At last, the sponsorship signs are being moved!
Thank you, Mr. Jim Crane and the Houston Astros!
Finally, after about fifteen months of not always quiet protest from the fans and all of our Lego-linked blogs and other Internet communication media, the inner city youth baseball sponsorship program will be getting their signage in left field at Minute Maid Park moved down from the sky and on to the surface of the wall from left to left center field before the start of the 2014 season. Thank you too, Club President Reid Ryan for whatever role you may have played in either suggesting or affirming that this was a good way to go.
None of us were ever dismissing the importance of the inner city program that the Astros and their sponsors are so solidly behind. We simply felt the goal of honoring the sponsors by placing these huge acknowledgement signs in a way that allowed their dangle from the sky to obliterate the ballpark train and the previously free and expansive of downtown skyline were a terrible disservice to the architectural art and design of our beautiful ballpark. And now, that problem is being solved by an owner and team that is demonstrating their desire to hear the fans.
The Astros have also made some recent, if modest, free agent moves that suggest they are taking steps to stem the tide on the possibility of a fourth consecutive 100 plus loss season. And that’s very good too.
Sometimes, we cannot get every place we want to go in a single day, but that doesn’t mean we have to take all the unnecessary side trips that are available to us either.
A small grocer in my old Pecan Park neighborhood said it better as a model for these recent actions by the Astros. Mr. Haenel of Haenel’s Groceries put it this way. He said it something like this: “We can’t afford to give our customers all they want on an everyday basis, but we sure don’t have to stock the shelves we do have with stuff we’ve learned they don’t want on an any day basis.”
Thank you in another way, Mr. Crane. – Thank you for taking those misplaced signs off that poorly located shelf in left field and moving them to a place they will get the respect they deserve.
It feels good too as a great way to go through hump day in Houston.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
January 15, 2014 at 12:52 pm |
Your passion for baseball is really exceptional. More people need to have passion in their lives! This is a good read and I respect this authors information, and the news of someone that wants to give back. Neal
January 15, 2014 at 3:21 pm |
Hallelujah! I certainly wasn’t subtle about this issue, and I am indeed very pleased and grateful to see Mr. Crane take this crucial step.
January 18, 2014 at 2:16 pm |
Agree with Mark W but I still won’t step into that juice box for his capitulation to the worst commissioner in baseball history. Other than that, I have no opinion.