The Summer of My (Sports) Discontent

This has been a tough summer for this Houston sports fan.

My 'Stros are languishing in fourth place and trailing the Brewers, Cubs and Cardinals. My Comets never recovered from the 0-10 hole they put themselves in to start the 2007 WNBA season and missed the playoffs for only the second time in franchise history. They finish the season against the LA Sparks tonight. Rice made it to the College World Series again but got eliminated. My high school alma mater Jones is coming off an 0-10 2006 football season and the Rockets once again made a quick exit out of the NBA playoffs.


There hasn't been a lot for me to cheer about on the sports home front. I've gotten spoiled over the last decade with WNBA championship runs, the Astros making runs to the postseason and eventually the World Series in 2005, my Falcons winning the 4A boys state title in basketball and making deep playoff runs on the girls side. Even the Dynamo got into the act by moving to H-town from San Jose and promptly winning the MLS championship last year in Dallas.

Oh well, at least the Texans are starting to show some improvement, the Dynamo are on track to make the MLS playoffs and my Coogs are the defending C-USA football champs.

But it hasn't been all bad this summer. U of L made the CWS which was great and caused a lot of excitement here in Da Ville. They are the defending Big East champs in football and have a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate in Brian Brohm. UK fans are actually looking forward to an SEC season that doesn't involve playing home games at Rupp Arena. While I root for Kentucky teams since I live here and stay mostly neutral in the war between UK and U of L fans, my sports loyalties however, are in the Lone Star State.

But a fact of life is that sports teams have rises and falls for a variety of reasons. Bad drafting decisions, key players leaving due to free agency, perennial powerhouses breaking up thanks to salary cap trouble, players retiring, et cetera. Looks like my favorite teams are about to go into rebuilding mode for a while.

But I'm not gonna abandon them either. My teams will be back and better than ever. With a little luck I may even get to add some more Houston sports championship t-shirts to my collection.