Heading to the World Series!

Here's something you all probably don't know about me…

I LOVE the Houston Astros. I'm not a baseball fan, per se – I'm an Astros fan, and have been for as long as I can remember. I love to watch baseball when the Astros are playing, otherwise, I could care less about it. I don't get to watch them much during the year since most games that are televised here are American League games.

I know what it is. It's my dad. I have such fond memories of watching the Astros with my dad. We'd watch every game, much to the chagrin of the "woman of the house" (a phrase which here means my stepmother). For three hours, it was my dad, my brother and my sis all cheering on our team. My sister and I were FANATICAL about keeping the box score for every game, and my dad still has the score book with every out we recorded. When I go to Texas to visit my dad in the summertime, I get to watch the games with him again, and those are some of the happiest moments of my life.

In the course of my lengthy love affair with the Astros, there have been so many disappointments. There was the '86 NLCS when the umpire called Craig Reynolds out at second base in a VERY controversial (and might I add wrong) call that ultimately took the winning run off the base path and sent them on their way to losing that year to the New York Mets. Then there was last year. Playing the Cardinals in the NLCS, ahead three games to one and they end up losing in a heartbreaking game 7.

So here we are in 2005. The Astros start the season off with an abysmal 15-30 record. In what can only be called a stellar turnaround, they win 36 of their last 40 games to clinch the Wild Card spot in the playoffs. So back to the Cardinals in the NLCS, up three games to one. Sound familiar? They lost game five on the last out when Albert Pujoles hit a game-winning homerun to snatch the World Series from them that day in Houston. But, we still had two more chances. It's off to St. Louis to play the last two games (if needed) of the series. It's game six, with Astros ace (one of them, at least) Roy Oswalt on the mound. He only gave up 4 hits. 4 HITS! The Astros never looked backed after scoring first and went on behind great pitching to win the game 5-1! Finally – the World Series! The first time EVER for the Astros. Like I do after every game, I called my dad and we got to celebrate together. It's not quite the same as being there with him to watch every game, but I'm grateful nonetheless that he's only a phone call away. He picks up on the first ring knowing it's going to be me, and we just cheer.

The World Series. How about that?