Daily Archives: April 13, 2005

The Stros’ probable fifth starter

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E. Astacio.jpgThe Stros probable fifth pitcher in their starting rotation — rookie Ezequiel Astacio — had an impressive warm-up last night at AAA Round Rock in preparation for his Major League debut next week.
Astacio gave up just one hit — a solo yak — and one walk in seven innings while whiffing five in Round Rock’s 2-1 loss to the Iowa Cubs last night. The Cubs scored the winning run in the eighth after Astacio had left the game.
Astacio is tall (6’3″), but weighs only 150 lbs., and that may be pushing it for his weight. Despite his slim build, Astacio has wicked stuff and could be a nice addition to an already imposing Stros pitching staff this season. Astacio is one of three promising young starting pitchers in the Stros’ minor league system who could see action on the Major League level soon. The other two are Wandy Rodriguez (AAA Round Rock) and Fernando Nieve (AA Corpus Christi). Nieve threw six innings of one hit, shutout ball while walking two and striking out eight in leading Corpus to its first victory in franchise history last night.

Houston vies for Super Bowl XLIII

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Houston super_bowl_logo.gifThis Chronicle article reports on the road trip that several Houston business and city government representatives are taking to New York this week for a Thursday meeting with National Football League officials on Houston’s bid to host Super Bowl XLIII (i.e., 43) in 2009. Final bids must be submitted by May 2, and the league’s owners will award the Super Bowl to one of the candidates on May 25 at the NFL summer meetings in Washington. Houston and Atlanta are considered the early favorites to win the bid, although Tampa and Miami also are submitting bids.
Houston’s successful hosting of the Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 is certainly a feather in its cap, but the competition for hosting the Super Bowl is getting very stiff. With new stadiums likely to be completed in both Dallas and New York by 2010, and with San Diego, Miami and New Orleans being the favored sites for Super Bowls, Houston might not be in the running to host another Super Bowl for a long time if it is not successful in its bid for the 2009 game.

For goodness sakes, get on with it

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SpitzerGov2.jpgDon’t miss this Wall Street Journal ($) editorial today, which addresses the same issue that many of these earlier posts address in regard to the Lord of Regulation‘s ongoing public flogging of American International Group, Inc. and its former chairman and CEO, Maurice “Hank” Greenberg:

[Y]ou don’t have to belong to the ACLU to wonder about the lack of due process here. Mr. Spitzer uncovers questionable accounting about an insurance transaction and demands that the board fire the CEO. He then uses that firing to justify a public accusation of “fraud” that he hasn’t yet proven to anybody, much less to a jury of Mr. Greenberg’s peers.
To which our reaction is, then why not get on with it and indict the man? If Mr. Greenberg’s behavior is so heinous that it warrants a denunciation as “fraud” on national TV, what is Mr. Spitzer waiting for?

As an aside, this post addressed the Lord’s unusual public statement from last week in which he stated that his public flogging of AIG would probably not result in a criminal prosecution of the company, although the same could not be said about Mr. Greenberg. AIG and Berkshire Hathaway board members and shareholders heaved a joint sigh of relief and gave thanks to the Lord for his public statement.
Well, it turns out that the Lord may have had more than market stabilization as a motive for that public statement. The Lord is already running for Governor of New York, and it turns out that some of the Lord’s largest campaign contributors are partners in the law firm that is defending AIG in the Lord’s investigation of the company. Inasmuch as that firm has apparently been advising AIG to roll over for the Lord during the investigation, do you think the AIG board knew of the connections between the company’s law firm and the Lord before acting on that advice?