I have to say with the Roof open MMP is NO where close to Game 5 NLCS this yr/ last yr or any of the NLDS games, and this is surpose to be the WORLD SERIES with our home field advantage
Last night's game really just didnt have the feel of all the previous post season games . The roof being open gave the game a whole new feel and look . It was crappy .
Everyone simply needs to get over this. If the players can't win because the roof is open or closed they don't deserve to be in the World Series. The roof certainly didn't cost them the game last night. Oswalt's worst inning ever and a lack of clutch hits cost them.
The thing of it was, it wasn't good for entertainment either. It was bad for both the Astros and baseball. See the Twins world series. Everybody wants to hear the noise and feel the excitement. Which was not nearly as powerful.
I don't want to say necessarily that your opinion is generalistic, but it does have an advantage to have Oswalt or any of our pitchers, for that matter, perform better in warmer weather (i.e. roof closed) against colder weather, because the pitching arm needs to stay warm. Nonetheless, your point about the roof not costing them the game is on the money. I personally want it open, but am NOT blaming our loss on having it closed... I know it seems hypocritical, but if you must see my point, "what's the point in having a 'retractable' (read RETRACTABLE') if the retractable option is not used???".
God help us if the Texans make the playoffs and the NFL keeps the roof open during a home playoff game...the fans might just burn the place down...
Dude. Enough with the Texans' bashing already... It's bad enough that the opponents do that already... sheesh...
I don't think a single person here has blamed the roof being open for the loss. I do blame MLB for taking away the homefield advantage we had with the roof closed in the previous 2 series however. The standard should not be the "weather" that determines whether the roof is open or closed...it should be the team and the team alone. The whole atmosphere of the place changed with the roof open. Neither team has a "baseball" advantage with the roof closed. The crowd is just louder, which does affect the players on both sides. Its the intangibles that are affected, which MLB doesn't have any business messing with. Bottom line is, the stadium IS SUPPOSED a competitive advantage the Astros. Why do you think the Crawford Boxes are in left field and not right? Because of Bagwell and Biggio. I don't know if anyone can confirm this but did Bud Selig even attend any of the NLCS or NLDS games here?
Good post, Master. Just to add to your comments: I'd be cheering more if I wasn't freezing my ass off...
The thing that bothers me is that it was COLD at the end of the game in extra innings. The Astros have played at home in warm weather all season, while the Sox have been used to playing in colder weather for some time and can adapt to it better. That said .. it is a minor thing in the White Sox favor and probably hurt the psyche of the Astros more than anything. The bottom line is that we should be able to get all the home field advantage we want from the roof being closed. Butt Selig needs to worry about things that effect the League.
There is a big portion of the crowd factor that has nothing to do with the roof being open. This is the World Series. The biggest ticket in Houston sports history. The layman/main fanbase can not afford to come out in droves to the game as in the other series. This is a more hoidy toidy crowd that cares more about being in the right social circles. Yes, there are still some hardcore fans in the stands, but not as many as in the previous series because the barrier to entry created by ticket cost. A closed roof may increase the volume some, but it will still not match the raucus noise reached during the NLCS.
You have to remember that the World Series crowd isn't going to be the usual "die hard fan" crowd... only the middle-upper class can drop 750-2000 bucks a ticket while all of us normal guys who missed out on the drawings are cheering every pitch from our couches. It's like the Superbowl isn't really full of football fans, it is a status event more then anything.
Thanks, I'll file that away. The autonomy of the franchise doesn't matter, specifically when MLB is on record saying they were *preventing* a part of the homefield advantage at the Astros' home field. To grow the grass. Indoor baseball with real grass is way cool. I love me some grass.
That's another thing...Why wasn't the roof closed when the temperature really started dropping? This isn't Chicago or NY, where Selig's used to the weather. We aren't used to cold weather. That roof should have been closed somewhere in the middle innings. I think Drayton McLane, County Judge Eckels, and Mayor Bill White should just give Selig the finger and close that roof tonight. Post HPD officers and Harris County Sheriff's deputies to guard the roof controls. Minute Maid Park belongs to the Houston Astros, Harris County, and the City of Houston. Not MLB. What's Selig going to do? Forfeit the game? I doubt that. Time for Drayton and our political leaders to stand up and not take this BS.
To put the short porch elsewhere, you'd have to change the alignment of the field as it sits on the lot. As such, I think Texas Avenue had more to do with it than Bags and Bidge, personally. The stadium will be around at least 40 or 50 years; it wouldn't be very good foresight to plan it around two guys who'll retire within its first decade of existence.
Why not?? You are building it for the present. You build it to suit the guys you already have. Bagwell and Biggio built Minute Maid Park. The Astrodome was designed for pitchers. Minute Maid Park is tailor made for right handed power hitters which Bagwell is. If we had Barry Bonds instead of Bagwell...I think it would have been designed differently.
i wonder where Selig was sitting. did he have the cojones to sit in the stands? or was he in the comforts of the press box b/c it was too cold due to a open roof. really, i don't know. i was at the game and had to piss every inning b/c it was cold in the upper deck.
It is *never* good to build only for the present. Always, always, always plan for the future. I do *not* think the Dome was built as a pitcher's park because the Astros had stud pitchers at the time--mostly because they did not have stud pitchers at the time. As far as why there is a short porch in left, it is because the block is narrower between Crawford street (I said Texas street earlier in error) and its parallel street than it is between the other two streets, and because of the placement of Union Station and the decision to include Union Station in the architecture of the park. It is these symantec and practical issues that created out left field porch, not the hopes of getting two old guys a competitive edge. Remember that Lance Berkman (great power from the left side) was already a part of the Astros organization at the time this park was being planned.
Berkman wasn't the player he is now back then....not saying that Bagwell and Biggio were the sole inspiration for the Crawford Boxes...but I find it hard to believe that they objected to the design when it was finished ;-)
