By Gene Elston
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on March 5, 2002.

There is no question the quality of our lives has improved over the last 100 years. However, very often today we hear the phrase “life used to be so simple.”

Life WAS simple in the National League in 1900 when the circuit decided the 12-club league was too unyielding and top-to-bottom, competition was nigh impossible, the league voted to reduce to an eight-club organization. Read the rest of this entry »

By Gene Elston
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 19, 2002.

Here’s a tip-o-the-cap to baseball franchises avoiding the use of corporate names on their ball parks!

It’s like a waft of fresh spring air, to tradionalists like me, to hear as the baseball season returns, the names: Wrigley Field, Dodger Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Busch Stadium, Fenway Park, Comiskey Park, Yankee Stadium and Skydome. Read the rest of this entry »

By groovydude
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 18, 2002.

The movie Eight Men Out was on TV tonight, and I watched it. Again. This movie is the story of the 1919 World Series and the Chicago White Sox, later known as the Black Sox, who conspired with gamblers to fix the Series. Watching Eight Men Out reminded me of Ted Williams. Read the rest of this entry »

By Neil T.
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on February 5, 2002.

I promise this has something to do with baseball, and not just my children. Bear with me.

I have two children. Austin is my daughter. She’s 15 and she’s Ivy League smart, very pretty, and very talented. She is more fun to go to a baseball game with than anyone I know. She yells with joy at every strike and despises the wave. Read the rest of this entry »

By Limey
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on January 30, 2002.

This subject has become the staple of the TZ during the activity-starved days of “The Void”. It’s always darkest before the dawn, says the old adage, and this has never been more apparent as we inch agonizingly slowly towards the glorious sunrise that is the reporting of pitchers and catchers. With The Hun either sitting on his hands or (more likely, IMO) having had them crazy glued together by McLane, the dearth of activity from the Astros organization has been excruciating. As a result, the TZ has become a vacuum where half-arsed theories about Enron’s involvement with the Astros can breed and fester. Read the rest of this entry »

By Noe in Austin
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on October 23, 2001.

The other day I was wondering if one could channel the same spirit that invades columnist John P. Lopez of the Houston Chronicle to write a Bleacher Rap. Then I wondered why one would want to. Yeah, what’s so good about writing a column or article chock full of my own opinions, conspiracy theories and paranoia’s all rolled into one. Well come to think of about it, this could be fun in the trying to park a M4 Sherman Tank in a compact car parking space sort of way. You can do it; you’re just going to have to accept that you’re going to have to squash, maim, destroy, push, run over and generally stomp a few things along the way to gain your objective. Damn the destruction, full speed ahead, let’s see what a Lopez-like diatribe? err? column about the media and all it’s foibles in the current Astros situation might read like. Here goes, my try at satire (from a bunker somewhere in the hills of central Texas): Read the rest of this entry »