LABOR DAY 2019

The 8 best ways to celebrate Labor Day in Houston

The 8 best ways to celebrate Labor Day in Houston
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown will thrown another Labor Day Luau. Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown/Facebook

This article originally appeared on CultureMap.

Labor Day is upon us, which means fall is fast approaching and, soon, we will no longer have to deal with this scorching-hot weather for much longer. It's that first Monday in September where we celebrate all the accomplishments hard-working men and women have made throughout history in building, shaping, and molding this country.

Labor Day is also a great day to kick back, and we've rounded up eight fun events to enjoy your long weekend.

a'Bouzy

Our favorite champagne dispensary will have a Labor Day brunch where bottles of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut will be served for $49. This is a must for those who've always wanted to pop bottles and dance around like Damon Dash in old Jay-Z videos. Reservations are required. 10 am-6 pm.

El Segundo Swim Club

H-Town's only private outdoor swim club and bar will have special hours and access this Labor Day Weekend. On Friday, access is free, but it's $20 Saturday through Monday. Food is available for purchase during peak hours via food truck. 3 pm-sunset (11 am-midnight Saturday; noon-midnight Sunday; noon-7 pm Monday).

Gallery Auctions, Inc.

If your idea of a fun Labor Day is bidding for stuff during an auction, these guys have a special day for you. Along with bidding for furniture, antiques, etc. the Astros Shuttle Crew will be on hand, giving away two pairs of Astros tickets. They also have lite bites for breakfast and a complementary bar during the entire auction. 8 am-4 pm.

ISKCON of Houston

Labor Day is also Houston's Free Day of Yoga. So, get all loose and limber and one with your body with a free yoga class at this temple's main hall (taught by local yoga queen Farida Morsi), followed by lunch at Govinda's. Bring some extra cash and enjoy wonderful vegetarian cuisine together. 10 am.

Lone Star Flight Museum

The hallowed museum has a bevy of things planned for Labor Day. You can take tours inside the DC-3, talk to the mechanics, make and take crafts, and step in the simulators, which will be open all weekend. Plus, there will be free hot dogs, chips and drinks — and this is all for a mere $5. 9 am-5 pm.

Continue on CultureMap to see what's going on at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Splashtown, and much more.

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Lance McCullers needed peace of mind — and got it. Composite Getty Image.

Soon after Lance McCullers Jr.’s family received online death threats following a tough start by the Houston Astros’ pitcher, his 5-year-old daughter, Ava, overheard wife Kara talking on the phone about it.

What followed was a painful conversation between McCullers and his little girl.

“She asked me when I came home: ‘Daddy like what is threats? Who wants to hurt us? Who wants to hurt me?’” McCullers told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “So, those conversations are tough to deal with.”

McCullers is one of two MLB pitchers whose families have received online death threats this month as internet abuse of players and their families is on the rise. Boston reliever Liam Hendriks took to social media soon after the incident with McCullers to call out people who were threatening his wife’s life and directing “vile” comments at him.

The Astros contacted MLB security and the Houston Police Department following the threats to McCullers. An police spokesperson said Thursday that it remains an ongoing investigation.

McCullers, who has two young daughters, took immediate action after the threats and reached out to the team to inquire about what could be done to protect his family. Astros owner Jim Crane stepped in and hired 24-hour security for them.

It was a move McCullers felt was necessary after what happened.

“You have to at that point,” he said.

Abuse increasing with rise in sports gambling

Players from around the league agree that online abuse has gotten progressively worse in recent years. Milwaukee’s Christian Yelich, a 13-year MLB veteran and the 2018 NL MVP, said receiving online abuse is “a nightly thing” for most players.

“I think over the last few years it’s definitely increased,” he said. “It’s increased to the point that you’re just: ‘All right, here we go.’ It doesn’t even really register on your radar anymore. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. You’re just so used to that on a day-to-day, night-to-night basis. It’s not just me. It’s everybody in here, based on performance.”

And many players believe it’s directly linked to the rise in legalized sports betting.

“You get a lot of DMs or stuff like that about you ruining someone’s bet or something ridiculous like that,” veteran Red Sox reliever Justin Wilson said. “I guess they should make better bets.”

Hendriks has had enough

Hendriks, a 36-year-old reliever who previously battled non-Hodgkin lymphoma, said on Instagram that he and his wife received death threats after a loss to the Mets. He added that people left comments saying that they wished he would have died from cancer among other abusive comments.

He later discussed the issue and his decision to speak out about it.

“Enough is enough,” he said. “Like at some point, everyone just like sucking up and dealing with it isn’t accomplishing anything. And we pass along to security. We pass along to whoever we need to, but nothing ends up happening. And it happens again the next night. And so, at some point, someone has to make a stand. And it’s one of those things where the more eyes we get on it, the more voices we get talking about it. Hopefully it can push it in the right direction."

What teams are doing

Both the Astros and the Red Sox are working with MLB security to take action against social media users who direct threats toward players and their families. Red Sox spokesperson Abby Murphy added that they’ve taken steps in recent years to make sure player' families are safe during games. That includes security staff and Boston police stationed in the family section at home and dedicated security in the traveling party to monitor the family section on the road.

Murphy said identifying those who make anonymous threats online is difficult, but: “both the Red Sox and MLB have cyber programs and analysts dedicated to identifying and removing these accounts.”

The Astros have uniformed police officers stationed in the family section, a practice that was implemented well before the threats to McCullers and his family.

Abandoning social media

For some players, online abuse has gotten so bad that they’ve abandoned social media. Detroit All-Star outfielder Riley Greene is one of them, saying he got off because he received so many messages from people blaming him for failed bets.

“I deleted it,” he said of Instagram. “I’m off it. It sucks, but it’s the world we live in, and we can’t do anything about it. People would DM me and say nasty things, tell me how bad of a player I am, and say nasty stuff that we don’t want to hear.”

Criticism is part of the game, threats are not

The 31-year-old McCullers, who returned this year after missing two full seasons with injuries, said dealing with this has been the worst thing that’s happened in his career. He understands the passion of fans and knows that being criticized for a poor performance is part of the game. But he believes there’s a “moral line” that fans shouldn’t cross.

“People should want us to succeed,” he said. “We want to succeed, but it shouldn’t come at a cost to our families, the kids in our life, having to feel like they’re not safe where they live or where they sit at games.”

Houston manager Joe Espada was livid when he learned about the threats to McCullers and his family and was visibly upset when he addressed what happened with reporters.

Espada added that the team has mental health professionals available to the players to talk about the toll such abuse takes on them and any other issues they may be dealing with.

“We are aware that when we step on the field, fans expect and we expect the best out of ourselves,” Espada said this week. “But when we are trying to do our best and things don’t go our way while we’re trying to give you everything we got and now you’re threatening our families and kids — now I do have a big issue with that, right? I just did not like it.”

Kansas City’s Salvador Perez, a 14-year MLB veteran, hasn’t experienced online abuse but was appalled by what happened to McCullers. If something like that happened to him he said it would change the way he interacts with fans.

“Now some fans, real fans, they’re gonna pay for that, too,” he said. "Because if I was him, I wouldn’t take a picture or sign anything for noboby because of that one day.”

McCullers wouldn’t go that far but admitted it has changed his mindset.

“It does make you kind of shell up a little bit,” he said. “It does make you kind of not want to go places. I guess that’s just probably the human reaction to it.”

Finding a solution

While most players have dealt with some level of online abuse in their careers, no one has a good idea of how to stop it.

“I’m thankful I’m not in a position where I have to find a solution to this,” Tigers’ pitcher Tyler Holton said. “But as a person who is involved in this, I wish this wasn’t a topic of conversation.”

White Sox outfielder Mike Tauchman is disheartened at how bad player abuse has gotten. While it’s mostly online, he added that he’s had teammates that have had racist and homophobic things yelled at them during games.

“Outside of just simply not having social media I really don’t see that getting better before it just continues to get worse,” he said. “I mean, I think it’s kind of the way things are now. Like, people just feel like they have the right to say whatever they want to whoever they want and it’s behind a keyboard and there’s really no repercussions, right?”

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