What It’s Like to Cover the Houston Astros

Apr 15, 2015; Houston, TX, USA; A general view of Minute Maid Park during the game between the Houston Astros and the Oakland Athletics in the second inning. Mandatory Credit: Thomas B. Shea-USA TODAY Sports

It’s good to be back for one more post with Climbing Tal’s Hill. This isn’t going to be the type of post you’re used to seeing here on CTH as there won’t be any takes, predictions, previews, or reviews like you usually see.

Last time I was here, I was writing about the stock watch during Spring Training before I got offered a position with MLB.com to be the Real Time Correspondent at Minute Maid Park. Naturally, I accepted the job and instantly realized I had to stop writing for CTH as it would be a conflict of interest. So now I’m back one more time to talk about my dream job that I now have and hopefully help inspire some of the readers of Climbing Tal’s Hill.

Although I am an employee of MLB.com, a good majority of my work is with the Astros. As the RTC, I have great access to get content to be used on Social Media for both the Astros and the visiting teams as well as MLB’s various platforms like social media and Cut4. I receive a shot sheet from the visiting teams and MLB before every series and provide whatever content they request from me.

I get access to the field during BP all the way through Pregame before every game. It is my job to find things that people would like to see on social media like players signing autographs or some nice scenic shots of the field. One of my personal favorites is getting to follow Orbit around and get photos/video of whatever shenanigans he comes up with.

While the game is going on, I have things I do every game content wise that you usually see on twitter. When I’m not going around Minute Maid, I’m sitting in the Press Box either going over content I’ve taken or preparing to go get some more. Don’t worry though, I still get to see a good majority of every game. And if the games end with the Astros on the winning end, I get to take one specific photo that many fans enjoy on social media. After that, I call it a day with the postgame press conference by AJ Hinch every game.

I do interact with many personalities you are familiar with because you either hear/see them, or you read what they put out there about the team. And I will say that each and every single one of them are friendlier than any of us could have imagined, including the ones more behind the scenes that you may not recognize by name. Everybody at Minute Maid has welcomed me with open arms and it is something that not only has helped a lot, but something I appreciate greatly. I really enjoy working along the Astros Social Media Manager as she does an amazing job getting great content out there and I’m definitely learning a lot from her.

Yes, I am around the players and coaches a bit, but I tend to stay out of the way a good majority of the time as I don’t want to throw off anything. There are many things that are now part of my every day life that I didn’t think would happen, and if they did, it wouldn’t be for a very long time. If there’s something you want, go get it and don’t hold back. I found out about this job because I saw it on twitter. I could have easily ignored it and kept scrolling along, but I took the time to apply. It sounded too good to be true, but it wasn’t because I’m living it now.

I do want to thank CTH for giving me a platform to grow my brand if you will, and thank you to the readers who would take the time to read my posts. If you see me at Minute Maid Park on the field during pregame or walking around the concourse, call me over and I’d be more than happy to talk for a bit. If you want to see what I’m up to or want to let me know you’re going to an Astros game and want to meet up, give me a follow on twitter @RyanGonzalezRTC and I promise I’ll respond to you.

Try not to give these guys too hard of a time as they provide a lot of good stuff about the Astros that many other sites don’t touch base on. They genuinely like what they do here and are constantly looking to improve. Thank you again, and I hope to see y’all around Minute Maid Park soon.

Next: Houston Astros Weekly Awards