Verlander & Co. look to stay strong for Houston
LOS ANGELES — There’s no politically correct way to put this, so here we go: Sometimes professional sports teams derive strength, find a greater purpose, from others’ misfortune. The 2017 Houston Astros sure appear to be one of those teams.
And to the script executed brilliantly by the likes of the 2001 Mets and Yankees and 2013 Red Sox, the Astros added a twist: They didn’t merely reinforce their community in the wake of devastation. They reinforced their own team, boosting their city’s spirits and their roster’s talent in one fell swoop.
The Astros will sport “Houston Strong” patches, emblematic of the Houston area’s bruising late-August bout with Hurricane Harvey, when they kick off the World Series on Tuesday night, taking on the uber-dangerous Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. And in Game 2 Wednesday, and then again in Game 6 next week, if that’s necessary, they’ll start Justin Verlander.
The storm and the acclaimed pitcher, the natural event and the very un-cosmic happening of a baseball team trading for a pitcher, have become tied at the hip among Astros fans, thanks to their near-simultaneous timing. If this next week or so goes as Verlander and his new club hope, they’ll be forever linked in a way that speaks to the city’s courage and its baseball team’s boldness.
“There’s a lot of people that are really hurting right now in this city,” Verlander said late Saturday night at Minute Maid Park, after he won Most Valuable Player Honors in the Astros’ ALCS victory over the Yankees. “And it gives the city something to rally around, and gives people something to cheer for that otherwise may not have a lot to be hopeful for.
“And to be part of that, no matter how big or small it is, whether you’re the MVP or whether you are the last pitcher in the bullpen, that’s something that you will never forget.”
“It’s like the perfect storm,” Astros reliever Luke Gregerson, who made clear he meant the confluence of events and not Harvey as a weather happening, said Monday. “A bunch of things all happening at once and all coming around full-circle to what we’ve accomplished here as a team. It’s been a crazy, weird year.”
When a baseball team clinches a pennant or championship at its home stadium, it gets to hold its trophy ceremony on the field, in front of the fans. Thus the Astros’ sweep in The Bronx at the Yankees’ hands provided a benefit. It forced the ’Stros to come back and prevail in Houston, and when they did that, they got to share the joy in person with their supporters. While it’s standard in these ceremonies for club ownership down the line to salute the fans first, it resonated more this time. It didn’t feel rote. Not after Houston and its environs got hit so hard by Harvey.
“When we came back [to Houston] a lot of us went to the Civic Center and looked around, shook some hands and got to see some families that lost everything,” Brian McCann said. “It just kind of broke your heart.”
A similar connection emerged with both of New York’s teams in the weeks after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, with Mike Piazza’s eighth-inning homer propelling the Mets to victory in the first ballgame back in the city and the Yankees advancing to Game 7 of the World Series. And 12 years later, the Red Sox embraced the term “Boston Strong” after a terrorist bomb went off during the Boston Marathon and won the World Series.
That the team held its first post-Harvey game on Sept. 2 with Verlander, who had been acquired from the Tigers two days prior, galvanized the Astros and their fans. He has won every game (eight starts and one relief appearance) in which he has pitched.
“That’s been a game-changer,” McCann said of Verlander’s arrival. “It changed the whole complexion of our team.”
How strong is Houston Strong? How good is Verlander? The answers are intertwined. They’ll start arriving Tuesday night.