Glad You Asked! Vol.1, Entry 1.
What’s with all this socializing going on? or Two thumbs up for Footer Tweets
Welcome to new world of social networking meets sports organization. Is it really a new idea that is getting fans excited and thus creating momentum for momentum sake? Is it marketing in a tweet? Doggoneit, exactly what is it?
Glad you asked!
Okay, so at SpikesnStars.com, we’re known for being a bit harsh on reporting and information given to fans by the local media. If it comes from the Astros, we are quick to accuse it as being from the PR arm of the organization. If it comes from independent information sources, like the Chronicle, we are quick to underscore how weak or distorted or slanted or out of scope the information is that we get. We long for those occasional inside source information that comes to several regulars here because we love unfiltered information. You know: they inform, we decide. Quite a cliché for the new era of information, but it has legs.
It is what we do with this information that allows us to grow in understanding of this organization. Understand, yes that is the goal. Oh sure, we’ll eventually need to get to an agree or disagree stage with any and all information, be it social networking channels or the atypical webpapers online, but first and foremost we all just long for pure, unadulterated information to gain understanding. When we have to wade through slanted, distorted information, it makes us a bit perturbed. I think most fans are no different than most of the regular SnS member. It is the same for all of us. We probably can even find common ground in the agree/disagree arena too. Naaahhhh… baby steps. Baby. Steps.
So what has been a move towards the social networking and the inclusion theory behind it is that we are now no longer entirely dependent on “inside sources” in order to get information. Some of the social network disseminated information is nuggets of gold that help our understanding deeply. Kudos to Ms. Footer and many others who embraced what has been the grand experiment around here for a long time. Every 140 character tweet is another step towards a great relationship. Inform us, we’re better fans, include us and we’re loyal fans, do both and we’re lifers. We can be trusted… right? I think so and hence why the Astros and I imagine many other organizations are trying the grand experiment of inclusion through the social networking outlets. If nothing else, with information comes understanding (or should) and with understanding comes a loyalty for not only the team but to baseball itself.
Is it, however, about selling the team to us? Well, they don’t need to do that, we’re already “all in”. I suspect, however, that the win-win is that it solidifies the relationship with the core fans while bringing in the peripheral fan and making them, well… somewhat like a typical SnS member. Fans are fans, and what has happened here to many of us with our dysfunctional social experiment is apparent. Raise your hand if you know more about feeding a turtle, what to wear if you want to volunteer to clean up after a hurricane in Louisiana, where in San Antonio to take your wife for an great anniversary dinner, et. al. Okay, see how it works? No. Okay, but as it grows, so will the relationship and so will the inside source type of information. I already see it, starting with information on the draft picks and continuing on. Will it turn the turnstiles at Minute Maid? I think it will.
Did reading a tweet that Heck and Co. were estatic about this pick help your understanding?
If you really want a bottom line on this, it is a business proposition that helps the baseball side of the organization. How so? Well, unlike marketing, that is pointed information, meant to make you feel connected emotionally, a raw feed of information like the social networking outlets will make you feel empowered and included. That is a win-win and sells tickets. So what is the downside? The team managed incorrectly or built askew of good baseball acumen can be shielded if the fan base is only “in” at the emotional (or marketing level). At the empowered or inclusive level, the voices grow louder and gain momentum. I know, I’m really describing a bad thing, right? I personally don’t think so, because if the average fan takes time to read the tweets, blogs and forums that mixes in the inside sources like Ms. Footer, the big “ah-ha!” will help mitigate flaming and distorted views.
See, with proper information, you won’t have an owner reading e-mails, listening to concourse fans or listening to talk radio callers as much as reading the informed and included partners (re: neo-fans). The idea is take the “entity/person” equation and changing it to “person/person who works at entity” relationship. You connect with a person, hence why the whole “inside source” idea is so appealing to most of us. It is now open for all and it is about taking advantage of it the right way. Think of it as the virtual equivalent of Drayton McLane wrapping his big paw around your (*cough* Andyzipp *cough*) shoulder, only this time he’s invited you to sit with him rather than you crashing the Diamond Boxes.
I think that’s good and really why would twitter be a bad thing given all that?
About this column: We had to do it folks, sorry. We just could not bear the thought of stuff like this appearing on the Talkzone any more. It was killing our bandwidth and some of you (you know who you are) were encouraging this behavior by our author. So we’ve given Noe his own little sandbox to play in and you can count on his ramblings to appear here from now on. You can thank us later. Plus, Noe is encouraging your comments on his thought here if you’d like. That is a dumb idea but it was the only way we could convince him to let go of the TZ.
May 2009 Spike and Star Awards
You’ve been waiting patiently for all of a couple of days for the announcement, so I won’t keep it from you much longer. One would think with a somewhat uninspired performance from the team on the whole, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone worthy of award recognition. Well, just the opposite, many players distinguished themselves last month. For the May Spike Award, the candidates were Michael Bourn, Chris Sampson and Lance Berkman. For the May Star Award, the candidates were Carlos Lee, Hunter Pence, Miguel Tejada and Wandy Rodriquez.
It wasn’t an easy choice for either award with so many worthy candidates, but the choices are in and here we go:
May 2009 Spike AwardThis
month’s Spike Award winner is none other than Michael Bourn. Tossing his body around the field all month long making some spectacular plays out in centerfield. At times it seemed he would not be able to avoid the DL unlike just about every other Astro player this year. That includes last month’s Spike Award winner too. Bourn has been every bit the break out player on the team that was predicted by GM Ed Wade, although methinks the break out was probably pointed towards his offense and not his defense. But defense isn’t lost around here, the young man is just simply outstanding out there taking care of the hard plays with ease and the impossible plays with awe inspired yells of “hell yeah!” from the SnS.
Honorable mention: Chris Sampson actually gave Bourn a run for the award, often pulling close in the voting only to see Michael walk away with the trophy.
May 2009 Star AwardWell lookee here,
we no more create the Star Award and we get our first ever two time winner. Wandy Rodriquez beat out some great competition on individual performance this month to carry away the helmet award. Wandy, although struggling a little bit towards the end of the month, still had enough great performances in May to keep himself front and center as the best Astros player on the squad. What can we say other than we have no intention of renaming the award to the “Wandy”, but who could blame us if we did?
Honorable Mention: Really, I’m surprised Hunter Pence did not just win this award in a landslide, but the SnS has spoken and Mr. Coffee is a mere brides maid for this month. Oh yeah, we know Tejada blah, blah, blah. Well, all we can say is well done… if you’re around this month and some of next, we hope you really keep up the great work. *wink, wink*
April 2009 Spike and Star Award Winners
The winners were selected, and there was much rejoicing. Seems though that this admin totally forgot to add the information on this here venerable site. There is no doubt, I need to slow down and make better “to do” list. So to the honored ones, mea culpa mis amigos, I suck!
Any way, just to do a little recap, Spikes and Stars (dot com) has decided to jump into the fray and honor Houston Astros players for their outstanding monthly contributions to entertain the unwashed masses, including those who hang around here. We love our bread and circuses like no other, but I digress. We give out two awards monthly: A Spike Award to the one player who exhibits the hard nose play that shows heart, dedication and all out “what was he thinking?” responses from your typical SnS’er. The other award is the Star Award and true to it’s name, it’s about the best baseball performance of the month by a player.
So without further adeu, here are the winners of the April 2009 Spike and Star Awards:
April 2009 Spike Award
The first ever Spike Award goes to Jose “Papa Grande” Valverde. Valverde is currently enjoying an extended vacation away from the team to recuperate from his exploit that earned him the recognition from this site and it’s members. Jose was pitching to try and save a game against the hated LA Dodgers in an early season series when, after one out, he was struck in the calf by a batted ball traveling about 1,000 miles per hour. Or so it looked like to us. Valverde proceeded to attempt to throw out the perpetrator while wincing his way to the ground. He did not succeed to secure the out, but he did get up from the shot to the leg and took the hill to continue pitching. He proceeded to secure the necessary two outs to close the game by way of strikeouts. He did this with just one leg, as was evident to all who watched in amazement.
Jose celebrates like a Cossack!
This sort of thing was nothing new for Valverde as memories of last year’s incident, taking a batted ball off the face, was talked about extensively as this drama unfurled. A truly deserving honor for Papa Grande, although truth be told we would not recommend anyone on the Astros attempt this sort of thing to win our award (not that they would mind you, but juneberno), a simple bounce off an outfield wall to rob an opposing homerun, a sliding dive into a dugout or a punch of Cub fan in the face while leaning over a rail to catch a foul ball will certainly do.
Honorable mention: Props to Pudge Rodriquez who came in second in the voting.
April 2009 Star AwardThe first ever Star Award goes to no other than Wandy “Eny” Rodriquez. What can we say about Wandy and his magical left arm this season? Two words come to mind: Ah Mazing. The little southpaw has finally turned the corner (so it seems) and has established himself as a starter in the NL to be reckoned with. Long thought of as a Minute Maid Special pitcher, Wandy is proving he can take his act on the road and it’s playing well off Broadway.
We’ll borrow a frame of reference from Russ Ortiz here and point out that wins and loses are a product of team and not a reflection of the starter’s performance. That’s good, because in terms of w/l, the 30 year old Rodriquez did not set the world on fire, posting a 2/2 record in Mar/April. It is Rodriquez’s stellar 1.69 ERA, 27 strikeouts with only 12 walks and no homeruns allowed that made everyone stand up and notice. He pitched 32 innings in 5 appearances in Mar/April, basically averaging 6.4 Inning per Game pitched. Imagine if Cecil Cooper would just let him stay in a little longer, what Wandy could have averaged so far this season. Wandy’s goal is to solidify Houston’s number two starter in the rotation while pitching at or over 200 innings this season. Lofty goals, so far so good.
Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga
Wany has been working exclusively with Pudge Rodriquez, who is said to be a calming influence on Wandy, not allowing him to get flustered in stressful situations. It’s showing, as little Eny is showing great poise on the mound (the proverbial “mound presence”), spotting a well located fastball (92 mph variety) inside and outside. This sets up his curveball, an almost unhittable pitch if the batter is trying to stay on top of Wandy’s fastball. All in all, a good game plan executed to perfection by the Rodriquez battery leading to good things for the lefty hurler.
Honorable Mention: Props to Michael Bourn who gave Wandy a run for his money as the Star Player of the Month.
SnS Fark Contest – V1
Never has the exploits of one player on the Houston Astros made us all stand up and notice, bringing to the forefront of our memory banks the immortal words of Jack Buck: “I can’t believe what I just saw!” Well okay, we can’t leave out the days of Mitch Melusky dressing up for the Houston nine, but let’s just leave sleeping profanity barking dogs lie, okay. Any way, Hunter Pence, the multi-talent baseball playing happy go lucky right fielder-slash-gripit’nripit-batsman is good for perhaps one, two, three hundred or so reactions from the faithful SnS crowd. He makes people very happy and very sad usually at different times in a game or series. Sometimes the cheers are aplenty for a sustained amount of time and then the boos are just as consistent for about the same amount of time, all in spurts and all just about what everyone now expects from our hero. But there is one occasion this year when the young man managed to reach new heights of making himself really stand out around here… boy howdy, did he!
So in honor of managing to make the SnS have to come up with new creative ways to voice displeasure (“your killin me Pence, killin me!”) and excitement (“Atta boy ThunderPants!”), we bring you the first ever SnS Freaking Fark contest. We intend to dedicate this contest to all Houston Astros players for some awe inspiring on field play and no doubt with such characters as Lance Berkman running the bases, Valverde taking baseballs off the noggin and Carlos Lee bulldozing teammates, we will. But there is just something special about HunterPence that just begs us to consider renaming this contest the “ThunderPants-no-he-didn’t” contest. Just saying.
So here we go, our first ever Fark contest. Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you first the play in question with Mr. Pence, as recorded in this here fine site by our very own recap contributor MusicMan:
As far as Astros “hitting” goes, a run was scratched out on singles by Pence and Blum in the second. Berkman and Lee then won the “it’s about time” award by absolutely unloading on Arroyo for back-to-back homeruns, giving the Astros a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Following Lee’s trot, Pence slashed a single into CF. Unfortunately, the Franchise did not realize that he had hit a routine single into CF and blew right past first, resulting in the look on his face at left.
Sorry about that… I meant, the following look on his face:
We can’t let a classic picture like this just go away this soon, so here we go, the call went out and numerous SnS members answered. The idea was to take the same picture, where Pence is rounding the bases to get easily thrown out by one hundred steps at second base while his teammates look on in horror (none more shocked than first base coach Jose Cruz). Here are the entries
Andyzipp
Pence and Glass Doors
Subnuclear
Pence and Glass Doors, version 2
MikeyBoy
Is that Spiderman in the dugout?
Matt
You know, Pence just maybe was having a panic attack
Lurch
Pitfall Pence
das
Yes. Yes he did!
Noe
Git'er done... git that doggie!
Ty in Tampa
Not sure what changes Ty made to this pic, looks like Pence to me.
Allison
We dare you to figure this one out! We know, but we ain't telling.
Ebby Calvin
Lance fancies himself as a baserunning coach.
Subnucelar
See, someone thinks Lance is just experiencing adult ADD is all.
Trey
Nice reset from a classic 80s movie. Really nice!
Ron Brand
Coach is everywhere!
Allison
"Pence is one cool cat in my book... *meow*"
Ty in Tampa
How do you keep Pence from running? This is one way...
Rueben
... because the typical way doesn't work!
Andyzipp
Baseball IQ? I donn need no steenkin baseball IQ!
Ty in Tampa
This is probably not far off from the real thing uttered by the bench and coach
So there you have it, our nicely done by all our contestants. It will be hard to pick a winner, but a winner we must pick indeed. Tell us what you think and who you want to see win our very first SnS Freaking Fark contest. We’ll consider your opinion ever so slightly in order to make our choice. Until then, take a bow SnS, this was FAN-tastic!