The problem I and a lot of other people have is MLB made the Astros play two more road games than any other team in the leauge. Now that would have happened regardless of where they played. But they couldn't even manage to find a "neutral" site. Your right, this isn't up for debate...because Milwauke was the absolute LAST place this team should have played and there were other options available. If there was such a big chance of rain in Atlanta, then why was the Player's Union lobbying so hard for it? And why can't they play in Austin in a minor leauge park? Selig made a poor decision. And I could care less how it inconveniences the Cubs...this was a road series for them. They were already prepared to fly out to Houston so it shouldn't inconvenience them much if it all to fly to another destination. I mean if the Astros can somehow find a plane to land in a city where all the major airports are closed, find buses and have the buses manage to find a way into MMP on Sunday (when more street flooding occurred because of continued rain), then I think you can ask the actual "road team" to either play at a minor league park in Austin for one series or come into the city on Monday (when the street flooding seemed to have subsided and thus it was probably a little easier to get to MMP) and play...without the fans if you want to keep them safe from the damages in downtown. Hell just forget about trying to play at MMP...yeah downtown was closed, the city was shut down...ok, I'll bite on that. Send them to Austin then. There's really no point in going in circles here...neither of our opinions are gonna change on the matter...and really it's a dead issue now cause the team chose to sulk for five games instead of trying to overcome difficult circumstances. And honestly, if they miss the Wild Card, it's not gonna be because of what happened in Milwaukee; it'll be because of what happened in Florida.
Thanks for posting that! There were three other links in the article, one of which to this site http://www.crawfishboxes.com/ . Awesome Astros blog.
I didn't find out about this until wednesday...just got power yesterday. My reaction was utter anger. I was already t'd off with getting attacked by mosquitos in an 80 degree house, no gas and Center Point taking their sweet time with the power situation. IMHO Zambrano doesn't no-hit the Stros at Minute Maid. Selig's explanation was sickening to hear. Drayton could have stood up to Bud and gone public but he chose to stay quiet. I still don't know why Drayton lets Selig dictate how his franchise is run.
I didn't lose power hardly at all, so I don't know how you feel or what you went through and I don't want to be unsympathetic, but--if you had any family at all who worked for CenterPoint, you might have phrased that a bit differently. I have friends I haven't seen since the day before Ike--and neither have their families. Four hours of sleep, get up, get back to work for 16 hours. Seven days a week. Ike was kind of big deal, man. You can't just snap your fingers and make it all better. Even the great city of Houston.
I don't remember publicly defending Selig, or having an opinion one way or the other about him before, so I don't quite know what you mean. That said, it's hard for me, as an Astros fan, to be angry at Selig anymore, after watching my Astros lay down and whine like little girls the last seven games. They threw in the towel. They declared themselves dead with like nine or ten games remaining, and they've played like it ever since. Berkman is in another of his Mendozian slumps, and he's pointing fingers at Selig. The "magic number" is now two. Truth is, the magic number may as well have been zero the day the Astros decided any of their losses were Bud Selig's fault. I didn't think I would ever accuse this team of quitting. But that is what they have done. It's sick. While we're rebuilding from Ike, they're sulking and giving half-effort while being paid millions from playing a child's game. Lance, you poor, poor (fat, rich) thing.
yes, i'm aware of that - same thing happened to the saints in 2005. that's what happens, unfortunately, when your stadium and/or city are ravaged by a natural disaster during the season. this is ultimately where the disconnect is... as an astro fan, you champion inconveniencing everyone BUT the astros. i don't blame anyone for wanting to lessen their burden. but selig's mandate was to minimize the impact to the rest of his league. because the truth is the world did not stop because of hurricane ike, and that included MLB.
It was a road series for the Cubs, not the Astros. If it was the other way around...I wouldn't think it to be fair for the Cubs and I would have expected the Astros to play wherever they were told, because it would have been a road series for them. Since they weren't gonna be playing at MMP, anywhere they would have gone would have been essentially a road series...but the whole desire to make it a "neutral site" is total BS when Selig made the call to play the games in Milwaukee.
Selig threw out the first pitch today if you didn't know and was greeted with a thunderous applause... I wonder why? http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp...id=3594216&vkey=ps2008news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb MILWAUKEE -- Thunderous applause from a sellout Miller Park crowd greeted Commissioner Bud Selig as he strode from the first base dugout to the mound Sunday to throw out the first pitch before Game 4 of the National League Division Series between the Brewers and Phillies. The roars grew as the founding owner of the Brewers made his way toward the mound, and reached a crescendo when the Commissioner raised his arms above his head to acknowledge the warm reception. "This was very emotional," Selig said afterward. "Extremely emotional." Selig stepped to the grass in front of the mound and tossed a pitch to Brewers backup catcher Mike Rivera, who turned the inside of his glove up to catch it as the ball sailed on an arc toward the plate. With that, the crowd roared again and Selig raised both of his arms in triumph, giving high fives to current Brewers owner Mark Attanasio and others as he gratefully strode off the field. Selig was accompanied by his wife, Sue, and Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. "Hank Aaron once told me that the key to this is to stand in front of the mound about 40 feet away and let it rip," Selig said. "I was intent on not bouncing it like [Bob] Uecker did yesterday." Uecker, the club's legendary play-by-play radio announcer, threw out the first pitch Saturday before Milwaukee's first home playoff game since Game 5 of the 1982 World Series. The Brewers won, 4-1, narrowing the Phillies' lead in the best-of-five series to 2-1. Selig said he wasn't exactly nervous on Sunday, but the adrenaline certainly was pumping. "It's something to be out there and do that in front of all these people," he said. "It was a terrific experience." Selig attended both Brewers home playoff games this weekend and said he's been moved by the response of fans as he's walked around the park that opened in 2001. Selig was one of two people to toss out the first pitch during Miller Park's inaugural opener that season. The other was President George W. Bush, a former managing general partner of the Texas Rangers, who had been elected to the nation's highest office only five months earlier.
