NERDS AROUND TOWN

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

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

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A new era begins. Composite image by Jack Brame.

Alex Bregman couldn’t hold back the smile when he was asked who might have had the biggest impact on his decision to sign with the Boston Red Sox.

“My favorite player Dustin Pedroia,” Bregman said of the club's former second baseman and two-time World Series champion.

“He reached out a few times this offseason and talked about how special it was to be a part of the Boston Red Sox,” Bregman said Sunday. “It was really cool to be able to talk to him as well as so many other former players here in Boston and current players on the team as well.”

A day after Bregman's $120 million, three-year contract was announced, he sat at a 25-minute news conference between his agent, Scott Boras, and Boston Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow. Manager Alex Cora, who gave Bregman a hug after he handed the infielder his No. 2 jersey, also was at the table along with team president Sam Kennedy.

Breslow and Cora wouldn't say whether Bregman would move to play second base, Pedroia's position, or remain at third — a position manned by Rafael Devers since July 2017.

A few players, Jarren Duran and Rob Refsnyder among them, and coaches stood behind the seated reporters to listen.

Bregman gets a $5 million signing bonus, a $35 million salary this season and $40 million in each of the following two years, with some of the money deferred, and he can opt out after the 2025 and 2026 seasons to become a free agent again.

Asked why he agreed to the shorter contract with opt outs, he leaned forward to the microphone in front of him and replied: “I just think I believe in my abilities.”

Originally selected by Boston in the 29th round of the 2012 amateur draft, Bregman attended LSU before the Houston Astros picked him second overall in 2015. His family history with the Red Sox goes back further.

“My dad grew up sitting on Ted Williams’ lap,” he said.

MLB.com said Stan Bregman, the player's grandfather, was a lawyer who represented the Washington Senators and negotiated Williams' deal to become manager.

Boston has missed the playoffs in five of the last six seasons and had avoided signing the highest-profile free agents. Boras said a conversation with Red Sox controlling owner John Henry showed ownership’s desire to get back to winning.

“I think it was after Soto signed,’’ Boras said, citing the record contract he negotiated for Juan Soto with the Mets. “We had a discussion. I could tell knowing John back with the Marlins and such, he had a real onus about ‘we need to do things differently than what we’ve done before.’

“This is a point and time where I believe Red Sox ownership was hungry for championship play and exhausted with what had happened the last five, six years.”

Called the “perfect fit” by Breslow, the 30-year-old Bregman joined the Red Sox after winning two World Series titles and reaching the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons with Houston.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to be in the playoffs the first eight years of my career, and I plan on continuing to do that here,” he said in his opening remarks. “I’m a winning player and this is a winning organization.”

Coming off an 81-81 season, the Red Sox acquired left-hander Garrett Crochet from the White Sox and signed fellow pitchers Walker Buehler, Patrick Sandoval, Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson during the offseason.

After the pitching moves, they found a right-handed bat, too.

“As the offseason progressed it just became clearer and clearer that Alex was the perfect fit for what we were trying to accomplish,” Breslow said.

Bregman ranks first among players with at least 75 career plate appearances in Fenway Park with an OPS of 1.240.

“He fits like a glove for our organization,” Kennedy said.

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