Off to the Races!

The first regular season game the ‘Stros, err Colt .45s ever played was on April 10, 1962 at Colt Stadium. Name the player who hit the first ever dinger against the Colt .45s that day?

And they are off! Chris Bell announced for H-Town Mayor yesterday and Teddy Schleifer sent out a few tweets from Sam Houston Park – the campaign kick-off site – including this one:

Teddy Schleifer ‏@teddyschleifer 50m50 minutes ago
Bell on his opponents talking about him losing races: “If necessary, I’ll talk about the races they’ve lost.” Get used to this, Houston.

The Rep. Sylvester Turner Campaign is the only campaign that I know of that has brought up Chris’ career campaign won-loss record. I guess Chris was aiming his remarks at Rep. Turner’s campaign and his three career losses. Hey in this business somebody is always going to have to come up short. It is not as though any of these two lost to lousy campaigners. This kind of discussion doesn’t fill a pothole if you ask me. Families aren’t going to be sitting around the table saying – “now let’s see, Bell lost to Lee Brown, Al Green, Rick Perry, and Joan Huffman and Turner lost to Bob Lanier, Bill White, and El Franco Lee, now who should we vote for?” NOT GONNA HAPPEN!

I have to hand it to new Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for keeping his campaign promises.

Speaking of, who is behind the Chris Bell parody twitter account? See this:

Chris Bell @chrisbell4mayor
@chrisbell4mayor FOLLOWS YOU
There’s an election this year, which means I’m running for something. PARODY ACCOUNT

In the past three or four months or so, if anybody has bothered to ask me who I am supporting for H-Town Mayor, I have told them Bill King. Bill is a longtime friend. He is certainly talking about what concerns folks in H-Town. He is well versed on the issues. He has certainly shared his takes with all of H-Town over the past few years. I honestly believe he would make a great Mayor.

I have had the conversation about my supporting Bill with a number of players including James, Kathryn, Teddy, Carol, my parents, Roman, Claudia, Anna, Leah, and others. It is not a secret. I mention this because the following was tweeted Saturday morning – first from Teddy Schleifer:

Teddy Schleifer ‏@teddyschleifer 47m47 minutes ago
.@miyashay @BillKingForHou @GeorgeHWBush @jgm41 Plus @rrjara, Sue Walden. And @MarcCommentary supporting King too.

Then from Miya Shay:

Miya Shay 36m36 minutes ago
@teddyschleifer @jgm41 @rrjara @MarcCommentary @TheGoodBegala you’re a bad consultant if you’re not on someone’s payroll this cycle.

Then from Teddy again:

Teddy Schleifer ‏@teddyschleifer 42m42 minutes ago
@jgm41 @miyashay @BillKingForHou @GeorgeHWBush @rrjara @MarcCommentary @TheGoodBegala Is any Houston strategist not on this campaign?

Then from Kris Banks:

Kris Banks ‏@KrisBanks 33m33 minutes ago
@miyashay @teddyschleifer @jgm41 @rrjara @MarcCommentary @TheGoodBegala Can’t buy a base #justsayin

Let me say at this point I am supporting Bill but I am not consulting on the campaign as of this morning. Always a proponent of full disclosure, I will let folks know if I ever do consult on Bill’s campaign.

As for Kris’ “can’t buy a base” phrase, I am certainly not going to discuss here the Bill King strategy for winning.

Kris is also a great guy so I know he is not implying that Bill’s team is bought just like the consultants that have been hired by Rep. Sylvester Turner, Council Members Stephen Costello and Oliver Pennington, Chris Bell, Ben Hall, and the Sheriff are not bought.

On April 10, 1962, Ernie “Mr. Cub” Banks of course hit a 7th inning solo dinger off of Bobby Shantz for the first ever dinger against the new H-Town MLB franchise. The game will certainly miss Mr. Cub!

I have to admit I got a chuckle or two while reading yesterday’s Chron E-Board take on the pensions and state legislators. The E-Board is urging legislators to give the City the authority to do its job when it comes to firefighter pensions. I chuckled when I read what The Dean had to say.

Here is a part of the E-Board take:

Whether they decide to act, state legislators can’t escape their role at the core of the pension fight.

In addition to employee contributions, the firefighter pension is funded by tax dollars collected by City Hall. However, City Hall can’t set the amount it is obligated to pay. State law creates a framework that dictates what Houston taxpayers owe. Local tax dollars should be controlled by the elected officials at City Hall, but that isn’t what Democratic state Sen. John Whitmire thinks.

“Do you really want [Council Member Michael] Kubosh to be in charge of a $3 billion fund?” Whitmire asked the Chronicle editorial board during the past election season. “Do you want [Council Member] Dwight Boykins to be in charge of a $3 billion fund?”

Yes. In fact, that’s exactly what Houstonians elected them to do. City officials control the city budget.

Pardon me, but I had to LOL! I wonder what CMs Kubosh and Boykins had to say about The Dean’s take?

Here is the entire E-Board take: http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/It-s-city-business-6036503.php.

I also tweeted this yesterday after I saw a Channel 11 announcement asking for folks to send in a pic of their favorite pothole. Wasn’t that Bill King’s idea first?

Marc Campos @MarcCommentary • 5h 5 hours ago
#KHOU wants your pothole horror stories: http://www.khou.com/story/news/local/2015/01/24/pothole-patrol-share-your-horror-stories/22260077/ … #HouNews

Yesterday was Rob Manfred’s first day as Major League Baseball Commissioner. Congratulations and good luck!