HOUSTON — It started with George Springer on the cover of a 2014 Sports Illustrated and has continued into the baseball history books. The Astros are not only good. They’re historically good and they’ve been that way for a while now.
You remember that clairvoyant SI cover, right? It showed Springer in the classic rainbow Astros jersey, with the magazine predicting that Houston would win the World Series by 2017; quite the stretch for a team in the midst of three 100-loss seasons. But not only did that SI cover prediction come true as the Astros knocked off the Dodgers, but the home team continued to thrive, reaching at least the American League Championship Series every season since then.
This is Houston’s seventh consecutive year to reach the ALCS. No other American League team in the history of the game has accomplished that. In four of those years, the Astros went on to play in a World Series, winning it all twice.
Only one Major League Baseball ever has had more consecutive appearances in any league championship series and that’s the Atlanta Braves, who had eight straight in the 1990s.
As for their domination of the American League West, Houston has won six of the last seven division titles. The one time they didn’t win the division – in the COVID-shortened season of 2020 -- they went to the postseason as a wildcard and made it to the ALCS against Tampa Bay.
Since 2014, when Springer graced the SI cover, no team in the American League has won more games than the Astros. Houston has won 871, with the next closest being the Yankees at 855.
Through seven years of American League dominance, only three players were there each season -- Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Justin Verlander, though Verlander had a cup of coffee in New York with the Mets before returning through a trade at the deadline.
Even as superstars like Carlos Correa and George Springer were replaced by newcomers like Jeremy Peña and Kyle Tucker, the team continued to thrive. And Yordan Alvarez, who joined the team in 2019 and won Rookie of the Year, is now one of the most feared hitters in baseball.
The team has gone through a cheating scandal, which led to the firing of GM Jeff Luhhow and manager AJ Hinch. They’re booed at every opposing ballpark and vilified around the league, yet through it all, the guys wearing Astros orange seem to do pretty much the only thing they’ve known to do since arriving in Houston... and that’s win.