RMJ 127 June 22
SUNDAY, JUNE 22 ● Houston, vs Cubs
I arose at 8:15 this morning, feeling a little groggy. Mike Myers and Pat Combs of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes had arranged to interview me for KSEV Radio at 8:20. I mumbled my way through it, which wasn’t too difficult. Mike likes to talk, so I let him do most of it.
Cubby came by at 9:15. Ryan came with us today. After I got the lineup card ready, I took Ryan down on the field.
“How come it’s so dark in here?” he asked.
“Because they’re saving money on electricity,” I explained. “They’ll turn them on when batting practice starts.”
“Is that why it’s so hot in here?” he asked.
“You got it, buddy,” I said. “It takes a lot of money to pay Biggio and Bagwell. They try to save money any way they can.”
Ryan threw really well today. He didn’t have great control, but his fastball, curve, and changeup all had good rotation and speed.
After we threw, I hit him some ground balls. He was surprisingly agile around first base. I guess all the time he has spent on the Select team this summer is paying off. I’ve never seen him look so natural with the glove. I even hit a few balls hard; he stayed right in there and caught them.
We watched batting practice from the bench, then attended chapel with some of the players, including ex-Astros outfielder Terry Puhl and his son Curtis.
Mike Hampton pitched his best game of the year and even got the win, 3-1. Bagwell got us all the runs we needed with a two-run opposite-field homer in the first. I know he is really locked in when he starts hitting long balls the other way — especially in the cavernous Dome.
We added an unearned run in the third. After that, Hampton took us to the ninth with a 3-0 lead. Ryne Sandberg opened the Cubs’ ninth with a double. I didn’t want this win to get away, and I really wanted Hampton to get the W. So I brought Billy Wagner into the game, and Kevin Orie greeted him with a double. The tying run came to the plate, but never got beyond it; Wagner set down the next three hitters.
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Hampton, W (3-6) | 8 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 5.52 |
| Billy Wagner, S (13) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.69 |
| Team Totals | 9 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1.00 |
The sweep was welcome, after the way we’ve been playing. But we need to back it up by beating the Pirates. I have a feeling they are going to be tougher than our guys imagine. If we drop a series to them at home, it will put us right back where we have been for the last month: looking up at .500, wondering if we are ever going to be able to sustain a winning trend for more than a few games.
After the game, the press was more effusive than me. Perhaps there is a pent-up enthusiasm waiting to break loose in this city.
If we can put together a winning streak, maybe we will be able to draw better crowds. This afternoon, we played to 23,000 fans. It’s discouraging to look at the box scores and see the great crowds in other cities.
I feel like I have been fighting an uphill battle to attract fans in Houston, from my early days on the mound until now. Each time I have gone in to negotiate a new contract, I have been told that the company lost money and couldn’t offer a big raise.
“But I had a good year,” I would say. It never did much good.
I think I would have done better elsewhere, but I didn’t want to do it elsewhere. And I still don’t. I want it here. There is only so much one person — even Jeff Bagwell — can do, and it is not very much. It has to be a team thing, and we just haven’t had that many good teams.
The new stadium will help. But without a few championship banners hanging from the rafters, the new stadium will get old quickly.