The Pecan Park Eagle

Gerrit Cole, Pitcher
#45, Houston Astros
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Houston Chronicle Photo

Wednesday was “Picture Day” at the Astros’ West Palm Beach spring training center and the boys showed up to lean a little “come-and-take-it” attitude into just about every photo that’s on display. And that’s a good thing. The veteran stars who were around to take the 2017 first World Series victory in Houston MLB history have earned the right to say loudly to the other 29 clubs that “hey, if you want the 2018 title, you are going to have to take it from us or forget about it.”

Carlos Correa is especially convincing in getting that message across, we think. And good old Evan Gattis naturally looks like a guy who would squash you like a bug, if you tried to take anything from him. (Don’t worry, Evan! We’ll keep your secret. We will do all we can to make sure that no one finds out that the answer to your menacing glare is to keep throwing the ball low and outside each time you have two strikes and you know we have to get the pitch into the zone.)

Check out the ones on display at Chron.com. You may enjoy seeing some of our newest Astros, via both trades and system graduations, in full home Houston gear for the first time.

Here’s the link. We recommend it:

https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/The-Astros-were-serving-looks-on-picture-day-12630993.php?ipid=happening

Along with warmer, drier weather – and the soon-to-be-sprouting rush of new spring green life, there’s nothing like the tactile feel, sight, sound, taste, and smell of spring and all that that comes at us with the games starting up again. I miss the aroma of horsehide. It had a tang you just don’t get with cowhide. We had to start actually playing games to keep me from wanting to whiff the baseball every time I picked it up as a kid. After all, if you’re an outfielder, fielding a ball hit into the gap, there’s no time to nostralize the thing. You’ve got to get the ball back in as quick as possible. Taking even a single brush-by whiff on the throw to a cut-off man could be the difference between the batter/runner getting a triple out of a batted ball that should have been held to a double – but for the time lost to ill-advised errant whiffing.

Ah, yes. The elixir of spring training is upon us. If we could just keep the state of mind that this short sweet part of the season creates, we might all live far into a state of near immortality. And, if more of us simply lived longer in relatively good health, maybe people would stop complaining about the games lasting too long.

Who among us really wants the game to end, anyway? Really?

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