WORTH A SHOT?
Upcoming Astros promotion serves as amazing sign of progress
Jun 11, 2021, 12:23 pm
All 30 teams will hold a similar vaccination event this month. Composite image by Jack Brame.
Get vaccinated at Minute Maid Park on June 15, and receive two free tickets to watch the Astros take on the Texas Rangers that night. Plus you'll get a free 2017 World Series championship ring. And to top it off, June 15 is a Tuesday, which means it's Dollar Dog Night. Batter up … eat up.
Houston doesn't get any better than that. OK, maybe it's a tossup with Washington State where they're giving free weed ("Joints for Jabs") to get people to roll up their sleeves. Or Ohio, where they're holding million-dollar lotteries for newly vaccinated people. In New York and Connecticut, they're using free beer as vaccination bait.
What a difference a few months make. Earlier this year, people were hovering over their computers like vultures, hopping on planes and dressing like grannies to secure a precious COVID vaccine shot. Now states must resort to bribing people with free baseball tickets, marijuana and alcohol. Recently I drove past the mega vaccine site at NRG Park. They didn't even charge for parking, a rarity, which probably made NRG Park officials sick to their stomachs. The place was empty. They can't give away the vaccine.
The Astros deal is part of MLB's "Vaccination at the Plate," where all 30 teams will hold a similar vaccination event this month.
No appointment will be necessary at Minute Maid Park. Just walk into the ballpark's Union Station between 5-8 p.m., roll up your sleeve, get the jab, and enjoy the game. If you can't make that night's game, you can opt for tickets to the upcoming series against the Baltimore Orioles June 28-30.
The Astros should be commended for hosting the vaccination event, even though they're under orders to do it by MLB. The truth is, the Astros have sent mixed signals about their support of COVID protocols since Day One of the 2021 season.
Before the season started, the Astros announced that they would abide by MLB's pandemic rules, including all fans must wear a face mask or be subject to ejection. On opening night in Houston, the Astros posted signs throughout the stadium and made several announcements about the mask mandate. Hosts of the radio pre-game show told fans that they would have to wear a mask at all times except when actively eating or drinking.
However none of that was enforced once the umpire yelled "Play Ball!" Practically nobody in the stands was wearing a mask. This was back in early April, when the pandemic still was wreaking havoc and Houston was in the red danger zone. On TV the center field camera, while no longer helping the Astros steal the opposing catcher's signs, certainly caught team owner Jim Crane and Astros Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio sitting in the Diamond Club section without masks. As one MLB.com veteran told me, "it wasn't a good look."
As the pandemic eases, MLB still "encourages" unvaccinated fans to wear masks during baseball games. It's the honor system at Minute Maid Park. Nobody's checking and practically nobody is covering up.
People are not considered "fully vaccinated" and protected against contracting COVID until two weeks after they receive two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Next week the Astros will invite fans to get their first or second vaccine shot, give them a free World Series replica ring and then have them sit next to people who may not be vaccinated and aren't wearing a mask. COVID is still risky business, this is no time to let our guard down.
When the Astros recently visited Buffalo to play the Toronto Blue Jays, the stadium was limited to 35-percent capacity with separate sections for vaccinated and unvaccinated fans. While that may sound extreme to 100-percent open Houston, at least Blue Jays fans were safe at home.
Most Popular
SportsMap Emails
Are Awesome
Listen Live
Astros betting big on their biggest advantage tonight
Jul 8, 2025, 12:03 pm
Adding a player of Kevin Durant’s caliber was too valuable an opportunity for the Houston Rockets to pass up, even though it meant moving on from Jalen Green just four seasons after they drafted him second overall.
Durant was officially acquired from Phoenix on Sunday in a complicated seven-team transaction that sent Green and Dillon Brooks to the Suns and brought Clint Capela back to Houston from the Hawks.
General manager Rafael Stone is thrilled to add the future Hall of Famer, who will turn 37 in September, to a team which made a huge leap last season to earn the second seed in the Western Conference.
Asked Monday why he wanted to add Durant to the team, Stone smiled broadly before answering.
“He’s Kevin Durant,” Stone said. “He’s just — he’s really good. He’s super-efficient. He had a great year last year. He’s obviously not 30 anymore, but he hasn’t really fallen off and we just think he has a chance to really be impactful for us.”
But trading Green to get him was not an easy decision for Stone, Houston’s general manager since 2020.
“Jalen’s awesome, he did everything we asked,” Stone said. “He’s a wonderful combination of talent and work ethic along with being just a great human being. And any time that you have the privilege to work with someone who is talented and works really hard and is really nice, you should value it. And organizationally we’ve valued him tremendously, so yeah very hard.”
Green was criticized for his up-and-down play during the postseason when the Rockets were eliminated by the Warriors in seven games in the first round. But Green had improved in each of his four seasons in Houston, leading the team in scoring last season and playing all 82 games in both of the past two seasons.
Pressed for details about why Green's time was up in Houston, Stone wouldn't get into specifics.
“It’s the NBA and you can only do trades if a certain amount of money goes out and a certain amount comes in and there’s some positional overlap or at least overlap in terms of on ball presence,” he said. “And so that’s what the deal required.”
In Durant, the Rockets get a veteran of almost two decades who averaged 26.6 points and six rebounds a game last season and has a career average of 27.2 points and seven rebounds.
Houston loves the veteran experience and presence that Durant brings. Stone noted that the team had arranged for some of its players to work out with him in each of the past two offseasons.
“His work ethic is just awesome,” Stone said. “The speed at which he goes, not in a game … but the speed at which he practices and the intensity at which he practices is something that has made him great over the years and it started when he was very young. So of all the things that I hope rubs off, that’s the main one I think is that practice makes perfect. And I think one of the reasons he’s had such an excellent career is because of the intensity with which he works day in day out.”
Durant is a 15-time All-Star and four-time scoring champion, who was the Finals MVP twice. The former Texas Longhorn is one of eight players in NBA history to score at least 30,000 points and he won NBA titles in 2017 and 2018 with the Warriors.
Now he’ll join a team chasing its first NBA title since winning back-to-back championships in 1994-95.
“Everything has to play out, but we do — we like the fit,” Stone said. “We think it works well. We think he will add to us and we think we will help him.”