Yusei Kikuchi Shares a Sweet Moment With His Wife, Ronel Blanco Shows Astros Dad Moves & Astros Wives Welcome All — Inside Houston’s Winning, Giving Culture

Ronel Blanco bounces his baby daughter on his lap as his toddler daughter buzzes around his legs. Just across the table from Blanco, Yusei Kikuchi wrestles with his squirming 5-year-old son Leo who’s trying to break free from his arms. On this afternoon, these two Houston Astros starting pitchers — the two men who’ve saved an injury-rocked pitching staff in many ways — are just Astros dads.

It is nearly impossible for the parenting load to really ever be equal in a Major League Baseball player relationship. It’s certainly never happening during the season. The demands of the MLB life, the travel and hours required, are too great. But for a few hours on a Friday during the heart of a playoff push, guys like Blanco and Kikuchi can do their part while their wives walk the runway in the Astros Foundation’s charity luncheon and fashion show.

Kikuchi just pitched six innings of one run, nine strikeout ball the night before. Blanco will throw six innings the night after, collecting another win while racking up nine Ks of his own and allowing two runs. These two pitchers — one a battler from the Dominican who didn’t become a full-time starter until after he turned 30, the other a former Japanese phenom turned MLB veteran on his third team who many screamed Dana Brown gave up too much to acquire — are two of the biggest reason the Astros are one win over the Mariners from clinching another division title. But in this moment, these double surprise saviors are both just doting dads, dealing with some adorably energetic kids.

“It’s fun,” Kat Pressly says of the role reversal of the Astros players watching and cheering on their wives this time. “It was really sweet to see them all out there and filming. And they had the flowers — such a cute touch.

“I love turning the tables and having them cheering us on for once.”

These Astros, who can clinch the franchise’s eighth straight playoff appearance with a win over Seattle on Monday night, are built on a foundation of togetherness in many ways. Few teams in any sport are better at integrating new players into the clubhouse, into a culture that’s survived players coming and going with Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and these days Framber Valdez making sure the standards live on.

Astros wives like Kat Pressly, Nina Altuve, Kara McCullers, Reagan Bregman, Nancy Dubon and Samantha Tucker are something of the secret sauce though, extending that togetherness beyond the clubhouse.

“It’s real cool, the community we’ve built around this kind of lifestyle,” Reagan Bregman says. “It’s just very different. There’s a lot of games. They’re late at night. A lot of us have kids. So the community that we’ve built outside of baseball is amazing.”

Charity — and causes that are important to the Astros wives and the Astros dads — becomes another common link. Almost all the Astros more established players have their own foundations with their wives. Kyle Tucker and Samantha Tucker got advice from Lance McCullers and Kara McCullers on how to start theirs. Now Tucker is the Astros’ Roberto Clemente Award nominee for all the Tuckers do for hospice, Sunshine Kids and more. Back in 2016, early in his Astros’ run, Lance McCullers was the team’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee.

This circle of giving extends while drawing teammates closer together.

The Astros’ Uncommonly Close Clubhouse

Every team in professional sports makes some kind of charity push, but with the Astros under Jim Crane it’s more of a foundational pillar, one that new players quickly get drawn into. It’s a way of life with this team, right along with the consistent winning.

“There’s nothing that we can’t ask them,” Paula Harris, the executive director of the Astros Foundation, says. “Make-A-Wish will be here (for the Seattle Mariners series). Kids flying in wanting the opportunity, the families just wanting their kids to smile. Going through some really tough times.

“And I mean this is a busy, busy time. Our guys have their heads on straight. Trying to make sure we get this World Series ring again. But they make time. They never tell us no. When it comes to the kids. When it coms to families. When it comes to putting smiles on people’s faces.”

This is a clubhouse that shares. Whether it’s hitting tips. Good nanny recommendations. Or joy.

“I remember when I first started dating Alex and I was really welcomed onto the team,” Reagan Bregman says. “And that just meant so much to me. Because I was brand new to baseball, and coming into all this, and moving to Houston. So it’s so nice to have people there that can tell you what restaurants to go to. Or where to get your hair done. Or whatever it is.”

It can become easier for new Astros like Yusei Kikuchi and reliever Caleb Ferguson to adjust when they know their wives are making friends off the field in their new city. It’s much more fun to have a moment when you have people to share it with.

Rumi Kikuchi certainly has a sweet one during the Astros wives fashion show. The Kikuchi’s energy bolt of a son is lifted onto the end of the runway by dad to greet his mom, but Leo Kikuchi does not just wrap around Rumi in an adorable hug. He joins her for the walk back down the runway, holding her hand and turning back to wave goodbye to his pitcher dad.

Even Chris Rock would appreciate Leo Kikuchi’s sense of comic timing.

“The kids always steal the show,” Kat Pressly says. “He was cracking me up. Waving to everyone. He had his moment. And all the Graveman girls (the young daughters of reliever Kendall Graveman and his wife Victoria) stepped up onto the stage. There were a few. That was really cute.”

These Astros dads help one another too. With Alex Bregman unable to make the fashion show, Astros closer Josh Hader makes sure Reagan Bregman still gets flowers at the end of the runway like the other Astros wives, stepping in to hand them off. Call it another save.

Moments like this make this Champions for Healthy Families Lunch and Fashion Show anything but just another event. They also can bring a close team even closer together. Hader played six seasons in Milwaukee and two in San Diego before signing with Houston as a free agent this offseason. He and his wife Maria are well versed in this MLB life. But they’ve found that playing for the Astros is different.

Closer. More family like.

“This is by far the best that I’ve been on,” Maria Hader says when I ask her about the Astros wives’ camaraderie. “Everyone gets along. Everyone hangs out. Everyone so easily meshes together. And I feel like that’s the same with the guys.

“It’s been a fun season. And I can’t wait to keep it rolling.”

On this day, when a pregnant Nancy Dubon walks the runway in a stunning white dress from Tootsies and Astros manager Joe Espada proudly beams while his wife Pamela Espada modeled with the couple’s daughters — middle schooler Eliana and elementary schooler Viviana —it’s about supporting causes that are personal to this women. Causes like autism for the Bregmans and Espadas, Entrusted Houston’s vulnerable families’ assistance for the Dubons, BE A Resource’s work with at-risk kids for the Haders, and Girls Inc. for Kat Pressly.

“So I grew up in Houston,” Kat Pressly says. “So my mom was always on the board of Girls Inc. She was on the board and I’m all about Girl Power, inspiring women. There’s so many amazing causes. My mom really inspired me in the beginning and now I kind of just like followed her lead.”

Tonight, and the October nights to come, it will be about taking care of business on the field. These Astros dads have a mission to do too. With this franchise, it’s all linked together in so many ways. Pushing to help out in the community makes the Astros a stronger, tighter team too.

Being a present dad, finding causes to champion in the community, making time for Make-A-Wish kids with clinch night beckoning does not win games on the field. But it certainly brings these Astros closer together.

For more on the Astros Foundation’s Champions for Healthy Families Lunch and Fashion Show, stayed tuned to PaperCity for legendary society writer Shelby Hodge’s full social article on event. For more of Chris Baldwin’s regular Astros coverage, bookmark this page. Follow Baldwin on Twitter here.