Hello! Welcome to another edition of the Astros Beat newsletter. If you see Astros reliever Ryne Stanek out and about this week, be sure to wish him a Happy Father's Day. Stanek will be celebrating his first Father's Day on Sunday following the birth of his and wife Jessica's daughter, Joelle, on Sept. 21, 2021. Stanek said becoming a father has given him a new perspective on life and baseball. Earlier this week, Stanek took some time to share some of his first-hand new dad experiences with MLB.com. "It's been good. Personally, I think she's made me a little less obsessive over everything that happens on the field. Like, I can turn my focus onto her and my family as soon as I've gone from the field. So, like the ability to flush good and bad things and not like fixate on them has been something that's been good for me." Stanek's parental instincts are a credit, he says, to his parents, Mark and Lisa. He's very close with his parents, who live in Kansas City, and says he talks to his mom every day and his father on most days. "I was really fortunate to have awesome parents that were super involved and wanted to be a part of everything. Obviously, I've grown up and become a man, but it showed me the kind of father I wanted to be and how I wanted to be involved with everything. I think I try to pattern myself after my parents." Of course, being a first-time father is bound to bring some new challenges, which Stanek quickly found out. "I didn't realize there was so many different kinds of baby formula. There's like 50 of them. … Formula tastes horrible, by the way. I didn't realize that was a thing. Little things like that, you really don't talk about it with other people. A lot of stuff you don't discuss just kind of becomes something, like 'Oh, I wasn't expecting this or how much formula and diapers you go through.' Just like a dozen diapers in a day, a heavy day. It's just wild. After the baby shower, I thought we had diapers for a year. I was like, 'Oh, we're good.' They lasted a couple of months, and I said, 'What do you mean?'" |
Stanek's daughter is about nine months old, so she's not quite walking yet. "She was standing up before she was crawling. She doesn't quite have the balance part figured out. She'll do it for a while and I'll say, 'Oh, you're standing!' and she'll fall down immediately. Now, she's crawling all over the place. She's saying basic words – mom, dad, bottle, stuff like that. But yeah, besides that, she's already got a couple of teeth. And there's more coming." Stanek said watching your baby cry in pain because she's teething is difficult to have to go through. "That might have been the biggest surprise, how much pain. They're pissed and there's nothing you can do about it. They're mad because their mouth hurts. You can give them some Tylenol and hopefully it makes them feel better, but sometimes it doesn't and they just scream. Besides that, it's been pretty smooth." Stanek said his wife and baby travel on the road with him occasionally. They attended the World Series last year in Atlanta and they've been to Los Angeles, Seattle and Kansas City, where his parents live. "It just kind of depends on if my wife has any help. I feel bad if she has to travel and fly and pack everything by herself with her. It just adds a lot to her plate trying to pack everything, especially formula. That takes up so much space and if it's open, it goes bad in an hour. It's just not the most convenient thing to travel. They come when they can, when she feels up to it." Being a father is still something Stanek is getting used to because he says he still feels like he's a big child. "I feel like since we had her, you grow up a lot from that point on just because you have to. Not everything is just about you anymore. It definitely changes your outlook. I think [Father's Day] will be fun. It will be a good day." |
Let's check in on some performances to note in the Minor Leagues: Triple-A Sugar Land: Infielder J.J. Matijevic was hitting .444 (8-for-18) with three doubles, a triple, three home runs and five RBIs in his past four games before being recalled to the Majors on Wednesday. Matijevic is tied for fifth in the Pacific Coast League with 12 homers. Triple-A Sugar Land: No. 1 prospect Hunter Brown leads the Pacific Coast League with 73 strikeouts, is second with a 2.25 ERA, first with .188 opponents' batting average and fourth with a 1.15 WHIP. His 12.63 strikeouts per nine innings is eighth-best among Minor League pitchers with at least 50 innings. Double-A Corpus Christi: Catcher/first baseman Yainer Diaz belted his seventh home run of the year Sunday, giving him four homers in his past 15 games. During this stretch, the 23-year-old Dominican is batting .344 with 12 runs, 16 RBIs and a 1.010 OPS, while walking 10 times to his nine strikeouts. Diaz ranks second in the Texas League with 72 hits while ranking third with 46 RBIs. Single-A Fayetteville: Outfielder Logan Cerny was named the Carolina League Player of the Week (June 6-12) after hitting .476 (10-for-21) with two doubles, three homers, 13 RBIs and three steals in five games. Cerny is in his first season with the Astros after being acquired this offseason from the Phillies in exchange for catcher Garrett Stubbs. |
On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. He faced down despicable racism and unfair treatment to pave the way for the Black stars who came after him. But, of course, these injustices didn't just stop after Jackie. Future Black stars had to deal with similar obstacles during their careers.
After Jackie, a documentary executive produced by UNINTERRUPTED's LeBron James and Maverick Carter, Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson ("Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre," "Attica") and in association with Major League Baseball, tells the often overlooked story of the second wave of talented Black baseball players after Jackie Robinson, including Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson, who were up next in the fight for racial equality. Watch the trailer here and tune in when it airs on the HISTORY channel on Saturday, June 18, at 8 p.m. ET.
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TRIVIA Who was the first player in Astros history to hit three homers in a game? |
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THIS WEEK IN ASTROS HISTORY June 18, 1967 Don Wilson threw the first no-hitter pitched in a domed stadium when he struck out 15 batters in a 2–0 win against the Braves, whiffing Hank Aaron for the final out in the Astrodome. Wilson, facing future Hall of Famer Phil Niekro, struck out 15 batters and walked three. He threw 143 pitches, according to reports. Three of his strikeouts came against Aaron. "It's young guys like this that make me want to retire," the slugger said. Newspaper reports wrote that Astros owner Roy Hofheinz had champagne delivered to the clubhouse and was so excited that he gave Wilson a $1,000 salary increase. Wilson, of course, made history in 1969 when he followed up a no-hitter thrown by Cincinnati's Jim Maloney against the Astros at Crosley Field and no-hit the Reds the next day, winning 4–0, on May 1, 1969. |
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| TRIVIA ANSWER Jimmy Wynn "The Toy Cannon" became the first Astros player to bash three homers in a game when he did it in a 6-2 win over the Giants on June 15, 1967, in the Astrodome. Wynn homered twice off Bobby Bolin in the fourth and sixth innings, and tagged reliever Billy Henry in the eighth. Lee May joined him in the three-homer club on June 21, 1973. Eleven players have homered three times in a game in Astros history. Wynn was the only player to belt three homers during an Astrodome game until 1994. |
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