A Little Bit of Everything

A whole lot of Houston area sports fans bought tickets to professional action Saturday night. The listed attendance at the Texans' miserable performance NFL exhibition (OK, NFL police--PRE SEASON) game was over 70,000. I know. I know. Far less than that were actually on hand. That is a positive sign for the football fan in Houston. Even if the Texans had WON 38-14 instead of losing by the same score it would not have mattered. Folks are more than willing to stay home and forfeit the price of the ticket the NFL forces season ticket holders to pay than watch a game in which neither team has to win.

In the NFL preseason the teams want to win. But they want to win only under the games plans they have devised. In other words no matter what the score player A will only work for so long. Player B will come in for X number of plays, etc. Its the same really in all sports. Only thing is, instead of playing on a small field in Kissimmee, Florida, it is the big stage of an NFL stadium and at the same NFL regular season prices.

While the total of over 70,000 fans was announced at Reliant Stadium a crowd total of over 39,000 was on hand at Minute Maid Park for the Astros who won their fourth straight real game. They downed the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-2 with strong pitching again the key. Funny how strong pitching seems to make all the difference--especially in winning streaks.

In the mean time the odds on favorites to win the NL Central-- St. Louis Cardinals--could have a shaky finish to their title run. They are starting 42 year old John Smoltz today in San Diego. Smoltz in eight starts this year for Boston had an 8.32 earned run average. The Cards are hoping he can return to a bit better form back in the National League. If he can cut three runs off that ERA he might help. St. Louis has enough offense in most games to score five or more runs. With Smoltz joining the team, however, Kyle Lohse leaves. He has been placed on the 15 day DL. That leaves the team STILL short one starter.

The only way any of this applies to the Astros is if they keep getting the sort of pitching they have over the last few games. Odds are they can't. Still, in baseball you never know.

Has everyone heard of the problem at Jerry World in Arlington? It seems the giant video board may be too low. Punters are certain if it stays where it is now they will hit it during a game. I've not been inside Jerry World (Cowboys Stadium) but there was a great photo posted on the Sunday edition of The Sporting News On-Line. First thought is--as far away as some of those seats are from the field--why even watch the field? Just watch the video board.

And another note from Arlington. Jerry's neighbors--the Texas Rangers-- are in a fight for the American League wild card. They may be in a fight greater than that. There are rumors afoot that the financial situation of owner Tom Hicks is not good. Tied into the financial collapse of many businesses last fall, the Rangers have major league baseball itself monitoring their situation very closely. On top of that attendance has been down for several years with the average under 30,000 this season despite one of the better clubs in a number of years. The Astros may have some problems but nothing like the Rangers are facing it would seem.

COMING UP
Astros vs D-Backs final game set for 1:05 Sunday. Bud Norris who has been a bit more hittable with each start (ERA up to 4.05) faces Jon Garland--almost an Astro a couple years back. Astros Live Pregame on Fox Sports Houston starts at 12:30. One of the features will be my interview with pitcher Wesley Wright about his upcoming re-hab schedule.

Monday is sort of an off day. There is no game, but the 60 plus members of the traveling party will be meeting at Minute Maid Park in late afternoon to begin a three city trip to St. Louis, Phoenix and Chicago. It seems like every series is listed as a key one. Going to both St. Louis and Chicago would certainly qualify this one. The Astros just can't afford to lose many more games...and certainly not to the Cards and Cubs. The club will likely face Chris Carpenter late in that St. Louis series so there will be no easy way out.