My Astros Fandom Has Been Canceled

A canceled charity event has me and the other writers of this site questioning our motivation for covering the Houston Astros anymore.

By Timothy De Block May 14, 2013, 6:18am CDT

Editor's note: TCB will be going dark today as a form of protest over the cancellation of the Black Ties and Baseball Caps gala. There will not be a game thread today, nor a recap, nor any of our usual features. Here's a link to the donation page for the Houston Area Women's Center.

I remember several years back during Craig Biggio's final Spring Training, the Astros icon made use of the media that I've never seen him do before.

At his locker, he invited all the media present to voice his frustration with an MLB executive who had pointed out that the Sunshine Kids pin Biggio wore every year during Spring Training on his hat was not allowed and that he needed to remove it. Never mind the fact that Biggio had worn the pin for 20 years during Spring Training and never had an issue before.

This isn't the exact same situation but I'm reminded of it. In case you haven't heard, last night we found out that the Astros have canceled their annual Black Ties and Baseball Caps gala which was an event that raised money for Houston Area Women's Center. Last year, the event raised $250,000 for the charity. Thirty-six percent of the HAWC's funds come from fundraising efforts, which means the Astros canceling of the event has left the organization scrambling for a good chunk of their operating costs.

This event had been put on by the Astros Wives Organization which, according to KHOU, has been officially disbanded. Reading conversation on Twitter, it sounds as if the Astros didn't have enough wives to put on the event which is a terrible excuse for canceling an event outright a day after Mother's Day. As much as I would like to believe in the good of the Astros, their recent history has worn me down and apparently continues to wear me down. I'm not alone in this sentiment.

We've decided as a group that for today we will not be covering the Astros at all. When we do return to coverage, we may find ourselves with less writers. Call it a protest or whatever you want but several of our writers have expressed a disinterest in covering this team for the moment. The losing sucks but this is a swift kick to the guy and a punch to the face.

Personally, this may be my final post for TCB. I questioned my Astros fandom when Jim Deshaies was allowed to go to the Chicago Cubs. All the good people were being allowed to leave: Alyson Footer went to MLB.com; Dave Raymond and Brett Dolan were not retained; after JD, Larry Dierker, a guy who had been with the Astros organization at the beginning, walked away from the Astros. If all these good people are leaving, what am I doing here?

Since 2009, I've posted over 1,000 articles, I've produced over 100 hours of audio focused solely on the Astros and I've commented over 12,000 times on the Crawfish Boxes alone. Almost all of 10,000 plus tweets on Twitter have been about the Astros and almost all of my 400 plus followers live in Houston despite the fact that I live in South Carolina.

I've been a fan of the Astros much longer than 2009. I started following the Astros because Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell were not only good but great both on and off the field. They did things the right way and that's what made me fall in love with in organization that seemed to appreciate that.

Growing up I took those ideals and applied them to my every day life. I live by one word: Integrity.

According to Merriam-Webster integrity is "firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values"

I've applied that word to my everyday life and I've impressed everyone I've ever worked with. I've been named Sailor of the Quarter and Sailor of the Year in the Navy. I've been told by Master Chiefs they expected great things from me outside of the Navy.

My work ethic and passion will continue but it may not be applied to an Astros organization that seems to have lost its integrity.

Every civilian job I've taken, my boss has been extremely disappointed I was leaving for a better opportunity. Here on the site I was given an opportunity to write because my FanPost was one of the most viewed articles and after being given that opportunity to write I'm proud to have been a part of this sites tremendous growth the past couple years. And this site and this community has grown in the absolute worst time to be an Astos fan. I'm not the most talented writer or contributor on this site but I am certainly one of the hardest working. Biggio and Bagwell gave me role models to look up to and ideals to live by. The Astros and writing for this site have helped me find my passion for producing digital content.

My work ethic and passion will continue but it may not be applied to an Astros organization that seems to have lost its integrity.

On the podcast we recorded tonight, I made the case for Biggio as George Postolos replacement. I argued for his work ethic, his popularity and his ability to adapt to new roles. Shortly after recording the podcast and as I'm beginning to edit it, we find out the Astros have canceled one of it's well known charities because it supposedly didn't have enough wives to support the event.

Who says it has to be wives that put this event on? It's a fucking charity that's not just something you drop because you don't have enough people taking charge and/or want to focus more on other charity efforts. If anything you increase your efforts you find the people who want to help you don't cancel it.

I'm appalled.

I'm pissed off.

I'm defeated.

I'm embarrassed.

I'm sick to my stomach.

No, Biggio would not accept this job or at least I would like to think he wouldn't accept a job in an organization that is so terrible to it's own employees, it's own fans and now it's own charities.

If you would like to listen to the three unreleased podcasts you can find them here:

[Mixlr]

I've lost all motivation to edit them.