A week after the All-Star Break in 2005, the Houston Astros were swept in St. Louis. The loss dropped them two under .500 and for all intents and purposes, left them dead in the water. Some fourteen weeks later, they’d shock the baseball world, appearing in their first World Series.
Tim Purpura was at the helm as GM and sat down for an extensive interview with The Crawfish Boxes.
Andy & Roger in 2005. What did they bring to the clubhouse each day?
They brought legitimacy to Houston baseball. They were great teammates, and set the standard in different ways. As you know, we signed Andy first to help us win games in the post-season.
But we hoped he would also help us develop some of our good young pitchers (Oswalt, Lidge, etc.) He was the guy to who was teaching the young pitchers mound presence, hyped up their competitiveness, etc. It seemed like whenever I saw Andy in the clubhouse or dugout, he always had a young pitcher by his side.
Roger brought a competitiveness that we never had in recent times. Roger was also ultimately prepared. During spring training in 2005, the head groundskeeper came running into my office from the pouring rain to tell me that the crew couldn’t get Roger off one of the mounds. Afraid that he might get hurt, I ran down there to talk to him. When I got outside (in the rain) I asked him if he could bring it inside and finish his bullpen on an indoor mound. After I made my request he said, “but Boss, when else am I going to be able to practice throwing from the mound in the rain.”
When he first came on board, on Opening Day, he had hundreds of Under Armor fleece sweatshirts with his personal logo and his number 22 embroidered. He had the clubhouse team distribute them not only to the players, but every single full-time employee at Minute Maid Park. He’s a very thoughtful person.
How tough is it to deal away aging vets and stars when the organization and fans have such an attachment? The Astros recently have endured that with the Tucker, Bregman departures.
Unfortunately, we didn’t do a good job doing that. Our fans, our owner, etc. put a great deal of pressure on us to stay the course, particularly after the World Series in 05.
I believe that the budgets for free agents, player development, and scouting as well as foreign signings and operations must be robust enough to be able to create the next star players to satisfy.
Have you ever seen anything like Ohtani?
Generational talent. In a word: No.
The ones that are high on the list for me are Barry Bonds, Nolan Ryan, and. Roger Clemens. I still cannot believe that Nolan never won a Cy Young Award, let alone multiple awards. Nolan started the movement towards weight training which was the match that set Major League teams starting strength and conditioning programs.
As for Ohtani, I would pay to see him. When he came into the League with the Angels, my daughter and I would always try the see him in Arlington, when the club was in town. He can do it all and has already.
What’s a typical day life now for you?
Busy…for the recent year or so I have been developing a negotiation, mediation and arbitration practice.
Purpura Mediation | Sports & Business Mediation & Arbitration Think NIL issues.
Even though Purpura’s tenure as GM was brief, his impact was historic, delivering the first pennant in franchise history.
Ask Jerry Dipoto in Seattle or A.J. Preller in San Diego if they wouldn’t change places. In combination, they’ve been working as GM’s for a combined twenty five years and are still chasing a Series appearance.
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