Uncategorized | The Pecan Park Eagle

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Gone With The Spin

February 22, 2014

COMING ATTRACTIONS! ~ COMING SOON!

THE BASEBALL MOVIE THAT SOME OF US HAVE AWAITED A LIFETIME TO SEE!

GONE WITH THE SPIN IS ALMOST HERE! ~ AS THE TRUE STORY OF HOW BASEBALL ONCE BLEW INTO HOUSTON ON AN “OUT-OF-THIS WORLD” SPIN THAT NEVER QUITE LIVED UP TO EXPECTATIONS AS A MATCH FOR ANY “ALL-OF-THIS-WORLD” SPIN OR SPEND UPON TALENTED PLAYER SIGNINGS YOUTH DEVELOPMENT, PROVEN VETERAN ACQUIREMENTS, AND COMPETITIVE CORE TALENT RETENTION!

AND HERE’S THE CAST THAT HOLLYWOOD HAS LINED UP ACROSS THE BORDERS OF THE GREAT BEYOND TO BRING THIS STORY TO LIFE …..

Orson Welles as Judge Roy Hofheinz

Jack Nicholson as George Kirksey

J.C. Flippen as R.E. “Bob” Smith

Gig Young as Craig Cullinan

Harvey Keitel as Mickey Herskowitz

Buddy Ebsen as Paul Richards

Dub Taylor as Spec Richardson

Robert Stack as Tal Smith

and a can’t-miss casting by Mickey Herskowitz: Tyrone Power as Bob Aspromonte

Tab Hunter as Larry Dierker

Omar Epps as Jimmy Wynn

Laurence Fishburne as J.R. Richard.

Young Kevin Bacon as Craig Biggio

Shawn Christian as Jeff Bagwell

Samuel L. Jackson as Enos Cabell

Young Jay Leno as Lance Berkman

Young Warren Beatty as Brad Ausmus

Bernie Mack as Bob Watson

Dan Akroyd as Charlie Kerfeld

Greg Lucas as Gary Hunsicker

James Earl Jones as Deacon Jones

Ichabod Crane as the Astros Club Owner He combines Jim's last name with Drayton's trademark looks!)

Ichabod Crane as the Astros Club Owner
(Sounds like Jim. – Looks like Drayton.)

And here's a great pick from Jim DeShaeis: Doug McClure as Mike Scott

And here’s a great addition from Jim DeShaies:
Doug McClure as Mike Scott

Mitch Pileggi as Jim Deshaies (Mitchi ileggi plays Harris Ryland in "Dallas".

Mitch Pileggi as Jim Deshaies
(Mitch Pileggi plays Harris Ryland in “Dallas”.) The Pecan Park Eagle and Neal McCurdy picked this one.

Dean Jagger as Bill Virdon

Grat and Bob Dalton as Turk Farrell and Jim Owen, the infamous “Dalton Gang” of MLB in Houston back in the 1960s.

Jackie Coogan as Buddy Hancken

George Chakiris as Dickie Thon

“Gone With The Spin” is getting to be lots of fun now. Aside from the small problem of bringing so many actors back from the Great Beyond to make this dedicated film, we are feeling good about the strong character and physical casting of so many people who brought so much life to Major League Baseball in Houston. The Pecan Park Eagle appreciates the fact that one of the iconic characters, Mickey Herskowitz, even cast one the other characters for us – and he did it spot on. Mickey’s pick was for Tyrone Power to play the club’s pretty-boy first third baseman, Bob Aspromonte.

Please give the rest that have been added since our original publication of the founding father four.

And here’s our capsule on the reasons for each election, top to bottom:

1) Judge Roy Hofheinz: Picking Orson Welles was easy. Beyond the obvious physical similarities, it was also a match of the heavens. “War of the Worlds” combing with “The Eighth Wonder of the World.

2) George Kirksey: Close looks, personality, and that la dolce vita speed life of a big thinker made young Jack Nicholson an easy pick.

3) R.E. “Bob” Smith: The hair, the worried look, and the accent of good old boy Jay C. Flippen won me over fast.

4) Craig Cullinan: The patrician manners and conservative look of Gig Young made him another easy ick.

5) Mickey Herskowitz: Mickey liked my pick of Harvey Keitel. That was good enough for me.

6) Paul Richards: Buddy Ebsen loooked, talked, moved, and acted like Paul.

7) Spec Richardson: I always thought of Dub Taylor as Spec Richardson. We all saw that same look in the feature photo here in Spec’s face when the reviews of his trade of Joe Morgan started pouring in.

8) Tal Smith: Stack flashes Tal’s famous smile above – and when he opened his mouth, he spoke in that same baritone voice of authority that flows so easily from the larynx of Tal Smith each time he speaks publicly. Authoritative. Reassuring. On the money right. That’s our Tal. – Just get Stack a perm and he will be good to go.

9) Bob Aspromonte: Mickey Herskowitz was right about this casting. Aspromonte had to be a good fielder at third. A guy can’t go around looking like Tyrone Power and be a bad fielder. He has to protect those good looks.

10) Larry Dierker: Tab Hunter was Joe Hardy in “Damn Yankees” and every other All American, blue-eyed, blonde haired hero from that era in other films, anyway, – so, why not Dierker too?

11) Jimmy Wynn: Omar Epps has the eyes and the build to play “The Toy Cannon”. He’s also a good actor.

12) J.R. Richard: Look at those eyes! – The young Laurence Fishburne was J.R. Richard.

13) Craig Biggio: I’ve been casting Kevin Bacon for years as Craig Biggio.

14) Jeff Bagwell: Had to go to the soap opera, “Days of Our Lives” to find Jeff Bagwell, but Shawn Christian fits the bill. Whoops! I just outed myself as a “late life soap opera fan.” That’s OK> I hear Rice Baseball Coach Wayne Graham watches one too.

15) Enos Cabell: “What’s in your wallet, Astros season ticket holders? – This is no-holds-barred, king fu fighting Enos Cabell calling to make sure you’ve already bought your season tickets to our 2014 season! – We’re calling it: “Our Climb Out of the Nightmare Hole on Crawford Street”.

16) Lance Berkman: Young Jay Leno had the eyes and the chin of our man Lance.

17) Brad Ausmus: Young Warren Beatty IS Brad Ausmus.

18) Bob Watson: “Mr. 3000 Hits” makes for a great “Mr. One Millionth Run Man.”

19) Charley Kerfeld: A cone head all the way.

20) Gary Hunsicker: Why not? There’s a general resemblance. And Greg Lucas is also a movie actor with credits, a smart guy, and a good candidate for a GM job in his own right. Besides, he knows the team and its story. I had no hesitation about casting Greg in this role.

21) Deacon Jones: Another great match by physique, aura, and personality. The Jones brothers just took one slightly different turn. James Earl walked through corn stalks. The Deacon dances through sugar cane.

22) The Astros Owner: Res Ipsa Loquitor (“The thing speaks for itself.”)

23) Mike Scott: Another member of the Astros’ pantheon walls of history selected this one by nomination. Thank you, JD (Jim Deshaies) for laying this one straight over the plate for our easy recognition, something you rarely did as a big league pitcher. Doug McClure lands in the cast as a great pick for Mike Scott!

24) Jim Deshaies: On the heels of that one, my son Neal McCurdy leaned over my shoulder as I was working to say, “you need to get the actor that plays Harris Ryland on the new “Dallas” TV series to play JD! – His character on TV is pretty much of a rat, unlike JD, but hey – the show is “Dallas”, OK? Anyway, he sure looks like JD!.” – With some apologies for the fact that you are a much better character than Harris Ryland – and also a better looking guy than the actor who plays him, we have decided to cast Mitch Pileggi as Jim Deshaies in “Gone With The Spin.”

25) Bill Virdon: Dean Jagger was the prototype for Bill Virdon in my mind for years, but especially as the latter grew into his post-playing days as the first really successful manager of the Houston Astros.

26) Turk Farrell and Jim Owen: Sometimes it is best that we get out of the way and allow life to imitate fiction. Who better to teach the ways of the romanticized “Dalton Gang” to the 20th century Astros perpetrators than two of the Dalton Brothers themselves. The downside is that Farrell and Owen will now be playing their edgy team clubhouse games with real bullets. That’s not good, but maybe they were doing that, anyway. We sure wouldn’t get any argument from the snakes of the Arizona spring training deserts.

27) Buddy Hancken: Buddy was a journeyman player, minor league manager, Astros coach, and team ticket sales executive and, oh yes, one of those guys who got one defensive half inning at catcher in the big leagues as his pinnacle playing moment without ever getting a time at bat. – Move over, Moonlight Graham. Buddy Graham deserves the space beside you. Jackie Coogan fits by looks and character to play Buddy in our movie. He had the heart that any actor would need to take on this role.

28) Dickie Thon: George Chakiris played a Puerto Rican street gang leader in West Side Story and he possessed enough look-a-like qualities to have played a really fine Dickie Thon, who also happened to come from a Puerto Rican family heritage, even though he was born in South Bend, Indiana.

Hope you enjoy the improvements. If you have any additional recommendations, The Pecan Park Eagle Casting Department will be happy to consider them on a case by case basis. 🙂

Tags:castng the movie for Houston Astro history.
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Houston Chain Grocers of Yesterday

February 21, 2014

Typical A&P of the 1950’s.

Before we had Kroger and HEB out there in the Houston market – and soon competing with Walmart’s/Sam’s Club, Costco, and Target for leadership in the national chain competition among the big national grocers in the Houston area market, a number of Mom and Pop grocers and olden days chain operations swatted it out in the city for the local breakfast, lunch, supper, and dinner plates as the providers of foods that people actually cooked or prepared at home.

The names of these national and local chain grocers included: Piggily Wiggily, Henke & Pillot, Weingarten’s, A&P Super Market, Minimax, Safeway, Globe, Federated, and Lucky Seven, for sure. What else have I forgotten?

As a former employee of A&P, I know I’ve probably forgotten a number of the others. Please help fill in the blanks with a comment below on who is getting left out. You need to remember (or be made aware) that back in the years after WWII, grocery stores sold groceries only. If you wanted drugs, toys, clothes, or anything else inedible as food, you had to go search for those items in the specialty shops or department stores that sold everything.

All of our A&P products were labeled “Ann Page” and they each came in a coded date package. One of our shelf stocking instructions at the A&P on Lawndale near 75th was; Never show the customers how to read the code. That information might cause them to pass on products that were near or past “best sell by” dates. If the customers already knew how to read the code, assure them that the “best sell by” date is not the same as an “expiration date.” What is it then? Just tell the customer that “best sell by” is A&P’s way of keeping the stock moving toward earlier sales. If the customer paused to ask, “then what the heck that does mean?”, try to depart as though you had a clean up to do on a distant aisle.

One of those days in the summer of 1954 that I almost got fired, a woman tapped me on the shoulder to ask: “Young man, where does this store keep their all-day suckers?”

“Well, you’re talking to one of them,” I wise-guy answered with a pitiable smile.”

In spite of the fact that she laughed and that I right away directed her to the aisle location of the wrapped suckers, my boss was in the next aisle and heard the whole brief exchange. He threatened to fire me if I was ever caught saying another smart-Alec thing to a customer in the future and, as my punishment, he pulled me off shelf stocking at that 3:00 PM time and had me go out in back of the store and spend my last three hours cleaning up the produce delivery crap in and outside the loading docks.

I was 16. The penalty didn’t keep me from being a smart Aleck ever again. But it did teach me to be more careful about who was standing in the next aisle the next time the opportunity for a timely comment arose at work.

Like all matters of long-term good fortune, I finally outgrew my need to be a smart Aleck. I never was aiming to hurt anyone else’s feelings; I simply had a knack for coming up with comments that were sometimes funny, but always inappropriate to the communication exchange at hand. As many of you may also have discovered in your own life experience over time, I have also now lived long enough to have learned that not all young smart Alecks get that lesson, no matter how old they grow to be. And the worst of them are those who really want to cause hurt feelings in others.

At any rate, the subject here today is Houston’s old grocery chains. – Who am I leaving out?

Tags:old Houston grocery chains
Posted in Uncategorized | 18 Comments »

Tonight Show Look-A-Likes

February 20, 2014

Most of you by now are familiar with the news that new Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon has just run off his first three editions of the classic late night television program to pretty good reviews. If you are among our crowd of teeming tube-tied masses, then you probably also are familiar with another little tie-binding connection of the latest show version to the original host show from 1954:

Current Fallon announcer/second banana Steve Higgins bears an eerie facial similarity and comedic attitude to original 1954 host Steven Allen – and some of you know how crazy I am over look-a-likes. (Check out a distant past piece I did here at The Pecan Park Eagle on NFL Houston Texans owner Bob McNair and “Clockwork Orange” actor Malcolm McDowell as he now looks as an older actor.

Here are today’s TV look-a-like specimens:

STEVE ALLEN
1954 Original Tonight Show Host

STEVE HIGGINS
2014 Tonight Show Announcer

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Oh, in case you forgot, here’s the Houston Texans owner Bob McNair/actor Malcolm McDowell match up:

BOB McNAIR
Houston Texans Owner, 2014

MALCOLM McDOWELL
Actor, 2014

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s another one for the road. Rice baseball coach Wayne Graham (below left) isn’t exactly a look-a-like for actor Russ Brown, the actor who played the manager of the hapless Washington Senators in the movie version of “Damn Yankees,” but he has the slim aging physique, the white hair, and the head shape and facial features that make Graham and Brown look enough like older baseball guy brothers to be related.

Below right, Brown is getting ready to tell his Washington players that “they gotta have heart!”

Wayne Graham

Russ Brown

Tags:look-a-likes, look-alikes
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Rice Adopts “2 Birds on Bat” Theme

February 19, 2014

Old Theme, New User.

If you watched the local TV sports part of the Tuesday night news, like me, you may have gotten your first look at the new Rice Owls wearing their new alternate jerseys. The new look lands an old theme, the classic “two birds on a bat” design originated by the St. Louis Cardinals some time near the turn of the 20th century.

This time, the two bat-perching birds are owls, of course, and they are looking straight at you. (Amend that last statement to read: “They are looking straight at WHO? … WHO? … WHO?'”) Personally, I like them as the Owls do them. In this instance, imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery. You, of course, may not either agree or even care.

Here’s a link to a related story about the style addition:

http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/121113aab.html

Not incidentally, the Owls wore those new uniforms Tuesday night, 2/18/14, to defeat Texas State, 4-3, and bring Coach Wayne Graham to his 1,000th win as a college coach at Rice. Grahams’ overall Rice record is now 1,000 wins and 401 losses for a winning percentage of .714 and the fourth best record among active Division I coaches.

Congratulations, Coach Graham!… Congratulations, Owls! …. And Go, UH Cougars! ….. TSU! … HBU! …. and anyone else in the Metro region that already has the game going on the field for 2014. Let’s ring in the baseball season by supporting the local college game …. and the high school and youth program games too!

We are baseball. And we are still The National Pastime with our brothers and sisters until the day comes we give up all the little things that attracted us to passing time at the ball game in the first place.

Tags:Rice Owls adopt 2 birds on a bat uniform theme.
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Debut Noise from Baseball’s Post WWII Trinity

February 18, 2014

“Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?”

Three men represented the Trinity of baseball’s post World War II Era and no others will ever lay claim upon tat order of things. In fact, had it not been for World War II, and, in the case of one, also the Korean “police action”, there’s only conjecture left to us as to what kinds of stats they each might have produced over their war-abbreviated careers.

Today we are just taking a snapshot look at the days they each broke into the big leagues. Joe DiMaggio (1936-51), Ted Williams (1939-60), and Stan Musial (1941-63) all went on from here to greatness, but, hey, they started out pretty good too. A group batting average of .429 (8 for 14) for all three of their MLB debut games is very good stuff for two kids breaking in at age 20 and one at 21.

Korea was Ted Williams’ second call to war from baseball.

Check out the following chart of their three debut stats as individuals and a group.

MY BIG THREE	DEBUT AGE	TIMES @ BAT	RUNS	HITS	RBI	X BASE HITS	DEBUT DATE
Joe DiMaggio	21	6	3	3	1	1 3BH	May 3, 1936
Ted Williams	20	4	0	1	0	1 2BH	Apr 20, 1939
Stan Musial	20	4	0	2	2	1 2BH	Sep 17, 1941
						GROUP B.A.
TOTALS		14	3	6	3	.429

Joe DiMaggio’s 1936 Yankees would defeat the St..Louis Browns, 14-6, before 25,000 at Yankee Stadium on May 3, 1936. Lefty Gomez started for the Yankees that day, but gave up all the Browns’ runs over four innings. Reliever Johnny Murphy shut out St. Louis over the last five to notch the win as the kid from San Francisco flashed both his foot speed and bat speed as a preview of many great days to come. The dynasty inclined 1936 Yankees would go on from here to take the New York Giants in the first of four consecutive World Series adventures.

Ted Williams was no Teddy Ballgame in his April 20, 1939 debut start for the Red Sox against the Yankees at The Stadium before 30,279 fans, but his one double did send notice of some frequent good times to come. The BoSox threw Lefty Grove at the Yankees, but ended up dropping a 2-0 shutout to Red Ruffing in the Bronx. The 1939 Yankees, whom many value as even greater than the 1927 Yankees, would go on to defeat the Cincinnati Reds in the 1939 World Series for their fourth straight title as king of the baseball world.

Stan the Man!

Stan Musial was a late season call up by the St. Louis Cardinals. He started in right field of Game 2 of a doubleheader at Sportsman’s Park against the Boston Braves, going 2 for 4, with a double and two RBI. The 3-2 Cardinal win secured a DH sweep of the Braves. The Cardinals would lose the World Series to the Yankees in 1941, the fifth title in six seasons for New York, but the Cardinals, with Musial now in the lineup mix, would make 1942 a payback season by taking the World Series from the perennial champion Yankees.

Now, with the death of Stan Musial on January 19, 2013, all three of my seemingly invulnerable childhood heroes are all gone.

That will have to be OK because it’s how things are. But “how things are” includes the fact that many of us will never forget any of them, what they did on the field while they were here. And what they might have done had they not been carried away by their duties to the war in the prime time of their careers..

Tags:The Post WWII Trinity of Baseball
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Happy 54th, Jimmie and Ruth Menutis!

February 17, 2014

A Day Beyond Valentine’s,
Is Never Too Late,
To Set Beyond Gold, Memories!
Of a Special Wedding Date.

Saturday, February 15, 2014 proved itself to be another golden tick of the clock in the lives of two loving and giving people, Jimmie and Ruth Minutes. The former Houstonians and New Orleanians nw make their home in Lafayette, Louisiana, where 89-year old Jimmie, who turns 90 on August 5th, this summer, goes to work everyday to do business as his “American Pop Art” store in this beautiful Evangeline country city – and where Ruth Menutis stays busy also with national and international projects she runs through her “Branded Works” and various real estate developments projects.

Ruth and Jimmie, February 15, 1960;
How It All Started in Houston.

Saturday, my son Neal and I attended the couples 54’s wedding anniversary at the Palmetto club in downtown Lafayette. Unlike our first big party in 2011, which open to the public, this one was a smaller gathering of about 160 family member and friends. One thing didn’t change. – The Platters were back to sing us again into the late night with classics like “Only You” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.” Attorney Paul Valteau of New Orleans and Houston, a close family friend, was present to host the show and even got pulled into one routine in which he actually performed a number with the Platters..

Paul Valteau belts it out with the Platters.

Paul Valteau (2nd from left) belts it out with the Platters.

The proverbial assessment this time fits. – A good time was had by all. The Menutis couple is beyond generous. Everything they do for others leaves their hearts in the name of love and comes back to them, at least, a hundred times over. Once again, I leave their company refreshed and renewed in my faith in others – and fully recovered from any recent disappointments by the presence of ego, greed, and meanness upon the human condition. As long as there are good people like Jimmie and Ruth Menutis still moving in our small and large common circles, there is hope for the salvation of giving over taking.

Jimmy Menutis Club
Telephone near Wayside
Houston, 1958

For those of you who don’t know, or aren’t old enough as Houstonians to remember, Jimmy Menutis was the fellow back in the late 1950s who converted the old Wayside movie theater on Telephone Road at Wayside into “The Jimmy Menutis Club”, Houston first home for continuous personal appearances by all the early giants of Rock and Roll. All the big ones played at Jimmy’s place, and those of us who were just coming of age in this new world of musical genre like no other were the beneficiaries. Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, The Platters, even Louis Armstrong – they all played there. And in the process, the business of having to search for some rock and roll on black music stations only came to an end. The genre went main stream to all the previously all white Perry Como and Pat Boone stations to stand as the new American musical art form it deserved credit for being.

Jimmie and Ruth,
watching the show.

Those were the days, but like all other days, as we quickly or belatedly learn, they flew by like the quickest blink of the cat’s eye, but, last night, when we were young, and last Saturday, when some of us were together in Lafayette, they, and parts of our youthful hope, lived again.

An Anniversary Waltz

Thank you, Jimmie and Ruth, for being the beautiful people who you truly are!

Ruth and the Menutiis Family thank everyone for coming to the celebration!

Ruth and the Menutis Family thank everyone for coming to the celebration!

For those of you who missed our first Menutis fly-by in 2011, here are a few past links to some of our previous Jimmy Menutis articles from The Pecan Park Eagle:

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/jimmy-menutis-the-houston-heart-of-rock-n-roll/

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2010/08/15/a-letter-to-jimmy-menutis/

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/the-platters-headline-big-jimmy-menutis-party-sept-3rd/

https://thepecanparkeagle.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/the-menutis-party-we-love-jimmy-says-it-best/

For Good Times and Bad,
Love is the Sole Answer,
The Only Healing Answer.

Tags:jimmie and ruth menutis 54th anniversary party
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The “Coulda’ Been Astros Together” Club

February 14, 2014

Derek Jeter makes a great captain for the "Almost Astros" club.

Derek Jeter aso makes a great captain for the “Coulda’ Been Astros Together” club.

Yesterday we looked at Derek Jeter and the wistful fact that he could be now celebrating his 20th and last season in a HOF career, as a Houston Astro, had the club picked him with their number one overall choice in the 1992 amateur player draft. But, as life so often goes, they did not pick Jeter – and he will be finishing up as a proud and happy solo franchise player for the New York Yankees.

Today is just another dabble into some major rearrangement of known reality by adding Derek Jeter to the nine-man starting lineup of Houston Astros that “could have been” had the club either acquired and kept them the opportunity was there, or not dumped them off to blossom elsewhere, and then put them together with great Astros that were kept to perform at a high level in the year that comes together as the season the team “might have won” their first (still sought after) World Series.

I’m not suggesting that these nine players are all the club would have needed to have won it all in the particular year chosen for their actual accomplishments in that season. It just seems that a club with this kind of quality lineup on the field pretty much everyday beyond the pitcher would also be filled in with a solid roster behind them too. As our standard, in the relatively short time we have to research the components this morning, we are using a common season in which all the selected members put up their stats in the same time period as Astros, Almost Astros, and Former Astros.

That being said, here goes:

The 2001 Coulda’-Been-Astros-Together Starting Lineup

NAME	POSITION	XB: 2BH/3BH/HR	B.A.
Craig Biggio	2B	35/03/20	.291
Derek Jeter	SS	35/03/21	.311
Luis Gonzalez	CF	36/07/57	.325
Jeff Bagwell	1B	43/04/39	.288
Lance Berkman	RF	55/05/34	.331
Moises Alou	LF	31/01/27	.331
Ken Caminiti	3B	13/00/15	.303 *
Brad Ausmus	C	23/04/05	.232

STARTER	WINS	LOSSES	E.R.A.
Curt Schilling	22	6	2.98

* Ken Caminiti finished the season as a Texas Ranger, batting only .228 for his total 2001 season, adding only 4 doubles and 1 triple to the extra base total he compiled in Houston. That being said, the Pecan Park Eagle will take him as their “could’ve been” man for third base for 2001 over any others.

Several of these named players had better seasons in other years (some, insanely so), but 2001 proved to be the best common ground for them all as a team to maybe have come together earlier for a World Series adventure in 2001. Luis Gonzalez may not have been a better center fielder than Kenny Lofton ever, but, in 2001, for whatever reason, his bat was madly better than almost everyone else’s.

Have fun with is material. The Eagle is curious to see if you can find another common year that might be an even better year for a one-season “Coulda’ Been” Best Astros club.

Have at. – This is the best I could offer in the limited time I have this morning.

And, of course ….

Tags:an astros all star fantasy
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Derek Jeter: Captain of the Almost Astros Club

February 13, 2014

Derek Jeter makes a great captain for the “Almost Astros” club.

Ray Kuhn of FanSided at SI.com has written a brief, but timely article on a Houston significance to the announcement by Derek Jeter that he will be retiring at the end of this 2014 season, his 20th year in the big leagues. The article is timely also in the sense, once again, as they did back in 1992, when Jeter was drafted # 6 by the New York Yankees after the Astros passed on Jeter and used their first choice in the entire draft to take Phil “Remember me?” Nevin with their top pick. Kuhn aptly describes that move as a “franchise changing decision”. – And now the new Astros are on the clock again with the first pick in the amateur player draft. Will their Delphic qualities be better than they were back in 1992 with some other folks doing the selecting?

http://climbingtalshill.com/2014/02/13/derek-jeter-announces-retirement/

A brief look at Derek Jeter’s record to date is impressive in its own right. Talk about durable. Until this past injury-destroyed 2013 season and his limited use rookie year of 1995, Jeter has posted a minimum of 542 plate appearances in 17 of his 19 MLB seasons. 10 of those 19 seasons, he posted well over 700 plate appearances; in 6 seasons, he reached the 600 mark 6 times; and only once did he settle for a measly 542 plate trips.

The man has been a dedicated machine of high performance on both the offensive and defensive sides. Check out his stats at Baseball Reference.Com for yourself:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jeterde01.shtml

Then wonder (in spite of the fact that hindsight is always 20-20): What were the Astros thinking when they passed on Derek Jeter to take Phil Nevin?

What a difference that decision made to the unfolding history of the Astros over the past two decades. Can you imagine the Killer Bees, with Jeter and Biggio protecting the middle infield on defense?

Hope the Astros, the new, improving Astros, do better this time the draft rolls around!

Tags:Derek Jeter almost drafted by Astros
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Signs No Longer Hanging @ MMP

February 12, 2014

Photo of the Missing Signs at Minute Maid Park by Mike McCroskey, 2/07/2014.

Houston Astros owner Jim Crane kept his word. And we had no reason to think he would not. The sponsor signs are no longer hanging from the rafters in deep left field, no longer blocking the view of downtown Houston from the deep right field stands, and no more in violation of all the beautiful architectural integrity that went into the original design of Minute Maid Park in Houston.

Friend and fellow SABR colleague Mike McCroskey sent me the above photo last week. He took it on February 7th, when the signs were down, but not yet relocated to the surface areas of the left to center field wall, which should work far better.

Just wanted to give Mr. Crane another shout-out for doing the right thing in this matter. Many of us fans want to see MMP maintain its unique and quirky integrity too – and that includes keeping Tal’s Hill and the Crawford Boxes in place as fixtures for as long as the park remains the home of Houston Astros baseball. We also would not mind losing those revenue bovines along the two foul polls, but, if not, some of us do appreciate the need for a diversity of revenue streams.

Speaking of views – this may be the “best view of downtown season ever” in 2014. That horizon is going to close again once they construct the high-rise across the street that is going up to replace the old Ben Milam Hotel that was taken down after the 2013 season. Yes, this probably will be the only season in which there is nothing across the street on Crawford to obstruct a “looking west” view of downtown.

Most of all, we need to have some good baseball going on from an improving young Astros team of tomorrow. No more 100-loss seasons is important this year – and getting close to .500 ball would be both wonderful and acceptable as a sign of positive upturns and better days ahead.

Cmon, 2014 Baseball Season! Hurry up and get here! A ballpark without games that count is like a beautifully equipped kitchen that comes with none of the ingredients it takes to fix great Italian food!

Tags:the signs of spring
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

1968: Basketball Finds New Level at Dome

February 10, 2014

Elvin “The Big E” Hayes and yours truly, The Pecan Park Eagle meet up at a party in 2009. Fortunately for The Eagle on this festive night, there was no jump ball on who gets a place at the banquet table.

Forty-six years ago, on January 20, 1968, UH and UCLA played a game at the Astrodome that elevated the sport of college basketball forever to a new level of profitable market opportunities via national television. It was the thing that had to happen to make the now popular phrase, “March Madness,” meaningful to the tournament that determines the annual championship of basketball at the Division One level. The largest crowd in basketball history to that point in time, 52,693, turned out to watch the two top ranked teams in the nation play their hearts out in a venue built for the normally much larger crowds of successful baseball and football teams. The University of Houston Cougars, behind Coach Guy V. Lewis and star forward/center Elvin Hayes, took on the UCLA Bruins and center Lew Alcindor (later better known as Kareem Abdul Jabbar) in a late mid-season battle for domination.

They called their first meeting in the Astrodome by all the hubris that could be mustered. – It was “The Game of the Century,” And, indeed, it’s shaping up that way as the game that put college basketball on the map as a collegiate money sport. Also, UH won a thrilling game that night by a final score of 71-69, but UCLA would later exact revenge on Houston in the semi-final round by a runaway score of 101-69.

Here’s how Associated Press sports writer Bob Green handled the January 20, 1968 game in the Astrodome:

____________________

BIG E, COUGARS WHIP UCLA

52,693 See UH Prevail, 71-69

By Bob Green, Associated Press Sports Writer

Houston (AP) – Houston’s inspired Cougars, led by All American Elvin Hayes, stunned UCLA by 71-69 Saturday night and ended forever the Bruins’ myth of invincibility in college basketball.

A howling, happy crowd of 52,693 in the Astrodome – saw Hayes, Houston’s Big E, toss in 39 points and put the defensive clamp on UCLA’s Lew Alcindor.

Appropriately enough, it was Hayes’ two free throws in the last 28 seconds that broke a 69-69 tie and snapped UCLA’s 47-game winning streak, second longest of all time.

The Cougars, ranked No. 2 in the nation with a 16-0 mark going into their climatic showdown with top-ranked Bruins, turned UCLA’s own weapons on them – a super performance by a super-star and a tenacious defense.

Houston, sparked by Hayes’ 29 first half points, established a 46-43 margin and spent the second half fighting off challenge after challenge by the cold-shooting Bruins.

When it was over the delirious Houston fans and cheerleaders stormed onto the court, hoisted their heroes to their shoulders, and began a rhythmic chant, “We’re No. 1, we’re No. 1.”

If they are, they can thank their poise, which never broke in the face of the famous UCLA press defense.

Houston established a 13-12 lead with 13:45 to go in the first half on a basket by George Reynolds. The Cougars didn’t trail again, although tied three times.

The last came when Luscious Allen, high scorer for the Bruins with 25 points, dropped in two free throws with 44 seconds to go. The Cougars brought the ball down court and when Hayes was fouled by Jim Nielson, they went ahead for good.

UCLA had one more chance, but blew it on an uncharacteristic mix up in signals on which the Bruins’ Mike Warren tipped the ball out of bounds. Houston took over with 12 seconds left and ran out the clock.

“Isn’t that Hayes great?” exulted Houston Coach Guy Lewis. “Almost every game he plays is great.”

“Houston played a tremendous game,” said John Wooden, Coach of UCLA. “We’ll just have to start over again.”

~ Bob Green, Associated Press, Brownwood (TX) Bulletin, Sunday, January 21, 1968, Page 8.

____________________

The belated recent induction of the 92-year old Guy Lewis into the Basketball Hall of Fame helps make up for the fact he should have been there years ago, alongside the great John Wooden of UCLA and the two big name stars from the 1968 Astrodome monument game, Elvin Hayes of UH and Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul Jabbar of UCLA.

Yours truly will always be grateful that he was there to see the great Astrodome basketball game of 1968 in person. As a Cougar, my only disappointment was one of brief inconvenience that used to happen in the low tech standard car days. In my excitement to reach the game, I later learned that I was one of a dozen or so people who had left their headlights on and run their batteries down that night. Thankfully, the Dome had battery jump-start people on hand to help out fans like me.

What a night that was. Nothing will ever spoil the memory of that experience. It was one of the great moments in the histories of UH, the Astrodome, the City of Houston, and the sport of college basketball.

Tags:UH-UCLA in the Astrodome. 1968
Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »