Daikin Park
Well, that was some news yesterday from The Yard. It came as a surprise to me. Even though Minute Maid Park is now Daikin Park, it will still be The Yard for Commentary.
Minute Maid stepped up after the collapse of Enron over 20 years ago and never let us down. They were a great brand and stuck with us during those three consecutive 100 loss seasons from 2011-2013. They were with us for five World Series and countless playoff games. I must give a whole lot of credit to my old friend Fred Arnold, the Minute Maid executive who built the brand at the ballpark from the beginning. He was a constant presence at the ballpark promoting Minute Maid and the Astros. Led by Fred, Minute Maid was also involved in numerous events throughout the community. Sadly, Fred is no longer with us.
Astros owner Jim Crane was asked yesterday what would replace the oranges in the cargo bin on the train that runs above the outfield wall. Crane said he will surprise us when the Astros return to play at Daikin Park next March.
One of my best friends attended the name change announcement yesterday and she sent me the featured photo of the new ballpark logo which is just underneath the Minute Maid Park logo. Oh, well.
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This is from the Chron:
David A. Northern, Sr., the embattled head of the Houston Housing Authority, resigned Monday from his role as president and chief executive of the organization in exchange for six months’ salary and health insurance.
The agreement released the housing authority and Northern from his employment contract, which otherwise would have guaranteed him his salary and health benefits through August 2028 if he was terminated without cause, or for three months if he was terminated for good cause. His base salary was $278,500 a year.
The decision came after multiple votes over a six-week period regarding Northern’s employment, most recently resulting in placing Northern on paid administrative leave while awaiting the results of an investigation into whether he had complied with his contractual and fiduciary duties.
Here is the entire Chron read: Houston Housing Authority president resigns amid investigation.
I don’t think I would have given this fella six months of salary. A bad decision for sure.
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Let’s see. The U.S. House Speaker doesn’t want to release the Ethics Committee report on the sleazeball who is being proposed for AG because he is now a private citizen who could very well end up holding an official position. Go figure that one out.
I hate to say this but for the most part I think a huge segment of the national press corps has been browbeaten and defeated. The national TV broadcast news folks for sure. They have just kind of accepted this behavior brazenly exhibited by Donald Trump’s GOP. Just because about half of the voters have accepted this behavior, you don’t have to. It is a very sad commentary.
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Framber Valdez is 31 today. Happy Birthday, Framber!
