Of course I went to Houston to watch the White Sox in the postseason. And of course that has nothing to do with preparing to hike the Appalachian Trail. But I won’t let that stop me from telling you all about it.
My “rich friend” from Houston, who I mentioned in my post about Austin FC, and I decided to blow some money on tickets and play hookey to watch game 1. So as soon as the games ended on Sunday we bought two tickets for Tuesday’s game with the 4pm local start time.
We drove to Houston the morning of. On the way we stopped at Weikel’s Bakery in La Grange. I got a pastrami sandwich that I ate half of immediately and saved the other half for later. Traffic was as calm as you’d expect while driving in the middle of the day, up until we got to just outside of Houston. To no one’s surprise, everything became congested and cray once we hit H-Town.
I do not currently own a car and I have not for most of my life. I bought my first car my senior year of high school and continued using it for the next few years. I owned another car when I lived in Las Vegas for three years. Aside from that I have driven various rental cars for both work and pleasure all over the country. A few of those occasions have been in Houston, but not very many. I would say I’ve driven for less than two weeks of my life there.
I say all of that to really impress upon you the idea that I am by no means a person with tons of experience driving in Houston. I have seen a person go from the far left lane of a highway, all the way over to the right like they wanted an exit, then decide they didn’t need the exit and go all the way back to the left lane again – all without ever coming close to using a turn signal – only twice in my life. Both of those times were in Houston. Every city likes to be cute and say their drivers are the worst. In Houston, the difference is that it is true.
After slowly creeping along in traffic for much longer than was necessary, we got to downtown. This allowed us to begin our next grand adventure: the quest for affordable parking. Spoiler alert, we failed. After passing places with extravagant $40 spots we settled on one for a mere $25 about a mile away from the stadium. I ate the second half of my sandwich as we walked to the gate.
Getting inside was hassle free since we showed up about 90 minutes before first pitch. We had time to hit the team store, since my friend wanted to procure a division champs T-shirt. Since the shirts were made by Fanatics they were all cheaply constructed and looked at least a full size too small. The store itself had pretty much everything you could ever dream of with an Astros logo on it. They even had sugar skulls for the Halloween season.
We stopped by concessions and when I saw that a 16oz Modelo was $21.99 my eyes nearly popped out of my head like an aforementioned sugar skull. We stopped and looked longingly at El Tiempo margaritas with similar results. I decided to forego alcoholic refreshment and just use my fandom to keep myself hydrated.
By this point there was nothing left to do but go to our seats. My friend insisted we spend big and sit behind the Astros’ dugout. I whined at the beginning, but had to admit that the location was very nice once I sat down.
What was not nice was the fact that the Wifi could not handle the crowd for some reason and we had trouble streaming the end of the Braves-Phillies game on our phones. We were able to catch replays of the Austin Riley homer after the fact.
Pre-game festivities included player introductions. Sam Antonacci was the first player introduced and promptly tripped on the top step of the dugout. That may or may not have been planned. Later was the national anthem sung by no other than Christian Walker, who then immediately went to take his position in the field at first base.
Once the game started, the South Siders jumped out with one run in the first. However we left some meat on the bone and left runners on first and second. The lead increased to 5-0 after three consecutive singles in the fifth. Despite that, Pale Hose fans felt pangs of regret because we were constantly leaving runners on base.
In between innings we were entertained by the Coca-Cola Shooting Stars. The dance troupe that was trying to hype up the crowd by throwing T-shirts in our general direction. Of course, they were all attractive young ladies. Of course, I took a picture. Of course, it was blurry.
A two-run homer by Houston in the bottom of the fifth tightened up the game, but they never got closer than three runs. Grant Taylor worked the final 2.1 IP to get the save in a 6-3 victory. As we were leaving I got several fist bumps and high fives from other Chicago fans who had made the trip. Our mantra was simple. The win is sweet, but the job is not finished. The next day Chicago completed the sweep.
There have been several news stories about the crowd. Since I was part of the crowd, I feel qualified to talk about it. Yes, the Houston fans booed their team lustily. It was deserved. The White Sox got the leadoff man on in six of the first seven innings of game 1. They became the first team in MLB history to ever lead after every single inning of a multi-game postseason series.
I believe purchasing a ticket gives you to right to boo for any reason you want. If the team is playing poorly, that is a great reason.
I know people also had issues with the size of the crowd and insinuated the Houston fans were complacent with all the winning they have done over the last decade. Yes the crowd was smaller than expected. But that was driven by the fact this was a Tuesday afternoon game played with under 48 hours notice as much as any other reason. Not everyone was in a position to blow off work for game 1 of the first of four possible postseason series. When you keep adding layers to your postseason you get a diminishing return as far as interest and ticket sales go.
The fans that were in Daikin Park were passionate and cheered wildly whenever the team on the field gave them a reason. There just weren’t that many reasons. It is weird to hear the players claim to be disappointed in those fans. Especially when those same fans bought an awful lot of overpriced Modelos, nachos, and parking spaces to come to the game.
