Babe Ruth

Daryl Morey Fires Off A Kurkjian Style Stat Dork Tweet To Defend Jeremy Lin

By any real measurement, the first season for Jeremy Lin as a Houston Rocket has been fairly pedestrian. Statistically, he has struggled shooting the basketball (.399 field goal percentage) and seen his minutes scaled back in recent weeks. Purely to the human eye, Lin has had trouble meshing with ba ... More >>

6 Thoughts on Tim Tebow's Lifetime Membership in the Museum of Sex

This past summer, my employer was kind enough to give me a few extra days off around the Fourth of July. Rather than go on an exotic journey somewhere far less humid than Houston, I opted to stay in Houston to relax and experience a few of the Houston landmarks I'd yet to see in my twelve years here ... More >>

10 Reasons to Hate Boyz II Men's "End of the Road"

Twenty years ago this week, a slick R&B ballad appeared at the top of the charts and simply refused to go away. One of the most successful songs of the '90s, Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" ruled the Billboard Hot 100 for 13 weeks, setting a new record. The soundtrack single was a major triumph not ... More >>

The Albert Pujols Schadenfreude Post

To understand the magnitude of Albert Pujols's six-week slump to start the 2012 season (and I'm not going to lie, calling it a "slump" feels like a VERY lazy understatement), you have to remember the starting point from whence he came when he signed with the Los Angeles Angels this off-season. That ... More >>

Weekend's Best Bets -- Final Four and Wrestlemania 28

When I was a kid, there were only a small handful of sporting events to which you set your calendar/watch, events that owned certain weekends or weeks of the calendar year. They were the biggies: Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals. But with the advent of a million different television channels, a ... More >>

Taking Apart Yesterday's Facebook Music Screed

​Yesterday, about a half-dozen of my Facebook friends forwarded a gloom-and-doom listicle from a site called Buzzfeed entitled "12 Extremely Disappointing Facts About Popular Music." Now up to over one million hits, the doom-and-gloom piece is subtitled "This is the saddest thing you'll read a ... More >>

Jamie Dukes (Basically) Asks Lindsay Soto To Fondle Him On NFL Network TV

​I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is to make references to Seinfeld and not feel somewhat outdated. My guess is we're past that point, but what the hell. Remember the episode where George is trying to get fired from the Yankees so that he can take a higher paying job with the Mets ... More >>

One Man's Predictions for This Baseball Season

​Believe it or not, it's time, yet again, for the Major League Baseball season to get underway. That's good news for those of us who enjoy watching the best players in baseball play the best sport ever created. That's bad news, however, for us Astros fans because, well, the Astros suck. But ... More >>

One Man's Votes For The Baseball Hall of Fame

The best second baseman of the `90s​The latest class to the Baseball Hall of Fame will be announced tomorrow. This is a special year for all Astros fans as this is the first year that Jeff Bagwell is on the ballot. There's a lot of talk among the voters (and non-voters) about Bagwell this se ... More >>

What's New In The Houston Scene Since You Were Here Last

Craig HlavatyThe jukebox at Grand Prize Bar. Note George Jones, ZZ Top, Lightnin' Hopkins, Prince...​Imagine that you have been frozen since September, or at least the beginning of the fall college semester. Or maybe you are an adult coming back to Houston to visit the folks, return Christmas ... More >>

Game Time: Whaler Fan Fest -- Houston Oiler Fans May Know How I Feel

Hartford Whalers: They live on as a dessert​"Somewhere along the line, we will see you in another place in another time. God bless all of you fans. Remember one thing, you may have lost the NHL, but you have not lost the memories." -- Chuck Kaiton, the voice of the Hartford Whalers after the Whal ... More >>

5 Ways Lady Gaga Could Spice Up The Astros' Season

Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​Last Friday night, Rocks Off's favorite pop star, Lady Gaga, bum-rushed her way around Yankee Stadium during the opening game of the New York Yankees three-game homestand against crosstown rivals the New York Mets. Somehow she talked her way past secur ... More >>

J.R. Towles -- The Astros Have Found Their Scapegoat

It's all YOUR fault, dude​So it's all the fault of J.R. Towles. That seems to be the only conclusion that can be arrived at by the Astros demoting him to Corpus Christi after the Astros 1-0 loss to Arizona on Tuesday night.The Astros didn't say it was his fault, of course. There was talk about h ... More >>

Can Roy Oswalt Sue The Astros For Non-Support?

The Astros: still playing the old, ineffective guys​It was just last week that the Astros were 8-10, had won six straight and eight of their last ten, and were no longer the worst team in the National League.Since that time, they've been swept by the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves. T ... More >>

Rick Perry, Great White Hunter: How Does He Stack Up?

Rick Perry is getting a lot of Internet play today for manfully admitting to the Associated Press that he used a laser-sighted pistol with hollow-point bullets to kill a coyote that was threatening his dog while he was out jogging.Take that, dog predator. You should have known our governor never jog ... More >>

Game Time: Jim Rome Smack-Off Appendix -- 12 Most Memorable Calls From The Golden Era

I appreciate everyone's comments, feedback, kind words on yesterday's post that gave a diary-style breakdown of the 2010 Jim Rome Smack-Off and my perspective on where the show is now compared to where it was during the earlier part of this decade. If you missed it, you can easily go back and read i ... More >>

Sharp-Dressed Fans

Billy Gibbons and other Houstonians share their favorite Astros memories.

Did You Know Houston Has Had the Same Official Song Since 1915? Maybe It's Time for a New One.

We don't know if it's the election or what - actually it's not, but bear with us - but this afternoon Rocks Off got to wondering whether or not Houston had its own official song, lyrics and music officially sanctioned and ratified to embody the Space/Bayou City's hopes and dreams. This being Housto ... More >>

25 Things About The New Yankee Stadium And The Astros

Now that I'm unemployed, I'm spending way too much time at home watching TV.  Particularly the MLB Network. I've become addicted to that thing. And yesterday, with the Astros having a day game against the Pirates on Fox, and there being an afternoon game on the MLB Network, I was in kind of a w ... More >>

Rickey, Jose, the Hall of Fame, and Me

The string is unbroken. In the history of the Baseball Hall of Fame, no player has ever been elected unanimously. Not Babe Ruth. Not Nolan Ryan. Not Cal Ripken. Not Tony Gwynn. Not Rickey Henderson. The closest to achieving this elusive milestone was Tom Seaver who got 98.84 percent of the v ... More >>

Rickey, Jose, the Hall of Fame, and Me

The string is unbroken. In the history of the Baseball Hall of Fame, no player has ever been elected unanimously. Not Babe Ruth. Not Nolan Ryan. Not Cal Ripken. Not Tony Gwynn. Not Rickey Henderson. The closest to achieving this elusive milestone was Tom Seaver who got 98.84 percent of the v ... More >>

Bring Out Your Dead (Popes)

Book Review: Dennis Lehane's The Given Day

Fuzzy Math: Bowie Kuhn, Marvin Miller and the Baseball Hall of Fame

Astros Sign Kaz Matsui, Corner the Market on Mediocre Middle Infielders

Sidney Lumet's Long Journey

Venerable director returns with a devilish thriller.

Houston's Very Best Songs Ever

...otherwise known as the H-Town 20

Half and Half

Fanboy Deluxe

Our Nightfly surrogate brushes with greatness

Gooooaaaal!

A few locals are afflicted with World Cup mania; also: Chango Jackson, KPFT and what touring bands really think of Houston

Another Ball Game

Meet forgotten stars in "Black Baseball: A History of the Negro Leagues"

Ball Busters

The battle over Bonds's record-setting homer looks quaint four seasons later

Fever Pitch

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston wants to take you out to the ball game

Like Moths to a Flame

Americans likely will swarm to Ladder 49, an unabashed homage to firefighters

Missing Links

A well-meaning ode to golf's first legend ends up in the bunker

Rocket Man

How one enterprising Johnson Space Center physicist followed his dream to Hollywood and porn stardom

Sultan of Swatch?

Babe's shirt goes in the cards

Pinch One-Liner

Meet the baseball manager with a gift for gab

You Gotta Want It

And other lessons for the Sharpstown All-Stars

The Trophy Son

When Kyle Rutherford scored a touchdown, his parents cheered. When he threw a strike, they dreamed of college glory. And when he was benched, they took his high school to federal court.