SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
Let’s give credit where credit is due, Houston wins in seven, plays Los Angeles Dodgers in World Series
By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today
It wasn’t fake news, just a cruel blow to the Houston baseball fans who have suffered more than any other Major League franchise. And this past season, the biggest city in the state of Texas went through a nasty, flooding hurricane.
But good news came Saturday night, when their Astros took advantage of being back home at Minute Maid Park to blank the New York Yankees, 4-0, celebrate before a delirious packed, loud, rowdy ballpark that has known only frustration, not only in this stadium, but everywhere the club played.
So to pick up the New York Times story Sunday morning and have to search for all the good Houston news, the sportswriter showed how behind the times he was by leading off with the Yanks and not mentioning much about the Astros until the jump page.
Now if the New York Times only ran in the New York dailies, it might get a pass, but for those in Houston who had to read it, it sounded like the writer was sobbing in his Yankee hankie. This for a storied franchise that has won a record 27 World Series.
He told how disappointing the season ended for the Bronx tenants, how they made the postseason as a wild card and survived four elimination games.
How they lost the first two American League championship series in Houston and then came home to win three times and head to the Lone Star State with a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven.
But it all came down to whoever is home is the winner, the one who travels to Los Angeles to open the World Series against the National League champion Dodgers. If people wanted to see the first Yankee-Dodgers series since 1981, they would have to settle for the Dodger blue, which had the best record in baseball, against a franchise that has never, ever won a World Series, not even a game.
And to rub more into the wound, the only time it got that far was in 2005 when it was swept by the Chicago White Sox while still in the National League.
But this writer probably didn’t know that they once launched spaceships in Houston, that it has been suffering from baseball fever since the baseball team was christened as the Colt45s when it was launched in 1962 along with the New York Mets.
That despite having such Hall of Famers like Joe Morgan and Craig Biggio, it only got to have a Champaign celebration when it won the NL pennant in 05. Biggio in fact should throw out the first ball when the Astros come home for games 3, 4 and 5. He played his entire career with Houston.
Before 2005, the closest Houston came was in 1986. Game six of the championship series in the massive Astrodome with the Mets up 3-2 in games and desperately needing to win on this night or else have to face Mike Scott, who came to the Astros from the Mets and was now the best right-hander in the league. No way did they want to see him in game seven.
It was a classic. It went 16 innings, it had four lead changes, it had Houston tie the score in the last of the 10th on a home run from Steve Henderson. In the top of the 16th, New York’s Lenny Dykstra homered into the right field seats and Jesse Orosco set the side down in order.
The Mets then turned back the Boston Red Sox in seven games of a classic World Series that was highlighted by the two out, no one on, and two strikes
before the Mets stunned Boston by actually winning on the Bill Buckner miscue at first base. In game seven, it was Orosco again who got to celebrate in relief.
Whether or not Houston fans watched this series, it was frustrating just to know how close their team came. Thirty one years passed since than, and you can also include the 2005 series as the Astros get another chance to join everybody else who has won the big show.
Don’t feel bad for the Yankees. They are a young, talented team, and they will be back as always. But the New York Times reporter should be cited for turning his story around, Houston deserved better.
