WORLD CHAMPION HOUSTON ASTROS!!!!! WOW THAT FEELS GOOD TO TYPE!!!!

All the pain, all the angst, all the ghosts of more than a half century of waiting were whisked away in the greatest World Series ever by the greatest Houston Astros team ever.

This is for Houston. This is the championship that is ours. This is the championship that no one can say would have belonged to someone else if Michael Jordan had not retired. This is the championship of the century for a city that was inundated a couple of months ago with the flood of the century.

All the memories and ghosts that had haunted this team over the years are gone now. The playoff drought from 1962 to 1979, the hurt of 1980, the 16-inning loss in 1986, the first round losses in the late 90s, the close calls in the mid-2000s, the White Sox sweep in 2005, the three 100+ loss seasons, the loss to the Royals when they were probably too young to win it in 2015.

(In a side note – Carlos Correa just proposed live on national TV to his girl friend and she of course said YESSSSSS!!!)

This win is for all the wonderful fans who have lived and mostly died with this team over the years. This win is for the fans like my father who have moved on to a better place, but who must have smiled down on this amazing team.

The Astros had tried to win championships over the last 50+ years in so many ways. They tried doing it with youngsters, with oldsters, with trades, with free agents and home-grown. Every formula they tried never worked. But this one did.

The Astros of 2017 got off to a great start and then, despite losing their whole rotation, Carlos Correa, and George Springer to injuries of various lengths, they came within a hair’s breadth of the best record in the American League and in the majors. This was the most resilient team most of us had ever seen. They made a reputation of never being out of games, rallying over and over again during the regular season for late inning victories. When they did this in the playoffs and in the World Series the nation finally saw that this team had one of the biggest hearts combined with the biggest talent you are likely to ever witness.

They marched through the media darlings in three straight playoff series, putting to rest the Red Sox, the Yankees and the Dodgers. That felt as good as anything you could mention (except for the fact that this whole team should be back almost completely intact in 2018). It felt so good to do this while the whole media world wanted their opponents to win. The World Series had the insanity of Game 2 and Game 5 and then the almost normal win in Game 7. It was a tremendous, incessant march to the World Championship.

There are so many memories to be gleaned from this season and postseason. The greatest for me is seeing George Springer win the World Series MVP.  During a chunk of the playoffs he was awful. In the beginning of the World Series he was stinking it up so bad that most folks wanted him moved down or out of the lineup. And then he bounced back and was the most valuable player for this great team with 5 homers in the World Series and the most total bases in WS history. (OK and the seventh game MVP Charlie Morton was tremendous too….)

Greatest moment number two was waking up on September 1 and finding that the Astros had picked up one of the best pitchers in baseball, Justin Verlander, for the stretch run and playoffs without stripping the minor leagues. JV carried the team on his back and gave them their mojo back.

But everyone did something this season and post-season. Jose Altuve, Springer, Carlos Correa, Josh Reddick, Brian McCann, Evan Gattis, Carlos Beltran, Jake Marisnick, Alex Bregman, Yuli Gurriel, Nori Aoki, Derek Fisher, Marwin Gonzalez,  Cameron Maybin, Verlander, Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers, Charlie Morton, Brad Peacock, Collin McHugh, Mike Fiers, Ken Giles, Chris Devenski, Will Harris, Francisco Liriano, Luke Gregerson, Joe Musgrove, Francis Martes, James Hoyt, Michael Feliz and Tony Sipp along with others all did something to get this team to the playoffs and through the playoffs.

OK, your turn. You suffered through all or most of the low points of the last 56 seasons and are now on Cloud 9.

So a quick quiz for you….

  • When did you finally start believing in the Jeff Luhnow Plan?
  • Did you ever believe this day would come in your lifetime?
  • What was the greatest moment for you during the regular season?
  • What was the greatest moment for you during the postseason?
  • Is there someone you wish was here to see this?
  • Who is the MVP of this team?
  • Who do you feel happiest for?
  • Can this team do this again?
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142 responses to “WORLD CHAMPION HOUSTON ASTROS!!!!! WOW THAT FEELS GOOD TO TYPE!!!!”

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  1. Moran is an interesting name. He only really came into his own in Fresno this season. He has the tools to be a power hitter…..but so does Fisher! I really hope those two guys and maybe White can go play winter ball. They NEED to face major league pitching, and unless something huge happens Gattis will be here next year. Fisher has some serious fast feet, and plays left a out as good as Marwin. If we loose Fisher in a trade, it will seriously come back to bite us on the butt. Trust me.
    Ok gang…I finally washed my Springer shirt, and my other Jersey, and put them up until next March. I’m still smiling and I don’t intend to stop!😍

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  2. When did you finally start believing in the Jeff Luhnow Plan? – 2015, as they made the playoffs way earlier than anybody expected and took the eventual world champion Royals to the brink.

    Did you ever believe this day would come in your lifetime?- No, for various reasons I didn’t. Not for the Astros’ side of it, but mine.

    What was the greatest moment for you during the regular season? That run towards the end of the season. We were playing like we did before August, and that carried over to the post season.

    What was the greatest moment for you during the postseason?- Uh, gee, the Series win. Not just for the win, either…we shut them down in Game 7, and the Dodgers were never really in the game.

    Is there someone you wish was here to see this?- My dad, but also my late aunt Annie (his sister). She passed last year (in Sept), and she was a die hard fan. When the Astros won, I saw all of her kids and grandkids on facebook talking about how much she would’ve loved this. I know her and Dad were smiling down on us on the final out.

    Who is the MVP of this team? – This is gonna sound crazy, but…AJ Hinch. As much grief as we gave him during the season…he kept the team up when the entire rotation and Carlos Correa were out with injury. Despite a slight swoon in August,he kept up the team’s morale. The biggest revelation to me was the way he outmanaged Roberts in the Series. I moderate a Brian Wilson/Beach Boys forum, and there was a discussion of the series in the off-topic subsection. Hinch opened a lot of eyes this year, and I think this was the case where us as hometown fans were harder on him than anybody else was.

    Who do you feel happiest for?- Besides myself and my family, I gotta say I’m happiest for Becky.

    Can this team do this again?- Most definitely. The weird part is going into the season as defending champions, as the team to beat as opposed to underdogs. I guess this is what it feels like for fans in other cities. I’m still trying to process this!

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  3. Every other year of my baseball life I’ve impatiently waited for the end of the World Series so talk would turn to next year for the Astros.
    So here are all of you discussing next year and I’m still reliving November the first. It’s like- this is it and there’s nothing left.

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    • Not me girlfriend! I’m relishing this World Series win, over, and over again!
      It would be fine with me if the entire team came back next year….well, without Tony Sipp! I still can’t believe this happened!!!

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      • That’s what I mean. I’m still relishing it too. Driving my family crazy watching the end of the game over and over. I guess what I’m trying to say is, hey, let’s all enjoy this for a couple of weeks and then think about next year.
        With the exception of Sipp and Fiers let em all come back and let’s do it all again.

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      • Becky and Sandy, the truth is, I am unable to process this. “World Series Champs” and “Astros” occupy distinct and separate compartments in my mind and I just can’t seem to get the synapse to work. Wish I had at least a week off to review and think about this. 🙂

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