To hold out the possibilty to play in Houston as long as he did was absurd. He’s the one that did it to his team, not MLB. I do agree that MLB should have stepped in sooner, though.

These games should have been scheduled for a neutral site before Sunday. That’s the real problem, not the location. Houston just swept a 3-game set in Chicago, so what’s the problem there? The issue was expecting a team to travel the day of the game, and the fault there lies with Houston ownership.

Where was the MLBPA in all of this?

Might have to pay a bit out of their own pocket, but if they were that worried about their families I doubt a bunch of millionaires would care about 2k.

Houston was the hottest team in baseball before the game and got themselves back into the pennant race. They should have sucked it up and played the games rather than whine, bitch and moan about it.

I’ve been through a few hurricanes myself and I’ve had to go to work the next day. I’m not a pro ball player but I had things I have to do rather than complain. There’s nothing you can do about it.

The entire Astros organization have only themselves to blame. They were outclassed and outplayed.

If I was family member, I sure as hell would have wanted to come along. Yes, Astros players did have a lot on their minds, and my heart goes out to them. Selig in many ways is anti-christ. But in this case is it his fault or is it Astros owner shoulder some of the blame.

I don’t think think MLB was out to screw the Astros, what other options did they have come Saturday afternoon?

It WAS a level playing field. For one thing, there’s been plenty of flooding in the chicagoland area, and while it wasn’t accompanied by wind, it’s also rained a ton here.

If the Astros ownership hadn’t been dorks about the whole thing, they might have been able to play somewhere else, but management wouldn’t — or couldn’t — recognize that Houston was NOT going to be able to host these games. They have no one to blame but themselves, and I will NOT feel sorry for them, or in any other way, take away from the fact that not only did Z no-hit them, but Lilly almost no-hit them as well.

Hoist by their own petard, and if they fail to make the post-season they can point their accusing fingers at their own owner.

….it’s a lot to ask of someone to do what the ’stros had to do. And in a way, things like hurricanes remind us of how lucky we are to have the luxury of spending time on things like sports at all.

That said, I think it’s one of those situations where when you have a job to do, you have to step up and do it as well as you can. Baseball is, essentially, show business, in that it involves a performance happening on a particular date in a particular place, and the Show Must Go On. That’s part of why the players are paid so well, and why we see them as representatives of our cities – they’re supposed to do things that few of us can, under circumstances that we would find unimaginable.

And all the other comments are spot on – it would have made it easier on everyone, the Astros most of all, if the Houston management had shown the tiniest bit of foresight and made plans when it was obvious that there would be issues with playing in Houston. That would have been the time to think of the wives and chirren.

The manager of the Astros did his team a great disservice by whining about having to play in Milwaukee. He should have been firing up the troops, us against the world etc etc. Instead they “made” the Cubs take the home facilities and wore their road uni’s. It was almost like they were saying up we’ll show you for making us play in Milwaukee… I think this move will end up costing them a great shot at the playoffs.

If it were me I would go bankrupt getting my family and friends out of harms way. You cant tell me a bunch of millionaire players didnt have there loved ones shipped out 1st class in advance. At the least they make a quarter million a year. If they didnt have their family,friends, and all their valued possessions out in plenty of time(1st class mind you), its their own fault.

(And if the Cubs live in the Chicago region, they probably got hammered by the remanents of Ike as well. I know I did. Not saying they’re equal, but the situation was dicey up here as well)

Lots of levels of managment screwed the pooch on this one. McLane refusing to move the series BEFORE the hurricane. MLB for allowing the IDEA of playing on Sunday to be approved (I’m no meteorologist, but that storm sure looked serious and headed for Houston to me). The weather for screwing other ideas up (the entire midwest was flooding or getting drenched at least). The NFL for having games on Sunday and keeping us from playing in the Metrodome.

I mean, really. The situation was no fun, but to say that Carlos was so dominate ONLY because of the hurricane is demeaning to Carlos and pretty classless. IMHO anyway.

I would have been happy if we played in other cities, too. I think the case for Milwaukee was that attendance would be much higher than other options. I don’t have a problem with that. I’d rather see the games played in front of more fans than a neutral empty site. Remember road games v. the Expos? You could claim now that the Chinese government digitally enhanced all of those games in Montreal and it would be credible.

The Astros could have asked for a neutral site sooner.

I do not know what the split of the gate is for the Astros, but X% of Milwaukee is surely greater than X% at empty Atlanta, D.C., or Tampa? I would think that Astro ownership was totally down with more when it came to it.

However if there is to lay blame the majority falls into the lap of the Astro’s owner. He was, at least by news accounts, addament on playing the games in Houston. This obviously was the wrong move on his part and did not understand the potential devasation that the storm was packing. Atlanta would of have been a viable option, less travel for the Astro’s and a true natural site ( even though Cub fans would have been in the majority there also). Why did MLBPA, Bud and McClaine wait so long to make a decision?
 Listen Galvaston, Houston and the Gulf took a helluva of hit, and I am sure all of us here feel for the players, coaches and in general all of folks that took damage from this storm. But if anyone can financially handle this type of damage is millionare ballplayers, not some guy making 25 Thousand a year. The Astro’s where in all week, I am sure they made some precautions.
 Hey it sucked, but to take away what Z accomplished and what Lilly did today is not right. This was not a Cub problem, they showed up and played like they were instructed to do.
 Next time maybe the owner will get off his duff and make a better call without dragging his feet.

Did the cubs complain after they lost a game back in August due to the weather? I remember half of the Astros running off the field in the 8th inning, when lighting struck not to far from Wrigley. Did the Cubs complain? No they took the loss like men ,not like little whiny babies. Sorry, but sh*t happens. Deal with it.

this is the single greatest game I have ever been to and with ticket prices I won’t make it to the only other that could top it (World Series game). I love reading about the Cubs and have devoured everything I can find about last nights game and it sucks that Carlos’ night is being diminished by some people. Skip Bayless went so far as to suggest an asterisk for his no-hitter.

The Astros swept the Cubs just a week ago at the REAL Wrigley so being the road “home” team shouldn’t have been that different.

I understand their thoughts are rightly with their families, but as far as I know, nobody had any deaths in their families and the destruction and devastation is severe but people survive without power, internet, phone, tv, etc all the time. Players play after their fathers pass away, or their mothers pass away, or whatever and they either rise to the occasion or don’t.

Say in the 5th or 6th inning, Tejada hits HR. The bullpen comes in eventually, Kerry gets some work in and now the Astros lose 5-1. Is it still that big a deal that they playing in Milwaukee? What if they had won? Would they still complain then?

But to me, here’s the bottom line. The manager of the team has to lead. It was Cecil Cooper’s job to get his players together and say, “Yes, we didn’t get a very good deal here. But it is our job to go out and do our best to win. So suck it up and go get ’em!”

Cooper didn’t do that. Instead, he bitched to the media.

Next is the job of player-leaders, if they had any. The two I can think of on that team would be Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman. Oswalt bitched to the media. Berkman said nothing.

If Craig Biggio had still been on the Astros, he would have led them by telling them they had a job to do and they needed to go out and do it.

Instead, they played the “Waah, waah, poor me” card, expecting sympathy. Sympathy doesn’t win ballgames. They came out and played like they didn’t care, and as a result they got one single in 18 innings.

I don’t feel the least bit sorry for the Houston Astros. They had an appalling lack of leadership, from ownership on down.

What is your solution? Play three make-up games at the end of the season? First of all, that wouldn’t be fair to the Cubs nor the teams that the Astros are chasing in the wild card. Besides that, Fox wouldn’t permit it, because it would completely screw up their TV schedule. And if the AL started their playoffs on time, then the AL champion would get over a week off while the NL champion had to finish their playoffs in October. And how fair would that be?

That was the ONLY other possible decision. It was unworkable.

Because the Astros continued to insist that the games could be played in Houston as late as Saturday morning, every other available stadium was either not available or was looking at possible rain. OK, I think Seattle was available, but Houston didn’t want that travel schedule either.

Besides: home field doesn’t matter much in baseball. Or did you just forget that Houston just beat the Cubs three times in front of 130,000 screaming fans at Wrigley a few days ago? But now they have no chance in two games in front of 40,000 Cub fans in Milwaukee? I’m sorry, but your logic fails here.

Everyone keep bitching that this isn’t fair to the Astros. But no one has come up with a different solution other than the ridiculous “play the three games after the end of the season” scenario, which Fox wouldn’t have permitted anyway.

Maybe if the Astros had spent less time bitching about their situation and more time trying to play baseball, they might have gotten more than one hit in two games. That’s a possibility I believe in.

we have a big series starting tomorrow night!

MLB offered to relocate the players ALONG WITH THEIR FAMILIES, BEFORE the hurricane struck Houston. At that time, the series could have been scheduled at a really neutral site, like Atlanta, for example. But the Astros players and the team owner, refused.

After the hurricane struck, options were severely limited. The delay forced the teams to play on Monday. None of the alternate sites (except Milwaukee) was available that day. Furthermore, the offer to move the families was off the table because no one was at risk of losing their lives; the hurricane had already struck! All that could be done to accomodate the Astros was done. One game was postponed, to be played in Houston at the end of the season, if necessary.

Furthermore, postponing the whole series until the end of the season wasn’t feasible. It’s not a matter of impacting the TV schedule, as some tools at ESPN have implied. To do that would severely and negatively affect the Cubs, forcing them to alter their pitching rotation despite having clinched the playoffs by then. It would also put other teams competing for the wild card race at a great disadvantage, if the Cubs decided to keep their best pitchers for the playoffs; the Astros would have an advantge in those games, in that scenario.

Granted, playing in Milwaukee, tired and tense, was not an ideal situation for the Astros. But if they are going to point fingers here, they should look in the mirror. Like many others in the area, the Astros waited too long to leave Houston.

First and foremost, no one is to blame. There was a natural disaster. Given the stage of the season, the geography of the teams and the weather elsewhere in the country, there was no possible scenario that wasn’t going to screw the Astros in some way. I don’t think it’s very wise on the Astro’s part to focus on the crappy hand they were dealt. They should’ve focused on the game. They may have still been swept, but at least they could begin to move forward. As it stands now, they are probably worse off than when they got to Milwaukee.

That being said, I know fans don’t generally like owners. But come on. Show just an ounce of reason. There was no solution at any time that would not have been criticized heavily. To act like McLane did this to himself is a little ludricous. I always hate it when people assume that rich people can and should just throw millions of dollars away because it suits them. McLane had to weigh the fans reaction, the financial impact (3 million plus), the competitive effect and the players concerns (publicly wanting to be at home for the storm). If someone can think up the perfect solution that would’ve satisfied all of those competing interests, I’d be curious to know.

There was no way to demand that the Astros leave Houston in a storm. I think some of you may not understand that. I don’t think I did before this storm. People are not idiots for staying in a storm. There are some fundamental reasons that they stay and McLane couldn’t make his players leave. They might not have even if they had moved the series.

All in all, I think McLane made what was the best financial decision he could with the hopes that the Astros could go up there and split. He is laying low hoping this will all blow over. But I for one don’t blame him a bit, or Bud, or anyone. It was a hurricane and it stinks, no two ways about it. For those of you who are saying you can’t stand the Astros whining, why not just indulge them this once and let it go.

While it wasn’t as bad nearly as it was in Texas guys it was pretty bad around here.

On Sunday I wondered if the Cubs might have trouble getting to MIlwaukee.

And several Cubs live in Park Ridge which was hit. But not sure if they live where it was hit. Where Jim Hendry lives was not hit very hard.

but made worse by the money grubbing owner of that team especially his dare-not-to-care attitude of first suggesting the Cubs fly in for a Fri afternoon game, then pushing for Sun/Mon games. He cared more for the gate receipts than anything else; all awhile millions were fleeing North.

Second, the utter lack of leadership courtesy of Bud Light, my least most favourite commish next to that NBA-reject atop the NHL. He had a chance to do something soon, Wed or Thur and did NOTHING. At a minimum, the entire team – and their families – could have chartered out of Houston by Midnight-1am Fri. Several locations could have been entertained at alternate sites, playing Sat, Sun & Mon. But no…that didn’t happen. Also for consideration would be still to get the team and families out, work out in another un-occupied city and resume their schedule 9/16, which happens to be today.

Once again a greedy owner and a stupid front offices fucks it up for one team.

And let me be totally clear on this; Miller Park in of itself as a location is not the issue. It’s the timing of the games there and how long it took to get resolution is what is the issue.

If MLB moved immediately on Wed night / Thur morning and said, “Mr. Drayton McClain, your entire team and their families will leave Hou right after the 9/11 Pirate game at MinuteMaid and fly to Milwaukee. You will then host the Cubs Sat night, Sun night and Mon afternoon in the 3 game series)”, this would all have been resolved.

For those upset about Wrigley North, feel free to substitute an adequate city, such as Arlington, KC or Atl if it makes you feel better.

But the “poor us” sentiment only amplifies the problem first created by the owner and then utter lack of front office leadership in MLB.