I think we have all kind of accepted that the start of this Astros’ season has been a real championship bummer. The Astros still can’t hit (consistently) the bullpen is pitching coach pitch games, and starters are falling off. (Side note: the starting pitcher leaguewide issue can be fully blamed on Trevor Bauer. I will write about that later this week). But you know what has also fallen off this season? The Astros’ social media game.
Astrosposting
I will be the first to tell you I hate when brands have personalities. Whoever started the Wendy’s Twitter account’s personality that has spread to every other brand should be tried at the Hague. Their crimes against humanity are too egregious to be judged by a jury of their peers. Peers like that should not be allowed to vote, nor have any say in their earthly judgment. Their cosmic judgment is coming tenfold.
But, at the same time, I can forgive sports teams being a bit more boisterous and colloquial. I don’t expect them to tweet like they’re launching a new Salesforce product. Now, sports teams get relatively high praise for being interactive. And, for all the success that the Astros have had on the field, the social media team just kind of understood how to do a good job. Something, something an organization of champions.
I have also realized that the content has changed this season. The Astros used to post some gems like this.
These obviously rocked. And it earmarked an era of nonstop and unparalleled success. A dynastic era; a Houston 20th century first.
New Era Astros
So here’s my answer to the question – no, we shouldn’t. You shouldn’t. I’ll again be the first one to sit out here and say that I liked how the Astros posted. I also really liked that one time the Rockets shot an emoji horse. But even though those moments above are cemented in a keyholed and winning memory, they are a product of their time. Since 2019, the Astros have been the bad guys. The Astros were pigeonholed to be a team of villains, and the social media team did a good job acting like it. Why do you think whoever posted the horse tweet got fired? Team social media accounts are characters, and in some sense, players, too.
And from the heights of the tweets above, the Astros do this kind of branding now.
I have seen this kind of posting attributed to Gen Z. I disagree. This kind of branding is more similar to a middle-millennial trying to post like Gen Z. Only the cringiest Gen Zers use that kind of language unironically; see the link to “mother is mothering”, above. If this was a Gen Z manager, they’d be posting about Donghua Jinlong’s exceptional line of glycine products.
And like, yeah, it sucks. It’s not inspiring. I’m not going to sit here and pretend it’s on the same level as above. But even the best social media misses sometimes. Also, I don’t think this has anything to do with the social media manager (see next section). I will wildly speculate in a second, but this isn’t a problem tied to new personnel. In a year we’ve seen a lot go bad on the field, the main concern shouldn’t be comparing postseason social media posts to 4-7 posts.
Is there a drop-off? Sure. But I don’t really know how to say ” this doesn’t really matter” in so many ways. This blog is built off of caring too much about sports. I even talked about how the Rockets’ season hashtag was lame. But going on a crusade against the Astros’ social media because it’s not witty enough? I think maybe touch some grass, champ.
Stop Being Weird Online, Grifters
There are also fans posting the social media handler’s LinkedIn. That’s legitimately psycho behavior. I am dangerously online, but that’s more because I have thoughts on the TikTok Rizz Party. (Side note: Any outlet posting about the TikTok Rizz Party is already a week late). Or that I followed some schizoposting psychos and their theories for the eclipse. But that kind of “internet sleuthing” behavior is grass-touch-inducing.
There has been an amount of Astros-based grifting for years now from people who don’t actually put out any of their own content or just bandwaggoned onto a successful team. There seem to be a fair few of them leading the charge. In another world, I would love to call them out, but we have like 95 followers and most of them are porn bots.
Jorden Wildly Sepculates
I want to wrap this whole thing up maybe speculating why things are different (I’m extremely qualified to say nonsense online). First, I think there was some directive from above to change the game. It’s the Espada-era. The Astros from that era are almost all gone. And I can’t imagine Jim Crane is in love with the idea of being the league villain. The A’s are giving him a run for his money, though. I can fully imagine a scenario where Jim Crane, or even some collaborative decision, made the decision to be more milquetoast. And, realistically, I don’t hate that idea.
A couple of weeks ago, Jim Nantz mentioned that UH grads have this chip on their shoulder. But, I also think that chip applies to a lot of Houston. The Third Coast is perpetually forgotten in the national conversation. We are, in media and popular narrative, a forgotten people. So, when the villain edit was given to the city, a lot of people embraced it. If there’s one thing worse than hate, it’s apathy. And we were apathetically looked upon. So, the villain edit gave some attention and inspiration.
But the era is changing.
But, maybe more likely, second. The Astros kind of suck now. That can get better. But no one likes boisterous losers. Leave that to Texas A&M fans who need the attention to feel relevant. Maybe, for now, accept that the Astros of the dynastic era may be done for. It may be a new era. Big emphasis on may. If there is one thing I hate more than brands trying to be “chill”, it’s losers who still pretend they’re winners. This applies to Yankees fans, Manchester United fans, and the aforementioned Texas A&M (have fun in the B1G cowards).
So, to wrap this up, again answering the question – stop putting this weird pressure on the social media content. Things change, people leave jobs, and new eras begin. Maybe just take a backseat and watch some baseball and, I don’t know, focus on the bullpen and not tweets.
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