As a fourth-generation native Houstonian, I feel a terrific sense of pride that the Houston Astros have finally achieved baseball's pinnacle. It wasn't a cheap title – they had to beat baseball royalty, the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers.  They did it with youthful exuberance and veteran leadership.  They took a wounded city to baseball's summit. I grew up watching the Astros.  My first ball game as a kid was a Colt .45 game in old Colt Stadium, where the mosquitoes were the size of city buses.  It was in the same parking lot where the new air-conditioned Harris County Domed Stadium (aka The Houston Astrodome) was being built.  The skeleton of the Dome was being erected behind me as I watched players like Nellie Fox play the game. We loved our Astros through thick and thin, and there were a lot of thin times.  We didn't have a curse to blame.  We didn't have a lot of famous players.  It took us decades to...(Read Full Post)