Houston fans more crazy about the Astros than the Rockets?

I hate baseball. I will root for the Astros cause they've never been to the big dance and it will be good for Houston.

Stuff I hate about baseball as a fan:

1. the playoff games are in the middle of the day. I remember wasting my lunch time watching the Astros of yester-year get beat every time in the 1st round.
Bagwell hitting like .0001

2. 18 inning game was the considered the best game ever in astros history so far. Give me any Rockets Playoff game in the Championship Year. They were 1000 times more exiciting, plus it didnt take 10 hrs to watch.

3. Arguing balls and strikes. No one ever argues dunks.

4. No salary cap=no loyalty. See ALL THOSE GOOD PLAYERS that left Houston every year to play for the Yankees etc for big bucks. How rich is Drayton McClain? I know we have richer people in Houston than him.

 

It is understandable that the fans are "more crazy about the Astros than the Rockets" right now. The Rockets are playing their preseason games while the Astros are on the edge to their first ever World Series. Come on, folks, it is a hell of a difference between a pro team's preseason game and the World Series, don't you think?

 

edit.

 

Houston is football first baseball second but if the Rockets were winning and the Astros were mediocre than people would be following the Rockets more because more than anything Houston is a town of front-runners

 

Astros - Playoffs
Rox - PreSeason

 

In the championship days, Rudy T and the Rockets were the undisputed LORDS of Houston. People left their Chronicle "CLUTCH CITY" signs taped up in the windows of their cars and houses for MONTHS after basketball season. Every bar in town had a basketball goal with characatures of the team painted on it hanging up, and you can't even IMAGINE the fury when the finals against the Knicks were pre-empted by, of all things, coverage of the ****ing cops chasing OJ SIMPSON down some LA freeway.

I used to see bumper stickers that read, "In Houston, we don't believe in MAGIC, we believe in the DREAM" during the '95 Finals. The Rockets were so popular that Hakeem actually came out with his own bottled water, and people were buying cases of the stuff! People weren't buying it for a joke, they actually WANTED Hakeem's Water. Hey, I drank gallons of the stuff myself!

What killed off interest in the Rockets? Well, the first step was DEFINITELY when they started wearing the ugliest uniforms in sports history. Why the team picked '96 to change up the colors and logo, I don't think we'll ever know. That was a collosally stupid. Then there was the trade for Barkley, which was a gamble the Rockets had to take, but it ended up being disappointing in the end. Then there was the Pippen fiasco-- I know for a fact that that mess drove away a whole lot of casual fans. Then Hakeem was traded away and a loooooong stretch of mediocrity began, a stretch when the city's heat was tuned into playoff baseball and the arrival of a new NFL franchise.

Now, the Rockets are on top of their game again. The Astros have people hungry for that playoff atmosphere, and you can feel that the city can't wait to come together and celebrate like it hasn't done for a decade. Houston is a demanding city that knows its sports and expects results. We're not a patient town. But when a team is representing Houston the way we want them to, we show the love, trust me. This new Rockets team that has changed its personnel and personality so dramatically over the last 3 years is on its way to earning the city's adoration and when they're lifting their first Larry O'Brien trophy, you can be sure Toyota Center will be as loud as anyplace in the country.

 

1. Yeah the day games do kinda suck...but its all about tradition in baseball

2. Quite the contrary, that 18 inning game was stuff of legend. Playoff baseball is highly intense, and for me, moreso than any other sport. You hang on every single pitch, because ONE pitch, just one, can change a game or a series. A three in the 1st quarter of a playoff bball game isn't gonna have as lasting effect if it came with 5 sec to go in regulation and the score tied. But that's just me.

3. There's no arguing balls and strikes...but there is most definitely the arguing of fouls.

4. Two names: Biggio and Bagwell. On the other hand, you got Murphy, Tomjanovich and Olajuwon. Every sport has players that do remain loyal, but in the free agent era, that type of player is a lot harder to find, in any sport.

 

Why? Sportsfans love attention. Roger, Andy and Roy O get us more attntion in the media that do Yao and Tracy. Rogers story is amazing, and aside from that we are having an historic season.


If that excuse doesn't work for you, I'm sure Kanye West has a theory or two...


how's that RR and PG?

 

Time to take this bad boy to the D&D.

Let's go Stros! 1 more game baby!

....it'll take me a while to get back in to the Rockets like it did last year.

It took me until around January to really be into the Rockets again. I just couldn't keep the stros out of my mind. The playoffs are so exciting.

GO STROS!

 

Checkers can be exciting if you are really into it. If you are not, the action might be a bit slow.

 

Yeah but you complained about other people not liking your favorite sports team (Rockets). Then you turn right around and say you don't care about another sports team (Astros).

I mean, what is the point of bashing someone for something and then doing it yourself?

 

Like Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens?

 

He's a billionaire.

How many do you know?

 

I hope that none of you people who are complaining about the Astros are the same people who were complaining about "Houston" not being on the front of the Rockets new uniforms.

The Astros unbelievable run in the playoffs and a possible trip to the World Series FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER is HUGE!

Ask yourself why you're not watching, ask yourself why you don't care, and you'll begin to understand how the rest of Houston feels about the Rockets.

Sure, you and I know that the Rockets are good, and are going to be great, but many (most?) people in Houston don't or won't recognize that fact.

Interestingly, you won't recognize the Astros at their greatest.

Hypocracy?

You bet!

 

Houston has good fans, but not great ones. They are fair-weather fans in the sense that some fraction will be faithful no matter what, but most fans (maybe because Houston has so many transplants) don't pay attention unless the teams are good. When they are, I think Houston fans are really, really good playoff fans--and that's not a put-down.

However, one problem that exists for all sports other than football is that Houston fans aren't spontaneous. They don't make noise unless prompted to by an organist or music or big-screen monitor. When you go to other places, like Yankee Stadium, Fenway, and Busch Stadium (this applies to regular and postseason games), fans make noise spontaneously throughout the game and during critical situations. There is often deafening silence during Astros and Rockets games, just long stretches where I either am wondering why the fans are so quiet or I go ahead and yell, and everyone stares like I'm a nutjob. I know that some of the fans are what I'm calling "spontaneous," but the difference is that in Houston, it's a much smaller percentage than other cities, especially places that have a richer sports tradition.

 

ohhhh..you need to get out to MMP for the playoffs. absolutely there is spontaneous cheering going on. chants of player's name during the game..."let's go astros" out of nowhere...and more. i've been to two playoff games this year...that went on. and it went on down the stretch of the regular season, too, as they got closer to the wild card.

i agreed with you before the last 2 seasons. but Houston has come around BIG TIME as a baseball city. in part, that's an intimate new park. in part, that's the relative recent success of this franchise compared to its history.

i'm 31 years old. baseball is far bigger in houston and in texas than it was when i was growing up. on the pro level and on down.

i just love baseball. it's my favorite sport. so i can't really do a fair comparison between the rockets and the astros. having said that...i LOVE the rockets! i was there for both championships and was totally into it. i love them. but to me...nothing compares to the world series. nothing compares to baseball. as jerry reinsdorf once said, "i'd trade in all my NBA titles for one world series championship."

 

I was just about to make the Jerry Reinsdorf reference in this thread, Max.

For those NBA-only fans who are unfamiliar, Reinsdorf is the owner of the Bulls... the same team that once ruled the world. But, not once did they ever show Reinsdorf sitting on "pins and needles" at any of their games, including their first championship against the Lakers.

Yet, when it was the clinching game for the White Sox last night, despite his team being up 6-3, and up 3-1 in a series they've dominated... you could tell he could barely stand to watch, he was so nervous. He said he would have traded all those glory years of the Bulls for just one White Sox World Series... and this is the same guy who owned the team which employed quite possibly the most recognizable figure in the history of professional sports.

Baseball just does that to you... with things being able to completely change with just one bad pitch, or one errant defensive play. Its not like Basketball, where you can see the momentum shifting over a series of plays... it happens almost spontaneously in baseball.

I love both sports... for entirely different reasons... and that's why I'll continue to root for both teams with the same bravado. I understand why people don't like baseball... and I understand why some don't like the NBA (but do like college b-ball)... and for all those people who are only fans of ONE sport... you're missing out.

 

So I take it you think Michael Finley was in bounds when he stole the ball from Jon Barry?

 

I was going to argue with you, Max, about baseball being far bigger today than it used to be, but then I read this in the Chronicle:


Ryan proud of Astros

Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan, currently a special assistant to general manager Tim Purpura, watched Sunday's game from Purpura's box at Minute Maid Park and reveled in the fact the Astros are within a game of the World Series.

"I've got a different perception now and it's really enjoyable to be at this point in your life and be able to watch this," Ryan said.

Ryan, who pitched for the Astros from 1980-88 and was a part of heartbreaking playoff losses in 1980 and 1986, has marveled at how Houston has grown into a baseball city.

"They're very supportive and excited about their Astros, and I think it showed in the way they supported them in the second half," he said.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bb/3399214


I'm not arguing with Nolan Ryan... no way, no how.

 

Not to mention that players argue every foul call.