Well, almost a week into Spring Training and we have had some fun. The Hernandez-Redding battle for the 5th rotation spot is going to be a knock-down drag out strike-fest. It’ll be great watching this one pan out. Fox should televise it. It’s much better than the Tonya Harding vs. Amy Fisher / Paula Jones / Darva Conger fight.

Adam Everett can hit, it seems. A long way to go yet, but he’s been making contact and getting results with the bat. Lugo better get well soon otherwise he could find himself out of a job before he’s even muffed play #1 at SS.

Daryle Ward “has to hit somewhere”, says Jimy, so why not 2nd? Well, I say, why not lead off? He’d break Bones Sr.’s NL record for lead-off homers in next to no time. He doesn’t walk much these days, so he would clog the base paths behind him either.Read More

This is a move as welcome as it was unexpected (by me). I never thought that Enron would accept so little money – just a little less than half of what they’d coughed up for the 2002 season – to walk away from the naming rights contract. This still has to be approved by the bankruptcy judge, so there may yet be another twist, but I hope that his honor slaps his rubber stamp down on this deal and gets it over with.

Next up, what to do with all the signage? Dismantling all the Enron references around the park will be a time consuming matter. And the replacement name won’t even be known for a couple of months according to the Astros. I can’t imagine that Drayton will spring to have the word “Enron” replaced with the word “Astros” everywhere, but he may do it in a select few, high-visibility locations. It’s either that, leave it as it is for now, or have “[Blank] Field” all over the place. On the positive side of things, my ticket stub from the opening series against the Yankmees just got a little bit more valuable.

Hopefully, this will put an end to the hackneyed plays on the old name such as “HomeRun Field” and “TenRun Field”. Read More

Really? You could’ve fooled me! Pitchers and catchers report, and we get nothing. Position players report . . . nothing! Everyone’s pussy-footing around the new manager, saying all the right things and showing up for camp early (brown-nosers!). This all leads to Spring Training reports with all the incite and pep of Alan Ashby’s play-by-play. Yawn.

I know ST games mean nothing, but I’m wasting away waiting for someone to actually throw a pitch in anger!

The Power Station

Naming rights issues mean that, rightly or wrongly, the name “Enron” is stuck on the Astros’ crib for a while. The nickname EFUS is a derivative of that name, and needs to be retired. I always thought it was a little contrived in any case ? and I have bad memories of it as I was laughed off the air by Charlie and Rich when I suggested it to them in my one and only appearance on Houston talk radio.Read More