This is the downbeat on ninety seven to one, the freak I like big.
I want a girl walks with anybody went around thing in your face,
you'll get sprung. I want to pull up Good Morning Metriplex story of the
day, the big explosion yesterday in Fort Worth Downtown Fort Worth, got a
couple of first hand accounts coming at you. I do want to remind you
that this segment is brought to you by Parker University Parker dot ed U kind
of in thirty minutes the beginning of our we calling segment the Super Wild Card
Pump Session, which we will ask the question should Mike McCarthy be canned if
the Cowboys lose on Sunday? Trust me, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday will
be more positive and looking at the realities of things. And the reality is
the Cowboys are heavy favorites in this game. But I think you think this
is a topic of conversation. It's a narrative that's gone on for a long
time. Two one four or eight one seven seven eight seven one nine seven
to one at the top of the hour, if you would like to weigh
in on this, should Mike McCarthy be fired? If the Cowboys lose on
Sunday, we'll talk about other options, other teams that are interested in dan
Quinn, and there are many. Obviously, maybe the most famous NFL head
coach of all time, Bill Belichick, might be available still with the Patriots
still under contract for now. But I think we all know that news could
break, you know, on that at any point if the Patriots decide to
move on. So a lot there. You can call in at two and
four or eight when seven seven, eight, seven one, nine seven to
one and weigh in at the top of the hour. Should coach McCarthy be
fired if the Cowboys lose on Sunday? I don't know. We got takes.
We'll have a good conversation at eight o'clock. Right now, let's do
the scuttle butt. Okay, So the big story yesterday thirty there was a
big exclusion and this happened at the Sandman Signature Hotel building. It was the
Sandman's Signature hotel, but the building is the Wagoner Building, famous in the
National Registry of Hotels. Go ahead at the National Go ahead now. Twenty
one injuries reported, one person in a critical condition, four in serious condition,
and sixteen suffering minor injuries. It was the latest as of last night.
An hour ago. We played you some audio from the four Worth Department
fire chief. I told you that a good friend of mine is the co
owner or co founder of the restaurant in the basement of that hotel, Masume.
It's an Asian fusion restaurant. I've been I haven't been to this location.
I've been to Massume, Dallas a million times and for my money,
the best sushi in this town. But they said twenty six people were occupied
in the hotel at the time of the explosion, just having about three thirty,
and they do think it was a gas leak. Put out the call
a little bit, got a few listeners, got a listener that was down
there, and a good friend of mine who was down there. Let's go
to the free hot line to my friend Keith. Keith texted in yesterday afternoon
to the speakeasy and kind of sent some pictures of what he saw. Hello
Keith, how are you doing this morning? Keith? I don't know if
we have Let's try that again. Hello Keith there, Oh yes, yep,
I hear you loud and clear. How you doing this morning? Keith?
Good? How are you all, good man, Thanks for listening to
the station number one, thanks for texting some photos. And I guess so
I don't know, walk us through it. First thing you heard saw while
you were down there in Fort Worth and this building exploded. Yeah, I
was just just working, you know, working hard as always, had my
headphones on and just hard zones. It sounded kind of like thunder. But
I first saw was, you know, Delka said we're going to have any
serious storms, So I was like, that's odd. And then you know,
kind of looked up and saw everybody else was doing the prairie dog thing
and looking up other cubicles, and you know, it was like, did
you hear that? And we also kind of felt it too. It was
just kind of a thud. We're in a big building downtown from the ninth
floor, so it's kind of kind of out of the ordinary. So we're
all looking around, and the people closest to, like the north window,
were kind of hard to getting up and move in that direction. So of
course, you know, we all got up and it went that way and
looked and pretty much when we got there, all we could see was on
the other side of the building next to us was a big kind of cloud
of dust kind of puffing up and then kind of blowing away. And then
we were watching, you know, everybody's guessing what it could have been.
And then we saw we could see the city Hall and the courthouse, the
fourth Courthouse from where we were at, and all the I think there were
marshals that are there there came like running out of those buildings towards you know,
the street and the building where where the sound came from. So you
know, they got there pretty quick. And then a few minutes later police
cars started showing up and blocking streets off, and and then a few minutes
after that, the fire department got there. And then within like thirty minutes,
Man, there were just a ton of hot cars and fire trucks all
there, and you know, we're still have no idea what's going on,
and thinking, you know, of course we're we're you know, concerned for
our safety, and I wanted to get out of the building. It had
nothing to do with trying to get out of the rest of the day of
work. Of course, we we uh, we're you know, learn contemplating
that, and and so of course we all go to social media and are
looking at the w Scanner and w FA trying to see fusing firsthand reports,
you know, right away, so you know, within a little while,
you know the I guess we fit out of the casts guess the explosion and
and we're also kind of concerned about casualties too, because it was pretty big.
And yeah, a lot of people downtown that you know, the brutshoulders
we have going to and from buildings. So did you smell anything? We
didn't smell anything. Of course we were up on the ninth floor, so
ye didn't smell anything. He just saw the big cloud of dust and and
felt, uh put them and that kind of kind of felt just felt like
a big firework, you know, which inside a building, you know,
you know, almost a block away that that was concerning that. No,
we didn't. We didn't smell anything. And even when I was walking back
to my car after after all this stuff was still going on, I didn't
smell anything. I don't know what angle you had. You said you were
a block away. Did you see anyone exiting the building? Was there frantic
people in and right around the building, not counting obviously the responders that were
getting there. There were there were some people kind of wandering around. It
seemed like not really like injured. We didn't se anybody looked like they were
injured or anything like the guy that was holding his leg you know, last
week. But people were kind of like caught off, you know, it
was a surprise. But it didn't look like there are any like serious injuries
that we could see. Uh, just a lot of There were more I
guess the fourth police or marshals whatever going towards the building and people coming away
from it. And then eventually people started congregating, you know, down the
ends of the streets, you know, watching all the all the stuff going
on. But cool, Well, Keith, thank you, thank you so
much for the time this morning. We appreciate it. Yeah, I know
I texted you late last night. It's let you texted in on the uh
on our text machine thing. So thank you for listening to the station,
and thank you for your account. No problem, have a good one.
Tell your co workers to listen to the station. Two. I will all
right, all right, don't think he's going to do that. We'll do
next up on the free catline. Is is a good friend of mine.
He's produced many documentaries over at Dallas Cowboys Dot com He now is a audio
producer on the Athletic, producing many podcasts, including About the Tiny Little Podcasts
No Many Big ones actually including about Them Cowboys hosted by me and John mischiodasad
Yusuf. And he was also the keyboardist or synth man for the pop punk
band Forever The Sickest Kids. It is my good friend, the great Kent
Garrison. Hello, Kent, what's up KT? Thanks for having me?
Good to be here. Yes, So you living for Worth? How close
are you to the madness that happened yesterday on Eighth Street, KT, I'm
just south of the madness, right across the highway. I thirty would be
right around the hospitals if you're familiar with Fort Worth. And my wife works
right downtown, right in the center of all that madness, and so it
was right close to home. Is she a suspect? Well, as soon
as the news broke she got a lot of calls. So I'll leave that
where it is. But a super dramatic situation out here yesterday. I mean,
it's twenty twenty four. I feel a rum in my house and my
first thought, of course, in twenty twenty four is aliens. You know,
I mean, it's it's finally, you know, it's come around finally
on us. By the way, shout out to the Downbeat for covering,
you know, the real journalism such as the Miami Mall incident. Thank you,
Thank you for shedding light on real stories. And hopefully Kat brings up
the Malaysia ORBS at some point to leave that out there and y'all can get
to it when you do. But crazy situation, I mean is, first
of all, Fort Worth usually known for weather events, so it was a
little surprising that we made the national news and it didn't have anything to do
with like a tornado blasting through town or some kind of deep freeze scenario.
But I mean, it looks insane down there. I mean, I'm just
very blessed that my wife wasn't down there at the time, because she does
work within arm's reach of that place and had some friends co workers that were
supposed to be lunch at the restaurant Kase he mentioned that ended up canceling thankfully
and not being down there, so you know, avoiding nine to eleven.
A little hand of fate dealt to my family there, so that was nice.
But I mean, I can't help it be re minded of the Pickwick
Hotel incident of eighteen hundred and eighty five, which I know you're very familiar
with this incident as being a four Worth historian such as yourself. Where the
commands she Chief Quanta Parker, was in town in Christmas of eighteen eighty five,
stays downtown Fort Worth the Pickwick Hotel, smells some gas, but doesn't
decide, decides not to do anything about it. He goes to bed.
His father in law, Chief Yellow Bear, dies in his sleep. What
is it sabotage? Was it murder? Did they just forget to put out
the little lamp before they went to bed? We never know. But yet
another natural gas hotel incident story has struck Fort Worth some almost one hundred plus
one hundred and fifty years later. You know, I forgot to tell you
guys. Kent is a he should bear a UFO expert. Really, he
really reads up on this and there's more stuff. You know, there's more.
I think another testimony or another house meeting on this on the UFOs coming
up later in the week, So we might to talk to Kent next week
about some of this stuff, and maybe we can get an update on the
Malaysian ORBS. Yes, an update, well he knows about it. Well,
Kent, thank you for your first hand account being near and that's crazy
that you had you know they had scheduled, you know, launched there and
can split jeez. Yeah and pretty pretty wild stuff. KT and I'll be
around anytime you want to talk orbes yep, absolutely can't. This is as
we got a text message. Tell him we need more music from them.
I guess they're talking about forever the sickest kids. He can't. Real quick,
you have to plug your podcast. He's already gone. Good. Okay.
He does a movie. I think it's called Mad About Movies as well
that he does. But he's a He works for the Athletic and I have
pretty easy side gig where I just go talk cowboys for an hour and email
him the file. Is that all the work that's about them cowboys that you
do about them cowboys? Yes, that's not rushing the passer, that's not
rushing the past or who found my cheese? Who moved my cheese? Are
making it Ukraine and get it Ukraine? Good? Another one of my favorites.
Can I give a tiny element of clarification real quick before we get to
our next guest. You mentioned that you had read or heard that the what
was formerly you know before it was the Sandman was where Kennedy stayed and his
last night of being alive. Not the case. It was one and a
half blocks down. His last night was in fort Worth at the Hilton by
the Hilton yet because that JF came amore directly across the street on the south
east side of eighth. So yeah, but Sun dances like it's it's separate.
Those two hotels are separated by a fort Worth city block. I also
want to like on the whole gas pipeline explosion, which again they're still investigating
to fully find out what happened. But Texas find Atmas Energy one point six
million dollars back in twenty twenty one because of an event that happened in twenty
eighteen involving at Northwest Dallas house and that house in Northwest Dallas at the time,
I'd lived in a house in twenty sixteen that was like two blocks away
from this house that exploded and it killed a twelve year old girls. Remember
the story, yep, And I mean that to see that that neighborhood,
what it looked like after that house. It's unbelievable. I mean, you
sit there and you might think you live in a small neighborhood or wherever.
Just just look around and imagine your house exploding and how you know what around
you would be affected by that. And they got fine, you know over
you know, one and a half million dollars and had to pay for that.
So who knows, you know, how that's all going to play out.
And they're still investigating on that. But that's just crazy. I don't
know how. We don't have anyone lined up for this specific question, but
just how long a gas leak has to go on to ignite an explosion of
this size? This was a big man, I mean, this looked bad
and scary. Yeah, with stuff blown across the street. I'm so thinkable
there was no fatalities. I mean, and I know we still have somebody
in critical condition, I believe, but it's almost like it you needed a
lot of gas to be almost pressurized and to a room and it got ignited.
I don't think this was the case of just a gas line, you
know, getting compromised. I don't know. It seems like this would have
had to because for an explosion like that. Well, three employees in there
in the basement at the time. Coming to Josh Bab who had a you
know, the co founder of Massume, said three employees are in there,
and then if we had twenty six rooms ro occupied, it's not like the
hotel was full, you know at that point, you know, three thirty
on Monday maybe a checkout day and maybe not. So that's probably the emptiest
time of maybe a given day is about three thirty. Yeah, yeah,
on a Monday. Yeah, maybe very scary yester time. Well, yeah,
again, big stuff happens in DFW, We cover it. We talked
to people on the scene, and we evolved the topics. That's what we
do here. On ninety seven on the Freaking Your Comedy, First Responders on
the Down. Let's go now to thecotline again. That was on transition a
little bit for a man who's trying to save the Rangers offseason. You know
him from Hurtado Barbecue, for my money, one of the best barbecue places
in this town. It's succulent over there in Arlington and actually more locations.
It's Brandon Hartato. How are you doing, Brandon? Hi, guys,
good morning, how you doing whoa, Hi Brandon, this is a Annorah.
Awesome to have you on. Thank you so much for making some time
for us. Jack Wagons Man. I saw your video where basically, you
know, the Rangers have had a quiet off season and I don't know how
much of this has to do with the Bally TV deal, but you've offered
a starting pitcher and free agent Jordan Montgomery free Hurtado barbecue for life if you'll
just sign with the Rangers. Have you heard back from Jordan on this.
I haven't heard back from Jordan just yet, but I would imagine what the
buzz that's going around. He's probably seeing our offer by now, and I
gotta say I think that, you know, I feel pretty good about it.
So you're the official you know barbecue of the Texas Rangers. Correct,
Yeah, we're the official barbecue restaurant of the Texas Rangers. Out of twenty
twenty three, which is a really good year to check it in there and
partner with the Rangers. It's really awesome because you got the you know,
the the stand in the ballpark and obviously right there is it off Division.
I've been there four or five times. Is that where your restaurant is the
home base is Yeah. So our our flagship location, the first one that
we opened is off Division in downtown Arlington. We have a second location that's
in Fort Worth in the Hospital district right off of Eighth and Rosedale. That's
been open for a little over a year and a half now. So we
have two locations that we're about to open a third one in Mansfield in the
next thirty days or so. Wow, congrats on that. So what if?
What if? Jordan Montgomery says yes right, signs and he kind of
in the press conference makes a joke about the tipping point was the offer from
her Todd Barbecue, and it's a yes, right. How does that work?
Is it? When he leaves the ballpark every day? You guys just
bring him a mountain down to the clubhouse house. It's going to work.
Here's the deal. You know, obviously, these guys, they're superstars.
They can afford to go in the restaurant and pay for their own barbecue.
But I think a lot of things about baseball go far beyond just baseball.
And I think that the fact that a small business, a mom and pop
business, is willing to you know, barbecue is not cheap twenty twenty four.
Just kind of weird to say barbecue is not cheap and it's not getting
any cheaper. Food costs is high, labors high, It's an extensive restaurant
to get into. But I think the fact that a small business is willing
to say, hey, we're willing to put everything on the line. We
want to put some skin in the game and provide you or I'll donate it
into a local charity. We want to do. But the fact that we
want you back, we need Jordan Montgomery sures is not going to be ready
yet. You know, whatever opening day comes, the ground's not going to
be ready yet until maybe later in the season. We need Montgomery in our
pitching corps, and I think, you know, I'm talking anyone jumping out
to the to the plate, you know, necessarily to bring him back.
And I'm like, hey, we got to do something. We need this
back. If people forget to we could go out to see your home run
and l Bombie. We think about that stuff. I remember that played Tampa
Bay Jordan Montgomery, who is a tank of a man. Remember that diving
catch on the bunch on the first baseline. Howly athletic gets up like people
forget how big of a play that was and the whole Ranger playoff runt.
And it's a savvy business move by you, because Rangers do good, more
people go to Ranger game, more people try her Toado Barbecue right there in
the game, Like it's this is a win win for everyone on and for
him to make those plays and pitch grade, he needs high quality, delicious
proteins, a lot of it exactly, Maybe an El Cappo or an El
Patron. Brandon, did you consider changing the offer from Jordan Montgomery to uh
Barbecue for life for owner Ray Davis if you sign Jordan Montgomery. I haven't.
I have not considered that yet. I think the Great Ones Barbecue.
We're more than happy to bring it in. Well, thank you for your
time this morning. We appreciate it, and we'll be coming out to try
Hurtado soon. Man. Hey, guys, I appreciate you, and we're
ready to run it back this year. Let's let's bring another world theory.
That's eff and Go. That is Brandon Hurtado. I'm freaking starving Tado Barbecue.
Yeah, because I'm on their website. Yeah. Oh are you kidding
me? Oh? You're gonna be salvating good. When we went to opening
May, I think, I don't know it's Brandon himself, but her Tatos
brought out a oh god, remember that dual platter. I don't know if
it was the al Cappo. That's their big thing that feeds six with everything
on it. Yeah, Jesus, that's the thing about like them being at
the ballpark, because let's face it, most ballpark food is garbage because it's
the in house naccho cheese and wieners and whatever. And then you know,
they'll get some food establishments to come in, but they're typically not like mom
and pop really good, earthy, organic, homemade type spots. We're really
lucky to have her Tato, to have a damn outlet in the ballpark.
It's incredible to have food that high quality be part of a ballpark. I
think it's food option, don't you agree? No, No, it's it's
very uncommon, That's what I'm saying. It's super uncommon. Dude. We
we went and walked around Houston with there, you know, just didn't have
anything I would have had I not been wearing underwear and nothing else. Yeah,
they kind of call it Mexicue, a little bit dude, the brisk
the barbicoa tostada, and her title barbecue. It's ridiculous. Put it up
there with one of the best things that were eating in my life and my
life Natasha. I wonder if Brandon, right, Yeah, I wonder if
he would consider giving barbecue for life to the three knuckleheads that h put him
on the air for the last eight minutes. I don't think he would consider
that. That's too bad. I'll probably be illegal too. Yeah, well,
not great about it. Yeah, it's twenty twenty four. Time to
live dangerously? Hell yeah, yeah, everyone, the most crazy, devisive
year on our planet lived dangerously out there? People, you've seen the first
nine days of this year. What's that an explosion? Kimmel's going after Aaron
Rodgers? What Gypsy Rose? Jesus No gipsy story is good? Coming up
next? The phone number is this two one four or eight one seven seven
eight seven one nine seven one. We're starting a new series this week called
the Super wild Card Pump Session. We want to pump you up because pumpers
like to pump cowboys. Packers gonna be getting you excited for that all week
long gonna handle the tough part of that, though today. Should coach Mike
McCarthy be fired if the Cowboys lose on Sunday, we'll discuss next On ninety
seven, won the Freak