Pasty Astros

Interesting observation on the throwback Astros from Richard Connelly:

Every so often major-league baseball will try to lure fans in with a Roll-Back-the-Clock promotion, where teams dress up in uniforms from long ago. This particularly embarrasses players when the clock rolls back to the 1970s in Pittsburgh and the South Side of Chicago.

Houstonians, however, don't need to wait for any bogus, gimmicky event to get a taste of baseball nostalgia. Every day is throwback day at Minute Maid Park lately.

Look at the Astros' starting lineup: Jeff Bagwell, Jeff Kent, Adam Everett, Morgan Ensberg, Lance Berkman, Craig Biggio, Orlando Merced, Brad Ausmus and any of the starting rotation. Notice anything unusual? Take away Merced, the Pumpsie Green of Houston, and this group of starters is whiter than any team outside a Stanley Cup game. (Obscure baseball note: In July 1959, Pumpsie Green entered a game for the Boston Red Sox, the last major-league team to integrate.)

About 40 percent of major- leaguers are minority, with most of those being Hispanic. The Astros, though, look like a NASCAR crowd. Or maybe, since a disturbingly large proportion of the team is also old -- the injured-reserve list is going to get crowded in August, we're guessing -- they look more like a matinee crowd at a Jackie Mason show.

We're not saying anyone in Astros management is racist. We're just saying there's one heckuva 1940s vibe at the old ballpark these days.

Incidentally, Connelly, one of the best writers and critics in town, seems to have been relegated (scroll to the bottom) to an odd weekly-print version of what otherwise resembles a group blog in the Houston Press.

Proof that the Comical doesn't have a monopoly on media stupidity in this town. Connelly is much too great an asset to be treated this way. Maybe next, they can bury John Nova Lomax and Robb Walsh, and there won't be any reason to read the silly thing.

[Posted at 13:22 CST on 06/21/03] [Link]