Yeah, pretty much - unless you can come up with a better solution that doesn't screw up the season for a bunch of other teams. The Saints, shortly after Katrina, played their home season opener in New York - against the New York Giants. It happens. The league's primary goal in that situation is to minimize spreading the problem across the league.
read the entire thread, please. i don't like the situation *at all*, but no one - not a single soul in this thread - has provided even a remotely viable alternative... and that's because there isn't one. so b****ing up a storm about it is pointless, especially considering the astros are still only 2.5 back with the brewers and now mets possibly faltering....... everyone is acting like this cost us a shot at the postseason; it's a temporary setback.
obviously ric is a selig and mlb apologist... silly us for wanting the league to at least attempt at giving the stros a fair shot in all this, but according to Ric, that's just too much to ask for.
refman, you and everyone else are free to come up with a better plan. but other than ideas that favor the astros exclusively, you (collectively) haven't been able to do so. and that's because none exist. it's just a bad situation all around.
I haven't heard a rational explanation for why Tampa wasn't considered for a DH on Sunday. Or one on Sunday and a 11:05 start on Monday.
offer is extended to you, as well, SWTsig - what's a better alternative that doesn't compromise the MLB season and was actually viable?..... i've said this repeatedly: i hate what happened. hate, Hate, HATE it; i feel terrible for the players and was very nearly literally sick watching the coverage on ESPN. sick. but i've yet to see a better alternative, ESPECIALLY if, as has been reported, drayton mclane was being a fly in the oinment and making the situation worse...
see, the options dont have to "Favor the astros exclusively," they just have to NOT favor the cubs AND the brewers.
several, and i've posted them - how would you propose a DH on sunday considering the astros arrived in milwaukee - closer to houston than tampa - at close to 2 in the afternoon? and they lose an hour traveling east, remember. here's the account from footer: The Astros took off close to noon CT and arrived to Milwaukee -- where they were met with yet more rain -- just before 2 p.m. By a little after 4, everyone was assembled in the clubhouse at Miller Park ready for their 7 p.m. start time with the Cubs. so you're proposing a 6pm-ish start (at the EARLIEST)... for a DH, and then an 11:05 start the next morning, huh? and you think that would have been a better alternative for a tired team?... as for monday, tampa bay was hosting a game monday night. you can't start rocking boats like that. the astros and cubs - these very same teams - played a 4-hour, 17-minute, 11-inning game just 13 days ago. you can't possibly jeopardize other games, ESPECIALLY games that matter, such as rays/red sox.
For a Sunday DH, you have the same problem people are complaining about here - except even worse. People didn't like the idea that the Astros had to travel Sunday morning and play Sunday evening while worried about their family, etc, etc. Two games Sunday would be even worse. A Monday game in the same place as another game is just a potential logistics nightmare. What if the game runs long? Do you delay the other game? Again, if the focus is to minimize the disruption to baseball as a whole, why go this route if you can play in a ballpark with no conflicts of that sort? The only argument for this is if the goal is to minimize the disruption to the Astros specifically. That might be the goal for people here, but I don't think it was ever MLB's goal.
ANY situation would have favored the cubs and brewers if the astros are playing less than 48 hours after a hurricane roared through their hometown. there is NO situation that would have leveled that playing field, other than postponing the games - but that simply wasn't viable.
If the Cubs have clinched the integrity of any season ending series is nullified...in ANY series. To me I think this is a cluster screw...of...Drayton not wanting to lose a pay day, and Bud not being patient enough for the Astros players and their families. Ric, They could ALWAYS delay the start of the playoffs, or push back one series a few days to even it out....by removing off days in the middle of the series etc. to catch up. And it is not an alternative to play the games at Dell Diamond in RR? We had ZERO rain here. DD
Ok, they play at the same time Sunday night (shorter flight to Tampa as well by 20 minutes, net loss 40 minutes) and play an hour earlier on Monday. Considering the chances of that game taking more than four hours to play are slim and none, if they finished the game by 4:00, they could've easily been done and vacated the building for the other teams. If you have to delay the start in Tampa 30 minutes to an hour, so be it, it's not like games have never been delayed before. Instead, you give the Cubs two virtual home games and make the Astros fly more than twice the amount than they would have had they played in Tampa (Houston to Milwaukee, Milwaukee to Miami...3-plus hour flight). They may have inconvenienced the Rays a little, but it is not something that would've been inconceivable and you would've made things much more fair for the team who had to suffer the most out of everyone.
Of course any situation was going to favor the Cubs/Brewers, but they could've picked one that didn't favor them more than other viable alternatives.
WTF is wrong with waiting for the town of Houston to get back on it's feet a bit? What happened in this country where playing baseball games is more important than helping out the people in Houston in trouble. If Bud had Balls, he would have suspended all games for a week, resumed the schedule the next week, and had the missed week made up at the end. I mean for crying out loud, it is a natural disaster, baseball...as much as I like it, is still just a game. DD
not if the astros, phillies and/or brewers haven't clinched yet..... you can't let the human element become a part of this; we're dealing with this strictly from a baseball perspective. he can't disrupt the season for one team. not even remotely viable; i can't believe you honestly think it is. there are millions and millions and millions of dollars tied into the playoff schedule - networks have built their entire fall seasons around them. you can't disrupt that, nor can you ask other teams to compromise their postseason to accomodate a team that may not even be in it. would you be OK forfeiting travel days for the astros to give anaheim time to make-up games canceled by an earthquake?... i wouldn't have had a problem with it, but the ruling was it wasn't a major league stadium and that could compromise the games.
Or how about playing the game in Houston in front of no fans and the MLB donating money to the Astros to make up for the loss at the gate? Nah, let's pick the worst possible scenario for the team who had to go through all that. It's like they think the Astros just sat around with their thumbs up their asses for a couple days instead of a major disaster happening in the community.
sadly it's also a multi billion dollar a year business, and Bud has proven to fans, that he cares more about the dollar then the integrity of his game. he's a douchebag of the very essence. This ordeal was mishandled horribly. Ric and others have brought up good and valid points that defend the piss poor decision, and thats fine. I see where they are coming from, but that doesn't mean Astros fans don't have a right to b**** about being **** on, because we were.
i would have appaluded the move, but can't imagine asking 29 other teams to compromise their seasons for one team.
Why wasn't Round Rock viable? Close to home so the players didn't have to be too far from family. Holds more than the Rays, Nationals, Marlins draw on any given night (13,000 plus). Could give away tickets to evacuees. Home field feeling.
