What do Nolan Ryan, Hunter Pence, and Roy Oswalt now have in common?
Today’s column is purely emotional. Most of us understand why popular, productive players get traded. We simply don’t like the quick and easy “it’s a business” explanation for why baseball does what it does. Logically, we all know too that the benign aim here is to replenish the talent in the farm system pipeline, but we also understand why that problem exists. It exists because the club allowed the farm system to miss on talent judgments and high choice signings for, what, about a decade? An MLB franchise cannot operate that ineffectively for that long without paying a serious price and – here it is.
Last night, the Astros lost Hunter Pence in a trade for high potential younger players of the Philadelphia Phillies, but we didn’t simply lose him to the need for rebuilding. We lost him due to the sorry past decision-making that left our club’s farm system in shambles. With the right people and mindset, we could still rebuild our farm system without trading away the heart and face of the franchise, but the club is still looking for the shorter corner on change – even if it means trading away their best, most popular player to get there.
Back in 1956-57, a fellow everyone called Trader Frank Lane because of his propensity for dealing away anybody and everybody was serving as General Manger of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1957, Lane tried to trade Stan Musial to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Robin Roberts. When Cardinals owner found out about it, he quickly snuffed the trade and soon got rid of Lane. The Cardinals kept the heart of their club and preserved his iconic place in Cardinals history.
Well, sure, Hunter Pence is not Stan Musial, but he was the heart of the Astros lineup. He looked like ballplayer, He dressed like a ballplayer. And he played like a ballplayer. But he is an Astro no more. There was no one in place to stop this trade. That sad trek of Pence back to the Astros dugout in the fifth inning last night is a visual that will burn in the hearts of all fans who care about him forever. We could see Hunter fighting back the tears as he accepted the goodbye hugs of his teammates on his way back to the clubhouse and out the door on the way to Philadelphia.
The clip of that sweet-sorrow parting plays on in my head.
As a result of this latest stinging loss, I have created a reliquary of Astros Sad Departures in my own head, I’m christening the place this morning as “Los Astros, Texas,” the spiritual hall of all traded, lost, and driven away Astros. The list includes only those true Astros who made the mistake of speaking back to management or ownership, or for resenting their devaluation by ownership, or being caught up in the whirlwind of Astros GMs that made trades to see what differences they might make, or of being caught up in the tide of trades that some GMs prefer to make with any club known as the Philadelphia Phillies.
Los Astros, Texas: The Astros Sad Departures Reliquary, so far, includes these select resident members: Rusty Staub, Joe Morgan, Mike Cuellar, Jimmy Wynn, Bob Watson, Nolan Ryan, Billy Wagner, Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, and Hunter Pence.
Please note that each of these losses has inflicted universal stomach pain and heartache upon all orange-souled Astros fans. Unlike the trade of Brad Lidge, a deal largely influenced by the closer’s history of major chokes in the post-season, or the minor deal that sent an injured and older Larry Dierker to St. Louis, these other listed icons were snatched from our arms at moments they represented hope for the future.
Hunter Pence: On a happier night at the Houston Baseball Dinner, 2008.
I finally got to meet Hunter Pence at the June 24th dedication of the Jimmy Wynn Baseball Training Center on the near north side. Hunter showed up in jeans and his firebrick red Astros jersey. In a brief conversation with Pence and Bob Watson, I asked Hunter if he knew that Bob Watson held a place in baseball history as the man who scored the game’s one millionth run.
“Wow,” Pence said, as he turned that intense, full interest, awesome stare upon the older retired Astro icon, “I didn’t know that! That’s really something.”
Watson sort of deflected the credit. “They are scoring runs at a faster clip and playing more games these days,” said Bob Watson. “In your lifetime, you now have a chance to become the man who scores baseball’s two millionth run.”
“That would be sweet,” Pence said quietly as eyes and smile lit up to do most of the talking.
Hunter may get that two millionth run someday too. It just won’t be as an Astro.
Tags: HUnter Pence
The Pecan Park Eagle 
July 30, 2011 at 1:10 pm |
And the BEST CATCHER the Astros never had. San Antonio’s own, Jerry Grote.
July 30, 2011 at 2:03 pm |
I don’t agree with the trade because Pence is only 27. He’ll be around to haunt the Astros for the next 10 years.
July 30, 2011 at 2:29 pm |
If you believe in the old business maxim “Buy low and sell high”, the Astros sold high when so often they’ve held onto good players for too long. As with many of the recent deals, we won’t know for another five years if Ed Wade made the right call or not. Yet we suffer the immediate loss for a delayed reward.
BTW, I’d add Glenn Davis to your list. How were we to know when he was traded that his career was about to fall off a cliff or that Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling would turn out to be such solid players? Davis, like Pence, was a humble man who was the heart of an offense on a declining team. Not that I hope Pence lives the same professional fate as Davis, but I hope the pieces we got in return will someday look as bright as what we got back in the Davis trade.
July 30, 2011 at 2:31 pm |
Add Ken Caminiti to that list…
July 30, 2011 at 2:39 pm |
I am just sad, sad, sad….and plenty mad! Why not use Hunter as the cornerstone for the team we are “building?” For how many years have we been “building?”
July 30, 2011 at 5:39 pm |
I’d qualify that if the player began his career with the team he’s even more a face of the franchise. So add Jerry Grote and Dave Giusti to the list. I’m convinced the Staub-Morgan-Cuellar trades delayed Houston’s first pennant by between 35 and 40 years. Let’s also remember that we traded Jerry Reuss for Milt May in 1973, after which he won 145 games over the next 12 years with an ERA consistently under 3.00. The trade of Jack Billingham cost the team 112 wins between 1972 and 1979, and you have to figure those numbers would have been even better in the Astrodome. (Billingham, Cesar Geronimo, Denis Menke, and Joe Morgan for Tommy Helms and Lee May; Cuellar for Curt Blefary; Grote for Tom Parsons, a PTBNL; Giusti for John Edwards, whose OBP in Houston topped .306 once; Grote was at or above .343 six times.) In 1963 the Colt .45s traded the 20 season career 304/355 hitter and pinch-hitter extraordinaire Manny Mota for career 216/273 two-season wonder Howie Goss. Leaving them unprotected in expansion drafts cost the Astros several very good years by Nate Colbert and many terrific years by Bobby Abreu. The tragedies of Jim Umbricht, Jay Dahl, J.R. Richard, Don Wilson, Dickie Thon, and Cesar Cedeno didn’t help the team any either.
The team also has made some very good deals over the years, mostly by Gerry Hunsicker in building the fine Astros franchise of the 90s and early 2000s. And my condolences go out to Gerry Hunsicker and his daughter on the loss of their wife and mother this year after battling rare blood cancer for more than a decade. I just found out about this a few minutes ago.
Mark
July 30, 2011 at 5:47 pm |
By the way, I find the loss of Pence to be brutal, and I believe the Phillies this year are unstoppable.
July 30, 2011 at 6:10 pm |
Right now the Astros are beginning to take on a creepy resemblance to the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.
I assume the new owner blessed this deal.
July 30, 2011 at 7:20 pm |
Don’t make good sense
to trade Hunter Pence!
July 30, 2011 at 7:55 pm |
Bad for the Astros but good for Hunter – playing with a strong team and a much better chance of being in the playoffs again. And unfortunately for the Astros – it is a business…….
July 31, 2011 at 5:25 pm |
Bill: Great column and the responses are on point. Those of us who are original Rockies season ticket holders feel the same pain. Dealing Dan O’Dowd just traded Ubaldo Jimenez, the best pitcher the Rockies have ever had, for four minor leaguers who will do nothing for the Rockies this year if ever. It is apparent the Rockies’ leadership have given up this season. Why do I keep buying season tickets. O’Dowd has had 12 years to build a quality franchise but he keeps giving us minor league ball at major league prices.
July 31, 2011 at 9:53 pm |
I wonder what Ed”Obama”Wade is going to do next/