7/11 Nightcap

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
The world. He's done. Nowkick back, pop a top and catch
up with your Houston team. Rightcap, Right, this is the Nightcap
with Ross Gereo night Cap six,so three in the PM here on Sports

(00:29):
Stock seven ninety Hello and welcome into another edition of the night Cap program.
That's right, baby, just likeDrake, going back to back,
just like the Rockets in ninety fourninety five. Well, actually we are
going to do like five in arow at some point, but at right
now we are at two nightcaps ina row. Astros remain off as it

(00:51):
is of course the All Star break, and well, you do have the
Rockets in Summer League action. Actually, right now as we speak, they
are taking on the Oklahoma City Thunder. It's a rivalry renewed, it's a
blood feud in the Summer League.Okay, maybe it's not any of those
things, but Rockets currently leading theOklahoma City Thunder forty one to thirty nine.
We can talk about them as well. We can talk about a number

(01:15):
of different things. So I amhere Noah Fouts as well. Phone lines
open for you at seven one threetwo one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninetyand tweets to at sports RV and at
Noah on seven ninety where I haveto ask I guess some things that we

(01:37):
seem to ask every year around thistime when it's the All Star break and
how interested are we in the gameand the home run derby and all that
type of stuff, And of courseI turn it to you, mister Fouts.
How locked in did you get intothe home run derby last night?
What's less than zero percent? Soyou didn't watch a single second? Okay,
BP pitch, Okay, Well I'mwith you. I didn't watch a

(02:00):
second of it either. And ourgood friend Matt Thomas on Twitter you can
find him at sports Are Sports MT. He put up a poll earlier today
and I think it was something likesixty percent of the people that follow him,
and these are sports fans, mostof them, you would presume like
fifty eight percent of them didn't catchany of it. I did make sure

(02:21):
to watch the highlights, and that'sjust something that I wanted to do because
I do work in sports. Idon't want to be completely oblivious to what's
going on. And well, unfortunately, in the just between us two the
slowest week of the sports calendar,year, it's this week and then probably
somewhere maybe NBA All Star Week weekafter the Super Bowl in there before Baseball

(02:47):
gets fired up and there's nothing happeningexcept for the stretch of NBA basketball before
you get into the playoffs, whichhonestly isn't super interesting. You're not tapped
into Wimbledon this week. I'm notgetting locked into Wimbledon. I think Novak
Djokovic won his. He did unfortunateI put it on during the day.

(03:07):
I mean, look, I liketo have live sports on and a lot
of times that means it's gonna beEuropean stuff. So it's going to end
up being soccer, the French Open, and then now the Wimbledon. We've
been putting on. I think Ihad the Assie Open on a couple of
weeks ago, so yeah, I'llput it on, and I do like
tennis. I'll try to get intoit right around the semifinals these days of

(03:28):
the majors. I'm not checking outlike the Monaco atp Open and who's gonna
win that one or something like that. But I'm kind of a tennis guy.
I don't know where you fall inthe NFL's I played what I quit.
When I quit football my sophomore yearof high school, I was like,
what is the absolute easiest sport thatI can just skate by and play?
And so I joined the tennis team. I wouldn't say that's easy.

(03:49):
It wasn't easy, but I atleast had some experience in tennis camps as
a youth, and it was somethingthat, let's just say, it was
easier for me than football, beingin like fifty pounds of heavy equipment and
sweltering Texas heat getting beat upon becausewell, I just wasn't the biggest,
fastest or strongest. So that's whyI was like, you know what,

(04:12):
it's tennis time, baby. SoI always liked tennis. I was a
big Pete Sampras fan back of theday, and to this day hold a
grudge against Roger Federer for breaking allof Pete Sampras's records, which have now
since been broken by Rafael and theDoll And also Novak Djokovic, who is
continuing to try and make a hugerlead in Grand Slam tournaments. I think
he's going for like his twenty fourth, which is just insane to think about.

(04:33):
But yeah, we're not gonna youknow what. Fine, you want
to break down the Wimbledon field andwhat's left. No, we're probably not
going to do that. But Ithink Novak Djokovic is still in it.
Carlos Alcoraz the number one, worldnumber one, I think he's still in
it. And then outside of that, I honestly don't know what's going on
in Wimbledon. Maybe we're not goingto get deep into that, but yeah,

(04:53):
I mean where are we at?You know, no interest for no
off outs on the home run derby. I didn't get into it either.
Some interesting news coming out of it, though. Did you see Louise or
Robert Junior apparently day to day nowwith calf tightness then he suffered. Lex
brought this up and I'm saying,used the word discomfort. Okay, yeah,

(05:15):
it's tightness. What's the difference betweendiscomfort and tightness? Which one's worse?
Probably a discomfort, I don't know. Tightness sounds like it. That's
when you wake up in the middleof the night and get Charlie horses.
Yeah, Charlie horses never fun,not good. Yeah. Get to stay
hydrated kids, yea yeah, eatyeah, this a little bit of advice
for you. Eat a banana beforeyou go to sleep, after you've been

(05:36):
drinking a day, drinking for twelvehours. That's really gonna help. That's
gonna turn the tides. Okay,maybe it's not, but just stay hydrated
in general. But yeah, LouiseRobert with some calf tightness. And so
I'm seeing some reactions from other peoplewho talk about do not let under any
circumstance you're on Alvarez ever participated inthe home run Derby. It's like if

(05:59):
too, and it's a swing ina bat is going to ruin your entire
season. I feel like you needto get in better ship. He's taking
BP and he got hurt, Sowhat are you gonna say? No,
bapp wait a minute when he gotoh in oblique? Yeah, yeah,
do not swing a bat in theWorld Baseball Classic in BP at home on
LMLB the show. Don't even doany of it unless it's live action that

(06:25):
counts towards your season sets. No, you can't do that. And I
would have been okay if if IFIF IF fully healthy, If you're don
Alvarez had participated in the home runDerby, it's cool, it's for show.
Whatever I mean, didn't Julio Rodriguezwon the whole thing last year,
and he was great in the secondhalf of the season. Yeah, am

(06:46):
I correct on the I'll go I'llgo look up his season stats. But
I know you won it, andI know he had a really big second
half of the season. I don'tknow how much of that was pulse All
Star Break or whatever, but I'llgo ahead and look up. So yeah,
I'm not really worried about it.People talk about that the home Run
Derby curse and it ruins this swingand all that type of stuff. I

(07:09):
think it's just something that we attachedto people who have been in there.
There's plenty of players who have beentotally fine after being in the in the
home run Derby. I'm sure wecan look up any number of players who
post All Star Break, including JulioJulio Rodriguez last year, who is totally

(07:30):
fine and I don't know, lookup as splits at some point later.
But it's not that big of adeal, and I think it would be
cool just to I mean, youdon't need pub I guess, but yeah,
let's see second half last year.Oh, Julio Rodriguez first half eight
fourteen ops last year second half afterthe home run derby nine thirty seven ops.

(07:55):
Although he did a fewer home runssixteen in the first half only twelve
in the second half. But hewas a better hitter, better by average,
better broy on bass, better byslugging its better overall in the second
half of the season last year.So not anything that I'm concerned about.
But I watched the highlights and itwas fine. But I also think by
the way, one thing that Inoticed when I was watching those, they

(08:16):
need to do something better about theformat because I think Julio Rodriguez got spent
in the first round because he wentup against I think Pete Alonzo who hit
like twenty one home runs. Hewent first and hit forty one home runs.
If he could have gone second,he could have quit after just hitting
twenty two and then saved himself andthen not being completely spent for the later
rounds. Well, it's always beena problem. I don't know if there

(08:37):
it was years ago, but itwas Josh Hamilton and Justin Moore No,
and Josh Hamilton hit hit like fortysomething bombs one yeah, and then he
lost to more No in the finalsbecause Moreno hit like fourteen. I think
Hamilton was burnt out and he hadlike, yeah, it feels like that's
what happened to Julio Rodriguez in thesecond round. I can't remember who he

(08:58):
lost against, if it was Arenaor Vladieto, Vladimir Guerrero Junior, which,
by the way, I had thisrandom thought, Vladimir Guerrero Senior in
the Hall of Fame. Vladimir GuerreroJunior hit has like a forty eight home
run season. He's like a threetime All Star. Now. I know
King Griffy Senior in King Griffy Juniora pretty good father's son tandem. But

(09:22):
was was King Griffy Senior? Washe ever an All Star? I know
he's a pretty good he was apretty solid player, and maybe he was
an All Star here and there.King Griffy Junior, of course an all
time Greade hit over six hundred homeruns. Okay, three time All Star
m m King Griffy Junior. I'msorry, King Griffy Senior. He also

(09:43):
was an All Star game MVP,but he was never really Let's see,
he finished eighth in the MVP innineteen seventy six. It's part of the
big Red Machine teams twenty second inan MVP. Mmm, I think I
gotta give it to the Guerreros onthat. But anyways, all right,
so we're talking some baseball. Wecan talk strows at large. Of course,

(10:03):
we know that they're going to beback after the All Star break,
starting a weekend series against thee Angels. What would you like to see where
you're feeling, how you're feeling ingeneral about the team. We've been talking
about the deadline. Of course,do they need a bat donated the arm?
The answer is, of course theyneed both, but which would you
prioritize. Talk about the Rockets thatare in summer league action as well,

(10:24):
and actually a couple of interesting newsitems that we'll get to as we go
along, and with the return ofHeadlines at six thirty with good friend Noah
Fouts, you want to get intalk some sports, and it's anything Goes
Tuesday here on the nightcap, andit'll be in anything Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday the rest of the week becauseas you know, it is the slowest
sports week of the year. Solet's talk about anything you want to get

(10:46):
to At seven one three, two, one two five, seven ninety seven
one three, two, one,two, five, seven ninety nightcap resumes
after the short break. I regretto inform you that Hangover four is trending.

(11:18):
Well, I don't know if Iregret to inform you Hangover four is
trending, but not because there's gonnabe another Hangover movie. Didn't they really
just recycle the same exact movie forboth Hangover two and Hangover three. It
was almost like a Hangover was oneof the best original comedies of like the
last twenty five years, and thenHangover two they're like, we're gonna do

(11:41):
the exact same thing and charge youmore money, and they're like, guess
what you fell for Hangover two?Look at you, dumbass, you're falling
for Hangover three. It's gonna bethe exact same thing again, but I
think this time in Thailand, orwhich one was in Thailand? Hangover Hangover
two was in Bangkok, Okay?Where was Hangover three? I don't even
remember. I think it's I don'tit's in the US, but it's more

(12:01):
focused around mister chow Oh. Idon't even remember. I think I saw
it, But wasn't it about basicallythe same kind of plots too? Though
two is very similar to one justin Bangkok. Yeah, okay, oh
no, actually it says yeah,three is I guess kind of in Bangkok
as well, or no, Iguess they're back in Vegas. I don't
even remember, so you know what, I was like, oh, Hangover

(12:22):
four cool? But then I waslike, do I even want to see
Hangover four? Hangover two was disappointingin the Hangover three was and it's only
trending because apparently some person in LasVegas is that Caesar's Palace. They have
busted open a window and they're throwingstuff out of it. This video.

(12:43):
You know, I'm gonna go aheadand retweet. Hold on, let me
try to find from where's that Vegasaccount there was retweeting this anyways? Yeah,
somebody is tossing stuff out of thewindows. It's Heeser Palace and it
looks like it's like he's like fifteenstories up. The heck's going on over

(13:03):
there, somebody losing all their cash. The old two so you just pounce
the classic joint now snoll like you're'sover there at the Harris, Which did
you see that video of the guygetting completely naked at Harris and jumping on
the blackjack table. No I didn't. Oh that was the hangover. Should
have been trending for that as well. Okay, anyways, no hangover four
unfortunately, just somebody throwing stuff outof a window. You have to bust

(13:26):
those windows open, by the wayin Las Vegas because they don't want you
losing all your money and then jumpingout of the window. Then they gotta
mop you up. They gotta ropeoff the whole place. They're like,
no, we got to continue aboutour business. And also, how are
you going to pay back the casinomarker if you've already jumped out of the
window. Las Vegas knows what they'redoing. Very well oiled machine. Anyways,
welcome back to the nightcap here onSports Talk seven ninety. Speaking of

(13:48):
Vegas, the Houston Rockets leading theOklahoma City Thunder sixty two to forty six
in the Summer League right now.No Jabari Smith, no tar Eson,
no Amen Thompson. But you dohave Cam Whitmore leading the show. Already
saw a couple of highlights from himpost on the Houston Rockets Twitter account.

(14:09):
But there you go. There's yourSummer League update, and phones are available
and open for you. If you'dlike to get into anything at seven one
three two one two five seven ninetyseven one three, two, one two
five seven ninety it also I sawcoming across just checking some headlines which will
get in full next with Noah Fouse. But maybe I jumped the gun on
him with this. But seeing theMLB Players Association's executive director Tony Clark talking

(14:37):
about the pitch timer, and thisis something we discussed when it was happening
in basically, when the rule isgoing to be instituted, talking about the
pitch clock in baseball, he wantsto see some sort of tweaking or extensions
of the rules when it comes toplayoff games. And so Tony Clark saying

(15:00):
today, I don't think there's toomany folks that want to have a new
rule affect the game. In apennant chase or in the playoffs. There
are adjustments that can be beneficial.So far in the regular season, you
haven't had the pitch clock affect agame. And it happened in spring training
where a game was decided I thinkon a strike three. But I don't

(15:20):
think you've seen it so far inthe regular season. I'd kind of be
down with this. I don't knowwhere you're at or no, are you
well? I know now that youare one of the producers of the Astros
radio network, you're all in onthe pitchclock. I'm guessing no. I
think it's good. I think itshould be a little longer, and I
think the I think the pitcher shouldbe allowed a pitcher's time out. The
pitcher does get a time out,it just counts it in a disengagement,

(15:43):
correct, I think so, yeah, you only get two disengagements, whether
it's throwing over the first second orwherever to try to make a pickoff move,
or a time out. I thinkyou can get two disengagements per ab.
So you have that, and nowthe batters only get one time out.

(16:03):
Tony Clark wants either more timeouts,more disengagements, or a few extra
seconds, especially in high leverage situations. Do you think it's too convoluted if
you add in some sort of caveat, like, okay, if it's the
eighth or ninth inning within three runs, the clock gets extended five seconds or
something like that. I don't know. Adam Waynewright was asked about it.

(16:26):
I think maybe they were in agame on ESP Adam Waynwright who was getting
bombed every time he goes out there. Yeah, but he said he liked
it, and uh but he saidthe only thing he would change is he
wish he had a picture's time outas well. Okay, I thought they
got to they get to get himwith the disengagements or am I wrong?
Okay? Because you can only pickoff. Yeah, then you can only
pick off one time, right,so maybe they want three discant one time

(16:47):
out and two being two pickoffs orsomething like that. No, but like
like you said, if it's ifyou got bases loaded in the then the
ninth Yeah, the game's on theline, I think the picture should be
able to step off. And you'reright, rows on his hand take a
second. Yeah, Yeah, it'slike imagine it's game seven of the World
Series. The bases are loaded,a team is down like two, there's
two outs, and then the pictureneeds a little bit extra time and there's

(17:10):
a violation and they walk in arun or something more or heaven forbid,
a walk off like the game istied. Now, of course that's very
unlikely to happen. It hasn't affecteda game yet. But when it first
came to pass, First of all, all was all on board with it.
Baseball there's too many if you gowatch just go watch highlights of a
b I saw it on Twitter.It was like two minutes of a baseball

(17:30):
game from a few years ago.You're just staying in it. I think,
like two pitches got thrown, You'restanding around, Guys are scratching themselves,
spitting. Batter calls time out,pitcher calls time out. They stare
at each other for forty five moreseconds and nothing's happening. So something needed
to be done. But was thisa little bit too extreme? And would

(17:52):
you even be in favor of completelygetting rid of it in the playoffs?
Something to think about because Rob Banfordhas responded to Tony Clark and he says,
I think in general you ought toplay the postseason the way you play
the regular season. We're comfortable theway the clock, the way the clock
in the violations, particularly late ingame have been managed. But I would

(18:15):
be down for maybe like one moretime out in the playoffs. Yeah,
or do you shoot? Man?I don't know, Like I said,
is it get too convoluted if youmake it close and late trick? If
you add all this stuff? Yeah, like like fifteen different rules. Yeah,
that's that's where it gets tricky.I wonder if it'll be changed.
What's the clock now? Do youknow? Fifteen and twenty twenty if somebody's

(18:37):
on base, fifteen if nobody's onbase Do you want to do just for
the playoffs only twenty and twenty five? Yeah? I think that's I think
that's a just extended five seconds.Yeah, and then guys who are liking
it and want to stay in rhythmand all that type of stuff. Although
also that kind of affects the hitters, especially because the pitchers are doing it
now, where if the hitter hasalready burned his time out, they kind
of just stare at him and takethe batter out of rhythm. You get

(19:00):
five extra seconds to do that.That's it's tricky. It's tricky. I'm
not sure. All right, let'sahead of a break here, Let's go
to DJ real quick on the phonelines. What's up, DJ, Hey,
DJ, that's you from Huffman.How you doing. I'm good?
What's up? Hey? I justwanted to get a little information. Lad.
My daughter went to Dallas on Julyweekend and she got tickets and wins

(19:22):
the Rangers team. Anyway, she'sin the outfield and everything like that,
and uh, she started to wavelike in the ninth inning. It was
all bunch of Astros people. Shestarted the wave. She started the wave
anyway with the wind and the Rangersfans, which is all. They just
didn't believe that she was doing.But anyway, that's when Ronald Blanco he
pitched, uh huh. Anyway,she flew back Sunday, she gets on

(19:45):
the plane and who's on the planewith her? Ronald Blanco? Yes,
was he sweating? Was a fulllather. It feels like Renaud Blanco has
always got at least like a quarterinch of sweat around his entire body.
Sure, yeah, just crazy.Anyway, his interpreter wasn't there. But
anyway, they got to get apicture taken together when the wind picked up

(20:06):
their luggage at the turnstyle. Ohthat's cool. Yeah, anyway, and
they beat them so and well sheshe rubbed it in the Rangers fan.
So she did. That's good.But but DJ need to teach your daughter
not to start the wave. That'strue. I know I told her no
way, no way, but Ifigured it. Rangers stadium know what day.
Yeah, that's true. Maybe ifyou're not on home soil. It's

(20:26):
all right, all right, DJ, thanks a lot, appreciate you getting
in. We're gonna go ahead andhit a break here at the bottom of
the hour. You want to getin, you can. Phone lines are
wide open for you. Trust me. At seven one three two one two
five seven ninety seven one three twoone two five seven ninety pack in a
second with some top sports news itemsof the day in a segment we call
headlines with no offounds. All right, we're gonna get to some headlines with

(21:03):
our venerable producer Noah Fouts here onSports Stuck seven eighty the night cap.
But one person has rung in realquick, so let's get to them quickly.
Scott holding longest go ahead. Yeah, Hey, this is Scott calling
from Houston. Hey, I've done. I'm great. What do you got?
Hey? Uh? Talking about theastos and the pitch clock? Um

(21:26):
wasn't they're a late inning incident withRyan Stanek where he got called on the
pitch clock and it walked in arun that tied the game late Are you
talking about the go ahead run whenhe had a balk? Oh? Okay,
yeah, that that may have beenanswer. Yeah, I may have
been mistaken on that one. Okay, no problem, Scott, Yeah,

(21:51):
sorry about that. But I don'tknow. I just don't think you know
all there change the rules for certaingames. Yeah, I get it,
thank you for getting to appreciate you. But they change it for they go
to the regular no ghost runner ruleand extra innings for the playoffs, which
I'm down for. Then you getcool eighteen inning games in Seattle with raucous

(22:15):
fans and Luis Garcia playing hero andall that type of stuff. That's cool.
What's not cool is eighteen innings inMay against the Cincinnati Reds. Like,
okay, the Reds are good.Somebody that's a bad example these days,
But you know what I'm saying,Like the Oakland eighteen innings against the
Oakland A's and there's like three thousandfans are now cool. So I'm okay

(22:36):
with changing the rules a little bitcome playoff time, which I'm down with
the way that they do it withthe ghost runner rule which is not really
a ghost runner but the automatic runnerrule and extra innings. So they wanted
to extend it a few seconds inthe playoffs this year. Obviously that's gonna
have to be discussed. I'd bedown with it. I understand it does

(22:56):
build a little bit extra drama.That's part of of like the as Tom
Petty would say, the waiting isthe hardest part. Part of the drama
of a late inning game is thelittle tension that builds in between big pitches.
But also, I mean, ifthe game isn't close, how do
you determine that? What? Howdo you affect the rules? How do

(23:17):
you change the rules, and whatcaveats do you put into those in to
where it doesn't get too convoluted intohokey? I don't know. Anyways,
let's get some headlines all the topsports news eyes of the day with Noah
Fouts know, how's it going?Is this true? No? Are you
playing some Tito Pointe earlier on theA team the Adams didn't? Okay,

(23:37):
I respect that. I love thatyou played a little Oh yeah, come
of the original of course, Ibelieve by Tito Pointe wasn't by Santana,
who didn't write a lot of thismusic. But anyways, go ahead,
no, yeah, we'll start here. Um, Kenny Smith was working a
Spurs summer League game and him andwhoever else was commentating for having to come

(24:00):
reversation about Victor, and he madea bold Victor Victor who Yama? Okay,
I'm Victor Oladipo. No, nothim, Okay, he's hurt anyways,
um, but he made a boldclaim about Victor. And we have
some audio and I'll let you list. Okay, So Kitty Zeke had a
proclamation that he said, let itbe known. He thinks Victor winbon Yama

(24:22):
is going to one at some pointin the next five years lead the league
in block shots and if not,just in the conversation, would defensive Player
of the Year. He thinks that'sthe first major award that he's going away.
What do you think about that?I'm a gonna go a little further
in year four, he'll be theMVP of the league. Who MVP of

(24:45):
the league. Now, that's ahuge award because if you look at the
history of the NBA MVP, everybodywho's won the MVP except for probably Derek
Rolshoo, the Basketball Hall of Fameis so soft. He might make it
in they are in the Hall ofFame or going to the Hall of Fame.

(25:06):
Literally everybody who's won that award.Do you win the NBA MVP as
the league's best player. It basicallyjust about cements your status in the Hall
of Fame as long as you haveenough longevity, etc. I think the
first thing the first dude said withthe defensive Player of the Year, that's
more realistic. I think right wouldsee. I think he was talking about

(25:26):
Isaiah Thomas when he said Zeke,which how the hell is Isaiah Thomas's nickname
Zeke? I don't know. Iguess we'll have to go back and look
at the archives for that. Ifhe's I think he is gonna get a
lot of block shots. I thinkChen Horman is gonna get a lot of
block shots. I think they're gonnaboth get bullied on the block until they
fill in as well. Do youhold it against me for really being skeptical

(25:49):
about Victor Wimbanyama just because of thesize and length that he has and me
being scared about the possibility of brittlebones. Well, if you're like,
if you actually think that, Ithink that's fine. But if you're like
Clanton and just think he's gonna bea bust because he's not a Houston Rocket,
that doesn't make any sense to me. Well, you didn't have to
call out Adam Clant specifically, butyeah, everybody wanted him number one overall.

(26:12):
Sorry, I forget this isn't theeighteen runs with Schmanton. Yeah,
we had these says similar reservations.Although chet Holmgren is more of a beam
poll than Victor wimban Yama is.And then the dude didn't even play his
first year because his foot already fell. And that's what you're worried about.
You're worried about lower leg injuries.That what had Befallen Yao, ming Ralph

(26:37):
Sampson, who else, I mean, ball whoever? We can go on
and on in the list. Aguy's is tall, either aren't necessarily coordinated
enough. I think Victor woman Yamalook at his his ball handling skills and
all that type of stuff. Helooks coordinated enough, but is he gonna
be able to stay healthy? AndI know I am also like the chief

(26:57):
and CEO of not calling players injuryprone because these are just guys who are
pushing their bodies to the limit anyways, and they happen to get hurt and
you don't necessarily know unless you're adoctor, and there's some sort of chronic
issue. For example, Kawhi Leonard, you know he's gonna get hurt because
he has a chronic degenerative like legissues. Victor Romanyama, we don't know,

(27:21):
but if, if, if hecan stay healthy, it doesn't seem
like the craziest thing that thinks hecan be an MVP within four years.
But that is a tall mountain decline. I'd have to look. I feel
like it had to be maybe goingback to like Luell Sender days, finding
people who won the MVP super earlyin their career. Of course, I'm

(27:44):
speaking of Kareem abdul Jabar, butwhen he first came into the league,
that's how he was known. Kareemabdul Jabbar. I think probably won an
MVP within the first couple of yearsas an NBA player. Has anybody won
Rookie of the Year and MVP?It feels like the answer is yes,
each ro Suzuki did it in baseball, but he was also in Japan for
several years. He thinks. Somethingelse I read was Kenny Smith thinks,

(28:08):
like older players like Stephan Lebron,are you gonna be out of the league,
But there's still a lot of superyoung players like Donche's just twenty four,
Jason Tatums twenty five, like someof these dudes are still gonna be
around. Yeah, that's true.I mean Yoki just won twenty seven eight,
okay and beats twenty nine. Yeah, I don't know. It looks

(28:30):
like Kareem abdul Jabbar one MVP hissecond year in the NBA, so i'd
have to go and it's he's notgonna do it as a rookie anyways.
But I'm just thinking a guys youngerin their career. And by the way,
of course, Kareem adul Jabbar playedfour years at UCLA and one of
the most dominant college players ever,so it feels like it's super rare these

(28:55):
days to get somebody that young intheir career winning an MVP. Was drafted.
He was drafted in O eight Ithink, Okay, he won MVP
and eleven. I know he wasin the two thousand and eight championship games,
so that means it would be eightO nine with his first year,
right, he was in that Oeight championship game Memphis in Memphis, in
Kansas, he in a ball isMemphis Brethren missed a bunch of free throws.

(29:19):
Yeah, so he was drafted ineight and he won an eleven.
Okay, so that's three years in. You know what, if he stays
healthy, I really don't want thisto happen, especially because he's down.
Night ten, I could see ithappening. All right, what else you
got? Uh? Yeah, wellyou mentioned this yesterday during the nightcap.
We didn't go over a bunch,but Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald, Yes,

(29:44):
they fired him. He is likelyto sue Northwestern University. Yeah,
so I mean, where what amI missing here? I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know the allegations. So okay, you did like basically
that there was hazing. He saidhe didn't know. Yeah, Well,

(30:06):
if you're really looking forward to seeingthe phrase dry humping, go ahead and
get into the specifics of the hazingallegations at Northwestern. It's we don't necessarily
need to detail them, but extremelyvile and hazing situation is basically what Northwestern
has been calling it. First reportedin January, Pat Fitzgerald said he didn't

(30:26):
know anything about it, So thenthey've suspended him for two weeks. Apparently,
Pat Fitzgerald is saying that he hadguarantees that he wasn't going to be
fired, and that's why he's goingto sue about about it. So I
don't know that necessarily, I'm nota lawyer in the ins and outs of
this, But reading the allegations,reading so many players coming out and a
lot of them not publicly basically,but saying sources that he knew about this

(30:49):
and that he was so One ofthe things that they were doing is when
the players would mark no, theywould mark players to haze, they would
clap above their heads in practice,and Pat Fitzgerald was doing the same thing.
He was clapping above certain players headsto signify that they would be hazed.
So it seems like it's pretty toughto deny that he knew anything about

(31:10):
it when he was doing that,unless you want to say this coincidence,
Oh, I always clap over here. This was my normal clapping stance.
I don't know, But just onits face, my opinion feels like Pat
knew what was going on. Doesn'tseem like something you want to be doing
us. No, he had beenthere since two thousand and six, like
this is your alma mater. Hehad had opportunities to go elsewhere, dream

(31:33):
Jobs, signed a huge contract,blah blah blah blah blah, did go
one to eleven last year, andI think he only had like two wins
a year before. But a mess. And I'm not a lawyer, so
I don't know exactly what rules werebroken, but it just feels like overall
Pat Fitzgerald knew what was going on, and I don't have any problem with
him getting fired. All right,we're gonna take a break here on the
Nightcap program here on Sports Talk sevenninety. My name is Ross vir Rieff.

(31:57):
You want to get in and talkanything that we're talking about, of
course with not necessarily the Northwestern stuff, but Victor Wiman Yama MVP within four
years. The pitch clock. MLBPlayer Association Executive Director Tony Clark thinks it
needs to be tweaked for the playoffsor should they keep it as is?
Also, of course, the Rocketsin Summer League action up seventy one to

(32:21):
sixty two on OKC. Right now, you can get in talk about anything
at seven one three two one twofive seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety All right,So the poll is up on my Twitter

(32:43):
address at sports RV curious where someof you fall. We will talk about
it in a moment about baseball andwhat they shall do with balls and a
Strike's phone number is seven one threetwo one two five seven. A couple
of minutes left here on the nightcap because another thing that has been addressed.

(33:05):
You have the I mentioned Tony Clarkwanting the pitch clock twigked. You
now have our good friend, CommissionerRob Manfred speaking to the media talking about
the challenge system for balls and strikesrather than a larger full implementation. And
look, I've been on this soapboxfor like several years. I'm going to
continue to be on there. I'mnot going to back off. If you

(33:28):
watch enough baseball. I just honestlydon't understand how people disagree with me,
But there are a lot of peoplewho do, and the poll numbers reflect
that. But if you have thetechnology, and they do have the Hawkeye
technology now they're using it in TripleA. It's twelve different cameras, it's
high tech stuff. It gets theball down. Here's like three hundred and
thirty frames per second. Think aboutthat. The average movie is like thirty

(33:52):
frames per second. So you're talkingabout more than ten times the average movie,
even your sports most to the stuffthat you watch on your HDTV is
sixty frames per second, so you'retalking about three hundred and thirty frames per
second to accurately get where the pitchis in the strike zone with twelve different

(34:13):
cameras, they get it within atenth of an inch, which is better
than how many inches have you seenan umpire miss a call by? So
I think I feel like if theyhave the technology, yes, it might
cost them some, but they shouldget it right because if I'm explaining to
you how to play baseball, we'retalking about out and safe and we're talking
about balls and strikes. It isjust at the crux of the game,

(34:35):
and I wish they would get itright. But anyways, Rob Manfred quote,
if we had to make a decisiontoday, which we don't, there
will be more support for at leastbeginning with the challenge system, and I
think that would be a happy mediumfor the older guard who are like,
you gotta have the human element inthere, which basically means I like when
they get the calls wrong, whichmakes no sense to me. You know,

(35:00):
Oh, it's great about baseball whenthe umpire gets the call wrong.
If I say to you plainly,you have the ability to get every single
call right, should you do it? The answer should be unequivocally yes.
But like I said, I getwell, you know what, it's trending
somewhat in my direction. Twitter pollat sports RV what should be done with

(35:21):
baseball balls and strikes? Keep umpirescalling it? Sixteen percent say that right
now? Forty seven percent challenge systemthirty six percent Automatic balls strikes, which
I am in favor of Jamaica hasrung in here on the phone lines here
on Sports Talk seven ninety Jamaica.The floor is yours. I'm great,
what's up? Hey? You knowsome I mean the count it helped or

(35:45):
listen in basketball and football, everyother sport has a certain you know,
you have a certain time to getthe shot off. You have a certain
time. With baseball it never did. So you have you know hitters,
you know three with themselves what werestepping off? Yeah, back, I
said the game was too long andfor the younger generation. You have to

(36:06):
understand a lot of young kids thatadd you know, so baseball, baseball
is more of an older person's sportsbecause younger kids, you have a generation
that like in the mixed martial arts, basketball, football because of the violence,
but they all still have a certainamount of time, you know,
we have to get a shot off, you know. So baseball is more

(36:28):
of an old man's sports. Yeah, but Jamaica even even then though,
like do you have the games orway long? Like in the nineteen seventies
the average game was like two anda half hours, and then recently last
year the games were well over threehours, so you have even though it's
an old person's game. And ifyou go back even way to the way
like nineteen twenties, the games wereabout two hours. Now of course you

(36:49):
added in commercial breaks you got tomake your money and all that type of
stuff. But even from when they'vehad commercial breaks like twenty years ago,
the game was like thirty minutes longerthan it than it had been. But
go ahead, Hey, by theway, who's your producer producing no and
no A fossils? Right number oneto Noah? Why would you? Why
would you ever listened to anything that? Adam Clatton says, what what what

(37:15):
you know? Something? When Ilistened you know to that show when west
Wex Stock, I listen, well, Adam start talking of change the channel.
I mean, I mean, whywould you even listen to the end,
because Adam doesn't understand being a sportstalk show host, even though you're
in Houston, they also have tobe objective. Where do you keep being

(37:35):
a homer and a homer? Idon't want to hear stuff that you're making
up because you're homer. And bythe way, where ken When Kevin Durant
came in the league. Kevin Durant, he's still skinny, his head,
it was skinny his crap. Alot of people though that he would last
and came to Kevin duran is oneof the best players to ever played.
So I understand that he plays forthe Spurs, you know, and Gregg
Popovic know what he's doing, youknow, so they know what he's doing.

(38:00):
And I'm sorry, Adam a lotof times when you talk. I
mean, I work for waste Managementand where I work a lot of people
when you come on, we're justchange the channel until Rex come back.
Call. So quin quinn't listen toAdam. Clanton says, all right,
all right, well, I'm gonnago ahead and defend clan. Yes,
he is sometimes gonna be a homer, but he's fiery and passionate. And

(38:22):
I like listening to Adam Clan.He entertained. It's an entertainment medium,
and to me, he's entertaining.But do you have any the other point
you want to get to Jamaica.Oh yeah, but he's a sports talk
show. Ho, so trying tobe trying to be objective. I mean,
you know some he even dogs.Okay, can we talk literally anything
else but about Adam Clan. Didyou have some other point you wanted to
get to? You can call Youcan call him Jamaica three to six,

(38:44):
Sports Talk seven ninety. He won'the won't answer my phone call to listen.
Oh that's true. Actually, goodday. All right, Well on
that note, thank you, Jamaica. Yeah. I guess. Well,
they don't take a ton of callson the Old Adam and Adam Show,
but that's all right on the MattThomas Show, and we do on the
Nightcap program here on Sports Talk sevenninety. Yeah. Hell, look,

(39:06):
if you got beef with Adam,you take it up with him. I
like, I happen to like Adampersonally and professionally. He's an entertaining guy.
It's an entertainment medium. Yeah,atshell, you know what if you
don't like Tweto Pointe, Adam Clanton, screw you, Tito Pointe one of
the goats. Oh oh yeah,come, oh yeah, crank this up.
Noah Yeah, let's go all righton that note. That's gonna do

(39:35):
it for the Nightcap program here onSports Talk seven ninety. My name is
Ross Viuriale. Thank you so muchfor listening if you took time out to
do so. Thanks for those ofyou who called or tweeted, got involved
directly thanks to Noah Fouts cranking theTito Pointe. I'll talk to you folks
next tomorrow at noon as part ofthe Matt Thomas Show right here on Sports
Talk seven ninety