It’s French…bitch! Actually, bouncebackability is acceptable English, despite being concocted by Crystal Palace FC manager Iain Dowie to describe the facet that his team would need to display in order to survive in the English Premier League. His theory was that they’re going to get thumped on a regular basis, but will need to bounce back over and over again.

Ultimately, Iain Dowie’s side were unsuccessful, being dumped out of the Premiership because they were unable to hold the lead for the last 10 minutes of the last game, which happened to be against a heated rival. Sound familiar? My lifelong support of “the Palace” has lead me to experience numerous cockpunches of this nature, so perhaps you can understand my inability to shrug off the ball-stomping by Pooholes as quickly as some of you. You only follow the Astros; I follow two of them.

But no longer are the Astros hapless wannabees. They are the Killer Bees, and they are National League Champions.Read More

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be comatose having snorted heroin thinking it’s coke and then having a three inch needle stabbed through your chest plate so that 50cc’s of adrenaline can be injected directly into your heart, I think you may now have an inkling. Of course, Uma got to go home and recuperate rather than drag her arse up and play Game 4B of the 2005 NLDS. The Braves, meanwhile, played the role of Vincent Vega and got blasted to kingdom-come with their own gun after taking a huge shit.

The current incarnation of the Houston Astros is systematically and comprehensively exorcising the club’s demons. The 2004 Wild Card chase and NLDS win showed the club not to be perennial chokers. Biggio and Bagwell hit in that post season (amazing what happens when you get to face someone not called Smoltz, Glavine or Maddux). They played the 3rds to a standstill, but ultimately fell just a little short of the World Series. Re-made on the fly for 2005, they repeated and perhaps exceeded the dramatic Wild Card chase of the year before. Now they have repeated as NLDS winners, doing it in 1 game less (sort of), but more importantly from a historical perspective, doing it by erasing the extra-inning loss of 1986. That game is no longer the longest post-season game ever and arguably no longer the greatest game ever played. Those monikers now belong to Game #4 of the 2005 NLDS and the story ends with an un-fucking-believable win for the Astros.

But enough of looking back. We are in uncharted territory here people. The 2005 Astros have the best starting rotation in the playoffs, and perhaps the best bully (I am too unfamiliar with the AL clubs to make that claim unreservedly). Assuming that MLB doesn’t fuck us over by flipping the schedule, the Astros are poised to put their best feet forward in the NLCS, and the 3rds will have to be at their peak to deal with it. There is no doubt that they will give their all and then some, but what do they have to give?Read More

How can you play a game for 5 days a still end in a draw? Booooriiiiiing.

Perhaps. But that same game can give you the 2005 “Ashes” series between England and Australia, in which they play five, 5-day games (“tests”) and the series hangs precariously in the balance at the start of the last 2-hour session of play of the fifth and final day of the fifth and final test.Read More

…says Harold Ramis, climbing out of an over-sized footlocker with Sean Young.

The Astros bolted out of the blocks, taking 5 of the first 6 games. Of course, this was an opening homestand that included 4 games vs. the Reds. Then they went out on the road where the wheels fell off, and they finished April with a 9-13 record. Then things went bad. In May, the Astros fell to a season-low 15-30 record, finishing the month only slightly improved at 19-32.

Jeff Bagwell went on the DL because of his bum shoulder and had to delay surgery due to his Doctor being on vacation (or something). Later, he was quietly proclaimed as being “done” for the year. The Ezequiel Astacio Experiment was ended. Ditto Brandon Duckworth. Berkman was hitting like Jason Lane. Jason Lane was hitting like Chris Burke. Chris Burke was hitting like Luke Scott. Luke Scott was sent back to the minors for hitting like a girl.

It was the end of May, and it was a dark time. But the pitching – oh, the pitching.Read More