{"id":3924,"date":"2011-05-18T09:15:55","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T14:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2011-05-18T05:55:44","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T10:55:44","slug":"thank-you-mr-mclane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/archives\/3924","title":{"rendered":"Thank You, Mr. McLane"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It has been announced that Drayton McLane and Jim Crane have reached an agreement on the purchase of the (my) Houston Astros.\u00a0 This sale brings closure to the end of an era that has seen the Astros reach the World Series, and then become the laughing stock of all MLB organizations. (Except maybe Pittsburgh\u2026maybe.)\u00a0 McLane took over the Astros in 1993.\u00a0 While Drayton is leaving this franchise amidst one of it\u2019s lowest points, he also gave Astros fans plenty to be thankful for.\u00a0 While my view on things tends to lean towards the more cynical, I am always, always, always grateful for baseball and what baseball brings to my life.\u00a0 So instead of focusing on where Drayton has left us, I want to thank him for what he brought us during his tenure as owner of the Houston Astros.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dear Mr. McLane,<\/p>\n

I would like to start this letter off by making sure you understand that I am a lifelong Astros fan, who has never known the Astros without you at the helm of their majestic ship.\u00a0 As a fan, I have so much to be thankful for.\u00a0 First, I want to say thanks for keeping the \u2018Stros in Houston.\u00a0 I grew up watching this club play in the eighth wonder of the world<\/a>.\u00a0 Shit, I even had my little baby face blasted up on the jumbotron screen there.\u00a0 Because you made sure to keep the Astros in Houston I was fortunate enough to watch live baseball as a youngster.\u00a0 Needless to say, these experiences at the Astrodome, accompanied by a multitude of other baseball experiences, had a lasting impact on my life.\u00a0 Baseball will forever be my mistress.<\/p>\n

Thank you for letting me experience winning baseball.\u00a0 From the age of nine, I was lucky enough to feel what it was like to have a home team that was not only competitive, but was a division winning team, too.\u00a0 Cheering for a team that won six division titles by the time I first started to hit puberty hooked me for life.\u00a0 I am forever grateful for feeling like baseball season never really ended after 162 games in Houston, Texas.<\/p>\n

While the majority of Astros fans were against the new, midnight blue and metallic gold uniforms, and open-ended star logo<\/a>, I am not one of them.\u00a0 This is hands down my favorite Astros uniform of all time.\u00a0 I know, I know, it got rid of the traditional orange, but screw the haters.\u00a0 It brought about not just a new look for the club, but a new attitude as well.<\/p>\n

Thank you for the hiring of Gerry Hunsicker<\/a>. Without him, we might never have seen the Astros reach their full potential.<\/p>\n

And where would I be without the Killer B\u2019s<\/a>? As I matured from a young, innocent kid, I did so alongside the maturation of the two greatest Astros of all time.\u00a0 Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell were, and still are, my idols.\u00a0 I know that Derek Bell and Sean Berry were also part of the original Killer B\u2019s, but they did not have the lasting impact on me the way the Bags and Biggio did.\u00a0 Making sure to keep those guys for the entirety of the careers might be one of the greatest punctuation marks on your tenure as owner.\u00a0 It not only showed class, but it showed me that even though a baseball team is a business, and should be run as such, there is still room for human emotions and loyalties amidst contracts and agents.<\/p>\n

And let us not forget about the respect you showed Roy and Lance by letting them go.\u00a0 They were as loyal as any guy I have ever seen suit up for the 713.\u00a0 It took a lot of guts to cut ties with those guys I am sure.\u00a0 But, in the end, it is what had to be done.\u00a0 Those guys still had something left in the tank and did not deserve to go down with our ship.\u00a0 Thank you for giving them a chance to chase their championship dreams with another club, again proving that there is room for the human factor in baseball.<\/p>\n

Thank you for the 2005 season.\u00a0 Sure it was nice to win a bunch of division titles, but it was a completely new level of stoktitude when we went to the World Series<\/a>.\u00a0 Especially by way of beating those bastard Cardinals, despite their fucking robot\u2019s best effort<\/a>. I wear my Astros hat with the World Series badge proudly out here in the wild west of New Mexico.\u00a0 I may not be handy with steal when it comes to shit-talkin\u2019 Astros haters, but I have more than earned my keep as a loyal fan.\u00a0 Without 2005, I might be more depressed with where we are currently as an organization.\u00a0 Honestly, I might have mutated into a Houston form of a Cubs fan.\u00a0 But I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 And I have you to thank for that.<\/p>\n

Now this next item may register as absurd to some, but I want to thank you for making the team, and organization as a whole, what it is today.\u00a0 Dogshit.\u00a0 Without our present situation, I would not be able to truly reflect on how amazing the ride was in the 90s and 2000s.\u00a0 Without this present moment of total fucktitude, I would not have been afforded the opportunity to test my true loyalty to the Astros.\u00a0 See, it is easy to be a fan in 2005.\u00a0 Nothing about being an Astros fan in 2011 can be classified as easy.\u00a0 I thank you for the opportunity to embrace what once was, what currently is, and what hopefully will be, all at the same time, from the depths of a cellar.\u00a0 It has allowed me to gain real perspective on what it means to be a true, lifelong fan.\u00a0 On a small side note, thank you for trading for Mark Melancon.\u00a0 I was fortunate enough to play with him at the University of Arizona in 2004<\/a> and it is really cool to now cheer for him as a big leaguer playing for my home team.<\/p>\n

I am sure that there are plenty of other reasons to thank you Mr. McLane (Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettite, and a new stadium even though the Astrodome was cooler, to name a few.), but to me, these are the highlights of all you did for me as a fan.\u00a0 You brought me greatness from the get-go.\u00a0 You brought me to the edge of ultimate success, allowing me to know and feel what it is like before you summit the mountain that is the World Series.\u00a0 You brought me back to reality and even further south of that with your refusal to use the draft to your advantage.\u00a0 Again, I am not mad at this, as it has allowed me to gain some perspective.\u00a0 And with recent moves, you have at least given the Astros fans something that resembles hope.\u00a0 With guys like Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn, Wandy Rodriguez, and Bud Norris, there is actually a light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 Albeit a very distant light, even the briefest moment of its flickering flame is something worth cherishing.<\/p>\n

So, thank you, Mr. Drayton McLane.\u00a0 Thank you for all you have done for not just the Astros, and not just me, but Astros fans across the country and around the globe.\u00a0 It has been one hell of a rollercoaster ride that has seen us tour through both the peaks and valleys that are Major League Baseball.\u00a0 Some might say that you have left a sour taste in their mouth as a fan.\u00a0 They might also accuse you of leaving the club at it\u2019s lowest point.\u00a0 I disagree.\u00a0 You have given the club a new starting point, with nowhere to go but up.\u00a0 You are not deserting the team, but rather you have realized that now is the time for a fresh face.\u00a0 A fresh face that can lead this franchise back to where you once took it.\u00a0 Back to where no other owner has ever taken the Astros, and then further\u2026to Titletown.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Mr. McLane, for giving me a reason to be a baseball fan.\u00a0 Thank you for giving me the Houston Astros, as I know them.
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been announced that Drayton McLane and Jim Crane have reached an agreement on the purchase of the (my) Houston Astros.\u00a0 This sale brings closure to the end of an era that has seen the Astros reach the World Series, and then become the laughing stock of all MLB organizations. (Except maybe Pittsburgh\u2026maybe.)\u00a0 McLane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1300,17,6,11,14],"tags":[1644,2256,2253,2254,2250,2252,201,1911,1603,2251,202,1906,206,640,2255,188,205],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3926,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thegoldensombrero.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}