Opening Day at MMP in Houston as AL Club in 2013: "Oh, Really?"
If we listen to some Astros fans these days, today’s featured photo is how the home Opening Day crowd at Minute Maid Park is going to look when Houston takes the field for their first appearance as an American League club in 2013. I doubt it will, but I do not doubt that the Astros have lost some fans forever over this obviously inopportune (for us NL people) moment for the city’s extorted manipulation of new owner Jim Crane into accepting the league change as a condition for approval in the case of his long-suffering application.
Ignoring the current Astros story is tantamount to the now famous metaphorical treatment of this top local development as “the shunned and enormous elephant in the living room.” We can pretend he’s not there as we hum over the chances of the Texans going far in the NFL playoffs behind a second string quarterback – or gnash our teeth over an NBA season that appears dead in the water – or try to get excited about a Dynamo soccer championship game against a club from LA that most probably will end in a 0-0 final score in regulation time.
Or we can stare down the elephant in the living room and peel back the decisions we all have to make for ourselves now on a layered individual basis:
(1) Does it really matter what league the Astros belong to?
(2) Does the DH rule or west coast game start times turn us off from even wanting to try to support the Astros as an AL club?
(3) Do we simply hate the way Bud Selig rammed this decision down Houston’s throat without giving us fans any say in the matter?
(4) Is this change to the AL in 1913 and how it’s happened big enough to turn us away from baseball altogether?
(5) Do we simply adopt another NL club to follow or just drop baseball from our lives?
(6) Do we embrace change with enthusiasm and just look forward to the Yankees and Red Sox coming to town on an annual basis?
(7) Will playing in the AL West put any kick into the SIlver Boot competition between the Astros and Rangers?
(8) Will we simply hold back and wait to see what Jim Crane does as an owner to make us feel welcome as true believers in what he will show us he’s doing with the club?
(9) How much does our support for the club depend upon pricing adjustments to the current cost of tickets?
(10) How much does our support now hinge upon how Crane and new CEO George Postolos handle the leadership affirmations and changes that now hang out there as the number one line in decision-making on which way this club is going to go?
Those are some of the big layers I see. There are others. The one we cannot supply immediately is “time.” My take is that we are not starting with a great sense of hope or prospect due to the empty barrel on currently ready big league roster talent. Now Crane-Postolos have to make the affirmations or moves at the leadership level that give us substance for faith or doubt in the future of the club.
My guess is that there will be a shift in the fan base to some as yet undetermined degree. Many of those people now swearing off the Astros or baseball will not be back. Others will, but the club is going to need an infusion of new fans who don’t feel betrayed or screwed over by the way this whole sale was handled. And that’s not going to happen quickly or be fixed by speeches or unimportant marketing slogans.
Jim Crane must now establish a credible, affordable, transparent plan for winning that fans both support and feel confidence in supporting. He will not win many of the fans who hate him for being the guy who made the AL deal with the horned Mr. Selig, but he will get a chance from the folks who accept “accepting the DH” as just part of accepting change in life and who believe in the leadership and plan he has put in place to bring Houston into the winner’s circle.
The key thing is that he needs to show us the leadership and the plan and provide us with the evidence that the place is in place.
Words alone won’t cut it. Action is needed. And only time will tell the full story of Mr. Crane’s credibility.
And that’s about as far as I can budge the elephant in the living room on this first hungry day of a new regime. All I can do is submit a request to new owner Jim Crane: “Please don’t ask us what we’ve done today to make the Astros a champion?”
You need to do something genuine, Mr. Crane. And please make it just a touch of all the right things along the lines we have tried to suggest in this column.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 18, 2011 at 3:50 pm |
Bill: –
I know you’re a devoted and very knowledgeable fan and student of the game; regardless of the AL / NL for McLane it all boils down to $$$$$. Since I live next door to McLane’s hometown I’ve had a chance to observe some of his business activities and decisions as a Board member on various corporate entities. It’s “McLane’s way or the highway”.
regards –
PAC
November 18, 2011 at 5:11 pm |
Bill: I have been a Rockies season ticket holder since 1993. If the Rockies moved to the A.L I would terminate my tickets. The D.H. is an abomination. Wayne Williams
November 18, 2011 at 5:16 pm |
As baseball fan from Texas the one thing I always enjoyed about baseball season was living in Houston I could see NL games or could take a trip up to Dallas / Ft. Worth to visit family and see a few AL games.
Get ready for raised ticket prices to AAA farm team (that is being generous).
November 18, 2011 at 5:46 pm |
Patrick makes a point I have been making for some weeks now, since the move to the AL became inevitable. McLane was the owner through all of this until yesterday. Though the cowards at MLB will never tell us the real story of their extortion, it seems clear that McLane did zero to stop the forced move. He was even quoted in the Chronicle twice as giving an enigmatic “I never had to make that decision” when asked if HE would have allowed the team to be moved. He came to ownership knowing zero about baseball and left knowing little more. He never cared about fans other than how much money he could get out of their wallets.
Crane was face with two choices: buy an AL team or buy no team.
I don’t like it, but to give up something you loved for decades because of a change you didn’t like seems to me like you didn’t love it very much in the first place. Or your fear of change is just consuming. Then again, I once left a girlfriend who got a bad haircut. (Just kidding)
The Astros are my hometown team since they started. They have been such through some awful seasons. I’m sure they can provide me with the same frustrations in the American league.
November 18, 2011 at 5:58 pm |
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
4. Not Sure yet.
5. It’s probably one or the other.
6. Not this change.
7. I don’t care.
8. Many will. Can’t say I’ll be one of them.
9. None at all. The Astros could give away 72-inch plasma TVs for the first 20,000 fans and I’d still have no intrest in attending now.
10. I think they’ve already decided “no quick fixes” so I honestly don’t see how they can sell themselves with any credibility.
It truly pains me to say I am done with the Astros after 46 years but I most certainly am. I figure I have a year to decide whether to root for another team or just walk away. As of right now, I can’t tell you. The Astros do not deserve my loyalty and will not be receiving it.
November 19, 2011 at 1:34 am |
I’m not exactly sure of the object of the game, but as of now score it Nolan Ryan 2, Jim Crane 0. I’m reminded of the song from Damn Yankees, “Whatever Nolan Wants, Nolan Gets.”
Award 2 assists to ass-kisser and puppeteer, Bud Selig.
Baseball survived all the abdicators after the 1994 strike and I suspect the Astros will survive this, but I don’t have to like it.
I don’t hate the AL. It basically only has two very major flaws: it uses the DH and the West Division is totally lack-luster. Jackpot! We’ve come up all bars. Of course, it’s easy to believe no one watching their cash register is particularly happy to see the Astros in their current form show up on their schedule either.
On the plus side I haven’t seen Safeco Field or Edison Field yet (if they’re still called those names), so I guess a baseball trip is called for.
As for the new ownership, I’m going to try to ignore my intuition that tells me the Astros purchase is primarily for the purpose of having a great tax selter, but I am going to pay attention to how long, if ever, it takes to be better than the Kansas City Royals.
I’m guessing it won’t happen while both Jim Crane and the DH hold sway over the Astros.
Ancillary: 2 wild cards! so now 1/3 of all teams will make the playoffs. Let’s just play in April to seed the teams for a 30-team playoff. Losers go home early and some of us can move on to watching lacross or South American hockey during the rest of the summer.
BTW – #4 ==> … 2013 …
November 20, 2011 at 4:19 am |
Mr. Crane could make a start on the “bringing the wayward fans back” by returning Tal Smith to his “upper echelon” to run the Baseball side of the Astros!
November 20, 2011 at 1:41 pm |
Shirley:
I couldn’t agree more. Tal Smith has been the quiet force behind the development of the Astros from its earliest days. I would hate to see the club lose him to the cosmetics of new ownership putting on a different face simply as a statement of change. On the other hand, Tal is the consummate old pro, He knows that new owners often times make high level changes for the sake of putting their own image on the club they just purchased. As per usual, life’s tough and rarely fair. Let’s just hope that things work out best for both Tal Smith and the Astros.
November 21, 2011 at 1:51 am |
Bill,
Do you suppose that Mr. Crane might give some credence to the suggestions that a fellow “Missourian” offered in the previous comment on the Astros? I know that “Missourians” are “Show Me” people, but all he needs to do is look at Tal’s record and the respect he has in baseball circles everywhere! Like fine wine, there is something to be said for age in people also!
I’ll miss following the Astros in the National League,
November 21, 2011 at 2:31 am |
Shirley,
I don’t anyone who knows Crane well enough to know what he may do next. An article in the Chronicle today says his strength in business has been his ability to quickly put aside the things that are beyond his control and to quickly focus on the things he can change. Does that also make him the kind of guy who changes things just to see what may happen? Who knows? We’ll find out soon enough. Crane also said today that he will be talking with Tal Smith and Ed Wade soon about the future of the club and that it won’t take him long to decide their roles in that process. He’s either a very quick decision maker. or else, he goes into the process with his decision already made. We’ll soon enough find out. Letters or contacts in behalf of Tal aren’t going to harm either of those postures I don’t think, but they may not help much either.
November 21, 2011 at 3:35 am
Does Mr. Crane receive your blog?
I’m glad to know that he is going to at least talk to both Ed and Tal——However, I am inclined to think that he has already made a decision. It is my hope that he will recognize the “pluses” of the experience of longtime baseball men!