The Astros and the Dream of a Dynasty

The magnetic personalities of Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa, the mystic of the Cuban Yuli
Gurriel and the cold blood of the northers Dallas Keuchel, Justin Verlander and Brian McCann,
catapulted the Houston Astros through 2017 season. History will remember this year as the
one in which the Astros got their first game in the World Series and later became the rightful
winners of the champions’ ring. This title ended with years of suffering since the franchise
started in the MLB in the Colt Stadium (1962-1964) and afterwards in the mythical Astrodome,
where they lived bitter disappointments, apart from their occasional appearances in the post-
season play of the eighties and late nineties.

Unfortunately, these mentioned years did not mean a significant advance for the team, which
eluded its opportunities to fight for the throne of America until 2005. In that year, when they
were already playing in the Minute Maid Park, the Astros got to the World Series. After having
an ill-fated start of the season, with all the specialists eliminating them from all forecasts, the
team had a spectacular remount. They had a balance of 15/30 by the end of May, but then
they would chain a winning streak of 42 wins in 60 games. That itself was enough to climb up
positions and they were wildcards of the National League, a position that was only for one
team back at the time.

The experienced arms of Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettite and Roger Clemens drove them directly to
the divisional game against the Atlanta Braves, in which they won 3 to 1. After that, in the
Championship Series, they redeemed themselves against the Saint Louis Cardinals; a team that
had them eliminated a year before at the very gates of the World Series. This time they
accomplished the dream and they got to their first final of the MLB, even though their path
was a short and tough one, with four consecutive losses facing the Chicago White Sox, with the
Cuban pitchers Jose Ariel Contreras and Orlando (The Duke) Hernandez, mentored by Ozzie
Guillen.

Since then, calamities would only follow, with seasons of 100 losses and a very slow
reconstructing process that only evoked repeatedly the ghosts from the Twentieth Century, in
which the baseball Gods decided not to let the Texans win. They carried this heavy weight for
over fifty years, a time that has proved to be long and painful, mostly because other younger
franchises got their titles when they could not even reach for the top. However, nothing lasts
forever, as the Boston Red Sox, The Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs, who buried
centennial curses over the last decade, demonstrated it.

The Astros would be next in line and last year they celebrated with champagne, as the team
got their first win in the World Series. As part of a project that started years ago, the CEO Jeff
Luhnow, wisely counseled by the franchise, reunited a group of players at the top of their
game. Among them, we have the Puerto Rican Carlos Correa, the explosive outfielder George
Springer or the magnificent left-handed pitcher Dallas Keuchel, winner of the Cy Young Award
in 2015, which are now key pieces of a team that aspires to maintain what they achieved in
2017. The second base has batted more than 200 hits and has stolen at least 32 bases on each
one of the last four seasons, a performance that situates him as the most consistent offensive
second base of the MLB.

As it should be, along with the superstars come complementary players of enormous quality,
which have achieved an spectacular level at that is the case of Marwin Gonzalez, Alex
Bregman, Yuli Gurriel, Brian McCann and Josh Reddick, who establish a very good balance in
the team.
To all of this we have to add the managements’ movements to cover up the weaker points.
They used the free agents market or the trade market as a way to strengthen their bullpen, for
instance, with the closer Ken Giles or the starting rotation, with Gerrit Cole or the great Justin
Verlander, a true workhorse in decisive games. However, the most important was that they
accomplished what expected of them.

Correa betted as if there was no tomorrow, as a confirmation that his rookie qualities were not
just a mirage. The same with Springer, a slugger and great fielder in the center field. Besides,
Alex Bregman has come from a prospect to a star of the game, while the Cuban Yuli Gurriel has
very much adapted to a different game after a decade of playing baseball in Cuba. They all
have shined like the Astros they are, but the most exciting thing is the realization that the team
wants to keep shining for a long time to create their very own dynasty.