Who Dat Say They Gon' - oh wait

Watched the first two innings of the Astros game. That blew. Wigginton continued to say "Fuck you!" to all the whiny douchebags calling in to sports radio and complaining about the Wheeler trade. He go two doubles and a triple (!). Pretty good for a chubby guy. After Carlos' injury, Wiggs is the second-best hitter in the lineup. Why Coop doesn't bat him clean up I don't know. He's making it clear that he's the best third baseman the Astros have had since Ken Caminiti was traded and Morgan Ensberg turned out to be a fluke. Though he's certainly not as good on defense as either. Backe got the ball, played for 5.2 innings and gave up 11 runs, all earned. Geary, Brocail, and Hawkins came in and finished up the game without giving up another run.

Kazuo was placed on the DL. This isn't too big of a deal, given that the Stros are out of the race, but injuries have been Matsui's problem since he came over from Japan. JR House was called up from Round Rock, getting a pinch-hit RBI groundout in the 9th inning. House was in the Astros organization for a season a couple of years ago, and he was briefly called up then for a few games. He's played in AAA Round Rock for the season, as both a catcher and first baseman. He's got an 853 OPS there, which is pretty good. But he's also 29, so he's probably condemned to swinging between AAA and the MLB for the remaining few years of his career.

But the Texans handed a loss to the Saints. I'm glad that the NFL and the respective clubs have decided to nurture the burgeoning rivalry between the two teams. Though it's more of an all-in-fun thing than that between the BE-SF and the Texans.

Reggie Bush continued to show that he's a bust. He actually played today, which makes me think that maybe the Saints organization isn't happy with him, telling him that he's no guarantee to play during the year if his performance doesn't improve. He responded with a total of 7 carries for an average of 3.4 yards. No touchdowns on rushing. He caught one 12 yard pass (though he dropped another) for a touchdown. He was tackled once by Williams, which was pretty cool.

One of the sideline reporters asked Mario about the Bush-Williams "rivalry," and he responded with the typical non-interest in such talk. He's right - the discussion of who was the better draft pick was over TWO SEASONS AGO! Hell, in 2007, the only argument one could make was Young vs. Williams, and that's shown to have been in Houston's favor, as well.

I saw PTI's discussion of Reggie Bush yesterday, and they were both saying that his first season was good, but that he went through a sophomore slump. This is bullshit. He only had two more touchdowns his first season, but he was averaging fewer yds/carry, too. He received better, but he still wasn't the RB everyone thought he would be.

Back to the Texans. The defense looked alright, otherwise. Nothing particularly awful (Pass rushing wasn't great. Two sacks were recorded, though), but nothing totally awesome.

Matt Schaub came out and threw perfect passes. Anyone would look good after years of Mr. Mittens throwing in Houston, but Schaub is proving to be an excellent QB. He had a beautiful short passing game - perfect laser shots into his receivers. Excellent. Sage was Sage, and the two Texans QBs look good. Our passing game is going to be great.

But the most pleasantly surprising thing tonight was the running game. Maybe Slaton was just better than anyone expected, but I think a lot of credit goes to the zone blocking scheme. The announcers talked about how Slaton wouldn't be good to use to set up a passing game, but that's not the Texans' game, anyways. During the season, Schaub will come out and throw a few passes, and then we'll use the running game a little, not the other way around.

Jacoby Jones wasn't too good, fumbling THREE TIMES! FUCKING HELL GODDAMMIT! But the defense was able to save the day every time he did it. He fumbled on the first punt return, resulting in a turnover. Not pretty.

So the Texans are looking good. The Astros definitely aren't. Biggio's jersey retirement is tomorrow, though. So we'll get to fondly remember the good days, circa 1996-2005, when the Astros rocked the National League but routinely got pounded in the postseason because God hates this fucking town. Maybe Bagwell will show up in the shirt he wore last year. Good times. Randy Johnson and Roy will be pitching, which should be nice to see, even if the Good Guys collapse.

Dickie J is Houston's Worst Reporter

Don't get me wrong, I like the Longhorns as much as the next non-Aggie Texan. If I have to choose an NCAA Div-1A team that doesn't get its ass kicked by the local community college, I'll take UT (though Tech is pretty cool now. I like the Air Raid offense. Reminds me of vintage Warren Moon). Sorry, Tulane, but we should never have left the SEC. Sure, we'd continue to get pounded by larger, more retarded schools, but we'd make out with boatloads of cash each year. That's why Vandy does it, year in and year out.

Anyways, back to why Justice is a tool. He takes his love of all things Longhorn too far. I get that he's an alum, and I guess that goes a long way (I don't know. Neither of my parents took their colleges that fucking seriously, and dear old Dad went a military academy). But his latest piece of shit about Vince Young and the Longhorns sets a new standard in bullshit.

For those not aware of it, the University of Texas is amending its rules on retiring numbers. Previously, only those who actually graduated from UT could have their numbers retired. This left out guys like Vince Young and Roger Clemens.

If I were a UT alum, I would think this was an embarrassment. It's insulting enough that Vince Young was barely literate, yet allowed to compete in the NCAA. Now the University is going to pretend that he finished his schooling there.

What's really galling about Justice's fellatio of Young and UT is his statement "It's a place of ideas, a place of thought, a place where people learn to be the best they can be," - referring, of course, to the UT Austin campus.

But that's just it - Young had none of those qualities. He didn't even graduate. He didn't become the best he could be at anything but scrambling and passing.

On principle, I don't have a problem with Young going to "school" for three years to hone his skills as a quarterback. The NCAA is a scam that robs young athletes of the money they make for the schools they attend, and on some level I think it's okay for schools like UT, LSU, and USC to admit sub-par students.

But pretending that Young was anything but a hired athlete is bullshit. That's why UT shouldn't retire his jersey, just as they shouldn't retire Clemens'. They were both spectacular college athletes, but neither were there for the "college" part of the equation.

And when will Justice finally come out and admit he was wrong about Mario Williams? He spent all of 2006 and 2007 complaining about our star DE, and now he pretends as if he's always been behind Williams. Hell, Bill Simons admitted that he was wrong, and he doesn't even write for a Houston paper.

In fairness, virtually no one was right about Mario Williams. Only Casserly (who would lose his job shortly after the 06 draft) got it right. No Houston sportswriter thought Williams was the right choice. Only a tiny minority of fans believed that drafting Williams was a good choice. I admit that I wasn't among them.

But two years later, neither Young nor Bush has lived up to expectations. Young might develop into a good QB in a few years, but Bush has shown himself to be a complete and total bust. He averages 3.7 yds/carry. That's ridiculously bad.

But Justice will never admit a mistake. He never acknowledges a change in opinion or gives a reason for why his would change - he simply states a new, mindbogglingly stupid opinion every day.

Fuck Dick Justice and the Chronicle.