1.) From what I have heard, C. J. Wilson is currently distracted, waiting for the imminent delivery of his new McLaren Spider, I think it is. Which I can understand; but perhaps it will work to the Astros advantage for this start, anyway.
2.) I am probably 6 months to a year ahead of you on the long and mysterious journey - well, kind of a TV-less, forced exile, really - away from caring passionately about the Astros for 40+ years of my now 50+ year life, to ... what? I don't know, either. I try not to think about it too much. The other day I realized I had not only not watched the Astros in a long, long time, but that I'd watched very little baseball at all this season. If it wasn't for listening to snippets of games and the MLB network while perambulating around in my truck - usually after I get pissed off by hearing Morrissey for the 49th time that day on the 80s new wave channel or something like that - I wouldn't know what was going on in baseball at all this season. That takes me aback a bit, when I think of it.
3.) It would've taken me three pages, back when I still gave enough of a shit to write stuff here about the Astros, to say what you said in three or four lines. And you were more profound about it than I would have been, anyway. I thank you for that.
4.) I am interested in this rock 'n' roll dream you are living out now. I don't have anything that remarkable to fill my still relatively new Astrolessness with. A new marriage, okay; and a new life ... a new way of living, really. Well, not THAT new. But I do try to mind my p's and q's a bit more than I used to, and I come home every evening now. And instead of trying to carve out some alone time with the TV and baseball, I just kind of give myself up to this gorgeous woman who is in my house when I get there, these days. I won't go into the details - it is nothing more than boring-from-the-outside domestic/marital bliss, really. I am so happy I cannot stand myself, sometimes (I will admit to pining a little for the old, wild restlessness at times, but that is just part of ultimately letting go of it, I think). I figure if I am going to pour myself into anything this time around, I cannot think of any better thing to do it into than this happiness, this pretty girl.
5.) Still, there is that dull, aching pain, as Mick once called it. (One thing I have noticed about getting older, in my case anyway, is I often refer now to my all-time rock 'n' roll heroes as if we are on a first-name basis. I assume that is at least mildly annoying to everyone else but me). I know I am losing/have lost something I once loved passionately. But the passion went out of it a while ago. I tried for a couple of seasons (in the season-ending Series Previews) to write an elegy here, for myself and the Astros, but it never quite took; until finally at the end of 2012, I think it was. That was when I realized I really had nothing left for the Astros. No joy, no rancor, no nothing. There’s a hole in me where the Astros used to be. I don’t think I’ll ever completely fill it back up.
6.) Very sorry to see the demise of your own Astros fandom, Mike. But I suppose the extreme passion you once had for the team doomed you to an ending like this. I am very glad to see that, meanwhile, your real life is proceeding forward, without missing a “beat.” Thank you for your accomplished and insightful writing here over the years. I won’t forget that.
