Results tagged “worldseries”

It was a good weekend for football in Houston, whether that means the one with the pads or the one with the round ball. But there were things happening in the Houston sports scene outside of RFK and Reliant Stadiums. As we do every week, here's a recap of what the blogs are saying about your hometown teams: - The Dynamo are the big news today, so here's a fantastic live blog of the game...

Happy Monday from the Sports Doldrums! With the World Series over, the Texans being the Texans, and the Rockets not quite started, this has got to be the worst time of the sports year. But sports being what they are, people are still talking about them. Here's what the blog world has been saying about your hometown teams: - Sad, but unsurprising, end to the story of the life and death of Eddie Griffin....

Well, the Astros article hiatus sure didn't last long, but this was too good to pass up. As you're no doubt familiar, Major League Baseball has a player development in Europe, grooming the European baseball stars of tomorrow, today. (No, real grooming, not metaphorical. Like position-specific haircuts and the finer points of growing a playoff beard.) Anyway, the Astros signed a Dutch shortstop yesterday from the MLB European Academy. His name is Jan Baldee,...

While most of the baseball world was focused yesterday on the races for the final playoff spots, including the Mets historic collapse in the NL East, as usual, Craig Biggio was just doing his job, just like he's done for the past 20 years. But for the first time in 20 years, Biggio won't be going back to work today. For those of us who grew up in Houston, Biggio is just as much a...

The Astros traded albatross-esque outfielder Jason Lane to the San Diego Padres yesterday for a player to be named later or cash. This was the first transaction by Ed Wade since he took over as the Astros general manager last week. Given the struggles that Lane has had over the past couple of seasons, and the fact that his trade value was estimated at somewhere similar to that of Cubs World Series tickets, that...

In the wake of last week's firing of Tim Purpura, the Astros have a hole to fill in the General Manager's office. Team President Tal Smith (pictured, on left) is running the show for the time being, but a long-term replacement is required. Yesterday, owner Drayton McLane, Smith, and former vp Bob McClaren interviewed three candidates, and more interviews will take place before the end of the week. Let's take a look at the candidates...

Cecil Cooper knew this day would come, but he didn't it expect it to happen like this; taking over a team from his good friend Phil Garner, but as destiny has it, this small town Texan has the chance of a lifetime. Although he was tabbed only as interim manager for the remainder of the season, Cooper has the credentials to deserve the full-time gig. Cooper, born in Independence, a small town near the...

Tomorrow is the trade deadline for Major League Baseball, which is pretty much like shopping on Christmas Eve, but with Eric Gagne playing the part of Tickle Me Elmo. The much-maligned Astros have already made one head-scratching trade leading up to the deadline, picking up exactly what they needed in 3B/2B/1B/OF Ty Wigginton: another clean-cut white guy who plays no position in particular. But what is next for GM Tim Purpura? Mark Loretta (who has...

The Houston Astros have announced that Morgan Ensberg has been designated for assignment. The team has 10 days to release, trade or send Ensberg to the minors, but GM Tim Purpura stated the minors are not an option for Ensberg. With the recent addition of Ty Wigginton, the move made Ensberg expendable. After having a All-Star season in 2005, Ensberg's career has headed south as he's seen very little time on the field for...

Although Carlos Lee was selected as the Astros' lone representative for the 78th annual MLB All-Star game, Houstonians can change that. Roy Oswalt was selected as one of five National League players vying for the final spot. For the season, Oswalt is 7-5 with a 3.42 ERA. His season has had its ups and downs with the Astros defense and bullpen blowing more than its share of games. On Tuesday, Roy pitched seven solid...

Happy Friday, Sports Fans! We are watching our Rice Owls kick off the NCAA College World Series. We are addicted to sports - local sports - all of them! Houston can be a sports heartbreak waiting to happen! Speaking of breaks (and we seriously, seriously hope there are none - we were there when Catazon suffered hers!) some flat track action is gonna bust out on Sunday at 6:00 p.m.! Come on out and get...

Rice swept Texas A&M in two games over the weekend to win themselves a trip to Omaha's College World Series: their sixth trip in history and fourth in the last six years. (Last year, the Owls were eliminated at the very end by Oregon State). In the first game of the Super-Regional, a sellout crowd watched freshman All-American Ryan Berry pitch into the eight inning, striking out ten, and went home happy as the Owls...

The eyes of Texas will be upon Houston this weekend as the No. 1 ranked Rice Owls (52-12) set to battle No. 6 Texas A & M (48-17) at Reckling Park for a birth in the College World Series. These two Texas baseball teams have been doing battle since 1914 with A & M leading the all-time series at 173-86-2 and also a 2-0 record to sport this year against Rice. But don't let...

The 10th annual Silver Glove series is set and ready to go. This year's three game series starts tonight at 7 p.m. at UH's Cougar Field as Houston (18-14, 5-1 C-USA) sends Aaron Brown (4-2, 4.62 ERA) to face the fifth-ranked Rice Owls (27-10, 8-1 C-USA) and Ryan Berry (5-1, 2.58 ERA). Both teams will be looking to capitalize on each teams errors as they shoot for C-USA positioning. Rice and UH both currently...

Well hello, Houston! It's the greatest day in America: Opening Day 2007! Spring Training is over, the roster is set and now it's time to play ball. The Astros' main concern last year was hitting. Heck, it was pathetic, but Uncle Drayton broke out the checkbook, signed power hitter Carlos Lee for a cool $100 million and added utility player and 2006 All-Star Mark Loretta. Also new to the team are a pair of native...

Much to the dismay of Houston baseball fans, pitching ace and Houston native (well, almost) Andy Pettitte signed a one-year deal with the New York Yankees for $16 million today. The deal also has an option for 2008. The Astros had offered Pettitte $12 million with no option for another year. Pettitte played the last three seasons for Houston, but prior to that he won a slew of World Series rings in nine years with...

If you want to find out what gifts to buy for kids this holiday season, why not go straight to the horse's — er, mouth? A group of fifth graders at Longfellow Elementary School are making it easier to do just that: They've done a study to help guide we old farts to what the young'uns really want. As student Cody Neil explained: "We conducted a campus survey with the idea of helping adults avoid gift-giving mistakes." What, they don't like colorful sweaters?

You read it right: Houston's got a team headed to the World Series....of soccer, that is. And they're saying we might actually win. The Houston Dynamo, in their first season, scored three straight goals after falling behind early in the first half to overcome the Rapids and advance to the MLS Cup, the superbowl of Major League Soccer. They'll play the New England Revolution (who also played yesterday, beating DC United) in the MLS Cup final on Sunday at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco.

The shot from flickr user and Houstonist photo contributor Gracielou6191.

The shot from flickr user and houstonist photo contributor Jeff Balke. We've gone from buildings to the dogs this week. Here's another awesome shot from Jeff, this time of a competitor at the Reliant Park World Series of Dogs. According to Jeff, this little guy was "tearing up the course." I think it's important to not view this as a shot of a dog on an obstacle course, but rather as an athlete in...

Brought to you by the producers of another summertime hit (albeit one of a few years ago), VH1's World Series of Pop Culture is a gameshow based on Entertainment Weekly's Pop Culture Quiz, and it's brought to you by the zany folks behind Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Sixteen three-person teams compete in tournament-style gameplay, answering questions in categories covering everything from The Brady Bunch to Buncha Crunch. The show is the first to...

Here's what's on tap this week:

In case you've forgotten or planned to watch America's Got Talent (David Hasselhoff is alive?!), remember that the Rice Owls will be playing tonight in the CWS semifinals against Oregon State. If you're not a college baseball fan, or baseball fan for that matter, consider that Oregon State's mascot is a Beaver. We're not sure what our point is, but hopefully this helpful reminder will be enough to get you to tune in. For more...

Houston's own Rice Owls will host one of four NCAA super-regionals this weekend. The best-of-three series will write the winner's ticket to the College World Series in Omaha, which begins June 16th. Rice (boasting a 53-10 record) will play Oklahoma (44-20) at 6:05 pm on Saturday, with a second game on Sunday at noon. A third game, if needed, will follow on Monday, also at noon. Tickets are fifteen dollars and avaliable here. While you're...

Bobby May, the longtime athletics director at Rice, announced yesterday he'll be retiring this summer, ending a 45-year relationship with the school. May graduated from Rice in 1965 and returned two years later as an assistant track coach and assistant business manager, eventually working his way up to associate athletics director in 1984 and AD in 1989. Back then, things weren't going so well for Rice athletics: "I desperately wanted the AD job in 1989,...

LAist tracks an award-winning TV writer who worked on Good Times to a homeless shelter and sees a Little Old Lady get a jaywalking ticket because she can't get across fast enough (in the same post!). Poets invade Metro and an LAist contributor's new book asks WWJB. Gothamist gets down with the immigration rally and their readers want to be heard. The anniversary of the Mets' 1986 World Series is celebrated via a RBI Baseball...

So it looks like the Astros may have to fight to get the money from their insurance claim on Jeff Bagwell. The team had sought $15.6 million of the $17 million in salary it had promised Bagwell, who announced this weekend that he may be out of baseball for good, but the claim might have been hurt by the team's decisions to keep the injury-plagued first baseman in through the World Series in the fall and allow him to come to spring training this year. If insurance company Connecticut General doesn't reconsider its decision to deny the Astros their claim, the team says it'll take the company to court.

Houstonist is insanely excited that the Astros' home opener is less than two weeks away — not only because we love baseball, but because our other hometown teams, uh, haven't been so spectacular this year. We're already looking forward to the World Series ... Ah, but back to reality. If there's one thing we like more than baseball, it's a good game of chance, and the 'Stros are letting us have both at once with...

This here’s a story about Jeffrey Bob and Phil Gar (five hand claps) Jeff Bagwell is expected to show up for practice at the Astros training in Kissimmee, Fla. tomorrow. The questions on whether the team will let him play are still up in the air. Astros manager Phil Garner said Wednesday he wasn't looking to see any immediate proof that Bagwell was ready. "Just get the uniform on, come out, take a few ground...

Add Ken Lay to your list of things to be thankful for this holiday season. Remember how he put Houston on the corporate scandal map? How he dutifully sacrificed some of his homes and cars to show that he's just like you and me? And yesterday, Lay saved us from the horrors of a potentially Enron-free holiday season with a highly entertaining luncheon speech.