The Pecan Park Eagle

Altuve Hard To Catch ~ Even 10 Days Into DL Status

 Jose Altuve hasn’t played since he left a game on Wednesday, July 25th with a knee strain. He’s been on the DL since Saturday, July 28th, and his return to action date is still uncertain. Now, on August 7th, and 13 days into this unfortunate period, Altuve still leads the American League in total hits and he also has a strong hold on 2nd place in the batting average competition, trailing only Mookie Betts of the Red Sox for the top spot in that important category. Betts is hitting .342 and Altuve is temporarily frozen at .329. We look for that chase to heat up as soon as Altuve gets back into action.

Here’s the 2018 hit leadership top ten list for American League batters:

AL Hit Leaders thru 8/06/2018

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 This time, ace researcher Darrell Pittman comes up with a look at fan giveaways and special game offerings at the Astrodome from over a half century ago. The money value of all matters, of course, has changed, but the idea is still its golden perpetual self. ~ Baseball fans are “attachment” people. We like to have souvenirs that have a direct connection to our team, our heroes, and our community. These things, or a large number of them, at least, may wind up in garage sales down the line, but they will still be worth the feelings we got one fine Houston summer day from the simple exercise of bringing them home one night from the Dome or MMP ~ or wherever else it is we worship in the Church of Baseball.

This article, which Darrell Pittman found in the August 13, 1966 edition of the Victoria (TX) Advocate gives us a pretty good look at the early days of the “game day giveaway” art:

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~ Marwin Gonzalez ~ His 3-run HR with 2 outs in the top of the 9th in SF on Monday, 8/06/18 gave the Astros a surprising 3-1 win over the Giants.

A Sandlot Dream Came True for Marwin Gonzalez. His 3-run HR with two outs in thetop of the 9th in SF on Monday, 8/06/18 gave the Astros a surprising baseball-gods-aided 3-1 win over the Giants in a game that was all but lost to Houston until Marwin did his Mudville redemption act.

Had you been an Astros fan in the left field stands, what would you have done with the Gonzalez’s game-winning homer ball, had you been there to catch or retrieve it? Would you have given it to the sad little kid stranger sitting next to you when he saw that you had caught the ball that he also had hoped to catch? And let us know, if you don’t mind sharing this little glimpse into the normally flawed territory of human nature.

Thanks. And enjoy Tuesday’s game from Frisco. It starts soon. At 2:00 PM.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags: Hits Heroes and Storybook Homers (Improved)

This entry was posted on August 7, 2018 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Baseball, culture, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.