Trip report: Milwaukee Brewers at Houston Astros Wed June 11 - PUMA SIGHTING!

With a free night in Houston after a spectacular performance at a meeting today, I decided to check out a ball game at Minute Maid Park (seriously?). It was a beautiful and record breaking 95 degrees in temperate Texas today so the roof was closed on this beauty of a ballpark.

Built in 2000, this stadium was another in the well conceived line of throwback stadiums that have all the modern amenities but still keep a lot of the charm of older baseball homes. The aesthetics are really striking with dark green and maroon throughout, with a lot of brick throughout. Above the left field wall and running out past center field is a railroad track with a train that moves and blows a whistle when the 'Stros make a big play. Pretty fun.

The sitelines are great also and the field level seats feel very close to the action. I was 6 rows back down the third base line and the view was fantastic. A couple of strange items I noticed. First, out in left field beyond the seats there are huge windows which allow sunlight to still come in when the roof is closed. The only problem is, for an evening game, this puts the sun directly in the eyes of most of the fans down the first base line. That would be very annoying! Also, I've heard a lot of hullabaloo around the Crawford boxes, which are essentially seat backed bleacher seats down the left field line. I arrived early and hung out in the boxes for batting practice and didn't think they were anything special. Also, the seat prices throughout the stadium seemed very exorbitant in comparison to the prices I'm used to seeing in Chicago, where I've seen the majority of my games. And the food sucked.

Batting practice was fun, although I only got to see the Brewers hit. My impressions of the players were interesting:

Player who just shows off in BP without working on his game - Prince Fielder
Player with the most prodigious power - Corey Hart
Player who looks like he should be a lot better than he really is - Mike Cameron
Player who is specifically working on his game and hitting line drives to all fields - Ryan Braun (and this guy can absolutely mash)
Player who is a jackass to the fans - Guillermo Mota (so glad the Mets dealt him!)
Player who seems like a nice guy - Salomon Torres

Once the game started, I made a lot of interesting observations. First, because this ballpark is so small, it seemed like many of the players were swinging for the fences. Apparently this was justified as there were a total of 8 home runs, including 2 by Hart, cashing in on the power showcased during BP. But it also lead to a lot of lazy flyball outs. Very interesting to observe. And just to give some perspective, Jason Kendall hit a home run and almost hit another. This is the same guy who has 4 homers in the last 488 games over 5 seasons! Strangely, the two catchers in this game, who are among the worst hitters in all of baseball (Kendall and Brad Ausmus), combined to go for 4 for 8 with 4 RBI. Sick.

Other player observations:

Ty Wigginton is quite slow afoot, especially in the field.
Carlos Lee is fat, slow and lazy but the man can hit some bombs.
Miguel Tejada still has some lightning left in his bat.
Russell Branyan = lightning in a bottle for the Brew Crew, with 6 HR in 40 at bats, a Ruth-ian pace.
Ausmus is a major fan favorite, getting the largest applause of the evening, especially when he got ejected for arguing a call that went his team's way in the sixth inning. It was quite bizarre. Manager Cecil Cooper got run out of the game shortly thereafter.

And then there were the fans. Ah, the fans. Well, we all enjoyed the two toothed 90 year old woman barking out to us all to buy cracker jacks. I almost bought some just to shut her up - but that's not how I roll. These Texans, they REALLY seem to enjoy doing the wave. It was attempted several times, finally gaining success right around the time that Coop got tossed. Stay classy, Houston! It was pretty quiet for a lot of the game. I'm not sure if it's because the home team was getting spanked or because the roof closure made it an indoor game. I've always found the indoor sporting events to have a little less ambience and this was no exception.

And I would be remiss if I failed to point out the overwhelming enthusiasm during the 7th inning stretch. In New York, they go pure patriotism and start with God Bless America before hitting Take Me Out to The Ballgame. But not here in the People's Republic of Texas. Oh no! Instead, it's a very heartily joined rendition of Deep in the Heart of Texas. I haven't heard so many people clapping their hands and singing along since the last cheesy Baptist church scene in an Eddie Murphy movie.
Crikey!

And last but not least, I must address the topic of Lance Berkman. Berkman, you see, is the fat man pictured up at the beginning of the post. Apparently his nickname has been Fat Elvis. Now, I'm no Elvis historian, but if you're being called a fat version of Elvis, that's sort of like being called a deep version of the Grand Canyon. Anyhow, the lithe Berkman apparently has taken umbrage with the Fat Elvis moniker and dubbed himself the Big Puma. Insert wide-eyed smiley icon here.

Look people, no one loves a good nickname more than this trusty blogger. Believe me, I've given an unhealthy number of them out in my day. But the number one rule of nicknames is that they cannot be self-appointed. Okay, maybe this is the number two rule, number one is that you really are not supposed to tell people how you got your nickname, you had to be there. Anyhow, let's stop quibbling over the order of the rules and focus on Berkman's self-appellation. I hereby refuse to refer to him as the big puma. However, I might be able to be convinced and call him something like the Cougar. I'll have to think about that. Check back later for the final ruling.

OK, not sure how that just happened, but this seems like an appropriate point to end this post.

Song lyric of the day "I've been dazed and confused for so long it's not true" Led Zeppelin

Until next time.

Ace