The Pecan Park Eagle

Welcome to UH, Coach Tom Herman

September 7, 2015

Ole buttermilk sky,
I’ma keepin’ my eye peeled on you,
What’s the good word tonight?
Are you gonna be mellow tonight?
~ Hoagy Carmichael

With only the spiritual memory of songwriter Hoagy Carmichael to guide us, a beautiful buttermilk sky showed up at dusk prior to the UH Cougar football debut of Tom Herman on Saturday, September 5, 2015 at TDECU Stadium in Houston for the game our big cats had scheduled as the season opener against the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles of Coach Watson Brown.

The weather was hot and humid, but everything else bore the bouquet of what passes for autumn in Houston. The UH band played strong. The Cougar fans decked out in red jerseys. And the breezy wind that whispered in after dark teased us for a second with the idea that it was being pushed into motion by the cooler, oncoming dry breath of our first early “norther” of the new season.

It didn’t happen, but it combined with everything else to whet our appetites for what is sure to come – and in the way we just described, Warm air stirring. Then cool air prevailing. It may not happen until October, but it will happen. And Houston will have survived another summer and traded it for a fall, winter and spring run of weather that is not quite as hot, not quite as often, and even downright freezing cold, wet, and even icy, at times.

As a UH undergraduate, personally, I cannot, even now, this late in the game, get anywhere near the UH main campus without feeling the same bond with the university that has existed for me since my freshman year first semester in the fall of 1956. Oh, I’ve added many other attachments to my personal identity trellis since my graduation in 1960, but UH always will be the place that was my earlier neighborhood kid mentor about “possibility” through the academic and campus social culture where I eventually found my first usable walking legs into the larger adult world.

Welcome to our town – and our University of Houston Cougar Football program, Coach Tom Herman! Your resume arrived here on the wings of your success last season as the offensive coordinator for the 2014 National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes. And that reputation wasn’t hurt at all by this past Saturday’s 52-24 victory over Tennessee Tech, even though they are regarded as a lesser level foe.

Many of the top NCAA Division 1 schools play “lesser rated” competition in their home debuts each year. But as you already have grasped, since the demise of our membership in the old Southwest Conference after 1996, UH has been on a steady roll toward playing almost all of their annual schedules against teams from the Athletics Anonymous conferences of college football – and, far too often, even having trouble playing .500 winning percentage football at times.

That wasn’t always true. The Cougars came of age with the big boys in this game, starting in 1962, with the coming of Coach Bill Yeoman to the UH football helm. Five years into his long-term in 1967, and in the early period of his veer offense bonanza, the Cougars went to East Lansing, Michigan and totally destroyed the Michigan State Spartans by the landslide score of 37-7. UH immediately vaulted to No. 3 in the polls the following week. For the next decade, UH was beating teams like Miami and Florida State with some regularity. And, by 1976, the Cougars entered the SWC as the official recognition of their status as a “big time college football” program. The Coogs even celebrated that season by going to Austin and beating Texas, 30-0, on their way to winning the conference championship and the Cotton Bowl against Maryland – and all in their very first season in the venerable old league. They followed that success by winning or tying for the SWC crown in three of their first four seasons, and then going to the Cotton Bowl each time.

“3 Out of 4 Ain’t Bad” became the Cougar tee-shirt banner after their great 1979 third SWC crown and thrilling victory over Nebraska in the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1980. The problem was, UH’s incredible early SWC success seemed to upset some of the older powerhouses of the league. We didn’t realize it at the time, but that upstart heavy foot on the “win, baby, win” pedal would find the Cougars left alone in the college football ocean, searching for driftwood program survival support, once the SWC fell apart after 1996 and four of the member schools (Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Baylor) simply shifted to the old Big Eight Conference to form the new Big 12 conference in 1997.

We agree with and support your fervor for getting the City of Houston behind the University of Houston Cougars as this city’s college team, but we also recognize that the job cannot be done on the backs of Longhorn, Aggie, Rice and Baylor alumni. We have to find a way to get real about those 160,000 UH alums who apparently live in our area, but who do little, if anything to support any part of the university’s academic, artistic, scientific, or athletic programs. – The question we need to learn more about is – what, if anything, did these UH graduates bond with as important to them while they were students. My guess is that many simply saw UH as a “means to an end” solution to their individual older student degree plan goals and that these students felt little to nothing of a bond to the school as their “alma mater”.

I simply refuse to believe that first degree-crank conclusion is the whole story for all – or even most of those UH grads. The university has been evolving for years. It has not just been a practical option for older students for at least twenty to thirty years, or whenever it was the push to attract more campus resident and international students began. In fact, the current face of the student body is quite a cross-section of the world, with much support from Asian and Indian students showing up this past Saturday in full red battle gear. I simply think that UH has not been doing much to connect recent students to the idea of connecting and staying involved with UH beyond graduation. All of those factors are key when it comes to reaching out to the uninvolved alums. They are not all the same person. And that point needs to be strongly examined before initiating any kind of “one size fits all” outreach program.

In closing, Mr. Herman, we hope you will be with us for a while. We were spoiled by Mr. Yeoman’s 26-year tenure (1962-86). When he retired, we thought we were closing the door on the “Yeoman Era”. As it turned out, we soon enough learned that we do not have eras at UH. Bill Yeoman was our “old school” exception to all others. Since his time, we have “bad coach hires” that can last forever, if that’s all you want. Or we can have “good coach” hires that last for only as long as it takes a larger, richer school to come along and scoop up our guy with a lot more money, status, and luxury perks.

Bill Yeoman and UH were about loyalty and mutual commitment. We of UH are hoping in this newer “era” of the “good coach money and ego abductions” that we may be able to gradiently pay you enough along the way to merit your loyalty and commitment to our humble, but achievable aims, for as long as possible.

Happy Labor Day, Everybody!

____________________

Babe McCurdy
Mad Dog Defense Mascot
University of Houston Cougars
1979-1980

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Goodnight, Mr. Elston; We Thank You!

September 6, 2015

Gene Elston
Voice of Houston Baseball, 1962-86
Ford C. Frick Award Winner. 2006
Baseball Hall of Fame

We received the news by cell phone Internet last night at TEDECU Stadium that our friend, Gene Elston, the original voice of the Houston Colt .45s and Astros (1962-1986), had passed away yesterday at the age of 93. The salient Houston baseball professional facts about the man are contained in this nice coverage story by David Barron of the Houston Chronicle:

Gene Elston, Astros’ original voice, dies at 93

David Barron’s description of Gene Elston’s broadcasting style as “reserved eloquence” stands now as nothing less than a spot-on two-word biography of both the man and his work, also proving writer Roger Kahn’s smiling contention that sometimes, a word (or two) is worth a thousand pictures. In that sports broadcasting role, radio and television, Gene Elston was never anything less than eloquent in his insightful grasp. He saw that viewers and listeners needed an easy flow of the facts in each game situation, but he also understood that his audiences never needed more than their eyes and ears could absorb on their own.

Gene Elston was one of the first television baseball broadcasters to understand that television was not merely “radio with pictures”. Viewers did not need the announcer to tell them what they could see for themselves. It’s a point that is easier for all to see today. Because of the great progress we’ve made with technology since Elston’s time, our variety of high quality perspectives on the pictures and sounds that now reach us via televised baseball make the point even more obvious.

Only those broadcasters today who still think that their personal acts are the show fail to get it. And Gene Elston was never one of them. He was always a modest, but definitive cut-above the glory hog remember-my-branded-call voices of the game. And that wisdom and quality of the professional that was Gene Elston attracted the fans and his eventual recognition by the Baseball Hall of Fame as the 2006 winner of the Ford C. Frick Award for baseball broadcasting.

Gene Elston’s excellence finally cost him his job with the Astros under General Manager Dick Wagner. As David Barron reports in his column, Gene was working the telecast of that Mike Scott no-hitter that also clinched the division title for the Astros on the last day of the 1986 baseball season. And, just as Barron reports, when it was over, Gene Elston’s comment was all we needed to soak in the joy via the natural sounds and pictures of jubilant celebration.

“There it is,” said Gene Elston.

And we were left to soak in what we saw and heard, clear through to the foundation soul of why we even were baseball fans.

And it was beautiful. There was no blabbering about playoff tickets – or cuts to commercial for another truck ride through the ranches we have to assume that the advertisers assumed we own. – There was only wide-open visceral joy for a story book finish to an incredible run through the regular season. For many of us, it was the last hurrah of great joy from the Astrodome. The possibility of a World Series in Houston soon, very soon, never seemed more real.

Unfortunately, Gene’s genius understanding of the portal that existed in that moment got him fired.

Astros GM Wagner apparently wanted Gene to say more, sell more, and push more. So, when he didn’t get it in this joy-bleeding big moment, he simply fired the heart and soul “Voice of the Astros” as though Gene Elston were a contract electrician who had not wired things to Wagner’s satisfaction.

Gene Elston rallied. He had a few other jobs after that dismissal, and he never quit caring about baseball, the Astros, and his writing and research, but I will never believe that he ever fully recovered from the hurt that firing caused him. As he had done with baseball all those years, I think Gene just did what he already knew how to do so well. He simply accepted it as one of those times that life disappoints, but you can’t do anything about it. You can either fold – or you can put your ducks in a row and do what you love in a way that lights your own soul until the last sunset finally arrives.

Gene Elston’s soul burned bright to the very end. And we shall love and miss him forever, but also keep him too. The gifts he left with us were not the perishable kind.

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Postscript: I wasn’t expecting to be anywhere but home last night because of my ongoing shingles recovery, but I made a last day decision that I really wanted to be there for Tom Herman’s debut as head coach of my UH Cougars at TEDECU Stadium on campus. Simpatico to that subject, I just had to mention another point about Gene Elston that I haven’t read elsewhere.

For several seasons during the 1960s and 1970s, Gene Elston also served as the radio Voice of Houston Cougars Football. He simply was exceptional in that role, understanding clearly from the start that, just as TV is not radio, football is not baseball. Football is a game that moves constantly, like a back and forth march, up and down the field.

Gene Elston’s football play-by-play football work was like the energy exerted in words by a great fast-moving fiction writer. – You could see in your own mind a runner struggling through the line for a three-yard gain. – You could see the wide receiver breaking through into the clear, even before the ball was thrown to him. – And you always knew the yard-line of play, the down, the yards-to-go, the score, the quarter, and the time in the game.

What do you need to hear? Gene Elston always knew. He gave us what we needed. Nothing more. Nothing less. Even understanding, when others did not, that sometimes, less – really is more.

Goodbye, Gene. Hope to see you again someday.

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Tags: Gene Elston Dies at 93
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Eagle Sides with Digital Review in MLB

September 4, 2015

Getting it right with technology gets umpires off the hook of having to be infallible.

It may be the end of “three blind mice” mythology, but so be it. The use of multiple perspective digital replay is streaming accuracy into the game of major league baseball at the same time it loosens the burden of infallibility from the shoulders of the umpires who normally are the final word on every safe/out, fair/foul, yes/no close field play in the game.

The human eye, viewing any incredibly fast close play on the field, cannot possibly “get ’em all right” from one perspective, but, until the new technology made it possible, that has been the burden of the arbiters that are so important to the honest government of our beautiful game from the very start.

Iconic umpire Bill Klem said it best when he described his job calling balls and strikes. “They ain’t nothing until I call them,” Klem said, and he said it exactly right. He said that a pitched ball was neither a ball or a strike until he, the umpire, said it was one or the other. Klem did not say that a pitch was neither a ball or a strike until he saw exactly where it passed, in or out of contact with the strike zone. It’s probably just a matter of time before improving technology and increasing baseball cultural acceptance makes it possible for a batter, more uniformly objective calling of balls and strikes is finally possible. Until then, we will simply have to keep on settling for the reality that human eye calls by umpires on plays involving balls that routinely travel in speeds exceeding 100 mph always are going to be governed by those with mostly good intentions, variable perceptions, and, sometimes enormous egos.

Can we do better than that for the sake of accuracy? You bet. We simply have to embrace the courage to change the things we can change. With the help of the new technology, how we officiate our game of baseball, and all of its instances of inches and nanosecond difference on so many plays, we can vastly improve our ability to “get it right” on plays that sometimes carry with them the power to alter the course of baseball history.

My favorite example of this historical problem goes back to the 1948 American League pennant race in which the Indians, Red Sox, and the Yankees were all chasing each other to the wire for the pennant. The Indians and Red Sox ended up in a dead heat for first place and were then assigned to play a one-game playoff for the AL pennant in Boston for the pennant.. The Indians won the playoff and then went forth to take the Boston Braves in the 1948 World Series for their last MLB experience finishing the season as the last MLB of that year to walk off the field on the last day as a winner.

Red Sox Nation was crushed, of course. Many of them could not help thinking back to an earlier game in the summer at Fenway in which a dubious umpire call effectively handed the game to Cleveland. Had the Red Sox been able to win that June 8th game with Cleveland, there would have been no playoff. The Red Sox would have won the 1948 pennant – and who knows where that altered history might have taken the lore process of the game over the years to come?

On June 8, 1948, Cleveland @ Boston pitted two rookie sensations, Gene Bearden of the Indians and Mel Parnell of the Red Sox squaring off against each other. Scoreless through three innings, playing manager-shortstop Lou Boudreau came to bat in the top of the fourth with Allie Clark on base. On page 17 of “The Season of ’49”, David Halberstam does a great job of describing next what then unfolded:

“With one man on, Lou Boudreau hit a sharp line drive toward the right-field line. In the eyes of almost everyone there the ball hooked foul and into the stands long before it reached the foul pole. A fan who was sitting in foul territory caught the ball and held it up. But in Fenway the stands along the baseline jut out, and Charlie Berry, the umpire covering the play, ran out and somehow called it fair, a two-run home run.”

Boston pitcher Parnell lead his case that the ball was foul with umpire Berry. – “I made my call and it’s a home rune and that’s that,” Berry yelled back in response. Parnell then took his plea to home plate umpire Ed Hurley. “It’s not my call,” said Berry, as he walked away. “Get out of here and pitch,” Berry yelled at Parnell and the game finally resumed amid a torrent of boos, but no further argument.

There was no further score in the game. Cleveland won, 2-0. Maybe they would have won anyway, but that logical possibility quickly fell victim to the far more rambling thoughts of Red Sox fans as to “what might have been”.

Was the Boudreau ball really an obvious foul – or was that perception simply the biased Boston point of view? Who knows? We just know that today’s technology could have saved everyone, including the umpires, from the kind of notoriety that sort of play produces – and it underscores how one significantly dubious or wrong field decision has the power to alter the history of the game.

The Pecan Park Eagle is strongly behind the use of technology in baseball officiating. We don’t mind the extra time it takes to get calls right. We do mind the extra time a player calls for time to either scratch or clear a wedgy.

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Tags: technology is helping MLB get it right.
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Astros Face Potential “Catch 22” in Final Games

September 3, 2015

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22 of the last 25 games of the Houston Astros’ 2015 season are all against AL West division opponents. Unfortunately there is a potential for these last 25 games to blossom into an unwanted “Catch 22” if the club is so emotionally spent and exhausted by the time they conclude their final series at home against the Rangers that they virtually “forget” that their real season’s end does not conclude until they fly from Houston after a Sunday day game against their biggest rival, Texas, to play a 3-game series in Seattle against the Mariners – and then got Arizona to close all the windows against the NL West Diamondbacks.

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LAST 25 GAMES	DAY	DATE	HOME	AWAY

1	MON	9/07/15		OAK
2	TUE	9/08/15		OAK
3	WED	9/09/15		OAK
NO GAME	THU	9/10/15
4	FRI	9/11/15		LAA
5	SAT	9/12/15		LAA
6	SUN	9/13/15		LAA
7	MON	9/14/15		TEX
8	TUE	9/15/15		TEX
9	WED	9/16/15		TEX
10	THU	9/17/15		TEX
11	FRI	9/18/15	OAK
12	SAT	9/19/15	OAK
13	SUN	9/20/15	OAK
14	MON	9/21/15	LAA
15	TUE	9/22/15	LAA
16	WED	9/23/15	LAA
NO GAME	THU	9/24/15
17	FRI	9/25/15	TEX
18	SAT	9/26/15	TEX
19	SUN	9/27/15	TEX
20	MON	9/28/15		SEA
21	TUE	9/29/15		SEA
22	WED	9/30/15		SEA
NO GAME	THU	10/01/15
23	FRI	10/02/15		ARZ
24	SAT	10/03/15		ARZ
25	SUN	10/04/15		ARZ

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This featured chart on the last 25 opponent games of the 2015 Houston Astros is simply a model of something I’ve been doing on pennant races since I was kid fan of the old Houston Buffs. For whatever reason, it’s always been easier for me to get a better big picture perspective on the linear time challenge to my club as it moves down the stretch from this kind of display.

It was true for me with the Buffs. It is true for me with the Astros now. And this one could evolve or devolve – and be everything from a down to the wire melodrama to a sudden surge by one of the three contenders into a runaway that leaves the other two contending clubs in the dust.

For now, Thursday, September 3, 2015, the Astros remain in first place, now only 2 games ahead of the Rangers, but still appearing good enough to take the division race, but the feeling persists that the Rangers are a team of both the talent and the momentum that could allow them to blow their way by the Astros in their final 7 head-to-head games, especially with the first four starting as a series in Arlington. The Angels appear to be hanging in there by the thread of their powerful twins, Trout and Pujols, but they seem lacking in the kind of pitching and team cohesion needed that has not been their hallmark this season. They still have enough expensive raw talent to hit a hot streak and get back into the race.

The Astros begin this “Catch 22 potential” phase of season’s end with a 10-game road trip to three cities that concludes with 7 games at the home parks of their two biggest foes, the Angels and Rangers. The schedule-makers could not have planned the drama any better – at least, at this junction. – What happens at the very end is a potential nightmare for the Astros.

Then, the Astros come home for 9 games against those same three clubs, in the same dramatic order: first Oakland, then Los Angeles, and finally, Texas. So far, so good, but the potential trick to the schedule is at hand.

Putting it simply, it’s the fact that Texas is neither the last shoot out nor the first dance of sweet victory opportunity for the Astros. After the last Texas game, the Astros have to fly all the way to Seattle to start a three-game series against the same Mariners club that just took them 2 out of 3 in a rare series loss at home for for Houston. And that series starts on Monday, the very next day after the Rangers series in Houston. Meanwhile, the Rangers go home to Arlington after the Astros series to play lowly and uninspired Detroit the three games after a short flight back to North Texas and home cooking.

After Seattle, and the conclusion of their final 22 games against AL West foes, the Astros fly to Phoenix for a Thursday off before starting a 3-game, Friday thru Sunday, weekend series against the NL West Arizona Diamondbacks to end their season. During the same final games time frame, the Rangers will conclude their season at home with a 4-game, Thursday thru Sunday, against the other NL West contender, the Los Angeles Angels.

And there’s the big potential “catch 22” for the Astros. If all the three AL West contenders are fairly even by Thursday, October 1st, the Astros could be hurt by either a Rangers or Angels sweep of the other. The Astros must win this last 6-game road trip at a time they will really need to hope, one-day-at-a-time, that it can be by a sweep of both Seattle and Arizona.

Nobody ever said it was going to be easy.

Where’s Craig Biggio when we really need another dose of his “baseball’s a long season that you have to take one game at a time” speech?

If the Astros cannot heed the wisdom of their sole pure Houston Hall of Famer, the danger exists that they could become so focused on the last home series with Texas that they cannot avoid a letdown from emotional and physical exhaustion – and they could become vulnerable to going flat in Seattle and Phoenix – and losing everything they have worked for this year in a season-ending 6-game road trip of games against two out-of-the-running clubs.

Let’s hope and trust that Astros Manager A. J. Hinch is already on top of this potential Houston dead zone trap in this season’s schedule. We know that this sort of thing on any schedule is close to impossible to avoid, but we also have to wonder sometimes too: How much flying experience do these MLB schedule-makers have under their own belts? And how much do they appreciate how difficult flight plans play into a travel team’s preparedness for even-field competition with a rested home club?

My guess is, that these kinds of questions rarely come up – or if they do – that they are quickly dumped into the “everything evens out for all clubs in the long run” file.

Go Astros. And stay up and ready. One game at a time.

______________________________

Tags: Astros face crucial road trip to end season.
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Shoeless Joe Meets Clueless Rob

September 2, 2015

Shoeless Joe Jackson
The man couldn’t read, but his soul keeps writing.

On March 30th and June 22nd of 2015, Arlene Marcley, President of the Shoe Joe Jackson Museum in Greenville, SC wrote letters to new Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, asking him to remove Jackson’s name from the list of players deemed ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

On July 20, 2015, Manfred answered the Museum’s request, refusing to take that action, citing his agreement with the statement of former Commissioner Bart Giamatti several years ago that “The Jackson Case is now best given to historical analysis and debate as opposed to a present-day review with an eye to reinstatement.”

President Marcley now states on the museum’s Facebook page that they have no plans to pursue the matter further. The letter from Manfred is also posted at this same link:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2559225-shoeless-joe-jackson-wont-be-reinstated-by-mlb-commissioner-rob-manfred

Several questions arise, however from Commissioner Manfred’s choice for inaction-as-his-plan-for-action in the Jackson case:

1) Since all of the major figures in the nearly century old Jackson case are now dead, and the fact that it is highly improbable that further time passage is going to produce a new living witness or piece of evidence in this case, what’s wrong with 2015, right now, as enough time passage to reconsider the player’s status on the Hall of Fame ineligible list in our time?

2) In a separate matter, Commissioner Manfred is supposedly in line to review the very different set of facts in the relatively recent case of Pete Rose’s chances for removal from the HOF ineligible list. Well, it does occur – and must be stated: If enough time has not passed in the 90-year old case of Joe Jackson, isn’t it also way too early to reconsider the ban on Pete Rose for his gambling and testimonial dishonesty about things that happened only some thirty years ago?

3) Is Manfred’s decision in the Jackson case dismissal to “further historical analysis and debate” really sort of akin to that old wisdom saw in the blue collar labor force, from elders to newbies: “In your first day of work on a new job, try not to open a can of worms for lunch.”

4) In fairness, is Commissioner Manfred really as clueless as he appears to be about the obvious political decision he’s making to not get pulled into the quagmire of Joe Jackson and, regardless of his separate case, his forever entwined connection to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal?

Something tells me that we really haven’t heard the last of Shoeless Joe Jackson’s case during the administration of Rob Manfred as the Commissioner of Baseball.

As always, time will tell.

Tags: Commisioner Manfred's Decision to Leave Joe Jackson on the HOF ineligible list.
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Confessions of a Latter Day St. Patrick

September 1, 2015

Tom Keefe of Spokane ans the Eddie Gaedel Society as Saint Patrick, 2013.

Tom Keefe of Spokane
and the Eddie Gaedel Society as Saint Patrick.

Synchronicity moves in mysterious ways.

Last night I received that unexplained photo of Larry and Kathleen Miggins at home with The Pope. There was an easy story to decipher behind that one, which we already have figured out and handled in our column of hours ago, “Larry Miggins’ Surprise 90th Birthday Guest.”

The spiritual beat rolls on. This morning, I discovered this photo in our home mail box of Gaedel Society President Tom Keefe, exhorting me as Saint Patrick in a picture taken on St. Patty’s Day, 2015 – in front of O’Doherty’s Irish Grille and Bar in Spokane – to hurry up and get well on Guinness. – My life experience with alcohol long ago taught me that booze, for me, does far more to stir up the serpents of temptation than it does to round them up and drive them out – but I, nonetheless, appreciate the caring intent of Good Man Tom Keefe – no matter what. – You are truly a good man and new good friend, Mr. Keefe!

Although he may not realize it, Tom Keefe is giving me the “Eat ‘Em Up, Cougars” hand sign in his depiction of St. Patrick. As an alumnus of the University of Houston, that stirring expression is appreciated, whether it was intentional, or not.

The inscription on the back of the photo, featured below, explains the Reverend Mr. Keefe’s authentic appearance as Saint Patrick in Spokane. You probably will have to magnify the script in the photo to read it all, but it should be worth the effort.

Thanks, Tom! – And have a great trip to the Browns luncheon in St. Louis!

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Tags: Confessions of a Latter Day Saint Patrick
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Larry Miggins’ Surprise 90th Birthday Guest

September 1, 2015

Some pictures do speak a thousand words, even though writer Roger Kahn once argued against the over-use of pictures at Time, Inc. by arguing that the well selected single word “is worth a thousand pictures.”

Today, of course, we know that digital photograph alteration programs, notably PhotoShop, have quickly taught us in the early 21st century that photos can lie – and that seeing is not always believing.

The featured photo here arrived tonight without logical explanation, so we may need to wait for either Larry or Kathleen to either validate our guesses or set the record straight as to what was really going on here.

Here’s what we think from the reflective inner sanctum chambers of The Pecan Park Eagle:

(1) It is possible, but not probable that the picture was photo shopped. Neither Larry nor Kathleen know anything about digital photo fixing and we also rather doubt that the third figure does. Unless his papal powers of “infallibility” covers computer technology, we do not think that The Pope photo shopped this picture either. As for it being the work of others in the family, our readers need to bear in mind that this is the Miggins family. All are Irish Catholic. And all are as honest as the long Irish summer day is misty lighted long. There is simply no real way for me to believe that any of the Miggins clan could ever have stooped to the level of dishonesty that is required of those who photo shop.

(2) Here’s what happened. I think word got back to The Pope that one of the world’s most honest and devout Catholics was about to turn 90 years old on August 20, 2015 – and that family and friends were planning a special previous weekend celebration party for him on October 15th in Houston. I think The Pope heard the stories of Larry’s loyalty and devotion to honesty in all things. Meaning, especially, he had to have heard the story of the time in 1950 that Larry was playing left field for the Columbus Redbirds and a batter for the visiting team in a crucial game hit one out that bounced back on the field from something it struck on the other side of the fence.

The umpire couldn’t see what happened. He didn’t know how to rule. He had not seen the ball’s carom. Was it a home run? Was it a double?

Honest Larry’s reputation preceded him even then The umpire asked Larry to tell him what had happened.

Larry told him the truth, It was a home run for the enemy batter. The admission hurt Larry’s own club, but that could not change the simple fact. – Larry’s admission was the truth.

“It was an easy call for me,” Larry often says, even now. “I know that if I had hit one that far, I would’ve wanted to get full credit for a home run too.”

I can just see The Pope hearing that Columbus story being told to him by some well-meaning family member or friend at The Vatican in early August. I can see The Pope smiling as he leans forward and braces the palms of his hands on both arms of his big papal reception room chair, preparing to rise to his feet. But before he does, The Pope first raises his right index finger gently to the sky and declares to his personal secretary: “Google Expedia for me, Enrique, and make arrangements! I must fly to Houston and play a surprise visit to Mr. Larry Miggins on the occasion of his 90th birthday party. If we only had more people like Larry and Kathleen Miggins in this world, I wouldn’t have to pray so hard for peace on earth.”

That’s it, Larry. Admit it. That’s how the picture came to be.

Now if I am right, Larry and Kathleen, and I know that I am this time, you need not respond with a single word of protestation or disclaimer at the site of this column. After all, you need to have a little respect for me and my intentions here too. You Migginses are not the only Irishmen in this world who are as honest as the day is long.

Erin go Bragh!

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2015 Houston Astros: What’s Not To Like

August 31, 2015

Some time-warped years ago, the 1888 Houston Babies defeated the 2005 Houston Astros in an unforgettable computer sim series. But now, in 2015, the Astros again are in the hunt for the real thing.

Some time-warped years ago, the 1888 Houston Babies defeated the 2005 Houston Astros in an unforgettable 7-game computer simulation series. Now, in 2015, the Astros again are in the hunt for the real thing.

The 2015 Houston Astros are a good team, an exciting team, and sometimes a streaky fun-to-boring team. They can string together spells in which they rally to win three of four games at home with a walk-off heroic hit – and then go on the road and forget to pack the same whole bats they used to fare so well in Houston on foreign soil.

That’s the way this just completed six-game series on the road against the Yankees and Twins started. After sleep-walking their way to a 1-0 loss in New York, then came back to take the series in the Bronx by winning games two and three. Then they went Minnesota and took a L-W-L path to a 3-3 .500 record during one of those rare 2015 season times they managed to avoid a losing road trip record.

Yesterday’s final game loss to the Twins punched some buttons on the way I’ve become conditioned to lower or raise my hopes for victory, based upon how the game starts and proceeds to play out over the full nine. The first throttle on hope was the starting pitcher match – the wiley veteran Ervin Santana versus Lance McCullers, our talented rookie with control issues. When McCullers shaky start handed the Twins an early 1-0 lead in the first, the Astros just seemed to slump early into their swing and sit routine – or their “hit ’em where they are” mode, going into a virtual surrender position late. By the end of the 7th, Minnesota’s 7-0 lead looked pretty much insurmountable.

As it turns out, it was, but not before the Astros started playing like our “home boy hopefuls” by pushing across 5 runs in the top of the ninth to make for a 7-5 final score on a game that was never that close.

This season has been fun – and the Pecan Park Eagle has not given up on the Astros in 2015 – but we already have begun to stockpile our rationale for why this season may be more of a positioning statement year that is quickly followed by the post-season Luhnow Brain Trust assessment this coming off-season on what needs to happen to really put the club over the top in 2016. – And that’s a process that is going to happen, anyway – even if we manage to win it all this year.

What’s not to like – about our current club? And I don’t mean that in an unappreciative way for what the Astros have done this year. – I love the fruits that are beginning to bloom from the long-range Luhnow plan. – I love the free agency and trade acquisitions of talent like Gregerson, Harris, Gattis, and Rasmus, to mention a few, that have pulled tomorrow’s hope into today’s near reach – and I am now a big, big fan of A.J. Hinch and the way he runs this club. And their spirited support of each other is so far above the dull dailiness of a flat-lined-of-joy team like the Yankees. – And when the Astros do win one of their last at bat walk offs, they do it with all the enthusiasm of Caribbean pirates taking over another galleon from Spain. – Can’t you see a smiling Evan Gattis boarding the side of a vanquished gold ship, sword in hand, motioning joyously to his “mateys” to join him in the looting?

So, what do we need, in no particular scientific order? I will address what I see, except for pitching. We really want your comment on everything, but especially on pitching. – Do we really need more than health and continuing improvement at a high level. Should we keep Scott Kazmir? – Can we keep Scott Kazmir?

My things:

(1) We need Springer, Correa, and Altuve to stay healthy and to keep on trucking.

(2) We need Castro to get well from his injury and to make a decision on whether his mostly missing offense is going to be good enough to justify leaving him in that spot because of his game handling defensive skills?

(3) We need first and third basemen who can both hit and field their positions. We do not need another season of experimenting with guys at those spots who either hit homers or strikeout – and then go sit down in the dugout on their .180 batting averages. Can you imagine how many more games the Astros might have won this year with two corner infielders who could also get on base well enough to start or keep a rally going?

(4) Unless we see a rally in the batting skills of Carlos Gomez in September, we will end the season with four guys who can play center field well defensively, but only one, George Springer, seems to have a big upside as a potential hitter for both power and average. And what do we do with Rasmus and Marisnick?

(5) Here some select stats on our current 13-member pitching staff. I’m not really sure who the firm 5th starter is – or if we are basically carrying a floater option to start whomever manager Hinch wants in the last spot.

CURRENT ASTROS PITCHING STAFF, MORNING OF MONDAY, AUGUST 31, 2015

STARTERS	R/L	W	L	ERA	SV	SO

Dallas Keuchel	L	15	6	2.28	0	165
Colin McHugh	R	14	7	3.92	0	136
Scott Kazmir	L	7	9	2.45	0	137
Mike Fiers	R	7	9	3.54	0	151
Lance McCullers	R	5	5	3.21	0	93
Scott Feldman	R	5	5	3.75	0	59

RELIEVERS	R/L	W	L	ERA	SV	SO

Will Harris	R	5	2	1.42	1	57
Chad Qualls	R	1	4	4.07	4	38
Pat Neshek	R	3	1	3.04	1	47
Tony Sipp	L	2	4	2.14	0	50
Vincent Velasquez	R	1	1	3.57	0	47
Oliver Perez	L	2	2	3.55	0	42
Luke Gregerson	R	7	2	2.82	25	47

What do you think? Detached from the emotion that now floods all of us after years of being out of it in May, we’ve got a Houston club in first place in the AL West, but sporting only a fragile 3-game lead over the Texas Rangers.

Can the Astros hold off their North Texas rivals? – We have 7 games left to play against those guys – 4 in Arlington and 3 in MMP.

I’d feel a whole better if the Astros could go into those 7 games against the Rangers with an 8-game lead, but that’s not likely to happen. We simply are going to have to take it through the Rangers, if we are going to win this year. We cannot expect the Astros to dodge the bullet in the hope that the other clubs are going to take the Rangers out for us.

Let’s hear from you. We are about to get into a pennant race around here that hasn’t happened quite like this one since 2005. – And we all remember what happened – and didn’t happen that year.

And don’t forget the emotion-free question about the future. Is this “next year” – or is this the year the Astros get primed for “next year”?

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“TEAM”

August 30, 2015

“TEAM”

By Bill McCurdy

__________

In Dedication to the 2015 Pearland Little League Team

Sunday, August 30, 2015

__________

Fungo us some fast fly balls – that make us try our best,

To bring down every aspirant hit – that hopes to leave its nest.

__________

Pepper us hard grounders too – that carom or seek holes.

So we can block and throw each out – with no sneak single moles.

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Make us bat till kingdom come – till all of us agree,

That winning comes from working – that hits are rarely free.

__________

Help us see that ego – is not the recipe,

For winning as a great team – is always you and me.

__________

Teach us how to show we care – when teammates reach our dream,

Each time we celebrate them too – we put the sting in team.

__________

And help us to remember – no matter how fates fall,

That all we reach as team – is the largest win of all.

______________________________

Tags: TEAM CHEMISTRY
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“And Down the Stretch They Come…”

August 29, 2015

The 2015 Houston Astros ~ What's not to like about a club that celebrates each other's accomplishments with unbridled passion?

The 2015 Houston Astros
~ What’s not to like about a club that celebrates each other’s accomplishments with such totally unbridled passion?

It’s finally here. The last Saturday of August. Landing today on the heels of a Houston week in which a mild hint of drier and cooler weather teases our appetites for change. And one other change even more strongly appeals. The hint of an Astros World Series possibility flirts with us daily like a fickle image of our late adolescent dreams. Down the stretch they come. The race for the playoffs, the pennant, and the World Series just got hot, hot, hot. It is almost time for the real champion of the baseball world to show up. And, unless or until they prove otherwise, our Houston Astros are the four-game leaders in the American League West, appearing ready to grind it out with the Rangers and Angels for their own division champion spot in the larger scheme of things.

That 14-Game Win Advantage Astros Ceiling

The Astros banged the drums hard on a ceiling they’ve reached three times this year in their final road game with the Yankees. By taking the third final game and the series, the Astros again raised their 2015 win total 14 games above their loss total at 71 wins and 57 losses. From New York, they flew to Minneapolis, had a fun off-day Thursday at the Minnesota State Fair and then went out to Target Field Friday night and lost their opener of another three-game road series by 3-0. The loss again reenforced the superstitious fear that the 14-game win bulge over losses is not merely a statistic for the Astros, but a ceiling blocking improvement. Now the club is back to a 71-58 13-game winning edge. The club will have to win Saturday to put the ceiling question to a test again on Sunday.

Injury Concerns

This is also the time of the year when the difference between winning and losing hangs heavily upon which club stays most injury-free. As an old sufferer in my youth from hamstring problems, my advice is take even the so-called “mild” ones seriously. Once you have the insult to hamstring started, it’s a very short hop or sudden move pop to a condition which could keep Carlos Correa out for the rest of the season. Astros Manager A.J. Hinch is to be applauded for erring on the side of caution by benching Correa Friday night.

As for Jason Castro, the quad injury he also picked up with his double in the 5th inning is serious. That isn’t an easy injury either, especially when your position is catcher and you face all that standing up and squatting down through out the game. No brainer. Catcher Max Stassi will be called up and in the Astros dugout today as the back-up catcher to Hank Conger.

Let’s just hope that George Springer’s rehab tour in Corpus Christi goes well and that he will soon return and help spark more of what we saw in the 2nd and 3rd games from the Astros in New York – and much less of what we saw of our club’s offense lack of offense in the 1st games at both New York and Minnesota.

The Lesson of Yesterday’s Game

From Twins starter Kyle Gibson to closer Kevin Jepsen, and all those Minnesota pitchers in between, the Astros batted yesterday with the same kind of sawed off bats and low spirit that they seem to pull out of the bag far too often for us fans to release all the strings we hold that keep our hopes from sailing off into the blue.

Good pitching beats bad hitting almost always. It did last night in Minnesota.

As an Astros fan, last night’s game was a reality check on unbridled hope, but it wasn’t the end of the world.

Call us pessimists, if you wish. We Houston fans call ourselves realists.

We already have raced several times to the cool palm-treed oasis of our dreams through the desert sands of our 54-year old Astros fan struggle, watching second division club baseball far too often, and we have fooled ourselves hardest in 1980, 1986, 1998, and 2005 about the tangible possibility of a World Series championship.

We still have hope in 2015, but now it is bridled to our experience in reality. And, although there is no total guarantee against another outbreak of the condition, we are far less vulnerable by experience to building mirages that disappoint.

That being said, “GO ASTROS!”

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Tags: The 2015 Houston Astros In the Hunt
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