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Astors unhappy with 'neutral' site

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The Houston Astros made a long, strange journey to play their "home game" against the Chicago Cubs on Sunday night at Miller Park. The Astros weren't thrilled about playing in front of a decidedly pro-Cubs crowd that filled the lower bowl of Miller Park. "I am upset," Astros manager Cecil Cooper said before the game. "But what are you going to do about it? "It's going to be like a Cubs home game. They're not the home team; we are. We're not happy with that. If I see the commissioner (Bud Selig), I'll tell him that. I understand, but I'm not happy."

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Cubs fans at Miller Park, AP Cubs fans at Miller Park, AP
September 15, 2008  07:55 AM ET

Who are the Astors?

September 15, 2008  08:15 AM ET

that is bs like having the a yankee sox game moved from fenway to shea. you couldnt play at Az or Colorado????

September 15, 2008  08:21 AM ET

Get over it and play better and the crowd won't matter.

September 15, 2008  08:36 AM ET

Considering your alternative was playing in 150 mph winds.....I think you should be thankful. Who the hell is running the Astros Derek Bell?

September 15, 2008  08:36 AM ET
QUOTE(#1):

Who are the Astors?

I think the NY Astor Hotel must have a team now?

September 15, 2008  09:32 AM ET

The Houston Astors sounded better than the Houston Guggenheims, but both of their carcasses were on Titanic.

September 15, 2008  09:34 AM ET

Good Ol Bud Selig. Anything to put money in the pockets of the Brewers ownership.

September 15, 2008  09:59 AM ET

Bud has screwed up ever thing else about baseball. Why not this? The game could have been played in a number of other stadiums. The Cubs have more fans in the stands when they play against the Brewers........

September 15, 2008  10:44 AM ET
QUOTE(#1):

Who are the Astors?

A rich family. You should look up Astor's Beechwood Mansion in Rhode Island.

September 15, 2008  10:57 AM ET

What's wrong with Wrigley North?

It's obvious the bigger NL team in the playoffs is the Cubs. They will bring more viewers on TV then the Astros = more money. They have a broad fan base so Selig wanted to insure a playoff berth. The Cubs bascially had a spot locked up but since Selig doesn't know baseball he was unaware of this.

September 15, 2008  11:25 AM ET

Gotcha FromTheRough.......just maybe you've have justified Selig's position.

September 15, 2008  11:35 AM ET

Woulda went to Houston it still would have been more Cub fans then Astros anyways..so it dont matter.


Cry cry cry, they lost, on to the next game.

September 15, 2008  11:56 AM ET

I agree that it really put the Atsros at a disadvantage, but think the reason was to sell as many tickets as possible. They knew that they could sell over 20,000 tickets for this game to Cub fans on a whim if it was at Miller Park. I don't think television ratings came into play, as the only TV broadcast of the game that I know of was WGN in Chicago. Even in central IL, it wasn't on WGN, so I don't think it was nation wide. Simply put, it did indeed come down to $$$$$$$$.

September 15, 2008  12:16 PM ET
QUOTE(#5):

I think the NY Astor Hotel must have a team now?

Do not be jealous because we are surging and on our way to a wildcard. Really jealousy is a weak emotion

September 15, 2008  12:45 PM ET

Yes, yes, who are the Astors? Is that Sean Astor the actor? I didn't know Rudy was playing in Milwaukee???? Who knew?

September 15, 2008  12:47 PM ET

The Rangers were on the west coast all weekend. Admit it. Selig wanted the money for his old club and there is much more interest in the loser Cubs to have another chance to choke in the playoffs on national TV than the Astros to make a run as a wild card.

Money, Money, Money. And the Cubs will STILL Choke.

September 15, 2008  12:59 PM ET

OK, Fan Nation, it's at least five hours since the item was put up, make the spelling correction!
You should be embarist!

September 15, 2008  01:04 PM ET

Raw deal for the Astros, they should have had a more "neutral" site than just a few miles away from Chicago.

But, that's no excuse for not getting even 1 base hit last night. I blame Cecil Cooper somewhat, you have to keep the players focused and ready to play, no matter what. Z looked awesome though, so it might not have mattered.

September 15, 2008  01:22 PM ET

Big deal. It as a neutral site in that neither team was more familiar with it & how the park plays. Both the Cubs and Astros play an equal number of games at Miller Park. And they limited the tickets sold to about 50% of capacity, keeping the noise levels down. There were only 23K fans there.

Plus baseball doesn't have the same home field advantage as many other sports. Once you reduce those factors, as noted above, the advantage for the Cubs is quite small. The Astros are 37-38 in real road games, so that shows they can win 50% of the time.

The Astros need to focus on winning a game that is quite winnable, rather than whining about having a slight disadvantage.

 
September 15, 2008  01:23 PM ET

THE GREAT ZAMBINO!!!!!!!

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