Not living in Houston I've been taking a lot of ribbing regarding the Astros and my fandom. I just wrote this on FB to explain why this team and this World Series matters to those of us from Houston. For my friends in Minnesota, California and other places outside of Texas. Many of you might understand being a fan of the hometown team and why I'm rooting so hard for the Astros. What might be hard to convey is what the City of Houston has gone through and why this team and this World Series run is so important. Sports has always been tribal and going back to contests in hunter gatherer societies through the city states of classical Greece to the modern Olympics there has always been civic pride in seeing the name of your tribe be it city, state, school, or country on a championship banner. For Houston in 2017 this is even more so. At a time when thousands of people have been flooded out of their homes and businesses, thousands who still aren't back in their homes, thousands who are still facing uncertainty about the future seeing the words "Houston" and "Champion" gives both a needed distraction from the struggle to recover and hope that things can be better. Sports at it's best can transcend the human experience of the moment. Sport is also a repository of memory and a tie between generations. Many like myself grew up with names like "Nolan Ryan", "JR Richard", "Jose Cruz" and "Cesar Cedeno". We've watched men wearing bizzare orange strped uniforms laboring in the twilight of the cavernous Astrodome. I have friends who have said they will visit the graves of their fathers and grandfathers if the Astros bring the first World Series Championship to Houston. All of this will be more poignant when many of those same people just recently were looking out over a flooded city and wondering if it might ever be the same. Tonight and if needed tomorrow night I'm going to be cheering my lungs out for Astros. There might be tears whether from Joy or from pain but I will do so with no apologies. EARN HISTORY GO STROS!
Well said brother. I want this so bad, not just for me, but I think of the aunts and uncles, parents and grandparents who have endured all of the long droughts and "close but no cigars" and how much joy they would feel if the Astros could finally break through. I want the Astros to do it for them.
great write up. Better than anything the houston papers have written. anyone else wondered what happened to that sister that was always at the astros game with her rosary? Not sister as in paula patton but the religious kind, the astros nun.
Thanks y'all appreciate the compliments and feedback. I was born and raised in Houston but as first generation immigrants my family didn't have previous ties to the city. My dad wasn't a baseball fan and never really got into the game. He was far more a basketball fan and one of my best memories is him taking me to see the Calvin Murphy Moses Malone Rockets playing the Kareem and Magic Lakers at the Summit. I grew up loving all Houston sports and remember going with my friends to Astros games and getting the chance to be down on the field at the dome. I've always loved basketball but baseball has such a great and long tradition and it woud be great to see Houston as part of that as World Series winner!
The Astros and the Rockets are the two teams of my youth left standing and the Astros were the first I remember. I want to once again experience the joy and relief that washed over me when the Rockets won Game 7 against the Knicks. I'm tense right now.
When The Rockets won game 7 I was living in Boston and went out and did backflips down Boylston Ave. I can't do backflips anymore and it's 35 degrees outside.
I remember sitting in the Dome in the early 80's with my Dad's Mom, she kept score every game, loved baseball, grew up a Cardinals fan because that was all the baseball you could get on the radio in Central Texas at the time, then loved whatever team my brother and I loved (Astros!). She was there in the Dome when they gave out the souvenir balls (Gulf Oil sponsor) to commemorate Nolan breaking Walter Johnson's K record, I still have 5 of those badboys. One of my last memories of her was us when I came up to visit, took her driving around for a couple of hours to look at the cows and whatnot, she was wearing the Orange Astros hat we bought her 20 years earlier.
I was wondering if their are any diehard Astros fans on here. My definition of diehard, is they had Season Tickets to the Astros during the 100 loss seasons and followed up all the way through now. Those are ones I think this World Series has the most meaning too.
I know they won, but you still have to put an asterisk next the the championships. People in Houston will always say that we we beat who we had to beat. People outside of Houston will always say Jordan skipped those 2 years.
Well if Astros win this series, there will be no asterisk. It will be the 1st true Championship for Houston. Discount the Dynamos and the old AFL days.
