00:00Houston and John Lopez.
00:02Every time I think I'm out.
00:03Yeah, I know.
00:05I know.
00:05Pulling me back in.
00:06I know.
00:07The Astros.
00:08I know.
00:09With a three-game sweep out of fish.
00:11I said that at 16.
00:13Same thing.
00:14It's the charm of the season.
00:15I'm glad I share a brain with Reggie.
00:17He's smart.
00:18Is it the charm of the season, though?
00:20Yeah.
00:21They're going to go up on the season, though?
00:22Or is it the frustration of the season?
00:25The frustration is the charm.
00:27Yes.
00:27They're going to go up on no margaritas.
00:29Oh, yeah.
00:30No more $17 margaritas.
00:32They're back to $21.
00:34Actually, $26.
00:35Wait, is this what we're doing?
00:36We were hoping that the team was bad so the margarita prices go down?
00:39Is that what's happening?
00:40I'm saying they went down on the margarita prices because the team was bad.
00:44Wait, did they go down on the margarita prices?
00:45I thought they did.
00:45I thought I saw something.
00:46Just a little bit.
00:46Yeah.
00:47I thought they did.
00:48Wait, why didn't nobody tell me?
00:49I haven't been at the ballpark.
00:49Don't count on it now.
00:51Yeah.
00:52See, this is the thing.
00:53I know it's unfair to do this to friends at times,
00:56but when a friend does not let me know about something that clearly I would like,
01:00I'm mad at them.
01:01Why didn't you let me know this?
01:03I have espoused the values of the margarita at the ballpark.
01:07I've said that this is one thing.
01:08Whenever I go, I'm going to get it.
01:10And the price went down.
01:11Y'all ain't say nothing?
01:12Yeah.
01:13But word to Stringer, Bill, we back up.
01:17We back up.
01:18We back.
01:19And that comes because the Astros, with a 5-2 victory last night,
01:23get a sweep of the Miami Marlins, kind of in effect,
01:27counteracting the sweep that they, or the three games that they were swept
01:30against the Baltimore Orioles.
01:32And they do it in large part behind the efforts of this man who did this last night.
01:38Off the outside edge.
01:39Pena goes, this ball driven, deep to left field, looking up Hernandez.
01:44Good!
01:45He's done it again!
01:52This guy's awesome!
01:54Oh, man!
01:55He is awesome.
01:56Ain't he?
01:57He is awesome.
01:58Go ahead, two-run blast by none other than Yordan Alvarez.
02:01Count that as 34 on the season, league leading.
02:04Not league leading, sorry.
02:06Baseball leading.
02:07MLB leading, yeah.
02:0834th home run.
02:09And Yordan has been absolutely incredible.
02:13I could start waxing poetic, but you get the point.
02:16This dude is nice.
02:17He's more than nice.
02:21It's not out of the, you know, out of line to say we're watching one of the
02:27greatest individual performances in the history of baseball.
02:31Baseball's got a long history.
02:32I try not to speak for the history of baseball because I know that there's too
02:35many corners that I do not recall.
02:38You're willing to go that far?
02:39I am willing to go that far simply because it's not just batting average and, you know,
02:44RBI and home run.
02:46The categories in which he's leading when you talk about, you know, OPS and bases and all these things.
02:54I saw one, I saw someone mention earlier on Twitter that the number of categories in which he is leading
03:03Major League Baseball has not been done since 1955.
03:10Before I was born.
03:11What?
03:12I was about to say, what did you think about 55?
03:13Before I was born.
03:14My pops wasn't even born yet.
03:15He was born in 56.
03:17Think about that.
03:18We're watching one of the greatest individual performances.
03:20It's not out of line to say it.
03:22In the history of the game.
03:24That right there is worth the price of admission.
03:28And I'm not trying to, you know, kiss up to Astros ticket sellers.
03:32I mean, he is...
03:33That'd be a weird thing to kiss up to in this moment.
03:35You know, the Astros or whatever.
03:36No, he is someone you have to watch.
03:40And that just doesn't come along very often.
03:42It doesn't.
03:43It's one of the reasons why, yes, you look up and you go, you could trade him and just
03:47completely feed families for a period of time.
03:50But then you go, why would you then give away everyone so much covets around baseball?
03:55Is that, or just in sports, that kind of impact player?
04:00It does make me ask the question, though, because people have used this as their argument.
04:05How do you not play for that dude?
04:07And I say that not just on the level of individual games, but when we talk about the idea of
04:11being
04:11buyers or sellers at the deadline, how do you not look at this kind of performance that
04:15you're describing as one of the best individual performances in all of the history of baseball?
04:20How do you not say, we owe it to that guy?
04:23You go one of two ways.
04:24We owe it to that guy, or we can completely transform this club, you know, to which you
04:30alluded just a second ago.
04:32I think we are in a place where literally everyone wants him here and wants him to stay
04:39here.
04:39It does lead to down-the-road questions, like, was it really the smartest thing to do?
04:44But we're selfish as fans, and I don't want him to go anywhere.
04:48And I want to be able to turn on the TV every night and, you know, watch what he does
04:53and
04:53know that every time he steps to the base, to the plate, that something special is going
04:57to happen.
04:57I did find that stat, by the way.
04:59He leads all of MLB.
05:01Home runs, RBI, extra base hits, total bases, OPS, times reaching base in terms of walks
05:11hit by pitch and hits, intentional walks.
05:13No one has led in every one of those categories since 1955.
05:16He is a freak of nature and absolutely, absolutely a special, special time in Houston sports history.
05:24Let's do it.
05:25Yeah.
05:25Where is he in the pantheon of Houston greats?
05:28Well, I mentioned this to you guys earlier, that pantheon.
05:34Earl.
05:35You don't even have to say first or last names.
05:37Yeah, man.
05:37We got mononyms like you talk about Cher.
05:39Earl.
05:40Who was Earl?
05:40You know who Earl was.
05:41Akeem, Nolan, Altuve, JJ.
05:47He's doing something that outside of maybe, maybe JJ, not even these other guys can say.
05:56Like, just dominating every single category.
05:59Head and shoulders above everything.
06:01I mean, it's time to start wondering, you know, if he's that guy in Houston sports history
06:07for good baseball.
06:07I think the crazy part about it is, if he was healthy at least maybe another season
06:12or two, then this would absolutely be in the conversation.
06:16Like, it would be no questions asked.
06:18If he was, if we had three seasons of healthy Yorda.
06:23Yeah.
06:24That just hit me like a ton of bricks.
06:26We talked about it earlier on in the season, and I just kind of have taken it for granted.
06:29Yorda would have been playing the whole year, too.
06:31Yeah.
06:31Yeah.
06:32This is not regular.
06:33This is what you get when he's healthy.
06:34This was not regular.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Yeah, man, like, he is amongst those, and at this point, what else, what else needs to
06:41be there for it to just be like, yeah, he is, because I know we're talking about this
06:45as, this is the capable, this is the talent that he has, but like, there's still, is there
06:49still something that needs to put on wax in order to just be flatly amongst these?
06:53Yes, I think there is, and it's sad, to be honest.
06:55It kind of makes me sad.
06:56He doesn't have that personality and public persona of an Earl, or especially a JJ.
07:06I think the fact...
07:07No, what's funny is Nolan's win in a weird way, because it's not like it was his persona,
07:11it was just kind of his, for lack of aura.
07:13It was persona, aura, however you want to put it, but he was very relatable.
07:19You know, he was more relatable, Alvin, Texas, you know, that Texas accent, you know, he
07:25wasn't, he was good with the media, he wasn't necessarily JJ or Earl or something like that.
07:31But who is?
07:32Exactly.
07:33And the thing, and this is what makes me sad, and I don't know what you can do about it,
07:37I mean, the fact that he is not speaking English a lot, I don't think we can ignore that.
07:43I don't think you see a lot of public...
07:44Yes, 100%.
07:46I feel like this could end up being like a Big Papi, like a David Ortiz thing.
07:50But he doesn't even do as much as Ortiz did.
07:53Yeah.
07:53They probably talk a little bit.
07:54Yeah.
07:55And I'm sad about it.
07:56I'm not trying to...
07:57I mean, this to me, I think the fact that he's not as accessible, is not as out front,
08:02is not in the public, you know, talk shows and interviews and, you know, really the clubhouse
08:08sort of voice, he's also kind of introverted.
08:11Yeah.
08:11You know, very private.
08:12So the combination of those two things, if it wasn't for that, I think we'd already be
08:17talking about him in the same vein as JJ and Nolan and all those.
08:20That's a fair point, right?
08:20Like the persona that gets built.
08:23Is it possible that the new iteration of the Astros, whether that's they're able to turn
08:28this around, and we're talking about this in 2027, or whether this is, you know, whatever
08:32the next time...
08:32It's very clear that it's going to be built around him.
08:34I do wonder how much of, like, the number of other personalities that were there that were
08:39also very good at baseball, allowed him to play that backseat.
08:42It feels like the way that this is going, Jordan is going to be the centerpiece of anything
08:46that moves forward, and he's going to have to be that.
08:48Do you think that there's a possibility that we get to see and learn a little bit more about
08:52who's in this next...
08:54This is up to the Astros as much as Jordan.
08:56I think it's 50-50.
08:58When was the last time?
08:59And I think part of it is because he's...
09:00I think he speaks more English than people let on.
09:03You don't see him in the dugout talking with guys, and you're like, okay, I know they don't
09:06probably speak Spanish.
09:07Not only that, I remember when he is...
09:09When Joe Espada makes it known to the clubhouse that Jordan is the representative for the Astros
09:15and that he's going to be a starter.
09:17I mean, Jordan is talking in English amongst his teammates.
09:19I think this happens often with guys that come over, is in more casual circumstances,
09:26they are a little bit more comfortable.
09:27In official capacities, they're like, no, no, no, we are using a translator.
09:30Nothing is going to be lost in translation.
09:32That's to be safe.
09:32I don't blame them.
09:33Yeah, nothing's going to be lost in translation for these jokers that's on the radio to then
09:37to take something to a different place because I used the wrong word.
09:39Right.
09:40But that could be part of the introvert thing, too.
09:42It could be part of that.
09:44You're right, Figgy.
09:44But also, the Astros have a responsibility here just to sort of make him more accessible
09:50is the word, I think, that probably suits...
09:52When was the last time you saw Jordan at a big public appearance or in a commercial
09:57or, you know, just out front?
10:02Even like a Correa, you know, why is he beloved?
10:05Because he's just out there, you know, he was in front of everybody.
10:08So what are you saying is the HEB commercial is what we need?
10:10Well, maybe part of it.
10:12Part of it.
10:12Or maybe that's part of your time.
10:15Maybe that's his team or something like that.
10:18Maybe his team should kind of step it up a little bit and put him in front.
10:22Or maybe he could just try and be Barry Bonds.
10:25Because this is the thing.
10:26We're doing all this, like, PR for him.
10:29Maybe he could just hit the ball really hard, continuously, like he is.
10:33But here's the thing, right?
10:34This is one of the things.
10:36I'll bring it back to Kobe Bryant because Kobe Bryant allows me to kind of fall on my sword
10:40in some ways.
10:41Because Kobe Bryant, like, love and the way that he's become bigger.
10:44Obviously, I respect the fact that he passed in a way that was really tragic.
10:47And there's a lot of people that have a lot of empathy for that.
10:50But Kobe Bryant gets bigger than I think that his play sometimes dictated.
10:55And I know that that sounds crazy, but you get what I mean.
10:58But also, I have to try and give him credit because he was always trying to fill the shoes
11:02of Michael Jordan.
11:03And he didn't.
11:04But you got to give him credit for being a lot closer than anyone else.
11:07That's where I feel like we kind of are with Jordan, where every time I mention Barry Bonds,
11:11it's like, that's crazy talk because Barry Bonds was a monster.
11:14And I'm like, hey, we don't see Monster Jr. happening?
11:16You know who else is a monster?
11:17Monster Jr. is happening right in front of us.
11:19And you can see it when, I mean, it felt like a game where Peter Lambert, he gives up
11:24two runs and it's like, damn.
11:26That's all we had.
11:27And it was 2-2 in the sixth, right?
11:28That's all we had the room for.
11:29And Jordan's like, don't worry.
11:31I will open this thing back up with a two-run shot.
11:33Like, he is that.
11:35And I see it put very clearly.
11:37As long as the Astros have Jordan, they can contend.
11:41And it does feel like that.
11:42Even if we don't have to, we can quibble, I guess, on whether or not that's actually true.
11:46But the fact that you can feel that and go, yeah, means so much.
11:49And that's why we could talk about Jordan in this way.
11:52Incredible to be able to have a player of this magnitude in our...
Comments