As we all know, the freak show out in Florida that was the Casey-Caylee Anthony murder trial ended ignominiously a week or so ago, with the jury delivering a ‘not guilty’ verdict that drove “concerned” citizens and a few journalists alike to the brink of total insanity.
I will be honest – I never cared much if Casey Anthony was guilty or not, and I still don’t. Read More
Casey Anthony is so effing hotJune 3, 2011
WATCHING JL
I watched Jordan Lyles’ debut against the Puppies of North Chicago the other night, and I think what impressed me more than anything about him was his composure on the mound, and the easy, seemingly effortless motion of his delivery.Read More
by Joey Trum
If any of you have been lucky enough to attend a sporting event in Oakland, be it a Raiders game, an A’s game, a Warriors game, or a gang fight, you know that it’s not exactly the family friendly, all-American, Budweiser and dot races display you’ve come to expect from sporting events in the USA. Between the drabness of the Coliseum and a suburban fan base more suited to being Giants fans, you understand that your experience at an Oakland sporting event will likely be defined by its rough and tumble quality (hitting the bong, passing the Jim Beam, and getting into fights in the parking lot before the game) and its lack of attendance.
So it was with this mindset that I attended the A’s-Tigers game on a Saturday in mid-April. Now, one other essential aspect of Oakland sporting events I forgot to mention, but one that can be personally verified by thousands, is the expansive security force/ hospitality staff keeping the peace at the Coliseum complex. For example, I was at a Raiders-Chargers game two seasons ago where I actually saw a Coliseum security guard use defensive tactics to disarm some cholo with a knife who was angry at some poor accountant-looking dude who was caught making a negative comment about the cholo’s girlfriend’s boobs (which she’d just flashed to our entire section). I’ve seen several other incidents in this vein, and with every one it’s always struck me how well-trained and well-coordinated the security force/ hospitality staff seems to be. Having some experience working in crisis management myself, I can recognize the training when it comes out, and I can definitively say that it far outstrips your typical sporting event usher making $8/hour plus all the nachos he can eat.
So anyway, back to the story from Saturday. I met up with some of my friends and some of their friends and some people I don’t know at the farthest end of the parking lot (under a gigantic sign for the upcoming movie Thor), and engaged in some if not all of the pregame rituals I described in the first paragraph. We played some whiffle ball and went inside around the second or third inning (I seemed to be the only person interested in actually going to the game and perhaps even aware that a game was going on), and of course found seats about two rows above the home bullpen on the first base side.
Now as I mentioned before, the A’s don’t draw very well. This isn’t news to anybody who’s followed major league baseball since the late 80’s, but it doesn’t fully hit you until you actually attend a game on a Saturday night and take in the full minor league atmosphere. Playing in a venue as large as the Coliseum doesn’t help, as you have to see the always classy 30,000-seat-large tarps covering entire decks of the stadium, but when you can hear the seagulls flapping their wings between pitches it feels a tad unsettling. However, one silver lining of this is the rare experience of the players on the field actually being able to hear your heckling. The beneficiary on this day was Tigers right fielder Ryan Raburn (Raaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyburn), who our section had succeeded (or at least believed had succeeded) in coaxing an error while fielding a routine single with runners on.
So this is time at an A’s game. The mascot is an elephant out of your worst nightmares , the security team outnumbers the audience, and they seem far more invested as well. Not a half-inning went by without someone from security walking up and down the steps, eyeballs darting in all directions, particularly at people’s feet. After a while, I noticed a system by which the eyeball darter would patrol for one period, then a guy on the field would approach the next (with perfect overlap), all the time flashing the classic ‘just lookin’ around’ attempt at looking inconspicuous (an attempt almost comicly undermined by his steely, “I’m so pissed at my old lady for sleeping with my brother” facial expression). But whatever, you gladly accept this heightened security considering the element, and you also reassure yourself with the belief that they’re so concerned with the big stuff (stabbings, meth overdoses, etc.) that they’re not going to bother you unless you do the same (indeed, one of those present in our party swore there’s a tacit allowance of weed-smoking in your seats at the Coliseum, something he didn’t attempt).
Alright, now here’s where the story gets strange, and where all these variables came to a head for me. Around the 6th inning I get up to use the bathroom, and to get something to eat for me and my friend. The weird thing about Coliseum concessions is that they have this sprawling, low-rent, outsourced beer pub thing going on. Aside from the typical generic Aramark hot dogs and orange snot nacho stands, there’s all these stands sponsored by random pseudo micro-brews (the kind owned by mega beverage corporations). For instance, there’s one stand with a “Red Hook” sign above it that’s just as generic as the regular stands but happens to have Red Hook on tap and has one semi-atypical item like “Carnitas sandwich” along with the regular botulism fare. Another has “Guinness” above it, another “Fat Tire,” etc. After a lengthy walk, I end up at one such stand where I get an Italian sausage dog, a hot link, and a beer for my friend. A weird aside about this stand. Instead of being the open mall food court type counter that most sporting event stands are, this one more resembled a check-cashing place. The food service people were behind a wall of reinforced glass, with the only opening being a tiny 1×1 sliding window, the type big enough to receive your food but small enough to ensure that you’d have to shout all your communications and duck your ear up close in order to hear the vendor’s.
So anyway, I’m heading back to my seat with two sausages on a tray in one hand and a cold beer filled to the brim in the other. Foolishly, I kept both dogs in their original paper containers instead of taking them out and bunching them next to each other on the tray, which caused a precarious balance, especially considering the unbalanced weight of the beer. I’m not sure if I bumped into anybody, but at one point I lost my balance and felt one of the hot dogs start to fall off the tray. I fell to my knee in an attempt to keep the balance, but the hot dog fell out of the bun and onto the ground. I quickly picked it up and put it back in the bun, figuring that I would either throw it away or dust it off and eat it myself. Either way, it was my folly so I was going to take the responsibility. However, after walking a few steps away I was approached by a man wearing all black and a headset in his ear.
“Sir, did you drop that hot dog?”
I shook my head and told him it was okay.
“Sir, did you drop that hot dog?”
I told him that I did, but it was no big deal and I tried to keep walking.
“Sir, come over here please.”
I appeal to him again, but I start to feel that things would be worse if I didn’t go. So he pulls me aside. As I go, I try to pick up the paper container to put it in the trash but he again stops me.
“We’ll have somebody get that.”
So I reluctantly go with him, and he looks me in the eye.
“Sir, where did you buy that hot dog?”
“Uhhhh.”
“Was it there?”
He points to the nearest stand, where a lady behind a cash register is signaling me.
“No.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Uh, I don’t know. Some place over there I guess.”
I point in the general direction I came from.
“Come with me sir. We’re going to get you a new hot dog.”
So I follow the man for a minute or so and then he stops and tells me to wait. He walks off, leaving me alone, then comes back 2 or 3 minutes later.
“I need to get the head of concessions,” he says, and he beckons me to follow.
So we continue walking and he again tells me to stop. I see him walk over to a lady, maybe 28, wearing an all-black polo shirt, all-black pants, and a headset to match his. The man cautiously approaches her, and waits patiently while she finishes talking to the 4 people at once she’s talking to. Finally, I see him give some spiel that involves pointing to me several times. She nods several times and points as well, before coming over to me.
“Sir, did you lose your hot dog?”
“It’s no big deal!” I say, trying to sound more emphatic, but also not wanting to end up in the coliseum’s sex dungeon.
“We’re going to get you a new hot dog.”
So she has me follow her, and then she goes up to some such stand and talks for a moment with the person behind the counter before going back to me.
“What type of hot dog was it?”
“Hot link.”
Her eyebrows raised at this information.
“I know where you got it,” and she quickly leads me to the one and only Saag’s Meats.
She walks up to the check-cashing window and I hear her tell the cashier to give her a hot link. The cashier says that she can’t give away free food.
“Do you know who I am?” she says, and I swear to the ghost of Al Davis that she said these exact words.
She continues yelling at the cashier before I see the cashier relent. Then the head of concessions walks back to me.
“Did you have onions and peppers on it?”
She goes back, gets my onions and peppers, then gives me my new hot link. While she was doing this, I had been looking around for a nearby garbage can to throw away the old dog. Seeing this, she reached for the dog and I give it to her without hesitation.
“I’ll dispose of that for you.”
I thank her in an exaggerated way, feigning that I am pleasantly surprised by their going the extra mile just to salvage my mistake. She barely acknowledges this, and quickly beelines to the nearest garbage can before marching off to other adventures.
I have rarely in my life been so careful as on the walk back to my seats. Something tells me they would not have been so “forgiving” the second time around.
What is becoming my annual pilgrimage to Florida for Spring Training is also yielding what is becoming my annual Limey Time. Following on from last year’s recap, here now is the 2011 trip report.
It is that time of year again when the air gets a little nippier, the wassel flows, good cheer and glad tidings abound and absolutely no baseball is played unless you’re a fan of the AFL or Winter Leagues. If so, then party on my good people. But for most, the Void is that time just before the Winter Meetings and right after free agency goes into full bloom. It is that time of year when little is done publically, like the announcement of a new addition to the team via signing or whatnot. All is basically work done before the hot stove heats up and the free agent spending spree by the Yankees begins, while some other organizations follow suit, and then some do not.
So are we, the SnS, going to post all the goings on and whathaveyou’s of the Void? Nope, not interested. How about some rumors, like Cliff Lee is thinking about coming to Houston because he loves cowboy boots? Nope, not interested. You can find plenty of that elsewhere, even in our forums. We welcome it there, we invite you to join in. But as far as the SnS spending time and energy reporting every sneeze, cough, sniffle that emanates from Ed Wade… well… we pass.
Enoy the Holidays any way and try not to hurt yourselves out there. We want you back in 2011!
What is the key to the Astros winning more than losing games this season? Will the left side defense make a huge difference in wins and loses? How big of a difference is Brad Mills? How about Brad Arnsberger? Can Roy Oswalt bounce back this season? Will the Astros look to make a splash this trading deadline to push towards a division title? I imagine there are many questions this season about the Houston Astros and I’m sure just as many opinions. The good thing is that if there are opinions, means that some people care enough about the team. Nothing worse than apathy for a fan, makes for a very long season of baseball. So what are the real chances for the 2010 Houston Astros?
Glad you asked
A winning season?
It’s not uncommon for fans of any MLB team to expect good things from the team they follow. It’s part of being a fan and I certainly count as one. In this case, I’m a huge fan of the Houston Astros and the same thing applies this spring as every spring since I’ve followed the club. Will this be a good club this year that can win games? My heart always says “yes” to that question regardless of what anyone else says. That is the fun part about being a fan and I, for one, will never let anyone take that away from me. Afterall, the heart of a fan always leads you to believe that all players are major leaguers capable of having break out years. Every single one of them. Sometimes it actually happens that way, leading the little heart of the fan to gloat a little as if we knew some secret only revealed to us from the portals of the Baseball Gods (that would be BBGs to some of you). So in that regard, congratulations to all of us, in our heart of hearts, this will be a winning season. Go ahead, own it, it’s not a bad thing at all. No? Want to walk around as some sort of “above it all” type who comes off as some negative nancy all the time? Well go ahead, I know the drill, if they do win you’ll say “I’m glad they proved me wrong” if the BBGs smile upon the local nine.
There is another part to being a fan though and that’s the knowledge of the game and how it should be played. That usually is lost to some fans either because they don’t know how that plays out in their fandom or they simply misguide themselves with other aspects of the game they lose a bit of focus. That’s okay though, in many ways it better to be a fan with heart more than anything else. So with this in mind, let’s take a mixture of heart and knowledge and look at the 2010 Houston Astros and of course the chances of winning this season.
The Potential
There are things about the 2010 Houston Astros that give the heart some reason to believe. A quick look at the club this spring tells you that there is a new attitude in the clubhouse that sets the team off in the right foot this year. Attitudes, however, often get slammed with reality when a season is in full swing, especially during bad stretches. Every team goes through bad stretches, so this is where it will be interesting to see how new manager Brad Mills really proves the difference in terms of leadership and management skills. So right off the bat, if the Astros are to win, it most certainly falls on the manager to help them through the tough stretches. Any manager can strategically manage a game or a series, it’s the true effective managers who can provide leadership through an entire season. First place to look with heartfelt anticipation is whether you believe and of course the players believe that Brad Mills is the man.
Having said that about Mills, every manager must have talent from which to work from. This is usually when contention and rancor swells up in the heart of the fan. It’s either directed at the GM, in this case Ed Wade, and most certainly towards the owner. Uncle Draytie is not a name given in praise of the owner, but in spite and dislike. This is because the correlation between money and talent seems to be very strong in the heart of a fan. That the 2009 New York Yankees won the world championship last year only adds fuel to the fire.
So do the Astros lack talent to win?
That’s a very good question and the answer really has different aspects to it. This is not a sidestep of the question, it’s just that what is meant by talent and how does one measure good versus great versus pay a gazillion dollars for it? The answer should be simplified for a fan if only it’s acceptable and understandable. So here it is: Pitching is another way of saying “talent” in baseball. Teams like Minnesota, the Flordia Marlins teams that won championships and even the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox all know that money is not another way of saying “talent” in the MLB. Pitching, whether you pay for it or grow your own is what will equate to “talent enough to win”. So whether it is a veteran arm or a rookie with amazing stuff, you need the right manager to help them navigate through a whole season. And it takes a good pitching coach working with said manager to accent that work. Much as I hate to give credit to St. Louis, they’ve managed to have a consistent run of winning seasons with what seem to be castoff and ner’do well arms. I guess one has to understand that Tony LaRussa and Drinkin’ Dave Duncan know a little bit about protecting and getting the most of the “talent” in a team.
So where are we in terms of talent?
When you talk pitching and 2010 Houston Astros, you start with Roy Oswalt. As much as Wandy Rodriquez took his game to another level last year, the reality is that without Roy Oswalt as the anchor of this staff, the job Brad Mills can do in Houston this season is in jeopardy in terms of winning. The job that Myers, Paulino, Norris and/or Moehler can do to augment what Oswalt and Rodriquez could do (and really, you must emphasize “could”) is just icing on the cake. You basically want 15 wins or so from your #1 and #2 individually and innings from the rest of the staff. Myers might be able to provide those innings, so the work that could happen this year from the talent on the team is inspiring the heart to say “they have a chance”. That’s all that can be expected at this point, with Mills, Arnsberger and the pitching staff, this 2010 Houston Astros have a chance.
What makes a team better than a “chance to win”?
Whenever you want to judge a team as having a better than good chance to win, you start to look at what a team will do to supplement the pitching staff and their chances of success. As goes the pitching, so go the chances to win. Quite frankly, it surprises me sometimes to see major league organizations disavowing pitching and try to win with other aspects of the game in place, such as offense and lots of it. I won’t bore you with the explanation of the Angelos Effect, but there is one prime example of an organization gone horribly off track. The irony is that many a fan of that particular team had no problem with what management did to try and win, because they, the fans, saw money being spent so surely it invested in talent. Right? Well, yes, but not the right way. Investments should be made to support the pitching, not supplant it. You need a good catcher who knows how to navigate a game not only once but for an entire season. Yadier Molina hit a buck eighty three the year the Cardinals won the World Series, but the pitchers swore by the young man’s game that season, a turnaround from the previous season when he was considered selfish and only looking out for his own interest. Also investments in defense in key spots like shortstop and centerfield really do help. Give a pitching staff that sort of support and watch them turn from those average pitchers into world beaters because confidence is really high. Have a manager who knows how to use the same type of support to help a pitcher’s game and watch the confidence in the manager also swell to high proportions. Even when things get rough, the players, be it field or pitching, will still be on the same page as the skipper and thus they will be more apt to pull out of a tailspin than wallow in the misery therein.
Offense and a Bullpen and a bit of luck
I’m sure that many are looking forward to seeing both the young players like Hunter Pence, Tommy Manzella, JR Towles and Michael Bourn produce at the plate. There must be many looking forward to a semi-bounce back season from Berkman, a solid effort from Lee again and perhaps something a little more significant from Matsui or Keppinger. This usually where pundits and fans look first to judge a team. I don’t blame them, it is usually the part of the game that is easily evaluated through stats and metrics. So be it, but you can have good seasons from every man up and down the lineup and still not have a winning season without pitching and defense. But a good balance of pitching, defense and timely offense will win you more games than lose. That brings us back to another aspect of pitching that should concern every 2010 Astros fan. The bullpen is now without it’s closer and two setup men. The loss of Valverde, Hawkins and Brocail is no small thing. Here is the positive though, the bullpen might be the most potentially strong group in a very long time. The emphasis is potentially because it has some elements of quality that cannot be dismissed easily. The arms are certainly quality, but sometimes it takes a while for arms in a bullpen to come together. What is key is to establish roles early and stick to those roles. My fear is that time is running out this spring and still no real set roles have emerged. This gives Mills and Arnsberger some work to do fast else they will be looking at losing more game early in the season and having to work their ways towards much more wins at the back end. Here is where some concern should emerge for everyone, what is this bullpen going to look like in 2010? Hopefully the work a Chris Sampson can provide in terms of setup and leadership will establish itself soon enough. It will be vital to the success this year.
After all, isn’t success what we’re all wishing for from the bottom of our fan heart?
About this column: It’s a new season and a whole new team with a new manager. Some things change and some things don’t. So we’ve decided that maybe this column should not change and we should give Noe one more shot at writing for this site. Okay, who are we kidding, no one stepped up to offer us anything better. Sorry about that folks, real sorry.
