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Jimcs50
10-12-2004, 09:11 AM
Sequ, you were saying the the Astros were all chokers, that they all fade miserably in the playoffs, but they proved you wrong(Again).


Bagwell, Astros wipe out the frustration of 43 years
By RICHARD JUSTICE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

ATLANTA — Jeffrey Robert Bagwell rounded the bases like he has 447 other times.

He ran quickly. He kept his head down. He wore an expression offering absolutely nothing of the firestorm of emotions racing through him.

If you didn't know better, you'd swear it was another afternoon in Pittsburgh or Milwaukee, another day of what he proudly calls "grinding."

You wouldn't know this home run was unlike any of the others, that this one changed the Astros forever, changed him, changed everything.

This one was for fans who had waited 43 seasons, endured seasons of great expectations followed by even greater disappointments, for fans who occasionally swore they would never care as much again.

This one was for all those who had tried before him. For Larry Dierker and Jimmy Wynn, for J.R. Richard and Bob Aspromonte and hundreds of others who shared his dream.

Bagwell's two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning Monday night turned a tight, tense game — the kind of game that had usually ended badly for the Astros in October — into a 12-3 blowout to win Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

Until Monday night, the Astros had never won a postseason series. Now, they're headed for St. Louis to begin the NL Championship Series on Wednesday.

"It feels great, it feels fantastic," Bagwell said in the champagne-soaked celebration that followed. "I'm just so proud of this team. But we didn't just want to get into the NLCS. We want to keep going."

This was how the Astros hoped it would play out last winter when they signed Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte and when they began spring training with the kinds of hopes they hadn't had before.

That they'd end up playing for their first pennant and a berth in their first World Series would have surprised almost no one when they gathered in Florida last February.

What no one could have known then is that they were beginning a season that would be unlike almost any in history, a season when they would be tested again and again, when they were counted out at several points and when even they admitted they probably were playing for pride.

They traded for a superstar. They fired a manager. They tweaked the roster a few dozen times. Until Aug. 15, nothing worked. Then they unexpectedly put together the best closing kick in 53 years. They won 36 of their final 46 games to clinch the National League wild-card berth on the final day of the regular season.

To finish off the Braves, they needed a gritty performance from righthander Roy Oswalt, who was pitching on three days' rest instead of his usual four. He said his legs felt like mush as he strung together five innings in which the Braves had him on the ropes at least three times.

"You just tell yourself you can do it," he said.


Bullpen, Bagwell finish it
Oswalt turned a 3-0 lead over to the bullpen, and this time five relievers finished the deal. They nursed a 4-2 lead into the seventh when Bagwell's two-run home run was the highlight of a five-run rally that drained the evening of drama.

For Bagwell and Craig Biggio who have come to symbolize the franchise's successes and failures for 14 years, it was a day tinged with sadness.

Shortly after arriving in Atlanta on Sunday night, they learned that their former teammate and friend Ken Caminiti had died.

Bagwell and Biggio had been extremely close to him at one time. Both had attempted to help in his struggle with alcohol and drug addiction.

Both were saddened, but not surprised, by the news.

"There are givers and takers in this world," Biggio said. "Cammy was a giver. If you needed $10 and he only had $10, he'd give it to you. He wouldn't think twice about doing it."

Caminiti would have appreciated Monday's victory. He would appreciate these Astros. They're not baseball's most-talented team. They have a thin rotation and an inconsistent bullpen. They had a smothering history of October failure.


Right ingredients
What they do have are players like Clemens and Jeff Kent who've been to the World Series. They've got a fiery manager in Phil Garner, who simply can't imagine this season won't end with a championship.

"We're a team," Oswalt said. "We became a team sometime in August. We're not just a bunch of individuals anymore." On Monday, they got two home runs from Carlos Beltran, the marvelous center fielder that general manager Gerry Hunsicker acquired at midseason.

They got a solid four innings from a bullpen that Hunsicker made and remade.

Now they've got another kind of October history and different October memories.

Inside their clubhouse, team owner Drayton McLane's yellow shirt was soaked with champagne, and his gray hair was a tangled mess.

"We'd gotten so close before," he said. "I'm happy for the fans. I'm happy for Craig and Jeff. This is a great day."

A few feet away, Hunsicker was dripping from the champagne players had doused on him. When someone approached and joked that he looked terrible, he smiled.

"Looks are deceiving," he said. "I feel great."

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Jimcs50
10-12-2004, 09:15 AM
TPark, your Cards are going to get a taste of this too. They are not playing near as well as the first 4 1/2 months of the season, and the Astros won the season series(the only team to do so) You best hitter, Rolen sucks lately, I do not think he even got a hit against the Dodgers, and now is not the time to be in a slump. The Killer Bs are all on fire at the right time. Let me offer my condolences ahead of time, because you are going down, my friend.