Friday, April 27, 2012

The Skeeters had themselves a good time, and that might not be good news for the Astros

So the Sugar Land Sugar Kings Skeeters made their debut last night and, except for the numbers on the scoreboard, things went swimmingly. So swimmingly, in fact, that the Astros might not like it.

How about listening to Sugar Land's Andy Powell:
“It gives us local community camaraderie. It beats driving to the Astros games. I gave up Astros season tickets for season tickets (to the Skeeters). It’s a lot closer, and it seems like it’s going to be more family and fan friendly.”

Or Haley Graves:
“It’s good for Sugar Land. It brings people together, and it’s cheaper than the major leagues.”“It’s closer to home. It’s more affordable, and I like supporting small town (teams). The pros have just become (too) big business. I can relate to (this) more.”

Or Richard Fields:
"I could be a baseball fan," Fields said. "I can't afford major league baseball. I can afford to go to this."

Or Mrs. Frelich:
"I like it better than the major leagues. It's not as standard and formal as the major leagues. And the players are really nice. They don't have the egos yet."

Or Sandy Jones:
"This is like our hometown team, something we can root for here in our area of town and not have to go downtown all the time."

Or Debbie Page:
"Forever we have Astros season tickets, too, but we were really looking forward to having someplace close where we can let the kids come by themselves and live the dream,"

Sure, everyone's going to be jacked up for opening night. There is a Kroger about 10 minutes from my house. And I went to that Kroger all the time. Then they opened up a brand spanking new Publix eight minutes away (that I don't actually think anyone else knows about - nobody's in there. Ever; and for a fairly anti-social guy, that's important to me). I still go to the Kroger sometimes, but I split it with the Publix. I have a feeling a lot of residents of Fort Bend County are going to feel the same way about the Astros/Skeeters. It could have been an Astros affiliate, breeding familiarity and buy-in with fans to the Major League team, but nooo...Drayton didn't want the competition. And, for now, that's exactly what the Astros have.