I grew up in Houston. I’ve lived here most of my life. I haven’t wanted to, but that’s the case. During that whole time I’ve been an Astros fan. That is until this year.
The Astros have had plenty of ups and downs. They’ve gone to the World Series and then plummeted to where they are now. I was fine with them being horrible for a long time, until just recently. Being horrible isn’t why I am not a fan of them. Moving to the American League isn’t a problem with me. None of the guys on the team are a problem either. I stopped being a fan when they made my son cry.
Let me explain. The Astros were horrible this year. We knew they would be, but we went to games anyways. We took my son and we told him about the players. He really latched onto Hunter Pence and liked him. Then, midway through the year they announced the team was going to be sold and had a buyer. I thought this wasn’t so big a deal and could be really good. After all, Drayton Mclain has done a horrible job recently. He fired the general manager that got the team to the World Series and they’ve gotten worse every year since. In fact we’ve even sent of all of our best players. Most of the time they’ve gone to the Phillies, coincidentally where our current general manager came from.
I thought to myself hey, maybe they’ll spend some money and improve the team. Instead I watch as they dismantle it. They essentially announce they are giving up for the next few years and building a young team. I think to myself that Hunter Pence, at 28, could be a good veteran to keep around and build the team around, so I’m good with this. Then, with the new owner’s approval they proceed to screw it all up. Apparently he wants the budget around 100 million or something else low. With Carlos Lee sucking up 1/5 of that we’re looking at a tall order. Do do this they get rid of every good player they have on the team, including Pence. When my son heard about this he stared crying. I swore off the team at that moment. From them on I haven’t watched a game or done anything with the team. I started rooting for the Rangers. That worked out a lot better at least.
Moving forward the Astros can win me back. If I see this new owner actually making an effort to be good then it will be a start. Firing the whole management office at the Astros would be a great first step. Doing whatever you have to do to dump Carlos Lee and swearing to never make a mistake like signing a washed up player believing you can make them good again would be a good second step.
Maybe someday the Astros will be worth following. They don’t have to be good, but the team should at least be making an effort. If the ownership and management is going to act like they don’t care then I don’t know why I should either.
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