crush city 2018
Crush City..."hey, that's the name of this blog!" (name that TV show reference)
Friends. Acquaintances. Random people of the interwebs. Opening Day is upon us. It has been one hundred and forty-six long, dark, depressing, cold days devoid of Major League Baseball, but somehow we have survived. The most beautiful game in the world is officially returning THURSDAY, and our beloved Astros are projected to win the AL West by 17 games. Seventeen games. SEVENTEEN GAMES. We might have the greatest pitching rotation of all time? I mean, Gerrit Cole is NUMBER FOUR in our rotation. We might also potentially have the greatest offense of all time? I just...there are not enough words in the English language to express my excitement.
This is a completely acceptable way for a normal human adult to decorate an apartment, right?
I was too excited to even get any good pictures of the parade (aka downtown apocalypse).
Anyway, the title of this blog is "Crush City Culture" because of the Astros, obviously. I love the Astros even more than I love coffee. I could get all sappy and weird here and talk about how important baseball is to me, how I have one vague memory of attending a game in the Dome when I was little, about how I...uh...kind of snuck into the Astrodome like 2 weeks ago (oops), about the 2005 playoffs being one of my favorite childhood memories, how I suffered loyally and faithfully through 2011-2013, about the end of game 7 last year being one of the happiest moments in my my recent memory, that my friends took videos of MY reaction when the final out happened instead of watching the game, and the parade being one of the coolest events I've ever attended and probably my favorite memory of 2017 (my super lame claim to fame: I was in the garage where the viral hat toss thing happened). I could go on and on and get REALLY cliche about the way the entire city came together, and even the way it brought my friends together...I usually get all cynical about "inspirational sports stuff" or whatever, but it was truly incredible. Anyway. You didn't come here to read my weird ramblings (or maybe you did, I don't know). Plus I already said a lot of this stuff in my original Astros post from last September. Here's some actual helpful information now.
Refer to THIS POST for all my super secret insider tips on how to attend Astros games like a pro (or, at least, like some crazy fan who has been to about 50 games over the past two seasons). A few notable changes/updates since this post...
- Dollar hot dog night is now on Tuesday.
- New food options! A list has already been compiled by an actual journalist who has more connections than I do, so just check out this article.
- Click HERE for the official 2018 promotional calendar. There tons of them this year. Including the return of the inexplicable Astros fedora.
And finally, here's your guide to enjoying the first week(ish) of 2018 Astros baseball!
Watch Parties
The Astros begin the 2018 season on the road, taking on the Texas Rangers in a four-game series starting Thursday (March 29th). In what is most likely a grand conspiracy some mastermind came up with in order to slightly annoy/inconvenience me, game one is a day game, starting at 2:05. The remaining games of the series are at actual reasonable times. Here's a list of Houston area bars hosting watch parties and/or specials for the games (there aren't any on Sunday because, Easter) and for the home opener on April 2nd if you aren't able to attend that one (because the tickets are, I believe the technical term is, expensive AF).
Thursday, March 29th (2:35 PM)
Friday, March 30th (7:05 PM)
Saturday, March 31st (3:05 PM)
Monday, April 2nd (6:10 PM) - HOME OPENER
- Conservatory (pregame happy hour)
- Belle Station (Astros/NCAA watch party)
- Lucky's (block party)
- The Barking Pig
- Eight Row Flint
Promos
- Monday, April 2nd - pregame street fest, 2018 schedule magnet
- Tuesday, April 3rd - pregame World Series Champions Ring Ceremony
- Friday, April 6th - replica World Series Trophy
- Saturday, April 7th - replica World Series Ring
- Sunday, April 8th - World Champions Poster
All promotional items are generally given out to the first 10,000 fans, and I'm guessing you'll need to get there way early to actually get any of these. Like, hours before the gates open. But good luck!
BASEBALL IS ALMOST HERE Y'ALL. Keep following me here and on social media for lots of upcoming Astros-related content in addition to your regularly scheduled coffee pics.
<3 liz
