Htown held a party on Friday afternoon. To say that work productivity was at an all time low that morning would be an understatement. The electricity in the air and the excitement was palpable. I drove in to work that morning to find a sea of orange already lining up along the parade route. That was at 7:00 a.m., the parade would not start for another 7 hours. There were some fans that spent the night on the streets, sitting on their lawn chairs, because they wanted the best spot. Crazy? Maybe. But who cares?
I worked until noon and walked across the street to City Hall to join a few of my thousands of friends. The scene was unreal. The streets were full of people of all ages. Security was in full effect as well. On foot, on horse back, in cars, atop buildings. It was a sight to see that's for sure. The sea of people ran for miles. There were people perched on tree limbs, children on parents' shoulders, along parking garages, even on light posts. I saw a man in nothing more than red white and blue undies hanging from a lamp post. I giggled and wondered how long he would last before getting arrested. Pandemonium ran ragged as the first glimpse of the players was made. They were riding atop fire trucks. There were Astros of seasons past and present atop those engines. I welled up in tears as Carlos Correa held up the trophy. I couldn't believe it. It finally happened. My gosh it's like a dream you never want to wake up from. My dad was able to make this historic event. He was like a little kid in a candy store. My 78 year old dad was beside himself with happiness. Memories of trips to the Astrodome to watch the Astros flooded my mind. He took all four of us, my brothers, sister and I. There we learned from him the love of the game. The love for the Astros. We learned to yell "Cruuuuuuuuuuuz" whenever Jose Cruz was at the plate. We learned how to spell relief when Joe Sambito (a relief pitcher and my crush) would go to the mound. Oh and relief is spelled "S-A-M-B-I-T-O" in case you wanted to know. Heh. We soon learned that winning wasn't everything. Man those were the days. So yes, forgive me if I have been a little teary-eyed this past week. Or if I can't talk about anything else yet. It's just...We won a Championship y'all!
I watched game 7 with one of my brothers and my sister-in-law. The minute they won and we regained our composure, we hollered and cried and hugged each other like mad. It was a beautiful sight.
I love the fact that an event of this magnitude was a safe one and no reports of looting or vandalism or any of that nonsense took place. I'm sure there were a few arrests made for minor infractions but for the most part, everything went off without a hitch. Houston City Officials should be very proud of themselves. At last count, there were over a million people that descended upon downtown Houston. A million. Wow.
I can honestly say that this was by far the most thrilling World Series I have ever witnessed. Hell the series against the Yankees was pretty amazing as well. And now, after all is said and done, me along with every other Houstonian, can go back to sleeping normal eight hours and can put the blood pressure and anxiety medication away and we can stop biting our nails. Until next season that is. Which by the way is only 145 days away.
Thanks for a Cinderella season boys! See ya in April.
