Houston calls their shot

Almost a year to the day, another long-awaited World Series Championship finds its way to a franchise that has be longing for one. In Houston’s case, they have never won a World Series in their 56-year history, and well that ended tonight.

Speaking of those 2016 Chicago Cubs, they did a completely different way than these 2017 Astros. The Cubbies of the Northside of Chicago outpitched the Indians last year and relied on timely hitting to get it down in stunning fashion. This Astros team will just out hit you. Houston’s top four of Springer, Bregman, Altuve, and Correa might be one of the best one through four in any order in all of baseball—and news flash—they will be here for a long time.

The 2017 Astros were exactly what you wanted in the 2017 version of baseball. They could slug you out of the game, they had good enough pitching, and they played good defense.

And, 2017 may be familiar to Astro fans be, that’s because 2017 is the year Astro General Manager Jeff Luhnow highlighted as “our year.” This was coming off three consecutive 100 loss seasons [2011: 56-106, 2012: 55-107, & 2013: 51-111]. This is right after they draft an outfielder with the number one overall pick in the 2014 draft out of UConn. That guy is George Springer; does he sound familiar? That same draft pick would be the 2017 World Series MVP. Springer would have a .379 average, five homers, and seven RBI’s to get the MVP and lift his team to the World Series.

This World Series also just seemed different. On the heels of one of the best World Series anyone has ever seen (I mean how do you top breaking a 108-year drought); the Dodgers and Astros had a tough task to top it. While they did deliver two of the best non-elimination games anyone has ever seen, it didn’t seem right. That could be because it was breaking 110 degrees in October during a World Series game, it could be that only three players on either roster had World Series experience [ Carlos Beltran, Justin Verlander, and Chase Utley], or it could be that we just didn’t want to top last year. Whatever it was, was quickly forgotten after a masterful performance in Game 1 by Kershaw, a jaw-dropping Game 2, a decisive Game 3 win, a balanced counter punch in Game 4, an indescribable Game 5, pivotal Game 6, and then tonight.

There will be stories written about how Jeff Luhnow and his team resurrected this team from a 111-loss team to a World Series Champion. There might even be a documentary about how it happened (I’d like to see a short documentary on the Justin Verlander deal). What I will get out of the 2017 World Champion Astros is a team that helped change baseball.

It used to be “good pitching wins championships.” That might not be the case anymore after what we just saw. Old timers might not like it, but think about it…

Both teams had high powered offenses that lead them to 100-win seasons, powered through well-pitched teams [the Cubs for the Dodgers; the Yankees for the Astros], and out slugged each other for every single win that a team notched in the series. So much so that Ken Giles went from an up and coming closer to maybe not having a defined job in 2018—and possibly tearing Kenley Jansen’s right arm from his body.

Not only that, but both teams relied heavily on analytics to guide them through this series. Dave Roberts went to his bullpen more than once before the 5^th inning, A.J. Hinch relied on two starters (neither his ace) to get him a World Series win in a win or go home Game 7, and neither used “small ball” to steal a run or two. There were just two stolen bases all series compard to the 11 last year. A drop off one nine bags in just one season. Houston also had the 6^th best base stealer in all of baseball in Altuve on roster in this series.

This might just become a minute point as we look back through history, but in an age of baseball where you can out hit a team and the opposing team may not have enough arms to stop you is a scary thought for the offensive numbers moving forward. In a season where mangers where fired to presumably bring in analytical guys, baseball seems like it is transforming itself, but yet staying the same. Or, you know, the balls could be juiced, who knows? What we do know is that we will have to outlast a long winter (hopefully not too cold) to see this wonderful game again. While this is just sad, baseball yet again proves why it is just so compelling and truly the game of children. Because, what other sport do you seem grown men, run from the outfield, choking their gloves to the moon, hugging and embracing in a shower of champagne, or dog-pilling in the middle of it all after the final out. Another fantastic act of Shakespearean theater, the question remains for now, what will 2018 hold?