Game #76- Houston Texans

September 29, 2013 Houston Texans vs. Seattle Seahawks Reliant Stadium Holy crap, what a stadium. As I walked into Reliant Field, a strange thing hit me. I have never heard tailgate parties all rocking out to country music. I know, I know, I am in Texas. But country doesn’t seem like the type of music to get you pumped up for a football game. Anyway, as I headed toward the stadium it was once again miserably hot and humid. It had been raining all morning and I couldn’t be happier to be in a retractable roof stadium that was blasting AC. Inside, the two largest LCD screens in the country were hung up on both ends of the field (yes they are larger than the Dallas Cowboys) and inside it was just massive. As I headed to my seat I knew I had to make friends with the people around me because I needed a hard ticket stub. I ended up chatting to a bunch of Seattle fans who came from all over to watch the game. One from Seattle, one from Vancouver (yes we talked hockey), one who lives in Mission Viejo…how weird, and a father from Hawaii who I later found out was Seattle Seahawks center Max Unger’s dad. They were cool dudes and I bet they were stoked with the final score of the game. The Texans had complete control of the game until the second half. QB Matt Schaub was uncharacteristically reliable, Ariane Foster and Ben Tate were rumbling through defensive lines, Andre Johnson was catching everything around him, and JJ Watts was a beast for the Houston defense. On the other had, sophomore QB and legitimate star in the NFL Russell Wilson was lackluster for the Hawks while Marshawn Lynch was mediocre at best. Houston went into the half with a comfortable 20-3 lead and the home town fans were stoked. That was the first half… Quickly in the 4th quarter the tides changed and the Seahawks were a different team. Wilson is not a very accurate passer and is rarely a deep threat, but if you don’t pressure him he is way to fast to catch. Any play action call and he can be off for 20 yards in less than a few seconds. That ability really screwed with the Texans. You could feel the energy in the building slowly starting to die off and when it was 20-13 with only two and a half minutes left you almost knew something was going to happen. Schaub was doing the right thing by handing off the ball every time to Foster, but for some stupid reason the Texans decided to throw on a 3rd down and Richard Sherman stepped up to intercept the ball and actually took it all the way back for a 58 yard pick six. It took a while in OT, but Steven Hauschka kicked a 45 yard field goal to give the Hawks a 23-20 come back win sending home the 80,000 fans in shock (well maybe closer to 60,000, there were a lot of Seahawk fans in the stands). It was a good game, exciting as hell in the end, and maybe a little karma for their comeback win against the Chargers in week 1. I walked around the stadium but did not see any cool fan exhibits. Maybe because I couldn’t get to the lower bowls, but up top there really wasn’t much to look at. I haven’t seen a football stadium outside of Green Bay that has anything worth looking for. An interesting side note. Recently there has been a big push for e-cigarettes. They only produce vapor and often smells really good. The dude next to me was smoking the entire game, and for the first time ever I didn’t really care. I know smoking and nicotine is bad for you, but if it doesn’t affect me then go for it. In fact ban all real cigarettes and only sell the vapor versions

Game #75- Houston Astros

September 28, 2013 Houston Astros vs. New York Yankees Minute Maid Park A couple months back I found a really good deal to Houston and I thought, what the hell…let’s do this. I tried to line up a triple game weekend but it was not in the cards. I did manage to get tickets to baseball and football, not too shabby. I also reserved a round of golf at Memorial Golf course which is suppose to be one of the nicest municipal courses in the country, sounds like a great weekend. Well as I got off the plane I noticed the clouds were really dark and menacing. It wasn’t more than 20 minutes later when the sky let lose a torrential downpour unlike anything I have ever seen before. I only had about 10 feet from the rental car shuttle to my vehicle, but by the time I loaded my clubs and luggage was soaked to the bone. But if you know the gulf region at all, it really doesn’t matter if it is raining or not because you are going to sweat through your clothes anyway. It was 95 degrees, 95% humidity, not the most enjoyable weather in the country. Well the golf course was nice, but I played like hell. Because it was still raining a bit and there were lighting storms all around me, I had the course pretty much to myself. No concentration necessary, I was tired, hot, and had 2.5 hours to finish 18 holes before the Astros game…I shot a 108. Yuck. So I needed to drown my sorrows a bit with a couple of beers, therefore I headed to the game to see the Astros take on the Yankees. Tonight was going to be a good game, Andy Pettitte was on the mound for the Yankees and it was a bit of a homecoming for the pitcher. This is also his final year in the league after 17 seasons so it will be cool to see how he does. At the same time, if you have ever been to an away game for the Yanks, the team has a couple of fans. Houston barely averaged 20,000 fans per game but with NY in town the place was just about packed. Didn’t stop me from pulling one of my favorite maneuvers when I am alone at a game, act like I am the man and just walk past security to the good seats. I had a nosebleed section ticket, but I ended up 10 rows behind home plate. From there I was able to watch the pitchers dual that eventually lead to a 2-1 Yankees win. 41 year old left hander Pettitte had a magic night with only 5 hits, 5 K’s, and a complete game to finish off the night and his career. He is the oldest starting pitcher in the league and finished the night with a 256-153 win loss, 3.85 ERA and 2448 strikeouts…pretty damn good. The Astros took an early lead in the 4th , but the Yanks scored 2 in the 6th with a Robinson Cano RBI and then Astros catcher Matt Pagnozzi made a horrific error at home when he pretended to throw the ball to second and in the meantime lost control of it (literally throwing it about 30 feet in the air, backwards) thus allowing Eduardo Nunez to score the winning run. I was really hoping to see an Astros home

run because the home team has a train that rolls around to celebrate in the outfield, but that was a no go tonight. I watched the final inning of the night in homerun ally by the big gas station nozzle and where they have some tributes to the former Houston greats, nothing too exciting to look at but at least something (again, why not old uniforms, bats and balls???). So with a standing ovation, Pettitte threw his final ball of his career to end a fun day. My trip to Minute Maid Park was complete when I purchased a fan brick. This one says “Deep in the heart. Go Astros from CA. Chris Costales” . I had to put that because in the 6th inning the fans really got into that song and it reminded me of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. “The stars at night, are big and bright (clap clap clap clap), deep in the heart of Texas!!!”