That all sounds about right--and could be said of pretty much any town except Chicago or the NE, where baseball is king.
Last season, the Astros were just plain ugly. The Round Rock Express were just plain ugly and now are in Oklahoma. I never thought I would see the day that I wasn't interested in opening day. The old guys suck and the new guys aren't any better. After last season, I cut my cable hoping that not seeing the Astros suck would improve my mood. I was looking forward to watching to see if Castro developed. The only storyline worth paying attention to now is "Chris Johnson: Fact or Fiction".
There wasn't really much to look forward to in the Rockets season either but its turned out to be at least interesting. The same can happen to the Astros. I for one can't wait for opening day.
True, which why I don't think we are bad fans. The "interesting" part comes from the slack we cut these teams once they give us a taste of winning. It takes a lot for us to eventually stop going or caring, cities like Atlanta can't even sell out playoff games...that doesn't happen here. Well since Mad Max took care of it, that is.
The Rockets looked like a playoff contender and had young talent on roster. Hill, Budinger, Lowry, Taylor, and Patterson were all young guys (25 and under) with some promise at the start of the year. The Astros barely have that much young talent in the entire organization, much less on the Astros.
Houston is the 4th largest city in the country. They should be a regular in top 10 for attendance, but they aren't. Even in 2005 the Astros ranked 10th in attendance when they made it to the World Series. That is a shame. The Rockets are 20th in attendance right now. They haven't finished in the top 15 in at least a decade. In fact they were ranked dead last in the league in 2001. That is just flat out embarrassing. The Texans do sell out every game, but so does half the league. You are selling the most popular game, in a state where football is beloved, and is still the newest team. Amazing.
I'm surprised the Mavs are still behind the Rockets. Mark Cuban has turned around the franchise, now it is yet to be seen what kind of fan base he can keep if the team stops making the playoffs.
Rockets are the better organization and currently team thus much bigger expectations but the Stros have talent in their organization. Their issue is that it's to spread out, some at the bigs, very little at AAA, more at AA and a ton at A ball. Lets have this discussion in 2 or 3 years when your starting infield is Wallace, DD Jr., Villar or Mier and CJ and your outfield is JD Martinez, Bourn or Wates and Pence and your rotation is Lyles, Foltyz, Norris, Happ and Abad. That isn't even counting on a new owner who will most likely be looking to make a splash.
Houston has proven though that success dictates attendance. Other than the 2005 Astros team (which was terrible most of the season anyway, hence ranking 10th for the season), we've had zero playoff success since the Rockets title runs. ZERO. Houston fans as a whole are too fickle to support losers. The Rockets have no stars and are mediocre. 2001? They were playing in an outdated stadium and were running Cato and Moochie out there on a nightly basis. I didn't go see them play that year either. The Texans should count their lucky stars that fans still show up and watch that mess. While they do sell out, they don't play for a packed house on a weekly basis. I don't think that just because we are a populated city than our sports teams should sell out. If the teams are mediocre or worse, no one will go and watch. Plain and simple. Throw in what's happened in the economy and with people's "play" money, I would expect attendance to be bad.
But areas like the Metroplex have more population within a 100-mile radius than Houston. Why should they be? When the teams don't suck, they will be. That's true of *every* market not named Chicago, New York, or Boston. They were complete garbage until August. 3/5 of the season. How did attendance figures look during 36-10? Aren't you more embarrassed by their play? Fans in Houston don't suck. They're like fans in every other city. Our teams, however, *do* suck. Sucks to be us. For now, anyway.
They did the same thing the year before, but they posted much better attendance in 2004. If a team has to always be good to draw fans, the fans suck.
No they didn't. Two months into the season, May 31, 2005, the Astros were in last place, 14 games behind the division leader. May 31, 2004, the Astros were in 2nd place, 2 games behind the division leader. End of June, the 2005 team was 13 games out. The 2004 team was 5.5 games out (and 2 games back in the Wildcard). As was noted earlier, by that standard, just about all fans suck outside of about 3 cities.
It's not an either/or proposition. There's a huge middle ground you're ignoring. team is terrible and draws fans: diehard loyal (e.g. Cubs fans) team has to be good to draw fans: normal. team is good/great and doesn't draw fans: the fans suck. Incredibly rare in major sports. There are not that many teams across amateur and professional sports that commands a crowd no matter the on the field performance. NYY/Boston/Cubbies in baseball, Notre Dame in college football, Duke in college basketball, etc... It doesn't make you a bad fan making your team accountable to their performance.
Self-anointed piety is distasteful enough; but the whole holier-than-thou schtick showing up in an entertainment/diversion arena like sports (ala "TRUE FAN!!!!1") is disturbingly myopic and stupid.
The 2004 Astros were 14.5 out on July 31st. To give up on a team because you are out by fewer games earlier in the season, just seems in poor taste.
Don't you get tired of the guys that come in here and just say their done with the Astros because they suck? We aren't even a decade away from the greatest times in our franchise's history. I welcome bandwagon fans because teams are dependent upon it, but I'd like to see more fans considering the Rockets have been good most years, and the Astros who have had winning seasons in the not distant past, still went to the World Series only 5 seasons ago, and played great baseball in the 2nd half of last season.
not any more. I've come to realize folks can choose to spend their time and money however they see fit. It's not a question of someone's character if a bad baseball team doesn't keep his interest. You and I will still be around even if they go 30-132. But I don't expect everyone to be like that. In fact, I'd be worried if they were. Then we'd be Chicago (yech).
