Deputy Jason was kind enough to shoot me an email last night saying, "Coincidence? You take the weekend off, and we sweep the Phils?" That was comforting.
Yes indeed. By now you've already read - probably by cheating with some other site - that the Astros swept the Phillies in a four-game set over the weekend.
What else should we catch up on? How about September Call-Ups? The Astros announced three: Chris Johnson, Tommy Manzella, and Billy Sadler.
Coop:
"This is a situation for them to come and learn from some of the best players that ever played, particularly in this town. I think it's good for Tommy and Chris to seem how [Geoff] Blum, [Miguel] Tejada and Lance [Berkman] go about their work. Just to get a chance to watch some real good veteran players prepare to play is a good experience for them because they're the future. They're the kids we're counting on down the road...
..."Tommy was the one we had discussed about possibly bringing up, and we were both in [agreement], and Chris was the last one. That one I kind of pushed a little bit. It's going to be good to have them with us."
Oh, and how are those veterans going to handle it? Coop:
"I'm going to explain to them that these kids need some exposure and it might cost a little bit of playing time. It won't be a lot, but they will have a chance to get their feet wet."
-
Richard Justice had himself a post in which he wondered if Cooper was getting a raw deal because he's black. He spent an awful lot of words to come up with this:
Cecil Cooper hasn't done a good job, and that would be true whether he was white, brown or black. I was all for his hiring because I thought he deserved a chance, and skin color was part of it. I liked the idea of having a black manager because it said something good about a franchise that had an all-white lineup a few years ago.
Totally agree.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
