The Houston Astros begin their American League career tonight at 7 against the visiting Texas Rangers. Right-handed Bud Norris takes the mound for Houston against lefty Matt Harrison of Texas in a game that likely represents the Astros’ only chance this season to be ahead of the Rangers in the standings with a victory for even a single day.
For all of us who don’t have Opening Night tickets or Comcast Cable, the game will still be available on TV via ESPN. For some of us, it will be our first look at the new Astros – and maybe our last look until the gods of greed and their minion company dollar-devils work out the salient details of how much extra money it’s going to cost all private TV network subscribers for a lesser number of us to watch Astros baseball over the tube on a regular basis.
I’m excited, of course. I’m always excited on Opening Day, no matter what. After all, “we gotta have hope. Mustn’t sit around and mope.” That being said, it doesn’t mean we also have to be loaded down with great expectations either. To expect much this season on the winning side would be an almost total disconnect to the facts available about what our boys are up against in the AL West – and what they bring to the fight at $25 million for the whole active roster.
Hope for hustle, quick learning, and some extra games won by the energy exertions of a club run by the likes of a powerful field leader named Bo Porter. Just don’t expect the Astros to buck the odds against the talent they face and actually make the playoffs. That being said, I do think we shall see this season moving things in the direction of a brighter tomorrow next year. And I also think the mid-season infusion of young talent like Singleton and others into the MLB roster is going to sweeten that pot too.
It’s spring. Time to hope. Let’s do it.
GO ASTROS!
Tags: Opening Day 2013.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
March 31, 2013 at 3:25 pm |
The Astros will play hard. They are mostly young and want to prove they belong. Are they good enough? If the strategy to not spend any money until management feels the club is a player or two away from being a contender works fans will forget this season if it follows as expected. The big gamble the Astros are taking is long term. They think building the club by chancing one or two more poor seasons is OK. The actual baseball logic is sound and a worthy gamble. But from a business standpoint it may put them in such a deep hole it will take years and years of good teams to dig out.
The whole television thing was based on two things: cost and interest. The cost reported is far too high based on the interest level in the team. And the interest level is low because the plan was always to strip the club (started in the last two McLane years) to make it more viable for a new owner to start fresh. Now we find ourselves in danger of seeing a team lose 100 or more games for a third straight season. That just does not happen in MLB. But it very well could here.
It could also have a major effect on how long it takes for the 5 state region the Astros and Comcast hoped would see the games actually get a chance to. If the Rangers don’t under achieve this year–which is always possible–the Astros will be further from the hearts and minds of baseball fans in the region–other than the hard core fans in Houston who don’t care who owns the team…who manages the team…or who is even ON the team. They are just ASTROS fans. Wish there were more of them, but so do the Astros.
March 31, 2013 at 3:29 pm |
The number of hard-core fans of which Mr. Lucas speaks dwindles each day that Mr. Crane continues to alienate and offend them.
March 31, 2013 at 3:47 pm |
Greg’s comment are wonderfully on point. I would add another angle into the mix, however. The new ownership has also made no real effort to woo the fans through basic public relations either. The easiest things, like Astros’ Fan Fest, have been cut to the point of real lameness combined with annoying hoops to jump through to get free tickets just so the ticket sales mechanism can build up their database. The loud outcry over the hideous signs in left field has been met with an answer that “when fans are told they raised millions for charity” they are okay with it. That is flat out BS. I’ve talked to several dozen season ticket holders, if not more, and not a one has said they are okay with it. All have suggested the signs be moved somewhere less obtrusive with most adding, as I have, that if the companies fully realized how much fans hate the placement, they’d not want to risk having the hatred transferred to them.
The train, beloved by many, if not ignored by most, has gone away in spite of voices asking that it stay. They got rid of the best play-by-play guy they’ve ever had (Dave Raymond) and sat by while the best color guy they ever had (Jim Deshaies) walked, both seemingly over trying to save a dime. Shades of Drayton. So now, the possible spate of miserable games will be even less interesting when heard by the few who can get the new flagship radio station or who are willing to pay a premium for the new channel.
In short, they have somehow, magically, done the impossible: Made Drayton look less cheap and greedy.
On the plus side of the ledger is a very good uniform change. Yay! Seriously. That one good off-field move. One.
Ultimately, I’m 100% fine with the baseball moves because I think it is a sound plan given how low the farm system was dragged. But they needed to have some inkling of how to make fans think they were on their side during all this. Instead it has been little more than cold arrogance in the PR department.
March 31, 2013 at 11:12 pm |
“The train, beloved by many, if not ignored by most, has gone away in spite of voices asking that it stay.” – mikey v.
This one’s on me, Mike. As it turns out, my friend, Mr. Quintero, was wrong in his observation that the train has been removed. I should have waited for the corroboration I said earlier was still needed before accepting my friend’s story as accurate and going with the tale of its removal elsewhere in that earlier column, Opening Day Reminiscences.
Give me both a baseball “E” and an “F” in Journalism 101. I’ve posted the retraction and correction brought to my attention by Bob Dorrill yesterday at the source article. My apologies go out to the Astros, the readers, Socrates, and all other seekers of the truth beyond all else.
All I can do is make this promise: It won’t happen again.