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Three Stooges Punch Astros Win in Mouth

August 27, 2017

“Next time Hinch calls for you, you stay away from the white part of the plate. – Larry and me has got that part covered!”

 

Bottom Line: It’s a little hard to win from a brilliant 6-inning performance by the starter when the three relievers who come in to protect, hold and save victory pitch more like “The Three Stooges” over the last two innings 0f opportunity. Astros starter Brad Peacock gave up only 1 run over the first 6 frames, striking out 8 and walking 1, before leaving the Astros with a 6-1 lead to defend.

Then came Mo, Larry, and Curly.

Taking over in the bottom of the 7th, Francisco Liriano, Francis Martes, and Tyler Clippard proceeded to cough up 6 runs on 5 hits and 1 walk, capped by a 3-run homer off Clippard in the bottom of the 8th in a way that made his return for the bottom of the 9th totally unnecessary after the Stros took the sheep’s way home, going away mildly in defeat in the top of the 9th.

Liriano and Clippard were/are our Astros shore-up acquisitions at the recently infamous trade deadline. Boy! Weren’t we lucky?

What’s that you were saying about the Dodgers yesterday, Harvey?

Other notes: Jose Altuve returned to the lineup, but went 0 for 5. …. Alex Bregman stayed torrid, going 2 for 5 and raising his BA to .287. …. Jake Marisnick was the only other Astro with multiple hits, including a monster bomb to dead center in the 4th …. and George Springer also picked up his 29th HR of the season with a blow in the 7th that briefly looked like the deciding crunch on an Astros victory. …. It was not to be. …. The good news that lasted? The Red Sox also lost Saturday, keeping the Astros a full 5 games up on the Bostons for home field advantage in the AL Playoffs.

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DAY 2 IN HOUSTON
RAIN. RAIN. RAIN
SOME BAD FLOODING
A FEW TORNADOES

 

Fleming Drive & Maxey Road
East Houston
Sunday Morning
August 27, 2017

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 2017 

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 78 51 .605  
2 ANGELS 66 64 .508 12.5
3 MARINERS 66 64 .508 12.5
4 RANGERS 64 65 .496 14.0
5 ATHLETICS 57 72 .442 21.0

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 2017

ANGELS 7 – ASTROS 6.

YANKEES 6 – MARINERS 3.

ATHLETICS 8 – RANGERS 3.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 26, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 488 173 35 4 19 .355
NR * CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
2 ERIC HOSMER KC 488 156 24 1 21 .320
3 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 395 126 21 3 13 .319
4 JONATHAN SCHOOP BAL 488 150 30 0 28 .307
5 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 412 126 22 0 19 .306
6 JOSH REDDICK HOU 401 121 26 3 12 .302
7 JEAN SEGURA SEA 418 126 24 1 7 .301
8 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 361 108 23 0 21 .299
9 ELVIS ANDRUS TEX 513 153 34 3 16 .298
10 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 483 143 40 5 18 .296
Other Top 40 Astros
13 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 434 128 25 0 29 .295
20 YULI GURRIEL HOU 446 129 35 1 15 .289
25 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 435 125 31 5 16 .287

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Harvey Brings New Light to Hunkering Down

August 27, 2017

“Listen, Harvey, it’s your turn to ‘hunker down’. The Saturday night Astros game with the Angels is only a little more than an hour away.”

 

The reason we don’t have a great thesaurus for hurricane-speak is probably tied to the fact that everyone seems to understand the simple terms we now use without harbering great fear that to see them used twice in the same spoken or written paragraph of thought will be tantamount to sloppy, hackneyed expression.

For example:

Every impending hurricane starts with two choices for the residents in its path: either “Hunker Down” or “Get Out of Dodge”.

What could be clearer?  Well, other than how strong is the storm? how fast is it moving? where is it projected to land? will you be on the dirty eastern side of the storm if you stay put? is your property on a flood plain? how close to the ocean are you? do you have a car full of gas and a house full of non-perishable supplies and a clear understanding of what those supplies need to include? got flashlights with batteries and first aid supplies, for example? do you still have time to leave or will you just be stuck in a panicking traffic jam on the highway, if you leave now? Stuff like that. And don’t forget the danger of tornadoes that often spawn as the barometric manifestations of the unstable atmosphere created by the presence of a landing hurricane and its powerful swirls of air and water.

Interesting. We just wrote the previous paragraph without once using either “hunker down” or “get out of dodge”. The perils of either seem to be obvious – in other words.

At 7:10 PM, Saturday, we are still under a tornado watch on the west Houston I-10 corridor and it is again raining hard, but the drift we are picking up from the local Channel 2 News is that Harvey has weakened more than expected coming inland and may not have the power to do that loop that will make the rain situation in Houston as bad as it was predicted to be.

But please don’t take my word as your weather cast. Pay attention to the Weather Channel and the other weather pros.

As for the rest of the “hunkering down” experience, we’re good. Hunkering down at home is a life style for some of us who have grown long of tooth. That means I’ve gotten in a nice nap this afternoon in preparation for the 9:00 PM AT&T Sports.net telecast of the Astros game in Anaheim versus the Angels.

If the power stays on and the creek doesn’t rise, it’ll still be “baseball tonight”.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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My Double Play: Old Movies and Baseball

August 23, 2017

“OH BUNNY, WHAT ON EARTH HAS HAPPENED TO YOU? YOU USED TO BE QUITE A NICE BOY – EVEN FORNICASIONALLY”

 

She Said What???

The quote from this early scene in the 1935 movie, “Biography of a Bachelor Girl”, is what some unspecified members of the old movie industry censorship code group (1930-68) thought they heard when they happened to hear them spoken by beautiful lead actress Ann Harding to her old earlier times boy friend, actor Edward Everett Horton.

What Ms. Harding actually said, according to the script, and my numerous replays of that spot on the DVR copy from the movie’s broadcast this past weekend on the Turner Classic Movies channel were exactly these: ““OH BUNNY, WHAT ON EARTH HAS HAPPENED TO YOU? YOU USED TO BE QUITE A NICE BOY – EVEN FUN OCCASIONALLY.”

Close, but no cigar!

Thank you TCM movie host Ben Mankiewicz for alerting us to look and listen for this issue early on in the playing of the film. In a way that is similar to baseball, or in all passions for any area of history, there is always something new to learn. At any rate, it turned out to be a ripple in the stream issue and the movie went forward without editing, but that wasn’t all the case. The movie’s “Hays Code” was named for Will H. Hays, who was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945.

The Code had been in effect since 1930, but serious enforcement of it didn’t go into effect until 1934. It wasn’t surprising that a 1935 movie would get this kind of close attention.

It also brings home how much the advent of “talkies” in the 1920’s increased the fear that some Hollywood producers would now run morally amuck and bring down the wrath of government regulation upon the entire industry. So, in self-defense, the film industry created their own code of righteousness – regulating that criminals had to pay for their film crimes, and that sex had to be kept out of sight and even restrained from suggestion or plays on words by film characters. An actor and actress could not sit down together on a bed unless they each kept one foot on the floor for as long as they remained there.

Of course, the nation was operating under a different moral compass in those days. It was not one I admire, nor one I’d ever like to see us repeat.

Most movies were all white; people never had mixed race relationships; it was OK for major white stars to don themselves in minstrel show make up and act like buffoons; and to present minorities, mostly blacks, but sometimes Native Americans, Asians, and Hispanics as smiling stereotypical servants and sidekicks; and everybody smoked heavily and drank themselves into stupors with no long-term side effects; and if you were non-white, you had earned the right to fight for your country too, as long as you understood that you still couldn’t break bread, live next door, or attend church with whites once you came home, if you came home.

Let’s hope that most of our younger people shall live to see the day in which each of them only has to show up as a decent human being to earn their places at the table of life. Statues cannot put you there – or keep you away – once that day comes.

Watch a few really old movies from the 1930’s, for example, and you will get to see all the reasons we still aren’t there today as the brothers and sisters we all really are. And you really won’t have to work hard to see these missed opportunities. You’ll simply need to be old enough to get them. It’s all there in what they say. And what they don’t say. In what the characters do. And what they don’t do.

At least the old movies work from a dynamic narrative script. And the same cannot be said for The Fast and The Furious efforts of this day and time.

My Guilty Pleasure

Some nights I will double play a DVR movie from TCM with an ongoing DVR of the Astros game. depending upon how much the game grips my early inning attention span. It works best when Keuchel pitches. In a typical Keuchel game, I will watch the whole first inning of a home game. Then watch the movie for however long it takes “K” to retire the side and switch back to watch the Astros hit. I never miss anything because of the replay capacity. And my mind “sometimes” seems to crave the multi-tasking. The other night I got to watch Harold Lloyd as a 1928 New York taxi driver whose job it was to get a late Babe Ruth (the real Babe) to Yankee Stadium on time for his game. What a hoot! I thought the Babe was going to have to change his pants as a result of that little hop over the bridge from Harlem.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

 

 

 

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Astros Lose Winnable Game to Good Team

August 23, 2017

Charlie Morton

No question about its nature. The Astros’ 4-3 loss to the Nats in their home series opener was a lost winnable game. The fine point here is that it was a lost winnable game to a really good team, the kind of loss that most often happens in a World Series game between two good teams, as indeed, both the Astros and Nationals each truly are. In essence, it’s a better read on how prepared a club is for the kinds of games that are coming up with the playoffs in October.

In our view of a winnable game, two teams are never far apart in runs throughout most, or all, of the nine innings of the game. In Tuesday’s opener, the Astros led early by 2, and never trailed by more than their 1-run final deficit. As the season progresses, however, we think that you develop a little refinement on your view of these “winnable games” – depending upon who the opposition and the starting pitchers are.

The better your club, the better your hitting, and the better your pitching, the easier it becomes to see every game you play as “probably” winnable against all the clubs that apparently aren’t as good as yours in those areas. The best example of this club in 2017 has to be the Los Angeles Dodgers versus any other club in baseball. Most teams, however, fall variably into those “good”, “mediocre”, and “bad” mental tags we seem to put on almost everything. And here’s where a club’s measurable qualities and the team’s belief in their own level of play is really important – and maybe even act as the difference-maker in a winnable game.

Example: If your “good team” fails to take advantage of a a big-run inning opportunity against a “bad team”, you may just shake it off and give it over to that old “maybe next inning” way of thought without too much concern that your assessed less worthy foes will do it to you first. Underestimating any foe is both human and dangerous. Any other MLB club can beat you, as the Astros just got refreshed to that possibility by the Oakland A’s.

On the other hand, if you miss out on one or more big scoring opportunities against another “good team”, you may also take it to the bank that your talented foe (see Washington Nationals) is going to make you pay through the nose for any failure to clutch hit in RISP situations, any failure to field or run the bases smartly, or, sometimes especially, pay instantly for any gopher balls served up over that big white part of home plate.

Charlie Morton has been a major part of the Astros’ success in 2017. And after the game Tuesday night, he took full responsibility for the pitches that slipped away from him and found the plate for the two big hits that plated all four of the Nats runs. A lot of those other aforementioned things cost the Astros their winnable game against Washington last night, but none were more glaring than those two gopher balls that Charlie Morton admittedly owned up to as regrettable mistakes in a couple of two-out Nats scoring situations. Morton was simply “man up” strong in his ability to take responsibility for his contribution to the totally lost winnable game:

  1. Top of the 3rd, Astros leading 2-0, Nats batting, 2 on base, 2 outs: Astros pitcher Morton grooves one to Howie Kendrick. Hendrick crushes the ball off the center field wall, scoring both runners; game now tied 2-2;
  2. Top of the 4th, Astros leading 3-2, Nats batting, 1 on base, 2 outs: Astros pitcher Morton grooves another one, this time to Matt Weiters, who blasts a 2-run homer off the center field wall above the yellow line; Nats take the 4-3 lead that they will never relinquish in the face of further clutch hitting failures by the Astros.

There’s always room for improvement, as long as we keep in mind the trinity of factors at play in making improvement happen:

Improvement occurs when we (1) have the goal that motivates us like an inner fire; (2) the ability to reach that necessary level of improvement for success to occur; and (3) a total commitment of ourselves to the opportunity.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2017 

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 76 49 .608  
2 ANGELS 65 61 .516 11.5
3 MARINERS 64 63 .504 13.0
4 RANGERS 62 63 .496 14.0
5 ATHLETICS 55 71 .437 21.5

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2017

 ANGELS 10 – RANGERS 1.

 BRAVES 4 – MARINERS 0.

 ATHLETICS 6 – ORIOLES 4.

 NATIONALS 4 – ASTROS 3.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES OF TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 477 171 35 3 19 .358
NR * CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
2 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 387 123 21 3 13 .318
3 ERIC HOSMER KC 473 149 23 1 20 .315
4 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 397 123 21 0 18 .310
5 JEAN SEGURA SEA 402 124 23 1 7 .308
6 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 348 106 22 0 21 .305
7 DUSTIN PEDROIA BOS 340 103 17 0 6 .303
8 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 416 126 24 0 28 .303
9 JONATHAN SCHOOP BAL 474 143 30 0 27 .302
10 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 467 140 39 5 18 .300
Other Top 40 Astros
13 JOSH REDDICK HOU 386 115 25 3 12 .298
15 YULI GURRIEL HOU 430 127 33 1 15 .295
34 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 416 115 30 5 15 .276

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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R.I.P. “Former Astro” Jerry Lewis

August 21, 2017

Left to Right: (1) Jerry Lewis takes the field as an Astros first baseman, planting a hug on base umpire Hank Soar; (2) Jerry congratulates home plate umpire Greg Olsen for getting it right; and (3) Lewis ignores the Tigers catcher.

 

Rest in Peace, Jerry Lewis. As you probably know by now, one of the great comedic talents of the 20th century left us yesterday morning, Sunday, August 20, 2017 when Jerry Lewis passed away in Las Vegas of natural causes at the age of 91. My family and I were fortunate to catch his live performance as Mr. Applegate in the Broadway road ensemble company that performed “Damn Yankees” at Jones Hall in 1995. Lewis was great as the devil incarnate deal maker that recruited aging fan Joe Hardy into becoming a major league star for his home team Washington Senators in exchange for his immortal soul. In the process, we real fans got our musical education into the fact that, whether it’s baseball or just the down in the trenches part of everyday life – “you gotta have heart, miles and miles and miles of heart!”

Where heart is concerned, Jerry Lewis had plenty of it. In fact, over time, the comic giant probably became as famous for his annual driving leadership of the Labor Day weekend telethons to raise funds for victims of muscular dystrophy.

Did you also know that Jerry Lewis has a place in the history of the Houston Astros? If not, here’s a link to the column we wrote for The Pecan Park Eagle about that lesser known moment in his life. It originally was published here on November 27, 2013:

1973: Jerry Lewis Gets a Hit as an Astro

Goodbye, Jerry Lewis, and thank you. If people failed to learn anything about “heart” from following your life and career, they weren’t paying much attention.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2017 

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 76 48 .613  
2 ANGELS 64 60 .516 12.0
3 MARINERS 63 62 .504 13.5
4 RANGERS 61 62 .496 14.5
5 ATHLETICS 54 70 .435 22.0

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2017 

ATHLETICS 3 – ASTROS 2. 

WHITE SOX 3 – RANGERS 2. 

RAYS 3 – MARINERS 0. 

ANGELS 5 – ORIOLES 4.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 20, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 473 171 35 3 19 .362
NR * CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
2 ERIC HOSMER KC 470 148 23 1 20 .315
3 JEAN SEGURA SEA 395 124 23 1 7 .314
4 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 376 118 21 3 13 .314
5 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 392 121 20 0 18 .309
6 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 345 106 22 0 21 .307
7 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 460 140 39 5 18 .304
8 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 412 125 24 0 28 .303
9 DUSTIN PEDROIA BOS 340 103 17 0 6 .303
10 EDDIE ROSARIO MIN 393 119 27 2 17 .303
Other Top 40 Astros
17 YULI GURRIEL HOU 427 126 33 1 15 .295
21 JOSH REDDICK HOU 382 112 25 3 12 .293
32 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 411 114 30 5 15 .277

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Downtown Houston Baseball Parking

August 20, 2017

 

Kathleen and Larry Miggins

 

August 20, 2017: Happy 92nd Birthday, Larry Miggins!

Happy Birthday, Larry Miggins! And may God continue to bless you and the entire Miggins family for all the goodness you and Kathleen and the entire Miggins family bring to the City of Houston and the hard core sweet-spot goodness of our local baseball community and its colorful, knowledgeable, caring for the long season game – and why the round ball and bat heart of summer means so much to all of us!

As easily as the movie in my childhood mind rewinds and plays of you and Jerry Witte coming to bat as the two big boppers of the Houston Buffs during that Texas League championship season of 1951, I will also continue to live whatever remains of my time in gratitude that you and Jerry Witte, my two biggest childhood baseball heroes, would eventually be around to welcome me into your lives – over time – as an adult good friend.

Thank you for making room for me.

Erin go Bragh!

 

Catch your breath!
This one happened in Seattle for an NFL game,
but we don’t want to go anywhere near 3-digits with Houston baseball.

 

Downtown Houston Baseball Parking.

Longer than a brief blog subject. Much irony involved.

Here are a few notes on the obvious eggs of past neglect that are now hatching:

(1) During the 1950s, the absence of sufficient, convenient, affordable downtown parking for baseball fans was a big factor in MLB clubs moving from New York and other places to areas in which parking was both available and controllable by price.

(2) In the late 1990s, when the Astros decided to abandon the Astrodome and move downtown, they did so without a plan in place for how they would control the area around the new Union Station site from being severely effected by commercial pricing exploitation by independent nearby property owners. As a result, new independent residential and commercial construction in the area has eliminated quite a bit of the parking space was available in the club’s first 2000 season downtown.

(3) The loss of parking space potential and the greed of these independent property owners has handled the rest. Parking for big games now goes for $40 per car in the nearest lots. A fan can either get there early and pay the big bucks – or else – park 6 to 10 blocks away from a $10 per car lot.

(4) Now it’s about to get worse. According to Astros President Reid Ryan, TXDOT has decided to expand the freeway to the east of Minute Maid Park in some way. I missed all the details, but I was told by SABR members who heard Ryan speak in full before my late arrival, that the freeway expansion will basically combine I-45 and I-59 into and even wider system and that it will effectively take over the parking areas east of the present structure – areas that had been under the control of the Astros.

(5) In other words, the Astros are now drawing closer to the situation that the Brooklyn Dodgers found themselves in 1957: They have a great ball club, but their fans live in the suburbs, and those fans are not protected from price gouging on limited parking space whenever they decide to engage the inconvenience of driving downtown to see a game.

(6) The current Astros ownership tries hard. They did not create the situation they now find themselves in and they are deserving of our support in the search for effective solutions.

(7) The Astros understand that they have to find a solution to the parking problem. But what can they do?

(7) And what are the chances now that the Astros still may end up seeking yet another way to move the club to a further away site – where cheap parking is both plentiful and controllable?

(8) Maybe Harris County needs to step back on that plan to repurpose the Astrodome.

(9) For a contrast, research for yourself how the Cardinals fought for control and protection against these kinds of potential private and public sector body slams before their own move to the current Busch Stadium in St. Louis. See how that plan has spared them the suffering that the Astros took with them like eggs waiting to hatch when they moved downtown under the implicit threat of leaving Houston, had they not gotten their way.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2017 

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 76 47 .618  
2 ANGELS 63 60 .512 13.0
3 MARINERS 63 61 .508 13.5
4 RANGERS 61 61 .500 14.5
5 ATHLETICS 53 70 .431 23.0

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2017

 ASTROS 3 – ATHLETICS 0.

 RANGERS 17 – WHITE SOX 7.

 MARINERS 7 – RAYS 6.

 ANGELS 5 – ORIOLES 1.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 19, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 470 171 35 3 19 .364
NR * CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
2 JEAN SEGURA SEA 391 124 23 1 7 .317
3 ERIC HOSMER KC 466 146 23 1 20 .313
4 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 388 121 20 0 18 .312
5 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 372 115 21 3 13 .309
6 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 341 105 22 0 20 .308
7 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 456 140 39 5 18 .307
8 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 409 125 24 0 28 .306
9 DUSTIN PEDROIA BOS 340 103 17 0 6 .303
10 EDDIE ROSARIO MIN 388 117 27 2 16 .302
Other Top 40 Astros
17 YULI GURRIEL HOU 426 126 33 1 15 .296
19 JOSH REDDICK HOU 379 112 25 3 12 .296
36 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 408 112 30 5 15 .275

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

 

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Most Famous Walk in Baseball History

August 19, 2017

Eddie Gaedel
St. Louis Browns
Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis
August 19, 1951

 

August 19, 1951. If you don’t know the story, and you’re in the LA area neighborhood today, try to drop in and check out how the Los Angeles Chapter of the The Eddie Gaedel Society and The Baseball Reliquary are commemorating the walk that little Eddie Gaedel took as a member of the St. Louis Browns back on August 19, 1951. It was the vertically challenged little baseball hero’s only time at bat in baseball, but it made quite a splash then – and it has since rippled into the 21st century as an even longer shift in the tides of baseball history.

SoCal Celebrates Gaedel Tomorrow, Aug. 19

Thereafter the happening, we’ve always been led to believe that American League President Will Harridge forbade the return of the little man – and others like him – from further serious participation in organized professional baseball. If he or the Commissioner ever expressed this mandate in writing, we’ve never seen the evidence of it. If it did exist, however, we doubt it would have the the lighter than air capacity to fly very far in 2017. Besides, when you look at what Jose Altuve (.362 BA) of the Houston Astros is doing today, it makes you wonder what else Mr. Gaedel had in him that he could only then take to the bars and then to his grave after his banishment from further playing time beyond that now famous date in August of 1951.

What’s that? You say that Jose Altuve is too tall to be brought into the picture here? OK. That’s fine. But then, how short does one have to be before he or she isn’t big enough to play major league baseball?

Don’t know the story of Eddie Gaedel? Google it. It won’t be hard to find. Everybody and his mother has been continuously writing about it for 66 years.

Here are the lyrics to the official anthem of The Eddie Gaedel Society, as written by yours truly and adopted and approved by Eddie Gaedel Society President Tom Keefe of the Spokane, Washington Chapter One in 2015:

The Ballad of Eddie Gaedel

(Verse, Melody and Chorus: to the tune of

“Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer”)

By Bill McCurdy, 1999. (Minor Revisions, 03/15/2015)

Verse:

You know Pee Wee and Scooter and short guys named Patek,

And Wee Willie Keeler – as small as a flyspeck,

All little people who drew baseball paychecks,

But, do you recall,

The most famous baseball short guy of them all?

Melody:

Bill Veeck, the Brownie owner,

Wore some very shiny clothes!

And if you saw his sport shirt,

You would even say, “It glows!”

 

All of the other owners,

Used to laugh and call him names!

They wouldn’t let poor Bill Veeck,

Join in any owner games!

Chorus:

Then one humid summer day,

Veeck signed a tiny man.

He smiled like a kid in a Panama suit,

Squeaking, “Play me – when you can!”

Melody:

His name was Eddie Gae-del,

Inches short of four feet tall!

He never played much baseball;

He was always just too small!

 

He wasn’t small on courage,

Eddie saw the larger plan.

Took his heart out of storage,

Making him the bigger man!

Chorus:


Then one day in Sportsman’s Park,

Eddie went to bat!

Took four balls and walked to first,

Then retired – just like that!

Melody:

Oh, how the purists hated,

Adding little Eddie’s name,

To the big book of records,

“ Gaedel” bore a blush of shame!

 

Now when you look up records,

Look up Eddie’s O.B.P.!

It reads a cool One Thousand,

Safe for all eternity!

Hail, Eddie!

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2017

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 75 47 .615  
2 ANGELS 62 60 .508 13.0
3 MARINERS 62 61 .504 13.5
4 RANGERS 60 61 .496 14.5
5 ATHLETICS 53 69 .434 22.0

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AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2017 

ASTROS 3 – ATHLETICS 1.

WHITE SOX 4 – RANGERS 3. 

MARINERS 7 – RAYS 1.

ORIOLES 9 – ANGELS 7.

 ********************

AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS 

THRU GAMES OF FRIDAY, AUGUST 18, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 467 169 35 3 19 .362
NR * CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
2 JEAN SEGURA SEA 386 123 22 1 7 .319
3 ERIC HOSMER KC 463 146 23 1 20 .315
4 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 338 104 22 0 20 .308
5 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 452 139 38 5 18 .308
6 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 384 118 19 0 18 .307
7 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 368 113 21 3 13 .307
8 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 405 123 23 0 28 .304
9 DUSTIN PEDROIA BOS 340 103 17 0 6 .303
10 EDDIE ROSARIO MIN 385 116 27 2 16 .301
Other Top 40 Astros
14 JOSH REDDICK HOU 376 112 25 3 12 .298
17 YULI GURRIEL HOU 422 125 33 1 15 .296
37 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 405 110 29 5 14 .272

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band

August 19, 2017

“Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band”

(to the tune of Sgt. Pepper by the Beatles)

It was twenty years ago today
Larry Dierker taught the band to play
They’ve been going in and out of style
But they’re guaranteed to raise a smile
So may I introduce to you
The act you’ve known for all these years
Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band

We’re Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band

We hope you will enjoy the show

We’re Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band
Sit back and let the evening go
Larry Dierker’s Astros, Larry Dierker’s Astros
Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band

It’s wonderful to be here
It’s certainly a thrill
You’re such a lovely audience
We’d like to take you home with us
We’d love to take you home

I don’t really want to stop the show
But I thought that you might like to know
Jose Lima’s going to sing a song
And he wants the band to sing along
So let me introduce to you
The one and only Billy Spiers
And Larry Dierker’s ’97 Astros Band

*******************

The Amazing Mr. Dierker. Unless you are a millennial by birth, you should remember the whole Dierker five-year “joy ride” as Astros manager from 1997 to 2001. You will also remember that Larry got there on the heels of a 32-year career as an iconic Astros pitcher, sports writer, and radio/tv broadcaster for the club before he stepped onto the field and became the most significant figure in the club’s greatest era for finally proving that the Astros could be a consistent winner in Major League Baseball. From 1997 through 2001, the Astros either won or tied St. Louis as co-champions of the NL Central in 4 of his 5 seasons under the field guidance of Larry Dierker, establishing a beach head on the public’s trust that winning would be the normal level of expectation in Houston – and not the once in a while aberration of a team that could not afford success on a steady annual basis.

During Dierker’s reign, 2000, the club’s first season at the downtown ballpark we now know as Minute Maid Park, was the only season that the Astros finished out of the money. The main reason we’ve always assigned to that bleep was that some of the players, mainly pitchers, and namely Jose Lima, had been too psyched out by the short porch in the new left field to keep their acts together. They crumbled in 2000, but then got it together to make another playoff run in 2001, Dierker’s last season before retiring from the chase.

And what a chase and great impact Dierker’s managerial era still has upon Houston baseball today. And it also must not go without saying. All Larry Dierker had to do, beyond hearing and heeding his call to greatness, was to survive a 1999 dugout collapse from a brain tumor that could have easily ended his life and made this whole topic of sporting accomplishment even less important in the grand scheme of things.

But Larry didn’t die. Thank God. And he did survive to achieve greatness as a manager. Of course, the gifts of Biggio, Bagwell, and Berkman helped him a little bit too long along the way, but even their individual greatness performances would have been too little had someone not pulled them all into a winning team – and that’s what the Houston Astros finally became under Larry Dierker. They became and have remained a winning team, even when losing during rebuilding was part of the plan for this great club that represents the Astros in 2017.

The consistent annual winning attitude was installed during the Dierker managerial era – starting in 1997.

Here’s how former Astros pitcher Shane Reynolds described Dierker’s contributions twenty years ago during his 3rd inning discussion in the booth with AT&T Sports.net broadcasters Todd Kalas and Geoff Blum. When asked what brought the ’97 Astros pitchers to greater success over more innings pitched than before, here’s exactly what Shane Reynolds had to say:

“What helped us the most was Larry Dierker. He took myself, Mike Hampton, Jose Lima, Daryl Kile, and Chris Holt aside in spring training and said, ‘Look, guys, you’re starting pitchers. If you get into trouble by the 4th inning, don’t look over your shoulder expecting me to come out and get you.  The best way for you guys to learn to pitch (as starters) is – when you get in trouble, figure it out. Eventually, you’re going to learn how to get yourself out of trouble. – And once that happens, it’s going to snowball.’ – And I think that’s what happened with us. We relaxed. We got comfortable.”

Reynolds added that pitching in the Astrodome from 1997 through 1999 did help him relax when he was faced with pitching himself out of trouble. The deep outfield distances must’ve been like having an extra outfielder for a pitcher in distress. It’s not hard to see how that 315′ wall in left field at the new downtown park gave some of the guys who counted too much on the Dome to be their extra fielder to relax in the new environs during that first season downtown, but that fact doesn’t detract from the appreciation that came through in the explanation that Shane Reynolds shared with the whole world today about his gratitude for the lessons he and the others learned from Mr. Dierker.

It was twenty years ago today
Larry Dierker taught the band to play

And did he ever teach them well!

Thanks for joining our side of the baseball wars on your 18th birthday, Sgt. Dierker. We treasure the gift of your living presence in the history of Houston baseball.

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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The “K” Is Back! Clip-Art Help also on The Way!

August 14, 2017

Dallas Keuchel

Position: Pitcher

Bats: Left  •  Throws: Left

6-3, 205lb (190cm, 92kg)

Team: Houston Astros (majors)

Born: January 1, 1988 in Tulsa, OK us

Draft: Drafted by the Houston Astros in the 7th round of the 2009 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Arkansas (Fayetteville, AR).

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/keuchda01.shtml

**********

Dallas Keuchel is back. Big time. His 2-1 mastery of the Texas Rangers on Sunday also made a virtual Nostradamus out of Astros manager A.J. Hinch, who virtually told the world to look for this happening after watching the improvement in Keuchel’s 4-game work that led up to this start. The result finally earned the Astros ace his 10th win of the season (10-2, 2.77) for a 6.2 inning stretch in which he gave up only one earned run on 6 hits while posting 7 strikeouts to 3 walks.

We are not surprised. Just grateful.

Welcome back, Dallas!

********************

Tyler Clippard

(During his “Yankee Clippard” Days)

Position: Pitcher

Bats: Right  •  Throws: Right

6-3, 200lb (190cm, 90kg)

Team: Houston Astros (minors, 40-man)

Born: February 14, 1985 in Lexington, KY us

Draft: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 9th round of the 2003 MLB June Amateur Draft from J W Mitchell HS (New Port Richey, FL).

 **********
Clippard has a 48-41, 3.04 ERA record for 11 seasons in MLB (2007-2017). Except for 8 early starts, almost all of his 609 game appearances have been in relief for six different MLB clubs. He did pretty well against the Astros during their recent 3-game sweep loss to the White Sox and that just may have been the “make the deal” button on his desirability by the Astros.

As soon as I read of the trade, the phrase “Clip Art” came to mind as a play on our newest Astros’ name – and as an appropriate nickname for an effective pitcher, especially for a reliever as a substitute for other human forces already in play from his predecessor.

Definition

Baseball Clip Art: The final product of a pitcher whose deceptive body motion, slight of hand, and artful release of a variably thrown at different speeds baseball most often leads to the same result: The winning picture for the club placing this force into motion just got a lot clearer and brighter.

If anything, pitching in baseball may be one of the best demonstrations in all competitive sports for showing how science and art come together to produce an effect that is amazingly exhilarating when it is performed by a player of your own club, but terribly frustrating when it is performed by some Darth Vader from the other team.

Welcome to Houston, “Clip Art” Clippard!

Our MMP Louvre awaits your first demonstration.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/clippty01.shtml

********************

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2017 

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 72 45 .615  
2 ANGELS 61 58 .513 12.0
3 MARINERS 59 60 .496 14.0
4 RANGERS 56 60 .483 15.5
5 ATHLETICS 52 66 .441 20.5

********************

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2017

 ASTROS 2 – RANGERS 1.

 ANGELS 4 – MARINERS 2.

 ATHLETICS 9 – ORIOLES 3.

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES OF SUNDAY, AUGUST 13, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 447 162 34 3 18 .362
2 CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
3 JEAN SEGURA SEA 368 116 21 1 7 .315
4 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 322 101 21 0 20 .314
5 ERIC HOSMER KC 448 140 22 1 19 .313
6 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 360 112 21 3 13 .311
7 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 442 137 37 5 18 .310
8 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 366 113 18 0 18 .309
9 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 384 117 22 0 28 .305
10 DUSTIN PEDROIA BOS 340 103 17 0 6 .303
20 JOSH REDDICK HOU 360 106 25 3 11 .294
22 YULI GURRIEL HOU 400 117 31 0 15 .293
38 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 385 105 29 4 13 .273

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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Astros Losing Streak Reaches Five

August 13, 2017

ASTRO*NOTES

Relax! ~ We’re not giving up as easy as this cartoon suggests, but we also are not stupid! Nor is this our first Astro Fans rodeo with the strong p0ssibility of late season disappointment! And anybody who cannot express the belief that the 2017 club is taking on a little water these days is either a Houston or baseball fan newbie – or someone who still gets their paycheck signed by the  Astros.

Here at The Pecan Park Eagle, we strongly believe that Manager A.J. Hinch is doing everything possible to get the energy and flow of this club righted again and back in the “W” column on a pretty much everyday basis, but he’s also battling some forces that are way beyond his control. To the Eagle mind, we see the current season-record losing streak and ugly general malaise that has been slowly building since Dallas Keuchel’s injury through him off the track of that brilliant nine win (9-0) start.

Like flotsam in the atmosphere building and evolving around the Astros since the start of the Keuchel loss, ever since, these are the negatives that shown up to slowdown and stall the potential for a juggernaut winning season by the 2017 Astros:

(1) Injuries that both caused and worsened the club’s ability to get long-inning wins from starters that finally expanded to include injuries to relievers;

(2) Injuries that have deprived the club from the energy and run production of stars Carlos Correa and George Springer, and a few other position players, since the All Star break;

(3) The morale deflation that landed on all of us like a stink bomb when Jeff Luhnow wasn’t able to pull off anything but the trade for wounded bird Liriano as the runaway NL Dodgers were adding another “ace” to their pennant wheels. Talk about something that let the air out of hope, it was the deal for Liriano that did it. Now we have to revisit our disappointment in that trade every time, like last night, that the poor ex-Blue Jay has to go to the mound and demonstrate how lost and ineffective he is as a pitcher. It has to be sending something like that same reminder to the players as well.

(4) The hitting magic also has slowed. Other than that remarkable 4-run walk-off win the Astros had over the Blue Jays in the 9th inning of their last home stand, the chemistry that once produced the idea that these guys can rally from any adversity is no longer playing so well on the road either.

I have no idea how this club pulls together with the current hurting roster and gives us the kind of pitching that will be needed for the Astros to go all the way. I just know that what we saw last night won’t do it – and that we have to have again – to get back to that spirited next level of play – what we saw through the month of July. If the boys can do that – we should be able  to harvest what once looked like their unfolding legacy – and that is the prize that is never guaranteed – unless it blossoms into a victory in the 2017 World Series.

C’mon, Astros. Starting today. Stop the sinking. Let’s get this boat moving again.

********************

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST STANDINGS

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2017 

RANK AL WEST W L PCT. GB
1 ASTROS 71 45 .612  
2 ANGELS 60 58 .508 12.0
3 MARINERS 59 59 .500 13.0
4 RANGERS 56 59 .487 14.5
5 ATHLETICS 51 66 .436 20.5

********************

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST GAME SCORES

THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2017

 RANGERS 8 – ASTROS 3.

 ANGELS 6 – MARINERS 3.

 ORIOLES 12 – ATHLETICS 5.

********************

AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

 THRU GAMES OF SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2017

RANK PLAYER TEAM AB H 2B 3B HR BA
1 JOSE ALTUVE HOU 443 160 34 3 17 .361
2 CARLOS CORREA HOU 325 104 18 1 20 .320
3 JEAN SEGURA SEA 364 116 21 1 7 .319
4 MARWIN GONZALEZ HOU 319 101 21 0 20 .317
5 DIDI GREGORIUS NYY 362 113 18 0 18 .312
6 ERIC HOSMER KC 446 139 22 1 19 .312
7 JOSE RAMERIZ CLE 438 136 36 5 18 .311
8 AVISAIL GARCIA CWS 355 110 20 3 13 .310
9 GEORGE SPRINGER HOU 384 117 22 0 28 .305
10 ANDRELTON SIMMONS LAA 432 131 28 2 12 .303
15 JOSH REDDICK HOU 356 106 25 3 11 .298
22 YULI GURRIEL HOU 396 116 30 0 15 .293
35 ALEX BREGMAN HOU 381 105 29 4 13 .276

 

********************

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags:
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

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