In last place as late as July 18th, the 1914 Boston "Miracle Braves" fought their way into the Hall of Baseball Legends by coming back to win the National League pennant by 10.5 games on their way to sweeping the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series, 4 games to none.
“It is better to dream than despair.”
Who said that? It may have been every Astro fan who chose to spend Mother’s Day 2010 at Minute Maid Park watching the good guys come back late from a 3-0 deficit to take the San Diego Padres, 4-3, in the 11th inning yesterday. The victory halted a three-game Astros losing streak and catapulted the club into the double-digit wins territory with a new season record of 10-21. The Astros were the 29th of 30 clubs to reach 10 wins. Only the AL’s Baltimore Orioles now remains twisting in the wind at 9 wins. The Astros are still 3.5 games deep into the National League Central cellar and 9.5 games out of first place, but they did win on Sunday – and in a most gratifying way.
Anytime the heart of the 3-4-5 order (Berkman-Lee-Pence) can go 7 for 14 with 2 homers and 2 doubles, and a pitcher like Roy Oswalt can keep the opposition close, the Astros will have a good chance of winning. – I mean, we all know that, already. It just hasn’t happened until yesterday. For those three guys to start the season in a concurrently running trip;e slump has simply been deadly, especially when starting pitching behind Roy and Brett Myers has been as shallow to boot as the kiddies’ wading pool.
Now we’ll have to see what happens from here. You can take the short-term paper trail and make a case for yesterday’s heart-pumper as little more than an aberration – nothing more than fool’s gold we picked up at the base of Diablo Pass. Or we can track the career records of these players and this franchise and say – “Look out! We’ve found a pulse! Watch out, National League Central! Here we come again!”
Temper the hope or despair to your own taste. Either way, if the Astros stay close to the bottom for much longer, we are now only about six weeks shy of all the inevitable comparisons that will begin to flow with the plight and incredible flight of the 1914 Boston Braves.
Here’s how Wikipedia pretty neatly summarizes the saga of the 1914 Boston “Miracle Braves”:
“After a dismal 4–18 start, the Braves seemed to be on pace for a last place finish. On July 4, 1914, the Braves lost both games of a doubleheader to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The consecutive losses put their record at 26–40 and the Braves were in last place, 15 games behind the league-leading New York Giants, who had won the previous three league pennants. After a day off, the Braves started to put together a hot streak, and from July 6 through September 5, the Braves went 41–12.[6] On September 7 and 8, the Braves took 2 of 3 from the New York Giants and moved into first place. The Braves tore through September and early October, closing with 25 wins against 6 losses, while the Giants went 16–16.[7] They were the only team, under the old eight-team league format, to win a pennant after being in last place on the Fourth of July. They were in last place as late as July 18, but were close to the pack, moving into fourth on July 21 and second place on August 12.[8]
“Despite their amazing comeback, the Braves entered the World Series as a heavy underdog to Connie Mack‘s Philadelphia A’s. Nevertheless, the Braves swept the Athletics—the first unqualified sweep in the young history of the modern World Series (the 1907 Series had had one tied game)–to win the world championship. Meanwhile, Johnny Evers won the Chalmers Award.”
Here’s what I think was important about the 1914 Miracles Braves. Manager George Stallings’s club had two Roy Oswalt caliber aces working behind a fair offense of timely hitters. Bill James (26-7, 1.90) and Dick Rudolph (26-10, 2.35) were lights out effective once the Braves got rolling – and they also had a pretty fair third starter named Left Tyler (16-13, 2.69) to carry the load of team momentum behind timely hitting moving forward in a way that made team success roll on like the wheels on a juggernaut.
Yesterday the Astros had good pitching and timely hitting. The combo was enough to overcome the combined negativity of bad umpiring and all the “oh well” doubts that begin to spring leak from losing.
The questions now are simpler than the answers: (1) Can Berkman, Lee, and Pence keep it up? If not, we have no chance for an Astros recovery. (2) Can some starter beyond Roy Oswalt step up to the challenge of pitching ace-level quality baseball – or, at least, be good enough to keep the club in games without the deadly ruin that always comes from the “one bad inning” syndrome? Brett Myers and Felipe Paulino look like candidates to do it, but Wandy Rodriguez and Bud Norris have been major disappointments, so far. At least two guys beyond Oswalt need to step up and get the job done for the Astros to have a pennant or playoff chance.
It also wouldn’t hurt for the infield to stabilize on defense and for somebody to settle in as an effective game director at catcher. Beyond those major wishes, I sure can’t fault the efforts of Manager Brad Mills. I think he’s doing a great job of getting the most he can from what he’s got on hand. If we want him to look smarter, we need to get Mills some infielders who can both hit and field.
As I said in the first place, it is better to dream than despair.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
May 10, 2010 at 1:51 pm |
Doctor, heal thyself.
May 10, 2010 at 9:25 pm |
Randy:
As I tried to make clear in my piece, it will take more than a single game, a single good pitcher, and a one-time show-up by the middle of the batting order to produce any miracles. Otherwise, lacking a consistent turnaround on all those fronts, everything rolls down hill from here in accord with the laws of baseball gravity.
My healing Rx for living through a season like this one? Simply put: It feels better to hope than mope around like a dope over decisions and actions I have no control over. Whatever will be, will be. This isn’t my first ride on the turnip wagon. I will live through whatever happens with the 2010 Astros just fine, unless it’s my time to go for other reasons.
If I spend an ounce of worry over what the Astros may or may not do over all the games remaining on the 2010 schedule, that’s too much. If other people want to spend their time lamenting the past, cursing the ownerships, past and present, or writing off the future, that’s their right. To me, those things are simply a waste of my time and energy. I’ve said what I think needs to happen for the Astros to win now and that’s all I can do.
As fans, we have no control over what the Astros really do or fail to do, but we all have total control over how we react to whatever is unfolding. We can either go to the games or stay home. To me, a better vote on this season will come around by the 4th of July. Let’s see who still feels like going to home games by that time. If we cannot wait until then to judge the drift of the long baseball season, we may as well cancel the rest of the unplayed games on the schedule and phone in an “L” for every contest the Astros were supposed to play.
No matter what happens, keep your sunny side up!
May 10, 2010 at 4:21 pm |
We already had the 1914 Braves in 2005. I’m seeing more like the 1963 Colt .45s and they’ll need to get on their giddyap to make 66-96.
May 10, 2010 at 6:11 pm |
Keep your fingers crossed they, Colt 45s/Astros, have never lost 100 games in a season.