The Pecan Park Eagle

One of the 80 36" diameter steel buffalo medallions that once rimmed the exterior grandstand walls of Buff Stadium in Houston from 1928 to 1961.

As Greg Lucas, Jerome Solomon, and others have noted, we have to hand it to Jim Crane, George Postolos, and the new ownership of the Houston major league baseball franchise this week for really doing a good job of stirring the pot of interest in the ball club this week. Their teasing offer earlier this week to be open to changing everything from prices to the the team’s colors and uniforms to the club’s nickname did the trick of drawing brief attention way from the afterglow of the Texans’ recently completed sort-of-happy football season and the onset of the win streak by a mediocre Rockets basketball team and caused fans to tug with each other over how they disparately view the scared identity of the local baseball nine.

As might be expected, most responding fans did not like the idea of changing the name of the team from Astros. Having played the past 47 years as the “Astros,” many fans grew up with that identity alone as their guiding light to loyalty. They could have been called the “Worms” and the reaction would have been just as strong under the circumstances. In 47 years, the word “Astros” has gone from “What the heck is that?” to an iconic identity of its own as the name for Houston baseball. To a slightly lesser degree, a few people expressed the same allegiance to “Colt .45s,” the name the club used during their first three years of big league play.

Then there are people like me who grew up with the names “Buffalos” or “Buffs” as our identity for Houston baseball. Our minor league club was first known as the Buffs in 1896 – and then consistently called the Buffalos/Buffs from 1907 through 1961.  Those of us who originally hoped that our first MLB club would keep the only powerful nickname from Houston history when they entered the National League in 1962 would welcome a second chance at that connected-to-Houston identity when the club moves to the American League in 2013. After all, the current ballpark sits on ground that was once roamed by real Houston Buffaloes – and it’s located only two blocks or so from Buffalo Bayou – and bringing back the Buffs identity would mark the third consecutive century in which our city had used that cherished identity for its professional baseball team.

And don’t tell us that Buffs is bush because it was once minor league. Tris Speaker was a Houston Buff in 1907 and Dizzy Dean pitched for the herd in 1931 as two of many greats who once played as Houston Buffalos. Plus the San Diego Padres, baltimore Orioles, and Miami Marlins have already demonstrated that major league clubs can bear up well by remaining or renewing their attachments to historical identities that began at the minor league level.

If the team remains the Astros, I get it – and I will not be surprised or hurt by the forces that work in favor of Astros. I just don’t have the strong emotional attachment to that name that I have with the Buffs imagery of my East End childhood. By now, Astros is iconic to the idea of Houston baseball and needs no attachment by reason or rhyme to space or the space program. – Sort of like the “Dodgers” in LA are simply who they are, without any connection to the art of dodging impact with Brooklyn trolleys that started them out as such a thousand seasons ago.

Houston Buffs 1947.

The only change I could not abide would be if the new ownership changed the nickname to something windy and stupid like “Hurricanes.” Don’t people who make long name suggestions realize from the start that their suggestions will never survive in print as such? Apparently not. As we have seen with the “D Backs” and “D Rays” (who wisely dropped the “Devil” and settled for “Rays) have learned, Hurricanes would quickly and forever go to print as “Canes” and then we would get to encounter the forever fun of checking out articles on Miami U. because we saw a “Canes” headline and thought it was about Houston baseball.

That’s all I’ve got on this one, except to add: “Give me a home where the buffalo roam – and I’ll be perfectly happy – as long as they win.”

By the way, history notes this other connection between the Buffs and our current major league team. – When Buff Stadium opened in 1928, the Union Station location of our current Minute Maid Park was the primary departure depot for downtown fans who wanted to catch the interurban train that ran by Buff Stadium after they got off work on game days.

Enough said. Go Buffs. Go Astros. Or whomever. – Just win.