h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My home team, the Houston Astros of the National League, recently acquired Andy Pettite from the AL Yankees. Considered one of the best pitchers in either league, this has generated a lot of excitement. His numbers, especially World Series stats (of which the Astros have NONE) are impressive. His ERA for 2003 was about 4.0, not historically great IMHO. But one analyst said that with the DH rule, ERA's run higher in the American League. Makes sense, having to face an extra good hitter every nine batters rather than a woeful hitting pitcher. So Andy may enjoy throwing to a pitcher ... OTOH, he'll have to bat, a task that The Big Unit didn't care for in his brief stay in Houston, I think.

I'm glad Andy has hopefully gotten to a place where he'll be appreciated. As much as I love my Yanks, Steinbrenner (that Jerk) has always had it in for Pettite, for whatever reason.

Yup, the hometown crowd loves Andy. The icing on the cake was Andy being instrumental in getting Roger Clemens to come out of "retirement", then winning every game he pitched for months.

The batting thing hasn't been too good for Andy. Even worse than expected, he ended up on the injured list from trying to check his swing, as I recall.

And now, with the Astros way out of first place (mostly due to anemic hitting), there are rumblings that the manager's job clock is ticking ... ah, well, the sportswriters can relax and just use their articles from past years ...