GAME 124 - August 17: A Fairy Tale Ending to a Crappy Series

Houston 3, Arizona 0

Quote of the Day: "I think the coolest thing about Astros fans is they love the logo, but they truly love the person that wears it more." (Craig Biggio, as the Astros retired jersey number 7)

Craig Biggio got it right. I've been wondering all season why I'm still an Astros fan after all these years living far from my childhood home in Houston, why I still cheer for a team I get to see at Spring Training and maybe - in a good year - 3 or 4 games when they play my current home town. And the only answer that I ever come up with is that it's those guys - the ones I was calling the Good Guys before that slogan was adopted, embarrassingly, for last year's losing season. The big puzzle for me now is whether, with Bagwell and Biggio now reduced to big starred retired numbers in Minute Maid Park, those guys that make up the current Astros team are really enough to sustain fandom-in-exile. This question really hit home this Spring, when I was in Kissimmee and barely recognized anyone on the team.

I've been cheering as much as ever, watching the games on mlb.tv, keeping up my game diary. There are a few of my old favorites left - Berkman, Oswalt, Backe, and of course Ausmus, and some old not-quite-favorites like Wandy. There are some new favorites - ball-smashing Lee, serious and solid Loretta, and especially the outfielder my cousin Jon calls "Underpants." By now, of course, I recognize all the guys on the team at a glance - Erstad's samurai sword at bat, highly charged Valverde, the suddenly super Wiggington. But what is it about this particular collection of guys that's worth cheering for - especially in a year like this one when I'm pretty much alone in claiming a Playoff berth for them?

Watching Biggio's jersey number 7 retired on Sunday brought a lot of these thoughts to mind. Of course, Biggio has been gone all season, but seeing him in a suit and tie out on the field for the ceremony made it more real. My guys, the ones that have been the face of the team all these years, aren't ball players anymore. Baseball players wear uniforms on the field. It was so much nicer seeing Bagwell in a uniform at Spring Training, even in a coaching role, than in bluejeans at this ceremony. I'm not in a crisis of faith over my fanship-in-exile, but the retirement of jerseys number 5 and 7 made me think about it.

With all this in my head, the Astros were busy redeeming themselves for the terrible performances on Friday and Saturday nights. As bad as Wandy and Backe were in their starts, Roy O was stellar in his Sunday start against Randy Johnson. Johnson wasn't bad either; the only luck that the Astros had against him was Wiggington's first inning 3-run homer. After that came a long line of zeros for the rest of the game. But the Dbacks' line of zeros went all the way across, start to finish. This wasn't one of those games where Oswalt gave up 9 runs, and maybe eked out a win anyway. This was the old Roy O, pitching shutout 8 innings, giving up 1 run and a pair of walks, and striking out 10. The Ace, the Wizard. Actually, it was better than the old Roy O; I can't remember when I've seen him pitch a better game.

Luckily for Oswalt, Wiggington took it upon himself to continue in the tradition of Carlos Lee, and gave him a few runs to work with. Wigs earned the NL co-player of the week award for his recent offensive barrage. He has more than made up for Lee, since he's hitting like El Caballo and fielding better. (But I'm greedy - can you imagine how much better the Astros would be doing if they had both of them? And if Berkman would start knocking the ball out of the place...?)

So a very bad series start had a happy ending after all: A nice tribute for Bidge, a season-best performance from Oswalt, and a win for the Good Guys - and I for one never say that ironically.