Opening Day
I watched Savannah Guthrie’s conversation with Hoda Kotb this morning on “Today.” Powerful. Courageous. So much pain. She wants to know what happened to her mother. I don’t know what else to say.
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As much as MAGA lies and tries, folks are not buying that Democrats are to blame for the long lines at IAH and other airports. Nope. Not buying that line, err lie.
Here is from a CNN story on the IAH lines:
Houston Mayor John Whitmire called the situation at airports in his city “a total mess” and urged elected officials to find a solution so TSA officers can get paid.
“It’s not rocket science stuff. Work out your dispute (and) let these people be paid,” Whitmire said. “In fact, I can’t believe what I’ve learned of how low paid they are. They’re essential workers.”
He is critical of what he called the lack of negotiating in Washington.
“I’d lock them in a room if I was in charge and say, ‘do not come out until you have a solution, an agreement’ — and I would damn sure mean it,” Whitmire said. “If it was a city issue, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”
The mayor added that, to his knowledge, ICE agents are not helping speed up TSA security lines.
“TSA thinks they know what they are doing, Washington thinks they know what they are doing,” Whitmire said, “and we are living with the bad results.”
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It is Opening Day – see the featured photo – with a 3 pm first pitch at Daikin Park this afternoon. Here is from the Chron:
The ceremonial first pitch will be a celebration of the World Baseball Classic, which was won by Team Venezuela, who was managed by Astros bench coach Omar López. López will throw out the first pitch to Javier Bracamonte, the Astros longtime bullpen catcher who also served that same role for Team Venezuela.
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MLB came out with their power rankings a few days ago and they have the Astros at #17. Here is what they said about us:
17. Astros
There is a sense that the Astros’ prime era is over, but this is still a team with Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez and Hunter Brown. It will be nice to have Carlos Correa back home for a full season, and fascinating to see how Tatsuya Imai transitions to MLB.
Let’s see. We won the World Series in 2022. We lost Game 7 of the ALCS to the Rangers in 2023. We lost the Wild Card Series in 2 games to the Tigers in 2024. We missed the playoffs by 1 game last season. Let’s see if we can reverse things in 2026.
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This will be my 27th season as a season ticket holder at Daikin Park. This doesn’t count the last six seasons at the Astrodome from 1994-1999. I am also counting the 2020 season even though we didn’t get to go to any games that year. They had my 2020 dough and rolled it over into 2021.
A lot has changed in the last 27 years. There is now netting in front of my first row Field Level seats, eliminating me from foul ball action. We now have tickets on our iphone gizmos. I use the Go-Ahead Entry facial recognition system. It beats the long lines. Food concessions continue to evolve and they cost more. I am still just a Dollar Dog and peanuts guy. There are a lot more adult beverages to choose from. I found out a couple of days ago that Amber Ale will no longer be served at the Saint Arnold hangout in left field. So, it is Art Car for this season.
I am sure parking will be at a premium in Downtown H-Town today. I will hop on the Metro Rail Red Line.
Let’s play ball.