World Series Run
Former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman left us yesterday. I met him when he was on the ticket with Vice President Al Gore back in 2000. I was working for the DNC on the campaign and helped put together a Sen. Lieberman visit to a colonia in the Rio Grande Valley. The purpose of the visit was to point out living conditions in colonias in Texas under Gov. George W. Bush’s administration. Gov. Bush was the 2000 GOP nominee for president, but you probably know that. Sen. Lieberman and I chatted briefly about the conditions, and I gave him a two- minute version on how colonias were created. He was nice guy.
I wish Sen. Lieberman had not endorsed his friend Sen. John McCain in 2008 against then Sen. Barack Obama. Oh, well.
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I mentioned the Harris County constable contract deputy program the other day. You know, if your neighborhood has the dough, you can hire constable deputies for added security. If you are in a poor neighborhood, you are out of luck.
I also mentioned I have been going through my files and getting rid of stuff. The late State Sen. Mario Gallegos was a client. I was going through his stuff, and I ran across an old Houston Press article from the 1990s where Mario was threatening legislation to get rid of the contract deputy program for some of the reasons mentioned in the Chron E-Board take a couple of days ago. This issue isn’t new.
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For 24 MLB teams, Opening Day is today. The Dodgers and Padres had their Opening Day last week in South Korea. Due to bad weather, the ATL, Brewers, Mets, and Phillies are having to move their Opening Day to tomorrow.
Our gang will meet to grub out at an eatery a block or two from The Yard a couple of hours before First Pitch. The featured photo is the lid I will be wearing. It is the 2024 Spring Training lid.
Tags wrote this yesterday:
Bold prediction: Astros will return to the World Series
OK, is it really that bold when they’ve played in four World Series in the past seven years? Maybe not, but some are ready to declare the Astros’ run of success over. Not so fast. Houston could be better than it was a year ago, when it was one home win away from winning another pennant.
The lineup should be their deepest since 2019 with Yainer Diaz taking over full-time at catcher, especially if Altuve and Alvarez don’t miss huge chunks of time with injuries like they did in ‘23. They have a lockdown back end of the bullpen and the rotation is deep when it’s healthy. The Astros have a better pitching staff than the Rangers, who will be one of their biggest challengers in the AL. Don’t sleep on the Yankees, who added Soto and Alex Verdugo but are already dealing with an injury to ace Gerrit Cole.
The MLB.com MLB power rankings have the Orioles at number 3, the Rangers at 5, Astros 6, Yankees 7, Jays 8, Rays 9, Mariners 11, and Twins 13. I am not going to argue with MLB’s power rankings on how the AL teams stack up. Maybe some other teams will emerge.
Shohei Ohtani is no longer in the AL West. He is a Dodger now and has never played in a playoff game. He has 171 career dingers. 14 against the Astros and 8 of the 14 at The Yard. We won’t miss him.
A 2024 World Series run with a first-year manager. We don’t have Machete, but I think we are better off with Yainer and his offense. The infield and outfield are pretty much the same. Our pitching is solid and hopefully we can get Justin Verlander back in the rotation soon. The only thing I worry about is injuries that keep key players out for extended periods of the season like we had last year with Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez. We don’t have Michael Brantley, but he missed a good chunk of 2022 and most of last season. I can see us going to our eighth consecutive ALCS and on to the World Series.
Let’s play ball!
