Are we ready to Root, Root, Root?

As Alex recently noted, the Astros have unveiled their marketing slogan for the 2012 team. Root, Root, Root! I must admit I am a bit disappointed that one of my suggestions wasn’t chosen, after all, I offered them up free of charge. A lot has happened in the two months since I originally published that article. For one, Kathleen Clark has replaced Jennifer Germer as the Astros V.P. of Marketing & Strategy. Clark is a graduate of Harvard Business School and has 25 years of marketing experience. The jury is still out on whether or not her inaugural effort with the Astros (root, root, root!) is a winner. Our friends from Australia probably have a strong opinion one way or the other. But like many Astros fans I am still trying to wrap my head around this one.

What’s in a slogan anyway? Last year’s “We are your Astros” left much to be desired and I can honestly only remember a couple of others from the last 35 years. Most are so uninspiring that they don’t stick with us for long. The ones that we remember are either top notch or extremely lame. Let’s hope this year’s slogan doesn’t fall into the second category.

The two that I remember are from many years ago, and I thought both were excellent. One season in the late seventies the Astros declared themselves “Armed and Dangerous.” I thought that was an outstanding slogan for a couple of reasons. First of all it was relevant to baseball and the makeup of the team. The Astros had a talented group of pitchers (armed) and could do some damage with the bats (dangerous). It was a nice play on words and somewhat intimidating. Another of my favorites, “How The West Was Won” came a few years later. It was a tad presumptuous but I liked the air of confidence that came with it.

Since those two gems the Astros have launched a number of forgettable slogans over the years. Maybe I can’t remember them because I never paid that much attention. I mean, what is a slogan good for anyway? Is there such a thing as Wins Above Replacement Slogan? I would think even the best slogan would have a hard time helping a team win games. But, come to think of it, that Rally Monkey seemed to get the job done pretty frequently. Maybe if we do actually root three times as hard as usual the crowd noise will have a negative effect on the visiting club. I guess it’s worth a try. Three times the rooting has to be worth something, right? I think I’ll give it a Wins Above Replacement Slogan rating of three. Fans who simply root might be able to help their team win one game, but if we root, root, root that should be worth three times as many wins.

I featured the Spanish billboard with the post to stay with the light-hearted theme. It’s too bad we don’t have a player named Dale to put on the sign. Perhaps we could suggest that the player to be named later in the deal with the Royals should be someone named Dale. Better yet, we can go ahead and get the best player available and make him change his name to Dale, making him the true definition of “player to be named later.”