MLB Bullets is no longer a dis-Astro

You know, one typo and the Astros become the Astors, which has a totally different meaning. But maybe that might be a good name for one of their minor league teams. Give the kids a lesson in American history while they are at the park.

Hey! I found a totally appropriate use for a Kate Upton photo!

• In case you just woke up from a coma, the Houston Astros are the World Series Champions with a 5-1 win in game 7 over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Here’s the hometown Houston Chronicle write-up of game 7 and the end of a six-year process in Houston.
• The television ratings for last night’s game 7 was the third-best for a baseball game this millennium, behind only last year’s Cubs victory and the 2004 final game for the Red Sox. I guess the Astros “curse” wasn’t considered enough to push them over the top.
• While the Astros were in Los Angeles, Wright Thompson was in Houston to see a very diverse city celebrate their first World Series title.
• Rumor is that Astros ace Justin Verlander is going to miss today’s victory parade in Houston because he’s flying off to Italy to marry Kate Upton this weekend. I guess he figured this weekend would be free when he was playing for the Tigers.
• Speaking of marriage, Astros shortstop Carlos Correa proposed to his girlfriend during a live interview on the field and his teammates knew all about it beforehand.
• Charlotte Wilder is a vocal opponent of on-camera proposals at the ballpark, but she’s willing to make an exception if you are a player on a team that just won the World Series.
• Will Leitch has a guide for Astros fans about what to expect next. Honestly, he could have written this to Cubs fans last year, but Cubs fan wants a Cardinals fan to tell them what winning a title is like.
• About that 2014 Sports Illustrated article that predicted that the Astros would win the 2017 World Series. Alex Putterman goes over that article and outlines what it got right and what it got wrong. George Springer? Carlos Correa? Right on target. Mark Appel and Brady Aiken? Not so much.
• The current Astros regime inherited Springer, but Jeff Sullivan notes that the World Series MVP had one of the greatest World Series performances in history.
• Springer is also determined to help others like himself who suffer from a lack of confidence because of stuttering. (Video)
• Tom Verducci notes that the Astros and the city of Houston had to be resilient to win it all and no one better represents that resiliency better than Game 7 winner Charlie Morton.
• After 19 seasons in the majors, outfielder Carlos Beltran is finally getting a World Series ring.
• Jonah Keri traces how the Astros went from losing 100 games three years in a row to World Series champions.
• Jeff Passan looks at how the Astros got over the hump and went from a “great” team to a “legendary” team.
• Ben Reiter wrote that now-legendary Sports Illustrated article in 2014 predicting the Astros winning the 2017 World Series. Now he goes out on a limb again and predicts that the Astros will repeat in 2018.
• Ben Lindbergh notes that the Astros are a very good team, but winning a World Series this year or next was never likely. MLB is just too difficult for any team to win the World Series or especially repeat as title winner. The Cubs know about that.
• Just to reinforce that point, here are several points during the postseason where everything could have gone south for the Astros.
• Still, Craig Calcaterra thinks the Astros will contend for a long time.
• Andrew Marchand thinks these Astros can win another title in the next few seasons.
• Neil Paine reminds us that the Astros, like the Cubs, “tanked” before their title and wonders if that will be the new blueprint for every MLB team.
• And for every winner, there is a loser. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw said “Maybe one of these days I won’t fail . . .and we’ll win one of these things.” Harsh words from the greatest pitcher of his generation.
• Bill Baer notes that it wasn’t just Kershaw, the whole Dodgers team squandered plenty of chances in the World Series.
• The Dodgers were crushed by their loss, writes Stephanie Apstein.
• As if things couldn’t get worse for the Dodgers, the house of Yasiel Puig was burglarized during game 7.
• Michael Baumann looks at the Dodgers blueprint to win the World Series and what needed to be done differently for LA to come out on top. In the end, Baumann writes that the Dodgers plan was perfect. It just didn’t work. That’s baseball.
• Cliff Corcoran explains why the Dodgers should still be very optimistic heading into 2018.
• Jeff Sullivan looks at the pitch selection of Astros pitcher Brad Peacock and wonders if it wasn’t the result of the “slick” baseball.
• Here are eight records that were set in the 2017 World Series.
• Joe Trezza lists the top ten moments of the 2017 postseason.
• The Hot Stove has started and the Angels have come to a five-year extension with outfielder Justin Upton. Upton could have opted out of his contract this winter and become a free agent.
• Jeff Sullivan thinks it’s a decent deal for the Angels, but that Upton doesn’t address the team’s major pitching problem.
• The Mariners have declined the 2018 option on pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma.
• Jon Heyman reports that the current posting agreement has expired and that may prevent Shohei Otani playing in MLB in 2018.
• Steve Wulf takes a look at the greatest baseball team that you know nothing about: the 1992 Cuban Olympic Team. Yulieski Gurriel’s father Lourdes was a star on that team, as was Orlando Hernandez.
• Sad news as Rick Hader, who has entertained minor league audiences for years as Myron Noodleman, has passed away at age 59.
• Dan McQuade has the story of a gorgeous, 18-year-old minor league ballpark in Camden, NJ that is going to be torn down. It’s a lesson about the promises of prosperity made by people who want the government to pay for stadiums.
• And finally, David Walter has a report from the Pacific island nation of Palau, where baseball isn’t just a game, it’s an integral part of the fabric of business and government. It’s a sociological portrait of how the game of baseball completely transformed the culture of a people, for good and bad.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.