How much are memories worth? We met people gambling for them.
Some Astros season-ticket holders spent big on World Series tickets to see a team that is hardly a sure bet and is flirting with elimination. Those buying the tickets, though, said nothing beats the payoff.
Choosing seats for a potential Astros World Series hyped up season-ticket holders at the Minute Maid Park box office.
“Look at me and you think I’m not loud,” Robert Diego said. “I’m a loud man. And I will be loud.”
Like plenty of Houstonians, Diego suffered watching the Astros lose three ALCS games in the Bronx.
“I’m still mad,” Diego said. “I didn’t watch TV. I didn’t watch any of the interviews. I can’t watch it. I’m tired of Yankee stuff. You know, if anybody shoves (Aaron) Judge up my butt one more time, I’m going to kick somebody’s butt.”
Still, he and Adrian Rodriguez felt they had to buy tickets to games that may never happen.
“All I have is hope and faith,” Rodriguez said. “I called it. Astros-Dodgers (in the World Series).”
However, if Houston loses Friday, its season is over.
“If they lose tomorrow, oh well,” Rodriguez said. “I’m still a die-hard Astros fan no matter what.”
“For the logistics of it, whatever I spent it goes into my season-ticket fund anyway,” Diego said. “So I’m not losing money. But, dude, hey, we’re going to the World Series.”
Both men said it is like buying memories. Rodriguez planned to use his tickets to bond with his 9-month-old.
“As a father, it’s just memories that you have to cherish forever,” he said. “Every minute, every inning, every pitch you (have) to love it as a dad just to experience stuff like that.”
Diego’s late father and uncle raised him around Astros games. Those times are so sacred to him that Diego now lives two blocks from Minute Maid Park and runs Dean’s bar nearby.
“So I get to walk over here whenever I want to watch a baseball game,” he said. “And I think about my father and my uncle every time I come here.”
Both are ready to do their part during the Astros do-or-die ALCS Game 6 versus the Yankees to help the team bring the World Series to town.
“I just know that I (will) show up tomorrow,” Diego said. “I’m going to be loud. I’m going to be boisterous. People are going to get mad at me. It’s OK. I hope I’m next to Yankee fans.”
“World Series here we come,” Rodriguez said. “Dodgers better be ready.”