Happy to Be an Astros Fan

Wave that flag, Orbit.

Finally, on the 17th day of September in the year 2017, the Houston Astros have won the American League West Division. They beat out the Los Angeles Angels, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, and in-state rival Texas Rangers after 149 games of the baseball regular season to do it.

What a ride it has been. Led by the perennial little man Jose Altuve, the hitter of dingers George Springer, and the indisputable #1 ace Dallas Keuchel, the team has achieved this thanks to their execution of out-of-this-world hitting, fielding, and pitching that's unlike anything we've ever seen in the franchise's history.

Team manager A.J. Hinch also played a part in the team's success in which he steered the ship throughout the long and grueling season that annually lasts for 7 months, all without even a single pint of rest within their systems. Injuries, skids, trades, call-ups, decisions on player rotations, and many other things were also present in the Astros' quest for the division crown, just like all the other teams in the Majors. Despite this, their tremendous play on the field week-in and week-out allowed them to be at the top of the baseball mountain for the majority of the season.

This has been awesome for a Houston Astros fan like myself to watch. Seeing them demolish teams this year at their will has never ceased to amaze me. This display of the team is a far cry compared to what it was just 4 years ago. Back then, starting in 2011, the Astros posted 3 consecutive seasons where they lost 100 games in each year.

In other words, we sucked. We sucked bad.

The fans knew it, the team's front office knew it, and even the players knew it too.


We were always in last place in the standings of our division, be it the National League Central or the American League West. We became the premier laughing stock in the baseball realm during this period. Jokes or catchphrases were made to describe tortured-inducing futility.


"Basement dwellers", "Laststros", "LOLstros", "Asstros", "Givers of easy Ws to the competitive teams"....


The list goes on and on.

Our rare highlights mostly came out of us being victims of perfect games, near no-hitters, and division clinchers. Our home ballpark would be consistently invaded by scores of visiting fans where they cheered much louder than the 20 of us who were actually there. On top of that, the team was moved from the National League, where they have been playing there since their founding for over 50 years, to the American League in regards to M.L.B. realigning their divisions to geographically fit 5 teams in their proper divisions. All of that history of being in the N.L. was brushed aside to make way for the new venture that is partaking in the A.L.

This move later proved to be fruitful, but that wasn't to be realized for us until after we went through seeing the dumpster fire that was our loathsome baseball team. This dark age of Astros history lasted until 2014, where we won 70 games and finally avoided the 100-games-lost mark. The year after that, we won the AL Wild Card Game against the New York Yankees in their famed Yankee Stadium and reached the postseason for the first time in 10 years. 2016 was a bit of a down year for us; but hey, we still finished with a winning record (84-78) and a respectable 3rd place in the A.L. West.

This great stretch has now lead us to right now, reader, where I'm relishing this victory in full force. This triumphed has allowed me to reflect on what it was like 5 years ago, where being an Astros fan was considered to be a joke. I went through all of this crap. Check that, I'm not the only one who experienced this period of ineptitude. We fans went through all of this.

It was bad.

It was so bad I became disinterested in watching baseball for a little while. Losing day after day after day eventually gets to a person, you know? I didn't know when it was going to end. I begged to the baseball gods up above for all of this to stop. Well, it is nearly 4 years too late, but I guess the gods have finally answered my prayer.



We're division champions for the first time in 16 years.


We're going to the postseason again.


The rebuilding process has finally paid off.


We're good again.


We don't suck anymore.


I'm glad to have always been an Astros fan. I went through the bad times. Now it's time for me to hopefully enjoy the good ones.


Go Astros.

9/11

16 years has passed, huh?

Wow. It has been a long time.

To all of the families of those who passed away on that infamous day, I give my sincere condolences. It truly was a dark day in modern American history. It was also one that changed the very landscape of this country forever. The painful atrocity of 9/11 has prompted me to write this improptu entry about what I was doing when the two planes hit the World Trade Center on the morning of that day.


------


Well, it happened in 2001, and, if I remember correctly, I was 4 years old at the time. I didn't go to school yet so I guess I stayed at my home and played with my mother all throughout the day. The T.V., as it has always been, was on at the time in front of me. Then, before I knew it, at around 9:00-9:30 A.M., the channel we were watching abruptly cut off to the news. News has suddenly broken out of New York saying that something happened to the towers.

"Towers?", was what I thought when I first heard of the WTC.

Strange. I didn't know towers existed in this time. I thought towers were only structures made from the ancient times. You know the towers I'm talking about, reader. Those blocks of stones stacked on top of one another to make a tower were the ones I was thinking of when I first heard the news. However, that changed when the news people then showed live images of New York City. The two tall buildings that stood out amidst the blue sky and grandiose skyline were covered in smoke. That's what it looked like for a while.

Then, suddenly, I saw people on the roads running for their lives from what appeared to be a wave of smoke or smog coming their way. I didn't know where that came from. Once again, I thought, "Strange."

I didn't know what was happening.


"No, well, DUH, Pedro! You were 4 back then!"

I know, I know. I was just a kid who was amazed at what was happening on the screen. I just simply saw a spectacle that was unfolding before my eyes.  Fast forward to that same night, when I was watching the news again right before I went to sleep, I once again saw those people running away from the smoke. It turned out something fell from the sky which caused all of the consequential uproar.


------


Years passed before I found out what happened on that day. Thousands of people died on that day thanks to other people who were practicing terrorism.

That's just wrong. No innocent civilian should die at the hands of those who discarded them like cheap fodder. Life is an invaluable thing. It can't be replaced once it's gone. Please, I hope for those who are reading this can understand that fact. No one will ever forget what happened on 9/11. I won't. You won't either. We all won't.

Me vs Boredom 9

Since right now is Sunday morning and there is nothing for me to do from class, I thought it would be nice to make a quick entry about what I'm currently doing in my life.

Well, I'm doing fine, reader. This week passed so quickly I must say. So much stuff has happened. I had to resolve (once again) my financial aid problems while at the same time waiting for 3-4 hours in line to actually do it. It'll be a long story for me to recount what exactly happened there, so I'll just say that it was a hassle.

I went to my new classes for the first time this week. The people there looked promising. They're neither crazy nor wild. I mean, that's what I expected anyway since this is college, but you never know what kind of people you'll meet until you actually meet them. They crack a few jokes every once in a while. They don't do it too much though. They make just enough to the point where I can bear with it benignly. Class is going to be fun, I guess. I can't wait to prove myself wrong in, say, 2 or 3 months.

Mark my words. It's going to happen.

I got almost all of my books for class. Kind of like what happened with financial aid, I had to queue for a good amount of time to rent them. To compare the two said issues, getting the books took longer than figuring out my aid money. I spent a total of 3 days doing it. Personal constraints led me to this but I have no complaints. I got the books and that's all that matters to me. The end justified the means. As a matter of fact, I bought them yesterday, so I still feel good about that. It'll fade though as I become more occupied with the schoolwork, that's for sure.

Although I still have to complete a couple more tasks soon, I nevertheless can't lose my footing from here on out. The work will come. I'm just going to have to be ready when it does arrive. I'm like a fast-food restaurant bracing itself for rush hour. I'm ready. Come at me, school, and hit me with your best shot.



Pedro wins Game 9 (Boredom leads series 5-4)

A Beautiful Day/Night

Finally...


Finally, after a week or so of coping with the damage Hurricane Harvey has inflicted on the city of Houston, we're experiencing a beautiful day/night. Oh how I've missed these days. The air is fresh, soothing, and cool. The sky is blue. No clouds can be seen beyond the horizon. The sun is shining but it's not irritating for the eyes to see. It is essentially a paragon of what everyone wishes an ideal day is supposed to be like. It's also a reminder for us saying that fall is coming.

As much as I love the season of summer and the perks it has, I'm going to be the first to say that I like autumn more. It's a prelude to the inevitable cold storm we're bound to face head-on in the future. To most people, they hate it; but to me, I utterly love it. The cold air blasting into my body as I go on my usual trek of school with my countless number of jackets and sweatpants gives me a blithely feeling that is second to none. It's situations like these that makes me happy to love the cold.

Please come already, winter. To the Game of Thrones fans who are wary of you, they will be frightened when you inevitably come to wreak havoc on the masses. Conversely, I'll embrace you with open arms. I feel like I've said this before.

Déjà vu...


That comes later though. I can take care of that later. This is the present, and right now, I'm living through a beautiful day/night.

That's all.

 A beautiful day/night.

I have no complaints of it whatsoever. I wish this day could last forever. However, it will eventually pass, just like Harvey passed, thanks to Father Time and the contingent nature of weather in which no meteorologist can correctly predict.


Oh well, at least I can wait for it to come back soon.


It'll happen. I don't know when, but it'll happen.

From Me to You, Big Sister

I love you and happy birthday.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

A heads up for you....

Just as how my little sister returned to school two weeks ago, I'm doing the same thing tomorrow as well. It's now my turn to get back to the awfully-familiar routine of studying and self-deprecation. As such, I don't think I'm going to be able to make a lot of entries from now on. I'll probably post when it is an absolute necessity for me to do so, personally speaking. I don't want to have this get in the way of my grades. I have a career I want to concentrate on achieving, reader. We'll see what happens when the school work comes en masse and I don't have time to do anything else.

This won't be the last you've heard from me; but until then, I'll see you later.

WORLD. CUP. QUALIFYING.

Oh "spit". It's that time again, reader.

I've been waiting all summer for this competition to come back to town. It's that time where almost every country in the world duke it out with each other to see who is worthy of qualifying for the single biggest international soccer competition around: the FIFA World Cup.


That's right. It's time for World Cup Qualifying matches.


I love this phase of the competition so much. It's so much better than the final tournament, in my opinion. It's like a gauntlet everyone has to go through--save for the host of the occasion--where nearly every competitor perishes in order to make room for the best of the best to truly contend for the great trophy that is the World Cup. Think of this as the "dress rehearsal" before the main performance, reader. There's no avoiding it. Even if you happen to be the defending champion this time, you still have to qualify in order to actually defend it. It has been that way since after 2002, when Brazil had to qualify for Germany 2006 after winning it all 4 years ago in South Korea and Japan.

There surely is no easy way to qualify. You either get in or you don't. It's that simple. If you don't qualify, you have to wait a whole cycle--or approximately 4 years-- to get another shot at making the tournament. If you do qualify, then congratulations! You now have a time limit of less than 8 months to decide on a perfect 23-man squad to take into battle with the goal of winning in mind. Like those that failed to qualify, you only get one shot to win, so if you get eliminated early on in the group stages, then tough luck. You're going to have to try again next time.

World Cup Qualifying can make way for complex and exciting storylines you couldn't see anywhere else. These are things you normally see in books or movies. Fortunately for us fans, you can see them too on the soccer field. A small fragment of a nation miraculously qualifying after defying numerous odds; a big nation failing or almost failing to qualify in epic fashion; a two or three-year long race consisting of many nations fighting for a small number of direct qualification spots.... The possibilities are endless. And you know another thing about these scenarios? They're happening right now in this very moment! Let's check it out:

• War-torn Syria is unbelievably close to securing qualification to Russia 2018. Despite everything that has happened to them recently, they are sitting 3rd place in their group. If they beat Iran in Tehran and hope the results in Tashkent (Uzbekistan vs South Korea) go their way, they will qualify for the Cup for the first time ever.

• Saudi Arabia, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates are all fighting for 1 direct qualification spot and 1 continental play-off spot and are separated by just 3 points. One of them has to be eliminated by the end of the competition. Something's got to give.

• Uganda is leading their African qualifying group consisting of themselves, notable powerhouse Egypt, notable powerhouse Ghana, and respectable Congo by a measly 1 point. If they hold on to their position after playing 3 more games they too will qualify for the first time in their history.

• South America is blown wide open right now. Save for Brazil (qualified), Bolivia (eliminated), and Venezuela (eliminated), everyone else is fighting for their lives. Both 2nd place and 8th place are separated by just FIVE points. 3 direct spots and 1 intercontinental play-off spot are available so far. May the better team survive. GOOD LUCK.

• In Europe, teams are vying for their qualification dreams as well. Countries such as Iceland, Northern Ireland, Serbia, Bulgaria, Wales, Austria, and much more are trying to qualify. Nobody is safe. Like in the last bulletin, may be the better team survive.

Continental rivalries get amplified in this phase too. Matches such as Mexico vs U.S.A., Argentina vs Brazil, England vs Scotland, France vs Netherlands, Wales vs Ireland, Greece vs Cyprus, and Japan vs Australia are played which strikes a certain degree of fervor that the fandom of either side will not experience anywhere else in any other time except for the day of kickoff. Memorable matches and moments are made in World Cup Qualifying. People get immortalized there. Great plays will be replayed over and over again long after the matches are finished for the future generations of players to bask in and get struck in amazement as they wonder how it ever happened in the first place.

Tonight, I will be rooting for my side/country, Mexico, to secure their direct qualification to the 2018 FIFA World Cup by defeating Panama in the famed fortress named the Estadio Azteca. It'll be an opportunity for me put the dumpster fire that was Mexico's 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifying campaign behind my back. Trust me when I tell you, reader, that those matches in the last round of CONCACAF qualifying were plain bad. We were so bad we were almost eliminated at the last minute of our last match in Costa Rica. Ironically enough, our American rivals saved our asses thereafter by scoring the 2 most important goals in our history in quick succession. Finally, this grueling past will dissipate if we win tonight.

It's storylines like this that makes me happy to be a soccer fan. I love World Cup Qualifying. Let the madness begin again!