Ken Webster of Austin, Texas, spends a lot of time inhabiting the personality of a Major League Baseball player who's been dead since 1996. Read More | Comment »

At 20 feet tall, this Willie Wells towers over the one-story South Austin house next door, the house in which he grew up in the first decades of the 20th century; the house that he left in 1923 to play ball in the Negro Leagues and become one of the game's greatest players, black or white; the house to which he returned in 1973 and in which he died in 1989. Read More | Comment »

The late Willie Wells was one of the greatest shortstops who ever lived. Despite the racial barriers that held him back, he excelled in the sport he loved and passed along his knowledge of the game to the likes of Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Monte Irvin, and Don Newcombe. Read More | Comment »

Even Cardinals fans would sheepishly admit that Game 6 alone – in all of its commercially uninterrupted glory, complete with ecstatically impartial postgame coverage from the MLB Network – is enough to justify the sticker price of this deluxe box set. It is so magnificent that it should henceforth be screened for every baseball skeptic across the land. Read More | Comment »

I have dubbed Thursday, Nov. 17, Black Thursday. The day my nightmare became reality. Starting in the year 2013, the Houston Astros will move from the National League Central to the American League West. Designated hitter and all. Read More | Comment »

Welcome to the first installment of The Austin Chronicle's new online-only sports column, "Out of Bounds." I'll be discussing the latest sports stories as well as sports in pop culture – what's on TV, in the theatres, and more. Read More | Comment »

The MLB All-Star break is the perfect time for every writer to hand out awards. First-Half Cy Young. Most Improved Player. Best First-Half Plays. It’s an easy article and is almost expected. I was assigned to write something like that on the Round Rock Express. But I can’t. This All-Star break has me thinking about something different. Read More | Comment »

Who’s to say what they’ll do next, now that it’s over, kaput, lights out. Moonlighting as a dancing fiend and making up for lost time with family is paramount for a decorated ex-NFL QB with seven children, while pursuing a clichéd future in sports broadcasting represents the next mountaintop for a multitalented modern day Boston icon. Read More | Comment »

No matter what is said in the next couple of paragraphs, no matter how impressive I make myself sound, just remember that none of it even comes close to what an eccentric African-American baseball player did 40 years ago. My proudest sport moment revealed only to have it one-upped a mere two paragraphs later ... Read More | 1 Comment »

David Zirin collects accolades like baseball cards. He was named one of the UTNE Reader's "50 Visionaries Who Are Changing Our World," he’s been awarded Press Action's Sportswriter of the Year twice, and often graces television screens as a guest analyst on various CNN, ESPN, and MSNBC programs. However, Zirin is much more than a sports journalist. Read More | Comment »

In A People’s History of Sports in the United States ($26.95, The New Press), author David Zirin welcomes the reader to the proverbial adults table of American sports with a historical blow-by-blow of social engagement, race relations, gender struggles, and political upheaval that have surrounded some of our favorite pastimes. Read More | Comment »

Today, Tuesday, Jan. 26 at 4:30pm, Academy Sports + Outdoors (1104 C-Bar Ranch Trail, Cedar Park) will be visited by the roaming Astros Caravan. CenTex 'Stros fans will have a chance to pick up autographs from current Astros pitchers Bud Norris and Matt Lindstrom, former Astro and current legend Jeff Bagwell, and broadcaster Jim Deshaies. Read More | Comment »

Following a pounding by the Cubs yesterday (nine hits and nine earned runs in 2.1 innings), Russ Ortiz was released by the Houston Astros to much indifference amongst sports fans. To fill his spot on the roster Houston called up Round Rock Express right-hander Samuel "Sammy" Gervacio. This will be Gervacio's MLB debut, following ex-Express stud Bud Norris' introduction to the big leagues earlier in the week. Gervacio threw for a 2-2 record in 46.2 innings with a 5.40 ERA for Round Rock in 35 appearances this season. His numbers may not be that impressive, but he's held hitters to a .244 batting average with 48 strikeouts while allowing only 20 walks. Houston can use a pitcher who can find the strike zone after getting drubbed by the Cubs three out of the last four at Wrigley Field. The Astros begin a three-game series with the Cardinals tonight (7:15pm) in St. Louis where Norris is scheduled to start on Sunday (1:15pm) and Gervacio will finally get an opportunity to pitch in The Show. Read More | Comment »

It probably wasn't the circumstances young Bud Norris dreamed of for his Major League Baseball debut – entering the game with the Astros trailing the Cubs 9-0 after four innings – but the setting was splendid, historic Wrigley Field, and his performance lived up to the hype. Norris threw 52 pitches (33 for strikes) in three innings allowing one run on three hits with four strikeouts. With Roy Oswalt leaving Tuesday's game in the second inning with a back injury, Norris appears to be in line to take Oswalt's spot in the starting rotation. If the Wizard is still on the mend, Norris should get the nod Sunday in St. Louis vs. the Cardinals. Read More | Comment »

Astros fans looking for some good news during the struggling 2009 season need look no further than a young arm currently residing in Round Rock. Right-handed starting pitcher Bud Norris was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week for the week of June 15-21, and for good reason. Norris is currently riding the high of 19 consecutive shutout innings with a team low 2.11 ERA posting 82 strikeouts in 81 innings while only allowing 65 hits. He has pitched eight scoreless innings in each of his past two starts. Norris was ranked the Astros No. 2 prospect entering the season behind catcher Jason Castro who is currently playing for the AA Corpus Christi Hooks. Castro has been limited to 13 games for the Hooks this season batting for a .306 average and a .727 OPS. He went 0-3 in Corpus' 1-0 win over San Antonio on Wednesday. It should be a while before we see Castro in an Astros' uniform with the J.R. Towles project ongoing in Round Rock and the legendary “Pudge” Rodriguez having a solid season for the parent club, but if Norris keeps posting numbers like these, he could be pitching from the mound at Minute Maid Park sooner rather than later. Read More | Comment »

Shhhhhh, don’t look now but the Texas Rangers are actually in first place in the AL West! It sounds weird doesn’t it? Usually, anyone who follows the Rangers can count on three columns in any given year about the team’s chances. The first is about how the pitching staff still sucks and breaks down and that's why they are off to yet another “slow” start. The second usually comes around the all-star break, when the Rangers somehow manage to get their act together and threaten to make a race of the AL West, while the final column is the obituary for another season of futility. In a nutshell, it sucks cheering for a team that never spends money on pitching and who hasn’t won a pennant in almost 10 years. But even die-hard pessimists have to admit that this years the team looks like the real deal … at least so far. Slow starts and crappy pitching are as synonymous with the Texas Rangers as iPods are with music-playing devices. But this year not only did the Rangers come out of the gate fast, but thanks to the resurgence of Kevin Millwood and a frisky group of young pitchers, not only has the pitching improved, it’s kept the team in a lot games when their bats were cold. In the past the Rangers have been about offense – offense and more offense – but ironically enough with Josh Hamilton missing a good portion of the season and the offense sputtering, it’s been the pitching staff that has held the team together. Read More | Comment »

Following a rehab outing with the Express on April 27, Brandon Backe is schedule to start for Round Rock this Saturday as they face the Colorado Sky Sox at 7:05pm. The Astros hope this will be his final minor-league appearance before returning to the parent club. The right-handed Galveston native pitched eight scoreless innings in his last appearance with the Corpus Christi Hooks on May 18. Backe suffered a strained intercostal muscle (chest) during spring training, further taxing Houston's already weak pitching staff. For ticket info, click here. Read More | Comment »

I don’t know about you, but when I heard the news that Alex Rodriguez had taken performance enhancing drugs while playing for the Texas Rangers, my reactions was, “Who the #$%@ cares.” Honestly, does it come as a shock to anyone when a professional baseball player is busted for taking steroids? These are professional athletes, who are some of the most competitive people on earth and are getting paid millions of dollars to play a game. The stakes are high and the pressure is intense, so when someone offers them a drug or a cream that will give them an advantage can we really be shocked when they take it? When A-Rod played for the Texas Rangers they never won anything. Nada! From 2001 to 2003 Alex Rodriguez had one of the richest contracts in baseball history and yet the Rangers never finished with a record higher than .500 and never finished better than fourth place in the American League West. He was arguably the best player in baseball playing for one of the worst teams in the league, so why else would he have taken steroids if for no other reason than to boost his own stats? He can cry on TV and apologize all he wants, but the bottom line is that he cheated and as far as I’m concerned he is no different than Barry Bonds. Both players still belong in the Hall of Fame beyond a doubt, but from here on out every single record they break and every honor that they earn should come with an asterisk that says that they cheated. Read More | Comment »

It's only the second day of the year and 2009 is already looking better than '08. On January 1, 2009, the MLB Network began airing on Time Warner Cable Ch. 423 and DirecTV Ch. 213 – available at no extra charge to TWC digital-cable subscribers, unlike the NFL Network which is only available by subscription through DirecTV. I tuned in a couple hours ago and haven't changed the channel since. Lou Gehrig's courageous speech (baseball's Gettysburg Address), Roberto Clemente's tragic flight, Jackie Robinson's heroic debut as the first African-American player in the league, and Cal Ripken's epic consecutive-games-played streak are just a few of the stories I've seen today on the MLB Network. Happy New Year, baseball fans! Read More | Comment »

Ike continues wreaking havoc on sports schedules this weekend with the announcement that the Houston Texans/Baltimore Ravens game set for 3:15pm Sunday at Reliant has been moved to Monday night at 7:30pm. The game will be broadcast locally on the radio at ESPN Austin 1530am but it appears local CBS affiliate KEYE will be airing their usual Monday-night dreck. The surging Houston Astros (now only three games back in the Wild Card hunt) have postponed their games Friday and Saturday versus the Cubs. Here are some possible scenarios as posted on the Astros' website: "One option will be [for Chicago] to fly to Houston and play a doubleheader Sunday and one game on Monday, which is an off-day for both teams. Another option is to play the games after the conclusion of the regular season on Sept. 28." Read More | Comment »