Astros and Cards in Sept used to mean something

I'm sure when the MLB schedule-makers had the Astros travel to St. Louis for a 4 game series against the Cardinals, they probably thought they were enabling some good pennant race drama. Alas, this September, all this series represents is a showcase of potential future starters for both teams. In the case of the Astros, the three being watched closely are JR Towles, Josh Anderson and Cody Ransom.

Nevertheless, watching the bits and pieces of this series have been a painful reminder of the fact that the Astros are playing irrelevant baseball in September for the first time in the past seven seasons. All compounded by the fast that the irrelevant baseball they have been playing is just plain bad baseball. Outside of the 18 run explosion the other night, there has not been a whole lot to even be encouraged about for next season.

Oh btw, they lost 7-4 tonight to the Cards.

A week's worth of runs in one game

That's pretty much what the Astros did Thursday night against the Cards with their 18-1 win. More impressive was the performance by rookie catcher JR Towles. Towles with 4-4, HR and 8 RBIs. The 8 RBIs was an Astros' rookie record.

Now let's put the win in perspective:

• The Cardinals are a beaten team. The Rick Ankiel HGH thing seems to have taken the wind out of their sails.
  
• No Albert Pujols in the lineup. Granted, Pujols doesn't pitch, but the guy is a game-changer.
  
• It's September, stats in Sept. are meaningless in my opinion. Particularly when it's essentially a lot of minor leaguers up against minor leaguers, which was the case with the Cards-Astros game last night.
  

But hey, there hasn't been much positive Astros' news to get excited about, so I will take it.

Don't Make Eye Contact

This is what I'm always told to do whenever I'm walking the streets of San Francisco and pass what seems to be an endless stream of panhandlers. San Francisco by far has one of the largest populations of panhandler and homeless types in comparison to the other big cities I have spent time in. They are also the most aggressive in SF.

One time I was on a business trip a few years ago, we decided to have a late-night breakfast at one of the all-night diners there and we were seated close to the door and it seemed that every five minutes someone was coming in off the street asking us for money. Of course the restaurant staff told us to not make eye contact or acknowledge them and they would go away.

I was reading my Daily Heartlight email today and it posed this question;

Is there a time to ignore the professional "panhandler" who continues to live irresponsibly by taking advantage of well-intentioned people?

This is one that I have continually struggled with over the years. Phil Ware provides some good examples from the New Testament of times when Christ discerned it was the right time to walk away from those in need.

Do I still feel like there is no right or wrong answer here? Absolutely. However, it was a good and somewhat simple reminder for me to pray for wisdom and discernment every day when it comes to helping others. James 4:17 leaves little room for interpretation;

And when a person knows how to do good, but does not do good, then he is sinning.

How Refreshing...

Now that I have had a chance to take a breath from some of my work activities, I finally was able to digest some of the coverage of the Sun Devils 33-14 win over Colorado on Saturday night.

While the score may not indicate it, it was probably one of the more uglier lopsided wins I have ever seen. The Devils were penalized 12 times for 136 yards. Eight of those penalties were of the personal foul variety. Having watched the game I would say that only six of those were legit. However, even if it were only one personal foul, it's one too many.

While Tricia likes to remind me that this type of play is indicative of Erickson-coached squads, she still cant forget the drubbing his Oregon State team laid on Notre Dame at the Fiesta Bowl in 2001, I have to say that it was refreshing to read DE's post-game comments:

Erickson said his team's 12 penalties were "embarrassing" and "ridiculous." "There's no excuse for that. It's not going to happen ever again or they're not going to play. The discipline part of the penalties really bothers me. That's the most disappointing thing of the game."

I'm pretty sure if Koetter was still coaching the team, we'd be hearing about how the Devils played a great game against an underrated Colorado team coached by his buddy and that the Devils were lucky to have won. Followed by some statement about how the Devils need to practice better.

Nevertheless, I do hope the discipline factor does improve next week against San Diego St. If you cant improve your discipline against the Aztecs, well then we could be in for a long season.

"hey you, in the maroon, how's your jumper?"

Pics from my visit to LucasFilms

As a long-time Star Wars geek, it was quite a thrill for me to visit the LucasFilm campus in San Francisco last night as my company hosted a launch event there.

Here are some of the pics, hope you enjoy them Clancy-boy!

Why now Drayton?

I really don't get why Drayton pulled the trigger on kicking Garner and Purpura to the curb now as opposed to back in June or early July when it was clear the team was going nowhere. If you're serious about giving Cecil Cooper a real audition as manager, he needs more than just over a month.

I'm traveling today in San Francisco and trying to digest all the Astros' news of the day but unfortunately I am once again dealing with a very slow hotel Internet connection. An example of this slow connection is the fact that I have been trying to send a 4 MB file via email to a colleague in Germany for more than three hours. This proves my theory once again that if you have to pay more than ten dollars for an Internet connection, you can pretty much guarantee it will be brutally slow. Take note of this if you're ever staying at the Westin Market St. in SF.

I will probably have more to say on the Astros latest moves later this week but for now, I'll say good luck Cecil.

Word to Drayton, please don't let Tal Smith talk you into hiring his kid as GM.

Erickson - Koetter comparisons starting to come out

When there is a transition in coaches and coaching staff, players who played for the previous regime are naturally asked to compare the differences between the two coaches. I've started to notice it's happening more frequently with the Sun Devils as they continue with practices and draw closer to the first game on Sept. 1. Here's the most recent example from from Zach Krula in today's AZ Republic:

The 23-year-old said of the new staff: "There's nothing they're doing that I don't like. They're able to separate work from play a lot better. "I just felt I was never able to let my guard down (with some on former coach Dirk Koetter's staff). If I was going to talk to some person, it had to be about football. I couldn't just talk to them about the movie I saw - or really insert anything here. There is a certain time when you can't talk to these guys about that, because it's business. But there's always that time when you can talk to them about anything else. More than anything, that's what I appreciate from this staff the most. They're not really trying to be a parent at all points in time."
Well Zach, I'm glad you have some new buddies, now let's see if you can stay healthy for a full season. He continued on to say:
The Sun Devils' practices are shorter under Erickson. The point is to be fast and physical without getting pounded. "I feel we get more out of them, and I also feel they're almost easier somehow, which really doesn't make sense to me," Krula said.

I do hope this one is true. One of the complaints you continually heard from Koetter and some of the players last year were about bad practices. Clearly this was reflected in their gameday play if last year is any indication.