The San Francisco Giants downed the Texas Rangers 3-1 Monday to win their first World Series since 1954 in five games, and somehow the city of Houston lost.
It is a distinct pattern that Dallas sports teams have a knack for giving fits to Houston fans and teams alike.
The Rangers couldn’t respond to the Giants’ potent pitching, and watched the other team celebrate on their home field. Yet they still did something the Astros have never accomplished – win one World Series game.
Some may remember in 2005, (or maybe not since it was the span of five days) that the Astros made a World Series appearance against the Chicago White Sox. The Astros put up a lackluster effort. They were swept in four games, and watched the White Sox celebrate their championship victory on the field of Minute Maid Park. They lost all four games by a combined margin of six runs, so it was one of the closest sweeps in history if that provides any consolation.
Both the Astros and Rangers couldn’t bring a World Series Championship to the state of Texas, but it gave ammunition to Dallas sports fans – at least they got one.
In the football world the Texans soundly beat the Dallas Cowboys 23-7 in a meaningless preseason game on Aug. 28, they managed to fall flat less than a month later when it actually counted. The Cowboys returned to town Sept. 26, and exposed the Texans in an ugly 27-13 loss – the team’s first loss of the season. It wasn’t as if the Cowboys found a rhythm in that game – they haven’t won since. The Texans continue to play spotty, while the Cowboys are in the cellar of the NFL standings. This makes the Week 3 loss worse because it came to a below-average team.
When it comes to the NFL, Houston fans have little room to talk trash to Cowboys’ fans. The Cowboys have not dominated the league in over a decade, they have five Super Bowl championships to boast to Houston’s zero. The Cowboys have been mediocre lately, but have a legacy of winning championships. The Texans have a legacy of being mediocre.
In the 2005 NBA Playoffs, the Rockets were dealt a crushing 40-point loss in game seven of the first round. After opening the series with a 2-0 advantage, the Rockets showed an innate ability to choke against a team from Dallas. The Mavericks won four of the next five, and walloped the Rockets 116-76. It was later revealed that Tim Donaghy – a referee who would bet on games he called – officiated several games in that series. But even a crooked official couldn’t help a team win by that large of a margin.
The next year, the Mavericks made the NBA Championship but fell to the Miami Heat in six games after winning the first two contests of the series.
While this may have satisfied Houston fans, and the Rockets have two championships in franchise history – the Cowboys’ five Super Bowls may trump that in an argument.
At least UH beat SMU 45-20 on Oct. 22 to take the lead in Conference USA West. Coincidentally, that win came a night after the Rockets lost a preseason game to the Mavericks on a tip-in with fractions of a second remaining.
Championships in sports come in cycles. The Astros, Rockets or Texans could perhaps rise to the occasion and win a championship one day. In the meantime, Dallas has more sports bragging rights than Houstonians.
But wait – there is some hope. Houston teams have won more professional sports championships than Dallas in recent years. Between 1997-2000, the now defunct Houston Comets established themselves as the first dynasty in WNBA history, winning four consecutive championships. The Houston Dynamo repeated as MLS champions in 2006 and 2007. So take that, Dallas.
I think the Dallas Stars' Stanley Cup win trumps all those Soccer and Women's Hoops championships.
The Rangers may have won one WS game, but remember, they were favored against an opponent that they were better than. The Astrros were playing against a far superior team and no game was decided by more than 2 runs. The Astros never lost a WS game 9-0.