It's Wade Miller's Fault...

If Wade Miller hadn't pitched a complete game shutout for my birthday, you wouldn't be reading this.

My birthday falls in late August. My mother-in-law sent me money because it's something that everyone can use. I chose to use it to buy cheap-seat tickets to see the Astros. Now, I turned forty prior to the strike deadline, so my purchasing of tickets was an act of faith. I looked at the schedule. The other game I had been able to see that year, and the only game I had been able to see the prevous year, and one of the games I had seen in the 'Dome, had been against the Reds. So, I wanted to see some other team. And, I wanted it to be on a weekend. And I wanted to take my husband, Jonathan, along. And I didn't want to see the Marlins. So, I chose Sunday, September 15, 2002 the last home game against the Cardinals.

...but you can't forget Dave Mlicki...

The reason it's important that Miller pitched a shutout is that I had written a song about the nine previous shutouts that the Astros had pitched in 2002 in what had once been called "Ten-Run Field", "Coors Lite" and other similar names. The reason I came to write such a song is that, on August 27, 2002 Dave Mlicki came on in relief in the sixth inning of a tied game against the Padres and gave up four runs on five hits to earn the loss. And I wrote a song about it. Someone on Astros Daily didn't like the fact that I was "picking on" Mlicki. So I wrote a song about the nine shutout games to prove that I didn't just pick on players who weren't performing.

I thought I heard a rumor about Mark Grace...

Well, on Labor Day, 2002, I was watching ESPN and I got to see Mark Grace, the veteran lefty, pitch for the Diamondbacks. And, as I was falling asleep, a first verse popped into my brain. So, he got a song, too. And an award. He's won the MLB.com award for Blooper of the Year for 2002 for his outstanding performance.

What does any of that have to do with this site?

Well, it occurred to me that I needed someplace to keep this stuff so people could find it again after it scrolled off the bottom of the Astros Daily forum. And I have the webspace. So I thought I'd use it for something.

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