World Series: Connections abound, but Philadelphia has an edge on Houston
HOUSTON — The 118th World Series, which starts in Houston on Friday with the Astros hosting the Philadelphia Phillies, will be the ultimate test for an esoteric but fascinating theory: When it comes to professional sports, Philadelphia owns Houston.
The Phillies were in the city in early October, for the final series of the regular season, and they clinched their first playoff berth since 2011. It was a fitting place to do it, because so much of what’s good about Philly sports — not a hotbed of championship activity, if we’re being honest — can be traced to Houston.
The most important victory in Phillies history came in Houston, in the seismic 1980 National League Championship Series, when the team of Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Steve Carlton finally broke through to reach the World Series. They went on to win the first championship in team history.
The second came in 2008, and the pitcher on the mound at the end, Brad Lidge, came to the Phillies in a trade with Houston. Calling the action from the Phillies’ broadcast booth was the beloved Harry Kalas, whose son, Todd, is now the Astros’ television play-by-play announcer.
Harry Kalas came to the Phillies from the Astros in 1971, hired by longtime club executive Bill Giles, who also came from Houston. Kalas stayed on the job until his death in 2009, and now has a statue on the concourse at Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies play a recording of his victory anthem, “High Hopes,” after every win.
When the Phillies exiled Mitch Williams in 1993, after he had given up Joe Carter’s World Series-winning homer for Toronto, they shipped him to the Astros for another closer, Doug Jones, who promptly made the All-Star team. Several other Phillies standouts — starters Curt Schilling and Roy Oswalt and outfielder Hunter Pence — arrived through trades with the Astros.
This goodwill trend goes beyond baseball. The Philadelphia Eagles were 6-0 against the Houston Oilers and are 5-0 against the Houston Texans, with another game scheduled in Houston for next Thursday, on the off-day before a possible Game 6 of the World Series. The hero of the Eagles’ only Super Bowl win, in February 2018, was quarterback Nick Foles, a native of Austin, Texas. (Close enough.)
In basketball, when the Philadelphia 76ers sought a superstar in 1982 to help Julius Erving finally win an NBA title, they traded with the Houston Rockets for Moses Malone, the reigning MVP. Malone immediately won another MVP and helped the 76ers sweep the NBA Finals.
That was the last title for the 76ers, who acquired another former MVP for the Rockets, James Harden, in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets last year. The architect of the current 76ers is Daryl Morey, who previously guided the Rockets.
(And we haven’t even mentioned the buzzer-beater by Villanova’s Kris Jenkins to win the 2016 NCAA Division I men’s basketball championship, in Houston.)
So, yes: For a city that rarely reaches the top — the long-departed Athletics still have more titles than any existing local franchise — Philadelphia has a strange pattern of success when Houston gets involved. It should be no surprise that the greatest Phillie of all, Schmidt, picks this World Series to follow the trend.
“A key part of becoming a championship team is believing it and feeling it,” Schmidt said, noting that Houston has gotten used to reaching the World Series. “Four times in six years? Say what you want, but it would be hard to say that Houston’s hungrier than the Phillies. Every player wants to win the World Series when they’re in it, no doubt about it, but for the Phillies to accomplish what they’ve accomplished based upon where they were at one time during the season makes them sort of feel like they’re unbeatable.”
Houston is a great team, Schmidt acknowledged, and who could argue? The Astros are 113-56 this season, including a 7-0 romp through the American League playoffs. But to Schmidt, the Phillies’ mental edge will prevail.
“I think that carries a lot of weight in a series,” he said. “I think the World Series is going to play out this way: a split in the first two games, the Phillies winning two out of three at home, and the Phillies winning in seven games, 7-6.”
A seven-game series? Now that would be something new for the Phillies. All of the other teams that existed before the expansion era — including the Chicago White Sox, who did it in a best-of-nine series — have played a Game 7. The Phillies have played decisive fifth games but have still never played a postseason Game 7.