It's the first week of April and I'm already staying up until 1AM EST watching baseball. Of course this feels completely normal but it's been tough watching my San Francisco Giants fall to the Arizona Diamondbacks three times this week. I've spilled much ink here obsessing over my love/hate relationship with Arizona and today is no different.
As I've mentioned before, my wife went to the University of Arizona and while we were disappointed they didn't make it past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, I did learn about a connection between the UA basketball program and the Houston Astros, whose former minor league affiliates have been the inspiration here over the last few weeks.
The Auburn Astros are now the Auburn Doubledays (named after Abner Doubleday who is the Civil War general often credited with inventing baseball) but I'll always have this comical story about the team and my favorite baseball player of all time, Frank Thomas, who played baseball at Auburn University. I think you know where I'm going with this.
Here is the part where I admit to you that for a very long time, I believed that the Auburn Astros and the Auburn Tigers were one in the same. I must have confounded the two teams due to the images I saw of Frank Thomas in a baseball uniform that read Auburn and the Auburn Astros minor league cards that I had. Or maybe it was something else.
Another commonality between the two teams besides the word "Auburn" being part of the name is that the school's colors in the 80's were the same as the colorway used by the Astros at the time. Another similarity is if you look at the serif's on Thomas's hat in the photo above, it's very similar to the "A" on the Auburn Astros hat, minus the star.
Tying all of this back to the Astros, do you remember my prediction from last week about Houston being the 2017 AL Champions? Well as of right now, the Astros are 3-1 meaning they are on pace to finish the season with a record of 121-41. Their current starting rotation probably won't get them there but I'm eager to see how the team continues to evolve.
As I've mentioned before, my wife went to the University of Arizona and while we were disappointed they didn't make it past the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament, I did learn about a connection between the UA basketball program and the Houston Astros, whose former minor league affiliates have been the inspiration here over the last few weeks.
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| Did you know former MLB star Kenny Lofton attended UA on a basketball scholarship? This article is about how he went from committing theft on the court to the baseball diamond. (Photo courtesy of tradingcardb.com) |
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| This is Kenny's first baseball card. He was selected by the Houston Astros in the 1988 June Draft which was only three months after he was part of the first UA basketball team to appear at the NCAA Final Four. (Photo courtesy of tradingcardb.com) |
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| Let's talk about the simple and sleek appropriation of the classic "star logo" that Houston is famous for using. I like it! |
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| It's really amazing that this cap is close to 30 years old and no one ever bothered to wear it. |
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| Like the caps from the past few weeks, this cap has a mesh type crown which once again, I can forgive because this one is so rare. Also, the Made in U.S.A. on the snap is a must. |
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| Here's "The Big Hurt" as a "Smaller Hurt" in his college days. Similar to Kenny Lofton, Thomas was drafted to play one sport (in his case football) but excelled more in baseball. Here's a great article about his journey. (Photo courtesy of al.com) |
Another commonality between the two teams besides the word "Auburn" being part of the name is that the school's colors in the 80's were the same as the colorway used by the Astros at the time. Another similarity is if you look at the serif's on Thomas's hat in the photo above, it's very similar to the "A" on the Auburn Astros hat, minus the star.
Tying all of this back to the Astros, do you remember my prediction from last week about Houston being the 2017 AL Champions? Well as of right now, the Astros are 3-1 meaning they are on pace to finish the season with a record of 121-41. Their current starting rotation probably won't get them there but I'm eager to see how the team continues to evolve.
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