With word coming early today that Ike had ripped the roof off of the Texans' Reliant Stadium, I was thinking for a minute about how the Astros might be forced to make a playoff push entirely on the road. That probably won't be the case, though, because the 'Stros have told the MLB offices that Minute Maid seems to have weathered the brunt of the hurricane with no major issues. From MLB.com: Of course, Houston has much bigger worries right now then when the Astros play next or if stadiums are OK. And just because the ballpark is playable doesn't mean the games are going to happen this weekend. Most of Houston is without power and there's a foot of water in the city. The league is proposing the Astros and Cubs play their postponed series in Milwaukee with one game on Sunday and two on Monday, but the Astros may not even be able to get out of town in time for that to happnen."The building did what it was designed to do," [Astros' President of Business Operations Pam] Gardner said. "We're still assessing the damage, but there's nothing substantial at this point that we've been able to identify. There's water in the building in a couple of places, but it's minor."
The ballpark was built to be able to sustain hurricane-force winds, and it did just that. The glass-paneling wall that extends from left field to center field was unscathed, and although Astros officials haven't yet looked at the top of the roof, Gardner is confident that part of Minute Maid Park also made it through largely unharmed.
