The Pecan Park Eagle

Bill Gilbert’s Astros May Report, Part II

June 6, 2016

Here’s Part II, the main body of analyst Bill Gilbert’s Houston Astros Report for May 2016. – “You Gotta Have Hope!”

Part I of Analyst Bill Gilbert’s May 2016 Report was published here in The Eagle on June 3rd: (Click Link to Review)

Bill Gilbert: Astros Finish Strong in May

Part II, published today in the space that follows, on June 5th, concludes this hopeful account. Stay tuned for Bill’s next report on what could be a make-or-break month of June for the, Astros. It will be published here at The Eagle around, or a couple of days after, July 1st.Let’s hope for the hum of possibility to have moved up the scale of probability as well by then.

~ The Pecan Park Eagle

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Astros Show Some Life in Late May

By Bill Gilbert

After treading water for most of May with a 10-11 record, The Houston Astros came to life by winning 7 of 8 games for the rest of the month. The streak was kicked off by a 3-game sweep in Houston against the Baltimore Orioles when the Astro pitchers struck out a record 52 batters in a 3-game series. The turnaround coincided with the movement of George Springer to the lead off position on May 24 where he has performed extremely well. The surge still has the Astros looking up at the rest of the Division, especially the Texas Rangers who have swept all six games with the Astros this year and are 7.5 games ahead of them.

Offensively, the team made some improvement in May but the season batting average is only .236 which ranks 24^th among the 30 major league clubs. The Astros rank 8^th in home runs and third in stolen bases but lead the majors in striking out with an average of 9.77 per game, even without Chris Carter. The Astros scored 4.6 runs per game in May, a significant improvement over 3.5 in April.

Pitching improved significantly with an ERA of 3.81 in May versus 4.97 in April. Opposing teams scored an average of 4.2 runs per game in May. Astro pitchers struck out 267 batters in the month, ranking third in the major leagues.

Individually, several players had good months. Jose Altuve batted .345 and continues to lead the major leagues in stolen bases. Springer batted .296 and both he and Altuve had on-base percentages over .400 and slugging averages over .500 as did Jason Castro who had his best month in over two years. Luis Valbuena’s power returned as he batted .259 with six home runs, second only to Springer’s eight. Unfortunately, none of the other position players batted over .240 including Carlos Correa at .239 and Colby Rasmus at .194. Carlos Gomez continues to have problems, batting only .136 before going on the disabled list with a rib injury.

Doug Fister was the team’s best starting pitcher in May as the Astros won all six of the games he started and he, along with Collin McHugh and rookie reliever Michael Feliz each posted three wins. After performing poorly in April, Feliz recorded 26 strikeouts and only one walk in his 16 2/3 innings in May. He could be considered for a spot in the starting rotation later in the season. Luke Gregerson recorded nine saves in May but he whiffed on three other opportunities. Will Harris did not allow a run in his thirteen relief appearances. Of the 14 pitchers used by the Astros in May, Dallas Keuchel had the worst ERA at 6.63, but he did have a good outing in his final start of the month.

In 2015, the Astros organization had an exceptional minor league season with their teams having the best overall record in the minor leagues while several of their players emerged as top prospects. However, it is not happening in 2016. Of the four full-season minor league clubs, only Class Double-A Corpus Christi has a winning record and the overall record is 99-104. A number of their most promising players are having disappointing seasons and eleven prospects were lost last year in the disappointing trades for Scott Kazmir, Gomez and Ken Giles. The three domestic short season farm clubs will start up in June and will be staffed largely with players obtained in the upcoming amateur draft.

The Astros can still get into contention if they continue to play the way they finished the month of May. The key in June will be the 4-game series with the Rangers in Arlington beginning June 6.

Bill Gilbert

billcgilbert@sbcglobal.net

6/4/16

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Bill Gilbert: Astros May 2016 Report
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The Greg Lucas Challenge

June 6, 2016

Greg Lucas
Texas Baseball Hall of Fame
1994

A couple of hours ago this Sunday afternoon, The Pecan Park Eagle received the following challenge from friend, fellow SABR member, and Texas Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster, Greg Lucas:

“Here is your next project. – The thing is…not only do you have to write current lyrics that fit, but you have to sing them as well. Attached is the instrumental background for “Houston Loves The Astros” (It turned out to be an instrumental version of ‘Deep in the Heart of Texas’) with none of the specific lyrics from the ’60s or ’70s when it was written. So go to it. I am expecting a masterpiece!” – Greg Lucas.

Well, forget the masterpiece accolade. The challenge was another matter. I enjoy these. I just don’t do them unless my playful heart and the company of certain muses gather within me at the same time. I also never do them maliciously. I just believe that satire and parody are two of our twin weapons in the never-ending battle against ego inflation or taking ourselves, or anything we do in life, quite so seriously.

Here are my two versions of the parody. Version #1 is the one that came straight out of the chute. Version #2 is simply a slightly more positive arrangement of thoughts and words. If you prefer either, or either over the other, please let me know which version you like. My choice is the first one. And remember, both versions are written for use to the tune of “Deep in The Heart of Texas.”

As for singing it too, I don’t do “You Tube”.

As for the “sublimation” of this exchange between two friends on a lots-of-time-on-our-hands Sunday afternoon, chalk my side of it up to watching too many Bowery Boys movies on weekends. As Slip Mahoney might put it, such a condition often leads me into protrusions of subject matter that really don’t. … Matter, that is.

____________________

Version #1 Houston Loves The Astros (The One I stand behind)

By Bill McCurdy

No flag in sight

That is our plight

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

We’re called the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

We can’t soar high

On humble pie

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Just being – HOUSTON ASTROS!

From Dome’s Day Boom

To Downtown Gloom

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

We’ve been the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

Remindful of

No bat! – No glove!

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

We are the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

To know just why

We sob and sigh

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Come see the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

No rabbit’s rush

No big crowd push

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

To buy an – ASTROS TICKET!

If we should sail

Our ship and fail

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Just grab your nose – and PICK IT!

It’s still base ball

We’re your town’s all

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Love us – your HOUSTON ASTROS!

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Version #2 Houston Loves The Astros (Mildly More Positive)

By Bill McCurdy

Our stars all fight

To your delight

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

We’re called the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

We soar so high

‘Cross Texas’ sky

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Just being – HOUSTON ASTROS!

From Dome’s Day Boom

To Tal’s Hill Room

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

We’ve been the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

Remindful of

With bat! – And glove!

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

We are the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

To know just why

Our joy piles high

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Come see the – HOUSTON ASTROS!

The rabbits rush

The big crowds push

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

To buy an – ASTROS TICKET!

When our ships sail

And sometimes fail

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Just grab your nose – and PICK IT!

We’re real base ball

We’re your town’s all

CLAP – CLAP – CLAP- CLAP

Love us – your HOUSTON ASTROS!

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: The Greg Lucas Challenge
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Rainy Day and Bowery Boy Malaprops

June 5, 2016

The Turner Classic Movie Channel on Direct TV (Channel 256 in Houston) has made it possible most Saturday mornings to renew one of my Pecan Park kid day trips to the old Avalon Theater for a little more than hour each weekend. That’s the time that TCM likes to show us one of the old Bowery Boy movies from the 1940s and 1950s that many of us sufficiently wizened ones first saw at the weekly double feature that was popular back then. I love it. One Bowery Boys movie is better than nothing,

As kids, we didn’t really “get” the joke behind most of Leo Gorcey’s ongoing misuses of the English language as the leader of the Bowery Boys. To us, his “Slip Mahoney” character just seemed to know a lot of big words that were beyond our 6-10 year old comprehension. We thought it was funny when “Slip” got mad at the stupidity of his Huntz Hall sidekick “Sach” – always showing his unhappiness by removing his hat and slapping Sach on top of his goofy head. We were easy to please.

Here are simply a sample of some Gorcey language malaprops from this morning’s Bowery Boys movie, “Crazy Over Horses”:

In “Crazy Over Horses”, the Bowery Boys act as the collection agents for Louie Dumbrowsky, the sweet old guy who owns “Louie’s Sweet Shop” down in the Bowery. Louie was owed $200 he had loaned to a fellow named Flynn that was now two years overdue in 1951.

As Slip and Sach arrive at Flynn’s business door, Slip reminds Sach that “we ain’t going to let no sob stories deteriorate us from our point of attack.”
Once inside, Slip firmly informs debtor Flynn that “as certified collection agents for Mr. Dumbrowsky, “we are willing to disintegrate” the terms of settlement.
Eying Flynn’s beautiful young adult daughter for the first time, Slip offers his opinion of the girl: “Very demolishing!
At a later point, Slip wants Sach to keep quiet about something, but it comes out as: “I told you once to shut up and now I’m going to re-irrigate my point.”
Slip: “Pardon my diminuendo.”
Slip: “We’ve got a lot of loose ends left that need to be dissipated.”
Slip: “We’ve got a score we need to extemporaneously settle with dem horse-thieving crooks.”
Slip: “I got a plan for getting even with those crooks. Maybe I need to regurgitate the details to you guys again.”
Slip (making dinner speech at the movie’s happy ending with a toast to “My Girl”, their winning horse in the big race): “Partners, and guest of honor, we are gathered here tonight to inebriate each and every one of you for the untiring efforts that you each put forth in bringing this case to a successful delusion. We have gone through thick and thin together and, once more, we have submerged victorious.”

The Bowery Boys. Simpler times. Simple movie struggles between good and evil. With the lovable good guys always winning with a closing laugh at the abrupt “The End” sign as the dark screen that quickly faded to black at the end of each Saturday double feature, with serial and cartoon, all now delivered for 9 cents admission and 15 cents for popcorn and a coke. If our joy back then was a childhood delusion, it was a real fun-run for us simple taste post-WWII sandlotters. After we got home, it was time to go submerge ourselves again in another game of sandlot ball before the sun went down. Then we could regurgitate the whole thing again the following Saturday. Yes. No question. A kid’s joy can be the greatest inebriator that any of us will ever consume or inhale. And little did we know then – what we all learn well over time – if we live that long. – Many things in life just don’t get better with age. We must either finally seek our joy in wisdom – or suffer from our refusal to do so. Like it or not, egos of the world, that’s just the way it works.

Have a joy-inebriating weekend everybody!

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Rainy Day and Bowery Boy Malaprops, The Inebriation of Joy
Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Who Hurt Branca Most? + R.I.P., Muhammad Ali!

June 4, 2016

Here’s an interesting piece we found in a United Press column by Oscar Fraley. The version we located appears on Page 11 of the Charleston (SC) Daily Mail and is dated April 3, 1953:

Branca’s “Ailments” Believed Result of Thomson’s Homer

By OSCAR FRALEY

New York (AP) (April 3, 1953) – After a year and a half, Ralph Branca still is walking in the shadows.

Big Ralph, you’ll remember, threw the home run ball to Bobby Thomson which cost the Brooklyn Dodgers the 1951 National League pennant. Never since has he been the pitcher he was before.

Ailment, some real and others believed to be imaginary, have made him a very infrequent starter. Now, as another season gets under way, he was supposed to prove himself this time out, but is bothered by a “bad back.”

The validity of the injury undoubtedly is questioned by Manager Chuck Dressen. The little leader of the Dodgers has taken no pains to conceal his disdain at Branca’s continued reluctance to fire the ball at the plate. His unspoken indictment is that Branca in his mind always will be throwing that fatal home run ball every time he steps to the mound, thus accounting for an unconscious unwillingness to pitch.

Dressen could be right.

For you knew, when you saw Branca immediately after Thomson’s home run blast that October day in 1951, that here was a man crushed completely. Branca is six feet, three inches tall and weighs 220 pounds but he sat in stunned silence in the Dodger dressing room, too shocked even to sob.

He had lost the first game of that exciting three-game playoff when Thomson touched him for a home run. But the Dodgers got even the next day and the first Thomson homer was forgotten.

Then, in the third and deciding game, Don Newcombe was leading the Giants, 4-2, when he weakened in the ninth and put two men on. The second guessers have debated (ever) since as to why Dressen didn’t summon Clem Labine, who had won the second game handily. Dressen looked bad later when he shifted the burden by saying the bull pen coach told him that Branca was “ready.”

Branca came in (Bottom of 9th, Game 3, October 3, 1951 Playoff Series, Polo Grounds) fired one pitch past Thomson, and then the raw-boned Scot belted the ball high through the afternoon gloom and into the stands. It was the ball game – and the pennant.

It may have been the end of Branca, too.

Because last year those injuries, some of them said to be imaginary, began to plague Branca. Always before, Ralph had been a workhorse. He had worked as many as 280 innings one season and, in 1951, had been in 204.

But last season (1952) he worked only 61 innings. He complained bitterly that he wasn’t given enough work but Dressen retorted sharply that he was used as much as his “ailments” permitted.

____________________

History documents that Ralph Branca was a 13-game regular season game winner in that 1951 Thomson Homer season. It also notes that Branca would only win 12 more regular season games for the remaining four seasons he pitched in the big leagues after 1951.

It was a different time and place in our culture. Today we recognize “PTSD” (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) in human beings that go way beyond the horrendous shock of military combat. Back in the day that Fraley wrote this piece, injury to the physical body was viewed as “real” and injuries to the mind were still considered as “imaginary” as Fraley’s column notes. Some people in sports still see things that way, but fortunately for former Astros pitcher Brad Lidge, that wasn’t the case in 2005 when the Albert Pujols home run in the NLCS forced the club to play another game with the Cardinals before they claimed their first and only Houston pennant in history to date. Maybe he wouldn’t have been effected long-term, anyway, as was Branca. PTSD is not a one-size fits all diagnosis that fits everyone the same. PTSD includes those emotional traumas that we never quite get over, but do learn to process better before it either leads to serious mental illness or early death.

Charlie Dressen was never a favorite of mine, anyway, but his ignorance by public comment alone speaks loudly, if only referentially, as to how he perceived Branca. Whatever Branca experienced mentally, even if the stress converted to lower back pain the following season, it was not by any application of the word – “imaginary” – that it happened. Anyone who has ever experienced back pain from stress will immediately understand my reference here. I saw more stress-induced back pain in my half century “day-job” than I will ever take the time to calculate. Most of the time, people who came to see me did not bring a light bag of minor setbacks to my office. They brought stuff that was way up there on the Branca Scale of Real Life Disappointments and a whole range of symptoms that go with that trauma.

The card shows that Ralph Branca and Bobby Thompson worked together in later years was probably the most healing thing that the former Dodger did for himself. Instead of it being a winner/loser moment, their recollections of one of baseball’s greatest moments brought down a shower of respectful celebrity every bit upon Ralph as it did upon Bobby. Both were bookends on everything that was important in that moment – and it would not have happened had Branca not been called in to pitch. He might have won a few more games post-1951 than he actually did – and then quietly retired as one of those good players that hardly remembers today.

Not so fast on the getaway, Ralph Branca!

There are millions of fans on this planet who can more easily identify with the survivor of disappointment than they can find in the man fired “the shot fired ’round the world.”

Most people live quietly, never stirring the imaginations of others by the things they do. And what Branca and Thomson did together – was the stuff that dreams are made of. Each is famous because of the other, the super visibility of the context in which they acted, and the feeling of connection they each generate with the souls of others, – and maybe, especially, the souls of those who remember where they were and what they were doing at 3:58 PM on the afternoon of October 3, 1951.

____________________

Postscript:

How many of you knew that Ralph Branca already had given up a home run to Bobby Thomson in the Dodgers’ first game loss in the three-game 1951 special playoff series? And how many of you would have used Branca in Game Three, when Game Two winner Clem Labine was also ready and available?

Who do you think thought the most in 1952 about the Thomson homer whenever they met up with each other in the clubhouse? – Ralph Branca? – Or Charlie Dressen?

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This Just in … Late Last night in Phoenix

Ali

Rest In Peace, Muhammad Ali!

Yesterday, June 3, 2016, in Phoenix AZ, the great Muhammad Ali passed away at age 74 from breathing complications spawned by his 30-year longest fight with Parkinson’s disease. One of Ali’s memorable fights in the ring took place at the Astrodome in 1966 against our local Houston hopeful, the also wonderful, and also now deceased fighter, Cleveland “The Big Cat” Williams.

Here’s a link to the column we wrote about the Ali-Williams fight for The Pecan Park Eagle back on April 8, 2010:

Cleveland “The Big Cat” Williams.

Rest In Peace, Muhammad Ali! Way beyond boxing, your heart and soul now belong to the Ages – among the other great human beings of your time.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: The Angst of Ralph Branca, The Death of Muhammad Ali
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Bill Gilbert: Astros Finish Strong in May

June 3, 2016

Veteran SABR Analyst Bill Gilbert checks in with his Report on the Astros in May 2016.

Veteran SABR Analyst Bill Gilbert checks in with his Monthly Report on the Houston Astros in May 2016. Thanks, Bill!

Astros Finish Strong in May

By Bill Gilbert

The Houston Astros finally showed some life in late May. The following two tables show how Astros pitching fared in May 2016. They each are rank ordered from best to worst ERA for each of the fourteen players who took the mound for the club in May 2016. If anything, this May data does show some support for the old adage: Where there’s life, there’s hope.

Table One: Houston Astros Pitching in May 2016, Rank Ordered from Lowest to Highest Individual ERAs for 14 Pitchers

RK	PITCHER	ERA	W	L	G	GS	SV	SVO	AVG
1	Harris	0.00	0	0	13	0	0	0	.156
2	Feliz	0.54	3	1	10	0	0	0	.074
3	Sipp	1.74	0	1	11	0	1	2	.222
4	Neshek	1.93	2	0	11	0	0	0	.152
5t	Feldman	2.84	2	1	9	0	0	1	.275
5t	Fister	2.84	3	0	6	6	0	0	.234
7	McHugh	3.83	3	1	6	6	0	0	.258
8	Giles	3.97	0	0	0	0	1	2	.209
9	Gregerson	4.02	0	1	16	0	9	12	.237
10	Devenski	4.05	0	1	5	3	0	0	.233
11	McCullers	4.79	2	1	4	4	0	0	.244
12	Fiers	5.47	1	2	5	4	0	0	.294
13	Fields	5.68	0	0	5	0	0	0	.370
14	Keuchel	6.63	1	3	6	6	0	0	.291

Table Two: Houston Astros Pitching in May 2016, Rank Ordered from Lowest to Highest Individual ERAs for 14 Pitchers

RK	PLAYER	ERA	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
1	Harris	0.00	12.2	7	0	0	0	3	15	0.79
2	Feliz	0.54	16.2	4	1	1	0	1	26	0.30
3	Sipp	1.74	10.1	8	2	2	1	1	10	0.87
4	Neshek	1.93	9.1	5	2	2	1	4	8	0.96
5t	Feldman	2.84	12.2	14	5	4	1	1	13	1.18
5t	Fister	2.84	38.0	33	14	12	4	11	25	1.16
7	McHugh	3.83	40.0	40	17	17	6	9	39	1.23
8	Giles	3.97	11.1	9	5	5	0	5	14	1.24
9	Gregerson	4.02	15.2	14	7	7	0	4	19	1.15
10	Devenski	4.05	20.0	17	9	9	1	7	16	1.20
11	McCullers	4.79	20.2	19	11	11	1	16	28	1.69
12	Fiers	5.47	26.1	32	16	16	3	6	16	1.44
13	Fields	5.68	6.1	10	6	4	1	1	7	1.74
14	Keuchel	6.63	36.2	43	27	27	7	13	31	1.53

Bill Gilbert

billcgilbert@sbcglobal.net

____________________

Please Note: Bill Gilbert emailed me post-publication of this column to explain that the balance of his full report beyond pitching data for May 2016 will be coming some time in the next week as the completion of his report for May 2016. Thank you, readers. – And thank you too, Bill Gilbert – The Pecan Park Eagle

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Bill Gilbert's May 2016 Report on the Houston Astros
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1911: Cy Young Closes Career on a Sigh

June 2, 2016

Cy Young was release by Cleveland on 8/15/1911. - Had he come too fat to field his position? (Photo by Photo File/Getty Images)

Cy Young was released by Cleveland on 8/15/1911. – Had he come too fat to field his position?
(Photo by Photo File/Getty Images)

It wasn’t pretty. It came late. It was about gate attraction. Not talent. Not pennant possibility. And it happened to 44-year old Cy Young in Brooklyn on October 6, 1911 as the ignominious last time he would pitch for anybody in the big leagues after at the end of a 22-year MLB career that began in 1890. With his first step in the 19th century era and his last miss-step in the 20th century modern era, it all unraveled for the biggest winner in baseball history that fated moment on a Bugs Bunny-like cartoon conga line of nine hitters. All Cy Young would have to show for his worst day ever was a string of nine straight surrendered hits and his 316th and final career loss.

Pitching in Brooklyn for the Boston Rustlers of the National League after being released by Cleveland of the American League on August 15, 1911 for being “too fat to field his position,” Cy had managed to go 4-4 in the 10 mound trips prior to his 11th start and 5th loss for the “Rustlers”, but this last one was an embarrassing pip, as they used to say. It “was a sad ending for the great all-time hurler. Cy was clobbered in this game. He was left in until the Dodgers had scored 11 runs, seven crossing the plate in the seventh inning.”

http://research.sabr.org/journals/cy-youngs-final-fling

The “last eight batters of Young’s career combined to hit a triple, four singles, and three doubles.”

Unsurprisingly, the biggest winner in MLB history did not immediately interpret his 44 years of age, his final 1911 performance in Brooklyn, or the cruel whispers about his weight earlier at Cleveland as the final verdict on his career. At least, he made no public comment to that effect. He even went to spring training with the 1912 Boston Nationals, riding the bench for quite a while before coming finally to the conclusion that he was done. In words that were remindful of Bill Veeck’s half century later explanation to pitcher Ned Garver why he could not have a raise, Young apparently pretty much figured out on his own that the Rustlers were bad enough to find the cellar without his current ability to help. And so he retired without a return to the the big league mound.

Baseball people would hardly remember how he actually went out. They would be too pre-occupied with the fact that Cy Young’s 511 career wins would live to outshine every other pitcher’s win totals, before or since – and probably for all time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Young

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: 1911: Cy Young Closes Career on a Sigh
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Astros Not Probable, Based on June 1st Spot

June 1, 2016

Sometimes a Statistical Chart or Table is like a birthday cake. It comes with green candles, but they never light up with much hope.

In early May, The Pecan Park Eagle took the position that the Astros needed to be at least a 5.00 club and no more than 5 games back of the ALW front-runner to be in the later hunt for red-hot October. They didn’t make it, in spite of the 4-game win streak and encouraging signs of offensive awakening they concluded by the end of May. We would love to see them prove us wrong, but a look at the following tabular chart throws a bucket of cold water on the probability of a miracle finish in 2016. Things are always “possible” until later in the year, oc course, we finally use up that last “magic number” of measurement charts our mathematical elimination, but the difference between a .001 possibility and a .999 probability should be obvious to the most disinterested mathematical mind.

There was never anything pontifical about our “pull to even, only 5 games backby June 1st” qualifier on this race. It is simply our way of saying that it’s easier to come back if you aren’t so far behind at the start of summer. It didn’t happen for the Astros. They are 5 games under .500 in spite of their current game win streak – and they are 7 to 7.5 games behind the two front-runners. The Astros have to catch them both – and also not get pulled back by the two other struggling ALW clubs. Hopefully, a look at the table makes this picture a little clearer, even if we, as Astros fans, don’t like what we see or find any candles to light on this cake:

American League West. June 1, 2016

ALW, 6/01/16	W	L	PCT.	GB	GLTP	ALW 2016	W	L	PCT.	GB HOU
RANGERS	31	21	.596		110	RANGERS	96.55	65.45	.596	1
MARINERS	30	21	.586	0.5	111	MARINERS	94.93	66.07	.586	3
ANGELS	24	28	.462	7.0	110	ANGELS	74.84	87.16	.462	23
ASTROS	24	29	.453	7.5	109	ASTROS	98	64	.605	*
ATHLETICS	24	29	.453	7.5	109	ATHLETICS	73.39	88.61	.453	25

At 5 games below .500 on June 1^st, and 7 games back of the Rangers and 7.5 games back of the Mariners, and presuming that either or both of these clubs possess the ability to play the rest of the season at their current winning percentage rates, the Astros will have to play at a winning rate of .679 per cent in their final 109 games left to play (GLTP ) to edge out both front runners, presuming that neither of them plays at an even better winning rate in their own final GLTP (Games. Left To Play).

The table shows both the standings today, June 1, 2016, plus, what they will be at season’s end, if the four other clubs play the rest of the year at their current winning percentage levels. To that same right display of how the four foes would finish by W/L records over 162 games – and how the Astros would have to play .679 ball by winning of their remaining 109 games to win the division with an overall record of .605. It also shows the approximate games behind the Astros the other 4 ALW clubs would finish back of the Astros by continuing to play at their current winning percentage rates while the Astros drove their winning percentile mark at .679 .

Again, a great Astros comeback is still possible, but not highly probable, unless both the Rangers and Mariners crash – and neither the Angels nor the A’s come up with a red hot winning streak of their own – one that allows either club to exceed, from June 1 to season’s end, at a winning percentage rate that is higher than the winning percentages they already have achieved from Opening Day through May 31.

Have a nice day digesting that little chunk of reality! 🙂

Correction: I have my own reality to chew upon. I made an earlier error in calculating the percentage of games the Astros will need to win to take the division crown outright. The correct figures have now been plugged in after I caught my own mistake by rechecking the math. A division crown is still remotely probable, a not-s0-easy easy wild card spot is more probable, but the numbers in reality are not ridiculously improbable – if the Astros continue to build on this 4-game streak and can handle the job of overtaking two front-runners under the circumstances described originally.

Please forgive my initial math mistake. – I mistakenly calculated the Astros’ essential winning percentage the rest of the way by dividing the 98 total wins they need, using the 109 games they have left to play as the denominator. – Ouch! That made it seem that the Astros would need to play .899 ball from here on to the end to have a chance. – Not so fast.

That error failed to take into account that the Astros already have 24 wins in the bag through all games played by May 31. The Astros need only 74 more new wins to achieve the 98 total wins required from their 109 remaining games from June 1 to Season’s end.

A 74-35 record in their unplayed 109 games from June 1 to Season’s end translates into a winning percentage of .679. – A 98-64 record for the entire Astros 2016 season translates into a season winning winning percentage of .605. And that .605 mark would be enough for the Astros to pass the Rangers or the Mariners for the ALW division championship, as long as neither exceeds their established w% rates through May 31 over the rest of the season.

Obviously, the Astros will also have a a better shot at one of the wild card spots too, if they are able to achieve at a 98-win season rate.

My apologies for the earlier miscalculation.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Astros Comeback Improbable
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

MLB (Mousy League Baseball) Presents….

May 31, 2016

The following is a presentation of Mousy League Baseball: The Game of the Future

The following is a presentation of
MLB (Mousy League Baseball):
The Game of the Very Near Future

1) Every team will be required to have "Designated Hater" on the bench. His job will be to relentlessly taunt the other team throughout the game as Leo Durocher once did in days gone by. All "DH" players will be required to look something like Evan Gattis - just to scare the crap out of the other guys.

1) Every team will be required to have a “Designated Hater” on the bench. His job will be to relentlessly taunt the other team throughout the game as Leo Durocher once did in days gone by. All “DH” players will be required to look something like Evan Gattis – just to scare the crap out of the other guys.

2) The regular DH hitters will be retained, but they too will be required to look something like Evan Gattis, but they absolutely must swing like too. It helps with the AC bill at enclosed venues.

2) The regular DH hitters will be retained, but they too will be required to look something like Evan Gattis. In this case, they absolutely must swing the bat like Evan Gattis too. It helps with the AC bill at enclosed venues.

In the event that a batter has a rare plate trip that fails to result in the usual K/HR result,, the new "DR" (Designated Runners) will take the base of each man who actually reaches safely. Rumor has it that certain Arizona runner prospects may have future HOF potential.

3) In the event that a batter has a rare plate trip that fails to result in the usual K/HR result, the new “DR” (Designated Runners) will take the base of each man who actually reaches safely. Rumor has it that certain Arizona runner prospects may have future HOF potential.

4) The Acme Bat Company has now signed a 30-year contract as the exclusive provider of all MLB bats. Complaints will be handled with our usual enthusiasm for grief from players and fans by Mr.Wile E. Coyote of our MLB staff.

6) Former carrot-patch pitcher and current sports medicine chief of MLB will be in charge of baseball's new controlled administration of testosterone and other HGH products to all players. All will be required to too Dr. Bugs on a routine basis and answer his singularly relentless question, asked only in the name of science: "Deeee-yup! - What's Up, Doc?"

5) Former carrot-patch pitcher and current sports medicine chief of MLB, Bugs Bunny, will be in charge of baseball’s new controlled administration of testosterone and other HGH products to all players. All players will be required to be examined by Dr. Bugs on a routine basis and answer his singularly relentless question, asked only in the name of science: “Deeee-yup! – What’s Up, Doc?”

6) On a related note, MLB has hired Woody Woodpecker as baseball’s official advisor to all MLB pitchers on the best ways to saw off a bat in the hitter’s hands before he does any harm.

5) In MLB's service to the idea that sameness is not boring, we have constructed a one-of-a-kind bionic batter, based upon the dual qualities pf power and posture found in both Jeff Bagwell and Popeye the Sailor. He will be reproduced and awarded annually to the league champion of whichever league wins the All Star Game as a further incentive for winning the mid-summer classic. Stay tuned for further group think convolutions. and delusional decisions.

7) In MLB’s service to the idea that sameness is not boring, we have constructed a one-of-a-kind bionic batter, based upon the dual qualities of power and posture found in both Jeff Bagwell and Popeye the Sailor. He will be reproduced and awarded annually to the league champion of whichever league wins the All Star Game as a further incentive for winning the mid-summer classic. Stay tuned for further group think convolutions. and delusional decisions.

8) The MLB Group Think Council has formally dismissed the application of Goofy Dogg as a candidate for the next Commissioner of Baseball. Saying 'we've already had one guy who made goofy decisions and can't take the chance with someone who has that word built into his legal name. Besides, we are confident that we are capable of doing that same job as a group without assigning goofiness to any us as singular members the headless body that we are hopeful of becoming."

8) The MLB Group Think Council has formally dismissed the application of Goofy Dogg as a candidate for the job as next Commissioner of Baseball, saying, “we’ve already had one guy who made goofy decisions.” Sammy Same of the Council added that “we can’t take the chance with someone who has that word built into his legal name. Besides, we are confident that we are capable of doing that same job as a group – without assigning the task of goofiness to any of us as singular members of the headless body that we are hopeful of soon becoming in many more obvious ways.”

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: MLB (Mousy League Baseball)
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Memorial Day Gratitude 2016

May 30, 2016

Major Carroll Houston Teas
Pilot.
US Army Air Corps
Pacific Theater
World War II

Thank You, Uncle Carroll, for all you and all the others did in our behalf. You came home from the war paralyzed and with a blood pressure condition that shortened your life, but you were my hero then – and you remain my hero today. We still love you – we speak of you often – and the pain of our separation from you never seems to quite go away. We are sustained by love, faith, and hope that someday, some way – we’ll be together again. God Bless You, Grand Hero of our Heroes! – As always, you will be especially close to us this weekend. It’s Memorial Day time again. Love Forever, Your Nephew, “Billy”

It is the
VETERAN,
not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is
the VETERAN,
not the politician,
who has given us the right to vote.

It is
the Soldier, Flyer, Marine, and Sailor
who died for us in combat
who gave us a life now that we aspire to live in peace.

It is 2016, time again to reflect upon our real heroes, our armed forces.

Count Your Blessings this Memorial Day,

Never take any of our military service veterans for granted,

And always remember to honor those veterans who have died to keep us safe.

____________________

Our thanks also go out to the anonymous soul who composed all but the last two stanzas of today’s Memorial Day Poem/Prayer. The composer of the last two lines shall also remain unknown.

____________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Have a Blessed and Peaceful Memorial Day!

Tags: Happy Memorial Day 2016, Memorial Day Blessings
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

Fan Explains His Abandonment of MLB

May 29, 2016

Dr. Don Matlosz: “MLB is a stale-boring-unimaginative game and group think is at its core.”

Dr. Don Matlosz is a lifelong baseball fan and a longtime member of the teaching faculty at Fresno State University with graduate degrees in psychology and public health. He is also an ancient friend, and, although we both attended each place at different times, we each have earlier degrees from UH and doctorates in public health from the University of Texas. We also worked together a thousand years ago at the Texas Research Institute of Mental Sciences in the Texas Medical Center. As a student of human nature and behavior. “Dr. M” ranks up there at the top in my book. He’s also bright, witty, and generously blessed with a personal aging process that places him just the other side of the “Dorian Gray” (To look at him, you might never guess that he once charged up San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt during the Spanish-American War! – Just kidding, of course, but the man is remarkable in the sense that he still plays an active game of tennis, loves swimming, hiking, mountain-climbing, and traveling to faraway exotic places. – Keep it up, Don. D0 it for me and the rest of the gang. I’ll be sure to pass the word to Don Budge or Jack Kramer, if I run into either of them any time soon. And I hope I don’t.

Dr. Matlosz also was an outstanding youth baseball player during his upper New Jersey years. His playing days and baseball hopes would carry him all the way to a short stint with the baseball Cougars while he was at UH. Now his connection to the game is abruptly changing. While still a fan of the game and a regular attendance fan at home games of the Fresno Grizzlies, the Astros AAA club, he has decided to abandon Major League Baseball altogether. We need to allow him to explain the basis for his decision.

_______________________

Why I’ve Had It with Major League Baseball

By Dr. Don Matlosz, Fresno State University

I just can’t take it anymore. MLB has become a stale-boring-unimaginative game and group think is at the core of all its problems.

The thought of sitting at a stadium, or in front of a tv for 3 hours watching 50% of the batters fail to put the ball in play, has no appeal. Baltimore vs. Houston this past week produced 52 strikeouts for the Oriole batters, a new all-time major league record for a three-game series, and Houston also had their own fair share during the series and is on schedule to break their own MLB season record for strikeouts that they established back in 2013.

As a typical New Jersey kid of my generation, playing an endless amount of stick ball, three hours a day for eight years, taught me to hit the ball up the middle.

Ten years of organized baseball taught me to hit line drives up the middle as well as discipline at the plate. I rarely struck out, and I batted in the 3-4-5 holes in the lineup. When I did strike out, I felt like a failure. And I also disliked teammates that struck out.

I was a left-handed batter. New York Giants right fielder Don Mueller, another lefty, was also my hero. Mueller, his stance, his baseball mind, and his .296 lifetime batting average – they were all like visions etched in stone for me. And I tried to copy what I saw Mueller do. If a defense played a shift on me to right field during my time at bat, I would either drag bunt – or bunt toward 3rd base for the sake of bagging a surprise hit right from under their noses. And stealing bases was always on my mind, once I got on. I could see, even as a kid, how disruptive that bunt hits and stolen bases were to the pitcher’s mind. If you could pull them off successfully and reach base, it made the pitcher work from the stretch, something else he didn’t want to do. And that contributed even more disruption for the pitcher – and more fun for me. I loved bugging those guys. And that is not something that happens if you just walk up there, hang around for eight or nine pitches, and then strikeout, just like the guys who came before you did. I hate the thought of it, let alone the sight of it.

With pitchers today clearly dominating the MLB game again like they did in the mid to late 1960s, baseball needs a Maury Wills, a Lou Brock, or a Rickey Henderson to disrupt the pitcher again. For me personally, I also need to see solid 300 hitters like George Brett, Rod Carew, or Wade Boggs – guys with disciplined and trained-to-make-contact batting eyes out there working on the pitcher’s mind. The game also misses guys like Ted Williams or Barry Bonds, power hitters who hit for high average and also rarely strike out. Look at what MLB has today for a poster boy hitter. His name is Bryce Harper and his average is .256 as I write.

Oh well, as a tennis player, I, at least, have constant hitting and movement in my life – and those are both conditions which baseball no longer provides. Enjoy the game, if you are able. I will continue to watch the younger talent that passes through Fresno while they are still not totally caught up in the process of corruption that awaits them at the MLB level, but it saddens me too. I grew up loving baseball. Now look what MLB has done to the game.

I’m out.

______________________

Don Matlosz and Bill McCurdy
UH Homecoming 2011

As his friend, I shall hope that something happens to temper Don Matlosz’s permanent abandonment of MLB, but I understand where he’s coming from and how strongly he feels. And this man is baseball deep. He could be another canary bird in the baseball “mine” and a powerful oracle about the ever-expanding group-think mentality that now rules the corporate culture of baseball. These decisions often create the illusion of life, even when the body of the organization seems to be flat-lining. Notable example: Bud Selig presiding over the problem of falling interest in the All Star Game a few years ago. And what did his advisors suggest? Allow the All Star Game decide which league gets home field advantage in the World Series. Any questions? Did that action make the rest of you salivate all year, just waiting for the perpetration of this new rule’s latest team victim at season’s end, if the club with the best record fails to get the home field advantage because of it’s league loss in the All Star Game? We doubt it, but that’s simply one example of group think, backed by a Commissioner who probably also thinks that hiring a better make-up artist at the funeral home will make the sadness of the place go away.

More later. Time and space are short today. – Bill McCurdy, The Pecan Park Eagle.

_______________________

Bill McCurdy

Publisher, Editor, Writer

The Pecan Park Eagle

Houston, Texas

https://bill37mccurdy.com/

Tags: Fan Abandons MLB for Cause
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