Four Big Questions With Former Astros GM Tim Purpura
UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 09: Baseball: NLDS Playoffs, Houston Astros Morgan Ensberg (14) and Raul Chavez (46) victorious after Chris Burke hit game winning 18th inning home run vs Atlanta Braves, Game 4, Longest postseason game, Astros win series, Houston, TX 10/9/2005 (Photo by David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (SetNumber: X74405 TK4) 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.