The Pecan Park Eagle

Opening Day at MMP in Houston as AL Club in 2013: "Oh, Really?"

If we listen to some Astros fans these days, today’s featured photo is  how the home Opening Day crowd at Minute Maid Park is going to look when Houston takes the field for their first appearance as an American League club in 2013. I doubt it will, but I do not doubt that the Astros  have lost some fans forever over this obviously inopportune (for us NL people) moment for the city’s extorted manipulation of new owner Jim Crane into accepting the league change as a condition for approval in the case of his long-suffering application.

Ignoring the current Astros story is tantamount to the now famous metaphorical treatment of this top local development as “the shunned and enormous elephant in the living room.” We can pretend he’s not there as we hum over the chances of the Texans going far in the NFL playoffs behind a second string quarterback – or gnash our teeth over an NBA season that appears dead in the water – or try to get excited about a Dynamo soccer championship game against a club from LA that most probably will end in a 0-0 final score in regulation time.

Or we can stare down the elephant in the living room and peel back the decisions we all have to make for ourselves now on a layered individual basis:

(1) Does it really matter what league the Astros belong to?

(2) Does the DH rule or west coast game start times turn us off from even wanting to try to support the Astros as an AL club?

(3) Do we simply hate the way Bud Selig rammed this decision down Houston’s throat without giving us fans any say in the matter?

(4) Is this change to the AL in 1913 and how it’s happened big enough to turn us away from baseball altogether?

(5) Do we simply adopt another NL club to follow or just drop baseball from our lives?

(6) Do we embrace change with enthusiasm and just look forward to the Yankees and Red Sox coming to town on an annual basis?

(7) Will playing in the AL West put any kick into the SIlver Boot competition between the Astros and Rangers?

(8) Will we simply hold back and wait to see what Jim Crane does as an owner to make us feel welcome as true believers in what he will show us he’s doing with the club?

(9) How much does our support for the club depend upon pricing adjustments to the current cost of tickets?

(10) How much does our support now hinge upon how Crane and new CEO George Postolos handle the leadership affirmations and changes that now hang out there as the number one line in decision-making on which way this club is going to go?

Those are some of the big layers I see. There are others. The one we cannot supply immediately is “time.” My take is that we are not starting with a great sense of hope or prospect due to the empty barrel on currently ready big league roster talent. Now Crane-Postolos have to make the affirmations or moves at the leadership level that give us substance for faith or doubt in the future of the club.

My guess is that there will be a shift in the fan base to some as yet undetermined degree. Many of those people now swearing off the Astros or baseball will not be back. Others will, but the club is going to need an infusion of new fans who don’t feel betrayed or screwed over by the way this whole sale was handled. And that’s not going to happen quickly or be fixed by speeches or unimportant marketing slogans.

Jim Crane must now establish a credible, affordable, transparent plan for winning that fans both support and feel confidence in supporting. He will not win many of the fans who hate him for being the guy who made the AL deal with the horned Mr. Selig, but he will get a chance from the folks who accept “accepting the DH” as just part of accepting change in life and who believe in the leadership and plan he has put in place to bring Houston into the winner’s circle.

The key thing is that he needs to show us the leadership and the plan and provide us with the evidence that the place is in place.

Words alone won’t cut it. Action is needed. And only time will tell the full story of Mr. Crane’s credibility.

And that’s about as far as I can budge the elephant in the living room on this first hungry day of a new regime. All I can do is submit a request to new owner Jim Crane: “Please don’t ask us what we’ve done today to make the Astros a champion?”

You need to do something genuine, Mr. Crane. And please make it just a touch of all the right things along the lines we have tried to suggest in this column.