The Astros Are Heading to the Promised Land -- The American League!

Randallkbridges

The DH removes strategy from the game and changes it dramatically. Second, it makes us play a bunch of teams we don't know and don't know us. You may say this is minor, but it's akin to A&M moving to SEC--some may like it that A&M won't play Texas again or OU or OSU or Tech...I happen to not like it that we won't see Cards, Reds, Mets, Dodgers anymore...this is more tradition, but it matters. This has been our league for more than 40 years, and unlike A&M's move, we (the Astros organization and fans) have had no say in the change...we didn't choose to go to AL, we've been forced against our will. Bud Selig basically raped the city of Houston against their will. Third, AL west move means we will play and additional 20 games a year on west coast with late starting times. Old people like me cant watch games that start at 9:30pm...I have to work in the morning. It also seems likely that this will delay the start time at our home games, making them later too. I'll bet the 6pm starts are a thing of the past and our regular starts may be 7:35 instead of 7:05. Bud Selig has been ruining baseball for a long time.

Brian

A rivalry with the Rangers? NOGAF. Not Rangers fans. Not Astros fans. Nobody. Anywhere.

Yankees and Red Sox? Apparently that's all there is in the AL, because you never hear mention of the Orioles, A's, Mariners, Angels, Royals, Blue Jays, Twins, Indians... Sounds like a metric buttload of tickets that'll be a hard-sell. And we can't even look forward to them coming here and hoping they'll struggle with playing our style of game, because now we're hosting brainless baseball too. Yippee.

The Astros will be right there at the bottom where we have no rivalries and no talent to contest for anything except the last slot. The only draw the Astros will provide to other teams will be the perception they'll be an easy out for the home team so fans will turn out for the guaranteed win. But we're supposed to be ok with this because - Yankees! Red Sox! Yay! - don't think so.

The Astro's irrelevance has been set in stone.

DeathBreath

Drayton, if you are reading this, go back to Baylor & dip those stupid fucking caged bears in gold leaf like you did with the dome of Pat Neff. You ruined the Astros.

Wlb2121

Who is the idiot writing this piece? I think I had forgotten more about baseball by the time I was in high school than this moron will ever know. If you want fast paced entertainment, stick to something like MMA(grown men rolling around in shorts-very homosexual. Not that there's anything wrong with that). Remember that your infantile ramblings are just opinion, not fact. Baseball appeals to those who can contribute a coherent thought. You sir, obviously, cannot.

Don't be ignorant- The NL central teams most definitely do know Houston. That is a huge lie. No one gives a shit about the Rangers. You can not force a rivalry. As for the Yankees and Red Sox, well lets just talk Yankees since no one here really cares much about Boston. Who gives a damn about New York? It's not worth giving up St. Louis and Chicago for the Yankees. Get lost Houston Press...if it was a good deal then there would not be so many people pissed right now. If it was a good deal then MLB would not be discounting the price for the new retard owner. One more thing- ppl do like watching the players bat. It's called baseball, and everyone is supposed to bat. Ok my rant is over. Let me peruse your over abundance of porn based ads that the Houston Press seems to be full of. Very legitimate I might add...

DeathBreath

Who went to the World Series?

Kyle M

Thank you for saying this, Sean. Especially point #2.

I am a lifelong Astros fan, but the one-way hatred of other teams is just sad. Everyone keeps saying that the Brewers should have gone back to the AL. You know what, Houston? The way you feel about Milwaukee is exactly how every other city feels about us.

Relish the underdog role, enjoy beating the Rangers in meaningful games, and stop leaning on weak (length of games)/ignorant (AL baseball isn't worthy of attention) arguments for your displeasure.

Yes, we had 50 years in the NL. But if all the Astros could do in that time is work their way into the footnotes of baseball's narrative, then why should we expect anyone to care what happens here?

Not really- the cardinals definitely have respect for Houston, especially if you DON't look at the last couple years. Same goes for Chicago and pretty much the rest of the NL.

SportsHutch

Watching a pitcher go yard on the opposing pitcher is more exciting to me than watching Carlos Lee hit one out or watching him try to leg out a single (yes, I meant single). When a pitcher goes yard on another pitcher, that puts a little extra jump in the step of the guy who hit it and grinds at guy who knows he just allowed a .140 hitter to turn the number on the scoreboard against him.

reeseman

I agree, watching pitchers hit sucks. Watching them bunt runners over, though, is not so bad. Watching pinch hitters hit can be interesting. Watching managers actually have to think is sometimes amusing, and sometimes amazing. Watching a DH won't make up for any of it.

Kejo

FU Selig! Nice try Seanny, you just put lipstick on a pig. They call it the Jr. Circuit for a reason.You know why people who play chess don't play checkers? Because it's lame in comparison.

With your theory there should be 9 hitters and separately 9 fielders, but that's not baseball now is it?

And as a season ticket holder I want some of that $70 mill that Crane gets for switching, why should he keep it all when we are the ones getting screwed? I'll wait for my check in the mail or welcome the announcement of half priced Dome Foams.....

Sean Pendergast

All I said was pitchers should never hit because they suck at it. Not sure what "theory" I espoused that's anything close to having separate hitters and pitchers for all positions.

Maybe there should be an extra set of runners since no one wants to see a hitter that sucks on his feet. The DH blows, but thats not the worst part of the deal. Get rid of the DH and you still have the Astros out of their rival footprint and cannibalizing the Rangers with no hope of both teams making it to the WS.

big red

Yeah, with the arrival of the American League comes the new experience in Houston of a fucking four hour baseball game. Who in the hell wants to sit through one of those? And I am sure that a Wednesday 9 pm start in Seattle will really draw the eyes, especially when it ends at 1 a.m.

Baseball really sells its traditional roots. In fact that is about all they sell. And then they pull this? Screw you Selig.

Sean Pendergast

Actually, AL and NL games average out at almost exactly the same length of time, but keep preaching the myth. Say it long enough it may become true.

Early Cuyler

Rot in hell Bud Selig.

Themarlinman

I had heard that we had a baseball team but I am pretty sure that it was never a "Major League Team" but something more akin to the Houston Buffs.

Cody

So the Rangers are the Astros new rival, but they own the Astros double A affiliate the Corpus Christi Hooks. Am I the only one that sees a conflict there?

They will not own them for long. As soon as possible Astros will lose the affiliation with the Nolan Ryan teams. That is actually very bad for the Houston fan base. No longer in Round Rock and soon to lose Corpus to the Rangers. For decades the Rangers have barely had a base, not the Astros are damaging theirs- this could really be the beginning of the end for the Astros.