State Senator & Astros Players Speak Out About Miller Park Decision

by entropic soul on Sep 17, 2008 12:49 AM CDT Comment 19 comments

Add State Senator John Whitmire and the players on the Houston Astros to the group of those taking MLB commisioner Bud Selig to task on his decision to hold the Astros/Cubs games at Miller Park right after a natural disaster. The senator, Lance Berkman and Doug Brocail all going on record and calling the decision outrageous, unconscionable, putting the dollar before the welfare of the player first and say had it been another team like the Red Sox, then Selig would have allowed the games to be played at the end of the season like everyone wanted

Senator Whitmire:

"...it is unconscionable to have the Houston Astros play in Milwaukee on Sunday night when the players and team staff should be in Houston with their families or in other locations where their families have evacuated. "

Doug Brocail:

"And to make us go up and play at North Wrigley like we had to on no sleep, it was absolutely ridiculous. If it was New York or Boston it would have been played at the end of the season. I truly believe that, and I think 99.9 percent of our teammates believe that."

You can read the very interesting article here: Houston Chronicle

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It may because I just woke up

But I have chills from reading that. Hell yeah John Whitmore.

A good friend of mine used to say, "This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains." Think about that for a while.

by DyingQuail on Sep 17, 2008 8:38 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

by pjanisch on Sep 19, 2008 8:03 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

i can't put into words how totally and completely irate this post makes me

yet it’s exactly what i would have expected from a Cubs fan.

way to reinforce my perception of your entire pathetic fanbase. i bet you were one of the chickenshits booing the Astros players when they took the field in Milwaukee.

eat shit, die, and go to hell.

by littlevisigoth on Sep 19, 2008 9:02 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

It has something to do

It has something to do with the Astros just not being any good. The Astros are a negative run differential team, who has absolutely no business in the playoffs anyway. It was two games, the ‘Stros are chasing two teams in the Mets and the Brewers who haven’t been winning. The hurricane, and the subsequent rescheduling of TWO GAMES have absolutely nothing to do with the fact the the team just isn’t any good. Stop whining, it is over. The Astros were not, and still aren’t a playoff team.

by SS on Sep 21, 2008 7:34 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

that not very good team

that had swept your precious Cubs IN WRIGLEY not two weeks before this fiasco?

it has some to do with yes, they may have been playing over their heads and were do for a “correction”, but the fact of the matter was they were playing outstanding baseball up until they were put in a very disadvantaged set of circumstances and the Cubs benefitted from playing an exhausted and heavily distracted team in a VERY pro-Cubby atmosphere. Bud Selig even admitted they got the shaft, I don’t know why it’s so difficult for Cubs fans to admit it as well. it certainly won’t change the outcome at this point.

by littlevisigoth on Sep 22, 2008 4:22 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Run differential doesn't mean jack

Wins/Losses are all that matter… I’ll take wins over run differential any day.

Go 'Stros!

by Stros Bro on Sep 22, 2008 6:50 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Politicians need to stay out of sports

Bleeding Cubbie Blue since 1985.

by Bricks and Ivy on Sep 19, 2008 9:34 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

They have the right to make their opinion known

but yea, I generally agree with you in theory.

Go 'Stros!

by Stros Bro on Sep 19, 2008 10:29 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I just think they have more important things to worry about than sports.

Like Spector getting involved with the Patriots. I can see steroids a little because it’s actually against the law but things like this and “spygate” no

Bleeding Cubbie Blue since 1985.

by Bricks and Ivy on Sep 19, 2008 11:24 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Whitmire is a big Astros' fan, and the HC's Ortiz pressed him for an opinion...

while he was in the middle of hurricane clean up activities. He responded like most Astros’ fans would. It’s not like he proposed to legislation regarding baseball. I generally agree that congressmen/state legislators have better things to do than enact legislation aimed at professional sports. But he was just voicing his opinion as a fan. And I appreciate that.

by clack on Sep 20, 2008 8:23 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I don't see anything wrong with that then if he was asked about it.

Bleeding Cubbie Blue since 1985.

by Bricks and Ivy on Sep 20, 2008 9:43 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/football/college/news/1999/09/29/ecu_flood/

by mlern on Sep 22, 2008 2:18 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

relevancy?

i don’t read anywhere in there about a team that had to board a plane barely 24 hours after the storm hit and fly clear across the country to play in another team’s backyard, only to get booed by said opposing team’s classless fans upon taking the field in a “home” game.

by littlevisigoth on Sep 22, 2008 4:17 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Furthermore,

my understanding is that it was the Astros who delayed the decision resulting in the last minute flght.

by mlern on Sep 22, 2008 5:18 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

there was no reason

to make a decision before the storm hit to move the games when nobody knew what the outcome would be. i don’t understand why Cub fans’ go to argument is that it was all Drayton’s fault… oh, I know why, cause somebody wrote it in the Sun-Times and you all have been regurgitating it ever since. nobody else in the country is trying to point fingers at the Astros management. only the Cubs fans who for some reason have no capacity for sympathy. is it a twinge of guilt? why can’t you just say, “you guys got the shaft. we won those games. sucks to be you. great to be us.”?

by littlevisigoth on Sep 23, 2008 9:07 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

If you don't see the relevancy

I’m really sorry for you. This was a college football team in a very similar if not worse situation. A student had drowned in a parking lot. Greenville was devastated for weeks after Floyd. I especially thought the coach’s quote was apt:“I told the players the week of the South Carolina game and the week of the Miami game that the story was already written for them, the excuses already have been made,” Logan said. "They could go out and lose and [it would be because] we had a hurricane. ‘Gollee, how can you expect to win?’ The alternative was to go out and win the games. We have a sign in our locker room that says ‘No excuses.’ I believe that.

by mlern on Sep 22, 2008 5:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Relevancy?

It has to do with fairness. Yeah, players should always try to win no matter what the circumstances….even if the rules aren’t fair, for instance. But the job of the MLB commissioner is to create as fair a competitive situation as possible. This decision was driven by MLB profits, pure and simple. If it involved fairness, then the games would be postponed until off days or the end of the season. However, satisfying the broadcast networks was more important.

I got a laugh out of this satire/spoof on the decision:
http://www.serioussportsnewsnetwork.com/2008/09/selig-to-astros-stop-complaining-or-ill-make-you-play-the-entire-2009-season-in-montreal.html

by clack on Sep 24, 2008 9:57 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

That's...

awesome.

Oh, and think this story dies down if the Astros lose the wild card by, say, 2 games?

Montreal. Nice.

Yes, I am a nerd.

by TexSkins on Sep 25, 2008 2:19 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Losing it by 2 games

Seems like an awfully likely scenario at this point. Maybe (this is a pipe dream) Bud will actually get chased out for actively selecting teams for the postseason. (But he should for his other crimes against baseball, like interleague play, unbalanced schedules, and allowing the DH to continue.)

My favorite part of that piece:
"Check it out," Selig said. "The only places we were able to consider were Tampa Bay, Miami, Minnesota, Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York, and St. Louis. But none of them seemed like a very good option. Milwaukee, however, that seemed like a pretty good option, so we went with that."

by Xan on Sep 25, 2008 2:28 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

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