Long overdue. And, no offense to Umbricht and Kile (RIP both), but time to put #32 and #57 back in circulation.
Its a much better option as opposed to continuing to retire numbers at an 'astro'-nomical rate. This is where Berkman, Oswalt, and Wagner will get their rightful permanent presence at MMP. You could pretty much already tab Keuchel, Verlander, Springer as well. Altuve is the one current player who could make a rightful case to have his jersey number retired (in addition to making this HOF). Bregman and Correa are TBD, but are certainly trending towards at least the HOF option. Verlander is a great example of why you need a ring of honor/HOF type system as opposed to just jersey retirements. (avoid the mistake like the Rockets retiring Drexler's number for simply 4 years of play, with a half year leading to a title).
IMO, Charlie Freakin’ Morton deserves a spot in the Astros HOF shortly after he retires. Dude is an Astros legend for life.
There will be a ton of recency bias and championship bias... and I'm sure they'll have some sort of permanent display honoring the 2017 team.... but we gotta have a semblance of standards, right? Individual excellence (cy young contention, series MVP, etc.) mixed with team greatness is the perfect combination that gets a short-term player into the discussion (like Verlander). I love Morton... probably like Red Sox ended up loving Dave Roberts or Shane Victorino (vital contributors to championship teams)... but they wouldn't induct Roberts or Victorino into a Red Sox specific HOF. Its the "special" category of vital role players on a championship team bias.... like Smith, Cassel, Horry, Elie are revered in Rockets history (even though there's not an official HOF, ring of honor, or jersey retirement to honor them).
That’s fair. If he had re-signed with the Astros he’d probably be guaranteed to make it. It’ll be interesting to see if he makes it based off being on the mound for the biggest out in franchise history. But I agree with you that there have to be legit standards so it doesn’t turn into the same kind of situation we were getting into regarding retired numbers.
It was announced... but what it should have been was simply Bagwell, Biggio, Ryan. Yes, I know plenty will debate the latter, but he was also part of the first "Houston HOF" class, so don't see how he won't make the Astros HOF (plus his son is the one organizing it...) But in the end, they'll migrate/grandfather their already retired numbers into it... and the rest of the bunch honored on Texas Ave. walk of fame (Morgan, Reynolds, Milo among them).
The inaugural Hall of Fame class will be large and will include Astros players who have had their numbers retired -- Nolan Ryan, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Jimmy Wynn, Jose Cruz, Mike Scott, Larry Dierker, Don Wilson and Jim Umbricht -- and those who have been honored on the Walk of Fame along Texas Ave. -- former players Joe Morgan, Bob Aspromonte, Joe Niekro, J.R. Richard and Shane Reynolds and broadcasters Gene Elston and Milo Hamilton.
Agreed with this list. I didn't realize that Shaner had already been honored on Texas Ave. He was a nice anchor for the Bagwell/Biggio teams, but Oswalt was objectively better (and actually pitched/won more games for the Astros).
Guess I should have read the story. I have no problem with this list. I like that they included the earlier guys. I mean they paved the way, no? Were they as great as the HOF’s, no, but they were damn good and important to Astros history.
Sure.... at the time, nobody could argue against them. But it was also a cheap-ish way to try and sell tickets for jersey retirement night and what not. There's also the mindset that if you're going to include the best player of each "era", and end up retiring their numbers, you're going to eventually run out of numbers pretty fast. Looking back, retiring Mike Scott's number doesn't look great.
The only person I could make an argument in not being in the 1st class is Joe Morgan. As a broadcaster, he did nothing but s*** on the Astros. I don't know the story about his time and why he had so much dislike for the organization...but his bias was obvious any time he called an Astros game or was in a discussion about them. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve to be in...but make him wait a bit.
I think Drexler's jersey retirement was to honor his contributions to Houston basketball as a whole, not just for the Rockets. He was a superstar at UH and is originally from Houston too. If the Rockets were as liberal as the Astros in retiring numbers, there'd be a few more as well (Hayes, Sampson, and TMac come to mind). Astros should quietly start reissuing 32 and 57. Pressly should have gotten to keep his 57 from Minnesota if he wanted to. Keep the DK plaque, keep the DK Good Guy award, and maybe give him a statue but the number should not be (unofficially) retired.
The franchise is approaching 60 years old. This gives us a chance to properly acknowledge the pre-killer B's era. We all know that we have been excessive with the jersey retirements. I also like the idea of a separate building for it eventually. There really isn't much to do around MMP before games. With the pierce elevated coming down there is a ton of possibilities given the Dynamo, GRB and MMP are all right there, with Toyota Center not too far. Something is always happening in that area.
Saw this on twitter and thought it would make perfect sense to put a permanent HOF building in this area right outside MMP. Could make it a conjoining building just like Union Station and could pack a ton of history in there.
Intriguing. Also, when are they going to put seat carts on the train? Talk about unique vantage point...