Orel Hershcryer Laments A La La Loser Weekend!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham, raised by Earl Nolan.
They molded by the magnificent roller coaster ride that is
Houston Sports. Chill lags down for the only homegrown afternoon team.

(00:29):
Is talking your teams? Adam Clinton and Adam Wexland are
the A team.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Don't see that money.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
First bitch of the ball game, and that's terrific, deep
to left field, to the corner, over toward the corner.

Speaker 4 (00:53):
At the wall, and that ball is gone.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Laid off hold rock for a socerus on the game's
first pitch and the Astros are up one to nothing.
Number eighteen for Paratus and his first premier leadoff homer.
First pitch to Christian Walker and he lines this one
in a right That's a base hit that'll score a run.
As Al two v trots home and it's two nothing Astros.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
People keep asking if I'm back, and I haven't really
had an answer, but now yeah, I'm thinking on back.

Speaker 5 (01:26):
Here's the pitch breaking pitch, hits it well the left
hitter field Conforto, the left fielder, he's.

Speaker 6 (01:32):
Going back and she's gone safe. Way A two run
homer by Al two Bay, his first home run at
Dodgers Stadium in the.

Speaker 7 (01:42):
Regular season one on one count and that one's hammered.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
That one's way up. Seasignor ten rows deep in left
field for Christian Walker and the Astros are exploding.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Hitch on the way and Kartini cranks it out to
right center in deep back on It is her Nandez
at the wall looking up.

Speaker 7 (02:08):
Seeleter My cred.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
Slam perfector Karazini his second on this road trip and
the fourth of his career. Here's the one two and
al two by lifts it to right and deep. It
sends back her Nandez at the wall looking up.

Speaker 7 (02:24):
See letder.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Jose ol two bay with his second home of the game.
This one is a three run shot and the Astros
keep laying the wood to the Dodgers.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Oh one is lying and a leap.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Big grabbed by Christian Walker and that is the ballgame.
A display of fireworks by the Astros offense. On this
fourth of July eleven, extra Base hits five home runs
as the Astros blow out the Dodgers eighteen to one
to take game one of this three game series. Next day,

(03:01):
break the ball.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
And that's a shot down the third base lining into
the corner in left field. That's gonna score two short
skips into second base with a two run double.

Speaker 7 (03:12):
What a swing with two strikes.

Speaker 5 (03:14):
Here's the one oh swinging a shot up the middle
and that's through into center field. The Astros are gonna
score again. Cam Smith easily and Christian Walker continues his
dominance in Los Angeles, and it's forty two wax this
on the center field back on it by Hey still

(03:36):
going back and she's gone season.

Speaker 7 (03:40):
You're for Yider Diaz. He's eleventh of the season. He
loved crack of the bat head. It's five to two.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
O one and that's lifted to left, shallow coming in
tremel going out pas Paradas down foul ground, makes the
two handed grab and fat is the ball game the
second straight day. The Astros are victorious at Dodger Stadium.

Speaker 7 (04:04):
The next day.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
Here's the one to one that's popped up first space
side over his walker toward the line, a step into
the outfield grass and he makes the catch one handed,
and it's a one two three inning for Ryan Gusto,
who has retired the last ten in a row to two,
and that's hit in the year. Pretty deep to right
center field. Ruiz is back on the warning track. He

(04:27):
leaps at the wall and that ball is gone. For
the seventh time in his last eight games at Dodger Stadium.
Christian Walker has homered and the Astros lead at three
to one on Walker's twelfth of the year to two
and Das pranks this one deep to left center.

Speaker 7 (04:47):
Conforto back looking.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
Up see letter, back to back, Jacks purst.

Speaker 3 (04:53):
Walker now DZ four to one. Astros Yiner with his twelfth,
the two strike three call right at the top of
the zone, frozen with a fastball.

Speaker 7 (05:06):
Good morning, good afternoon, and good night show.

Speaker 8 (05:09):
Hey Otani two away, wondering if.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
You haven't gonna come back. I guess who.

Speaker 7 (05:28):
Got a letter?

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Say? Let stay Lena.

Speaker 8 (05:34):
Two two.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Strike three call on the outside corner, and that is
the ballgame. The Astros love La.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
They love it.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
They sweep the Dodgers five to one, breaking out the
brooms at Dodgers Stadium for the first time since two
thousand and eight.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
Astros finished their six game.

Speaker 7 (05:54):
Road trip Colorado and La at five and one. They
blew you courtantly? Do you survive on this? Do you
enjoy playing in this atmosphere?

Speaker 9 (06:04):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (06:04):
Yeah, you want answers.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
You want answers the truth.

Speaker 7 (06:10):
You can't handle the truth sun yet I am. Do
you think Oral Herscheiser is still in the fetal position
at two oh seven on a Monday afternoon. Well done,

(06:33):
Cole Thompson, Well done. Listen anytime the Astros can provide
you enough offense content. What have you to take up
half of the entire first segment of the first show
back after vacation. Well, you know what, I'm gonna ease
my way in, which is exactly what I did. The

(06:55):
Astros did not. They barged in the door at Dodger
Stadium and they themselves right at home. And wow, that
was an outstanding display for three straight days. And what
a way to well for me to end a week
off just watching that. And you know I was watching.

(07:15):
I was listening here on seven ninety on the free
iHeartRadio app and doing all the things I needed to
do to keep track of Well, let's just face it,
it was one of the more highly anticipated series of
the year, and it did not disappoint, unless, of course,
you were Oral Herscheizer or any of the Dodgers faithful,

(07:35):
all of which had to stick around through that eighteen
to one, drubbing to watch their free fireworks show on
the fourth of July. I don't know why they got
plenty of fireworks from the Ashtros. Adam Clanton back with
you on a Monday, fresh off vacation. Wex is out
this week. We will reconvene a week from today, so
you're stuck with me for the next five days. We'll

(07:57):
have some friends come along at different points during the week.
But really looking forward to it and was looking forward
to getting back into this chair after what happened over
the weekend. Yes, there are other things to get to
but let's face it, when the Astros go into Los
Angeles as one of the hottest teams in baseball going
into that series and then do what they did to

(08:18):
a very very good Dodgers team, I don't want to
hear about all the people that are on their injured
list and all that kind of stuff. The Astros certainly
do not want to hear that, but the Astros going
in there and doing what they did offensively, doing what
they did from a pitching standpoint, as this bullpen remains
one of the best in baseball and that bore itself

(08:40):
out as All Star selections were made. Josh hater still filthy,
Absolutely still filthy, but he had plenty of help in
that bullpen, the rotation, getting the job done. And of
course it starts and ends with the littlest big man
on the planet. Jose two absolutely owns the Los Angeles

(09:03):
Dodgers franchise. He is living rent free in their heads. Massive.
Oh my gosh, I'm just you know, the artist formerly
known as Astro's third baseman, Alex Bregman, once referred to
needing a wheelbarrow, and that's what Jose al Tuove walked
out of Dodger Stadium with over the last three days.

(09:24):
Just I mean, you talk about leaning, and the thing is,
you heard this the question right there from Ken Rosenthal.
Bless his heart, he tried, He tried his best. Jose
wasn't gonna bite. But man, I have never seen a
guy who's not a wrestling heel subconsciously lean into that

(09:45):
role the way Jose al Tuve did in Chavez Ravine
this weekend. It was awesome, Cole.

Speaker 8 (09:51):
It was.

Speaker 7 (09:52):
It was fun to watch for the obvious reasons, but
then it was fun to watch the outcome and the aftermath.
Three nights in a row. You know, it wasn't just
all you know, Dodgers fans are upset now, they were
in their feelings, they were apps and we're gonna get
to it. We will, as a matter of fact, best
of X at the beginning or the bottom of this

(10:12):
first hour. You're going to get a nice, nice sample
as the Astros again completing the sweep. Then they're back
at it again tonight, no rest for the weary, back
here in the friendly confines of Dyikin Park, as they
will try to hammer out the final six games pre
All Star Breaks portion of the schedule with what else

(10:34):
w's That's all they do lately, and it's been it's
just been incredible to watch keeping track of them. That
was a disappointing loss to the Rockies. You know, it's
kind of like when you lose to the A's it
shouldn't happen. But if you tell me that you're not
going to sweep the Rockies, but you're gonna go to
LA and you're gonna take out the Dodgers in that fashion,
I think I was probably not alone when I saw

(10:58):
eighteen to one on the fourth of July and thought,
you know what if the Astros lose the next two games.
Can you really be that upset? There's still you know,
got a nice fat cushion in the al West. They're
still gonna you know, they still just humiliated the Dodgers
on America's Birthday? Can you really be that upset? Well,

(11:20):
the next night they get the win, and then you
get greedy. You get greedy. On Sunday, I knew I
was gonna be driving back from Orange Beach, Alabama. I
knew a good chunk of that drive was going to
be spent listening to the Astros Dodgers game, and why not,
why not be greedy? And that's exactly what they did.
And then the perfect cherry on the Sunday with Jose

(11:42):
Al Tuove hitting yet another home run. Just a spectacular
weekend for the Astros and they weren't alone. Rockets making
it official, lots of NBA news and lots of sports
news in general. Rafel Stone meeting with the media today,
I have thoughts both on what he had to say
and the manner in which Kevin Durant's official membership of

(12:06):
the Houston Rockets came to be. Come on, now, you
gotta have a press conference. It's not the Rockets fault.
They they are doing their best to present the hottest
acquisition this offseason, but Kevin Durant's calendar apparently wasn't syncing up.
So who knows if we will hear from him officially
before the media day. If that's the first time that

(12:28):
we really kind of get introduced to KD the Rockets,
so be it, but a little bit of a letdown
there because I would have liked to have seen a
Chris Paul type production to uh, well, basically the biggest
acquisition since Chris Paul coming to the Rockets and not
really really being presented, and basically instead we're getting a
little bit of thoughts from the Rockets GM, who's had

(12:51):
a very busy and I would say, very good offseason.
All of that and so much more we're gonna get
to here on a Monday edition of The A Team
It Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 10 (13:14):
I I.

Speaker 7 (13:25):
What's Accustiday? It is a Monday edition of The A
Team Sports Talk seven ninety simulcast at the top of
the hour on Space City home network. AC Back in
the Saddle with you, wex is out all week. Cole
Thompson as per usual. By the way, Cole, when you
take some vacation, I know you took a couple of
days before I left.

Speaker 9 (13:44):
Oh, but I feel like I'm gonna die, all right,
that's just kind of my case. I got my wife's
birthday this weekend. I may be at SEC Media Days
next week, so we got a lot of things in
the works to wear. I don't have time for vacation entirely.

Speaker 7 (13:56):
Just I like the fact that I've never met your wife,
but she and I talk trash to each other by
proxy through you. You know what, It's actually probably great.

Speaker 9 (14:03):
She says wonderful things about you, you say wonderful things
about her. It's just like, oh, and both of you
know how to push the right buttons you flex her.
It's just like, you know, I'm I know that the
brain aneurysm is performing in the back of the head
as we speak every day.

Speaker 7 (14:14):
Well, speaking of which, so I'll just get this, I'll
get this out of the way as we continue on
a Monday, after the Astros sweep the Dodgers out of
their own gym and head back here for the final
six before the All Star break. You know, when you
come back from a week on vacation, wherever you've gone,
whatever you've done. You know, some people are interested in hearing.

(14:35):
Some people are like, I don't care talk sports. Just
touch sports at your job. But I will say this,
when you go on vacation, when it's with a significant other,
whether it be a girlfriend or a wife or a
long time whatever there are, if you are a fiery
couple like we are, sometimes you just think about it.

(14:55):
You know, I'm like, Hey, how's this gonna go? You know,
you're gonna be in close proximity, You're not gonna have
any so breaks or anything like that. How's it gonna go?
Are you gonna be killing each other by the end
of the week. But it was not. I can and
I hate to say this because I don't want people
to know. Orange Beach is just awesome. It really is.
It's just so like I think, I know a lot

(15:16):
of you guys know about and have been to Destin, Florida,
and so you know what it looks like on the beach,
but you also know what it looks like off the beach.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
I e.

Speaker 7 (15:25):
The riff raff, all of the crowds, all of the people,
just a lot, a lot of people in one place,
and that's how these places are during the summer. But
I will say this about Orange Beach, and I always
have said this, and I think it's the secret's out.
I'm about to get to that. I feel like it's
the most underrated beach on the mainland. What I mean

(15:46):
by that, it's not Hawaii, it's not any sort of
you know, it's not the Virgin Islands. It's not something
that like belongs to the US but is out in
you know, exotic tropical waters. If as far as like
pound for pound beaches in America that you don't want
to have the kind of crowding, you don't want to
have the type of riff raff that you're gonna get

(16:07):
in all sorts of places in California, obviously Florida, and
even on the northeast side of town or the northeast
side of the country. It is it's not something you
would think about, Oh, I'm gonna go to the beach
in Alabama. That's why it's awesome.

Speaker 9 (16:20):
That's why it's because if they say, oh, it's Alabama,
what do you mean there's a beach out there?

Speaker 7 (16:24):
Yeah, dumb, Because you've got it's like destin Pensacola. The
Florida Panhandle is legit ten minutes down the road. So
you're getting the sand, you're getting the water, you're getting
everything you would get in Florida right there in a
very secluded, very small, very clean area of Alabama. So
it's it's perfect.

Speaker 9 (16:45):
Yeah, you have one of the best music festivals out there,
you have one of the best bars out there with Floriabama.
You have everything that you could want out there. I
love Hangout, I love Orange Beach. I'd go out there
every single year for spring break. We'd have a good time.
And I'm glad that you finally got introduced to publics,
which that makes me so happy that you finally have
to see it.

Speaker 7 (17:02):
I could do an entire segment on publics and how
much I love that grocery store, having never been there
until this past weekend, and it was there the whole time.
I just never went to it. But there is there
is one drawback, and I found this out the hard way.
So we went to do what we've done several times,
which is stay in the same place. It's a fantastic
condo situation there. There's several chews from we just happened

(17:24):
to like the one that we stayed in, But we
had never gone for the Fourth of July, and I
didn't know. I just didn't know. You don't know what
you don't know. Sometimes there's traffic when you travel certain
parts of the country. And I've been on the road
for the Fourth of July in America before, typically you know,
burning up the highway between here and Kansas City after

(17:47):
marrying someone from that city. I'd never done this type
of vacation. And then tried to get back to my
home city of Houston on the Fourth of July weekend,
and I thought, because the fourth was on a Friday,
and Saturday is a well known travel day obviously, and
for a weekend holiday like it fell on this year,

(18:09):
that'd be good. Nope, it took us like four hours
to get from Orange Beach, Alabama to the other side
of Mobile That's not far at all, and it just
it was a long, long trek in the vehicle. Now, Fortunately,
everybody kept their cool, especially the nearly seven year old

(18:29):
in the back seat. You give a kid an iPad,
he can go for twelve hours, which he needed to yesterday.
So yeah, it was a what should have been about
seven and a half eight hour trip including stops, turned
into more than twelve hours. Yeah, it sucked. Just I'm
talking like two lanes freeway. I tend from here, from

(18:50):
here to Alabama. That stretch, Oh it was. It was brutal,
but we made it. Got it in late last night
and again listening to an Astro sweep of the Dodger,
and I'm gonna tell you right now, like people that
my family, I mean that watch me watch sporting events,
sometimes I'm a little unruly. Let me tell you. When
Jose Altuve hit that last home run the Kapper, you

(19:14):
know the style points, it's not necessary in the final analysis,
you don't need that run. It wasn't close. And who
it came against, Let's not forget. Yeah, that was essentially
their closer, who's been very good for them. But it
just I don't, man, it has been a long time.

(19:34):
I feel like there was a Memorial Day game the
Astros played in twenty two maybe even though it was seventeen,
it was a Memorial Day game, and I believe they
were either in Cleveland or Minnesota.

Speaker 9 (19:47):
It was the Minnesota and it was like seventeen to one. Yeah, yeah,
put up a lot of runs, put up a lot
of offense. It was a laugher.

Speaker 7 (19:53):
And I want to say that game got broken up
by a rain delay, so it was a super long
affair from Minnesota because they had to wait, and it
was like, maybe not in doubt, but the Astros led,
but it wasn't. And then like they did all their
damage when they came back from the rain delay. As
I recall, I might be remembering but misremembering, as Roger
Clemmons would say, but yeah, that's the first time the

(20:15):
Astros have done something like that that I can recall
in a long, long time. And it just it seems
so out of place, because if the twenty nineteen offense
did that, for example, well you would just you wouldn't
even raise your eyebrows. That was a murderer's row lineup.
And the pitching they're doing this with, like guys that

(20:37):
weren't on the roster five days ago.

Speaker 9 (20:38):
Zach Short getting an RBI double and scoring two runs
on Saturday.

Speaker 7 (20:44):
Yeah, like all these guys Cooper hit balls.

Speaker 9 (20:47):
Like who was the guy on Twitter on Facebook that commented, congratulations,
you'd beat Alex Vesa. It was no, you actually lost
to Cooper Humble and Taylor Tremmelle. Yeah, that's more the
loss that you have to take with this.

Speaker 7 (20:58):
Yeah, if you're a Dodgers fan and you're trying to
kind of like make yourself feel better, We've all done
it as sports fans. Your team takes one on the chin,
and I mean hardcore, it basically ruins your holiday literally
in this case for Dodgers fans, and you're just trying
to kind of psych yourself up, psych others out that
are talking trash to you. Whatever the case, there's no

(21:18):
love lost between these two fan bases. But if you're
gonna try and say, ah, well, congratulations, you're bragging about
beating these guys. Okay, fine, I'll even give you that
for the opener, But what's your excuse the next two days?
And if you're gonna say that the ash or that
the Dodgers have all these people on the il, First
of all, you have the highest payroll in baseball. Secondly,
Sho hee Otani was healthy, healthy enough to hit and pitch,

(21:39):
by the way, even on limited action, and look great
in that one ending which I got to get to unhittable. Absolutely.
I mean, he's he's not fair. He is a walking cheat.

Speaker 2 (21:48):
Code.

Speaker 7 (21:49):
But the last time I checked, you have the murderer's
row of your own at the top of your lineup,
even though I can't stan Mookie Betts and think he's
one of the more overrated players in all of Major
League Baseball, one.

Speaker 9 (21:59):
Of the most likable guys in the four hole, hitting
with Freddy Freeman, which.

Speaker 7 (22:02):
Again, Freddy Freeman's the best.

Speaker 9 (22:03):
I love Freddy, and that's the thing, is like, you
can't hate on Freddy, but also it's like you want
Freddy to go down.

Speaker 7 (22:08):
Swing, which he did. It was great.

Speaker 9 (22:10):
Like imagine telling yourself, okay, imagine telling you saw this
sac You lose to Colorado, but you go eight and
one against all first place teams in the NL, including
an absolute mollywop on the road in Dodger Stadium, and
you get a four out, say from Josh Hater, who
has to go up against the top four in your lineup,
and he does a great job.

Speaker 7 (22:28):
Yeah, it was. It was incredible. One of those that
you remember, you're gonna look back on it. I know
that it's a regular season series, but you remember things
like this year's from now you just do like I mean,
I just recalled the game against Minnesota because it stands
out and that it's just part. It's just, honestly, to me,
like another chapter in this run by the Astros. And frankly,

(22:51):
I had no idea that the run would still be
continuing at the beginning of this season, and it didn't
look good after the season even got under way. But
I'm talking about preseason. I was thinking of this in
spring training. Here we are. Here, we are Astros are
not all forget the division, you know, forget Oh, congratulations
to the Seattle Mariners for keeping pace by sweeping the

(23:14):
Pittsburgh Pirates. This just in Paul Skeins pitched a gym
and got zero run support. It's another day of the
week that he plays. That's all that is. I you know,
forget the division, Astros challenging for the best record in baseball. Yes,
you heard me right, And it just happens to coincide

(23:36):
with the Yankees tail spinning.

Speaker 11 (23:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (23:38):
I know, they salvaged that series yesterday, but the Mets
spanked them all weekend long. It just could not have
gone better. And in that vein when we come back
Best of X, we're gonna revisit Friday nights broadcast in
the LA booth. I think you guys know what I'm
talking about. For those of you who missed it, you're
gonna want to hear what oral Herscheizer had to say,
insinuate suggest how are you want to call it? And

(24:02):
power rankings and how I normally don't care about them
and ignore them. But once again Major League Baseball and
the powers that be up to their old tricks. I'll
explain next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (24:19):
Did you all see this putting out between five.

Speaker 7 (24:22):
And six posts a day, four hundred people were arrested
for things that they said.

Speaker 12 (24:26):
On social media.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
History repeats itself.

Speaker 7 (24:30):
Type and you'll succeed. Never doubt that you're the one
who plus will go one bill the lead. You're the
best of X. Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're
the best of X. Post an every single day.

Speaker 9 (24:46):
You're the best of X, breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
All right, let's dive in best of X every day
at two thirty, give or take, unless something happens out
of the ordinary. But it was very very common. Astro
is having their way with the Dodgers on a big stage,
and that happened all weekend long. Now, I if you
happen to catch some of the good morning videos that

(25:19):
I cranked out over the weekend. I particularly enjoyed doing
Saturday Mornings after the eighteen to one drubbing Friday night.
I mean, it was July fourth, and I don't know
what you guys were doing. We had a spectacular fireworks display,
like right in front of our balcony because the building
put it on right there on the beach. I mean

(25:41):
we're talking put up there with any of the fireworks
display you were seeing across the country.

Speaker 2 (25:46):
It was that good.

Speaker 7 (25:47):
It was that good, and it was right in your face.
So I'm I'm watching only me, of course, right the
whole family's outside of the balcony. Little man is still
not a huge noise fan, so he was kind of
of being dramatic inside. So it was me and him inside,
everybody else out on the balcony, but all the lights
were off. We could see it through the glass. It's
all good. And I'm watching the Astros Dodgers on my

(26:09):
laptop at the same time, because of course I am,
and I'm giving the people who really care about it
my family updates as each Astro's run is coming in. Now,
remember before they really started wailing them. It was six
to one, right, it was four to one. You know,
the Astros were in control pretty early, and so I

(26:32):
just periodically would open the door, tell them, hey, this
is happening, go back in. Well, apparently at one point
the Astros got a little too much in command because
a member of the Dodgers' television broadcasting team. In other words,
they're Jeff Blum. Hate to even insult Jeff like that, Blummer.

(26:53):
I apologize. I should not have said that. Take that
out of your mouth. I know, I know I really should,
but take a lot. They're their color commentator on the
television side, Oral Hersheizer was, let's just say, taking liberties
with what he thought was the reason the Astros were

(27:15):
jumping all over the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium as the
opener of that three game weekend set began to unfold.

Speaker 10 (27:22):
As on the run, turn to watch this one wedge
itself in the bottom of the wall and Cam Smith
flying into second, anchoring there with another extra baseit for
the Astros. Double homer double, so open third against casparios.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
I don't want to open an old.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Room, but in some ways they're swinging at these breaking
balls like they know what it's coming.

Speaker 7 (27:44):
I don't want to fill in the blank, but means
you're going to do exactly what you just said you
supposedly don't want to do.

Speaker 9 (27:53):
I don't mean to cause drama, but I don't mean
to cause a scene. But I don't mean to bring
this up.

Speaker 7 (27:59):
But you just go do it. Say don't even say
I don't mean to, because you do it. I mean.
And here's the thing he is, He's got to be
that guy for them, So I get it. I understand
what he's doing from the standpoint of, well, I'm trying
to make the best of a bad situation. I will
take this low hanging fruit. I will lean into my

(28:23):
role as a member of the broadcast crew for a
team that was the quote victim of cheating. But come on, man,
you you are. You're talking about a series where you
had Jose Altuve and Lance McCullers junior, who, by the way,
pitched well in Friday Night's opener, and not that he

(28:45):
was gonna need to. He had all the cushioning you
could actually ever hope for. But those are the two
guys left on the roster from twenty seventeen. That's it
those two guys. Now I realize that they're two very
prominent guys in that one started Game seven that Charlie
Morton finished, and the other guy is still yacking balls

(29:05):
over the fence Chavez Ravine and gets boot every time
he goes to the plate. But like, come on, really,
orl Herscheizer, they're cheating. They're cheating on the road, by
the way, they're cheating in LA they have the trash
can there. And that's why it was eighteen to one.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
Like it was.

Speaker 7 (29:25):
What you would expect when you got into the comments.
Some of the people that were responding, I can't the
obvious ones about his first name. I don't need to
say anymore there. Some people kind of went a little
bit further. A lackluster career in broadcasting ruined by one sentence,

(29:46):
pot meet kettle, you ball scuffing moron. Yeah, let's not
forget to oil Herscheizer got caught up with a little
bit of you know, the accusations of things not being
on the up and up and certain things that he
did as a pitcher. Have a sandwich oral you earned it,
complete with the what are you an idiot? Sandwich gift?

(30:09):
My favorite and this always comes up with the Dodgers
the graphic of.

Speaker 9 (30:18):
Two.

Speaker 7 (30:18):
There's three players, but the two most prominent are Mookie
Bets and Joe Kelly because Mookie Betts was they were
both on the Red Sox squad that beat the Dodgers
in twenty eighteen and were then caught cheating. Okay, then
they both become members of the Dodgers. MOOKI and a

(30:38):
highly ballyhooed trade. And then Joe Kelly's had multiple stints
there and they paint a mural of the guy. They
worship Joe Kelly. That should tell you all you need
to know about Dodgers fans and their fan base that
they they hold Joe Kelly up as a sports god,
a deity in that town the likes of which we
haven't seen since you know, Kobe Bryant and Kareem and

(31:02):
other LA sports luminaries. Yeah, that's why you can putting
those two in the same conversations. They do, I know
they do. The guy made a booboo face at Carlos
Korea during the pandemic with placards in the crowd here
in Houston, and they worship it. They painted a mural
of him, making that face, and then Joe Kelly takes

(31:23):
his family there and goes and takes pictures in front
of it and posts it on social media. The total
bag of ass that he is. I just it's it's
so perfect that the Dodgers worship that guy and say
nothing about Mookie Betts, who still hasn't had a season
like he did in twenty eighteen when he helped defeat

(31:43):
the Dodgers by cheating. Never it's never happened since. I mean,
he's he's had his moments. It's just so funny that
this this fan base does that. And then of course
you open up the MLB power rankings, and not just
in power rankings, but the official power rankings from Major

(32:03):
League Baseball, you know, the ones that the league puts out,
and not surprisingly, the Dodgers are still ahead of the Astros.
You got the Detroit Tigers number one, Dodgers number two,
Astros number three. After the sweep. What you heard about
last week, right, I did not what happened.

Speaker 9 (32:23):
Chicago and Philly, who the Astros just got done playing
and won five out of six games, were ranked three
and four, while the Astros were ranked number five. So
it took literally them beating the Dodgers to finally surpass
the two teams that they already beat and basically dismantled

(32:43):
in embarrassing fashion on your own turf to get into
the top three spots after beating them last week.

Speaker 7 (32:50):
Yeah, that's I mean, look, it doesn't surprise me who
we're dealing with what we're dealing with, but it is.
Let's just put it this way. The Astros have a
tendency to get the last laugh, and I hope that
this is another example of that. And man, if these

(33:13):
two teams wound up in the World Series this year,
could you imagine? Could you imagine I went to it.
I went to Dodgers Stadium for Game six, thinking I
would be celebrating at the end of that night. It
was turned away, got back on a plane, came back
that same night, landed here at four o'clock in the
morning locally on the day of Game seven, and then

(33:35):
ended up celebrating in my living room as the Astros
won their first championship over the Dodgers. But man, those
people they're every bit what you've heard in person and more,
and I just I would I would want to find
my way out there again. I'm not gonna lie. I
would want to find my way out there again if
the World Series took place in Chavez Ravine. All right,

(33:57):
we'll take a quick time out. We'll come right back.
What did raffel Stone have to say about all of
his and this guy's been busy. This guy has been
up to very good, not no good, very good. Rockets
are looking very very good going into this upcoming season.
The man that made it happen, pulling the strings behind
the scenes, personnel, what have you? Rafel Stone speaks for

(34:20):
the first time to the media since making Kevin Durant
and others a Houston Rocket. Will hear from him next.

Speaker 4 (34:30):
The A t on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (34:34):
You know it's a sweaty and.

Speaker 6 (34:37):
These week arms that he beat his vomit on a
sweat at already, mon Spaghetti.

Speaker 7 (34:41):
He's nervous, but on a surface he.

Speaker 12 (34:43):
Looks calm and ready palms back at it.

Speaker 7 (34:46):
Here on the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety simul
cast beginning at the top of the hour. Next segment,
wex out, Ac back In and Cole Thompson along for
the ride. Will all be together there again next week
on Monday. But that's a week from now over the weekend,
obviously Astros sweeping the Dodgers out of LA on their

(35:10):
way back here. They've got six before the All Star Break,
beginning with the Cleveland Guardians tonight, first of three. Then
you've got the Texas Rangers over the weekend, and then
they'll be off to the All Star Break. We'll get
to the All Star announcements, by the way, in case
you missed those good news, some bad news. I don't

(35:31):
want to say bad news, but I just you know,
the Astros, the Astros not starting a single All Star
in the All Star Game is nothing other than just
you know, victims of a popularity contest. Yeah, look at
the Braves. How many Ulstars they have?

Speaker 13 (35:47):
Many and no Fromer by the way, Yeah, that's that's stupid.

Speaker 7 (35:53):
But I'll tell you this, Like, are the Braves the
most disappointing team in baseball this year?

Speaker 9 (35:58):
Like there's not a There's a close second, right Boston
in a sense, because if I think that many people
thought they could at least win the al least and
compete with need they.

Speaker 7 (36:06):
Started they started out. The Atlanta has been crap from
the beginning, right, That's the thing.

Speaker 9 (36:10):
It's been a constant mediocrity, even with the return of
an MVP and Ronald A Kuna Junior, who at this
point I'm not gonna lie, they should at least start
fielding offers if they can get anything in a return
for him, just because you know, he's not probably your
long term plan.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
You know.

Speaker 7 (36:22):
I this is around the time I want to say
that the Astros started turning it around last season after
I mean, their their start was worse than Atlanta's this year,
as I recall, just the amount of long shot, yeah,
by the amount of games under five. But like, if
you're made of something, if you're made of anything, like
the Atlanta Braves have good players on that roster. It's

(36:45):
not like the there was this massive turnover. But anyways,
enough about them, speaking of roster turnover. Obviously it's it's
official as of yesterday. We told you that when it
when it was announced, but you know, because of league
rules and all that, Rockets could not announce officially that
the trade was made for Kevin Durant until yesterday, and

(37:07):
then the releases go out. And it's not just obviously
Kevin Durant, although he is clearly the headliner of this offseason,
but Dorian Finney Smith, Clint Capella. All of this happened
over the last week, and the Clint Capella thing was
intriguing because I thought, well, why are they stocking up
on sinners, you know, why why the redundancy? Are they

(37:31):
gonna try and pull off another big move? But by
all accounts, it looks like this is just depth more
than anything else. And that's fine with me. I mean,
I am, I am. I haven't been this ready for
a Rocket season in July, and I don't know how long.

Speaker 12 (37:49):
And that on.

Speaker 7 (37:50):
It's probably the Chris Paul season. But even then, I'm like,
all right, that could be cool, but let's see how
it works. Nobody knew that it was gonna work as
well as it did. You had Mike Dan tell you know,
you're gonna put the ball in the hands of James Harden,
and then how was he going to exist with, you know,
such a strong personality on and off the floor as
Chris Paul. And for one season it was fantastic, and frankly,

(38:13):
for another season it was still pretty good. And then
James Harden began ruining the franchise on his way out
the door. But all it did was lead to a
complete overhaul and tear down led by raffel Stone. You know,
Darryl Moury hit the bricks, Mike D'Antoni hit the bricks,
and James Harden and Russell Westbrook hit the bricks. They

(38:35):
were gone. It was it was let's blow this thing
up astro style and strip it down the way we
have never done since before Leslie Alexander purchased the squad.
Tilman Fertita gives his blessing and raffel Stone goes to work.
And what did he do. He went and got Kevin Durant,
He went and got Dorian Finney Smith, he went and

(38:55):
got Clint Cappella. It was complicated, it was complex, and
today was the first day he was able to talk
about it. And this is a snippet of some of
what he had to say to the gathered media about
this Rockets busy offseason.

Speaker 14 (39:09):
And yeah, I mean in terms of just developing guys,
I think I think we're not a developmental team anymore.
That shift probably happened a year or two ago. And
and I think the goal for this group is to
win basketball games and be as competitive as we can be.

Speaker 12 (39:26):
Well, what was the biggest factor that made you guys
want to acquire Kevin Durant.

Speaker 14 (39:30):
I mean, he's Kevin Durant, you know. I think I
think he's just he's really good. He's super efficient. He
had a great year last year, so I mean he's
obviously not he's not thirty anymore, but he hasn't really
fallen off, and we just think, yeah, we think he
has a chance to really be impactful for us Rapell.

Speaker 12 (39:48):
What do you hope the young guys learned from Kevin
Durant and can take from him?

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Is there around him?

Speaker 14 (39:52):
Yeah, we actually arranged for a bunch of those guys
to work out with him last summer and the summer before.

Speaker 7 (39:57):
His just his work I think is just awesome. Like
his the speed at which he goes not in.

Speaker 14 (40:03):
A game, I mean, obviously everyone tries hard in games,
but the speed at which he practices and and kind
of the intensity at which he practices is something that
that has made him great over the years, and it
started when he was very young, and so so of
all the things that that I hope I hope rubs off,
that's that's the main one.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
I think.

Speaker 14 (40:22):
I think that practice makes perfect and I think one
of the recents he's had such an excellent career is
because of the intensity with which he works day and
day out.

Speaker 7 (40:31):
He may he may and Katie's kind of relationship is
pretty well documented. How much was he may have pushed
for this trade and what was his reaction when this
trade went through?

Speaker 14 (40:39):
I mean, you know, I think we organizationally, we only
do things when when it makes sense for all of us,
and and so he was, he was definitely an advocate
for it. But but only in this way. You know
that that by no means was their pressure to do
something like this. We thought we were going to be
a very good team coming back no matter what. And

(41:02):
when the when the deal came through in this manner,
I think.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
We all, we all wanted to do it.

Speaker 12 (41:07):
When does Kevin bring that this team didn't have last season?

Speaker 14 (41:11):
I mean, you know, he's he has an easy time
getting his own shot in the half court. He's hyper
efficient or has been hyper efficient in the half court.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
And.

Speaker 14 (41:22):
Honestly, that's that's where he brings to every team. So
no team that doesn't have Kevin has his unique skill set.
So so he'll bring that here there. For sure, things
we give up, but but we like the trade off
with the Rockets timeline to contend for a championship is
kind of the same as as Kevin's timeline.

Speaker 7 (41:42):
Of being interesting. We were the number two seed last
year and.

Speaker 14 (41:47):
And I think a very legitimate one, and so we
think we can contend now. And we thought we won
a close series, I mean not one. We lost a
close series last year, and we thought we had a
real chance of a tending in the playoffs last year,
and we hope to have a real chance of containing
the playoffs this year.

Speaker 7 (42:05):
Was it a difficult Was it a difficult decision to
move on from Jalen Green? Yeah, Like, Jalen's awesome.

Speaker 14 (42:12):
He did everything we asked. He's a wonderful combination of
talent and work ethic along with being just a great
human being. And any time that you have the privilege
to work with someone who is talented and works really
hard and is really nice, you should value it. And

(42:34):
so for organizationally, we've valued him tremendously. So yeah, very hard.

Speaker 7 (42:40):
Yeah, it's not going to be an easy decision to make.
Obviously a lot of thought went into it, but at
the end of the day, you're getting Kevin durant rafel
Stone Rockets GM on a very busy offseason, and there's
plenty more from him, plenty more on that, plenty more
on the Astros, and plenty more to come as we
get our number two and cast underway.

Speaker 4 (43:01):
Next the A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team's
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the eighteen.

Speaker 7 (43:26):
What's Up Houston our number two here on the A team.
It's Sports Talk seven ninety It's Space City Home Network ACN.
Back from vacation. Wex out currently on vacation. Cole Thompson
with us as per usual, and we are taking you
up until six o'clock tonight, will make way for Astros

(43:47):
on deck at that point the Hometown nine going out
to Los Angeles over the weekend and absolutely doing a
woodshed job on one of the best teams in baseball,
the Dodgers. And don't let them tell you about how
many of their players are on the injured list, because
the Astros and their fans do not want to hear it.
And speaking of which, we have a little bit of

(44:08):
well not breaking news, but this is kind of breaking up,
especially when you consider what he did in helping the
Astros blister the Dodgers over the weekend in that three
game sweep. Christian Walker, who apparently his secondary home is
Dodger Stadium, it's just an incredible run there, going back

(44:30):
to his days with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He's been placed
on paternity leave now. Obviously, first and foremost, congratulations to
he and his wife on the pending arrival of a
new little bundle of joy. But man, am I is
it bad that this is like the worst possible time.

Speaker 13 (44:52):
Okay, I don't want like I'm very happy for him,
and I'm very sad for us. He might have gotten
his Mojo ak and Chavez ravine and now he's going
on the paternity leave.

Speaker 7 (45:04):
So yeah, he's been placed on the paternity leave. Kennedy
Corona has been recalled from Triple A sugar Land. He's
an outfielder and right hander. Jordan Weems clearing waivers and
elected free agency. Those are some of the roster moves
the Astros have made official. But Christian Walker being placed
on paternity leave coming off the series he had in

(45:27):
Los Angeles, that's probably not the best timing. You know what,
this is just what happens sometimes.

Speaker 9 (45:33):
Listen, They've done it without Frombert, They've done it without
you were on Operus. They've done it without dream mcpana.
You can survive within a couple of days without.

Speaker 7 (45:40):
That's a good point. I mean, again, going back to
the original, you know all these all these people upset
in Los Angeles, well, and the Astros eighteen to one
Astro sweep, and look at all the people we have
on the app. I saw show Heyo Tani. I saw
Freddy Freeman, I saw Mookie Betts. I don't want to
hear it. I saw your bos are out there, who's

(46:01):
been fantastic, got like whipped around the yard, taken out.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Of the yard.

Speaker 7 (46:07):
So this was not about who wasn't out there and
available for either of these two teams. This was about
one team going in there and taking control of a
series and just absolutely owning and seizing the moment. And
it was a lot of fun. I know you guys
have been watching all weekend long and have been talking

(46:28):
about it already all day today here on your home
for Astros Baseball Sports Talk seven ninety and of course
watching on Space City Home Network, where again, of course
you've got the Cleveland Guardians in town tonight, opener of
a three game set there. Then the hated Texas Rangers
come to town.

Speaker 14 (46:45):
Is it just me?

Speaker 7 (46:46):
Since we're on the subject, and since they're coming to
town before the All Star break, these are the final
six games of the season before the All Star Break?

Speaker 9 (46:55):
Is it just me? Or?

Speaker 7 (46:57):
With each passing day since twenty twenty three, that looks
like more and more of a fluke. Oh, it was
a cheating scandal.

Speaker 9 (47:06):
Sorry, I mean a Roy des Garcia going back to
pedestrian numbers and now Josh Young going down to the
minor leagues. You're getting nothing from jonah hig. I mean
you're periously like, come on, man, I mean like.

Speaker 7 (47:17):
I get it.

Speaker 9 (47:17):
It's probably not. But at the same time, and I
don't get me wrong, I love Bruce Bochi. He's one
of the greatest managers of the twenty first century.

Speaker 7 (47:25):
But it was a fluke. It was a one and done.

Speaker 9 (47:27):
You paid for you to be able to land that
type of talent with Marcus Simeon and Corey Seeger. You
won a title, but it was a one in a
million shot. It still is Arlington, it still is the Cowgirls.
It still is sad, sad happy Honckey Dory being little
brother to the Astros, Like.

Speaker 7 (47:42):
What kind of deal with the devil did they make
in order to get that Fluke Championship? And listen, all
respect due to the Arizona Diamondbacks and that organization where
Christian Walker came from and all, it hasn't been a
perfect seamless transition into being an Astro. But this this
weekend notwithstanding, But let's let's face it, if the Astros

(48:06):
get to that World Series, basically whoever came out of
that epic ALCS was going to win the championship, right,
This was not like twenty nineteen. I don't I don't
think the Astros find a way to again not win
a home game in a seven game series like they
had in the series prior. If they come out of
that ALCS, they've got three rings. And I think that's

(48:28):
what sucks the most is that it was the de
facto championship that year, and so it just goes back
to you know what, I'll do it since we're on television,
I'm gonna do an impression of you mentioned Josh Young. Yeah,
I'm gonna do an impression of when I saw that, right,
I think I was I think it was Instagram. It
might have been Twitter or x but I'm looking at
my phone and I see it right, and this is

(48:50):
this is me. I'm like, that's what I did? You know,
Like it was just of course, like some of those
guys playing out of their minds. And again, I mean
you can talk about out what Arroyitis Garcia did that series,
particularly against Fromber and all the kind of stuff that
goes into it, Briana Bray, you and he having the

(49:10):
you know, the the suspension that ended up being served
the following year to start the year, which is this
is the dumbest thing ever. The signature moment of that
series remains jose Al Twovey's three run home running Game.

Speaker 9 (49:22):
Five, probably because I think the series ends and what
would be ended in five at that point?

Speaker 7 (49:27):
Would it end it in six? Uh? Well, it would
have ended in six, yeah, because they would have had
to come back here the Astro win. The Astros come back,
and all they had to do was went one home
game and they couldn't do it. But like you had
to be there at the building and we weren't even
in the quote arena because we had gone downstairs to
get into the Astros clubhouse and the Astros still trailed.

(49:48):
So I'm watching al Twove hit that home run on
a TV screen that the security guard had outside of
the door to the visiting clubhouse. That's probably no bigger
than this, But this bag of Hall's cough drops. I mean,
the screen was that small, and we're like, no way,
he just did that. And you could hear that even

(50:10):
under the bowels of the stadium there in Arlington, you
could hear that sound. And I know, you know the
one I'm talking about cold where you're on the road
and something big has happened that the visiting team has
just done. It's like when George Springer hit that home
run at Dodger Stadium in twenty seventeen. They knew, they
knew it was over. They knew it was over. It

(50:31):
was five to one at that point, and then it
was just a matter of getting the outs. They knew
that game was over, and they probably thought that series
was over. Yeah, you get that.

Speaker 9 (50:40):
Show down on your spine, you know, you know it,
and that it becomes ice cold in a hot day,
you know something that's about to happen.

Speaker 7 (50:46):
We hear in Houston have been on both sides of that.
I wasn't in the building when John Stockton hit that
shot to send the Jazz to the NBA Finals, but
you could watch the tape and you could hear that sound.
It's very very clear the sound I'm talking about, And
I don't know if there's a word to describe it.
But that's so going back to this whole thing with
with you know, twenty twenty three and what was at

(51:08):
the end of the run. And I don't know, like
last year sucked, not gonna lie wild card two games,
you didn't win a playoff game, and a lot of
us I think after Kyle Tucker was gone, Ryan Presley's gone,
Alex Bregman's gone, he thought, all right, maybe this is
the end of the run. The astros are here to
serve notice that it doesn't matter. And you heard in
the interview with Ken Rosenthal during the game, Joe a

(51:32):
spot is like we expect to win now. That could
be that could be construed as managers speak, coach speak,
whatever you want to call it. I believe him. These
guys just don't they don't know any better, they don't
know they're not supposed to be doing this, and it's
not a Fluke. That's the thing about this is not

(51:52):
they've been doing it for too long. The month of June,
you don't have that sample size like the Astros did
and continue into July. Like I think a lot of us,
probably if we're being honest, would say, all right, that
June was incredible, Let's see if they can keep it up.
If they can't, if they're kind of like a five
hundred or just above five hundred team, that ends up,

(52:14):
you know, having a big enough lead to go ahead
and win the division and we won't expect much after that. No,
the Astros are like, we're gonna keep it going. We're
gonna go into too La, We're gonna sweep the Dodgers,
and you're coming home to face a Guardians team. And
I'm not putting the car ahead the horse by any
stretch because it's baseball and anything can happen. I think
everything that we've just talked about this segment is evidence
of that. But the Guardians have lost ten in a row,

(52:36):
So I would just like to think the division's one
at the central at this point. I'm sorry, well yeah,
and I'm like, I would just like to think that
the Astros can go ahead and take care of business
this week and go into an All Star break. Very
very satisfied with how the proverbial first half of the
season has gone. I know it's not the first half,

(52:57):
and the partner that I do this show with love
semantics would hate it. But the proverbial first half pre
All Star break going in with you know, plenty of
wins north of fifty, the division league that you have,
I would like to think that the Astros should and
could go ahead and do that. I'll be going to

(53:17):
Wednesday night's game. Everybody hates the Rangers. Those will be
well attended. I'm looking for them to win four out
of six at a minimum, half of these games and
all on five. Well, look, I love them to sweep.
Just keep going, you know, just just keep going. But
I'm trying to be realistic here. It's incredible what the
Astros have done, and it's incredible what they will try

(53:40):
to continue to do.

Speaker 4 (53:42):
Now.

Speaker 7 (53:43):
They're doing this because of the types of contributions they're getting.
And excuse me, Dana Brown talked about that yesterday before
the show, and here's a little bit of what he
had to say.

Speaker 15 (53:56):
Look, I love the competition that we're creating. With these
injuries that we have. So you've got some young guys
coming up competing. You know, competition is not the enemy
of wins. I've always said that. So when you have
a lot of guys competing, you got a chance to
get some wins. And I like to see these young
guys come up and you know, just contribute to you know,

(54:17):
this season. And you know, the guys are certainly showing
a lot of grit, you know, because of you know,
all these injuries that were up against. But it's good
to see that we're playing really good baseball.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
It's very exciting.

Speaker 7 (54:30):
They are, and they hope to continue to do so.
And look, there's no better time than the present, coming
back home after the type of road trip they had
and just the emphatic nature of both Friday nights opening
win eighteen to one and just sweeping the Dodgers. Come
home this last week, take care of business, and some
of them will get some well earned relaxation and some

(54:52):
of them are going to go to Atlanta to take
part in the All Star Game. We will switch gears
and take another look back at this Kevin Durant trade
when we come back here on the A team, the A.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
Team on Sports Talk seven nine.

Speaker 7 (55:16):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network AC with you guys, fresh off a
week from vacation, will rest in relaxation for sure, and
back at it again and happy to be back in
the saddle. Wex is off all week. He will return
next week and of course Cole Thompson along for the ride.

(55:37):
As per usual, We've been talking a lot about basically
two main things today, the Astros sweeping the Dodgers in
Los Angeles, final six on the schedule starting tonight before
the All Star break, and then of course the Rockets
making it official what we already knew the worst kept
secret in the NBA that they ended up, as it were,

(55:57):
completing a record seven team trade to get both Kevin
Durant and Clint Cappella. Now the Clint Capella news, the
Dorian Finney Smith news coming out while I was gone.
Kevin Durant we all knew about, but what the trade
ended up being is actually staggering when you think about it.

(56:19):
Seven teams, including the Rockets obviously, and then Atlanta, Brooklyn,
Golden State, the Lakers, Minnesota and the Phoenix Suns where
Kevin Durant came from Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks. They
go to the to the Phoenix Suns and a lot
of people were talking about maybe Jalen Green getting re

(56:41):
routed or something like that. All the reports indicate that's
not the case. They're going to try and form a
super backcourt with he and Devin Booker as they try
to kind of regroup and reshape that roster. We'll have
more on that in a little bit, but yeah, the
fact that all of these teams got involved, and that

(57:03):
then because of salary cap purposes and all that kind
of stuff, Clint Capella comes back from Atlanta in this trade,
and then of course you know the news of Cam Whitmore,
and we'll get to that a little bit later in
the show as well. Because I look, it hasn't been perfect.
I'm not a fan of that, but I guess I

(57:24):
understand that it was a foregone conclusion. I remember when
the deal came down and I posted a video and
I was talking about, you know, the fact that the
Rockets were able to get Kevin Durant without giving up
a huge chunk of their young core. Obviously, Jalen Green
had to be included. Dylan Brooks was part of it,

(57:46):
and what those guys did to kind of make this
team where it is now kind of put that culture
in motion. What Dylan Brooks and Fred Van Vliet specifically
did from a veteran standpoint, along with Ima Udoka, to
do that, all of that comes into it. All that's
been recognized. Rockets did a really good job. I thought

(58:07):
of posting separate social media posts thanking Dylan Brooks, thanking
Jalen Green for their part in helping to change the
culture here in Houston, in addition to welcoming Kevin Durant,
but then Dorian Finney Smith coming aboard, and I I

(58:32):
don't know if I'm like this is hyperbole, but to me,
that could be like the sneaky move of the offseason
for the Rockets. Kevin Durant, what he brings on in
off the floor that goes without saying. You know, we've
already we've talked to death about the fact that yes
he's thirty seven, but his game is aging like fine

(58:52):
wine and all the kind of stuff that goes into it.
You had to replace some of the production that went
out the or with Dylan Brooks, you're basically replacing Jalen
Green's offensive production, and then some with Kevin Durant, with
the fact that he can get his own shot, with
the fact that he can shoot the way he can
over defenders, and he's Kevin Durant. In fact, the Rockets

(59:17):
what they did with that social media post, you actually
had that line in there, I'm Kevin Durant. He goes
without saying the introductions and you're not needed. But Dorian
Finney Smith, the three and D wing type player that
you're getting, I'm telling you right now. And it's not
like he's this over the top piece, but when you

(59:41):
talk about in the context of what the Rockets are
trying to continue to do, not just what they've done,
but you know, there's a sense of what did you
lose defensively, what did you lose culturally when Dylan Brooks
went out the door that I'm not saying gets replaced
by Dorian Finney Smith. But I just I feel like

(01:00:01):
some of the concerns you may have had are at
least assuaged a little bit when you get a guy
like Dorian Finney Smith, who, by the way, can consistently
hit three point shots. You know, Dylan Brooks was your
best three point shooter and it wasn't even close last year.
That probably wasn't the intention, but that's just how that's

(01:00:23):
part of the reason Jalen Green's not here. You're going
to be a better three point shooting team by probably
a lot this upcoming season, just with the addition of
Dorian Finney Smith and Kevin Durant. And I think that's
a big deal. I think that's a very big deal.
And I think, again, this is why it could be
a sneaky move in a series of moves, like I'll

(01:00:47):
admit I was blown away surprised what have you with
the Clint Cappella move, But sometimes you have a tendency
to maybe kind of get caught up in the name.
You know, Clint Cappella's prime is probably behind him. But
then again, we're talking about Kevin Durant here at age
thirty seven. But the difference being like the Clint Capella
that you got here before he left and went to Atlanta.

(01:01:10):
I don't know, you're necessarily going to get the production,
you're certainly not going to get the minutes. But it's
just a good piece. It's a good depth piece, and
it's just gonna be interesting to see how the parts
that we're already here mesh and mesh. Well, I think
with the parts that are incoming, and you never feel
like you want to have to force a square peg

(01:01:30):
into a round hole or what have you. That's not
what this offseason feels like. You heard rafel Stone a
couple segments ago, you know, talk about the developmental phase
is kind of behind the Rockets. Deb's obvious at this
point that goes without saying, but what he means by
that is you're not, yeah, there's young pieces, but I

(01:01:50):
think the Rockets are looking at their roster, and they're
looking specifically at the young pieces on the roster and
how they mesh with the vets, which are now obviously
fred Va m Vliet, Kevin Durant and to a lesser extent,
Dorian Finney Smith and Clint Capella, and then all these
young guys that didn't go out the door with Jalen Green,
the Jabari Smith's of the world, and obviously a men Thompson.

(01:02:15):
I think they're all going to be expected to take
like not a step, but several steps, and I think
none more so than a men Thompson. And we all
think that he's the most capable of that, but man
Jabari Smith Junior not going out the door and getting
extended Alpah and Shingoon and a Men Thompson and then
just blending seamlessly with guys that you're not having to

(01:02:37):
force their roles in this offense, in in this defense,
and having e May and rafel Stone at the helm.
I don't know, I've just I've never felt this confident
about going into a season, not just because you think
that the Rockets are going to take that next step,
but because the pieces they've added and how they've gone

(01:02:58):
about it and what they haven't given up. It's just huge.
And rafel Stone kind of talked about, you know, just
what this offseason has been about a little bit more
so I wanted to check in on him. He's had
probably the best off season certainly in Rockets Rockets off
season history that didn't involved, you know, maybe getting what

(01:03:22):
are superstar. There's been trades in the past. People haven't
liked Barkley. That is a very very polarizing trade because
you were able to beat the Seattle Sonics finally that
you couldn't beat, but you couldn't beat the Jazz anymore.
And they ended up being the ones who knocked you
off on their way to too straight NBA finals. But
even the Chris Paul deal, I don't know that I'd

(01:03:43):
been as excited as I am about Kevin Durant just
from the potential standpoint. I think I didn't know what
I didn't know about about Chris Paul and how he
would blend with James Harden. I have no doubt that
Kevin Durant's gonna blend perfectly here. And raffel Stone was
talking a little bit more about those moves earlier today.

(01:04:05):
I mean, and on paper, but like you know, everything
has to play out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
But we we do.

Speaker 14 (01:04:10):
We like the fit, we think it, we think it
works well. We think he will add to us, and
we think we will help him.

Speaker 9 (01:04:16):
He's not anymore.

Speaker 16 (01:04:18):
He's obviously going to be thirty seven in September. What
allowance is what you guys make understanding the training spectacular.
His production has not tailed off. But he did play
sixty two games I believe last year.

Speaker 14 (01:04:28):
I mean, you know, he'll play when he can play,
and were we we have what again is just on paper,
but on paper is a very deep offster. And when
he's not able to play, other guys will step up.

Speaker 15 (01:04:38):
Would you like to ask to your guard dipin or
do you feel confident going into next season with recurrence
back forward?

Speaker 14 (01:04:43):
I mean I like our team as is well. We
always look for opportunities to do various things, but we're
hard capped at the first apron and we have no
space left. So I think very likely we'll enter the
season with yeah looking very similar the way.

Speaker 7 (01:04:59):
We looking at right now. It's pretty hard not to do.
That is official conversations with Kevin Benlank And what do
you think attracted.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
End of the situation.

Speaker 14 (01:05:10):
I mean, I think he liked our team, like lots
of like he would, you know, lots of people liked
our team. We were we were a very young, very
very good.

Speaker 4 (01:05:16):
Team last year.

Speaker 7 (01:05:17):
So I assume that that's the obvious and what attracted him.

Speaker 14 (01:05:21):
In terms of my initial conversations, he's been great, like
super excited to be here, excited to get started, excited
to get to know the young guys, just be a
part of it. All sounds sounds wonderful, but it's also
it's July. That's that's the you know, every you know,
hope springs eternal. So we you know, for all of us,
we're going to have to put in the work and
earn everything we get.

Speaker 7 (01:05:42):
I'm telling you right now, we'll jump into this next segment.
Quiet confidence, Quiet confidence right there from Rockets general manager
rafel Stone. We'll continue this discussion on the other side
when we come back.

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
The A T on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:06:10):
It is the A Team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety.
It's Space City Home Network Monday edition of the program
AC with You, wex out all week Cole Thompson along
for the ride. We are taking you up until six
o'clock tonight. Astros and Guardians getting together for the first
of three straight astros with six in a row, and
then it's the All Star break and boy they are

(01:06:32):
flying high after a sweep over the Dodgers in La
over the weekend. Really really enjoyed that, especially even on vacation.
It's really convenient when you can just watch the game
on the TV because it's a nationally televised That was fun.
And the thing about Saturday's game was I was in
the middle of going to a dinner, but it was

(01:06:53):
one of these like humongous places on the beach that
had all sorts of screens. They didn't have Fox on
in there, and I was like, can you to take
you have Fox on them there? Well, it was just
one of the channels. So I think they had like
three or four or four or five different sporting events
that were then on all of the screens spread out
wherever the screens were. It was, you know, the perimeter

(01:07:15):
of the place. It was this gigantic room. It's this
place called Hangout, and they just didn't have Foxes one
of the channels that some of the screens were tuned to.
So I had to fix that and I did, and
I just it was that was as incredible as Friday
Night was. Seeing the rest of the series unfold in

(01:07:35):
the manner in which it unfolded just absolutely incredible, and
good on the Astros for going in there, taking that
series by the horns and coming back here with a
chance to do something really special pre All Star Break
portion of the calendar. I just cannot get enough of
what the Astros are doing right now and who they're

(01:07:56):
doing it with. And they're twenty games over five hundred
and by the way, they're great on the road, as
they just proved. They're thirty two and fourteen at home,
and the Guardians have lost ten straight. They're eight games
under five hundred. I'm not saying it's automatic, It's not
far from it. It's baseball, but I mean, come on,

(01:08:17):
let's let's let's just let's get this done and try
to do something really special post All Star break, which
again we'll get to the All Stars themselves, but wanted
to jump back in to what we were talking about
last segment a little bit and the Rockets and what
they had had to do over the course of this

(01:08:38):
offseason to get Kevin Durant to set themselves up. You know,
you heard rafel Stone few segments back. He mentioned that
they were a legit two seed. It's one thing to
have the conference packed tightly the way it was, and
then at the end of April when the playoffs start,
or you know, mid April when the playoffs start, everything
gets underway. Well, it just it wound up that that's

(01:08:59):
where the Rockets happened to be in a series or
in a conference I should say, where all of these
teams were packed in tightly behind Oka. See the reason
I don't really subscribe to that theory is that the
Rockets were essentially the two seed for the better part
of the year. They I remember early on it was Memphis,

(01:09:19):
you know, oksee, ran out of the gate. They were
they basically went wired to wire to win a championship.
We haven't seen that in a really long time. But
the Rockets after that brief period earlier in the year
were Memphis of all teams, and I think Denver for
a while was the number two seed. It was Houston.
Houston had that little lull in February when Fred van

(01:09:42):
Vliet was out for like a month and they got
swept by the nets and some really weird things were
happening where they kind of like they fell back to
maybe even as low as the fifth seed for like
a two week period. But for the better part of
last year they were a legit two seed, and you
heard rafel Stone talk about that. Now they did what
they did, I had no question about. You know, once

(01:10:05):
once they were all in on Kevin Durant, once you
saw his efficiency numbers, once you see how he's going
to I think, and as you heard rafel Stone say,
blend in seamlessly with this current roster. What's left that
didn't go out in the deal? And then you got
the Dorian Phinney Smith's and the Clint Capella's of the world.
By the way, do you like that deal? What Clint Capella? Yeah,
the Clint pell One. It's depth. I'll tell you I'm

(01:10:27):
not I'm not going to sit here and act like
I wasn't thinking. Okay, are they trying to go get Yannis? Yeah?
I thought that, and I mean, that's not far fetch
when you think about Roster construction and the fact that
it would absolutely cost you Olpria in Shinghun in any
deal where you would go get Yannis. So I thought
maybe they were setting themselves up for that. But let

(01:10:49):
Kevin Durant cook and let this team take that next step.
I love it what I don't love and I'll be
very blunt and honest about it. I did not want
Cam Whitmore going out the door under any circumstances, least
of all to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaker 14 (01:11:04):
Like.

Speaker 7 (01:11:05):
The only thing that salvages this for me is that
he didn't he went out East, right, he went to
the Wizards, and he didn't go to a team where
he's going to quote unquote be able to hurt you
if he was on any of these Western Conference teams.
Even if it was the Lakers, who I expect next
to nothing out of this year.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Dade.

Speaker 7 (01:11:21):
Imagine if he went to like the Jazz and just
tore it up with a double every night.

Speaker 9 (01:11:25):
Yeah, that would because he would still be be the
the Jazz, though, but he'd be in the Western Conference.
And eventually, what if he was the foundation to get
them back on the right track. That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 7 (01:11:33):
That's what made That's why I didn't want trade him,
because I thought he was going on the West coast right,
And I don't know what. I don't know a ton.
I know little, but I don't know a ton of
went on behind the scenes to lead to this. But
it just seemed obvious to me that after the Kevin
Durant trade was announced, it was almost like a foregone
conclusion that this was done. This was decided upon, and

(01:11:55):
internally too, like, here's Cam's camp, here's the rockets. We're
going to try and facilitate a deal to get you
out of town because what we want you to do
on this roster isn't working out for all the parties involved.
And I hate that. And I don't necessarily know that
this proves why he fell in the draft. Remember, the

(01:12:17):
Lakers could have had him, the Warriors could have had him.
All these teams were passing on him, and I remember
that night counting down like, oh my gosh, that he's there.
And sure enough the Rockets took him and he showed sparks,
but it just didn't look like it was going to
work out behind the scenes, especially and this is kind
of like an amicable divorce, if you will, And rafel

(01:12:38):
Stone was asked about that earlier today.

Speaker 14 (01:12:41):
I just think, yeah, we're just not a developmental team
right now. It's really like we wanted to provide Cam
with the opportunity to do in his career what we
still believe he.

Speaker 7 (01:12:49):
Very much can do.

Speaker 14 (01:12:50):
So I think I think Cam's insanely talented, really nice
young man, and wanted to provide him an opportunity to
go home and be in a situation where he could
really play through mistakes in a way that we never
could afford him. Just in the iteration of the.

Speaker 7 (01:13:04):
Of the Rockets that he joined. You ever noticed when
Cam would get on the floor and he'd be out
there like five minutes of game time and he'd already
have like eight points, five rebounds, you know, he'd hit
a couple of threes already like it. But you hear that,
to hear a fell Stone say that after what I

(01:13:25):
just said, after I describe we've all seen it. He's
just like he gets out there and he just puts
up numbers.

Speaker 9 (01:13:30):
He's good for a team that's sabellmental mount when you're
in a win now mode. I mean, that's why I
say that it sucks.

Speaker 7 (01:13:35):
I wanted him to be part of the wind Now.
But I think you're right. I think that's that's I
couldn't have I couldn't have described it better, and that
sucks because I do think he's going to be. But
you know what, these things have a way of working out.
You see these guys that get traded sometimes and you're like,
oh no, no, that was that was my dude, And

(01:13:55):
they don't always really amount to anything I I would hate. Well,
I wouldn't mind now because he's not on the Rockets roster,
but if that ends up being the case, then you'll
probably feel a little bit better about it. Either way,
he couldn't get into the rotation, and now with what
the Rockets have done to not be able to get
into that rotation because it's gonna be a tight one.

(01:14:16):
I think, you know, he may knows what he wants
to go to war with, so to speak, and if
Cam Whitmore wasn't going to be a part of that,
and he might kind of have the malcontent side of things,
which I'm not it's kind of a strong word, but
if that was gonna be a case, everybody probably it
works out for the best. We will take a quick
time out. We'll get you an update on some of

(01:14:36):
these Astros injuries courtesy of their general manager, Dana Brown.
When we come back.

Speaker 4 (01:14:43):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:14:56):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety spaces
home network, taking up until six o'clock tonight, wex on vacation.
Ac back from vacation, as it's been. It's been a really,
really fun time here in Houston of late. You think about,
you know, obviously what the Astros did over the weekend

(01:15:17):
with the Dodgers, but what they're doing in general, and
then what the Rockets have done this offseason, and again
we've been talking so much about that because rafel Stone,
for the first time since all these deals, you know,
became official, he can finally legally talk about that, and
he did that earlier. Today we'll hear more from him.
But let's let's get back to these astros for a second.

(01:15:40):
Because what we keep talking about, and it was funny
because it kept coming up with regards to the Dodgers
and their fan base, Well, these guys are on il.
So it's not even impressive that the astro swept. Okay, sure,
Jeremy Pania, Jordan Alvarez, I don't need to talk about
the amount of the amount of elite pitching that is

(01:16:04):
on the shelf right now for the astros. Matter of fact,
look at the guy who started the series in Lance mccullors,
who's still touch and go. I mean, as long as
he's not playing an NL Central team, he's fine. But
he's still trying to get back into form after better
than two years. So you know, the astros don't want

(01:16:25):
to hear about who's on the shelf for you, but
they do, you know, need updates about the Jordan Alvarezes
of the world, which, by the way, I wasn't here, Cole.
How did that go? When he still got some pain?
So I we're shutting him down and then they have
more imaging and so then it was almost like it

(01:16:45):
was good news. I felt like I was on an
emotional roller coaster and I was two states away, three
states away. What were things like here.

Speaker 9 (01:16:53):
Back at the ranch. I mean, let's just call a
spade a spade. And to me at this point, it's
much like whenever I hear a hockey team is coming
to Houston, I'll believe it when.

Speaker 7 (01:16:59):
I see it. I'm not buying into it.

Speaker 9 (01:17:01):
I'm not because of like, I don't want to waste
my time thinking that this is going to be something
that has to be a conversation starter when he's back.
He's back through twenty games above five hundred, they've been
winning without him, and they have the best batting average
in baseball right now without him. It's one of those
things where, yeah, you saw more imaging, but also, okay,

(01:17:24):
we kind of figured that this could happen. Another step back,
another win against a top tier team. When is the
Astros gonna get their respect that they deserve nationally? So whatever, Dana,
I mean again, you were able to address it. You
found out pretty quickly. You did him nip in the butt,
you brought it up on Sean Salisbury. But also, I'm
not sitting around and waiting anymore. I'm excited to see

(01:17:44):
what you what you have with the rest of roll serve.

Speaker 7 (01:17:46):
Well, let's start with him, and then we'll get to
Jeremy Panna and even Chas McCormick, because I mean, the
list just keeps going. But initially, yesterday, of course Dana
Brown joining the Astros radio network and gave the latest,
I guess update on your on Alvarez.

Speaker 15 (01:18:02):
So this is an exciting time for us, and I
would tell you because of this when he went in
for more imaging, you know, the pain was not related
to the fracture. The fracture is a non factor right now.
That's a good thing. The pain was related to some inflammation.
He received two shots, and he's feeling better and better

(01:18:23):
each day. The first thing is we'll we'll get a
bat in his hand and get them to start taking
a little dry swings, just to see how that feels,
because the pain is pretty much it's gone right now.

Speaker 7 (01:18:36):
And so once he starts to take.

Speaker 15 (01:18:37):
Those dry swings, we'll get them off the tee, we'll
do some soft toss, and then of course we'll get
them off the machine and then at that point we'll
make a determination what the next plans are.

Speaker 7 (01:18:48):
But that can all happen pretty quickly, you know, in
the near future.

Speaker 15 (01:18:52):
But the thing is, he's feeling a lot better, and
once he starts to take some dry swings, we'll know
a lot more.

Speaker 9 (01:19:00):
So.

Speaker 7 (01:19:00):
I mean, I've never been more excited to hear about inflammation.
It's just dry swings. Yeah, you know what, we have
a new term, dry swings. That that's that goes along
with the discomforts of the world, the imaging of the world,
the further imaging. Do we the throat phrasing on that

(01:19:22):
at the end of that phrase, which one dry swinging phrasing? Pause? Pause,
I just, uh, I don't know what to do anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
I am.

Speaker 7 (01:19:32):
I understand where you're coming from. When he's back, he's back.
You you put NHL organization on Jordan Alvarez his career.

Speaker 9 (01:19:40):
I'm saying that again. I'm saying that again. I'll believe
it when I see it. At this point, I'm cured
for years that yes, the arrows will make their return.

Speaker 7 (01:19:49):
Okay, when it happens, it happens, my breath. I'm gonna
respond to you the way I respond to my nearly
seven year old son who just has one bathroom humor
word in his vernacular that he just automatically that's all
he wants to talk about during conversations. And I'll just
look at him and I'll say, very seriously, what's wrong
with you? I say at least twenty times a day.

(01:20:09):
I'm going to say it tonight at dinner when he's
talking about that what he shouldn't be talking about at
the table, and I'm gonna say, what's wrong with you?
And that's what I'm gonna say to you. He's seven,
you know what. It's talking like a seven year old
about this. Aren't you? Aren't you cold? Matt Thomas? It's fine, Yeah,
it's fine. He's had some he's gonna have some dry swings.
It's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:20:27):
It is what it is.

Speaker 7 (01:20:29):
Yeah, maybe that's how we have to look at it,
like it'll be gravy, as they say, if you get
him back, all right, how about this? Will it make
you feel better to hear about Jeremy Panya? Yeah, of
course I won't. Okay.

Speaker 15 (01:20:40):
So he's doing lower half activities right now, you know,
and things that are going to cause him maybe to
get a little winded. So you know, once he starts
to take those those deep breaths and we'll find out,
you know, you know, just how you know that rib
is feeling. But it's all it seems to be going
well because you know, he's not in any pain right now,

(01:21:01):
and he's doing some lower body activities. Nothing with the
upper body yet. No baseball activities at this time, but
just going through this preliminary stage of him, you know,
testing the rib and so all is well right now,
no pain, and we'll continue to build into you know,
more of non baseball activities first, then we'll challenge them

(01:21:24):
with some baseball activities in the near future.

Speaker 7 (01:21:26):
If you're keeping dragging home, we have dry swings and
lower activities. I mean, what do I even dare to
ask what Dana Brown had to say about Chas McCormick.
Now that we've gotten dry swings and lower activities, let's
cover with the trifactop okay, just to get him some
more back to sugar Land.

Speaker 15 (01:21:46):
You know, we'll get them in a game, then we'll
give him a day off, just arrest them, get them
back in the game and kind of rotate that way.
But we're gonna, you know, let him get his timing
back as a hitter, get him some at bats in
Triple A level and you know, kind of monitor it
from there, but you know, certainly not going.

Speaker 7 (01:22:04):
To press the gas too hard on them.

Speaker 15 (01:22:07):
But we'll let him gradually work his way back into
getting these plate appearances and take it from there.

Speaker 7 (01:22:13):
All right, So dry swings, lower activities and pressing the gas,
that's what you've got right now for Jordan Payana and
Chazz respectfully. By the way, we didn't even talk about
the fact that calf tightness for Jake Myers. That's not
what I want to hear now. After seeing about fifty

(01:22:34):
guys tear their achilles in the NBA playoffs, I don't
need to hear that about my awesome center fielder who
is swinging the bat like he never has before. Is
that too much to ask? Can we just have nice
things for like a week around here? That's all I want.
I realized that all three of the major teams in
town are on a very very nice track right now,

(01:22:57):
but I want to believe in them. I don't want
it to just be like window dressing. Is that too
much to ask?

Speaker 9 (01:23:02):
I got a minor league lineup preparing tonight against the Guardians.
When we come back from commercial break.

Speaker 7 (01:23:06):
I cannot wait to see that and to share it
with all of you here. On a Monday edition of
the show.

Speaker 4 (01:23:13):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:23:20):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.

Speaker 9 (01:23:24):
There is.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 7 (01:23:38):
Four o'clock hour underway Halfway Home on a Monday edition
of The A Team. It is Sports Talk seven ninety
It's Space City Home Network. AC back in his saddle
fresh off vacation. Wex is he's perusing the Great Northwest
right now. Actually, I have not interacted with wex all
day long. Now, it's not to say I haven't since
I've been gone, or even since he's been going on,

(01:24:00):
because they kind of overlapped. But the other day, the
three of us were texting and we were being funny cold.
That's what we do, me and you. Yeah, we try
to not make him be such a wet blanket all
the time. And he wasn't participating, and I didn't like
that very much. He never participated, So I said, you
need to participate. You need to send us a picture
of an oversized tree or something of that nature, and

(01:24:24):
he did. I don't know if it was oversized, but
he said he sent us wondered he was driving a car.

Speaker 9 (01:24:30):
I'm just like, come on, man, we're sending photos of
American eagles, I mean the bald eagles of Uncle Sam.

Speaker 7 (01:24:37):
And he's just like, very funny. No, you know, it's
funny today. So the Rockets trade couldn't be made official
or announced until yesterday, July sixth. And we all said
this at the time when the deal was you know, leaked,
whatever you want to call it, when it was announced,
when it was broken, the news was broken, we knew
that they couldn't they being the organizations involved, nor the

(01:24:58):
scope could not be reveal until yesterday, July sixth, and uh,
I just I thought to myself, well this, you know,
this is gonna be fun because the first business day,
if you will, I knew that July sixth, with a Sunday,
the first business day was gonna be Monday, July seventh.
I'll be back. It'll be my first day back. The

(01:25:21):
Rockets will clearly call a press conference where they will
introduce not only Kevin Durant, but in this case, Dorian
Finney Smith, Clint Capella, show all the new toys, you know,
show off the new toys you got this offseason, and
Wex will be on vacation and hating life as per usual.
Because if there's one thing you guys know about Wex,
it's that he does not like missing work, and he

(01:25:42):
does not like missing big events, sports or work related
while he's supposed to be vacationing with his family and
spending quality time with them, not in that order.

Speaker 9 (01:25:55):
I begged him to get off his phone for one day,
and he gave me a look of just pure discussion.

Speaker 7 (01:26:00):
That's what he does.

Speaker 9 (01:26:00):
Well. I'm surprised is that we haven't gotten a text
just yet. We're two hours into the show and he
hasn't commented. That means he's not listening.

Speaker 7 (01:26:06):
That's good. That means he's doing some. Means he's on
real vacation. That means he's actually participating in what is
a vacation, not fake vacation. This is not a fake vacation.
If he hasn't contacted that we've talked this much about
him and he hasn't sent a text, he's not listening.
He's gonna send it as soon as we go to
commercial break. I can all scartee you. And that's how
we'll know that he's been sneak listening. He can't help himself.

(01:26:28):
He can't help himself. That's the problem. So again I thought, honestly,
I thought, here's how my day was going to go.
And it's probably a good thing, because again, if you
missed the first hour Alabama, I ten in general, like
I wanted to say, get your act together, Alabama, but
was more like, get your act together entire Gulf Coast

(01:26:49):
of America. You're talking about just the two lane round
right traffic, the amount of people that I just I
guess I just didn't factor in because I've made this
drive before in the middle of the summer. Ho hum,
no problem. I'm going highly illegal speeds like I normally do,
no problem all the long audition and and not yesterday

(01:27:10):
it's hey, stop and go, stop and go, stop and go.
And so I was like, I didn't get home until
much later, like close to midnight, and I thought, today
it was gonna be the Kevin Durant press conference, like
complete with fan interaction, you know, people being able to attend,
just like they did with Chris Paul. And I was
gone for that.

Speaker 4 (01:27:30):
We were in.

Speaker 7 (01:27:34):
We were in. I believe we were at Disney when
that happened because Chris Paul, Yeah, because the Rockets traded
for him, and the introductory press conference slash just his
introduction they had on the floor at Toyota Center. Ackerman
was part of the the welcoming because at that time

(01:27:55):
he was still a full time radio and they brought
him out. The screen was to the floor. Was this
big production. That's what I think the Rockets were wanting
to do. But I guess it's just a schedule snaffo
just didn't jive Kevin Durant with the Rockets.

Speaker 9 (01:28:11):
I can tell you what this reminds me of last
year when Stefan Diggs got traded of the Texans. Everyone
thought that he was going to have a big introduction presser.
Everyone thought that he would meet with the media talk
about potentially what it means to come to an organization
after playing with Josh Allen, CJ.

Speaker 7 (01:28:25):
Stroud.

Speaker 9 (01:28:26):
And the first time anyone got talked to him was
the fourth day of training camp. No OTAs, no mini camp, yeah,
nothing in the summer. It was the start of training camp.
And I think that that's going to be very similar
to Kevin Durant.

Speaker 7 (01:28:40):
Well, and here's the thing, and I think, I hope
and I actually think it will go better than anything
that Stefan Diggs did for the Texans. Not to take
anything away a perfectly fine season, injury obviously derailed it.
Like a lot of things the Texans wanted to get accomplished,
injuries did not help the cause. Rockets aren't trying to
gets the fon Diggs out of Kevin Durant. Rockets are

(01:29:02):
trying to go for it. All their chips are in
the middle of the table, as as they say, and
this if that's what it takes. If we don't get
to glad hand with Katie, who, by the way, is
apparently gonna wear number seven, not thirty five case you're wondering,
and you can, you can pre order your jersey already.
The Rockets have made that link available. Just dig around

(01:29:22):
on social and whatnot you can find it. I'm fine
with it. I'm fine with that. If we don't get
to kind of press the flesh, see him up close
and in person until it's media day, wherever that may be,
whether it's at Toyota Center or across the street from
where we are right now at the Posto Hotel, all
that matters to me is that he does what he

(01:29:45):
needs to do at the most important time and it
all goes according to plan. From a chemistry and a
fit standpoint. You heard Rafelstone talk about that when he plays,
he'll play, and when he doesn't, we've got a deep
raw that's going to be able to spell him when
he's not out there for whatever reason, and you just
hope that it's not a major injury. If it is

(01:30:06):
an injury at all, who knows, Maybe he'll surprise all
of us, maybe he doesn't play back to backs. I
don't know what the plan is right now, and frankly,
I don't care. It's above my pay grade. People that
get paid a lot and in this case e May's case,
a lot more money than I do. That's up to them.
But I do trust that process that has gotten us

(01:30:26):
to where we are, and I look forward to seeing
what kd as a Houston Rockets ends up spelling. And
if it means that we're fresh off of parade a
few weeks prior this time next year, I think we'll
be just fine with the fact that we didn't get
our little press conference today over at Toyota se.

Speaker 9 (01:30:44):
Nobody's going to complain if you're hoisting up a title.
I nobody ever does that.

Speaker 7 (01:30:48):
No, But I wanted to see him. Yeah, of course
I wanted to talk to him. You know what, there's
a part of me, there's a big part of me
that was going to reveal to him what I've said.
And there's audio of this probably in the system. Actually
there is a or at least there was in our
system long before he went to the Warriors, where I
said I had a man crush on Kevin Durant. I've
been a diehard Kevin Durant fan since he was at Texas,

(01:31:11):
much like Ross Virel. So it hurt my heart when
he played for the Warriors, and of course played against
the Rockets. But man, even at this stage, and I
don't know if you saw this, he posted on Instagram
either yesterday or the day before, and he's he was
talking about how long he had been at it, essentially

(01:31:32):
how long he had been in the league, and he said,
I've been at it since and I'm paraphrasing. Since they
had the baggy shorts and it was a picture of
him and Kobe Bryant. I think they were playing for
Team USA. It was like a practice so this was
like two thousand and eight, two thousand and nine, I
mean yeah, because that's when he was drafted. Yeah, well
he was.

Speaker 9 (01:31:52):
I think it was because no, it was seven because
Odin was the first pick of Portland here.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:31:56):
Yeah, yeah. So just to show how long he's been
at it and still playing at a very high level,
it's gonna be fun.

Speaker 9 (01:32:04):
Look, he's not gonna give you eighty two games, and
he's not even gonna.

Speaker 7 (01:32:07):
Give you seventy games.

Speaker 9 (01:32:08):
We give you just if he gives you anywhere between
fifty five and sixty games. He's averaging so forty three
percent from the field, and he's averaging thirty nine to
forty two from three point range. It's an upgrade over
what you have with Jalen Green consistently. And he's gonna
give you twenty five a night, and he's gonna play
better defense. And I think that that's the other thing
that nobody's paying attention to, is that you're adding in
a guy who still gives a damn about defense. Yeah,

(01:32:30):
like that's something that makes him still a valuable player
at a high end capacity in this league.

Speaker 7 (01:32:38):
Are you Are you like me? Where you're almost as
excited that he has the prior relationship with e May
as much as everything else. It's a part of it.

Speaker 9 (01:32:51):
I don't think it's the selling point for me, but
I think that knowing that I May can get the
best version out of him and that e May was
one of the major cells points for him to come here.
It's gonna make life a lot easier for him to handle,
whether it be there are nights where he's only getting
fifteen buckets or there's nights where he's only getting h
he's only playing let's say, thirty one minutes. I think

(01:33:13):
that he believes in the process because of who is
the guy calling the shots. I don't know if he'd
feel that way if he was in Milwaukee or if
he was in Minnesota. I think he'd want to have
more of a control. I think here it's one of
those things where it's, uh, I'm gonna let things pan
out the way it has to. And I understand that
with you calling the shots, we are in a good position.

Speaker 7 (01:33:34):
Yeah it is. And you know, I was glad that
whoever it was, and I couldn't tell who asked the question,
asked raffel Stone about and you know what we might
play this again before the end of the show, asking
raffel Stone about, you know, the decision to go get
Kevin Durant, because a lot's been made about and I've

(01:33:56):
been one of the people that have done this. Who's
in control, who's who's pushing the buttons behind the scenes,
And you know, Rafell is not going to ever give
you the one hundred percent clarity on you know, what
their plan is and how they go about their business.
But and he's saying all the right things like wasn't like, oh,
inmy Yudoka forced him to go get a veteran and

(01:34:18):
deviate from the developmental phase that they are on. This
has felt very organic from the start. This does not
feel forced, you know, this kind of deviating from that.
All right, We're just gonna give the young guys another
like this.

Speaker 8 (01:34:33):
This is all.

Speaker 7 (01:34:35):
It has not felt forced or rushed or pushed or
anything like that. It feels right. It doesn't feel like
it's it's like, like I said, a square peg into
a round hole, and I think that's going to bear
itself out once the season begins again. We're July seventh.
We have you know, Texans training camp this month. We

(01:34:55):
have more astros ahead of us. We have the trade deadline.
So yeah, the trade dead postseason play. There's a lot
between now when the Rockets get underway. It's a great
time to be alive in Houston, Texas as a sports fan.

Speaker 1 (01:35:09):
The at on Sports Talk seven ninety back at here
on the A team.

Speaker 7 (01:35:17):
It is Sports Talk seven ninety, Space City Home Network
ac N WEX vacationing throughout the rest of this week.
Col Thompson at our side as per usual, and earlier today,
well earlier on the show, we were revealed to you
guys what the Astros had revealed to us that Christian
Walker has gone on the paternity list. By the way,

(01:35:41):
in case you're wondering, he obviously will not be in
the lineup tonight because of that. And while we congratulate
him on the brand new Bundle of Joy any second now,
we also hate the fact that he looked like he
was his old self in one of his favorite stadiums
to absolutely destroy baseballs in. It's no secret that when
he was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks he routinely

(01:36:04):
would go to Chavez Ravine and launch nukes like he
did this weekend in an Astros uniform. He won't have
the or the Astros won't have that in their lineup,
and they have got This is interesting with everybody on
the shelf. You know, Jeremy Pania with a cracked rib.
Jordan is Jordan. Now you don't have Christian Walker. And

(01:36:28):
so here's your lineup for tonight for the opener against
the Guardians East sak Paratus leading off, Cam Smith is
going to be playing in right field and batting second.
Jose Al Tuvey, who also had a huge weekend against
one of his favorite nemeses in the Dodgers, He'll be
batting third. Yainer is going to be batting cleanup and catching.

(01:36:52):
Victor Caratini is going to be batting fifth. And I
believe this font is just insane. I mean I'm not
blind yet. Victor Carrottini is playing first base tonight. He's
playing first base in place of Christian Walker. So there's
your uh, there's that move. Cooper Hummel is your DH,
Taylor Trommel is your left fielder, Zach short is your

(01:37:15):
short stop. Kennedy Corona will be playing center field in
place of Jake Myers, who again that's another one calf tightness.
And then Colton Gordon is your starter. I don't know
how they're doing it. I mean, they've still got punch
at the top of the lineup I have. I have

(01:37:37):
to ask you, if they win tonight, how impressive is
this one? What do I do with the video? Dude? Look,
I mean, I'll be honest with you, guys. I have
scaled back. I have scaled back a lot. But if
you sweep the Dodgers, you're gonna get three videos, right,
But like, I feel like, what's a good song that

(01:37:57):
represents like the no names? Especially if these eyes the
bottom of the lineup do any sort of damage in
the Pretenders by Food Fighters? All right?

Speaker 12 (01:38:05):
Oh, I like that.

Speaker 7 (01:38:06):
I actually think I've used that song recently, but not
this season. You know what, the Guardians have lost ten
in a row. You should beat them down tonight. I
don't even care if you beat them down. Just wine,
I don't care one nothing again. Yeah, I'll take that.
I will take that. Uh. Speaking of which, obviously our

(01:38:26):
weekly visit with Sparky Steve Sparks joining the station for
his weekly visit, and what's funny is the first question
out of the gate here that you're gonna hear that
he's asked is whether or not Christian Walker has found
his spark. Well, Christian Walker's now on the paternity list,
so it's neither here nor there, as Matt Thomas might say.

(01:38:47):
But boy did he have a great series against the Dodgers.
So that, among other things, was discussed with Steve Sparks.

Speaker 12 (01:38:54):
No, there wasn't a whole lot when I told you this.

Speaker 17 (01:38:57):
When I watch him in battic practice or in the game,
balance looks great and the swing looks really good. I
just keep seeing him fouling off some pitches that he
probably drives. And when he got to Colorado, I think
he had six fithhs in that series. But it's really
started to drive the ball in LA and he's got
the highest ops of any visiting player ever at Dodger Stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
Which you feel very confident.

Speaker 12 (01:39:22):
You don't know your exact numbers, you just know that
you play really well there.

Speaker 17 (01:39:26):
And everything that he swung at he put the barrel on,
and he didn't foul off, hit able pitches, He drove
him to the gaps, he hit op opposite phild Homers,
whatever you needed. He was right in the middle of everything.
So hopefully that's what's going to jump start his Astros career.

Speaker 18 (01:39:42):
We hear all the time, and we've talked about the
culture when they get here, the way they develop players
not only that come in from other places, but that
they've they're homegrown. But maybe another level, maybe I'm reaching
into the psychological part of it.

Speaker 7 (01:39:56):
Why I hear all that we do? Why why are
they able to do what they do?

Speaker 2 (01:40:02):
Steve?

Speaker 18 (01:40:02):
I would take this record if everybody, if Bregman, Tucker
and we're still here in Jordan Alvarez was the MVP
the first half of the season, I would take the
record they have now and take a look at all this.
So they've already overcome the tough stuff with injuries psychologically,
just from a vantage point, maybe different your insights, Steve,
Why are they so good at this?

Speaker 12 (01:40:22):
I think they prepare very well.

Speaker 17 (01:40:24):
I think we all gain really a lot of confidence
in the way we prepare.

Speaker 2 (01:40:29):
We feel like we're prepared, we do things the right way.
I think we're going to get the most out of
our ability.

Speaker 17 (01:40:35):
And I told you a couple of times there's some
guys on this team that galvanize these players as soon
as they walk in the door.

Speaker 12 (01:40:42):
So probably no accident that Zach short.

Speaker 17 (01:40:45):
You can get to know these guys a little bit
in the spring training, but walk in the door a
couple of days ago and here.

Speaker 12 (01:40:52):
At the start of the game, they should be right right.

Speaker 2 (01:40:55):
With three hits, a walk, and a couple of RBIs.
Yesterday with the double down, I mean, he was fantastic.

Speaker 12 (01:41:01):
So I think guys play their best in this environment.

Speaker 17 (01:41:06):
And I was thinking about this yesterday is I watched
him on a Sunday when typically teams.

Speaker 2 (01:41:10):
Don't do a whole lot on the field before a
day game after a night game.

Speaker 17 (01:41:14):
But it reminded me of a minor league manager that
we had one time said Hey, guys, tomorrow, this is
after a game. So tomorrow we've got two buses coming
to the ballpark. Guys that want to come to the
field early and get some early work in. Guys who
feel like they need to get some work in can
come on the one o'clock bus, and the empty bus
is going to come at two o'clock. And I feel
like that's kind of the Astros philosophy, is everybody is

(01:41:38):
held accountable. Everybody's going to show up on that first
bus to come get work in and hang out with
each other and get better and prepare to win a
baseball game, and the empty bus is right.

Speaker 2 (01:41:48):
About an hour later. Nobody, nobody.

Speaker 18 (01:41:50):
That's the voluntary, mandatory thing, right, Steve. Hey, So you
guys come when you want, but everybody realizes we'll be on.

Speaker 7 (01:41:58):
That first bus. Right, So Steve with fear pressure.

Speaker 18 (01:42:02):
Right exactly. And that's a good thing because his success
begat success.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
Right.

Speaker 18 (01:42:07):
Steve Sparks joined us for a weekly visit Astros broadcaster. Steve,
you were around the cages and you talk to these
guys all the time, and you watch it so closely,
and having played it and been in other clubhouses, do
teams that come from other places know ahead of time
that the reputation is strong culture, strong clubhouse. You got
to do it a certain way of preparation when you

(01:42:29):
come to play for the Astros. Is that widely known
around baseball that the Astros do do it different or
is it just us being here in Houston.

Speaker 9 (01:42:35):
That know this.

Speaker 12 (01:42:36):
I think everybody around baseball knows that they do it differently.

Speaker 17 (01:42:39):
They're not exactly sure how that they want to be
a part of it, and I think guys get pretty
excited when they get acquired by the Astros or they
sign in the offseason or free agents.

Speaker 12 (01:42:49):
Or guys that might be hurt. You know, we're seeing
this with Brian King, Bennet SUSA.

Speaker 17 (01:42:55):
We've seen guys hurt on other teams, rosters that are
taking off the roster because they need roster.

Speaker 12 (01:43:00):
Space, and who plucks them while their hurts.

Speaker 17 (01:43:03):
The Astros do, and they'll rehab them the rest of
the way and take advantage of something that they liked
about these guys. So they're always on the alert and
they do a fantastic job of acquiring guys that maybe
some teams don't value as much as the Astros might
and see if they can get something out of them.

Speaker 2 (01:43:21):
But what they're able to do with their bullpen, and.

Speaker 17 (01:43:23):
It kind of reminds me about maybe even drafting plan Sean,
when you think about how well that the Astros develop pitchers,
I think my priority in a draft would be position
players early and guys like Hunter Brown, who they drafted
in the fifth round, Eric Getty, you know, around that

(01:43:46):
same kind of guys like that a little bit later
on because the Astros developed them so well throughout their
minor league system.

Speaker 12 (01:43:55):
Wait a little bit, and really some of the position
layers in the first you round.

Speaker 7 (01:44:01):
Yeah, it's good stuff right there from Steve Sparks and
in going back to the very very beginning, and this
is something that you have heard Joe spot To talk
about when we keep asking how the Astros are doing this?
How are they going to do to La and sweeping
the Dodgers. And that was with Christian Walker who again
is his opportnity to leave, and with Jake Myers who

(01:44:22):
had to leave the game early and is not in
the lineup tonight with calf tightness. You know, all this
kind of stuff. You heard Steve Sparks talk about it
there the preparation. He told that empty bus story yesterday
during the broadcast as well. Look, you can say it's
coach speak, like I said earlier, but what Joe's spotta says,
we believe we can win, and they are putting the

(01:44:44):
work in to give themselves that belief and then to
back up that belief with what they're doing on the field.
Especially from a defensive standpoint, it's hard to argue when
you're seeing the results that you're seeing. And right now
you're Astros again the first half of the seasons already
in the rearview mirror, but the proverbial first half that
will come at the end of this week with the

(01:45:06):
All Star Game, fifty five and thirty five, first in
their division and threatening for the best record in baseball.
It's crazy to see where they've come from even this season,
not to mention what they did last year with some
of the same principal pieces, but then a very very
new roster this year. Astros are in fuego. Right now,

(01:45:29):
we will take a quick time out. We'll come right
back with the good, the bad, and the ugly from
over the weekend when we return.

Speaker 1 (01:45:36):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety Now the good,
oh good, the bad that's not good, and the ugly
don't make me good with the A team, we're selling
you the bad.

Speaker 7 (01:45:55):
All right, it's the time of the show on a
Monday where where we take a look back and honestly, Cole,
this could be the good, the good, and the very good.
If you just want to talk about the Astros Dodgers,
I say, you.

Speaker 9 (01:46:09):
Just want to talk about one thing and the only
thing that really matters this past week, and yeah, it's
a really, really, really really.

Speaker 7 (01:46:16):
Good weekend for everyone in Houston. Yeah, I think It's
easy to point to the offense on Friday night especially,
but I'm gonna just I'm gonna break it down to
one person, and that's hose Al Twovey. This guy is
such a full hero at this point in this city

(01:46:37):
and in the sports landscape. But it's not just what
he does, it's how he does it. It's how he
carries himself. And you saw that on full display after
Saturday night's win when he was being interviewed by Ken
Rosenthal on Fox and he just completely dismissed the booing

(01:46:59):
comment and he didn't not answer his question, but he
kind of did. He's just he just and he And
again you could say what jose Al tuove said was
like players speak, just I don't care where I am.
I just try to do, you know, give my all
and help my team win.

Speaker 3 (01:47:17):
But like you care.

Speaker 7 (01:47:18):
Nobody personifies that better than him though, you know, so,
uh just we are absolutely blessed here in Houston to
be able to root for a guy that's that good
of a dude off the field. And I know this
gets played out a lot and you you end up
finding out that people aren't what you thought they were
and all that kind of stuff. It's been a long

(01:47:40):
time being around and covering Jose Altuve. I'll just share this.
This is a personal answer note that like nobody else
really saw or maybe did see. I don't know. There's
when you when the Astros had lost the ALC to

(01:48:01):
the Rangers. I believe that's when this was. That's what's crazy.
I can't I can't remember, but I'm pretty sure it
was either then I think it was. It was then
they lost Game seven at home, and you go into
the clubhouse and at this point this is old hat
for a lot of the guys in there, going to

(01:48:23):
the World Series, going deep in the postseason. I look over,
just tapping to look over and see this. Jose Al
tuvey is walks over to a table in the middle
of the clubhouse and he starts signing jerseys and I
don't know who they were for, but there was several
of them. And he's signing these jerseys for presumably fans

(01:48:45):
someone right after they lost that, and you saw him
signing autographs and taking pictures with Dodgers fans in LA
this weekend. That's just the guy he is. And I
don't gass up guys because I don't have to I
love l Tuovay and how he carries himself, and this
weekend was fun to be able to watch him enjoy

(01:49:07):
that doing things the way he does them. So that
was the good for me.

Speaker 9 (01:49:10):
He's gonna go down as one of the greatest astros
and one of the greatest second basemen ever played the game,
just because of his story, his path to the majors,
and the way that he carried himself. And no matter
how many people want to say he was a part
of the cheating scandal, no matter how many people say,
it's been proven that he had no rule with it
and he had no role in the in Gregman and
Coorea and Beltron and everyone else, he is gonna play

(01:49:32):
his game the way that he sees fit. He's not
gonna allow anybody to bring him down. He's already to
defy the odds. So what's another Just belt to ask
whooping that you can go ahead and experience wherever you are,
whether that be in Los Angeles, might that be against
Chicago Philly.

Speaker 7 (01:49:46):
He's good to do in the playoffs too.

Speaker 9 (01:49:48):
Just get ready for mister October to come around and
be once again the face of Major League Baseball.

Speaker 7 (01:49:53):
Yeah, he's been, He's been fantastic, and although this season
hasn't been perfect at times for him, what a time
to have one of his best series of the year.
And that was exactly what happened over the course of
the weekend.

Speaker 8 (01:50:08):
The bad.

Speaker 7 (01:50:11):
The fact that Dodgers fans are still scumbags. I mean
or A Herscheizer's comments rubbed me the wrong way. Well,
I put that in the same umbrella because or A
Herscheizer knows better, or at least he should know better
because he used to play, and he's been doing that
for a long long time. Like I just I like

(01:50:33):
to put it this way. Would Blum has taken his
shots at times on the broadcast, but he's very subtle
about it. Would Blum act like that if the roles
were reversed.

Speaker 9 (01:50:46):
Never, I just it's either it's not even like a, oh,
we're defending Jeff Blum. It's more so not many broadcasters
would openly say something that's almost ten years old, Yeah,
like that's where we're at it.

Speaker 7 (01:51:00):
He would turn the page. He would actually, By the way,
speaking of Blum, loved him going to his seat at
Dodger Stadium for Game two when Yasio Puig miss miss Uh,
he basically missed that fly ball or that he missed.
Was it a flyout or was it was the ball
coming towards him. I can't remember a great No, it

(01:51:20):
was a liner and it bounced. Yeah, it was a grounder.
Love the fact that he struck out to end that game,
by the way, Kristavinski. Yeah, but he went to his
seat to kind of show where he was sitting that night,
because if you've seen the screen cap, his face is
classic Blummer like. So, yeah, that was that was fun
to see. No, let him enjoy again. He was a

(01:51:42):
part of the Astra.

Speaker 9 (01:51:42):
He's been a part of the Astras organization as a player,
he's been a part of it as a broadcaster. He
was here in twenty seventeen to watch it all unfold.
What's not to like about it? It was craterally, what's not.

Speaker 7 (01:51:51):
Like about it? Ugly?

Speaker 9 (01:51:53):
This week, speaking of Blum, Blum did do something against
the Astros in two thousand and five. Yeah, it was
the reason why the Chicago White Sox hoisted up their
first title in eighty eight years, and unfortunately, one of
the other key focal points of that team tragically passed
away at the age of forty five this past week.
Bobby Jenks, who was one of the greatest closures of

(01:52:15):
the two thousands, had an incredible run in two thousand
and five and then in two thousand and six forty
one consecutive games where he retired I mean forty one
get second at batters, retired in a row, which matched
an all time MLB record for a reliever, and he
saved forty one games. He also was critical in helping
the White Sox get that signature win.

Speaker 3 (01:52:37):
Well.

Speaker 9 (01:52:37):
ESPN constantly shoots itself in the foot because Bobby Jenks,
a two time All Star pitcher for the Chicago White
Sox who just just just so happened to be on
the roster when the franchise won the two thousand and
five World Series he was on the roster, died in Sinatra, Portugal.

Speaker 7 (01:52:55):
The team announced, what do you mean he was on
the roster? What do you mean that he was? It's
just another dude. This isn't just some random player.

Speaker 9 (01:53:03):
This was the guy that set down batters and was
one of the first pitchers that was actually able to
hit one hundred and two miles per hour consistently. This
is not some random picture that had a one and
done with the team. He was a two time All Star.
You mentioned it in the same bleep and post ESPN.

Speaker 14 (01:53:22):
I get it.

Speaker 9 (01:53:23):
It's not the Dodgers, it's not the Yankees, it's not
the Phillies. It's not one of your ho hum good
teams that you can prop up. But it still is
number one as human being, and number two it's a
really talented player. And you wonder why people say the
sport is dying. It's an ugly overall trope that they
still have this up and then they try to correct

(01:53:44):
it by going and playing not even their own, not
even their own highlight reel. No, they just went and
copied and pasted the Chicago White Sox highlight reels and oh,
we fixed it.

Speaker 7 (01:53:52):
You know, it's funny. I uh, I went to look
to see if it was still up and it was.
Shockingly But this has to be some intern You had
to be born in two thousand and four. I'm sorry.

Speaker 9 (01:54:04):
Like, and I know that I grew up in a
Chicago White Sox household, so it's a little more fitting
to me to be upset. But like, I had to
get the Chicago Cubs credit because they honored Bobby Jakes
and you sitting here going, oh yeah, two time all
starts just on the roster he existed.

Speaker 7 (01:54:20):
Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't a fine moment for you
spn straight up buckling, but on one in several because
that's kind of how they roll.

Speaker 4 (01:54:27):
These days, the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:54:38):
You know one thing that's fun about when your team
is winning well during the season but also during the offseason.
I mean, that's that's the Astros and Rockets respectively right now.
Right the Astros just swept the Dodgers on the baseball
side of things in LA and the Rockets just got

(01:55:00):
Kevin Durant while the Lakers just got DeAndre Aiden. That
doesn't seem like it's the same. And how about Lebron
picking up his option and not taking less. And I
saw a lot of people, well, I mean, he's a legend.

(01:55:21):
He deserves every opennon of it. Yeah, sure, that's fine.
Tom Brady did too. Tom Brady's teams were given a
chance to win down the stretch of his career all
the time. And I get it, roster management is goes
a long way towards championship contention. But I just love
the fact that it's seemingly the leftover scrap heat from

(01:55:45):
the NBA big man pool of talent, Like DeAndre Ayton
is not at the end of his career necessarily, but
DeAndre Ayton is not a guy that I think is
going to be the missing piece for a Laker championship squad.
Far from it. And as a matter of fact, as
they continue to pay a ton of money to a

(01:56:09):
guy who's forty, a guy who has I don't know,
would you say Ayton has character issues? Is that is
that fair? Is that too harsh? That's harsh? Character issues
and some question marks? Yeah, but he guess question marks
because of who he is as a player as well. Okay,
so is is he an older version of Camp's Cam Whitmore? Potentially?

Speaker 9 (01:56:31):
I want to see what Cam does though, because there
was a moment where eight and at least look the
part of a qualified starter.

Speaker 7 (01:56:36):
Who do you think of the of those two would
have helped the Lakers more had they joined the team?
Austin Cam Whitmore. See that's how I feel an Austin
cam Witmore.

Speaker 9 (01:56:43):
I think Jalen Green was the ultimate option that you
want to go after and if you couldn't get him
the game, go get Cam.

Speaker 7 (01:56:48):
Whitmore so, DeAndre Ayton signs with the Lakers. There's all
of these other, uh, you know, deals that have happened
after the Kevin Durant trey, and part of it was,
you know a lot of these a lot of these
teams became part of the Kevin Durant trade as it
became a seventeen deal. And then in the middle of that,

(01:57:11):
the Suns are trying to buy out Bradley Beal. Like I,
so it's gonna save them two hundred and thirty million.
They're not gonna win any time. So like I, I
don't know, like I admire that they're actually trying to be,
like I think, presumably a well run organization. Finally, but

(01:57:31):
then it's kind of hard to say that because the
reason that Kevin Durant was available is because it didn't
work out in Phoenix. But I don't I mean, have
you ever looked at the Phoenix situation and thought, well,
I was Kevin Durant's fault, Like, I know that he
didn't play eighty two games, but he hasn't done that
a long time.

Speaker 9 (01:57:49):
I say, if you're really gonna be upset that he
didn't play eighty two games in Cleveland. Look back at
the last time he played eighty two games. We're going
to twenty seventeen. Yeah, eighteen.

Speaker 7 (01:57:56):
Like, but I'm talking about like Kevin Durant in Phoenix
and Bradley Beal, you know, being bought out and Devin
Booker staying there and Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks being
a part of it, and like that to me, I
would I would not be surprised how many games of
the Suns win last year. I know they didn't make
the postseason. I wouldn't be surprised if that mix meant

(01:58:20):
that they win more games than they did last year
this upcoming season. Now, that might be a hot take,
that might be crazy, and they might very well continue
to kind of sink towards the bottom of the West
before they jump back up. They won thirty six and
forty six. Like, if they won forty games next year
with a Dylan Brooks, Jalen Green, Devin Booker.

Speaker 9 (01:58:38):
Core, that's not unheard of. Okay, let me ask you this,
forty games. It's not fifty or sixty. Okay, play this game.
Phoenix forty plus wins forty games or San Antonio wins
forty games.

Speaker 7 (01:58:51):
See a whole season of dearon Fox with a presumably
healthy Victor win Benyama, and then you know the young
talent that they have there.

Speaker 9 (01:59:01):
Mistefon Castle is the other name they got throw in
that mix. If he continues to get better, how many
games they win?

Speaker 7 (01:59:06):
Last year he had thirty four thirty four okay, yeah,
six win improvement.

Speaker 9 (01:59:12):
But but which would you take, Phoenix or san Antonio
san Antonio? Yeah, I would too. It's the next natural progression,
Dallas or Dallas or Phoenix going in the next year
Cooper Flag. But you don't know when you're getting back
of fully healthy Anthony Davis, and you don't know when
you getting back of fully healthy Kyrie Irving.

Speaker 7 (01:59:29):
Anthony Davis looked terrifying for about a half I say,
for those thirty one minutes awesome. He was great, especially
alongside Daniel Gafford. Yeah. Like, but that that was with Kyrie.
Kyrie is like the straw that stirs the drink for
them right now that, of course Luke is gone and
he's not gonna be there till best case scenario all

(01:59:52):
Star breaks a February.

Speaker 9 (01:59:53):
Yeah, maybe maybe at best early February. If not after
the All Star Break, I Phoenix or forty games.

Speaker 7 (02:00:01):
I'm still gonna say Dallas because they have more talent
on their roster. That's proven.

Speaker 9 (02:00:08):
I got one more Sacramento or Phoenix forty games because
I think they're about even at this point.

Speaker 7 (02:00:15):
That's where I'm not a push. That's the push.

Speaker 9 (02:00:18):
I would say Phoenix because if I do think that
you will get better play from Jalen Green, I think
you will get better defense from Dylan Brooks. Yeah, but
it's also, like you tell me, both of them are
at like thirty eight.

Speaker 7 (02:00:28):
I can see it. Yeah, it is the Western Conference
as I look at you know how everything unfolded last year,
and and but it is. It's not for the faint
of heart. Let's just put it that way. And what's
crazy is do you remember that the Lakers were the
three seed? Does anybody remember that?

Speaker 10 (02:00:48):
No?

Speaker 7 (02:00:49):
It didn't seem like it, does it. No, Because if
you want, I'll tell you why.

Speaker 9 (02:00:52):
Because of we saw a slight dip from Denver, so
they fell off and they didn't get the three seed.

Speaker 7 (02:01:00):
Question if they were the three and then the Lakers
before the Lakers, the Nuggets and the Clippers actually all
had the same record of UH of fifteen and thirty two,
but because of you know, various tie breakers and all
that kind of stuff, it wound up being you know, Thunder,
Rockets one two, and then the Lakers, Nuggets, Clippers that
was three, four five, and then the Timberwolves, who ended

(02:01:23):
up going to the Western Conference Finals were the sixth seed.
So go figure. And again it was like, you know,
the teams being all packedy, are all being tightly compacted,
and I don't see that happening this upcoming year. What
do you see more?

Speaker 9 (02:01:37):
What do you believe more as likely that you will
have a four team trope at the top of the
Western Conference that will battle it out with each other,
or there'll be a surprise team that.

Speaker 7 (02:01:45):
Kind of comes out of nowhere. I think the after
the Thunder, because you got to give them their due.
They're the defending champs and all that I think battling
it out for the two seed are the Rockets, the Nuggets,
and the Timberwolves. And the Nuggets, by the way, that
was a nikky good move. I thought, uh trading Michael
Porter junior.

Speaker 9 (02:02:05):
Oh, they upgraded in every single way, like like ahead,
So I saw this on TikTok and I know you
don't have TikTok, but it just made me laugh.

Speaker 7 (02:02:12):
What makes good teams?

Speaker 9 (02:02:14):
And this is not a shot at Rafelstone because of
what he has done this offseason has been incredible, But
bad GMing somehow always seems to set the tone for
good teams the following year. Because it was a bad
GM job last year by by Denver. They ended up
getting the number four seed. They have been arguably the
biggest winners outside of Houston this entire offseason.

Speaker 7 (02:02:33):
Yeah, kind of flying under the radar too. And then
they got they got Valence Schunis, which I don't.

Speaker 9 (02:02:39):
Oh, they traded him for Satchet like like it was
pennies on the dollar, Like you didn't think of that
contract was movable and you get a better upgrade defensively,
at least for a backup for Joker.

Speaker 7 (02:02:50):
I don't like the fact that they Tim Hardaway Junior
is not gonna turn many heads, but he kills the rockets.

Speaker 9 (02:02:56):
Can I ask you, did you get annoyed when Sham
sweeted out sharp shooter for Tim Hardaway Junior.

Speaker 7 (02:03:01):
Well, he is a sharp shooter when he plays the Rockets.

Speaker 9 (02:03:03):
I say when he plays two teams. He's a great
sharp shooter. Everyone else twenty four percent for the foot.
That's a guy that is now playing with the joker
that you've got to deal with.

Speaker 7 (02:03:10):
I don't like that. I don't like that with Jamal Murray.

Speaker 9 (02:03:12):
I'll tell you that much. Yeah, Jamal Murray, Chris Brown,
so throw that into the deal too, who's also champion
seeping back. That pedigree not great.

Speaker 7 (02:03:20):
But I still like the Rockets against anybody else not
named the Thunder, and I'll take them against the Thunder
as well, because well, I'm not gonna take the Thunder.
All right, We're gonna take a quick time out when
we come back. Five o'clock hour starts as it normally does,
with Football at five.

Speaker 4 (02:03:34):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:03:40):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team all.

Speaker 7 (02:03:53):
Right, Football at five on a very baseball and basketball
intensive Monday, as it should be. He in July off
an astro sweep of the Dodgers and the Rockets, making
it official that not only is Kevin Durant a Rocket,
but so is Dorianfinny Smith and Clint Capella returning to

(02:04:13):
the club. But we do football five every single day
for a reason. And when it comes to your Houston Texans, well,
first and foremost Cole training camps this month. Training camp
begins this month.

Speaker 9 (02:04:26):
Yeah, I'm gonna try and beat Wex out there, and
I know that he's gonna be there at five thirty
every morning.

Speaker 7 (02:04:30):
Do you think you remember those old Mervin's COMMERCIALSVS was
this old department store that. I mean, it was fairly prominent.
It was a national chain. Sure, I'll take your word
for it.

Speaker 12 (02:04:43):
They had this.

Speaker 7 (02:04:44):
They had this campaign during like I want to say,
the nineties where the these women, they were all women.
Ye are at the door waiting for it to open,
and they're going open, open, Open, Open, They're just tapping
against the glass. Wex at training camp, of course, it
is like the sun hasn't come up. He's out there,

(02:05:05):
he's got his notebook ready, it's all there. He's he's
ready to go.

Speaker 9 (02:05:10):
He's just sitting there waiting for every little detail of
that third string defensive back that may or may not
make the team. After putting on a great play against
Nico Collins.

Speaker 7 (02:05:20):
I can't do it, man, I can't. I can't do it. Now.
There is this time of year these kinds of articles
get written well because you have to come up with
something and nothing's happening. We are in the dead calm
of the NFL calendar. This is like the if this
were the if this were like a lake, the water

(02:05:44):
would look like glass, be smooth. There's no ripples, is
you know, much like you know when when uh, when
WEX gets to training camp, sun is coming up. There's
not even birds chirping yet. It's very very early in
the process. This is the dead calm, right, So someone
like Jeremy Fowler is going to come up and survey

(02:06:05):
survey league executives, coaches and scouts to rank the top
ten players at eleven positions, from cornerback, quarterback to cornerback
and all positions in between, and up first the running backs. Now,
the reason I bring this up is because the Texans
made the list. The Texans made the list and they're

(02:06:27):
not even number ten. So if you have top ten
and you look at Joe Mixon and you know that
last year he was ranked as an honorable mention and
I know you've probably already seen this article. No, actually, okay,
so good, this is good for me. I don't know
who is where all right, where do you think top
ten running backs? And it's not number ten? Where do

(02:06:51):
you think Joe Mixon ranks? According to league executives? Number
nine would be two weeks to Hugo eight. It was
actually number nine. Okay? Yeah, so number one on the list,
not surprisingly? Is it Derek Henry or Saquona one? Number two?
Derek Henry?

Speaker 2 (02:07:04):
Yes?

Speaker 7 (02:07:04):
All right, cool, so they got the list right at
least on that point. Yeah, Now where do you think? Okay,
since since we're doing this, who do you think is
number three?

Speaker 6 (02:07:11):
Ooh uh?

Speaker 7 (02:07:12):
Jonathan Taylor used to be that option. I don't think
it is anymore.

Speaker 9 (02:07:17):
Kyrian Williams I think might be one of those names
that comes out of nowhere and that executives.

Speaker 16 (02:07:21):
Are higher on.

Speaker 7 (02:07:22):
He's not even on the list really. In fact, he's
not even an honorable mention. He got some votes, but
he's he's in the under the honorable mention list. Okay.

Speaker 9 (02:07:35):
Hanging on Bejeon Robinson's Gobby more close?

Speaker 2 (02:07:39):
Yes?

Speaker 9 (02:07:39):
Okay, so Jamiir's Threejon's four, JT five?

Speaker 7 (02:07:44):
Nope? Is he seven? I think off injured? It's not
Alvin Kamara, is it?

Speaker 9 (02:07:49):
No?

Speaker 7 (02:07:50):
He's number ten?

Speaker 9 (02:07:50):
Okay, so he did make the list oft injured running back. Oh,
this is actually a good one. Give me a give
the conference, NFC, AFC, NFC. It's not Kenneth Walker. Okay,
just tell me Christian McCaffrey.

Speaker 4 (02:08:08):
There we go.

Speaker 3 (02:08:08):
That was it.

Speaker 7 (02:08:09):
I know I he was. He was number one last
year and proceeded to not play. I say he played
what three games for well four games. It sucked for
me because I drafted a number one.

Speaker 9 (02:08:18):
See this is the problem every single and I'm telling
people right now, I believe in the stock. When they
say don't draft Saquon number one in your fantasy league,
I'm fully invested into. It does means the Madden curse.
It's more so just you're not going to duplicate that
same success the same year.

Speaker 7 (02:08:31):
Yeah but you Okay, since we're talking about that, there
is no sign that the Eagles are taking any sort
of step back. No, not at all. There's still be
the same team. And in fact, I would say Jalen
Hurts is going to be better, and by better, I
mean he's going to hand the ball off to just

(02:08:52):
as much as he did last year, but also improve
individually on his game. I think Saquon is going to
put up just as good as numbers this year.

Speaker 9 (02:08:59):
I think he'll se at one thousand. Why wouldn't he
because I just think did the line get worse? No?

Speaker 7 (02:09:04):
I think honestly, this is their schedule, get harder. Man
is there is his quarterback worse or too old?

Speaker 9 (02:09:11):
No?

Speaker 7 (02:09:12):
No, I'll just keep going down the list, keep going
on the list. There's just something that says it's scary
about the Eagles. They were awesome. They absolutely earned that championship,
and they have no sign of slowing down.

Speaker 9 (02:09:24):
No, but that's also the beauty of having a GM
like Howie Roseman and that everyone is chasing after, but
you just land whoever the hell you want again. Jehad
Campbell was the number one linebacker. Most people had him
as a top twenty player in this year's draft. Fell
to thirty, fell to thirty one. They gave up a
seventh round pick to just take him to guarantee he
didn't go.

Speaker 7 (02:09:45):
I'm saying, it's like, come on, man, that's really doing
at this point? Yeah, who do you think is number six?
Okay it's not this is a bold one, but I
think Bucky Irving made the list? Is he number six? Irving?
Did not make the list, but he did. He was
the top honorable mention. He was the first off the list. Okay, correct,

(02:10:07):
at least if you want to order these, because there's
not really they're not numbered after you get to the
honorable mention. Yeah, but yeah, the uh, this is another
NFC running back. What's your hint? Oh it's Josh Jacobs. Yes,
and he was up from last year at number seven. Okay,
then you mentioned jounber seven. That's Jonathan Taylor. This might

(02:10:30):
be I'll be interesting if you can get this number
eight because we already know who nine to ten are.
Okay eight afc Oh? Okay? Is it so Breese Hall?

Speaker 14 (02:10:39):
No?

Speaker 7 (02:10:40):
Okay, I was. I was genuinely can I was genuinely
one on that one? Is Devon Ah?

Speaker 11 (02:10:44):
H No?

Speaker 7 (02:10:45):
Okay, Breese Hall was the last honorable mention by the way,
Devon Ah was just before him.

Speaker 9 (02:10:50):
Okay, there's no way it's it's a Chase Brown for
the inside of Bengals, is it?

Speaker 10 (02:10:57):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (02:10:57):
No?

Speaker 7 (02:10:58):
He oh, he didn't even get he didn't even get
also receiving votes. It's not Tony Pollard, is it? Okay?

Speaker 9 (02:11:07):
Then is a Tank Bixby? You need to think you
need to think about better. Wait, I'm thinking way too
hard into this.

Speaker 11 (02:11:14):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (02:11:15):
Nagi?

Speaker 9 (02:11:16):
No? Alright, I don't know James Cook. Oh it is Buffalo.
Why I always this is why again I don't understand why.
This is why he is underrated, because he was an
honorable mention last year.

Speaker 7 (02:11:27):
And just because I'm me, I will go ahead and
read aloud the first paragraph under his name. Cook entered
the top ten after a sixteen touchdown season in twenty
twenty four, vaulting from honorable mention to number eight and
pushing Taylor for the seventh spot. This is where it
gets good. He's now tied with oj Simpson back in

(02:11:47):
nineteen seventy five for the most rushing touchdowns in a
single season in Bill's history. So I wonder if you
bought up White Broncot the soft season. Well, he didn't
get the Bronco until he moved back out to California.
He's up front California. He's from Florida.

Speaker 9 (02:11:59):
So you know, well, I'm talking about Oja, I know
you are talking about James Cook following in the same footsteps.
We gotta see him in the new Naked Gun movie
this upcoming year, and then we got to see him
right in the Bronco.

Speaker 7 (02:12:08):
I mean we're just there. Yeah, No, it's it's uh,
we're getting we're getting there. Okay. So Joe Mixon. His
highest ranking evers five. His lowest ranking was unranked. He's
twenty eight, which I actually was a surprise when I
saw that, because he seems like he should be like
thirty two. Yeah, I think he's thirty this year. He
turns thirty this year. No, he's twenty eight. Then he

(02:12:29):
turned twenty nine, is he? Yeah, they got that wrong,
unless that's wrong, that's what this says.

Speaker 9 (02:12:34):
I'm looking it up, but I'm pretty sure he is
twenty Yeah, No, he is twenty eight. He'll turn twenty nine. Crazy,
isn't it twenty nine in July this month?

Speaker 7 (02:12:42):
That's awesome? Yeah. Actually, and last year's ranking for him
was an honorable mention. This is what it says. Mixon
looked rejuvenated in Houston after the Texans acquired him in
a trade with Cincinnati in March of twenty four. He's
not a home run hitter, with a career average of
four point one yards per carry over eight seasons. But
he's just got or he's got just about everything. Else.
An NFL personnel evaluator said the following quote, really good vision, feet, contact, balance,

(02:13:10):
a hammer in the run game. I like that description
because I think it's apropos looked worn down at the
end of the season, but overall, that was a really
good trade for Houston. Before we go any further, I
don't know if I agree with that, but the really
looked a run down. It's not that he was run down.

Speaker 9 (02:13:27):
Here's what I'll argue back with Houston didn't have a.

Speaker 7 (02:13:30):
Second punch of the run game, and they do now.

Speaker 9 (02:13:32):
Yeah, they do now, hopefully, and whether it be what
he marks, whether it be Nick Chubb fully healthy again,
you have a second option. But really, outside of two games,
Damian Pierce was obsolete and then cam Akers didn't do much.
There was a point where, again the offense became so
convincingly pedestrian because of you couldn't run the football.

Speaker 7 (02:13:50):
When Joe was out. He's twenty eight.

Speaker 9 (02:13:53):
He was a bell cow during a time in Cincinnati.
He's a bell cow here in Houston. I don't think
run down is the right word, but you could definitely
tell that he was starting to have to take a
little bit of a leisure. You had to cut back
on his carries because of it, but the reason he
was gonna be valuable in the playoffs.

Speaker 7 (02:14:11):
Yeah, well but you had no choice, right, Tank Dell
was gone, Stefan Diggs was gone, and I just think
that they were kind of going with who brung him?
What it wasn't Nico Collins. This is this, This got
my attention. So he's the NFL's only player with at
least thirteen hundred scrimmage yards and nine touchdowns in each

(02:14:34):
of the past four seasons. Yeah, but check this out.
His ninety four point six scrimmage yards per game last year,
Trail's only Arian Foster in twenty fourteen, which you know
about what kind of monster season he had if you remember,
and DeAndre Hopkins in both fifteen and eighteen in Texas history,
ninety four point six scrimmage yards per game when we

(02:14:55):
would talk about that, Yeah, he's gonna get one hundred
yards easily.

Speaker 9 (02:14:58):
Yeah, well, remember at the start of the year, averaging
one hundred and twenty seven in that first game, and
then he averaged I think in the next game when
he came back over one hundred. So this was a
guy that took a lot of carries last year, but
he made the most of it. I think number nine
is fine. I wouldn't put him ahead of James Cook,
but I definitely think that he belongs to the top
ten after why he did last year.

Speaker 7 (02:15:17):
He stays healthy, He's putting up better numbers next year
than he did his first season. As a text, and
I'm just saying that right now, we will take a
quick time out. When we come back, we will uh well,
we'll talk about what we always talk about when it
comes to ESPN, what idiots they are?

Speaker 1 (02:15:33):
The age on sports talk Stevin Nike, Hey, were you aware.

Speaker 7 (02:15:50):
That something called a Ben Mallor is still a thing? Yeah?
He's Does he still do overnights on our network?

Speaker 2 (02:15:56):
Oh?

Speaker 14 (02:15:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 9 (02:15:56):
He us.

Speaker 7 (02:15:57):
I used to listen to him, and I did overnights
every single on purpose. Yeah why, I don't know. He
was one of the only two things on. It was
him and another person that I didn't listen to. So
you you listened to him because you had to. Basically
there was nothing else on.

Speaker 9 (02:16:10):
I listened to him because of if I wasn't getting
caught up on something that I was prepping for on
the show. He was always on on my drive in
and I always had sports s seven ninety as my
other listened.

Speaker 7 (02:16:21):
Besides the other sisters say something I used to worry.
Do you think and again not to disparage people who
do overnight radio except for this one, do you think
that people that do that shift and never deviate never
get to do their show during daylight, regular human hours.

(02:16:43):
Do you think that's maybe a sign? Yeah, we're messed
up in the head. I can tell you that right now. No, no, no, no, no, no,
I don't you're not. But that's not the same like
you did. I'm assuming you you did overnight hours at
one point. Oh yeah, I was two to five every
single morning. Okay, but how long did you do it?
Two and a half years? So two and a half,
three years, three years? Oh, three, less than five years?

(02:17:03):
And you're working in afternoon drive, right yeah? Okay? And
where is Ben mallernights? Okay? That's all. And that's already
more time that I wanted to give him this segment.

Speaker 16 (02:17:16):
What do you do?

Speaker 7 (02:17:18):
Well, he's what do you? Okay? What did he do that? Honestly,
we need to talk about Well, okay, so we are
a Fox Sports radio affiliate. So when somebody that is
on that platform, national platform. And again he's hardly the
only one that comes on these Fox Sports radio platform

(02:17:39):
and says stupid things. I mean, who's the guy, uh,
Rob Parker? I mean Jason McIntyre or Rob Parker. Yeah,
these are And Rob actually came up here this past
Rocket season. He was here, I don't know what. He
was clearly doing his show here for some reason, but
I can't remember what it was for. And he walked

(02:18:01):
in at some point during the game. I was doing
a Rockets game. It was a road game, so I
was here at the station with Josh C and he
just he was standing in the doorway and I just
I didn't know he was here, and I recognized him,
and I I was polite, you know, I was just
sitting I was, you know, I was on the opposite
side from the door, and he was he was asking

(02:18:22):
about some some sort of it was some sort of
like he needed something of the technical variety here in
the building. It was nothing about sports related. But I
just remember in my like my inner monologue, like I'm
sitting there like this right and I'm looking at him
and I'm just like, I have heard you say so

(02:18:44):
many dumb things. Oh my gosh, I can't believe how
stupid you are. That's what I was thinking, like my
inner monologue. Yeah, I feel like if if this guy
I'm not even gonna say his name again, I feel
like if he was here, I actually wouldn't I wouldn't
be polite because when it comes to the Astros cheating scandal,
and again, people do stuff for clicks. There's people that

(02:19:07):
are as we speak, and they already have just made
total fools of themselves about the tragedy in our state
and they've lost their jobs over it. They've lost their
positions over it. But well they shouldn't because they can't
help themselves. That's what he is. He's got nothing else.
So when the Astros for the umpteenth time are threatening

(02:19:30):
with the best record in the American League, he can't
even It's like the old retread stuff he's he's insinuating
that Altuve was wearing a buzzer. Still, that's where he's at.
Like you always hear about people needing to evolve and
like progress and all that kind, there's nothing of the
sort with him, and so he is. What I'm saying

(02:19:52):
all of this is to say that that guy is
right where he belongs.

Speaker 9 (02:19:57):
They're doing overnights literally where nobody is thing besides schizophrenics
and and people driving cars.

Speaker 7 (02:20:03):
But I can't even it's it's just perfect. I think
he might've lost some weight. He used to be a
lot of fast. He was a fatty when I remember
seeing him. That's and I know that's mean. I don't
also care. It's not though. It's well, there's people that
struggle with their weight and they're good people and they're trying,
and he's none of that. So I don't zero zero

(02:20:23):
decorum for him. He's right where he needs to be.
And I but I was it was brought to my
attention so many of these things, Like there's a guy
I used to work with, it's the same thing. They
don't exist to me, but there's people that I know
in like the same circles that will alert me to
things that these people are doing. And so inevitably, like

(02:20:45):
because I answer my phone, I'll see things and I'll
be like, oh that guy, and that's it, like that's
that was what this was. And I'm just like I
was like, all right, i'll bite, I'll listen to this
during the break. And I'm listening to.

Speaker 11 (02:21:00):
And it's like altv al Bouvey. You're wearing a buzzers.
It's like, oh my gosh, you're still doing the same stuff.
He sounds like Dodgers fans this weekend. Yeah, of course
he does.

Speaker 7 (02:21:11):
They're all the same. They are stuck again in January
of twenty twenty and that's all they've got.

Speaker 9 (02:21:18):
Now I can tell you exactly who Dodgers fans are
at this point. They are the adults in every Peanuts show.

Speaker 7 (02:21:25):
Wah wah, wah wah. There's nothing, you have, nothing to
go off noise literally, And.

Speaker 9 (02:21:32):
By the way, congratulations, I'm finally winning a championship.

Speaker 7 (02:21:35):
That's my damn.

Speaker 9 (02:21:36):
Just like the Astros in twenty seventeen. You want to
talk about this, that's fine, but they won it in
twenty twenty two. I'm not crediting you for winning a
Mickey Mouse championship where half of the season was just
thrown to the wayside because of COVID.

Speaker 7 (02:21:49):
And by the way, we were talking about this earlier.

Speaker 9 (02:21:51):
I prayed to many of a dark magic to see
the Astros actually win the World Series in Texas in
the Texas Rangers Stadium, or they ever had a shot
to go there. Oh that's how all that would I
would have never asked for anything again as a sports fan,
I would have been fine with Alabama sucking.

Speaker 7 (02:22:08):
I would have been fine with everything.

Speaker 9 (02:22:10):
In life as long as the darn rainerrets that live
in the fake version of Dyke and Park got to
watch the astrosos up a title there, and that's what
the Dodgers wanted in a sixty game period with placards
and and Justin Turner having COVID that is. But see,
that's why twenty three chaps me so much, because nobody

(02:22:32):
even remembers it, and it's all it did the And
I guarantee you that Rangers fans think this way. They're
almost happier that it kept the Astros from winning a
third than they are from winning for winning their own.
And if you think that sounds crazy, look at their
best player. It wasn't Roidius Garcia. It was Corey Sears. Yeah,

(02:22:53):
and he's at the parade basically trying to take shots
at Alex Bregman.

Speaker 7 (02:22:58):
You won another tie and you you beat the Astros
again that you're thinking about the Astros at the victory freight.
So shout out to the overnight guy on Fox Sports
Radio for not evolving as a person and just basically
letting alto ve Rent live rent free in his head,
just like a Dodgers fan.

Speaker 9 (02:23:17):
Okay, so so we don't have WEX that can throw
us off. We throw us back on schedule here. So
you talked about something that you don't Yeah, that's cool.
One of the things that I can't stomach with people,
especially in this industry, is when they value their opinion
so gung ho that it's correct that your opinion is
wrong in their eyes. Number one, it's an opinion. It
doesn't mean it's right. It means that you believe this,

(02:23:39):
and I believe this. But I can't stomach the people, especially.
The one thing that dridgs to be crazy, especially as
somebody that watches college football and does like visual breakdowns
and talk about the games every single week, is when
they say you don't know ball. That is the cop
out of just saying you are a whiny little bee.
I can't stomach you. There is this one dude. I

(02:23:59):
won't say his name because I don't want to givehim
the credit that he deserves, but he thinks that he
is the smartest man to ever live talking about college sports.
Because if he watches more film than anybody, he has
seen every third down of an army player that transferred
to his school. Therefore, his opinion is valid and yours isn't.
I want to thunderclap, punt them fifty yards in the

(02:24:22):
air and make them scream uncle every time that they
have to open their mouth, and I literally go and
look at them and say, why do you talk?

Speaker 7 (02:24:28):
Because this is supposed to be a fun job.

Speaker 9 (02:24:29):
This must be us having a good time, and you
want to go ahead and ruin it by saying no wrong?

Speaker 7 (02:24:35):
Right, That's how what the film says.

Speaker 9 (02:24:36):
Well, you know, I know what my I say is
that you're being an idiot and an asshat, So sit
down and shut up, all right, all right, we will
take a quick time out here in a second, by
the way, in case you missed, it is next, and
I'm gonna lead it off because and I told you
about this during the break.

Speaker 7 (02:24:56):
It's not anything that I can really show you, but
I want to bring you guys' attention to it. And
actually it kind of coincides with something else I saw
on social media. The Rockets Entertainment team like their game ops,
but specifically their video production Department. And I've said this

(02:25:18):
for a long time, going back to the Joe Abercrombie
days and a lot of you guys don't know who
that is, but that's my boy from way back at
Sam Houston State. And he's now a member of the
Atlanta Atlanta Hawks organization. But a lot of the people
that he put in place are still with the Rockets,
and they just do sensational work. If you've ever been
to a game and you see the pregame videos or
any of the hype stuff that they do on social media,

(02:25:40):
you know what I'm talking about. They they just released
something that shows the number Kevin Durant is gonna be
wearing as a Rocket, And you guys probably already know
by now he's gonna wear number seven. He's not wearing
thirty five.

Speaker 2 (02:25:54):
Here.

Speaker 7 (02:25:55):
It is absolutely well, it's literal fire. But you should
go check that out during the commercial here when we
come back, in case you missed it a Monday.

Speaker 2 (02:26:06):
Edition next.

Speaker 4 (02:26:09):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (02:26:17):
Well, I kind of gave it away there at the
tail end, so I don't have to do the Kevin
Durant reveal. Look, it's amazing, and I honestly I just
want the Rockets to take my money. I want a
Kevin Durant jersey. Say you're all in on getting the
KD jersey. Well, here's the thing, I'm pretty sure this

(02:26:38):
is public not yeah it is. I'm not saying anything
that people don't know. The Dunksternaut is back this year.
You know that, right, Yeah, So that's their City Connect whatever.
The version of the City Edition City Connect as Astro
is what I'm wearing right now. City Edition is the
duncture knot So the court with a dunking Astronaut the
whole nine. You're gonna see Kevin Durant in that. That

(02:26:58):
excites me a great deal. I don't know if that's
the Kevin Durant one I would get. I think personally
this one is him in a red one. I think
personally the Black Rockets jerseys. He's gonna look sick in those.
But anyways, I digress. In case you missed it, take
it away, cole So.

Speaker 9 (02:27:15):
In twenty nineteen, a team by the name of the
Washington Nationals marched on into dyk In Park and found
away in Game seven because aj Hinchtan want to pitch
Garett cole Win a world Series and ever since then
it all went downhill. But finally ownership said, you know what,
enough is enough, because they just fired baseball operations manager
Mike Grizzo and manager Dave Martinez, both been with the

(02:27:36):
organization for almost a decade. The Nationals currently sit at
thirty seven and fifty three and struck the bottom of
the National League East standings, surpassing the Miami Marlins, who
were openly tanking after getting swept by the Boston Red
Sox this weekend. Sans mister Alex Bregman, Washington hasn't finished
higher than fourth in the division since winning the World

(02:27:57):
Series in twenty nineteen. This is now, if I'm out mistaken,
The fifth managerial job opened before the All Star break
this year, and it comes with an organization that truly
has a lot of good young talent, but no direction
in any capacity in a very daunting enna least, do.

Speaker 7 (02:28:15):
You ever sit around sometimes and think about how some
of the teams that knocked off the Astros and kept
them from winning the World Series? Oh all the time?
I mean, that is that's just that's just gross. The
stupid Nationals with their Walgreens logo, the stupid Rangers who

(02:28:39):
are never going to do anything of consequence again, including
this year. Hey Jared Sandler, remember when you said this
is when it ends and the Astros weren't going to
win the Al West. Well, they've got like half their
team on the shelf and they're expanding their lead and
they just swept the Dodgers. But please continue to tell
me how it's not going to happen again because the
what ten and a half games, bet Rangers or someone

(02:29:01):
else is going to knock them off. And oh, let's
not forget about the Atlanta Braves, who are the biggest
dumpster fire in the majors this year and also won
a title at the expense of the Astros. I hate
that Braves.

Speaker 9 (02:29:14):
I can at least get behind. Nationals were a weird team.
Remember they started off really slow as.

Speaker 7 (02:29:18):
They all at fire Sale like the Marlins in the nineties.

Speaker 9 (02:29:21):
Yeah, they started off extremely slow and then somehow find
a way to get that just momentum going right at
the All Star break, Sureser ends up bawling on out.

Speaker 7 (02:29:31):
You get vined Stephen Strasburg.

Speaker 9 (02:29:33):
And then how we Kendrick about people is the one
that hits the homer, like if it was Ryan Zimmerman.
I think I could stomach it a little bit more
because this was a dude that had been bought into
the identity of DC Baseball when they left Montreal.

Speaker 7 (02:29:47):
But it's how we bleeping Kendrick like, who is this?

Speaker 10 (02:29:49):
Dar?

Speaker 7 (02:29:49):
Well, don't forget that Anthony Rindome killed you and then
went and died in Anaheim. Still the worst contract of
the history of Major That's what people do. They go
to Anna to die. Yeah. Well, also they don't Anaheim
believe and come back and they become good again. Albert
Pooholt again.

Speaker 9 (02:30:07):
You gotta remember Anaheim as one of those teams this
just doesn't care about developing talent.

Speaker 7 (02:30:11):
They just want them up here quickly. Hayde Anaheim, Oh,
I mean, trust me.

Speaker 9 (02:30:14):
The way they go about their farm system is absolutely
a joke.

Speaker 7 (02:30:18):
I'm glad they're in the Astros Division.

Speaker 9 (02:30:19):
No one's complained about that. But you did mention one
of the worst deals in Major League Baseball. This may
be one of the better deals in basketball in a
few years because Orlando Magic star Pallo Bankero has going
to do a five year, two hundred and thirty nine
maximum Rooky contract extension that could reach two hundred and
eighty seven million dollars Mike Miller of Lift Sports Management
towards ESPN Shompserania. They believe that von Cao is going

(02:30:41):
to be the future of this organization and one of
the key stars. And remember this is also now the
final piece to take the Magic into that realm of
potentially the number two seed in the Eastern Conference. Now
with Indiana not having Tyrese Haliburton, with Boston not having
Jason Tatum, Magic have their core already signed again with
Franz Wagner Jalen Subject under contract for the next five years,

(02:31:03):
and they just acquired Desmond Bane to contract in twenty
twenty nine.

Speaker 7 (02:31:07):
So once upon a time, the Rockets were gonna get
Palo Banko because he was gonna fall to them. Jabari
Smith was gonna go number one, chet Holgren was gonna
go number two, and then Palo ban Caero out of
Duke was gonna come to the Rockets at number three.
This is significant because how much were the figures again on.

Speaker 9 (02:31:28):
That two one hundred and eighty seven million dollars is
the Maxican get to right now, it's a two hundred
and thirty nine So.

Speaker 7 (02:31:33):
Over five years coreers. Yeah, Jabari Smith Junior just got
a five year extension as well for one hundred and
twenty two. Now again caliber player and all that goes
into it.

Speaker 9 (02:31:44):
I say, one dude's average was averaging a career high
twenty five point nine points and seven point three rebounds
last season.

Speaker 7 (02:31:49):
But does okay? And I know Wex likes to talk
about the Eastern Conference all the time, and granted the
East is probably.

Speaker 9 (02:31:58):
As wide open as its been. I think al Burton's
not playing next year. Okay, here here's what I'll say.
I think Cleveland still.

Speaker 7 (02:32:06):
Is number one.

Speaker 9 (02:32:07):
I think New York's talent, I don't know about the
Mike Brown higher makes them number two.

Speaker 7 (02:32:13):
After that, it's wide open. It could be anybody, Okay.
But two very very key things about the two teams
you mentioned. One, the next time Donovan Mitchell leads a
team anywhere of note will be the first time. Yep.
He's had a lot of great regular seasons, and he's
had a lot of them in two different conferences and
it's amounted to absolutely nothing. And two, the next time

(02:32:37):
a James Dolan owned team does anything will be the
first time. Because again I know that I'm not counting hockey.

Speaker 2 (02:32:46):
You got it.

Speaker 7 (02:32:46):
That's fine, that's fine. The Knicks, that's what matters, matters,
And there's always something.

Speaker 9 (02:32:52):
Jerry Ryan Service is known for owning the Bulls, he's
not owned for owning the White Sox.

Speaker 7 (02:32:56):
It's always something. But like Mike Brown is I think
a decent head coach, but he's he better than firing
TIBs after taking you to the like, it felt like
nobody even wanted to coach the Knicks and then they
luck into Mike Brown. Now, maybe Mike Brown's not gonna
be that guy. Maybe it's gonna be like everybody else
that goes to New York and they find a way
to screw it up because they work for James Dolan.

(02:33:18):
But again, the two teams you mentioned, neither one of
them strike fear in the heart of me. And I
know the Miles Turner just went to the Rivals in
Milwaukee because the Pacers didn't want to pay luxury tax
I guess yeah, it's a weird reason to let your
franchise Cornerstone. That's not Tyrese Haliburton walk in a season

(02:33:38):
where he's not gonna play. Tyrese Halliburton's out. Who am
I missing like the East. But yet all of this,
I'm saying all of this, it's the other team that
maybe you could bring him. Yeah, I'm saying all of
this to say the Magic just don't intimidate me.

Speaker 2 (02:33:55):
Now.

Speaker 7 (02:33:56):
Palo Benkaro seems like a guy who puts up a
lot of hollow good numbers. Maybe I'm just I don't know,
Maybe I'm just being too hard on them. Last thing,
who wins this trade?

Speaker 9 (02:34:05):
The Clippers, the Jazz or the Heat Because Norman Powell
was now headed down to South Beach, John Collins, who
has been a modequate adequate defender as a forward and
averaging nineteen points per game, is headed to the Clippers,
and Kevin Love, Kyle Anderson and the Clippers twenty twenty
second round pick are headed to Utah.

Speaker 7 (02:34:23):
Who do you like in that deal? The answer could
also be numb, because every thing is just a joke.
Just it looks like they move their food around on
their plate. These three teams, I mean, the Rockets are
better than the Clippers. Rockets are better than the Heat,
and they're definitely better than the Jazz. And that's what
you missed. And in case you missed it.

Speaker 1 (02:34:43):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety winding down a
Monday edition of the program.

Speaker 7 (02:34:55):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety, Space
City Home Network final segment. Here acn Wex on vacation.
He'll be back a week from today, myself and Cole
Thompson taking you into Astros on deck coverage coming up
at the top of the hour real quick. Since we
like to do this, the Summer of Fun is year

(02:35:16):
round at this point, and we've been given away all
sorts of tickets all year long, and we will continue
to do so as long as they are provided to us.
We will then turn around and give them to you
free of charge because we are nice people, all right,
A four pack of tickets? Did you say, did you
give me the two? Because we have two four packs?

Speaker 2 (02:35:37):
All right?

Speaker 7 (02:35:38):
Two four packs? I thought that's what you were doing, Cole,
but you know this is on the fly. Here two
four packs of tickets to the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks
Live Glow and Fire show that's happening on the nineteenth
and twentieth of this month over at Toyota Center, the
home of Kevin Durant. The Monster Trucks, Glow and Fire

(02:36:00):
Hot Wheels show at Toyota Center July nineteenth and twentieth.
It's bringing fan favorites to life over at Toyota Center,
including Mega Rex, Tiger Shark, Bigfoot, and introducing the brand
new Skeleosaurus, the Fossil Fury Villain of Hot Wheels Monster Trucks.
I know all about this stuff because I have a

(02:36:20):
Monster Truck. Hot Wheels Monster Truck, Absolute fanatic. All right,
Tickets are on sale now at Toyota Center dot com.
But a couple of you are gonna get four packs
of tickets if you know the answer to this question.
Just last segment, and in case you missed it, we
were talking about another player in Jabari Smith Junior's draft
class that just got a MAX extension, and then we

(02:36:43):
were talking about the conference and how it's wide open,
all that kind of stuff. Who is that player? Who
is the player in Jabari Smith Junior's draft class that
just got a MAX extension today? Seven one three two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety couple of four packs of tickets
to the Hot Wheels, Monster Trucks Live Glow and Fire

(02:37:03):
Show are available to you if you have the answer
for Cole Thompson at seven, one, three, two, seven ninety
Astros and Guardians first of three straight tonight over at
dyke In Park. This is the home stretch before the
All Star Game getting underway. As uh, look, the Astros

(02:37:24):
of the hottest team in baseball, had the best record
in the majors in the month of June. That just
happened to coincide with the Yankees completely going into a tailspin,
which was awesome to watch for a number of reasons.
Somebody brought it to my attention and I did not
see this until they showed it to me. Nick Tatro

(02:37:46):
just losing his mind because of yet another one run loss.
I think it was the television broadcast that was talking
about the amount of one run or No, it was
the amount of comeback wins and how the Dodgers had
quite a few of them. I think they had twenty four.
Astros were right behind them with twenty three. And I

(02:38:07):
can't remember the team that had over thirty of these.
Might have been Tampa or somebody like that. But you know,
the Astros came back in all three of those games.
Believe it or not, I believe they were down. No,
I take that back the opener where they won eighteen
to one. They led the whole way, but they were
trailing in Saturday and Sunday's games and came back, and

(02:38:30):
those were obviously far more competitive. It'd be hard not
to be. But what the Astros are doing, the fact
that they're doing it in light of who was both
on the shelf going into that series and who's on
the shelf coming out of it. Again, we told you
about the lineup tonight. Christian Walker's on the paternity list. Okay,
so he's now gone. Jeremy Peney has got a cracked rib,

(02:38:55):
and you have Jordan Alvarez. The drama that is that situation,
and it's only dramatic because it's like if you told
me that when he went down, And remember he wasn't
exactly lighting the world on fire when he was playing
because he had a broken hand. He just wasn't himself
from the start. And then he goes down. You haven't

(02:39:18):
had him. You're coming up on the amount of time
that Kyle Tucker missed. And I know that WEX likes
to make that kind of analogy to last season, but
the Astros were in much much worse shape last year
and yet they were never as dominant as they have
been this year once they did turn it around, because
much like the Yankees with this kind of this rocket

(02:39:40):
ship that they've put themselves on in the month of
June and now into the month of July, that's coincided
with the Mariners. I know, they just swept the Pirates,
but they like every single time the Astros would lose
a game, which was very very rare so with the Mariners,
and then they are losing games when the Astros were

(02:40:02):
winning all these games. And that's how you've got yourself
in a situation now where the Astros it's their division
to lose. And I don't want to put the car
to the head of the horse. And I know that
maybe these injuries catch up to them eventually, but I
don't know when cal Rawley's having the season of his life.
How would you like to be the Mariners fan base
right now? Cal Rawley's having the season of his life.

(02:40:25):
He is legitimately in the MVP discussion, and it's gotten
you a seven game deficit in the division and you
led the division. It's just incredible what the Astros are doing.
Twenty games over five hundred and again you don't take
anything for granted, you don't assume anything and all that
kind of stuff, especially because it's baseball. But a ten

(02:40:47):
game losing streak is what the team they are starting
a three game series against tonight is currently enjoying. The
Guardians have lost ten straight. They are in town for
the next three. Then you've got the off day. Then
you've got the Texas Rangers, who, by the way, are
eleven games back of the Astros and two games under
five hundred. And then it's the All Star break and

(02:41:10):
you see what's what. Found out that Hunter Brown and
Jeremy Pania will be first time All Stars, Josh Hater
gets named his sixth Midsummer Classic, and then there's Fromber
really nothing. I know the Astros aren't gonna have starters,
but you got to think that maybe just maybe there's

(02:41:32):
an injury or something that Fromber would get some love.
But it's incredible. I'm loving every minute of it, don't
want the ride to end, and just looking forward to
seeing what the Astros can do from here on out.
It's like I want to hurry up and get the
All Star Break over with And that's what sucks about,
you know how well you're playing. Sometimes, when you're playing
that well going into the All Star break, you don't

(02:41:53):
want that break to happen because you don't want to
mess up any mojo. That's kind of how I feel
about Christian Walker after the weekend he had against the Dodger. Yeah,
you got a little norm about I don't want to
go I don't want him going on the paternity shelf,
So I mean, I don't want to miss the birth
of his child.

Speaker 9 (02:42:08):
But also I'm like, hey, let's continue the home run
street what you're doing right now?

Speaker 7 (02:42:11):
I want to be selfish.

Speaker 9 (02:42:12):
Yeah, I know, it's very fine being selfish, especially with
the way that he's playing and how we don't know
if he's going to come back down in reality or
if this is the new norm for him.

Speaker 7 (02:42:19):
That child is going to have a much better life
because of the home runs his dad hits, Yeah, exactly,
can't hit them if he's not out there, honest.

Speaker 9 (02:42:26):
And osleyn the child might be a little bit selfish
right now for not being out here run Now.

Speaker 7 (02:42:30):
This is the kind of logic that I flash to
both Wex and my wife when I want to win
arguments that I should be losing. I don't care. I
just make up the logic as I go along.

Speaker 9 (02:42:40):
Listen, we all do it from time to time. I
do it with Kirson. She always seems to find a
way to look back at me and go, you're an idiot.
I know that's why you married me. Yeah, I get
that a lot. You sign on the dotted line for
this specific reason. I'm not changing at now thirty one
years old.

Speaker 7 (02:42:53):
All right, we are going to be back at it
again tomorrow for the full four hours. There's a lot
going on this week as WEX is out, but anything
that comes down the pike we will obviously talk about,
and of course you can keep it right here for
Astros Baseball on Deck show coming up next as the
Astros and the Guardians get together for the first of three.
We will talk to you guys again tomorrow at two

(02:43:14):
o'clock the AG on Sports Talk seven ninety

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