The Pecan Park Eagle

The beautiful signs that now tower above the Crawford Boxes at Minute Maid Park are club owner Jim Crane’s way of saying thanks to the corporate sponsors who have poured twenty million dollars into his inner city ballpark rebuilding program. Our question is not over the need to express gratitude. Our first two questions are: (1) Is ruining the architectural design of MMP and the view of downtown and the train the best way to do it? And (2) Would the CEOs of each sponsoring group want their company’s name up there, if they understood how many fans feel so negative about them?

Look! Think what you will of him. Jim Crane is doing a good thing with the inner city baseball field building program. If memory serves, however, the program didn’t simply start with Mr. Crane. It’s been going on for years under the McLane ownership in conjunction with Minute Maid. It simply hasn’t garnered the quantum leap financial support that Mr. Crane has been able to put together in a relatively short period.

Crane deserves the kudos. And so do the sponsors. But not at the expense of abandoning the architectural beauty and integrity of OUR Houston baseball home field that is Minute Maid Park. The signage in left field has obliterated the sense of openness to downtown that our movable roof was designed to bring the fans. It has also stepped upon our view of the old train as though it were a stick of gum on the sidewalk.

Sometimes it seems we may never be able to keep anything alive in Houston that bears the seed of real tradition, the kind that other cities produce, value, and preserve as part of their natural realm. Our movers and shakers often come here to make their own mark, regardless of what has come before them. They are often dismissive and prepared to fire or destroy anyone or anything they didn’t hire or build first with their own hands.

It’s how ancient historic buildings often become parking lots in Houston. It’s also how old ballparks that have been finely chiseled around a historic railroad depot can become a parking lot too. All one has to do is alienate large numbers in the fan base.

That being said, let me be clear: I don’t wish anything but the best for the success of Jim Crane and the Astros. If he does well, the people of Houston will reap the benefits. And that wish goes straight to the hope that we shall one day see a smiling panorama of Crane, Postolos, Luhnow, and Porter – all raising the World Series trophy above their heads in the middle of a confetti snowfall on the floor of Minute Maid Park.

I’m just saying – please, Mr. Crane and noble sponsors – take down that hanging ugly signage wall. Place it elsewhere in the park – in a place that doesn’t violate the beauty and tradition of how this place was designed to work. The concourse walls might seem a more humble abode for this due recognition, but what’s wrong with that idea? You even have the time and space in the concourse to explain why the sign is there, while you also start to do special things that draw game fans to that area. – If it’s my company, I want its name spelled out in the right light. I don’t want it hanging in space with its name only communicating to fans that “my company is the reason you no longer can see the downtown sky.”

I don’t work for Jim Crane so I am free to tell him what I really think. I hope he realizes that Houston has a much longer history with baseball than most people imagine, going all the way back to pre-Civil War days. Now all we want is a club that can win without dumping tradition every five years – and a club owner who sees us as his “partners” in success – and not just a market mass to be dealt with as a faceless entity.

For everybody else, I did a little homework from a photo I took of the signs late in the season. Here are the names of all CEOs and their corporate addresses.

Give some thought to writing an old-fashioned snail-mail letter to each, expressing whatever you think or feel about their generosities and/or the placement of those signs at Minute Maid Park.

If you do so, feel free to post a copy of your message below as a comment on this column.

Here’s the list.

Merrill A. Miller Jr., CEO

National Oilwell Varco

7909 Parkwood Circle Dr.

Houston, TX 77036

Phone: 713 375 3700

Phone: 1 888 262 8645

President & CEO

Champion Energy Services

1500 Rankin Road, Suite 200

Houston, Texas 77073

Phone: 1.877.653.5090

Halliburton, CEO

3000 N. Sam Houston Pkwy E.

Houston, TX 77032

Phone: 281 871 4000

Jack A. Fusco

President and Chief Executive Officer

CALPINE

717 Texas Avenue, 
Suite 1000

Houston, TX 77002

Phone: 713.830.2000

Nabors Industries, CEO

515 W. Greens Road, Suite 1200

Houston, Texas 77067

Phone: (281) 874-0035

Darren Rodgers, President


Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

1001 E. Lookout Drive

Richardson, TX 75082

Phone: 1-800-833-5318

Schlumberger, CEO

Schlumberger Corporate Office

5599 San Felipe, 17th Floor

Houston, TX 77056

Phone: 713-513-2000

That being said, GO ASTROS! GO HOUSTON!