It seems that the Astros have now:
—Made league championship series seven years in a row. (Only one club has a longer streak.)
—Made the playoffs seven years in a row. (Only three clubs have longer streaks.)
—Won four pennants in six seasons. (Accomplished by only nine clubs. But there is an intriguing catch.)
What team has a longer, championship series streak? I don't think any of you will be surprised to know that it's the Braves, 1991-1999. (Of course, this conveniently leaves out the 1994, strike-shortened season, when the Braves were six back of Montreal and looked like roadkill before the strike put the kibosh on the postseason.)
The longer playoff streaks? Again the Braves, with 14* (1991-2005); your New York Yankees, 13 (1995-2007); and the Dodgers, at 11 and counting.
As to winning 4 pennants in 6 years...well, note how the answer was phrased: Nine clubs.
So, from what I've been able to figure, besides the Astros themselves, the other seven are:
—Chicago Cubs (1906-1910; 1906-1908, 1910)
—Philadelphia Athletics (1910-1914; 1910-1911, 1913-1914)
—New York Giants (1921-1924)
—St. Louis Cardinals (1942-1946; 1942-1944, 1946)
—Brooklyn Dodgers (1952-1956; 1952-1953, 1955-1956)
—Baltimore Orioles (1966-1971; 1966, 1969-1971)
—Atlanta Braves (1991-1996; 1991-1992, 1995-1996)
And then there are the Yankees. Who, strictly speaking, DID IT 31 TIMES!
Consider:
—1921-1926 (1921-1923, 1926)
—1922-1927 (1922-23, 1926-1927)
—1923-1928 (1923, 1926-1928)
—1936-1939
—1936-1941 (1936-1939, 1941)
—1937-1941 (1937-1939, 1941)
—1937-1942 (1937-1939, 1942)
—1938-1942 (1938-1939, 1941-1942)
—1938-1943 (1938-1939, 1941-1943)
—1939-1943 (1939, 1941-1943)
—1947-1951 (1947, 1949-1951)
—1947-1952 (1947, 1949-1952)
—1949-1953
—1951-1955 (1951-1953, 1955)
—1951-1956 (1951-1953, 1955-1956)
—1952-1956 (1952-1953, 1955-1956)
—1952-1957 (1952-1953, 1955-1957)
—1953-1957 (1953, 1955-1957)
—1953-1958 (1953, 1955-1958)
—1955-1958
—1956-1960 (1956-1958, 1960)
—1956-1961 (1956-1958, 1960-1961)
—1957-1961 (1957-1958, 1960-1961)
—1957-1962 (1957-1958, 1960-1962)
—1958-1962 (1958, 1960-1962)
—1958-1963 (1958, 1960-1963)
—1960-1964
—1976-1981 (1976-1978, 1981)
—1996-2000 (1996, 1998-2000)
—1998-2001
—1999-2003 (1999-2001, 2003)
But, you know...never since 2003. I wonder what that's about.
Kim Ng is available. No extension with Marlins. Cash moves upstairs into a sinecure, plays hearts all day with Sabean and Minaya while Ng runs the show, and Hal gets credit for hiring a trailblazing woman. I'll take it.
ReplyDeleteHell at this point I'd take Kim Basinger, Kim Carnes or even Kim Jong-un.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Kim Jong-un would release those vicious dogs on Cantrun. That, I would pay to see.
ReplyDelete@Publius...that would take balls to make that move...she obviously has a history here...
ReplyDeleteNg would be many, many levels above Cashman. But the odds are, no.
ReplyDeleteYou want to talk numbers?
ReplyDeleteHow about this one:
The pitcher with the lowest batting average against with runners on base @ .168?
Nathan Eovaldi.
And I just watched him walk away from a bases loaded, no out situation and he Struck out Altuve and Bregman.
Fuck you Cashman.
Chappie being Chappie tonight. Two thirds of an inning but coughs up a long ball.
ReplyDeleteWell, Horace, at least we all have our memories. But who knows how long that will last given our ages.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Carl Weitz. And hey, good to see Texas hang on tonight.
ReplyDeleteWith minor apologies to Alan Ginsburg
ReplyDeleteI saw the best arms of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the trainers room at dawn looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of Tampa floating across the tops of cities contemplating golf,
who bared their brains to Giancarlo under the El and saw knuckleball angels staggering on stadium roofs illuminated,
who passed through training camp with radiant cool eyes hallucinating Yogi and Whitey-light tragedy among the scholars of ball,
who were expelled from the academies bunting and base running obscene odes on the windows of the skull,
who cowered in unshaven rooms in underwear, burning their money in wastebaskets and listening to the Astros through the wall,
who got busted for their beards returning through JFK with a belt of cheese for New York,
who ate pumpkin seeds in dugouts or drank the Kool Aid in Paradise Alley, death, or tweaked their gonads night after night
with dreams, with greenies, with waking nightmares, performance enhancing drugs and endless strikeouts,
incomparable blind streets of jogging to first cloud and lightning in the mind leaping toward poles of Boston & Houston, illuminating all the motionless world of Time between...
I gladly can say that I have not watched an out of the Manfred Mega Mutant Multi Team Postseason.
ReplyDeleteI did, however read mr. bit's flowing prose here. And I was moved.
Bitty, that’s writing
ReplyDeleteRuf, proud to say I haven’t watched not one pitch of these phony, watered down playoffs.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete13Bit -
ReplyDeleteReally well done.
Brilliant, Bitty!
ReplyDeleteCan you dig it? Right on, Mr. Bitty!
ReplyDelete