An icon gives fans reason to keep the faith

Why do you keep believing in the Astros — your Astros — when the rest of the baseball world loves to hate the Astros*, Aaron Judge taunts your team on national television like it’s high school all over again, and even participating in the All-Star Game becomes controversial and polarizing?

Why do you keep coming to the ballpark in downtown Houston in 2021 when you could stay at home and revel in the modern comforts of chilled air condi

tioning and huge, perfectlooking TVs?

Because Jose Altuve plays for the Astros.

Because Altuve keeps creating moments that give you a feeling you can’t get anywhere else in the world.

And because Altuve still makes it so much darned fun to cheer for, support, promote, love and believe in your Astros.

It’s been more than an hour after that crazy, absurd, then perfectly delirious bottom of the ninth inning happened, and I’m now rewriting this entire column, still not sure exactly what happened.

“That was — it was a miracle,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker after his ballclub turned a depressing 7-2 deficit entering the ninth into an 8-7 victory Sunday inside Minute Maid Park, preventing a New York Yankees sweep and sending the Astros into the All-Star break with a renewed heartbeat.

The Astros handed out a

franchise-record 14 walks and still won.

They gave up four runs after the sixth inning and still won.

They also made me trash an entire column about how uneven and wildly unpredictable they had been through the initial 91 games of this 2021 campaign … by being uneven and wildly unpredictable in the best possible way.

What in the heck happened?

How did Yankees manager Aaron Boone blow it so badly and New York remind its fan base that it’s really just an underperforming 46-43 team, eight games behind the Astros in the American League standings and dragged down by unrealistic expectations?

Altuve happened. Again.

But this time his jersey was ripped off, and No. 27 for the local orange and blue joyfully lifted his arms over his head like he’d just won a bitter and nasty championship fight 18 months in the making.

“I was watching a (UFC)

fight last night, and the guy that won the fight said karma is not a bitch, it is a mirror,” said Astros catcher Martin Maldonado, perfectly capturing the passion, pride and hate that divides the Astros versus the Yankees and all those across the baseball world still sadly clinging to whatever happened in 2017 and ’18.

Altuve blasted a Hollywood-perfect walkoff home run off New York closer Aroldis Chapman in Game 6 of the 2019 AL Championship Series inside Minute Maid Park.

Then a sign-stealing scandal followed, fueling thousands of social-media conspiracy theories and the tease of an electronic buzzer that was never proved.

Then one of the greatest players in Astros history, once on a strong Baseball Hall of Fame path, became the mirror that captured it all.

You saw what you wanted to see, depending on what you believed or how you felt.

For the 270th time since January 2020: The 2017 and ’18 Astros screwed up.

But so did other teams, and MLB’s investigation — which occurred only after commissioner Rob Manfred was finally forced to act — was a meandering mess from the start.

Altuve hit .219 last season during baseball’s coronavirus-affected 60-game season. He was plagued by surreal throwing problems during the playoffs, unable to complete a throw to first base he had made hundreds of times since he debuted with the rebuilding Astros in 2011.

But then the 29-31 Astros almost made the World Series. Again.

And now these Astros are 55-36 and will enter the break tied with Boston and the Chicago White Sox for the best record in the AL.

Altuve’s team is a World Series contender — again.

Altuve, who at one point was never supposed to make the major leagues, is hitting .278 with 20 home runs, 55 RBIs, 65 runs, 10 doubles and an .860 OPS in his 11th pro season, and he was just selected to his seventh All-Star team.

The Astros also announced

after the game that Altuve’s father is in the hospital and that Altuve left the ballpark soon after his walkoff, which is why he wasn’t available for a normal postgame Zoom interview.

So yeah, that jersey was coming off Sunday in front of all the screaming and celebrating fans still left inside Minute Maid Park.

“The fans have been supporting us every single time,” a soaked Altuve told AT&T SportsNet Southwest. “Our teammates and the fans are the biggest reason why we play like this. We’re going to come outside every day and keep doing what we’re doing.”

Making you watch and believe when almost everyone else tells you it’s dumb to.

Reaffirming your faith in what the Astros accomplished in 2015, 2019 and 2020 and everything that can still be obtained in 2021.

Reminding you how special a 31-year-old Altuve still is with a bat in hand, even after everything he’s been through and everything he’s endured.

If he wasn’t great, he wouldn’t be hitting all these unforgettable home runs.

If he wasn’t one of the best players in Astros history, he wouldn’t keep giving you memories that will last decades, long after Altuve’s baseball career has become an official part of MLB history.

“You can’t get that feeling anywhere in life,” Baker said. “You can only get that at the ballpark.”

He is the heartbeat of your team.

He is the reason you keep proudly wrapping yourself in orange and blue.

He was the beginning of the rebuilt Astros, and now he’s leading the remade Astros at the start of a new decade.

Baring his chest. Saying the heck with it, who cares?

It’s Altuve and your Astros versus everyone else.

It is a blast.

It is blissful chaos.