The Astros' Hall of Fame & Retired Numbers are drunk

As much as Ryan’s numbers are great

His numbers are not the whole story with him

He is iconic. A Houston area guy with one of the most unlikely records to ever be broken

No way anyone else should ever wear #34

In fact, 34 should be off limits in all sports in H Town

 

Agreed... unfortunately this franchise used retired numbers as a "just for the fans" thing prior, which is why they have way too many numbers up there.

And yes, the HOF is now serving to honor those players.... but I do agree they're going to have some obscure inductees over the next few years (given that they seem to have to have at least one) before the golden era takes over and dominates every year for over a decade plus (Altuve, JV, Bregman, maybe Correa, maybe Springer, maybe LMJ, maybe Yuli, Yordan, Tucker, maybe Maldy, Pressly.... and that's before we start getting into the Pena's and Diaz's...).

Yes, I know some of those "maybe's" are egregious... but basically any Astros player who made multiple all-star teams or was a major contributor during the golden era is going to be a future candidate.

As far as the next few obscure years... does Ashby make it? Cammy? Again, not going to be surprised by anybody at this point.

 

Since nobody asked:

2019 Inductees: Bob Aspromonte, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jose Cruz, Larry Dierker, Gene Elston, Milo Hamilton, Joe Morgan, Joe Niekro, Shane Reynolds, J.R. Richard, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Jim Umbricht, Don Wilson and Jimmy Wynn.

2020 Inductees: Lance Berkman, César Cedeño, Roy Hofheinz, Roy Oswalt, Billy Wagner and Bob Watson

2022 Inductees: Terry Puhl and Tal Smith

2023 Inductees: Bill Doran and Bill Brown

 

My 2 cents by way of analogy: the Rockets should have retired 11... for Vernon Maxwell

Or to put another way: playoff performance and contributions to championships 'puts the thumb on the scale' for number retirement / team HoF

 

2024: Jim Deshaies? Darryl Kile?

 

To counter that argument... Drexler should not have had his jersey retired by the Rockets. He's basically getting preferential treatment for being from houston, going to UH, and was continuing to be a part of the organization at the time.

But since they established a precedent with his number... why not let everybody in that contributed on those teams? Smith, Cassel, Horry, Elie, Chilcutt....lol.

 

If there's a Rockets HoF / Ring of Honor, etc, yes absolutely

To expand on #11, it shouldn't be retired. Not even for Yao Ming, but if it's going to be I seriously think it should be for Vernon Maxwell due to CLUTCH CITY 94

 

Also prime steroid era... with half his games at Fenway.

 

That is just furthering the original argument that created this thread. Maxwell was the 4th best player on that team? And had a pretty crappy playoffs minus game 3 against Phoenix.

 

Why? Earl never played for the Texans. His number was retired by the Oilers, now Titans. Texans have no rights to Earl's name or likeness. Ofcourse, Hakeem is the Rockets.

 

Retired numbers should have high, strict standards, but I think it's fine for team HOF/Ring of Honor, etc to include "sentimental" choices. Otherwise, the mind set is like Ricky Bobby: if you're not first, you're last. I think we as fans/org can allow some emotion to pay tribute to past players. Ultimately, the team HOF is for the fans to connect with the players and franchise past.

 

Just bury him in the H and be done with it.

 

This is a stupid ****ing take.
Billy doran deserves to be in the Astros Hall of Fame.
Do you think yuli does?
His numbers would say otherwise.

 

You are grossly underplaying both Ryan and Scott. First, FIP isn’t “what if” and his FIP and era are lower with the Astros and he played with the Astros longer than anyone else - if you don’t want his number retired, you are entitled but you will be in the minority - he is one of the Astros that genuinely should have numbers retired.

Also - as for Scott, over a 5 year span he was a lot more than 1986. He won 86 games over that 5 year span, accumulated 25 WAR with a sub 3.00 era and averaged like 250 innings - that is a Hall of Fame caliber run, his issue is he took too long to get started pitching well and got hurt.

 

How about we just literally bury him instead?

 

This thread is so sad. I’m leaving it to you math nerds to finish it all up and suck all the joy out of all of it without me. About to read some Shakespeare or watch Ted Lasso so I can sleep tonite.