[ESPN](stark) Astros cast out ghosts of past Octobers

Astros cast out ghosts of past Octobers
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com

ST. LOUIS -- This time, Nolan Ryan didn't let any eighth-inning leads disappear.

This time, Pete Rose didn't bowl over Bruce Bochy.

This time, Kevin Bass didn't strike out with the tying run on second base.

Craig Biggio
Craig Biggio's first shot at a Series ring might be his last.
This time, Pete Munro never made it to the mound.

And this time, Albert Pujols never got a second chance to obliterate the dream.

Yes, this time, the ghosts of Houston Astros Octobers' past were all placed on irrevocable waivers. Because this time, the Astros finally found the magic freeway to take them where no Astros teams had ever gone before.

This time, they're the team going to the World Series, as someone else tries to figure out where it all went wrong.

This time, said Lance Berkman, "we put it all to rest."

And by "all," he didn't just mean one Albert Pujols homer that might -- in the words of Craig Biggio -- "still be going."

Nope, Lance Berkman meant all 43 previous seasons in the life of the franchise -- 43 seasons that sure didn't end this way.

But this team did more than just erase the heartache for the Terry Puhls and J.R. Richards and Mike Scotts who never got to feel this feeling.

This team finally wrote Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell a ticket to their first World Series, after 15 years and more than 2,100 games together.

This team transported Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte back to the World Series, this time wearing the uniform of a franchise they came back home to rescue.

This team won 15 of its first 45 games -- and somehow found a way to spring off that trampoline all the way into the World Series. How'd that happen?

And this team took an Albert Pujols haymaker to the noggin Monday night, watched in amusement as the rest of the world gave it a 10-count, and then rumbled right back to rewrite the ending two days later, with a methodical 5-1 dissection of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Just try to pick the best story line off that buffet. This isn't a baseball team. It's a Rocky movie.

"There isn't just one good story here," said catcher Brad Ausmus. "It's all of them. And that's what makes this such a great story."

But there isn't much doubt about where to start. We start with the two men who have been the face of the Astros forever.

Biggio and Bagwell

It isn't true that Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell have been playing alongside each other since the days of the old Houston Colt .45s. But it feels like it.

So on Wednesday night, as the ninth inning rolled around, they did what they've been doing for the 15 seasons they've been teammates -- look for each other.

Bagwell has a shoulder that has disintegrated into linguini. So he's just a pinch-hitter now. Biggio was spending the bottom of the ninth in the dugout, because Eric Bruntlett had just taken his place at second base for defense.

"I'd rather have been on the field," Biggio confessed later. "But if I couldn't be on the field; I was going to find my boy."

So they watched together, from a corner of the dugout, as reliever Dan Wheeler ticked off the final outs of the postseason series they've been waiting to play all their lives. And when that 27th out landed in the glove of right fielder Jason Lane, the emotion of the moment flooded their eyes and rattled through their chests.

"I've been here 18 years now," said Biggio, whose 2,564 regular-season games are more than any man in history had ever played before visiting his first World Series. "And 18 years is a long time, man. Some guys go year-in, year-out. Some great players never got to go. But to be able to go now -- after 18 years -- it was worth the wait."

"When that last out was made," said Bagwell, the only current Astro who was around back when Biggio was still a catcher, "obviously I was thinking about Craig and I -- and all the things we've been through, good and bad, trying to get here. I'm especially happy for Bidge, because he's been here the longest. Now he'll get an opportunity to play for the ultimate goal."

But one of the best parts of this story is that now, because of the goofy existence of different rules for different leagues in this sport, Bagwell may get to play, too. The Astros will need a DH for those World Series games in Chicago. And Bagwell made a point of announcing that his shoulder feels good enough to allow him to DH every darned day if he has to.

"Be sure and tell that to [the manager], too," he laughed.

Asked if he'd had a chance to mention that to the manager, Bagwell laughed again.

"Oh yeah," he said. "Only every time I see him. Only every time he walks by."

Brad Lidge's Nightmare

It wasn't easy to forget, said Lidge. Mostly because the world just wouldn't let him forget.

We'll never know now what Lidge's life would have been like had the Astros never won another playoff game. We'll never know how many times he would have bolted out of bed at 4 a.m. because an Albert Pujols home run ball decided to launch itself into his brain.

But as breathtaking a moment as that home run was -- and always will be -- it's now just a painful little subplot in Lidge's career. It's never going away. But now that it has turned out to be only a two-day detour in his team's trip to the World Series, he figures to take about 1,000 fewer Tylenols in his lifetime, at least.

Asked Wednesday night if he thought it was safe to watch the replays now, the Astros' trusty closer replied: "I'll tell you what. I'm sick of it right now. I'm not going to watch it again for a while.

"I tried to turn on CNN," he chuckled, "and it was even on CNN. I'll tell you, man -- it was hard to get away from."

The other thing we'll never know is what might have happened if Lidge had had to jog back to the mound Wednesday, back to save one more game, back to face Pujols again with a whole season riding on it.

We'll never know because it never happened. Lidge had pitched in four games in a row in this series. So his manager, Phil Garner, decided to save him from this one unless the Astros really needed him. And it never came to that.

"But I don't even care that I didn't pitch in this game," Lidge said afterward, "because I know I'm going to pitch in the World Series."

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
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