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"Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right." - Henry Ford
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss
"Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
I'm back from dancing around the backyard talking to all my friends. My wife banished me to the outside. Even with this monumental I still can't wake up the kids.
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Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
By Joe Posnanski of the KC Star. (Joe is a fabulous guy by the way)
It's not as applicable now as it was yesterday, but it rings true with everyone who has had their hearts broken by their favorite teams.
Quote:
Today’s column is about what is means to be a fan.
Our subject is an old friend, Dinn Mann. Dinn used to be the sports editor of this paper. He now has a much more impressive title, MLB.com’s editor-in-chief and Senior Vice President at Major League Baseball Advanced Media. I have no idea what all that means except that Dinn brings baseball to America. The job suits him — Dinn is a wild baseball fan. We once played catch in the mud on the construction site of his new house because he wanted to “break it in.”
Anyway, Dinn is an impressive guy who almost every day of the year roots for all 30 teams in baseball. More, he roots for the game.
Monday night, though, he took a break from all that. He sat in a bar in Los Angeles with some friends and co-workers, and he rooted for his Houston Astros.
Dinn comes by his Astros love honestly. His grandfather, Roy Hofheinz, was the first owner of the Astros (then the Colt 45s) and the mind behind the Astrodome. Dinn has Astros baseball in his blood. It hasn’t been easy growing up an Astros fan, just as it hasn’t been easy being a Kansas City Chiefs fan. Dinn has spent his whole life dealing with Houston Astros’ catastrophes.
Here are just three from the National League Championship Series.
■ There was 1980, when the Astros led 5-2 in the decisive fifth game. The Astros had the great Nolan Ryan on the mound. Philadelphia won in extra innings.
■ There was 1986, game six, when Houston led 3-0 going into the ninth against the New York Mets. If the Astros had won, they would have had the unhittable Mike Scott throwing in game seven. The Mets won in 16 innings.
■ There was last year, game six again, this time against St. Louis. The Astros had two on in the ninth in a tie game. Lance Berkman struck out. The Cardinals won in 12 innings and the next day beat the great Roger Clemens.
You could say the Astros have a long history of heartbreak.
“I wouldn’t call it heartbreak,” Dinn says.
What would you call it?
“I would say the Astros, uh, challenge your ability to aspire.”
I told you Dinn’s an impressive guy. Anyway, all those challenge-your-aspiration losses were nothing compared with Monday night. The Astros were up two runs on St. Louis in the ninth inning. The unhittable Brad Lidge was on the mound. Lidge struck out John Rodriguez. He struck out John Mabry. He got two strikes on David Eckstein.
The Astros were one strike away. No one was on base. Finally, it was their time. The Red Sox had won. Phil Mickelson had won. Roy Williams had won. The White Sox had reached the World Series. As Sinatra sang, “Here’s to the losers, bless ’em all.”
Finally, the Astros would have their moment, too.
Dinn’s thoughts always emerge as headlines. When Elvis Grbac was struggling in 1998 and Rich Gannon was the backup, it was Dinn who came up with the headline “Get Rich Quick.” Now, with Houston one strike away from the World Series, he had another headline bouncing around his head: “Houston, We Have A Pennant.”
At that moment, e-mails started popping into his Blackberry from all over the country.
“Congratulations,” the e-mails said.
“Finally,” they said.
“Get me World Series tickets,” they said.
The e-mails kept coming even after Eckstein hit a grounder that somehow skipped between short and third for a single. Big deal. This was still Brad Lidge on the mound. Then Lidge walked Jim Edmonds on five pitches.
That was bad.
Albert Pujols walked to the plate.
The e-mails stopped coming.
Even a full day later, Dinn has a hard time explaining exactly what went through his head when he saw Pujols hit that 900-foot home run that changed everything. The homer was officially listed at 412 feet, but that’s ridiculous. Those officials must also believe that it’s 57 miles between Houston and St. Louis.
Anyway, Dinn says it took him a moment to start breathing again.
And then, he started responding to the e-mails he had received.
“I would say I answered them with a little bit of trepidation,” he says. “And I would say there was a hint of scolding in there.”
Here’s what he wrote in one of them: “I blame you. Leave me (@&$*#&) alone.”
He responded to the others in pretty much the same way.
“I pretty much turned into a 9-year-old,” Dinn says.
This is baseball. It can turn an executive into a kid. It can take the breath out of a whole city and breathe life into another. Let’s face it: This had been a dead baseball postseason. Yes, it was fun watching the Red Sox and Yankees go away. But then we were left with bad umpiring and no hitting. Anaheim’s Vladimir Guerrero, one of the great hitters in the game, looked helpless, and the ALCS was a White Sox knockout.
The NLCS was not much more compelling.
Then Pujols hit that home run. And baseball was back.
“It was great for baseball,” Dinn says now. “It was one of the great moments ever.”
I ask Dinn how long after the homer it took him to reach that conclusion.
“Some hypnosis was necessary,” he said.
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Quoth David Banner: "Like a pimp"
It's not a beer belly. It's a gas tank for a sax machine.
Houston is a city of monumentally famous collapses and precious few titles. UH v. NC State, Oilers v. Buffalo and the Astros of 80, 86, and 04 to name a few dissapointments.
To make it even more special at one time we were a Cardinals farm team.
How sweet it is. Other teams can have our spot in line because our number has been called.
__________________
Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
I'm not happy we lost, but I wish you guys the best. I think the sox will be tough, but I am confident that the Astros will represent the nl and the central well. I'm pulling for you guys to finish this out strong!
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We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge. Jack LaLanne
If makes you feel any better Houston was once a farm team to the Cardinals. The 31 Houston Buffaloes are consider amoung the best minor league teams ever with both Dizzy Dean and Joe Medwick playing on it to future Hall of Famers with the Cards.
The Cardinals are a fine team with great players. It was good to see the World Series go through our division.
__________________
Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
You will find that a lot of cardinal fans just enjoy baseball. Most of them seem to like the NL style of a game of small ball rather than that of the AL that tends to rely on pure skill players to get the job done.
Obviously there are some who are outspoken idiots but I am sure everyone has those types.
I just hope that houston shows the sox how real ball is played, as well as show the nation that the NL central is the best division in baseball right now. We tried and failed to do that last year =-(.
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We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge. Jack LaLanne
One more note. I am a bit sad that Bag's isn't healthy to be a real part of your team. I am glad those 2 are finally getting their shot though.
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We don't know all the answers. If we knew all the answers we'd be bored, wouldn't we? We keep looking, searching, trying to get more knowledge. Jack LaLanne
It may not be after all. Houston is the #11 market, and Chicago is #3. Granted, neither team has the allure of the Red Sox and Yankees, but the ratings aren't going to be as bad as people think.
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Quoth David Banner: "Like a pimp"
It's not a beer belly. It's a gas tank for a sax machine.
Originally posted by von_Hayes: I bet the series rating will be one of the lowest ever.
Wow, VH, talk about raining on these guys' parade! Not nice.
__________________
"Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right." - Henry Ford
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss
"Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
IM play by play was awesome. What it did was keep my mind from the dangerous territory of fretting about everthing. I also enjoyed it because I got to talk to somebody about the nuances of the game and team. You called the suicide squeeze. It was great. I felt like your color man.
__________________
Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
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