Twelve Hours To Go

It is now about twelve hours till the trade deadline. I wonder which of the Astros players will still be Astros players by this time tomorrow night. I wish that Mark Loretta would be here and signed for a reasonable rate for the next three seasons. I would play him at second. He is solid and dependable.

That would mean we could trade Chris Burke. I do not know if there is any value in him, but he is young and cheap so maybe we could get at least a mid level prospect for him.

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Who Wins On This Trade?

Which end of this trade would you rather hold? On one end is a pitcher who has won only two games and has and era of 5.99 this season, having surrendered 11 in the first inning of his outing on Sunday. On the other end is a speedy centerfielder who is batting .311, a pitcher who has more wins than the guy on the other end and is making $4 million less per year, and another young pitching prospect.

Which end do you want?

That's what I thought.

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Out of the Cellar

The Houston Astros started the day in last place in the Central Division of the National League Friday. They won a road game against the Pirates to leap frog them in the standings. The Cincinnati Reds also lost, so the Astros went in front of them also, by mere percentage points. Will the 'Stros be able to stay out of the cellar while finishing the road trip, two more games. They are only 4 and a half games behind the Cardinals for third place in the division. It seems more appealing to think about catching the the Cards than worrying about last place.

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Houston Dynamo

The Major League Soccer team in Houston, the Dynamo, won the championship of the last year. And they are on a very good run right now. In there past ten games they are eight wins, no losses and two ties. And they have set a new league record for shutting out their opponents. The total now stands at 695 consecutive minutes without giving up a goal. That translates into more than seven full games. Impressive!

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Scola To The Rockets

Houston Rockets made a trade this week with the San Antonio Spurs. They traded Vasilis Spanoulis, and a second-round pick in 2009, for a six-foot 9 inch power forward named Luis Scola from Argentina. It looks to me like in this trade the Rockets did two good things, they traded a disgruntled guard they didn't need for a bruising power forward they did need.

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Astros All Stars

There were only two All Star representatives from the Houston Astros to the MLB All Star Game, and they had hardly any impact on the game. Roy Oswalt did not pitch and Carlos Lee, after fouling one down the right field line and one over the fence down the left field line, ended striking out in his only plate appearance. Oh well!

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Gut Wrenching Loss

The Houston Astros played the LA Angels of Anaheim last night. It was a roller coaster ride. The Angels built a 4 to 1 lead into the fifth inning. The Astros scored five runs to take the lead. They built on it till they were up 9-4 in the seventh inning. Chris Sampson gave up two base runners and was replaced by Chad Qualls. i don't know what game Phil Garner was watching last night, but Qualls surrendered the two that Sampson put on and three of his own to blow the lead. Then in the ninth, on Chone Figgins' sixth hit of the night, the Angels got a run to win!

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Now It Is TEN in a Row!

The Houston Astros have hit the ten loss in a row mark tonight, 4-3 tonight. Last night was 2-1. It is a sad sight to see the ineptness these professional athletes. No one is hitting. When the Reds scored 3 in the first inning off Wandy Rodriguez. You had the sense that the game was over in the first inning.

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New Blogging Community

There is a new blog site that has been established that will hopefully recapture the community spirit that was developed on WritingUp.com. The site is called Communati.com. I heard about its establishment from Sharon Hurley Hall. The webmaster is a friend of gracepub. There are only a few bloggers sigend up so far, the two ladies I mentioned, Pinhole and myself, along with the webmaster, marko.

I like the ideas I have read, and the place looks a lot like our old WritingUp home. I hope many of the rest of my old neighbors will find their way to Communati.com. If you decide to sign up, here is my Referral link.

And here is a link to my New Familyfunadfaith blog.

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NBA Draft Lottery

I was a bit dissappointed that the Portland Trail Blazers won the first over all draft spot in the upcoming NBA draft. I have nothing against the Blazers, but I do not like the system that allows the worst teams to slip past the chance to draft the best players available. I wanted to see the Bucks and the Celtics get the best two big men. They deserved it.

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14-1, Are You Kidding?

I had meetings all afternoon, so I did not get to watch the Astros and the Texas Rangers in the rubber game of their weekend series. I am just as glad. The final score was 14-1 in favor of the Rangers. That stinks! Woody Willliams got shelled and so did Brian Moeller out of the bull pen. Williams is 1 & 6 on the season.

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Roy and Young Roy

The San Francisco Giants are in town to play the Houston Astros tonight, the third game of the series. Tonight the have a young pitcher named Tim Lincecum going against Roy Oswalt. The young hurler is making his third or fourth start in the bigs. He is already being compared to Oswalt, as neither man is very big but throw very hard.
It should be fun to watch.

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Hunter Pence In Houston!

I guess I am going to have to get on the Hunter Pence bandwagon, or I will be left behind! The kid has an average of a run batted in per game since his arrival a couple of weeks ago, and he is playing with such passion and joy that it is infectuous! he has had homers in the last two games, on to tie a game late and anothre to brak a tie and provide the win. He has seven straight hits, one short of the club record, ever!

I think he is here to stay!

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Reviewing BlogSire.com

When I started blogging, part of the reason was that I was lured by the opportunity to make some extra money by writing. For most of the first year, I was not successful in making money, though I had developed a consistent readership. Recently I began venturing into some other options that have actually made a significant increase in my income. It is just enough to whet my appetite for more and better ways to add to the cash flow.

I recently found a site that is a great example of a writer who is “blogging the money way”. BlogSire.com/myblog is an attractive site, and yet filled with sources of income for the writer, Sire. He has obviously done a lot of work in setting up his blog, which is powered by WordPress. He has posts that offer tips for successful blogging, as well as articles for which he has been paid by a variety of sources. He has added affiliate programs and widgets and Adsense ads.

If you want to see how a blog that makes money looks, go by BlogSire. You will be impressed!

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My New BlogEvolve Blog

In the past couple of days I have established a blog at Blog Evolve. It seems like a small community of bloggers/writers that enjoys interacting with each other. I am going to give it a try as a possible refuge for my Familyfunandfaith blog, in case the doors at Writing Up do actually close. I do not know if the place will be as attractive to others as it is to me, but you might like it too.

It is free to register. If you think you might enjoy the place and want to sign up, I would be pleased if you used this referral link.

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Albers a Reds Favorite

I guess the Cincinnati Reds will want to face Matt Albers any time they come to Houston. The only game of the eight the two teams have played in which the Reds have prevailed, is the one that Albers pitched a week ago. And that game they won 11-2. Today they lead 9-5.

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It Was The Beer!

Do you like Shaggy Dog Stories (groaner jokes)? Here is one for you!


Do you know about Mel Famey? He was a great pitcher in the major leagues back in the Roaring 20’s. Famey was an incredible talent, his fastball was legendary, no one liked facing him. He had a wicked breaking pitch, and a change up that was devastating to batters. His control was pin point on all three pitches and his arm was never sore.

One year, on the next to the last day of the season, he pitched a shut out and won, to put his team in a tie for the league championship. After the game, Mel and some of his friends went out to celebrate. And that was always a problem for Mel Famey. He did not know when to quit drinking. He loved his beer. When his teammates went back to their hotel to get ready for the final game of the season, which would determine the championship, Famey continued his binge. After all, he would not pitch the next day. Or so he thought.

Famey came to the stadium the next day with a ringing hangover. He felt awful and was hardly aware that the game was a real battle. His team was ahead by one going into the ninth inning. But the opponents were able to get a couple of runners on base. Mel’s manager called for him to get loose. He wanted his best pitcher on the mound to put down the rally and secure the championship. He was unaware that Famey had really tied one on the night before.

By the time he got his arm loose, the bases were loaded with two out. So Mel came to the mound needing just one out to be a hero. But it was not to be this day. Famey walked in the tying run and the winning score. He never regained his success.

In an interview with the winning team’s manager, a newspaper reporter asked what had happened. The manager knew Famey’s reputation as a heavy drinker. He told the reporter what he believed, “It was the beer that made Mel Famey walk us!”

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How Could You?!

In May of 2005, on consecutive nights, I took several boys, then girls from my junior high Bible class to watch a game at Minute Maid Park in Houston. It is a real time to build friendships and be more than a teacher & preacher to the kids.

Morgan Ensberg had fallen out of favor with me; I do not like how often he takes called strikes, especially with men in scoring position. That is the season he had been moved into the middle of the order and was supposed to be a run producer, which he is capable of being. In fact in the middle of the season, he went on a power surge that saw him finish 4th in the MVP voting. But that makes it all the more galling when he gets called out in scoring situation.

The night the girls were there, Ensberg had struck out in his first two at bats. He also made THREE errors at third base. When he made the third error, I booed him. Now I sit in the front row of the 4th level of the park, but I figure that if you are going to boo, you might as well give the player a chance to hear you. So I was loud.

As we left the stadium, Emillie said, “Mr. Ralph, you are a preacher, how could you boo like that?” In all sincerity, I replied, “Emillie, I am a preacher and Ensberg needed to repent, and I was just letting him know!”

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Where Are The Bats in a Clutch?

Well, the Houston Astros found a new way to add to the agony. Last night they scored in the first inning, but were trailing three to one in the ninth. They scored two runs to tie the game. Then in the bottom of the 16th, with the aid of a throwing error by catcher, the Pirates scored a run to win the game. What made it so agonizing is the Astros left 18 men on base.

Oh, for a clutch hit!

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What's In a Number?

Well, Jackie Robinson they didn't turn out to be as kind to the Houston Astros as they would have liked. Craig Biggio hit a home on the first pitch of the game, for his 51st leadoff home run, which is the record for National League batters. And Lance Berkman finally hit his second home run. After three innings the score was tied at four, but the Phillies won on a barrage of 20 hits and ended up clobbering the Astros.

So much for wearing number 42!

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