[MATTRESS MACK] I will get FREE furniture from Gallery Furniture

Who is insisting that the team isn't getting any better?

 

Part of the frustrating part of the bullpen is also the way Porter constructed/managed it...

From starting off with the wishy-washy "closer by committee" approach (yet he was forcing Fields out there, trying to make him the closer).... then several appearances by Sipp as a lefty only specialist (when he has good enough stuff to pitch an entire inning as a set up man), and using Qualls during blowouts only to not have him available for a save opportunity the next day...

I thought his handling of this bullpen (which between Qualls, Sipp, Fields and Veras... is not THAT bad)... was a fireable offense in and of itself.

 

They can not get that sign down quick enough. Can't believe they agreed to allow that. Reminds me of playing Sweet Caroline during the 7th inning stretch of a game vs. the Red Sox in Drayton's last season.

 

There have been quite a few posts calling this team crap and a minor league team.

 

You and I wholeheartedly agree on this.....

 

I felt pretty good about the Astros getting under 100 wins this season... guess I should've bought some furniture.

 

Certainly the 2012 and 2013 teams fit that mold (intentionally... in a quest to ensure the #1 draft pick the subsequent years), but not this year's team. With the addition of Fowler, Qualls, Albers, Crain, Feldman (and promotions of Springer/Singleton), there's been a conscious effort all year to improve the MLB team (minus the Cosart trade, of course....)

 

*under 100 losses that is, HA.

 

I agree. Just saying there have been recent posts where people have been calling them crap and a minor league team.

 

One more!!! I could have some free furniture tomorrow!!!

 

Congrats

We finally ended our steak of 100 loss seasons!

 

Thanks!!! I am soo excited!!! Hopefully the Astros can continue to play spoiler and I get to meet some at the winners party and shake their hands and thank them!!!

 

Eight more wins before they can show a twenty game improvement in 2014. Come on guys....

 

Congrats to those who took the bet and put their money where their mouth is!!

 

I think most of us expected this team to avoid 100 losses, I myself expected 66 wins.

But now there is a realistic chance this team avoids 90 losses, I don't think anybody saw that coming. And it isn't as if we've lucked into it, our pythagorean has us at 62 wins.

52-54 Over the last 106

20-17 over the last 37, including 13-8 against +.500 teams.

11-5 against the lowly Rangers :grin:

 

Who got their free furniture?

Hundreds gather to claim Mattress Mack money on Astros gamble

Betting against the Astros proved to be another costly publicity stunt for the owner of a Houston furniture store.

Gallery Furniture owner Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale refunded more than $4.2 million dollars to 420 customers Sunday night, fulfilling a promise he made last spring to reimburse the first 500 customers who spent more than $6,300 at his store if the Astros won 63 games. The promotion was partly tied to McIngvale's 63rd birthday this year.

It was a decent gamble, with the Astros coming off a record-breaking bad 51-111 season. This year, however, they recorded 70 wins.

"I could have put it at 70, which would have made it much more difficult, but I wanted to give the customers a better chance to win, and that's the way it turned out," McIngvale said. "The customers are happy, we're happy."

Gallery Furniture turned the refund event into a party at its store off I-45 North on Sunday, with customers snacking on free food as they stood in two lines that stretched the length of the store. Astros executive Reid Ryan and former players Larry Dierker and José Cruz made appearances and autographed balls for customers, many of whom were decked out in Astros gear.

"You never like to put a certain win number out there, since we're in the rebuilding process, but we thought, you know what, this is a good way to get people excited about the Astros again," Ryan said.

And it seemed to work.

"It feels really good, like winning a small lottery ticket," said Kyle Nix, 34, who received a $6,500 check. "I've been an Astros fan for a long time ... it made my wife interested in baseball for the first time. She's usually not a sports fan, but she watched every game with us. She actually knew some of the players' names by the end of the season."

...

"I wish it had not been so costly, but it is what it is," he said with a laugh. "My wife's going to divorce me when I do the next one."​