National Champions

The worst part of the national championship in football for the longhorns is that people at work keep coming up to me asking if I'm excited about it. They can't seem to get it into their Yankee peanut brains that I went to Texas A&M University. Our chief rival are the longhorns. We don't really root for them. We kinda root against them. The big problem is they don't seem to even know about Texas A&M. How can you follow college sports and not know about the Aggies and longhorns?

There's a place in France...

As I read the newspaper accounts and watch the news from a burning Paris I remember our summer trip to Italy. There, in Murano where we bought our stem wear (wine glasses) the Italian man explained to me that Europians don't understand Americans and how violent they are. Citing the looting in New Orleans at the time he said things like that would never happen in Europe.

Maybe France doesn't count. Of course there were riots in Northern Ireland while we were there as well.

He was a nice man, married to a girl from Brooklyn. The glasses are beautiful. If you come and visit you can drink out of them.

World Series

1984 I went to my first Astros game and we sat behind home plate. I remember the net in the Astrodome at the time didn't go straight up, it went back over your head. I was disappointed because I wanted to get a foul ball. I don't remember if the Astros won, I think they did, but there was an Oiler football game afterwards so we stayed and watched them change the field over for awhile. I remember looking at the roof and hoping for a homerun so I could see the scoreboard go off.

1985 I was an Astros Buddy for the first time and we went to the 6 Astro Buddy games in the Dome. Mostly we sat in the Upper Deck. I went with a friend once and came back with buttons and a wooden bat.

1986 was the first time Dad and I went to opening day. Will Clark hit a homerun off Nolan Ryan and a guy with an arm cast caught it in the outfield. The '86 team will always be special because they won the pennant. Of course we all know the Game 6 of the NLCS story, the only game that has made me cry. I was young though, and I honestly thought they would be right back in the hunt of things. Game 6 still haunts me. God Bless Glenn Davis, Bill Doran, Craig Reynolds, Phil Garner, Denny Walling, Jose Cruz, Billy Hatcher, Kevin Bass, Nolan Ryan, Mike Scott, Dave Smith, Charlie Kerfield, Bob Kneeper, Larry Anderson.

1987 - Mom utters after a little league game, "Don't worry Joel, even Jose Cruz stikes out."

1988 - the last year of Nolan Ryan as an Astro. I was so mad at our Yankee owner for letting my hero go to the ... Rangers?? Another note, a catcher made his major league debut, his name, Craig Biggio.

1989 - The Astros were in 1st place in August, but this was the last competitive team for awhile.

1991 - The Astros finished in last place this year and I must have gone to 15 games. We're in the bleachers now mostly, as I've out grown the Astros buddies. Lots of young guys on this team, Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, and a guy we got from Boston, Jeff Bagwell.

1992 - The Astros are on the road for a month to accomodate the Republican Convention in the Dome. The team responds well and finish strong. My friend Brad and I try to raise money to buy the Astros by standing on the street corner with a sign that says, "Help us buy the Astros" and a bucket. We get enough for 2 slurpees and 2 candy bars.

1993 - The Astros finish ahead of the Cubs winning a $5 bet I made with a friend at the beginning of the season. Dad and I see Darrlye Kile's 1st career no hitter. I also set the record for eating 6 $1 hotdogs.

1994 - Sad season, no World Series as the Astros were on their way to a division title. Will we be back in this position again?

1997 - For the first time since 1986 the Astros are back in the playoffs. They aren't the best team, but making it to the playoffs is good enough. I remember Dad calling me at college after the clinching game.

1998 - Astros make deadline deal for Randy Johnson and win 100 games. The best Astros team? They fall to the Padres in the divisional series. I went to the first game the Big Unit pitched in the Dome and that place was rocking. He looks terrible as a batter.

1999 - The last year of the 'Dome. Astros again face playoff disappointment.

2000 - Enron Field is awesome. The Astros aren't.

2001 - I met my wife and took her to her first Astros game. She realizes that she must embrace this Astros obsession if this is going to work.

2004 - I miss the first Opening Day with Dad since 1986 because of my move to New York. The Astros are back in the playoffs again as the wildcard for the first time since 2001. The beat the Braves in the divisional round for the first playoff series win for the franchise. The go back to St. Louis with a 3-2 lead in the NLCS only to lose the next two games.

2005 - WORLD SERIES!!!

Tonight I finally get to see my team in the World Series, a moment I thought would never happen. I love it. I love this team.

Astros

I'd cry, but when you get punched in the stomach you don't have the breath to cry. This is about as hard as I've taken any loss, ever. That and I get to work and have a Yankee fan tell me he understands losing because when he was growing up in the 80's the Yankees were below .500. I tried to explain that rooting for a team with rainbow uniforms that have never made the World Series and a team with (at the time) 22 World Series Championships is a bit different. Plus the Yankees have won 4 since.

But we've got Roy O going on Wed. and if any team in the world can come back, it's this one. But that is about as close as you can get and not make it.

I just want them to make it to the World Series, if they win, that would just be gravy. I just want to see them play in the Series, once.

ASTROS!

So the Astros beat the Cubs today and won the National League Wild Card for the second straight year. They will play the Braves in the NLDS starting on Wednesday. It was a big win for the Bubba Household. Now that we can relax for a few days and breath, lets revisit the biggest transacation of the Astros offseason, i.e. Carlos Beltran signing with the NY Mets instead of the Houston Astros.

Beltran: Salary-$11.5 million, Avg-.266, HR-16, RBI-78, SB-17, SLG-.414, OBP-.330, OPS-.744

Now the Astros who played the outfield for the Astros this year, Jason Lane, RF and Willie Taveras, CF.

Lane: Salary-$345 thousand, Avg-.267, HR-26, RBI-78, SB-6, SLG-.499, OBP-.316, OPS-.805

Taveras: Salary-$316 thousand, Avg-.291, HR-3, RBI-29, SB-34, SLG-.341, OBP-.325, OPS-.665

You do the math.

Running From Rita (Bubba's Sister in Houston):

I do not have a Blog, however my brother was kind enough to let me do a "guest appearance" on his.....

Sunday morning, September 25

Our story is not a storm story - it is an evacuation story. I pondered just what to title this - several ideas came to mind: Running from Rita, How Rita Ruined My Week, Rita is a Bitch......but decided to just call it Reflections on Rita. Mine is certainly not the worst evacuation story by any means; it is only one story of millions. But I experienced and witnessed so much in the past few days and there are so many thoughts and images running around in my brain that I felt like I needed to somehow express them. So here is my story.

On Monday and Tuesday we did not know what to do; our theme song could have been "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?". We live about half-way between Houston and Galveston, so we were concerned with the weather forecasts. We went back and forth, but on Tuesday night decided (along with my parents) that we should go. We have family in Dallas who wanted to see us anyway, so we decided to load up and leave on Wednesday. The sooner the better, we thought. So we packed, we prepared our homes, we brought along our treasures and tried to secure the rest. We couldn't board up our windows because plywood was already sold out. Grocery stores were quickly selling out of water, batteries, the hurricane essentials. There was a sort of public frenzy - probably a combination of media hype and Katrina still fresh on our minds. Fortunately we did have the foresight to fill our cars up with gas on Tuesday night. We knew the traffic would be bad getting out of town, but what else could we do? By the time we left it was a Category 4 storm headed straight at Galveston. We had to leave. We had no idea what we were about to go through.

My parents left their house at about 1:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon; we were not able to leave until a couple of hours later. It was 103 degrees outside when we left home. We kept in touch as best as we could by cell phone - but the circuits were so busy that many times we were unable to connect. Mom and Dad ran into heavy traffic, but assured us that once we got past The Woodlands we'd be OK. The traffic was literally bumper-to-bumper from the minute we pulled out of our League City neighborhood with our 2 kids, our 2 dogs, and our van packed to the gills with all that we could get in there. And thus began the creep northward. From home to Centerville we averaged about 5-10 mph. I have never seen so many people and cars trying to go the same direction. Cars were overheating; people were running out of gas; some people pushed their cars along in the traffic to save what gas they had. The gas stations ran out of gas. They ran out of food. The restrooms were disgusting. No stores or restaurants were open. Large groups of people would pull over to the shoulder together and sleep in/on their cars. Ambulances frequently passed us on the shoulder; I assume they were transporting hospital patients to safer ground. At midnight we were just getting to the Woodlands, and there was no relief in sight. Rita was now a Category 5 - the 3rd strongest storm in recorded history. I finally got thru to Mom on her cell phone and they were already at our Dallas destination. Thinking we were not far behind, Mom asked how close we were - when I told her we were only at The Woodlands she couldn't believe it. It had taken us 9 hours to get only to the other side of Houston, and they were already there! What a difference leaving a couple of hours later made! Friends of ours that left after we did took 12 hours to get that far - they ended up turning around and going back home for fear of running out of gas and being stranded. I wish we had done the same, but the reports on the radio told of a "mammoth storm" headed straight at us! I began to worry we would ride out the storm in our van on I-45. My husband got tired (imagine that!) so I took over the driving for a while and let him sleep - neither of us wanted to stop moving - but I could only drive for about an hour before my eyes wouldn't stay focused and I had to pull over. That was at Centerville. After a short rest in the van, my husband took back over and we forged on, still seeing so many people by the side of the road either out of gas or sleeping, so many ambulances, so many tail lights ahead of us! We kept hearing on the radio that they were going to open the southbound lanes of I-45 to head north as well, but we never saw it. We drove (inched along) all night. At dawn on Thursday we were in Buffalo; we again had to pull over to a gas station parking lot (no gas there) and sleep for about 45 minutes. Finally at Ennis we decided we HAD to get off of 45 so we cut over to 35 and got into Dallas that way. We arrived at our final destination at 10:00 Thursday morning - a 19 hour drive. We were worn out, hungry, grungy - hadn't eaten anything decent or gotten any real sleep in over 24 hours - hadn't brushed our teeth, showered.....you get the picture. But we made it. And I have to say that I have THE BEST kids in the world - never a complaint, never a problem - they either played with their Gameboys or watched a movie or slept - real troopers! The dogs were good, too - they slept a lot - but I think that was the Benadryl I gave them......the puppy (6 months old) pooped in van at about Waxahatchie - at that point we were up to 55 mph so I just tossed it out the window. We were physically and emotionally exhausted.

Of course, the "mammoth storm" did NOT come to our homes - it instead weakened and went inland well northeast of where we live. My mother-in-law lives in Orange and we know she evacuated but we don't know where she is or if she has a home to come back to. Our hearts are with all the residents of the Beaumont/Port Arthur area. We decided as soon as we knew it was safe, we were headed home to check on our own houses. Perhaps we could beat the crowds back into town.....

Other people thought that, too; it still took us 8 hours to get home. That is much better than the 19 hours it took to get there, but still a long day - a long hot day with no place to stop for gas, food, drinks, restrooms; we had brought some things to snack on and drink in the car and we had water for the dogs; we found one rest stop that had a rather clean bathroom (thank goodness!); my son had to tinkle by the side of the road at one point. But we made it home. We have power and phones and water, but our cable is still out. We haven't had mail or newspaper delivery since last Wednesday. Now the clean-up begins - mainly we have limbs and branches in the yard to pick up, and from looking at the size of some of them I think we are lucky they didn't break out the front windows of the house (they were certainly slamming into them). We found a couple of shingles, too - not sure if they are from our roof or if they blew over from someone else's. There are ants everywhere - outside and inside. But we are VERY lucky. We have limited food in the house - we stocked up on non-perishables and water before the storm, but we have no bread or milk or meat - no stores are open. It is like a ghost town around here. I guess we'll be eating a lot of canned ravioli and ramen noodles for a few days. The kids don't go back to school until Thursday. We don't know when my husband will need to be back at work (probably Monday). We have learned a lot of lessons for "next time" - Rita Lessons as the press is calling them. For one thing we will buy plywood as soon as it becomes available next week and have it pre-cut and ready. We now have a plan for packing/protecting our things. We know that if we ever have to evacuate again we will leave earlier and not try to go as far. I don't like to ever say "never", but at this point I am saying "never again" - it'll have to be pretty darn bad for us to evacuate again. Next time this family will most likely hunker down and ride it out.....

Give to Hurricane Funds

Red Cross

Go to Instapudnit for other charities.

Hurricane News

From the Houston Chronicle...

People donate money for disasters half a world away, but when it happens so close to home, the reaction is more intimate. Houston shares more than geography with New Orleans and Mississippi — family and religious ties, a love of Cajun cuisine and music and, for many people, personal memories.
"So many people here have been on Bourbon Street, so many people have been to the casinos on the Mississippi coast," said Ryan. "People can relate, because they've been there." And because we could be next.

Growing up in Houston on the Texas Gulf Coast, (only a couple of miles from Galveston Bay) this has hit home for me. If you've riden one of these things out and if you live or have family along the Gulf Coast, you really feel for these people. I think the yankees up here are rather blase about the whole affair, if it doesn't happen in NY it doesn't happen. But let me encourage everyone to give to the Red Cross, or another organization giving aid.

6 Man Football

Saw this in the NY Times:

Jack Pardee, a former N.F.L. linebacker and Washington Redskins coach, was a member of the Christoval, Tex., six-man team in the early 1950's, once scoring nine touchdowns in a game that was played in the town's rodeo arena. "Six-man football is what small-town life in Texas is all about," he told me. "It provides kids with the wonderful experience of being part of a team and an important part of the community."

Of course Jack Pardee is also a Fightin' Texas Aggie, a Junction boy who played for the Bear. I have two friends that played 6 man football in the Texas Panhandle, the famous Tim Smith and Jody Copp.

Reporters in the Locker Room

From ESPN's Jason Whitlock...

Going into the men's bathroom following a practice or a game, and conducting interviews while athletes undress and shower, is not a gender rights issue. It is not a sign of equality. It's a stupid, disrespectful, antiquated tradition started by men, and it really needs to stop -- especially now with the explosion of new media and the full-blown gender integration of sports reporting.

When did they say anything worthwhile anyway?

Shakespeare in the Park

From my daily Playbill email, more info here...

When you become a Summer Sponsor of Shakespeare in the Park, you'll do much more than receive one reserved seat to TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. You'll help keep a New York tradition - FREE Shakespeare in the Park - alive! Your $100 donation reserves ONE seat to ONE production and is 100% tax-deductible.

Only in NY does buying a $100 seat to a play keep it free. That doesn't make sense to me. The more people buy seats, the less free it is, and the more it forces the general public out. Free Shakespeare is going corporate, just like everything else.

NCAA is a Monopoly

Of course the NCAA is a monopoly anyway. They can do whatever they want.

"I have felt as long as I have been in coaching that the NCAA has wanted to eliminate the NIT," Knight said in a deposition played in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Thursday. As for the NCAA, he added, "it's a monopoly."

Indian nicknames

Can't say I agree with this. What about the Fightin' Irish? Or the Aggies (demeans farmers)?

The NCAA banned the use of American Indian mascots by sports teams during its postseason tournaments, but will not prohibit them otherwise.

Baseball

Which would you want?

Outfield A: Avg: .256 HR: 16 RBI: 46 SB: 6 OBP: .302 SLG: .488
Outfield B: Avg: .263 HR: 12 RBI: 56 SB: 7 OBP: .313 SLB: .429


Outfielder A is Jason Lane for the Astros, Outfielder B is Carlos Beltran for the Mets.

Roid Rage

Well, seems that steroids has it's first big time victim in Rafael Palmerio. The sad part is that he testified before Congress where he, in a rather Bill Clinton moment, shook his finger at the camera and declared he had never taken steroids, never. Now it seems he has, but not willingly, as he says. I don't understand the way he is spinning this. If he took something that had a banned substance in it and was unaware, as he claims, why would he not just come out and tell everyone what he took and how he didn't know. But instead he is losing because everyone is assuming the worst. ESPN is reporting he did in fact test positive for steroids.

I also don't understand how he people like Jason Stark and say they will still vote for him for the Hall because it was baseball's fault for not enforcing no steroids. When are people responsible for their own decisions? When is it the players themselves and the players association which fought steroid testing on all fronts fault for not protecting themselves (players) against suspicion of steroid use?

Astros

They're back.... 22-7 in July and back in first place for the wild card. The buzz is back. I would say I'm back to reading the Astros report in the Houston Chronicle every morning, but I never stopped. With Clemens, Oswalt, Pettitte on the mound I think they are the favorites for the last playoff spot.

I'm back as well, a little blog nap.

Aggies Make Mistake

Texas A&M fired Mark Johnson this week. He won more games at the baseball coach at A&M than any other man. He averaged 41 wins over 21 years, before he was coach they won 40 games in a season twice. I think you can judge a coach by what his former players and peers say about him, and in Mark Johnson's case, it is only good. From the Bryan College Station Eagle:

“ That’s my only explanation as to why this happened to Mark,” Garrido said. “It isn’t about coaching ability. It isn’t about him being a good teacher or his ethics. It isn’t about his baseball knowledge. My guess is that it’s about the evolution of the game and the expecations for coaches. You’ve got to win, and you’ve got to win every year.”

“ He’s an important figure in my life,” Rupe said. “I feel sorry for him, and I also feel sorry for the other coaches. It’s a sad day for A&M baseball. It really is. As much as everyone is going to look to the future, for his past players, it’s a very sad day.”

A&M has made a claim with this move, win our your out. Of course as Larry Dierker said in the Houston Chronicle about the Astros,

There are two types of fans: baseball fans and fans of winning.

It seems to me that A&M's new administration is a fan of winning.

Listen to My Wife...

This is interesting in our house, as we think about starting a family in a two career household. Granted, we are both civil engineers so our hours are not quite lawyer or investment banker hours, but it is still something we think about. Read the whole article here.

Maybe you know a woman (or a few million) like her. It's hardly news that the issue vexing talented people is the struggle to balance their professional lives with time for fulfilling lives outside of work. The shock is that after decades of wrestling with these tradeoffs, the obvious answer is the one everyone has been too skeptical or afraid to explore: changing the way top jobs are structured.

In a world where most people are struggling, the search for "balance" in high-powered jobs has to be counted a luxury. Still, there is something telling (if not downright dysfunctional) when a society's most talented people feel they have to sacrifice the meaningful relationships every human craves as the price of exercising their talent.

Of course my opinion is the situation is driven by greed, corporate greed and individual greed. If no one would work the hours or put up with the bs, then corporate America would be forced to change. As far as women, business is going to have to change the way they handle mom's or they are going to lose some of their best employees.

Why can't we be sucessful and have a life? I like my job, I think I'm pretty good at it - I don't want to brag, and I work with a top firm in my field. But my job is a job, and I want to have my weekends to spend some of the money I'm making, and I like to go home and have dinner with my wife. So far I've been lucky, but as I see where my career might go it is not pretty.

More on Muslim Views in the Middle East

From today's Wall Street Journal. Read it here. (Register to read, easy, painless, worth it.)

As a Muslim, I am able to purchase copies of the Quran in any bookstore in any American city, and study its contents in countless American universities. American museums spend millions to exhibit and celebrate Muslim arts and heritage. On the other hand, my Christian and other non-Muslim brothers and sisters in Saudi Arabia--where I come from--are not even allowed to own a copy of their holy books. Indeed, the Saudi government desecrates and burns Bibles that its security forces confiscate at immigration points into the kingdom or during raids on Christian expatriates worshiping privately.

The Saudi Embassy and other Saudi organizations in Washington have distributed hundreds of thousands of Qurans and many more Muslim books, some that have libeled Christians, Jews and others as pigs and monkeys. In Saudi school curricula, Jews and Christians are considered deviants and eternal enemies. By contrast, Muslim communities in the West are the first to admit that Western countries--especially the U.S.--provide Muslims the strongest freedoms and protections that allow Islam to thrive in the West. Meanwhile Christianity and Judaism, both indigenous to the Middle East, are maligned through systematic hostility by Middle Eastern governments and their religious apparatuses.

The lesson here is simple: If Muslims wish other religions to respect their beliefs and their Holy book, they should lead by example.

Too bad they have all that oil. It seems to me that what we are dealing with in the Middle East are facist and Islam is the medium to convert the masses. I always wondered how the Nazi's could get everyone to buy into their terror, but now I'm witnessing it first hand. Of course liberal America will not face up to this fact and want to make us out to be ugly Americans intruding where we don't belong. Of course our relations with places like Saudi Arabia are ridiculous because they have all that oil.

Middle East Hypocrisy

Great atricle in today's New York Times, imagine that. Thomas Friedman writes:

It is hard not to notice two contrasting stories that have run side by side during the past week. One is the story about the violent protests in the Muslim world triggered by a report in Newsweek (which the magazine has now retracted) that U.S. interrogators at Guantánamo Bay desecrated a Koran by throwing it into a toilet. In Afghanistan alone, at least 16 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in anti-American rioting that has been linked to that report. I certainly hope that Newsweek story is incorrect, because it would be outrageous if U.S. interrogators behaved that way.

That said, though, in the same newspapers one can read the latest reports from Iraq, where Baathist and jihadist suicide bombers have killed 400 Iraqi Muslims in the past month - most of them Shiite and Kurdish civilians shopping in markets, walking in funerals, going to mosques or volunteering to join the police.

Yet these mass murders - this desecration and dismemberment of real Muslims by other Muslims - have not prompted a single protest march anywhere in the Muslim world. And I have not read of a single fatwa issued by any Muslim cleric outside Iraq condemning these indiscriminate mass murders of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds by these jihadist suicide bombers, many of whom, according to a Washington Post report, are coming from Saudi Arabia.

The Muslim world's silence about the real desecration of Iraqis, coupled with its outrage over the alleged desecration of a Koran, highlights what we are up against in trying to stabilize Iraq - as well as the only workable strategy going forward.

Read it for yourself.

I would add that Americans attitude about this story is outrage, as it should be if it had in fact been true, too bad for liberal America it isn't, but what if someone had flushed a Bible down the toilet and Christians had rioted? I imagine the Christians would be called hypocrits. What if someone had written a novel about a Islam where they made something up about the prophet Muhammed that went against Isalm teachings?