The SBP Archives - Your less than frequent dose of SBP!

Of course, after my rant about thinking the Sens are done for the year, they did what everybody thought they wouldn't do and beat the best team in the NHL, the Buffalo Sabres, by a 4-2 margin. We'll have to wait and see how they do tomorrow against New Jersey and Saturday against the Sabres again, because the victory will be quickly forgotten if they continue their losing ways.

Anyway, in the end, Ottawa doesn't really have a right to complain about falling short in the post-season when you consider the franchise is only 14 years old. The Chicago Cubs are still waiting for a World Series win after doing so in 1908. That's right, nearly 100 years of failure. But, falling more in line with what the Senators are going through, here's an email I got from my friend Paul, a Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Astros fan:

Son, let me tell you about the Houston Astros.

The 'Stros have always been a good team. Competitive at least. But in their 40 plus year history, they have zero titles. They were so close in '86 losing to the eventual World Series champion Mets in 6 games in the National League Championship Series. Throughout the 90s they were very competitive but 5 playoff appearances in 7 years meant little when they bowed out in their first series. In fact, it was 2004 when the Astros won their first ever playoff series. But why do I bring that up?

The 2004 Astros were supposed to be a playoff team. In the off season they signed Superhuman Roger Clemens and his NY Yankee sidekick Andy Pettitte. Two big pitchers with playoff experience and success. So....how scary was it, in August of that year, to be so far out of a playoff spot that it took a 36-10 record down the stretch to clinch the wild card spot by 1 measly game? Far too scary. A loaded team that just never seemed to get on track until it was too late.

But 2005 was better, right? Right?!?!? Not even close. The Astros went with some younger players, deciding not to sign 2004 playoff hero Carlos Beltran to $18 million contract. But hey, they still had Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte and the knowledge they had finally won a playoff series. But the Astros stumbled out of the gate. They couldn't score runs and were shut out 8 times in their first 50 games. In late May, the Astros sat at 15-30,well back of first and 15 games under .500. No team had ever made the playoffs having been 15 games under at ANY time during a season. Things were so grim that the Houston Chronicle Sports staff included a cartoon on June 2, depicting a tombstone and declaring the Stros dead for 2005. So after a 42-17 stretch, the Astros raced back into things and managed to make it to the World Series. Granted they lost but....

This year? There were no remarkable turnaround this year. But the Astros sat some 8 games under .500 and about 10 games back of first place in their division most of September. In fact, with two weeks to go, and I believe 13 games left, they were 7 games back. They managed to tie the St. Louis Cardinals with three games to go but couldn't manage another miracle comeback.

The point? Always be wary of counting out a quality team. Regardless of how things seem, this team is just as capable of rolling out 7 wins in 8 games too.