Tampa Bay

NFL Free Agency 2013: "Dead Money" Overview

As a concept, the NFL salary cap is a fairly easy one to understand. Unlike the NBA, with its myriad of loopholes, exceptions, and fine print that allow teams like the Lakers and, well, almost everyone else to zoom past the artificial "cap", the NFL is a simple hard cap. What you spend is what what ... More >>

The Adventures of Jim Crane, and Other Astros Spring Training Things to Know

It's all over tomorrow. The Astros off-season is finally ending. It might only be a spring training game, but after a winter of trades and new coaches and just a general reshuffling of the team, the Astros are finally going to get to play a game against another team. And they'll finally get to wear ... More >>

Gary Kubiak Won't Be Coaching for His Job Next Week, But He Should Be

The narratives for the first two Texan losses wrote themselves, even if they weren't completely accurate. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are Hall of Fame quarterbacks and played extremely well. The Texans (12-3) had a few unlucky bounces on offense. The team didn't desperately need either game. None a ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, And A Story Of The Worst Gambling Beat Ever

File this one under "Worst Beats Ever": According to a story on businessinsider.com, there was a bettor last week (and the story has a picture of the ticket, so I tend to believe it's true) who fired on an eight-team parlay of NFL games on Sunday, risking $50 to win $18,441. The first seven games ... More >>

Arian Foster's Projected 2012 Workload: An Historical Perspective

"He can handle it, I know that. You never know how the season's gonna go, and what it's gonna take to win each week. We're giving Arian some breaks at practice during the course of the week, but he looks fine to me. He's holding up fine. He hasn't missed any time, other than the time we've given him ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets, Another Crappy Notre Dame Video Edition

Popcorn lung. Apparently, that's a thing. On Wednesday, a federal jury awarded a Denver man named Wayne Watson $7.2 million from various food companies after they determined that the respiratory problems he developed in 2007 were due to his frequent inhalation of the buttery aroma from microwave po ... More >>

Five Lessons Learned from Hurricane Isaac

The circus has finally left New Orleans as they begin their clean up after Hurricane Isaac dropped boatloads of rain on the Big Easy earlier this week. Despite some dire early warnings and a near-miss of the GOP convention in Tampa Bay, Isaac was fairly tame by hurricane standards. That didn't stop ... More >>

Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

From cash-hungry strippers to protesters dressed as vaginas.

Uh-Oh, Texas: Why You Shouldn't Ignore Tropical Storm Isaac Just Yet

With all the advances in computer modeling and meteorological technology, ultimately, weather is just sometimes difficult to predict. Case in point: current Tropical Storm Isaac, floating along in the Caribbean Sea worrying the crap out of people all along the Gulf Coast. For the past couple of day ... More >>

Grading Ted Cruz on Meet The Press: Meh

In his first national, mainstream media appearance since the Republican Senate nominee won the runoff election late last month, Ted Cruz displayed on Meet The Press yesterday what propelled him past Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst last month in the runoff: An ability to say pretty things, and make everyone ... More >>

Bye, Bye Rick Perry: How Ted Cruz Became Texas' Most-Important Republican -- and He's Not Even Elected!

Rick Perry, it's so over. Sure, you've been fun. Hell, you've been great to us here at Hair Balls. Like that time you thought Solyndra, a solar company, was a country? Or, when you applauded George W. Bush for all his work defending us from freedom? Oh, man. That was a good one. And just recently wh ... More >>

Suggested Baseball Fan Behavior: An Ode to Detroit's Comerica Park

Last week, the Press' Margaret Downing, in Detroit for the Association of Alternative Newsmedia convention, took in a Tigers game at Comerica Park. She brought a souvenir back to the office: A full-color, 60-page "A-Z Guest Guide," which basically breaks down how to be a fan in verbose and silly l ... More >>

Umpin' Ain't Easy! Carlos Lee Steamrolls An Umpire (w/VIDEO)

On the surface, the occupation of Major League Baseball umpire would appear to be a dream job for anyone who likes baseball but wasn't good enough to continue playing beyond, say, American Legion ball at the high school level. Six-figure salary, luxury accommodations, ample vacation time. I mean... ... More >>

2012 NFL Draft -- Live Blog

I made an analogy on my radio show this morning on 1560 The Game that the NFL Draft tonight is like Christmas Day for many NFL fans. Air of anticipation, excitement of the unknown, food, it's all there. (My co-host, John Granato, compared it to Hanukkah because it's played out over several days, but ... More >>

NFL Week 17 Viewing Guide -- What in the Blue Hell Each Game Means

"College football has the best regular season of any sport, and the lack of a playoff is one big reason why." -- Bill Hancock, Executive Director, Bowl Cartel Championship Series That's my favorite inane argument against a college football playoff -- that somehow the existence of a playoff cheapens ... More >>

Football! This Weekend's Best Bets: Take the Bullies

Not when it comes to betting.​Nobody likes a bully. That is, nobody likes a bully unless that bully can win you piles of loot by doing their bully things. And that's exactly what the gambling gods have continued to bless us with this season. As I outlined last week, if you just rode the four ... More >>

Texans 30, Browns 12: Five Things We Learned

Photo by Marco TorresUnmask yourself, Texans fan​When Gary Kubiak wins a replay challenge, you know it's your day. It was that and then some for the Texans on Sunday, who cruised past the Browns and moved to 6-3 on the season. It's the first time the franchise has ever been three games above ... More >>

Texans 41, Titans 7: Suddenly, Everything Is Back On Track

Photo by Marco TorresMatt Schaub stays hot​In a game worthy of the oft-overused and dramatic "biggest in franchise history" distinction, the Texans finally delivered. Reeling from consecutive defeats and still missing Andre Johnson, questions swirled all week as to whether these Texans could ... More >>

Texans/Titans -- 4 Winners, 4 Losers (Including Tim Tebow)

Arian Foster's not dead yet.​It's amazing how quickly things can change. Sometimes, it takes a matter of a few weeks, like with the Kansas City Chiefs. After being outscored 89-10 the first two weeks of the season, the Chiefs were left for dead, Todd Haley was the chalk for every "first coac ... More >>

Since When Is It Okay For Minute Maid Park To Be Fenway Park South?

Back in the day, even celebrities like Janine Turner couldn't be shown at Astros games if they were pulling for the opposing team​I started working with the Astrodome DiamondVision crew on opening day of the 1988 season. And I worked on that video crew, either at the Dome or at Enron Field, t ... More >>

MLB Realignment -- I Want The Astros In The American League (And I'm Bright!)

"I'm smart! Not like everybody says... like dumb!"​Your Houston Astros lost 4-1 to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday afternoon to drop their record on the 2011 season to 24-42, the worst record in all of Major League Baseball. The Astros are a bad baseball team that is thoroughly uninteresting. As ... More >>

Astros Finally Sold, Or So It Appears

​Ding, dong, the wicked witch is dead. The Astros have, it appears, finally been sold. At least that's what Drayton McLane has told Mark Berman over at Fox 26. The papers are still being finalized, though it is hoped that the parties will sign off on the sale next week. McLane was not wil ... More >>

Moody Blues Have Little To "Lament" In Nearly 50-Year Career

​Since their 1964 origin, England's the Moody Blues have combined lush, orchestral pop with more rock-edged material to score hits like "Go Now," "Tuesday Afternoon," "Ride My See-Saw," "Question," "The Story in Your Eyes" and, of course, "Nights in White Satin." And save a three-year hiatus i ... More >>

My 2011 Texans Schedule Analysis -- Praying For A Long Work Stoppage

Skip this if you can. (The movie AND the Texans' opening schedule)​Destination programming. It's the lifeblood of any organization whose goal is to entertain the masses. It doesn't matter if you're a television network, an independent radio station, or a professional sports league. If you ... More >>

Game Time: NFL 2010 -- A Journey In Wagering

Betting is fun! If you don't mind losing​The first week of the NFL season is always one of the busiest for me. I've never been an accountant, nor will I ever be an accountant, but I would imagine that the first week of college and NFL football together is how the week of April 15 feels for someon ... More >>

Game Time: Watch Me Compare Astros GM Ed Wade To Jennifer Love Hewitt

​The mood in the Astros clubhouse yesterday after the 2-1 loss to the Phillies was about what you'd expect. Michael Bourn tried to stay upbeat, citing that the team is fighting hard and they know they have good players. (Fortunately, unlike many around Minute Maid Park, Bourn sounded like he act ... More >>

Enter at Your Own Risk

The Alley's trip through Wonderland is a work in progress.

Alley Theatre's Artistic Director Gregory Boyd Goes Down the Rabbit Hole With Alice

Photos courtesy of the Alley TheatreNikki Snelson plays the Mad Hatter​Alice is a children's book writer who's estranged from her husband and not doing well at all with her daughter. Worst of all, to Hair Balls's way of thinking, she has writer's block. So she goes to the strange and crazy pl ... More >>

Game Time: Inside The Mind Of The Houston Texans Fan

​Pretty much every social instinct I employ comes from George Costanza of Seinfeld fame.  (... and yes, the fact that it's been 11-plus years since the Seinfeld finale means I officially have to remind people who George Costanza was.)*"Whatever your instincts tell you to do, do the opposite." ... More >>

It's Only Going To Get Hotter In Houston, Group Says

​Think it's hot in Houston now? Just want for....(switch to stentorian voice)...The Future!!!!That's the word from Climate Central, a non-profit scientific group that apparently believes all this climate-change mumbo-jumbo the socialist-fascists are trying to throw at us when they're not trying to ... More >>

Why The Hell Should Wandy Rodriguez Listen To Pudge Anyway?

In this corner, we have Wandy Rodriguez. Wandy's the very definition of a mediocre pitcher who has managed to hold on in the majors only because he's a left-hander. His career record is 42-45 and his career ERA is 4.59. This season, he's 5-5, but he's lost his last three games, pitching a total o ... More >>

Follow Along As Houstonians Hunt WW2 Ghosts...If You Dare!!!

Photo courtesy ghostshow.usJennifer Parker of SPIHouston will have some local representation when the largest paranormal investigation in the history of paranormal investigations goes down Saturday night in Tampa Bay, Florida.Members of Southern Paranormal Investigators will join a 25-person investi ... More >>

Hard Economic Times Coming To Sports Franchises

The NHL doesn't have a team in Houston, so I'm pretty confident that most of you don't follow the league, and don't have any idea about some of the severe financial problems facing many of the southern teams.  The NHL has intervened in Phoenix in an attempt to find new ownership for the club.&n ... More >>

This Season's MLB Predictions: The National League

With baseball season due to start next week, I thought I should put myself on the line and make some predictions. I made my American League predictions yesterday. Today I'm going to take a look at the National League, and on Monday, I'll take an in-depth look at the Astros as they prepare to open ... More >>

This Season's MLB Predictions: The National League

With baseball season due to start next week, I thought I should put myself on the line and make some predictions. I made my American League predictions yesterday. Today I'm going to take a look at the National League, and on Monday, I'll take an in-depth look at the Astros as they prepare to open ... More >>

Madison High's Ray Seals Honored By NFL, As Vince Young Finally Does Something Right This Year

Seals and VYRay Seals, head coach at Madison High, has been chosen the 2008 National Football League High School Coach of the Year. Two of his former players, Vince Young of the Tennessee Titans and Moran Norris of the Detroit Lions, nominated Seals for the award.  In his essay, Norris called S ... More >>

Ten Possible Reasons for the Cowboys Missing the Playoffs

Astros-Braves: No Wild Card, But at Least Brandon Backe Gets the Record

Astros-Orioles: Birds Win, Luke Scott Talks Smack

Spring Training: Milo Hamilton, Harry Caray, Drayton McLane, Roger Clemens and Ria Cortesio

Spring Training: At Least the ‘Stros Aren’t the Rangers

Miss Cleo’s Fearless Forecast: Super Bowl XLIII Winner Revealed!

Weekend Music: Get Your Free On

Greyhound Racing

Tracks and breeders struggle as attendance declines

From Britney to U2: The 2007 NFL Preview

How Much Worse Can the Astros Get?

Super Bowl LIV, Here We Come!

Free Kicks

Once in a Lifetime remembers when soccer players lived like rock stars

Ace in Hand

Going the Distance

Houston's John Kelley has pursued his dream of bringing the Olympics to Houston for years, despite all odds. Now he's official.