The Pecan Park Eagle

After their signing to play a series with the 2005 Astros, one reporter asked Lance Berkman: “What do you think of the Babies’ chances against your club?”

The Pecan Park Eagle hopes that everyone of you had a a great Thanksgiving Day with friends, family and yourselves, in whatever way best served served your own needs in 2013.

Now, on Friday, November 29, 2013, its time for everybody to get ready for a little four to seven day trip through time.

Today, with the help pf APBA digital baseball, and your imaginations, you are on notice that the Best of Seven Time Warp Series between the 1860/2013 Houston Babies and the 2005 Houston Astros will get underway tonight, at the transposed time and date of 7:30 PM, Saturday, October 15, 2005, in Minute Maid Park before a packed house of 42,000 rabid local baseball fans and an international gathering of sports media writers from here to eternity. Even dear old revered journalist Grantland Rice has made the time warp journey from the 1920s to cover this first game of the series. – The games will be played in real time, meaning, that at this time, none of the games have been played – and that they will only be played one actual 2013 calender day at a time.

For purposes of reporting clarity, today’s column of 11/29/13 exists only to announce the start of things. Game One in transposed time (10/15/05) will be played tonight and reported here in our column of 11/30/13, after it is played.

Got it? – But what about the rule differences that separate the Babies and Astros once they take the field?

“The Babies are used to playing without gloves and to a set of 1860 rules that made one bounce catches an out,” Astros manager Phil Garner explained. “We didn’t think it was fair to either team to play by those rules. After all, the 2005 Astros are the team of the nearer real present for all home games at MMP – and we’re playing against a team that is seasoned by rules from the distant past, but manned by a club of players from even our near future of 2013.”

Totally ignoring the time zone centrality of Manager Garner’s reasoning, Babies manager Bob Dorrill has agreed to play the series by contemporary National League rules. There will be gloves and bigger bats in use – plus, or minus, no one-bounce outs and no designated hitters. With some help from the Time Warp Events Executive Committee, the Babies have also obtained permission from the Sugar Land Skeeters to play their series home games at Constellation Field in 2005, putting aside the incongruity that the venue did not actually exist as a finished product and open until 2012. The Time Warp Committee reasoned, as they often do, that “sometimes in life, we have to set aside the restrictions of reality to get what we want – and the people involved here seem to want this series.”

The playing schedule is very straightforward: It’s best four of seven wins; series ends whenever either team wins four games; as needed. the home game schedule of games, with no travel dates in between, starts with the Astros (A) at home and it proceeds in this home game pattern: A-A-B-B-B-A-A; all games are under lights, starting tomorrow, Saturday, October 15, 2005, @ MMP; winning club gets City of Houston bragging rights – and each winning club player gets two season tickets to watch the 2014 Houston Astros start fighting their way back to respectability

Here are the rosters for each team (Please note: The Babies feature three excellent female players in Texas Baseball Hall of Famer Marie “Red” Mahoney, Marsha “The Librarian” Franty, and that other redheaded pepper pot, the hustling Jo Hale.):

HOUSTON ASTROS (26):

Pitchers (12)

Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Roy Oswalt, Brandon Backe, Wandy Rodriguez, Ezequiel Astacio, Dan Wheeler, Mike Gallo, Chad Qualls, Russ Springer, Brad Lidge, and John Franco.

Catchers (2)

Brad Ausmus and Raul Chavez.

Infielders (6)

Mike Lamb, Jose Vizcaino, Craig Biggio, Morgan Ensberg, Adam Everett, and Eric Bruntlett.

Outfielders (6)

Lance Berkman, Willie Taveras, Jason Lane, Luke Scott, Orlando Palmiero, and Chris Burke

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HOUSTON BABIES (24)

Pitchers (9)

Bob Blair, Larry Hajduk, Marie “Red” Mahoney, Mike McCroskey, Patrick Lopez, Ira Liebman, Tony Cavender, Marsha Franty, and Matt Rejmaniak.

Catchers (2)

Jo Hale and Bob Dorrill.

Infielders (7)

Larrry Joe Miggins, Deacon Jones, Phil Holland, Bill Hale, Tom Murrah, Robert Pena, and Mark Hudec.

Outfielders (6)

Alex Hajduk, Kyle Burns, Bob Stevens, Zach Hajduk, Alex Schmelter, and Robby Martin.

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The Starting Pitcher Matches (pending the absence of injuries or other intervening; in the APBA game, even season ending injuries are possible.)

Game 1 @ MMP: Bob Blair, Babies vs. Roger Clemens, Astros.

Game 2 @ MMP: Larry Hajduk, Babies vs. Andy Pettitte, Astros.

Game 3 @ CF: Roy Oswalt, Astros vs. Marie “Red” Mahoney, Babies

Game 4 @CF: Brandon Backe, Astros vs. Mike McCroskey, Babies

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Those Uneven Roster Numbers: Yeah, that’s right. The Astros pulled a fast one in signing off their approval of this series. They insisted that the Babies agree to accepting both team rosters as they stood on the signing date of the approved contract. It was only later that the Babies learned that this agreement will also give the Astros two extra players. The Babies will just have to deal with it and move on. Besides, focus in a series is more important than numbers.

Check back tomorrow, 11/30/13, and we shall find out together the results of Game One.