You're attributing sigificant importance to Pettitte and Wade Miller when TMac and Yao are arguably top 10 players in the NBA. Pettitte is good, but he is not great. Wade Miller has been an above average pitcher not like his fellow teammate Oswalt who is a killer. Lose Oswalt, and that is like losing Yao. Losing Beltran is like losing TMac. I think Jeff Kent's homerun was great, but all-time greats is another thing. As much as you think the Kent homerun was an all-time MLB moment, I think the Edmonds homerun in Game 6 was greater because the Cards were on the verge of being eliminated. Cards then closed out the Astros in the next game. I view the importance of winning or losing the series as being important to how a singular moment is viewed in history. Bill Buckner's error against the Mets would not be viewed with such infamy if the Red Sox hadn't lost Game 7. Kent's HR is just a moment in time to be remembered like Eddie Johnson's shot against the Jazz, but I would never give it the same importance like Kenny Smith's shot against the Magic or Elie's shot against the Suns. I think if a group of fans of team view a moment as being great, there should be another group of fans of the opposing team that view that moment as being equally disgusting. Cards' fan aren't even thinking about Kent's homerun now. Jazz fan doesn't give a crap about the Eddie Johnson shot. Everyone in Houston will remember the Edmond's homerun just like everyone in Houston will forever have the image of Stockton launching that 3 pointer to kill off the Rockets. Will Suns' fan ever forget the dagger Elie threw down? No freaking way.
Naw Doc, I can agree that those guys are important to the Astros lineup, but look at how far they got anyway, without those guys. WIth those guys, you are right, we're not having this conversation, we probably would have handled the Braves in 3 or 4, or we would have won one of those first two St Louis games and the series probably wouldn't have made it back to St Louis, or we may have had home field advantage with 100+ wins........but that didn't happen. Without TMac and Yao alone, (not including Ward) they are lottery bound, probably with enough ping-pong balls for a #1 again, but the Astros still had enough firepower to catch fire and make that unbelievable run, which was a heck of a run. That would not happen with the Rockets. I'm with Charvo on this one Beltran=TMac, Oswalt, Clemens or Berkman, probably would equal Yao for me. Ward won't make or break this team IMO so I don't think he should matter.
I agree with that. I was just saying it wasn't THAT way off but Beltran and Oswalt are more equal. Actually, Beltran is a GOOD equal to TMAC. I also agree that Kent's shot downgrades to VERY GOOD instead of great because it didn't lead to a series win. Sampson's shot led to the Finals and WAS the winner, Elie's led to another round, etc... It was a great run but it can't take the place of what the Rockets did. Now, if they would've won the series.......
Great post, I agree. Although probably the best baseball game I've ever seen - the fact is it just gave us the lead and didn't win us anything
