The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston’s first manager, Harry Craft, learned from singer Roger Miller. Harry learned that “you can’t go on to winning from a baseball pool.”

Thanks to the wonderful work of Baseball Almanac.Com, below is a clear and concise chart on where the Houston Colt .45’s/Astros have traveled under all previous regimes.

Since the question “Who should be the next manager of the Astros club that already has been loaded with the expectations of a World Series championship by 2017,” perhaps, it may be helpful to go over the list and recall what has not worked – and what has sort of worked in the past?

Does the new manager need to be an experienced leader with a proven track record in MLB? Or do we want to place the club’s future in the hands of a popular and talented icon like Craig Biggio? How important is it that the club’s next manager thinks about baseball in a way that is compatible with the measurable facts mind philosophy of General Manager Jeff Luhnow? Should the next guy be someone who is able manage with whatever roster is supplied him? – Or does he need to be someone who has some input on roster moves to the big club?

Baseball people talk a lot about “chemistry” when it comes to winning. And what is that thing “chemistry,” anyway, beyond a condition that reveals itself fairly clearly when it’s present (see the 1979 Pirates for further reference) – and also very clearly when it is absent.

Here’s a clue to chemistry, as it applies to the general condition of working chemistry in any human effort:

Better ways to achieve success are seen more prolifically when people of different minds are able to come together as working partners who give each other the right to be different – and compromise and yielding in favor of what’s best for the greater organizational goal is more important than protecting  the individual aggrandizement of any one member among the active working partnership.

Indeed, it is simpler to say than do, but it is the hallmark of victory for those who get it and do it. It is the bird that flies higher, faster, with more agility, and with more deliberate purpose than any other bird in the skies of hope. Whenever “being on the same page” really means “thinking alike” for the sake of job security, there can be little hope for success for anything dynastic that goes out-of-bounds from a narrow point of view on winning and how to get there.

That being said, here are lists of former Colt .45 and Astros manager. Good luck with your own thinking on what kind of leadership the club now needs on the field:

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THE PECAN PARK EAGLE DAILY MLB 2014 BATTING CROWN EYE:

NOTES, 9/19 AM: Altuve went 0 for 6 in a Thursday night of 9/18’s 2-1 13-inning Astros loss to the Indians at MMP, dropping his BA from .344 to .340.  As a result, Martinez of the Tigers used his off-day to pull within .007 points of the AL & MLB batting championship lead. Tonight, Friday, 9/19, the Astros begin a home weekend series with Seattle as the Tigers move to Kansas City to battle the Royals for 1st place in the ALC. Altuve and Martinez are both expected to play.

The Eagle Eye on Jose Altuve’s pursuit of the 2014 American League and MLB batting average championships will continue daily through the balance of the season. For now, it’s a two-man race between Altuve and Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers. Should that change, so will our reporting format. – Bill McCurdy

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