And they were dark.
It is hilarious that from 2004-2023, the Astros were wildly successful in the macro sense. In that tidy 20 year period, they made more LCS's than anyone (9, no one else is more than seven - Dodgers, Yankees), making four World Series (tied with the Red Sox for most). But of course, in that 20 year period, they also had a nine year stretch of not making the playoffs (2006-2014). In that stretch, they lost 100+ games three times - the last two years of taht the result of pretty blatant tanking. Of course, before the blatant tanking, they should have been blatantly tanking - losing a more pathetic 90-95 games a lot of years, ruining their farm system with terrible trades and awful mismanagement. It was dark times.
But in that stretch there was weird periods of light, mainly when guys that played a long time for the Astros went elsewhere and did great things. My three favorite Astros in the pre-Dynasty era were Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman and Hunter Pence. Oswalt and Berkman were great at a time when the team was great. Neither was the best, but Oswalt has a legitimate argument for being the 2nd best pitcher of the 2000s, behind Roy Halladay. Berkman was one of the quietly best sluggers of the 2000s. Pence was nowhere near as reputed, but he was the last good prospect and player the Astros had in that era, where despite his hilariously awful swing, he had good seasons for bad Houston teams.
All three of them were traded, in pretty quick succession. Oswalt and Berkman in 2010, to the Phillies and Yankees respectively. That offeseason, Berkman signed with teh Cardinals - the last year in which the Cardinals were a direct division rival of the Astros. Hunter Pence was traded in 2011 to the Phillies, and then in 2012 to the Giants. All three would go on to have incredible playoff moments - and in Berkman's and Pence's case - Championship moments, all at a time when their home team in Houston was lousy.
Let's start with Hunter Pence. He was actually pretty poor playing good time for the 2012 Giants title team, but in 2014, when the Giants were basically Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey and 23 guys - arguably Hunter Pence was the first of those "guys". In 17 games, he hit .333/.405/.470. He hit a key home run in Game 1 of the World Series against the Royals. He became a Giants legend, in that he won a second title with them, and was oddly one of the few guys to be good for the 2013 Giants, which like most odd-year Giants, was a rarity. But really, this is not about Pence. This is about Berkman and Oswalt, my first two baseball loves.
Berkman is an interesting case. He was almost laughably good in his Houston tenure. Yes, the start of his career coincided with teh steroid era, but in his 11 full seasons in Houston (1999-2009), he hit .299/.412/.556, with 313 HRs and 1041 RBIs, and 46.4 WAR. This isn't necessarily HOF numbers, but not so far off. He was too good for what was the 2006-2009 Astros, and they relented and traded him, to the Yankees first for Mark Melancon and Jimmy Paredes. He didn't do all that much for the Yankees. He did a whole lot for the hated Cardinals.
In 2011, Berkman quietly hit .301/.412/.547 - teh team's second best player behind Pujols. He was awful in the field, but who cares. Why who cares? Because he was involved in two of the biggest moments in their crazy Game 6 win.
Lance Berkman hit a two-run HR in the bottom of the 1st to make it a 2-1 game. That would be far from his most important moment. We all know about David Freese in the 9th inning. But what we may forget is two batters before that, with the Cardinals down 7-5, with one out, following a Pujols double, Berkman drew a walk. Berkman walked a lot, like a whole damn lot. This was maybe his most improtant walk ever. On Freese's triple to tie the game, Berkman scored the tying run.
And of course, an inning later, with teh Cardinals again down to their last our, their last strike, Berkman delivered with a patented, splayed swing and single to cetner to tie the game again. Berkman had some clutch hits in Houston, to be sure, most memorably his Home Run to the Crawford Boxes in 2005 Game 5, that gave the Astros the lead that Pujols would rob away. This time, Berkman was on the evil side, help8ing Pujols win another ring.
Weirdly, I actually rooted for him. So is the life of a baseball fan who has to transitively root for other teams because their own favorite team is so fallow and poor. I don't feel bad. That 2011 season saw the Astros lose 100+ games, the first of three straight seasons. We were left rooting for old favorites.
And that brings be to Oswalt, forever my favorite Astro, forever the guy that got me to love the game. He's the one guy who when the Astros turned bad, I actively wanted them to trade him to somewhere better, somewhere where he could pitch in October again, pitch in those amazing moments again. And so they did in 2010, sending him to Philadelphia for JA Happ, Jonathan Villar and Anthony Gose (who?).
Oswalt the Philly was brilliant. Rejuvenated, reborn. In 13 starts for the Phillies, Oswalt went 7-1, with a 1.74 ERA, with a 0.895 WHIP in his 80 innings, and a 316 ERA+ for that time period. Halladay was on that Phillies team and would win the Cy Young that year. During the period they overlapped, Oswalt was better. And entering Game 2 of the NLCS against the soon-to-be-dynastic Giants, Oswalt needed to pick up Halladay, who lost a semi-duel to Lincecum in Game 1 (Jesus all these names give me nostalgia right off the bat).
He wasn't on my favorite team. He was wearing a different uniform. It was all wholly new and weird. But all in all, Oswalt pitching in the playoffs was magical. It brought me back. It had been five years since I really experienced anything in October I cared about, and suddenly I cared again. It wasn't with Houston, but it was with an NL team, in a roaring ballpark. That's all that mattered.
8 innings, 3 hits, 1 run, 8 K's. Oswalt was incredible. The Philadelphia fans embraced him wholeheartedly. His weird delivery just flummoxing a Giants team that would ultimately be victorious. The best part is how Oswalt ended his night. He ended the seventh by striking out Pat Burrell (NLCS MVP) with a ridicukous curveball, thrown at 69-mph like he is wont to do. Then he led off the bottom half by hitting a single. After getting bunted over to 2nd (quick pause to talk about the hilarity of bunting over the pitcher...), he scored from 2nd on a single. He flew that day.
It was werid watching Oswalt do this for sure, but at that moment my Astros fandom was on pause in full. I was left rooting for people. I'm not, for the most part, a root for laundry guy. I have my favorite teams, be it the Astros, the Colts, the Spurs, the Devils, but the guys that I like that come up with one of those teams, well I'll always root for them. It helps that generally when Pence, Berkman and Oswalt left Houston, the Astros were in such shambles it didn't much matter. If anything, at minimum, it just gave me something else to cheer for, but cheering for these things is what makes sports fun even if it isn't for the team you love.
I will never not love that Hunter Pence escaped Houston, after being called up after the 2004-05 fun, and won two World Series for the Giants, the most fun of dynasties. I hate that it was for the Cardinals, but I will love that Lance Berkman had his moment in the sun. And of course, the connection with a starting pitcher is always a bit deeper. Seeing Roy Oswalt pitch on the mound in October 2010, after going five years without that month coming into play, was beautiful, was haunting, was incredible - and seeing him spin eight innings, that beautiful wizard that he was, is a memory of a lifetime.
I'm so glad the Astros got good from 2015 onwards that I can stack memories of my team in my uniform, but in that weird, dark, desolate nine year period, I went seeking for these random moments of glory, and found them with my three favorite players wearing different uniforms doing amazing things. Do I wish they could've done those in Houston? Sure. But I'm just glad I got to watch them all the same.
