---------------------------------------------------------------------------- but naawww; they're just "ramping up for their team's game."<br /> <br />
Look, I'm 29 years old. The cubs have sucked since forever so I've never seen them as a threat but instead as a joke. I do hate the braves since the Maddox days and the Cardinals since the 00's but that doesn't mean I'd hate to see the Astros go to the AL. Why not? Really? Why not? My dad told me about the Dodgers and Mets rivalries but he never b****ed about the Stros moving to the NL Central. I see it the same way. The AL has Great pitching and great smal ball. Look at the Angel and Mike Socha. Look at the early Rangers and the hit and run Washington did. My point is that yeah it sucks that this choice doesn't look to be our choice but there is no reason to dismiss the other league. I for one HATE pitchers batting. It's a waste of ****ing time and I don't care what msn thinks because thats my opinion.
A bit of an overstatement there. I'm not 30, started watching the Astros as my first sport in 1990. Sure, there is history of the Astros in the NL. There is even some postseason series history against the likes of St. Louis and Atlanta that makes facing those teams a little bit more than other games. But your acting as if there is some epic rivalry that the Astros will never revisit with some of the NL teams. My dad has been a Stros fan since 69, me since 90, and my brother since 94 and I cannot name a single team that truly hate and want to beat to a pulp in MLB. I can list those teams in every other sport I follow (Mavs, Jazz, Laker/Steelers, Titans, Jags/ Man-U, Arsenal/ UT, Tech, OU), but there isn't one in baseball. I mean I normally cannot even root for those teams in other sports except on very, very rare occasions. There is on such team that comes to mind for me for the Stros. I mean I've rooted for the Braves over the past 15-20 years. Sure not the years the beat the Stros, but other times I have. Same with the Cardinals. Same with the Cubs. (I mean how can you hate the Cubs?) What you are mad about is all the personal association that you have with the sport. You remember the game against the Giants/Red/Braves/Cubs/Dodgers/Mets/etc, that you went to/saw with your dad/brother, caught a ball, saw Mike Scott/Nolan Ryan, etc. And every time the Stros play those teams again, you relive those memories. That is what your afraid of losing. There is nothing with cherishing those memories, but the team moving to the AL won't cause you to forget those times. They will always be there. Though, I fully agree with you that the DH/Yankees/Rangers/Selig can be vaporized and I wouldn't miss them one bit.
I think most of us would come to come to appreciate other rivalries, but outside of a few matchups (Cubs/Cards, Yankees/Sox, Dodgers/Giants), the epic matchups aren't there. Most teams haven't been around 100 years, and so geographically close to have helped create those rivalries. Our rivalries are similar to the vast majority that exist in baseball.
So, how would you feel if the Rockets moved to the East and only played Dallas twice? Or moved to some other league where they rarely played Dallas, Utah or the Lakers? (every 3 years or so)
Except pitchers do get hits 15-20% of the time, so it really isn't that bad. We could always go to 9 designated fielders, 9 hitters, and 9 runners. Why should we ask our greatest athletes to be good at more than one thing? Oh, because it would be watching the boring ass Olympics every day.
I don't want to see it. You threw out some outlandish example and i Would agree with you that that would suck but you see it all the time...It's called Football. Offense has thier players and defense has theirs. Never stopped anyone from liking it has it?
I'm already pretty apathetic about the team a the moment. With the likelihood of me moving away from Houston fairly soon, I might just stop caring completely if they move to the AL.
The only positive I see moving to the AL is that the DH gives AL teams and advantage over NL teams. Ugh, I'm not looking forward to Yanks/Sox games. Last thing a rebuilding team needs are some bandwagon fans turning Minute Maid into Fenway south.
I really hate the Cardinals. I hate La Russa. I think he's a scumbag dip****. Besides Yankees-Red Sox (or Yankees-Mets), what other big "rivalries" are there? There really aren't. It's professional sports; they come and go. No, the Astros don't really have intense rivalries (though I don't care for the Cubs or Cardinals or Braves), so the thinking is maybe a move can "develop" rivalries. But that's just not going to happen. It's highly unlikely. Maybe if the Rangers were in San Antonio, but "Dallas"? That lame, fake ****hole isn't even worth getting mad or angry about.
To me that is what the DH is. In football people also come in and out of games. In baseball you come out, you don't go back in, unless you are an American League pitcher or DH.
I sure hope you don't lack the intellectual capacity to tell the difference between rivalry between two ball clubs and a couple of guys not liking a team. Again, you can find the exact same talk on a Giants/Pirates board or an Angels/Royals. Are we going to get a history lesson next about the heat between the Rays and Mariners?
Hell, there was worse than that on the Texans/Dolphins ESPN thread a few weeks back....there must be some rivalry there.
I'm ****ing serious! I love the little posters who've been watching baseball for a decade or so telling the rest of us that the Astros have no rivalries. The entire NL is my rivalry. Why do, should, or would I care about any team in the AL? Not everything is Yankees/Sox. Why do or should I give, or learn to give, a **** about some concocted rivalry with a team in Dallas that nobody in Houston has EVER cared about? I get that the casual fan doesn't really appreciate baseball - the true real fascinating, gut-wrenching, frustrating, simply beautiful game, - outside of espndom. I do. Just don't bring the rest of us down to your level. I'll be perfectly happy to watch college baseball instead. Bring on the LHN.
baseball r****d here. can anybody explain to me if there is any strategic advantage in play here for the astros going to the AL west? (in terms of competitiveness of the franchise/team)
What an abomination.....National Pastime = all about the $$$$$$$$ - for wayyyy too long. Their killing the golden goose.
