I posted this on another forum where I'm the resident Astros fan. I figured I'd post it here too. Unedited version too. But before you read, just a note, I'm 16, almost 17. So, in otherwords, I'm a younger fan. But I've been a fan for as long as I could understand baseball. Well, at least somewhat understand it. I can't give you an exact year, but I'm guessing somewhere like 2001 or 2002. I've been an Astros fan since I was old enough to know anything about baseball. probably in the early 2000s i became a big one. I watched the miracle run to the 2004 playoffs and then to have it crushed in the NLCS, I watched our miracle run to the 2005 World series (Yeah, **** you Carlos Beltran, hope you enjoyed losing every year) to get sweeped in the world series. I've watched the past few seasons and the trainwrecks they've been. I've stuck by my team, with the hope that they'll return to that. Sure, I didn't have much hope (God our front office sucks. God our owner sucks) but I had hope. But through this whole time, theres been two constants. Two players that were essential parts of every one of those teams I watched. Two class acts. An MVP level hitter, a Cy Young level pitcher. Sure, theres been plenty of talented pitchers in Astros history. Hell, one of the best of all time, Nolan Ryan, pitched for us for a while. But, these players weren't around in my time, I wasn't there to watch them. But two players were. And, these two players, I'd go as far to say, may be my two favorite players ever. So, I know it was time for them to go. I know we needed the prospects in our depleted farm system. But still, its like a punch to the gut to see my two favorite players traded away within days of each other. Its just now dawning on me, I'll never see that star on their hats again. Well, maybe, but at least its not likely I mean....****. It just....sucks. I'm sitting here right now looking at my shelf on the wall, with the picture of a young me, looking surprised and excited, standing next to Roy mother****ing Oswalt, my favorite pitcher of all time. That was one of the coolest moments ever of me as a young kid, standing next to my hero. But, at the same time, I know they deserve better too. I'll be the first to admit, my team sucks. They suck hard. And the near future doesn't look good either. We don't have the money to sign every big free agent like the Yankees on top of our current contracts. And thanks to some stupid moves the past few years and some bad drafting, we don't have the prospects to make our future look good. As a fan i hate to see them go, but I know its time. So, see ya Lance. See ya Roy. Hope you both win that ring you couldn't win with us, because if anyone deserves it, you two do. I'm sorry we couldn't win it for you. But I'll still root for you guys. Even if you are on the Yankees Lance, I'll still root for you. Good luck. And goodbye. And thanks for making these past years as an Astros fan enjoyable.
2005's NLCS was all Roy O. from a pitching perspective. Dude was unbelievable. Game 2 and 6 were just 2 games showing the nation how sick of a hurler he was in his prime. Going to miss #44 on the mound and my Oswalt jersey is going NO WHERE.
