Bubble means same hotel for foes
LOS ANGELES — Part of Major League Baseball’s California “bubble” includes an odd twist: the Astros and A’s inhabiting the same spacious Los Angeles hotel.
Both teams and their traveling parties are staying in a resort that, according to Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, includes just the two teams, along with some quarantined and tested hotel staff. Teams are still undergoing COVID-19 testing every other day, as they were during the regular season. Information released by MLB and the MLBPA last week revealed no new positive tests among players for 33 straight days.
“It’s pretty normal for what we’ve been doing this year, but it’s great,” Bregman said.
Outdoor activities are available for the teams within the hotel. Outfielder Josh Reddick posted a picture of his Saturday night: lounging outside while watching the Georgia Bulldogs defeat the Auburn Tigers on a projection screen.
Pingpong tables, tennis courts and other distractions are available for teams that did not have such luxuries during other road trips this season. Multiple Astros players and staffers discussed the sometimes boring nature of their regular-season trips, where leaving the hotel for any reason was forbidden.
“Before now, this season, being stuck in your room was the difficult part,” said Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., who serves as the team’s union representative.
“But I think the guys, we’ve adjusted to it. It was tough the first couple road trips .When you’re on the road, typically, it’s a lot of dinners and exploring cities to take up your downtime, where now, it’s just sitting in your room and looking out your window. The hotel here is nice. MLB has done a good job, and our players have done a good job all season.”
A’s manager Melvin has bond with Baker
Like practically everybody else in baseball, A’s manager Bob Melvin has a warm spot in his heart for Astros manager Dusty Baker, whowas Melvin’s hitting coach with the Giants in the late 1980s and a mentor when Melvin got his first managing job with the Mariners in 2003.
“Early on, he probably was the biggest resource I had — and a friend as well,” Melvin said. “It would have been easy for him maybe not to give me the time he did, but he was anything but that. He was always there for a phone call and always kept in touch with me.”
Melvin said his chats with Baker ran the gamut and that Baker “wasn’t the type of guy who wants to keep secrets to himself.”
“I don’t know that there’s a guy who has been in the game as long as he has who has been revered by the players like him,” Melvin said. “I took a lot from him in understanding that the players were the most important thing and that having (their) respect was paramount.”
Baker said Melvin “was always a student of the game. He was always asking questions. He was quiet, but he was very attentive at the same time.”
Baker also is fond of A’s firstbase coach Mike “Aldo” Aldrete, another of his former pupils with the Giants, and, of course, had a story to tell in that regard.
“I remember one night I was dreaming about Aldo, who was taking a lot of pitches, and it was upsetting me,” Baker said. “In the middle of my dream, I said, ‘Come on, Aldo,’ and my wife woke me up and asked me who Aldo was.
“Those are two of my favorite guys that I’ve coached, but they’re in the way, and they’re on the other side.”
‘Mattress Mack’ makes another wager
Gallery Furniture majordomo Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is back for another round of bets on Astros playoff baseball, and he will have an advertising sign at Dodger Stadium for the American League Division Series.
For the neutral-site series between the Astros and Athletics, Major League Baseball allowed each team to select two sponsors to have advertising space on Dodger Stadium’s outfield wall.
The Astros’ corporate sponsors with signs will be Phillips 66 and McIngvale’s Gallery Furniture.
“It’s a thrill and an honor, and my friends in L.A. can’t believe it,” McIngvale said. “My wife was asking me why I would want a sign in Los Angeles, and I said, ‘Well, because it’s going to be on television in Houston.’ ”
The Gallery Furniture sign is in right-center field to the left of the Phillips 66 sign, with the A’s corporate sponsors featured from the left-field foul line to center field.
McIngvale also is once more hedging his potential $6 million exposure in his annual “Win it All” promotion by placing wagers with legal sports books in Las Vegas and Mississippi.
He placed a $10,000 bet at the South Point sports book in Las Vegas to win $300,000 if the Astros win the World Series, and he put down $250,000 at 24-to-1 odds on the Astros at the Scarlet Pearl Casino in Mississippi.
McIngvale also won a $250,000 bet in Mississippi on the Astros’ winning Game 1 of their wild card series against the Twins. It paid out $625,000.
Regarding additional wagers, which he places with the help of advisers in Las Vegas and at the University of Maryland, he said, “We’re working on it.”
McIngvale’s potential exposure is considerably less than a year ago, when he placed $13 million in bets to hedge potential refunds of $20 million to $25 million had the Astros beaten the Washington Nationals in the World Series.
This year’s promotion, he said, offered customers double their money back or 250 percent of their purchase price in store credit on mattress purchases but was halted once the COVID-19 pandemic hit in late February and early March.
The Astros are considerable underdogs this season after entering the 2019 playoffs as favorites, but McIngvale is optimistic.
“They’ve got great players and pitching that is coming of age at the right time,” he said. “And all the baseball guys tell me that the playoffs are all about whichever team gets hot.”