Pam Gardner Resigns

Word first broke that Pam Gardner had voluntarily resigned from her role as President of Business Operations when Astros beat writer, Brian McTaggart, tweeted it late this afternoon. Gardner as you may be wondering, was in charge of several marketing aspects for the Astros over the past decade or so. She will remain with the club as a special advisor to Jim Crane. This resignation marks yet another one of Drayton McLane’s puppets leaving as someone with an actual vision for this franchise, is now in charge.

You may also remember the fiasco at Minute Maid Park when the Boston Red Sox came to town this past season during the weekend of July 1-3. Boston, as some of you may know, will play the song “Sweet Caroline” at Fenway Park during the 8th inning of every home game. Guess what happened during the 8th inning of the final game that weekend at Minute Maid Park? Yep, you guessed it! The Astros and their ever so smart marketing department decided to play that song for some strange, twisted reason. Nevermind that we are thousands of miles from Boston, Massachusetts or that THE GAME WAS BEING PLAYED IN HOUSTON, TX!! No, Drayton McLane, Tal Smith and Pam Gardner decided that this genius idea needed to take place. Not only that, but during that weekend, fans wearing Red Sox jerseys were consistently shown on the big screen in centerfield and quizzes geared toward the Red Sox would also be shown between innings. Essentially, Astros fans were made to feel like outsiders during that weekend series. That is not how a home ball club is supposed to treat their fans.

Folks, as I’ve said before, anytime someone associated with the Drayton McLane era Houston Astros is terminated and/or resigns, its a great day for Astros baseball.  Those of you who live in Houston and the surrounding area have noticed how the Houston Texans have taken this city by storm this year. Texans merchandise and gear is literally everywhere. Hell, I even went to a James Avery store recently and saw Texans merchandise being sold there. The Astros used to have that. You couldn’t go anywhere in the greater Houston area and not see a fan wearing an Astros shirt or jersey or see a car with an Astros bumper sticker. You could go into pretty much any clothing store and Astros gear was sold there. That is a rarity nowadays, replaced by Texas Rangers gear and the Drayton McLane led Astros of the past six years destroyed it. Folks like Jim Crane, George Postolos and Jeff Luhnow will, I repeat, WILL bring that back to Houston.