Thumbs up, down
The 2017 World Series champion Astros take center stage.
We shall allow cheering in the press box this week.
Astros fans have wandered through the desert for 56 seasons, 16 years longer than Moses. The Promised Land, as expected, is so very sweet.
We hereby retire the adjectival phrase “long-suffering” as a modifier for Astros fans.
We have it on good authority that Jim Crane not only brought back the trophy but also a load of confetti for Friday’s parade. There’s a shortage of the stuff in Texas.
How good is Carlos Correa? He took a knee on a playing field, and everybody cheered. Moments after the Stros clinched it, so did Correa by presenting former Miss Texas Daniella Rodriguez with an engagement rock about the size of a juiced World Series baseball. She said, “yes.” But then again, who could say no to him?
Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell nailed it when writing about the stark contrast between Major League Baseball and the NFL: “These days baseball is smart, innovative, in love with change and so dynamic you can hardly keep up with it, while the NFL has been asleep for decades, collecting cash and becoming sclerotic.” The NFL is injuries to the brain and to its young stars (sorry to lose you, Deshaun), and the players are malcontents reporting to an autocratic commissioner. Baseball is sabermetrics; it can be mastered by a 5-6 Venezuelan and has Kate Upton in the bleachers wearing vintage gear, not bikini-clad women on the sidelines.
We’re stuck in the office Friday writing instead of celebrating with the Astros. We say that because for us and for thousands of Houston kids, MLB should have waited until Saturday for the parade. HISD called off Friday classes; bad move. School administrators were worried that hundreds would call in sick. That’s a CYA line. Ultimately, they forced families to scramble for child care. There’s a reason parades for the Rodeo or Gay Pride or Art Cars happen on Saturday. School is closed; there’s no one downtown, and parking is abundant. When we repeat as World Series Champions next year — and we will repeat — please, MLB, consider the kids.
Choice World Series tickets at Minute Maid were going for upward of five grand on StubHub. So we, like you, were wondering who was footing the “real” bill for Ted Cruz and Sylvester Turner, politicians effectively taking freebies. True men of the people would have yielded those spots to kids flooded out of their homes by Harvey.
Our clueless Cabinet secretary of the week goes to our own Rick Perry. We were kind of happy that the energy secretary’s self-inflicted wounds seemed to be on the decline, but then he muttered something Thursday to “Meet The Press.” Perry suggested that more fossil fuel use could curb sexual assault. In his own words: “But also from the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light, that shines the righteousness if you will, on those types of acts. So from the standpoint of how you really affect people’s lives, fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. I happen to think it’s going to play a positive role.”
After looking at U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith’s body of work since being elected in 1987, the next logical conclusion is that term limits are wise. The San Antonian, who represents a gerrymandered district from South Austin through the Hill Country, announced he will not seek reelection. Smith was not a doer. He was a denier: of global warming, of evidencebased science everywhere. He used his position as chairman of the House Science Committee to persecute and attack scientists. As with too many of his peers, it’s difficult to know what he did for Texas after a 30-year run.