Cooper, Astros less than thrilled to be playing in Milwaukee

MILWAUKEE - Homefield advantage for Houston?

No way, say the Astros.

"The Cubs are playing at home," said Astros manager Cecil Cooper as he relaxed in the visiting manager's office before Sunday night's Cubs-Astros game at Miller Park.

Let's sort all that out. The Astros are the "home" team here because Hurricane Ike forced this weekend's series out of Houston.

But the Astros chose to use the visitors clubhouse at Miller Park, saying they were used to it. That left the Cubs to dress in the Milwaukee clubhouse. Cubs manager Lou Piniella, however, did not have an office, as Cooper did.

The office of Brewers manager Ned Yost was locked up tight.

"That's all right; I'm in the coaches room," Piniella said. "Perfect. Nice and roomy in there."

Major League Baseball decided late Saturday to have the Cubs and Astros play two of the three games in Milwaukee. The two teams will finish with an afternoon game today. The third game will be played in Houston Sept. 29 only if the postseason is affected.

The Astros had hoped to have the games played in Houston, but the damage from Ike made that impossible. Short of that, they would have preferred a more "neutral" site. Almost all of the fans who filled the first two levels of Miller Park were wearing Cubs blue.

"I was like, 'Why don't we just play them at Wrigley Field?'" said Astros first baseman Lance Berkman. "Might as well. We're playing in their backyard. Major League Baseball could have done a lot better job with their locale they picked for having this game played. We could have gone to Atlanta. We could have done something in Florida.

"In my opinion, there's more going on here than just getting these two games in."

Could it have been politics?

"I don't know," Berkman answered. "Obviously, when you're dealing with baseball, there's a money factor involved. And it's not that I don't understand that. Certainly, there's going to be a much better gate here than there would be at a more neutral site. That had something to do with it.

"We're just players. We just do what they tell us. We don't like it a lot of times, but we do it."

Cooper agreed.

"I am upset," he said. "What are you going to do? You voice your opinion."

Astros general manager Ed Wade said he was just happy his players and their families were OK, sentiments echoed by the Cubs. Wade added that pitcher Fernando Nieve and some staff members stayed at Minute Maid Park over the weekend, using one of the stadium's suites.

The Cubs weren't turning down the good fortune of playing near home. Because no doubleheaders are involved, Piniella pointed out that Houston was able to readjust its pitching rotation.

"We were willing to play Friday, Saturday and Sunday," Piniella. "Look, you can't do anything about the weather."