Re-Introduction to Houston Astros Fans

Hello Astros fans!

My name is Jason Burke and I am going to be writing for The Crawfish Boxes a couple of times a week beginning Monday, April 16. Since I am likely a relative unknown to many of you, I wanted to introduce myself and share some of my excitement with all of you.

As Issa said in his intro a few days ago, I am an A’s fan. I get that this may rub some people the wrong way initially, but more than anything I am a fan of baseball. In general, I gravitate towards teams that are a little down on their luck (hence my A’s fandom) but show some promise for the future.

While I was still over at FanSided working at their A’s site in 2014, I decided that I needed to branch out and prove to myself that I could write unbiased pieces about other teams. The Astros were an up-and-comer and the site had an opening, so I wrote about both the A’s and Astros for the majority of the 2015 season.

I started over there right before they signed Luke Gregerson and Pat Neshek to help bolster their bullpen. Before Carlos Correa came up and made his presence around baseball known. Before Dallas Keuchel won his AL Cy Young. However, it was after the Jonathan Villar butt slide.

I stayed over at Climbing Tal’s Hill for about a year, then moved over to Scout (now 247 Sports or something) and took over a previously dormant Astros site over there to focus on the minor leagues. I was lucky enough to cover the Arizona Fall League in 2015 when A.J. Reed made an appearance, Gary Sanchez stole the show at the Fall Stars game and Derek Fisher talked all kinds of crap around the batting cage. It was a great time.

I came back to FanSided in May of 2016 for a year and a half and wrote for their general baseball site, Call to the Pen. I pulled double duty across both sites for a bit, but left Scout last summer and FanSided last winter. Since leaving CttP I have been on a bit of a break, but when Issa gauged my interest in joining the team here, I couldn’t pass it up.

I’m not going to kid myself and pretend that I’ve been a fan through all of the awful years, but I have been on board for the last few, and this team has really grown on me. One way for me to check my own investment in a team is if they can elicit a response out of me while I’m watching. If I’m quiet, I don’t care.

But if I’m cheering, then I am wholeheartedly rooting for the team in question. The game that stands at the forefront of my mind for this self-administered test is Game 4 of the ALDS back in 2015. When Carlos Correa hit his second homer of the game, I was off the couch clapping like I would for the A’s. When the Royals came back, I was heartbroken. But that heartbreak made last year’s run even sweeter.

As for content you can expect from me, it’s going to be a mixed bag. Sometimes I’ll be on an analytics kick. Other times it will be prospects. I may come across a fun fact that I have to share, or do an in-depth piece on past trades or former players. I’ll be all over the place, but hopefully always leave you more informed than when you clicked the link. I don’t like tricking people with catchy headlines. Substance is my game.

The one challenge that will be interesting for me is that I can’t remember writing about a good team on a consistent basis. As I mentioned up above, I gravitate towards the muck. For my money the Astros are the best team in baseball and this should be an extremely exciting season to write about.

Before I get out of here, I know that we have an active community down in the comments section, so if there is something you’d like to see more of on the site, I ask that you leave a comment down below and give us some feedback. This site is as much about you guys as it is the Astros, so let’s have some fun together!