Rockets and Astros go 2-for-2 Again, Tiger & Puka in Rehab, Kirk Cousins!

Thursday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler discuss the Astros and Rockets' recent success, Tiger Woods and Puka Nacua heading to rehab, and Kirk Cousins getting another large bag of money after signing with the Raiders.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome in to a Thursday edition of The A Team.
It's Sports Talk seven nineties, soon to be on Space
City Home Network. He's WEX I may see. Josh Jordan
is our producers. We take you until six o'clock tonight.

(00:20):
I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself tonight.
The Rockets and the Astros are off and they've both
played within hours of each other the last two days.
Oh and by the way, they both won both of
their games on those last two days. So the good
times have been rolling. The vibes have been immaculate, as
they say, even for Kevin Durant. And now we have
to figure out what to do with ourselves tonight on
a Thursday where there's just not as much going on.

(00:42):
But there's a lot to discuss, including the fact that
last night at Toyota Center, had you started the game
with eight healthy bodies for the Bucks and by the
end of the second quarter you had seven.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Spack it up a little bit. What you're counting healthy bodies?
Well active? How about that? That better? Okay? Because like
you were there, you're in the arena, your seats are
right above the seven members of the Bucks that were
on the bench but unavailable in street closed. Correct they
looked so hurt. Yeah, especially honest they looked. I mean,

(01:19):
I'm not trying to poke fun at some of the injuries,
but clearly, like many teams are doing, there's a strict
cutoff point in the NBA. If you're in the top
ten in each conference, you're trying to win basketball games
or get your team in the best possible health position
for when you reach the play in tournament or the playoffs.
And then there's the other ten teams, five in each conference.

(01:41):
The record of those teams in the last twenty twenty
to five games or so, it's insane how bad they are.
And it's not about the players that are on the court.
Look at what happened last night, perfect example, those Bucks
played hard. Every night when you're playing against the team
that's doing what the Bucks are doing, what the Pacers
are doing, the Jazz or going on and on and
on and on, there's eight seven other teams that are

(02:02):
doing that. The players on the quarter are trying to
play hard. You got multiple different players having the best
games of their NBA lives. You've got ten three pointers
drained in one quarter against the Rockets, who just won
their fourth straight game. So it's not about who is
out there, it's obviously about management and how they're trying
to do things, and it's created a massive division between

(02:24):
who's playing basketball and who's hope in the season will
end every single second of every day. Is it over yet?
Is it over yet? Are we done yet? Can we
get into the lottery? Is this over yet? That's all
they're doing, and it's really why the anti tanking rules
will be in place for next year. And I don't
know if any of the proposals that we've seen and
discussed will even be a part of it, But nonetheless,
it's up to the good teams, and the Rockets are

(02:45):
one of the good teams now eighteen games over five hundred.
To take advantage of that, one of those teams will
be at Tota Center tomorrow night. It is a team
that has beaten the Rockets this season much different point
in the season, much earlier in the season. But nonetheless,
the Utah Jazz, who have been losing regularly to every
team in contention despite playing hard. They did that last night.

(03:06):
They played hard against the Denver Nuggets, but Denver's a
lot better than they are so they beat them by
thirteen points. I hope the Rockets can do the same
again tomorrow. We need to get into discussion today about
what we think, what you guys think the best scenario
will be for Houston after eighty two games. What's the
best place to be, the best spot in the standings, three, four, five, six,

(03:30):
the best matchup in the opening round, and beyond. So
we'll get into that discussion obviously yesterday, being that we
are here with you for the tenth inning show and
we were already in post Astros five game winning streak.
The Rockets will have a chance to match them before
the Astros are finished on Friday night because the Astros
have West Sacramento games coming up, so a much later

(03:50):
first pitch for them tomorrow night. Then the ball will
be tipped over at Toyta Center. Astros on a five
game winning streak, a lot of offensive superlatives can take you,
and honestly, a little bit healthier team leaves town because
we don't expect as many days off for Jeremy Pania
moving forward. That should be a good thing for the Astros,

(04:11):
not only defensively, but offensively. Nothing wrong with their defense whatsoever,
but certainly you'd expect a little bit of an upgrade
when a gold Glove caliber player gets to put his
glove back on a little bit more often. We'll see
how Joe Aspotam manages his way through this ten game
road trip, the seven days without a day off starting tomorrow,
with or six days excuse me, Friday through Wednesday of

(04:32):
next week, then the off day, then four games with Seattle,
so ten games over an eleven day period starting tomorrow.
But of course it all began yesterday with a day off.
So how he wants to go about things when now,
once again all four of your infielders are healthy. Jordan
Alvarez is healthy, and whomever you turn your additional out infielder,
which presumably is hesakperetis they're all healthy. So finding a

(04:55):
way to get him at bats, get him in the
lineup is now what he will be tasked with moving
through this road trip. They won't make a change to
the rotation for the first three games with pitchers in
the three, four and five spots currently going in those games.
That means Xavier Emi and then Lance mccullors junior. They
will get the ball in the minor league ballpark that
the major league team plays their games in Cutter Home

(05:17):
Health Park. They're in West Sacramento against the team that
obviously wants to kind of wipe away what they did
to start the season. All but Shay Langeliers, who leads
the Majors with five homers, his teammates have hit one.
They're an awful team right now, having only played the
Braves and the Jas. The Astros should make that continue.
There's nobody in Major League Baseball that has six wins,

(05:37):
so the Astros are the winningest team in Major League Baseball.
They're a handful of teams that have five, they're one
of them. That's your Astros team that for the first
time in several years, has gotten off to a robust
and sound solid start to the season.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, I look, I think maybe what you're saying is
that the Astros are catching the A's at the exact
right time.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
I mean, if they are catching the A's here in
Houston right now, I would, honestly, I'd probably say they're
gonna sweep them. But I don't think it's quite so
there because they're not. They're gonna be a terrible road team,
I'm sure again this year because they're gonna the benefit
of playing where the balls fly out of the yard,
especially during the day. Well, so if they're not catching
them at the right time, they're catching them for their
home opener. I mean, you know how much excitement's going
to be there for those eleven thousand fans. I was

(06:21):
about to ask, what's the capacity there in West It's
not about that excitement. It's about the fact that they
are playing in a it's still it's a friendlier place.
It is the home ballpark. I think the opponents had
a little bit to do with it, because I do
think the two teams they played. That's why some of
what you're seeing here early on can certainly be a
little bit skewed because you've only played two teams. Everybody

(06:42):
in Major League Baseball has played two series as we
get through the first week of the season, so definitely
it can be impactful if you played too top of
the heap teams or you played two bottom of the
heap teams. The A's are right now, record wise bottom
of the heap. I doubt they will be there when
this season continues, so I don't know if it's the
right time or the wrong time. I know it from

(07:02):
the Astros perspective, good vibes, they are feeling good. You
hear them talk about what they've been able to do
over the last five games. You know, picking the next
guy up. This guy has along at bat and ultimately
strikes out. Then you have a long at bat and
you drive the runner or you take the walk. They're
walking a lot. They're not striking out much. They had
a huge home run series against the Red Sox eight

(07:23):
home runs and now nine total on the season. I
don't expect them to be among the league leaders and
homers this year as a team, or the league leaders
in runs scored. But they are right now. Why don't you.
I just think there'll be other teams that just have
more power in that department basically. I mean, they're not
going to be middle of the pack like they were
all No. No, I think they're on the front side.
I think this should be a top again health of

(07:44):
big reason, but a top ten offense for the Astros
this year. And think about where they are right now today.
You got Jordan Alvarez with three homers, and obviously al
Tuve in his seven games he had home runs in
one of them. He had two home runs in one game,
So the other six games he didn't. Estak Peretis has
not yet hit his first home run. You got cam
Smith with one, you got Correa with one, Christian Walker

(08:05):
with none. I mean, that's all still coming, because I
could pick out any one of those guys, and it's
just the home run that hasn't happened. They're way out
front in Major League Baseball. In doubles, they are out
front and all those other categories right now as a team.
And this is why I still think there's much more
to come from so many of these players. I was
parsing up some est Socc Perettis numbers with no runners

(08:26):
in scoring position so far this season, he'socked. Peretis has
been at the dish for thirteen at bats, he has
one hit. He's one for thirteen without runners in scoring position.
But when the pressure's on, when it's money time, when
it's six six in the eighth inning, you out runners
in scoring position. Est SoC Perettis is up, He's going
to drive in two runs. He's four for nine with
runners in scoring position this year, one for thirteen when

(08:48):
not all five of his runs batted in. Again, this
is a little bit duh. Have come when runners are
in scoring position. But isn't that what you I mean?

Speaker 1 (08:57):
I know we're talking about home run numbers and and
all that, like don't can't beggars not be choosers in
this case, like Christian Walker again, a guy who hasn't
hit a home run, but he's been.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
He's four ten with runners in scoring position. These guys
who have remarkably come through. And I complain about that
as much as I do.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
I have to be able to give credit where it's
due when they're actually getting them home.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
They are for the most party, and it's over the
last five games, because in Game two there wasn't much
of it, even though they did have enough traffic against
the Angels. There's very little traffic against the Angels in
Game one, and obviously they did not score. But everything
has changed since then. And the longer you keep it going,
the more likely it is. This turns from a five
game winning streak into an eight game winning streak, or
ten out of eleven, or fifteen as seventeen, things like that.

(09:38):
And oh, by the way, as they handed the ball
to the last three pitchers, your fifth starter, your first starter,
your second starter. The team has allowed seven runs in
the last three games, so obviously all of them to
the Red Sox. That's outstanding pitching for all nine innings
of each of those games. And when that now is
coupled with an offense that obviously is in two with

(10:00):
one another, well that's how you rattle off win streaks.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
Uh. Yeah, I'm hoping it continues. I hope this is
a again. I said it yesterday. I'm somewhat excited to
just see that young athletics talent because when the rat
Astros aren't playing them, they were a lot of fun
to watch last year, and when the Astros were playing them,
it was just awful because things were going poorly for
the Astros and things were going very well for the A's,

(10:25):
But you know, A's and Rockies aside, you get through
this stretch and you win the lion's share of those games.
It sets up just it feels Titanic. I know they're
going to you mean, before it splits in half. No,
not that kind of Titanic. I mean from a large standpoint. Okay,
there's no other way.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
To say it. It's Titanic. That's a Titanic. No Titanus.
I'm really really thirsty. I need sixty four ounces. Give
me that Titanic Cup over there and I'll fill it up.
Oh yeah, I'm on pump number four. Can you ring
me not?

Speaker 1 (10:56):
This is a Titanic situation. This team's sinking to the bottom.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
There are a few teams that, even this early in
the season are in a Titanic situation. Starts to one
of them. The White Sox have some things to build on,
but they are flirting with the worst run differential through
the first x number of games in a season this year. Again,
you did call it on the Angels, though, Well look
at them now. Like Jose Soriano's pitched twice in those games,

(11:22):
they've won one other game. Maybe I should give him
more credit than I was. He's he's probably like I
said before, also about the Angels, and every team, including
the Astros, may have an eye on that. There should
be Angels players available three months from now or earlier
as the trade deadline comes up, because they do have
some talent they obviously mash and I think they're ready
to just say, well, we need to get rid of

(11:43):
all anybody who makes any money that's a veteran and
build around some of our youthful talent. And there's plenty
of it again. Trotzon a category all bys on. I
do't don't expect teams to be getting any Well, is
Mike Tron available? Well, yes, if how much are you
willing to pay us? I mean, we like Mike Trout,
but I don't think we can trade for him unless

(12:03):
you're paying us to. So I don't think Mike Trout's
going anywhere, but other players probably so.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
He always gets injured. He'll get injured this year, I
hope not. You want to bet on it.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
I don't want to bet on a player's injured. I
will say that answer to every time it's brought up
in every sport.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Let's do what Matt and Ross always doing better, steak
dinner on whether or not this is always hurt.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
I wouldn't even bet a dinner of food. I hate
I'm not betting at all because you feel dirty. I
don't want. I mean, it's fantasy football. We watch these games.
Aaron Foster would know the Texans are trying to get
to the playoffs. All the Colts are doing this. I'd
kind of like to see Jonathan Taylor score, but don't
win the game. Like I'm not watching these games. Saying, well,

(12:43):
let's see what Mike Trout does. Is he gonna trip
over first, He's gonna run too hard, He's gonna run
into the wall.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
I don't want to watch games looking for that. All right,
we have a lot of stuff to get to today.
By the way, we're doing a little juggling with our schedule.
We're gonna have Channel of Rome on today because we're
gonna have Brian McTaggart on tomorrow. So Chandler Rome is
gonna come up at the top of the five o'clock
hour for baseball at five. We have not one, but
two very very famous athletes that are gonna go to rehab.

(13:13):
We're gonna need to discuss that. And one of Wex's
favorite whipping boys finds a new address. You're not gonna
believe where this athlete has landed. All of that athlete
and so much mine knew you would. You would not
fail me on that that mentioned. All right, So all
this and a whole lot more on a Thursday edition
of the program Team It's Sports Talk of seven to ninety.

(13:36):
So that was something last night inside Toyota Center.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
Well, the other team doesn't want to roll over and die.
You gotta beat them, and ultimately it took the Rockets
essentially forty eight minutes to make sure they did that.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Career highs from Pete Nance actually what WEX would call
him is Peter Nance Uzman.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Jang did Nance move up the rankings? Is he now
the second best Nance? That he passed Lar?

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Definitely? The only Nancy's trailing after last night is Jim
Hello friends. Oh and don't forget Kormack Ryan off the bench.
All these guys scored career highs. Pete had twenty three,
Uzman had thirty six.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
I mean, it is inevitable that players who don't play
a lot of minutes and you're gonna give him all
of the minutes, they're gonna get career highs. Now, you
don't have to see a thirty one field well attempt
night from any of them, but you did. That's what
Jang did. And he's one of the players who was,
I guess, kind of stuck in Oklahoma City and really
was never gonna be an opportunity for him there, so
moving on was outstanding for him. He missed all but

(14:40):
one of his seven three point attempts, and that was
basically the only thing he did wrong, thirty six points,
ten boards or seven boards, and ten assists, a twenty
rebound game for Jericho Simms repping the University of Texas.
AJ Green had a very bad shooting night, only making
five of his thirteen threes. He played forty seven minutes,
Nance played forty Dang played forty five, and you mentioned

(15:02):
Kormack Ryan, who I'm sure most NBA fans were unaware of.
He was out there for thirty eight minutes. Again, somebody's
got to take the shots when you're playing that many minutes.
He did. He made enough of them to put twenty
five points on the board. And it's players like that
that kept the Rockets from ever putting them away. They
built the lead to ten quickly, they built the lead
to twenty in the second half. It was almost immediately

(15:23):
erased when you have a ten to three point shot
made third quarter like they did. They made seventeen in
the game, and the Rockets had one three point shooter
cooking last night. I guess if you want to count Alpi,
since he's on a heater right now, you could but
nine three pointers a new career high for Reed Shepherd.
All of his field goal attempts were threes except for
one nine of fourteen. He hit half of the team's eighteen.

(15:45):
The rest of the team was just nine of twenty
eight from three point distance, which obviously isn't particularly good.
He made it look very good. Ah, the team shot
forty three percent from deep. They all wear the same uniform,
so that is accurate. One guy hit nine of fourteen.
All of the other guys combined went nine for twenty eight.
But he was the driving force offensively. He produced another

(16:06):
zero turnover game. Same for Schengoon, who scored twenty five
while not turning the ball over. And this is now
many consecutive games. I don't care. If it's one game,
we would be talking about it. Now it's been three
games where the Rockets have taken care of the basketball.
That game last night is a loss if the Rockets
don't take care of the basketball. Yeah, they've had a

(16:26):
lot of games that weren't that different from this. Oh
my god, this terrible team that we're playing. Well, they
just won't miss their threes, and they keep staying in
the game, and they're out hustling us, and they're doing
a great job on the boards. Well, the Rockets have
lost six of those games because they turned the ball over.
They did not turn the ball over in last night's game.
They had eight turnovers as three consecutive games with nine

(16:48):
or fewer, and I know the number next to the
Knicks says ten, but that's a total pile of When
I say the worst poop, that's a total pile of
poop because it's one of those games where the team
that's winning by a lot has the ball with more
than thirty seconds left in the game and they just
stand there and take a turnover. A ten percent of
the Rockets turnovers against the Knicks, we're intentional one of

(17:10):
the ten at the end of the game. So three
straight games where turnovers were I'm not going to say
they were a non issue because they were a big issue,
a big positive issue. The other team can't score all
these extra free, simple runout points because you're not turning
the ball over, and you don't have to shoot some
outrageous percentage to score because you get to take shots

(17:32):
on every single possession. The Rockets shot forty seven percent
last night, which is great, it's roughly their average for
the season, and stayed in front the entire game because
they didn't turn the ball over.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
Let me ask you this as it pertains to whatever
team they're playing, and this hurts the Rockets, whether they're
playing the best team in the NBA or whether they're
playing a Bucks team that finishes the game with seven active,
not healthy bodies. The part where they miss all these threes,
because last night was certainly one of these. I mean,

(18:03):
if your name Wasn't Reed Shepherd, you basically might have
hit one, maybe a couple, But they missed so many,
and yet still their percentage was respectable because he was
nine to fourteen. But one of the things, other than
the turnovers, that kills me about the Rockets this particular
season is how many cheap, free, easy, or sometimes not

(18:25):
even easy baskets the other team makes in transition. And
I'm not just talking about layups. Pull up threes, all
of them because they get the rebound off a three
point miss that the Rockets miss wide and inevitably tumbles
into an opposing player's hands, and the next thing, you know,
five seconds later, if that they've put in two or

(18:46):
three points.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, one thing's gonna happen. No matter what you do,
you're gonna miss threes. If you take a lot of threes,
you're gonna miss a lot of threes and it's gonna
create a lot of long rebounds. That's one thing that's
pretty much a lock if you're a you know, if
it's a night where it's a high frequency of threes,
it's not a high frequency teamage. They're still at the
bottom end of the league. But the other part of
it is that you can control usually when it's you
taking the shot, and oftentimes it's one other player, and

(19:09):
for the Rockets, it can be more than that. That's
sitting twenty one, twenty two to twenty three feet from
the basket. When that shot is taken, don't watch it.
Don't stand there and watch it. Oh maybe it'll bounce
out and I can go get it. Nope, it didn't.
I'll wait. There's somebody thirty feet behind me. They they
allow the runout. They know there's gonna be a long rebound.
It's fine to try to be in position maybe to

(19:29):
get it, but you can't just ignore the other players
on the other team that are just running back. They're
not worried about getting the rebound. They know one of
their four other teammates is gonna grab this long board
and they're gonna send it the other way, and they've
let that happen way too much. Not a huge issue
last night, It's been a huge issue in some of
their losses since the break. But taking care of the
basketball helps to alleviate the twenty five point fast break

(19:50):
point nights because teams are scoring on fast breaks off
of misses, So you really haven't done anything wrong unless
the misses are coming from somebody like Russell Westbrook and
Giannis or amen an Alprin. You know, the shot snow
going in when you have decided to pass it to them,
when you drive into the lane and you have the
possibility of a nice seven footer, maybe with a little defense,

(20:11):
and you choose to pass it out with three seconds
on the shot clock to somebody who's not a good
three point shooter, just because that's how the game is
played these days. It's a bad idea, and they've gotten
away from it more and more as they've played better
basketball and of won four straight.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Now, let's quickly get to the most uncomfortable part of
the conversation where we want them to finish. I'm telling
you right now, you don't want four or five because
if you get four or five you're matching up with
the Nuggets. I'm almost positive. And I don't know what's
gonna happen with the Timberwolves. I know they factor in
there somehow. But I'm telling you right now, you want

(20:48):
six because you want the Lakers because they just locked
up the three seed last night.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
I believe not.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
Yet, but it's like they're right there correct, like their
next win. I feel like they're entrenched in the third sea,
like the third seed is actual.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
The rocket It's magic number for six is one one.
Lakers magic number for three has not quite reached that
lower level.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
I thought it was for some reason. I thought I
had read somewhere where they're basically they are the third
seed for all intents and purposes.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
Because they're not gonna lose enough. But they only have
a game and a half lead. Yeah, six games to play.
The math is very well. They play the Thunder tonight. Yeah,
every team in the Western Conference in the top ten
plays tonight except for the Rockets, and there's eight teams
playing tonight that will impact what the standings are.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Seventy five combined free throws between two players. I guess
just say it. It's okay to say that you hate
the product. When it's like that, it's okay, I don't
hate should, then how about that you should?

Speaker 2 (21:43):
You can't make me say, you know, it's so awesome
about it last night. I'm looking forward to Best of
X because I want to know what in the third
segment of the show, you're gonna try to make me
do something I don't want to do. I'm not gonna
bet on injuries and segment one, and we're not gonna
say I don't like the product on the NBA side
in segment two. So in segment three, we do have
a couple of items for Best of X. I am
looking forward to as much as anybody else that's listening.

(22:04):
We try to give you good teases, good reasons to
stay with us here on the A team. You know
what we have on deck? Best of X coming up next. Hey,
it was April Fool's Day? Can everybody lighten up? Is
Zach gonna tempt me into saying no, no, no, you
can't make me say that. You can't make me do that? Well,
tune in next to find out the We love you

(22:26):
and you come through every single day, probably ten times
a day, fifty times a day more one hundred more
two hundred, no problem, that guy best of X right
here on Sports Talk seven to ninety each and every day,
half hour into the program opening hour of the show,
we trot out what we found entertaining outlandish and certainly

(22:47):
lean on the replies and comments quite often for it.
Yesterday we spent very little time on the air. We
had Astros Baseball for you, and then we have the
Astros tenth Inning Show, and then we have at an
hour of just me as ac maybe paid for yesterday. Yeah,
it was pretty pretty nice work. But yesterday was the
one day a year where you really have to pay

(23:09):
attention and everybody, especially on social media, is in on it.
It's the first day of the fourth month of the year.
It's the first of April. It's April Fool's Day. And
the amount of things that used to happen in workplaces,
at the house and a conversation they pale in comparison

(23:30):
to how April Fool's Day is now. Because of social media,
everybody's posting stuff that absolutely makes no sense. You know,
your local brewpub coming up with their zero percent alcohol
Whole Milk can't wait to have you come out there
and try it, and you read and read and read
and look at the pictures and I wait, I need

(23:50):
to take my time here and make sure this is
accurate and everything else that went on over the course
of things so appalling yesterday this morning, well, I was
telling you, I think I was telling you. It might
have been after you left that I was making you know.
I got a text from my chef friends around the Spurs, MAVs, Cowboys, Rangers,
Astros text threat and they said, man, these April Fool's

(24:13):
posts are getting to be too much already. And I
immediately responded with the post that said the Mavericks have
decided to move on from Jason Kidd, which obviously was
not true. But when you see where it came from,
which was a totally legitimate site, you have to check, well,
if they reported, if they report, and you really, certainly
for us, you don't want to come on the air
and start blurting something out. Luckily, a short show yesterday

(24:34):
probably helped us a little bit on that front. Now,
if you attended last night's NBA games, you probably should
have also been on alert a little bit, especially if
you were lucky enough to attend one particular game. I mean,
it's not every day you see a team with less
than twenty wins with less than ten games remaining in
the season. But you could have done that last night

(24:56):
if you were enjoying the work put out there by
the Washingington Wizards. The Wizards had one of their highest
scoring games of the season in front of their home fans.
They score one hundred and thirty one points. They only
lost by twenty two. They gave up one hundred and
fifty three points to the Joel Embad less Philadelphia seventy
six Ers. Nothing about that was an April Fool's joke.

(25:18):
That is Wizard's basketball in twenty five, twenty six and
quite honestly, these Sixers some nights have been incredible offensively,
but that has nothing to do with April Fool's day.
They were fans in attendance. Fans usually get to participate
in in game arena promotions, and that's what took place
last night in Washington with a fan who they brought
out to the court. I wanted to see if he

(25:39):
could make a shot from half court for ten thousand dollars.
There's catch. He was blindfolded, could not see where the
basket was at the point of the shot. Obviously he
has an idea of where he's standing, where he should go.
Little help, maybe point your body in this direction, whatever
the case may be. But then he gets to launch
the shot for ten thousand dollars. And here's what it

(26:02):
sounded like. This might be.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
History if you get this done for ten thousand dollars.
Oh my, somebody's rest. That's going crazy. The crowd is

(26:26):
going crazy. You didn't see it. We all saw it.
You want to see it, all right, take a look
at the screen for the replay. That was crazy, and
you see how it.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Just doesn't it doesn't actually go in.

Speaker 3 (26:44):
I'm not gonna lie, Sirry, I really, I really really.

Speaker 4 (26:47):
Hate April Fool's Day.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
I'm so sorry.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
We're gonna hook you up with autographed jersey support side
seats for next season.

Speaker 4 (26:56):
Can you make some noise for him? It was a
good sport.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
He was a good sport. Now. Video of that halftime
entertainment was posted on the X platform, and we can
read through the comments there. Initially, so he was blindfolded,
they pretended like the shot went in. They went crazy,
they celebrated, the mascots went crazy, the fans went crazy.
Everybody's in on it and then they say, uh, here,
take a look at it on the big boarding. You

(27:21):
make that shot, but you're getting an autographed cam went
more Jersey. They didn't specify who it was from, and
you're getting I mean, I guess, I mean it might
it might be a collector's item if it's Anthony Davis.
And then they gave him court side seats to an
upcoming game. That's nice torture, I guess. But a fan

(27:41):
is a fan, so you can still be a fan
for a team that stinks. So people weren't real happy
about this. You know how things are. This is not diabolical,
this is cold, this is wrong. How could you do this?
Only the Wizards would do this? Things like that, right, Like,
the responses to this weren't what I thought were typical

(28:04):
of April Fool's Day, Like it's a harmless little joke.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
Well, before we get to the responses, I will just
say that my first initial thought when I saw this
story was, well, it had to be a plant.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Like remember when the Rockets several.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Years ago had a woman who was proposed to and
she said no to the guy and then she ran out.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
That was all that was.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
It wasn't real. I don't know if you I know
the girl who I can't even get into that. So anyways,
I was like, that has to be this, except it's not.
And the reason I know that is because not only
are the responses that we're about to read about something
that was indeed real, They're not going to issue a
statement of apology if it's fake.

Speaker 2 (28:48):
Yeah, Craig said, it's a double April fools because I
guarantee the guy was in on it. My favorite response
it says, only proper reaction to that, And it's a
gift from a movie, a basketball movie featuring former NBA
great Marcus Johnson. He was a someone who played against

(29:09):
Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes. I believe I was about
white men. Yeah, and the gift says, I'm gonna go
to my car and get my other gun and shoot everybody.
So it was pretty pretty good response to that.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
This is an insane thing to do to someone who
willingly attended a wizard's.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Gaus, Like, didn't you torture him enough, he's already in
the building. We get it, but magally get controlled by
the worst team in the league. You alluded to it
at earlier today, around eleven am at Wash Wizards, the
account for the Washington Wizards basketball outfit with their one
point one million followers hashtag for the district, They said

(29:45):
the following, we apologize for last night's April Fools joke
that left many wondering if we had misled a fan.
The skit involving our mascot and other members of our
performance team was scripted and intended to celebrate the day.
All participants were in on the joke, but we missed mark.
Our fans are our priority, and we continue to be
committed to providing a positive experience to all who attend

(30:07):
our games. Did they miss the mark or did they
feel it necessary to apologize because they got a less
than positive response on social media.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
You gotta admit the Wizards have really made a profession
of stepping in it this season. Specifically, this is the
team single handedly responsible for Kobe Bryant's second highest ever
scoring game being obliterated by bam at a Bio.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
They're the reason that happened. You know that, right.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
He doesn't get that against any other team in the
NBA except for the crap Wizards.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
He doesn't have thirty one points in the first quarter
against anybody else, and that's what kind of laid the
foundation for all of this once they started the heat
talking about them. We's got thirty one, he's got fifty.
Well he's got sixty. I mean, we might as well
go for it. So they did. It's unreal thumbs up
or thumbs down. Necessary, unnecessary the apology, Yeah, if it

(31:02):
was real, it absolutely is necessary because you ruin someone's life.
Not really, but you know what I mean. So then
my second question is do you think they lied in
the apology?

Speaker 5 (31:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:13):
Yeah, I mean they got nothing to lose. Now, are
you saying they lied about the apology? And they because
the ones we're in on the joke, So that includes
the blindfolded quote unquote fan who missed the shots. So
therefore they're lying. So you think he was not in
on it and then they proclaimed he was in on
it to make it look less bad.

Speaker 1 (31:35):
No, I think the part where they're lying that I'm
saying is the apology itself. Yeah, they're not sorry because
he is.

Speaker 2 (31:40):
In on it. It's probably unnecessary. Again, it's April fools.
I'm not saying anything goes That's definitely not what I'm saying.
It can be taken too far, but more often than not,
you're just getting taken and you just need to laugh
it off. But again, if we're gonna be honest, here,
keep it a book. Whatever.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
This is the most we've talked about the Washington Wizards
since well the Bam Out of Bio night, and that
was for all the wrong reasons.

Speaker 2 (32:05):
So yeah, we don't have a segment called best of
the Best of Basketball or best of the NBA, because
then we would never talk about the Wizards. This is
just best at Theirs. They can find a home there
and so they did today. Plenty of other things on
the board, a few other items that obviously could have
fit in here, But back to what it is that
the Astros can look forward to in this upcoming series,

(32:26):
this upcoming road trip because of what took place, something
very specific that took place during the seven game homestand
we had on that next here on the A Team,
there could be a bunch of things as we get
rolling again here on the A Team, X and AC
here with you that you could be smiling and happy
about the first seven games of the Houston Astros season.

(32:47):
You were out at the ballpark for one to seven games,
that's probably something to be happy and smiling about. You
saw us on opening Day, well I can guarantee a
lot of people were smiling about that, those who took
pictures with us, those who said you like and Ross
more than us, those who said you were obsessed with
the A team. Belinda, we remember and we appreciate that.

(33:07):
But like I said, a lot of good things, a
lot of reasons to be happy about where things are.
You have a bunch of five and two seven game
segments during your Major League baseball season, well then you're
gonna enjoy the postseason. I think a whole heck of
a lot. All five of those wins coming in succession
as the homestand came to a close, taking the last
two from the Angels, and then each of the three
against the Red Sox, all of it with outstanding offense.

(33:30):
You score six runs a game or more, you're gonna
win a lot of baseball games, maybe all of them.
The Astros have scored six or more runs in a
game on five different occasions this year. They're five to
zero in those games. I don't know if it'll stay
that way the whole year. Where you're undefeated, but you're
gonna have like two three losses tops if that happens
to be the case. Pitching, like I mentioned in the

(33:52):
opening segment, to have allowed only seven runs total in
the last three games, only needed one reliever in two
of those three wins, and Weiss with a couple of innings,
Coldy Bolton with three innings, and yesterday four different relievers
with one sharp inning of Peats. Certainly, in terms of efficiency,
I'm sure Tang would have liked to keep the will
You're a Brall ball in the yard, and I'm sure

(34:12):
Bray you Brian would have liked to kept the Roman
Anthony ball in the yard. But they were never in
any trouble while pitching with the lead. A three run
lead for a bra who became two, a four run
lead for Tang became three, and they just never let
anything fester from it, so they were able to roll
on out of town and out to West Sacramento with
a five game win streak. Individual superlatives all the way
around on the offense again, player for player, I could

(34:33):
probably tell you something that you should be happy about
and why you should think about good things. On this
ten game road trip goes to West Sacramento, to play
the Athletics, then you're in Denver to play Colorado, and
then you have Seattle and the Mariners. But something beyond
the statistics I think was of great importance and still

(34:53):
a good thing, even though it could have been a
bad thing that happened to the Astros while they wrapped
up their consecutive win.

Speaker 6 (35:01):
Here's the one to zero inside in that head him
and Alvarez flings the back down, looks out at Proche
and now bends over and takes off as many shit
guard assists in. Athletic trainer Raphael Fredis, along with Joe
Espada out to check on Jordan, second Astro who's been
hit Eastsik Paratus was hit on his elbow guard by
Prochet in the third.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
He was hit more than once over the course of
this early portion of the season. He was pitched inside repeatedly,
and I always wonder about the purpose of it if
you're pitching inside, because then you want to work the
outside corner and you believe that they won't now feel
comfortable enough to reach it. And that's literally what he
did in an earlier at bat, and he pitched him

(35:43):
hard inside with a fastball. You know you do have
to jump back out of the way. The very next
pitch caught the corner of the outside of the plate
to Alvarez, and he swung and missed. You're not trying
to get them to move off the plate. That literally
doesn't happen. Major League baseball players don't spend all this
time working on their stance, technique, on how to bat,
all the tweaks to their swing that they're gonna have

(36:03):
all throughout the year, only to see a guy pitch
inside and say, well, I'm not standing that close to
the plate. Forget that he pitches too hard and throws inside.
He wins, I'm moving. It's always described as they want
to get him off the plate, but don't take it literally.
What they want to do is they want to get
them out of their comfort zone, and they want to
get them from the ability to reach some of those
pitches that are on the other side of the plate.

(36:25):
But in this instance, and that he was not hurt,
and I do expect him in the lineup tomorrow and
every day moving forward until something else happens. If anything happens,
it quite clearly ticked him off. And you do not
need one of your pitchers to intentionally hit one of
their hitters just because it happened to galvanize the team.

(36:46):
I think it galvanized the team. I don't know that
they needed it. I love the way they're playing without it,
but I certainly think the rest of his twenty five
teammates and everybody else involved with this team was well.
They weren't quite as hurt because they didn't take the
pitch the fat ball off their side like he did,
but they were just as ticked off because it also
the added element of you're not just throwing inside to

(37:08):
move him off the plate. You're throwing inside and you're
hitting him. Presumably, It's hard not to think this way
because you can't get him out. It's a Roger Clemens move.
He couldn't get Mike Piazza out so he threw at him.
That's ridiculous stuff. And Garrett Crochet is too good for that.
But he couldn't get him out either. Nobody could get

(37:28):
him out. So how can you not look at it like, yeah,
so here's their alternative, they hit him, can you?

Speaker 1 (37:34):
I mean, look, if usually said Garrett Crochet's too good,
he is he knows where the ball is going, well,
he is too good to be doing this, except for
when he plays the Astros. Yeah, they've had his number.
It's crazy here in Houston and elsewhere. He's one of
the few teams that he has had a lot of
trouble with. And now after another outing like that, you
can say it, but he was repeatedly throwing inside without

(37:57):
hitting him and this one just went further inside. And
again trying to say it was intentional, because at this
point in the season, could that make any less sense.
I know they only see each other three more times,
but my gosh, during the aj Hinch years where they
got in all these issues with the Rangers and you know,

(38:17):
Jeff Banister's team at the time, and how many bench
clearing incidents there were.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
And I'm not talking about the era where Brian Abreu
hit Adolas Garcia in the postseason. I'm talking about before that,
when it's in the regular season and you've got different
so clearly both sides were in on it. And when
you're the good team, you got it. You can't do it.
The Astros are the good team. Red Soars are not
the good team. The Astros are the good team. Getting
in a beanball, you hit our guy, we hit your guys,

(38:43):
stuff can't have it, And I'm glad the Astros didn't
engage in that in this game.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Well, I know how much that iires you. But here's
the thing. The quotes through a translator, of course, are
like sensational. Obviously I can't be happy in that situation.
A hit by pitch is something that can hurt my
career and finish my career. Only Crochet knows if it
was intentional or not. But obviously in that situation, I
can't be happy with it. And if you wondered, just

(39:07):
go back and look. Just go back and watch him
take his gear off and stare down Garrett Crochet. Ifire Crochet,
I would have crapped my pants right there on the mound.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
So he ended up serving up a three year on
home or career two batters later. So it all worked out.
Carey had his back. Yes, he did an important thing.
We'll find out as they move forward in the season.
We'll kick off our number two simulcast will begin reset
what we have for you over the final three hours
of the program, or reminder, we'll have a visit from
chandleron coming up at five o'clock here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety Talk seven ninety
Space City Home Network. If you're nasty, By the way,
did somebody tell you to start saying sc HN?

Speaker 2 (39:53):
I thought I probably did not, But is that herbage?
I hear mentioned that to you, that that would be okay,
that's fine. I just didn't get Did you get the memo?
I don't think I didn't get a memo, but I
had asked about it, and because I thought that was
the case, and it is the case right here on SHN.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Okay, good deal, got it fine, moving forward, That's how
we go. But speaking of which, very very busy the
last couple of days as CHN broadcasting Rockets and Astros victories,
the Rockets getting.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
The win over like us.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
Yeah, well yeah, but that we're we're always going to
be doing that. Absolutely. No, here's the deal. Rockets got
to win last night. That I guess you can feel
good about.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
I mean, of course you could feel good about it.
It's better than all. Did they backslide the way that
they're playing basketball? No, they should blow them out. That's
probably fair. They never lost the lead. They mean, I
know you they were blowing them out, yes, but when
you know it was definitely one of those that sat
in the opening segment. As long as they take care
of the basketball against bad teams, they're going to beat them.
You know, Milwaukee needed to shoot lights out in the

(41:02):
third quarter or also it would have been a twenty
point game going to the fourth quarter. I imagine the
Rockets would have been able to hang on to that.
I can't say the Bucks would have turned to their reserves,
because that's who was already out there to begin with.
You'd like to avoid that. And one thing that I
will say that is of small concern is they do
have this idea. It seems like over the last couple
of weeks that, well, this team's not going to shoot

(41:23):
lights out, so we're gonna take the other stuff away
and we're gonna give them good looks. Well, they're in
the NBA, and some nights when you give these teams
those good looks, they knock them down. The Bulls obviously
did it, and the Bucks did it for long stretches
of the games last night. Honestly, if AJ Green made
more than five of his thirteen, it's not a miserable percentage.
But he's one of the best three point shooters in
the league. And most of his looks were open. He

(41:44):
makes eight of thirteen and on open shots on some
nights I think he would. Well, that does change the
complexion of the game. It really didn't impact it too much.
You clearly had to play everybody though all the way
to the end. A bad back. Alprinshengoon was out there
on the court throughout. You visited with him after the
game court side. Uh, won't we replaying that? But it

(42:05):
would have been nice going bro. It would be nice
if you did what you did to the Pelicans. You
had a twenty point lead the whole night. They never
got back it. It would be nice if you did. And
they just did that now twice in their last four wins,
because they did it two nights ago or one night
ago against the next. A bunch of g leaguers wanted
to be heroes last night for the Bucks. And that's

(42:25):
what you're That's the only thing you're facing every time
you play a team like that, and that's who's coming
to town tomorrow. Utah is there's just no Lori marketing,
there's no George, there's no Sharon Jackson. It's a bunch
of other players that want to be a part of
somebody's future, whether it's Utah's or elsewhere, whether it's Bryce
Sensibaw dropping in eight threes, or their rookie who's not

(42:46):
going to be Rookie of the Year, Ace Bailey getting
thirty five thirty eight minutes a night now which he
wasn't getting earlier in the year. There's some again these teams,
there's something to benefit from if they have players they
would like to give more court time to and show improvement,
so then they can work on this and all of
a sudden in year two or three or whatever it
is for them, they're a better player for it. There's
value in being on the court. But the Rockets have

(43:07):
the advantage every which way you want. The only way
the other team, who has lesser talent takes it from
you is if you let them. You let them out
work you, You let them get way too open looks
wherever that's from interior or beyond the three point line.
So you like to think that they can do at
least what they did last night, which is take the lead,
hold the lead and win a game. Would also equal
their largest winning streak of the season of five, which

(43:29):
they've done on a couple of occasions would love to
see that kind of basketball take them to the finish line.
They'll only have five games remaining in the season after
tomorrow Night's game.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
That's wild to think about, but it's April seconds, so
that goes with the territory. And the unfortunate part about
that is, even though you got the win, no matter
what you think of it or how it came about
or whatever, the teams ahead of you just don't lose.
And a lot of it's because they are also playing
crappy competition. Denver just annihilated tomorrow Night's opponent, the Utah Jazz.

(44:02):
You just got done mentioning san Antonio keeps beating up
on bad teams and inflating their star player's head to
the point where he keeps doubling and tripling down.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I need to be the MVP. It's not like he
wears shirts or holds up side. He basically should be. Well,
if you you can go about it the way SGA does,
if you'd like when he was an assassin, Well, he
was asked very, very specifically. I think it was Tim
McMahon the other night who pointed out how others are
campaigning for it with giving answers when they're asked. Well,

(44:33):
he was asked the very same question, what would you
say about it? You know, I'll let my play do
the talking. And he said, well, you have an opportunity here.
Do you want to say anything? He's like, no, I
don't see. That's why Victor Webbin Yama has taken a
different path. He laid out his case for it. He's
continued to play at that level. He's being rewarded for it.
He was named the Defensive Player of the Month in

(44:54):
the Western Conference. I didn't bring it up because Victor
Webbin Yama was named the Defensive play of the Month
in the Western Conference. There's two other reasons why I
bring that up. Asar Thompson wins it in the Eastern Conference,
so that will be fun to follow with the men
saying now not having this on his brother. They like
to joke with who did what first, and who's getting

(45:15):
applauded for this, that and the other. So that'll be
something to hang on to. But the real reason I
bring it up the other nominees per the NBA for
Defensive Player of the Month in the Western Conference. This
is gonna make me mad, isn't it. I doubt it.
You'll like the list of these five players, Chet Holmgren,
Donovan Klingen, Chris Dunn, Rudy Gobert and Luka Doncic.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Why did you just lie to me on live radio
and television? It's gonna make you mad?

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Are you? And Luka Doncic come on, manh yeah right?
Talk about the NBA trying to push thish. There's gifts
of uh Luca, now this is April second, stop it,
so you're not You're lying right now? Where is this?
The media shouldn't get to vote on MVP anymore. They've
spent the last month smearing Luca and trying to convince

(46:07):
everyone he's basically stationary on defense. Who besides then he
gets nominated for Defensive Player of the Month.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
I'm gonna have an aneurism on live radio. Who besides
Ramona Shelburne and Dave mcminnimon. I'm married to Malika Andrews
cast a vote for Luka Doncic.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
But I'm told by Windhorse that Luca doesn't play defense.
There's a lot of posts following this NBA post that
have the word cone in it, citing his defensive abilities.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
No, a cone is a stationary object like Alpera and Shingoon.

Speaker 2 (46:36):
At times, he was not.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
What Luca does is not even attempt to play it
because he's so busy whining about not getting a foul
call on the offensive end all the way up the floor.
Either scenario never lends itself to him being even laughably
considered late in win for so oh you think so doctor,
he didn't win?

Speaker 2 (46:57):
I mean, oh, I can't. This is why listen.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
I'm the I'm one of the biggest NBA fans there is,
But I'm just gonna say it, and I don't care
who it offends because it's true. And you can either
take the truth or you can keep putting your head
in the sand. The NBA is doing about fifty bleeping
things right now to even take the most casual fan
and say double Rods get out of here, we don't
want you.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
And then they're like, what happened to our viewers?

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Like come on, dude, is down the list.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Like it's unbelievable dumb stuff they do. Did not win?

Speaker 7 (47:31):
I know he didn't wis just like he's just like
just like like the collective, I wouldn't employ these people,
these people that are putting these votes forth, I wouldn't
employ them.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
In the Western Conference for the months of March, if
you'll allow, because we had to dig deep, deep, deep,
way down, way way down into the stats to to
figure out how, how is this possible? How can this
player be on this list? How did he get nominated?
How did he get support for this? And if you
look at what they right up for the defensive Player

(48:07):
of the month, it really notes why they're there and
under a SAR just for instance, led NBA and steals
for the month, led the NBA in deflections per game,
and his team was fourth in defensive ratings. So those
are some of the numbers you can look at and
kind of base things on. Well, Luca was fifth in
the NBA, right ahead of Chris Dunn, fifth in the

(48:29):
West excuse me this month, or excuse me third this
month in deflections, right ahead of Chris Donn. So by
that metric, by the same metric they used with Asor Thompson,
he's a good defensive player. In the month of March
in twenty twenty six, you know what was right behind
the two of them in deflections. Another elite defensive player.

(48:52):
He starts at point guard for the rockets. Reed Sheppard
three point six deflections this month, fourth in the NBA
in the Western Conference.

Speaker 1 (49:00):
So many times I just want to take Michael Scott's
audio why are you the way that you are?

Speaker 2 (49:06):
To say, why are you the way that you are?

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Every time I want to do something fun, you make
it not that way.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
If you if you focus your energy on me, but
stick with the same office space mantra. Would you just
pretend that I had returned to the annex? Yeah, and
then what would you say? Well, wait a second, no, no,
he's he doesn't Michael doesn't know that he's back. Now,
why don't you just trot on down to for yourself space?
So I was sorry, the office my bad. You threw

(49:34):
me off. And you would come down here into our
studio and you would look and see me sitting here
ready for our show today. We would say, screaming notes
you would do that, I'm not going to do it.
How to set my whole thing up? When I saw
his name, I was equally equally alarmed. I knew that
some of those other outside advanced numbers that do dictate
some things that you want to say, well, this must
have been well, there must have been good defense. They

(49:55):
must have done this, I'm sure the Lakers, because they
want almost every single night this month, their defensive rating
would match up with Well, here's how we can show
what a great month of defense Luca helped his team play.
Look at how many deflections he had. Look at their
defensive rating. He's a part of it. He's playing all
these minutes. Yeah well, Lakers defensive rating for the season

(50:17):
is twentieth. I know it better be a lot better
in March. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Well, and it better be a lot better anytime since
you'll start playing real teams.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
And you have to know.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
Two of those teams they beat during the stretch were
the stupid Rockets because they yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
We're losing to him in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
So are the Pistons who they lost to all the
other teams they beat. I mean, if you want to
give them the Nuggets victory by two, I'll give you that.
If you want to give or without three already now,
over the Bulls, over the over the Nets, over the Wizards,
give me a break, like, come on, that's that doesn't
impress me.

Speaker 2 (50:52):
I know, but you're you're acting like they're not. They're
clearly by record. By every day you can look at it.
They have played regular season. They are the third best
team in the West. That's very rare. Yes, that doesn't
mean they're gonna win any series.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Like Luka Dancic getting defensive anything votes is so appalling.
I want to walk off the roof right now. It's
just nominated nominations. Whatever, votes, nominations, conversations we're having.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
I need to player in the classroom and you're in
middle school and they say we were taking nominations for
class president. Anybody can be nominated.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
They also beat the Warriors, Kings, and Pelicans, by the way,
during that stretch.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
On all of those murderers row schedule there for the Lakers,
all right, instead of talking about a third place team,
and Luca, let's talk about a first place team. Your astros,
what's on the other side of things for you? Your
concerns moving into this ten game road trip are concerns.
Also next.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
I got a text message during that last segment, and
this person shall remain anonymous. It's for the best good
in all caps. I'm gonna read aloud any rights your
casey uh do not and I repeat, do not give
NBA media any airtime.

Speaker 2 (52:13):
They do not deserve it. I can't say that. I
disagree you can't.

Speaker 1 (52:18):
So we're NBA broadcasters, Yeah, okay, we're not media members.
Like I don't have a vote for awards, do you?

Speaker 2 (52:24):
I do not during this voting cycle, nor any of
the previous ones. Thank you. Sounds like you want one. No,
NBA broadcasters like ourselves often are offered that opportunity.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
I'll tell you right now if I if I had
a vote, this is me not wex, not even keel
very you know, mild mannered.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
Uh, thoughtful?

Speaker 6 (52:50):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (52:51):
What are the others? Put this on a card?

Speaker 1 (52:52):
I am the guy who comes in here, guns a
blaze in both barrels, knee jerk, emotional, whatever you want
to call it. Because I'm a fan with the show.
I've said this for a long time. I'm not a journalist,
nor do I want to be where Jerseys to work.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, and hey, I were mocking the fact that people
can see look at what we look like today, A
very underrated version.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
By the way, I think that if I and I'm
I'm keeping this to NBA since.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
That we're time, you're keeping it real. I hear you.
I'm not talking about the NFL or any other entity.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
I think if I were given a vote on postseason awards, well,
regular season awards given away during the postseason, I would
be able to do it very objectively, even to some
people that are on my hate list.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
It's okay to appreciate great like well, think about what
your All NBA first team ballot would look like. You
would only have to think about who to vote for.
One way, who do I hate? I'll give them my vote.
Luca's on the first team, Victor's on the first team,
SGA is on the first team. You only got two
slots left. Who'd you say? Luca, SGA and Victor if

(54:03):
they reached the sixty five games played threshold, which is
something of a little bit of contentions Ad would be
on that list. By the way, So it was actually
a discussion last night a little bit on I know,
on the TV side, I don't think you guys got
it just because he's a rocket. On the radio side,
I think first team All NBA is not out of
the question, but a little bit difficult to envision. You'd

(54:25):
give what Anthony Edwards that well, so he'd be in
a group. Let's put Nicola Jokic is the fourth member
of the first team. Okay, so now there's just one spotleet.
That's true. That's true. So now you're you're trying to
figure out which of these other players deserves that not
and positions don't matter in this It's not like a
completely irrelevant, absolutely the case You've got. Jalen Brown, I

(54:45):
think would draw some consideration for how the Celtics have
played most of the year without obviously his teammate Jason
Tatum Kate Cunningham. Kate Cunningham is another. If there's no
threshold issue, then I don't know how you could This
is an MVY and I love the word for what
it means and how I'm supposed to how I would
like to utilize that word. So he would be there,

(55:06):
and I think I could say right now, I'd be
there ahead of Kevin for me, that cunning that would
eliminate him for making first team right then. In this
rocket hater I'm working with, Anthony Edwards would be another
to consider. I wouldn't necessarily have him above Kevin. It's
it's hard to look at Kevin in any other way
without being blinded by how is he doing this? Well?
You should look at what Kevin Durant is doing, not

(55:27):
just on a nightly basis, but his whole season's worth
of work, and that he's been out. Like you notice,
we haven't really mentioned anything about Kevin's sixty five game threshold.
You don't need to because he's missed what three He's
missed two games for personal reasons and then for one
other game what was it four? Again? He heard his
ankle laid in one game and then missed the ensuing game.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
I don't even want to say it because I don't
want to put it out into the universe for next
season when Fred's back healthy along with Steven Adams, I need.
That's what sucks so much about this season is that
you did get that from Kevin Durant. And it's just,
I mean, I don't know what you think they're going
to do in the postseason. Maybe matchups dictate that they
get hot. They are playing their best basketball the year
at the right time, but I just think, I don't know.

(56:09):
I kept just he's so efficient too, That's the thing
I think. And that's what I don't think voters they
might take that into account. I don't know who the
voters are.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
Again, that might be for something like we're trying to
this is all NBA, so you can use whatever criteria
you'd like. MVP vote might be a little different. I
do think his value on this team can't be understated,
even without saying, well, he averages this number of a
Do you watch the Rockets play, watch the bench last night? Yeah,
you got to watch how teams play in order to

(56:37):
have an MVP vote because I want to know, well,
what does he do for his teammates without only relying
on assists to give me that answer. Oh, he's on
the court, Well, that means his teammates get to play
four on three all the time.

Speaker 1 (56:49):
And by the way, this is not to take a
shot at her personally, but she's the one that said it,
so I'm going to.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
Take a shot at her years and years ago. It
doesn't matter this person and still gets a vote.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
When when Ramona showed like the rock just then, it
doesn't matter what she thinks. When Ramona showed a great
anniversary yesterday, documentary last night was awesome. When she comes
on an ESPN which is in bed with the NBA
Network show and says, yeah, I vote on narratives.

Speaker 2 (57:20):
I make my vote based on it doesn't even I can't.
I don't think I ever asked you to produce that audio,
and I can't even believe it was uttered. It's so appalling.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
Like of all the things that people have said that
are dumb, and there's a lot like you're if.

Speaker 2 (57:34):
You vote on narratives this year, then we would look
like idiots for the last eight minutes because Kevin Durant
would get no votes for any all NBA team if
they're voting on narratives, Well, it's the narrative he ruins
basketball teams. Ok. The vibes are not immaculate, Like the
body language doctor called, and you need to come in
for a visit.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
I just but here's the other thing. The guy who's
the front runner right now, go ahead say it.

Speaker 2 (57:59):
Who is it? Uh? Shake Gilgers Alexander he's a free
throw merchant.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
The guy is and I mean every I think every
team at some point this season's head coach or their players. Again,
all thirty NBA teams, someone in all of those cities
represented well twenty nine have complained that this guy is
not only often he's he's assaulting the opposition. And that's
when they're not, you know, complaining about his teammate loudor

(58:26):
but he's not in this conversation, Like how what would
happen if you took? And people used to say this
with James Harden all the time. So I don't care
if people are offended by this, nor do I care
if they're offended by anything else I say, But how
affected would he be? Effective would he be if you
took I don't know half his free throw attempts away,
Like he gets to the line by fouling the opposing

(58:49):
defender fifty sixty percent of the time that he goes
to the foul line. I'm not even making that up
for effect. If you were to break it down, like
if you were to take every every single offensive play
where SGA went to the foul line, A lot of work.
It's a lot of work, but you know what, somebody
do it with all the bangs on the trash cans,
so I know it's possible. Come on, Tony, get in there, Tony,

(59:11):
get in there in the muck and do this for me.
How many do you think would be legitimate or they
wouldn't go back? I mean, just take the last two minute,
uh of every single game?

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Take that report.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
How many of those probably say I n C next
to it for incorrect call. This guy's a bum.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Say CC or CNC, like it's so funny when he
actually call for correct no call. He got called for
it the other night and he was just exasperating. We
didn't talk about it, but we will here briefly, very
important stuff here on the A team. The look on
his face when they made that call, I really don't
think it displayed. I can't believe they called that foul
on me. I think it was more like, I can't

(59:50):
believe after doing it all these times, if they decided
to hear to call it, how's that any different. I
don't know how to deal with this because I know
I fouled him. Everybody in the building knows I fouled him.
The defender who got fouled, nos, I fouled him. But
you've never you've never called this for I know it's
a foul. Yeah, I've been called the way And I

(01:00:11):
wish it was one camera for sure, because if you
were watching the broadcast, you could see one of his
teammates in the same shot, Cason Wallace, and he had
the same look on his face. And then the social
media post that was posted about. I can't guarantee that
it was you know, timed up to where this was
definitely coach Daniels actual reaction to it. But you see

(01:00:31):
him on the sideline. He looks up at the board
and he's just shaking his head like you can't you
can't let him get away with this all season long,
and then in crunch time here against the Pistons, all
of a sudden call it correctly.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
By the way, that's not fair since we're on the
Okac has this many things about them that are unlikable.
Train trying to hold off the Spurs. Their head coach
is so unlikable.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Uh, he made himself more unlikable to the Nuggets with
the dort Jokic nonsense. And I think everybody around the
league was They felt the same way. They thought they
looked bad for how they reacted to it, and that
was that's all on him. He went to the pody
long after it happened and just maintained the same ridiculous position.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
I think there's one likable guy on that entire roster,
and his name is Jalen Williams, and not the other one.

Speaker 2 (01:01:18):
The good one, Okay, the one who's barely played this
like I will selfishly, I'll admit like I would love
Alex Caruso on the Rockets. He's just that's the kind
of guy you He's that Patrick Beverly, lot of friends
here in Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
If he wants to come on back home to Texas,
he went to an m If he ever wants to
come to the Rockets, I'm all for that. But yeah,
they I never thought we'd be here, but it is
just I can't. I can't do this, man, I can't
do this for the next decade. And Sam Presty, oh
like him either.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
That's fine with me. It's probably fine with him. Yeah,
interesting scenarios all play out. I mentioned this earlier for
those that do like to scoreboard watch. There's ten teams
going to the playing or playoffs from the Western Confers,
and of those ten teams, all but Houston and Denver
are on the court tonight. There's only six games in
the NBA and one of those ten teams are eight

(01:02:09):
other teams. They're playing in one of those games, and
the Lakers and Thunder are playing each other. Phoenix is
on the court tonight. Rockets magic number to clinch top
six is also one, so Phoenix loss on the road
to Charlotte, which is likely would do it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
It's if defensive stalwart Luka Doncic plays to his capabilities,
They've got a chance against the Thunder.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Yeah. As promoted by me in my quote post of
the league's post, Oh the Thunder. Top two scores in
the league are playing tonight, Thunder and Lakers. I quote
posted that for those that hadn't seen it. In c seed,
Adam and the A team Western Conference Defensive Player of
the Month nominee takes on the Thunder here on the
eight team, turning enough coffee in the world For what's

(01:02:54):
going on in my world right now?

Speaker 4 (01:02:56):
I'm good Yep, as usual.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
Nothing brothers, Max I did say that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Actually, I bet this will bother you. Kirk Cousins is
still employed.

Speaker 2 (01:03:07):
This has a lot of the Christian Vasquez angle to it,
the money making exploits of what will soon be the
highest grossing NFL player of all time, Kirk Cousins. Because
of today the money he is now going to be
guaranteed by Tom Brady's team, The Raiders will edge him

(01:03:31):
past Tom Brady in career earnings. Got another guaranteed deal.
Are they're going to give him ten million, they're going
or they're going to give him one point three million.
The Atlanta Falcons are going to give him another ten
to not play there, And he is now a Raider,
and he keeps finding his way into very lucrative deals
despite not accomplishing a whole lot as an NFL quarterback

(01:03:52):
on the field, but accomplishing stuff that nobody else ever
has monetarily. It's incredible. And I was never met at
Derek Carr. He's never mad at Christian Vasquez, and I'm
equally not mad at Kirk Cousins because they haven't played
like Vasquez is almost different because he's a Houston player.
He just played for the team we're talking about and

(01:04:12):
covering and going to games in the postseason to work at.
Cousins doesn't play here and he never has. Derek Carr
doesn't play here and he never has, so it has
almost almost no impact on the Texans. Derek Carr even
has another trump card of not mattering in a negative
way to me because he also got hurt before the
Raiders only playoff game with a good team they've had

(01:04:33):
in the last ten years. What kind of card that
trump card? So the Texans got to play Derek Carr's
team in the postseason while he was watching Connor Cook
take his place. I remember not mad at Kirk Cousins.
I'm mad at the GMS, and now how many of
them are there. It's just why do you insist?

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
Now?

Speaker 2 (01:04:53):
The Raiders are a little bit different. They're not gonna win.
They're not employing Kirk Cousins to win. That's new. Kirk
Cousins has gotten all these contracts every single time from
a team that thinks they can win when they sign him.
We're gonna win because Kirk Cousins is our quarterback after all.
Like the first team that did it, the Redskins at
the time, who drafted him. They must have thought that.

(01:05:16):
And then when he became their starter and they franchise
tagged him and they kept him around and they kept
him as their starter after they've seen the team not
do anything in the postseason ever with him. It took
him forever to move on. And the same thing happens
with each new GM that keeps offering him a deal.
It's a little bit different. Like I said, he knows
he's the backup. It's just a matter of when. And

(01:05:37):
this was their best case scenario for not being forced
to play number one overall pick Fernando MENDOZI just had
his pro day this week. He's gonna have a visit
with a couple of teams, but most notably, he's gonna
have it with the Raiders. It's good for other teams
to sit down and meet with players they know they're
not gonna draft, just because you get intel you otherwise
would not have gotten if there's something way down the road,
who knows. I mean Sam Darnold, for instance. There are

(01:05:58):
a bunch of teams I'm sure he interviewed with pre
draft that knew he was gonna be off the board
long before they drafted him. He might have played for
them by now. With all the teams, he's ended up
being on Baker Mayfield. Same thing. You never know how
it's gonna play out for Fernando Mendez is being drafted
by the Raiders on April twenty thirties and the number
one overall pick, and he will be their quarterback of
the future. But they signed Kirk Cousins to so he

(01:06:19):
doesn't have to be the quarterback of the present. And
I don't even like that either, I think, and I've
said it many times, especially them, there's nothing wrong with
our offensive line to the point that you can't have
him out there. I didn't even think there was anything
wrong with the offensive line here to the point I
don't want this player on the field. When the Texans
were an infant franchise, you don't get better as quickly

(01:06:40):
or maybe even at all, by watching somebody else run
what should be your football team, even with a know
nothing to gain, no wins and losses. Whyse Fernando Mendoza
starts this year for the Raiders, They're gonna be bad.
I think the same thing's gonna be true if Kirk
is there. But we watched it with Trevor Lawrence. He
was on the field all year, and what happened? They
got the number one the next year. It happened with

(01:07:01):
the Bears when Justin Fields was on the field in
the year one. I mean, they both have very different
paths to where they are in their careers, and it
has nothing to do with the fact that they were
on the field or off the field year one. I
guarantee you somebody right now is listening and thinking, what
about Pat Mahomes. He sat out almost the entire first year.
He played in the last game of the season, and

(01:07:23):
now look at him. He's the best quarterback in the
NFL or the career who you'd most like to have
in your quarterback. But you're gonna tell me you think
it's because he watched Alex Smith play. You think if
he was on that team on the field, that playoff
caliber team that Alex Smith was sending to the playoffs,
taking to the playoffs, playing with talented players, you think

(01:07:44):
he would You think he'd be worse. You think that
would have stunted his growth as a quarterback. Put him
on the field if you think this guy can play,
you do because you're drafting him number one. Overall, you
better have an awful, awful coaching staff and roster if
you're not putting him on the field in year one.
And they've got a brand new coaching staff and partially

(01:08:06):
new roster in year one. He's got Clint Kubiak there.
Everything they're doing is focusing around making sure this player
at number one, who plays quarterback, will work. And now
they're basically trying to keep him off the field at
the start of the year. Probably going to be fine.
Trying not to go crazy about this at what point
in the season do you start him? I hope it's

(01:08:26):
at some point. Are you not going to start him
because you're winning games with Kirk? Now you got a
bunch of other stuff to think about. The only thing
you had to think about before is his health in jeopardy.
If you draft him and play him, that's the only
thing you have to think about. Now you got a
bunch of other things to think about.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
And I will say this, despite what you said about
him at times, I do think there are worse options
to quote mentor a guy, no matter who he is
or what his prospects are. I mean, we've all we've
talked about is how this is one of the worst
quarterback classes in recent memory, in that there are maybe
two that could go in the first round.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
If that, I can't wait till teams draft ty Simpson
and Carson Beck. It's gonna be awesome, ty Simpson and
Carson Beck. Carson Beck probably possibly goes in the top
seventy five. And I cannot, for the life of me
believe that will happen, but it probably will. And ty
Simpson might even be a first round pick. Now if
and I know the Raiders didn't come out and say

(01:09:20):
anything specific. Kubiak kind of hinted at it. Best case
scenario he gave this quote, is that you have somebody
basically to guide him along. Well, that's what this signing is.
They haven't said themselves. Kirk is signing here, and he
is starting game one. He is our starter. This is
why we have him here. They even said those things
yet as a mentor, the way you presented it as
a veteran who's seen it all, been through it all

(01:09:41):
other than the super Bowl obviously, or playoff wins, a
lot of playoff wins. He was on the roster. I'm
totally down with that. That is a great person, especially
with what you said with who you have to consider
who's out there, what move could be. That is an idea.
That's awesome. I love that for Fernando's develop Tell him
what to do, show him what to do, and then

(01:10:04):
let him play with what you've told him. Don't tell
him what to do, don't show him what to do,
and then say, see watch what I do. I don't
want him watching what you do. I want him to
know what you do. Let him play, Kirk and mentor
him all. He wants the ball cap and a clipboard.
As long as he's not on the field, you'll be happy.
That's what it comes down to. Well, okay, Kirk Daniel

(01:10:24):
Cousins sounds like a great mentor. And where is he
in the all time earnings list? I have five read
the numbers correctly. Today he slides under the number one spot,
number one? How long will it last? Some of these
quarterbacks Josh Allen and Mahomes have more contracts to sign.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
They'll pass him. How happy will you be that day
where he's not in the number one side?

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Well, that doesn't I don't just I mean, he's he's been.
He's a nice guy. He's a regular Joe. That's what
he's saying right now. That was hilarious. I know, all right,
here's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 1 (01:10:57):
We will actually as promised us on your first place,
Houston Astros. But is there concern heading into tomorrow night's
opener against the Athletics.

Speaker 2 (01:11:08):
We'll explain what that is coming up next.

Speaker 4 (01:11:11):
The eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
It is the eighteen Sports Sox seven ninety s c
h N so uh And by the way, shout out
to Boom Boom, who's watching us out in pair Land
on the big screens behind the.

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
Bar, shout out to Boom Boom. Well it's Mike, but
that's his nickname. Okay, now I know that Boom Boom
is male. What's that matter there? He's there with his
girlfriend Aus is not male, though. I if you said
Boom call her Boom Boom, I wouldn't have thought twice

(01:11:55):
about it. Totally normal.

Speaker 1 (01:11:59):
All right, you're Astros here on April second, are in
first place, They're never going away, they're winning the division.
This is gonna be wire to wire essentially. Not really,
but I'll tell you this, of the three games this weekend,
going into this West Sacramento series against the Athletics, I

(01:12:20):
think I have my greatest.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
Concerns about tomorrow Night's pitcher.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
And the reason I think it just crops up more
to me is what I always go back to when
I talk about Christian Xavier. Somewhere in there is the
guy that we know in love, but he needs to
come out really soon, like second start would be great.

Speaker 2 (01:12:39):
Mike Burrows did this. He gave up two runs in
five innings, a lot of traffic, a lot of base runners,
but he just keep the Red Sox offense down.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
So if Christian Xavier and Emi, by the way, the
next night want to kind of exercise their first start demons,
and that sounds ridiculous. That'd be fine with me, because
that's about the only thing stopping this Astro's team from
being considered elite right now in light of the offense.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Yeah, the Astros starting pitchers today or tomorrow and Saturday
did not have good first starts. Savier goes tomorrow and
Emi goes on Saturday. Lance mcullors Junior finishes out the
series on Sunday. Javier four hits and four and two thirds,
two hit batters, four walks, gave up six runs. Bad

(01:13:30):
afternoon of baseball, bad evening in baseball. Can't have that.
And Emi was very similar. He could not throw strikes,
less than half of his pitches or strikes, walked four,
gave up three hits, only got eight outs, did not
get out of the third inning. They have very very
similar concerns. I will hope that something that played out
over the A's Athletics first six games plays out again.

(01:13:55):
You got two pitchers who could not throw strikes often
enough to get themselves through a game. Has been an
issue for one for sure. At the major league level.
The last year Christian Havier. If anybody loves thirty pitch
innings more than Hovey, I don't know who that was
last year, unless it was Lance, and I'm hopeful that
Lance has shown he hates them now and he's back
on track to being a positive influence on this starting rotation.

(01:14:17):
The Oakland team that now plays in Sacramento, they just
played six games and they drew twelve walks. It's the
lowest figure in baseball. Nobody walks less than the Athletics
so far this season. And you're sending guys out there
pre Lance that did not throw strikes that allowed the

(01:14:37):
other team to take advantage of the fact they were
gifting people bases. Can't do that. You certainly shouldn't be
able to do it against any team that launches the
ball over the fence. That I'm sure the Athletics will
eventually do. They didn't do it over the first six games.
One guy with five homers and the rest of the
team has one, which means probably when the Astros are there.
Nick Kurtz is his first homer this season and Brent

(01:14:58):
Rooker hits his first homer. This doesn't mean they're going
to beat the beat the Astros. But these are things
that they're gonna happen. These are good players. These are
players who I think, in Rookers case, for sure, he's
a proven player. I doubt Kurtz can play at the
level he played at last year and have some sort
of well that's not who he ends up being proven.
Maybe a little bit hard to say because he played
only almost a full season and that's it. But this

(01:15:21):
is an elite level prospect who came to the BIGS
and was an elite level player and he murdered the Astros.
So I don't think it's a very good setup. It's
I don't think the Astros should have done anything differently.
It's just the way it worked out, and I got
no issue with that. But throw strikes, make them earn
their way on keep them off balance. It's you know,
the other pitchers. Everybody can throw strikes and get guys out.

(01:15:42):
You don't have to swing out of the zone for
you to have the ability to succeed against them. But
when you're consistently out of the zone, not only do
they take their bases, they just sit back and wait.
They know you're gonna fall behind in the count and
then when you say, well, I can't walk the third
batter of the inning, and then you groove one and
they crush it. Well, you give up solo homers. Don't
give up through run homers because you went walk walk homer.

(01:16:02):
That is my biggest concern for not only this game,
but very specific to this game, for where it is
for a team of Mashers that you're playing against, and
how quickly what you did in the first seven games
can be wiped out ten straight road games. I don't
care if you think you play well on the road
or your number six. That's not ideal for keeping momentum.

(01:16:22):
Going win these series and everything will be fantastic when
they get back home in mid April. If you managed
to win six of these ten games, which could mean
you just don't lose any series, you get a split
in Seattle, you win two of three, and the other
two stops first with the Athletics and then with the Rockies.
That's phenomenal, phenomenal. And the guys that start now hopefully

(01:16:43):
everybody it's ten games. Everybody should get two starts. Means
you'd be concerned no matter when and where they are.
The offense hopefully takes advantage of the same things the
Athletics have at their disposal, because it's worth noting all
this stuff. You're worried about how the Astros pitch. Are
you worried at all about how Jeffrey Springs or Luis

(01:17:04):
Morales or Jacob Lopez pitch. Those are the three starters.
Two of them are lefties, also, meaning the heavy, heavy,
right handed hitting lineup that the Astros employ will just
keep facing the lefties They've just now shown you they crush,
especially the one guy. Yeah, right, right, he's crushing lefties

(01:17:24):
this year, as he has done many times in the past.
He crushes righties too, though nobody hits lefties as a
lefty as well as he does in the majors. This
is where I don't have to leave show he on
this own category, where I split them up into leagues
and say, the best left handed hitter in the National League,
Show hey, the best left handed hitter in the American
League is yord On. The best left handed hitter against
left handed pitching walking this Earth and playing Major League

(01:17:47):
Baseball is yord On Alvarez. Yeah, and he again. This
is ask Robbie Ray about that up. They're going to
the lefties well, let me say that again. Oh yes,
they're going to the left et.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
How many times did oppose and do opposing managers do this?

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
They might, they've tailed off a little for obvious reasons,
took them. How many years? I love it? I mean,
I know you got film. How much do you need it?

Speaker 8 (01:18:14):
Again?

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
Again?

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
That's that's a compliment to jord On because he just
obliterates whoever he's facing most times, except for Garrett Crochet
because he won't pitch to him instead of pitching to
his rip caage. But yeah, I'm this is why I
keep going back to it. I just there's no way,
there's no doubt in my mind he's healthy. Last year,

(01:18:37):
just him alone, they win the division. Hi's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (01:18:39):
I don't think anybody would would argue with that. He's
had twelve at bats this year against left handed pitching.
He has seven hits. He has two home runs. Nobody
has more home runs than yord On this year against
left handed pitching in the majors. A couple guys like
him have two. Nobody has more. He's a complete psychopath
when a baseball's thrown at him. Otherwise he's a guy

(01:19:00):
that's there on that everyone here in Houston, Jim Crane included,
loves to see.

Speaker 1 (01:19:04):
All right, we were talking about the whole MVP situation. I
have two things on this one. I'm gonna tell Victor
wembin Yama what he needs to do. It's three different
or it's four different letters, and they're an acronym for
a very very derogatory phrase. That's next. And the whole
Luka Doncic situation. Somebody's very upset about what somebody else

(01:19:25):
in the national media said about voting or in this case,
not voting for Luca.

Speaker 4 (01:19:30):
That is straight ahead. The A on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:19:36):
Two hours in talked a lot of astros baseball, talked
a lot of NBA basketball, if for no other reason
than a Rockets got to win over the Bucks last night,
and b Wex tried to make me stroke out on
live radio television with the Luka Doncich story where people
are actually giving him Defensive Player of the Month votes.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
Again, I don't I didn't say that he was just nominated.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
So anyway, I can't decide which one of these makes
me more furious. So I'm gonna go back to Luca
very quickly before we move on to the other person
that just really oh, he's unlikable. So Laker fans are
typically some of the most hilarious people on the planet because,

(01:20:24):
much like Dodger fans and Yankees fans, they sit in
a major market and try to project a victimhood like
they're overlooked or they don't get the fair shake, or
any number of stupid statements. For people in those two
major television sports markets to ever say about their team,

(01:20:45):
it's just nauseating, Like stop, and I'm gonna somehow involve movies, rap, music,
and sports and put them all together.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
In a conversation about my favorite things. I know, what's
your favorite rapper? Uh? I thought you were gonna ask
me what my favorite movie is, and then I'm gonna
have to probably pick one of the movies you've made
me watch. We'll get to one of the movies I've
made you watch recently in a moment. I mean, I
guess probably. Wow, I don't even know. Is this the
right way for even me to say it? Say it?

(01:21:15):
The guy who makes burgners, what's his name? His name'spun Bee.
The guy who makes burdens. That's only for those that
listen to the show. No, No, what I mean when
I say that, I think Bun is tremendous. I've got
plenty of other favorites. The guy who performed at Harrison University,
it's one of my favorites. Who's that Snoop super Loop

(01:21:37):
Harrison University? Huh yeah, old school Okay, he's a good
one like him. Yep, just plenty of others. I don't
want to take up your time to make a great point. Honestly,
it's gonna be an amazing point. Is I s Q
one of your favorites? It was a good day to
say that, for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
Do you think his son looked like him at all
in Straight out of Compton as he played him? Because
I do then yes, noted Lakers fan Ice Cube, and
as is his son Osha.

Speaker 2 (01:22:06):
Huge huge basketball fanes. Oh for sure, Big three. You
know who he's not a fan of Osha? Rachel Nikols Okay,
SPI not anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
No, she's not there anymore. I think she's with Showtime yep,
something or other. So she said the following about Luca
being a contender for not Defensive Player of the Month
but rather the MVP award. Is he the top contender
for the MVP right now?

Speaker 2 (01:22:32):
No, he's not.

Speaker 1 (01:22:33):
Is the reason because you do have to play both
sides of the ball for all eight months of the season. Yes,
it is. I mean he has definitely been improving, am I?
And I am the loudest voice that Luca is not
the defensive liability that people think he is. Once he
gets to the playoffs, he cares differently, he plays differently.
He does not play that way in January. I'm sorry,

(01:22:55):
And it is a full season award and it is
for both sides of the ball. So am I going
to vote him my number one for MVP? No?

Speaker 2 (01:23:04):
Is he going to be on my ballot? Absolutely? He
had five spots on your ballot and you just look
back at the last two years. Is what I can
give you here. You get to vote first, second, third place, third, fourth,
and fifth place on your MVP ballot. Last year only
two players got first place votes. All of them went
to Sga and Nikoli Jokich. Two years ago, all but

(01:23:25):
five of those votes went to those same two players.
Luca and Giannis got four and one respectively. And remember
two years ago, Luca's numbers in Dallas completely He was
only played for one team that year. They were incredible.
They were kind of like what we're seeing this year. Offensively,
he's probably the most impressive, maybe the most impressive offensive player,

(01:23:48):
certainly a debate to be had, but he got almost
no love for MVP. Team was different clearly than his
Lakers team. They gave it to the same two players
they now have for the last two years, and I
would suspect the same two players Luca, I mean, Nikoli,
Jokich and Luka Donc Nikoli, Jokich and Sga are going
to draw tremendous support. It's gonna be less and there

(01:24:10):
might be more than four players that draw a first
place vote. But no matter how we've gotten here and
what we've discussed, and we've done it many times, Victor's
another name we clearly need to mention. I would be
very surprised if somebody other than Jokich or SGA won
this year's MVP, no matter what they've done to date,
and I don't think they can change my mind in

(01:24:31):
the next six to seven games.

Speaker 1 (01:24:32):
And what's hilarious about this before we go into what
O'sha had to say, is that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:36):
We're going into what O'sha Cube had to say. That's
not his last name. Oh it's Jackson.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
Okay, you remember when James Harden was a perennial MVP
candidate every year here in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:24:47):
Of course he was cooking though, was the last part
of that sentence. I said here in Houston, right, not
in La right, right here in Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
Because if he played for the Lakers and put up
those numbers, he would have won the MVP every year.

Speaker 2 (01:25:01):
And I have no doubt in my mind. You know why.

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
Why Because he played for the Lakers in that imaginary scenario,
not the Houston Rockets. That's why it's so funny when
this quote from Oshea Jackson, who absolutely leans into the
I'm a Lakers fan, we are victims mentality, is hilarious
and I happen to like this guy, but this is nonsense.

Speaker 2 (01:25:23):
Quote.

Speaker 1 (01:25:24):
The man completely changed his body and lifestyle. Congratulations he
finally lost weight. What does that have to do with
the MVP award when he doesn't play on one end
of the floor. Don't worry, he had more playing while
his family is tearing apart. I'm sorry you don't get
bonus points because you're going through a divorce and putting
up thirty a night. Sorry, that might sound harsh. It

(01:25:46):
just doesn't matter. There's all sorts of guys in the
NBA going I mean, freaking Jokic has two brothers who
are probably assassins.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
Are you gonna vote for Nikola Jokic, my brother for MVP? Well,
I'm not really sure. Let me ask you again, Are
you going to vote for my brother for MVP? Yes? Yeah,
absolutely no question about it. Why don't you deal with
him and his brothers and have some real problems? Oh,
he's going through every time we get into these conversations
about MVP, and there's so many things we could say.
It's hard to differentiate one from the other, and these

(01:26:15):
seem equal, and I could give him the advantage here,
but he gets the advantage there. And you're going down
the list and you're eight deep in this category and
nine and ten and their team's wreck. All these things
I don't think i'd ever get to. But his personal
life is an ideal. Or he's finally decided to try
harder to be great in the NBA by getting in
shape in year eight.

Speaker 1 (01:26:35):
Right when your first two factors they points are weight
loss in year eight and divorce.

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
You might not be stating your case very well. And
I'm not staring at Luca's career numbers right now, I
will shortly. Is he significantly better this year than in
previous years?

Speaker 1 (01:26:53):
No, and it gets worse putting up this is the
same quote paragraph. Okay, this is three sentences later. The
man completely changed his body and lifestyle, playing well, his
family's tearing out pork. Then it's number three putting up
numbers we ain't seen since Kobe and Mike.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
What that's Mike Jordan? Mike Jordan. Yeah, I mean, I
don't know. I don't even know what that means. Well,
I think he's getting to the James Harden era when
he was scoring thirty four and thirty six points a
game like Michael did repeatedly.

Speaker 1 (01:27:22):
Well, so we have seen them since Kobe and Mike.
It was James Harden, but he played for the Rockets,
not the Lakers, so it didn't matter, right, I got you.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Luca is not averaging a career high in points per
game this year. Oh for himself, he has had a
season of more points per game than the one he's currently.

Speaker 1 (01:27:38):
Why why does he bring up your life? Did Mike
ever play it for the Lakers? I must have missed
that chapter between the Bulls and the Wizards.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
You know what he is doing better or more of
than he ever has in his career. Stealing the ball, No,
leading the league in shots at the basket. Okay, more
two point attempts than anybody, more three point attempts than anybody,
more free throw attempts than anybody, more complaints to the
officials in it now. I'm not trying to denigrate his work.
He's having an awesome season. I think if I had

(01:28:04):
a ballot, he'd be placed third on it, or fourth
if I've thought Victor should be third. But it is
amazing what people will do. I am actually interested. I
haven't gotten to the worst part. All right, what do
you got?

Speaker 1 (01:28:15):
Over one hundred steals climbed us into third place? You know,
because O'sha is on the roster us.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
It is a career hind steels for Luca this.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
Year great O'Shea still has played zero minutes and zero
seconds as a Laker.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
But don't say us the story is a teammate.

Speaker 1 (01:28:32):
The story is amazing. Here we go, it's about to
get really really badat story. But alas the goal post
is not the same for a Laker. Yeah, they let
me repeat this. The goalposts that are apparently moving are
not the same for a Laker. Whoe is me? I

(01:28:53):
rout for the Lakers. We never get any attention, We're
never on national television. Lebron didn't hand pick us to
come ruin himself latest chapter of his career. All this
stuff built in. You know, we can, we can recruit
people with the weather and the like. Really, Lakers post,
poor Lakers. This that you're going with the goalpost comment.
It's a common one to use here.

Speaker 2 (01:29:13):
Yeah, that's related to when the NFL had the goal
post at the goal line and then they moved them
back ten yards. Right, they moved the goal post, they
got further away. And because of the situation I'm in,
in order to make it harder for me to win,
Luca now or like you mentioned earlier, James Harden as
a rocket, we're moving the goal posts further away to
make our case better.

Speaker 1 (01:29:34):
You didn't average a triple double on the six seted team,
so you don't win the MVP this year, even though
last year you didn't win it because Steph Curry had
a better record, And then when you have the better record,
you don't win it because Giannie is average.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
It's like, come on, playing posts. Yeah, playing in LA
means the goal posts or your toe is on them.
All you have to do is touch the football and
it's going through. It means they're moving them closer. You
get to put on the Laker purple and gold. The
goal post got closer, not further, not harder, not gold anymore.
Now it's highlight or yellow because they ruined that too.
So sixteen seventeen is the year where Russell Westbrook won MVP.

(01:30:04):
That you do not like the most right, it's not
the most one hundred and one voters that year.

Speaker 1 (01:30:10):
That's not the most disappointing loss by Harden the MVP
race in my rankings.

Speaker 2 (01:30:14):
It's when he lost to Giannis Oh because.

Speaker 1 (01:30:16):
He actually took his MVP season and then obliterated it
that year.

Speaker 2 (01:30:21):
Yeah, but you're only comparing him to what people do
in any given year, not what you've previously done. It's
just did you beat everybody else out this year? He
might have had a better season, but it's not relative
related to that.

Speaker 1 (01:30:31):
He was dragging the Rockets to victory every night when
Chris Paul was less healthy than he was and other
teammates were less healthy and Oh by the way he
was again obliterating his numbers from the year prior when
he won the award. Tell me make it make sense.

Speaker 2 (01:30:46):
When they make the announcement and Luca doesn't win, Is
it all okay then, because he's not going Because the.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Last part of this is the worst twenty twenty MVP
and Defensive Player of the Year are still the most
bs blatant robberies in my eyes, Oh my gosh, crime
a river. Oh shay, get the police over there. Cube.
I'm so embarrassed for him, But don't worry. Luca had
a good quote too. The better I play, the more
I drop in the ratings, So I don't know what
else I can do. Shut up? How about that? We

(01:31:12):
didn't even get to the guy who's running his mouth
too much? He plays in San Antonio Space City Home
Network schn as we take you until six o'clock. I
got my blood pressure up a little bit that last segment.

Speaker 2 (01:31:24):
If we s spin it back to the astros here briefly,
and we'll get to our signature segment here coming up
in bottom of the hour four thirty four, another edition
of What's Up with That? We'll also be talking astros
in that segment, but I'll explain that in a minute.
If you took the look back at the seven games,
the Astros just played the five game winning streak, the
shutout to start, the opponents, they played in the performance

(01:31:46):
of the individuals, change in hitting, coaching staff, anything you want,
either positive or negative or both. What's your biggest takeaway
from what they've done heading into this ten game road trip.
What's the biggest thing that stands out after what took
place to get them to five and two.

Speaker 1 (01:32:03):
I'm biased because of what I had said about getting
runners on and then not bringing them home. I mean
the offensive explosion it. But like say, for example, they
had lost those first two games to the Angels, and
then Saturday unfolded exactly how it did, right, But then
Sunday they come back and they win, you know, two
to one or one nothing. And then the Red Sox series,

(01:32:24):
they dropped one of the three games. They still won
the series, but yeah, it was like one of the
games they scored three runs.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
Now they scored two runs.

Speaker 1 (01:32:31):
What are like, they're killing people and it's not again,
They're not gonna score eight to nine runs every single
time out. But I don't think if if you had
pulled one hundred Astros fans and you said, all right,
seven games into the season, they're gonna be five and
two and they're gonna be averaging six runs a game,
and that's after they got shut out in the opener.

(01:32:54):
Nobody would believe you.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
So you took the big picture the offense, not Jordan's performance,
Walker's performance, Hunter Brown being just where he was a
year ago, maybe the best pitcher in the American League.
I expected all those Negatively, the way Brian Abray was
opened up the season. There are a bunch of different
ways you could go, and they're all at the top
of mind for me. So to the offense, nobody in
baseball has had more at bats with runners in scoring

(01:33:17):
position than the Astros. That to me says they're doing
things a lot right, well, a lot of things right.
If they bring them in great, if they hit three
Grand slams, awesome. I mean, Carlos Korey has been up
with the bases loaded what six times already this season,
and he leads the majors and at bats with runners
in scoring position, it means the guy everybody on this
in this lineup, whatever lineup that Joe has put together

(01:33:39):
because he's pretty much changed it every day, the pain,
the situation, the fluctuation of left fielders. They've already started
three different players in left field finding spots for peretis,
which is about to happen again all weekend long and
maybe this whole road trip. But overall, if you're getting
guys in that position eleven at bats with runners in
scoring position per game, it's top five in Major League Baseball.

(01:34:03):
But they've played one more game than everybody, So that's
why I said it with the most force earlier. Nobody's
had more at bats. Well, they've also played one more
game than a bunch of teams, but on a per
game basis, they have them. They had three more hits
in that situation in yesterday's game, and the home run
hit by Carlos Korea it was the biggest hit of
the game. You had a runner in scoring position, you
also had a runner at first base. You get a
three run homer and you won the game because of it.

(01:34:24):
You created a three run cushion. Obviously it was enough
to carry it on home. Those are the at bats
that have to happen. You can fail eight times, but
if you get fourteen at bats and you make good
on four of those other six. I mean four or
fourteen might not sound great. You're hitting two eighty six
if you go four to fourteen, and you probably drove
in three to five runs if you got four hits

(01:34:45):
with runners in scoring possession. That's all they're doing this year.
They don't lead the league in batting average with the
runners in scoring position, they don't lead the league in
ops with the runners in scoring position. They're not even
in the top ten. But they've had so many opportunities,
and you don't have to be the best. You just
can't be where they've been in some years where the
offense has struggled. So I would also agree that offense
in general. And even though I want to say Christian

(01:35:08):
Walker and I want to say Lance mccullors, because they
were a little less expected off of what their recent
history was, I think the biggest takeaway for me is
forty four. I mean, if the best hitter in baseball
plays for you, or the best hitter in the American
League plays for you, good luck everybody else. And that's
what's happened for several years. The Astros have gone through

(01:35:28):
all these other players and we're watching them playing in
all these other uniforms. We're watching George Springer play in
the World Series, We're watching Alex Bregman in his second
uniform since leaving the Astros, and on and on and
on and on, and a better offensive player than every
single one of them is still here. And if this
is who he's gonna be this year, and I don't
really have any reason to doubt it. Is this his

(01:35:49):
first forty home run season and is the number forty nine?
Is this his first season where he legitimately in September
is in a battle with whomever Aaron Judge, not Cal Rawley,
Julio Rodriguez rod for the MVP because he's been on
the field and he keeps crushing baseballs. Is this what
he's about to do? Because if he is, then he

(01:36:11):
can fight for the MVP, he can be in the conversation,
he can be on your ballot. But I already know
if that's happening, you can forget about somebody else winning
the American League West. If jord On Alvarez has a
forty five home run season this year, the American League
West is done. It's the Astros Division. There's no question
in my mind, whatsoever. So that's why I have to
say what Jordan looks like this year, how he has

(01:36:32):
started this year in the groove that he always finds well,
he found it at the beginning of the season this
year in such a big way that that bodes very
very well for getting back to where you once were
as a team, which is the team to beat in
the division and then arguably the team to beat in
the American League. So you're taking the small picture. I

(01:36:53):
am taking the small picture. I could have taken two
other small pictures because if they have if this is
the Christian walker they have, this is the Lance, but
colors that they have, those are all good things. Lance
doc Paraitis isn't even doing anything yet. He's not cal
Tuve leading the team in walks. Can you believe that
that I'm a little less inclined to lean into even

(01:37:14):
though watching him I shouldn't be, because I've never I mean,
there've been at bats where he didn't even swing. He's
taken the first two pitches, it's one on one count.
He takes another three pitches, and he takes another, and
then he goes back like he had in a bat
where he did not swing at all, and it wasn't
a three pitch strikeout. It was like five or six pitches,
and he just never took the bat off his shoulders.
We just don't see that he is taking longer or

(01:37:34):
making pitchers work longer counts. Obviously, as just mentioned, the
number of walks speaks for itself, and that's all led
into why there's so much traffic on the bases for
jord On Parrettis Corea can't always bat with the runners
in scoring position if the guys in front of him
aren't always on base, and they have been, and Jose's
imprint on that is massive. And he also managed like

(01:37:55):
I didn't think he was swinging the bat very well
at the beginning of the season. He obviously was awful
and training just from a numbers perspective, and how many
hard hit balls he had because he barely had any.
And then he had a two homer day and that's
really all you had to see the homers that he hit.
The I know everyone likes to say that Jose's at
his best when he's you know, going up the middle
or going the opposite field or using the whole field.

(01:38:16):
When he came very became very pole happy, Most people
pointed at to that as a negative for how he's
now looking like as a hitter. But when I see
him hit home runs the way he did in when
I thought he I mean he had a four for
four day and hit two home runs that day. He
didn't have a great start to the season. All of
a sudden he's sitting there with a eleven hundred oh
ps because he's another one of the special jose Al

(01:38:38):
Tuovey grooves. But maybe it's just harder for him to
get out of one because of how his approach at
the plate might have changed.

Speaker 1 (01:38:45):
Is it bad that selfishly I want them to get
back to the postseason so he can knock Manny off
the top spot.

Speaker 2 (01:38:50):
Well, that would be awesome these last two years where
he played two total postseason games. All he has to
do is play. All you have to do is get
there and play two series. He's gonna have that record. Really, yes,
if you advanced for the postseason, he just needs to
be there. Like Josel tuve could hit two oh five
at age thirty eight and the Astros could carry his
carcass to the playoffs, You'll still hit one and he

(01:39:13):
will take over. Even though you're a takeover. He'll have
the record. He's seen awesome elite pitching. Yeah, but by
game three or four, they've all pitched three days in
a row. And you know, AJ's turned to the same
guys for every I mean, we know what happens there.
Some of these elite arms aren't who they once were
at the beginning of a series or two series ago
because of their usage, and for him, it hardly matters
who he's faced. Bregman was the same way the notes

(01:39:35):
in their game notes every year they went to the playoffs.
Alex Bregman's postseason home runs have only come off of
these cy Young Award winners. It was incredible save his
best for the best opposition, for sure. And it's not
like Correa is not a postseason player either, or you mean,
these guys have been so rob of this team.

Speaker 1 (01:39:56):
He's gonna wait until the playoffs and when it actually counts,
and he's gonna hit one of the biggest shots in
this case home runs or whatever. By the way, somebody
yesterday mentioned that was not the World Series that he
pointed to his watch. It was ALCS I believe Game two,
after they had gone down.

Speaker 2 (01:40:11):
One to the Red Sox in twenty one. I always
just then my mind makes me think he did it
against the White Sox, just because I felt like the
intensity of that series was that it was it was
fun to kind of he did needle them. He did
have a good.

Speaker 1 (01:40:26):
Game in the getaway Game two against the White Sox
in twenty Geez, what they all run together?

Speaker 2 (01:40:35):
I think it was the same year. Wasn't that twenty one? Sure?
Who am I asking? Why do I do this? I
can't even barely remember the season with no fans. I
know he did records. Yes, I know he hit the
humongous that was in Sandy, a Game six home run
to send the series. They were down three games to

(01:40:56):
none into a seventh game to try to win their
fourth straight.

Speaker 1 (01:41:00):
It's not all he did in that game. He told
Fromber to get his bleep together.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
It worked. Yeah, that was awesome. Yes, if you were unaware,
Jose Al Tuove sits second all time in postseason home runs.
He has nine fewer at bats than Manny Ramirez and
trails him by two homers. If the Astros advance in
the postseason at any point during the rest of L
two Bay's career, I'm confident in saying he will have

(01:41:25):
the record. Call's listening. He said it was twenty twenty. Duh,
thanks Awards. Well, I said, I have a hard time.
That's not impossible. I know when COVID hit it's all
blurry to me. Well, then maybe you should get checked out.
It's still blurry. Can you taste food?

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
I did get that back eventually. All right, we are
going to take you back to one of the wildest
moments in the career of an Astros legend. Plus I
might be able to tack on the worst product ever
I've ever seen when it comes to sports gear.

Speaker 2 (01:41:57):
All of that with what's up with that? Our signature segment.

Speaker 1 (01:41:59):
Next, Oh, it's that time of day and it's that
time of the week in this case where we do
ask that question, or in Wex's case, we sing it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:10):
Do you want to go with the product or do
you want to go with a unit? Let's go with
the unit. We mentioned we were going to take a
trip back to remind you of an occurrence during an
Astro's legend's major league career that Astro's Legend had arguably
the best short stint with the Astros in club history,
in that justin Verlander lasted longer, had multiple additional seasons,

(01:42:33):
he'd probably push him aside. But you might have a
competition between the player we're talking about, Randy Johnson and
Carlos Beltron. Both of them were in season acquisitions. Both
of them went berserk during the regular season, and Randy
Johnson's regular season was probably a little bit better than

(01:42:54):
Carlos's with the Astros. Even though Carlos was very good
in the part of the regular season he spent here
after coming over from Kansas City, Randy Johnson was all
world in his part of the regular season spent here
in Houston after his time in Seattle, and then the
opposite happened in the postseason. Randy Johnson was human in
the postseason. He was an awful, but he was human.

(01:43:14):
And Carlos Beltron arguably had the best postseason of any
Astro any history, certainly among those players who played for
the Astros in the postseason and didn't win a World Series.
He had four home runs in each of his two
postseason series that year, hitting eight total, was just an
absolute menace, and played gold Glove defense in center field.

Speaker 1 (01:43:33):
He might still be in the top ten list of
Astros postseason home run hitters.

Speaker 2 (01:43:39):
But usually when we talk about Carlos Beltron, it's a
totally different subject, and that's not the subject we have
for you today. In what's up with that? A few
years ago, we'll say twenty five late March, and in
baseball that usually means spring training twenty five years ago.
Twenty five years ago, in spring training the San Francisco

(01:43:59):
Giants as a West Coast spring training team, We're taking
on the Arizona Diamondbacks, also a West Coast spring training team.
That's why they faced one another little Cactus League action.
Randy Johnson was on the mound tea makes for each team,
preparing as need be. He had Calvin Murray at the plate.
You had another former astro who you're gonna hear all

(01:44:20):
about in this comment in the on deck circle awaiting
his turn to reach the dish, played for the Giants.
But Randy Johnson, he appeared with Pat and Friends on
his program earlier commenting on this twenty fifth anniversary of it,
and Randy Johnson kind of walked everybody through what I'm

(01:44:43):
obviously talking about. Twenty five years ago. Randy Johnson was
on the mound and he went through his wind up
and he fired a pitch towards home plate. It made
it there, but it did hit something on its way
to the plate, and that something did not survive. In
one of those flying animals with wings, we call them birds.
Bad flight pattern. They did not direct him in a

(01:45:04):
good way. No, no flight path is clear. Actually it
wasn't hit him with a baseball. Bird did not survive.
As you'll hear Randy Johnson explain.

Speaker 8 (01:45:13):
I think it just kind of cut everybody. It kind
of caught everybody off guard. I'm like, what was that
that that just happened. I thought initially that maybe someone
had thrown something, uh, and then the impact of the
pitch uh pushed the push the bird over to the
on deck circle, and Jeff Kint, who was on deck,

(01:45:36):
picked it up.

Speaker 4 (01:45:37):
And I think at that time.

Speaker 8 (01:45:39):
Everybody, myself, all the players, everybody in the stands. If
you didn't realize what happened, then you did.

Speaker 4 (01:45:48):
When he was holding up what was left up the bird.

Speaker 2 (01:45:53):
Dudette can make the story even better. Yeah, as he
just did.

Speaker 1 (01:45:59):
That did by the way, I don't know that I've
ever heard him talk about this, because I feel like
it was a source subject. No pun intended every time
someone tried. Now again, before you.

Speaker 2 (01:46:11):
Move on, listen to what he said about that very thing,
as he recognizes who he is all time in baseball,
and yet there's this ten All.

Speaker 8 (01:46:22):
Star Games, won three hundred games, close to five thousand strikeouts,
MVP of a World Series, and you know, and I'm
recognized and remembered for killing a bird.

Speaker 2 (01:46:34):
And it's crazy. What's the problem. He did all those things.
He's in the Hall of Fame, he was voted to
the All Star Game ten times, he ran.

Speaker 1 (01:46:42):
Through the rest of the stuff, Nolan Ryan from a
strikeout perspective five times, he was a cy Young Award winner,
and all the other things he went.

Speaker 2 (01:46:50):
Through there and play that again. I want to hear
how angry he is. He wasn't. He was saying it
and sounds like he is. He's saying it in disbelief,
like this is for real, because that's basically running through
all these accolades. Like if Randy Johnson came on the
show and we had an hour with him of that,
I probably would introduce him in that very same way.
He's done this and he's done that, and that's how

(01:47:11):
he was introduced. So that's why he was running back
through it when he said, can.

Speaker 8 (01:47:14):
All Star Games won three hundred games, close to five
thousand strikeouts, MVP of a World Series? And you know,
and I'm recognized and remembered for killing a bird. See
I'm recognized and remembered for killing a bird.

Speaker 2 (01:47:30):
One more time.

Speaker 8 (01:47:31):
I'm recognized and remembered for killing a bird.

Speaker 1 (01:47:35):
That's how I would chime in as we brought him
onto the show, and one dead bird, Jeff Kent had
to be the guy that's holding up and made it
even better. How would you like to be dying? You're
a bird, and you flew into a major league stadium
for no good reason, and you got hit by Randy
Johnson's fastball, and the last thing you see before you
take your last breath is Jeff Kent's porn stash.

Speaker 2 (01:47:58):
I think the last thing the bird saw was the
seams of the baseball, if he saw them, I mean
it was what ninety eight. I don't think Jeff was
handling something that was still alive at any point.

Speaker 1 (01:48:11):
Do you now appreciate even more Blummer's story about the
time he hit that home runoff of Randy Johnson and
was pimping it around the bases and he heard someone
swearing like profusely at him and he couldn't figure out
where it was coming from the stands. It was Randy Johnson,
who was almost to the third base bag, saying, hey, bleep, bleeper,

(01:48:33):
like he's like a terrifying human.

Speaker 2 (01:48:36):
Nolan has an aura about him of intimidation because of
his arsenal and his success, and obviously I think Randy
Johnson has the same thing. But he's also doing it
in a player who's six feet ten Yeah, six foot
ten feet. I don't think you're worried about getting in
a fistfight with him. But we saw how Kruck and
Larry Walker reacted in an All Star game, even joking around,

(01:48:58):
it can be intimidating to stand there and then here
in Houston For those of us who were covering the
team at the time, I was among them on the
days he pitched, and we definitely saw it. I think
with Roger, with JV and a few others, like it
was obvious. We know it's the same for every pitcher.
You don't talk to them on the day they pitched,
before after whatever the case before, they you see them
obviously talked to him after the game, but you could

(01:49:19):
sense there's a reason why you're not talking to him today.
Look at him, look at what he's in the clubhouse.
Then yes and so. But on the other days like
very cool guy. I mean, he wasn't the most easy edding,
so you didn't want to talk to the media every day,
and he did, but he wasn't inaccessible. He gave good answers.

(01:49:39):
I was in the clubhouse one day, I'm not I
think I was talking to Scott Ellerton maybe, and this
person reaches over my shoulder. He didn't have to, wasn't
taxing for him. He just grabs my recorder and puts
it in the Scott's face and then gets it back
so we can ask him a question, and then he
hands it back to me. That was Randy Johnson, like

(01:50:00):
a good teammate, a good dude, super intense and as
we just heard, a great storyteller.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
And you wore the awesome Navy uniforms that you hate
so much.

Speaker 2 (01:50:10):
That wasn't a fan. I'm a little bit more of
a fan now that the years have gone by a
little bit. So I guess we will save this for
you next because I know you wanted to get to it.
Yesterday we didn't. We'll get to it today. You're not
real happy with this product line that you have come across,
so definitely something we need to address. And over the
next hour and change, we will address the statements that

(01:50:30):
have been made about the big time athletes that are
rehabbing not injuries as we continue your hair on the
A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:50:40):
The eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:50:41):
Once talking about here, I thought you would enjoy this
story real quick. You and a lot of other people
have noticed that my wife on Instagram likes to take
scissors to clothing and it's very I don't get it,
it's wild, it's insanely popular.

Speaker 2 (01:51:01):
What she does well, She's run out of.

Speaker 1 (01:51:03):
Her own shirt, so now she wants to start cutting
ones that I don't wear anymore. And she's doing the
typical wife slash female thing. Yeah, I'm stereotyping onto both counts.
She's like, I need a new one, and I'm like where.
She goes, where'd you get this price's right T shirt?
And I said, She goes, I've never seen you wear it.

(01:51:26):
I found it in your closet and I go and
actually says, Bryce, it's for Bryce Matthews. I said, he
got sent back down last season, so I never wore
it because he was playing for Sugarland and not the Astros.
But he's on the roster this year and he hit
a home run the other night, so that would be
a good one. And she goes, ugh, never mind, that
ruined it. I'm like, why, I just said do it

(01:51:48):
and I saw I'm never gonna wear there's too many.
I said, I actually need to purge my closet. I
need the hangers and everything's crammed in there. Find another
one and cut both of them, like go, She goes,
they're so crowded in there, I can't even look through them.

Speaker 2 (01:52:01):
Forget it. It's like that's a.

Speaker 1 (01:52:03):
Typical conversation with my wife on any given day. She
gets she gets in her own head about it that
she's now not even going to do any of them.
After this whole thing, she asked me to pick one
out before I left the house today. I didn't do
it because I forgot slash ran out of time. Mostly
forgot so speaking of gear, I don't sign up for
this stuff, but inevitably it finds me. I talked about

(01:52:26):
it with my phone nearby, so now it's in my algorithm,
and so I get sent stuff in my email and
stuff like that. A certain hat store rhymes with MIDS.

Speaker 2 (01:52:38):
They have a product.

Speaker 1 (01:52:39):
They have several products, but this one in particular has
the following caption on a post on X and this
is from yesterday at about ten thirty in the morning
on a losing streak.

Speaker 2 (01:52:52):
Yeah, we fixed that.

Speaker 1 (01:52:53):
And then there's a cap emoji the band wagon fitted
with a trademark lets you switch teams instantly, so you're
always on the winning side, coming soon to a MIDS
near you.

Speaker 2 (01:53:07):
So an interchangeable velcrow patch over the front of your hat,
like there's a let's say you have an h with
a star on it and faded gray, but you were
also a fan of another team, or you just wanted
it to go with your ward. You're mad at this
one because you know teams do or people do like
to wear hats for fashionable reasons, not just for I'm
rooting for this team reasons. But it's a velcrow patch

(01:53:29):
that's interchangeable, so I can imagine purchasing this hat. Let's
say it's an MLB version. Well, maybe along with the
purchase of the hat, they add in the thirty logos
of the respective teams and at a whim to be
not on the losing team. You just go ahead and
switch out the patch.

Speaker 1 (01:53:45):
Oh, don't worry. It actually says that. In the picture
where it shows the aforementioned patches, it says bandwagon fitted
interchangeable velcrow patches. And then below the hat, which of
course there's a Yankees logo on once and a Dodger's
logo on the other because no other teams actually exist
in the minds of these people.

Speaker 2 (01:54:05):
Which encourage people to add to this post of the
comment say, ah, Yankees, Lakers, Cowboys do coops fans, you're
gonna love this.

Speaker 1 (01:54:14):
Front running T shirt fan bases. Beneath that hat with
the aforementioned two logos, it says limited loyalty enabled change
fandom in real time. And then in bolder and italicized, bigger,
larger font never feel like a loser again, or feel

(01:54:35):
like a loser all the time because you bought this
and actually did this, you loser exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:54:40):
And you mentioned our listeners, what time yesterday was that post.

Speaker 1 (01:54:44):
Ten thirty am? And we wonder why today's generation is
so soft. This is what we're teaching them.

Speaker 2 (01:54:50):
Ten thirty four am is not the key factor here.
I asked specifically about the time, because I really want
to ask you about what day that was. Kind I mean,
it's a joke, dude, point did you realize this? No,
I can get on the rundown for two days. But
here's the thing, It's not real. This hat is not
being produced and purchased.

Speaker 1 (01:55:07):
Follow me on this though. This is something that they
would make for real today.

Speaker 2 (01:55:12):
This is something that they would make for people who
want to believe this is exactly how the fans of
those teams are. They are and that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:55:20):
This is something Tailor made, no pun intended for today's
participation trophy society, young or old. By the way, I'm
not just I'm not relegating this to kids. I mean,
like all the time. I'm starting to have like some conversations.
I make no illusions. I don't think that Carson is

(01:55:43):
going to be as into sports as I am. I
wasn't when I was his age. I was a late bloomer.

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):
If you had to limit this hat, uh huh, all
sports can be included. But because of who you know
this is marketed for, you can only pick five patches
who are the fun because you know it's lost them off. Okay,
That's what I thought you'd say.

Speaker 1 (01:56:03):
I mean, so the Yankees, Dodgers, Lakers, Cowboys. That's four.

Speaker 2 (01:56:09):
Now would you be torn between Notre Dame football and
Duke basketball? No? Notre Dame gets it.

Speaker 1 (01:56:14):
Okay, sorry to a very close personal friend of mine
who's a product of the Irish, But yeah, it's just insufferable.
I mean, hey, you get NBC the whole channel. Yes,
why have you wont anything?

Speaker 2 (01:56:29):
No? Well, since you bring it up that way, do
you think that people still feel that way in a
Longhorn Network kind of way? About at the University of Texas? Well?
The difference? Do you want to give us what, three
hundred million for what? For fifteen years of covering nothing
but your Vince Young Championship? Okay? No, for one? Very people?

Speaker 1 (01:56:51):
Do?

Speaker 2 (01:56:51):
I think think some of those who are in the
Burnt Orange have a certain vibe about their arrogance.

Speaker 1 (01:56:57):
It's called arrogance. But the number one different. Tell me
the main difference. And I know this is going to
be tough for you X, especially as a TV veteran. Yeah,
tell me the main difference between, say, the Longhorn Network
and the National Broadcasting Corporation.

Speaker 2 (01:57:12):
Sure, no, tell me what it is. I want to
hear you say it. It's everywhere, it's easily accessible, it's
over the air.

Speaker 1 (01:57:18):
No, you're getting warmer people watch one of them because
it's on the air, Like it's not some Do you
even know what the Longhorn Network is on your cable
or satellite lineup?

Speaker 5 (01:57:30):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:57:30):
Even though it really doesn't exist anymore, it's technically still there,
but yes, I know what it is. What are they air?
They do air an occasional game, very low end, the
January two thousand and six National Championship. When they joined
the SEC, they basically said, Okay, we don't need your
own network anymore. It still exists, but not to really
do the same things that we're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:57:51):
Just take the clicker, That's what I would say. Take
the remote and change year seventy five.

Speaker 2 (01:57:57):
So after I find what I want on television by
using the clicker, can I go back in the kitchen
and zap my food? Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:58:07):
And they And by the way, you've evolved, because normally
your kid was the clickery.

Speaker 2 (01:58:12):
Yeah, what do you mean? I want? You know what
I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:58:16):
I'm on my fifth beer and I pay for your
clothes and food and housing.

Speaker 2 (01:58:19):
Ouch. Yeah, uh so yeah, I know. It's one of
the very good April Fool's Day jokes that some people
did have to comment on and say, this is a joke, right,
it's so believable. But that's why they are who they are.
That's why the fans are viewed in the way that
we're describing.

Speaker 1 (01:58:35):
The same people that would go to dumb protests or
I mean any number of things, and I'm absolutely stereotyping
at this point would wear something like this and by this,
I mean whatever logo they chose that day so that
they're not a loser.

Speaker 2 (01:58:50):
Ironically, well, as long as we can make sure we
have some sort of cap gate situation when people care
what athletes are wearing on their domes from other teams
that aren't in the city that they play in, like
it matters.

Speaker 1 (01:59:02):
Coming up in the five o'clock hour, WEX is going
to painstakingly describe what no cap means.

Speaker 2 (01:59:08):
I can do that, but first we will get a
visit from Chandler Rome of the Athletic and the Astros
in Major League Baseball one week in. That's next.

Speaker 4 (01:59:18):
The a team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:59:20):
Ninety Athletic joining us here to talk a little Astros
in MLB normally we do this on Fridays.

Speaker 2 (01:59:28):
We had a little bit of an off day situation.

Speaker 1 (01:59:30):
Juggle the schedule, and if we can get Chandler in
here a day earlier, we're always going to do that. Chandler,
the hottest team in baseball, plays right here in Houston,
but they won't be for the next ten games. This
is a bit of a trek and you want to
keep the good times rolling. Is this one of those situations?
And I don't know if Major League Baseball players feel
this way too. When you're playing this well and especially offensively,

(01:59:53):
do you hate an off day or are they all like, no,
we're good.

Speaker 5 (01:59:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (01:59:58):
I think it's so early in the season. They're kind
of still getting adjusted to the schedule. I don't think
they love a ten game, three city trip right off
the bat, and they have another one in May too,
and the fact that those are coming that quick, I
don't think they're thrilled about that. But yeah, I mean,
I think the way they're playing right now, it should

(02:00:18):
translate right like it should. It should carry over no
matter where they're playing.

Speaker 2 (02:00:22):
Well, Okay, to repeat a question we had earlier and
see what your thought was, what was your biggest takeaway,
even positive or negative, from the first seven games of
the season.

Speaker 5 (02:00:33):
I think I had too.

Speaker 9 (02:00:34):
I think first is just the overall approach up and
down the order of the bats. And you know, obviously
those al two they walk. Fest is getting a lot
of well as it should. I mean, that was to
see him do that in seven games was pretty incredible.
But I mean, you know, you even look at there
was a sequence in yesterday's game where I think it
was like the eighth inning, Garrett Whitlock got the first

(02:00:56):
two outs on two pitches. Then Cam Smith comes up
and works a four team pitch at bat single, they
load the bases. It just was a relentless up and
down the order, no matter who they put in. It
just really seemed like there was an approach. There was
a concentrated effort to see pitches, to work counts, to
work at bats, to get the starter out by the
fifth inning. I think they got the starter out by

(02:01:18):
the fifth inning and five of the seven games that
they played. And then the other takeaway is Lance mccullor's
just what he did on Monday night. If they get
even a modicum of that throughout the season, it really
raises the ceiling of this rotation.

Speaker 5 (02:01:35):
He was excellent, and I found it funny.

Speaker 9 (02:01:37):
You know, everyone keeps saying out it was vintage mccolors,
It was vintage mccolors.

Speaker 5 (02:01:41):
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 9 (02:01:42):
He's a completely different pitcher now, a completely different style
of pitcher then you saw way back when. But he
showed on Monday that can be effective.

Speaker 2 (02:01:50):
Did the Astros maybe put together a roster obviously defensively,
I think it kind of goes without saying and jumping
off the mccullors game. It certainly was on display. I
think they have the akings of a very very good
defensive team, but a makeup of a team that's capable
of doing some of the other things well, not just
running down baseballs, but running around the bases. Do they
have more of a speed driven, aggressive driven team. I

(02:02:13):
know every team wants to be aggressive, but if you
don't have the players to do it. Do you think
they have a little bit more of that at their
disposal on a regular basis?

Speaker 9 (02:02:22):
Well, it's interesting, you know, if I'm actually writing about
this right now, you know that's Bryce Matthews and Joey
Lo Pafido for you, right like that's kind of the young, energetic,
athletic kind of guys that Joe Aspota has talked about
wanting more of. He wants more of those guys on
his roster, and you saw those Both of those guys

(02:02:43):
made a pretty big impact in this first homestand they
were that platoon thing in left field. You know, Jake
Myers when he gets on base, he has that ability.
Cam Smith, they're working with him to try to steal
more bases, he certainly has that ability as well. Everyone's
gonna laugh listening to this. But jose L Tub when
he gets a had a steam going and he knows
what he's doing on the bases, he can reek havoc

(02:03:04):
on the bases and it's good and bad sometimes, but
he can go first to he can go first to third.
He's an aggressive base runner as well. So yeah, they've
always preached aggressive base running, but they've got guys on
this roster if they can deploy them.

Speaker 6 (02:03:18):
Now.

Speaker 5 (02:03:19):
I'm assume we're gonna get to this in a little bit.

Speaker 9 (02:03:21):
But with Jeremy Pania coming back to everyday play on
this road trip, it's really gonna test how Joe is
gonna configure this lineup. How he's gonna get all these
guys at bats with that as a backdrop, right, you
want Bryce Matthews or Joey Loperfito in there to give
you some athleticism, to give you some energy, to give
you some aggression. You know, Does this mean that we're

(02:03:42):
gonna see Estoc Paradis be a bench player because I
don't see any other way it could go, because they
want that in addition to keeping all the well performing
offensive players in the lineup.

Speaker 1 (02:03:53):
I can't believe you uttered that, but it's I guess
it's a compliment to how stacked they are right now.
And I mean, I know, again we're talking about how
early it is, but Estoc Paratis has not performed as
well as some of his Battery mates.

Speaker 9 (02:04:10):
No, and I mean it's only going to get harder
for them to get him in the lineup. I mean
them doing this little thing where they alternated off day
day on for Paynya during the homestand it really kind
of masked their infield surplus. It was, you know, it
made them thankful to have an infield surplus if they
could do that with Paynya. But now that he's back

(02:04:30):
to an everyday role, you know, you're not taking Josel
two the out of the lineup.

Speaker 5 (02:04:35):
You're not taking Jordan Alvarez out of the lineup.

Speaker 9 (02:04:37):
Second base in d H are the really the only
places that Estoc Paradis can play, can get a straightforward
path to playing time right now. You're not taking Christian
Walker out of the lineup either. He's probably been their
third best hitter. So I'm just not sure where the
at bats are going to come from for Paradis. You
know what they're about to play. I think eighteen games
in nineteen days. They're going to get some guys off

(02:04:57):
their feet. He's going to get time in the lineup,
but it's not gonna be.

Speaker 5 (02:05:02):
It's not gonna be every day.

Speaker 9 (02:05:04):
It may he may go consecutive days without playing, and
it's gonna test a lot of you know, Joe Spot's
ability to you know, communicate that to him, to make
sure he's happy, to make sure you know everyone around
him is happy. You know, it really starts in earnest
on this road trip, when he has a fully healthy
and fully available roster availabled to him.

Speaker 2 (02:05:23):
And would you tack one more item into the mix
on that decision making and that it's not just a
ten game road trip, but these specific parks, the hitters
that will be there, the likelihood of lots of fly
balls and lots of activity in those big three outfields
that were not likely to see Jordon Alvarez use his
glove much, if at all, on this road trip.

Speaker 9 (02:05:44):
Yeah, I'd be stunned if he steps foot in the
outfield in Denver at Course Field. I was actually looking
it up today. He has played nine career games in
left field at T Mobile Park, so I can see
a situation where they play him out in left field
in Seattle. They play four games in Seattle, I doubt
he plays all four games in left field, so I
could see maybe they play him two on two off

(02:06:05):
in Seattle. He's never I don't think he's ever actually
played at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento. The dimensions there
aren't terrible. I think they could get away with running
him out there maybe once. But yeah, I mean, this
was always going to be the problem with this surplus.
And also let's accentuate the fact that they just played

(02:06:27):
seven games at a ballpark where they're comfortable with him
playing the outfield right like it's a very easy left
field to play at didyk In Park. He played two
games in left field and seven games. What does that
tell you? That just tells you that they don't want
him to play out there. They want to limit his
exposure out there as much as possible.

Speaker 5 (02:06:45):
And I think that's going to continue with this road trip.

Speaker 2 (02:06:47):
So many things we could hit on Chandler Room joining
us here from the athletic covering the Astros major League
Baseball as he does each and every week here on
the A team. But you know, just based on what
took place on the field, you got a home run
and you got a big base loaded hit from Christian Vasquez.
What do you think if you believe there is any
value he brings to the club outside of that. It

(02:07:08):
was awesome to see and anytime he does things to
help this team offensively, it is great. Do you think
he has more value than maybe outsiders know about inside
the clubhouse with game prep, with Yiner, with the pitches,
things like that.

Speaker 9 (02:07:22):
Yes, yeah, I think this was you know, look, I
mean he obviously he's not he's not washed, like he
can he can give you a good at bat, like
he can catch, like they don't want him to play
every day, but he can still function like he can
still play, but it's a lot of behind the scenes
stuff with him. It's a guy that's been there. He's
thirty five years old. He's been around. He's been on

(02:07:43):
World Series winning teams both in Houston and in Boston,
like he's been around championship teams. There's a lot that
he can do to help Yiner Diaz along, to kind
of help him keep evolving and keep maturing as an
everyday catcher. You know, I think that's one of the
main reasons why he made the team was the familiarity

(02:08:03):
and that being able to be kind of more of
a mentor to yinor Diaz than maybe anyone else could be.
So yeah, he provides that. And how about that bat
flip on that Basis loaded single? That was a that
was a thing of beauty.

Speaker 1 (02:08:16):
So I've been giving WEX a hard time about Christian
Vasquez because he just he just wasn't the highest on
that signing, and I've really been giving him a hard
time now that he's driven in runs plural to start
the year. But in all seriousness, what do you think
about the Astros catching situation? Just since we're on the
subject of Jainor Diaz and of course uh Sesar Zalas

(02:08:38):
Salazar surviving being put out there for any other team
to claim.

Speaker 5 (02:08:46):
Yeah, I mean I think. I mean, it's seven games.

Speaker 9 (02:08:48):
Just like, I don't want to overreact to you know,
the good that's happened. You know, Yinor did not have
a great home stand offensively. When we talk about all
these guys looking different with their approaches and things, he
looked exactly the same. But you know, I don't think
it's one of these situations where like they're panic, Ain't
are gonna pull the plug. Like I mean, he's got
he's got a long runway here, and he's getting better defensively.

(02:09:11):
ABS is going to help. I mean one of his
one of the things he was not great at defensively
was pitch framing. Now that ABS is in there, framing
is still important, but it's not as important as it
was before ABS. But you know, look, they've got They
drafted Walker Yanick two years ago in the first round.
He's gonna debut at Double A tonight on Double A

(02:09:33):
opening Day. I would follow him pretty closely. I'm not
saying that's gonna be this year. I'm not saying he's
gonna be up in the big leagues this year. But
he turned a lot of heads in spring training, and
he had you know, we had Sam Nidor, the farm director,
on Krushitty Territory a couple of weeks ago and he
said that that walker you onck probably turned more heads
in spring training than anyone. So, I mean, he's he

(02:09:54):
was a college pick, first round pick. I would keep
an eye on him this year because you this could
be a situation where maybe, you know, next spring we're
talking about him coming into camp with a real shot
at you know, making the team, and then after that,
who knows.

Speaker 5 (02:10:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:10:11):
One thing to note about abs and the importance of
some of the other elements of catching. The Astros had
a seven game homestand I don't have the exact number,
but I'll ball park it at roughly nine hundred pitches
we're seen by the Astros, and so eighteen hundred pitches
were thrown while they were involved. Like the Astros individually
they challenged eleven pitches during those seven games. There's a

(02:10:32):
lot of pitches that are not strikes or aren't balls,
that aren't going to be challenged, that still require some
of those things to be in place for catchers and
everybody else involved. So I think the ABS is a
great thing, and I bet you people will really really
like it when it comes to these most important pitches
moving forward. These are just the first seven games, Chandler.
Always appreciate the time, appreciate the great work. As you mentioned,

(02:10:52):
they're on a crust shitty territory as well, and we
look forward to our your continued visits throughout the season.

Speaker 5 (02:10:59):
All right, thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (02:11:00):
Chandler Rome here on the A team will a little
bit of reaction to that, and there's a couple of
things still need to get to on the Astros we
didn't get into with them. Drama doesn't seem like there's
much of it with the Astros elsewhere, certainly with one
very very good NFL team, far too much of it
this offseason. We'll hit on that too next.

Speaker 4 (02:11:20):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:11:25):
I'll tell you what caused.

Speaker 1 (02:11:31):
Thanks again to Chandler Rome of the Athletic for joining
us for his weekly visit. It is the A team
Sports Talk seven ninety as c N as well over
on the TV side, there was it felt like and
it always kind of feels like this with Chandler, it's
just not enough time to get to everything we want
to talk about, but especially coming off the first not

(02:11:52):
quite full week of the season and so much the
Astros have done positively.

Speaker 2 (02:11:57):
By the way, there's some things, there's some concerns.

Speaker 1 (02:12:00):
We talked about one of them in Christian Javier, but
a lot to like so far, especially in a lot
of the fact that Seattle has not raced out of
the gates. Now you can talk about, you know, the
competition being a part of that. Maybe if you think
that the Yankees are indeed going to be the cream
of the crop in the Al East, that could go
along ways since they kind of had their way with

(02:12:20):
the Mariners. But it's not gonna matter if you don't
go up there for that four game series and do
some damage yourself. But first things first, Athletics for three,
Rockies for three, both on the road, and he mentioned
it going on the road this early and then doing
it again next month probably not ideal.

Speaker 2 (02:12:39):
Yeah, right out of again, a ten game road trips
will never ten games is too monny, but again it's
gonna happen. You're gonna have longer home stands at points
during the season. It's good that they went out the
way they did, and they're feeling good about the way
they're swinging the bat, the approach that they've had, and
they'll try to take that into these three series. Mariners
open their season with one definitive playoff. Hopeful we'll find
out if Cleveland is similar. But four with Cleveland and

(02:13:01):
four with New York for the Mariners at home. First
seven games of the season, we're at home. They only
won three of them, and against the Yankees, like with
everybody else, the Yankees haven't been playing. They had a
hard time scoring runs. They were down four to nothing
and yesterday's game managed to put three runs on the
board but lost five to three. They only scored two
runs the rest of the series, five total in that

(02:13:23):
three game series. They've not had a great time of
things offensively. But I think again same the reason you
would look at the Astros the same way. They're going
to catch the other two teams in the division. It's
three consecutive series inside the Al West. For Seattle, they're
on the road with the Angels, then on the road
in Texas at Arlington before they go back to Seattle

(02:13:46):
to take on the Astros. They have an off day
as well, in between the series beginning and their series
closing out with the Rangers long long way to go
and the money they just spent on Colt Emerson will
probably not payoff against the Astros anytime soon at all.
They see the Astros twice through May fourteenth, eight of
the fourteen game thirteen games excuse me, they will play

(02:14:08):
against the Astros. This year will be complete by May fifteenth.
That's that's wild, a very small portion of the season.
And to have two four game series of the two teams,
I would imagine most people believe. I know some predictions
did not have the Astros finishing second. They all had
the Mariners finishing at least first or second. But these
are the two teams that I would think would promote

(02:14:29):
the best towards. We want to see these teams play
each other later in the year, and we want to
see what they look like as they're fighting each other
for a playoff spot or certainly for the division the
second half of the season. When they see each other
for those final handful of games, it won't really be
that late in the season, you know, Seattle and Houston,

(02:14:49):
Like I said, eight games before May fourteenth and they
won't see each other again until much later, much much
later in the season.

Speaker 1 (02:15:00):
Yeah, there are some schedule quirks. It feels like they
have played the Mariners in the last if not weekend
or final week, definitely the last two weeks of the season,
like every year in the past one hundred years, because they're.

Speaker 2 (02:15:15):
The best two teams. I mean they should. The second
to last series this year is in Seattle, but it's
just two games, and the only other three that they
will see each other four are in August. So the
final fifty ish games or so, you'll see the Mariners twice.
What is that a the two games one days? Do
those fall on Tuesday and Wednesday? Okay, that's what I

(02:15:35):
was thinking. Yeah, the Astros will be playing late night
baseball the final week of the season, all but the
final day of the season.

Speaker 1 (02:15:43):
Where do they go after Seattle? Duh West Sacramento? So
the final season series of the year is a four
gamer with the Athletics.

Speaker 2 (02:15:53):
Interesting hopefully this is trip one tomorrow right. Trip two
is September twenty fourth. Wow, And those are the only
trips they take out there, see, and I.

Speaker 1 (02:16:02):
Just don't feel like you're gonna get the real Athletics
either of those times good.

Speaker 2 (02:16:07):
No, I think the real Athletics are going to be
a really good team, but they might not have anything
to quote unquote play. I don't think you're going to
be seeing a bunch of nobodies that are in their
minor league system that has taken over. And I hope
they don't be playing for a home run title if
you're Nick Kurtz, or if you're on a playing for
a stolen based title, if you're one of their speedsters.

(02:16:28):
I don't think anybody on their team's going to be
playing for an ERA or a saves title or will care.

Speaker 1 (02:16:33):
Not now that they traded Mason Miller to the Padres. Nope,
that's probably not the case. We talked about this after
you left the other day for a Rockets game. Do
you like his choice of music for his entrance in
San Diego? I think, what what makes it so good?

Speaker 2 (02:16:46):
And you obviously brought up I was listening Ryan Presley's
intro music and theatrics. Like Edwin Diaz, intro music is
all about the theatrics. I thought Ryan Presley's intro music
was all about the theatrics. And I've seen the same
thing with me Miller. If you put it together well,
if you have the ability to make the stadium, make
it work. And I thought the people at Dyke and

(02:17:07):
Park Minute made Park. It was incredible. The lights are down,
the fire is up on your ribbon boards, and the
way that they do the additional spotlighting as he makes
his way to the mound, and you've got plenty of time.
Remember this isn't a walk up song where a guy
comes out of the dugout and seven seconds later it's over.
You're walking from the outfield to the pitching mound and
very few pictures. Miller is young, and he'll get a

(02:17:31):
pretty good jog on. He doesn't sprint because he's not
a moron like that one picture who sprints out You
used to, but he's no good, so he doesn't because
he's not a picture anymore. Some pictures take more time
than others. And Ryan Presley's not trying to you know,
he's not home run trotting it like he's celebrating, but
he's not really in a hurry. He doesn't do anything
to the hurry. Why should he. You're able to, you're

(02:17:53):
coming in to close the game. You can work, you
can get to the mound at your own pace. Yes,
I do think he has a good choice. I think
it's very good. Two things, since we're on the subject.

Speaker 1 (02:18:03):
One, I think the Rockets, especially they used to do
this at the Summit back in the day. They need
to bring back starting lineup music for the opposition that
makes fun of them, you know, like back in the
day during the NBA Finals they played it to a
small world after all, before Game three against the Magic
and then of course under pressure because they were down
three to zero in Game four.

Speaker 2 (02:18:23):
But they they used to do this all the time.

Speaker 1 (02:18:24):
When Dallas would come to town, they would play the Dallas theme,
which is probably outdated at this point, but that's the thing.
You could come up with something for every city. Here's
the other thing, just put yourself to the test. For
Dallas Friday night, they're welcoming in the Utah Jazz.

Speaker 2 (02:18:40):
Oh, well, what is it that you want to hear? Well,
our public address announcer says Bryce Senseibaw.

Speaker 1 (02:18:49):
I would Kyle Philipowski that one's too easy. You just
play some New Orleans jazz to remind them that their
nickname is so ridiculously stupid and has been for decades.

Speaker 2 (02:18:57):
Anything that if Jonathan can handle the music being played
like that while he announces their name so he can
hit let's do it.

Speaker 1 (02:19:03):
Here's the other thing, and this is I don't think,
to the best of my knowledge, has been done at
least not in a closer entrance situation. Well, I guess
that wouldn't work a reliever situation. I should say, if
Joe Kelly comes in to pitch for the Dodgers at
at the time, at minute Made Park, he's gonna do

(02:19:24):
his boo boo face or whatever he's gonna end up doing.

Speaker 2 (02:19:26):
No, he's gonna intentionally throw at astros right at their heads,
multiple in one at Alex Carlos.

Speaker 1 (02:19:33):
You know, I'm telling you, every time he pitched in
that stadium from there on out, I would have played
ugly kid Joe's I hate everything about you.

Speaker 2 (02:19:41):
He would have eaten it up. He likes being the villain. No,
he likes the attention. Yes, he likes it. It doesn't
have to be necessarily villains. When which team visits, are
you going to have that opportunity to play that song
for him this year? I won't. Why not?

Speaker 1 (02:19:55):
Because he doesn't pitch anymore. That's right, he's a loser.
He's unemployed.

Speaker 2 (02:20:00):
Luckily he was able to tell us all that last
December that he announced the end of his major league career.
I mean, he made sure everybody knew, don't call my
agent anymore, stop seeing if I can pitch great baseball
for you, because I can't. I'm retiring.

Speaker 1 (02:20:16):
Yeah, so you'll just have to go see his awesome
mural that a Dodgers fan pay.

Speaker 2 (02:20:22):
Somebody played over that by now, well.

Speaker 1 (02:20:24):
I would have if I were there, Like, that's one
of those that absolutely needs to be desecrated.

Speaker 2 (02:20:30):
Twenty twenty one, it's twenty twenty six, now, twenty twenty
one was the last time Joe Kelly had even a
little bit of major league success. He wore the Marriachi
get up, he leaned in.

Speaker 1 (02:20:44):
You could say that's on Dodgers fans for being that
stupid who paints a mural of him making a booboo face.
What a loser fan base. They don't deserve to have
those championships purchased for them. They can get Matt the
Astros for cheating all they want. At least the Astros
never employed Joe freaking greasy mechanic looking m Kelly. What
an absolute jerk.

Speaker 2 (02:21:08):
Who do I got next segment? I mean knocking him down.
You can leave me with nothing here? What an absolute jerk?

Speaker 1 (02:21:14):
What are you gonna say to that? Can't you can't
say anything to it.

Speaker 2 (02:21:18):
He's the worst. Yeah, he's pretty bad. Like at least
John Rocker, who was villainous here in see way worse way,
more talented. I don't know about that, bro.

Speaker 1 (02:21:32):
John Rocker was mowing fools down in the Astros lineup.

Speaker 2 (02:21:36):
For a very short period of time. He made a
little unfortunate that's because he no longer could do it. Oh,
I thought it was a coinciding with him. He had
a six year major league career and after the first
three years he didn't really have any good years. Would
you say he was stinky after that? That's safe to say, yes.
All right.

Speaker 1 (02:21:55):
Some of the things we have not gotten to today,
including the aforementioned quarterback situation, drama situation, may or may
not come up and in case you missed it, next
as we continue here on the program.

Speaker 2 (02:22:10):
The A two days here on the A team still
to come today and tomorrow. We still have pairs of
tickets to give away for ac DC their Power Up
Tour coming through the h twenty twenty six with the

(02:22:30):
Pretty Reckless August thirty first NRG Stadium. Tickets are on
sale now ticketmaster dot com. We will give a handful
of pairs away today in the final hour of the show,
and whatever remaining handful of pairs we have tomorrow will
liquidate from our liquidate asset pool. But we want to
get you guys out to see what I'm sure will

(02:22:51):
be a phenomenal audio extravaganza with ac DC. So we'll
do that with a pair of tickets or two or
three in the final second the show. Those you have
been listening to the show throughout the day and certainly
this hour, well that will be to your benefit because
we like our listeners. Those that have been listening to
the program, well, because of it, you're gonna know the
answer to a question we will ask you in the

(02:23:11):
final segment of the show. Halfway through the final hour
of the show, we like to hit you with in
case you missed it, do you want a cliff notes
version the first item that we obviously have not hit
on today. But if you like turmoil and you're in
the NFL for absolutely, positively no good reason, Philadelphia can't
help themselves Well, let me ask you this.

Speaker 1 (02:23:32):
Do you think this if you read this article that
goes into painstaking detail about how Jalen Hurts is.

Speaker 2 (02:23:42):
Problem? Child's not the right word. I would hope not
because that sounds wrong.

Speaker 1 (02:23:48):
But AJ Brown's been wanting out of Philadelphia since he
got there.

Speaker 2 (02:23:52):
See why why is it always it's the players? Like
why is it Aj Brown? Why is Jalen Hurts? Why
isn't it management or or how? Well you have to
let me finish the question. Well, the whole everything that's
come up the last twenty four hours is all about, well,
Jalen Hurts did do this and Jalen Hurts did do that.

Speaker 1 (02:24:10):
Well, I'm just saying, do you think all of this
initial Aj Brown I want out of Philly has to
do with whoever's it fault there? Like I just want
to get away from this situation. Remember, he was traded there,
He didn't ask to go there. He was in Tennessee
busy making Mike Vrabel look like a genius all the time.

Speaker 2 (02:24:31):
I mean he was doing okay, he was busy writing
in his notebook. Yeah, I hate Mike Rabel. I despise
Mike Brabel. I'm not a fan of make Mike Rabel.
Mike Rabel is a subpark coach. Mike Brabel can go
to stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (02:24:45):
By the way, I now to hate Mike Rabel. By
the way he says.

Speaker 2 (02:24:50):
Aj Brown did get traded there, correct, but he also
did what everybody does in the NFL. You want to
give me ninety four million dollars to stay here? Yep. Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (02:25:00):
It wasn't enough turmoil to where he didn't sign on
the dotted line, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:25:04):
So I don't really I'm not really here for maybe
it's Jalen Hurts, both the player or the person. I
know it's not the person. He's an awesome leader. He's
an awesome dude. There's no way that is an issue
inside that locker room. And I think you could ask
many Eagles who played with him or do currently play
with him. He's helped to orchestrate a team that's either

(02:25:25):
won eleven games and made it to the playoffs or
won fourteen games and made it to the Super Bowl
on each of those things twice well in the last
four years, winning one of those Super Bowls with Jalen
Hurts playing quarterbacks. So right and again, you can figure
it out again.

Speaker 1 (02:25:41):
This is going back to like the Lakers thing, woe
is me victimhood this paragraph right here. The passing operation
has fallen into deep ruts over the past several seasons,
forcing the most expensive offensive roster in football to become
overly reliant on the success of Saquon Barkley in the
ground game, and it's been an ongoing source of angst

(02:26:01):
for some internally, most publicly expressed by star receiver Aj Brown,
the subject of trade talks this offseason. Oh boohoo, you
have an awesome quarterback, running back, and wide receiver and
it's expensive. Give me a break. Figure it out best
GM football I will in mind when that was the headline.

Speaker 2 (02:26:19):
It's fair to say their passing games was less desirable
this past season. That is an extremely reasonable thing to
say about how they played their football last year. That's fine,
that's accurate. If they never win another Super Bowl, no
one will care. Eagle fans, did you hear that? Stop
caring right now, because you already got that Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (02:26:43):
In the last four years, you could have had the
World Series championship, but you didn't because the Astros beat you.

Speaker 2 (02:26:50):
Going back to twenty ten, they had their fewest yards
passing in a season all the way back to twenty ten,
and they're playing extra games now. I would say their
passing game was a bit it underwhelming last year to
be as light as possible.

Speaker 1 (02:27:03):
Remember when the Eagles beat the Texans on whatever night
football that was during the World Series and they were like, yeh,
suck at Houston, and then like a few days later
we were like, uh, nah, We're good.

Speaker 2 (02:27:14):
I don't remember what year that was, so my twenty
two is no, don't I don't remember. It's twenty two,
all right. Clinton got mad Josh earlier in the day
where I fooled him into thinking the list of Defensive
Player of the month's candidates in the Western Conference nominees
only included great defensive players. Can you do something similar

(02:27:34):
when you run through what the worldwide leader thinks about
the Major League Baseball teams through the first week? Oh,
I got you.

Speaker 10 (02:27:41):
And to make Clinton happy, I remember when Jalen Hurts
wore an Astro's ball cap to an ego's press conference.

Speaker 2 (02:27:47):
That was like the opposite of CJ.

Speaker 1 (02:27:49):
Stroud wearing a Mariner's hat all the time while the
Astros were losing the division to them.

Speaker 2 (02:27:53):
Thanks CJ. Yep, correct sir. Okay, so what the power rankings?

Speaker 10 (02:27:57):
They're asking you who are the top teams after one
week into the season. The usual suspects at the top
of the list. But here's what kind of stuck out
to me. Right, they had the Astros at fourteenth. Their
preseason ranking was thirteenth, so after their five and two start,
they go down in the power rankings. Boston Red Sox,
who are one in five, are at twelve. They were

(02:28:18):
at nine, so at least they lowered them. But here's
what really sticks out to me. The Rangers preseason ranking fourteen.
They're at eleven with the four and two records, So
the Rangers move up and the Astros go down.

Speaker 2 (02:28:28):
What into two? Is this again?

Speaker 5 (02:28:30):
ESPN?

Speaker 2 (02:28:30):
Yeah, I'm gonna stop going there for anything. I've been
trying to tell you that if it shows up on
my feet, I'll come across it, but I don't usually
go there specifically. Who wrote the power rankings? Well, it's
usually a combinate, like blurbs by different multiple idiots. Yes, okay,
well did see Jeff Passon. They might not be the
person who has to run the list through, but they

(02:28:53):
might be the person they asked who can you blurb
up the Astros about the Royals.

Speaker 1 (02:28:56):
That's actually Jeff Passon's job. Hey, we put in our
power rank Astros were top five. No, that's way too high.

Speaker 2 (02:29:03):
You can't have this. I work there, you can't have it.
I just want to make sure I'm understanding the logic
behind it. There's a team ahead of the Astros and
the rankings that they swept, and that must mean they
don't think very highly of them because they move the
Astros down. But if they don't think very highly of them,
how can they be ahead of them? Wait a minute,
I'm talking. I can't quite put my finger on this.

(02:29:24):
This doesn't really make sense. I'm trying to trying to
do my best here not to mention the fact that,
like I said, throughout the last three hours and forty
minutes of the show, there are zero teams in Major
League Baseball that have won more games than the Houston Astros,
but there are thirteen teams that rate higher in the

(02:29:45):
power rankings only according to ESPN espin as they were.
We were very calm for that. Josh, what else do
we have?

Speaker 10 (02:29:52):
Okay, we're kind of up against it here, but I
did want to read this Keon Coleman. Right, we've been
hearing about Joe Brady and remember all the stuff with
the owner and draft and Keon Coleman and all that drama.
Here's Joe Brady's comment. Now, keep in mind they trade
it for DJ Moore because they wanted a better receiver.
Here's this quote about Keon Coleman. The thing with Keon is,
from a football standpoint, is work ethic, his approach.

Speaker 2 (02:30:14):
He's going through it.

Speaker 10 (02:30:15):
If Keon just takes care of himself off the field
and just shows up, he's gonna be good to go.

Speaker 2 (02:30:21):
What a ringing endorsement. Josh Allen Here, James Cook here,
Keon Coleman. Keon Coleman. Is there a Keon Coleman in
the team auditorium? Oh, I'm here, coach perfect, We're all set.
He has arrived, he is attending, he's all in. I
don't think they're counting on a whole lot from Keon Coleman,

(02:30:42):
and they've made everything very very clear about that. Anything
they get from him will probably considered gravy. By the way,
we probably won't talk about the bills a whole lot.
Congrats Josh, Congrats Hailey, a bouncing, healthy baby girl Hailey
is a very nice person. That's good to know. This
thing's up with the final segment and your opportunity to

(02:31:03):
rock out with ACDC next.

Speaker 1 (02:31:09):
All right, it's time to give away tickets. Lex Who
are they going to see? I mean, I know you
just said it, but say it again.

Speaker 2 (02:31:16):
Ac DC coming to NRG Stadium the Power Up Tour
twenty twenty six with the Prey Reckless August thirty. First
tickets are on sale now ticketmaster dot com. But if
you want to win them here then listen up closely.
If you'd like to go ahead and make that birch
that you can do so at ticketmaster dot com. I
got a handful to give away today, a handful to

(02:31:37):
give away tomorrow. If you listen to the show, you'll
know the answer to this question. Something we talked about
here on today's program. We're twenty five years removed from
former astro's legend Randy Johnson pitching in a spring training
game for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He was pitching against the
San Francisco Giants, and he talked about that in a

(02:32:00):
recent interview, talked about what wex like. He talked about
his career achievements and what that meant to him that
particular day twenty five years ago in a spring training game.
What he's like known for?

Speaker 5 (02:32:17):
Right?

Speaker 2 (02:32:19):
What's he known for?

Speaker 8 (02:32:20):
Well, I'm recognized and remembered for killing a bird.

Speaker 1 (02:32:26):
It's actually aged like a line since the segment.

Speaker 2 (02:32:30):
So when we let you in on the story that
he told about that day when he did throw a
fastball that unfortunately did kill a bird that shows a
very bad flight path, he recollected the story that day
and said, I don't know that everybody realized what had
happened until the player in the on deck circle picked
up the bird. But he used the player's name also

(02:32:53):
a former astro who was that player in the on
deck circle that day that picked up the deceased flying animal?
Randy Johnson killed a bird with a pitch, and everybody
in the stadium realized what had happened when which former
astro in the on deck circle picked up the bird?

(02:33:13):
Seven one three two one two five seven nine. If
you know the answer to that question we discussed earlier
here today on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (02:33:20):
So uh, I wanted to get to this. It's not
a joking matter, but man, two athletes are going through
it right now, two athletes.

Speaker 2 (02:33:32):
Does somebody think it's a joking matter. It's not a
joking matter at all. It's extremely sad in both cases,
but for different reasons.

Speaker 1 (02:33:40):
Well, yeah, the part where people might think it's a
joking matter is when we play some audio here. That's
the only reason I say that or preface it. Do
you recently? And wex mentioned this earlier. Recently he finally
took me up on a piece of advice, like, you
need to watch this movie. Oh yeah, everybody says that,

(02:34:02):
except for most of the time when they say that
it's like an Academy Award winner or like an all
time classic.

Speaker 2 (02:34:08):
On the it is an Academy Award winning performer, yes,
but just not for this film.

Speaker 1 (02:34:13):
And again, if you're looking at Denzel Washington's resume, it
is long and distinguished.

Speaker 2 (02:34:20):
I know what I'm supposed to say, but I won't.

Speaker 1 (02:34:23):
But this is I think one of the more underrated performances,
if not one of his more famous famous performances. He
is a functional alcoholic commercial pilot.

Speaker 2 (02:34:35):
He's got serious addiction problems, which is the whole premise
of this story that doesn't have anything to do with Denzel.

Speaker 1 (02:34:40):
Right but right now, like you saw that, you may
or may not have seen the bodycam footage of when
Tiger Woods was arrested, and then other separate footage in
the squad car where he's trying to stay conscious.

Speaker 2 (02:34:56):
Basically, yeah, I think I don't know if they're all
in one, but I've seen him in three different segments.
The on a knee bodycam video and I think, yeah,
it's fine, Yeah, everything seems okay. The seated on the
front of the vehicle where he's it's a little bit
different situation, I think earlier in the conversation. And then

(02:35:18):
it's the sobriety test field sobriety test video that one,
the second one I mentioned, and the third one, like
you said, was in the squad car, and he appears
to be exhibiting all the things that the officers have
said gave them reason to believe that there needs to
be a DUI attached to this, these charges here driving
under the influence. They already stated the very first day

(02:35:38):
that he did say yes and accepted taking a breathalyzer,
and he blew a zero's across the board, and they
did not believe alcohol was involved, and everything from the
breath Loger suggests, you're right, it didn't. It wasn't. But
they also found two hydro codone pills on him, and
he obviously also has a history of this. He's since

(02:35:59):
asked for compassion or privacy or space as he seeks
treatment for this, entering rehab for a non specified issue.
But obviously we know addiction is on it. So you
tied those two things together, addiction, And it's just because
you like Denzel and you forced me to watch flight

(02:36:20):
and I did. I said it was very good. And
this is essentially how it ended for this addictor alert personality.
Trina Marquez did not drink the.

Speaker 8 (02:36:30):
Vodka because I drank the vodka.

Speaker 2 (02:36:37):
Objection, please.

Speaker 8 (02:36:40):
I drank the vodka bottles on the plane in October eleventh,
October twelfth.

Speaker 2 (02:36:45):
And thirteenth and fourteenth. I was intoxicated. I drank all
of those days. I drank on the morning of the accident.
I was drunk. I'm drunk now.

Speaker 4 (02:36:56):
I'm drunk right now because I'm an alcohol.

Speaker 2 (02:37:01):
Everything up until the line where he says because I'm
an alcoholic almost sounds like he is joking, like I'm
drunk right now. The days you were asking about why
don't you throw in these days too? October eleventh, and
twelfth and thirteenth. It's incredible.

Speaker 1 (02:37:16):
He's in front of a panel with an entire room, ballroom,
huge gathering of people, and they did so well with
the makeup. He's got the sweat mustache going on. He's
sweating profusely underneath or up from underneath his bandaged head.

Speaker 2 (02:37:34):
And you know who was very unhappy about how things went.
His lawyer, don Cheedle.

Speaker 1 (02:37:39):
Was not happy. I can make this go away. Don
Cheetle's underrated in that movie too. By the way, Trina
big Fan, the one who did not drink the vodka.

Speaker 2 (02:37:47):
She did save a child in the crash instance, that's
not what she's remembered for in the movie. I mean,
there's a handful of movies. It's the opening scene. Did
obviously have a very important role in what would then
train inspire? Yes, but the need to show everything they
showed in the opening scene probably unnecessary.

Speaker 1 (02:38:05):
You could have gotten away with it and gotten the
point across, like just show the part where he's doing
the substances.

Speaker 2 (02:38:11):
But Stinzel, So now back to Tiger. We know whose
family he's almost a part of. She is not happy well.
Tiger Woods says he was on the phone with President
Trump when he was confronted by a police officer after

(02:38:31):
crashing his car. According to footage obtained, and this is yeah,
I was just talking to the president quote, Woods was
heard saying.

Speaker 1 (02:38:43):
Do you think Donald said anything to him when the crash?
I mean, he's hey, what happened?

Speaker 2 (02:38:47):
Is that your ranger over? It sounds like it's on
its side, Tiger, can you hear me? This isn't good.
This is like the fifth time, like you said, this
is not a laughing matter. Uh huh, especially for Vanessa.
We haven't. This isn't new news. This is what happens
with someone who is in trouble, is addicted, has an

(02:39:10):
issue he has not overcome. This is not this did
oh my god, where did this come from? Well, the
fact that she's saying and people in danger by the way, yes,
that's the main thing.

Speaker 1 (02:39:23):
Non negotiable rehab rules for Tiger Woods and strict no
BS clause revealed by friends. Now this is the Daily Mail,
So who knows? He apparently is preparing to leave America
for this.

Speaker 2 (02:39:41):
Yes, according to his people, it's because he can't get
the necessary treatment and have privacy here in the States.

Speaker 1 (02:39:50):
Does he know that he's really famous over there too,
where he's also played in golf tournaments.

Speaker 2 (02:39:55):
I just wish some of these sentences would leave out
the very, very very last word. It's says Junior there
Woods is now dating Vanessa Trump Comma, the ex wife
of Donald Trump. Junior. It's not the same, it's not
the same, different, really bad situation there obviously is another
rehab situation. We'll get to a little bit more. I'm
sure tomorrow, hopefully nothing new will be in on that

(02:40:16):
story will lead you into a more of a double dip.
Both Astros and Rockets be back on their respective playing
fields or courts tomorrow night over Toyda Center for the
Houston Rockets, and obviously a ten game road trip will
be underway late evening Tomorrow night with the Athletics and
the Astros. Look forward to getting into those conversations. Some
of those things we still need to hash out about

(02:40:38):
your Rockets heading into the final six games of the season,
all part of tomorrow's program and maybe even part of
the program that follows us the nightcap with Josh Shorten
that's next.

Speaker 4 (02:40:50):
The A team