Missing
Regina Lankenau is the Chron’s Assistant Op-Ed Editor, and she penned today the column in the hard copy editorial page on the state of Latino politics in the H-Town area. Regina gave Commentary some run in her column and here is a part:
In some ways, Houston has come far in its Latino representation, said Marc Campos, a Baytown Latino and longtime Democratic political consultant, including for Sen. Carol Alvarado, Rep. Christina Morales and current Mayor John Whitmire. He stressed that Whitmire’s top two political advisers – Jaime Mercado and Diana Patiño – are Latino. “I tell them, ‘you should celebrate that,’” he said, noting that he and other Latino consultants weren’t given the opportunity to help run mayoral campaigns during the ‘80s and ‘90s.
He’s seen other progress in the past 50 years, particularly after Houston implemented single-member district elections for City Council in 1979. Notably, in last year’s election, Houston voters tripled the Latino representation on the horseshoe, including through one at-large councilmember. But is that enough, given that for decades the 16-member City Council had only one Latino member?
Campos pointed out that there are more Latinos in Harris County than in the entire Rio Grande Valley. “People don’t do a good job of trumpeting that,” Campos said. “When politicians think of Latinos in Texas, they still don’t think of Houston.”
Here is the entire Regina Lankenau column: As a Latina, I rooted for Lina Hidalgo. But she didn’t deliver.
Hopefully we can elect Alejandra Salinas to the H-Town City Council At-Large 4 Position in the upcoming special election to make it four Latinos on city council. Go read the column and learn a bit about Latino politics in the H-Town area.
This is Regina from the Chron website:
Regina Lankenau is the assistant op-ed editor for the Houston Chronicle’s opinion desk. Regina is a native of Monterrey, Mexico and grew up all over – Vienna, Warsaw, Mexico City, Laredo, and Houston, where she attended Klein Oak High School. She most recently worked as a features reporter at a British expat newspaper in Spain. She also co-founded a business providing editing and mentoring for Hispanic immigrants applying to U.S. colleges. Regina has a degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University, where she wrote for the daily paper and co-founded the school’s only international affairs publication. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian.
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The Ryder Cup started off Friday at Bethpage Black golf course in New York with the fans booing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) during the opening ceremony. Donald Trump showed up later in the day and got cheers from the fans.
The fans got a bit too rowdy on Friday and Saturday cheering on the Americans and see this from AP News:
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. (AP) — Rory McIlroy helped Europe win the Ryder Cup and then called out the hostile New York crowd for “unacceptable and abusive behavior.”
Over his five matches at Bethpage Black, McIlroy endured a torrent of insults about everything from his personal life to past failures on the golf course. People shouted out as he lined up to swing and putt. His wife was hit by a cup of beer.
“What happened here this week is not acceptable,” McIlroy said on Sunday after going 3-1-1 to help Europe beat the United States 15-13. His lone loss came in a Sunday singles match with world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who had also played in all five sessions, that was more of a slog than a pristine, shot-for-shot battle of the world’s top two players.
It was McIlroy’s most blunt assessment yet of a New York crowd that Europe fully expected to be rowdy and passionate — captain Luke Donald even gave players virtual-reality goggles to get used to the noise — but maybe not this crass or downright obnoxious.
The 36-year-old Northern Irishman, who came to Bethpage on a mission to win his second Ryder Cup on U.S. soil, sometimes pushed back — whirling around and cursing at his hecklers or stepping away from a shot until the riled masses settled down.
On Saturday, he told boisterous fans to “shut the (expletive) up” before knocking his approach to 3 feet to set up a clinching putt in a morning foursomes match. When a fan yelled, “You’re not that good, Rory!” he responded: “I’m (expletive) very good.”
“I am,” McIlroy added at the winners’ press conference. “Really good.”
While there was more golf to play, McIlroy stayed guarded in his post-match interviews. Asked on Saturday if he thought fans had crossed a line, he said: “People can be their own judge of whether they took it too far or not.” After all, he still had to deal with them on Sunday.
With the crowds gone and the Ryder Cup in hand, the five-time major champion let loose.
“I don’t think we should ever accept that in golf,” McIlroy told reporters, his European teammates and captain crowded around on the interview room dais. “I think golf should be held to a higher standard than what was seen out there this week.”
Then he turned philosophical about the sport that has made him rich and popular, that he has worked at since he was a boy, that he has achieved so much in, including the career Grand Slam.
“Golf has the ability to unite people. Golf teaches you very good life lessons. It teaches you etiquette. It teaches you how to play by the rules. It teaches you how to respect people,” McIlroy said. “Sometimes this week we didn’t see that. So no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup.”
The culprits, he noted, were the minority of a crowd full of “true golf fans” who were “respectful and let both teams have the same chance to hit the shots and play a fair contest.”
Europe won 15-13 to hold on to the Ryder Cup. Maybe the rowdy fans provided the Europeans with some wicked mojo so to speak. Team Europe got the last word.
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The featured photo says it all. We are missing the MLB playoffs in 2025. We were officially notified on Saturday evening. The Tigers are the sixth seed AL Playoff team with an 87-75 record. Thanks to the dreaded tiebreaker we are also 87-75 and sitting at home.
This is what our manager Joe Espada said when he was announced as our manager a couple of years ago:
“I love this city. I love this team. I love this community and I know I can protect and continue success and continue winning in this city.”
Espada has yet to win a playoff game as our manager.
Here is from the Chron:
The Astros were 20 games above .500 with a seven-game lead in the AL West on July 6 but went 30-40 over their next 70 games. They still had a four-game division lead on Sept. 3 but were overtaken by the Seattle Mariners, who swept them in a pivotal series Sept. 19-21 at Daikin Park, and officially eliminated from playoff contention Saturday, the penultimate day of the season.
Yes, injuries hurt us. There were also many times when we could not get the clutch hit and left runners in scoring positions. There were way too many games where our offense just didn’t show up.
This is also from the same Chron piece:
ANAHEIM, Calif. — General manager Dana Brown said the Houston Astros will take “a complete look at all of our operations” this offseason after the team missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
Manager Joe Espada is under contract for 2026, Brown said Sunday before the Astros’ season finale at Angel Stadium. Though Brown did not explicitly say Espada will return next year, he voiced support for how Espada navigated numerous injuries to the roster this season.
“I haven’t sat down and gone through it yet, but from my initial thought process, Joe did a good job,” Brown said. “He battled through all of the injuries and pressed a lot of the right buttons. But I will definitely sit down and we’re going to talk about all staff, all staff in baseball operations, whether it’s the coaching staff, whether it’s my staff, player development, scouting, everything.”
Let’s hope GM Brown does more than just look and talk. Changes need to be made. Let’s hope the right changes are made.
It was a disappointing season for sure. The fans showed up and supported the team. The manager, players, the GM, and the baseball operations staff let us down. They need to be better.
I don’t know what else to say.