It was a perfect day for 3 Mamis to take 7 kids to a ballgame. I didn’t think that the ballpark would exactly be real too crowded on a Saturday afternoon for a ST game with the Royals, seeing as how Wandy and Brandon Duckworthless were to be the starting pitchers, and it was a rainy day.
And I was right.
Now for all yall gonna be taking lots of small kids to a ballgame, especially if they think it’s Opening Day, best to feed them a LOT of food before you leave for the ballpark and to dress them in their Astros shirts and caps. This way, you won’t hear – Mamiiiiiiii, I’m hungryyyyyyyyy – Mamiiiiiiiiiiiii, I wanna shirtttttttttttt – Mamiiiiiiii, cn I get sumpin else???? – Mamiiiiiiiii how come SHEEEEEEE gets a new Astros cap and I don’tttttttttttt?????
Much.
So as all yall know, Tim and Phil had their minds made up that Wandy was gonna be the fourth starter weeks ago, but he just might could have been sent down at the last minute if he had a BAD game, so he had to look good out there today. And damm if the lil guy didn’t go out and throw a great game. He really did – ZERO walks and only one hard hit ball – a double by Reggie Sanders to deep left center. There were a whole lot of elcheapo broken bat singles, 2 singles that Adam Everett didn’t get (that he usually does – he looked like an ordinary SS instead of Ozzie Smith) and the 2 runs that Reggie Sanders drove in were guys who both should have been out. DeJesus hit a ball to Burke’s (at second) right that he stopped and dropped – a clear error that was ruled a hit, then a ball that Lamb (at third) charged and booted because he was looking at second instead of at the ball, that was also ruled a hit instead of an error. Mark Sweeney then promptly hit a clean single up the middle. Wandy was pretty upset after the 2 runs scored and Brad Ausmus went out, settled him down and Wandy went and got the 3 outs without letting any more runs score. He didn’t walk anyone and he only went to a 3-2 count ONCE in the entire 6 innings. He threw strikes, too – 85 pitches, 69 strikes – yeah, I counted twice, I can hardly believe it my own self.
Other things
- Burke looked VERY good at the plate.
- Jason Lane looks like a different guy – he’s lost a GOOD 20 pounds, his legs and butt look lean instead of bulky and he has completely changed his stance. I mean completely. He isn’t crouching, he’s holding his hands higher and further back, and he isn’t swinging and missing. He hit a slider that didn’t hang 400′ into the second opening over the visitors’ bullpen.
-Bruntlett hit the game-winning 3 run HR into the CB – yeah, only 345′, but it did the trick, as, I guess a final finger to the Astros management for sending him down.
- Quintero is barely fastern Chavez, but he hit OK. He blocked the only ball that was in the dirt, and he didn’t need to try to throw anyone out. So I can’t really comment on his catching abilities. Rumor has it he’s gonna be Woody’s personal catcher.
- Sampson looked awesome. No other word.
- And Brad Lidge got 3 outs on 5 fastballs. Whew. I couldn’t care less if he never gets another strikeout EVAH if he just gets the 3 outs without giving up runs.
Because it was a ST game, they didn’t run the PA constantly and it was really great – I talked to the kids, explaining what was going on, talked to my gf about the pitches and players, talked to the other fans… There were maybe 12,000 (if that) people at the game and except for one girl in a Royals T-shirt, almost everyone was wearing Astros stuff. Talked to a whole lot of people and here’s what I heard:
- Hunter Pence should be playing in the ML (14 of 20 agree)
- Sampson is simply awesome and should be the 5th starter (20 of 20 agree) – and for ONCE, Phil agrees with us!!!
- I’m REALLY worried about Lidge (20 of 20)
- I wish we had kept Willy T (5 of 20) – the others said – dude can’t hit unless bases are empty and all he hits are singles/IF hits and he can’t steal off rightys.
- Lance ROOLZ (20 of 20) and this year he beats out Uncle for the MVP (8 of 20)
- Biggio is gonna sit on away games BEFORE he gets 70 hits (12 of 20) and AFTER he gets 70 hits (20 of 20)
- Roger will come back to the Astros (10 of 20) or will go to the Yankees/Red Sox (4 of 20) or will retire (6 of 20)
- Good riddance Andy Pettitte him and his horsestuff with the player option he gonna be on the DL and he sucked most of last year anyhow (19 of 20)
- I ain’t missing Opening Day (20 of 20) or Jeff Bagwell Night (20 of 20)
Stros Fans. I LUVVV em.
Kids were pretty good too. Of course they had questions -
- how come they keep changing the players? (because today is special – it’s like Little League – everybody gets to play)
- how come Roy is batting with 1 out and a guy on second? (cuz he wanted to and it’s fun to see if a pitcher can hit some young kid)
- cn we get some cotton candy? (NOOOOOOOOOOOOO)
- cn we get some ice cream? (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)
- cn we get some Nachos? (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)
- how come they got brothas on their team and we don’t got none on the Astros? (sigh. just when you think you got easy answers to all the kidz questions, they getcha. And saying – Ida know – is the truth, but it is not a very good answer. If they want local guys, they could have gotten Michael Bourn – I know all yall thinkin bout Crawford, but the D-Rays had the higher pick. And unfortunately, Jimerson wasn’t major league quality and I agree with their decision to let him go.)
So it was a pretty good day. We end ST 18-11-1 on a winning note.
Monday is the REAL Opening Day, which my kidz don’t know because they would be whining non-stop bout how they wanna gooooooooooooooo. My niece was told that if she managed to keep her mouth SHUT, she could come hang with the Big Grrrls to see Roy. So far, so shut. She’s got almost 36 hours more of mouth shut and not telling 3 boys – I’m gonna go and you’reeeeeeee not – HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAA – man that’s tough. But I give the child at least even odds…
