Jim Crane Expects the Astros To Make the Playoffs, Lauds the Astros Foundation On Record Breaking $725,000 Wine Night
A Fireside Chat With Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio
By Shelby Hodge //
Hope springs eternal. Just ask Houston Astros owner Jim Crane as he considered his team’s prospects at last Saturday night’s Astors Hall of Fame Wine Dinner held on the carefully covered field at Daikin Park.
“We’re playing tonight and we’re tied 2 to 2 (right now) so everything’s going all at once,” Crane tells PaperCity. “I think, you know, we’re up three. We’re playing better. We’ve got some of our pitchers back. I think we’ll make the playoffs.”
The game against the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t go as Crane hoped, but heading into Friday, the Astros still hold a one game lead over the Texas Rangers in the American League West and the tiebreaker over the Rangers with only nine games left in the regular season. Which means the Rangers have to finish a game ahead of the Astros to prevent Houston from winning the division. Again.
Even bigger picture hopes were surpassed at the wine dinner in some ways with record proceeds of more than $725,000 for the Houston Astros Foundation. Call it a major win for dinner chairs Brooke and Kevin Lee and Jill and Frank Stagg.
“We’ve got a big wine dinner tonight and we’re raising a lot of money,” Crane says. “The foundation has done some great things around town and this is just another event to give back to the community.
“So we’re very happy to have our winemaker at Aperture here, Jesse Katz, who informed me tonight that we have 49 hundred point wines. So you’re going to have some great wine tonight. Everyone’s going to have fun and we’re going to raise some more money tonight.”
SHOP
Great wines and great food, thanks to Potente chef Danny Trace and his team. Crane is an investor and partner in the winery and the owner of Potente restaurant, which sits close to Daikin Park.
As is tradition, the evening began with cocktails on the edge of the field and photo ops with National Baseball Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. That duo would be on stage later in the evening in an uneventful fireside style chat with Crane. Nothing new got revealed on who the Astros’ new general manager will be or the next season status of manager Joe Espada.
The program included remarks from Astros Foundation board chair Krystal Crane Thompson, Astros VP of community affairs and executive director of the Astros Foundation Emelda Douglas, Relevant Worldwide founder Patti Smith, Chef Trace and winemaker Katz.
PC Seen: Jared Crane, Ann and Dr. Jim Muntz, Kara and Lance McCullers Jr., Janet Gurwitch and Ron Franklin, Houston Texans Hall of Famer Andre Johnson, Pamela Morse and Dan Pastorini, Sheridan and John Eddie Williams, Rudy Tomjanovich, Emily and Tug Hanley, and rapper and philanthropist Trae tha Truth, recipient of a Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award.
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