NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Texans, New York Comic Con and funny commercials
Oct 7, 2019, 7:35 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 and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
This week Nerd Thug Radio sets up our plans for Extra Life which will be November 2nd. Donations will be going towards the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals as they have every year. This thing is awesome, basically on November 2nd we'll be gaming all day. ALL DAY. And then we collect donations and bring awareness and blah blah blah. Here's what's important, the Children's Miracle Network is awesome and the money goes into local branches so LITERALLY the money you donate could SAVE YOUR CHILD. That's the stuff I'm talking about.
GOOD SPORTS WEEKEND TO THE WORLD
The Astros are winning in the playoffs, the Texans won against a suddenly alive Falcon's offense, the Rockets season is about to begin and the Cowboys lost. This is the kind of sports weekend I like talking about, good news all around is the kind of news I want to have, and hell yes I like when the Cowboys lose. But honestly, Texans, clean up the return game, we got lucky that the referees don't know the rules either but at some point mistakes will burn us.
NEW YORK COMIC CON
I've been to it before, it's awesome. This is the one where all the creators go to, where all the news comes out of and all the fun stuff gets announced. This year I want to start getting out to all the various events and meeting more people, that's the next step for me as a writer. The industry is tight knit and it's hard to break in although once you break in, you are in until you suck. Anyway this is where the big time happens and tons of cool stuff was announced, and Birds of Prey were there hanging out. They announced a new Wolverine book with Kubert on it, which is one of the guys who needs to be drawing Wolverine or the x Men all the time. I'm pumped for everything to start coming out.
GOOD ADS
Tide and Head and Shoulders have been making some good ads lately. Peyton Manning is the perfect football pitch man and Patrick Mahone's (weird voice and everything) has made some great commercials himself. The one between him and Troy Polamalu is great, they added to it this week with them disagreeing on tons of words and then there's a great bit with the wind blowing their hair back and I won't ruin it, but it's worth seeing.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
DC has released a timeline of its comic book history and honestly this is always a mistake. Always. Lining up how long ago something is or was on paper suddenly makes things look wrong. For example now by one creator's estimate World War 2 was in the mid-1960s… oops. This doesn't make any sense at all and this is exactly why you don't put these things down on paper.
Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
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Winning consecutive series over last place teams does not mean all is well again in Astroworld, but taking five of seven games from the Orioles and Rockies stopped the bleeding which saw the Astros stumble through an awful 14-23 stretch. The regular season is now in its final month, the Astros are in the middle of three different playoff races. The high-end goal is finishing with one of the two best records in the American League to secure a bye past the two out of three lightning round Major League Baseball calls the Wild Card Series. Entering the holiday weekend the Astros sit four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, three and a half back of the Detroit Tigers. If the Astros can’t overtake either the Jays or Tigers, they at least want to hold off Seattle to win the American League West. Winning the division for an eighth consecutive full season would be its own accomplishment, for the postseason it would at least assure the Astros of homefield advantage in a best-of-three. The race the Astros hope to need to pay little attention to is holding off Kansas City for the final wild card spot. That would be necessary should the Astros lose out on the division title to the Mariners, and finish behind both the second and third place finishers in the AL East in the wild card race, presently the Red Sox and Yankees. The M’s, Bosox, and Yanks all finishing ahead of the Astros is a clear possibility. The good news on that front is the Astros holding a five game lead over the Royals with 28 games to go, though Kansas City does win the tiebreaker should it come to that. The Astros have a significantly easier closing schedule than do the Royals. The Astros have just six games left against teams that would currently qualify for the postseason. The Royals have 12. So to miss the playoffs entirely the Astros basically have to fold, and/or the Royals need to play four weeks of spectacular baseball.
Yordan Alvarez’s looooong awaited return is a big boost to the lineup. Even if he isn't peak Yordan, his presence matters. His missile of a home run to centerfield was the wow moment of his return series, but Alvarez drawing five walks in nine plate appearances speaks to what opponents think of him. Still, offense remains an Astro struggle all too often. The Rockies have the worst pitching staff in MLB. The Astros managed nine runs in three games against it. At least that was enough to win two out of three. 67 times this season the Astros have scored three or fewer runs, equaling their three or fewer total of the entire 2024 season. For a good while this year the Astros were winning an amazing percentage of their games where the offense did little. At one point the Astros were 19-27 when scoring three or fewer, which was stunning success and as I wrote at the time, wholly unsustainable. Since then, the Astros have lost 20 of the last 21 games in which they failed to score four.
Christian Walker’s power surge has been a boon, of late helping offset Jose Altuve’s slump (just 10 hits in his last 60 at bats heading into the Angels series) and Carlos Correa’s lack of thump (just two extra base hits and a sub-.700 OPS over his last 15 games). Over 46 games played from July 1 through Thursday, Walker has been very good hitting .279 with an .859 OPS. That doesn't undo his being wretched through June, but credit where credit is due.
Alvarez is the big bopper (remember the ex-Astro who had that nickname?) addition to Joe Espada's lineup cards, but Jake Meyers could be a lower key big return as well next week. To call Chas McCormick and Jacob Melton poor offensive players this season would be an understatement along the lines of saying Yao Ming is above average in height. When Meyers blew out his right calf it short-circuited what was his breakout big league season. Even if Meyers can't regain that form, by accident he'll still be better than what McCormick and Melton have provided.
After finishing up with the Angels on Labor Day, the Astros get the Yankees for three big games at Daikin Park starting Tuesday. Hunter Brown starting Sunday means he will not pitch against the Yankees. That's not a mistake, it's just how the rotation falls. It will be a mistake if the Astros' brain trust doesn't properly map out starting pitching ahead of the massive matchups against the Mariners September 19, 20, 21 and make sure both Brown and Framber Valdez start games in that series. After this homestand wraps, the Astro have only six home games remaining versus 15 on the road.
Oh yeah. Glenn Davis was "The Big Bopper."
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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