Houston Astros’ ALCS Run Is Great For Baseball

More people will always watch when there’s someone or something to root against.

It’s why there aren’t any TV shows or plays or any good form of entertainment where everyone is good or there isn’t some kind of conflict. The whole Good vs Evil thing has been around since the beginning of time for a reason.

Which is why the Houston Astros’ upset run to the American League Championship Series with its 11-6 win over the Oakland Athletics in Los Angeles, winning the best-of-five series in four games, is awesome for baseball. Houston barely sneaked in the playoffs with a 29-31 record in the pandemic-shortened regular season, but it still has its framework and championship DNA, even if that championship may have been won unfairly.

Punished last offseason after Major League Baseball determined that its 2017 World Series title was won while the team was stealing signs, Houston fired both manager A.J. Hinch and general manager Jeff Lunhow, with Dusty Baker (look him up on Twitter, it won’t actually be him) taking over as skipper. And though the Astros lost ace starting pitchers Gerrit Cole to the New York Yankees in free agency and Justin Verlander to injury, they still have many of the same core that won it all and was one game away from a championship in 2019.

Houston’s winning lineup Thursday still featured Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Yuli Gurriel and Josh Reddick. And though the pitching staff may look different, there’s still this offensive nucleus baseball fans have grown to dislike given the team’s scandal-ridden recent past.

Had there not been a pandemic, the Astros would have been booed and reviled wherever they went, even moreso considering none of the players involved were suspended at all for their determined wrongdoings. That just makes the team even easier to dislike.

And really, would more baseball fans be interested if the A’s or Minnesota Twins reached the ALCS instead?

C’mon now.

Things are just more interesting in sports when the bad guys succeed and go far. The Astros are so disliked right now that America may even root for the Yankees in a series, and surely would if the Tampa Bay Rays advance to face Houston.

More fans are going to be tuned in to root against the Astros, because evil is interesting. Houston is embracing it, as it should. The Astros are now the team you love to hate, and their unexpected deep playoff run is unquestionably good for baseball, even if you may not like it.