← Payne & Pendergast
Payne & Pendergast
HOUR 1 - Astros Win 2 of 3 vs Rays + Balogun Suspension Suspended + Headlines
00:42:50
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- [00:00]
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- [00:31]
Luke Morrow
Your true crime podcast keeps listeners on the edge of their seats. But here's the real mystery. Why isn't it making more money? Odyssey Creator Lab is here to solve that. We host your show for free. No fees, no catch. You focus on the suspense while our sales team brings in advertisers and revenue. Stop leaving money on the table. Apply now at creators.odyssey.com and turn your passion for true crime into real revenue. Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.
- [01:05]
Seth Payne
We coming to eighth time. Let's get to work in man. Let go.
- [01:08]
Roe Advertiser
Great day.
- [01:09]
Seth Payne
Great day. Oh, give me some juice, baby. Oh, yeah. Let's do it.
- [01:16]
Luke Morrow
Yes, sir. Happy Monday. Appreciate you starting the week with us, Payne and Pendergast, but Sean's out. I'm Luke Morrow in for him alongside Seth Payne. Hope you had a great holiday weekend. Seth, good morning. How was your July 4th weekend?
- [01:31]
Seth Payne
It was great. It was absolutely incredible. We did all the stuff you're supposed to do. Yeah. Just did hot dogs and fireworks and lawn work. That was the. Try the trifecta for the things our forefathers would have wanted us to do.
- [01:46]
Luke Morrow
That's right. Right. Very American. Well, glad you had a good time. I was, you know, we went out to. I live in West U. We went out to a damn.
- [01:56]
Seth Payne
No.
- [01:57]
Luke Morrow
Well, let's take it easy.
- [02:00]
Seth Payne
I didn't know you were a West University in.
- [02:02]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah. I love telling people because it's a lot fancier than our reality.
- [02:06]
Seth Payne
That's like Sean claiming that he lives in River Oaks. Technically. Yeah.
- [02:12]
Luke Morrow
In our neighborhood. It's like mansion, mansion, mansion. Oh, there's our shack. Mansion, mansion, mansion. But we do live in a nice area at least. And. But so we went to the local pool. There's a community pool. That's the best part about West U. Or some of just the perks in the. In the neighborhood. But we went to the pool on July 4th because they were having a whole pool party and there was a guy there that looked like he had to have either have been or is currently an athlete. And he looked like a football player. The dude was built. He was about 6ft, muscles on muscles, great shape. He. He was in the pool, like, with a long sleeve shirt on. He had the hat on, glasses on the whole time. Like, he was trying to keep a low profile. And you've probably had this experience too, Seth, but I spent the second half that we were there, I spent the whole time just like staring at this guy, trying to figure out like, who is this? This has to be somebody. And I imagine in your life as a former NFL player, people have probably looked at you trying to figure out like, this has to be a professional athlete. Who is this guy? And I don't know if he knew that my eyes are on him for a long time, probably, you know, making his wife uncomfortable. But I was trying to figure out, like, this has to be. And I never figured it out, but I was like, this has to be either a former player or a coach or somebody that this dude is too built to just be a regular guy.
- [03:25]
Seth Payne
Yeah, no, that's. I don't get it. As. As long as I'm not lifting weights, I don't get it that much. As soon as I start lifting, it's like I could lift for two weeks and then immediately I start getting those questions. But I, like, I look more looking like a beefed up librarian these days. So there's lots of tall guys, especially in a city this big. So I don't. And I'm old now, so I don't. I don't get that as much. But yeah, that's. Well, it's one of the things about being in Houston. There are. There's so many professional athletes, not just from the local teams, but from guys that retire and live here that I do. I find myself a lot of times kind of walking past somebody my own age in the grocery store and we kind of eyeball each other and we're pretty sure that we used to both play in the NFL, but, you know, like, who's got room for more friends, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly.
- [04:14]
Luke Morrow
And I'm not the type of. I'm not going to go up to this guy and just make small chats. So I was like, I was like creeping over towards the pool, trying to, over, you know, trying to eavesdrop and hear if I could catch a name or something or like, what is this guy? Is he talking about the Texans? Is he talking about the NFL?
- [04:27]
Seth Payne
Well, so do you get credit for this now, though? Okay. If you're, if you're an athlete. If you're a professional athlete at the public pool and it's in some. You know, it's like in a. In a normal suburb or out in the country or something. I feel like you get extra credit for being a man of the people. I don't know if in West U. That applies as much.
- [04:46]
Luke Morrow
It's true.
- [04:47]
Seth Payne
I don't think as much of, like, that you get. You know what's weird? When I lived in Jet, when I played for the Jaguars in Jacksonville, there's just gated golf communities all over the place. And most of the people, like, who have the means or a lot of them end up living in gated communities. It's almost just the standard. And I never. I always felt weird about that. So I lived, like, you know, like, in a normal house on a normal street, and people would always. People would always act like I was like I was a saint walking on the earth for. For just living in a normal neighborhood. And I was like. I was like, yeah, I feel like. Feel like you're kind of calling all the other guys jerks. I didn't think anything of it. But, like, in Houston, it's not as the. The gated community thing isn't as big a deal, at least, you know, inside the loop and everything, obviously. So you see a lot more just commingling out in the public.
- [05:39]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I went to a couple weeks and maybe months ago now, I went to a Starbucks and Cal McNair walked in to pick up his order, and I was the only person in there that recognized him. And look, I don't have. We know the McNairs, obviously, they listen, they pay attention. I don't have the ego to think that he knows who I am. I'm only here occasionally. But we locked eyes, and I think he knew that I knew who he was. And we kind of like, acknowledge each other, but I wasn't going to say anything. Nobody said a word to him. He came in, grabbed his coffees, went back out, and I was like, oh, that's cool. Like, that was just the owner of the Texans popping in here. Nobody even realized. So to your point, you can't exist around here as a celebrity or a star or an athlete or whatever without a bunch of people noticing. Nobody else went up to this guy. So I don't know. They were all busy with their kids, obviously. I said, go play over there. I'm trying to figure out who this guy is.
- [06:26]
Seth Payne
Yeah.
- [06:27]
Luke Morrow
But. Yeah, I never got the answer.
- [06:29]
Seth Payne
You should have. Yeah, you just have a casual walk up and you could have, you know, dropped your hot dog in front of him or something. I, you know, the last place I ran into Cal McNair in nature was at academy and he was buying, he was buying grilling supplies. Like he was like, he's just, he is, he is about as down to earth just the low key billionaire as you could, as you'd expect to see.
- [06:56]
Luke Morrow
That's how I would, that's, that's the dream. I want to be Adam Sandler just like walking around in baggy gym shorts.
- [07:01]
Seth Payne
Yeah.
- [07:02]
Luke Morrow
You know, and people think like you look like a schlub, but really you're just, you're a millionaire and you're just like, you're an everyday guy. That's, that's, that's the American dream here. Coming off July 4th weekend. Hey, the Astros are coming off. Let me not bury the lead. The Astros are coming off a big weekend as well. They take two out of three against the Rays getting that win yesterday to nothing. The Rays third best record still as we wake up today, third best record in major League Baseball. They entered the series on an eight game winning streak. To me, that was, I've always still have been like one foot in if that with these Astros. So I still been skeptical, but that was the biggest series victory of the year. To me. It wasn't the Royals, it wasn't the Twins, the teams they've been beating recently. This was a really good race team. And the Astros, even though they didn't get a good performance from Hunter Brown on Saturday, still found a way to win two out of three. It felt like a really big prove it series, at least for me. I don't know how you felt, Seth, but for me, I came away thinking like, okay, maybe I can start to take this team seriously in the Al.
- [07:57]
Seth Payne
No, I 100% and I think, I mean so much of it revolves around the pitching and what are they going to, what are you going to see from them? And the, we know the bullpen is, has really come along in the last month or so. But I think getting those performances out of Arrogetti and Lambert are probably the most promising developments. And like Lambert has been pitching well. But I also think you're at a point now where, you know, Espada at times I think has left Lambert in too long. He's left a lot of pitchers in too long and a lot of that comes from earlier in the season when man, they just didn't have, they didn't have enough guys in the bullpen. The starters weren't Giving. Weren't. Weren't. Weren't eating up enough innings that he was really in a fix where now I would say both, arguably with Araghetti and Lambert, you might say, man, you could have left them in a little bit longer, but they were both. He was in a good position with both of those guys, to where I understand. I understand why he would. And it worked out like with Lambert yesterday. You know, you bring Okert in to face a lefty, and they. They end up swapping him out. And it was. But. But it all worked out and they, like, they have the relievers. When you can line up Okert, King, and Hayter, you feel just awesome about that compared to whatever the hell we felt like in the first couple months of the season when we might have to see a Breu out there in a clutch situation.
- [09:19]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, the bullpen handle their business again yesterday. And this bullpen has been really good, as has the team. I mean, the bull. Over the last six weeks. The bullpen, I believe, is still number one in ERA, and the Astros are number one in the American League. They're 25 and 16 in their last 41 games, which is a quarter of the season. If you played like that all year, you'd win just about 100 games, which is pretty remarkable. So they have the highest winning percentage the last six weeks. So if you're an Astros fan, you're probably thinking, like, how come you're only buying in now? But. Because on the flip side, and we know this, with baseball, you can always find stats to make your argument. But on the flip side, the Astros still, despite this run, have the fourth worst run differential in the American League. And I'm a big run differential guy. You know, the run differential tells you that they've overachieved by six games so far. They have the. They're still only in third place in the worst division in baseball, and they're also four games under.500 against winning teams, even after this weekend series. So they. They've been playing really good baseball the last six weeks. But then for me, there's. It's still hard for me to settle some of those bad numbers that I usually look for over the course of an entire baseball season to tell me how good a team truly is.
- [10:27]
Seth Payne
Yeah, no, you're exactly right to care about run differential. You know, the stat heads try to tell you it's like it's some kind of. It's a Pythagorean theorem of, like, whatever the win loss ratio of points for and Against. It's like, yeah, okay, no, we don't have to. We don't have to attach. We don't have to attach any lingo to it. It's better to score more runs than you allow. And, like, over the course of the season, you can. Those things tend to balance out. I think that the biggest. The biggest and craziest thing is that this series that you feel best about, or at least you know, I think you and I both feel a lot more confident after winning a series versus the Rays.
- [11:07]
Luke Morrow
Is.
- [11:07]
Seth Payne
It is. As you're also sending Jake Myers and Joey Lo Profito down to Triple A and just continuing this. This whatever the hell's going on in the outfield to the point where, I mean, you know, yesterday they pinch it, disenzo for Taylor Tramell, and I find myself, like, wondering, like, how am I getting angry about this? And yet I am, because I feel like a spot is just trying to get too clever too quick, and then disenzo ends up doing well out there. But, like, these are the options. Like, there's just. There's no options that you feel awesome about for really giving you any kind of offense in the outfield.
- [11:45]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, for sure. And I think it's. I don't know who it's an indictment on. Like, I didn't like at the time. You could go back. I don't tweet a whole lot, but you could find the tweet. At the time of the trade deadline last year, I thought Jesus Sanchez was the best addition for the Astros. It obviously did not work out last year here in Houston, but then I hated that trade for Joey Lofido. And so far now, as we sit here on July 6, I don't know what Sanchez's numbers currently are. I haven't checked the last, like, two weeks, but he was having a really good year.
- [12:11]
Seth Payne
Yeah.
- [12:12]
Luke Morrow
And Loafer Feto, he was playing a
- [12:13]
Seth Payne
lot better than he had in Houston. Remember. Remember also that the. The Blue Jays hitting coach up there at the beginning of the season had basically said that the Astros ruined Sanchez. I'm paraphrasing, but. Right.
- [12:26]
Luke Morrow
So maybe it was never going to work in Houston. Although, of course, they did change hitting coaches. But, yeah, like, that was a career low OPS he had for his half a season in Houston. That's the norm. That's the outlier. I like Jesus Sanchez, and he's having a really good year. Meanwhile, Lo Profito goes down to aaa, and so I don't know if that's, like, more of an indictment on Dana Brown. Where you look at the Dubon trade, you look at that trade, neither one has worked out well for the Astros or if it's more of an indictment on Jim Crane for forcing those like, money saving moves. But here we are on July 6th where Lorfito, one of the big additions of the offseason, is now in AAA along with Jake Myers and, and you have lamonte Wade in the lineup. And then to your point, the Zenzo, who in Dana Brown's defense, DeSenzo, got a big, you know, had a big at bat to tie up the game there yesterday or Saturday rather. But, but yeah, that's just to me it's another sign of just some of the holes, I guess on this team of that Lo Profito, Jesus Sanchez would be a big help. Instead you have low Profito now he's in Triple A. And you look at this lineup, there's only three guys with an average ops, a league average OPS on this team. But they have the pitching right now and they keep finding ways to win here the last six weeks.
- [13:32]
Seth Payne
Yeah, somebody asked me about Lamont Wade this weekend. About like, so is he, is he a rookie? And I'm like, I'm pretty sure. Let me check. Yeah, he's 32 years old, like, whatever. I know his numbers are promising so far, but it's a very small sample size and it's. He likely is what he is at this point in his career.
- [13:50]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. Big series coming up, though. Well, first, before I get to that, let me put you on the spot here already 6:12 in the morning. Who do you think was. What was. Who had the bigger pitching performance, Spencer Arrogetti or Lambert in terms of like trying to take that and move forward? Like, who do you think that was bigger for Arrogetti and what he did Friday or Lambert yesterday?
- [14:12]
Seth Payne
Because.
- [14:13]
Luke Morrow
Okay, well, I was just to set it up like Araghetti had the great start to the year then had really been scuffling and we thought like now, you know, he's regressed to the mean.
- [14:20]
Seth Payne
But.
- [14:20]
Luke Morrow
But then pitch really well Friday. Lambert, meanwhile, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. And yet the guy just keeps dealing. I don't know if it's ever going to drop.
- [14:27]
Seth Payne
Yeah, I think that, I think with Eric Eddy, because we've seen this. Eric Eddy has acknowledged it himself. Like, man, he tends to be pretty streaky. He'll have this awesome month where you feel like he's the, he's the next Hunter Brown. He is. And then he just has a month like the previous month. And I think for Eric, Eddie, and especially right now, you know, as a, as you approach the All Star break, whatever he's figured out or whatever he's had to do, hopefully this is just back onto that stretch where he's done in the past. You know, I have a great second half of the season. I think it was a bigger day for him. Lambert. Yeah, I'm growing kind of maybe a little too casually comfortable with Lambert. And I just part of it is he just does it with, you know, attacking the zone, a variety of pitches, just changing up his velo and everything. He just feels like. He feels like a true craftsman, you know, he understands his craft.
- [15:20]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. And he was like, look, he was a first round draft pick, went to Colorado where all pitchers, you know, go to fail. And then now here in Houston has been given maybe a better opportunity and things are certainly clicking for him this year. So he's always had like the ability and the talent. Just hasn't been able to put it together at least to this season. But yeah, he's been pitching really well as a pitcher.
- [15:40]
Seth Payne
Going to Colorado. Just think about what that must do your psyche in terms of like your career. This is in Baseball Almanac. For the rest of your life, no matter how well you pitch, it's not gonna look that good. And that's the, that's the high. Like, that's a high standard. You just. There's people gonna have to explain. You're gonna end up being a Hall of Fame pitcher, but people are gonna have to explain to future generations exactly why the first five or six years of your career didn't look that impressive.
- [16:07]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it's like in the office where Ryan says that Pam is like a Scranton 8, but a New York 5 or something along those lines. It's similar where it like, well, you know, he has a five ERA in Colorado. That's like a four and a half era somewhere else, or maybe a four ERA somewhere else. Like, it's not bad. You got to use. You got to grade it on a. On a scale.
- [16:25]
Seth Payne
I feel like if you're like, you've got aspirations of being a great novelist or something, but you're forced to take a job at Buzzfeed and you're just like, this is the. This is the crap I'm going to be putting out. I'm going to be writing Listicles for the next six years.
- [16:38]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. Big still. Big couple of days coming up here. Starting tonight. No rest for the Astros. 545. First pitch against the Nationals And I know we haven't really had to care about the Washington Nationals for a few years really since that World Series, but they are over.500 and they have one of the better offenses and their pitching is lousy, but they have one of the best offenses in the league. And Seth, as you pointed out before we came on the air, you had the three good arms over the weekend. And now you get Mike Burroughs tonight ime tomorrow against one of the better offenses in the league on the road nonetheless. So now let's see if you could keep this momentum going with these guys the next two nights.
- [17:17]
Seth Payne
Yeah, I'm, I am excited for what hangs in the balance in terms of my own psyche over the next three days. That's the, I mean like Burroughs and Imai immediately just give us something to feel really good about headed into the All Star break and. Except we'll probably see Burroughs again. Right? Yeah. So there's a, like there's this, this next couple, this next couple series before the All Star break where Jordan will also be for those you didn't know, he's not going to be doing the Home Run Derby. So you don't have to worry about any of that.
- [17:49]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. Screwing up the swing.
- [17:50]
Seth Payne
Yeah, they talked about it was Cameron. Oh they were talking about with Cameron Arrow yesterday about you know, like the perceived that sometimes guys go into a slump or just don't do as well after they do the Home Run Derby. I don't. I could go either way on that debate. I'm just glad to not have to be a part of it.
- [18:08]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I don't like it. I wouldn't want my guys like Jordan in the Home Run Derby. I think they've tried to crunch the numbers before. I think people have done the quote unquote studies and found that it really doesn't have a huge overall on average. It doesn't have a huge impact on these guys second half of the season. But there are enough cases we can point to where maybe it's just coincidence but it's like, ah, that guy, you know, he didn't do so hot second half of the year or at least the weeks that followed the Home Run Derby because it is a, you know, it can be a tiring experience. It can we believe alter your swing. I just also don't want you down there.
- [18:37]
Seth Payne
I even just for from an injury standpoint, I like it's, it's like going out. It's a different sport almost doing a Home Run Derby even though it looks very, very similar to the thing he does Every single night. It's still. You're taking all these monstrous hacks in a row and like, for whether it messes up your swing or it could, you know, tweak your oblique or something, I just don't like. I don't want Jordan Alvarez going out and splitting a bunch of firewood during the All Star break either. You know, it's a similar motion. Ah, yeah, but it's, it's that. That can be dangerous sometimes. The similar motion where it feels comfortable to just go all out. It's. You feel it the next day.
- [19:17]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it can be dangerous. Ask Chris Hansen and Jack Del Rio.
- [19:21]
Seth Payne
Ever do you ever, like, you ever go to the gym and you haven't done legs in a long time, you decide to do legs. Or let's. Even if you have been doing legs, but you decide to do some kind of groin exercise or something, you think, oh, I'm in great shape and everything. Sure. I'll just get on that adductor machine and do six sets there. And then you can't walk for three weeks afterwards.
- [19:40]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. No, I know. I know it too well. Baseball talk on Sports Radio 610 presented by Xfinity. Score the most reliable Wi Fi 1 price, five years guaranteed Xfinity. Imagine that. By the way, yeah, Jordan's also the same guy that got injured like stepping on home. So let's not have him swing a bat any. Any more than he really needs to. Coming up. Hey, we have a big soccer game tonight and or match, I should say. You could tell I'm not a soccer guy. Big soccer match tonight. And we also got big news over the weekend that a red card suspension was actually suspended. Are we happy or should we be embarrassed? We'll talk about it next year on pain and Pender Gas.
- [20:20]
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- [20:58]
Luke Morrow
Braethan wherever you get your podcasts, should we feel happy or are we feeling a little embarrassed? Based off of the news yesterday with the World cup where they have suspended the suspension for that red card that was given out to float Baligan. Hey, it's Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payne, of course. And you can always join the conversation. I should have mentioned this earlier, but. 713-572-4610 to text the show at any time. Oh, yeah. So the big news over the weekend is that he'll be able to play in the match tonight with Belgium. 7pm Start here, Central time, big match. And Seth, I don't know how you feel, but I was surprised by the reaction of a lot of the. Obviously a lot of fans. Happy.
- [21:43]
Seth Payne
Yeah.
- [21:43]
Luke Morrow
And I'm not even getting political here. We're not even talking about the political side of this because, you know, as the stories go, that's what led to the suspension of this quote, unquote suspension.
- [21:52]
Seth Payne
The US And Donald Trump himself reached out to FIFA and had conversations with the FIFA president and this ends up getting revoked. Which or suspended the automatic one game ban to provoke the red card. They suspended the one game ban.
- [22:06]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it's pushed off a year. So he will like serve a suspension, but not for a year.
- [22:10]
Seth Payne
This is, this is one of those all too easy situations. You know what we've gotten really good at America at doing? Luke is saying, hey, let's separate politics from this. Nobody's better at it than us as of late. But especially when it comes when it involves the president, especially, I do feel like you can, I am, I am really, I'm ambivalent about this to an extreme degree. So I would say whoever the president is, whether it was Trump or Obama or Clinton or Bush or Bush, I do, I feel a little bit uneasy about the president reaching out to FIFA and putting in a position where FIFA doesn't have the best reputation for running things on the up and up. America's got a reputation as a bully and I feel like it's the perfect storm of a whole bunch of crap that I gotten myself all geared up for. Okay, man. If the US Wins this game without their best player, they, because of an unjust red card, that'll be the story of all stories. And now I feel like that it's tainted any potential victory, regardless of where you stand politically. And at the same time, also, it was an unjust red card or at least the suspension feels excessive. After the red card. I'M cool with. I understand the red card part of it, but it just the, the fact that you do get suspended for the next game feels extreme and heavy handed.
- [23:35]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it does. You know, we were talking about it in the group chat yesterday and I feel like there should be a sliding scale and same thing in college football with targeting where like let's have a yellow card, a red card and then in soccer in between, like add an orange card where that's the end the rest of, of that current match.
- [23:53]
Seth Payne
Yeah.
- [23:53]
Luke Morrow
But you don't have to miss any other time afterwards. Which similar in college football at targeting where I think we need a little more judgment involved instead of like once you get a targeting penalty, you're out for the next game as well if it happens in the second half where it might just be incidental. I think similar with some of these red cards too, where I haven't found anybody who has agreed that like, oh yeah, that was a good red car red card. That was the right call. It was a bad call. I don't think it should mean you automatically miss the next match, but I also don't think it should mean that we, we bend the rules, which for those that aren't are unfamiliar and curious why this is such a big story. It's because like this never happens. They don't ever reverse this to allow a player to play.
- [24:31]
Seth Payne
It appears to be the first time since 1962 that a red card during a World cup didn't result in a suspension. That's the. So it's. And this is one of those things where it's impossible now that because Trump called the FIFA president, it's impossible to not connect dots? And yet I just. Is there any world in which FIFA would have come by this decision without the US exerting pressure, intervening somehow or some way? It's, I guess it's hard for, it's hard to imagine that that would be the case given this is the first time it's happened since 1962.
- [25:10]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah. It wasn't expected. And that's why I was saying like the embarrassing part is because it just feels like classic us of like forcing, you know, forcing him back on the, on the pitch. And it's reminiscent again, like you said, regardless, like who the president is or even whoever made the call, it feels like you didn't make the baseball team growing up and your parent calls the coach and is like, hey, you got to put them back on the team. What are you doing? And you know, and then that's how you get Your spot on the roster.
- [25:34]
Seth Payne
You're the rich kid on the team that, like, you're the starting pitcher and you're self aware that you're not the best or you're like, you're the, you're the best. The number one pitcher and on the team, despite being like the fifth or sixth best pitcher on the team. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [25:50]
Luke Morrow
When, you know, like, it's embarrassing when you're like, I shouldn't be here. I'm not supposed to be here.
- [25:54]
Seth Payne
This is where, this is where I am with it. I think I'm gonna go. Based on the fact that the US Players themselves, I think from everything I saw, I thought they handled it all with grace. I, you know, I think they did. Like, they weren't happy about it, obviously, but there wasn't a whole bunch of bellyaching about it and everything. They'd kind of put their heads down and gone about their business. And the other thing too is, you have to remember us is an underdog when it comes to soccer. That, listen, this isn't like the. This isn't like the Yankees outspending everybody every year or the Dodgers or somebody like that. It's. This is a little bit different. You know, we're. We're the lovable underdogs. That's how I choose to look at it.
- [26:33]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, that's true. We're fixing an injustice to the underdogs.
- [26:37]
Seth Payne
The part of it. Okay, so there's these two things. First, there's the jingoistic side of me that says, screw what anybody else thinks around the world. Usa. Usa. Damn it. And we believe that we will win it on and such. The other part of it, man, it's been so nice the last few weeks getting all this love heaped on us from all these countries saying, no, America's America is different than what we were led to believe. These people are so friendly and they're so awesome and they're so nice. And now, bam, we got this. This potential for huge divisiveness. And all the goodwill from the last few weeks feels like it's just going to dry up and blow out the window as people are driving at breakneck speeds on our open rural highways and amazed at how big our cars are and how cheap the gas is compared to a lot of European nations. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [27:24]
Luke Morrow
It's. It's true. It's true. And if you're looking at the odds, by the way, us, we were, I think, a slight underdog previously, and then once this news came out, became a favorite and then Actually, overnight for whatever. It's not a good sign. But we've been bet back to even. So money's been coming in on belgium the last 24 hours, and. And now we're about even. Both teams have about minus 110 odds. So it's like a 50, 50 toss up for the match tonight. But from a betting perspective, that did have an. At least an initial impact that it certainly helps the us in. In this match tonight. I have a few friends that are really, like, they played college soccer. 1. One of my buddies coaches now, in fact, I can be a name dropper and so to name drop and I'll. I'll put his business out there. But one of my best friends is. Is Nick DiCicco, whose father, Tony DeCicco, was the coach of the women's national team. When Brandi Chastain did the sliding, you know, she had the winning goal, slid on her knees, took her top off back in 99. He was the coach of that. That national team. And we were texting over the week, and I was surprised that my soccer buddies, they all hated the red card, but it's, you know, it's soccer. They call it like the beautiful game and everything. They hated breaking this tradition of, like, even though it helps us as us, you never put a guy back out there after getting the red card. And it feels a little tainted already.
- [28:38]
Seth Payne
Yeah. I didn't see if it was like they said, since 1962. I don't know if there was a rule change before then or after in 1962 or something. And the article I had seen didn't. Didn't paint it out any more than just saying, first time since 1962. I don't know. I think. I think this is the kind of thing that because I'm a. I'm the most casual of casual soccer fans, I'm just going to shove it to the back of my brain and pretend existed.
- [29:05]
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
- [29:06]
Seth Payne
This is just the way. This is the way it goes. That's. Them's the breaks, man.
- [29:09]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. Yeah. It's true. My grandfather was once a commissioner of a soccer league. And so in his honor, I'm going to start this push. Like I said, let's create orange cards where you can get kicked out of that match, but you don't have to get suspended for the next one because of this whole situation.
- [29:27]
Seth Payne
Is there no getting suspended for the first half or anything in soccer the way we have it in football sometimes?
- [29:33]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I. Honestly, I don't know.
- [29:35]
Seth Payne
Soccer is that Just what coaches do. Sometimes I feel like. Sometimes there's, like. You know, I always admire the coaches that bench their star player for one series.
- [29:46]
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
- [29:46]
Seth Payne
Like, that is. That is just giving token acknowledgment of something right there. Yeah.
- [29:51]
Luke Morrow
Especially when it's in college and it's like Michigan doing it when they play, you know, whatever Howard or somebody, you know, like some. Some FCS school and listen for the first series.
- [30:01]
Seth Payne
Yeah, you're. Listen, buster, if you thought you were going to get more than 350 yards rushing today, good luck. That's your punishment.
- [30:08]
Luke Morrow
Going to show you. Hey, by the way, speaking of officiating and whatnot, I do love that. I. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but we've had seven umpires over the weekend accept buyouts from Major League Baseball to retire at the end of the year.
- [30:22]
Seth Payne
Oh, I missed that. Oh, okay.
- [30:24]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I should drop it in the rundown. I don't have the list in front of me. I can go find it. But they were all ranked. They've all been ranked towards the bottom of the league in terms of, like, you know, proper strike zone this year. And so finally, after all this time where we had Angel Hernandez forced upon us, like, finally, there is some accountability here where seven of the worst umpires are, quote, unquote, retiring at the end of the year, essentially, I guess, being forced out. I'm going to credit this whole challenging system for.
- [30:53]
Seth Payne
For.
- [30:53]
Luke Morrow
For that.
- [30:53]
Seth Payne
Is CB Buckner one of them? He is, yeah. Because. But you. Because, remember, CB Buckner had that horrendous series of events early in the season, and then, remember, he got hit by. He got. Well, I can't even remember the circumstance. It was ugly, though, right? He got hit by. Did a ball car him off the glove into his face or something?
- [31:12]
Luke Morrow
Something like that. I think he missed some time.
- [31:14]
Seth Payne
Yeah, well, you know, I don't know if he's. And I don't think he's been back. Cause he's on the. Yeah, he. He must not. I'm looking at the ABS Tracker right now, and I don't think he's been back since he got injured because he's only had nine. The success rate against him was a 77.8% success rate in nine challenges. Seven of nine challenges were successful. The Astros. The Astros, in facing the ABs, have been awesome. As batters, they're number one. Even with Cam Smith dragging them down, they're number one amongst batters, but then they're 27th when it comes to catchers and pitchers, and that matches the eyeball test. We dread the, we dread the Astros catchers challenging a pitch. Or not. Or not. I feel like Vasquez, I get more frustrated with the pitches. He doesn't challenge more so than some of the ones that he challenges. He lets a lot of. And I think he does an awesome job calling the game. And I think that's obvious. Pitchers love him, but that part of it he just lags in.
- [32:10]
Luke Morrow
That I saw over the weekend. Randy or Rosarina used both of the team's challenges like unsuccessfully. I think it was the first inning as well for the Mariners. He just burned through them. Yeah, some guys, I know you guys have talked about it all year, like Cam Smith. Some guys just, you know, take, take it away from them to be able to challenge. By the way, real quick, the list of umpires, CB Buckner's on that list. He's ranked. Now, as Seth mentioned, he hasn't umped in a while because he suffered a concussion from a foul ball. But he's ranked 91st out of 91 this year. He's the worst of the umpires. He accepted the buyout. So did Laz Diaz. That's a big name. Brian Onora, that's another big name. Lance Barksdale, Marvin Hudson, Tony Randazzo and Andy Fletcher are all quote unquote, retiring at the end of the year.
- [32:51]
Seth Payne
So I hope they get a fake gold watch on their way out. Yeah, just you get some of they go down and buy them down on, on the street in New York City or something.
- [33:00]
Luke Morrow
That's right. See you guys later. Baseball will probably be better for it, all due respect. Have a great retirement. Hey, coming up, time for headlines, including, you know, we were just talking about us. They play Belgium tonight. It's a big match. But I do have a thought on sort of, I guess, the irony of their success. We'll get to that along with the other headlines going on in the sports world. We'll do it next here on Pain and Pendergast.
- [33:20]
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Luke Morrow
more stories of scandal, crime and intrigue on college campuses.
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Luke Morrow
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Luke Morrow
now wherever you get your podcasts.
- [34:07]
Seth Payne
Payne and Pendergast with today's headlines, powered by Men's Tea Clinic.
- [34:17]
Luke Morrow
Let's get you the biggest headlines from over the weekend. We started the morning with it here on Payne and Pendergast. I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payne. We started the morning with it, but of course, circling back, the Astros winning the series over the weekend with the rays winning yesterday. 2. Nothing to take two out of three against the Rays. As I said, biggest series victory of the season to this point for the Astros. But Seth, what'd you think? I don't know if you had the chance to sit down and watch a lot of it yesterday, but, you know, Major League Baseball tried this thing with these Peacock broadcasts. Every game was on Peacock and they combined broadcasters from both teams. Did you get a chance to listen to the combination of the Astros and Rays broadcast yesterday?
- [35:00]
Seth Payne
I did, and I honestly, I can't remember which inning I started watching yesterday, but I was kind of. I was surprised that Todd Callis seemed to have a great rapport with the color commentator, Dave. What is it, the Doug Wechter or Dave Doug Wachter?
- [35:14]
Luke Morrow
Doug Wachter, yeah.
- [35:14]
Seth Payne
Who had been a pitcher for the Rays back in the day. So I figured, okay, that makes sense, that Callous and he and him know each other from their days with Rays. But it would. I hadn't heard this on the broadcast, but Brandy told me that they had played high school football together or something. So it just, I felt like it was a pretty. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. But it was also nice because we had a more familiar face because Callous and Julia were both still on the broadcast. So that, that part of it, that part of it was cool. I, I thought I would be sick of people talking non stop about Junior Caminero by the end of the series. Maybe it helps that Jordan was such a hero in the second game on Saturday and that the Astros won the series. That I don't, I don't hate Junior Camino yet. I just, I was. It was, it was cool to be able to get to a critical situation yesterday where, man, you got a. Okay, Camino's up at the plate. Okay. We navigated our way through this. We're okay. Haters. Going to be fine. I like him for now, I'll despise him. If the Rays continue to, to be a good baseball team, obviously.
- [36:15]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah. And. Or if he winds up somewhere else because we know the Rays typically don't keep their starts shoes. Maybe he'll, he'll wind up in Houston a few years from now or.
- [36:23]
Seth Payne
Oh, yeah, yeah. Astros will be the first to dole out that 10 year contract.
- [36:26]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or the Yankees or the Dodgers or one of those typical teams. But yeah, he's a, he's a heck of a player. In fact, I think I heard on the broadcast yesterday, I think it was. Or maybe Saturday. He's the first somebody, fact check me if I heard correctly, he's the first Ray to start multiple all star games. And he's already done it now at age, whatever he is like 22. Yeah, it's crazy. It's never happened before in that franchise. Even though they're only, whatever, 30 years
- [36:50]
Seth Payne
old, but kind of. But it speaks to that dynamic you're talking about. They have a great ability to trade away their most promising young players because they refuse to ever spend anybody but Alvarez. Like Alvarez having the night he did on Saturday or the day he did on Saturday. Well, also being, you know, named the starter at DH in the All Star Game and getting the MVP chance going in the stadium and everything, that, that felt like the culmination of the weekend for me was just Jordan being such a hero on Saturday.
- [37:20]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, that was a remarkable performance. Then the walk off and look, I'll be honest with you, I'm not the biggest Todd Callis guy, but I did think he had a good walk off call Saturday with a segue. Something about referencing fireworks with the walk off on July 4th. It was good. But yeah, that was a heck of a performance from Yorda on, on Saturday and that was a huge come from behind victory. And it's the, it's the difference. We talked about winning that series against the Rays. I was getting ready after they lost Friday. And then Hunter Brown's or I should say after. Yeah, they lost Friday. Right. And then Hunter Brown's getting knocked around and they're losing. I'm thinking, see, this is the Astros I was expecting. I was ready to go Dennis Green here this morning and say they are who we thought they were. But then they pull off that great rally because of Yordon. They win yesterday and now, you know, maybe they're rolling again.
- [38:03]
Seth Payne
So, yeah, for those of you who are completely checked out on the season or just on this weekend, because it was fourth of July Weekend. Jake Myers and Joey Lo Profito, both sent down to Triple A. Yep.
- [38:15]
Luke Morrow
As a revolving door in that lousy outfield. Just trying to mix and match. Find something in that outfield. Hey, elsewhere, we just talked about it last segment. US and Belgium tonight, Flow, as they call them, will be eligible after getting the rogue with the red card. He'll be able to play tonight. They've played. Pushed off his suspension till a year from now. I'm not a big soccer guy, but I did have one thought on the irony of the success. This is like the best team we've had in over two decades. The last five coaches were all American. I feel like there's some sort of irony that the team is now good, where the head coach is from Argentina. And it kind of reminds me of almost like the World Baseball Classic where, like I'm a wearing an. I'm wearing an Italian shirt today. And I jumped on the Italian team bandwagon. But it was like, it was a bunch of Gibrons from like Paramus, New Jersey. And everyone's like, yeah, team Italy. There's just something, we have great pride behind this, this national team this year. And then, I don't know, I'm just tickled a little bit by like, well, maybe the difference is that they hired an international coach and now they're having more success.
- [39:15]
Seth Payne
There is sometimes there's a. You see this in some of the sports that are like kind of trying to claw their way up, that there's a feeling that, all right, we're going to do as much homegrown as possible. And sometimes I want to grab those people and shake them and say, like, you know, you're not there yet. You just, okay, use all resources available to you and just get the best people out there. We don't have to, you know, you don't have to do everything homegrown. Right. Just yet. You're just not there yet. You're not a mighty world power like Belgium is, for instance.
- [39:48]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, that's fair. We'll see tonight, 7pm Start about even odds. Both teams minus 110. It's essentially a toss up US and Belgium tonight, obviously a big one. Trying to advance to take on what I think Portugal or Spain. Hey, Rockets. This is a little bit older news, but we had the radio thon, which was great on Friday. The fellas raised a ton of money. Obviously. Seth, you hung out for the first two hours Friday morning. And then later on on Friday, we got the news that the Rockets traded Dorian Finney Smith and three draft picks to the Hornets for really nothing. It's just to clear a roster space and money. I think it's like saving them $20 million. So it's a.
- [40:26]
Seth Payne
It's a salary dump on a mistake.
- [40:29]
Luke Morrow
Yes.
- [40:29]
Seth Payne
And we'll all remember Finney Smith as that guy that. Oh, yeah. Was on the roster that year. Oh, yeah, that's. He's a Trivia question for 20 years from now.
- [40:40]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. That was such a disappointment. People point to that as an example of the poor job Stone's been doing lately. That move didn't work out, but it
- [40:49]
Seth Payne
is the biggest thing about Tari Eason. Contract re upped with the Rockets. I think that a lot of people were really upset about that just because it felt like, okay, boy, now they are just doing the extreme and running it back.
- [41:03]
Luke Morrow
I.
- [41:04]
Seth Payne
That's a very tradable contract. I think from the team perspective, that's a, that's a smart team contract. And I know it doesn't feel awesome or anything because it doesn't seem like Tari Eason was happy being here or with his role. But I like on the sheer math side side of it, that contract makes sense. The overarching umbrella of man, they really are just going to run it back. I'm simultaneously kind of uncomfortable with that.
- [41:31]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I'm with you there. And that was also news that has come out really since, you know, the last full show here of Pain and Pendergast. So. By the way, the Dorian Finney Smith reminds me of in Moneyball. I always love the line where it was who David justice got traded to the Oakland A's and he's being a bad teammate. And then Billy Bean, Brad Pitt says, look, the Yankees are paying you to play against them. That's how little they think of you. So, like, drop the whole ego and reminds me of Dorian Finney Smith that the Rockets sent three draft picks and a player for nothing. They just wanted to get you the hell out of here. And if I'm Dorian Finney Smith, I don't know, it might be a little shot to the ego of like, dang, they really didn't want me. They just traded me for nothing. Along with draft. It took draft picks too, for another team to take me. That's how bad he was this past year.
- [42:20]
Seth Payne
Yeah, and that's like the market is spoken to, you know, that's okay. That's the haul you could get. You got to just. I don't know if you can even use that as a chip on your shoulder as much as a wake up moment. They're like, oh, okay. Yeah, this is. This is actually what my value is right now.
- [42:38]
Luke Morrow
That's demoralizing. Real quick. Joey Chestnut, one on July 4th, the hot dog eating contest. He ate 66 hot dogs. Seth, you ever. Are you into the hot dog eating contest at all?
- [42:46]
Seth Payne
Did you watch it? I just casually. I'm always impressed, like, obviously, but. And it's in 10 minutes. Right. Is that. Is that the time they have to eat?
- [42:55]
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I guess so. I don't. Honestly, I don't. I haven't watched it in a few years.
- [42:58]
Seth Payne
I ate. I ate 10 hot dogs in two innings, I heard. Yeah. And that. That felt like no big deal. I didn't do the beer. The beer would. If I had to do the whole nine hot dogs and nine innings with nine beers, I think just the volume of liquid, whether it's alcoholic or not, is what would do me in. Like, that fills you up quick. Kudos to anybody that's pulled off that challenge.
- [43:22]
Luke Morrow
I've been saying that. I think the hot dogs is the easiest part. I'm with you. I feel like I could shovel down nine hot dogs real quick. It's the drinks that fill you up.
- [43:31]
Seth Payne
Yeah. If I ever try it again, I might. I might front load the hot dogs. Like, do nine hot dogs in the first inning and then focus on the beer in the second nine innings or not the second second, then the remaining remaining eight innings. Yeah.
- [43:45]
Luke Morrow
By the way, and I only really bring up Joey Chestnut because some people were texting. He's the goat. I've had some people deal with Joey Chestnut. I'm told he's a. He's a pretty big jerk.
- [43:55]
Seth Payne
Diva.
- [43:56]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. Oh, very much so. There's. There's some stories. So I always. I haven't watched the hot dog eating contest in a few years. I'm boycotting the guy. I always root against him. I don't like Joey Chestnut. So congrats on eating. It's. It's a. It's a. It's a party trick, really, to show somebody, like, hey, I can eat food really fast. This is not a sport. It's. It's not even a competition. I don't care. I couldn't care less about Joey Chestnut. Congrats. You can eat a lot of hot dogs. So can Seth at an Astros game.
- [44:21]
Seth Payne
So he's like the Bill Murray character in Kingpin?
- [44:24]
Luke Morrow
Yes.
- [44:26]
Seth Payne
Does he conduct himself like that?
- [44:27]
Luke Morrow
Yeah. From what I've heard, he demands to be paid for, like, radio appearances. Even just when he got banned. I think that was what like he tried to hold his own hot dog eating contest. People didn't. No one cares. It's not about you, Joey. It's about the whole Nathan's hot dog. Anyways, I feel bad things are bigger than the game.
- [44:44]
Seth Payne
I feel bad for competitive eaters because they take something that should be one of the basic joys in life, and all of a sudden, when it becomes your profession, it's harder to love it. It was like when I was a gigolo for a while. I was like, ah, just. It's. No, this is all becoming work for me.
- [44:58]
Luke Morrow
Yeah.
- [44:58]
Seth Payne
I just. I want to get back to enjoying the part of life that's true.
- [45:01]
Luke Morrow
We'll get into those stories coming up. Plus, which celebrity would you want to officiate your wedding? Let us know, 713-572-4610, because we have to talk about that coming up. Plus, acknowledge me. It's Payne and Pendergast. Are you looking for a podcast about
- [45:18]
Seth Payne
pro football that doesn't put you to
- [45:19]
Luke Morrow
sleep with an avalanche of analytics or
- [45:21]
Seth Payne
insult your fandom with brainless hot takes?
- [45:23]
Luke Morrow
Well, hi, I'm Dan Hanzas.
- [45:25]
Seth Payne
And I'm Mark Sessler.
- [45:27]
Luke Morrow
Oh, hi, Mark.
- [45:27]
Seth Payne
And we're the hosts of Heed the Call, the NFL podcast you've been waiting your whole life for. Heed the Call covers every game, every storyline, everything that matters, and we do
- [45:36]
Luke Morrow
it all with a touch of mirth.
- [45:38]
Seth Payne
Football is fun.
- [45:39]
Luke Morrow
Why shouldn't your football podcast be the same? Follow and listen to Heed the Call NFL Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.