Ok, it’s just the wild card. But, dammit, the Astros win!
The best part about the ‘Stros winning the Wild Card? The Cubs losing. Seriously…looking at their (Cubs) roster at the beginning of the season, and then factor in flipping Alex Gonzalez for Nomar Garciapara, the Cubs were the best team in baseball. On paper. Unforunately for the cubbies, the games aren’t played on paper (one of the worst sports cliches of all time).
When you see a great roster of players underachieving, like the ‘Stros had been doing all season up until mid-August, you can usually bet on the manager getting canned. Typically, I think this is a crock-o-shit. Seriously, the manager’s not the one out on the field playing. I’d like to see a litte more blame placed on the multi-billionaire celebrity whiners that aren’t hitting the ball or getting oppossing players out, and a little less finger pointing at the team’s manager. But in the case of Jimy Williams, apparantly it really was the manager:
“Gar has just come in here and brought a relaxed atmosphere,” Houston’s Lance Berkman said. “He knew that we had a better team than we were showing on the field. He’s a fiery guy and he really has his own style and maybe that little shakeup was just the kind of thing that we needed to get us going.”
Uh, Lance? Did he bring in a relaxed atmosphere, or is he a fiery guy that shook things up?
Either way, without trying to seem too myopic, I think the ‘Stros–the hottest team in baseball since August 14th (36-10) might finally have the momentum to beat the Braves in a playoff series (the Braves have knocked the Astros out of the playoffs three times in the last seven years).
Houston has never won a postseason series in 42 years of existence. This year, as improbable and unconventional as this entire season has been, will be the year that the ‘Stros end the Braves’ post-season dominance over them.
