{"id":4930,"date":"2009-07-07T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2009-07-07T14:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spikesnstars.com\/?p=4930"},"modified":"2009-07-07T10:14:01","modified_gmt":"2009-07-07T15:14:01","slug":"sic-transit-gloria-glory-fades-im-mike-hampton-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/2009\/07\/07\/sic-transit-gloria-glory-fades-im-mike-hampton-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sic Transit Gloria. Glory Fades. I’m Mike Hampton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astros 4, Pirates 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

W – Michael William Hampton (5-5, 4.16)<\/p>\n

L – Virgil Matthew Vasquez (1-2, 4.50)<\/p>\n

SV – Jose Rafael Valverde (7, 3.86)<\/p>\n

Attendance – A far sight less than the 26,834 tickets sold for this clash of the titans\u2026<\/p>\n

Astros.com Recap<\/a> (Grodsky?)<\/p>\n

Pirates.com Recap<\/a> (Jenifer Langosch\u2026Do your self a favor and don\u2019t GIS her.)<\/p>\n

Before the Game:<\/strong><\/p>\n

In honor of the Pirates coming to town, I made a big plate of haluski and heated up some pierogies. \u00a0If I could have found Yuengling, that would have been the trifecta. \u00a0But when faced with the option of Steel City Reserve or Shiner Black, Texas won. \u00a0Just like in the eventual, inevitable war of secession. \u00a0And also the game.<\/p>\n

Prior to the game, Pirates manager John Russell had a closed door meeting with his team. \u00a0He reportedly told them, \u201cHere\u2019s my advice to you: Take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs and take them down. Just remember, they can buy anything but they can\u2019t buy backbone. Don\u2019t let them forget it. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game Recap:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot being made of Mike Hampton winning 10 straight decisions against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4 of them coming this season. \u00a0It\u2019s sort of being glossed over that prior to the 2009 season he hadn\u2019t faced them since 2004. \u00a0So Mike Hampton beat the Pirates again? \u00a0Oh that\u2019s great. I wrote a hit play and directed it, so I\u2019m not sweating it either.<\/p>\n

Hampton wasn\u2019t exactly sharp, but he didn\u2019t really have to be to beat the last place Pirates. \u00a0Hampton allowed only six base runners in his seven innings, nibbled a bunch and took advantage of an alert defense behind him. \u00a0If only he could figure out how to do that against any team not from Pittsburgh. \u00a0On the other hand, he\u2019s left-handed, so I assume he\u2019ll be on someone’s 15-day D.L. for several more years, regardless of actual results.<\/p>\n

By the way, I\u2019m almost 38. \u00a0I don\u2019t suffer from any sort of memory imparement that I\u2019m aware of, but do you remember the Pirates being good? \u00a0Was Omar Moreno on the team then?<\/p>\n

At the plate, the Astros got to Virgil Vasquez early, with Geoff Blum doing the damage in the bottom of the first with a 2-out, 2-run triple, plating Lance Berkman and Miguel Tejada . \u00a0Mostly to show how poorly Garrett Jones tracks baseballs hit, well, anywhere, the play was sent to New York for further review. \u00a0Or CB Bucknor needed a Dove Bar break. \u00a0One of those.<\/p>\n

Miguel Tejada doubled in the other RBIs in this game in the fifth, scoring Hampton and Michael Bourn.<\/p>\n

Outside of the totally necessary<\/em> replay review in the bottom of the first, the only real drama in the game was in the eight inning, when set-up man LaTroy Hawkins gave Humberto Quintero what amounted to gas face. \u00a0Quintero approched the mound after Hawkins grimaced after a pitch…<\/p>\n

Quintero: Your mind is as warped as your face, LaTroy<\/p>\n

Hawkins: \u00a0Don\u2019t get nasty, brother.<\/p>\n

Quintero signaled for Rex Jones\u2019 mustache to come out. \u00a0Rex came, too. \u00a0Quintero inquired, \u201cAre you fond of that moustache?\u201d<\/p>\n

By this point, someone had jostled Cecil Cooper from his in-game coma, so he trotted out to the mound\u2026<\/p>\n

Hawkins: The truth is, neither one of us has the slightest idea where this relationship is going. We can\u2019t predict the future.<\/p>\n

Cooper: We don\u2019t have a relationship.<\/p>\n

Hawkins: But we\u2019re friends.<\/p>\n

Cooper: Yes, and that\u2019s all we\u2019re *going* to be. Well, yes\u2026<\/p>\n

Hawkins: That\u2019s all I meant by \u201crelationship.\u201d You want me to grab a dictionary?<\/p>\n

After which, a bewildered Cooper returned to his restful slumber and Hawkins closed out the inning.<\/p>\n

After the Game:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oswalt: What\u2019s the secret, Mike?<\/p>\n

Hampton: The secret?<\/p>\n

Oswalt: Yeah, you seem to have it pretty figured out.<\/p>\n

Hampton: The secret, I don\u2019t know\u2026 I guess you\u2019ve just gotta find something you love to do and then\u2026 do it for the rest of your life. For me, it\u2019s elementary school teachers<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Coming up:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maholm versus Moehler. \u00a0Baseball fever. \u00a0Catch it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Astros 4, Pirates 1 W – Michael William Hampton (5-5, 4.16) L – Virgil Matthew Vasquez (1-2, 4.50) SV – Jose Rafael Valverde (7, 3.86) Attendance – A far sight less than the 26,834 tickets sold for this clash of the titans\u2026 Astros.com Recap (Grodsky?) Pirates.com Recap (Jenifer Langosch\u2026Do your self a favor and don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,206],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.orangewhoopass.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}