The Pecan Park Eagle

UPON FURTHER EVIEW, 3/30/13, 12 NOON UPDATE: SABR’S Bob Dorrill just called to clarify that Sam Quintero’s earlier report to me of the MMP train’s removal was in error. It’s still in the park, as per usual. That will teach me to go back to the ancient lesson of getting confirmation before making much adieu about nothing. I will take minor solace in the fact that I did note originally that my report lacked confirmation. My apologies to the Astros and readers for running with a story that needing further corroboration before it went to print. My apologies with this promise: Unless I go brain-dead, it will not happen again.

It won’t be an ordinary Opening Day for the 2013 baseball season in Houston. The local club is going into the American League; the Astros don’t have much chance of winning; many old fans swear they are now gone for good from MMP; the Club has the lowest payroll in MLB; hardly any of us could name the Astros starting lineup; and even fewer among us could list the entire 25-man roster; and, as for the coaching staff, forget it. I think Dennis Martinez is both the bullpen coach and the  general source of all stories about baseball in the South American boondocks.

The Pecan Park Eagle was also in receipt of an unconfirmed report from friend and fellow SABR member Sam Quintero that the little train that always ran on the tracks down the center to left field lines at MMP was now gone. That report turned out to be untrue.

Keep on Rolling, Gentle Mountain!

Let’s hope that neither the MMP train or Tal’s Hill shall ever disappear from the ballpark landscape. Bring that center field distance mark in from 436 feet to 400 feet and we may then watch a much larger percentage of the fly balls leaving the ball park. Do we really need MMP to turn into a a real “Juice Box?”

Opening Day always reminds me too of all the little changes that have occurred since the days of Houston baseball in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Back then, these kinds of things were everyday deals:

(1) Players tossed their gloves on the outfield grass when they came in to bat. I have no memories of a player ever stumbling over a glove, or a glove causing a deflection of a batted ball. Then, one season in the late 1950s or early 1960s, they just stopped leaving their gloves on the outfield surface.

(2) Infield practice was an everyday pre-game drill. Now it apparently only happens in spring training.

(3) Organ music tracked balls that ran up and then fell back down the screen behind home plate. High notes were for the high spots; low notes were for the low spots.

(4) Fungo bats were clearly in use by coaches heading up pre-game outfield fly ball shagging.

(5) Skinny legged pitchers were often used as pinch runners in the late innings.

(6) Brown spots on the field were created on the short outfield rim by tobacco-chawing infielders like Nellie Fox.

(7) Opening Day was a time for thinking that all good outcomes are possible. And it still needs to be that way, in spite of all the building evidence that keeps suggesting that the truth in this matter lies elsewhere. In that ancient spirit of hope in spite of the facts, I’m going to post my most positive and optimistic prediction here for the Astros’ first season in the American League, with a nod to some later-in-the-season help from people like young Mr. Singleton:

There’s no canceling the hope that is always born ‘neath the summer skies of Houston. It’s been happening too long to be stopped now.

My Astros 2013 Predicted Record: W 63 – L 99, Pct: .389.