Monday's Three Astros Things

Some things to talk about while you browse our new shirts in the TCB store....

1) Rocket lands in Kissimmee

Yep, Roger Clemens is back with the Astros in an all-encompassing role that includes working with young pitchers and scouting arms in the draft. He worked with some of the guys on Sunday and seemed to enjoy the process. One guy who may benefit immediately from his tutelage is Bud Norris, who seems poised to become a team leader (or team goofball), but may need to learn some of Rocket's tricks to get there.

Oh, and Clemens was asked about Piazza's book, too.

Yeah. That was pretty good. You can find the whole interview here, but let's get back to the baseball. What did Clemens accomplish on his first day in camp?

Porter said Clemens will follow a system during Astros spring training but he’ll also be allowed to float. Sunday, Clemens was scheduled to shadow Porter and view pitchers.

"We’re going to lean on Roger to helps us with these (player) evaluations," Porter said.

Sounds like Porter may have trouble letting someone just drop in on his instructionals. It'll be interesting to track how this all goes down. Still, I like the idea of Clemens in camp, because he's had a proven track record of success working with young players. Hopefully, he can work some magic on this Astros staff.

2) Crane goes golfing

We interrupt your regularly scheduled Three Things to talk about golf and the President of the United States.

In case you didn't hear, Jim Crane played golf with Barack Obama and Tiger Woods yesterday and the former mayor of Dallas at his golf course, the Floridian. Crane has made quite a bit of noise this weekend, flying in on his helicopter to give the team his Play Like A Champion speech and then fly out to go golfing with the elite.

Bo Porter reacts:

After learning Sunday that Crane played golf with both President Obama and Woods, Porter joked he would have stayed in Kissimmee with the Astros even if he’d received an invitation.

"Man, how about being (Crane)?" Porter said.

It's a tough life, being an MLB owner. You're constantly losing money, you have to have boring meetings with all sorts of people outside your field. Ugh. The worst.

Okay, let's get back to baseball now.

3) All-Star return to Houston?

Since the 2013 NBA All-Star game was held at Toyota Center this year, not too far from the friendly confines of Minute Maid Park, we get the obligatory story on whether the Astros will host another All-Star game soon. MLB seems to spread these around quite sparingly, so Houston has only hosted three in the last 50 years.

Here's a quote from Postolos:

"We would love that, and we’ve certainly made it known that we would like to do that," Postolos said of bringing another MLB All-Star Game to Houston. "It’s something we’ll work on. It’s a challenge to get it quick. A short rotation in baseball is a challenge, but we’ll work toward getting a chance up as soon as we possibly can."

What I'd ask you is: does it matter to you as fans if Houston hosts an All-Star game? 2004 was memorable for me, and I'll always enjoy thinking of Berkman and Tejada's home run derby at MMP, but I'm not sure as a fan I can get too jazzed about the ASG coming back to Houston.

Would that be a lift for all you downtrodden Astros fans? Would you be more likely to buy season tickets that year to get tickets to the ASG?