You're OUT!

What? So I haven't been prolific as usual on my blog? I blame Albert Pujols.

Who?

Ah, you non-baseball fan, skip this entry.

Anyone who has followed any amount of baseball the last few weeks have heard about the amazing run of luck, skill, success, mojo, whatever, that the Astros have been the beneficiaries of. (Trace: make that "of which the Astros have been beneficiaries.")

Coming in to the last two weeks of the season, the Astros' (the 2005 National League Champions for the first time ever) only hope for playoff contention was a run of really bad luck for the Cardinals and a really good run of luck for the Astros. And as the Astros were 8 games behind, this was completely impossible to make up.

But no matter what you thought, if you did the math, the Astros had a chance, a miniscule chance, of returning to the playoffs again. And the Baseball Gods smiled and said "Let's have some fun with Houston."

And they won a game. Then they faced the Cards at home. Me, I had totally given up and was watching that series to see how well the Cardinals played. And they lost. And they lost again. And again. And, impossibly, again! Suddenly the Astros had closed the gap by half!

So the Astros went up east to play Phillies and Pirates. And they won again. And again. And again, and yet again. Meanwhile the Cardinals were losing, and losing, and losing.

It came down to the final three games each. Then the last two. At this point I realized that baseball superstitions are necessary, so I bought the Talisman.

The Talisman was the one item that, if I bought it, would guarantee the Astros a win, and more games in the season. So I dashed out Saturday and got it. And came home and placed the Talisman on the television to make its power do the most good. And then, since I didn't have a Rally Cap, placed a throw blanket over my head, and made JJ wear a couch pillow on his. And they won.

And it still wasn't decided until yesterday, the last day of the regular season. Atlanta, curse them, played just well enough to keep hope alive until the last game of the series, and then the 'stros left a gazillion guys on base in several innings. It was then that I realized that I should have bought the other Talisman I intended to buy, the additional one. It appears the Talisman works only for one game. Or the Texans stole the mojo, and finally won one.

I knew they'd break my heart, but it was certainly fun hoping.

And now I have Season 4 of 24, the Talisman, to watch during the playoffs. I knew I should have picked up Season 5 too.