NERDS AROUND TOWN

Nerds Around Town: Toys R Us, X-Men and women's World Cup

Cory De La Guardia
Jun 25, 2019, 5:35 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!

Hey Nerds!

Tuesday says what's up? Let's do it!

GOOD DEED OF THE DAY

To honor First Responders, The Texas Brotherhood rides for Texas and for First Responders who have made the ultimate sacrifice and this ride honors them. #NerdsUnite

THE RETURN OF TOYS R US

The other day Toys R Us made an announcement that they were returning to retail roughly one year after closing all of their stores here in North America and other places. They're working on a consignment deal with some of the biggest toy manufacturers so that they pay for what they sell, not what they order. They are going to open six stores in the country and the reason given by the toy companies is that they think there should be a dedicated toy retail chain nationally. Essentially, they weren't getting the love from Walmart and Amazon and so they miss the red headed step child of retail, the toy store. MAN, it's too bad they couldn't have realized this last year before Toys R Us laid off thousands of employees across the country. It's too bad they didn't realize this all year that those people struggled to find a new place of business and now they're going to give Toys R Us really favorable terms because they miss having a dedicated toy retailer, but none of the toy companies had the foresight to realize the need of a toy store before all of those people lost their jobs. Dummies.

WOMEN'S WORLD CUP

I'm not sure if people have been watching but I seriously hope they are, because The Women's World Cup has been fantastic. The United States has been playing great but not just them, the competition in general has been awesome. Brazilian legend Marta who is the current all time scoring leader in either Men's or Women's World's Cups, yeah, either, gave a beautiful speech after France beat them in the round of 16. The speech implored the next generation of girls to see these games and embrace this game and "cry in the beginning so you can smile in the end." Women's soccer is soaring and worth your time to watch, GO USA!

X MEN DARK PHOENIX

So the news broke that X-Men is doing so poorly that they're going to go ahead and start pulling it from the theatres. I just saw it this weekend and honestly, I really liked it. I think this might be the best team X-Men movie they've made yet. They did a great job giving each character something in this movie to do, the story itself was interesting and at least everything the characters did made sense. This is the best portrayal of Cyclops yet and Storm actually had more than three lines. Overall this movie is probably the biggest victim yet of the Fox-Disney merger, the biggest mistake in the marketing of this movie was revealing there was a major character death in the first act, they showed a funeral in all the trailers which was a real mistake. If that death had been unseen the whole movie would have had people nervous. It's a shame, because this was a really good movie.

NOT THAT YOU ASKED

Marvel has announced they want stores to do a midnight release for the July 24th first issue of House of X. This is the kind of big deal I like to hear about, this is why I get excited about this series. It's time to get excited, this is the big celebration of all things X Men Marvel used to do all the time, but they moved away from. It's crazy to think about but movie rights and who was getting a cut of what made the X Men more trouble than they were worth to publish properly, so there would be some books here and there but a small fraction of what was once an entire section of the Marvel Library, but that looks like it's about to change. The X Men are going to be back in a big 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 people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.

toys r us women's world cup dark phoenix nerds around town

Most Popular

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome

Listen Live

Houston is moving on

Astros advance to ALDS with ALWC Game 2 win over Twins

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images

After rallying in the ninth inning in Game 1 to take the pivotal opener of this best-of-three ALWC series, the Astros were in the driver's seat to try and end the series on Wednesday with another win at Target Field. Here is a quick rundown of Game 2:

Final Score: Astros 3, Twins 1.

Series: HOU Wins 2-0.

Winning Pitcher: Cristian Javier.

Losing Pitcher: Cody Stashak.

Houston gets the first hit and first run in the fourth

Through the first three innings, neither team could get a hit off of Jose Berrios or Jose Urquidy, though the Twins did load the bases in the bottom of the first on two walks and an error, but Urquidy would strand the runners before getting 1-2-3 innings in the second and third.

Meanwhile, the Astros lineup was retired in order in three perfect innings by Berrios. That changed in the top of the fourth when Houston would get back-to-back two-out walks to set up the first hit of the game, an RBI-single by Kyle Tucker to give the Astros a 1-0 lead.

Dusty Baker makes another early call to the bullpen before Twins tie it up

Urquidy was able to keep the 1-0 lead by working around a two-out single in the bottom of the fourth, the first hit for the Twins. He returned in the fifth, allowing a leadoff single before a strikeout for the first out. Dusty Baker would pull another early hook, like Greinke the day prior, dipping into his bullpen early to end Urquidy's day at just 76 pitches in the fifth. His final line: 4.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 76 P.

Brooks Raley was who Baker called on to face the top of the Twins' lineup. He would walk his first batter, putting runners on first and second, get a strikeout for the second out, then allow an RBI-double to Nelson Cruz that almost scored a second, go-ahead run. Instead, the runner was out at home thanks to a terrific defensive play by Carlos Correa, bulleting the ball to Maldonado at home, who made a great tag to save the run and keep it tied 1-1.

Correa homers, Astros advance to ALDS

After Raley completed the fifth inning for Urquidy, Cristian Javier was the next reliever out to begin the bottom of the sixth. He would toss a 1-2-3 frame, sending the tie game to the seventh. In the top of the seventh, Carlos Correa broke the tie with a long, loud two-out solo home run to center-field, putting the Astros back in front 2-1.

Javier held on to the one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh by working around a leadoff walk, then returned for the eighth. He would get through it scoreless, despite allowing a one-out walk to Nelson Cruz, who would be pinch-ran for by the speedy Byron Buxton. After a strikeout for out number two, Javier would catch Buxton between first and second base in a rundown, getting the big final out of the inning.

Houston added insurance in the top of the ninth, getting two on base before an RBI-single by Kyle Tucker, his second of the day to make it 3-1. That left things up to closer Ryan Pressly, making his first appearance of the postseason. He would notch the save, advancing the Astros to the ALDS for their fourth-straight year.

Up Next: The Astros will now have a few days off to travel to the west coast before starting their ALDS with the winner of the A's / White Sox ALWC series. Game 1 of their ALDS will be on Monday, October 5th, at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, with start time TBD.

astros score astros recap astros vs twins twins score twins recap mlb mlb recap mlb score alwc game 2 alwc recap cristian javier astros

SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome