NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Tom and Jerry, Overwatch Minor League and Crawfish for a Cause

Nerds Around Town: Tom and Jerry, Overwatch Minor League and Crawfish for a Cause
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 Wednesday and if you thought this was the blow off week you're crazy, you got this, let's focus up and make this week do your bidding. You got this!

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

This week the Good Deed of the Day is focusing on an awesome one, it's a buffet for charity. 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 also there's a waterslide and bounce house. Boom! Get pumped, $25 if you get your tickets early. $30 at the door, how are you not excited? This is the kind of thing I live for, doing a good deed and eating a bunch of food as you do it. #NerdsUnite

FAN APPRECIATION

One big complaint I think is fair of Houston sports is that the fans are rather fair weather. The Rockets just got eliminated from the playoffs and you don't feel a lot of pressure in the city for big changes. The contracts to players like Chris Paul are going to weigh this team down but instead of hearing criticism for the General Manager and applicant for self-proclaimed smartest guy in the room, Daryl Morey. You don't hear other sports fans being this lax, if you look into Chelsea fc latest news the soccer club facing a transfer ban is under pressure with every decision they make, fans are worried about the future of their sports franchise and have the franchise under a microscope, versus here in Houston where we can't even be bothered to push the Rockets for any real changes.

THE OTHER GUYS

The Overwatch league is on break right now after their All Star event last weekend but that doesn't mean there isn't anything to follow. Make sure to check out the 2019 Overwatch Pacific Showdown this weekend as 6 of the top teams from their minor league, called The Contenders League. Two teams from China, two teams from South Korea, a team from Australia and a team from the Asia-Pacific are in this epic six team tournament, showcasing the talents of the next generation of esport athletes. Overwatch has a long term view on their talents and they've smartly been watching out for both their main league and their minor league team and this long view on their talent includes showcasing them in events like this, wisely.

HE SIGNED UP FOR WHAT

One of the most beloved actors discovered by Marvel Studios has been Michael Pena, who is in a lot of other movies but never comes across as well as he did in Ant Man and Ant Man and the Wasp. News coming out of Hollywood though is that he is signing on to make a live action Tom and Jerry movie. Who on earth is beating the drums for this movie? Is there anyone nudging each other in celebration of the announcement of a Tom and Jerry movie? I don't mean to be so critical of a franchise but the reality of it is that this is a terrible idea for a movie. Before people hammer me over the head with Pokemon movies and things of that nature, I'd point out Pokemon has an active fan base in the millions and when people show up in droves for things like Pokemon Go apps on a phone then a movie makes sense. So that being said, I propose we test the want for a Tom and Jerry movie by making a Tom and Jerry game first on a phone, heck, make it a free app and if no one plays that then please, please, please don't make this movie.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

I've been following a news story where a lunch lady let a student roll over an $8 dollar debt to eat lunch at school and the cafeteria lady was fired by her supervisor and accused of dishonesty. Seriously sometimes we need to check ourselves and make sure our compassion meter is on every day, who the heck fires a lunch lady for giving a kid a lunch? Beyond that, who the heck is firing a lunch lady? It's not that great of a gig, I mean no offense to the lunch ladies of the world but I feel like the threshold is low for this gig and here we have a woman being kind to people and letting them carry a small debt so they can EAT A LUNCH. Why aren't we just giving kids lunches anyway at this point? I don't understand why this isn't something we can get figured out? What is going on in our planning and our administrations for education that we can't feed school kids? What's the case against this?

I'm going to jump out and wish you guys a great Wednesday and remind everyone to be kind to each other and try a little harder to have a great day! I'm coming back Thursday 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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A new era begins. Composite image by Jack Brame.

It’s go time! While the Astros are not the juggernaut they were over the more than half-decade stretch from 2017 through 2022 that yielded regular seasons with 101, 103, 106, and 107 wins, four American League pennants, and two World Series Champions, as the saying goes, they ain’t dead yet. There is no superpower in the American League West the Astros need to overcome. In fact, the American League as a whole is grossly inferior to the National League. As a result, a fifth Astros’ AL title in this era is not some absurd fantasy, though it is certainly unlikely. But winning the pennant is unlikely for every AL team, so if you’re a fan of the Astros there is nothing wrong with a “Why not us?” mentality. On the other hand, the floor for the 2025 Astros is lower going into a season than it has been in almost a decade. The lineup has numerous question marks, and if the terrific trio atop the Astros’ starting rotation (Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, and Ronel Bronco) runs into injury or performance issues the Astros would have serious problems. That the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners both finish ahead of the Astros is clearly plausible. Play ball!

Astros history lives in these moments

It is simple fact that time marches on, but it is still amazing that the Astros are beginning their second quarter-century of play at what for its first two seasons was called Enron Field, then for the past 23 seasons Minute Maid Park, and now Daikin Park. That’s 25 seasons in the books, at least 26 more to come, with the Astros a few years ago having extended their lease through 2050. In non-specific order, I have twenty easily come-to-mind most spine-tingling moments at the ballpark. If you want 25 for 25 years, I leave five more to you.

Not all spine-tinglers on the home field are generated by the home team. Here are three produced by visiting players. In 2001, Barry Bonds smashed his 70th home run of the season to tie Mark McGwire’s single season Major League record. We know what went into the home run numbers of that era, but it was still jaw-dropping stuff. Bonds would finish the season with 73 homers. Game five of the 2005 National League Championship Series, with the Astros one out from winning their first ever pennant, Albert Pujols launched a Brad Lidge hanging slider that might still be airborne if not for the glass wall above the train tracks. It may be the most instantaneous crowd delirium to utter silence moment ever. It turned a 4-2 Astros’ lead into a crushing 5-4 loss. But, the next game Roy Oswalt pitched the Astros to that pennant in St. Louis. Lastly, the second game of the 2013 season, Rangers’ pitcher Yu Darvish retired the first 26 Astro batters before Marwin Gonzalez smacked a ball through Darvish’s legs up the middle for a base hit. Soooooo close to a perfect game. Only 22 perfect games have been thrown in MLB’s modern era (1900-today).

Now to Astro achievements. Fudging a bit by including Roger Clemens since it’s not for one specific moment. But the Rocket’s starts with the Astros were events. Speaking of Hall of Famers, Craig Biggio’s 3000th hit is an obvious list-maker. Jeff Kent is not a Hall of Famer but he was better in the batter’s box than any second baseman elected after Joe Morgan. Kent won game five of the 2004 NLCS with a bottom of the ninth three-run bomb to end what had been a scoreless game. Alas, the Astros would lose the next two games and the series in St. Louis. The crowd went much wilder over Kent’s homer than over Chris Burke’s series-winning homer over the Atlanta Braves in a 2005 NL Division Series. Burke’s homer came in the 18th inning, so sheer exhaustion held down the decibel level a little. A sleeper for the list occurred earlier in that same game, when Brad Ausmus of all people hit a two-out game-tying homer to get the game into extra innings.

Four no-hitters have been thrown by Union Station. Working backwards: Ronel Blanco last season, Framber Valdez in 2023, a combined job started by Aaron Sanchez in 2019, and the first in 2015 by Mike....yes, Fiers.

And now to the grandest home park moments of this Platinum Era in Astros’ history. Carlos Correa authored two of them, each in a game two of the American League Championship Series. In 2017 he doubled home Jose Altuve with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That came off of Aroldis Chapman who shall appear once more in this column. In 2019 Correa tied the series at one win apiece with a walk-off homer. Yordan Alvarez also gets a pair of entries. You know, Yordan hit just .192 in the 2022 postseason. But talk about making your hits count. In game one of those playoffs, ALDS vs. Seattle, it was a two-out three-run walk-off blast off of Robbie Ray to give the Astros an 8-7 win. Then in the final game of those playoffs, it was a sixth inning gargantuan three-run launch to dead center turning a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 lead.

That leaves four moments that are 100 percent non-negotiable entries. While not dramatic (4-0 final score), the payoff warrants inclusion of the Astros winning Game seven of the 2017 ALCS over the Yankees. Similarly, while the moment of victory lacked drama (4-1 final), how could one exclude the Astros winning the World Series on home turf in 2022. Finally, for my money the two most pulsating, goosebump-inducing, viscerally exciting moments at 501 Crawford Street. In one of the most scintillating games ever played in any sport, Alex Bregman’s bottom of the 10th inning single gave the Astros’ their epic 13-12 win over the Dodgers in game five of the 2017 World Series. Then in 2019, Jose Altuve’s game six homer ended the ALCS (I warned you Aroldis).

Here’s to the new season! 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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