The Sean Salisbury Show

The Sean Salisbury Show

Sean Salisbury and co-host Brian LaLima bring you a high-energy look at Houston sports weekday mornings, talking Astros, Rockets, and Texans while...Full Bio

 

Connor: My 10 Favorite Houston Teams Of My Lifetime (Pt. 2, Teams 3-5)

Part two of my list of my favorite Houston teams of my lifetime today. If you missed part one of the list, you can find it by clicking HERE to see what teams landed in the 6-10 spots.

Mentioned it in that blog and will do it again here, as well as tomorrow's final post, I kept my list to teams I remember watching. I was born in 1990 and while yes, the two Rockets championship teams played during my life, I have no memories of watching them because I was three and four years old when they won them. So do not get mad when you do not see them on this list or some other team from the 90's my memories really started around the year 2000 where I rarely would miss any game from any of our teams. Now let's get it going...here are the teams that landed in the 3-5 spots.

5. 2017-2018 Rockets

We have reached the point of the list where the teams have flamed out in the playoffs, but that does not cloud how much fun those teams and seasons really were. Ahead of the this season for the Rockets, they added Chris Paul to run along side James Harden. The loud talkers thought it would not work, but they ended that noise by popping off the best regular season in the history of the franchise, winning 65 games while James Harden finally won the MVP award he had long deserved.

In the era of one of the greatest dynasty type runs we have seen in the NBA from the Golden State Warriors, this Rockets team should have been the one to knock them from their throne that season. With a 3-2 series lead, Chris Paul's faulty hamstrings failed him once again, but while that hurt, it was not why they lost in a game seven at home. Like game six, they had a lead for large portions of the game, we all know what happened in the second half of game seven as they clunked just about everything they threw up, having one of the most painful streaks of misses we have ever seen as they missed 27 straight three point shots. The NBA Finals were there for their taking and it just sucked. But again, while we will always only think about the painful end, the special run that team put up to that point was something we had not seen in a regular season for any Rockets team before. 

4. 2005 Astros

NLCS PENNANT ASTROS CARDS GAME6

This team was so special. Starting 15-30 in the first 45 games, the tombstone for this season was put on them. On the backs of three horses in Roy Oswalt, Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, they blazed their way back to winning, clinching the NL Wild Card on the final day of the season.

The NLDS against the Braves ended with one of the longest marathon wins we have ever watched.

In the NLCS, Pujols happened against Brad Lidge, but they bounced right back, clinching the first pennant in the history of the franchise in game six back in St. Louis.

The joy of being in their first World Series faded quickly once they got there as it ended in what felt like the blink of an eye without a single win in the series. Despite the deflating end, it was the first World Series appearance this city has seen and boy was it one crazy ride just to get there. 

3. 2018 Astros

Chicago White Sox v Houston Astros

So I went super deep on the two teams above, so we will not go as deep on the rest of teams on my list. Coming off the incredible ride that was 2017, the 2018 team backed up their incredible regular season by winning 103 games, after winning 101 the season before. When you win 100 plus games in a season, you cannot do it without being great at just about everything you do. The 2017 team was historically great at the plate, the 2018 team was not as good. The story of that 2018 team was the starting pitching. Getting through a 162 game season with five starters is basically impossible, but that 2018 tried as hard as they could, only using five starters until they reached the month of August. 

Verlander led the way on a staff filled with ace level pitchers.

In his first season in Houston, Gerrit Cole took the first step he had to take to eventually land the largest deal a pitcher has ever landed. His biggest and best highlight of the season came in a 16 strikeout, one hit complete game in the month of May.

Charlie Morton was one of the best stories in sports in 2017, he backed that up in 2018 by making his All-Star team, joining Verlander and Cole as guys to strikeout 200 plus batters that season.

Dallas Keuchel was not vintage ace level Keuchel that year, but when your fourth best pitcher is Dallas Keuchel, you are probably pretty good.

Before going down with injury, Lance McCullers was easily the best 5th starter in a rotation in baseball that year.

To wrap up the highlights of that season that ended in defeat at the hands of the Red Sox in the ALCS in just five games, the last highlight for me was the All-Star Game in D.C., where the Astros shined the brightest in the mid-summer classic.

That will do it for the 3-5 spots on the list, check back tomorrow for the top two teams. Hear me every morning on The Sean Salisbury Show from 6-10a and find me on twitter by CLICKING HERE.


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