Houston Astros swing through Aggieland
Baseball fans in the Brazos Valley got a taste of the big leagues a little early this year as the Houston Astros Winter Caravan made a stop at Academy Sports & Outdoors in College Station on Saturday.
About 150 fans got to meet Astros starting pitcher Bud Norris, center fielder Michael Bourn, outfielder Brian Bogusevic, former starting pitcher Shane Reynolds and radio broadcaster Brett Dolan in the hour-long event. Players signed autographs, posed for pictures and joked around with fans of all ages.
One young man wearing a University of Texas pullover prompted Bourn, who attended the University of Houston, to quip: "You're in the wrong county to be wearing that."
Of course, everybody was welcome on this day.
"We get to give out autographs to little kids and see all the fans coming out to support us," Bourn said. "Fans come from all over to watch us play, driving down from even up here, and [it's nice] to be able to pay them back with an autograph and tell them to keep supporting the team."
Fans from Katy, The Woodlands and Austin made the drive to meet the Astros. Jason and Jennifer Collins of Austin made the almost 2-hour drive, so their three children could get an autograph or two. Anderson Collins, 6, even gave Bourn a letter he wrote to the Gold Glove-winning center fielder. Anderson, 2-year-old Hogan and 11-month-old Ella were all decked out in Astros gear.
"This is such a great event," Jennifer Collins said. "We're glad the team is doing this. Both our boys play baseball and have spring birthdays, so we've made the trip to Houston for a game for their birthdays before."
The Winter Caravan has existed since the 1970's, when former pitcher and manager Larry Dierker remembered attending the nearly three-week long event as a player in his book It Ain't Brain Surgery. A second-straight losing season, falling attendance numbers and the success of their northern in-state neighbors hasn't seemed to hurt fan interest at these events.
"They do a pretty good job," Dolan said of the Astros' fan-friendly tour. "I've been down to NASA and have the astronauts give us a tour with this. They'll go to hospitals and meet with some kids who've had a tough go. [Friday] they were down at the adult center with some disadvantaged individuals. You do get everything from a meet-and-greet with the public to some really fun stuff too. It's always cool and our people do a great job seeing all sort so different areas.
"Obviously, there's a little competition now since the Rangers have had so much success. But our people have been doing this for a number of years. If you look at where our radio market is, it encompasses from here to Louisiana to Austin and beyond."
Fans brought all manner of items for the Astros to sign, lining up as early as 9:45 a.m. for the event that began at 10:30 a.m. Gloves, balls, bobblehead dolls and glossy pictures all got autographed by the eager-to-please players. One intrepid fan went through the line three different times to get all his items autographed. Another bought both a ball and a plastic display case at the store before getting in line to have an Astro sign it.
For some fans, though, it was more about meeting the players than getting their signatures. Dennis Rhodes, a freshman at Bryan High, and his father Mark heard about the caravan stop on the Astros website and had to swing by to see the team.
"This was pretty cool," Dennis said. "I play baseball for Bryan, so I liked being able to see some of these pro guys."
