Friday, November 07, 2003
The Midnight Special
Andy Petitte, who has long toiled as one of the staltwalt members of the New York Yankees pitching staff, and who has many championship rings to show for his efforts, is being allowed by George Steinbrenner's braintrust (now there's an oxymoron!) to apply for free agency this winter.0 comments
One of the reported teams courting Petitte is the Houston Astros. The Astros are a perennially contending teams with good players. Generally, in purely baseball terms, a pitcher could hardly do better than sign with the Astros.
However, there are usually assorted life issues surrounding all those millions that different franchises throw at above-mediocre ball players.
So, let's look at Houston for a minute.
One positive note: Lee Brown, former NYC Police Commissioner and former Clinton-era Drug Czar, is mayor.
Other bits of interest:
- 71 persons were executed in the United States last year. 33 (47%) were in Texas -- the bulk of those in Harris Co. where Houston is the county seat.
- Houston was what Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, was writing about when he wrote, "The Midnight Special."
- Houston is the seat of the Bush family oil business. This is the land of Good-ol'-Boy networking on a grand scale, and where all of George W. Bush's family-political connections were formed.
- Houston is also the corporate home of Enron, and home to its embattled former CEO and Bush crony, Ken Lay.
- Mike Hampton, a fellow left-handed pitcher, currently with the Atlanta Braves, is a vocal family quality-of-life guy who has based his free agent decisions on family issues, and he left Houston to play in New York City, of all places.
- And Andy, the kicker for a single guy like you who's reaching a point of perhaps of slowing down soon and maybe getting married and starting a family, might well be this article from The New York Times.
Of course, the good news to be found in this article, is that numbers seem to get crunched in Houston much differently than in other areas. Ask Ken Lay about this. But, if the school system can put in 3,091 as a number for violent attacks within its school system and have it come out 761 on the official report, then think of the possibilities for your ERA. A 7.93 ERA you might have on April 30 can look like a 1.14 ERA by August without your having to throw a pitch after April.
Decisions, decisions.
posted by Gotham 11:49 AM
0 Comments:
