{"id":1129,"date":"2005-10-22T00:03:35","date_gmt":"2005-10-22T05:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2005-10-22T00:12:17","modified_gmt":"2005-10-22T05:12:17","slug":"some-final-nlcs-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1129","title":{"rendered":"Some Final NLCS Thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As the hours tick down before the opening of the 2005 World Series, I wanted to throw down a few final thoughts on the Houston Astros&#8217; accomplishments this season.<\/p>\n<p>First, I think this is an awesome image, one that I&#8217;d begun to believe I would never see.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/houston.astros.mlb.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/images\/Astros_05_NL_champs.gif\"  alt=\"Astros 2005 NL Champs\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Second, I don&#8217;t need a World Series victory by the &#8216;Stros.  Oh, I&#8217;d love one and I&#8217;ll certainly be rooting for one, but I&#8217;m perfectly content with Houston just getting to the match-up with the ChiSox.  I&#8217;m happy that long-time Astros icons Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell will finally play a game in baseball&#8217;s primest of prime time.  I&#8217;m happy for the franchise&#8217;s exorcism of the ghosts of 1980, 1986 and 2004 when they came oh so very close by a team that has shown tremendous resillience all season long.  I&#8217;m happy for the city of Houston and that a World Series game will finally be played in the Lone Star state.<\/p>\n<p>No, I don&#8217;t expect the Astros to win the series, though I can hope.  With Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt on the mound, there&#8217;s always hope.  Still, I&#8217;m just enjoying the National League pennant.  In fact, I may have to pick up one of those.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/shop.mlb.com\/product\/index.jsp?productId=2135502&#038;cp=2141043.2135343.2139491&#038;parentPage=family\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/images\/Astros_05_pennant.jpg\"  alt=\"Astros 2005 NL Pennant\" \/><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p>Oh yeah, third, it&#8217;s particulary tasty that the Astros success came at the expense of the Cardinals and continued the <a href=\"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=288\">Curse of Keith<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the hours tick down before the opening of the 2005 World Series, I wanted to throw down a few final thoughts on the Houston Astros&#8217; accomplishments this season. First, I think this is an awesome image, one that I&#8217;d begun to believe I would never see. Second, I don&#8217;t need a World Series victory [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}