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Party like it’s 1999
Published July 23, 2009
In 1999, Ken Caminiti and Rafael Palmeiro combined to hit 60 home runs. Pitchers Aaron Sele, Jose Lima and Mike Hampton combined for a 61-23 record and the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros both made the playoffs.
It hasn’t happened since, but with both teams just a few games out of first place in their divisions, the Rangers and Astros may bring October baseball back to the Lone Star State.
The story lines are drastically different from 1999. The Yankees were in the middle of their three-year run of dominance and eventually swept the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. However, the Fall Classic is probably best remembered for the All-Century team and the infamous Pete Rose-Jim Grey interview that followed.
But that year was a magical season for the Astros, as I remember from following them in the Houston Chronicle while my granddad went through cancer treatment at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Back then, the Astros still played in the Dome, no one thought Jeff Bagwell was on steroids and few saw 23-year-old Lance Berkman as the future franchise player. Mike Hampton probably had the best season an Astros pitcher has ever had, with a 22-4 record and 2.90 earned-run average, easily winning the Cy Young Award.
Throw in a surprise — and looking back on it, I do mean surprise — 20-win season from Jose “Lima-time” Lima, and the emergence of Billy Wagner. The Astros were tough. But they couldn’t get past the Braves in the Divisional Series.
In Arlington, the Rangers won two fewer games than the Astros that year, giving them 95 wins and another AL West title. This was before the Oakland A’s started making their playoff runs and the Anaheim/Los Angles of Anaheim Angels emerged as the West power. This was before the Rangers sold their souls to the baseball devil and signed Alex Rodriguez. It was also before anyone suspected the entire team of doping.
The Rangers were powerful, but always seemed to come-up short always seemed to come up short in the playoffs. Even with Ivan Rodriguez, a future Hall of Famer who will be punished for playing in the steroid era, and Juan Gonzales, at the time one of the best hitters in baseball, the Rangers never made it past the Yankees, Red Sox and Indians.
But today is a different story.
The Astros never really have dropped off, going to the World Series in 2005 and replacing Hampton with Roy Oswalt. Bagwell and Craig Biggio are gone, but Berkman is a stud, along with Carlos Lee. The Astros started off terrible this year, but are in third place in the enigma that is the NL Central.
After finishing second in 2008, the Rangers were supposed to at least challenge one of baseball’s most consistent teams this decade, the Angels, and they have.
Injury problems have stalled them at times, but with the super star drug-addict-who-found-religion story in Josh Hamilton, the Rangers are back. They score tons of runs with Hamilton, Hank Blaylock and Michael Young, and have quality pitchers such as Kevin Millwood and Vicente Padilla.
Wednesday, the Rangers faced baseball’s current dynasty, the Boston Red Sox. The Astros faced 2009’s best story, in St. Louis and Albert Pujoles’ run at the triple crown. The Astros swept St. Louis after a thrilling ninth inning comeback and are a game out of first. The Rangers swept the Red Sox and are three games out of first.
Whatever happens during the next two months, one thing is for sure: The month of July brought back memories of Astro Domes, Lima Time and Rafael Palmeiro Viagra commercials.
Joe Harrington is a Times sports writer and can be contacted at joe.harrington(at)dailytimes.com.
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