

(16:33):
wins separate those seven teams. There's a big drop off
between the Clippers and Kings, so that's probably your top eight.
The Kings, MAVs, and Sons are in a pretty tight
three games separating them. Battle for nine, ten and eleven.
Bring the Kings down because they're going to be playing
games without Demanisa Bonus probably at least a week, probably
more with the ankle injury he suffered. The MAVs don't

(16:54):
have any players and they love losing. Now. Obviously, with
no players, you lose. They've gone two eight in their
last ten, and all of a sudden, for the Suns,
they are hot. They've won five of ten. They're five
and five in their last ten, and they're blazing hot
for how they've been playing basketball. But they're just a
game behind the maps Rockets, Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies separated by

(17:19):
a single game heading into play tonight, and as I mentioned,
they're all playing tonight. We know what the Rocket situation is.
We'll have it for you here with the Magic beginning
at five o'clock with Rockets launch pad thedn't countdown, then
tip off itself with the thirty two and thirty seven Magic.
The Denver Nuggets and Lakers are playing again. They are

(17:39):
only separated by the two wins that the Lakers lack
at forty two and twenty five. Nuggets are forty four
and twenty five. That game in LA and the Grizzlies
and what might be a little bit more difficult game
than people expect, are on the road at Portland Portland.
I don't know how they're doing it, even though we've
watched them. They are the best worst team in the NBA.

(18:02):
They are the best team that doesn't have a lot
of talent in the NBA. They have thirty wins. It
doesn't sound like much. They're thirty and thirty nine. Just
like Shaquille O'Neal said the other day when he was
talking so glowingly about Chauncey Billips, the coach of the Pistons.
According to him, he's actually the coach of the Blazers.
He's done a great job. And they they play their

(18:23):
butts off without a whole lot of first line talent.
Isn't that the.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Sign of a good coach? When because again, we went
through it here and I hate it because he was
such a nice guy. I never felt like man Steven
Silas is going through it right now. But these guys
play their butts off. Yeah, totally Silas's faulted.

Speaker 4 (18:39):
KPJ. Christian Wood and players like that didn't play hard.
That's on him. Bad coach. Totally his fault. Again. You
guys can hear it, right, I'm pretty good at it.

Speaker 6 (18:47):
You.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
I can hear the tone of my voice, right. You
know what the Phillips was here?

Speaker 3 (18:50):
Or even look if emy Udoka is here, do you
think there's a difference.

Speaker 4 (18:55):
Here's what would have happened. Good morning the same, right, Hey, Rafell, Hey,
what's up Hunston? Did you get rid of him yet? Nope?
All right, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Hey, good morning, Rafelle,
Hey Johnson, Hey, did you get rid of him yet? Nope?

Speaker 3 (19:06):
All right, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Every day every day.
That is also easier said than done.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
He I think those would be the extent of their
conversations about how things going, what's going on with the
basketball team? Man, I like the way you guys played
last night. Has he gone yet? Have you been able
to orchestrate a move yet?

Speaker 3 (19:21):
I understand what you're trying to do to me, and
I know there's a way that we could get the
most out of this.

Speaker 4 (19:26):
And you know we're gonna be the team that took
a chance on KPJ. And he's gonna play to this
level and we'll be able to move Like, come on, man,
you want me to play hard with these guys now. Granted,
I also think it's fair to say, and I don't
think there's much pushback on it. Chauncey Billips is a
better basketball coach as a head coach in the NBA
than Steven Stilas was or ever will be. It just
he he did not I did not think he was

(19:47):
a good coach. I did not know that before he started.
How would I? I did not know that? But I
don't think there were so many things wrong with what
they were doing, and it did go beyond personnel. So
I think an acknowledgment of both is also still fair.
Just saw. I don't trying to remember who it was.
I know it wasn't somebody super reputable, probably someone that
just has time to make a graphic and likes the

(20:09):
X platform. They just put out a tiered list of
NBA coaches, Championship coaches, Elite coaches, and then a few
others along the way. But I didn't get to the
rest of the list because I stopped at Elite because
Amy Adoka was listed there and I thought that was accurate.
It is accurate.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
We are blessed that a mixture of elements that went
down a perfect storm, if you will, made him available
to the Houston Rockets. But not only was he available
to them, they hired him a lot of times. One
of that part of that equation happens, and the other
part doesn't. I keep talking about this, and I absolutely

(20:46):
mean it, the fact that not one but two of
the coaches I would have hired if I were running
those respective teams were hired within a year of each other,
in Ema Udoka and Amico Ryans.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
It's good stuff. We haven't hit on much of what's
going on with the Texans yet. Derek sting and his
meet with the media today was over there a little
bit earlier. I got a nice whiff of NRG Stadium
during the rodeo and also had a chance to catch
up with Derek Stingley Juniors. Cool seeing his family there
alongside him as he talked about what it's like to
be a long term Texan. Get into that. But obviously

(21:18):
midway through our number one of the A team. Each
and every weekday afternoon here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
we deliver the best of X, the.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
Did you all see this putting out between five and him?

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Posts day four hundred people were arrested for things that
they said on social media.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
History repeats itself type, Ben, You'll succeed.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Never doubt that you're the one to bustle no one building.
You're the best X. Nothing's gonna have a top.

Speaker 3 (21:56):
You know you're the best of it posting ever seen bldadians, you're.

Speaker 4 (22:02):
The best of XX.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Breaking the entire enginet.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Halfway through hour number one brings you best of X.
I believe for the first time in Best of X history,
we open Best of X with this.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Just a little over an hour from leaving the facility
and having an extended conversation with a member of the
media about what do you think of the Texans offseason
moves hiring them Nick Kayley, what they've done with the
offensive line, et cetera. And my comments on the offensive
line were, man, are they playing a dangerous game? Not
just with the upcoming season, but with their quarterback. According

(22:53):
to multiple reports, they have made an addition to their
offensive line a starting caliber expectation, Cam Robinson signing with
the Texans on a one year deal. We're in the
neighborhood of twelve to fourteen and a half million, depending
on some of the ways you can make it a
fourteen and a half million dollar deal one year, twelve

(23:14):
million dollars for Cam Robinson. If the name sounds familiar,
he's played against the Texans a bunch. He used to
play for the Jacksonville Jaguars. The very good Minnesota Vikings
were in a bind last year when their starting tackle
was hurt, and by that point in the season they knew,
we are awesome. We need to take a chance here,
so they traded for Cam Robinson. Jacksonville traded him to Minnesota,

(23:37):
and Minnesota put him on their lineup and played themselves
into nearly the best record in the NFC, and instead
played it into a loss in the regular season finale
and a loss in their only postseason game. And now,
to man, we cannot wait to start the JJ McCarthy
era unless Aaron wants to play here. Cam Robinson was

(23:58):
not signed to a twelve million dollar deal to watch
Blake Fisher start at right tackle and Titus Howard start
at left tackle.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Nope, And I never thought that would be the two
tackles that would start.

Speaker 4 (24:11):
But I can't tell you that I truly, fully believe
that Cam Robinson is a better tackle than either one
of them. I do not think he's a better left
tackle than Titus Howard. It's probably easy to say he's
a better right tackle than Blake Fisher, even though that's
not where he's been. But Blake's just barely been out there.

(24:31):
Un This is at least a long term veteran player
in the league. But did they put this together so
they can go back to their age old formula of
putting together a patchwork offensive line. I mean, we got
guys that can play all over the line. We'll just
put the best five guys out there, does this shift
Titus Howard, who restructured his deal, by the way, Corney,

(24:52):
Aaron Wilson, and others they had to know back inside
again after he did play left tackle well seasons ago.
I don't know who wants to say it was at
this unbelievable level. Some of the numbers say it was exceptional.
I hesitate to say that, but certainly I felt like
if they wanted to the season with him at left tackle,
that would be Okay, Cam Robinson at left tackle is

(25:15):
we'll talk about this until we're further away from it.
Definitely a downgrade from Laramie Tunsel. Okay, So.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
A couple things here when you just got done saying
you don't know if he's a better left tackle than
Titus Howard. But if they thought that Titus Howard was
a better option at left tackle, why would they go
out and sign Cam rob Why would they restructure Titus
Howard's deal to do this?

Speaker 4 (25:43):
I think they answer your question. That's why we sit here. Yeah,
I'm not blind faith believing in the Texans evaluations of
offensive lineman. It's crazy. I watch football. I know how
to look at a player. I know what to look
for I've talked to enough people that are actually in
the game of football as I'm not, and obviously the
numbers that go along with it. There's a reason why

(26:04):
a team with a quarterback they just signed to a
massive deal said absolutely, you can have our tackle. You
can have Cam Robinson. He's been probably best called an
average starting left tackle. I think that's the high end

(26:25):
of praise for Cam Robinson thus far in his career,
most of which was spent, you know, playing with the Jaguars.
He's not a plus level tackle. Is he a better
fit for what Nick Cayley wants to do? Is he
a little bit more of this and a little less
of that. Sure we can get into that, and they're
gonna know more than I will. I don't remember what
Nick Kayley's offense looks like. He's never had one before.

(26:47):
He's coached under Sean McVay. He's coached under Josh McDaniels.
He's coached in New England, he's coached with the Rams.
I can't tell you what it's gonna be like. I
can tell you that for the better part of his
career he's been a starter. He started all seven teen
games last year for two teams when he hasn't been hurt.
He is a starting tackle. He's a starting left tackle,
and at age thirty, which is what he'll be a

(27:10):
couple months into the season next year, he's being paid
as a starting tackle again. Twelve million dollars is not outrageous,
but that shows you the caliber of player you're getting.
He's the caliber of players comparable to Titus Howard. They're
both going to be making roughly the same amount.

Speaker 3 (27:25):
Since we're anap amount, since we're in the business of
picking knits. Does the one year contract even scream we're
not completely confident in this deal.

Speaker 4 (27:35):
It screams this is all we had to pay for.
This is what's out there. I mean, he was not
a highly sought it's not March tenth. It's not the
first day you can tamper. That's not March twelfth. He's
available for a reason, right.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
But then, if you were going to go buy somebody,
which is what they're doing here, why didn't you go
buy somebody better when they were still available.

Speaker 4 (27:53):
That's just not the way they went about it. I
think their plan, which would fall in line with moving
on from Laramie Tunsel. If you're gonna go pay somebody else.
Why would you do that? Just keep paying Laramie. They're
not planning on paying somebody else. They're planning on paying
very little money for their future offensive line by drafting them.

(28:15):
That is absolutely, definitively no question about it, and this
move even confirms it. They're just saying, as Wex has
been telling everybody, they can't play that dangerous a game
with this season with Sieja. They have to put somebody
out there. They have to sign somebody that's going to play.
Cam Robinson's going to play for this team. He's He's
the only lineman they've signed that I know for a

(28:37):
fact is going to be out there if he's healthy.
I believe Lake and Tomlinson probably will also be a
starting guard. I don't think that's set in stone. He
had a nice message on his social media about the
Seattle fans and then how excited he is to be
here in Houston. He obviously has a relationship with Tamiko
Ryans from spending all that time in San Francisco together.
But this is a player who will start. As they

(28:57):
draft an offensive lineman to be the guy they're going
to pay in the future, they hope he plays well
enough to earn all his first round pick money or
second round pick money, and then three four years down
the road they're paying him to anchor part of their line,
presumably on the outside. Maybe the same is true with
Blake Fisher, who's only making second round pick money for
twenty twenty five. In twenty twenty six and twenty twenty seven,

(29:21):
they have now virtually no major commitments financially to any
offensive lineman after twenty twenty five other than the again,
the small money contracts except for Titus Howard. This new player,
Cam Robinson is not bringing with him long term financial obligations.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
But again, it is absolutely a better offensive line now
than it was a couple hours ago.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
Yes, I know that's very uh mobar, Yeah, but I
do think that's fair. I think that's probably the best
way to put it when you look at what was
out there even at the beginning of free agency. From
a tackle standpoint, they either we're paying Laramie Tunsel for
two more years, not moving him in trade and moving
on from him at that point, but the idea that
they were going to trade him and his salary slot,

(30:09):
so to speak, and just refill it with some other
tackle at a very high rate. Those players don't normally
sign short term deals. Those players can command long term deals,
and I think that's why they were not in the
mix for that among the players available. I mean, I
think ty Cam Robinson was the best available tackle at
this point in the offseason. He will be starting for

(30:29):
his third team in the last thirteen games, but it
was a long time starter for the Jaguars. Not a
whole lot of winning there. And then he was part
of a really, really good Vikings team and they knew
what they traded for a player they knew was in
the final year of his contract, hit free agency and
lands back in the ANFC South.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
We'll obviously continue to discuss this breaking news, and we'll
actually get to the best of X.

Speaker 4 (30:53):
That was the best of X. There's no getting to it.
We just did it. It's over. There's no more best
of X. I don't now. Things still happen on social
media and we can still talk about those things, but
we cannot call them best of X. Best of X
ends here at two forty forty. Here to make the
intro again. No, he can't suit me. I can't stop you.
The room's right in there. I'll have to do is
walk in there bringing on Nancy physically assault JK. See

(31:16):
what happens after that?

Speaker 3 (31:19):
HRT me talked to you, Hey, I got wex here.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
No, he's actually got me here because he's physically assaulted me.
What what? What kind of a trouble ticket? Should I
fire off trouble emphasis? It's probably not that important. If
you really want to play the intro again, I still
won't let you do it.

Speaker 5 (31:33):
I'll let the.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Break the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (31:42):
They are different. They keep winning. Thompson.

Speaker 4 (31:47):
I feel like Rockets, you're gonna make the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
This year.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Was awesome.

Speaker 7 (31:53):
Men.

Speaker 8 (31:53):
Thompson here and you've got Sports Talk seven ninety home
of the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (32:00):
Now the drive. Sports Talk set a ninety traffic here
for now.

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Have a truck fire on the north Loop feed or
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Still have our Spring enclosure of Spring Cyprus eastbound at
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Speaker 2 (36:33):
The A Team continues.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
Well, you significantly and successfully scared.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Jk's laying the intro. He knew, he knows what did
he know? He knows what's up? Like I said, what
you were gonna throw down? He's just following the form
out of the show. It says right here, I'm reading it.
It's his best of x oh, somebody moved it. I
didn't even see that. I never even looked down. I mean,
you gotta if you're gonna make a change to the show,
you gotta let me know. We had to follow the
show run down. That's so I'm with him. I don't

(37:17):
think we need the music again. Now, by the way,
you lied about something. What's that you said? I had
to save it for today. Yeah, still my little tiff,
go ahead with Buster. Who's stopping you? What's his legal name?
Do you know that?

Speaker 14 (37:32):
Do you?

Speaker 3 (37:32):
We've talked about it before. Well I forgot because I
don't care about him that much.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
So we're talking about Cam Robinson last segment, and we
will revisit that topic again quite obviously. Cam Robinson reportedly
is joining the Texans on their offensive line. Nice past
blocking great over the last handful of years. My view
of him maybe not what others view of him. I'm
not super excited, but I definitely realize and believe this
is a move that had to be made. Now we'll
get back to that here. Shortly. There was something posted

(37:59):
about the first two games of the Major League Baseball
season before they were played. Now they have. The Dodgers
and Cubs have finished their Tokyo Series early am games
yesterday and today. It was able to catch some of
the work today saw the home run review successful. We
thought it was a home run when he hit it,
and we're going to keep it that way after we

(38:19):
review it. Shoho Tani homered in the Tokyo Series. I think,
to the delight of a lot of fans in number
seventeen jerseys, he does that. I did see the very
hard hit smash opposite field off a lefty from Kyle
Tucker in the ninth inning of the game. Smash it
off the wall, cruised into second with his first Cubs hit,

(38:40):
obviously his first hit not in an Astros uniform, but
that was little of what they had going. Very it
was an interesting outing and one we've seen many times before.
For Ryan Presley, he made his Cub's debut, pitched hisself
into trouble loading the bases, walking a batter to load
them up, and then induced an ending double play ball.

(39:03):
No harm, experienced, no problem at all, but they lost.
Cubs are own two, Dodgers are two and oh. The
Dodgers are going to play game three of their season
here in the States and a little over a week,
like everybody else, will get their season started. They have
played zero games with Mookie Betts. He's missed both. They
played today's game without Freddy Freeman, who has a little injury.

(39:23):
There's one hundred and sixty more to go, and two
of their three best players can't play a full season.
They've already been injured or sick for part of it.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
I feel so bad for the rich Los Angeles Dodgers
who buy their teams their two.

Speaker 4 (39:37):
And oh yeah, they buy their teams. The other teams
do not have to pay for their players. The other
teams don't have players under contract. They don't spend any money.
There is no salary cap. They do not pay for
their players. It's a volunteer staff of baseball players the
other twenty nine teams outfit. Did the Astros pay for
their player? They do you want to play Major League Baseball?
Open tryouts? Come on in, do you want to make

(39:58):
money playing baseball? He got one choice. You can play
for the Dodgers because they pay for their team. Nobody
else does.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Every time I hear that word, I think, if Heath
Ledger in the dark Knight, we're gonna have tryout.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
So I'd leave it there before we mentioned some of
the things that Joe Aspota said today. The lineup for
their game just after five o'clock will include their opening
day left fielder Jose Altuve. He's going to be their
opening day left fielder. That is what Joe Spotta had
to say today. We'll expand on that, but I know
you want to get to a buster roll in these
comments caption for his Hey, why don't you read this

(40:29):
article about Kyle Tucker which got Astro's Twitter, which, for
the purposes of the discussion you're a part of all
uh well all a Twitter? Yeah. Well, look, you still
haven't given me his government name. I've given it to
you so many times. We were past this. Give it
to me one more time. It's Robert. Oh my gosh,
Stanbury On the third, if your name was Robert, why

(40:51):
would you go by Buster on purpose? It's a cool nickname.
I mean, it doesn't necessarily fit what part of it's
like bus to him, he's a a Buster, That's what
it sounds like. I know a Buster, and I don't
even know what his first name is, and I think
it's a very cool nickname.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Buster sounds like the name of an animal who you
would have fetch the physical newspaper for you in nineteen eighty.

Speaker 4 (41:11):
Tell me dogs don't have cool names most of the time.
Some of the time. Most of the time.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Like, if I ever get a new dog, a real one,
not those toys we have that my wife calls animals,
I'm gonna name it Hakeem. You're wasting all of your
precious time. Oh yeah, my precious time that I need
to squeeze this in.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
Well, look his I don't know. Would you call it
passive aggressive? Would you're a backhanded? Tell us how his
caption read as he promoted the article he wrote about
former Houston Astro World Series champion Kyl Tucker.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
You're giving him way too much credit by saying that
I who he is. Robert One tweeted the following at
five o'clock in the morning yesterday.

Speaker 4 (41:51):
Just before the season began, just before the sun rises.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
He uh had a picture of Kyle in a Cubs uniform,
of course, and it's, you know, an article that he
wrote for espen and you can go, you know, look
at it there if you want to give him the clicks.
I don't recommend it because it's driple. But he wrote
the caption that said the following. Kyle Tucker might not

(42:15):
be a household name, Comma, but the new Cubs outfielder
is still the same slugger he was back when he
was breaking records pause for effect in high school. Meaning
if you read that the way it's written, not reading
between the lines, not misinterpreting anything. I'm just reading what
is in front of me. On his stupid account, Kyle

(42:38):
Tucker went to high school, broke records as a slugger,
and now he plays for the Cubs. That's his career arc.
That's all that's ever happened. That's his resume. The astros
don't exist.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
It's my understanding. In the winter or early spring, maybe
late summer of twenty fifteen is when Cayle Tucker played
his last high school game fifteen, twenty fifteen, he just
years before the astros first World Series. This article was

(43:09):
written before he played his first game with any major
league team. It was before wasn't at played with the Astros.
I'm just saying it's it's been a while since Kyle
Tucker was drafted fifth overalls. Tucker twenty fifteen, played in
the minors for the Astros into twenty eighteen, and has
been a Major leaguer for the Astros since twenty eighteen,

(43:30):
including three trips to the World Series, where if you're
a baseball fan and you're watching or listening to baseball games,
it's hard to miss him. There's only two teams still
playing and he's on one of them. God won a
World Series, and in the World Series that he was
on the team that won, the last pitch of the
game landed in his glove, lest we all must have.

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Forgotten, after it was thrown to the batter by Ryan Presley,
his new Cubs teammates.

Speaker 4 (43:55):
So the sarcasm that we're dripping on here means everybody
on Astros Twitter, including a c they lit him up.
They lit him up.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Now I could read some of those, or I could
read mine, and since it's my talk show with you,
I'm gonna go ahead and do the latter.

Speaker 4 (44:07):
Cool at Astros fans, he's trolling for engagements. He's well
aware of Tucker's history. I quoted him.

Speaker 3 (44:12):
It's March eighteenth, and frankly, that's pretty late in spring
training for at Robert Underscore. Only ESPN to show his
ass with one of his patented article captions must be
losing his touch. We will not lose our touch when
we get on TV next.

Speaker 2 (44:31):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham Talking your Team, Adam.

Speaker 7 (44:45):
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen A.

Speaker 4 (44:57):
S. I lied.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
It happens on the show. We are not on televi
Vision today. We will be on television tomorrow, but we're
always on Sports Talk seven to ninety.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 3 (45:07):
It is the three o'clock hour, and we have already
gotten to a number of topics and actually we haven't
even scratched the surface on several others.

Speaker 4 (45:15):
It is a day in.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
Which, one day earlier than originally promised, the Astros release
City Connect two point zero I'm debating something.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
By the way, WEX.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
You remember the first hour where I read as JFK
the quote from his speech that he made here at
Rice University about NASA.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
I do remember.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Well, you know, I have that complicated relationship with that
event that happened up the road in Dallas involving him,
and I haven't even It's more, it's further complicated by
the powers that be here at our fair station. They
don't really like me to talk about things like that
on the air. I can't help it. They put a
quote on the Astros jersey. How can I not point

(45:58):
out that it was not just one, but two occasions
that I know of, that he left the city alive.

Speaker 4 (46:03):
Why can't I point that out? He left every city
he's ever been to alive but one.

Speaker 3 (46:08):
I mean, there's only one time where he left this
city and then went to the next one and didn't
have that happen for him. Way to go, Houston, exactly. Nice, Joe,
thank you, That's all I needed from you. So yeah,
the Astros Connect jerseys released. If you haven't seen them, well,
I'd like to know the size of the rock you
are trapped under right now. They're sweet and like WEX mentioned,

(46:29):
very very few people have given a thumbs down.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
It is a unanimous thumbs up.

Speaker 14 (46:35):
Now.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
I remember when the last City Connect jerseys came out,
you know, the Navy with the you know, there's a
lot of details on that one, and I thought they
were overwhelmingly positively received then.

Speaker 4 (46:47):
And to I just I was okay with them, but
I was like, I'm.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Not, like, I don't have to go out and give
them my money right now to get one of these.
That's how I feel about these. These are way better
in my opinion. But I'm just one man with a microphone.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
I love love those jerseys. I just didn't think they
looked as awesome blue on blue Gay Day games, you know,
when you got to watch them play day game. I did.
I just wasn't a huge fan of the blue tops
and blue pants. I think will be much more. And
you can see him on Christian Walker and Jeremy Pania,
and you're on Alvarez and Josel Tuve and from ber Valdez.

(47:23):
They look much more easy on the eyes and just
the design and everything about him, which you can get
for yourselves as early as when the clock strikes midnight
tonight over at the Union Station store at dyk In Park.
It's a twenty four hour sale, by the way, yep,
all day throughout the day. Tomorrow. They'll have different locations

(47:45):
on site, whether it's their Center Fields Team store or
the Union Station store open for parts of the day
both Friday and Saturday. All the deats can be found
on our blog post right there at sportstock seven ninety
dot com.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
Yeah, I think it's regular hours for the Fields shot,
but the Union Station is the one doing the twenty.

Speaker 4 (48:03):
Four hours as I recall reading. But yeah, yeah, that's
for today, Yeah exactly. So it's They're They're fantastic.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
I can't wait to get my hands on some of
that gear, and I can't wait to see them every
single Monday that there is an Astros home game. Rockets
in Magic will be getting together tonight in Orlando, first
of two straight games the Rockets will play there before
coming home for frankly, a very very big game on Sunday, like,
provided the Rockets take care of business against two teams

(48:32):
that they frankly should but rarely ever do, because Florida
is a lot of fun. Apparently they've got Orlando tonight,
They've got Miami Friday, and then they've got a Sunday
game against the Denver Nuggets that, I mean, depending on
what happens, could very well determine who's currently in the
two spot the next morning.

Speaker 4 (48:51):
But it's important to you know these games. You got
only so many games left, and four of the remaining
games are against two of the teams that are battling
for the same spot as you. I'm not saying they
need to go out and lose the other remaining games,
but if you beat Denver and the Lakers three out
of four, certainly if you beat them four out of four,

(49:11):
you're good. I mean, odds are really really good that
you're clearly playing well enough to win most of those
other games. But now you've put yourselves in position to
not quite lock up, but get awfully close to doing so.
They're playing each other which tonight, which clearly means one
of them is going to take an l nose ties
in the NBA. So there are a lot of ways
for the Rockets to take care of those things. But
as I've mentioned quite a few times, I think the

(49:34):
Rockets it's nice that they have so many wins against
most of these teams. Minnesota is a better team than
the one the Rockets played most of the year. Memphis
is probably a better team than different times throughout the year.
The Rockets did play them with some of their or
most of their lineup healthy, but they haven't had a
lot of games lately where Triple j and Jah and

(49:56):
Desmond Baine have all been on the court together. They
probably will be for much of the the remainder of
the season. Denver Nuggets are no different. They've played a
game with them with no Aaron Gordon. Gordon had thirty
eight points in their last game. They just played a
game without Jokich and Jamal Murray. I don't know that
the Rockets are gonna fare quite as well against these teams.
They clearly haven't seen the Lakers with Luca, so that's
two more games remaining with them. The Rockets are who

(50:19):
the Rockets are. I know they missed Jabbari for a month,
and missed or a month and change, missed Fred for
about a month, and Amen Thompson has had a couple
of instances where he's been out of action, including currently,
But for the most part, the Rockets have been a
little bit I think more put together when those particular
teams have met. Amn Thompson is not even necessarily ruled

(50:39):
out for the finale of this two game road trip.
He's been ruled out for tonight along with Reed Shephard,
but everybody else is good to go. These are not
back to backs, so they're not only good to go tonight,
but good to go again on Friday against the Heat. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:54):
I just wish that Men Thompson and Tyler Hero were
definitely getting together.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
I guess it's not out of the question. I think
about what a Men said afterwards. He was pretty clear
that it really I mean, whether he just flat out
lied to everybody, it wasn't really personal. This is what happened.
Sometimes you get into a game and the way the
game was going. I don't have any doubt the astros
were frustrated. I don't know they were frustrated specifically at Hero.
But Hero is the type of player because of his bravado,

(51:21):
which is a good thing in the NBA for most players.
I think he's easy to get ticked off at and
have a play. He's not really I don't think he's
doing it to get under guy's skin, but it's just
part of how he plays and how he shows the
emotions of the game, and so when they were face
to face late in the game with the Rockets kind
of folding at the moment and making other mistakes and

(51:42):
kicking the game away, he got mad and he tossed
him to the ground. That's what sucks. But he said
it wasn't personal, it was heat of the moment stuff.
Oh Man or Tyler Amen? Yeah, well, Hero said here
was a total douche after the game. I'm not going
to sugarcoat it. That's what he was. He's wearing stupid
sunglasses windoors. He does wear them a lot. That's why
over the next on the show. Yeah, I know, I
don't know if there's more to it because I've never

(52:02):
read that there is, but he has worn them quite
a bit at press conferences, you know, indoor oh interviews.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Let me be clear, I'm not saying Tyler Hero was
a douche that night. I'm saying he's a douche twenty
four to seven.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
Just to be clear.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
I'm glad you listeners. I'm definitely away Man telling them anything.
They don't know by watching the guy the way he
carries himself. He's not likable and the funny thing is
he like a lot of NBA players, and the bravado
you're talking about is hardly relegated to one guy in Miami.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
But he thinks very highly of himself. But he really probably.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
Shouldn't because the minute Jimmy Butler left town, it's not
like they went on some awesome winning streak. And they've
gotten themselves in the top four seeds in the East,
which is, by the way, a crappy East after you
get past the first like three teams. They haven't done
anything since Jimmy Butler left town. Jimmy Butler wasn't playing
when he was still there. I don't think anybody expected
them to get better. Yeah, but Tyler hero with Tyler,

(52:58):
believe he's the second coming of so he wouldn't. Okay,
he's a one time All Star playing in his sixth season.
He's a douche, is what he is. So that's why
I way, yeah, exactly, he plays on one end. Yeah,
good for him. That his best season and they're not
going to do anything again. What do you want him
to do?

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Make the other players that pat Riley is brought on
board play better.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I want him to do exactly what he's doing I
want him to keep doing it so he'll look like
an even bigger idiot.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
When they do next to nothing with him as their
best player.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
They they know they're going to do next. This team
is not built to win good. It's built to be
in purgatory good. And so when we look back in
the annals of time of the NBA and the Miami
Heat era, with Tyler Hero is their best player, he
will be properly ranked very low.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Yeah, unranked. There you go, that's even you know what wex.
Thank you. You gave me a better term than I
had even come up with. Give me a number one,
two or three four. I'm just kidding. Two Bucket, what
do you mean? That's Tyler Hero's second nickname? Why are
you doing this to me again? It was fall It
was better than either of the other two numbers. You
would have been much more angry at those Black Jesus

(54:05):
say that, and it's never right, okay, because he's also
if you didn't know, that doesn't matter, boy Wonder Bucket
and the worst of all, baby goat. Do you think
Black Magic Woman was about a black woman? Let's see,
I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. What
Carlos was thinking, I would actually submit it wasn't Black Warway.

(54:26):
It was probably about Hispanic woman, if I had to guess.
So the Magic was more the strength of the three
word commentary title. The guitar was the strength of that car. Yeah,
the Rockets and the Heat don't play tonight. The Rockets
and the Magic play tonight.

Speaker 3 (54:39):
Yeah, in case you were wondering, but they are playing
in Florida, So yeah, that'll be later on and listen,
we will get to this, I promise. In fact, we're
gonna get to this next segment, but it's going to
coincide with something we're gonna play sooner rather than later.
Alex Bregman kind of gave a little insight into the

(55:01):
decision that he made and what went into it, but
not only what went into it, what the I guess
runner up decision would have been.

Speaker 4 (55:11):
Is that a good way to put it. Yeah. The
people that have listened closely to him, unfortunately haven't been
the ones interviewing him, because this is not the first
time he said it, but it was the first time
he was called to explain it, and that's why we
now know the information Well done crew was on foul
territory earlier today, so we will share with you what
he had to say about how he got where he
is and why he isn't where he thought he was

(55:32):
going to be. We got that for you coming up. Obviously,
we're moving along with some of the things we haven't
yet fully gone through, some of the things that Derek
Stingley Junior had to say earlier today about the belief
the Texans have shown in him from day one, and
remember day one for him as a Texan was surprising
the third overall pick in the draft, the first time
a corner has been taken at that spot, and he

(55:53):
obviously was the first corner and went right before another
corner who they've long been linked together with. His thoughts
on his new running mate in the secondary, CJ. Gardner Johnson,
he gave a very good response to what he thought
he might bring to the table in this secondary and
comparing him to one of his teammates, one of his
young teammates. And obviously some more of our thoughts on

(56:17):
city connect for the Rockets, and one other NFL item
we haven't brought up since we've already brought up Cam Robinson.
That's not it. More discussion on what he means to
the Texans offensive line. Reportedly, he is a new Texan
and has played left tackle at a pretty good level
the last handful of years for Jacksonville and then more
recently for Minnesota. The NFL's teams have submitted their ideas

(56:39):
on how to make the game better by law proposals
and rules proposals, what we'd like to see done differently
in the future, one of which is likely to pass.
All of those items are on the way. Immediately, we'll
be talking about Alex Bregman's just didn't work out, so
I'm playing in Boston. What did he tell us today?

(56:59):
We'll tell you that next.

Speaker 2 (57:02):
The A ten on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
So we now live in a world where Alex Bregman
is a member of the Boston Red Sox. Still not
quite used to that. And it's you know, we sat
here in these chairs for weeks wondering where he would
wind up, whether it would be here in Houston or
somewhere else. And we finally have a little bit of

(57:29):
clarity wex as to how this process unfolded, and you
know how he ultimately wound up in Fenway for his
home games, among any other options that he had.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
Yeah, it's spent about thirty minutes at the podium with
fellow members of the Red Sox when he was introduced
at spring training and didn't really get into much of
exactly how he got here. He's up there with Boris
the manager and a bunch of front office types, so
that they never really walked through and got questions about that.
He felt comfortable going into all that detail about how
they ended up there. They are there, they were all
excited about it. He's done a couple of podcasts since then,

(58:02):
and he did say that, you know, it's not really
not necessarily I thought I was going somewhere else, is
what he had said previously, but wasn't asked more about
it to explain himself. In this instance with Foul Territory,
he was sitting down from their spring training site. I
believe he was sitting down with Cameron Mabon and Eric
Kratz was among those elsewhere conducting the interview. I note

(58:25):
that in that they both are former astros during the
time where Alex Bregman was a Houston astro. Found that
rather interesting. But he was asked to kind of describe
the path that led him to landing with the Boston
Red Sox.

Speaker 8 (58:39):
Met with a lot of teams, and then honestly, everything
just happened in like the last thirty minutes.

Speaker 4 (58:45):
It was like it was kind of rapid fire.

Speaker 8 (58:47):
I thought we thought we were going somewhere else the
entire time, and then in like the last thirty minutes
we talked to Boston and it got the deal got done.

Speaker 4 (58:57):
You know, I'm super thankful to be here. So a
lot of things were said there, but I was, as usual,
listening to only one particular things that I've already noted
it twice. If you were listening closely, interviewers, you heard
him say this, we thought we were going somewhere else
the entire time. Oh, probably should follow up on that,
the entire time, thought we were going somewhere else the

(59:19):
entire time. We know he talked to the Red Sox,
and he is a Red Sox. It's not Boston he's
talking about. We know that he talked to the Astros
off and on for months about a return. We know
that the Cubs were involved, we know that Tigers were involved,
and some believe that to a certain extent, the Blue
Jays were involved. So that leaves basically four teams. He's

(59:40):
talking about one of those other four art The Tigers
obviously were one of those four teams. He thought he
was going there all along from the beginning. This is
where I'm going to be. That's where I'm gonna play
up until the final thirty minutes. Again, take him at
his word. When Boston came in, and I do think
that was unexpected, I'll give him that. I would agree

(01:00:00):
it seems reasonable to believe. Wait, Scott, say that again.
Boston just came in with a three year, one hundred
and twenty million dollar offer, and they're giving me options
on both of the two years before it's up. You're
seriously you're not? Yeah, come on, man, I know this,
this is fun for you and you do this every
off season, but I don't don't lie to me, Scott.

Speaker 14 (01:00:20):
Is this for real?

Speaker 4 (01:00:21):
Yes, Alex. They want to pay you forty million dollars
this year, and if you'd like to remain there, they
want to pay you forty million dollars the year after that.
If you you'd like to remain there, they want to
pay you forty more million. What do you think? Mull
it over? You and Reagan discuss uh so they came
in in the final thirty minutes and shifted him, stole
him away from the Astros or the Tigers, or the

(01:00:43):
Cubs or the Blue Jays, whichever team he was talking about,
but had not yet been asked to tell us who
is that somewhere else? Well, thanks to Eric Kratz for
asking him, who was that somewhere else where? Did you
think you were going of the whole offseason, Alex?

Speaker 8 (01:01:01):
We thought we thought we were going to be in
Detroit the entire time, honestly, and then at the last second,
Boston kind of came in.

Speaker 4 (01:01:10):
Aj Hinch had him. Aj Hinch had him in Detroit.

Speaker 3 (01:01:14):
The team that told Alex, your season is over with
no playoff wins. Your consecutive runs to the American League
Championship Series is over because aj Hinch's team is going
to celebrate on your ballpark's mound at home plate, take
team pictures at the mound at then minute made park,

(01:01:37):
and you want to go play with him again?

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
Apparently, yes, exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:01:41):
You remember when aj and Carlos were having breakfast here
in Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
Hey, let's go grab a meal together. Hopefully nobody know this.

Speaker 3 (01:01:48):
This that was the first of all awesome. Wait, I
guess unless you were wanting to not be seen, and
then it wasn't very awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
It's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Inevitably, somebody snapped a pick, put it on social media.
It blew away.

Speaker 4 (01:02:00):
I can't really tell, but this looks like Astro's manager A. J. Hinch,
And it looks like Astros shortstop Carlos Correa. But I'll
just post it. See what you guys think. Well, technically
it looks like Tiger's manager Tigers, excuse me, Tiger's manager,
the former manager.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Yeah, and and Correa was long gone. We knew it
was just a matter of wear, and so you felt like, okay,
well maybe he is going to Detroit.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
And are there had been a face to face get
together of some variety with Alex Bregman and agent.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
I just wonder if AJ Hinch is sitting here, especially
after hearing that, thinking he lost out on not one
but two former Astros players, or if it's different.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
I definitely think it's different. I do think the Tigers
were in on Corea to a certain extent, but I
never believe that was going to be his final. There's
there's not going to be a contract in front of
him that he was going to sign for them, And
in Alex's case, I have to acknowledge my thoughts on
this all along, because he's now again taking him as
telling us, not only were the Tigers real, that was

(01:03:04):
my destination. I planned on playing baseball in Detroit starting
in twenty twenty five. That's what he thought was going
to happen. After they had been negotiating, after they were
nearing a final decision, he thought this all along, they
had given him a contract. Again, according to what he says,
I'm willing to sign it. I'm going to play here
under the terms we've got in front of us right now.

(01:03:27):
And I said for three months, I don't believe he's
playing for Detroit. I don't envision he and his family
wanting to go be Detroit. Tigers, live in Detroit, play
baseball in Detroit. Their team said yes, their team dynamic.
The idea that we're gonna win in Detroit, I think
was real. I think Detroit has a chance to win
without him, say certainly, had I have an even better

(01:03:48):
chance to win with him, win big win, it all
be a World Series champion. They probably have the front
end of the rotation capable of doing it. A bunch
of young players that if a handful of them pan out,
if Kerry Carpenter pans out, if a few along with
the only ones they have now because he's not there, Yeah,
absolutely they're they're gonna have a chance to win their
division this year at the very least, if not more.
But I just didn't feel like Detroit, that particular city,

(01:04:12):
was going to be where he wanted to continue cultivating
being bigger than just a guy who plays baseball. And
he clearly wants more than that with all the things
that he's done from a personal branding standpoint and business standpoint,
and she's done the same thing, you know, with her
presence online, with businesses she started and runs. It just
never seemed like that was where they were going to

(01:04:33):
end up. And maybe there was an option for them
personally where, yeah, you can go play in Detroit. We're
probably gonna live, maybe the two kids and myself are
going to stay here in Arizona and we'll work it out.
I mean, like any any city, there are places in
Detroit that are very, very very nice. It's not necessarily
about where we're going to live from how awesome is

(01:04:54):
our mansion. I just didn't feel like that was where
he wanted the Alex Bregman brand to be. What.

Speaker 3 (01:04:59):
You don't think that below in the winter is a
great place to stay in the off season. That's more
city related. I think they could have dealt with that.
It's going to be very cold in Boston. It's not
a weather thing. It's a you're in one of the
biggest markets in America if you're in Boston. It is
interesting when you consider that he has been his whole
life a southern weather guy, don't matter where he was
growing up in New Mexico, playing college at LSU, or

(01:05:21):
playing his entire pro career here in Houston. Summers nine
months out of the year in most of those areas
and winter is non existent.

Speaker 4 (01:05:30):
He won't even notice as he's gym ratting it inside
in the cages all winter long.

Speaker 3 (01:05:35):
And wearing coats that you can buy a lot of.
With all the money he's getting from the Red Sox organization.

Speaker 4 (01:05:40):
There could be another stop for Alex Breckman. He has
an option after this year and next year, and it's
only a three year contract.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
He could be headed elsewhere after the mortgage on it
is he opting out of any of these years I
wouldn't think so, because you know, I couldn't have painted
a picture where he's going to get this contract, So
you can't tell me it's impossible there could be a better.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
One eighty million dollar dollars is what he'll be owed
when he opts out, if he ops out after year one.
I don't think he's going to get forty million per
from somebody else. But what if he can get one
hundred and forty guaranteed dollars. What if you can get
one hundred and eighty guaranteed dollars, then you don't have
to worry about He now has to once again worry

(01:06:19):
about his next contract. He chose to sign a short
term deal. He needs to play himself into another contract.
He's not retiring after this contract runs out, and he
wants a lot more than one hundred and twenty million
dollars as a baseball player in his earnings when he
left the Astros, he did not intend on only making
one hundred and twenty million dollars. He intends on making
one hundred plus more million dollars in guaranteed money at

(01:06:39):
the bare minimum when this contract runs out. If he
opts out after a year and a team wants to
give him five years one fifty. That's one hundred and
fifty million guaranteed versus eighty plus whatever he could sign
two years older, two years later. Whatever happens over those
two years, I think there is actually a possibility he
opts out before the three years is up. Maybe not

(01:07:01):
so much this year, but it's all about the guaranteed
money and do you want to sign another contract when
you're thirty three or thirty four or can you go
ahead and take care of it next offseason. That will
be something he and Scott discussed. Alex is gonna make
a lot of money. That's the end of that discussion.
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
We will continue here on the A Team Sports Talk
seven ninety as it pertains to that subject. I wanted
to share a little conversation I had last night, not
just about Alex Bregman, but about the Astros and how
they've kind of gone about things with a lot of
these big names walking away, plus a little bit of
an update on where they stand heading into opening weekend,

(01:07:39):
which is a week from tomorrow.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
This is crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:46):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:07:54):
So last night I was having a conversation with somebody
who shall remain nameless, and they brought up something that
I had already seen, and I know you've seen this Wex.
There was a picture. I believe it was last week
when the Red Sox and the Twins got together. It
might have been earlier this week or over the weekend,
you know, when they played each other, because you're you
when did they play each other?

Speaker 4 (01:08:15):
Was that last week? Sure? So you can really descriptive
about the game. It's not like they play a whole
bunch of games against each other, is hey, when one
of the Astros and Nationals play Wex, you probably know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:28):
So anyway, I believe Correa had gotten to second base
where Alex was playing in the field. Yeah, I saw
a picture of that, and I was talking to this
person and they're like, did you see what somebody did?
And I didn't. I didn't actually see this. I saw
the original photo of them, you know, Korea in a

(01:08:49):
Twins jersey, Bregman in a Red Sox, you know, in
his gear for Boston, and somebody apparently took that picture
and then put it on top of a picture of
both of them in Astro's gear. And it's again subjective,
it's a moment in time. It's literally a snapshot in time.

(01:09:11):
But just the point they were making is look how
happy they were in Houston, and look at them now
where they're essentially, if not mercenaries, they just they went,
they went and got the money.

Speaker 4 (01:09:23):
They're not mercenaries. They're baseball players. Yeah, same thing.

Speaker 17 (01:09:27):
They all do it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
It's the same thing. The best player in baseball and
then the next best player in baseball did.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
They didn't do it, you said, because he got paid. No,
he got paid by the Aaron't judge get paid Yes, yeah,
and he flirted with a lot of other situations. Frankly,
I probably he probably would have been better off if
he did leave there, because I think half his problem
is he can't play in New York.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
That's in his head.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
But well, I mean, what else explains him turtling every
postseason when the lights of the brightest in that stadium.

Speaker 4 (01:09:58):
The Twins in Red Sox will play their sixth and
seventh games against each other in spring training today and Sunday,
but this was probably the game from this past Sunday.
Just quick curious question if you were facing a team
in a best of five and this was part of
their team how do you think? How do you think
this team would fare in a best of five playoff series.

(01:10:21):
They've got Garrett Cole and Justin Verlander, and they have
Ryan Presley in the bullpen. They've got George leading Off,
Bregman bats second, Korea bats third, probably got you say,
Kakuchi taking the start in Game three. Basically putting together
a team to fill out a twenty six man roster

(01:10:44):
of players that have been astros during this Golden Era.
Just that's makes up the whole team. Springer, Cole, Corea, Bregman, Verlander,
et cetera. Today, if they were all healthy, do you
think that team would make the playoffs? Yeah, Garrett Cole's
pitching at a cy young level. Carlos Correa had a
really good offensive your last year. Alex Bregman is still

(01:11:06):
a good player. Well, Garrett Cole's not pitching anywhere this year.

Speaker 3 (01:11:08):
That's why I had to obviously indicate that, yeah, would
they make the playoffs?

Speaker 4 (01:11:13):
I think you still have to fill out the rest
of the roster. Trey Mancini's probably on it, Martin Maldonado's
probably on it. I mean it's not you can't fill
the full twenty six men. Yeah, he's starting game two,
Cacuchi's starting Game three. They get does tail off pretty quickly.
This is out there that's still well. I mean philm

(01:11:34):
Mayton and Hector Narris are probably in your bullpen. Yeah,
is Ryan Stanik. I mean, I know I already put
Mancini on the team, but I mean, as jose A
Brew you'r dh. I mean, there's only so many players
of prominence that have left the ball club. But why
wouldn't Kyle Tucker's obviously part of that top four in
the line The top four in the lineup still should

(01:11:55):
be pretty good. Correa Bregman, what division are they in?
Just a thought, just something as we continue to move
further and further away from some of those players, that
inevitably is going to happen. But I really wanted to
ask you a food related question this segment. Would you
eat this meal? Full four course meal. I'll throw you
some apps, firecracker, shrimp and cheeseburger sliders along with meat

(01:12:17):
bowl and ravioli bites you pick and choose. You fill
your plate up with those. First course is Texas style
chili in advance of your main course? What what constitute
Texas style cheddar cheese, Alpinos, corn chips, little Freedo pie
feel to it? Okay, well you gotta hold the helopenios
main court. I believe you'll have options. Okay, wood fired,

(01:12:38):
cowboy ribbi or if you sow choose poorly, you can
have the black and redfish.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
Well, I haven't heard anything yet that has caused me
to run away screaming. I'm gonna hit you with some dessert.
That's a warm chocolate chip skillet cookie. Would you eat
that meal?

Speaker 4 (01:12:52):
I would start with that. Would you wear your green
jacket while you're doing it? My green jacket? Because you're
a Master's winner, you get treated to the meal compliments
of reigning Masters champion and green jacket ware. Scotty Scheffler,
the Masters is approaching. On April eighth, he will serve
his Master's Club dinner. So this is not final the

(01:13:12):
meal that Scotty Scheffler will be serving those in attendance.
And again, this is not a final request from death Row.
I mean, I hope I don't sound out there, but
if I were there and I had to eat this,
that would be okay.

Speaker 3 (01:13:24):
Listen, you know and you've heard this before. You've heard
about people these people that you've murdered, others and other things.
I have heard of them, and they heard of these
chamber However, you know the way they go about, you know,
inflicting that upon you as a criminal that has been
convicted and sentenced to death.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
I think if I were in that position, I would
absolutely do that. Scotty, a Dallas resident, A Longhorn is
serving a meal I think befitting of people like ourselves
would enjoy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:54):
You can't take it with you, after all, might as
well eat it. You might as well enjoy yourself one
last time. Yeah, I have strong feelings on that.

Speaker 4 (01:14:02):
I mean I think it. Could they offer you something
else as a last I mean, a last meal means well,
you're fully under our control. Still, we're just feeding you
something different than the usual gruel. Can they not offer
you like porridge for you to say exactly, I mean
on the steel tray with three handfuls of slop thrown

(01:14:22):
on it from the particular chambers. We've seen prison movies.
We know how they get served. But can't they offer
you like a you want to go to a restaurant
or have it take take out in? I know, what's
you're the last movie what do you want to see? Oh,
I see you know, we'll take you out your last

(01:14:44):
ride in a car. I'm not saying they deserve any
of this. No, they don't deserve the meal. That's the
strong feelings I had. Then we'll stop it. Why and
why on earth would you offer that up?

Speaker 14 (01:14:55):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:14:55):
Well, they're gonna die after all, so at least why
are are they there to begin with? Many could be
doing if they hadn't killed somebody, eating this all the time,
because they'd be free because they didn't murder somebody or
whatever they did.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
To get put in that position. By the way, with
your main course, you're getting mac and cheese, cream corn. Obviously,
Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes. Brussels sprouts don't smell great, but
the way that their soy glazed Brussels sprouts, they're probably
much better. You can't. You can glaze it with whatever
you want.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
I'm not really concerned with smells like Brussels sprouts when
you walk through the door.

Speaker 4 (01:15:30):
I would probably if they were served to me, they
would probably remain on the plate. I wouldn't request. Oh yeah,
I'll take a helping of that. So the moral of
the story of this segment is don't go getting on
death row. Yeah, good good stuff from Scotty. Put a good,
solid meal together. We've seen some interesting choices over the
years from different people. He has chosen to go this route,
and we'll see who he gets to put the green

(01:15:50):
jacket on or Scotty. Even more awkward in that they
don't even have somebody into their chair because he wanted again,
what Scotty look at me? Sometimes? Last thing for this
very important segment, at what age do you think you're
supposed to drop the tea from Scotty? You're a kid,
your name is Scotty. When you're sixteen, eighteen, twenty one,

(01:16:11):
three years old? When are you no longer Scotty? He's
still Scotty. He's a professional adult with a family and kid, Scotty.

Speaker 3 (01:16:18):
The more important question as we go to break is
what is more pathetic running around with Scotty?

Speaker 4 (01:16:23):
Is your name or Buster?

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
In the eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
A handful of items we've discussed regarding the astros, but
a couple of pertinent ones we really haven't gotten into.
One of the ones that's not so pertinent was how
good would the twenty twenty five former Houston Astros fair
in a Major League Baseball season, providing health for all.
Didn't even mention they probably would fill out some of
their infield with Julie Guriel, who stands a pretty good

(01:16:58):
chance of being a major leage baseball player again this year.
He left the Astros when they decided that Jose A.
Brew's future was bright decided to give him nearly sixty
million dollars. It wasn't. Yuley's major league time re emerged
when the Kansas City Royals put him back in the
league last year. He was in the playoffs last year

(01:17:19):
with the Kansas City Royals and this year with the Padres.
He's part of a group of players hoping to be
a Padre when the season begins. He's been out there
throughout spring training, sitting about two ninety six or exactly
two ninety six an eight to forty oh ps. Pretty
reasonable chance that he could fill out a spot on
our Golden Era former Astros twenty twenty five squad, receiving

(01:17:43):
throws from Bregman and Korea from the other side of
the diamond and watching Kyle Tucker and George Springer chase
balls down in the outfield.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
If they had not signed to bray you and brought
back Yulie. How do you think it goes at first base?

Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
Let's just say perfectly fine, because it's one of the
reasons they were willing to pay twenty million dollars a
season to Christian Walker, because their eyes could not have
been opened any wider by Jose Abraw and everybody else
that they had over at first base. I mean, we
are just giving outs away every ball that goes over there.
That's not a perfect I'm talking about defense. I know,

(01:18:21):
the throws from every person at third, short and second
all year it was a cringe. I mean he would literally,
in my opinion, nobody was better than Yuli. He was
number one. There's thirty teams that play a first baseman,
they all do it. He was the best at scooping
the best and it was an elite fielder. Multiple time
Gold Glove winner could have been a part of his

(01:18:43):
resume if he had been in the league long enough
to get people to realize what he was doing over there,
but it didn't work that way. Christian Walker has a
bunch of gold gloves on his resume and in his
back pocket, and I think that's one reason why they
were enthused by spending that amount of money for a
player so clearly on the wrong side of thirty in
hopes that he could still produce, even for just three years,

(01:19:04):
right after they had a huge fail with a player
at the same position on a very very similar contract,
very different players, very different outlook. But nonetheless it is
a risky move. Hopefully there won't be any issues with
him being in the opening day lineup. Joe Spotto made
it very clear today if he hadn't already, it's been
very clear on this show that his every day, for

(01:19:26):
the most part left fielder is Jose Altuve. He's going
to be his opening day left fielder. But he did
go a little bit further with the media there on
site and acknowledging most of Jose Altuve's work this year
for us, barring something else happening, we don't foresee he's
going to be our left fielder. He's going to play

(01:19:46):
most of his baseball in left field. And I think
even in just the last twenty four hours, we could
see why, oh that that should be great, or we
could see that might not be so great. I mean,
the Astros played yesterday booted us off the air. About
an hour from now. They'll do the same today, but

(01:20:08):
it's the rockets that will be booting us off the air.
But if you were listening to yesterday's game, you heard
one of those really good plays from Jose Altuve.

Speaker 6 (01:20:17):
The one two is lifted deep out of the left
center field al two by angling back full sprint. He lunge,
is at the warning track and makes an over the
shoulder catch. Josh Bell tags and strolls home. A run
will score, but.

Speaker 4 (01:20:30):
A nice play make Jake Myerson center. He's not going
to get to it. Jose Altuve and left nice running
catch as he gets onto the warning track. A run scores.
There wasn't even a throw. No other left fielder would
have made a throw either. He was headed towards the wall.
An easy sackfly, but it could have been double. It
could have been an RBI hit of some variety, but

(01:20:51):
not when Jose Altuve is wearing the left fielder's glove
at spring training like he was yesterday. Now, if you
hit a pot up to him with a runner on
third base, it might go a little bit differently. I
think most everybody knows about it now. I posted one
of those plays because I had the video because I

(01:21:11):
was sitting here in studio. I didn't post the other
And it wasn't intentional. I'm not trying to make him
look good and not trying to tell you, well, this
wasn't so good. But it did happen. Run of the
mill can of corn out there, knowing he'd have to
throw home. And this is what it sounded like on
that play for Jose Altuvey. You're opening day left fielder.

Speaker 6 (01:21:30):
That's a way to impress, press the big leaguers. Second,
he showed up. Now fly locked it into the opposite
field of Al two by drifting forward, and it pops
in and out of his glove, rolls into foul territory.
One run his home cruise swinging around and diving into
score Garcia.

Speaker 4 (01:21:48):
A two run error on a routine flyball to your
left fielder as he positioned himself to make what would
have been his first throw home to try to prevent
a run from scoring. So he was there, Oh, he
was there. He didn't have to go very hard to
get it. He didn't make it there. No, Yes, then
we would talk about it totally differently. This was nobody

(01:22:10):
misses that ball, except we just saw somebody do the
very same thing.

Speaker 3 (01:22:14):
In the World Series, Aaron Judge missed the fly ball
right at him. This was Maybe that was harder, maybe
this one was easier. They both should be great at
the same way. Let me get this those plays can't happen. Yes, well,
let me get this straight. It happened in a spring
training game where it doesn't matter, and it wasn't a
regular season game or in this case, a World Series game.
And he was getting paid a third of what Aaron

(01:22:35):
Judge makes, and it was his thirtieth inning. Yeah, in
the outfield the outfield, not his thousandth Thank you Well,
obviously that goes without saying, but since you said it, yeah,
I do think there should be concern you're getting away
from the We didn't turn a double play.

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
He gave up a single because Jose didn't get there.
He made a bad throw, so we didn't get this
out into man that that should have been the third out,
and instead guys are circling the bases. Guys are taking
ninety one hundred and eighty extra feet because this misplay
doesn't give up one bag or one out, It gives
up multiple bags and run base. It gives up multiple runs.

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
Yeah, well the Astros are zero and zero still on
the regular season after that play, and when we come back,
I'll run something else by you. That was something that
came from that conversation last night about this very same
thing we're talking about with the Astros.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham talking your team.

Speaker 7 (01:23:49):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team day.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety four
o'clock hour underway, final hour of the show today because
we will be making way for Rockets Basketball less.

Speaker 4 (01:24:08):
Than an hour from now.

Speaker 3 (01:24:08):
They've got the Orlando Magic in Orlando tonight and then
Miami on Fridays. They make the Florida two step? What
do they call it there? If it's a Texas two
step here? Even though it's a Texas Triangle or Texas
trio when you come into Texas and you play all
three teams, what do they call it when you play
both vaunted Florida franchises? Do they ever have a name

(01:24:29):
for it? Wex No, Okay, why do we get to
clear that up? So they will be taking on the
Magic and then they'll be taking on the Miami Heat.
Then they'll be coming home for a Sunday tilt against
the Denver Nuggets, and we'll have all of those for
you right here. On Sports Talk seven ninety I mentioned
some I was having a conversation last night with somebody

(01:24:50):
in the know about kind of you know, thinking behind
some of the things the Astros do. But this person
was perplexed as it pertains to camp Smith and if
the like, let's just say, for the sake of argument,
he makes the opening day roster. I don't happen to

(01:25:12):
think he will. I don't think you think he will.
Think he thinks he will. But whenever he gets up here,
do you think the thinking is he's definitely going to
be in right field.

Speaker 4 (01:25:23):
Well, you don't have anywhere else to put the third baseman, basically,
laugh to go with what people said before he got
here and what the Asters have done since he arrived,
he didn't work Esoch perettis, he hadn't gotten any work
at any other position. He's not played in any at
second base, he's not played anywhere else in the Diamond
d h is really not a permanent option because of
the rest of their rosters. So how can he play
third base. He can't camp Smith can't play third base

(01:25:44):
if they're not willing to move Esoch Perettis, and it
does not look like they are. I think literally they
will actually have to physically move him off of the team,
which is something they might consider in the future to
open up third base for cam Smith if camp Smith
can't play right field, or they just feel better about
him being a permanent third baseman and they'd rather get
him there sooner than they would have to. It looks
like move Perettis, who probably is a move He's certainly

(01:26:07):
a movable contract. He's probably a moveable player. He was
already traded from the Race to the Cubs. The Astros
are one of the many teams looking at him then,
but I think they're looking at it more like, well,
we have Perettis, he is under our control. We think
he can probably conservatively go you know, twenty three, twenty
four homers, eighty five ninety RBIs, see a lot of pitches.
Maybe make Jordon a little better in that Jordan's not

(01:26:30):
facing the pitcher on his second pitch of the game
like he was last year. So much batting behind Jose
Altuve and have him bat third behind Altuve and someone
who will let Jordan stand in the batter's circle and
on deck circle and see pitches and not have to be,
you know, rushed, even though he's probably not coming from
the field. But that's why Cam Smith's playing again today

(01:26:51):
in right field. He's in tonight's starting lineup. He's going
to see front level pitching as much as the opponent
will offer. And we'll probably do that a few more
times before they finalize their twenty six man opening day roster.
I'm sure he's going to start at least one of
the games at dyk In Park, if not both on
Monday and Tuesday of next week. And if the fans

(01:27:13):
are already in a fever pitch for cam Smith's arrival
as an astro getting on board with the A team,
the true innovators and inventors of the Cam Smith hype train,
there it is and you might as well let him
see what he has to offer and then say opening
Day Friday, March twenty eighth, at Constellation Field, Cam Smith

(01:27:36):
is so check him out. Space Cowboys starting right field.

Speaker 3 (01:27:39):
Yeah, go get yourself at cam Smith Space Cowboys, Jersey
before it becomes a super ultimate collector's item. That's the
thing though, That's the conversation I was having. And this
person was like, why wouldn't you what? And again, is
this because Estach Peretis is not willing to play second guns.

Speaker 4 (01:27:56):
Nope, he's not a he's not like, look how hard
it was for people to hear Rafael Devers say it
like players aren't. You can say it, and management's not
really gonna care. He's not telling him, don't move me
over there. They're saying we don't think you can play
at a high enough level. Like what are we moving
you over there for? We're trying to fix the defense
at second base, but you are.

Speaker 3 (01:28:19):
I'll just lay it out for you. This person was like,
why not put him at second base? I'm like that, right,
I know, I know you are. And then Cam's at third.
Put Mauricio d Bond in right field before you try,
and I think, odds are you have made.

Speaker 4 (01:28:38):
Not a good third baseman Defensively, camp Smith's not going
to be a plus level defensive player this year, maybe
any year. He's not regarded and it's not like he's
definitely a great third baseman, and now you're bad at
second base again. Andrew Baden left field, and Mauricio's bat
is in the everyday lineup because you have to have
somebody out there in right field. I mean, why would
he play at all? I mean Chaz is playing right field.

(01:28:59):
He's not a significantly better defender than Chas they're both
very good defender. Well, this eliminates Jake Myers from being
in your everyday lineup. Well, now you're telling me that
a lesser defensive center fielder is going to be playing
there and as opposed to Jake, so you can get
who's bat in the lineup, Like I know, nobody wants
Jake in the lineup because that's just what it is
the popular thing to do. Why because you want Mauricio

(01:29:21):
getting all the bats, because you want Chaz getting all the.

Speaker 3 (01:29:23):
At bats because he's not good offensive players. He's the
outfield equivalent of Adam Everett at the plate.

Speaker 4 (01:29:29):
Great, but you're replacing him with what Chaz is not.

Speaker 3 (01:29:34):
He's not in a position where you're definitely getting better off.

Speaker 4 (01:29:38):
You're hoping.

Speaker 3 (01:29:39):
I am well that and that goes to this conversation
as well. I am mildly optimistic that you will have
a better You can't have much of a worse season.
Than Chas had last year, right, And I don't think
that's who he is, nor do I think he's probably
who he was in twenty twenty two, for example. Well
it was his better season, by the way, was it
twenty two or twenty three? Last season before last year,

(01:30:01):
last year twenty three? You know, he's probably trajectory. He's
not an eight to fifty and eight forty ops guy.

Speaker 4 (01:30:07):
He's probably not a thousand ops guy against right handed
pitching nor left handed pitching. But that is what he
did that year. Okay, So bring it down to seven
to fifty. If you bring it down to seven to fifty,
if you bring it down to much much less of
a crusher of left handed pitching, that's still that's a
significantly more productive than Jake. But if you bring it
down to seven hundred or anywhere close to what he

(01:30:29):
was last year, which was worse than that, if he's
an under a one hundred OPS plus player, then you're
you're playing worse defense. He's still a good defender. He
is a good defensive player at all three spots. There's
value in that. But Jake is an elite defensive center fielder,
and the only area where his defense isn't great. Is
his arm? Well, Chaz doesn't have a good arm either.

(01:30:50):
The outfield arms they're likely to deploy on opening Day
against the Mets, and Clay Holmes and Juan Soto more
to the point, their offense and Pete Alonzo, Jose al Tuove,
Jake Myers and Chas McCormick. If you would like an
extra ninety feet on the Astros outfielders, by all means,
you can have it, because they're going to do that.
Every team they play against is going to do that

(01:31:10):
against every outfielder they deploy. Of those three, Jordan has
a great arm. He's not gonna be out there very much.
Mauricio has a great arm. He might be out there
because the door reopened because the guys that are out
there can't hit, or the door has to be kicked
open because Cam Smith needs to play every day and
it would be in rightful. Why has bum Phillips involved suddenly?

(01:31:31):
I mean, there's I don't know if you know this now.
In the eighties, nineties and the three decades we've been
involved with since, doors have been kicked down by other people.
He's not the only door kicker who kicked them down.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
Anybody that it's been fifty years, like nineteen seventy eight, well,
nineteen seventy nine, fifty years ago basically, and.

Speaker 4 (01:31:51):
It's still iconic.

Speaker 2 (01:31:51):
Crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
You know why, because he's wearn'ing a ten gallon hat
when he said it. It was a long time ago.

Speaker 4 (01:31:56):
Unfortunately, when that team that was housed at Houston Astrodome,
when they played their football the dome in a rally
for a loser, a team that did not win, it's
just a different time, do you think, Well, never mind,
I'm not even gonna ask the question, because we already know.
When the Texans fly back from Baltimore after their AFC

(01:32:17):
title Game loss in January of twenty twenty six, why
do they have to lose to Baltimore again? Lose Buffalo
Kansas City? You say again, They've lost to Kansas City
in the playoffs. They've lost a Buffalo or Baltimore in
the playoffs. The only one left is Buffalo. I'm sick
of this. I'm sure you are what I am. No,
I don't think they're gonna draw a massive attendance at
their rally when they their bus re arrives at Nharchie

(01:32:40):
Stadium from the airport.

Speaker 3 (01:32:43):
They did have some fans that were there when they
came back from the playoff loss to Kansas City that
the rest did well, they just did it.

Speaker 4 (01:32:50):
They actually had fans there when they you know, during
Domico's heyday, they had fans sending the Texans off. This year,
by the way, since we're talking Texans, if you had
not heard, they made an addition to their offensive line,
a presumed starting caliber addition to their offensive line. They
signed Cam Robinson, and we were talking about his work

(01:33:10):
from last year. Expendable from the Jaguars, from Christiandarosau got
hurt by the Vikings or from the Vikings. He was
their starting left tackle on a very very good one.
They knew they were headed of the playoffs or thought
they were, so they were kind of desperate, so they
traded for Cam Robinson. He got the final ten starts
of the season, and I've described him as a player
that was expendable and clearly he hit free agency. We

(01:33:33):
might want to add this to the Minnesota Vikings offensive
line ledger. The Minnesota Vikings were awesome last year and
had a very good offense and made the postseason and
tied for the second best record in the NFC, and
like the Texans, they told three of their starters goodbye.
Beat it. Ed Ingram was a starter for half the season.

(01:33:55):
They benched him. He's a Texan now. Cam Robinson they
traded for. He started ten Gamesames plus their playoff game.
He hit free agency and he walked out the door.
And their starting center Garrett Bradbury was just allowed to
hit free agency and he just signed with the New
England Patriots. They all have jobs. Somebody else wants them
to play for them, and two of them are definitely starters,

(01:34:15):
Robinson here and Bradbury there in New England. But they didn't.
I don't think they had a bad offensive line. I
think at the end of the year, the Vikings brass thought,
oh my gosh, we can't have this again. Sam Donald
had such a nice year, and Sam Donald had time
to throw, and the numbers look so good, and our
question is, actually, what are we going to do at quarterback?

(01:34:37):
Because this season went so well. And then they finished
the season, and then they played out their remaining games
and with Sam Donald back behind their offensive line in
the finale of the regular season, when they did not
get the number one seed because they could not beat
the Detroit Lions. I mean, okay, it wasn't the offensive

(01:34:58):
line's fault. He was hit a couple of times. He
got sacked two times. It's not on them, all right,
Let's go to the playoffs. Let's see what happens one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine times. I'm looking at it right here. He's been
absent nine times. Nine sacks behind the line that I
just described they said goodbye to, so to speak. Ingram

(01:35:18):
obviously wasn't out there nine sacks against the Rams in
their only playoff game last year. Cam Robinson sad to
extend this information to you. I'd seen it earlier and
wanted to double check that others had similar numbers. Diana
Rossini had I write up about the Cam Robinson additioned
for the Texans and described it as a you know,

(01:35:39):
some struggles last year. I was looking at somebody who
covers the NFL and has a little more numbers related
data as it relates to the tackle position, the other
side of it. Not the ones that had the lowest
pressure rate, not the ones that had the best past
block win rate, but the other side of things. These
were the tackles that did not have strong seasons. I

(01:36:03):
guess you could say I think that's subpar is a
word we often use for that. But looking at some
of the tackle plays and I was a little alarmed
that not only was his name on the list the
Texans new left tackle, but it's the very very very
very top of the list on a list you do
not want to be at the top of. Cam Robinson

(01:36:24):
and his sixty four pressures allowed last year, of the
quarterbacks he blocked for in Jacksonville and the quarterback he
blocked for in Minnesota that was the worst in the
entire league in twenty twenty four. This past year is
this season we just had. Why do I hear, Michael Scott,

(01:36:46):
this is the worst this is I mean, I don't
know any other way to put it. And there are
some other parts of all those numbers that you can
kind of talk away or lessen to a certain degree,
but those are what they are, at least according to
one person's use of Here's how we calculate the data,
here's how we come up with pressures, and this is
the list that we can produce for you. And you

(01:37:08):
see his name on it in that position. That is
absolutely alarming. But it does kind of fall in line
with what I had been saying. I don't think he's
quite that bad, but I knew he wasn't regarded as
a really strong performer. His past block grade for the
last three years combined, it's fine, it's among the better tackles,

(01:37:30):
but this is a sport where you got to be
very very careful with that. Did his hard hit rate
over the last three years for Jose abrew before the
Astro sign Did it look good if you said over
the last three years, probably to look when you only
looked at the most recent season though, the one you're
signing him off of.

Speaker 3 (01:37:47):
Man Listen to Wex putting forth the theory that the
Texans just signed the football version of Jose Abra you
to block for CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:37:56):
Stroud. We're gonna take a commercial break myself. I gotta
give you one more piece of information. Well, I don't
want you to, it will help, I think. Also on
that very same list with forty one pressures is Dan
Moore Junior. Who the heck is Dan Moore Junior. I
hear you saying he's the player that the Tennessee Titan said,
Oh my god, I can't believe the Steelers are exposing

(01:38:19):
this player to free agency, and they gave him four
years eighty million to become their new tackle. Are our
numbers that say this is bad and he was bad
and I can't believe. But there's also tape that coaches
look at and might see things a little bit. Dan
Moore Junior, Yeah, that's that's not a real person. You
think I made that up because it's so regular.

Speaker 3 (01:38:37):
No, I think you took I think you lifted it
off of Madden in franchise mode.

Speaker 4 (01:38:41):
It's one of those made up guys. It's like a
seventh treefer, I said, DJ Glaize or Demontree Jacobs. They're
all made up guys. They're all on the list.

Speaker 3 (01:38:48):
They don't exist. You're just making up names. You're not
even reading them off the list. You're making it up
in your head.

Speaker 4 (01:38:54):
Those were PFF numbers produced from Mike herrndon Cam Robinson,
a Houston Texan, as we take a quick break care
on the A Team.

Speaker 2 (01:39:02):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:39:06):
Maybe you're depressed at the status of the offensive line
that will be blocking in front of CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:39:12):
Stroud this year, and you want to be one with nature.

Speaker 3 (01:39:15):
You just need to clear your mind because you are
nervous about the upcoming season.

Speaker 4 (01:39:19):
Well, good news for you.

Speaker 3 (01:39:21):
Not only can you do that, you can save money
to do it when you go to Two Creekscrossingresort dot com.
That's the website where you can take advantage of spring
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of May. At Two Creeks Crossing Resort. They're offering twenty
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(01:39:41):
is the perfect destination for you and your family this spring.
It's the warm weather continues. Maybe it's spring break now,
maybe you already had it, but you know, hey, I've
seen this weather. It has gotten fantastic and I want
to take advantage with just a short drive away to Livingston.

Speaker 4 (01:39:57):
If you're a.

Speaker 3 (01:39:58):
Glamper, if you're a camper, if you're some where in between,
they've got you covered. They've got something for everyone, and
you can get into the outdoors this spring with a
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two Creeks Crossingresort dot com for twenty percent off right now, Hey,
this is killer.

Speaker 4 (01:40:16):
Be Craig Vigio of a free thousand hit club. You've
got killer ai'se in the afternoon, though they have three
thousand less hits.

Speaker 2 (01:40:23):
Oh, have some fun.

Speaker 4 (01:40:26):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wesler on Sports Talk Good News
wex Cole Anthony has been upgraded to out. You like
I did that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:41):
It's downgraded for them, But for the Rockets, he's been
upgraded to out. And here's why he kills the Rockets
and he has a punishable face.

Speaker 4 (01:40:49):
Two reasons. I'm the actual reason he's out is because
he has a left big toe string.

Speaker 3 (01:40:54):
I don't even believe that that's made up too. That's
like those Madden names you were coming up with.

Speaker 4 (01:40:59):
Who you stream A two three rotation players likely not
going to be a part of things tonight. He's added
to the list. Two others have been on it throughout,
Jalen Suggs and Mo Wagner. Both Wagner and Suggs missed
the game.

Speaker 3 (01:41:11):
The lesser Wagner Yes, Franz much better hand to sign
an extension and like Jalen, is the only player from
his draft class with five thousand or more points.

Speaker 4 (01:41:18):
Because he's averaging twenty four per They got two guys
on their team averaging twenty four points per game, but
they lose a lot more often than they win. The
Rockets have beaten them each of the last two times
they've met, obviously earlier this year, which was just nine
days ago, the first meeting between these two teams. They'll
try to make it two for two tonight. I hope
they win by fifty the Rockets. Tonight. I'm gonna go

(01:41:38):
with the under on that Rockets win.

Speaker 3 (01:41:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:41:41):
I believe the Rockets will win. I think it will
be very much like the last two games, though.

Speaker 3 (01:41:45):
I can't so how much of these guys that are
out make or constitute their best defense in the league.

Speaker 4 (01:41:53):
The Rockets, No, the Magic, they're tops. No they're not.
Yeah they are. No, they're not the one hundred and
six points per I think that means they allow the
fewest points in the league. No defense in the league
right there? Not what I look at. Take your analytics
and shove them. No, the top defense in the league
is the Thunder, and the second best defense in the

(01:42:13):
league is going to be on the court tonight. Nay,
not the Magic. You think the second best defense in
the league right now is the Rockets. Well, they've been
able to improve their regular season numbers because of the
last seven games, maybe the Philadelphia game not SAMs are
against crap, right, and they've moved back up to number
two for this season, not for the last two weeks,
but for the season. You know what I struggle with.

Speaker 3 (01:42:35):
I want to I want to believe that's who they are,
and I do in large part, but I can't decide
if it was Jabari Smith missing a month, uh the
schedule with all of the back to back ninety of
their back to backs in February, or some combination of

(01:42:56):
the but like you have to factor those things in.
But just it's like you have to factor in the
schedule that during that stretch of games you just mentioned,
they've got a seven game winning streak.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
Who have they played? We always talk about this. I'll
update the numbers because Philadelphia putting up one thirty seven
will do that to you. Defensive rating thunder number one.
The Rockets are now four, and I will acknowledge my
quick trigger on the Orlando give me a break. You
said they sucked. I heard you. Well, they play it's
such a ridiculously slow pace, which you mentioned last week

(01:43:25):
when they played them. That's why nobody scores against them
big points, so it's an illusion. But they do have
the second best defensive rating in the NBA. That is
a real number, which takes all those things into account.
They are a good defensive team. So it's not smoking mirrors,
and you apologize, it is not smoking mirrors. I know,
I apologize. I knew they were up there. I couldn't.
I did not think they had risen to number two.

Speaker 3 (01:43:47):
As someone who is married and has been for nearly
a decade, I will never ever demand an apology from
anybody in my life.

Speaker 2 (01:43:54):
You know why?

Speaker 4 (01:43:55):
Why Because I don't like doing it myself and I
get demanded of that all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:43:59):
Why can't you just see your sorry? Have you ever
heard the Elton John song? Sorry seems to be the
hardest word.

Speaker 4 (01:44:05):
Oh, I thought it was a Chicago song. It's hard
for me to say I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:44:08):
That's another one. You would think they'd get the message
by now, because these are writing songs about Both of
those songs are incredibly recent. I would rather listen to
Chicago or Elton John than like ninety five percent of
anything that's out there. And if that makes me sound old,
I'm fine with it.

Speaker 4 (01:44:24):
It does. I won't rerun through the iHeart Radio Award winners.
I won't don't want to make you feel like you
don't know what's going on in music.

Speaker 3 (01:44:32):
This is one of those situations where it's not any
of the other stuff where if you were to ask me, hey,
you have to listen to Taylor Swift or those other
two groups that you mentioned, should mention.

Speaker 4 (01:44:41):
Regarding the Rockets. Danielle Lerner, who covers the Rockets for
the Chronicle, and of course Vanessa Richardson, who is here
with us many times and is with the Rockets as
part of the broadcast team, a courtside reporter an off
host for their programming, both have noted the work on
court put in Byaman Thompson this SMA at shoot around
and then now more recently in advance of the game,

(01:45:04):
the type of workouts that suggest his return is imminent. Similarly,
the coach, Imi Udoka, has indicated the same. That's why
I described him being out tonight but not yet necessarily
ruled out for Friday night. If I were to guess
when the first injury report is released by the Rockets
during the day on Friday, I bet you he's listed

(01:45:24):
as questionable. Doesn't mean he is gonna play, but I
think they will be able to push him into that level,
and maybe an hour before tip off will lower a
little over an hour before tip off will learn one
way or another. Either way that all points to his
imminent return. Be about two weeks that he would have
missed if he misses these two games on the road.
Rockets return home for that game this weekend against the Nuggets,

(01:45:45):
and that Nuggets game essentially begins the march, the very tough,
Imperial like march to the finish for the Rockets. They've
got Denver twice in their final eleven games, They've got
the Lakers twice eleven games. They've got top eight in
the West, Golden State and the LA Clippers among their opponents,

(01:46:05):
and the final and fifth meeting of the season between
the Rockets and the Thunder also comes over that final
stretch of eleven games, and those games include two West
Coast road trips and thankfully the final back to back
of the season, their last visit to the Suns and
Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, followed by the next night

(01:46:26):
against the Lakers that closes out the month, and they
close out the season with a home game against Denver
and hopefully their top four. So they'll finish the season
at home against Denver, and then they will open the
postseason at home in their first round series as a
two to three or four seed and likely the Southwest
Division chap.

Speaker 3 (01:46:46):
I might even be there for one of those games
the way things are going right now. But that's inside baseball.
As you know, all right, we will take a quick
time out. We are rapidly zeroing in on that Rockets
Magic matchup at the top of the hours. When covering
you'll get underway here on your home for Rockets basketball.
It's Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:47:05):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:47:09):
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Speaker 6 (01:47:12):
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Speaker 2 (01:48:29):
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Speaker 4 (01:48:30):
We all like free stuff.

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Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety and you
should make Sports Talk seven ninety your number one pre
sat on the free and all new and improved iHeartRadio App.
Matter of fact, if you're driving around town tonight, can't
watched the game for whatever reason, I would highly recommend
you listened to the game on the iHeartRadio app, because

(01:49:05):
not only do the shows here sound crystal clear, so
do the Rockets basketball games. Speaking of the NBA, one
quick thing I wanted to run by you that I
forgot to bring up. And I know you saw this
very random, very you know, I've I've found out about
this from my wife. Did you see what happened in Chicago?

Speaker 4 (01:49:26):
Very broad? Did you see what happened in the United Center? No?

Speaker 5 (01:49:30):
You didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:49:30):
You don't know about this, nope. Are you aware of
the uh metal band Disturbed? Remember the Texans played it
for like twenty years and never changed it as the
team ran onto the field?

Speaker 11 (01:49:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:49:43):
That song?

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
I am aware? Okay, very very high energy type of
live performance. If you go to one of their concerts
down well, there's Volume two. Yes, but one of the
things you will and you know this for sure, if
you went to their last show here in the Houston area.
I believe they played the Woodlands, so I have to
say Houston area. Oh, now I know what happened there. Yeah,
a lot of pyro they like to use, which is fine,

(01:50:06):
that's normal, especially in NBA arenas. Uh, you might not
want to burn down MJ six banners, all six of
them set on fire. Okay, where you're set on fire?
Where are Scotty's banners?

Speaker 4 (01:50:21):
He didn't have any. Oh, they're MJ's he failed in Portland, remember,
So they're hanging in the rafters at United Center, the
one that has the Scottie Pippen statue outside. It's actually
inside now and it's in and they have a very
high energy show with lots of pyro, flames, sparks, smoke.

Speaker 3 (01:50:42):
Towering infernos, and some damage to the banners. They did
not burn away, they're not in on fire by hand,
and they burned them down to the ground along with
the building.

Speaker 4 (01:50:53):
The banners have been damaged.

Speaker 3 (01:50:54):
Yeah, I listen. First of all, when you win that
many your replacement, you're saying.

Speaker 4 (01:51:03):
The Bulls released a statement that said, heck we got
five others anyway. Nope, because I think more than one
high damage.

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
You're trying to make it sound like, well, we got
enough of them, but you know, and this is true,
Like if the rockets had ripped off four more or
more since the two in the mid nineties, where are
they located right now in Toyota Center.

Speaker 4 (01:51:21):
Well, I'm trying to envision where Doug and the rest
of the crew would decide. What if Doug swan, Doug
Hall and his crew would Hall would probably decide to
put the band and their pyro where it would damage
the rockets.

Speaker 3 (01:51:38):
Championship banners. They would have to be in the seats, Okay,
But that's what I'm talking about. And United Center is actually,
I believe one of, if not the biggest capacity outside
of Madison Square Garden in the NBA. It's more than
twenty thousand. They can pass it to the biggest. I
believe it's still the biggest.

Speaker 4 (01:51:54):
It's huge.

Speaker 3 (01:51:55):
But those banners, if you know about how NBA arenas work,
like the rockets are tucked away nicely in the top corner.

Speaker 4 (01:52:03):
They're away from any sort of performance. You got championship
banners in a corner. You've got comets banners in another corner.
You've got the retired jerseys of Elvin and Rudy and
Yaod et cetera. At Carrol Dawson in another corner right
the Bulls.

Speaker 3 (01:52:19):
And I don't know if it's because there was six,
you know, for a long time, for two years there
was only three. But I'm pretty sure that once the
United Center was opened, in between the first three and
the second three, because remember they were the first three
were one in Chicago Stadium, which no longer exists, I
believe they were hung in like the end zone where
these six were hanging when this happened.

Speaker 4 (01:52:42):
In other words, not up in the corner any word
on the other six Stanley Cup banners and damage to
those from the Blackhawks.

Speaker 3 (01:52:51):
Or Blackhawks walked away unscathed, okay, and as did their banners.

Speaker 4 (01:52:55):
Good good, good few of them have been earned recently.
They had those couple in the this late decade, basically
half and half.

Speaker 3 (01:53:02):
Now, if you were to ask yourself, did I take
it upon myself to make a joke at the expense
of another city that is a somewhat rival to Houston,
like I did earlier today with the Astros City Connect Jersey.

Speaker 4 (01:53:14):
I'm gonna guess, because you're a good person whose heart
is anything but black. You did not make a fire
related connection joke to Los Angeles.

Speaker 3 (01:53:25):
Well, you'd be wrong. Well, no, that's actually correct. I
did not make a joke about Los Angeles. It was
about Chicago. Since that's what we're talking about here.

Speaker 4 (01:53:33):
You mean the city that has history with fire.

Speaker 3 (01:53:37):
No, I'm not talking about that. You're making it into
something else. You're going down a completely different, sinister path.
I mean, I'm just looking at the sports. I've been
to Chicago many times. I've even taken some city tours.
I think they talked about something called the Great Chicago Fire. Yeah,
but that was so long ago it doesn't count anymore.
What did you happen last week? What did you coldheartedly mention?

(01:53:58):
I mentioned that Disturbed is clearly a Rockets fan in
the mid nineties, and that's why they set those stupid
jerseys on or those banners on fire.

Speaker 4 (01:54:06):
I hope they will be able to be restored to
their full life.

Speaker 3 (01:54:09):
I'm sure that they will have replicas in place. Replicas,
that's what I said.

Speaker 4 (01:54:14):
You imagine having to do that saying well, this is
something we have to be concerned with now, either saying
you're gonna have to keep your flames to a certain height,
or we got to bring them, take them down and
put them back up, and take them down and put
them up, or permanently put fake ones up there, or
cover them with their cubs Cubic Zirconia banners.

Speaker 3 (01:54:35):
Okay, now I will bring it to a local point.
You do know that when you take photos with the
Rockets championship trophies, those aren't the ones.

Speaker 4 (01:54:43):
They have done that many times. They're not the ones.
So the ones I see this year, I've done it
twice and neither time, whether the real ones, it's not
even their fault, it's less as fault. They're not there.

Speaker 3 (01:54:54):
I just there's nothing more I am an NBA owner
than and Less taking the two real trophies with him
when he sold the team. I mean for two point
three billion, I want the original ones, man, That's what
I'm saying. If I'm tilman. But yeah, he took them
with him to Boca Raton or wherever he is now.

Speaker 4 (01:55:13):
Chip on your shoulder type of thing to go get
your own, be motivated to earn more moving forward. I
just I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:55:21):
I've always kind of I thought Less was a great owner,
not just good. I thought he was a great owner,
but I have a fundamental problem with that. I just
do just like those banners. They'll look at them the
next time mine exactly, But the next time Chicago Bulls
fans go into the United Center for a game where
there are banners hanging that aren't burned, they won't be
the real ones.

Speaker 4 (01:55:41):
Do you have it before we hit the break here?
Do you have a moment in time where you think
that's going to happen for the Bulls? Both are last
in the finals in twenty e love.

Speaker 3 (01:55:49):
I'm just saying, looking at the yesteryear, they'll never win
another championship ever. No, Wow, well why would they? They're terrible,
Their ownership is awful. They're like Jerry Jones.

Speaker 4 (01:55:58):
Lots of teams have been taking Hey, the Rockets were
terrible four years.

Speaker 3 (01:56:01):
Ago before, and you've been awful since save for that
little window where uh what's his face?

Speaker 4 (01:56:08):
Tay down to the finals? Tim Tibbs, Oh Tibbs, d
Rose Tibbs. Yeah, yeah, when.

Speaker 3 (01:56:14):
Derrick Rose was the MVP, you had that little window
before he got hurt or you had a good player.
But other than that, on either side of MJ's tenure,
You've been a disaster of an organization for the large
part of things, and because your ownership is the same guy,
just like in Dallas, you'll never win another championship until
he's gone. I firmly believe that about the Bulls. They're

(01:56:36):
nowhere near it now.

Speaker 4 (01:56:37):
A little respect for d Rose's team. You're his talentless
team around him. That you just said, yeah, Joe, I
would say that was inaccurate. He had a couple of
teammates who played all eighty two games that championship year
that they won sixty two times and made it to
the finals, including his center former Houston Rocket Great ooh,

(01:56:59):
that's good to be tough. He had red hair. His
first name was Judge, his last name was Reinhold. Oh omare.

Speaker 3 (01:57:12):
I kept wanting to say another, wait, they really went
to the finals and I missed this? Yeah you sure
it wasn't just the conference finals.

Speaker 4 (01:57:20):
Well, they also the sixty two win Bulls crapped out
in the conference That's what I thought. They've They haven't
been back to the finals since MJ have they? No? Okay,
you just rewrote history on the fly, And I said
the finals And I thought in the midst of my words,
the word conference came out as.

Speaker 3 (01:57:37):
A Derreck Rose in his prime was one of my
favorite non run MVP. He was awesome and he actually
made something of the remainder of his career after he
went through those horrible injuries. All right, we will be
back to wrap things up before we make way for
Rockets basketball coverage at the top of the hour.

Speaker 4 (01:57:55):
Next here on the eight Team,