Thunder Gulch colt: "Toy Cannon"
 

The Jo-burg and Rockport Harbor continue to have names rejected, but the Thunder Gulch out of Ceridwen (Lord Avie) officially was named today...

'TOY CANNON'

Suggested by Chuck, and I loved it.

Hope everyone else does, and am curious to see how many know the reference. Hope the colt can live up to the name!

The name is great. Have no clue about the reference. Something to do with Chuck and his toys????

Old Houston Astro outfielder Jimmy Wynn's nickname. Was short and stocky but hit for power.

There was an upper deck seat in the Astrodome near one of the foul poles with a toy cannon logo on the back. Supposedly a Wynn-hit ball landed in that area, and based on the seat location, the ball was hit quite a distance.

The Astrodome was cavernous, so a regular home run was absolutely crushed.

As an Astros fan I'm very pleased with this choice of name.

Bill James thought Jose Cruz was absolutely punished by playing half his games in the dome.

Bagwell was too. Look at the pitchers that the Dome made look outstanding that were total trash elsewhere.

so glad we got to suggest names for this one.

Was great when he played for L.A.

Cool reference.

What's been rejected for the Rockport Harbor colt so far, and what are you trying at the moment?

While I am not disputing that the Dome was a very poor hitters park I'm not sure who you are referring to that looked outstanding only in Houston? IMO the frustrating thing about being an Astros fan during that era was that they werent able to develop that many really good, biased aided pitchers and take advantage of the park effect.

Great name !!

Didn't he bat 3rd in the lineup before Bob Watson?

Isn't there a scene in Apollo 13 where Jimmy Wynn smashes a home run on TV while the controllers watch from the Houston flight control center?

Go Cannon !!!

Now, this is a name that I can relate to! :)

I think the reference fits horse racing as a sport

baseball is the thinking man's game. lot of time to think.

15 minutes of excitement in every 3 or 4 hours of baseball

and the roid controversy

any way

nice name Chuck

I agree that the Astros haven't developed anyone, and that hasn't changed after the move from the Dome.

Jose Lima, Mike Hampton and Darryl Kile all dropped off as soon as they left Houston. Lima was the most disastrous as the new stadium (then known as Enron Field) was totally in his head. Hampton left and went to Colorado before being injured 347 times and Kile had two horrible years in Colorado before going to St. Louis and improving prior to his untimely death. Perhaps the difference between the Astrodome and Coors Field got to them but they definitely dropped off. Nonetheless, I love the horse's name and hope you'll show up with a hat from the rainbow jersey era at his debut.

Does anyone have a way of getting word to him that a horse was named after him? I think the average person would want to know that.

I found a FB page about him, but couldn't find a number or email to him directly.

http://www.facebook.com/hunterpence9...5479542?v=wall

Sounds like a name for a really, really good gate horse.

cool name.. good choice.

I may wear my JR Richard throwback

Hampton never had that one outstanding season again but he pitched very well for the Mets his first season post-Houston and also had a really good season in Atlanta as well. Outside of the year Kile won 19 for Hou he was about as good for St Louis as he was in Hou. Lima was Lima.

The Astros have done a horrific job over the years developing pitching. Out of the best pitchers to play for them (many hardly household names or really even any good):
Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, JR Richard, Mike Scott, Don Wilson, Larry Dierker, Roy Oswalt, Brad Lidge, Billy Wagner, Mike Cuellar, Shane Reynolds, Turk Farrell, Mike Hampton, Dave Smith, Bob Knepper, Joe Niekro, Randy Johnson (Hey it was only 11 games but he did win 10 of them), Andy Pettitte, Valverde...

Only Wagner, Dierker, Wilson, Richard, Smith, Oswalt, Reynolds and Lidge were drafted or 1st signed (pre-draft) by Houston. Of those 3 of them were drafted/signed in the 60's and 3 are strictly closers. So in close to 50 years of Houson Astros pitching development, that is what they have to offer despite having one of the best pitching parks in modern baseball history. Oh boy. I may have regurgitate the Pirates draft record thread to make me feel better