Oct. 21, 2005
Sportswriters aren't allowed to show their emotions in a public forum when the home team is involved.
That mandate was conveyed to me by former Chronicle baseball writer and columnist John Wilson the first time I walked onto the Astrodome turf on assignment — to interview (gulp!) Willie Mays on a summer afternoon in 1970.
For 35 years — through exhilarating victories and way too many excruciating defeats, as the Chronicle's Astros beat writer and as a dedicated fan after converting from sports to travel journalism — I've lived by that creed.
Oh, I cared. I met my wife at the ballpark. We got married at 2:05 on a Sunday afternoon because that's when Astros games started. I developed long-lasting friendships with players, coaches, broadcasters and team officials.
You don't attend 3,000 major-league games without caring.
Still, I held my applause even when J.R. Richard and Nolan Ryan, Jose Cruz and Bob Watson, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio and Roger Clemens were at their best. And I disguised my tears when the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals rallied from the brink of elimination to deny the Astros pennants in gut-wrenching National League Championship Series.
But as I watched St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina's fly ball settle into right fielder Jason Lane's glove Wednesday night, at long last sending the Astros to a World Series, it struck me:
Ex-sportswriters have no such restrictions.
So here goes: Yeeesssssssssss!!!!
That felt good.
Countless young fans now embrace these National League champion Astros, and that's encouraging. But only we long-suffering old-timers can fully appreciate the accomplishments of the past two weeks.
Truth is that while World Series participation represents a new adventure for our city, this team under Drayton McLane's stewardship has attained such a consistency of success that we're disappointed when it doesn't make the playoffs.
It wasn't always this wayWhat a far cry from 1975, when I followed the Astros at home and on the road as they lost 97 games and finished — this is no misprint — 43 1/2 games out of first place in the National League West Division. Only 858,004 fans showed up that season at the Astrodome, barely 10,000 per game.
Even more distressing was the future prospectus. Owner Roy Hofheinz's financial problems were so severe that creditors assumed control of the franchise. There was precious little money to invest in developing young talent or in acquiring established stars.
Merely regaining respectability was an immense challenge, but under the guidance of general manager Tal Smith — fittingly the team's president today in its shining hour — the Astros recovered. Unsung youngsters, most notably the remarkably talented power pitcher Richard, meshed with veteran castoffs led by Joe Niekro.
The record improved year by year. The fans returned.
And by 1980, with a new owner in John McMullen and a local legend named Ryan back home where he belonged, the Astros qualified for their first NLCS, against Philadelphia.
I thought about that season — and that championship series — a lot in the aftermath of Albert Pujols' dramatic game-winning home run Monday night for the Cardinals. But not in the same context reflected by most Astros loyalists.
Almost there — twiceIn 1980, when the championship series was a best-of-five format, the Astros won two of the first three games and led Games 4 and 5 in their home park entering the eighth inning. They lost both in 10 innings. Other playoff series, especially in 1986 and last year, were no less deflating.
But amid post-Pujols depression, I remembered not just the devastating losses to the Phillies but how the Astros arrived at that point.
Days earlier, they had traveled to Los Angeles to complete the regular season, ahead of the Dodgers in the West by three games with three remaining. They lost all three — each a heartbreaker — setting up a one-game playoff, also at Dodger Stadium on a Monday afternoon, to determine the division title.
Many of us traveling with the team gathered in the Biltmore Hotel bar that Sunday night, convinced that all hope was lost. The next afternoon, Niekro took command on the mound and pitched the Astros to victory.
Moving a quarter of a century ahead, that's why I had a good feeling as the 2005 NLCS returned to St. Louis. Momentum is important. Home field is important. But in baseball, pitching is the ultimate king-maker. And I had a hunch that Roy Oswalt, a gritty competitor much like Niekro, wouldn't let us down.
White Sox in same boatNow, another challenge. And Astros fans can take solace in the awareness that the Chicago White Sox, the World Series opponent, have lived perhaps an even more tortured existence than the Astros. Not since 1959 have the Sox qualified for the Series. Not since 1917 have they won.
One season (1919), they even lost a Series on purpose.
They can't even claim the distinction of "lovable losers" in their hometown. That's the Cubs.
I know most of today's Astros only as a fan, but as this long-awaited World Series' first pitch approaches, so many memories clutter my mind.
Little Jimmy Wynn defying sensibility with tape-measure home runs. Cesar Cedeño gliding through center field like a gazelle. Richard's brilliance and, alas, the stroke that cut short his All-Star career.
The consistency and gentlemanly character of Ryan and Watson, of Larry Dierker and Joe Sambito, of Niekro and Mike Scott, of Terry Puhl and Craig Reynolds. The fun-loving pranks played by Doug Rader, Dave Smith and Cliff Johnson. The shocking death of two-time no-hit pitcher Don Wilson in the prime of his life, and the despair in seeing spectacular young shortstop Dickie Thon hit in the head, his career thwarted almost in its infancy.
Many came oh-so-close, but none made it to the World Series in an Astros uniform.
The time is now, though, for Bagwell, Biggio and their teammates — and for Cruz, a model of excellence as an Astros player for more than a decade and a coach on this championship team.
The time is now, too, for Astros fans.
I'm ready to yell "Yeeesssssssssss!!!!" again.
Source: http://www.chron.com/
