Point being that no team is squeaky clean. Sure, the TV deal situation sucks but is hopefully worth while in the long run. Not signing a number 1 pick has happened in the past. A low salary periodically so that we don't stay in limbo forever as a barely sub .500 team like the latter 2000's? I am okay with that. And Appelgate? The guy was drafted just over a year ago and was battling injuries. That was blown exponentially out of proportion. I am sorry that we have to rebuild, but the minor issues that have built up have been fair from a "joke" unless you have tunnel vision (looking at you, Olney).
They're the third or fourth worst team in the league after being the worst team in the league the previous three years. I would say that qualifies as a joke. Four years ago if I told you what was going to happen on and off the field for this franchise I think most people would call it a joke.
Regardless of all of that, the interest in major league baseball in this city has effectively been squashed. Going simply by the discussion here is a totally skewed view... we are the diehards that won't ever stop following, but so much of this city simply does not care about the one franchise that has been around the longest. From 1998-2009, you could definitely say that this was as much of a baseball town as any other city out there... not saying they couldn't get back to that level, but it almost has to involve a helluva lot of winning to do so.
I agree that a lot has been made of some minor issues. However, I don't consider not being on TV and the trade talk information leaked to be minor. If the Astros were winning and didn't have the other issues going on, Applegate and a lot of the other non-issues would not be able to be used to rile up the fan base. The fact that the media can use these things makes me think the Astros have been a joke from the PR/perception standpoint. As far as off the field issues go, I would rather the Astros have to deal with a Johnny Football like circus if they were on the air and didn't leak information. Winning would cure a lot of ills. I tend to agree with most things the Astros have done, but I don't want to sugar coat things...losing sucks. Not being on TV unless you have Comcast sucks. Houston baseball coverage by the chronicle sucks. When MadMAx gets upset with one of his teams, they are having a PR problem. That said, this team has been fun to watch this year. Singleton and Springer can be frustrating at times, but those two have also been huge (Springer much more frequently) and have potential to be a great pair. I enjoy Keuchel's pitching. Altuve as gone from being the best Astro nearly by default to being in the battle for the hitting title and being one of if not the best hitting 2B.
Blah blah blah, any actual updates? I thought last week was supposed to be some sort of deadline? Did they kick the can down the road again?
From July 31: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Bottom line: It's not likely the public will get details on CSN Houston's future until the Aug. 7 status conference before Judge Isgur.</p>— David Barron (@dfbarron) <a href="https://twitter.com/dfbarron/statuses/494981879528194050">July 31, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The 2000 Astros had the benefit of a new ballpark AND a team that had won a lot. After that bad season, however, fans could have gone back to the Astrodome-era attendance (good in the later years, but never great)... but they kept coming in droves. Same crossroads happened in 2004 after the "newness of the ballpark" had started to wear off... and then Clemens/Pettite happened. The bottom line is that it was the perfect storm (new ballpark, great team with some once-in-a-generation core members) that had this city turn into a full fledged baseball town (add to the fact the Rockets were pretty much third fiddle, and the Texans hadn't started to win yet). All they had to do to maintain that sort of run was continue to put some "decent" teams out there (of course, the foundation had already crumbled and a rebuild of some sort was inevitable). Now, there won't be a new ballpark, and there aren't any franchise cornerstones (yet)... to get back to that rabid level, it will be due to winning (and only winning)... and sustained winning.
Disclaimer: Thirdhand, anonymous source. Place as much or as little credibility on it as you deem appropriate. Poster on another message board I spend a lot of time on claims to be friends with a guy directly involved in the CSN situation. Says he talked to him this weekend, and although he said this friend understandably had to be extremely vague, the message relayed was that, unless there's an unexpected complication, there should be a major announcement sometime this week which will be welcome news to a lot of people.
Hasn't that always been the case with the August 7th court date looming, combined with the news from last week?
Not really...how many hearings/status conferences have we had where the parties have punted? I'm hopeful about this now...
I thought that the Aug 7 thing would just be an update and not an actual announcement or significant happening. At this point I don't care if it's good or bad news, I just want a definitive action.
I'm sort of amazed how nothing has leaked from last week about the interested buyer who put a last Thursday deadline on wanting a decision from the network/teams.
Good point. Maybe a decision was made and final details are being worked out. If it were bad news regarding the deadline, I think we would have heard something.
That's how I understood it. The post I referenced stated that any major setback at this point would be unexpected, which would obviously imply that there's agreement on the fundamental aspects of a deal. Once again, I have no way of verifying this information, but it's a small, familiar group of posters that participate in the Astros discussion thread on said board, and there's no real history of this crew posting made-up BS.
I hope so. I don't really care which side comes out more profitable on this deal. I just hope the games get on TV. I know it has been a long process but despite what some desperately want people to believe, there was no way the Astros were just going to be allowed to walk without some legal maneuvering to prevent it. CSN and the Rockets were successful in blocking the Astros from walking and hopefully something good will come from it. This could still fall apart, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
