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MLB Team Pitching Stats Thru 6/29/2016

July 1, 2016

MLB Team Pitching Stats Thru 6/29/2016

Sortable Pitching
RK	TEAM	GP	W	L	ERA	SV	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
1	Chicago Cubs	77	51	26	2.85	14	3	7	698.0	53	221	242	233	688	.207
2	Washington	79	47	32	3.33	22	1	6	709.0	51	262	278	212	754	.231
3	NY Mets	77	40	37	3.35	27	0	7	684.1	48	255	272	191	648	.252
4	Cleveland	77	47	30	3.45	17	5	7	692.0	45	265	286	208	643	.233
5	LA Dodgers	80	43	37	3.50	23	3	8	715.0	37	278	295	221	737	.223
6	San Francisco	80	49	31	3.59	22	6	5	722.0	48	288	318	207	610	.247
7	Seattle	78	39	39	3.90	19	1	5	701.0	34	304	337	238	667	.250
8	Houston	79	42	37	3.91	23	1	2	722.2	39	314	333	208	652	.260
9	St. Louis	77	40	37	3.97	15	1	4	686.2	44	303	330	220	580	.249
10	Toronto	80	43	37	3.98	20	0	4	714.2	51	316	344	237	610	.247
11	Chicago Sox	78	39	39	4.01	23	3	5	700.2	42	312	335	274	610	.261
12	Texas	79	51	28	4.03	30	1	2	710.1	48	318	338	253	521	.257
13	Miami	78	41	37	4.05	29	0	5	693.2	34	312	326	292	675	.250
14	Kansas City	77	41	36	4.11	19	0	3	680.2	29	311	328	252	622	.250
15	Baltimore	77	47	30	4.24	27	0	4	683.0	31	322	345	256	577	.264
16	Atlanta	78	26	52	4.33	14	1	4	708.0	35	341	363	267	614	.249
17	Boston	78	42	36	4.36	18	4	2	697.0	40	338	370	261	677	.248
18	Philadelphia	80	35	45	4.37	24	1	9	706.0	40	343	373	222	684	.263
19	Tampa Bay	77	33	44	4.40	19	1	5	677.2	32	331	349	229	652	.260
20	Milwaukee	77	35	42	4.45	26	0	3	684.1	28	338	366	266	567	.268
21	NY Yankees	77	38	39	4.45	23	0	3	675.1	35	334	352	176	673	.255
22	Pittsburgh	79	38	41	4.47	24	1	4	708.1	36	352	378	284	559	.268
23	LA Angels	79	32	47	4.57	15	2	4	699.1	32	355	382	255	561	.269
24	Detroit	78	40	38	4.58	22	1	3	695.0	29	354	377	230	562	.272
25	San Diego	79	33	46	4.62	19	0	5	709.1	36	364	394	305	661	.259
26	Oakland	78	35	43	4.63	21	0	2	688.2	32	354	375	238	580	.272
27	Arizona	81	36	45	4.66	19	1	5	730.0	35	378	400	288	633	.267
28	Colorado	78	37	41	5.13	21	0	5	689.2	36	393	422	241	570	.280
29	Minnesota	77	25	52	5.16	11	1	1	680.1	28	390	423	208	575	.288
30	Cincinnati	79	29	50	5.42	13	1	1	706.1	30	425	466	342	565	.272
LEAGUE AVERAGES		GP	W	L	ERA	SV	CG	SHO	IP	QS	ER	R	BB	SO	BAA
American League		78	40	38	4.25	20	1	3	694	36	328	352	235	612	.259
National League		79	39	40	4.14	21	1	5	703	39	324	348	253	636	.252
Major League Baseball		78	39	39	4.20	21	1	4	699	38	326	350	244	624	.256

Data provided by Elias Sports Bureau

____________________

REMINDER >>> DON’T FORGET TO JOIN THE >>>

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

If you don’t know what this campaign is all about, please check out these three groundwork columns in The Pecan Park Eagle and, if you agree with us, please follow through with making your opinion known directly to the Astros, ASAP!

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK! – THEN HAND YOUR BAT TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DOESN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN! – THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! – AND WE NEED ALL THE HITS WE CAN GET!!”

Please note too that we have now learned that the email address we used for Owner Jim Crane in the columns you read via the links that follow has turned out to be an undeliverable one – and we have no access to another in his name. We recommend you simply address your messages to Mr. Crane in c/o President Reid Ryan. We know that President Ryan’s address works fine at Astros.com. If you prefer, iremember that it is still legal to write Mr. Crane by U.S. Mail in c/o the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park if you prefer. Thanks.

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:MLB Team Pitching Stats Thru 6/29/2016
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Nuf Sed

June 30, 2016

Jose_Altuve_Astros_in_May_2014

American Batting Leaders Thru 6/29/2016

RK	PLAYER	TEAM	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	WAR
1	Jose Altuve	HOU	311	60	111	24	2	13	46	21	3	39	32	.357	.432	.572	1.004	4.6
2	Xander Bogaerts	BOS	322	59	110	21	0	9	50	10	2	27	53	.342	.393	.491	.884	3.3
3	David Ortiz	BOS	259	36	87	31	1	18	63	2	0	43	40	.336	.431	.672	1.103	3.3
4	Manny Machado	BAL	298	58	99	29	0	18	49	0	3	27	57	.332	.390	.611	1.001	4.1
5	Victor Martinez	DET	269	31	87	13	0	14	42	0	0	18	41	.323	.368	.528	.896	1.4
6	Mike Trout	LAA	291	56	94	18	2	17	53	11	1	50	62	.323	.422	.574	.995	4.8
7	Ian Desmond	TEX	307	59	99	19	1	14	51	14	3	25	78	.322	.377	.528	.905	3.4
8	Eduardo Nunez	MIN	269	38	85	11	1	11	30	18	5	10	37	.316	.345	.487	.832	1.2
9	Yunel Escobar	LAA	274	33	85	18	0	3	20	0	2	20	36	.310	.359	.409	.768	0.9
10	Francisco Lindor	CLE	295	52	91	15	1	10	39	13	3	28	41	.308	.367	.468	.834	3.6

~ Data Chart Compliments of ESPN @ http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/league/al

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Jose Altuve Is Off to The Moon Again
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Baseball Truths, Beliefs, Myths, or Superstitions

June 30, 2016

Catcher John Bateman of the Houston Colt .45’s dropped a foul ball in old Colt Stadium. He said he lost it in the moonlight. And who knows? Maybe he did. If the picture above is to be believed, the moon “seams” to have a baseball influence going for it.

Baseball Truths, Beliefs, Myths, or Superstitions

If a base runner in a close game gets put out and removed from scoring territory by a failed steal or pick-off play, the next batter will get a hit that would have scored him had he not been retired.
Some of the all time great hitters in history (Babe Ruth, Paul Waner, and Mickey Mantle come to mind) have better days at the plate in day games if they spent the previous night boozing and/or carousing.
A big league city may be cursed from winning another World Series by an egregious offense to the baseball gods. Until the 2016 season, one of these curses was beginning to look as though it had the power to last until the crack of doom – and that still may be true. The 2016 season remains ongoing and it has an unfinished tale to tell.
Baseball managers are hired to be fired.
Players should never talk to their teammate pitcher if he still has a serious no-hitter bid going late in the game.
Media broadcasters and fans should not speak a word about the game condition if a pitcher has a no-hitter in the works late in the game.
Inverting your baseball cap and wearing it inside out will empower your club to overcome a small run-deficit in the 8th or 9th inning and win the game.
Short ball park fence distances are preferable because (a) fans need to see all the home runs possible; and (b) the short field distances leave valuable space open for the club’s ancillary revenue stream business development.
When a club narrowly misses a play off series win, a league pennant victory, or a World Series crown, the disappointed cheer of “Wait ‘Til Next Year” is the truth – and not the “in denial” compensatory “grasping at straws” choking death rattle cry of the loser that cooler heads say it is.
Baseball is the most beautiful, most prosaic, most artful, and most exciting big dramatic moment finish game ever invented for the enjoyment of the human mind, body, and soul – and in ways that transcend all cultural change from one era to the next. It is the game of the ages.

Editorial Notes:

Comment One: Many other baseball truths, beliefs, and superstitions exist. We would love to add your contributions by comment in the section which follows this column.

Comment Two: Regarding Item #8 above, if baseball really wants to see more home runs, here’s a way to assure that outcome while also saving money on roster salaries: Bring the fences in from LF to CF to RF to a distance of 120 equidistant feet from home plate.

Next, eliminate the three outfield positions from the game as being no longer necessary, while also requiring that the arching fence is an even 50 feet in height to prevent cheap line drive homers. The shorter distance and much greater height of the new close wall will virtually eliminate triples, reduce doubles to a rarity, and pretty much guarantee that all future hits will either be singles or sharply parabolic home runs. Of course, all “fielders” (the In/out distinction having now been eliminated) will need to possess the agility of a Carlos Correa as they now become the only players to defend against bunts and wall caroms at their respective four positions beyond the pitcher and catcher.

Of course, if you are among those old birds who find the home run becoming less special with too much frequency per game, or if you still recall the Willie Mays’ catch in the 1954 World Series as beautiful, or if you just hate to bury the idea of killing triples completely, you will hate this new game as much as we do. But let’s face it, we can’t expect to keep the millennials coming to the ball park forever just to watch sausage races or catch tee shirts that most clubs now sling-shot at them. Can we? Of course not! If they want to see more home runs, this is a way to give it to them. Just don’t bother to take me out to that ball game.

Comment Three: Regarding Item # 10 above, we love it. Of course, we love it. We wrote it. And we not only believe it – but we also believe it to be true. And we know that we are not alone in our love of the game. We simply are one of the millions of baseball fans who feel something along the same lines we have tried to express here.

Play Ball. Now and Forever.

Have a great Thursday too, everybody! The Astros swept the Angels this afternoon and are now coming home hot, happy, and, hopefully, still win-hungry!

____________________

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

Don’t Forget the “GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

If you don’t know what that is, please check out these three groundwork columns in The Pecan Park Eagle and, if you agree with us, please follow through with making your opinion known directly to the Astros, ASAP!

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK! – THEN HAND YOUR BAT TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DOESN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN! – THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! – AND WE NEED ALL THE HITS WE CAN GET!!”

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Baseball Truths, Beliefs, Myths, or Superstitions
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Houston Babies Had a Cow…E-I-E-I-0

June 29, 2016

HOUSTON BABIES had a TEAM
E-I-E-I-O
And on this TEAM they had a cow
E-I-E-I-O
(2008)

HOUSTON BABIES had a TEAM
E-I-E-I-O
And on this TEAM they had a cow
E-I-E-I-O
With a moo moo here
And a moo moo there
Here a moo, there a moo
Nothing but a moo moo
HOUSTON BABIES had a TEAM
E-I-E-I-BOO

HOUSTON BABIES lacked good FORM
E-I-E-I-O
And in bad form they signed a pig
E-I-E-I-O
With a oink oink here
And a oink oink there
Here a oink, there a oink
Everywhere a oink oink
HOUSTON BABIES stank it up
E-I-E-I-OINK

HOUSTON BABIES lived bad FORM
E-I-E-I-O
And in bad form they bought a duck,
E-I-E-I-O
With a quack quick here
And a quick quack there
Here a quack, there a quick
Everywhere a quick quack
HOUSTON BABIES waddle to the BARN,
E-I-E-I-OUCH

HOUSTON BABIES don’t PERFORM
E-I-E-I-O
They make a bad trade for an ancient horse
E-I-E-I-O
With a neigh nay here
And a nay neigh there
Here a neigh, there a nay
Everywhere a nay neigh
HOUSTON BABIES rode a dead HORSE
E-I-E-I-OUT

HOUSTON BABIES played a LAMB
E-I-E-I-O
He didn’t play hard – didn’t give a damn
E-I-E-I-O
With a baa boo here
And a boo baa there
Bad throw here – Bobbled catch there
EVERYWHERE A BAD SHOW!
HOUSTON BABIES fast went LAME
E-I-E-I-COUCH

HOUSTON BABIES finally LEARNED
E-I-E-I-O
Fired the ZOO – and their fortunes turned
E-I-E-I-O
With a young ace here – an old guy there
A little luck here – and a lot of luck there
HOUSTON BABIES won some games
E-I-E-I-O

HOUSTON BABIES – NOW a TEAM
E- … I-E- … I-OOOOOOO ……..

____________________

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

Don’t Forget the “GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK! – THEN HAND YOUR BAT TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DOESN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN! – THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! – AND WE NEED ALL THE HITS WE CAN GET!!”

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Parody Ode to Old McDonald
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Houston SABR Notes: June 27, 2016

June 28, 2016

LARRY DIERKER CHAPTER
HOUSTON, TEXAS
JUNE 27, 2016

Jim Kreuze did another great program booking job for the June SABR meeting of the Larry Dierker Chapter last night. He recruited former MLB pitchers to speak last night. Jim Foor, a lefty, was a 1st round draft pick of the Tigers (1971-72) and he also played a season with the Pirates (1973). Andy Cavazos of the Cardinals (2007) , a righty, also talked at the meeting.- Foor and Cavazos each spoke on their little known, but familiar to thousands of other everyday player roads to the big leagues. In that regard, Foor and Cavazos were sort of like baseball’s version of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”. And, hey, that’s big. Most of us never came close to playing in the big leagues, let alone get any mention by Shakespeare in any of his works.

Jim Foor

JIM FOOR, RHP
DETROIT TIGERS (1971-72)
PITTSBURGH PIRATES (1973)

Jim Foor also was a member of the original 2008 20th century version of the Houston Babies. He and his wife Sandy Foor were two of our brightest spots of support to our earliest vintage base ball team in the games at Lone Star College up in Conroe. In our first game against the Saw Dogs at the Lone Star field, the Babies were getting initiated into the old-ball game by the more experienced home team. Bob Dorrill and I were both sort of coaching in the opener when, suddenly, Babies pitcher Foor called time out and asked me to come to the mound for a conference. I walked out there and all the infielders joined us.

“What’s up, Jim?” I asked.

“Coach,” Foor answered with a tongue-in-cheek question of his own. “Would this be a good time for me to start signing autographs? You know, sort of as a strategy for distracting the hitters?”

Jim Foor was not only a pretty fair St. Louis-born pitcher, he was, and still is, a funny and fun guy to be around, as is his irrepressibly sunny, cute and witty wife, Sandy Foor.

At one point in his full-of-laughs presentation, Foor told us the story of his first day in spring camp with the 1973 Pirates. He approached Pirate slugging star future Hall of Famer Willie Stargell and said, “I know who you are!” To Foor’s surprise, Stargell smiled and came right back with “and I know who you are too!”

Spotting former Astro pitching ace Larry Dierker in the crowd, Foor asked, “Hey, Larry, you faced Willie Stargell pretty often, didn’t you?” – “Reluctantly” was Dierker’s one-word affirmation.

Andy Cavazos

ANDY CAVAZOS, RHP
ST. LOUIS CARDINALS (2007)

Andy Cavazos was just as funny and entertaining in his own way. Andy was there last night with his beautiful wife, Sonja Cavazos, and his parents. After being drafted by the Rangers, the young Texas-born Sam Houston State pitcher ended up breaking into the big leagues for his only MLB time in 2007. Andy Cavazos is a big, big man. At 6’3″ tall and full bearded, and wearing a Colt .45s baseball cap, he impressed me as a double-take copy of Evan Gattis. In fact, once planted, that doppelganger-from-a-distance resemblance to the current Astros DH/C became an image I never fully expunged. The difference was kept clear by Andy’s modest, but very funny stories about his short time with the Cardinals. In my experience, at least, Andy Cavazos is a lot funnier than Evan Gattis ever dreamed of being.

A shy person, anyway, Cavazos says he worried a lot, at first, about being sent back to the minors. Manager Tony LaRussa apparently preferred veterans to rookies. As a result, Andy said that he decided early to be as inconspicuous as possible. “The way I figured it,” Andy said, “if they either forget or don’t know I’m here, they cannot send me down to the minors.” His comment was straight out of the Ensign Pulver character (Jack Lemmon) in the old Navy movie, “Mr. Roberts”. In the movie, the new scary Captain of the ship (James Cagney) was in command for 18 months before he accidentally discovered that Ensign Pulver was even on board.

Hang in there, Andy. You did a great thing to even reach the Cardinals for a single season. You and Jim Foor both were major speaker hits before the members of SABR last night – and those five beautiful minor league championship and all star game rings that you showed us also were very special baseball life accomplishments that few ever get to take home as keepers.But you did. It almost goes without saying, but no one can ever take those accomplishments away from you. You did it, man!

Wayne Chandler

The Astrdome Scoreboard Sowing off part of it's HR display. ~ Just one of its many gifts to the game!

The Astrdome Scoreboard
Showing off part of it’s HR display.
~ Just one of its many gifts to the game!

Wayne Chandler also spoke last night. John was the man who operated the amazing Astrodome scoreboard from 1965 through most of the time that revolutionary feature was in use. Fortunately for Chandler, he was already separated from the scoreboard by going into private business when NFL Oilers owner Bud Adams forced the removal of the scoreboard for additional football seats in the 1990s. Wayne concedes that the scoreboard’s removal saddened him greatly. If you are unfamiliar with this amazing pioneer work of art in displayable event animation, check out the following column and audio-visual examples from the Astrodome scoreboard years:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19710

Chandler was the man who made it go for whatever activity was taking place in the dome for years and that included, baseball, football, basketball, boxing, the rodeo, and everything else. When asked which of these things was his biggest moment, Chandler immediately answered that it was the UH-UCLA basketball game of January 20, 1968, when over 50,000 showed up to watch the two top ranked NCAA teams play before the then largest ever college basketball crowd to play the so-called “Game of the Century.” UH won, 71-69, that night, but later lost to UCLA in the first round of the Final Four championship weekend played elsewhere. The 1968 Astrodome game put college ball on the map of network competition for building audiences in prime time for the sport. College basketball would never be a minor commercial interest again.

Chandler also said that he knows a lot of Judge Roy Hofheinz stories that he can never tell, but he said it with a smile. Wayne Chandler feels that Judge Hofheinz Hofheinz has never received the kind of permanent recognition for his accomplishments that he deserves.

Trivia Contest

Mike Vance moderated the trivia contest that was again won by Greg Lucas. Greg will prepare the trivia contest for our next SABR chapter meeting,

Summer Meeting Schedule

Chapter Leader Bob Dorrill implored us all to remember the summer schedule and to get our ticket money for the August MMP game meeting into Jo Russell, ASAP.

There will be no SABR meeting in July 2016.

Our next SABR meeting is scheduled for Saturday, August 27, 2016.

SABR meeting in the Board Room of Minute Maid Park
Start time 4:00 PM
Speaker: Reid Ryan
Promotion: Jose Altuve Gold Glove Bobbleheads for ticketholders
Tickets: $31.00 for the game. No ticket is required for the meeting
Checks should be made out to the Houston Astros
Mail your checks to: Jo Russell, 15021 Kimberly Court, Houston, TX 77079

Money is due by by August 1st.

____________________

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

Beautiful Minute Maid Park
Of
The 436′ Deep Center Field We Love

Don’t Forget the “GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK CAMPAIGN!”

“GO TO BAT FOR MINUTE MAID PARK! – THEN HAND YOUR BAT TO SOMEONE ELSE WHO DOESN’T KNOWN ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN! – THERE IS STRENGTH IN NUMBERS! – AND WE NEED ALL THE HITS WE CAN GET!!”

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:2016, Houston SABR Notes: June 27
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park

June 27, 2016

Beautiful Minute Maid Park
Home of the Houston Astros

You don’t have to care about the removal of “Tal’s Hill” as many of us do. If you simply care about the 31 feet shorter center field fence distance that comes with this plan, it should be enough to involve you enough to make your opposition to these changes known to the club powers-that-be. Please read the two previous columns on this issue of why we think this matter is important. The decision belongs to the Astros, but, since we Houstonians and Harris County residents are part owners and the primary fan base of the Houston Astros, we think that we share both a right and responsibility for standing up against a move that stands to turn our unique and beautiful Minute Maid Park into the home run band box it is likely to become – no matter how many assurances we get from the club that “it won’t be so bad.”

Not so bad? Then either prove it before you do it, Astros! ~ And prove to us how Astros pitchers of the future are going to fare as well with no center field area left as the only potential graveyard for long fly balls!

Readers, if you really don’t care, then chill out and watch what happens if this change goes forward. If you like watching pinball machine games, you are going to love what you are about to get!

On the other hand, if you do care, your only hope is to make your voice known to the Astros decision-makers. It’s their decision and they are all capable of listening to the fans who stand together against unwanted change. If you do nothing – or simply don’t want to get involved – than don’t bother to complain later if these proposed field changes go through as approved for 2017. – But keep this thought in mind. – Do you remember what happened back in the 1990s when no one spoke up against Oilers Owner Bud Adam’s demand that the great animated scoreboard be removed and replaced with more seats for football? Right! We lost one of the Astrodome’s great features and the NFL Oilers still ended up leaving Houston for greener pastures when the city and county rejected his later demand for a new all-football stadium.

If only a few people respond to this appeal, the worst that can happen is that the Astros will either be drawn into one or all of these potential conclusions: (1) People don’t really care what the Astros do to the ballpark; (2) If these changes help the club win the World Series, fans won’t care what the field looks like or how it plays, even if the bandbox destroys the special advantage that some home club pitchers, especially, now enjoy with their abilities to seduce long fly ball outs to center field; and (3) So much for The Pecan Park Eagle. Who reads them, anyway?

The Eagle can live with any dismissive conclusions that this campaign brings to us. We don’t write to float an ego kite. As was true with our sandlot salad baseball days, we like to write because we love to breathe. And we breathe the truth about what we think and feel – about baseball, our City of Houston, and life in general.

If you haven’t read them, here are the links to out first two articles on the plight of Minute Maid Park. Our case for fan action is all laid out in these, including the contact information you will need to make your opinions known to the Houston Astros.

Thank you, readers and fellow fans, and thank you too, Houston Astros, for all you do to bring us the best in baseball player quality hope for a World Series championship. We also acknowledge that your decision about those changes to the field of play ultimately belongs to you. We simply strongly disagree with you on what these changes will bring to the character, history, and play-ability of dynamic, watchable baseball at our needs-no-change unique Minute Maid Park.

Here are the links to the two previous related columns:

Save Minute Maid Park

The Future of Minute Maid Park

We’ll be back to easier, lighter subjects tomorrow. The rest of the ride in this matter of Minute Maid Park is up to the rest of you – and that especially includes the decision-makers for the Houston Astros. We have no desire to “win out” over you. We do want to entreat you to re-think an issue about fixing something that really isn’t broken and doesn’t need to be fixed. Your flexibility in this matter, we are convinced, would be perceived as a sign of your strength. Also, there should be plenty of other space elsewhere to expand revenue streams that do not require the usage of any space from Tal’s Hill, even if it means expanding to include some current external space, without sacrificing the home field advantage and dedicated history of our all-around current field configuration. External space contiguous expansion could also be more convenient for enterprises that remain open to the general public on all those days throughout the year in which no ballgames are being played. – That’s just our two cents opinion. On these revenue stream matters, we are a very affordable business consultant.

Regards to All,

The Pecan Park Eagle

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Make Your Voice Heard on Minute Maid Park
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

The Future of Minute Maid Park

June 25, 2016

Today’s article is a brief follow-up to yesterday’s “Save Minute Maid Park” column.

Save Minute Maid Park

Here are the two points we hope were made clear in yesterday’s column, plus two more items that need to be added for the sake of full transparency. We want the Astros to leave the playing field alone, as is, and always has been – as the most fun baseball park in the big leagues:

The Pecan Park Eagle is not trying to tell the Houston Astros how to run their business – as long as those decisions do not seriously and permanently impair or destroy our unique and dedicated ballpark – or the quality of baseball it affords us to watch in our unique home digs.
We are saying that when the Astros make a decision to eliminate a unique feature of the ballpark – one that also has been respectfully dedicated from the start to someone who has been more important than any other front office person to the development of the Astrodome, the Astros, and our MLB history than any other individual – while, even more importantly, also consequentially converting the ball park fence distances to those of a band box for commercial reasons – and taking away our pitchers’ home team advantage of learning how to get batters to retire themselves by hitting fly balls far away into the Polo Grounds quality abyss of space in center field – that it becomes our right and responsibility as fans and long-term supporters to protest a move that is both a slap at our park’s uniqueness and the man – Tal Smith – for whom Tal’s Hill is named – as well as a destruction of a home field advantage for some of our elite and savvy pitchers – and an invitation to boredom for the many of us who think that all those faraway fly ball chases and triples are more exciting than the increased redundancy of cheap distance home runs.
We very much appreciate the vast improvement in the quality of the Astros’ competitiveness over the past three years and we do recognize that it takes money to place and keep that kind of result in motion. We simply believe that severely altering the way our ballpark plays is not justifiable or in service to that end. We think that the proposed changes are going to flatten out the field into a boring spectacle of “baseball pinball” as the major result – and we are not dissuaded from that opinion by club justification responses for bringing the fences in closer that amount to little more than statements of “it won’t be so bad.” To that position, we say, prove it. We don’t believe it. And we remain certain that the exciting Gonzalez triple Wednesday night, in the final game of the Angels’ series, will forever be more fun to watch than the cheap home run it would have become had the new shorter distance wall already been in play this past week.
Better yet, leave the field dimensions and Tal’s Hill alone. Find some other ways to enhance revenue streams on the property without destroying the way our unique park plays out as a thing of special beauty.

Make Your Opinion Known. If we do not stand together as a larger voice of protest, we have no basis remaining for complaint when the worst happens to what has been our beautifully unique Minute Maid Park. This two-column editorial at one modestly devoted-to-Houston baseball site is not enough in itself without your strong voices of support.

Readers who agree with The Pecan Park Eagle are encouraged to contact the leadership of the Houston Astros at the following regular mail and e-mail addresses and make their own opinions known in this matter – One caution. – We know the e-mail address for Reid Ryan is correct at “astros.com” and we are presuming that our guesses on the e-mail addresses for Jim Crane and Nolan Ryan may also work. My apologies, but “The Eagle” doesn’t often fly into the social circles of any of these three good men. In fact, we only have Reid Ryan’s e-mail address because, as President, he’s the public face of the Astros. So, bear that in mind, and, if your e-mails to Mr. Crane and the elder Mr. Ryan should fail, please use the U.S. Mail addresses also provided. They still work, even in this digital age.

For what it’s worth, our transmissions to all three Astros leaders went out three hours ago and there was no notice of blocked, failed, returned, or erroneous address. And those are all good signs.

One More Perspective on the Issue of Speaking Up. We knew the risk when we decided to speak up on this issue. We know that, if no one else joins us in speaking up, and in large enough numbers, our considered pleas in this matter shall be easy to disregard as the mad ramblings of a lone, or small in numbers group of malcontents who haven’t yet learned not to get in the way of big business. How you respond is now up to you. You may choose to register your opinions with the powers-that-be, and spread the word to everyone else you know who feels the same as we do – to do the same. Or you may choose to sit back and not get involved and watch what happens and doesn’t happen. If you choose the latter route, then please don’t bother to complain once all the things we have been talking about here have taken place in reality.

Thank you for your time – and your attention. Now here’s the acid test of your resolve, You are all free to write – or not to write. By now, early Sunday morning, we are reasonably sure that all of the e-mail addresses are alive and in play. And we know for certain that the Crawford Street mailing address is totally good.

Please Go To Bat for MMP! ~ Then hand the bat to someone else who feels as we do!

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Mr. Jim Crane, Owner and Chairman

Houston Astros

501 Crawford Street

Houston, TX 77002

e-mail: jcrane@astros.com

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Mr. Reid Ryan, President, Business Operations

Houston Astros

501 Crawford Street

Houston, TX 77002

e-mail: rryan@astros.com

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Mr. Nolan Ryan, Executive Advisor

Houston Astros

501 Crawford Street

Houston, TX 77002

e-mail: nryan@astros.com

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Thank you.

Respectfully offered,

Bill McCurdy

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Go Astros in Kansas City! – We will take all the first round TKO wins you can dish out!

______________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:The Future of Minute Maid Park
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Save Minute Maid Park

June 24, 2016

Tal’s Hill
Minute Maid Park
Home of the Houston Astros

Save Minute Maid Park

Tonight, The Pecan Park Eagle chooses to use this off-day on the Astros’ regular season AL schedule to tilt at a specific windmill, even if the effort amounts to little more than “pi**ing into the wind”. The subject deserves the support of anyone who cares about the preservation of the unique playing surface and fence distances of Houston’s Minute Maid Park – and the accurate history of Houston MLB level baseball. The Astros plan to proceed with the postponed plan to remove Tal’s Hill and the in-play flagpole it contains after the 2016 season, ostensibly for the safety of players, even though no center fielder has been injured beyond an occasional fall by either feature in the 17 seasons these features have been in play since the park first opened in 2000.

We safely presume that the real reason for this removal of what makes MMP unique among all big league parks is not player safety, but the club ownership’s desire to convert that 30 some odd deep and wide space in far center field into retail space and new revenue streams for the organization. We get that. And they have every right to look for new ways to streamline and expand their revenue avenue for the sake of a competitive and expensive MLB operation, but not if it cheapens the value of the game that is played on the team’s home ground – or the history of the franchise. “The Hill” was named for Tal Smith, the man who did more than any other administrative person over the first fifty years to raise and develop all that happened for Houston during our long tenure in the National League.

In brief, here’s what we think is important to the issues raised by the current plan for the removal of Tal’s Hill:

The elimination of Tal’s Hill is matched, if not surpassed, by the damage of bringing those fences in from 436′ in deep center to about 405′ feet as the deepest depth reading. With the left field line already at 315 feet and right field set at 325 feet, MMP becomes a band box for a plethora of cheap and boring home runs. Anyone who tries to tell us differently hasn’t done a careful precise study of the actual home run percentage increase that shall occur as a result of this change. Neither have we. Do a one year study of ball flights and departure heights that is congruent with the actually proposed distance and fence heights of the new fences and prove us wrong.
All we know for sure is that the beautiful triple by Marwin Gonzales that scored George Springer from first base last night with the go-ahead run against the Angels was one of the most exciting plays one could ever hope to see on any baseball field. Since that ball landed high on the wall above Tal’s Hill, we know for sure that under the propose new shorter dimensions, it would have been simply another routine and uninspiring home run.
Converting the venue into a redundant homer park deprives smart pitchers like Dallas Keuchel from having the kind of season he experienced in 2015. Like others, Keuchel learned that getting hitters to loft those high flies to dead center’s death valley was his compensatory salvation for those short porches in left and right. Turn center field also into a “normal” MLB center field and the edge is lost for our pitchers’ developed home cooking style of keeping that ball in play through the center as much as possible. Visiting pitchers don’t have the time to wise up to this strategy. If we do not preserve the center field edge, we may as well forget about seeing any future Astros pitcher breaking Keuchel’s consecutive wins record at home without a loss.
As for the Tal’s Hill features themselves, please leave them alone. The hill – the in-play flagpole – and the man that area is named for – Tal Smith. – He is part of our rich history.
We shall presume that you shall find a spot for Tal Smith in that Astros Hall of Fame and Museum we understand you are planning to build at MMP. We also think you are doing a wonderful thing by that move, and that you are aware that leaving Tal Smith out of any Houston Baseball Hall would be on the oversight level of leaving Alexander Cartwright out of the Cooperstown Hall of Fame.
We also hope the Astros will consider locating their Astros Hall of Fame and Museum in that area behind home plate that is accessible to the Texas Avenue entrance, one block east of its intersection with Crawford Avenue. The fans will love it – and history will remember all of you who acted to preserve and respect our rich Houston baseball history in an accurate manner.
Thank you for your time here. Your attention to these important specific issues is imperative to the job of helping the preservation movement that now is alive and well in Houston in so many ways. We are no longer the city that simply tears down or throws away viable continuity and history when its time to make money in some new way – and without regard for all the still practical viability (the deep center fences, for example) and history that we take to the trash in the process of serving short term cash needs.
Readers, please make your opinion known – here and to the Astros.
In summary, the Tal’s Hill issue is a two-headed snake. (a) it’s about preserving the integrity of our unique stadium history; and (b) it’s about keeping the distances in center field that make MMP unique and extremely important to our Astros pitchers.

Respectfully Submitted,

The Pecan Park Eagle

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Save Minute Maid Park
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Jackie Price: The Duke of Baseball Dexterity

June 23, 2016

“Batter Up~ Pitcher Down!”
Jackie Price

We did a column on the darker side of baseball’s most athletic baseball clown back on February 5, 2014. It was entitled, “Jackie Price: Fatal Sadness of a Baseball Clown”. If you have never read it, we invite you to do so. Here’s the link:

Jackie Price: Fatal Sadness of a Baseball Clown

Today we invite you to take a small look at a film we found on Baseball Almanac of Jackie Price, performing at his best, throwing three baseballs simultaneously and accurately to three different men – and then doing the same trick standing on his head with no assistance.

Here’s the link to the Baseball Almanac Jackie Price page. The specific film link is down the front page of that site and easy to find by the first picture you will see.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/videos.php?p=priceja01

Jackie Price could do so much more on the baseball field than that one short film could hope to ever produce. At Buff Stadium, one time, we got to see him run down faraway fungo fly balls as the driver and lone occupant of an open jeep, driving with one hand – and catching with the other. He didn’t miss a single catch.

God Bless you again, Jackie Price. It was a dark day for the human race when the forces of unshared despair took you from us. Your public persona and incredible performance was an inspiration to us all. If only you had been able to deal with your demons.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Jackie Price: The Duke of Baseball Dexterity
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park’s Last Game

June 22, 2016

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park By Patrick Lopez ~ As advertised earlier this year for the February 20, 2016 dedication of the old park's location as an historical Houston site.

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park
By Patrick Lopez
~ As advertised earlier this year for the February 20, 2016 dedication of the old park’s location as a historical Houston site.

Fair Grounds Base Ball Park’s Last Game

Here’s how the Galveston Daily News reported a now more appreciated iconic moment in Houston baseball history with only a mild notation and no fanfare on July 2, 1904. Historical appreciation for the importance of the moment, especially by our fifty-miles-away neighboring Galveston media, simply wasn’t present beyond the minimal allowance that this “was the last game at the park”:

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ANOTHER GAME FORFEITED.

Houston Won the Game Played with Beaumont.

Special to The News.

Houston, Tex., July 1. – Houston this afternoon took another game forfeited by Beaumont under the decision of Secretary Farrell. The Beaumont club did not appear at the park and the decision went to Houston. The other game was played, and was won by Houston on the good work of Sorrell in the box. The visitors got only one hit off him. The team gave him strong support. This was the last game at the park.

~ Galveston Daily News, July 2, 1904

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Houston defeated Beaumont in the actual last game played on July 1, 1904, with pitcher Sorrell of Houston throwing a complete game, 1-hit, 3-0 shutout of Beaumont. The actual appearance of the above scripted article, complete with the box score, follows this notation. Thanks again to Darrell Pittman for providing the Pecan Park Eagle with this classic reminder that the significance of most detail matters in history serves best over the low flame grill of time. Even today, details are not so microwavably apparent in the moment that some would hope to have us believe they should be. Maybe some things of far greater frame, like the assassinations of Lincoln or JFK, the tragedy of “911”, and, in sports, even the last night incredible comeback of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals are obviously significant in the near moment of their occurrences, but little nuts and bolts matters that hold together the history fabric of a long-time process, like the growth and development of baseball in Houston, are much slower to relish appreciation for their less obvious contributions, if at all.

The variably referenced ball park at the corner of Travis and McGowen, south of downtown Houston, was formally dedicated by the name “Fair Grounds Base Ball Park” as a historical site on February 20, 2016. A permanent plaque was installed at the SE corner of the Milam and McGowen intersection. Mike Vance of the Harris County Historical Commission served as Master of Ceremonies for the Saturday morning ceremony that also represented support from the State of Texas Historical Commission. It was nicely attended by a good showing of local baseball history supporters.

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“Buffalo Walking”
(at Fair Grounds Base Ball Park)
~ a more lyrical view of the venue
By Patrick Lopez

_____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

Tags:Fair Grounds Base Ball Park’s Last Game
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

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