Opening a can of Orange Whoopass...

[eggwards]

Before this news gets too old...

Baseball is my favorite sport to watch. Yes, both for the game and the players. I know many people find baseball boring and slow, fine. I like football and hockey, too, but baseball - despite how messed up labor relations, ownership and the commissoner's office are, is still my favorite.

That being said, my favorite team, the Houston Astros (I'm such a homer) signed the hunky Jeff Kent (porn mustache and all!) The Astros owner is pretty budget conscious, so this came as a surpise.

It's still only a token, in my book. An improvement - unless you consider that Craig Biggio will be moving to the outfield; but not too much, and the bottom line didn't move much. We still need pitching, Biggio and Bagwell are getting older, and the Cardinals and Braves have been doing much more to secure their positions. This is the first year in the last several that I don't think we'll go to the playoffs.

2 months til Spring Training.

Comments

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I used to be a huge baseball fan. After the second strike in the 90s it just lost all appeal for me. I still have complete sets of upper deck cards 1990-1993 though! I miss playing scrub in the summer.. *sigh* Memmmmorrries...

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Something kept me interested after the strike, and it's really picked up as the Astros started contending. And then there's Mark McGwire. Mmmm.

Still, avoiding a strike this year means more problems loom for 2006.

[cubziz.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of baseball also... and yes, Mark McGuire. (Once had front row seats about 75 feet behind first base... I spent the whole time watching him. I couldn't tell you what the score was, but from watching him, it was obvious that game he decided to retire... I was depressed all week after that.)

Anyway, this year I won't be going to any baseball games. See, here in St. Louis, the Cardinal's owners are demanding a new ballpark or they will leave. They even had plans drawn up which add zero new seats, add zero features for anything other than baseball... but prices for tickets will increase anywhere from $10 to $30 MORE each ticket. Oh and the owners want the city to pay for the ballpark... entirely. (BUT!!! They promise to have a few cheapy seats, though they refuse to cough up numbers... I suspect three seats in outfield.)

But this is not an economy to demand ballparks, especially since Busch isn't terribly bad. It's not perfect, but hell, they bought it for $1.00 years ago from A-B, whatcha expect? Sheesh...

Anyway, in protest, they raised ticket prices this year anywhere from $3.00 to $12.00 per ticket. I like the expensive seats since they are closer, but at $54+ per ticket... I'll stay at home.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Wow! That is expensive! I've been to Busch in 1999, and it's still a good stadium. Then again, I didn't think the Astrodome was so damn bad either. We've already been through it - give us a stadium, or we'll leave. In fact, we've been through it with football, baseball and basketball - and we lost the Oilers (no big loss). This let everyone else get their stadium, Houston doesn't want to lose any other teams.

Yes, the ticket prices went up. The $1.00 pavillion seats (the astrodome was built just like Busch, the outfield seats) were a decent place to see a game, but the $5.00 seats at Enron Fie - oops, Minute Maid Park, are in a far off corner of the upper deck. How do you encourage people to come see games like that?

Minute Maid is nice, and the retractable roof is a gimmick, but we didn't have to have it. It did come in under budget - which is surprising, but still taxpayers and out-of-town hotel users will be paying for it for the next 30 years.

Attendance for the Astros has continued to decline since 2000, but they did have one ticket price increase anyway. Besides the $150 VIP seats, and the luxury boxes, the top ticket price is $35.

I used to contemplate getting season tickets, but I've never been able to afford them. I'll go to about 10 games, probably.