Here in a few weeks, Astros County Dot Com will be 12 years old. In late 2008 my wife told me I could either play video games or do Astros County, and I obviously chose the latter. Earlier on Friday this cursed blog/website hit seven million total pageviews. That's probably not a lot in the Grand Scheme of Things, and for other baseball/sports websites, but it's pretty damned impressive to me. Thank you for continuing to come here, even when I sprinkle some social commentary in which I try to radicalize you. I have a little something coming on Monday in the Chronicle on George Springer and the Astros payroll, and that's going to be somewhat temporarily it for my association with the Houston Chronicle, through no fault of theirs or mine. And if it doesn't come out on Monday, I'll put it here. Again, thank you for being a witness for my descent into delirium and madness.
*Brian McTaggart: Five key questions facing the Astros this offseason.
*Chandler Rome: Carlos Correa became a team leader, but is a free agent after the 2021 season. Now the team has to decide on an extension.
*Check out Eno Sarris' deep dive on Charlie Morton's postseason magic.
*The two candidates running to be the governor of Utah made an ad...together.
*Texas Monthly: How one state history textbook erases the stories of Black and Hispanic Texans. Textbooks are for slack-ass teachers. This is my seventh year as a public school history teacher (had a bit of a career change in my early-30s) and I have never used the textbook other than for a mapping activity. Because you really do need to know Where Things Are.
*Aston Villa 0 - Leeds United 3. Hat Trick Patrick Bamford scored all three goals. You can check the highlights here, but it very easily could have been 5-1 Leeds (pay particular attention to Luke Ayling recovering from losing the ball to saving a certain goal.) I never thought I would have said this after 2003 but holy Hannah, Leeds United are responsible for bringing me the greatest soccer joy I have ever experienced.
*Really looking forward to The Queen's Gambit, on Netflix.
*A Musical Selection: