Texans may move 2017 training camp to the Greenbrier Resort (West Virginia)

[Arky]

Not sure where my neighbor is from. I assume Mexico. Wife, several kids. He had chickens for a while (smelly). Then he had a horse for a while (not as smelly). I liked the horse. Now, just a few dogs.

I've seen pictures of your town and it seems modern. Due to location, it's not surprising it would be somewhat international.

Not a fan of Kevin Eschenfelder calling the Astro broadcasts. He's got the Jim Rome/Suzy Kulber kinda belligerent sports-guy voice delivery. Todd Kalas much better, IMO. Blummer (Geoff Blum) is OK. You get all the US sports and TV where you are?

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Arky

Not sure where my neighbor is from. I assume Mexico. Wife, several kids. He had chickens for a while (smelly). Then he had a horse for a while (not as smelly). I liked the horse. Now, just a few dogs.

I've seen pictures of your town and it seems modern. Due to location, it's not surprising it would be somewhat international.

Not a fan of Kevin Eschenfelder calling the Astro broadcasts. He's got the Jim Rome/Suzy Kulber kinda belligerent sports-guy voice delivery. Todd Kalas much better, IMO. Blummer (Geoff Blum) is OK. You get all the US sports and TV where you are?

I buy the mlb.tv package and the NFL Game Pass package. I get all the games and I avoid the commercials. A bargain at twice the price.

No tandem will ever compare to Brown - Deshaies, but I'm perfectly happy listening to Kalas and Blum. Eschenfelder isn't any good, but he's better than Stanton. I'd rather listen to Ashby than Stanton.

And I'd rather listen to a car alarm than Ashby.

The MLB product sort of sucks but it usually works. The NFL product is excellent and is a perfectly good illustration of the difference between the two leagues. One is run by morons who feel like they have a monopoly; the other is run by people who want to make money and are happy to make the effort in order to ensure that it happens.

The only other sports I care about are the national futbol team which I can obviously watch on TV if I'm not at the game in person and my own team whose games I almost always see if I'm in the country. We have a warm-up game tomorrow at 8 AM that I think I might miss. I'm pretty sure they'll carry on just fine without me.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Arky

Thanks, chuck. You'll have to do the old-guy-deep-closet-cleanout someday, so be prepared for the ensuing nostalgia trip.....

Where are you located, BTW? Is it Puerto Rico?

You say the Chuckster is a Peurto Rican, that's surprising to me, I would have never guessed it ? Wonder if he knows Carlos Correa ?

[Arky]

Originally Posted by nunusguy

You say the Chuckster is a Peurto Rican, that's surprising to me, I would have never guessed it ? Wonder if he knows Carlos Correa ?

No, I thought he was a white guy living in Puerto Rico. I'm guessing Puerto Ricans named "Chuck" are kinda rare.

Last night's loss not withstanding, Astros are kicking ass. Marisnick has been hitting some monster home runs. (I thought was just a goofy guy who threw water in people's faces when they hit a home run) He and Marwin Gonzales are on a pace to hit 50 home runs combined. Who'd thunk it? Astros can play .500 ball the rest of the year and still end up with 94 wins....

[chuck]

A couple of months ago I did one of those DNA tests to see about my ethnic heritage. My mom's family is your normal southern hillbilly clan, you know, you can trace them back forever but hardly get out of Tennessee. My dad was adopted and although as a young man he somehow identified and tracked down his birth mother there was always considerable mystery regarding his background.

Well, disappointingly it turns out I am 100% white guy. No vaguely shameful surprises generations back, no trace of any ethnicity that plays music in an interesting time signature, mostly German, a sprinkling of one of each from the British Isles. White, white, white.

Maybe that's why Buford's always liked me so much.

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by chuck

A couple of months ago I did one of those DNA tests to see about my ethnic heritage. My mom's family is your normal southern hillbilly clan, you know, you can trace them back forever but hardly get out of Tennessee. My dad was adopted and although as a young man he somehow identified and tracked down his birth mother there was always considerable mystery regarding his background.

Well, disappointingly it turns out I am 100% white guy. No vaguely shameful surprises generations back, no trace of any ethnicity that plays music in an interesting time signature, mostly German, a sprinkling of one of each from the British Isles. White, white, white.

Maybe that's why Buford's always liked me so much.

Well that sucks because I was all excited about you being a PR. And like Arky says a PR guy name Chuck would be one of a kind, but you are probably already one of a kind, huh Chuck ?

[nunusguy]

Originally Posted by Arky

No, I thought he was a white guy living in Puerto Rico. I'm guessing Puerto Ricans named "Chuck" are kinda rare.

Last night's loss not withstanding, Astros are kicking ass. Marisnick has been hitting some monster home runs. (I thought was just a goofy guy who threw water in people's faces when they hit a home run) He and Marwin Gonzales are on a pace to hit 50 home runs combined. Who'd thunk it? Astros can play .500 ball the rest of the year and still end up with 94 wins....

Marisnick is one of my favorite players because he's such a tremendous outfielder. The guy makes difficult catchs look routine and he can really haul ass for a big guy, he's almost TE big.If he can keep hitting HRs like that it will cost the Astros a ton to keep him when he becomes FA.
So far this has been a pretty good baseball season by the Astros and helps to pass the time until the real sport begins in a couple months.

[Arky]

Originally Posted by chuck

A couple of months ago I did one of those DNA tests to see about my ethnic heritage. .....

Which service did you use for that? I looked into it a few months ago and thought most of them were a little too generalizing. I didn't want to pay $200 for them to tell me I was mostly "Western European". Hell, I know that. Was looking for something a little more specific in country/region breakdown....

[chuck]

Originally Posted by Arky

Which service did you use for that? I looked into it a few months ago and thought most of them were a little too generalizing. I didn't want to pay $200 for them to tell me I was mostly "Western European". Hell, I know that. Was looking for something a little more specific in country/region breakdown....

I used the Ancestry one. It wasn't quite as specific as I might've have liked but it was ok and it was $100. You can get it for $80 if you're patient as they occasionally have a sale.

I might do the other one at some point just for the hell of it. I don't really remember the key differences or just why I chose the one I did.

[Arky]

Very good. Thanks!

[HPF Bob]

Hey, Chuckles, say "Hello" to Manny Sanguillen next time you see him. My favorite Pirate back in the day.

[chuck]

Originally Posted by HPF Bob

Hey, Chuckles, say "Hello" to Manny Sanguillen next time you see him. My favorite Pirate back in the day.

I've met quite a number of those old guys over the years. It was especially convenient when they actually used to qualify for participation in the WBC, you'd get a lot of them together in one place.

I ran into Mariano Rivera in the grocery store a year ago or so. He still looks like he could put on a uniform and get people out whenever he wants.

But in all seriousness, if I ever run into Manny I'll send you a picture of the both of us. I'm pretty sure he still spends a lot of time in Pittsburgh but he's pretty likely to spend winters here. I'll ask around.

Roberto Duran lives a block away from me. He is a total lunatic, but in the best possible way. I was walking by his house a couple of weeks ago and he was out in his driveway in his underwear yelling at someone inside. He has what once were luxury cars but are now nothing but old, beat-up pieces of metal crammed into every available square inch of parking in front of his house. Who knows if any of them even runs anymore. Back in 1990 or so he had a pet lion. It got loose one day and went roaming around the neighborhood eating out of trashcans. I too find it odd that anyone would actually use a trashcan but I guess you never know.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Arky

Memoirs? I got your memoirs.

Awesome. I would have never subjected these boards to those haiku contests back in the day if we had all these memoirs to read in the summer.

Originally Posted by chuck

And Keith and I have actually met. But that was back when his son was just a little boy. He's probably about 25 now, paying for Buford's so-securtee.

Ha, he just finished freshman year of high school, now 2" taller than me and still growing. He is a LHP getting his fastball into the low 80s, so he plays a lot of travel ball when the HS season is out, which is why I am tardy catching up here.

Originally Posted by chuck

A couple of months ago I did one of those DNA tests to see about my ethnic heritage. My mom's family is your normal southern hillbilly clan, you know, you can trace them back forever but hardly get out of Tennessee.

I did 23 and me. Then I sent my results and five bucks to Promethease for more info on my genetics. Pretty cool stuff. Done the ancestry.com thing; enjoyed that, too.

On a related note, growing up (around Texas, generally) I had often heard from classmates that they had some small amount (1/16th, etc) of Native American in their family. Like, wayyy too many people said that. Always had me curious. Anyhoo, these DNA tests can certainly provide some interesting results, because these folks who think they are part-Cherokee or whatever are FAR more likely to have African blood in them, especially if any part of their family has been in the southeastern U.S. for 200+ years.