The A-Team: Shohei Under Investigation, JVUpdate and Rockets-Bulls Fight

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on March 22nd, 2024.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named AdamTalking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A Team Aall. Thank god San Diego State survived
you ab and just like that,it's a Friday edition of the A Team

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here on Sports Talk seven ninety.Wex over there in formal wear, AC
right here in shorts and a Tshirt. But I'll change and Dan Matthews,
the show killer. Our producers.We take you up until yes Matt
Thomas six o'clock full show. BecauseFlorida can't get its act together. That
is unbelievable. Four point fifty waswhen the regularly scheduled game was going to

(00:49):
commence, But Florida is. I'mactually surprised it doesn't happen more often because
it rains at least once a dayin Florida no matter where you are,
every day, all year round.But we will go ahead and do the
full tilt tonight or today, Ishould say, and plenty to get to,
not the least of which is thefestivities that happened last night inside Toyota
Center, not to mention the furtherburial of the Shohyotani. I'm not a

(01:14):
gambling, degenerate story that continues intoI guess technically day three, since we
sort of got wind of all thisWednesday night, But that is just fascinating
to watch that unfold, and awhole lot of other things to get you
ready for the weekend. But man, we've been talking an inordinate amount of
Rockets lately. But when they winseven in a row, you got to

(01:37):
give them some love. It's notlike the other two teams in town are
playing right now. I know theAstros are in spring training, but we're
now less than a week away fromthem opening up against the New York Yankees
the home opener and the opening dayas it were scheduled for Thursday next week.
The Texans are long ways from playingany sort of games that matter.

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The Rockets are the hottest team inthe NBA, as you mentioned yesterday on
the show, and as we mentionedon the broadcast last night here on Sports
Talk seven to ninety, with thebest record in the month of March.
It's uncanny, and they're doing it, like you know, convincingly, albeit
sometimes letting some lesser teams get gettheir way back into things. But last

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night against the Bulls, getting thatseventh consecutive victory and doing so with some
fireworks on top of it. I'venever seen DeMar Derosen go after anybody,
not that I can remember, andhe certainly did not like or took offense
to something Jalen Green did last nightwell the floor that caused him to slip.
According to Damar DeRozan, Yeah,his postgame commentary was, if you're

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gonna do something like what he didlast night, which was you know,
I'm not dumb, assaulted guy,not trying to run through the guy,
I'm not dumb, don't come backand lie to us after the fact and
double down on it. Now whyit happened? Yeah, he can say
whatever you want. I have noidea why it happened because it isn't like
him, and we'll let you hearyour way through it. We got three
different entities describing the action our friendsover on the TV side, all of

(03:09):
them we became friends very close withour namesake on Bulls TV, and of
course Craig and Ryan and of courseyou and MT had the call on the
radio side. So we'll dig inon how the exact same activities in front
of all one, two, three, four, six, six of you
to all twelve of their eyes wereexactly the same, but not necessarily described

(03:35):
exactly the same way. We'll savethat little bit for you because it's gonna
have a little fun. We're gonnalet it breathe a little bit. We'll
have that for Vie coming up.How everybody saw what everybody in the arena
saw, everybody on TV saw,and again those in the arena, that's
when it's being there is awesome.You don't have to hope that the director
on the TV side take this one, take this, take that. If

(03:57):
your eyes are open, you cansee everything. And it's interesting who did
see things and maybe who didn't seethings, and how things played out.
The basketball itself was just another exampleof the Rockets and the best groove they've
been in in four years. Theyare putting the ball in the basket way
more easily than they have again infour years. They're taking advantage of turnovers,
creating turnovers. Everybody runs. DylanBrooks doesn't have two fast break drunks

(04:21):
all season. He had two ofthem in the first twenty minutes last night
because he was able to get behindthe defense. The guys they have on
the court now, when you're seeingfred Amen and Jalen all together for so
many more minutes. Anybody can push, anybody can run, and they all
see the floor tremendously well. TheRockets have had plenty of talent over the

(04:42):
past ten years, and yet theirfast break has never been run as effectively
as it is now, just becausethe people they have are actually just better
at it. You know, thesepasses that hit the right angles, the
players who know how to run,the wings and finish, they just have
more of them. And it definitelypaid off last night when the Bulls came
back from nineteen down to get itto a one possession game. The Rockets,
as they have for basically the wholemonth, had answers. They kept

(05:04):
scoring, They kept the Bulls farenough away from them that even the laughable
finish to the game where the Bullsalmost flirted with giving the few people that
didn't leave early a heart attack,Rockets still got it done. Started the
home stand off the right way,considering Utah and Portland remain and every win
if the play in his reality matters, They're off tonight. The teams they're

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chasing are on the court tonight,both at home. Jalen Green another twenty
six points. Dylan Brooks's best offensivegame maybe of the season, just in
terms of how effective he was.Clearly didn't play the last eighteen minutes and
two seconds of the game, buthe already had twenty three points on just
thirteen shots by then. I think, if you are the person in charge
of game notes, that's Sean bythe way, you're changing the career high

(05:51):
season high numbers on Jock Landell everygame he plays. Now another career high
night for him in one category,where tied a season high in another category
and tie a season high. It'sjust been incredible, the minutes having just
gone up. The productivity has skyrocketed, and it obviously comes at the right
time while they're playing without three playersthat would normally be in the rotation,

(06:15):
one of them who's been out ofthe rotation for the majority of the season
due to injury. Though he wasthere last night, limping his way from
with crutches from the Rockets locker roomto the court so he could help enjoy
his Spider Man inspired bobblehead that wasTarry Easan. Cam Whitmore was also on
the bench. Alprah and Shangoon wasalso on the bench last night. So
these guys are tight, they're playingtheir best ball, and I'm sure a

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few of them, the very fewof them that played college basketball. We're
probably figuring out who we need torib about. What happened as some people's
meaningless first round games and predictions,Well, it fell by the wayside.
I think it was just I can'tbelieve anybody did well predicting the sixteen results
we got yesterday in the NCAA Tournament. I did not, although I know

(07:00):
someone who did, and I stilldon't know how she did it. She
yeah, Samantha got fourteen of sixteengames right yesterday. Is she a big
college basketball fan? No, Ididn't think so. I mean, she's
a basketball fan and she knows aboutcollege basketball, but she didn't know that
this game was going to go thatway. I got seven right, that's
less than half. She's gonna takeyour job soon. I don't mind saying

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it, because it's just how ithappened. I'm not the smartest guy.
It's just a game. It's justa prediction. Just like you mentioned with
stone cold Locks the other day,the key is in winning and competing in
brackets. As long as those teamsweren't going anywhere. Who cares. None
of these teams that I missed weregoing anywhere anywhere. I had one team
winning a second game that I waswrong on. That was Kentucky, and
that game was probably the best gameof the day. Kentucky was beaten.

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It was a huge upset, sure, but if you actually watched the game
and watched Oakland, not from California, beat them, it was fun.
Both teams were making shots. Oaklandmade some incredible shots down the stretch.
Tuck he probably would have avoided theupset, but they just could not overtake
them late. They just had aenough shot making in them. The coach

(08:07):
has been through a lot. He'sbeen there forever. It's a good story.
I can't stop thinking about the scenefrom the breakup. Been through a
lot of basketball. Yeah, look, this is the thing you mentioned,
Samantha gott how many fourteen out ofsixteen, Right, Kentucky was one of
the misses. I have to figureout what the other one. Two of
her brackets are completely intact. Yeahthis is and this has nothing to do

(08:31):
with her. It's just every yearI get the same question, and it's
a lot like the attitude towards thisis a lot to me, like fantasy
football, but it's very very differentconcepts. How many brackets did you fill
out? I'm with people who arelike, you should fill out one bracket.
I get it, I get whyyou fill out multiple you're trying to
win money. I get all ofthat. But to me, it's like

(08:54):
saying people that come up and say, well, how many fantasy leagues are
you in? I'm in one becauseI'm just not a Degen like that.
I'm not Shoho Tania fantasy football.I definitely think that's different. Well,
it is. The idea of abracket is, well, why are you
picking different teams to win? It'sthe same tournament. The idea of different
picking picking different players is it's out. Well, it's out of your control.
That's true. I can't make sureI get the exact same team in

(09:16):
every league. There's a draft oran auction or at dinasty out of your
control. If you want to getdown to the semantics of it, you
can't. You don't control anything thathappens in the tournament either. No,
but you can control whether you pickthe same sixty three winners. Yeah,
that's true from that from the pickingstandpoint, yes, But to me,
I I mean there are Maybe baseballwould be the only thing that I would

(09:37):
be less apt to gamble on.Do you hear that show? Hey,
I'd be less appt to gamble onbaseball because there's so many variables that go
into it. But I mean,college basketball and the NCAA tournament especially is
right there with it. And I'veyou know, I'm not going to go
over the litany of reasons. Ithink it's a far inferior product to the
NBA. We don't have time,we don't have even even with the full

(09:58):
sh many college baseball is an inferiorproduct to the major sport. Do you
think it's not even a sport?You think high schools inferior to college?
Uh? Yeah, these are allrhetorical. Come on, man, of
course, college basket college BASEBA lessthan the NBA. College they hand them
rockets, launchers, so at leastit's sort of equalized. Could you imagine
what Jordan would do it with themon the luminum bat? The Yankees probably

(10:20):
still wouldn't want him. Probably,Yeah, I did it again. The
Dodgers. The Dodgers probably they're doingthat. Why I want to know why,
because one of the whining fan basesthat continues to still be upset about
the Astros. I have never youknow, the most fascinating thing about the
show Heyo Tawi story for me sittinghere in Houston isn't what should be the

(10:45):
most fascinating part. It's the Dodgersfans are somehow still coming after Astros fans
who are doing what anyone in theirposition would do given the information we have,
assume everything. But it happened toyou, and it happened to your
team, and it happened to yourbest player, And I still can't get
over had him for two games.They're defending him like it's to the death.

(11:11):
It has nothing to do with them. It's hilarious. It's so it's
so far removed from anything Dodger related. He currently plays for the Dodgers.
None of this took place while hewas with the Dodgers. They found out
right, it does have to dowith him, because if they wind up
losing him over this, and theyvery well could, they should. If
what happened, what we think happenedhappened, that's gonna be the key.

(11:33):
Losing him in what regard a suspension, well so losing him for fifty games,
losing him for a season, ayear, maybe whatever. N P.
Rose is banned from the Hall ofFame, but he wasn't. He
was already done playing right when theyfound out about it, even though he
was doing it while he was managing, I guess or playing. Why did
you send your lefty out there toface three consecutive writings who have a twelve

(11:56):
hundred ops against them. I justthoughts my gut. My gut was just
telling me that I needed a couplemore runs to close the gap. So,
I mean, he'd been pitching welland I thought he could get them
out. Thank you, there are. So we'll get to this next segment
because one of my favorite kind ofI don't know, subplots to this whole

(12:18):
thing are the people that are tryingto defend him like they're they're almost admitting,
okay, so what if he didgamble on the games or bet on
the games? The one reason they'reusing that is hilarious to me, and
I'll tell you what that is.We'll get to another. I mean,
there are just so many layers tothis onion. We'll get to all that
with to a JV update at thebottom of the hour. We've got a

(12:39):
long way to go here on aFriday edition of The A Team Sports Talk
seven ninety Better than an eighties moviereboots Our eighteen returns now keeping out Free
Mohawks Back to Adam Clinton p AdamWexler Fine Sports Talk seven ninety The amount
of snark that you guys don't evenget to hear, Like, hey,

(13:00):
man, aren't you excited about that? Yeah, well, don't talk to
wex about it. He'll make youunexcited about it. Like seriously, there's
wet blanketing things on the show,and then there's taking like a tarp and
it's like it's made of cloth.But the tarp are supposed to protect you
from their wetness, not if it'sdipped in snark before it's thrown over your
life. Man, we're gonna havean awesome time there. Do you want

(13:22):
to go? No, don't tellme why because you're gonna ruin it for
me. Sorry too late, nowI have to tell you? Or how
about this, Hey wex do youwant to go to a concert? No?
Why? Because I haven't been toone eight six? How did I
already say? No? There isnot a single artist on the planet that
is still active that I could convinceyou to go to any venue to go
see right now, that's completely untrue. Well, the drummer is dead,

(13:46):
and that's the list. Maybe they'replaying halftime at a football they're not.
I'll go that doesn't count pre ourgame to be in the stadium because you're
working the game. It has tobe something you separately go to that you
have to purchase tickets to. MaybeI even pre partied. I don't know.
Oh, what's that's up to you? I mean I probably would.
I'm not looking forward to the gettingin and out of that venue, this
big venue, but getting in andout of the city that the venue is

(14:09):
located in not ideal. Let metell you. We're talking about the fact
that and this is sort of sportsrelated. Yeah, George Harvey Strait Senior
is gonna have a show at KyleField. Did you wikipedia him? I
couldn't remember what his middle name was, so I didn't need some help.
That's really his middle name, Harvey. I didn't know that, neither did
I until you Wikipedia at him.That's correct. Unbelievable. What is it,

(14:31):
George Harvey Strait Junior. No,he's the senior, Oh, senior,
that's right. He does have ajunior. He's playing Kyle Field.
Large venue, especially when you putpeople on the field who aren't there.
Yeah, I'm telling you one hundredthousand people are going to be in that
place, oh for sure that night, definitely, which means and I'm gonna
tell you, I think I thinkthe last time I went to a game

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there was before the expansion. Thiswould have been like twenty fourteen. I
want to say the fall fourteen.It was fourteen. That's exactly what it
was. It this was sports relatedbecause they're playing it at a college football
venue. Okay, obviously people thereis at least one person listening right now
that's also going to that show.I dare take the over. Okay,

(15:16):
So then you guys will know,especially you Aggie's out there listening. I
mean, say what you will aboutAustin and get I haven't been to a
UT game and probably longer than that. But bro, why is it so
there's like it's you know what itreminded me of, uh, Foxborough.
There's one lane in and one laneout. It's in the middle of nowhere,
and so you just better get preparedto sit in your vehicle. Yeh.

(15:39):
Being in the media helped because we'regetting there even earlier than the degenerates
that are there very early to tailgate. And look, you can get to
a concert anytime, or at leastget on the premises, which I will
probably push for. But getting outof there with that amount of people leaving
at the exact same time, I'mgoing to probably get a hotel room.
Nobody in song like three or fourof the encore is like, that's probably

(16:00):
trying to go. Oh, Iknow somebody who will be accompanying me that'll
try to do that, But Iain't gonna do that. It's not like
a sporting event, like you know, do you already know the outcome?
There's no winning and losing. Everybodywins. Staying to the end kind of
makes sense until the end when everybodyloses. Trying to get home, that's
okay. And don't you get ashow, Like once you get out of
the vicinity of that packed house,then you get to drive an hour and

(16:22):
a half to your house and don'teven try to Northgate. Yeah, what
do you mean after the show,don't even try to go to Dixie Chicken,
Johnny Manziel's Bar, Shot Bar,any of those bars hang out hang
on, Dan, Hello, areyou telling me that after getting out of
that stadium I would want to stayin College Station and do anything of any
sort of like longer? Well,I mean when I was in college,

(16:42):
College Station was kind of fun.But it's fun for college kids. I
was gonna say, yeah, prettymuch. The only thing to do is
drink. I'm trying to figure outif it's college better or worse because it's
in the middle of June. That'smy only question. Won't be cool?
No, No, well, we'llbe. I'm probably gonna need to bring
another shirt for the drive home becauseI'll have drenched the first one. Pure

(17:03):
Country. Gonna love it. Youlove that movie, don't you. It's
hilarious his acting abilities in that Ohmy gosh, what was his name,
Dusty? You got it? Hewore the white blazer. I do remember
that, and it's been a minutesince I've seen that. All Right,
here's the deal. When Dodger fansare going to back, well, slow

(17:25):
down, okay, let's have ashow. Hey, update for today from
yesterday to today? Do we havea jingle? There's no news, so
there's no update. There's no newson justin either, but we still do
it. Yes, there is.Every day he wakes up after he throws,
we have to get an update onhow he feels, which we will
have for you later. Okay,usually it's this segment, but we've made

(17:45):
concessions. I do think it's amusingthat Dodgers fans are, you know,
they're going as hard for this guy. I mean, let's face it,
you can't really blame them. Whatthey do is root for cheaters that come
to their team to make their teambetter in the regular season and then lose
in the postseason. They've already doneit for several years with Mookie Bets.

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Now they're gonna do it with Show. Hey, it's just a different kind
of cheating. You can't bet onyour team, you can't. You're can't
bet on the sport. You can'texactly, and they now got very very
well paid cheap you'll full on crazinessgone for the year he misses the final
one sixty. The Braves are reallygood, Giants have some talent. There's

(18:29):
some good NL teams. Dodger arestill a favorite, believe it or not.
Yeah, would you consider he wasn'tgonna pitch anyways? Probably, Yeah,
that's fair to say. Fifty tofifty between them and the Braves if
you lose one of their top three. But if they don't make it to
the World Series and win, whatare they gonna say, well, we
didn't have show. Hey, you'realready are laying that out. That's what

(18:53):
they do. That's what they do. They make excuses. Again, that's
so far I can't. He wouldhave to basically come clean on some story
that people are putting out there thatthey believe are investigating it. Somebody's coming
clean. They're investigating it, right, They're not investigating Shoho Tani because the
belief is that he gambled on baseball. That could end up being the result

(19:15):
of the investigation. Okay, that'snot what it's about. My understanding.
What are you leaning towards four anda half million dollars and just it was
just an accounting error by an interpreter. Didn't if it was illegal, because
it's an illegal book maker, that'sa huge strike. That's a penalty that's
gonna be big, big trouble.If it was baseball, even worse strikes.

(19:38):
Okay, well, let's take outthe second strike, so now it's
just an oh on to one count. If it was just a legal bookmaker,
and all the other sports which youknow and we know you're allowed to
bet on big business. Is it? Is it that awful he was doing
something illegal and gambling as it relatesto baseball, There was no issue with
that. What he was doing wasfine. The problem was with whom he

(19:59):
was doing it. For the factthat it was illegal and he's in California
and it was a legal book maker. That's not going to be the end
of the world for show. Hey, even if that's the truth, which
may or may not be. Ithink the numbers that are out there is
why people are going wild with theoriesbecause it's such a large number. If
he covered a two hundred thousand dollarsgambling debt over several years of his interpreter

(20:22):
and close friend, I don't thinkwild theories would be flying out there.
If it was up to five hundredthousand, maybe you'd start thinking, really,
is he that okay with somebody elsedoing that? When it reaches four
and a half million, like you'rejust gonna cover it? Or did you
have to tell us? Maybe thetruth that he stole it from you and
we have gotten no explanation about howbecause investigation well How did he steal four

(20:44):
and a half million from show Hey? Did he have all the information necessary
to take the money via wire himselfwithout a signature from show Hey, without
him present? What was he todo his pen number? Like, where
did he do it? How didhe do it? And I wouldn't say
it's impossible. We just don't knowthat if he's this close to him,
I mean, maybe he told himthe past word it was what it was,
Maybe he told him how to keyit, Maybe he has his fingerprint.

(21:07):
I don't know. This is myfavorite aspect that I was wanting to
get at, though. Dodger fansthat are they're not denying that he gambled,
you know, if that's indeed whathappened, but they're saying, like
this guy this just runs some randomjomoke on on social media, lmao,
right, because he's really in needof that extra cash. How do people
believe this? S I don't know. Michael Jordan come to mind. Yeah,

(21:30):
well let's go one, two,three, how much money he made
gambling? Gamb gambling like degenerate gamblingaddicted people. This is not even it's
like not even the question. Hewould gamble on silly things like could you
make the quarter get closest to thewall with the security people and building.

(21:52):
He was the guy with the permsname I know, Gus was the head
of the group, Ron Rothstein.No way, no, that's why I
don't know Mike Frotello at a time. How about like a Polish name.
Let me look, I know whoyou're talking. How about when the guy
wins. Though you see Jordan's facein the scene, it's real. He
wants to kill him. And theydid whole scenes of this where like you
know, the the scrubs on theroster are like, yeah, we're back

(22:15):
there playing Dollar Band. Was justhe had to win at everything. These
interpreters desire for winning in competition.That's why he gambled so much because obviously
that you show, hey not notan into it, totally innocent. It's
there's no way, no way,no how. But I can't wait to
see how everybody covers for it.And that's another aspect of this that I

(22:36):
want to get to. Not tomention, we need to get to our
JV updates, So we'll do bothof those things when we come back Houston.
It's your home team here anytime anywhere. I love your home team,
go go. Just tell your smartdevice spice sports Talk seven ninety on iHeart
Radio playing Sports Talk seven ninety oniHeartRadio eight. Team are rolling along here

(22:59):
on Sports Talk. What do youwant to do first? Why show hay
is a degenerate, degenerate gambler?Or our JV update. I'll let you
well, just what do you want? Reality or Fantasyland? M Yeah,
both could apply to both situations.Let's let's keep it in house. The
Astros and Dodgers are not on theschedule just yet. We'll get there.

(23:22):
When we get there, we'll seewhat show hayes doing at that point in
the season, how much of animpact he's had on the season. I'll
guess he will still have not thrownany innings for them, because he's not
expected to throw any whether he's eligibleor not. Are the Astros only playing
in Los Angeles again for the umpteenthyear in a row. They never play
them here unless there's no hands neverAnd Joe Kelly throws at Carlos Corea's head.
Joe Kelly a Dodger again, soa loser. You have that to

(23:45):
look forward to. So, likeI said, we'll keep it. We'll
keep it local. We'll hit onwhat's going on with Justin Verlander. J
V update. How do you feelj V update? I know you feel
good, and he does. Hefeels good. And I quote for my

(24:07):
first live BP on the backfield withnobody there, that's about what I expect.
You're sharing the backfields today, andyou hear the enthusiasm in his description
of his live BP of about twentypitches to a couple of prospects on the
backfields earlier this week, awesome.He is fired up Brian McTaggart and others

(24:30):
covering the team in Fla providing thisinformation. All of his pitches were thrown
over that twenty pitch or so stretchpopped it up at ninety three miles an
hour during this initial live BP session. As Chandler told us yesterday, what
he's supposed and understood the plan wouldbe, it's exactly what it will be.
The team did not play today,so they're down to just the two

(24:52):
games Tomorrow and Sunday in Florida andthen two games back here in Houston on
Monday and Tuesday. After that,the I'll be playing the Yankees. He
is not going to pitch in anyof those four games, and never was
expected to as it reached this pointin time, but he's probably gonna throw
a Minute Makee Park before the seasonstarts. Expects that his next live VP
session will be either Monday or Tuesdayat Minute made Park. Very curious about

(25:17):
when and how they will put allthat together in light of the fact that
there will be activities there that dayand I will be there for that,
so probably needs that and at leastone more session of the same, probably
sometime around the weekend, and thenthey'll probably assess where he's at, where
their minor league teams are at seasonbeginning on Friday for them, and what

(25:37):
they want to do to proceed.The update on the rotation was also given
by Joe spot It today to nobody'ssurprised, the same one we've been telling
you about for a couple of abouttwo weeks now. For Amber Valdez on
Thursday, Christian Javier on Friday,and Saturday, Hunter Brown, we'll get
the ball, JP France and RenelBlanco will be in the rotation, not
yet definitive from who pitches the finaleagainst the Yankees, who pitches the opener

(26:03):
against the Blue Jays, but theygot seven games at home to kick this
whole thing off. Yeah, Iuh, I still am. It's like
a bad taste in your mouth youget from the Chandler interview yesterday, but
it's I know it's not as probablybad as it. There's no way to
make it sound good though. That'smy problem with it. To me,
if there's no injury, then it'sgood, right, And we've gone more

(26:26):
than a month now with no injury. He's throwing pitches that are gonna prepare
him to throw in major league games. And he's got no discomfort. He's
got no pain, he's got norestrictions. His only restriction is time.
It's ramping up. All that isphenomenal news whenever he comes back, because
there's no reason to believe he isn'tback for good. If this continues,

(26:51):
that's the best news ever. Ifhe comes back and pitches on May first,
that's fine. If there's no reasonthat anything set him back, If
you didn't have to stop throwing forten days, If he didn't say,
well, I can't throw harder thanninety three miles an hour ever again,
I'll see how I can fool hitterswith the stuff I have. If that
doesn't happen. They are fine,and he is fine, and I would

(27:12):
be ecstatic about that kind of informationif I was looking for the Astros to
win the division again, because they'llneed him to do it. Yeah,
and they'll probably need some other things. That's the other thing, Like,
Okay, last year trade deadline,it's justin Verlander and you gave up your
two best prospects. I just like, if it comes to that this year,

(27:36):
you need to make a deal tomake yourself better, to separate yourself
from whomever, whether it's in yourdivision or outside your division in the American
League. I don't know what thatis. Well, they don't have anything
to give up unless that's the otherpart of it, unless they're trading major
league players, yeah, or extremelyhighly rated, surprising, very young,
low level prospects, which is kindof a piper. They'd have to have

(27:59):
a team absolutely in love with playersthat have basically barely played minor league baseball
or option. See the likeliest scenario, they're going to look at the returns
potentially of both Garcia and mccullors asbasically mid season acquisitions, right, And
that's how maybe you're trading a majorleaguer. If they start the season with
the five guys we just mentioned inthe rotation, and then shortly thereafter they

(28:19):
had Justin Verlander, and then shortlyafter that they had Jose Erkeidi. Then
two months after that they're awaiting thearrival of Luis Garcia and Lance mccullor.
Pretty good. I mean, Idon't know that Joe Spotta would go this
route, but he could have allnine of those guys on the roster and
then say, I know you guysliked pitching out of the bullpen, but
you're all gone. We're gonna haveBrian Abreu, Ryan Presley and Josh Hater

(28:42):
and nine starters. That's it.That's what we're gonna go with. We're
gonna go with that. Would yoube mad they're not going with that and
we would you be mad? Iwould be mad. I don't think they'd
treat it like a surplus, butit's not out of the question that.
Again, it's unlikely that they're desirablethough they're hurt, or they have a
huge contract like mccullors. So Idon't know that any of that really equates

(29:04):
to you're gonna have what other teamswant. Whatever they do at the deadline
this year. If they're in itand they feel like there's something they can
add, it would most likely bejust to fix a problem or close a
gap. You need it. Youknow a guy can come off the bench,
that's a left You need a littlebit more speed in the outfield as
a reserve. Was something minor likethat, You have an injury at your

(29:26):
catcher and you don't feel like anyof your minor leaguers are really truly ready
to be a third catcher, asecond catcher on a playoff team, maybe
that's something you do. I don'tthink it's gonna be much more than that
they don't have at some point they'verun out of assets, which basically was
last year's deadline, and what theydid instead of that, that's kind of
the same thing. When they knowthey what did they do with Justin Verlander
in year one? They won theWorld Series. In each of the next

(29:48):
two years, one at the deadlineand one in the offseason, they added
Garrett Cole and Zach greenk That's howI look at Josh Hater. They made
their deal right before the season.That's the kind of player that's been available
multiple times at the deadline. Theyactually tried to acquire him at last year's
deadline. They just got him nowhere in free agents. They flirted with
Liam Hendricks, they flirted with Kimberrel, who was the there was another guy

(30:14):
that was a closer. It's alwaysit seems like it's been closers more often
than not at the deadline, andI can't remember who it was. A
third one, probably a couple ofyears ago. Probably are oldest Chapman.
No, that wasn't it. Hedoes Kenley Jansen. No, no,
no, keep going though. I'mtrying to think of which other closers they've
embarrassed in the postseason before that youwould be looking for or late late in

(30:37):
the season. There's gotta be anotherone. I'm sure there's plenty. There's
gotta be another one. Well,no, I'm trying to think who did
the Phillies. It was a bullpen, yeah, but they were throwing guys
like a lot of managers doing thepostseason. This guy's been my eighth inning
guy, but I gotta throw himhere in the sixth or this guy's been

(30:57):
a starter all year, but Igot to bring him into face Jordon Alvarez
in the bottom of the ninth inningfrom the left side. I mean whatever,
Phillies actually got to pitch in adifferent spots, some decent starts from
their starting rotation in that series,did they did? I mean it was.
It was actually exclusively on the bullpenmost of the time in the games
that they lost, So so theywould be interested maybe in a Jose Alvarado

(31:18):
left. Each of the Phillies gaveup one of the yakers to Jordon.
He gave up the yacker, well, one of Jordon's yaks. The other
one was Robbie Ray. The otherone was this guy. The other one
was this guy. The other onewas this guy. Is that the most
famous home run in Astros history?Well, you're almost You're not even saying
which one it is, so Ican't even say, yes, Jordon to
turn the game upside down, it'sthat much more famous because it was in

(31:41):
the middle of a World Series game, versus the game one winning homer against
Seattle. Yeah, okay, well, the magnitude is bigger, bigger stage.
That's what amazing, even guarantee theAstros or a winner. But it
turned the game upside down. Itdid. It's the only one that's ever
done that. Per Brian Davis.All right, you want to get to
some fun with real audio, ofcourse I do. All right, We're

(32:02):
gonna do that when we come back, because, like wex and I,
sometimes two people can look at avery similar event, very very differently,
and it's fascinating how that happens.And that happened last night inside Toyota Center.
We will explain when we come back. Adam and Adam, well,
I'm sorry, Adam won a topbuildings, So excuse me here, Adam

(32:23):
and Adamay back to Adam Clinton andAdam Wexler on Sports Talk seven ninety wex
and I will, from time totime, like every day, see things
differently, but this is an extremeexample of that. Now we're all at
the game last night. TV.For me, there was TV for obviously

(32:43):
Space City Home Network. I don'tdo the games, he to pre Haff
and Post. Can't bother with that. Craig and Ryan handled that, Adam
Amin and Stacey King do the TVwork for the Chicago Bulls, and of
course Matt Thomas and Adam Clinton wereon the radio call last night. That's
me. Yes, you will hearfrom all six of them as they in
their own special way describe what happenedwith six o two left in the third

(33:06):
quarter of last night's game, withthe Rockets holding a several possession lead,
it would actually lessen by one afterthe fouls and technical free throws were shot.
Even though the Rockets shot twice asmany free throws, they missed both
and the Bulls made theirs, sothe lead actually shrank just a little bit
after what took place here. Andyou guys are well aware that DeMar DeRozan

(33:29):
fouled Jalen Green was called a commonfoul, and then it was reviewed and
everything that went along with it.I think most of you guys have seen
it. I think you most ofyou guys have probably talked about it with
others. I want you to hearhow it sounded on each of those three
broadcasts, starting with our own,which was, in my opinion, in
advance of you guys hearing it,the most accurate description of what took place,

(33:51):
and as it should be. It'sa radio call. You can't see
it. Jalen comes across the timeline, gets absolutely hammered out in bigcourt.
Goodness, Devarna Rosen, what wasthat all abash? And they're gonna look
at that to see if it's aflaker. And now we got at ativity.
Oh it's it's teammates Dylan Brooks.I can't even take it anymore.
Why why is Matt Thomas I misspoke? That was our radio call. That

(34:16):
was Mickey and Minnie Mouse on thecall for the Rockets Radio Network. It
was like when that Billy Joel albumgot released and they sped it up and
he got pissed about it for likealled fraternity. Why don't you try playing
it and see if it is stillthe machine of mine that is inaccurate.
Oh, his stuff doesn't work either, so we can't. So we're not
gonna that one at all. Sorry, Matt, no love for you.

(34:37):
We're going straight to the TV side. This is what it sounded like to
the people that were watching me,you know, on pre half in post
but listening to Craig and Ryan andwatching the video of the basketball game as
it took place, de rozen thefoul and then what that's characteristic at Toomar,
it's definitely my computer. Why can'twe have nice things? And I'm

(34:59):
sorry, all right, you couldactually get the gist of it if we
let it go, but I can'thave it I just can't. Here's the
thing. We just want to playsome audio. That's all we're not asking
for, like you know, nuclearfusion here, No, we're not.
Are you are you ready in there? Dan? Is it? Or is
it still frozen up? It wasstill frozen I rebooted. Oh yeah,

(35:20):
see though, so we're out forthe whole seg Why shouldn't I launch this
through one of these monitors right now? Oh? Because it's not that big
a deal. I don't know.It kind of feels that way. Now.
What did take place? I'll sayit after because it has nothing to
do with our discussion. I actuallythink the officials got everything correct upon review.
I don't think it's over because theway it's officiated, when they upgrade

(35:43):
the common foul to a flagrant twothat results in the ejection of Derozen,
Essentially they are done with his punishmentif it isn't something unbelievable that they had
to go above and beyond. Sohe pretty much could have done. I
don't want to say anything, butwhat he did when he was involved with
Dylan Brooks did not factor into theirin game punishment in any way. I

(36:04):
think the league might potentially come backand say, well, you elbowed the
guy in the face, We're gonnahave to dock you for something. I
don't think it'll be any significant anythingsignificant. I don't think he's missing any
time or anything like that, butthere could be some league discipline from there.
Dylan won't get anything. Additionally,I thought it was unfortunately reviewed properly
because that's what the rules say,and I think their determination. Maybe you

(36:25):
could debate whether or not the instigatorelement of what Dylan did is true,
but that's the result of what hedid. You can easily say, well,
if he just went over to protecthis teammate by helping him up or
not doing anything, well, thennothing escalates. That's fair in the way
the NBA wants to rule on thingslike that. So when it turns into

(36:47):
a big scrum, and I'm gladthat nobody describing it, and nobody after
the fact thought everybody falling on topof each other was anything more than just
unfortunate. There were just too manybodies there, and when one guy goes
down, then it's a bowling balland your bowling pins, and everybody just
fell on top of him. Youcould even see Dylan on the way down.
He was holding onto the player thatso neither of them would get more

(37:09):
agitated. He wasn't trying no,because he was getting tripped unintentionally. Somebody
lost a shoe. Yeah, youmentioned that during your call. We'll say
that for the next segment, becauseall we're talking about here is how they
officiated. I think they got itright. It didn't really have any impact
on the game. The same guysthat were playing well for the Bulls continued
to because none of them were DeMarHe was awful for the second consecutive game

(37:31):
against the Rockets, and I can'thelp but imagine some frustration specific to a
play that took place right before that, but overall as well. He's taken
thirty four shots in six plus quartersagainst Houston this season, taking thirty four
and made nine two consecutive games ofjust not being able to put the ball
in the basket for a guy whodoes nothing but put the ball in the
basket his whole career. So he'shaving role players that average eleven points a

(37:53):
game run circles around him. Yeah, they I don't think it was as
intentional as it looked for the Rockets. It's not like the whiteboard said,
hey, oh, leave him openall game long, because the shots he
was making were not highly contested.What the Bulls were doing to Jabari when
he wasn't in foul trouble but hewas missing Lord No, Dasuso had played

(38:13):
tremendously well is the reason they werestill in the game at that point in
the game. He did not havea huge finish, but up until that
point it would have been an evenbigger blowout. They would have been on
an easy street and I don't evenknow if Jamar would have been upset because
the game would not have been hotlycontested at that point. You know,
Caruso did what he usually does.He's just always in the middle of something,
always making a tipped ball into athree point play or hitting a three

(38:35):
at the buzzer to end a quarter, which cannot happen but seems to happen
all the time so far. Probablyeven of late against the Rockets didn't really
matter. Jalen played well again,Fred played well again. A Man played
well again. The bench might havehad their most productive and effective game of
the season. You have forty sixpoints from three guys off the bench,
and Aaron Holliday, Jeff Green andJacques Landell, and it only took twenty

(38:58):
four shots to get there. Twentyfour shots forty six points from your seventh,
ninth, and tenth players. Wheneverybody's healthy, they've obviously moved into
more like a six, seven toeight role with who they're using. The
only two other players that continually playare Jay Shaun Tate and Riggie Bullock,
and I think it's fair to saythey're in they're options nine and ten.

(39:20):
Offensively, he's got the other threebench points Bilocks three who gave him forty
nine overall for the game, butthirty of those came in the first half.
I mentioned Jock's performance overall in theopening segment just easily his most productive
and meaningful game of the season.And when those keep happening, that's how
you can somehow manage to keep winningdespite the fact that you have players that

(39:42):
would be seemingly important to doing that. When you know Tai Eastend played all
year, Cam Whitmore is probably themost explosive bench scorer, certainly among rookies,
probably among first, second, third, fourth year players as well.
Malik Monk much better than that,but he should win sixth Man of the
Year and obviously the team is whatchanges. You know, they've they've out
rebounded teams after losing Alpera and Shamgoon. They've outscored teams in the paint after

(40:07):
losing Alpera and Shinggun. And itdoesn't mean they're better without him. It
means there are things that they nowneed to do because he's not there to
take advantage of, which is getinto the paint because his defender isn't there
and he's not there, which meansyou're playing against a lot of different lineups
that don't have anybody. And lastnight's not a good example because the Bulls
played two bigs at the same timefor almost half the game and the Rockets

(40:30):
still out rebounded them and played wellon the paint. It was awesome.
It was not something we've seen alot of, not only this year.
But again, it's hard not totie it all together to the ten years
of Jalen Green, the tenure fromwhen Steven Silas began to where we are
today. It's such a move pastall that they're thirty four wins, they
still have thirteen games to play,and they're one game under five hundred.

(40:51):
They're gonna get to the seventy gamemark tomorrow when they welcome in Vernon,
Maxwell's favorite team, and they couldbe thirty five and thirty five coming out
of it, and they're playing ateam that's worse than they are, whom
they've already beaten once. Matt Thomas'sguest on today's show, plus the guy
who will be hanging out with tomorrow, had a great, great show of
philanthropy on Twitter earlier today. Withregards to that game you're talking about,

(41:14):
we will have fun with real audio. I promise it's worth it when we
come back, specially when you hearthe Chicago call what really Really? I
would describe it as not elite.I described Classically Chevy Sugarland as very elite,
and Classically Chevy Highway six so elitethat they're open for you on Sundays.
Classical Elite Chevy Highway six open foryou on Sundays. When it's time

(41:36):
to get hooked up with that brandnew vehicle of your dreams. Is no
better place to go than either ofthese two classic elite locations for your brand
new Chevy. When you purchase anew vehicle, as I've done, from
classical elite Chevy sugar Land or Classicelitees Chevy Highway six. You get a
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gonna get two years of free maintenance. Together, let's drive. Ask for

(41:59):
the owner Jeff or Tiffany Sebastian,and you know you'll be working with the
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great people over at Classic Elite ChevySugar Lanta, Classic Elite Chevy Highway six.
And when you head on over there, you tell him Adam Wexler sent
you on by two lifelong Houston sportsguys named Adam Talking Your Teams series.

(42:28):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are theA Team A. It is the A
team here on Sports Talk seven ninetyThe off the off air conversation again clutch,
but the on air conversation even better. As we get into our number
two, much to the delight ofMatt Thomas, we will be doing a

(42:52):
full show today before we make ourway over to some Rockets festivities tonight.
Vernon Maxwell has already done one aheerancewith the station today. He will be
doing another appearance that his station relatedtomorrow. If you have not been over
to the brand new facilities over offof eight oh one Emmanual right behind the

(43:12):
Dynamo Stadium, right across the streetfrom the other Woodrows the Little wood Rows
Edo edition is it's open. It'sready for business. It is absolutely fantastic,
And Vernon's going to be hanging outthere tomorrow afternoon between three and four
o'clock in anticipation of the game againsthis favorite NBA team. Now you saw
him last night, I assume hemade his way to the court signed a

(43:35):
ball they gave to the fans.I thought he was going to back up
Dylan Brooks, so when he wentout there, you know, this is
during just kind of a random middleof the game timeout. It was in
the first half, so the playersare obviously their benches, The officials have
gone over to the scorers table,will get a little bit of water,
or just go to their whatever positionthey'll be in when the ball gets put
back in play, and one ofthose officials is over by the bench for

(44:00):
the Bulls and I couldn't even tellwhich one it was, but Vernon after
he waived the crowd and they gavethe ball and how it's time for the
in timeout performers, on appearance peopleto make their way off the court.
Yeah, and we all know wherethey go. They go towards the visiting
team's tunnel. He doesn't. Hegoes towards the other team's bench, and
I'm like, he must know somebodyover there. He must be going to

(44:22):
say hello. And he stops toat the official and you know, says
hello and shakes his hand. Didn'tlook like a too old and an official,
but he obviously knew him. Andthis is in the middle of the
you know, the game is goingon. It's like game action. Then
he goes all the way over tothe Bulls bench and from behind just bear
hugs one of their assistant coaches andit's just shaking him around. He's I
wouldn't say he's in the middle oftrying to coach any players, but he's

(44:44):
got his clipboard in his hand.He's facing his bench and they haven't quite
finished the time out yet. It'smo cheeks and I don't think at the
time he knew who it was hewas doing that, And you know,
normally you don't get attacked even playfullyduring the course of the game. Right,
And then Vernon made his way offthe court. Did he play for

(45:06):
him somewhere he had to have well, did you you know? You know
he started in San Antonio briefly,yep. And then he was here or
he was traded for cash. Itwasn't even cash considerations. He was just
straight up, here's some dough.Take him off our hands. Best and
the longest part of his career wasspent here in Houston. Uh huh.
And then he played for Philly,San Antonio, Orlando, Charlotte, Sacramento,

(45:29):
Seattle, Philly, in Dallas.Oh, that's it, that's it.
I just it's so weird. Afterthe Rockets, he and Kenny Smith,
I just like have this it's likea void in my brain. I
don't know where they went. Iknow where they went because you just told
me, but I don't remember it. Like he even had a good game
for Sacramento. Yeah. I wastalking to someone talking to Curtis over at

(45:51):
Space City Home Network about his postRockets career. Shout out to Curtis,
great dude, great dude. Andit wasn't that I didn't remember where he
played more. So I just rememberedthat it wasn't of great unfortunate, it
wasn't of great significance. Yeah,the career was for the most part over,
even though he managed to be inthe league for another six years.
Kenny played another season after Houston inDetroit, Orlando and Denver. How did

(46:17):
he? And that was it?Ten day contracts? Oh, probably more
than ten day contract. In Denver. He managed to squeeze in thirty three
games, so I'm imagining it wasmore than ten unbelievable. Unbelievable. All
right, So here's the thing.Last night, we're watching the game and
this is all unfolding, and uh, we'll just start back in the order
that we attempted last segment. Yeah, start with the radio call for the

(46:38):
accurate depiction of events for those thatcan't see the action. Thanks. Jalen
comes across the timeline, gets absolutelyhammered out in mid court. Goodness to
Marta Rosen. What was that allabout? And they're gonna look at that
to see if it's a flaker.And now we got a little extra crick
activity. Oh it's it's teammates JalenBrooks and Crag And we got bodies of

(47:00):
the floor. It is a fullon scrub shorter mid court. Somebody lost
a shoe. Very important information thatwas there at the end, and it
was accurate. There were there wereshoes. I believe there was a second
shoe also on the court step onMatt. But I could understand them saying
oh oh, because I thought,listen there, you know how NBA there's

(47:22):
a rhythm to these things. Sure, little NBA push and shove things usually
have the same give or take amountof seconds, and then it diffuses.
When it continues to crescendo, youstart thinking, all right, when do
we get to malice at the palacelevel. That's always in the back of
my mind when this kind of stuffhappens. I don't think Houston would do
that. But man, well theywere NBA, let's say, was lucky

(47:45):
in that the location of this fightis as far from the sides of any
part of the court as you couldpossibly get. They were almost at mid
court. The foul that took place, I thought Matt was right on.
He's like, what was that?That's what I think everybody in the arena
was thinking, what was that?Why did he just barrel into the player
with the basketball forty feet from thebasket. You wanted to intentionally foul him.

(48:05):
Is what it looked like. Andthen he described the ongoing action after
that. This is what it soundedlike when Craig and Ryan got a hold
of it. That's a characteristic ofDamar frustration there. I don't know what
it was. I don't know.Wow, now dealing books text exception to

(48:25):
it. Now those two have tobe separate as we have a massive amanity
in the middle of the Florida nighthere at Toyota Center. My goodness,
gotta be careful here. These guysare still going at it. I want
to make sure everybody's out of thereand say, it's like Fred's kind of

(48:46):
getting into it. So we knowthey're there to have a television, so
they don't have to go into superextreme detail. You're watching what they're watching,
right, They're talking to an audiencewho has the same view that they
do. Occasionally you'll go off monitor, certainly because you have a better view
than the TV viewer. You canwatch whatever you want. But you know,

(49:08):
Craig did a nice job of indicatingwhat was now taking place. Now
Dylan has gone over, as Mattsaid, teammates. He was telling you
that Dylan Brooks is standing up forhis teammate. There. He's gone over
and he's gotten to uh DeMar deRozan and wanted to at least tell him
what you just did. It wasnot okay, and which again we don't.

(49:28):
We don't need this and that's notyou know, that's my guy,
that's not We know. We allknow about Dylan Brooks's reputation. We do.
Yeah, are you sure well,because if you don't, Chicago,
let them tell you it. Heturned around when when Dylan walked up to
him, and I don't know ifit was interverted or not, but it

(49:49):
was a Draymond Green turn. He'lltell you himself and I'll read you what
he said about it talking about DeMarde Rozan afterwards. Why I can tell
you it was not inadvertent before weplay the Chicago fee lengthy because there's a
little more information there. Just knowthat he is the leading scorer at this
point in the game when this ishappening. Just just keep that in mind.
Yeah, Adam Amine play by playFormer Bulls center sooner Stacy King color

(50:14):
analyst of the margin. We gotthat rebound of it Rosen Banks and Jalen
Green Green a little slow to getup, and now that's going to be
reviewed for a potential flavored I guessyes, Oh boy, here we go.
Now, Dylan Brooks is going tomake things happen the only way he
knows how, and Craig is goingto separate him. Bodies are him the

(50:35):
depted Gooding security guards. Well,Dylan Brooks Delman. Brook's always got to
try to start something. He's gota reputation. He didn't write to foul.
You haven't a hard foul didn't likeit. Then he w have to
say something to tomorrow you guys hisface, and then let's have it all
started, and everybody try to separateTobie White right back in the thick of

(50:55):
things where Dylan Brooks is the sameguy who punched Donovan Mitchell and the groin
got into a Flavor two situation withGary Payton the second in the playoffs when
he was with Memphis. We're playingGolden State a couple of years ago.
He punched Lebron James and the groinduring the playoffs last year. He was
the one that said Lebron is oldand has nothing going on. Thirty nine

(51:20):
points to him. I mean hehad his resume, he was ready,
he thought he was ready. Didhe have this thing he said? Or
even the way he described Dylan's makeall factual, But how did he have
it at the ready? Because he'sreally well, he's you know, both
of us actually talked to him lastnight. Yeah, he's a nice guy
and I think he does good work. Yeah, No, I was.
I was because of that, andespecially because of the interaction I had with

(51:45):
him after the game as he waswalking out. I was very trying to
wave to you guys. I hadlike an hour more of work to do,
but you guys just totally ignored me. I didn't see. I think
you're being overly sensitive. I didn't. I was disappointed when I heard this,
not because of what you said,which is the accuracy, but because
of how he was trying to Becauseif you go back and look at that

(52:05):
video on social media, all ofthe Rockets fans are like, are you
bleeping kidding me right now? Andall the Bullser fans are like, yeah,
man, Dylan Brooks, he sucks. Yeah, So what again?
What happened? And I was gladI was able to capture the in arena
video, which includes the fans reactionto seeing it. Fans that are watching
the game saw the foul, butwhen you see it on replay, you're

(52:27):
seeing how out of basketball play thatwas from DeRozan. So again for Stacey
King to say, oh, youhad to get so that's where it all
started, well that's clearly not whereit all started. Yeah, that was
a lie. It all started.The might have started because a teammate of
Jalen's wanted to say something to someonewho just flagrantly found him there. Actually

(52:50):
isn't something you could have said thatwould have been less accurate. Well that's
you're talking about three things later,But saying that that's what started, probably
nothing else happens if Dylan Brooks doesn'tdo anything. I wasn't sure, and
I've gone back to watch it thatevery rocket actually saw what happened. And
this is a play where a menand Dylan are just above the three point
line. Fred is down on thebaseline in front of the play on that

(53:13):
side, and Jeff Green is likeforty feet away from the play on the
baseline on the other side. Iassume Jeff saw it because he would be
looking at the ball. I knowFred saw it because you can see him
in the picture, and he goestowards Jalen initially to see if he's okay.
A men was watching it because hehad just given up the ball in
that direction. The only Rocket playeron the court who did not see the

(53:35):
foul is Dylan Brooks. It wasbehind him. He wasn't looking. It's
probably a good thing, and sowhen he went over to DeMar DeRozan,
he didn't go over there with anymore malice than he did. He grabbed
his arm, his right arm first, before he was close enough to him
I think to have even said anything. And that's why DeMar DeRozan ripped the
elbow out of his hand and acrosshis face and made contact, luckily not

(54:00):
very strong contact with Dylan's chin,and that's why Dylan got more agitated and
they came together, and very easylip reading to be done. Damar happened
to have his face more on camerathan Dylan's, which was off, but
you could clearly read the lips ofwhat DeMar DeRozan was saying to Dylan at
that time. As we said lastsegment, I think it was officiated properly.
I think it was handled as wellas could be hoped by the players.

(54:23):
The only thing that could come ofit, I think is something for
the fact that he threw an elbowthat connected in the middle of an incident.
Talking about DeRozan finer suspension, there'sI don't like if Dylan Brooks got
hurt and fell down like it's almostworse, even though the contact would have
been the same, But it washis head versus any other part of his
body. That's where your elbows are. I mean, well, I just

(54:45):
mean if he hits him with inthe chest with it, it's different.
Well, it looks different. Hecan't do that because he wasn't even bothering
to turn around. And I wantedto share DeMar's thoughts because what he said
afterwards about it, I think indicateswhy it went the way it did.
You know, whether you you agreewith it or not, this is the
way he felt, yo, hesaid. This is him describing the contact
with Jalen. He was surprised becauseabout being flagranted out of the game upon

(55:09):
review, I was surprised from thesimple fact I was just trying to hedge
out and be aggressive. Obviously bumpedhim. But if you look at it,
I kind of tripped into it.I'm not dumb these days, it's
just so hard to sell when yougo back and look at review any it
wasn't anything I was trying to doIntentionally, it looked anything but that.
Granted, I do think there wasa slip, but the same result of

(55:31):
the foul call is gonna happen regardlessof he ran it. He ran into
the guy with the basketball. Hedid what Morris did to Jokic several years
ago. That's the kind of foulhe took. Luckily, Jalen wasn't physically
able to go back at him theway Yokic went back at Morris. But
that's the type of foul it was. You had a bigger player in the
other situation, You had more forcethan the other situation. Granted that was

(55:53):
not as hard as DeRozan hit him, but that was the action. But
the description of what took place withBrooks, it's more about this code that
DeMar DeRozan, uh I guess livesby and I don't think he's alone,
but he says, just walking upon me in any type of way.
That was the answer to why didyou get so upset? Why were you

(56:15):
so agitated with. You know,Dylan, was it something he said?
He says it was basically just walkingup on me in any type of way.
I don't play walking up on somebodywhen their back is turned. That's
just not a thing we do.I walked away from the situation after the
foul. I just like felt likeit's an issue walking up on any man
from behind. To his defense,with what he's saying here, specifically,

(56:38):
if you go back and look atthe initial what have you, Zubots is
coming up? Not Zubots? Whyam I cooch Vusovich? I get those
two mixed up all the time,Yankees, Dodgers, Zubots, voca whatever.
Vusovich is coming up on his leftside and grabs his arm, and

(57:01):
he thinks it's whomever. He doesn'tknow if it's a rocket ari bowl,
and he kind of flinches in andtakes a like umbrage to that too.
So even if he's trying to softenthis with his description of it or just
explain himself away for his reaction toDylan, at least he's consistent in that
he reacted the same way to somebodycoming up behind him. I get what

(57:22):
he's saying I'm totally understanding of that. It's just that's so it's very Rodman
like, Yeah, you went inthere and you committed the foul, but
you walked away. Okay, Sowhere's this other player supposed to come from?
Mm hm, he walked up behindyou, because that's where he was.
And you're pretending nothing's coming of this. Right when you run over a
guy's teammate, what do you expectthe four other guys to do? Nothing?

(57:44):
I mean possible they do Nothing's Brooksis really the only one who went
to DeRozan. So he's basically sayingif Brooks had yelled louder sooner so he
could have turned around before he swunghis elbow across his face. And like
I said, it's probably a goodthing didn't see it, because nobody is
disputing the fact that after you truckedJalen Green, you stood over him and

(58:05):
said something. Maybe that was thetrip, the trip, give me a
break, you plowed the guy.Come on now, right, so again
back to the very first call.That's that's what I saw, what Matt
said, and the reason what isit? Because was that why? Yeah,
Jalen Green blocked your shot and saidsomething to you, right, and
that was never really truly approached.He was just saying, you know,
it's time to commit a foul ofit's a physical game. And then it's
definitely was a physical game. Andif you guys have noticed since the break

(58:30):
or maybe even sooner, the Rocketshave kind of done this a lot.
They're sippy. But I think that'sNBA related, not right. I think
the NBA's officials are allowing this styleof play a lot more and it suits
the Rockets very well. Yeah,because they are the embodiment of their coach.
We will continue to discuss. Westill have layers of the show Hey

(58:51):
story to get to as well aswe continue here. On a Friday edition
of the eighteen, Godam Adam theeighteen in the afternoon, what Hey came
up with that idea? Possibly?Adam went back to Adam Clinton and Adam
wex Flord on Sports Talk seven ninetyIt is the a team here on Sports
Talk seven ninety Friday edition of theprogram. I do love that with this

(59:16):
show Hay stuff, the latest exampleof and I don't want to say this
is the latest example of them coveringfor him, but they for example,
Tisha Thompson's the one that wrote theinitial story that got all of this kind
of talking. I guess the latestheadline an hour ago was inside the evolving

(59:38):
story of what happened was sho heyo Tani and his interpreter. I mean
that is that's a fact. Itis evolving as far as the story goes,
because we're finding out more. ButI am fascinated to see, like,
for example, his reps are askingfor a probe into the theft.

(59:58):
That is another story that's out there. If he's guilty of what you know,
some people think he may or maynot have done here. That's just
like trying to throw off the scent, is it not? But I keep
coming back to if the FEDS areinvolved in this thing, even if it's
not involved initially because of Otani,all of this is going to come out
in the wash. There's like aninety nine percent conviction rate. Yeah,

(01:00:22):
this is certain situation. You couldyou could even say this has nothing to
do with though Tani has everything todo with They are and who do they
want to to get, so tospeak, the better or the guy running
the illegal gambling out outlet, thebookie. He's the bigger fish. That's
who they're going after. And now, granted, but there's collateral damage,

(01:00:42):
sure there is, but it's they'renot it's not that's not who they're almost
ever going after. Heck, theygo after them so they can get them,
to get them the big fish.But that's not really how this one's
played out. But that's why FEDSare involved. That's why it's much much,
much bigger than any investigative group thatRobert Manfred could put together to try
to handle this situation. But ifyou you know, ESPN is going to

(01:01:04):
probably be However, she was ableto get behind a lot of this and
unearth a lot of this. She'scontinued to do so. I mean that
article is updated as early this afternoon, got a timeline along with it with
where things are going. But we'reunfortunately going to get only this And I
know some people besides myself already thefirst day, and I'll say it again

(01:01:27):
today, and I'll probably have tosay it again on Monday, and then
Tuesday, maybe by Wednesday, theday before the Dodgers open their season at
home Game three. At some pointsomebody in an authoritative position might have something
to say about this, even ifit's a nothing statement because there's nothing from
the team, any of its youknow, front office personnel, the GM,

(01:01:47):
the owner of the president, anythinglike that. There's nothing from Major
League Baseball, not even to saywe've launched an investigation. Even though they
are not investigating the same things theFED would be investigating. Their concerns would
be different. They're looking into it. I mean, are they just trying
not to say we've launched an investigationwhen they actually have, which is probably

(01:02:08):
true, but they don't normally dothat. If nobody cares about the semantics
of it, either you have oryou haven't. So why don't you just
say that you have? Or ishe such a big deal you don't know
what to do? There? Yougo that all that stuff you said,
that's it right there, because ifyou turn away from it and just say
this is you know a lot ofteams, leagues, players, owners,

(01:02:31):
well this is for the authorities.We can't comment on this because it's an
ongoing case. Things like that.I think major League Baseball would love to
take that position. Let them dowhat they do and will be reactionary to
it. Show hey plays, wedon't talk about it. It's not a
distraction. The Dodgers don't make astatement. We don't make a statement.
This is so far out of ourleague in our hands that they'll take it

(01:02:52):
and we'll figure it out. Wefeel bad for the robbed player, the
theft that he's suffered from, andwe'll do everything we can to support him.
Let me ask you a question,and this is for everybody listening.
And I've been thinking about this anddidn't bring it up earlier because I was
waiting for the exact right moment todo this. But just as it pertains
to know what we're getting a pushbackfrom Dodgers fans that kind of thing.

(01:03:14):
All things are the exact same,Everything is the exact same. Take out
Shoheo Tani's name, put in Joseal Touve or any astro. Buts,
as a matter of fact, putin you're on Alvarez just because he wasn't
a part of the twenty ways youcan bury jen Lo in the process.
I hear you he has an interpreter. If you're trying to make all things

(01:03:35):
equal, tell me this wouldn't becovered different, Well, you can't.
I know what you're doing, andI totally agree with you. It would
absolutely accept there is a difference becauseof the previous scandal. No, well,
that's part of it. But thereal difference is no other player in
the sport is on his level,correct, even Aaron Jared Jo, but
nobody's even close. Alvarez is notselling the game in nationally. Neither give

(01:04:00):
me a similar market to Houston.You know, I don't have to.
You're what you're saying is you're totallyright. But I'm trying, as I'm
trying to take away any biases,I still think that guy, whoever he
is, in whatever market, doesn'tget the benefit. They take it away
from Houston and pick a different playerin his team. That's what I'm saying.
Tell me a different do you tellme? Do you think the answer

(01:04:23):
is different? Because you let's justdo Acuna okay, because he's he's one
of the top five players in themajors, right yep, and not in
a big quote unquote market, eventhough he is in a I guess marquee
franchise. From recognizability and all thatkind of stuff, he would like they
wouldn't get the same benefit of thedoubt. They wouldn't show hay is so

(01:04:45):
much as writing on this nothing thatcame out of the story, ever put
him in the crosshairs like you're makingit out to be because the story doesn't
make sense, because the amount ofmoney that's involved makes very little sense.
Well, even we're trying to say, because we don't make us this naive,
we can't believe this is can't betrue. Here's why, you know,
the biggest reason, because even ifshow Hey didn't bet on baseball,

(01:05:09):
the story has changed so ridiculously tothe point where we're support we're being told
to believe. Okay, we're gonnagive show Hey the benefit of the doubt.
Fine, but you're still gonna haveto believe that his interpreter bet on
a bunch of sports, but noneof them were baseball, to the tune
of four and a half million.Come on, man, nobody believes that
he bet on all these other sportsbut not baseball. Why Because he's associated

(01:05:33):
with show Hey, and he knewhow much trouble it would be, enough
trouble it cost him four and ahalf million. He knew the rules.
That's that's where you're right. Everythingyou're saying like it's you know, a
witness that that can't be believed.You know, is this a very Is
this a believable witness. This isa good witness. Why believe me?
It's it's what happened. This guy'sgonna be on some hotwater. So he's

(01:05:55):
okay betting. That's one thing peoplemight kind of assume who you are.
I guess at this level of money. I mean, we're talking about the
NCAA tournament betting on it. It'sa different level. But he's also okay
with betting on multiple sports. He'sokay with losing five hundred thousand dollars twice
and having Otani cover that, andthen he's okay with losing another three and
a half million more dollars. Hangingwith you is expensive. But he played

(01:06:19):
by the I'm not allowed to beton baseball rule. He didn't play by
the I'm not supposed to bet withan illegal bookie rule. He played by
that. I don't want to beton the sport, the only sport I'm
not allowed to because I'm associated withthe game. If you are to the
point where you're losing millions of dollarson gambling, I just can't in good

(01:06:40):
faith believe that all of that wason sports that aren't baseball. Every other
sport cricket, soccer, the otherbig sports hockey, football, basketball,
but no baseball, even though I'mthe right hand man and interpreter of the
biggest name in the game of MajorLeague Baseball. Funny thing about what you're
painting to me at least is okay. So he bet on baseball. He's

(01:07:03):
got inside information on baseball, sohe should be winning on baseball, right
and he's losing his ass. Soit's a not that easy even when you
have info. Now, the differenceis having the info, being the insider
doing the smart thing, and bettingagainst the Angels. If you just I
mean, we're also all the Astroswere involved in one of these bets supposedly.
Did you see that thread where theguy had insider information from a Braves

(01:07:25):
employee, You should. You shouldadd that to the conversation when we come
back next segment so people understand wherewe're coming from. But we get this
ridiculous premise and assumption about the gamblerswhen there's so much more to it,
like fixing it, because we haven'teven gotten to that aspect of it at
all. Like Shoho Tani coming outof a game early on a day he
pitches show Hey, Tani doing whoknows what in a game, striking out

(01:07:48):
for the third time in a game, he's throwing an extra inning, and
then now he's injured. There's allsorts of things that could be with it,
because you're not just betting win loss, you're betting run tolls. You're
gonna be a lot in game,live betting the game as it's going on
for all we know, and it'svery possible to do that with today's technology.
There's a lot of things that couldreally be more in play than just

(01:08:08):
well, my inside information is theAngels are bad, so I'm going to
take I'm gonna bet money line ontheir opponent today and see how that goes.
Fascinating, All right, Yeah,we're I want to get to that
thread because I don't know if it'strue or not, but it's believable.
There's dates and games that match thetimeline. So we'll explain that when we
get back. Right now, though, I want to explain to you just

(01:08:29):
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(01:09:16):
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(01:09:39):
Classically Chevy sugar Land, classically ChevyHighway six. Tell the Madam Clanton from
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Shoot, that's up triple here,every rock is going on the go with
the iHeartRadio ad point. You gotthe home of the Rockies. Sports Talks

(01:10:00):
a team rolling along here on SportsTalk seven to ninety to halfway point of
a Friday edition of the program.Lot of show Heyotani conversation just because it's
the possibilities at least are fascinating.The reality, we don't really know what
it is for sure yet as thislike we said last segment, the story

(01:10:21):
is evolving. And that's exactly theword you would want to use, because
at this point we're still getting information. Lots of people aren't wanting to talk.
Understandably, the Dodgers are like,yeah, we're out. We're not
going to be saying anything about thisuntil we have our facts together. What
we do know is that show HaoTani, the biggest name in Major League
Baseball, had his interpreter fired oras they put it, terminated and massive

(01:10:46):
theft, as they're calling it,has been alleged that's in the stories plural
from Tisha Thompson on ESPN. He'sthe one that kind of started reporting on
all of this, and that Hani'sreps have asked for a probe into the
theft. What we haven't really talkedabout. And again I hesitate on things

(01:11:08):
like this because it's social media.It's just some dude, but I'm not
the only one looking at it.As of right now, the first tweet
in this thread has two point eightmillion views, and this guy is claiming
he has this information from an insidesource with the Atlanta Braves, somebody called

(01:11:29):
Timmy Smokes. I can't even believeI'm saying this, Oh Tani throwing games
a thread. This is basically oneman's attempt to show, hey, there's
information backing this theory. This isreally just pulling me I did. There's
somebody out there that really wants toshow, hey, yeah, that's the

(01:11:54):
best dad joke of your life.I didn't even try. Pretty SIMI I'm
gonna throw on some khakis and maybeeven some of Matt Thomas's crocs just walk
around the station and recording it fora liner. Later. I like Kelly
claims he doesn't own a pair,right, so number one July twenty second,
twenty twenty two. I like thefact that these are all during an

(01:12:15):
Astros Championship season receipts. A betof one million dollars was placed for the
Atlanta Brave to score over six anda half runs against the Angels, parlayed
with Braves minus three and a halfthe bet. The bet was placed with
a bookie in Missusawa. I don'tknow if I'm saying that right. That's

(01:12:36):
show Hay's hometown. Yeah. Thepitcher for the Angels sho hey Otani that
stats for show Hay that day wereas follows six and a third innings,
pitched, six hits, six earnedruns, one walk at the plate.
You ask, yes, oh forthree with two strikeouts. Was he throwing

(01:12:57):
games? I'll let you decide.July fourth, twenty twenty three, in
parentheses America's Birthday Love That A betwas placed in the same hometown with the
same bookie for four point two milliondollars on the over for the padres run
total. Guess who was pitching?Now, he writes, you guessed it?

(01:13:19):
Show fraud and it sounds like he'skind of making you lean a certain
way. We thought Pete o'tani wasclever, not show fraud. Okay,
five innings, five earned runs overthree at the plate. It was just
a Padres run total over correct.So as long as you could take care

(01:13:41):
of serving up pitches that the Padreswould hit, everything would be just fine,
which he did. Not. Onlythat, he's made sure to put
additional runners on base by walking fourof them and just five innings while giving
up seven hits and five runs noteven ten days later. This is a
ten million dollar bet. This isbig, big, big cheddar, same

(01:14:05):
bookie, same town, and it'sa parlay with plus twenty five hundred odds
Astros minus one and a half Astrosover six and a half, show Hay
over four and a half runs allowed, show Hey under six and a half
strikeouts, game total over eleven anda half. Wow, we won by

(01:14:30):
one. Those read them off eachone by one. Astros minus one and
a half astros one by two astrosover six and a half runs, Astros
scored seven, show Hey over fourand a half runs allowed. He gave
up five. I remember this game, by the way, show Hey under
six and a half strikeouts. Hestruck out seven. Oh my gosh,
who Jake is that you? Game? Total over eleven and a half.

(01:14:57):
They scored twelve. Like every thingthat went, oh everything, every single
one was right on it and overexcept for the strikeout. Show Hay's line
for that day six innings, pitchnine hits, five earned runs, allowing
two home runs. Showhy went twofor five at the plate. The extra
motivation to make the over cash reallyhelped. He was a true or.

(01:15:19):
He has a true addiction and problem. He needs real help. Hopefully the
true story gets out and the poorinterpreter can be set free from this madness.
And he tags the following at espinat Jeff Passen, at Ken Underscore
Rosenthal, and he hashtags Otani.He didn't say fraud Twani. Apparently in

(01:15:40):
this he also goes on to anadditional tweet to tag in John Hayman,
John Morosi, who really loves theDodgers MLB, and our good buddy at
b Nightingale. Okay, so thiscould be. Those are so remarkably on.
He caps it off by saying that'sinside infro from al a Braves employee,
just to reiterate, Okay, Iwanted to give some background to the

(01:16:04):
I guess losing strikeout, the onethat lost him the strikeout over under.
He was sitting on six strikeouts orfive strikeouts with a couple of runners on
and the top of the fifth inningand one out, struck out Chas McCormick
to give him six and finished theinning with his bet losing seventh strikeout against

(01:16:26):
blind Madris. Oh my gosh,how many games did BLI get into last
year? Five? Not very many, unbelievable. So why should I believe
any of the things you just mentioned? Well they Why is that it's just
not some random person who thought,mean, this is going to be really
easy to paint him in a terriblelight. Let me do it. Five

(01:16:47):
seconds of research. Check on ina game that he pitched, look at
what the lines were, and I'mgoing to go into head and tell you
this is what happened here, eventhough it could be completely made. First,
the first major indicator is the amountof money being bet. Not anybody
can just do that. No,but why even the belief that that's a
accurate Oh how does this guy knowhe but that amount of money on this

(01:17:08):
particular Combine that with the same bookiein the same hometown of Shoheo Tani.
But there's no he's not providing youany actual facts of this. He's just
telling you what happened. He's notsaying I like, he's not an investigator.
We like, we don't have theslip, we don't have the phone
conversation, we don't have his bettingaccount. Like, that's not what he's
telling you. There's just some andhe's telling you that this is coming from

(01:17:29):
a Braves employee, which baseball isthe ultimate turnover sport. Who knows.
Maybe this guy was working for theAngels at the time. Maybe he knows
more. This is just what hewas allowed to Was he speaking under the
condition of an anonymem I don't know. I mean, I don't know what
Timmy smokes, his ethics are likewhen it comes to non journalism. It's
just I know, this is ridiculous. And I even said this before you

(01:17:53):
walk back in the room. Twopoint eight million dollars, two point eight
million views to this thread, Soit's getting traction. I mean, maybe
he's about to launch a minor mediaempire in Los Angeles and he's going to
call it showboy show fraud, Ilove that he put show see. If
you're gonna be believable, you mightnot want to put show fraud in the

(01:18:15):
third tweet of the threat. Isn'tsomebody thinking what John boy did with the
Astros to launch his media career,Well, the problem is jump on this
one. The problem with that isit's even more pathetic because it was launched
by a fake Twitter account posing tobe the niece of Carlos. Why I'm
asking you these questions. What makesthis any more believable than someone literally down

(01:18:39):
the hall in our office sending outa tweet like that. Well, because
this guy has his face and hisavatar instead of an egg like John Boyce
said, Oh I got to takethis run a face right? You don't
know that it's his face. Itlooks like a guy who would go by
Timmy Smokes. I'm just saying.I'm just saying. I'm just saying,
Hey, Twitter world, what aparlay in? It was me? I

(01:19:01):
use my pension because the Goldmans can'ttouch it. Would you go to oj
for as an expert on the gamblingsubject? Well, he's in Vegas more
than anybody I know. That's nota resident, And by resident I mean
someone who does a show there,not an actual Vegas resident like my boy
Hunter. I don't know. Look, it's even let's take all that for

(01:19:21):
what it's worth. Let's say it'sthere. Are you still on the show
Hey was involved? This? Couldn'tthis be someone who has intimate knowledge of
him being sore, him being nothimself. It's a good bet to play
show hey against this good offense.Okay, he's not right, but then
why is the four and a halfmillion dollars coming out of his account and

(01:19:42):
no one else's That's that's I justit. There's too much smoke objection leading
the witness. I withdraw. There'stoo much Timmy smokes here. You know
where there's Timmy smokes, there's fire. I can't. I just I feel
like you're teaching her kid not tosmoke. I just this is just fascinating,
and the most fascinating part of allis again in twenty twenty four,

(01:20:06):
we are once again asking media membersto be responsible journalists, this time in
these sports realms. If that's justnot something, that's what your real question
ought to be. Instead of saying, if this was some other player,
would they do this? Would itbe treat this is the Dodgers. This
is show hey, and we havethe same particulars that were man handling this
story before, Buster, Bob John, Jeff Jaff Are they going to do?

(01:20:30):
I mean, shouldn't they be droppingeverything and moving in headfirst on this
story. This should be their publicationsor outlets should have turned I don't care
what you're working on. Get towork on this. Yeah, are they
going to It may be more difficultto find out because again, nobody was
working on the Astros story either tothat extent. Now, a lot of
reporters have come out and said we'dheard this, and we'd heard that,

(01:20:54):
we had nothing concrete. Yet nobodyconcrete until the athletic got Mike Fires to
tell them, Hey, I wasin the clubhouse and this is what happened.
I'm so glad you brought that up, because yet another layer when we
come back, just the most richthing I've ever seen in my life.
I'll explain. Yeah, us writethis is a Trillo ge bump Bee,
get in the babe boom. Weroll over with the eight team. Adam

(01:21:14):
Westland, Adam Klann. Right now, let's go two Adams for the price
of one. On Sports Talk sevenninety. It is the eight team here
on Sports Talk seven ninety. Myfavorite tweet in the last like twelve hours.
I was scrolling as I do Isaw this from Evan Relick. My

(01:21:34):
two cents, I have no ideawhat he sounds like. We've had him,
we've spoke, we have not hadhim on the show. You know
why, because he didn't show up. That's the coward. Geez. Uh
yeah, just go through the publicistand okay, what down? Okay,
what day? What time? Yeah, it's all set. Okay, good,
he'll be calling in. He didn'tcall in. Uh yeah, he

(01:21:55):
couldn't do that day, next day, Yeah, let's do it. Didn't
come. He's a coward, Okay, My two cents. It's stunning that
Major League Baseball and Rob Manford havea Department of Investigations and the league did
not immediately announced DOI was being deployedto investigate in asterisks. All of it

(01:22:15):
just a brutal look for the league'scredibility on gambling and integrity. Oh,
I'm so glad that you a haveweighed in and b used the word integrity
at the very end of that sentence, as if they had integrity before.
I mean, can you botch handlinga situation like the astro scandal anymore than

(01:22:38):
Major League Baseball and Rob Manford didwith their DOI. And by the way,
let's they stop hearing Aboutdi's twenty fourto seven, whether they're in sports
or whether they're in other situations.What do you want them to say?
I mean, that's who's doing thework. Stop investigating fraud where it's not
there. I did nothing wrong,the bank said, So believe me,

(01:22:58):
well on this one, On thisone, mar Lago is many many millions
across that one off the board.Let's make up another one, and to
the next one, let's make upsomething else. This is called law fair.
It's like warfare, only it's withlaw. Believe me, tell me
he actually did he ever say that? Are that many people are using with

(01:23:19):
regards to that stuff. But Idigress. So take it back to the
release of the statement, right,and then some of the things that Manfred
said, you know, things likewe'll let the fans handle this, or
let the fans kind of decide howthey want to treat the team violence.
Right, It's basically he could havesaid nothing, but that's what he wanted.
He wanted to be even though he'sthe one handling it and turn and

(01:23:42):
handling the punishment. He didn't wantto be involved in it. He didn't
want to be the guy who hadsaid he wanted everybody else to handle thats
and writers in the media real quickon that. I'm not even kidding when
I say this. I know thatin their little stupid conference room that they
made that decision, they thought themselves, Yeah, fans are gonna handle this.
They're gonna give those players a goodtalking to in every stadium around Major

(01:24:05):
League Baseball, never once thinking thatAstros fans were gonna get dragged up and
down social media, attacked, threatenedwith violent all this stuff that happened because
they're too stupid to foresee anything,and they've proven that time and time again.
You know, the only other,maybe if you even believe this option,
is he comes out, hands outthe punishment. The statement reads just

(01:24:27):
as it does, but he indicates, Look, this is something that you
know, maybe it's on our enda little bit. We let things get
too loose. The timing of someof the memos sent to teams was probably
a little bit reactionary on our partinstead of proactive. We had provided these
teams with so many different avenues tomake themselves better, and then trusted them
that they wouldn't use it in waysthey shouldn't. And now we're gonna put

(01:24:49):
a stop to it. I don'tthink the Astros are alone, but any
initial investigations we've done in the past, or I've done up to this point,
we haven't found any team to doit at this level. We haven't
found Why are not saying that otherteams haven't done things. We're just saying
we have not been able to getto the bottom of it, so to
speak. We had a person hereon the inside, the pitcher for the

(01:25:10):
team, gave us all this informationthe players that we then had to ask
about it. We're able to corroborateit. We've not been able to do
that with any other team. Wedon't want to have to do that because
we want this to be the endof it. The Astros of the team
getting punished. Major League Baseball isgoing to suffer from this. It's not
necessarily all on the Astros. Theyjust happen to be the team that's getting
punished. Except for it is whatif I mean again, is that unbelievable

(01:25:32):
that he could have said all that, but if he did, would it
have made a difference. Do youthink to the Twitter verse to fans in
these other Cities series, it wouldhave made about as big of a difference
as the apology did. Okay,these guys haven't even said they're sorry,
then they do with admittedly one ofthe worst whoever that PR firm was that

(01:25:56):
was hired? I mean, comeon, but anyways, I digress tweets
us with something similar. Nick TreturoNo, although he'll be here apparently for
the opening series. I can't waitto meet up with flying Detective James Martinez
from NYPD Blue. But I digress. Nick tweets both of us and says,
this is totally believable. Manfred isterrified of possibly being the commissioner who

(01:26:20):
villainizes Otani. Think about this.He just retired. He just announced his
five years form now retirement announcement.He's like, oh, man, the
scandal is rough, but I thinkI can see the light at the end
of the oh Tony betting scandal.That's that's Rob Manfred's camp right now.
Yah. I think what Nick issaying is, you gotta think they're very

(01:26:41):
concerned about it, But what areyou gonna do? If it happened.
Literally, it's way worse. You'renot villainizing him if he did it or
did something it is because we don'treally know the facts of the story,
you know what the irony is.You could probably like, let's just Sayotani
is guilty of betting on baseball specifically, but just betting on sports in general,

(01:27:03):
and it got out of hand froma federal standpoint, you could use
the same the synopsis kid gloves whatevertreatment on this and say, try to
make it look like he was theonly one doing it. There's no way
show Heyo Tani is the only professionalathlete, professional baseball player betting on baseball

(01:27:28):
if indeed he is, no waynot in today's climate, there's no way
you can convince me of that,especially when you're we just got done talking
about Bickerstaff the other day. They'remaking bets in the game, in the
arena, in the NBA. There'sno way none. I'm sorry, I
don't believe it. I will not. I won't believe it. All Right,
five o'clock hour coming up next.We should probably talk about some football,

(01:27:50):
because it is football at five,and we will do that when we
come back. Two lifelong Houston sportsguys aimed at him, talking your team
series, Adam Clinton and Adam Wexlerare the A team a you got it?

(01:28:13):
Bussing football's five o'clock some five o'clockfootball. Professional footballs in America is
a special game. Who do youthink is the most likely superstar athlete in

(01:28:36):
the National Football League to be bettingon their own games? Go Calvin Ridley,
Wow, that came right out.He did get suspended for a year
for gambling on NFL games. Yeah, that's true, and now he's the
Titans problem. So the NFL hasalready gone through this suspending personnel and players
for gambling multiple times, multiple players, part seasons for many. For Ridley

(01:29:00):
it was the entire season, andhe's parlayed that suspension into a ninety two
million dollars years desires. By theway, no one's talking about the fact
that if Shohey actually gambled on games. Now you're talking about an organization that
had both a degenerate gambler and killeda guy. That's rough for the Angels,
but you know Astro's bad. Goahead, So can I take you

(01:29:23):
back to the last draft that theTexans had when they had their EVP of
Football Ops and their head coach lastGM in charge. That sounds awful.
It's Jackie Easter being Bill O'Brien.Twenty twenty. Take you back to that
draft and why it matters now.After Joe Burrow and Chase Young went off

(01:29:44):
the board at number one and numbertwo, the Houston Texans select Ohio State
cornerback Jeff Okuda. Then five moreplayers go off the board. With the
ninth pick in the twenty twenty NFLDraft, the Houston Texans elect cornerback Florida
CJ Henderson. Fast forward to thisoffseason. Both of those players have been

(01:30:06):
signed by the Texans after each topten pick in twenty twenty. They will
each now be playing for their thirdteams for different reasons. They actually both
have very very different outlooks, butit's impossible not to say they've been unbelievably
underwhelming, thus available in free agencyjust a couple of years later. Can

(01:30:29):
you imagine if I told you atany point since that April's draft, hey
man, the Texans are going toland two of these top ten players without
drafting either one of them just fouryears from now? Does that sound alright?
Like? Maybe Tua or Derek Brownor Justin Herbert or Andrew Thomas or
Chase Young or Jedrick Willis Junior orJoe Burrow or Isaiah Simmons or the other
two guys. So CJ. Hendersonwas officially signed by the Texans. They

(01:30:54):
made that announcement. It was reportedthat they were bringing him in for a
visit, and then he was signed. He was actually moved moved from the
Jags, who originally drafted him justin his second season, so they'd obviously
decided there were better opportunities for themto have their team built without him just
a year in change after he waspicked early in that twenty one season,

(01:31:15):
he was sent to Carolina, playeda little bit early on, was still
a part of their useful rotation ofcorners at the beginning of last year,
and then he wasn't and he wasgetting healthy scratches. That's he was available,
and there was obviously no fifth yearoption picked up, and so he
was available to any team that wantedhim. He's not expected. I wouldn't
expect him to be a frontline player. I don't even think it's a guarantee
he makes the team. But thisis what their free agency and I know

(01:31:40):
there's other players out there still.This is really what it looks like.
They are trying to find the sametypes of players that the last handful of
years, even last year that theywere signing. This will bring in competition.
This is somebody who has been onthe field before. Is there a
possibility that with us and with whatwe like to do, there's a little
bit more talent in there. Andthis is out a position and where there

(01:32:00):
are still at least Steve Nelson calibercornerbacks available, because literally Steven Nelson is
still available. I don't know thateither of these two players, or anybody
else on the roster, or evenanybody that they draft, especially if they
don't draft higher than forty two,is going to be better than Nelson.
But I understand the move in bothcases. I think the Okuda move is

(01:32:20):
one that has actual possibilities for somemerit for maybe this is where it really
clicks, because there were moments inDetroit briefly many more moments in Atlanta.
Has more recent team where you couldsee there's a good player there, it
just hasn't really. Injury is obviouslya major reason why I missed nearly an
entire season because of it, Sothat's something to consider. But we've talked

(01:32:41):
so much about their defensive line andhow they've almost completely reshaped it. A
couple guys on the interior will beback, obviously Will Anderson Junior is back,
but just about everything else is different. Our friend James Palmer and Steve
Weish have the NFL Report podcast,and we've heard from Brian Baldinger several times
before about the Texans. Dan Ifired up some Baldi sound and put it

(01:33:05):
in Sports Audio. It's right thereat the top of the list. That
was a topic how Nick and Demikowanted to rebuild what was already a very
good part of their team. Theirdefensive line was a strength. They were
good against the run, they hada pass rush. We mentioned, they
had the most sacks they've ever had. They were getting in the backfield,

(01:33:25):
they were getting to without finishing LamarJackson. They did not have to make
this a kind of the focus oftheir offseason, and it's hard to say
anything other than that's exactly what theydid do. Brian Baldinger huge thumbs up
for what the Texans did with theirdefensive line. Look, maliek Collins,
Sheldon Rankins. They were good lastyear. But they have now added you

(01:33:46):
know, obviously Daniel Hunter, andafter Chris Jones was signed re signed by
Kansas City and given that big,huge signing bonus, I thought Daniel Hunter
was the next best free agent inall the free agency coll be off his
best season opposite of Will Anderson rightnow. Then you add Deniko Autrey and
I know this. I know Denikogot Nick Casario exciting. This guy's just

(01:34:08):
one heck of a football player whereveryou play in Tennessee. Yeah, I
thought he was part of the bestdefensive line of football three years ago.
He can rush inside, outside,He's got out of the playoffs change,
He's got thirty sacks the last threeyears with the Titans. He's used to
being in a dominant front four defensiveteam. That's what this looks like.
Then you add Olly Foicosi and Marioyou know, Williams, and you add

(01:34:30):
some of those guys in front.You know fully, you know, can
really be that that guy that caneat up the double teams, the free
up Aziz Aushai here, and youknow all the linebackers Christian Harris that they
have there. I think this isquickly being built into one of the better
defensive fronts and all the football Icut it before he said Greenard because we've

(01:34:55):
played bald Baldinger before. He likesto call him John Greenard. Why didn't
eliminate the Mario Williams comment. Hemeant Mario Edwards, who was a recent
defensive lineman addition the Texans made He'splayed well. You can understand him confusing
the two. They're so similar.Can I played for the Texans. Far
be it for me to chastise someonefor speaking this week of all weeks.

(01:35:17):
I'll try to be better next week. But you know, just since twenty
twenty one he brought that up thatspecific timeframe. Both Autry and obviously Hunter
are among the league's most disruptive passrushers. They're now playing on the same
line as Will Anderson Junior. They'replaying in Demico Ryan's offense. What he
said about the Titans front, wecan definitely attest to because I totally agree,

(01:35:42):
especially when Jeffrey Simmons was at hisbest. That was a fearsome line
that they put out there, andthe flexibility Autrey, more than any other
player they signed, provides it.Just you know, they say it on
the offensive line and I hate it. Well, we just want to get
the you know, the best fiveguys out there, you know where we
offensive lineman that are flexible hate it. Either he's a guard or he's a

(01:36:03):
tackle, either a tackle or aright tackle, or it's just always as
worse when they do it that way. You do it in a pinch on
a Sunday afternoon, when you onlycarry eight active linemen, that's fine.
But shuffling guys all over the placebecause you liked I don't like defensive line
totally different story. When you've gota player who can beat people lined up
on the inside, and can beatpeople lined up on the outside, and

(01:36:25):
can chase down a quarterback from theedge position when he gets out of his
out of the pocket, and canbeat guys up the middle, beat a
running back, blow through a runningback, and get That's what Denico Autry
has already shown he can do inevery stop, and certainly in the last
two in Indianapolis for three years andmore recently in Tennessee for three years.
He's a little bit older, butthere really was no drop in what he's
been able to provide his teams before. And I think that's why he might

(01:36:48):
end up really shining even more,you know, double figure sax seasons repeatedly.
It is pretty shining pretty brightly fromwhere he's been lining up. I
don't see any reason that doesn't continuehere, and it probably allow me to
be less harsh about what they didbecause it's it's done with so much purpose.
They they do have a clear visionDemiko specifically, what does he want

(01:37:10):
in his line, which in aspan of two years now you could say
he's probably been able to put together. Last year they signed Rankins to a
one year deal. They had justextended Elite Collins. You really didn't know
what you had on the other sidebecause Grenard just hadn't been healthy. You
know, obviously Demiko wasn't here,and you put a lot of assets into
adding the guy you wanted to buildaround, Will Anderson Junior. Every one
of those items played out extremely positively, but it still wasn't necessarily what he

(01:37:35):
was looking for in his you know, four or five six person group up
front. It probably is more sothis year. He's the latest example of
I mean, we've had James Palmeron, but a lot of national types
that are legit excited about what theTexans defense could look like next season.

(01:37:56):
From a pass rushing specific standpoint,it's almos like and I think we're kind
of the same way. I don'tknow what they're gonna look like behind the
front foor or the front in general. But and we I mean to be
honest, we don't know what thefront's gonna look like itself, because it's
not It might not be done yet. Yeah, there's probably not a super
impactful addition, but more rotational.Didn't even mention Derek Barnett, and he's

(01:38:17):
obviously been brought back, but withAlsheer and Christian Harris just whatever else,
whatever rotation of other players is there. Denzel Perriman will not be back.
It'll be with the Chargers. They'regonna be Well, one thing, I
think they'll be chasing guys down allthe time. Backs out of the backfield,
quarterbacks who try to scramble. Ithink they're significantly quicker, faster upfront

(01:38:42):
front seven. That'll be to me, that's a huge part of curtailing the
Well, we called the right defense, we executed the right way, but
this ridiculous creative quarterback got out ofit and now we're hosed. Well,
it's not gonna be a twenty oneyard gain anymore. Maybe he got away
from you making it third and fourteeninstead of it's third and seven rather than
maybe a first down on the rarestof plays. And you know it's that

(01:39:05):
might end up being the most impressivepart of what the Texans do next year.
CJ is gonna be CJ in alllikelihood. I mean, he might
take a step back. I don'tknow. They're gonna play a tougher schedule,
but well, you keep saying thatthey're playing teams that will be harder
for the Texans defense to stop.Correct, will he maybe have it puts

(01:39:27):
more pressure on him to score ifthey're successful. But here's the deal.
If they are able to have abetter defense than last year with that kind
of turnover in major personnel, thatmakes that happen, that's probably the most
impressive part of this offseason. It'sgonna be no matter what they do on
offense. It tells you kind ofonce and for all, and whomever is

(01:39:48):
more of it or less of it, or how combined the effort is,
it should tell you once and forall, Yeah, he knows what he's
doing. They know what they're doing. Yeah, And you think, go
back to the original, Like thevery very beginning of this segment where you
rattled off all of those horrific draftpicks. Do you think anytime people in

(01:40:09):
the building or outside the building startquestioning Nick Cassario, he just pulls that
up and says, look, itcould be worse. Yeah, this this
one is there's there should be morepressure or eyeballs on it. I mean,
last year, you knew where youwere, you were terrible. You
have the opportunity to draft up quarterand you might have only what if they
they only came out of the draftwith CJ. Stroud and maybe one other

(01:40:30):
player. I mean they had totrade a very large amount to get to
Willie Anderson. They were the teamthat decided it is time to tank.
Tank Dell. Every other team hada pick before he was drafted. If
I'm not mistaken, at least one. Some had several, as did the
Texans, and they were the teamthat did it. But they're good now.

(01:40:51):
It is different. Missing on playerswon't kill you because you'll still be
good, but it'll be worse becausethis is your opportunity to win huge if
you don't miss It's it is whatis happening in Kansas City. Maybe they
can win without all these other additionalplayers that they've added through the draft,

(01:41:13):
because Mahomes is so ridiculous, butthey keep hitting on players that they draft.
They don't make any money, theymake huge improvements to your team.
It's such a loophole. And theguy he's handing off to is a seventh
round pick. It's not even aloophole. They're just drafting well to the
most important lineman for him. Neitherwere first round picks. It matters because

(01:41:33):
they're good. Yeah, that's whyyou're right. There is pressure and it
needs to be there, though,because you've got this, You've got this
guy. You've got the closest thingto Mahomes this side of Houston, Right,
that is that fair to say theclosest thing to Mahomes this side of
Would you say this Oude of Houstonor you say this Oiude of Kansas City.

(01:41:54):
Yeah, I probably screwed that up, and I should have said Kansas
City. But you knew where Imet, you know, when I was
going to go there. There actuallyare quite a few people that agree.
If you hadn't seen you know,power rankings. Time of year, post
free agency, it's pretty fun scrollingthrough the list from the back end to
the top. I'm just curious.I'll start there. Okay, the Titans
come in at twenty nine, Coltsare in at twenty one. You know,

(01:42:15):
Jaguars at nineteen, Vikings eighteen,Oh Brown's, Oh well, they
think the Browns defense is good.They're eleven. I still haven't seen the
Texans yet. Okay, here comesthis team. I'm at seven. I
haven't seen the Texans yet. They'rereally high on CJ. Stratwell. Bills
are at six. I still haven'tseen the Texans yet. They're out there.
There are people that really believed init. It's not all him,

(01:42:35):
but so much of it. Isthat the answer to the question of who's
probably the most likely if you wantto say, which team can and maybe
will knock Kansas City out of theplayoffs more often than anybody else the next
five years, answering this team isa great answer. And they owe them.
They owe them because I don't forJoe Montana and for Patrick Mahomes.

(01:42:58):
Yeah, whant to go all theway back to Joe Montana? No,
that was that was the Titans.Yeah, So I mean, we gotta
be consistent here. I like it. Yeah, Houston does deserve it,
though Houston does. I don't knowif the mcnairs do, but Houston does.
We haven't even gotten to that.Maybe we will next segment. And
in case you missed it, Hey, this is killer b Craig Vigia a
three thousand hit plump. You've gotkiller Aise in the afternoon, though they

(01:43:23):
have three thousand less hits. Oh, we have some fun. Adam Clinton
and Adam Weschler on Sports Talk.I guess we could say there's some breaking
news here. And in case youmissed it, that's correct, major League

(01:43:43):
Baseball announcing a formal investigation into ShoHeeo Talm. Thank god, his interpreter
from the news media will be lookedinto. Our Department of Investigations or DOI
began their formal process of investor gettingthe matter. Now, this one's for
you, Ac, because this isobviously an East Coast base baseball writer who

(01:44:08):
quote tweeted said announcement from Major LeagueBaseball and said, nearly six pm on
a Friday news dump. Correct.Yeah, well, I hope the investigation
goes better than Fanny's for him.I have very little confidence that Rob Manfred

(01:44:28):
is going to spearhead and get tothe bottom of this. I mean,
this is what I told you earlier. We already knew that they were looking
into it, because that's what theydo. The formal or not, this
had already happened great in there becausethey they felt compelled to acknowledge that something's
happening formally. Just like I said, I mean, we literally said this
not forty minutes ago. Have theylount an investigation, Well, they haven't

(01:44:50):
told us publicly, but of coursethey have, and now they've told us
publicly. Can I just share aninteraction I had on the same app.
Yeah, we found this huh.Well, you know the whole Timmy Smokes
thread that we covered earlier in caseyou missed it. We were talking about
all these bets that were placed curiouslyin sho Hay's hometown, some of which

(01:45:12):
were involving Astros games. But Iquote tweeted the first tweet of that thread
and I said, my favorite partof this thread is that a lot of
the same people who will completely dismissit whether it has merit or not,
are the same ones that took theAltuve buzzer theory by John Boy via an
egg avatar as the absolute gospel andstill run with it to this very day,

(01:45:35):
to which Rick responded, this islike an after sex cigarette. If
you're an Astros fan, I don'tthink you're like necessarily rooting for anything bad
to happen to show Hay himself,even if he is a member of the
Dodgers. But you're absolutely loving thefact that Dodger fans are even remotely having

(01:45:56):
a twist in the wind over thiskind of thing. Well, I had
spent no time, no time onTimmy Smoke's x platform feed until now.
Yeah, I do like that hereposted something from Divine Sports Gospel. It's
a picture of show he headed tothe field Dodger gear with his interpreter also

(01:46:16):
headed to the field with his iPadand his backpack, and he's looking at
his phone, a cellular phone device, and the caption reads, show,
Hey, bro, I swear Nevadawas a lock. They were up nineteen
with seven minutes left. Just venmome another one hundred and fifty K for
this Texas game. I'm looking atit as you've read it. It's just
spectacular. What else we have?All right? Cal McNair could soon become

(01:46:41):
the principal owner all right, theHouston Texans. This is coming up on
Tuesday, a vote by the otherNFL owners at the meeting. This,
according to our good buddy Jonathan mAlexandra the Houston Chronicle, as it would
not necessarily change much other than justthe title itself, because of course Cal
is making the day to day decisionsand as the chairman and CEO, well

(01:47:04):
officially Cal. Cal's personal assistant enjoyedlast night's activities over at Toyota Center.
She's a huge fan of mine.That's good, huge fan. Now let's
take the antagonist view of this story. Uh huh. So NFL to vote
on majority owner of the Texans,Cal McNair to become that. You know,

(01:47:27):
the owners, they know Cal,they know the Texans. What if
they don't okay it? You don'tthink I'm praying for there's First of all,
there's no chance that that happens.They're going to vote him. I
am going to vote nay more thanjust well, she really does. That
would help sway others. But Idon't think that's gonna happen. Now.
He likes Cal, I think enoughto not as much as he likes the

(01:47:50):
monkeys. I don't think he'll bea very good old enough Who is that
Robert Kraft? Oh that's not bad. Now. The timing of this,
I mean, obviously it's NFL timing, but the personal McNair timing of this
is barely what six weeks? Fiveweeks? I'm not happy about these developments.

(01:48:10):
The transfer of power lawsuit has beendismissed. We need that SoundBite of
Janice at the draft. It's wonderful. I've tried looking for it. Oh,
it's somewhere. I think I haveit on my phone. I'll send
it to you. So we'll justhave to remember when we tweet about cal
Or, write stories about cal Or, introduce cal as a guest on our
show. We'll have to properly titlehim now with his new principal owner title.

(01:48:34):
What have you been calling him?Chair? Really? Yeah? Do
you call him d cal Sometimes?That's his name? After all? What
do you think Hannah's full name is? Do you think she starts her name
with an initial and a period andthen it goes to Hannah and then it
says McNair. I don't call myselfa Jeffrey Wexler. I'm the only one,

(01:48:55):
so I just go by Adam ABrent Clanton, someone else in this
market already has that title. Whatelse do we have? All Right,
so the Astros are coming down towhich by the way to programming. Note,
obviously, if you were tuning into listen to the Astros and you're
hearing us, you know that you'rethe game feeling great about it. I

(01:49:15):
was gonna say Florida became Florida todayin the game got washed. But Joe
spotted telling the media earlier today thathe has been meeting with his coaching staff
to quote narrow things down on theremaining opening day roster spots. At least
two spots in the bullpen and onthe bench are still undecided. I preface
it with that to bring up formerAstro Miles Straw has been placed on waivers

(01:49:40):
by the Indians. Excuse me,the Guardians. Let's go baby depth unrelated
stories. Do you think's like winningdon't want players who aren't good at Major
League baseball on their team? Doyou think Miles he's super nice and guys
that are here that played with himlove him. You hate him. He's
not good at baseball. He's goodat catching the baseball, he's not good

(01:50:01):
at any and he's good at runningwhen somebody else trying to throw the ball
to a base that he's running tobefore he gets there. Okay, but
speed he's not good when you sendhim up there with a bat, and
that's a big part of the game. Better than Jake Myers, Oh my
god, no, how much betteris Jake? I mean, I don't
want Malestraw had never taken it backfor my team. I'd use him as

(01:50:24):
a pincher runner at a defensive replacement. That's it. That's not enough to
put him on a twenty six man. The Guardians don't know who's gonna play
outfield, and they still want torelease him. Now granted he they are
the not only gonna take it.It's an awful trade, yeah, because
they gave a film aton and hereyou go, it was an awful trade

(01:50:46):
day they made it trade. Well, then they extend. They gave him
twenty plus million, which they're ohmore than nineteen million, and they still
don't want him on the team again. Thus he's not going to be traded.
You're talking about a team that wasworried more about its name and image
than it was its actual team.The guys with ops is under six hundred

(01:51:08):
aren't getting a bat for my team? Is that a Z? Yes.
The astro's decisions really, they're importantto the individual clearly. You know,
Parker Mashinsky's pitched well enough to maybehave claimed a bullpen spot. I don't
know that they want three lefties inthe bullpen, even though it shouldn't matter
which side they pitched from. BennettSussa has not outpitched him, but they

(01:51:29):
both have enough of a four toa track record that they might have a
decision made on that. Great Cassenger'sinjury may open the door for them to
do something different with that last spot. John Singleton's going to be on the
team. There are very few significantdecisions that have to be made until they
become significantly because of other injuries.Remember, they're starting pitching personnel on the

(01:51:53):
opening day roster probably consists of BrandonBlack, Renel Blanco, JP France,
Hunter Brown Bramber, and Christian Javier. That's it. Those are their six
that'll make the opening day roster.Because Black, not only is he out
of options, they need him asa major leaguer at least to start the
season. They're still favored to winthe American League Okay, So because you

(01:52:15):
said it that way, I thoughtyou were going to say the division.
They'll give me this opportunity at leastbefore the season starts. And I know
we got a few more days theI know we're down here in the South.
We've got a division to worry about, aout the Yankees, and all
the time. The Orioles are goingto be so freaking good this year,
it's awful for everybody else. Yep, they're pitching. Took a huge blow,

(01:52:38):
losing somebody for the year. Probablywe won't know that until he tries
to not have surgery and come back. They have the only closer in baseball
who can argue he's on haters level, but they well, he's also not
ready to pitch. He's also muchlarger of a human being. They've got
so many prospects that are going tobe the best in baseball, like Holiday
might be in their open though.Colton Kowser is probably finally gonna have some

(01:53:03):
real time as a major leaguer,and he's a local. They are absolutely
freaking loaded ready the best team inthe regular season, right, Michael Yas,
that's right. Astros I was havinga conversation with someone about him about
a month or two ago. Ijust could not gush enough. And it's

(01:53:25):
showing. Of course they'll screw itup because they're Baltimore. We'll see,
Well, their ownership is changing.Okay, that doesn't necessarily mean it's gonna
get better. The players are theplayers, they're loaded. He can't do
anything to screw that up. Noteverybody goes from Drayton to Jim Graying.
We want to be champions and assoon as I leave, we're gonna be

(01:53:47):
there. You have it? Isthat it? That's it? Is there
a new astro on this roster beforenext Thursday? You mean someone that's not
on the roster currently, not incamp with them currently, I'm assume.
I mean you're angling to a startingrotation member or even bullpen as well.
I think that's what they need.They can make it happen because there's easy

(01:54:09):
ways for them to open up spotson the forty man if somebody of consequence
has some sort of deal where theycan decline their minor league asignment if they
don't make the opening a roster onanother team, and I definitely think they'll
be looking into it. My guessis there just might not be anybody the
caliber that they want to put anykind of investment, and even if it's
short term, I'm gonna guess no. I'm gonna guess no too. No

(01:54:31):
more members of the roster. Weare going to be champions here in twenty
twenty four. Pooh, all right, thirty minutes left in the week.
Here on the A Team Sports Talkseven ninety. Hey, it's Hunner Brown
touch every Ashs game on Sports Talkseven ninety before the iHeartRadio app Home of

(01:54:55):
Your Ashros. That was the shortestbreak in the history of the station.
It is the A team here onSports Talk seven ninety. He was like
the nicest guy who was never goingto win. His team took care of
business as expected today, probably oneof the easier wagers I think on the
board. In the round of sixtyfour, Baylor manhandled their opponent to the

(01:55:18):
tune of ninety two to sixty seven. Isn't the football stadium the one that's
named after him up in Waco?Why? I assume he allowed them to
use some of his funds to helpproduce it, But he owned a baseball
team. Shouldn't it be the baseballstadium that's named after him? Not if
he gives money to the football stadium. Yeah, now I know, I
mean I get it, and thebasketball facill Have you been there yet?

(01:55:42):
They've only played a game there liketen. The men's team, I mean
the women's played same number of games, about ten or ten or eleven games.
I think this year maybe top inthe middle of this season, kind
of like Fortia Center, Right,it's really small, like Fortita Center,
but it's gonna be awesome for basketball. Do you think next will be when
I finally see the Fertida Center forthe first time? That's all. It's

(01:56:03):
your call. Unbelievable. Cougar's obviouslyplayed later tonight, hopefully around the scheduled
time, but there are the secondgame of the evening and their venue.
How nervous is Matt Thomas that they'regonna lose to something called a long wood?
Uh? Not very I think he'sa little nervous. I mean,
you're nervous because it can the numberwent down. Well, I don't think

(01:56:26):
the I mean the Cougars would dominatethem if they make them go three for
nineteen with eight turnovers in the firstten minutes of the game, which happens
a lot. You know what MattThomas did last night, don't you Uh
called the basketball game, and whilehe was calling the basketball game, during
a timeout, he took the timeoutto text Chris Gordie's wife, who is

(01:56:48):
a massive Kentucky fan, to basicallygive her grief about it. And he's
what sports fans do well. Heasked me before he did it, and
I said, no, don't dothat. That's bad form, especially you
being a U of H fan.You're not gonna want somebody to do that.
You know what she's gonna do ifU of H doesn't win it all,

(01:57:09):
she's going to clabber him via text. Whenever the Cougs lose, So
they could win one, two,three, four or five tournament games,
doesn't matter. The Kentucky's a zero. If they don't win it all,
she's going to kill him. Ican't believe he did it. I told
him not to do it. It'sbad for him, and he did it
anyways, and then he talked aboutit on his show today. He's a

(01:57:29):
he's a very very big bleep ster. Matt Thomas. This swell guy.
I love him. The Cougars hopefullybenefit from the time off. They were
run ragged. They did they didattempt to win three games in three game
days in their tournament, came upshort, obviously by a lot against Iowa
State. You don't feel good aboutthis, do you? Just too many
injuries? Well, they were wherethey were then, they didn't have Ramon

(01:57:54):
Walker that day. It's possible heis going to be asked to play or
I know he's available. I don'treme that they'll turn to him, but
that matters. There's no question.Just rest. Has Jaywon Roberts healthier,
and again he added in the injuredshin To has already broken down body in
and of itself in the other leg. The problem with his hand is enormous.

(01:58:14):
But five days away from basketball,and you know they got a Friday
start as opposed to a Thursday start. If that even extra day matters,
I would think. So those aregood things. They're obviously not getting back
to players who were injured for theentire seat or we're out for the season
with Tugler and Arsenal, so that'snot going to change. But they also
continued throughout the season, Arsenal firstand Tugler much later in the season and

(01:58:35):
just kind of figured out a way, which is exactly what they're going to
have to do now. I dothink both of the teams they could potentially
see Texas A and M or NebraskaI think are difficult. But if the
Cougars get over the we're in thetournament jitters that almost seem to hit every
team with it's a top seed,you know, the first five, ten,
fifteen minutes of the game tonight,they'll be fine. They'll win this

(01:58:55):
game. They'll beat whomever is next, and I do think that will be
Texas A and M. And thenthey'll be sixteen teams left with a chance
to win the title, and there'llbe one of them. Again. I
just wish they would, I well, for their sake, I wish they
would just be healthy for once atthe right time of the season. That's
I mean, if you're Kelvin Sampsonand you've built this, I mean,
let's face it, it's a monsterof a program. Suddenly you can't I

(01:59:16):
know, they haven't won anything.So from that standpoint, if you want
to say monster is too big ofa word, you shouldn't. If you're
a number one seed multiple times duringthis run a monster and that's the thing.
Who would have thought and you're winningin the tournament, you're not Virginia.
I remember going into Hot Fines Pavilion. This was probably right at the
tail end of my TV days,so this would have been like twenty twelve
maybe, And I don't even rememberwhy I was there or even who the

(01:59:41):
coach was. I just like rememberlooking around, and you know, every
time I would go in there atthat point, it was like, oh
yeah, back in the day fiveSlam a jama because it still looked the
same essentially, give or take,that was an issue. Well, yeah,
compared to one what they're playing now, and it's just I can't believe
it's the same program. Yeah,same new facility there, new development facility,

(02:00:01):
new obviously on the football side therein the midst of upgrading that as
well. Keep in mind this regionthat they're in in the South. Last
night was Upset City. That's thethree seed Kentucky out of the tournament.
That's six seed Texas Tech out ofthe tournament. NC State at Oakland are
playing each other for a spot inthe Sweet sixteen. Marquette had trouble today
with Western Kentucky but eventually pulled awayand we're able to win that game.

(02:00:26):
Iowa State kind of the same waywith their game against South Dakota State,
and I think Iowa State is gonnaget ramped up to the point where they
could easily make a run to theFinal four. The Northwestern FAU game this
afternoon was just weird because Northwestern hadthe game well in hand throughout most of
the second half. Then they decided, I think we've got enough. We
scored enough points, no more,And they went almost the full final four

(02:00:49):
minutes of the game without scoring atall, and FAU kept almost getting it
tied and almost hitting the shot,and they finally tied the game, and
then Northwestern finally scored one more timetime terrible final possession for FAU when they
had a chance to win it withthe game tied. Then they went overtime
and got blown out in overtime.They lost by twelve. It was awful.

(02:01:12):
Everything that could go wrong did,Everything that had to go right for
Northwestern, who's not really good inmy opinion, did and so they won.
But man Yukon absolutely smashed their sixteenseed and I believe they will do
the same to the Northwestern on today'sFriday on Sunday. What time the Kog's
play tonight? I hope it's nottoo much later than their scheduled start.

(02:01:33):
I'm gonna guess they'll tip it likenine thirty four. I'm gonna pull Matt
Thomas on you right now. You'regonna play the role of the ross.
Sorry? Right? Will it beshown at the Rockets gala with Tilman involved
in it? Being in a Tilmanown team yet he's the biggest donor in
the facility they play in is namedafter him. Well, there gonna be

(02:01:54):
played. There is a program rightat this event. You know, they
go through some events with a microphoneand introduced the thirtieth anniversary of the Rockets
and some other things that will behe'll be needed for. You think they'll
serve ketchup and mustard with hot dogstonight because that'd be awesome. Maybe,
But I'm sure he'll be well awareof what's taking place with the Lancers tonight.

(02:02:15):
The Lancers the Longwood Lancers. It'squite the opening round matchup. And
that whole phallic thing that came outabout how the top seeds have lost.
I can't remember the exact think aboutsomething we talked about the other day when
they were at the Posto Hotel andthey were watching their watch party and they
gave the jersey to Drake. Well, so what do you think came out
yesterday all over the internet when Kentuckylost. Oh, I've got all these

(02:02:40):
pictures of Drake and Kentucky uniforms,So let's trot these out. Cursed Drake,
we hate you. It's your fault, silly. What's what's less believable
the Drake curse or the sports MPTcurse? Less believable is the Drake curses.
There's definite merit in the sports emptyLook at you. Look at the

(02:03:00):
rapnel he's getting. I didn't bringhim into the conversation. You did,
yeah, but then you took thebriefing of him into the conversation, just
dragged his body around the studio.It's on our own station. We've got
the receipts. Oh my goodness.And I already poop pooed the Drake curse
earlier this week once and I justdid it twice. Not the sports MT
curse. It's right, But wasn'tit put to bed? I mean,

(02:03:21):
yeah, it could be over now. There was a time though, where
a lot of guys are getting hurtafter they powerful. You know what else
comes with the NCAA Tournament, andthe fact that a couple of years ago
they got smart and instead of hopingyour area was going to get the game
or the sports bar you went to, would know how to work their own
televisions. All the games are shownall the time. They get Force places

(02:03:44):
or eight now with the pods likeit should be in America. That sounds
pretty easy. Just you've got tofind where the channels are that you do
or do not regularly watch. Ifyou watch some programs, you know Law
and Order, you probably know wherethe TVs is and TA when the last
time you watched True TV last March. I mean, if if you like
in Practical Jokers, maybe you've seensome of the work that they do.
But point being, all the gamesare on. We've got social media,

(02:04:08):
and it happens every year at thisevent. It happens at other events too,
but nothing provides the This fan justbecame famous, like the NCAA Tournament.
I believe the latest came in thegame we've been talking about the Kentucky
Game. There is sad Kentucky girlthat's making the rounds. And of course
your friend Clay Travis and his crewover at out Kick did the work to

(02:04:31):
figure out exactly who she was.Here's the thing. I don't think this
is gonna go well for her.Well, she's the sister of the arguably
the best player on the team.But in the late stages of the soon
to be defeat last game of theseason, they caught her on camera.
She looked very sad. So thussad Kentucky girl. There was a Colgate

(02:04:53):
fan, there was a couple othersfrom the team's Oh, we didn't even
talk about the game that had thehorrific call. I mean they reviewed like
a thousand plays in the games today. We don't know if it went out
of bounds. And I mean,you know you how much I thought you
were talking about last night's game atthe Rockets because they reviewed a thousand in

(02:05:13):
that one too. You don't likewhen a foul happens and the player immediately
goes with the come on bench,We got to review this immediately spinning the
hand. Oh, that's called thealper inchin good a. Men does it?
They all do it. The officialsat the college basketball levels are the
ones that do it. Like theball bounces nearly out of bounds. They
blowed the whistle and send the arrowthe other way. Before they've even basically

(02:05:33):
pointed, they're going, all right, we got to go review this official
as shay a review just over andover and over again, and it's it's
way too big of a crutch.They don't even care to get it right.
They know they'll end up getting itright. Yeah, but they're just
wasting everybody's time by not being verygood at the onset and Kansas Again,

(02:05:54):
I don't know if the actual outcomewould have been different, but in a
one point game and you're you've gotto break away throwing the ball in bounce
to beat the press, and theball gets blocked cleanly from behind, and
your team clearly recovers it and isready to head up court, but the
official calls a foul AND's end withthe free throw line. I mean,
there's twenty seconds left in the game. You can't miss that, and it's

(02:06:15):
not reviewable. Maybe ridiculous, Maybeit will be after this. Well,
what Kenny suggested to Clark and Charlesafter the game, did you run to
the board to do it? Hesaid, how about a coach's challenge?
I mean the guy in the NBAexactly they got two Actually, if you
made it right. Maybe, Yeah, there was a lot of reviews in

(02:06:36):
last night's game. By the way, are we gonna get an upset here?
Yeah, Auburn's flirting with one forsure, and Yale is tough who
knew things that never thought I'd say, all right, we will come right
back. We will wrap things upand head you into the weekend the right
way here on the eighteen next SportstokSEMN ninety Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler back

(02:07:00):
to Houston's eighteen on Sports Talk sevenninety, final segment of a Friday edition
of the eighteen final segment of theweek A lot on tap this weekend again
a reminder wex and I gonna beover. Oh and by the way,
Vernon Maxwell will be there too,headliner Little woodrows Edo right right next to

(02:07:21):
the Dynamo Stadium. You can't missit, brand new renovated location eight oh
one emmanual. Vernon's gonna be therebetween three and four in anticipation of the
Rockets Jazz game. That will bothbe working. Wex is gonna wear a
tie again and I'm not. Ohyou going casual on the weekend? Is

(02:07:42):
Saturday? How long until uh?That definitely would be going without the tie
Sunday. If there were a gamesSunday, I'll consider it. Stick news
is like that. Now, Oh, it's so silly. Well it's you
know, it's and nobody's said oneway or the other what I need or
don't need to do. I justtake care of it. Well, it's
because you're not inundated with stupid consultants. You notice that it's the same trajectory

(02:08:05):
as NBA head coaches. I stillthink that's I mean, I was laughing
about it the other day when Iwas watching the pitching coach trot out to
the mound to talk to the pitcherwearing a costume. Wearing a costume,
I mean, it's some forty tofifty sixty year old person wearing a baseball
at Do you think Jeff Van Gundyis that he wasn't in on the part

(02:08:26):
of the NBA's history where you don'thave to wear a suit. I mean,
now, the game we're watching isextremely well attired. Yale coach,
he is in a full suit.Great, look at he looks great.
And Bruce Pearl is the opposing coachand he's losing. He's in an untucked
polo. At least he's wearing ashirt. You know, Bruce's famous for
not and you know being you know, great goot, gotta hang out with

(02:08:48):
good parties and Auburn and everything.But yeah, Auburn and Yale are playing
right now, the NBA having guyswear you know, a suit in our
coat and tie. College basketball,same thing. It's so completely unnecessary.
It's exactly what they should look likeon the sidelines now, both fronts college
and pro. I mean, Ithink people got a little confused when a
lot, you know, especially duringCOVID when they were playing an empty gyms

(02:09:11):
and you had ten, twelve,fifteen, seventy. All these guys look
the same. You can tell thedifference between the head coach, the other
coaches, the other team's coaches.But it's, yes, it's they're running
around yelling at people for two anda half hours. What do they want
to be in a coat and tiefor? Who's this foulon? Because they're
reviewing it and it's a big,big call. Right here, forty six

(02:09:31):
seconds left, Auburn's trailing seventy three, seventy two. I can't hear anything
but a little little collision over inthe corner. Well, that was following
Yale one point lead with the ballshot clock violation. This is a four
to thirteen matchup and Auburn's very,very dangerously close to being ousted. So

(02:09:52):
we'll keep an eye on that.Koog's tonight. What are we talking about?
What matchup were we talking about forthem? Come in on Monday.
I think we'll be talking about themplaying probably Duke. That's awful for the
Matt Thomas household, I mean Blood. Like I was telling you earlier,

(02:10:15):
three and six on the other halfof their South bracket are already out.
Marquette thought they were a little overseededit too, although I didn't know who
else to put in there, andI didn't think they played particularly well.
But eventually they housted Western Kentucky andthey're in a very good spot. Colorado's
trying to eliminate Florida as we speak, and that would be the matchup for
Marquette. So Marquette, Colorado,Oakland, NC State, Duke, Wisconsin,

(02:10:43):
A and M in Houston. Maybethe eight teams moving on in the
South. I don't know what otherpeople thought. I know what some of
the numbers were with the rankings ofthe actual seeds and how they power ranked
the four regionals. I thought theCougar's got an incredibly favorable spread of teams,
and it's gotten even better with who'salready lost. Some guy that looks

(02:11:07):
like the quintessential stereotypical Yale student hasjust increased their lead at the free throw
line. Come on, man,he's like practically has to be finishing law
school. Do you know how manyteams of the sixty four that made it
to the sixty four have a fiveman lineup that looks exactly like that?
Yeah, it's college basketball. It'swhy I can't stand it well, because

(02:11:28):
the best sixty four teams aren't here. This is this is crazy. This
is crazy. Why I don't know? This is what happens all the time.
This is why we look crazy.You're saying it in a bad it's
in a good way. That's exactlywhat we want to see. It's okay,
it's okay if some of these highlyseated teams don't advance. It's okay

(02:11:50):
against Yale, though, for Yalewill be gone by the weekend. Wow,
wait to celebrate, I mean,on Yale fan. If Yale can
beat Auburn and San Diego State.Well, then hello, come on down
to the regional not expecting it.You know, it's funny. I saw
something the other day where they wereposting it was like the anniversary of some

(02:12:11):
big shot that Steph Curry had madefor Davidson. How did Steph Curry go
to Davidson? Has anybody ever investigatedthat? It's kind of the same reason
he was not a higher draft pick, even though he was a lot,
because he was frail and slight,absolutely, and then he got into the
NBA and his ankles were like perenniallybroken, and people believed the team that
took a chance on him is theone that made a mistake. Quite the

(02:12:35):
opposite. Yeah, he's still overratedon carer. Anybody says, yeah,
too many titles weighing him down.Yeah, Well, like current players Draymond
one, how many titles? AndKevin Durant and who has more of those
two? No, of current NBAplayers who has more titles than Steph Curry.
Lebron has four. So they haveto say them out huh, and

(02:12:58):
neither one of them will win anotherone, I wouldn't think. So that's
good. And there's no journeyman ortype that has five. There's no Iguadala,
he's not active, and plus hehas less. Uh. Yeah,
I don't think there is so howoverrated can he be? Oh, there's
MVP trophies and there's championships. Whatmore do you want? How long did

(02:13:20):
he have to take to win thatfinals? MVP? Geez, win seventy
three games and you don't even winthe title. Yeah, that's the Dodgers.
One hundred and nine thousand wins inthe regular season. They didn't break
a record, though, did they? They're not the Mariners. Mariners did.
It's a good example record breaking AlexRodrie first playoff wins since that's even

(02:13:41):
harder to believe. They did allthat in Electric Factory. You had a
power outage. Suck it pain hishome run, right, doubt the gullet?
Uh are they? By the way, are they going to be back
this year? The Mariners? Ithink people were writing him off. Yes,
I think they're very good. Theyfeel like it's going to be astros.

(02:14:03):
Mariners Rangers take the currently not witha bunch of injured guys, but
as we begin the season, theyhave the best top end of the starting
rotation of any team in this divisionand the best long haired reliever Ryan Stanek.
Oh, yes, oh for sure, I thought you meant Muno's number
seventy five, that throws one hundredmiles an hour at Chas McCormick. Now

(02:14:24):
he's an idiot. Chas had thatplay at first base with Ty Frantz.
I remember, probably weren't very happywith, nor would I have been.
And they still have their same stupidmanager. Impressive, He's really not who
gets fired first him are Dave Robertsbecause Dave Roberts should have been fired so
long ago. And he's getting savedby that Mickey Mouse Championship they won.

(02:14:48):
He's getting saved by the fact hehas a title. As a title,
look at the talent he's been bestowedwith. What's the same thing with Arson
Boone? Right, Arson Boone?Nobody mixed up the manager's name. Yeah,
well again, baseball is kind ofunless you're truly making mistake. Way
more talented than the Yankees had,bit like, what was his mistake last

(02:15:09):
year? Dave Roberts Man, Daveyou know? John Johnson la digest in
Times? Can you explain your reasoningand putting Mookie Betts first and Freddie Freeman
second? In your lineup, consideringyou now know they aren't going to get
any hits in the World Series,are in the playoffs, can you explain
your reasoning? Like all the managerdo wrong? Nothing, it's true.
All I know is I cannot waitfor Bill Plashki's next article on the show.

(02:15:33):
Hey, Tony gambling scandal. I'msure he'll be totally unbiased about it.
We'll have that for you on Monday. I hope looking forward to it
and everything else that we'll have foryou guys on Monday. The Astro line
next able to bump that up foryou. Dana Brown will be with you
for the next hour from FLA.Three games is what they hoped to play
there. Now they have two.They will play tomorrow, they will play

(02:15:54):
Sunday, and then when we visitwith you on Monday, the Astros will
be here in town with us takingon two more exhibition opponents their own team,
and then it is baseball season onThursday. I hope you enjoyed the
tournament the rest of the weekend.I know I will, and I hope
everything else is tremendous for Acy fde n This is WEX. We will
talk to you after the weekend.