I awoke this morning to find that friend, SABR colleague, and Pecan Park Eagle reader Mark Wernick had left the following fine piece as a comment on yesterday’s column here. It’s much too big to be left there. I have taken the liberty of removing it from the comment ranks and placed it here, where it belongs, as a germane guest column in its own point subject tight this morning at the Pecan Park Eagle.
With the Astros now at the actual “jumping off place” between the NL and the AL, Mark’s comments are on the point of some issues that all of us need to bear in mind this morning. Thanks, Mark, for this superb contribution. And please know that you are welcome to do it again here, anytime. Just end me what you have to say by e-mail.
From here on, beyond the pictorial of a Minute Maid Park sunset from earlier times that is now literally here and gone in all forms as an NL experience, it’s all Mark Wernick in passionate, well-considered narrative discourse.
An unobstructed view of the train on the wall at MMP in earlier, simpler times.
My Responses to the Astros Fan Survey
By Mark Wernick, Astros Fan & SABR Member
Today I received a poll in my e-mail soliciting feedback about some of the hot topics bandied about here this season. This is the first time I’ve seen any such poll. I’ve decided to share some of my key responses here.
Some of my key responses to the Astros fan survey – the first time I’ve seen any attempt by the team to take the pulse of public opinion.
Question #1: What is your opinion of Tal’s Hill? Please rate on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being extremely negative and 5 being extremely positive. [5]
I didn’t like it in the planning stages because I thought it would create a heightened injury risk, but I don’t believe there has been one injury to any players fielding on it in the park’s 12 years. By now it has enhanced the park and team’s historical legacy and tradition – which, mind you, ALWAYS has been National League for the past hundred years except for a couple of years in the 50s; and it adds a distinctive quality to the park that sets it apart from other parks in a positive way. So does the 436 foot distance, which definitely should not be reduced. I could deal with removing it if the team were still in the National League, the 436 foot distance is retained, and the crappy signs in left are removed so I can see the train. But mix in removing the hill with all the other horrifying moves ownership has made WITHOUT FAN INPUT, and you can be sure you are killing your fan base. This is the first time I remember seeing a poll. Did you do even one focus group before agreeing to the move to the AL? The move to the American League was deadly, and I strongly believe that you should refund the $60,000,000 to Selig and tell him you’ve changed your mind, because any moves you make regarding food concessions, music, merchandise, and Tal’s Hill will amount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic unless you staunch the bleeding you’ve started with that move to the AL. You’re going to lose 100% of your seniors who won’t stay up watching games in Oakland, Seattle, and Los Angeles; and the young people also who have to go to bed for school. Houston is a central division team geographically. This is just a crap-ass move anyway you slice it. Deadly, just deadly for Crane. And for Houston.
Question #2: What is your opinion of the train above the concourse in left field? Please rate on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being extremely negative and 5 being extremely positive. [5]
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? EVERYBODY LOVES THE TRAIN!! Well, at least you’re asking the question. I hope you publish the results. I’ll eat my Colt .45s cap if you get below 90% in positive responses.
Question #3: What is your understanding of the purpose of the Community Leaders sign? Please be as specific as you can.
I see it as a crass way of trying to make up the massive amounts of money you’ve lost as a direct result of gutting your team without retaining even one home-grown popular player like Pence or Bourn. Okay, I can see wanting to rebuild. But you gut the team, and then right on top of that you move to the AL, stick a trashy sign in front of the popular locomotive, talk about removing Tal’s Hill, and then you wonder why nobody is coming to Astros games anymore? This isn’t rocket science. The tradeoff of the money you make on those eyesores in left will NOT, I predict, offset all the revenues you are going to lose from alienating your core fan base. They carry this team. I was there rooting for the Houston Colt .45s in 1962, an NL team, mind you. I was at the first game in the Astrodome. I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1996. Surely I’m not an isolated example of the irritated, alienated fan. I came within a hair’s breath of not buying into my SABR group’s season ticket package for next season. Our purchases were way down. In fact, we may still be below threshold for qualifying for the renewal. But you know what? That will be the team’s loss just as much as ours. This is not how to run a business. And I’ll just continue being blunt here: if you don’t have deep enough pockets to fund and run this team, to wit that you need to stick those awful signs in front of the train in left field, then you darn sure as heck should not have bought the team in the first place, because those signs are not going to be your pathway to a sufficient cash flow to run a major league team. So if that’s your pickle, how about offering to sell the team to the city? We could have a referendum, float bonds, and get this done. Green Bay did it with the Packers; we can do it with the Astros. I am just fuming.
Question #4: Does your answer regarding the Community Leaders sign change knowing that $18 million from the Community Leaders sign is going towards rebuilding and maintaining youth baseball fields in Houston parks over the next 5 years? Please rate on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being much more negative and 5 being much more positive. [no change]
Okay, let’s say what you wrote there is true. How about sticking the sign somewhere on one of the concourses? Caring businesses shouldn’t object to that. How about sticking it somewhere on the outside of the stadium? How about suspending it over the wall in left adjacent to the Crawford boxes? Why does it have to block the train? Who is the genius who came up with that hair-brained idea?
Question #5: On a scale of 0-10, with 0 being not at all likely and 10 being extremely likely, how likely is it that you would recommend attending an Astros game to a friend or colleague? [8]
The only reason my current level is so high despite my harsh comments, isn’t hard to explain. I love baseball. I don’t want our city to lose it. My love for baseball trumps all. But not that many casual fans love baseball the way I do. I am one of the core. I am part of the fan base. I still go to games. But most casual fans are being alienated, because what keeps people coming to baseball games, especially when you don’t field a winner, is TRADITION! Tradition is what keeps filling Wrigley Field and Fenway Park and whatever the corporate-name-of-the-month is that describes that place where the Mets play. You cannot dismantle all a teams’s traditions – ESPECIALLY in one season – and expect to keep filling seats, especially in a city where the primary tradition before MLB always was football. Houston – compared to Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis – is new to baseball. These past 20 years of competitive baseball in Houston, the fine players, and the administrative continuity, was a powerful building block in what could have been – and maybe still could be – an enduring legacy of baseball for this community. I hope and pray the new ownership hasn’t figured out how to destroy 50 years of deepening traditional roots in one short season. Reverse this trend, before it’s too late.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
October 4, 2012 at 1:37 pm |
Great response!
October 4, 2012 at 1:43 pm |
I watched the debates last night, then read and answered this same survey. Mark and I were in 100% agreement on all accounts, including the “I go because I love baseball” comment and magic of tradition.
Why anyone would take a ballpark designed around a historical train station theme and think removing the train, the unique aspect of the ballpark, would be a good idea. and paraphrasing George Gobel, I offered, if Minute Maid Park were a tuxedo, those signs are a pair of brown shoes!
October 4, 2012 at 2:24 pm |
Excellent. The only exception I’d make is “0” on if I’d recommend going to a game now. I wouldn’t walk across the street to see a game if I had to pay. If you pay, I “might”, but don’t bet on it. Also, if the community leaders are so hot to trot for youth baseball, give directly without showing off. They aren’t doing it for youth baseball, they’re hypocrits-throw them out of the Temple.
October 5, 2012 at 1:30 pm |
Speaking of piling on the dismantling of long-standing traditions all in one fell swoop, so long Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan. A truly first rate broadcast team has been jettisoned, the day after my tirade about the impact on revenues from destroying the team’s traditions – all at once! Where is Bowie Kuhn when we need him?
October 5, 2012 at 2:44 pm |
I couldn’t agree with Mark more; in fact I have now read his survey responses three times, and insisted that my husband read them before breakfast this morning. He has been out of town and has not responded to the survey yet. I trust he has been inspired by what he read here–I know both of us are in complete agreement. (I refer to that tangle of ugliness hovering over left field as the Abomination.) Many thanks to Bill for posting this, and to Mark for sharing his thoughts.