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Talk Zone / Re: Thank You
« on: November 03, 2017, 02:25:56 pm »
Hello - frontrunner here. Just wanted to add my congrats to the Astros and all of the longsuffering, and thanks to the OWA team for their endurance in maintaining this sick community and overseeing the first WS title. While my knowledge of anything pertaining to the 2017 Astros is deficit, deficit knowledge hasn't stopped me in the past so I figure I'll just post a bit.
Somebody has surely pointed this out, but how fitting is it to celebrate this thing on the field at Dodger Stadium, where we were all first teased with the prospect of postseason glory after Joe Niekro dominated the one game playoff for the '80 NL West? The Astros finally brought it full circle. A wide, wide, irregular and at times hideous circle, but the ends did eventually meet.
It was difficult to miss that the big media narrative for this title run was catharsis after Harvey. Certainly winning it all can do a little something to raise spirits and make what has been an awful year for many people maybe a bit better. We flooded last year as well and I know that any pleasant distraction on the road to getting your life back in order is welcome. But I'd offer that the biggest implication of this title beyond the obvious is a cosmic vindication of Astros baseball.
Up to this point in history the near misses were the pinnacle, but this mighty iteration of the ballclub finally changed that for longtime fans. For me it puts memories of the great teams of '80, '86, '98, '99, '04, '05, the Killer Bs, and postseason heroes like Niekro, Puhl, Scott, Hatcher, Kent, Oswalt, Berkman, Beltran etc in a context that is ultimately positive, that finally culminates in a championship instead of noble defeat. All of Astros history can be looked at as building toward this, and today the ghosts of the gut-wrenching past don't haunt like they used to.
I was late and nearly a no-show to this party, with Game 3 the first full baseball game I had watched in about 10 years. I have to admit that a prolonged period of burnout, combined with the lack of Astros coverage in this market and news of multiple 100-loss seasons had pretty much kept me free and clear. But I also have to admit it was enjoyable to follow this series as a frontrunner for a change - I probably would not have survived it back in the day. My hat is off to all of you who remained committed as the whole rebuilding and turnaround thing unfolded. Gratification probably doesn't even begin to explain it.
I guess the intangibles of Astros fandom have permanently etched everyone here in some way, and it probably surfaced differently for everybody this past week. For me it was something weird--the familiarity of the H-star on the caps and the permeating orange against a backdrop of postseason intensity--that brought everything full circle for an instant and made me feel like I was 11 years old. It would be nice to be able to go back and tell that kid that it eventually all works out. What a moment, what a win.
Somebody has surely pointed this out, but how fitting is it to celebrate this thing on the field at Dodger Stadium, where we were all first teased with the prospect of postseason glory after Joe Niekro dominated the one game playoff for the '80 NL West? The Astros finally brought it full circle. A wide, wide, irregular and at times hideous circle, but the ends did eventually meet.
It was difficult to miss that the big media narrative for this title run was catharsis after Harvey. Certainly winning it all can do a little something to raise spirits and make what has been an awful year for many people maybe a bit better. We flooded last year as well and I know that any pleasant distraction on the road to getting your life back in order is welcome. But I'd offer that the biggest implication of this title beyond the obvious is a cosmic vindication of Astros baseball.
Up to this point in history the near misses were the pinnacle, but this mighty iteration of the ballclub finally changed that for longtime fans. For me it puts memories of the great teams of '80, '86, '98, '99, '04, '05, the Killer Bs, and postseason heroes like Niekro, Puhl, Scott, Hatcher, Kent, Oswalt, Berkman, Beltran etc in a context that is ultimately positive, that finally culminates in a championship instead of noble defeat. All of Astros history can be looked at as building toward this, and today the ghosts of the gut-wrenching past don't haunt like they used to.
I was late and nearly a no-show to this party, with Game 3 the first full baseball game I had watched in about 10 years. I have to admit that a prolonged period of burnout, combined with the lack of Astros coverage in this market and news of multiple 100-loss seasons had pretty much kept me free and clear. But I also have to admit it was enjoyable to follow this series as a frontrunner for a change - I probably would not have survived it back in the day. My hat is off to all of you who remained committed as the whole rebuilding and turnaround thing unfolded. Gratification probably doesn't even begin to explain it.
I guess the intangibles of Astros fandom have permanently etched everyone here in some way, and it probably surfaced differently for everybody this past week. For me it was something weird--the familiarity of the H-star on the caps and the permeating orange against a backdrop of postseason intensity--that brought everything full circle for an instant and made me feel like I was 11 years old. It would be nice to be able to go back and tell that kid that it eventually all works out. What a moment, what a win.