NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Disney+, DC news and Anne McCaffrey
May 23, 2019, 6:50 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!
Today is Thursday and we're not done yet, this week isn't over there's still a chance to kick this week's butt.
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
If you don't like crawfish, all you can eat specials or charity then maybe this isn't for you, because it's an ALL YOU CAN EAT Crawfish boil, that's right! It's the Light of the Phoenix Charity All You Can Eat Crawfish Boil, and there's stuff for the kids to do too while you grub a dub dub. $25 buys your ticket now but $30 gets you in. This is the kind of thing I live for, doing a good deed and eating a bunch of food as you do it. #NerdsUnite
THE STREAMING WARS
Some news broke earlier this week, Netflix announced Spider Man: Into the Spider-verse is coming June 26, great movie, I'm pumped people need to be seeing this if they haven't and if they have they need to be seeing it again. It did win an Oscar. Also Disney fired some shots this week announcing that when Disney+ goes live their content will be off of Netflix, so the only place to get Disney stuff will be at Disney+. There were initially talks that this would be a gradual fade out and move over because of contracts and what not, but now that all the smoke has cleared options have been declined or in some cases exercised and now there is no "us" when it comes to Netflix and Disney. Disney+ will be the closely watched case study of, can these separate streaming services survive? Also the slow, eventual death of Hulu has been initiated as the last two major shareholders of Hulu (Comcast and Disney) have made an agreement that sometime in the next five years there will be a buyout order from Disney to either sell to a third party or sell to Disney, must be weird working there, am I right?
SPEAKING OF
DC Streaming actually was airing television commercials the past few weeks advertising tomorrow's season finale of Doom Patrol on the app. I like seeing them be aggressive on this and try and break into the psyche of streaming customers by airing television ads because honestly, that's who streams if that makes any sense. Also on the comics front, at the retailer summit a lot of people walked away from DC's events with positive feedback for once, they were actually happy with DC, which for those who don't know… hasn't been the case lately. Overall this is a good bit of positive momentum building up for DC so the real question is, what happens next?
I SAW SOME PEOPLE REQUEST MORE ANNE
I got excited, one of my favorite writers growing up was a lady named Anne McCaffrey and she wrote some really great stuff. Truly awesome world building, big universes, big stories and great powerful women in sci fi and fantasy which both genres sorely needed. The reality is none of her series has ever moved into production seriously as far as I have ever heard and that's disappointing to say the least, as she is truly one of the more prolific writers with several different book series under her belt before she passed. She did truly great work and honestly it's worth checking out and enjoying the books and just hoping one day someone builds up enough capital and creativity to give her works a try because if done right, they'd be amazing.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
So recently I've been working strictly as a freelance creative and honestly there are some positives and some negatives to the whole experience. The cool stuff is making my own schedule and being able to truly have the freedom to pursue creative ventures as they come up and be able to try and create some real momentum in the various things I like to pursue. The frustrating part is that as I step into this process money is tight, there's not a lot else to complain about but man it would be great if everything wasn't so hold your breath and hope for the best, so if you got a minute, do me a favor go to Side Hustle Ts and grab one of the shirts. I don't care which one, just get one and enjoy it, it would help me out tremendously and I do give some of the proceeds to charity.
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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