David Claybourn: Sports Views: Houston Astros win me back as a fan

Nov. 5—While growing up on the Texas Gulf Coast I was a big fan of the Houston pro baseball team.

At first they were called the Colt .45s and then the Astros, playing their games in what was then called "The Eighth Wonder of the World," the Astrodome. I remember watching the Astros play the San Francisco Giants in the Dome and seeing one of my favorite players, Willie Mays, play for the Giants.

Of course, I was a big fan of some of the Astros' players like pitcher Larry Dierker, infielder Bob Aspromonte and slugger Jimmy Wynn, who was nicknamed the Toy Cannon.

Later I pulled for Astros' pitchers J.R. Richards and Nolan Ryan, outfielder Jose Cruz and slugger Jeff Bagwell.

When I moved with my family to Irving in 1976, the Texas Rangers replaced the Astros as my favorite pro baseball team but the Astros were a close second.

That is until the Astros' cheating scandal in 2017. It sickened me to learn that the Astros were stealing signs by the opposing catcher to the pitcher via a special camera and were banging trash cans to tip the hitters off about breaking pitches. From what I read, someone banged the trash can 57 times before Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw threw a curveball against the Rangers in a game in the 2017 World Series. The Astros reportedly laid off that pitch every time and that was Kershaw's money pitch. That was an unfair advantage for the Astros and certainly not fair to Kershaw. I'm partial to Kershaw because he grew up in nearby Highland Park.

Though the Astros fired their manager and general manager over the scandal and were fined $5 million by MLB, I still didn't think the surviving players and management apologized enough for their misbehavior. I quit rooting for the Astros.

But the Astros won me back over with their masterful pitching performance in Wednesday night's 5-0 over the Philadelphia Phillies. Christian Javier, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly combined to throw the second no-hitter in World Series history and the first combined one. Javier went the first six innings. Each reliever pitched one inning.

The Astros combined for 14 strikeouts and gave up only three walks against a strong Philly lineup that had slugged five homers in the previous game. Javier set the tone with his marvelous command of pitches.

So I'm rooting for the Astros, who also won 3-2 on Thursday, to close out the Series with a victory at home on Saturday. I also want to see Astros manager Dusty Baker win his first World Series title as a manager. Baker broke into baseball in 1967 with the Austin team in the Texas League so Texas would be a great place for him to reach a milestone.

David Claybourn is sports editor of the Herald-Banner.