NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Celebrities, Titanic, and X Men movie news
May 30, 2019, 6:41 am
ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio, Sports and Wrestling. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
Hey Nerds!
Just like that Thursday has popped it's head up and we're all excited about it, it's almost the weekend.
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
Feeding America is a great cause and a great group to donate to. The reality is that even here in the greatest country on Earth lots of people go hungry every night, including children. Feeding America is trying to fix that for people, so help them literally feed America. Go online and donate today, it's a great cause. #NerdsUnite
NEW HOLLYWOOD
So this story crosses both esports and pop culture so I'll talk about it here and we'll see which way it goes. Celebrities are the new investing wave crashing into esports with names like Drake, Kevin Durant, and Michael Jordan joining different ownership groups in the past year or two. Mark Cuban invested in an esports betting and news site called Unikrn which is trying to be the place for all esports action. It's interesting to see this massive influx of cash, Michael Jordan bought into aXiomatic which is a group that owns Team Liquid who famously won $11 million dollars in the DOTA2 championship in 2017. If that number didn't make your eyes bulge for a second then you aren't thinking about it, a championship tournament for a video game with an $11 million prize. To me that brings back memories of a WSOP Main Event kind of thing, when the bubble was building and all kinds of people were getting very involved and ESPN was airing tournaments live, it isn't fair to call this the beginning, but this is a clear sign of the growth and health of an industry.
SAY WHAT?!
I learned something new the other day and I don't know if this is just me, so maybe you guys can tell me. There was a fire in the Titanic that was burning even before passengers boarded the ship headed for America. Apparently in those old ships they held 1.5 million tons of coal in their storage area for the boilers to burn so as to power the ship. Somehow there was a fire in that coal supply and even though there was supposed to be a massive team of firefighters apparently only eight stayed on board to fight the fire and the decision was made by ownership to set sail with the fire burning anyway, so over 2,000 people got onto a burning ship and set sail for America. That is insanity. This is the kind of careless and negligent decision making that forces people to make laws anyway. I had never heard this but apparently the investigators and historians are all in agreement that the ship was burning before it ever even left shore.
X MEN IS COMING
So the actors have all been making the media rounds in preparation for X Men Dark Phoenix coming out and something interesting recently made it's way out to the press. Part of the reason for reshoots is because the planned ending very closely paralleled another movie's ending that did wind up releasing already. There's a ton of super hero movies out in that window so it's hard to say who they accidentally copied but my bet is actually on Venom. It's an earth based tale of power overcoming morality and it has space ships in the beginning and end of the film. My pick is Venom, also it ends with Eddie Brock going into the water and in the comics the ocean is where Phoenix is found later by the Hellfire Club.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
So somehow it's summer suddenly. We went from easy to deal with temperatures and heck even cool temperatures within the last few weeks to suddenly now we're going to melt in our cars. It's crazy how fast that all happens, and now it'll be 100 degrees for the next 5 months, because hey, it's Texas. Great, just great.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Thursday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Friday and we'll be bringing more good times your way. Feel free to check out my digital short story The Wilson House or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help fight cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio or support our Patreon Page. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
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As of 9:42 Central Daylight Saving Time Friday night, the Astros (and all other baseball players) are officially the Boys of Summer, officially so far as the season is concerned anyway. When the summer solstice arrived last year the Astros were nine games off the lead in the American League West. So in addressing the rhetorical axiom “what a difference a year makes,” the difference in the Astros’ case is a whopping 14 games as they start the weekend atop their division by five games. At this point in the season last year the Astros’ record in one-run games was a brutal 5-14. In 2025 they are 13-7 in games decided by the narrowest of margins.
That the Astros are just 4-5 in road games against the two worst teams in the American League is no big deal, other than that every game counts in the standings. Still, just as was losing two out of three at the pathetic White Sox earlier this season, it is no doubt disappointing to the Astros to have only gotten a split of their four-game set with the Athletics. The A’s had gone 9-28 in their last 37 games before the Astros arrived in West Sacramento. The former-Oaklanders took the first game and the finale, as the Astros’ offense played bi-polar ball over the four nights. Two stat-padding explosion games that totaled 24 runs and 35 hits were bookended by a puny one-run output Monday and Thursday’s 5-4 10-inning loss. Baseball happens. Nevertheless, as the Astros open their weekend set versus the Angels, they have gone 17-7 over their last 24 games to forge their five-game division lead.
The New York Yankees’ offense has been by a healthy margin the best attack in the American League so far this season. The reigning AL champions snapped a six-game losing streak Thursday. The Yankees mustered a total of six runs over those six losses, including being shutout in three consecutive games. The baseball season is the defining “it’s a marathon not a sprint” sport. With 162 games on the schedule, combined with the fact that the gap in winning percentage between the best teams and the worst teams is smaller than in any other sport, making much about a series, or week or two of games is misguided, apart from all the results mattering.
The future is now
Without context, statistics can tell very misleading stories. Cam Smith is having a fine rookie season and has the looks of a guy who can blossom into a bonafide star and be an Astro mainstay into the 2030s. But it’s silliness that has anyone talking about the big month of June he’s having. Superficially, sure, going into Thursday’s game Smith’s stat line for the month read a .321 batting average and .874 OPS. Alas, that was mostly about Smith’s two monster games in the consecutive routs of the Athletics. Over those two games Cam went seven for nine with two home runs and two doubles. Over the other 14 games he’s played this month Smith is batting .213 with an OPS below .540.
Cam Smith is a long-term contender for best acquisition of Dana Brown’s tenure as General Manager. If his career was a single game Smith is still in the first inning, but if his career was a stock it’s a buy and hold. If the Astros were for some reason forced to part with all but two players in the organization, I think the two they would hold on to are Smith and Hunter Brown. Jeremy Pena would be another strong candidate, but he turns 28 in September and is two seasons from free agency (unless the rules change in the next collective bargaining agreement). Smith is 22 and under Astros’ control for another five seasons, he’s not even presently eligible for salary arbitration until the 2028 season. Brown turns 27 in August and is currently ineligible for free agency until after the 2028 season.
Angels in the outfield
Hunter Brown pitches opposite Yusei Kikuchi Friday night. Kikuchi was Dana Brown’s big in-season move last season, and Kikuchi was excellent with the Astros which set up to get the three-year 63 million dollar deal he landed with the Halos. After a slow start to his season Kikuchi has been outstanding the past month and a half, with a 2.28 earned run average over his last nine starts. Brown’s 1.88 season ERA is second-best in the big leagues among pitchers with the innings pitched to qualify in the category. Only Pirates’ stud Paul Skenes has a better mark, barely so at 1.85.
Kikuchi was a stellar rental who helped the Astros stretch their consecutive postseasons streak to eight. There was an absurd amount of vitriol over what Dana Brown gave up for him. Joey Loperfido is 26 years old and having a middling season at AAA. Will Wagner is 26 years old and back in the minors after batting .186 with the Blue Jays. Jake Bloss is the one guy who maaaaaybe some day the Astros wish they still had. Bloss is out into 2026 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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