Astros boostin’ Houston’s pride while Vancouver’s playoff pursuits Capsize
BULLS OF THE WEEK
A New York-Los Angeles World Series would have been the classic TV matchup, but the Houston Astros — and the #HoustonStrong backdrop — proved not only to be the better story, but the better team.
Houston prevailed in seven home run-filled games against the bigger-budget Dodgers, making L.A.’s bullpen look remarkably ordinary after a record-setting year in which they had been perfect in holding ninth-inning leads 90 out of 90 times in the regular season and another eight times in the post-season … before blowing Game 2.
The rags-to-riches story that took the Astros from three straight 100-loss seasons (and three straight top draft picks) to a 101-win 2017 campaign and their first World Series title in the franchise’s 56-year history is a poetic metaphor for a city bouncing back from the destruction of hurricane Harvey in September.
Houston, Major League Baseball, Fox Sports — and even the 2014 Sports Illustrated cover story featuring Astro George Springer and the prediction that Houston would win the 2017 Fall Classic — were all worthy sport business bulls this week.
BEARS OF THE WEEK
The Vancouver Whitecaps are bound to have some bearish days and weeks ahead when they contemplate what could have been in this year’s Major League Soccer playoffs.
The huge, missed opportunity began with their inability to hold onto first place in the Western Conference, a position that would have given them positive optics to build on in their marketing for 2018 and beyond.
Instead of a bye to the Western Conference semifinals and the opportunity to host a secondleg match on two weeks of rest and ticket sales, they scrambled over three days to sell 21,000 tickets to an impressive 5-0 knockout win over San Jose, only to inexplicably shut down the offence for the semifinal against archrival Seattle. It resulted in not one but two sluggish matches in which Vancouver had just one shot on target in more than 180 minutes of soccer. That’s hardly highlight-reel footage that will expand their fan base.
The Whitecaps did well enough this season to sustain their core subscribers, but what their uninspired play did this week was only ensure it will be difficult to bring in new fans, at least for next year.
Meanwhile, Seattle, Portland and Toronto FC — Vancouver’s fiercest Cascadia and Canadian rivals — continue to flourish as the go-getting success stories in MLS.
The good news for the Whitecaps: The Cleveland Browns and L.A. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had even worse weeks.
The embarrassing Browns failed to properly file trade paperwork, nixing a deal that would have brought them some quarterback relief in AJ McCarron from the Cincinnati Bengals, in a week in which NFL fans continued to admire the growing star power of Carson Wentz of the Philadelphia Eagles and the now-injured Deshaun Watson of the Houston Texans, either of whom could have been Browns QBs if Cleveland’s draft-day planning and judgment wasn’t so bad.
Meanwhile, Roberts added new meaning to the term “mismanaging ” when it came to his Dodgers pitching staff. It was not a good World Series for the L.A. skipper overseeing baseball’s most expensive payroll (US$265 million in overall contracts and US$157 million in active player salaries) and second highest-valued franchise (US$2.75 billion). The Sport Market on TSN 1040 rates and debates the bulls and bears of sport business. Join Tom Mayenknecht Saturday from 7 to 11 a.m. for a behind-the-scenes look at the sport business stories that matter most to fans.