As I was sitting in in the stands last night during another Astro loss, I couldn't help but spend some time looking around at our home, Minute Maid Park. Sure this season has been a sight for sore eyes, a complete wash, an expected failure, and any other negative saying; but at least we have the Juice Box.

I am sure anyone outside of our own fan base reading this is thinking, what the heck is she talking about? Although our big fancy juice box is now 12 years old, it is still one of the prettiest parks in America. Recently, ESPN did a battle of the ballparks and Minute Made started as the 20 seed match up with a formidable opponent in Citizens Bank Park. The Bank is known as a front runner for favorite park lists and did eliminate us, but since when do we have such a bad park? Sure 20 isn't the basement, but parks ahead of us that have no right being there include:

Progressive Field (Indians)

Citi Field (Mets)

US Cellular Field (White Sox)

Yes, this is all my opinion, so I could be wrong, but I have been to all 4 and love our Houston home the most. I also love our sponsor and the fact that we play in a "park" and not a "field." Sure some might say that Minute Maid is past its prime and we only need to wait another 20 years for a new park, but the charm of Minute Maid will always be visible to me. Who can forget the history that lies there from the great Astros teams in the past decade. We may be far from those talent levels now, but what other 12 year old ballpark has had so much happen inside its walls, if there is one, do tell.

Anyway, this season has been truly disappointing, a far cry from anything to be proud of, but look at other teams that were in the toilet (yes we have to admit that is where we are). In our own division the Pirates have stuck gold and so have the Nationals in Washington. Maybe the Pirates are bad example because of their 20 year record but the Nationals sure turned it around pretty quick! Sure they snagged Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper in back to back years, but we didn't do too bad with Carlos Correa! There will be more drafts in the future where we are near the top and more winter meetings to get better. I guess I am not sure what the topic of this post really is, maybe just a cry to the future when we have our ballpark and our team rocking at the same time, because right now our park sounds like a 20 seed and our team plays like a 30 seed. Let's just put the rally caps on, the homerunmonkey on our back and blast off into the future like a real Astro would!