Is it time to part ways with the 'Stros?
Before the start of this MLB season, I was eagerly anticipating the beginning of professional baseball. Every year, I go to the Astros homepage to check out the roster and see who the new guys are that I will be cheering for.
This year, I came to a realization. I do not care about the players on my team. I am a huge Biggio/Bagwell guy, so the roster now looks so foreign to me.
I am wondering why I even pull for a team that I haven't gone to see play in 5 years. I live near Austin and the only games close enough to see are the Texas Rangers.
So here's what I'm asking in the poll below: Should I jump ship to another team or stick it out with the Astros?
0 recs |
23 comments
Comments
really?
I do not care about the players on my team. I am a huge Biggio/Bagwell guy, so the roster now looks so foreign to me.
Well, there is Lance Berkman. He is awesome. Known to some as Fat Elvis, but to others as the Big Puma, he’s easy to root for because he’s a true-blood Texan – grew up here, played college ball at Rice and has been an Astro his entire career. He loves BBQ and flag football. Plus, the early part of this season aside, he’s not bad with a bat.
And then there is Roy Oswalt. Big pitches, small frame and when he’s on, he’s on. I love to watch him pitch. Plus he got a tractor as a performance bonus and used it to help build a steakhouse in the small Mississippi town he comes from.
I’m just getting started, but did you know Carlos Lee raises cattle and hits big home runs, Michael Bourn runs real dang fast and recently stole home, Wandy Rodriguez is the most underrated lefty pitcher in baseball and Hunter Pence has quite the arm in right field to gun down opposing baserunners?
I get the whole Bagwell/Biggio thing because I grew up with those guys, but I don’t find it hard to love this new team at all. In fact, I couldn’t ever consider following anyone else.
I am wondering why I even pull for a team that I haven’t gone to see play in 5 years.
Really? 5 years? So you missed when your team went to the World Series for the first time ever? That’s a bummer dude. We got swept, but we got there and that post-season journey was epic.
I live near Austin and the only games close enough to see are the Texas Rangers.
I don’t know exactly where you live, but Minute Maid Park is actually exactly the same distance from Austin as the Ballpark in Arlington. According to Google Maps they’re both 3 hours and 13 minutes away.
Austin, TX to Ballpark in Arlington
Austin, TX to the Juice Box
Also, I lived in Austin and the drive to Houston, through La Grange is much, much better than that hellish drive up I-35. Certainly the kolaches are better down that way if you ask me.
Finally, I’ll refrain from trashing the Rangers because my in-laws are Rangers fans. But you know they’re in the AL right? They have the DH rule up there. And that ain’t right.
It helps if the hitter thinks you're a little crazy. - Nolan
by Trei Brundrett on May 19, 2009 12:03 PM CDT reply actions 3 recs
Rec'd
for Hruska’s reference.
"I am from one of the top 15 cities in the world. Buffalo, New York." - TrentEdwardsHoF2018
by Artest4Prez on May 19, 2009 1:05 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
damn straight Hruskas
they got that one cream cheese kolache w/ the little bit of sugar on top…
for awhile there, it wasn’t an astros game if I hadn’t had one of those things to eat while listening to the pre-game on 740 as I drove into the city
It helps if the hitter thinks you're a little crazy. - Nolan
by Trei Brundrett on May 19, 2009 1:34 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well, if you're contemplating jumping ship
then you’re clearly not a fan, anyways. So go ahead and jump.
And, unlike clockwerks, I have no problem with trashing the Rangers. The Rangers suck. They have the audacity to claim all of Texas as their representative area, despite showing up a decade after the Astros and being an absolute shit team for three decades. And Dallas sucks, too.
Actually, the Rangers shouldn’t be your team. You can follow the model of the front-running assholes I’ve met from Dallas and be a Yankees fan.
by Only_A_Lad on May 19, 2009 12:16 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
agreed
i would rather punch myself repeatedly in the face with brass knuckles than pull from any team from Dallas.
by bubblescreen on May 19, 2009 4:25 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
You said it bro!
hunterpencefan. Astros nerd.
by hunterpencefan on May 21, 2009 4:09 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I cross-posted this on Lone Star Ball and...
It’s up to 70 something comments. I don’t think I’m the only one who has lost there identity with the Astros.
I’ve watched on TV, haven’t been to a game in 5 years.
I live north of Austin, so it takes around an extra hour to get to Minute Maid vs. Ballpark
I’m a guy that was never die-hard for the Astros, but wants to become die-hard with some team. I just don’t know if the Astros are that team.
by LinuxTX on May 19, 2009 2:04 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Lone Star Ball
certainly has a lively following. i tried to get some inside info on Hamilton’s injury from their game thread on Sunday and sifted through 4 posts and over 1200 comments. seems like they’re just more conversational than we are. of those 70 something comments, most are just idle ramblings. good for them, though.
i didn’t feel the need to comment initially, but i feel like we’ve been called out. clockwerks makes a lot of good points, so rather than reiterating any of those, i’ll just make a couple pointed remarks.
1) um… the Round Rock Express play in your backyard. the Rangers AAA affiliate is all the way in OK City.
2) the Rangers have exactly ONE winning season this decade. the Astros have SEVEN. the Rangers have been to the postseason THREE times in their history, and have won a grand total of ONE postseason game, way back 1996. the Astros have been in the postseason three times THIS DECADE (hopefully you didn’t comepletely miss the whole world series run… that was really a lot of fun).
sure there are a lot of things to like right now about the Rangers, but I’d rather go with the team that consistently outperforms their talent and is always making exciting runs in the 2nd half, as opposed to the team that always seems to dissappoint with high paid talent… and play in an open-air stadium.
in the end, it’s not for us to persuade you one way or the other. as the Rangers fans at Lone Star Ball seem to agree, if you have to ask, you might not really be fan material. if you feel you are, the Astros would be glad to have you (and your money).
by littlevisigoth on May 19, 2009 2:55 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
How do you become a die hard fan?
Generally by sticking with a team when it’s down, so that it’s that much sweeter when it’s up. I have no love for the Cubs, but much respect for the loyalty of their fans, as they will have more than earned their bragging rights by the time Chicago wins the World Series.
You don’t become a die-hard fan by hand-picking your team. You become a die-hard fan by standing behind the team that fate has thrust upon you, and sticking with them through thick and thin. You become a die-hard fan when you move across the country and openly boo the home team because your boys are in town for a weekend series. You become a die-hard fan by suffering through the misery of the late 80s in the Astrodome, the agony of the being so close yet so far in the early 00s, and finally reaping the rewards of patience when your team defies logic and storms into the World Series after even their hometown paper had written them off in 2005.
Picking a team that’s more likely to win sooner makes you a bandwagon fan, not a die-hard fan. Sure, you might get to the party a little sooner, but you won’t enjoy it nearly as much as the rest of us.
by JonathanE on May 19, 2009 3:18 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs
Well put
The Crawfishboxes
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 Stephen Higdon on May 19, 2009 3:33 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Rangers May Be the Team For You
It’s quite likely the Rangers may be the team for you. You mentioned liking Bidge and Bags and not caring about the team this year because you didn’t like any of the individual players in the line-up.
Well, the Rangers cater to that quite well. Their team can never seem to put the pieces together, but they have some of the most amazing star players grace their club.
Only the Rangers could have such a revolving door of talent that never produces. It started from their first manager on through Nolan and Pudge and Canseco and A-Rod and Tiexiera, and I’m sure Salty will be the latest victim to this trend.
The Rangers and Astros literally define the polar opposites of “the whole is the sum of its parts.” For the Rangers, the parts are larger than the whole. For the Astros, the whole is larger than the parts.
As a team, the Rangers consistently fade to black down the stretch, whereas the Astros seem to come back from the dead. I’ll never forget reading a local (Austin, Kirk Bohls) columnist in June of ‘05 castigating the Astros for being so bad and saying, "If they know what’s good for them, they’ll trade Clemens now and try to salvage this shambles of a season."
That has, and probably never will happen to the Rangers. Not in the near future, anyway. But you can rest assured, they’ll put together an amazing run in June or July, be one or two games behind the division lead, and then proceed to pull the football in August and September just like Lucy does to Charlie Brown.
So maybe the Rangers are for you. And you don’t even need to hear it from me on this topic. From LSB:
The Rangers are fun to root for at this point but they have also never paid off so root at your own peril. If you are impatient (and really I mean don’t have the patience of a priest) then you’re not going to enjoy rooting for them. Lots of heartbreak and sadness and I can’t shake this feeling that they’re going to win the first two games of the WS only to lose it and never get back there in my lifetime.
So, yeah, if you are getting frustrated with the AStros you probably aren’t going to do so well as a Rangers fan.
As for Bidge and Bags… Not a few of us around here were rooting for Bags to get pushed out the door as early as ’06 in order to make way for Burke or some other player of the future. No one player is bigger than the team.
by pel on May 19, 2009 3:41 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
Correction
Not a few of us around here were rooting for Bidge to get pushed out the door as early as ’06 in order to make way for Burke or some other player of the future. No one player is bigger than the team.
I meant Bidge, not Bags.
by pel on May 19, 2009 3:44 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
I don't feel the need to persuade someone to be a fan of the Astros.
It’s up to you; do what makes you happy. But don’t expect us to persuade you. I live in Austin, as do many of the people posting on this site. Obviously, we have found a reason to actively follow the team—-so don’t say that living in Austin is an impediment to being a fan. I will warn you of this: if you want to visit the Ballpark at Arlington for weekend day games in the summer, be prepared to be hot, very hot.
by clack on May 19, 2009 5:17 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
If you believe...
that you should be allowed to swing the bat without playing a defensive position on the field, you are a Rangers fan… If you like watching those who make the most of their 3 at-bats every 5 days, like veteran Russ Ortiz did tonight, you are an Astros fan. Simple as that… Oh yeah, dont feel bad about jumping ship, Nolan Ryan did.
A Walk Is As Good As A Hit.
by NocturnalMatt on May 19, 2009 10:10 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
That nolan ryan thing still gets me.
I bet if we did a poll on the most bonehead moves in baseball, that would win by a landslide.
by mutombo4life on May 20, 2009 11:51 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
You have to stick by your team
If you call yourself a FANatic, then it wouldn’t matter how they did. Sure you want them to win, but you still root for them anyway. If you’re just a fan of the sport, then feel free to bandwagon jump. Just think how happy the Blue Jays fans are! They finally have a reason to show up to the park now. And besides, how could you root against a team that kept Jose Cruz as a base coach. Let’s hear it one more time. JOSE CRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ!
by mutombo4life on May 20, 2009 11:55 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
It second this
Jump! Your either with us or against us! Luke warm and I’ll spit you out of my mouth!
by joeljr on May 20, 2009 1:20 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs
Astros
As NocturnalMatt pointed out, the Rangers play designated-hitter-ball, and the Astros play baseball.
(Except during interleague, during which time MLB is dead to me.)
Honestly, I can cheer for both the Rangers and Astros, as they should never play each other. Except for the unlikely World Series matchup, in which case I’d go for the team that plays baseball.
Have you noticed that some Rangers games are on 42-2 (or somewhere on Time Warner) in Austin this season? It’s the ones that are on local DFW TV as opposed to Fox Sports Net. I’ve never had cable, so it is fun to see a game on TV every so often. I wish they had Astros too though.
by Xan on May 20, 2009 6:18 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs
By the way
Nice name and icon. I’m posting this from my Debian laptop. :-)
by Xan on May 20, 2009 6:48 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs
Always An Astros Fan!
I definitely have to say the Astros, but then Ive been diehard Astros fan since before I understood what I was rooting for (Im 30) … my grandma – a Houston baseball fan since the Houston Buffs, she rarely missed a game … if she couldnt see them on tv, she listened to them on radio.. she even paid for cable to be able to watch them still … I have been through some pretty lousy teams and some pretty good teams… and Ive never and will never have another favorite team … what is worse, I was living in Cleveland the year they went to the World Series … it killed me to not be here and be able to go see them..but I still followed them and watched them when I could… i forced the guys at work to keep it on the Astros game, instead of the Browns game… lol …
So if it were up to me, stick with the Astros … I always will… I could never have another favorite team.. ever…
And I agree on the DH… I cant stand it … I watch the interleague games with it, but I don’t like it … and never will …
Im proud of the other guys here for sticking up for the Stros. Too few seem to do that.
This diehard lifetime Stros fan has only one more thing to say (all together now):
GOOOOOOOOO STROOOOOOOOOOOOS!!
by strosfannate on May 21, 2009 4:52 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs
I totally agree
with everyone here. I could not think of following another team. Heck, I sometimes find it boring to watch a baseball game the Stros aren’t playing. I have not found it too difficult to switch to this new era of Astros players, and I really like Pence and Bourn. Also, I lived in the Dallas area last year, and still managed to follow the Astros most of the time. Soon I will be moving even farther north, but I will stick with them just as much, if not more. And by the way, all Rangers fans are LOSERS!!! GOOOOOOOOO STROOOOOOOOOOS!!!!!!!!!
hunterpencefan. Astros nerd.
by hunterpencefan on May 21, 2009 4:07 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

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