The Launch Angle

Forget You, Astros Princess Day is Awesome

It’s Astros Princess Day, and I don’t care what you or any Astros beat reporter think, this is the best theme day of the season at Daikin Park. As you might have guessed, I have a little girl. She’s eight now, so the appeal of princesses isn’t as strong as it was 3 or 4 years ago, at least not enough to overcome the fact that she finds watching baseball boring, so I’m not going this year. I did bring her in 2022 and 2023 though, and it was phenomenal.

If the Astros organization put in as much time, effort, and execution into their baseball operations as they do Astros Princess Day, we’d be winning the World Series every year.

I suppose it’s not an automatic that just because I think Astros Princess day is great that I have a little girl. I once stood in line on a Disney Cruise for my daughter to have her picture taken with Tinkerbell. A few people in front of us was a man who looked to be in his mid 30’s talking the ear off the mom in front of him about anything and everything Disney. The dad in front of me (who I didn’t know) turned and asked me, “Hey.. does that guy have a child with him?” “He does not,” I replied. We didn’t say anything more, but we looked at each other, and I’m pretty sure we were thinking the same thing.

This won’t be your usual TLA preview piece, but Astros Princess Day comes but once a year, and I have the pen and the publish button, so let’s talk tiaras.

Most years, Astros themed tiaras were given out to the first 10,000 fans. That’s the case again this year, although this year’s model has the City Connect logo on it, rather than the traditional H. I prefer the traditional H, because it’s centered. The italics in City Connect A throws the balance off.

If I have any gripe about how Astros Princess Day is run, it’s the tiara giveaway. If you have small children, you know that bringing them to the ballpark at gates open is just not practical. You’re trying to take them to a 3 hour sporting event (and really, when they’re very young, I’m just trying to get them to last until the 7th inning stretch so they can sing the songs.) Adding another 2 hours before the game can be a lot to ask.

So what happens is you get to the ballpark, but because you weren’t there at gates open, there’s no tiara for your 4 year-old girl. At least that’s what happened to me in 2022. Meanwhile grown men with absolutely no use for this shiny piece of plastic walk around with them in their pocket, because everyone just takes the giveaway, suckers for “free” crap. Really, they should have a reserve stash of tiaras just for little girls. Nobody else is going to get the kind of joy from silver plastic that little girls will.

In the end, an older woman who had 3 of them, still in plastic wrap, graciously gave one to my daughter. Hard to say no to a little girl in an Elsa dress.

In 2022, for whatever reason, there was no special add-on event party, just an add-on special item: an Astros Jewelry Caddy of surprisingly good quality that my daughter still uses today.

Excitement for the Astros Princess Day baseball game peaked at first pitch, when Elsa threw one “right down the middle. . . even though rolled right down the middle.”

Excitement waned soon after that when she made a realization by the third inning.

“Daddy, are there any more princesses going to come out?”

“NO,” her older brother jumped in to answer.

They integrated princess related activities and video bits on the scoreboard between innings, including challenging Astros to name as many princesses as they could. They were terrible. I don’t know how they were that bad. The only one who killed it was Jason Castro, who has a daughter himself. If you’re a “girl dad” (am I using that term correctly?), you know all of them.

He knocked out six without even dipping into the well of the classic ones: Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty or Rapunzel.

Still, it was the most fun she’d had at a baseball game since the Rice Owls put a petting zoo in the outfield grass, and they had pony whose mane and tail were dyed rainbow. (A rainbow pony! How do you compete with that?)

In 2023, they brought the Princess party event add-on back, along with Astros earrings, rings, and necklaces, made of the shiniest plastic pennies can buy.

They clear out the Union Station lobby for the party, and go all out. Ice sculptures, cake pops, snacks and tarts. It remains the only time I’ve actually been able to find Minute Maid juices at Minute Maid Park.

Food, drink, dessert stations, face painting, storytelling, balloon animals, princess lessons, photo ops and so so so many princesses.

How important are these princesses? Well let’s put it this way. Here is the 2017 World Series Trophy, the team’s first championship, a crowning achievement of the Houston Astros organization:

Why yes, it is kind of hard to see at that angle. But that’s the only angle you can see it with, because it’s blocked in front by a barricade. What could command more attention that the World Series trophy?

Cinderella telling a story at the story telling station, that’s what! Yes, that black barrier behind Cinderella’s royal Barca-Lounger is covering the 2017 World Series trophy display. Not one of those girls is missing it either. They’re more riveted than Seattle fans in T-Mobile Park in an 18 inning postseason game. Except these girls are going to get a happy ending.

Cinderella is reading the Cinderella story to the kids. That’s how the station works. Each princess reads their respective storybook to the kids. They’re basically telling their life stories. It’s like some weird motivational speaker session for little girls about how if you believe it, you can achieve it, and you too can score yourself a privileged position in a monarchy.

The 2022 trophy was still in plain view though, backdrop to the makeup and face paint station (or I guess arm paint for this little girl in frame).

So Happy Astros Princess Day, everyone! This type of stuff doesn’t happen at football, basketball or hockey games (I don’t think). And that’s kind of why I love baseball. You don’t need to be a baseball fan to have a great time at the ballpark.

They should have done this against the Royals though. Having Princess day, an event where they’re having a whole party specifically to “let them eat cake”, against the homeless A’s seems kind of insensitive. I mean, have a little class for a fan base that’s hurting.

All right, I’m done.

All-Star Voting By My 8 Year-Old Daughter

Wait, not done. In honor of princess day, and the fact that online voting for the MLB All-Star Game is still going, I’ll share my 8 year old girl’s ballot. (I shared my 7-year old son’s ballot Friday)

Her filling out the AL side was easy. She looked for the Astros and clicked them. (The Astros Princess Party propaganda worked!)

The NL side got filled out using the old “Hey, I’ve heard of him!” method. That’s how she ended up with Freeman, Bichette, Betts, Tucker and Ohtani. Hyeseong Kim was a “I’ll just choose the Dodger” pick (My brother-in-law in SoCal’s influence at play). Lile and Baldwin? “I dunno,” she said. And then there’s Pete Crow-Armstrong. . . again. Just like her little brother. I like the pick, I just had no idea they know who he was. (I’m still not convinced my daughter does.)

Athletics @ Astros Game Information and Gamethread Details

Oh yeah, there’s a baseball game today too.

The Astros go for their first series sweep since the Cubs series at Wrigley.

Mike Burrows starts for the Astros. I analyzed the changes in Burrows from 2025 with the Pirates to this year with the Astros in my last Burrows start preview piece. Burrows continues to give innings, but they’re not always the greatest innings. Last start he was touched for 6 runs, 5 earned in a 5 inning outing, raising his season ERA to 5.66 and WHIP to 1.54. He is 3-7 on the season in 12 starts.

The A’s have a fair number of lefties they can load into the lineup, and Burrows has struggled against lefties this year.

Rookie southpaw Gage Jump takes the mound for the A’s, called up last month when the A’s were still leading the division.

He’s made 2 starts in his MLB career. He struggled in his debut, allowing 9 hits and 4 runs in 5 innings and in a loss to the Pirates. In his second start though, he went 7 innings on just 85 pitches against the Cubs, allowing just 3 hits and 1 run, striking out 5 and walking 1, showing why he’s a top 50 MLB prospect.

The game will be broadcast at 1:10 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.

We hope you will join us and the rest of the Launch Angle community for the game! The turnout has been amazing on the TLA Discord Server for the game threads.

Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .

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If you’ve participated in game threads on other Astros sites in the past, you will probably see a lot of familiar names. Chat, lurk, do whatever! (But please say “hi”, so we know you’re not a bot.)

Feature photo and all photos within this article taken by mhatter106. (Well, actually, I think my wife may have taken the feature photo.)