root, root, root — please

Ken Hoffman urges 'no vibe' crowd at Minute Maid Park to level up for our Houston Astros

This is more like it, Astros fans.

Houston Astros/Facebook

You might have seen it on Twitter or Youtube: A reporter from Philadelphia’s Fox 29 did a live shot outside Minute Maid Park before Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday, October 29. The Phillies won the Series opener 6-5 in the 10th inning the night before.

The reporter said, “There was no factor at all with this Houston crowd. Really there was no vibe. You couldn’t tell it was a World Series game. It felt like a regular season game. There was more excitement at my daughter’s middle school volleyball game than there was a Minute Maid Park.”

What a crappy thing to say about us loyal Astros fans. Didn’t his mother teach him not to gloat? Is the reporter trying to make a name for himself as a hot takes, rabble rouser up in Philly? Hoping to get in good with Phillies management to get scoops? A shameless homer? Watch his "report" here:

Phillies in 3. pic.twitter.com/A8vCzTQ0sF
— Smitty (@SmittyBarstool) October 29, 2022

Or just a cheap shot artist? Somebody check to see if he even has a daughter on the middle school volleyball team.

But you know something? Sad to say, the Fox reporter was absolutely right!

Both nights I was in a packed sports bar and we all noticed that Astros fans at the game were sitting on their hands. If you just panned the crowd and didn’t know it was a baseball game, a World Series game at that, you’d have thought it was a funeral.

And that was with the Astros jumping off to 5-0 leads both games. I know the stadium was SRO— so WTF!

There are some reasons for the somnambulistic (awesome word) crowd, but still, this is the Fall Classic. What else do you want from the Astros? This is the ultimate prize for the No. 1 favorite sports team in Houston. If you can’t get excited about the Astros in the World Series, maybe it’s time to see a qualified physician. Or Herman Munster.

Is it possible that we’re so used to the Astros playing in the World Series that we can’t get excited? Has the postseason become part of the Astros regular season? Has Astros excellence become boring?

The crowd for Game 2, an Astros victory with José Altuve coming alive and Framber Valdez mowing down the Phils was just as snoozy as Game 1. What’s it gonna take for the Minute Maid crowd to get that stadium quaking?

Maybe it’s because this is the World Series and tickets are sky-high expensive. The parking lots are jammed with Mercedes and up. The Diamond Club behind home plate — and on TV most shots — is shimmering with diamonds. You know how the River Oak crowd is, they pay their help to get excited for them. It’s difficult to clap when you’re sipping expensive chardonnay with your pinky extended.

If you think tickets are expensive here, what till Houston’s billionaires travel to Philadelphia. Tickets are twice as expensive up there. Our billionaires will return as mere millionaires. My heart goes out to them.

I spoke with my sports media guy Glen Macnow in Philadelphia. He said, “The crowd here (in Philly) is going to be LOUD! Our baseball crowds are like football crowds. Our football crowds are like British soccer crowds.”

What’s it going to take to light a fire under Minute Maid Park fans? You know, it isn’t like Houston has been Championship City lately. It’s not like we’re holding parades downtown and hoisting Super Bowl and NBA Finals banners at City Hall.

Last I looked, the Houston Texans are 1-5-1 in last place in the AFC South and the Houston Rockets are 1-6 and last in the Southwest Division.

There's an expression: You don't know what you got till it's gone. Well, we got the Astros in the World Series! Let's make a little noise about it.

SUDDEN SHUTTERS

GameStop to close 11 Houston-area stores amid nationwide cuts

GameStop/ Facebook

Long lines for video game releases are a rarity these days.

For GameStop, it’s a blood bath right out of Mortal Kombat. The Grapevine-based video game chain is expected to shed 470 locations nationwide, including 11 in the greater Houston area.

The closures were revealed in the company's newest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that said it would close "a significant number of additional stores in fiscal 2025" ending on January 31. In its last fiscal year, GameStop shuttered 590 locations.

In addition to braving the overall “retail apocalypse,” the retailer faces the same conditions that largely decimated CD and video stores. Video games are now available for digital download in seconds and no longer require a trip to a physical store.

“As a part of our profitability initiative, we are reducing our global store base, which includes closing stores that are not meeting performance standards or stores at the end of their lease terms with the intent of transferring sales to other nearby locations,” the company wrote in its annual report. “ If we are unsuccessful in marketing to customers of the stores that we plan to close or in transferring sales to nearby stores, our results of operations could be negatively impacted.”

The current digital squeeze isn’t the first time GameStop has been thrown for a loop by contemporary internet culture. In 2021, the retailer famously became a meme stock, buoyed by users of Reddit's r/wallstreetbets. The skyrocketing increase in its stock price, followed by short selling, caused major financial consequences for hedge funds and other investors.

Since then, the stock price has been more stable but has decreased approximately 21 percent over the last year. After CEO Ryan Cohen bought 500,000 shares in the company on January 21, the price has slightly rebounded.

GameStop has not issued a formal list of the closures, and a request for more information was not returned at press time. But Ohio’s WKYC Studios put together a list of all the U.S. stores that are on the chopping block, verified through GameStop’s online store locator. The Texas closings are as follows:

Allen – The Village at Allen, 170 E. Stacy Rd
Arlington – Little School Road Shops, 1245 N. Little School Rd
Austin – Ben White Payload Center, 500 E. Ben White Blvd
Balch Springs – Lake June Plaza, 12209 Lake June Rd
Boerne – Menger Crossing, 1375 S. Main St
Cedar Park – Lakeline Plaza, 11066 Pecan Park Blvd
Conroe – Conroe Center, 1231 N. Loop 336 W
Corpus Christi – Padre Island Drive, 1805 S. Padre Island Dr
Corsicana – Corsicana Marketplace, 3811 W. Highway 31
Dallas – Glen Oaks Crossing, 4787 Vista Wood Blvd
El Paso – Alameda Town Center, 9411 Alameda Ave
El Paso – Fountains at Farah, 8889 Gateway West Blvd
Fort Worth – Clifford Retail, 301 Clifford Center Dr
Garland – Ridgewood Village, 2930 S. First St
Houston – Beechnut Street Houston, 10100 Beechnut St
Houston – Bellaire Gessner Center, 8880 Bellaire Blvd
Houston – Market at Uvalde, 13706 East Fwy
Houston – Market Square, 13341 Westheimer Rd
Houston – Oxford Plaza, 10407 North Fwy
Houston – Royal Oaks, 11807 Westheimer Rd
Houston – Wayside Shopping Center, 900 S. Wayside Dr
Huntsville – Ravenwood Village, 245 Interstate 45 N
Irving – MacArthur Park, 7601 N. MacArthur Blvd
Lake Jackson – Lake Jackson Shopping Center, 121 Highway 332 W
La Marque – LaMarque Crossing, 6408 Interstate 45
Laredo – Laredo Crossing Shopping Center, 4415 S. Zapata Hwy
Leon Valley – 5601 Bandera Rd
Lubbock – 7th St Lubbock, 1803 Seventh St
Magnolia – Westwood Village, 33020 FM 2978 Rd
Mansfield – Mansfield Crossing, 1301 E. Debbie Ln
Marble Falls – Highland Lakes, 2400 US Highway 281
McKinney – Lake Forest Crossing, 4100 S. Lake Forest Dr
Mesquite – Town East Mall, 2050 Town East Mall
Mission – Shary Plaza, 808 S. Shary Rd
Palmhurst – Palmhurst Shopping Center, 4416 N. Conway Ave
Paris – Paris Corners, 3842 Lamar Ave
Saginaw – Cross Pointe Shopping Center, 1453 N. Saginaw Blvd
San Antonio – Alamo Quarry Market, E. 255 Basse Rd
San Antonio – Blanco Road, 7117 Blanco Rd
San Antonio – Huebner Oaks Center, 11745 W. I-10
San Antonio – Northwoods Phase III, 1742 N. Loop 1604 E
San Antonio – Walzem Plaza, 5366 Walzem Rd
Stephenville – Stephenville Shopping Center, 2811 W. Washington St
Sulphur Springs – Sulphur Springs Corners, 1707 S. Broadway St
Terrell – Terrell Corner, 1888 W. Moore Ave
Tyler – State Highway 64 Tyler, 3842 State Highway 64 W
Watauga – Watauga Town Crossing, 8004 Denton Hwy

video games retail closings