Nice!
Astros win!
Framber is happy.
Valdez, Urquidy, Garcia⌠All men. Not pussy pinko commie namby pamby high draft pick college boys. Men! Iâm so glad theyâre on this team.
Verlander and Randy Johnson right up there with him. I was certain we would win the WS adding Johnson to the â98 team.
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Oh, this is too funny. Had to share.
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Back when the good guys were still in the National League.
Slurp shit, bud selig.
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That â98 team was something mighty spectacular especially getting Big Unit and watching the Astros tear it up. It still stings losing to the friars in the NLCS.
Fuck you very much, sterling hitchcock and kevin brown.
Nothing like living with a very elderly (18+} dog. Bowie had me up four times during the night/early morning (his heart meds include diuretics), and here I sit drinking coffee when I should be asleep. Good thing I am single; I doubt any woman would love me enough to put up with this.
Until 2017 and maybe 2019, the 1998 version of the Astros was my favorite team. It had everything, most notably a powerful lineup, and then Hun added Randy Johnson. The WS was certain, I thought. The offenseâs ineptitude against SD was inexplicable, but in retrospect, we had a slight warning. At the end of August, 50 home runs also seemed certain for Alou, but then he stopped hitting them in September. Biggioâs and Bagwellâs failures in the playoffs also were inexplicable, and I still have difficulty believing we did not celebrate a WS championship in 1998.
1980, 1986, 1998, 2004, 2005, 2017, and 2019 were the special years (did I omit any?), but for me, 1998 and 2019 were the WS championships which should have been. A beer-aided extended discussion of these teams with you faithful but long-suffering fans would be fun.
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Sadly, Coach, while I have watched everyone of those seasons, my memory extends back only to last week. Iâll leave it to the younger posters on here to debate those seasonal vagaries.
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Your memory could not possibly be worse than mine, but I do remember general disappointments, if not every specific detail.
1998 had my hopes as high as theyâd ever been. The SD loss crushing. The offensive struggles gave me a feeling of suffocating, like the puritans practice of placing large stones on the chest of those accused of wrongdoing.
That feeling colored my baseball experience. Ultimate success, even one series win in the postseason, seemed blocked by an unseen barrier.
Then 2004 happened. The bad start, righting the ship, the Beltran acquisition, the WC clinch. Exhilarating. And finally, a postseason series win. For a special few weeks the best player on the planet earth was a Houston Astro. The disappointment I felt after losing game 7 was far different than the stones on the chest.
When Beltran left I figured weâll thatâs that. The 2005 Pennant (!) was so unexpected. What a gutty team.
Then my baseball dreams were laid to rest. Until âŚ
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Biggest acquisitions: Johnson, Beltran, Verlander (chronological order)
Next tier down: Alou, Pettitte, Clemens, Kent, Morton, Cole (both were mediocre with potential to be great and were in Houston)
This is off the top of my head and is âmodern eraâ only. No doubt there are other big ones.
From my memory, the best Astros team ever was 2019. 1998 was a close second. Obviously, the most successful was 2017. The biggest knot in my stomach was probably 1986.
Agreed re everything but the knot. Game 7 2019 replaced Game 6 1986 for me. The major difference was we were up later in the game in 1986.
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1981 second half was a nice ride. That year had to be real frustrating for Reds fans.
I guess thatâs part of it. Once that 8th inning got away from Harris, that was pretty much that. It happened fast. Game 6 in '86 had me worked up for hours. Plus, after winning in 2017, I promised myself that anything that ever happened after that would be be gravy. But yeah, 2019 Game 7 was a LONG walk in a cold rain.
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7th inning, one out, fucking fluke home run. Ditto re the rain. It was a deluge. Kinda like the cartoon with the guy looking up at the bird which just shit on his head and saying âGo ahead. Everyone else does.â
I had just told you and John at the park and Mark via text âIf we can get through 2-3-4 in the top of the 7th, weâll have a real chance.â
Markâs reply: âHold the fuck on.â
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OopsâŚ7th. SeeâŚitâs a blur.
The next morning was rough too. A woman I work with is best friends with Anibel Sanchezâs wife, and she was at the game and on the field post-game. She did not let me miss how much fun it was.