A Reprise from April 2014

After seeing the comments tonight on twitter following the Astros loss to the Rangers, I was reminded of something I wrote in a soapbox in April of last year ...

No matter how good a team is, and the Astros certainly cannot be categorized as a good team of late, they are going to have almost shockingly bad games from time to time. But as Astros fans, we have been conditioned over the last three seasons to expect those shockingly bad games. And we have been conditioned to respond, "Here we go again," when they happen. No longer do we think, "Oh, that's just a blip on the radar screen." We think that a flaming Hindenburg is going to crash onto the deck of a sinking Titanic and the whole fiery mess is going to be swept up by a Category 5 hurricane and deposited at the corner of Crawford and Texas.

Even when the Astros do start playing well, every stunningly bad game that they have will provoke this response in Astros fans as surely as Pavlov's dogs looking for dinner. I've been in bad relationships before. It can take a long, long time to put your heart out there and make yourself vulnerable again. My relationship with the Astros is really no different. Will the team evolve into a keeper, or are you going to regret wasting your time because they never live up to their promise?

My, how things have changed since April 2014. I think fans can now say, "Oh, that's just a blip on the radar screen." The Astros are better. Heck, they're still in first place in the division! So, take a deep, cleansing breath and shrug off this series. It's OK to put your heart back out there and be vulnerable again, even if you get a little hurt from time to time.