Every time I see Josh Smith hit, I feel like they hired Bruce Bochy by allowing one of his grandkids to be on the team and in the lineup

Tksymm7 said:

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Water Boy said:

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Someone insert the "oh no we suck again" meme.

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https://giphy.com/gifs/x47gj23jEvGxdWkQEC dammit it didn't come up.

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I used to have no issues posting gifs. Then I turned 40 and suddenly I couldn't manage it at all.

Water Boy said:

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Thinking about catching a game against the braves. Would it be better to buy now or wait last minute?

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Let me just look here into my crystal ball.

Using Mr GigEm's discount code is the right answer.

Need deGrom to be the streak stopper and get us back on track tonight.

Astros fans can't post here so go to the premium board and start a thread to talk trash about us having a losing streak.

They have little man syndrome so bad it's unbelievable.

cmiller00 said:

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Astros fans can't post here so go to the premium board and start a thread to talk trash about us having a losing streak.

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It's crazy how much they care about a team that hasn't been relevant in almost a decade. Sad really.

I've tried to put my finger on when it was exactly that Astro fans developed such an animosity towards the Rangers. When I was growing up, the two fan bases were almost totally indifferent to each other...if anything, the Astros were the NL team that Ranger fans pulled for.

Clearly that dynamic changed when they switched leagues and wound up in the same division, but even then I viewed it as a nice little in-state rivalry and not much more.

Maybe someone can refresh my memory, but it seems like the shark got jumped when Hurricane Harvey (maybe it was Ike) hit Houston and they wanted to do something weird regarding rescheduling a series, or maybe moving it somewhere and the Rangers balked. I'm pretty sure that's when they really got a stick in their a$$ about the Rangers.

We offered the Astros the entire gate revenue for that series and they declined. Then the series got moved to Tampa and nobody attended the games

I think that was a major part of it. The Rangers got a ton of bad PR for no reason. Actually, Astros ownership went to the media to bad mouth us

That was the same year the Astros cheated to win the World Series

rbtexan said:

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I've tried to put my finger on when it was exactly that Astro fans developed such an animosity towards the Rangers. When I was growing up, the two fan bases were almost totally indifferent to each other...if anything, the Astros were the NL team that Ranger fans pulled for.

Clearly that dynamic changed when they switched leagues and wound up in the same division, but even then I viewed it as a nice little in-state rivalry and not much more.

Maybe someone can refresh my memory, but it seems like the shark got jumped when Hurricane Harvey (maybe it was Ike) hit Houston and they wanted to do something weird regarding rescheduling a series, or maybe moving it somewhere and the Rangers balked. I'm pretty sure that's when they really got a stick in their a$$ about the Rangers.

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Yes…..I remember. Reid Ryan is a ****ing moron and an asshat. I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire. I would spit on his grave though.

It's very unfortunate that hurricane Harvey hit Houston so badly. I would never wish that on anyone. I feel bad for anyone who was directly impacted. With that said, the rangers and Astros had a series scheduled in Houston during the week Harvey hit and it was impossible to play because the city of Houston was pretty much underwater. It should also be noted that there was another 3 game series between the 2 teams scheduled about 2 months after Harvey hit except this one was in Arlington.

Reid Ryan calls the rangers and says "let's swap series", but hold on…..wait a minute there! The thing that Reid Ryan never considered ( because he's a selfish moron) is that fans of professional sports teams often buy tickets for games several months ahead of time and some fans even plan trips around those scheduled games. The Rangers undoubtedly had fans from other states who had tickets, booked hotels, and were going to come from very long distances to see the rangers vs Astros in Arlington whenever that series was scheduled. A straight up "swap" would screw these people over who have already bought those tickets way ahead of this hurricane even happening.

After the "swap" was denied, Reid Ryan went to the media and tried to make the rangers look as bad as possible. He blamed us for having to schedule his precious 3 Astros home games at Tropicana field in Tampa bay. The rangers offered to let the Astros host their home games up in Arlington as the home team and Reid Ryan would have none of it because he was worried " it might help us make the playoffs and it wasn't fair to other teams".

Granted, the games were scheduled for Houston and they can control however and wherever they were played with approval from the league. I don't blame them for wanting to play their games in Tampa Bay, but I don't like how some spoiled asshat, who only got that job because his daddy was a legendary pitcher, tried to make us look like terrible and inhospitable people because we wouldn't screw over our own fans just to "swap" series with his team.

Yeah……Reid Ryan is an idiot.

Sadly, the houston aggie is one of the most pathetic sports fans out there. They all have ptsd. I honestly blame them for being one key reason why A&M can't get out of its own way

It existed 30+ years ago. It stems from the Cowboys success

beagle2009 said:

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I feel like it was a culmination of a general "Dallas vs. Houston" undercurrent that slowly gained steam over the last 10 years or so where most Dallas franchises considerably pulled away from Houston (Mavs v. Rockets, Cowboys v. Texans, and the Rangers before the Astros completed their rebuild). I think this extends beyond sports as well, where Houston has a reputation for being dirtier than Dallas, poor infrastructure/planning, and lower class compared to the "snobbier" Dallas culture. Not saying I agree with these generalizations but these are definitely some of the barbs I've seen thrown between my Houston & Dallas friends.

I feel like there has always been a little brother dynamic and once the Astros moved into the AL West, gave Houston fans a direct rivalry to channel that "hatred". The Harvey spat along with the pendulum swing between both franchise's success/regression just took it to another level.

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Good post. I have lived for long periods in both cities and this is on point.

I'm a little biased but at least in my experience I have found the stereotypes to be true. Dallas has historically been a better city in nearly every way and let's face it, probably always will be. That has created arrogance on its part and resentment on Houston's part. Houston has narrowed the gap in some ways and Astros-Rangers is a chance for them to feel good about themselves.

As Aggies people aren't going to like hearing this, but it's a lot like Longhorn-Aggie.