Why is it that the 'Stros are labeled that?
I was listening to the Astros / Pirates game tonight on XM while driving home from work, and there was a commercial on and the announcer said it.
Ideas?
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Why is it that the 'Stros are labeled that?
I was listening to the Astros / Pirates game tonight on XM while driving home from work, and there was a commercial on and the announcer said it.
Ideas?
Fat Old Guy
Got no idea, AC. I pay very little attention to commercials or advertisements, and don't listen to XM too often so not sure if that's just something running on their channel or not. I know we have referred to them as the Good Guys at Astros Daily for a while now, but can't remember when that started or why other than most fans always envision their team as the good guys and the other team as the bad guys.
One thing McLane has tried to do is not bring in a lot of players with much 'baggage,' for lack of a better word. We did have Carl Everett for a while in the late 90s, and I can tell you his schtick eventually wore out its welcome in the clubhouse. Players like Biggio and Bagwell have really been the ones who kept a lot of troublemakers from taking over. Biggio even went so far as to say it was the players' job to make sure the manager and management didn't have to concern themselves with player behavior. Now I'm sure someone will chime in with something about that just being part of Bidge's 'image conscious' manner, as if keeping as clean an image is something that is a bad thing. But it's the best answer I can give you.
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Astros Daily
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It seems to be the slogan for this season with the Astros. They have signs/banners up at the ball park reflecting that as well as their local commercials on FSN.
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I seem to recall back in 2005 they were called that also. It has been on the top of their website for a long time now.Originally Posted by tadlock11
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Ok, I did some research last night, and followed up with some quick checking today.
"The Return of the Good Guys" is a reference to the fact that years ago there was a bunch of "troublemakers" on the team. They have since been traded, filed for free agency, etc, etc... The club's goal now is to have only "well groomed" no "baggage" type of balll players. Best example would be Craig Biggio. I looked for a long time to find out who exactly coined the above referenced phrase. But sadly I came up empty in that department.
Fat Old Guy
Did the research determine just who these troublemakers were years ago?
It appears to be more of a simple marketing slogan than anything else right now.
Never confuse character with geography --- Red Smith
Astros Daily
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Billy Wagner was one of them. Supposedly most of his teammates weren't fond of his attitude.
Fat Old Guy
Which teammates didn't like his attitude?
Never confuse character with geography --- Red Smith
Astros Daily
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It didn't say. It just read "some teammates".
Fat Old Guy
Well, AC, Wagner did burn a bridge or two after he left Houston, and I know he didn't endear himself to a lot of fans in Philly before moving on to New York. But I never recall him being touted as a bad apple in the barrel from any player while he was with the Astros.
Other than Carl Everett, and the fact some fans got on Derek Bell when he was here, the only other player I can think of off the top of my head that had some things said about him was Chris Holt. And the person who sort of blasted his attitude was his manager, Larry Dierker, in Dierker's book This ain't brain surgery.
As for me personally, the only player on the team in the last 10-15 years that I really didn't like was Moises Alou. The guy loafed a lot, ran with the fleetness of Brad Ausmus despite being a lot faster than Ausmus. Plus his whole "fell off a treadmill and hurt my knee" bull back in 1999 was a complete lie, a la Jeff Kent's broken wrist he supposedly got from washing his pickup truck.
Post the link to the story, AC; I'd love to read it.
Never confuse character with geography --- Red Smith
Astros Daily
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I'll endorse Pop's post anytime. That was quite nice. Yeah, I forgot about the Everett days, and the Alou "ouch!" days, as well.
Houston has been fortunate to not have had a big (not even semi-big) history of crappy players. Pardon my lingo, but that's a fact.
As for Wagner.....I'll never forget Biggio's game winning 3-run homer at the top of the 9th in 2005 vs. Philly. "Buds" and all that aside....haha, Craig burned him. Badly.
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Was Mitch Melusky one of the "bad apples"? I seem to remember him getting into a fist fight during BP with one his team mates. There was definately rumor that Carl Everett wasn't one of the "good guys", then a few years ago one of the shortstops beat his wife up (or so the news aledged) - was it Lugo?
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It was Lugo.
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Fat Old Guy
Forgot about Meluskey, though he was such a forgettable guy. He and Matt Mieske got into some shoving match during the 2000 season because Meluskey apparently cut in front of Mieske during BP one day.
Yeah, Lugo and his wife had some skirmish in the parking lot of the stadium a bit early in the 2003 season, and McLane released his sorry butt. Once Lugo's wife realized she would be sending her meal ticket to jail if she followed through with any charges, she backed off.
Never confuse character with geography --- Red Smith
Astros Daily
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