Astros win the World Series

By Andy Brown

When a team wins after a traumatic event takes place in its city, it makes everybody feel good. Those people deserved a reason to smile, you might read, and this team gave it to them. This narrative is woven into the fabric of countless sports movies. But the story of the 2017 Houston Astros, a team that rode contributions from both stars and former cast-offs, and just four years ago lost 111 games, was compelling in pure baseball terms, with or without the devastation of Hurricane Harvey. That's what made it so special.

After their totally pie-in-the-sky improbable acquisition of Justin Verlander, one of the best starting pitchers of his generation, the rest played out like, well, a movie. The Astros bucked six decades of “close, but no cigar” franchise history, beating the Red Sox and Yankees in two tight series to clinch their second ever World Series berth.

The movie wasn’t over, but it sure seemed to be winding down about eight innings into Game 2 of the World Series.The Dodgers had cruised to a Game 1 win, and were just three outs from taking a commanding 2-0 series lead to Houston with Kenley Jansen, arguably baseball’s most dominant closer, on the mound. Four homers, two innings and an immeasurable amount of drama-filled moments later, the Astros had secured their first-ever World Series win. Watch how that happened here:

The Astros and Dodgers split Games 3 and 4, and then played a fifth game. The Astros won this fifth game, but this video, set to dramatic music, is really the only adequate way to rehash that 13-12 spectacle of sport:

The teams headed back to L.A. for Game 6 with the Astros up 3-2 and Verlander on the mound. The odds were in their favor, and they, almost predictably, lost. This set up a weirdly smooth-sailing Game 7 in which their starting pitcher set an MLB record for hit batters but didn't give up a run and Charlie Morton, a veteran starter who had never been overpowering prior to 2017, threw upper 90s gas by the Dodgers over four innings of dominant one-run ball to seal the deal.

For Astros fans, this was a lot to unpack. Not only did our (surprise! I'm a fan!) team do the one thing we never truly thought possible, but they did so on the heels of a massive disaster in a way that no baseball fan will ever forget. It was almost too good to be true. It still is. It may always be.

The World Series did not *fix* the damage caused by Harvey, which will take years to rebuild. And sadly, with rising sea levels due to climate change and Houston's flat, sprawling water-trap of a design, this wasn't the first time, and definitely won't be the last time a flood wipes out large chunks of the city. But, at risk of drawing false equivalencies and waxing hyperbolic, Houston, like its baseball team this season, is resilient, and is well versed in the art of the rebuild. What the future holds is unclear, but we know this: Houstonians needed a reason to smile, and in spite of all of the work left to be done, the Astros provided that reason.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go polish off my #WorldSeriesGrillz.

Harvey was a few months ago, but the rebuild continues. Here's a list of some ways you can still pitch in (with an emphasis on local charitable efforts): https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/ways-can-help-people-hurricane-harvey/