RT @brianmctaggart: George Postolos announced today that he has resigned as President and CEO of the Houston Astros
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Hate to say it, but Jim Crane needs to take advantage of the positive news that George Postolos has stepped down as Asrtros prez.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334001639734259712">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>As I told colleagues David Barron and Brian Smith months ago, Crane ultimately would have to get rid if Postolos this year.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334002097227964419">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Postolos regime treated baseball as though it were basketball, got rid of a lot of institutional knowledge and it has bit them badly.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334002829012381696">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The Astros need baseball people who appreciate the difficulty of selling 162-game season and the love an ownership fans feel for their team.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334003940846882816">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Astros">#Astros</a>' Postolos played key role in ongoing/stalled @<a href="https://twitter.com/csnhouston">csnhouston</a> negotiations and was a regular presence at MMP in recent weeks.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronAstros) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronAstros/status/334001918101823488">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>As recently as February, <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Astros">#Astros</a>' Big Three of Crane, Postolos, Luhnow were adamant they were on same page during organization's rebuild.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronAstros) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronAstros/status/334002173480423425">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>There was an increasing divide within <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Astros">#Astros</a>, though, and many were unhappy with decisions made by Postolos. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23MLB">#MLB</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronAstros) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronAstros/status/334002659231145984">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Timing of Postolos' resignation from 10-28 <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Astros">#Astros</a> -- who are on 40 percent of TV market -- is somewhat shocking. Move itself isn't. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23MLB">#MLB</a></p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronAstros) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronAstros/status/334003149595619329">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Many former/current <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23Astros">#Astros</a> employees weren't fond of Postolos and decisions made by his branch of operations.</p>— Brian T. Smith (@ChronAstros) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChronAstros/status/334003388968751105">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I'd be more hopeful that it will bring change in the network negotiations. So much good was said of Postolos a when the sale was going down, and a lot of negative now.
You should ask David Stern his feelings about Postolos. It was no secret he annoyed NBA HQ when he was chasing after an All Star Game for Houston. But hey, he got the job done lol
Jose de Jesus Ortiz really laying it on Zorba. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Astros business ops was quite successful for many years with brilliant folks under McLane. Yet, Postolos wiped out many good folks.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334005898685059073">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>U don't treat Larry Dierker like ingrate if u realize baseball fans love their heroes. u don't let Cubs steal JD. 2 major Postolos mishaps.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334006827727609856">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Covered baseball since 97 from L.A. to Tampa Bay to NY to Houston, and Postolos biz ops probably had biggest disconnect to baseball fans.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334007927398600704">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Jim Crane now has a huge opportunity to reconnect with Astros lovers. Must find baseball folks who understand baseball fans' sensibilities.</p>— Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/334008266705235968">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Crane, himself, is a baseball guy. Will be interesting to see if this has bearing on negotiations for CSN-Houston.
I really do not think that the owner and especially the GM wants Nolan Ryan, but him saying he will remain with the Rangers does not mean a damn thing if he wants to be aligned with the Astros and vice versa.
http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastro...ance-to-reconnect-with-fans/?cmpid=sportshcat George Postolos, who resigned as Astros president on Monday, was probably doomed from the start. And it’s not entirely his fault. Being a top NBA executive doesn’t quite prepare you for what it takes to run a baseball operation. There are, after all, very few Stan Kastens in the world. Postolos wasn’t a seamhead and never will be. There’s nothing wrong with that. He was groomed in the National Basketball Association and the Rockets. An NBA team plays half as many regular season games and has to sell about half as many tickets for a sellout. As famed attorney Rusty Hardin admitted after he read the vitriol spewed his way when he took on Roger Clemens’ fight to clear his name, baseball fans are a different breed. Hardin has defended athletes accused of many crimes, yet he never got such angry fan feedback like he did after Clemens fought the accusations that were made in the Mitchell Report. Football and basketball fans are passionate. Baseball followers are fanatical, though. They believe in the purity of the stats and the familial environment of a baseball stadium, and they sure as heck don’t want anybody messing with what they view as sacred. For over a decade, Minute Maid Park was the place to be, a civic monument that made Houstonians proud because they all knew their baseball yard didn’t take a backseat to any of the new ones in baseball. There’s a reason nobody has the guts to tear down the Astrodome. None of us, after all, want to see our baseball memories reduced to rubble. I’m not from Houston, but I know how Astros fans feel because my girls are all huge Astros fans. I know what it feels like to love your baseball stadium because Dodger Stadium brings back special memories of my youth. Heck, as ugly and decrepit as Shea Stadium was, I named my middle daughter Maya Shea because that’s the stadium where I met my wife when I was the Newark Star-Ledgers’ Mets beat writer. So what’s my point? If Postolos genuinely understood the bond fans feel to their baseball teams and stadiums, he never would have allowed that monstrosity of corporate signage that the Astros built behind left field. Astros owner Jim Crane deserves praise for trying to raise money to refurbish youth ball fields though his Community Leaders’ program, but they could have found several other places to put those billboards without ruining Minute Maid Park’s perfect view of the Houston skyline. Those billboards were a clear sign that the Astros didn’t realize the ownership Astros fans felt toward Minute Maid Park, which actually was built by the tax payers. Even worse, Postolos’ regime got rid of many key front office business operations folks with plenty of institutional knowledge. Some of those folks might have been able to tell Crane and Postolos that it would be a public relations disaster to lose broadcaster Jim Deshaies to the Cubs. A team president with an appreciation of the Astros fans’ sensibilities would have realized the Astros would lose in a spat with the beloved Larry Dierker, a man who literally almost died in the dugout wearing an Astros uniform. “There is a certain amount of bitterness,” Dierker told David Barron in March. “You invest 48 years in a market, and you see everything being destroyed and you can’t do anything about it.” If you appreciate how much baseball fans are invested with their team’s old timers, you don’t treat Dierker like an ingrate. You don’t talk about altering their beloved stadium. Dierker devoted his life to the Astros, yet Postolos didn’t realize that he couldn’t be tossed out of the organization like the other folks with decades of seniority who have been ushered out the door since Crane bought the team. Dierker wasn’t the only longtime Astros employee Postolos helped usher out the door. I can come up with eight front office, business operations, ticket office-types with more than a combined 160 years who were let go under Postolos. You cannot get rid of so much institutional knowledge and expect to connect with your fans. It’s just not realistic. Under Drayton McLane, the Diamond Club was an exclusive place to be. The Diamond Club was renowned as the place to see the elite members of Houston’s society, a place for former presidents and business leaders. Last week, somebody with access to the Diamond Club seats close to the ones that belonged to Drayton McLane pretended he was exposing himself with a hot dog weiner. That incident happened during the same homestand in which a fan was shown giving the middle finger to the crowd on the video board – on two separate occasions. General manager Jeff Luhnow and his baseball operations staff seem more than capable to turn the Astros around by building through the farm system. It’s silly to blame Luhnow for the big-league club’s struggles considering the $21 million payroll. Even Branch Rickey couldn’t win consistently with this payroll. But now that Postolos has stepped down, Crane has an opportunity to reconnect with Astros fans. Here’s a chance for Crane to bring in a president who appreciates and understands the challenge of satisfying the most passionate yet devoted sports fans in American sports. I’m sad to admit that I told my colleagues and baseball writers throughout the country that I didn’t think Postolos would succeed past this year. Heck, he didn’t make it out of the second month of the season. He surely was a great basketball executive, but baseball is another challenge entirely.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>According to a Major League Baseball source, Craig Biggio has been approached about becoming the next Astros team president.</p>— Matt Jackson (@MJ4Sports) <a href="https://twitter.com/MJ4Sports/status/334076669365215232">May 13, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
