ASTRONOMICAL!

[Spalted Walt]

Happy for the folks in Houston. They've been through a lot. Deserve some joy.

[Leon]

LOL. Oh joy..... Our local highly successful home grown furniture store, Gallery Furniture, was offering a deal if the Astro's won the championship. Buy $3K or more of bedding and if the Astro's win you get all your money back. In late August we tippled that purchase amount but negotiated a better than regular price, we saved $4K. Because we chose to pay $4K less we forfeited the chance of getting a total refund on our purchase, should the Astro's win. ;~(

BUT on the bright side had we not gotten the discount to begin with, another store was going to give the same discount and we would not have bought from Gallery.

AND the owner of these Gallery Furniture stores, Mattress Mac, went all out to help Houstonians during and after the flood. So inadvertently I was happy he gets to keep some of his wager money. ;~)

[nailshooter41]

This group of young Astros are pretty special. I know that soon on this gr oup folks will be finding their shortcomings, diminish their achievement,ma ybe even claim cheating,extreme luck, doping, payoffs or some other kind of crap. That will be a real shame.

Unlike so many athletes and teams these days, those guys felt especially co nnected to their fans and city. First,their fans stayed with them for the last few years when they were AWFUL. But the joy of being a young man is p revalent throughout their clubhouse, and every year they thought it was "th eir year". They play with a certain joy and enthusiasm that is really infec tious. And they really like each other and it shows. They play as a TEAM, and anyone with doubt should watch the post game interviews.

Someway they decided to actually take the "Houston Strong" campaign to hear t. Unlike like wearing a ribbon or pin simply to be politically correct, m any of the players made it known how much that slogan meant to them and how proud they are to have it on their uniform. It was inspiring in its own w ay to so many that lost so much to Harvey (including my own sister that los t everything).

They have been saying for about six weeks that they are playing for the peo ple of Houston and they felt like the fans were counting on them to deliver . In the end, it wasn't just baseball fans. I have several friends that l ive in Houston, and even those that never watch baseball were glued to the Astros and the Series, cheering them on.

The best part to me was to think that my first game seeing them was when th ey were the Colt 45s, and played at a ball field with wooden bleachers. I was a child, but remember it well. Then the big news was the Astrodome. I remember getting to see the Astros (new name!) in their new home a couple of times during their first year there.

And all that time, till now, no championship. I went to the Series in 2005 , and it wasn't pretty, not even close.

So to see this group of young men battle it out in one of the most exciting Series I can remember and win, it IS special.

Gotta love those Spacemen!

Robert

[OFWW]

I just don't agree! :P

But they were a great team, and they earned every nickel.

[dpb]

...

Enjoy while you can; a year/team much like KC two years ago but much happened on the way to the forum the next two years...

[nailshooter41]

I think I will. After all, it has been less than one F'in week since they won.

Maybe say, after a couple of weeks, I will turn a bitter, jaundiced eye of complete cynicism on the team and its members. I will knowingly wait for th e situation to sour, and only be surprised if it doesn't.

But right now, they are doing a good job of putting smiles on faces, especi ally the folks in their namesake city. So in my own simple naiveté, I will enjoy the feel good moment for now. Apparently, so will the people of Houston. Last Friday there was no public school, a great deal of business es shut down, a lot of downtown was closed and there were all manner of cel ebrations all over the city. According to this, HUNDREDS of thousands atte nded the parade and celebration. I have heard as many as 400,000 but don't know.

I will wait for the other shoe to drop later. After all, it hasn't been a week...

Robert