Want to see the trophy? Well, it depends on whom you know
It’s been two weeks since the Astros paraded back into town, hoisting the city’s first World Series trophy over their heads as orange-and-blue confetti poured down from the heavens. An estimated 1 million fans saw the trophy in the gold-plated flesh that day. And tens of thousands more caught a glimpse that Sunday, when World Series MVP George Springer brought it to a Texans game and Astros pitcher Dallas Keuchel showed it off at a Rockets game. For one shining weekend, the 2-foot-tall statuette was ubiquitous.
But since then it has made only select public appearances — thanks mostly to those who have friends, or friends of friends, in high places.
So far, the trophy has popped up at a posh men’s-only fundraiser at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, at which attendees paid $1,000 or more to see and be seen (there were a limited number of $500 “junior” tickets available for the cash-strapped, 35-and-younger crowd). It’s also been spotted at a black-tie wedding at the River Oaks Country Club, a brunch at Revival Market and an evening fete at Astros owner Jim Crane’s swanky downtown restaurant, where jackets for gentlemen are preferred, but not required.
Attention grabber
Yet there was no sight of the trophy when Carlos Correa paid a visit to sick patients at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital this week. Nor has it accompanied players to their more easily accessible appearances recently, like a free meetand-greet with pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. at Academy Sports + Outdoors on Wednesday night in Pearland.
There, a line of people wrapped around the building for a chance to meet McCullers. The trophy, however, was not in attendance.
“It definitely gets more attention than me,” McCullers said of the Commissioner’s Trophy. “Of course, it means a lot to us, but I think it also means a lot to people who support us and have been for so long.”
So how do everyday fans get to see it?
No comment, said Astros spokeswoman Dena Propis.
But while the Astros office is tight-lipped, team president Reid Ryan said Wednesday that he’s received “off the charts” demand from fans and local organizations desperate to see the hardware.
And, despite Texas being home to two major league teams, this is the first time a championship trophy has landed in the Lone Star State. As a result, Ryan said he’s planning to follow the example of other winning teams and draw up plans for a “trophy tour” in the coming months.
“Fans want to see it. The outlying communities want to see it — San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, places like that,” Ryan said while in Orlando, Fla., for an MLB general managers meeting. “We want to make sure we get out and get to take it to those communities as well because they’re all part of our fan base.”
The unofficial visits over the past 10 days have been largely informal. For the MFAH event, at which the statue was famously dinged, requiring repairs to several of its gold flags, Crane reached out to the museum’s director, Gary Tinterow, and asked whether it would be OK to bring the trophy with him.
Tinterow said yes.
‘Added to the fun’
At the River Oaks wedding, where Stewart and Kaitlyn Skloss tied the knot in a ceremony officiated by ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, the trophy was brought along as a special plus-one of wedding guest Doug Bauer, who just happens to be the director of the Astros Foundation.
“Kate (Upton) and Justin (Verlander) didn’t even have the trophy at their wedding,” Skloss said. “It definitely added to the fun.”
And that fun continued throughout the weekend. The next afternoon, it was Bauer who brought the trophy to Revival Market in the Heights. He called to make a reservation, though none are needed at the first-come, first-served restaurant. But when he explained he’d be bringing the trophy, a table was set aside for the 30-pound sterling silver and gold-plated statue. There, it stayed for several hours as people poured in to the restaurant after seeing the trophy’s photos on social media. In all, about 100 people snapped photos with it.
A call to the Astros Foundation to inquire as to how locals could make an appointment to see the trophy was referred to Propis. She, again, had no comment.
But lips were a little looser among some of the lucky few who have had contact with the trophy.
“All I can say is that I went to a party last night, saw the trophy and took a photo with it,” said Janet Gurwitch, a minority investor in the Astros since 2011, who attended Crane’s posh restaurant party.
Typically, after the fervor around the trophy dies down, it finds a permanent home with the team. Last year’s trophy, which was presented to the Chicago Cubs after a 108-year wait, lives in the team’s new corporate office, next to Wrigley Field. The display is open to the public.
Sponsors a safe bet
There have been no announcements yet as to where the trophy will end up on a permanent basis in Houston. But in the meantime, it seems aligning one’s self with the team’s business interests is the best way to catch a peek. While the team has not yet announced where the victory tour will take the trophy, it looks like team sponsors are a likely bet for the first few stops.
Next month, the trophy will make its way to Houston Methodist, which has been the team’s health care provider for 30 years. The visit will be two hours long and geared toward employees, though hospital spokeswoman Stefanie Asin said there may be some time set aside for patients as well.
Methodist isn’t the only place the trophy is expected to pop up in December, Asin said.
“From what I understand, it’s all the sponsors,” she said.