The displaced Houston Astros should play in Arlington — not in an empty stadium in Florida.
When faced with a major social issue or a crisis, Major League Baseball usually finds a way to do the right thing. It often produces a moment or a decision that transcends its circumstances.
Famously, baseball integrated before the U.S. Armed Forces. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, baseball took a respectful pause, and then resumed; Mike Piazza’s late home run for the New York Mets in their first game back gave many people in New York City a desperately needed emotional lift, a sign that life could be normal again. A Sunday Night Baseball game was in progress when news came down that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American special forces. The spectators in Philly that night were the first big crowd to react to the news filtering to their phones, live.
But not this week. Baseball is whiffing when it comes to Hurricane Harvey.
After years of tanking, the Houston Astros are one of the most exciting young teams in decades. This year, they have a decent shot to fulfill a Sports Illustrated cover prophecy that their long-term development plans would lead to a 2017 World Series. This week, the Astros were scheduled to play their division rival Texas Rangers in Houston. Clearly, that was impossible, given conditions in the city.
The obvious thing to do was to play this week’s games in Arlington, Texas. It would have inconvenienced the Texas Rangers and their fans to some degree — especially if it happened under the terms originally offered, where a series played this week at the Rangers’ home stadium was traded for another in the last days of the regular season played in Houston. Rangers players would have ended their season on an extraordinarily long road trip. All true.
Alternatively, the Astros could have agreed to play at Arlington without getting a series in Houston in return. The Rangers had already said they would dedicate the gate from the games to relief efforts in Houston. However, despite not getting an exchange of home fields over the course of the season, the Astros reasoned that Houston would still be unsuitable for this weekend’s series against the Mets, and so the Astros might as well create a temporary home for themselves this week in Florida. Indeed, some Astros players have families that are displaced and homes under water. (Although, early on Thursday, MLB announced that the Astros would return to Houston on Saturday for a doubleheader.)
This was a huge missed opportunity for division rivals to play each other in a context where their respective Texas cities could rally each other.
So Major League Baseball has sent these games to the neutral site of Tropicana Field in the Tampa Bay Area. It is a reviled stadium — a dome — that is notorious for low attendance for its own, often-compelling home team. The Trop is the worst site in Major League Baseball. In fact, many AA stadiums are better places to play a game.
Technically, both teams and Major League Baseball have come up with a “fair” situation on baseball terms. But this was a huge missed opportunity for division rivals to play each other in a context where their respective Texas cities could rally each other. Some displaced Houstonians could have been granted the temporary distraction and relief of baseball. Many Rangers fans could have rallied to their home field in a small effort to show solidarity with the city of Houston.
Instead, the Astros are playing in a nearly empty metallic hull in Florida, with ashen expressions. Clearly their hometown fans and the plight of some of their families are top of mind. The decision to play in Tampa this week means that these players and fans are left merely to cope with the disaster, rather than make some effort to take the high ground — literally and figuratively — in Texas. How much better it would have been for them to receive the ovations from a nearly-full stadium of homestaters. It’s a shame too, since so many others in Texas and Louisiana are themselves doing something better than fair.
This is a great Astros team. It’s a shame their cross-state series has been hidden this way.
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