Houston – Anyone who has been scolded by Mom can relate to what happened to the Astros on Tuesday night.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, in essence, said “as long as you live under my roof, there will be no roof over your head.”
Part June Cleaver, part Casey Stengel, Selig ordered the Minute Maid Park roof open for Game 3 of the World Series. He said the decision was simple, applying criteria established by the Astros. If the temperature drops below 80 degrees, the Astros are supposed to open the roof. It was 61 at game time. Case closed and roof opened.
“The weather is the determining factor,” said Selig, who insisted he spent the day watching The Weather Channel to get a better read on potential wind or humidity issues. “And there is precedent.”
During the 2001 World Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks willingly complied. The Astros couldn’t have resisted more had they hung from the rafters.
They have nothing against fresh air and cloudless skies. They wanted the roof closed because it amplifies the noise of a sellout crowd. They opened the roof just twice after May, responding to fan comfort level instead of their own guidelines.
The Astros are 40-18 this year with a lid, 15-11 without.
“You play all year with it one way, so I am not sure why they would change it now,” said Astros pitcher Brad Lidge, a Cherry Creek High School product.
Astros manager Phil Garner was peppered with questions about the roof before his team played the Chicago White Sox. He nailed them, so to speak, by refusing to make excuses.
“We need to focus on the game and leave all that other stuff alone,” he said.
Any loss of an advantage Tuesday was debatable. The source of the problem was not: Next time, don’t make the roof retractable.
Sox welcome breaks
Several factors have surfaced to suggest that this is the White Sox’s year, most notably pitchers. Or more accurately, pitchers they haven’t seen.
In the first round of the American League playoffs, they swept defending champion Boston without ever seeing Curt Schilling. In the ALCS, the Los Angeles Angels were without ace and Cy Young Award candidate Bartolo Colon. And on Saturday night, Roger Clemens, still questionable for Game 5, left after two painful innings because of a hamstring injury.
“If anyone wants to talk about breaks, every team that has ever won gets them,” White Sox center fielder Aaron Rowand said. “I think it’s everyone else making a big deal about it.”
Managerial material
Another catcher with ties to the Rockies is emerging as a future managerial candidate: Houston’s Brad Ausmus. The Dartmouth-educated Ausmus is respected for his game-calling and presence in the locker room.
“I am convinced that Brad on several occasions has tried to get me fired so he could take over,” Garner joked. “I just think Brad would make a terrific manager. I trust his judgment.”
Eric Wedge and Joe Girardi are former Rockies managing Cleveland and Florida, respectively. Ausmus wasn’t sure he qualified as an erstwhile Rockie because he never played in the big leagues with the team.
“I was catching every day in Triple-A, and when there was an injury they called up Jayhawk Owens, who was playing left field at the time,” said Ausmus, who was traded in 1993. “That’s when I knew I had no future in the organization.”
Footnotes
Rockies owner Charlie Monfort and team president Keli McGregor attended Wednesday’s game. … For the Diamondbacks to hire Kevin Towers as their next general manager, there might be financial hurdles to clear. Towers has two years remaining on his contract with the Padres. If compensation is required to free him, that would leave former Rockies assistant GM Josh Byrnes as the leading candidate. … Mindful of what building successfully from within can accomplish – the Astros started four players from their farm system Wednesday – the Rockies are encouraged by Clint Barmes’ play in the Dominican Republic. He went 3-for-5 in his past game there, getting critical at-bats lost to a shoulder injury.
