Astros: Jim Crane, Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve win Houston Sports Awards

The Houston Sports Awards held its third annual event honoring local sports figures and Jim Crane, Alex Bregman, and Jose Altuve took home hardware.

One of the grandest galas held in Houston took place last evening with the biggest names in sports attending. The Houston Sports Awards is a star-studded event that has been honoring local athletes and executives since 2018. Astros owner Jim Crane and players Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman were among those to receive awards this year.

Jim Crane was named the 2019 Executive of the Year at the roaring twenties themed ceremony held at the Hilton Americas.  He was recognized for returning the Astros to the World Series for a second time and getting the Houston Open back on the PGA Tour. Crane will join previous winners Tilman Fertitta (2018) and Jeff Luhnow (2017) as top executives in Houston sports.

One of the top awards handed out last night, Athlete of the Year, was bestowed upon the Astros star third baseman, Alex Bregman. If you’ll remember, he was runner-up to Mike Trout for the American League MVP. But here in Houston, he was number one, beating out fellow teammate Justin Verlander, gymnast Simon Biles, Texans QB Deshaun Watson, and Rockets player James Harden.

The 2019 Moment of the Year Award was given to Jose Altuve for his Game Six walk-off homer that brought Houston another American League Championship Pennant. He won out over nominees James Hardin, rodeo bareback rider Kaycee Field, and the Texans team for their win over the Patriots. Two years ago Bregman took the same award for his walk-off single in Game Five of the World Series.

University of Houston basketball coach Kelvin Sampson took the Coach of the Year over AJ Hinch, Bill O’Brien, and Tina Langley of the Rice Owls. Other winners were Jalen Hurts of the University of Oklahoma for College Athlete of the Year and Matthew Boling took High School Player of the year. Boling is out of Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School.

Mary Lou Retton, Rudy Tomjanovich, and Carl Lewis were the three sports figures that were added to the Hall of Fame Class. For the first time, the Sportsmanship Award didn’t go to J.J. Watt, going to Whitney Mercilus of the Texans instead.

It may not be the best of timing handing out awards to members of the Astros organization in the midst of the scandal, but it sure is nice to see some good news for a change.