Tejada's kindness, Cooper's postgame quotes, and who's in Dennis's chair?

Miguel Tejada took a rare game off on Sunday, but he was plenty busy in the hours leading up to first pitch. Just before noon, he walked into Dennis Liborio's office and called PR director Gene Dias, to ask for help in making the ballpark experience a memorable one for one very special fan.

Through mutual friends, Tejada was recently introduced to Dee Dee Trevino, a mother of three who is suffering from cancer. She is not expected to live much longer.

"She said before she died, she wanted to meet me," Tejada said.

Tejada made sure that wish was fulfilled. He took Dee Dee to breakfast Sunday morning and left tickets for her to sit in the family section at Minute Maid Park. He then called Dias to arrange for a special message to Dee Dee to run the JumboTron.

"Just something to welcome her to the ballpark and wish her well," Tejada said.

The note on the scoreboard read: "A very special Astros welcome to Dee Dee Trevino!"

The Astros are active in the community, without a doubt. Most afternoons during homestands, players are out and about making hospital visits, talking to students and signing autographs. But there's plenty that we don't see, impromptu and random acts of kindness from players not for the publicity, but simply because they are good people. Tejada's gesture is a true example of just that. Good for him.

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After Sunday's loss, manager Cecil Cooper called it the worst loss of the year, from his viewpoint:

"This one hurts, real bad," he said. "Worst one of the year for me. We had a chance to sweep a very good (Tigers) team, we held them at bay with good pitching and we let it slip. It hurt, real bad."

On Russ Ortiz, who allowed two runs over 7 1/3 innings, Cooper said this:

"He was very aggressive, down in the zone. We counted 22 of his first 27 hitters he faced, he threw first pitch strikes. That's what we asked him to do and he did it. Very impressive."

Cooper also said he's not worried about Jose Valverde, health wise. Cooper blamed the pitch to Brandon Inge that was hit out for a game-winning two-run homer simply on "bad location."

"He threw a fastball to a very good fastball hitter," Cooper said.

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Sundays are really slow around the Astros clubhouse, which presents the perfect setting for another installment of "Who's in Dennis's Chair?" As we've discussed in past blogs, Liborio's office is pretty much the center of the Astros' universe -- a baseball Pentagon of sorts. You never know who you'll find in the black cushy chair that sits in the middle of his office. On Sunday, we found none other than Hunter Pence.

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