NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: X-Men, Vince Carter and King's Hawaiian Rolls
Aug 6, 2019, 6:41 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!
Let's crush this week, it's Tuesday are you ready to succeed?
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
How do you feel about saving lives and free ice cream? That sounds like an awesome combo right? Like who is turning that down? Head out to a Regional Gulf Coast Blood Center and make a blood donation if you're eligible. Help some people out, this weekend is a staunch reminder that there can never be enough good deeds and good will out in the universe because you never know when your mark is finally made on this world and you're out of time.
HAVE YOU TRIED IT?!
Arby's just announced they're putting King's Hawaiian rolls on their sliders. First of all this is some of the best news I've ever heard. I don't know if you know this but I have a hard obsession with King's Hawaiian bread, I will be forever a fan of it. There is no limit to the stuff I will do to get King's Hawaiian to be the bread of all my favorite fast food sandwiches. Also Arby's awhile back got rid of their Ham and Cheddar sandwiches so now the only form you can get the Ham and Cheddar combo is in a slider, so now that slider is even better in the Sandwich hierarchy. Someone check this stuff out!!
MARVEL COMICS COMMERCIALS
Marvel has heavily positioned themselves behind House of X and Powers of X, the new event from Jonathan Hickman, the architect of Secret War which was the ultimate story in the Doom vs Reed Richards rivalry. They are so bought in on this major event that for the first time in recent memory they are airing a television commercial in select markets. That's a big deal, they are moving all in on this relaunch of what was at one time the biggest and most important comic book in the Marvel Empire, The X Men. It was at one time selling over a million copies an issue, but now that's no longer the case as top selling comic books sell around 85,000 to 110,000 on a great month. Let's see what Hickman can do about that.
ONE MORE RUN
Vince Carter has announced he is coming back with the Atlanta Hawks for one more year. The one-time high-flying rookie of the year is scheduled to play in a record setting 22nd season. This feat will surpass Dirk, Garnett, Kevin Willis and Robert Parish and place him alone in the record books and will also make him the only player to play an NBA game in four separate decades if he makes a single appearance in the later part of the season in 2020. Vince has truly laid a groundwork for all true ballers to follow, the rare star who always knew when to defer and when to take the reins, his transformation from NBA Icon to mentor has been awesome to see and he's been a great calming asset on many young rosters over the last three seasons. Best of luck for one more run for the great Vince Carter, who played an astounding 76 games last year.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
Times like these are when social media is at its worst. One thing for people to have opinions, that's fine. It's a whole other thing for people to just post weirdly false facts, I saw one that in the last two years there's only been four mass shootings? Are we that dumb? Have we truly moved into an era where facts don't mean anything at all? There were two this weekend, so are we saying these two and then two others since January 1st 2017? Does anyone think that's accurate? I'll stop you now, it's not. It's not even a little bit accurate, it's vastly inaccurate, now yes mass shootings can be defined a number of different ways and with a bunch of different settings but almost no way you define it, has there only been four. We need to do a better job of just looking something up before we get into the business of being this dumb.
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.
How 3 major x-factors could tip the scales in Texans-Colts: Week 1
Sep 5, 2024, 7:27 pm
Each football game of a season carries much more weight than one game in a 162 Major League Baseball schedule. That reality, combined with the National Football League campaign opening and with it the most anticipated season in Texans’ history, the Astros are relegated to second banana this weekend. Just the way it goes despite the Astros’ phenomenal extended run from 10 games out of first place in mid-June to now having control of the American League West race and a likely (though definitely not yet certain) eighth consecutive year of postseason play.
It is reality that getting swept out of Cincinnati cost the Astros two games in the standings to Seattle the last two days and trimmed their division lead to four and a half games going into this weekend. There was nothing shameful about getting swept. It’s not as if they choked. They got outplayed and beaten in all three games. Stuff happens within a 162-game season. The 2019 Astros were vastly better than the 2024 Astros. The 2019 ‘Stros posted the best record in franchise history at 107-55. In Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole they had the two best pitchers in the AL. The Reds finished 75-87 in ’19. In the lone Astros-Reds series five years ago, Verlander and Cole started two of the three games. The Reds swept the Astros out of Cincy by scores of 3-2, 4-3, and 3-2. Stuff happens. The following week the Astros called up Yordan Alvarez. There is no Yordan coming to fortify the offense now, but wait! Is that Kyle Tucker's music?
The Astros host the NL champs this weekend
It’s highly unlikely but it’s still a possible World Series preview at Minute Maid Park this weekend with the Astros home for three games versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. The reigning National League Champions woke up under .500 July 11, but since then have been sizzling with 33 wins against just 15 losses. Over the same time frame the Astros are 27-21. The Diamondbacks by a large margin have scored the most runs in MLB this season, and that’s while playing the last nearly three weeks without Ketel Marte because of a high ankle sprain. Marte has been far and away the best second baseman in the game this year. He may return this weekend in a designated hitter role. The Arizona offense overall has been sensational, however it has vulnerability against left-handed pitching, in significant part because it typically takes lefty-hitting platoon beast Joc Pederson out of the lineup. The D’Backs are 55-35 in games facing right-handed starters, just 24-27 in games started by opposing southpaws. The Astros have lefties Framber Valdez and Yusei Kikuchi set to go in the first two games this weekend. While the Astros deal with the Diamondbacks the Mariners are in St. Louis for three against the Cardinals.
Eleven Diamondbacks have had at least 200 plate appearances this season. Only one of them has an OPS below .725. The Astros also have 11 guys with at least 200 PAs. Five of them lug around sub-.715 OPSes: Jeremy Pena (.714), Jake Meyers (.664), Mauricio Dubon (.645), Jon Singleton (.697), and Chas McCormick (.566).
Maximizing Tucker's return
Speaking of returns, Tucker fiiiiiiinally should see action for the first time since his June 3 bone bruise. Oh wait, broken leg. Shame on the Astros for their BSing over this and other injuries. Yeah, Alex Bregman slept funny. Whatever. To boost the lineup Tucker doesn’t have to be the .979 OPS MVP candidate he was when felled. Ben Gamel has done some good work, but over time he’s Ben Gamel. Same for Jason Heyward. If Tucker's legs are under him his power is a B-12 shot and only Yordan is in his league in on-base percentage. Joe Espada has decisions to make as to how slot the batting order. Against a right-handed starter Jose Altuve, Tucker, Alvarez, Yainer Diaz, Bregman one through five makes sense with Tucker dropping down below Yainer against a left-handed starter. No question those are the top five in some order. How much of a workload Tucker is ready for bears watching. Presumably he doesn’t initially play the outfield day in day out. When Tucker DHs obviously Bregman (and Yordan) can’t so Alex’s ailing elbow holding up is key. One might say hopefully the bone chips don’t fall where they may. Tuesday the Astros start a stretch playing 16 days in a row.
Keep hope alive!
If you’re an Astros fan holding out hope of chasing down the second seed to avoid having to play the best-of-three Wild Card series, say it with me, whatever nausea it may induce: “Go Dodgers Go!” Hurt as it might, business is business. The Dodgers play host to the Guardians. The Astros trail Cleveland by five games with just 22 to play, but do finish the regular season with three games at Cleveland. It's pretty much over for the Astros to catch both the Orioles and Yankees.
Season-long trends mean nothing once the playoffs start, and that’s a good thing for the Astros provided they are in the playoffs. They continue to flat out stink in close games. Thursday’s 1-0 loss to the Reds has the Astros record in one-run games at 15-24. In two-run games they are 10-14. Correlatively, the Astros also continue to routinely fail late in close games. The Astros have played 14 games that were tied after seven innings. They have lost 11 of the 14. In games tied after eight innings they are 7-13. Every team loses an extremely high percentage of games when trailing after eight innings, but the Astros haven’t pulled out a single game they’ve trailed going to the ninth. 0-50. Oh and fifty. But hey, the White Sox are 0-92!
*Catch our weekly Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast. Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and I discuss varied Astros topics. The first post for the week generally goes up Monday afternoon (second part released Tuesday) via The SportsMap HOU YouTube channel or listen to episodes in their entirety at Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.