As second baseman José Altuve threw the ball to first baseman Yuli Gurriel for the final out of the World Series last week, a wave of emotion came over me.
Growing up in Dallas as a Texas Rangers fan, I should have been disgusted by another Texas team winning a championship. But this was much different.
As someone who has friends and family in Houston, I couldn’t help but feel happy for the entire Houston community, a community that is just over two months removed from enduring one of the worst hurricanes the country has ever seen.
For the city of Houston, this championship means everything to a lot of people. The Houston Astros were the only thing they had left. I teared up watching the team celebrate. I teared up watching people react on Twitter. I teared up watching the parade.
The Houston Astros’ story is one of triumph, hope and perseverance. After the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey in late August, thousands of people in the Houston area struggled without food, water and shelter. Many lost their homes, their belongings and some even lost loved ones.
However, through it all, their beloved Houston Astros gave them hope as they remained one of the best teams in baseball heading into the postseason.
In their championship run, the Astros finished with a postseason record of 11-7, including two Game 7 victories in the ALCS and the World Series. Out of the nine games played at home in the postseason, the Astros won in front of their home crowd eight times. Furthermore, in those nine home games, the Astros’ bats scored 51 runs as opposed to the 27 runs scored on the road.
To sweeten the pot, this was the first World Series title for the Astros in franchise history, as well as the first championship in a major sport for Houston since the 1995 Rockets.
However, this story goes beyond the team’s triumph. Take Astros catcher Evan Gattis. Gattis had a long journey from a catcher at Texas A&M to a World Series champion. Before finding a home in Houston, Gattis battled with mental illness, substance abuse and homelessness.
Players like Gattis represent the heart that fueled Houston’s championship, embodied by the players, the Astros organization and the community.
The 2017 postseason was one of the greatest postseasons that the baseball world will ever see. The most deserving team won it all, the storylines were incredible and the games were fun to watch. However, above all, this postseason allowed the entire Houston community to rally around a baseball team during unimaginably tough times.
There isn’t a baseball fan, or a sports fan for that matter, that shouldn’t be happy for the Houston Astros and the city of Houston for their outstanding accomplishments not only in baseball but in hurricane relief, in their communal efforts and in their perseverance.
The Houston Strong campaign will go down as one of the most memorable runs in baseball history, and it will be the gold standard for the impact sports can have on society. It didn’t matter what the people in the Houston area went through or are currently going through, because they are champions.
_Edited by Eli Lederman | elederman@themaneater.com_
