Backe Readies the Astros

The National League Central can be a hard place to get ahead these days, putting out two to three playoff hopefuls a year the past few seasons.
Just ask Brandon Backe, one of the Houston Astros’ starting pitchers. Backe is in Central Florida with the rest of his team during spring training in Florida. The Astros will be playing again this year in Kissimmee, at the Osceola County Stadium, where they have been holding spring training since 1985. The stadium was renovated to hold more on-lookers and cater to their needs more fully in 2003.
“It’s great to get out here, to get back in shape. It can be hard at first, but it really gets you going forward as far as the season goes. And it’s better to play here than in Arizona,” said Backe. “More humidity here, but no where near as hot.” Backe will be pooling his skills to a pitching rotation featuring ace Roy Oswalt, and new-comer, injury-master Mike Hampton, whom the ‘Stros signed from Atlanta. Already in spring training, Hampton had to leave a practice due to an irregular heartbeat and fly back to Houston to be cleared to play again, and the Astros will pray that will be the extent of his problems this year.
The Astros will need Hampton healthy this year, and the rest of the team needs to follow suit, because the NL Central can eat you alive. There is already talk about the Chicago Cubs’ playoff chances, without much regard to Houston, but you also have to take in account for prennial competitors in the St. Louis Cardinals, and also in the up-start Milwaukee Brewers, who have been starting to make waves as well with their young bats.
As for the challenge, Backe says he is used to it for the most part, and just tries to get better when he can. This will be his third year in the Houson organization, but is not new to Florida after starting his career with the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays (the devil moniker has since been dropped, now they are just referred to as the Rays) when he was drafted in 1998.
The Astros will be taking a powerful lineup into their 2009 campaign, boasting a few of the league’s elite hitters, including Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee, who came on strong towards the end of last year, and hopes to further his talents this year. Also in the lineup is Miguel Tejada, whos production has fallen off a bit in recent years, but is still one of the more dominant defensive short stops in the league, as long as he can stay away from his immigration issues and all of the steroid talk surrounding him.
Houston is looking to improve upon the third place finish from last season, finishing 11 games behind the division leading Cubs, and falling only eight games back of the Brewers in claiming the final playoff spot. Much about this team has remained un-changed, and Backe likes it that way.
“We have a good core of guys out there. We were to close not to make it last year, but I guess you really shouldn’t let it be that close of a race anyways. We are going to have to try much harder to win the tough and tight games and try to get to the playoffs this year.” Backe and the Astros have a gameplan, and their expectations are still high. “We expect to win. We want to win, I want to win. I can play better, and I still think we have a good enough team to compete with the best in the league. We play to win a championship, but doesn’t everybody? It should be.”
Regardless, Houston will have it’s work cut out for them, chasing an upset Cubs team that fell short last year, and has been in the loss column for World Series wins since well before any player on the Astro’s team’s parents can remember, a remarkable 100 years of drought for one of America’s favorite, and most fan-friendly teams.
“We will all just have to work hard, it’s never easy, but once you get rolling and shake off the cobwebs, there’s only one goal in mind, only one goal that matters.”