The Book of Mike

"This is no junior college. This is the notorious University of Miami.” -- Marlins starter Dontrelle Willis, after getting knocked around for six runs in 2 1/3 innings by the Canes.

Friday, August 20, 2004

Off to Planet Houston

The Book of Mike is on the road again (again!). This weekend we’ll be in Houston, where hopefully we’ll catch a game between the Astros and that other team from Chicago. Much to everyone’s surprise (mine included), the Astros are kind of back in this Wild Card race.

It was just three weeks ago that anyone who knew anything was saying that the Astros should give up on 2004 and start rebuilding for the future. Things are different now. Well, they are if the ‘Stros can take a few games from the hated Cubs over the weekend. The Astros go into the weekend 5.5 games behind the Wild Card leading Giants, and 5 games behind the Cubs, who are currently second in the Wild Card standings. A sweep here would be huge. Winning two of three in the series would be nice, but would only gain the Astros one game on the Cubs in the standings.

Assuming that nothing drastic happens, Minute Maid Park (formerly known as Enron Field) will be the fifthteenth Major League Stadium I’ve attended (four of which no longer exist or aren’t used for baseball, and two of which I only visited for football games – both of those, Veterans in Philadelphia and Jack Murphy in San Diego, are no longer with us). One day I hope to have visited the ballparks of twenty-nine of the major league teams (Wrigley Field – or wherever the Cubs play – will never be a place that I go – not even if it’s the only place of shelter after a horrific nuclear fallout; and speaking of which, there’s a chance that Wrigley Field will be closed by the time I post again here – keep your fingers crossed). Right now the plan is to take a stadium tour at some point on Saturday and catch the game on Sunday.

Maybe I’ll run into those people from Superman’s planet too.

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