It seems longer than three and a half years ago that Astros fans
flooded downtown to celebrate the club’s first National League pennant.
Since then, the team has spent plenty but failed to develop a
foundation of solid young players. Even when the club made late runs at
the playoffs in 2006 and 2008, it felt a bit like the ‘stros were the
nouveau riche at the country club, waiting to be exposed.

But hoping for the unlikely is half the fun. Even if the team is
looking up at .500 halfway through the season, the ballpark remains a
great place to spend a summer evening. Bring your kids, your friends or
a date and allow yourself to engage in a little wishful thinking. That
may not be a wise approach when judging whether to ford a flooded
underpass, but when it comes to Astros baseball, hope has become a way
of life. If you’re not feeling optimistic, there’s no reason you can’t
ignore the standings and let yourself get lost in a ballgame for a few
hours.

And when it comes to predictions, we thought it’d be a good idea to
get an assessment from a veteran. We sat down with first baseman Lance
Berkman to get his thoughts on how the 2009 campaign will unfold.

Houston Press: Who do you think might break out
this season?

Lance Berkman: (Outfielder) Hunter Pence is a guy who’s a
young player and I think he’s got a world of ability. I don’t know if
you’d call it a breakout because he had a pretty good year last year,
but I’d look for him to continue to improve…(Starting pitcher Felipe)
Paulino has always had a good arm — last year he was hurt —
but he’s really a boon for us because coming into the season he’s not a
guy everyone was pointing to. But he may turn out to be a heck of a
pitcher for us.

HP: Where do you see this team at the All-Star
break?

LB: It’s hard to know exactly how good we’re gonna be, but I
certainly think we’re a well-above-.500 ball club. I would hope that
we’d be above .500 by the All-Star break, but even if we’re not, I’m
not going to change my opinion of the team. I think that every team
that I’ve been on that’s done anything here has been around .500 at the
All-Star break. So that would be a good goal for us, to be there this
year.

HP: So you think this is a team that could put
together the type of run that’s gotten you into the playoffs in the
past?

LB: Absolutely. I wouldn’t want to do it like we’ve had to do
it in the past, where we’ve had to play .700 baseball coming down the
stretch just to have our chance to make the playoffs…But by the same
token, I feel like at some point we are gonna put together a run. I
don’t know if it’ll be good enough or not, but we certainly have the
talent to do it.

HP: Finish this sentence: The Astros will make
the playoffs if…

LB: If we continue to get good starting pitching. I feel like
our offense is going to come around. If we continue to get good work
out of our starters, we’ll make the playoffs.

HP: Okay, say Rick Perry’s comment becomes
reality and Texas secedes. Are the Astros the best team in the
nation?

LB: In the nation of Texas? We’re definitely (better than the
Texas Rangers) until proven otherwise. We’ve been to the playoffs most
recently, been to a World Series.

HP: Would you play in the World Baseball
Classic if Texas were a country?

LB: Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it.

HP: But you didn’t play in the last WBC.

LB: Not in the last one, no. That’s just the United States.
Not nearly as important.

HP: All right, let’s do a little word
association: designated hitter.

LB: Terrible for the game of baseball. It’s not real
baseball. When the pitcher doesn’t hit, the strategy’s not nearly as
much. It’s not how the game was designed to be played.

HP: Sideburns.

LB: Spring training. Spring training only.

HP: Okay, here it looks like I wrote “cognitive
dissonance.”

LB: I’m not sure I understand exactly what that means. It
certainly has something to do with the mind…

HP: Kind of like being in a bad way. How do you
break out of a slump?

LB: It’s tough, there’s not really a secret remedy to get out
of them…you just have to keep going out there and trying to do things
the right way, and eventually it’ll turn…You’ve gotta get through
that, and the worst thing you can do is make another out. And I’ve done
that plenty. You’ve gotta go up there and try to have a good at-bat,
try to be a tough out, and hopefully over the course of the season, my
numbers will be where they’re supposed to be.

HP: When do you think you’ll call it a day?

LB: I don’t know. I’ll take it year by year. I’ve got one
more guaranteed year on this contract, and we’ll see what happens after
that. It’s hard to know. Some years I’ve thought, I’ve gotta be in the
last couple years of my career, and some years you think, I could do
this for another five, six, seven or eight years. I’m in no hurry to
make a decision one way or the other.

Astros 2009 home schedule (all games at Minute Maid Park —
visit astros.com for tickets):

May 21 Milwaukee Brewers

May 22 Texas Rangers

May 23 Texas Rangers

May 24 Texas Rangers

June 1 Colorado Rockies

June 2 Colorado Rockies

June 3 Colorado Rockies

June 4 Colorado Rockies

June 5 Pittsburgh Pirates

June 6 Pittsburgh Pirates

June 7 Pittsburgh Pirates

June 9 Chicago Cubs

June 10 Chicago Cubs

June 11 Chicago Cubs

June 23 Kansas City Royals

June 24 Kansas City Royals

June 25 Kansas City Royals

June 26 Detroit Tigers

June 27 Detroit Tigers

June 28 Detroit Tigers

July 6 Pittsburgh Pirates

July 7 Pittsburgh Pirates

July 8 Pittsburgh Pirates

July 9 Washington Nationals

July 10 Washington Nationals

July 11 Washington Nationals

July 12 Washington Nationals

July 20 St. Louis Cardinals

July 21 St. Louis Cardinals

July 22 St. Louis Cardinals

July 24 New York Mets

July 25 New York Mets

July 26 New York Mets

August 3 San Francisco Giants

August 4 San Francisco Giants

August 5 San Francisco Giants

August 7 Milwaukee Brewers

August 8 Milwaukee Brewers

August 9 Milwaukee Brewers

August 18 Florida Marlins

August 19 Florida Marlins

August 20 Florida Marlins

August 21 Arizona Diamondbacks

August 22 Arizona Diamondbacks

August 23 Arizona Diamondbacks

September 4 Philadelphia Phillies

September 5 Philadelphia Phillies

September 6 Philadelphia Phillies

September 7 Philadelphia Phillies

September 8 Atlanta Braves

September 9 Atlanta Braves

September 10 Atlanta Braves

September 11 Pittsburgh Pirates

September 12 Pittsburgh Pirates

September 13 Pittsburgh Pirates

September 21 St. Louis Cardinals

September 22 St. Louis Cardinals

September 23 St. Louis Cardinals

September 25 Cincinnati Reds

September 26 Cincinnati Reds

September 27 Cincinnati Reds

Soccer Season

Of course, there’s another game in town during the summer.
Professional soccer in the U.S. may have a relatively low profile, but
it’s tough to beat in terms of excitement and athleticism. A Houston
Dynamo match is a lively alternative to baseball for those who end up
dozing in their seats by the seventh-inning stretch. It doesn’t hurt
that star forward Brian Ching and company have brought home two
championships in the three years they’ve been in town. The adventurous
should sit at the end zone with rowdy fan groups El Batallon and the
Texian Army to get the full experience.

Dynamo home schedule (all games played at Robertson Stadium on the
University of Houston campus — visit http://houston.mlsnet.com/t200/ for tickets):

May 23 San Jose Earthquakes

May 30 Toronto FC

June 10 Chivas USA

June 20 Real Salt Lake

July 25 New England Revolution

August 1 D.C. United

August 9 Chicago Fire

August 23 Seattle Sounders FC

September 19 Real Salt Lake

October 4 Kansas City Wizards

October 18 Los Angeles Galaxy

This article appears in May 21-27, 2009.