"
With the help of Gerald Laird's aggressive base running, Don Kelly's two-run home run and four multiple-run innings -- including a seven-run eighth -- the Tigers downed the Houston Astros 17-7 on Friday at Marchant Stadium. After a run-scoring double in the second, Laird took third on a wild pitch and scored on a double-play grounder to short. In the fifth, after reaching second on an error, he took third on a ground ball and scored on first baseman Chris Shelton's wild throw to third. Kelly's home run was a monstrous two-run shot to right in the seventh off former Tiger Yorman Bazardo. Advertisement
Both starter Eddie Bonine and Phil Coke, the second Tigers pitcher in ...
"
March 6
Houston Chronicle
columnist Richard Justice
"
Lance Berkman isn't Fat Elvis. He's not casual about conditioning, winning or anything else. Not now. Not ever. If that's the perception of Lance Berkman, he has no one but himself to blame. All those jokes on himself have come home to roost. Now that he's coming off a bad year — a bad year by his amazingly high standards — some have latched onto the notion that Berkman just doesn't care enough. Those of us who love the guy know how far off they are. Berkman is obsessive about his statistics, work habits, faith, family, politics, pretty much everything. He's also very, very smart. He's a voracious reader, a debater, a thinker. And sometimes interviews bore him. "I enjoy joking around," he ..."
March 1
Houston Chronicle
columnist Richard Justice
"
Everyone should just shut up about Carlos Lee, and I'll start with myself. He has been everything the Astros could reasonably have hoped he'd be. If they ever thought he was going to steal 50 bases, win a Gold Glove or be some kind of Charlie Hustle clone, that's their problem. Lee has come to Houston and done the same things he did in his eight prior major league seasons. That is, he has hit. He has hit for average and with power. He has driven in runs, too. If the Astros thought they were going to get anything else out of him, they hadn't done their homework, and shame on them for that. Carlos Lee has been what Carlos Lee has always been. "I think I've done what they expected me to do," ..."
February 26
Houston Chronicle
columnist Richard Justice
"
Astros owner Drayton McLane spent the morning in 48-degree weather posing for pictures, signing autographs, making small talk and seemingly loving every minute of it. Later, he hung out with Roy Oswalt and Wesley Wright in the player's lounge, shook about two dozen hands and looked forward to an afternoon meeting with Jeff Bagwell. "We're trying to help Jeff with the next phase of his career," McLane said. "He's got more potential than just being a player. I'm his coach." This is the part of owning a baseball team McLane loves. It's the part where he speaks at a team meeting and tells players how important it is to "visualize" success in 2010. It's the part where he orders a cheeseburger ..."