TIME FOR PAYBACK?
How Astros & Rockets fans could find themselves with more money in their pockets
May 8, 2020, 6:54 am
Photo by Bob Levey /Stringer/Getty Images.
If you signed up for home delivery of bottled water, agreed to pay $20 a month for the service, but two months go by and no water … wouldn't you want your money back?
Well, I signed up for AT&T SportsNet because they said I'd get Houston Astros and Houston Rockets games, and two months have gone by and no games … so I want my money back. Or at least credit on future cable bills.
I sure didn't subscribe to AT&T SportsNet for taped replays of old footvolley (volleyball played with your feet) tournaments or IFA Redfish kayak races or the dreaded "paid programming." I watch AT&T SportsNet for one reason, two reasons really, and those are Astros and Rockets games.
So far, not a peep from the cable or satellite TV providers. I called Comcast, the biggest cable provider in Houston and asked, will you offer refunds or credit to AT&T SportsNet subscribers for no games, but lots of pain and suffering and fishing shows?
Comcast hasn't made an announcement yet, but here's the plan: "Any rebates will be determined once the NBA, NHL and MLB announce the course of action for their seasons, including the number of games that will be played, and of course we will pass those rebates or other adjustments along to our customers," said Michael Bybee, Comcast's director of external communications.
Plus I'm sure programming providers don't want to wait for the Texas attorney general to force them to refund money, like what's being threatened in New York.
Right now, and everything is totally tentative, baseball is hoping to re-start (it's still) spring training in June with Opening Day slotted for July 1. That would allow big league teams to play about 100 regular season games in this highly irregular season.
Baseball has a few scenarios up its sleeve. Teams may play home games in their usual home ballparks. Or teams could be grouped by geography and play in certain designated stadiums. Or they could play only in cities with smaller numbers of coronavirus infections.
NBA is trickier business because its season was almost completed when play was halted in March. There are several scenarios being discussed, including resuming the season in June or July, heading straight to the playoffs, or canceling the 2019-20 season altogether. As you'll recall, the Rockets had a 40-24 record, with 18 regular season games remaining. If the NBA moves directly to the post-season, the Rockets, sitting in 6th place in the Western Conference, would make the cut.
In all scenarios discussed, games will be played without fans in attendance. While I don't doubt that the Astros, like all MLB teams, are disappointed that the season is on hold, I'm thinking maybe the Astros are a little less disappointed. At least they have the most to gain if the season is played with reduced travel and no fans. It wouldn't be the worst thing for the Astros to play in empty stadiums.
Consider what's happened the past six weeks of no games. Star pitcher Justin Verlander was able to rehab his lat strain injury. How long was he supposed to be out of action? Six weeks. Meanwhile, Alex Bregman has been able to rehab his image by forming Alex's Army to raise $2 million to feed families facing financial problems due to COVID-19.
When games resume, oh no, you mean the Astros won't have to travel to New York, America's city hardest hit by coronavirus, to play the Yankees in front of 50,000 maniac Yankee fans who absolutely hate the Astros for cheating during their 2017 World Series season? Yankees fans are crazy enough without having an ax to grind. And the Astros won't have to play road games in front of Dodgers, A's and Red Sox fans who hate their guts, too? Such a pity. Thank you, coronavirus' silver lining.
If the Astros have to wait a whole year to play in front of fans, that's OK. America is a forgiving nation. Shoeless Joe Jackson got a lifetime ban for allegedly helping his White Sox team throw the 1919 World Series. I say allegedly because he went on trial with seven of his teammates in 1921 and a jury found them innocent. Two days later, the Commissioner of Baseball took it upon himself to ban the now-Black Sox forever. You didn't know that the Black Sox played the 1920 season, did you? Shoeless Joe played 146 games and batted .382 the year after he allegedly helped throw the World Series.
Now Shoeless Joe is some kind of folk hero. According to a poll, most Americans would like to see him in baseball's Hall of Fame. It was a lifetime ban, right? Well, the guy's been dead more than 70 years. His lifetime is over.
Pete Rose also was banned for life in 1989 for betting on baseball. Now most Americans think 31 years is enough and it's time to let the Hit King back in the game.
Yes, we may not forget but we forgive. In 1966 John Lennon proclaimed that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Some Americans, particularly in the Bible Belt, were so outraged that radio stations refused to play Beatles music and there were public bonfires to burn Beatles records. Lennon has since become a cherished (I almost said worshipped) icon of popular culture and his song Imagine is performed during the Olympic closing ceremonies.
Jane Fonda was the most hated woman in America in 1972 after she was photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese cannon presumably aimed at U.S. planes. She was "Hanoi Jane." Within 10 years, she won her second Academy Award for Best Actress and starred in the first of 14 workout videos.
Mike Tyson went from convicted rapist to a lovable crazy person on Comedy Central roasts and star of a one-man show on Broadway. Alex Rodriguez, suspended from baseball for steroids, is now the voice of baseball on ESPN and Fox, and he's a panelist on Shark Tank and engaged to Jenny on the Block.
So the Astros may not be the cheating bad boys of baseball for long. Time heals all wounds. In a year or two, Jose Altuve will be cuddly again.
One note: this forgiveness thing? O.J. Simpson need not apply.
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Through 20 games, the Houston Astros have managed just six wins and are in last place in the AL West.
Their pitching staff trails only Colorado with a 5.24 ERA and big-money new closer Josh Hader has given up the same number of earned runs in 10 games as he did in 61 last year.
Despite this, these veteran Astros, who have reached the AL Championship Series seven consecutive times, have no doubt they’ll turn things around.
“If there’s a team that can do it, it’s this team,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
First-year manager Joe Espada, who was hired in January to replace the retired Dusty Baker, discussed his team’s early struggles.
“It’s not ideal,” he said. “It’s not what we expected, to come out of the shoot playing this type of baseball. But you know what, this is where we’re at and we’ve got to pick it up and play better. That’s just the bottom line.”
Many of Houston’s problems have stemmed from a poor performance by a rotation that has been decimated by injuries. Ace Justin Verlander and fellow starter José Urquidy haven’t pitched this season because of injuries and lefty Framber Valdez made just two starts before landing on the injured list with a sore elbow.
Ronel Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut April 1, has pitched well and is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA in three starts this season. Cristian Javier is also off to a good start, going 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA in four starts, but the team has won just two games not started by those two pitchers.
However, Espada wouldn’t blame the rotation for Houston’s current position.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster how we've played overall,” he said. “One day we get good starting pitching, some days we don’t. The middle relief has been better and sometimes it hasn’t been. So, we’ve just got to put it all together and then play more as a team. And once we start doing that, we’ll be in good shape.”
The good news for the Astros is that Verlander will make his season debut Friday night when they open a series at Washington and Valdez should return soon after him.
“Framber and Justin have been a great part of our success in the last few years,” second baseman Jose Altuve said. “So, it’s always good to have those two guys back helping the team. We trust them and I think it’s going to be good.”
Hader signed a five-year, $95 million contract this offseason to give the Astros a shutdown 7-8-9 combination at the back end of their bullpen with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly. But the five-time All-Star is off to a bumpy start.
He allowed four runs in the ninth inning of a 6-1 loss to the Braves on Monday night and has yielded eight earned runs this season after giving up the same number in 56 1/3 innings for San Diego last year.
He was much better Wednesday when he struck out the side in the ninth before the Astros fell to Atlanta in 10 innings for their third straight loss.
Houston’s offense, led by Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, ranks third in the majors with a .268 batting average and is tied for third with 24 homers this season. But the Astros have struggled with runners in scoring position and often failed to get a big hit in close games.
While many of Houston’s hitters have thrived this season, one notable exception is first baseman José Abreu. The 37-year-old, who is in the second year of a three-year, $58.5 million contract, is hitting 0.78 with just one extra-base hit in 16 games, raising questions about why he remains in the lineup every day.
To make matters worse, his error on a routine ground ball in the eighth inning Wednesday helped the Braves tie the game before they won in extra innings.
Espada brushed off criticism of Abreu and said he knows the 2020 AL MVP can break out of his early slump.
“Because (of) history,” Espada said. “The back of his baseball card. He can do it.”
Though things haven’t gone well for the Astros so far, everyone insists there’s no panic in this team which won its second World Series in 2022.
Altuve added that he doesn’t have to say anything to his teammates during this tough time.
“I think they’ve played enough baseball to know how to control themselves and how to come back to the plan we have, which is winning games,” he said.
The clubhouse was quiet and somber Wednesday after the Astros suffered their third series sweep of the season and second at home. While not panicking about the slow start, this team, which has won at least 90 games in each of the last three seasons, is certainly not happy with its record.
“We need to do everything better,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “I feel like we’re in a lot of games, but we just haven’t found a way to win them. And good teams find a way to win games. So we need to find a way to win games.”