About Me
Mar 31st, 2010 by Austin Swafford
I got my start in journalism at BYU-Hawaii with the school newspaper, Ke Alaka’i, as a writer for the news, opinion and sports sections of the paper. I also wrote for the sports section of the University of Texas paper, The Daily Texan, and blogged for Baseball Time in Arlington at Most Valuable Network, as well as running my own college football blog.
This is my first experience writing about the baseball team I’ve followed closely and loved for years. Though I’m a staunch Astros fan, I’m extremely critical of any team I cheer for, so know that my negativity comes from a place of love.
The name of blog comes from the fact that my name is Austin, I live in Austin, and 290 is the highway that connects Austin to Houston. It’s my physical link to the Astros, and I’m using that to be your virtual link to them. Consider it a multi-dimensional network of Jobsian proportions. Enjoy the blog!
Special thanks to Lisa Gray for recommending me for this blog and to The Baseball Poetess for my awesome Astros290 logo.
Austin, keep up the good work. I like the way you critique with love man. I’m a ‘Stros fan from Lake Charles and am fed up with the direction the team has taken the past few seasons. Ed Wade needs to go.
I was there in the beginning at Ke Alaka’i and you just keep rolling. Awesome, Austin!
Thank you! I saw a need and I tried to fill it. I’m glad I could help.
I am offended that some teasip that isn’t even reporting from MMP or Harris County for that matter, has been deemed responsible for covering my beloved Astros for espn.com. This just absolutely makes me sick. Nothing against you, Austin, but don’t you, Rob Neyer, or his bosses at ESPN think that in order to accurately report on the Astros, you should be a little closer to the team physically and mentally? How can you focus on your reporting if you’re a full time student anyway? In college, I didn’t have time to check box scores in the paper, let alone offer an original, opinionated view to real readers on a daily/nightly basis. I bet your opinion becomes sidestepped by Bill Brown’s constant hyena laugh as it is.
I’m not sure how much more mentally close to the Astros you want me to be, but I assure you – it’d be a real challenge to find an Astros fan more mental than me.
jeremy,
austin isn’t COVERING the astros, he’s BLOGGING.
why would it make any difference WHERE he lives? what exactly would he learn in houston that he can’t learn in austin? he follows the team, watches the games, listens to the same radio broadcast and knows the players and team inside and out – i know because i’ve been chatting with him for 6 years.
so give the boy a chance, hunh?
Jeremy- I know it is hard for you farmers on the brazos to focus on more than one thing, the average person has the capabilities to work, go to school and even watch or listen to a baseball game- it is called multi tasking! Keep Ausitn Wierd, Keep jeremy in brazos county and GO STROS!
Austin — Are you on Twitter?
I am not. I know I’m kinda behind the times on that. But if I get on Twitter, you’ll be the first to know.
Hey Austin, just found the blog and love it. Lifelong Astros fan transplanted up to Ohio. All I get up here is Indians and Reds radio, so it’s nice to get a taste of Texas. It’s nice to read some honesty about Wade and McClane. We had our run, it’s time to trade Berkman and Oswalt and reload.
Thanks, Jay! Glad you to have you and hope you keep reading!
Austin, Congrats on the blog man, reading ESPN.com and saw it reference a stat on your blog in their power rankings. I thought no way that is the same Austin Swafford that I know from Austin and once I saw the name of your blog, knew it was you. Congrats again man, cool gig you got going. Livin’ the dream writing about sports!
Hey, thanks! Nice hearing from you. What a funny coincidence. I appreciate the comment and thanks for reading!
Austin, Nice work ! Thanks for keeping me informed on my beloved ‘Stros !!! I’ve been living in Boise, yes home of the Smurf Turf, for 21 years now and don’t have my finger on the pulse like I did all my years in Houston
I’ll be checking in here from now on. I appreciate your apparent honesty and objectivity. Quite refreshing. I LOVE the Astros but I also don’t need info to be sugar coated, right ??? Thanks again, Jeffgenesis
Thanks, appreciate the comment and appreciate you reading. I look forward to your comments in the future. Nothing like generating a good conversation among strangers.
And hopefully the Astros will coat themselves in wins in the very near future so that sugar coating won’t be an issue.
Your Orioles article was way off the mark.
A lot of people seem to think so, but I enjoy rigorous debate. I think people were quick to hit me with overly critical comments. I didn’t say the Orioles were on their way to wreck and ruin. I said they were in danger of it. They’re getting better, and that’s good. But now is the time that they should be getting younger, not older. The free agent acquisitions didn’t wreck them, but they’re a rebuilding project and I don’t see those veterans as being in their long-term best interest.
Just like Moehler, Wolf, Tejada, et. al. didn’t wreck the Astros, but certainly didn’t help them get out of the muck.
I didn’t say the Orioles are terrible. Just that I see some reflections of what the Astros did in them and that, if they follow the get-older-rather-than-younger track, they’ll be disappointed when their growth stops.
‘Orioles going down same road as Astros’
The title said it all and you are putting words in the mouth of repsonders. Whether you wrote the title or not, your article is comparing apples and skyscrapers.
Nobody said you said the O’s were terrible. You didn’t even preface the article by saying they were in danger of doing what the Astros were doing… you finished with that line, giving the reader the opinion that your mind was made up that the O’s are doing the same as the ‘stros.
There are so many factual errors in the article not subject to debate. Hardy and Reynolds were traded for. The others were all signed well into the free agency period. That is not being super involved. Vlad and Lee are not Moehler and Wolf, now or in their prime. The acquisitions don’t even compare. 31 is not ‘old’. Only Gregg was given two years, the others were 1 year deals. There is no ML ready young talent being blocked by any of the aquisitions. They didn’t exactly overpay Werth and Lee and trade their AA roster for Adrian Gonzales. Come back to me when they mortgage the future feeling good about being 15 GB of the Wildcard on 8-1-11. I can’t even think of a team right now doing what you say the O’s are ‘in danger of doing’.
Your post was terrible at best. You know nothing about the O’s organization, where it has been and where it is headed. Being told you are wrong isn’t subject to debate and isn’t a ‘stiring the pot commentary’. Whether Pettitte is a hall of famer is subject to debate. Whether Oswalt should have been traded is subject to debate. Rebuild or not is subject to debate. Clemens using ‘roids is subject to debate. You wrote the equivalent of ‘Natalie Portman was photographed leaving a club in LA. She is clearly in danger of becoming another Lindsay Lohan.’ That is wrong and not subject to debate.
You are lucky I am bored at work and have time to reply to this today. If your blog can be picked up by ESPN, my Facebook rants could bump Sean Hannity from the Fox News lineup.
Yes, I’m very lucky you have time to tell me I’m wrong, don’t know anything and that my post was terrible. What would I do without you? Speaking of saying things that are wrong, you assume I even wrote the title.I did not. The editors at ESPN came up with that one. My headline was that the Astros can be a cautionary tale. And I said the Orioles were in danger of going down the same road well before the end. Try the first line of the 6th paragraph. If they’d kept my original title, my point would have been made in the beginning, middle and end, and people wouldn’t have read the first line and instantly gone in thinking I was just hating on the Orioles.
I’m also not the only one who didn’t love their moves. Eric Karabell and Keith Law were also critical on ESPN’s Baseball Today podcast. I don’t think I’m goling way out on a limb saying I don’t like their moves, especially when I’ve been watching a team. That would rather go old than young regardless of what you think I know about the Orioles, I dol know a little something about what that looks like.
They are going young… their projected starting rotation includes 1 guy over 30… They have a pretty decent mix of young and old.
They are nowhere near being in danger of going down the same path. Do you know anything about Andy MacPhail? He is the slowest and most deliberate GM in the Bigs. Its 545 PM, I think he finally decided on scrambled vs. sunny side up. The man doesn’t make dumb willy-nilly moves (ala Moehler, Wolf, etc)
Sorry to be harsh, but you aren’t getting much support on the ESPN page either. It is at best a bad comparison. Almost like you are not talking about the same sport.
What does Eric Karabell matter? He talks fantasy baseball. What does he know about real baseball? Anyone can be a fantasy writer. They are correct as often as the weather man.
I also didn’t get much support when I said I didn’t think the Astros were worse than the Pirates. It’s not shocking that people would come out in force to express contrarian views. It’s practically all they do. Every SweetSpot blogger got ripped to shreds last summer when we were asked to write about unlikely all star candidates because nobody got that they were supposed to be unlikely ones. The whole conversation turned to how the dumb Braves blogger could put up Billy Wagner over Martin Prado when that was never even the point.
I appreciate the readers and like the debate, but having a lot of people come out against your article doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It’s practically a given.
Does Keith Law also have no idea what he’s talking about? Because Karabell was only the host posing the question. Law was the ones that riffed on the Orioles trying to win now.
Hey AS
Are you going to go to Dell Diamond games are drive all the way to H-town now?
WOW, that whole Shamrock back and forth was crazy. Hey man, if no one hates you, then no one loves you, right? Writing stuff to try and please everyone will never work. To be honest, you probably just scared the pants off of the Os fans who are freaked out by the notion that they might end up where the Stros are these days. I get it. No one wants to deal with that. But really Shamrock? Spitting venom like that at a blogger with an OPINION? Saying you are lucky because he has time at work? Sounds like you are just dumb and lazy and your boss needs to “offer” you plenty of time at home instead.
I get it Austin, your blogs are simply your take. A great place to start a discussion. Thanks for all the hard work.
Thanks. Input on both sides is always welcome and I’m always just grateful to know people are reading. I certainly don’t go out of my way to ruffle feathers, but I believe that if you’re not, you’re doing something wrong. Opinions are strong all over the place and I like the discussion. Thanks for all your input!
Glad to find a fellow ‘Stros fan here in Austin! Found your blog through ESPN’s most recent power rankings. Have to say I like it so far! Looking forward to following it throughout what looks like it’s going to be a looooong season.
I will have comments of actual purpose next time!
That’s why they’re there! Thanks so much for reading. Really great to have new people aboard. I do hope you keep coming back. It’s good to have the comfort of friends through a long, cold season. Maybe things will get better starting tomorrow night.
Hey Austin!
Great blog! Found it through the Power Rankings, too. I’m a lifelong Astro fan in Peoria, Ill. (born in Indiana) and, let me tell you, it can be lonely up here in Cubs/Cards land.
Looks like a long year for our beloved ‘Stros. The major highlight might just be the fan on the field who made the great escape.
lol…I hope that’s not the highlight of the year. It’s already shaping up to be, like the highlight of last year being that dude who let his girlfriend get hit by the foul ball.
Thanks for reading! Hang in there…happier times are ahead.
This is totally NOT baseball-related, although I did discover your blog at the ESPN 2011 Baseball Power Rankings page; you have an uncommon last name and I am descended from Swaffords. I’d like to learn if we have some common ancestry- especially since we are both apparent baseball fanatics!
Hey,
Do Astros fans living in Austin ever get together?
Thanks for the blog!
Gary
Hi Austin & Trace,
Thanks for all the effort you guys put into your writing. I’m cheering for the ‘Stros in Portland, OR and attentive to what you guys blog about. Though my cheers are now for all the former Astros in PHL and STL, my hopes are on a young team to start making waves in 2012. Thanks again for your insights and commentary!