If a team gets to the point where there's literally nothing for the fan to look forward to, then why cheer for them? The last five years have been nothing but a descent in standings and up til the middle of last season the management seemed content to live on the vestiges of said 2005 season. I personally have better things to do than watch a train-wreck happen to a team I have enjoyed supporting. If that makes me a bandwagoner, so be it.
I never felt that way. They competed in 2006 & 2008. And since that point the team has appeared to be attempting to rebuild. The Astros are coming off their first back-to-back losing seasons in 20 years.
Given that "fan" is short for fanatic, if your team has to be a winner for you to care, you suck as a fanatic. Therefore, you suck as a fan. By that standard, our fans generally suck. Just because there are other cities that have fans that suck does not make our fans suck any less. It merely gives them company in sucking.
Your logic assumes that language has not developed and the meaning of the word "fan" has not changed with time. As such, it fails. The word "fan" in today's culture is far less extreme than the connotation "fanatic" had fifty and sixty years ago. Until the site changed its terminology to "like", people were "becoming a 'fan'" of one-liner jokes and businesses on Facebook. A sort-of synonym for "being a fan" (and more proper expression based on historical word meanings) over in the UK is the phrase "I support". You will hear someone say, for example, "I support Liverpool". Secondly, if our fans are like every other city except three, that makes us average. Considering "fandom" is nothing more than an entertainment choice, it doesn't bother me if Houston isn't the cream of the crop in that. If you hold to the classic definition of fanaticism, I'm even *happier* that we're just so-so. Finally, for one to say "Houston fans suck", or for one to say that *any* fan "sucks", is to presuppose that one is *better* than others. Over a freaking entertainment choice. As I said earlier, 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.
I would hope being a "fan" of many years gives one perspective ..not only with regard to the Astros, but baseball in general. Yes, as fanatics, we love our team and our national pastime. And when we perceive that something is amiss with one or both, it's not just our duty to expound on it, but a proclamation from the heart that is to be screamed from the rooftops. Baseball is my first love and the Astros are at the epicenter of that. But there has been a malignancy on the game for quite awhile and the Astros under Drayton's stewardship are but one example of this. From the inroads the players made in free agency when Bowie Kuhn was commissioner to the owners refusal to open the books, the almighty dollar has never been so obvious with it's influence on our great game. Most understand this is but a reflection of the society in which we live.....and roll with it. It is what it is. If you're a baseball fan what choice do we have? We came to accept roided up players, cookie cutter parks that promoted the "longball", lowering of the mound, etc. Don't get me wrong....I have watched the Astros since Jimmy Wynn was hitting shots into the upper deck at the dome. Many of my life's fondest memories have to do with either playing ball or watching our hometown team. Over the last ten years or so though there has been distance between me and the game I love so much. For me, what has helped ease my discontent and aided me in cozying up to baseball again has been watching the kiddos play. Going to the occasional Astros game, but not getting too close. I appreciate some of the recent moves to clean up MLB ....and have bided my time until Drayton sells the team. So, with the onset of yet another season, hope springs eternal once again and while I was never out, I'm all in again....in baseball...and life.
One last thing .....watching those kids play helped me get back to the basics, the purity of it all.....both between and outside the lines.
so because the stros were good 5 years ago we should still be riding that high? give me a break, dude. it's not that the astros aren't good now (and haven't been for years) but that we "fans" have next to nothing to even look forward to... this team has essentially been run into the ground in every possible way. you have to throw the fans a bone. why should we be expected to shell out our hard-earned money for an inferior product? you're a true fan... congrats. but at the ned of the day you're stuck with the same sh!tty product, only you end up being a bigger chump for lapping it all up while the team you love sh!ts on your chest.
This is reasonable and I agree. ...and this is BS. It's a choice. Neither of you is a "chump" or "disloyal" or whatever. Holy crap people, it's just a GAME.
It would be freaking impossible to go 0-162. It would be such an amazing "accomplishment",that they would have to make it the baseball equivalent to "Shooting the Moon" in Hearts and give the Dis'Astros the title.
The Astros were good in 2006 & 2008. I look forward to Jordan Lyles, Jason Castro, Brett Wallace, Chris Johnson, and hopefully improved play from Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence. This isn't the Pittsburgh Pirates. We haven't sucked for nearly 20 years, finishing in last place half the time. The Organization went nearly 20 years without back to back losing seasons. I really appreciate ownership for giving me all of those winning teams, and for spending the money needed to give us those shots at titles, even if the players always came up short.
I'd pay triple digit figures to watch the last game if an "0" fer was on the line. Witness history I've got a bridge to sell you.
The Astros sucked in 2007 and last year. And so far, this year, too. Other than that, I agree with your post wholeheartedly.
3 out 4 years of suck, and likely to be 4 out of 5, I won't deny that. We will make it back though. Even the Red Sox and Yankees have hit rough patches before.
Theres no doubt the Stros are in a funk right now. I will stick with them though, they are my favorite team in Houston. It might be painful, and aggravating watching them suck so bad, but I have a feeling they will get better sooner rather than later.
but so have the pirates, royals, orioles, ....etc. our best hope is going to come from the new owner. you've gotta think that he'll be hungry to win at all costs.
Uh, I'd say we're closer to the Nationals and the Pirates right now than we are the Red Sox and Yankees. When you can literally use every single other team in the Majors as your farm system, you operate on an entirely different level than other organizations. Even during the "rough patches" that the Yanks and Sox hit, you never got the feeling that they were very far from getting another pennant. With the Astros, I can't honestly tell you when we'll even be contending for the division again.
What rough patches are you referring to? Because the Yanks spent three years as freaking doormats in the early 90s IIRC. And they weren't anything special in the 80s either, Mattingly notwithstanding.
