Arenas, politics and a lack of ownership have helped keep the NHL out of Houston. Why the nation's fourth-largest city has been iced out of hockey's top league. Special thanks to
@RealKyper
,
@NYCNeil
,
@JShannonhl
and more for sharing their insights.
Not sure any city can match Houston teams for star power right now.
#Astros
: Verlander, Altuve, Springer, Bregman, Correa.
#Texans
: Watson, Hopkins, Watt.
#Rockets
: Harden, Paul, Capela.
Fun time to be a Houston sports fan/watcher.
Lee Corso on College Gameday: “Texas spent $24 million to get rid of Tom Herman and his staff. Texas spent $34 million to bring Sarkisian and his staff in. What’d they get for $58 million? Texas got a 5-game losing streak for the first time in 65 years.”
Ouch.
Saying “Let me show you how mad you have to be to leave H-Town,” Marcus Spears (
@mspears96
) basically cut a Houston chamber of commerce promo today on ESPN plugging Frenchy’s, Pappadeaux’s, Turkey Leg Hut and The Galleria. It was glorious. Just epic.
Houston's mayor lobs a grenade at the Astros for playing Tuesday:
“George Brown doesn't have energy yesterday ... but we got a ball game going on down the street two blocks,” Whitmire said. “We got to get our priorities right, folks.”
The reaction to the Astros being eliminated is on a Lakers/Dodgers/Cowboys/Patriots level. That's a good sign of where your franchise is. Better that than irrelevance/indifference.
Fun fact: Astros have never played the same opponent in an ALDS twice.
2015: Royals
2017: Red Sox
2018: Cleveland
2019: Rays
2020: A's
2021: White Sox
2022: Mariners
2023: Twins
Joe Musgrove wore these cleats autographed by young Hurricane Harvey survivors after the 2017 storm hit Houston. Karma rewarded him tonight with the first no-hitter in
#Padres
history. (Photo by
@karenwarrenHC
)
Your updated list of the people who have left the Houston sports scene since January 2020:
• Jeff Luhnow
• A.J. Hinch
• DeAndre Hopkins
• Mike D'Antoni
• Bill O'Brien
• Daryl Morey
• Roberto Osuna
• Josh Reddick
• Russell Westbrook
• James Harden
• George Springer
Most devastating Houston sports losses:
1. 2019 World Series
2. Phi Slama Jama, 1983 NCAA championship
3. 1992 Oilers collapse at Buffalo
4. 2017-18 Rockets, Game 7 WCF
5. 1986 Astros, NLCS
Today’s UH loss was rough in the moment, but not like those others.
Jeff Van Gundy: “It’s a Houston tradition now. Our best player in football, Deshaun Watson, we don’t play. John Wall doesn’t play. Justin Verlander, to be fair, didn’t play but he had Tommy John surgery. No one plays!”
Notable Astros home runs called by Brian Anderson:
▪ Carlos Correa walk-off, 2020 ALCS Game 5 vs. Rays
▪ Yordan Alvarez walk-off, 2022 ALDS Game 1 vs. Mariners
▪ Jeremy Peña in 18th inning, 2022 ALDS Game 3 at Mariners
▪ Kyle Tucker 9th-inning grand slam, tonight at Baltimore
Quite the five days for Houston sports fans:
•
#Texans
fire Bill O'Brien.
•
#Astros
knock out A's and Mike Fiers.
•
#Yankees
and Gerrit Cole eliminated.
Kinda funny that Dusty Baker, José Abreu, Martín Maldonado and Ryan Pressly — AKA the Four Horsemen of the Astros Twitter Apocalypse — all played key roles in the ALDS win.
Amazing that the
#Astros
can go through a cheating scandal, have their top two leaders suspended and fired ... and still have the best-run major league sports operation in Houston.
They just announced Astros postgame playoff coverage for Space City Home Network, which never happened from 2015-22. Forget clinching a playoff spot, that’s the big news tonight.
Sylvester Turner on the Astros' return home after Hurricane Harvey in 2017: "What better place to symbolize our ability to overcome our obstacles and our hurdles than the Astros playing? Let's play ball, let's lift up our spirits and let's go forward."
"(Mangini) believes the Houston
#Texans
job is Josh McDaniels' to lose and that both Adam Gase and Matt Patricia could be brought in to guide the offensive and defensive units."
Rob Riggle on J.J. Watt raising $37 million for Hurricane Harvey relief: "It's the most money a Texan has given to charity since the team gave $72 million to Brock Osweiler." 😂😂😂
I'm not sure I've ever seen a coverage map smaller for an NFL game. Clearly the league wants to bury this Texans-Browns game, for obvious reasons. (Map via 506 Sports)
Ten years ago today, I arrived at Whataburger Field and was told Jose Altuve was going to Houston. His reaction after being told by then
#Astros
GM Ed Wade: "I just turned around and asked (manager Tom Lawless). 'Is this real or are you kidding with me?'"
Amazing how much damage the
#Texans
could’ve averted by firing Bill O’Brien after the playoff disaster in K.C. instead of, uh, making him GM as well. Gonna take a while to fix the carnage of last offseason.
Imagine if the Astros fired off cease-and-desist letters to the scores of high school and youth baseball teams who wear versions of their rainbow uniforms. Of course, they have too much common sense to step on a rake like that. The Titans and NFL don’t.
Astros/Dodgers in Houston doesn’t get selected for ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball on July 28. Instead, the dangerously underexposed Yankees/Red Sox matchup is chosen.
If you want to see them again or weren't alive to watch them then, Space City Home Network is re-airing the entire 1994 Rockets/Knicks NBA Finals starting Saturday as the 30th anniversary of Houston's first championship nears.
Ramon Laureano keeps the streak alive. No MLB player caught using PEDs has ever knowingly put a banned substance in their bodies, according to them, of course.
Case Keenum has to be the best individual story in the NFL this season. Maybe the most out-of-nowhere QB success story in the league since Kurt Warner.
#Astros
fans should send daily thank-you cards Brady Aiken and his agent for turning down that low-ball offer after the 2014 draft. Otherwise Alex Bregman would be staring into dugout cameras for another team.
UH will be joining a league with back-to-back national champs and another team that lost the title game in overtime. Big 12 games at Fertitta Center are gonna be lit.
Fun fact: Assuming Trevor Ariza doesn't get moved again or retire before noon on Jan. 20, he'll have played for the
#Rockets
during four different presidential terms.
The Duane Brown trade is the “Sliding Doors” moment that started to get the
#Texans
to their current state. If cooler heads prevail and they keep him, it’s an interesting butterfly effect. Likely not paying a king’s ransom for Tunsil two years later, etc. A fascinating what-if.
A good decade for big-time sporting events in Houston:
2016: Final Four
2017: Super Bowl, World Series
2019: World Series
2021: World Series
2022: World Series
2023: Final Four
2024: College Football Playoff championship
2026: World Cup
The following people have left the Houston sports scene since January 2020:
• Jeff Luhnow
• A.J. Hinch
• DeAndre Hopkins
• Mike D'Antoni
• Bill O'Brien
• Daryl Morey
• Roberto Osuna
• Josh Reddick
• George Springer*
• Russell Westbrook
• James Harden
* - TBD
Recent Bill O'Brien
#Texans
timeline:
• Seen on video calling a paying customer a 12-letter expletive multiple times.
• Blew 24-0 lead in playoff game.
• Promoted to general manager.
If fans or commentators want to call the
#Astros
tainted, that’s fine. But it seems like reckless editorializing for the AP to do it in a headline and news story about a player transaction.
Today’s
@HoustonChron
sports section looks back at an unlikely six-pitcher
#Astros
no-hitter 20 years ago today at Yankee Stadium through the voices of many of the principals involved. Expanded oral history online:
Calvin Murphy and Hakeem Olajuwon will present Rudy Tomjanovich for his Hall of Fame induction. Here's a pretty fly pic of Calvin and Rudy T in the 1970s from the
@HoustonChron
archive. Guess this would qualify as a conservative outfit for Calvin.
The
#Bears
are declining the fifth-year option on QB Mitch Trubisky, source said.
The team has liked Trubisky’s attitude since the Nick Foles trade and it’ll be an open competition. A chance for Trubisky to make himself a lot of money before his contract expires next March.
#Texans
in past 359 days:
• Blew 24-0 lead in playoffs.
• Gave coach GM title.
• Traded Hopkins for peanuts
• Gave Tunsil, Watson mega extensions
• Fired coach/GM after 4 games
• Lost top WR, top CB to suspensions
• Lost No. 3 pick in draft
• Went to NE well again for GM.
Don’t agree with Jim Nantz that the decision to kick the field goal turned this game. Didn’t have a problem with taking the points there. It was the fake punt that changed everything.
#Texans
Fun fact:
#Texans
are now 9-2 in nationally televised games with Deshaun Watson as their starting QB. That stat was grisly before his arrival in Houston.