Some Musings About Sunday's Game vs. Veracruz

What a weekend it's been for me. I've spent the entire weekend moving into a new house and I'm just now getting around to composing this.

Sunday provided a much-needed reprieve from such a grueling day, not just for me, but for my entire family as well. Finally settled into a new home, I had originally intended to go to the zoo that day, but I thought that the Astros' final exhibition game of the preseason was a worthy side trip. And so, after brunch, I decided to take a little stroll through Discovery Green and before I knew it, I wound up at Minute Maid Park. I bought a $5 ticket... but sat right under the Insperity Club seats.

The turnout for the game was actually pretty good for an exhibition. I went to see the Astros face the Cubs in the final exhibition game last year, and there were substantially fewer people at that game, compared to this one. Naturally, since Veracruz is a Mexican team, most of the faces in the crowd were Hispanic, and many of them sported Astros gear. I saw a few people wearing Veracruz apparel here and there; not sure if they made the journey across the border, or if they were Houstonians who have roots there.

Mark Appel was on the mound and was excellent in his 3 innings of work. He did allow a double, but it appeared to me that he was largely in control of this game. The Mexican League might be a AAA league, but many of those players are longtime veterans. So, to see Appel perform as well as he did against that caliber of hitters was definitely a great sign. Pat Urckfitz (whose name, in my opinion, is probably misspelled more than anyone else in the Astros organization) also put in 3 fine innings of his own.

Erik Castro just narrowly missed sending one out; he settled for a double off the left-field scoreboard and scored the first run of the game in the 3rd inning. Jonathan Meyer had a really nice diving stop on defense. Adron Chambers hit the sac fly that put the Astros on the board first, and I came away rather impressed with his defense. He made a nice-looking grab out in center in the 2nd (I think) after he appeared to misread the ball a little, but his good speed allowed him to rectify that slight mistake.

This was the 2nd time that I saw Carlos Correa in action; it's probably been said thousands of times, but he's going to be a bona fide star in this league. I was so impressed with his approach at the plate, even though he'll be playing the vast majority of this season at 19.

Also, this was the first time that I saw Japhet Amador in person. Man, he really is huge. Amador could probably fit in effortlessly with the Texans' linemen. Of course, his football skills would probably be a question mark. Amador is a large human, but he's certainly no oaf, either. Around first base, his footwork looked passable and he seems to have a little bit of athleticism about him. I didn't see it, but I did see in the box score that he hit a 2-run double. I think that he'll make his debut with the big club sometime this summer.

As was the case with every Astros game I've attended, I spent a little time in the team store and came away with a Jarred Cosart BP jersey (hey, gotta go with the hometown guy) and the Nike Dri-Fit shorts that they've been wearing for workouts. Both of these items are very welcome additions to the wardrobe.

Looking out to left field... it's great to have that view of Downtown restored. Finally, those Community Leaders signs are in a much, much more tolerable spot. We can complain about more advertisements cluttering up a ballpark (take the "Fowl Poles" for example), but just realize that ads have cluttered up ballparks since the beginning of time.

I only watched 6 innings before realizing that I still needed to go to the zoo. However, during those 6 innings, I found myself enthralled that baseball was being played before my eyes once again. The first pitch of the new season just cannot come soon enough.

Here's a few pictures that I snapped during the game, as well as a video of one of Correa's at-bats. If none of them are showing, then this is the link to my Instagram account.