I actually agreed to write this article back in December but had to keep it under wraps for a couple of reasons…a) Physically we all know I can’t hold up writing columns for an entire season.  By the end of a season, at my age, there’s always father time and uncle groin-pull there to keep me from churning out column after column and, b) my ego is a constantly shrinking combination of hair-dye, University of Texas paraphernalia and self-loathing.Read More

I have avoided reading the Houston Chronicle for the better part of the last week or so.  There are far better ways to spend my time. Especially after a loss.  Especially after the game 5 loss.  Especially after the way the Astros lost game 5.  

But today, in anticipation of the game, I took the Playoff section of that same Chronicle into the rest room, because a) I was hoping beyond hope that there was anything remotely interesting in there I hadn’t already squeezed out of  pravata’s Google…(there wasn’t), b) a stall in a public restroom seems a pretty appropriate place to read Justice, Ortiz and Lopez and c) say what you want, but the Chronicle loosens stool, time after time.  In fact, that may be its most redeeming quality.Read More

“Hey Greg Lucas, recognize who in the hell you’re interviewing?”

At least that’s what I was thinking while I was still sitting on my couch, watching the Astros jump around in full on clinch mode and avoiding the various chores that a man with a pregnant wife has (going to the grocery store, replacing the siding that Hurricane Rita relocated from the side of my house, personal grooming, etc, etc).Read More

For the record, I’ve lost count (I think it’s like 5 or 6) of the number of incarnations various TalkZones have inhabited over the past 8 years. I like this one, but it’s one of those things that’ll take some getting used to.  Similarly, the 2005 Astros are something that’s going to take a while to get used to this year.

Last year, about this same time, most of us were estatic about our starting pitching, wary of the hot/cold hitting and the lack of depth in the bullpen but still optimistic about what the coming season would hold.  The more things change…Read More

And so it begins.

Actually, I take that back. It began when the Astros acquired Carlos Beltran in a three-way that left the Peter Gammonses of the world agape and ajaw, dealing then-closer Octavio Dotel to the A’s and John Buck to the Royals. It continued when the move didn’t pay immediate dividends. The educated voices swirled that the Astros should “flip” Beltran (and Jeff Kent), seeing as they were going to lose him anyway.Read More