Last night the Washington Nationals clinched their first World Series title in franchise history with a 6-2 comeback win over the Houston Astros in a winner take all Game 7.
The win too seemed to cap what was really an improbable run for a team had less than a five percent chance to take home the World Series back in May and a team that’s really hard not to like.
I mean take a look what they had to go through…
Losing the franchise’s best player in Bryce Haper during the offseason. Uncertainty surrounding manager Dave Martinez who looked like a bust coming over for Joe Maddon’s staff in Chicago. And the very real possibility they lose another great player in Anthony Rendon this offseason which would have been for nothing if they didn’t do what they did in October.
Then there was the run itself.
Not only did the Nationals survive a Game 7 win over probably the best team in baseball, but their road to their World Series title was something to take note of. That road included a winner take all NL Wild Card game against the Brewers, a Game 5 NLDS road win over the Los Angeles Dodgers who won 106 games during the regular season THEN winning all road games against the Astros who before facing the Nats hadn’t lost more than two consecutive home games all season.
Fucking Amazing.
🖕 The Astros proved to be a shitty organization
For as much as it was hard to cheer against the Nationals, it may have been equally as hard to cheer for the Astros.
An editorial by the York Dispatch probably put it best, the Houston Astros are a great baseball team, but they’re a lousy organization.
Great baseball team in the sense that they have the likes of Jose Altuve, Justin Verlander, and George Springer to name a few. Lousy organization in the way they went about the whole Brandon Taubman disaster, the team’s former assistant GM who went out of his way to openly mock three female reporters over the team’s acquisition of Roberto Osuna by yelling at them in the clubhouse “Thank God we got Osuna! I’m so fucking glad we got Osuna!” after the team clinched the ALCS against the New York Yankees.
Osuna, of course, was acquired by the Astros from the Blue Jays in a controversial move given Osuna was serving a 75-game suspension at the time for domestic violence which was eventually dropped in court but the League still found enough evidence to issue the lengthy ban.
What makes matters worse, is the Astros tried to muddy the waters surrounding their douchebag former assistant GM by saying he was simply “defending a player” and not being a total asshole.
This, of course, blew up in the Astros’ faces who ended up issuing an apology to the SI reporter who originally made the claim against Taubman while the organization retracted their earlier statement when they said the original story about the Taubman outburst were “misleading and completely irresponsible.”
Not the first time
The Taubman incident wouldn’t be the first time though the Houston Astros were embroiled in some bit of controversy when it came to off-field bullshit.
There was that issue a few years ago when a former front office worker was charged with stealing electronic data from the Astros after taking on a new job with the St. Louis Cardinals. And although Houston would appear to be victims in this matter, there were accusations that they partook in similar practices.
Then during last season’s postseason, an Astros employee was caught taking pictures of the Cleveland dugout.
Finally, the Astors have been accused of seemingly going above and beyond when it came to sign-stealing by using an elaborate system of whistles to help convey the stolen sign. Not that sign stealing is a big deal in the MLB when you consider every team does it, but when you compile that on top of the dugout surveillance the Astros may as well be the New England Patriots of the MLB.
