I will soon get to the self-induced absurdity of a 60-game season, the novelty of a universal designated hitter and the idiocy of starting extra innings with a runner immediately placed on second base.
First things first: Let’s be positive.
The Astros are about to return to our daily lives. And we really need the Astros right now.
Absolutely love them or completely loathe them. A third World Series run in four years or falling short of the playoffs after an all-too-brief regular season. Dusty Baker and James Click making you gradually forget about A.J. Hinch and Jeff Luhnow or the unprecedented heights created by the latter pair constantly shadowing the former.
Whatever it is and whatever is about to happen, something is better than nothing. Especially when it comes to having a Major League Baseball team playing real games in your city during a time when almost everything else about the world is frustrating and/or confusing.
Whether it’s with near-empty stands or supporters/haters packing socially distanced rows, MLB and the Astros are about to be back.
In downtown Houston.
Inside Minute Maid Park.
Leading national TV highlights, on the radio dial, in daily box scores, and within this city’s daily newspaper.
There was way too much at stake for the 2020 Astros to come and go without a single game played. After MLB’s billionaires and millionaires almost threw it all away, we’re finally going to see what Baker and Co. can do between the lines in a new decade.
The silent stadium thing is eerie. Other than that, I can’t wait.
“This is all unchartered water,” Baker said Wednesday during a video conference call. “None of us have ever been through this. None of us have been through this before in spring training — the emotions that were out there. None of us have been through this COVID-19. Just the same, none of us have been through no people in the stands, no energy. I’ve tried to watch some games from Korea. It’s a little weird, to say the least.”
Then Baker said this, and it sounded like the Astros really were back.
“The main thing is these guys are together,” said Baker, who is 1,863-1,636 all-time as a manager but 0-0 with the Astros. “And what I asked them to do is to stay together. This is a special group of guys, and they have something to prove.”
They sure do. All of them.
Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman. George Springer and Carlos Correa. Justin Verlander and Zack Greinke. Jim Crane, Baker and Click.
The last time I was around the 2020 Astros, it felt like their once-sparkling spring training complex at West Palm Beach, Fla., was on fire and 99 percent of the baseball world was proudly wearing Cheaters* T-shirts.
Times have changed.
We have much larger and more important concerns now. The real world has spent the last three months kicking in our front doors. And as long as we’re riding this crazy coronavirus roller coaster, being really, really mad about something that a baseball team did in 2017-18 doesn’t make a ton of sense. Especially if the stands remain near empty and the Astros playing the Oakland A’s inside Minute Maid looks like a Little League game when it’s broadcast on your home TV.
(Hey, MLB. Starting extra innings with a runner immediately placed on second base is the definition of Little League. Universal DH? That long-overdue change should become the new normal.)
I want to see Yordan Alvarez back inside the box.
Will these be Springer’s last 60 games in local orange and blue?
A five-game winning streak will have fans praising Baker’s veteran presence and acumen. A five-game losing streak at the wrong time could end the Astros’ season and will have fans petitioning Crane to hire Hinch for 2021.
“Dusty’s the man for the job when we hired him,” Crane said. “He’s the man for the job right now. You’ve heard him already talking and ready to go. So he’s checking on the guys and making sure they’re going to be ready. I’m very, very happy to have him, I can tell you that.”
Speaking of optimism ... the 2019 Astros were 40-20 through 60 games and led the AL West by 8½ games.
This should have been a 100-game season. But the 2017 World Series winner and ’19 runner-up has literally seen it all the last few years, which means a two-month sprint shouldn’t shake this highly experienced club.
What if Altuve is hitting .400 after 30 games?
What if Kyle Tucker starts living up to all the hype? He’s 23 now and hit .269 with four home runs, 11 RBIs, an .857 OPS and five stolen bases in 22 games last season. Thirty years ago, I would have already traded for five of his rookie cards.
What if Verlander is the best starter in the American League, but Gerrit Cole (remember him?) pitches the New York Yankees (remember them?) to the best record in the AL?
If the Astros soar through 60 games, they’ll again be a national story. If they disappoint and decline, the national rumor mill will start churning with glee.
I want to see Bregman owning third base.
Greinke in year two, which will mark his second consecutive abbreviated season with his new team.
Click replenishing the farm system and extending the Astros’ major league runway during the initial season of a post-Luhnow world.
The 2020 Astros were a movie in the making at spring training and deserved the full 162.
MLB will now be lucky if it gets all 60 games in. But at least the Astros will be back in our lives. To love or to loathe. To remind us of the daily emotion that’s been missing since stadiums across the country suddenly went dark.
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June 25, 2020 at 02:30AM
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Smith: Time for Astros to return to spotlight - Houston Chronicle
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