HOUSTON -- Here's the thing: The Houston Astros really are just that damn good. They were that damn good in 2017 when they were cheating, and they are still that damn good in 2021 when, it's reasonable to assume, they are not. And no matter who they face in the World Series, which they're heading to for the third time in five years after dispatching the Boston Red Sox in impressive fashion Friday night, they play a brand of baseball worth savoring.
If you are from Boston or New York or Los Angeles or, perhaps better put, are a baseball fan anywhere outside of the Houston metropolitan area with a pulse, the previous paragraph may cause teeth-gnashing, eyebrow-furrowing, nausea, irritability or any number of other reactions typically listed on a TV commercial for a new pharmaceutical.