THE NERD REPORT
Nerds Around Town: SNL, craft beer and Lil Pump
May 14, 2019, 5:42 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!
It's once again the most important day of the week, it is Monday! So let's set this week up for success and make sure that we crush this week!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
It's a frustrating thing to think about, but we live in a great and powerful nation of intelligent and wonderful people and yet, when we get sick, as a nation we all just shrug and think, welp, I'm screwed. We can do better and I wish we would but since we haven't here is where we are. My friend is sick and Exit 73 is holding a benefit to help him raise money this Sunday at noon. There's a BBQ plate you can buy and an auction with proceeds going to help him in his fight against cancer. Exit 73, this Sunday at noon. #NerdsUnite
COMEDY SHOW
This weekend, one of my favorite and in my opinion one of the most massively underrated comedians is coming into town, Kevin Nealon. He's a former anchor on the weekend update desk from SNL and obviously was in tons of great sketches and he's always just been a great comedy guy. He's got fantastic timing and he used to do this bit where he would insert subliminal messages in his conversation, it was a hilarious SNL sketch. Anyway this Friday and Saturday at the Houston Improv, if you're out and about, I say check him out.
DUELING BANDS
So on Friday both Dave Matthews band and the rapper Lil Pump are performing. Dave Matthews has won Grammys and has had a 20+ year career, Lil Pump has made music for a couple of years. Tickets to see Dave Matthews at The Woodlands Pavilion are $45 and tickets to see Lil Pump at Revention Music Center are $45. Wait what? The same price? What the heck is going on? Who is paying Dave Matthews money to see Lil Pump? And who told Lil Pump he's worth that much money? Are all concerts just $45 and there's no way around it? What is going on here? I'm not a fan of either honestly but if you told me these two shows cost the same amount of money I would laugh at you for an hour. Is there no pricing structure in live music? That's weird.
A GOOD FESTIVAL
Saturday there's a Music to my Beers fest. It's a craft beer and music festival. This sounds amazing. Featuring the craft breweries from the south side of Houston and music from Beat Root Revival and other bands I honestly haven't heard of, it does still sound pretty cool. It's at the Pearland Town Center and it's always nice to say Pearland without having to say something is burning. I think there should be more stories like this one, anyway, live music and craft beer. Sound good?
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
So this will be an unpopular opinion, I know that, but right now I'm a little disappointed in all the politics involved in both the Police Dept and the Fire Dept of Houston. The Fire Dept has been in a pretty tough dispute with the city about pay, and my opinion is simply this, voting for a raise isn't the right way to do that. Negotiating and city planning are the methods for increasing the pay of the city, also it's irresponsible to put unfunded initiatives on ballots anyway but that's a separate issue. Making the city honor the raises without firing and demoting people wasn't a reasonable thought and forcing the mayor to give fire fighters a raise by vote wasn't the right move; did they think strong arming someone would make things easier? If you forced your boss to do something at work, what do you think would be the consequences of that? Also the family and friends of the two victims from that no knock raid that went bad hired an independent forensic team and apparently the crime scene was very poorly examined making the Department look even more like they were covering stuff up, also it's annoying when the Union Rep for the Houston Police Dept gets on TV and says crazy things, is that really the image the police want to project? This brash, rude man? Anyway, I'd like to see these issues be handled better by everyone but they probably won't be; when will they charge that lead cop in the raid with two counts of murder and some attempted murder of several officers for faking the info for the warrant? They would do that to anyone else, I feel like. I just want to see some equality in how these things get handled.
I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Tuesday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Wednesday 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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