Sure, it would have been nice to have World Series Championship trophies as bookends. And, with the Houston Astros being turned away by a 108-win Boston Red Sox in the just-completed American League Championship Series, attention now turns to the future for the still-reigning World Champs.

Mad props are certainly due the Beantown Nine, as low expectations for several of their players turned into all-world performances. Jackie Bradley, Jr. suddenly finding his inner Carl Yastrzemski, became an offensive force and won ALCS MVP honors, and David Price did his best Lefty Grove impression, at least in the clinching Game 5, Thursday.

Price Increase Leads to Houston Recession

Price had been 5-0 with a 4.06 ERA in five starts at Minute Maid Park entering Game 5, so the Astros shouldn’t have been too surprised at his mastery. In fact, at one point in the game, Statcast had Price logging seven swings-and-misses on 22 changeups, a staggering rate; and only two changeups had been put in play by Houston.

Sox fans will have to wait to see if either Bradley or Price, or both, can keep it (or a semblance of it) up in the World Series.

Houston manager AJ Hinch began his post-game remarks by saying, “The American League is really proud Boston is going to well-represent the American League [in the World Series]. I want that on the record.”

Astros’ third baseman Alex Bregman, a hero a year ago, but beset by walks and less timely hitting this postseason, hung back after Thursday’s last out and watched the Sox use his field as their new party room. “In that moment,” he said with familiar determination, “the only thing on my mind is how are we going to not let this happen again?”

The Land of What Might Have Been

While others will see fit to hand-wring and teeth-gnash over what might have been, particularly in the ALCS, and “what it all means,” Astros, from front office to dedicated fan, have every reason to hold their head up high, as the glory of 2017 now comes into focus as being the stand-alone gem that it is, with the perfect vision of hindsight.

Oh, there’ll be offseason talk, filling newspaper and radio call-in space, of raising the right field wall at Minute Maid (or adding a Wrigley-like “basket”), and wrenching out the first three rows of the Crawford Boxes to make them less accessible. Live by the short porch, die by the short porch.

You’ll hear talk about, finally, turning out to pasture of good ole Joe “Wild” West, the lead umpire in Game 4’s “fan interference” call on Jose Altuve’s would-be home run. You’ll absorb the discourse of the challenge in beating a team when a JD Martinez “strikes out” on what appears to be a third Justin Verlander corner strike, only to blast the next pitch for a homer.

A startling Verlander factoid emerged, though, for Houston fans during the series: The Astro ace faced a bases-loaded situation in just three of his 34 regular season starts; he faced one in both starts in the ALCS, and both times retired Mookie Betts, the presumptive AL MVP. The Betts out Thursday registered a 107 on the “loud crowd” decibel meter in the second inning at Minute Maid.

You’ll even hear doom-saying “fans” castigate Houston’s mid-season trade for controversial closer Roberto Osuna, desperately making the farcical point that “bad karma” played a role in Houston’s early postseason ouster.

Much, too, will be made of the nagging knee and back injuries apparently still dogging Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa, respectively, and how they might’ve impacted the series if 100%. Hinch even revealed that Altuve’s knee would’ve landed him on the DL if this had been the regular season.

The Singular Symbol of the 2017 Trophy

Besides the obvious and, by now, well-documented exploits and exciting heroics of the 2017 Astros on the field, never should it be forgotten or underplayed the lone intangible factor of why they won it all: The rare convergence of mother nature and what the movies unabashedly call “the triumph of the human spirit.”

Blame Hurricane Harvey for the horrific destruction and thousands of changed and destroyed lives. But, revel in the lifting of the collective spirits and hundreds of thousands –even millions– of the resulting throng of people helping people that followed.

“Houston Strong” was the rallying cry, so much so that the phrase occupies a prominent place on the players’ championship ring (and fans’ replica ring)! The fans lifted the players up by the sheer volume of their lung power during home games (and even traveling to road games), and the players dug deeper than they even thought they could to courageously bring home the World Series pennant and the trophy.

Before the Closing of the Clubhouse Door

Pitcher Lance McCullers Jr., wearing a retro blue and gold 1990s “open star” Astros cap, just before dashing out the door into the impending offseason, on what he’d like to say to Astros fans: “I would tell them we love you to death. We appreciate the support you have given us. Thank you. You guys make it fun for us to come to the park, to live in this city. This is my home. I truly enjoy being an Astro.”

Hinch, as he usually does, put the Astros’ postseason into clear and philosophical perspective, saying simply, “We ran out of wins.”

He neglected to add “…..for 2018.”

2019 will have its share of wins, to be sure, and doubtless with new faces to welcome and old faces left to thank and wish them well elsewhere.

But, for now, the trophy stands alone, a proud and vivid reminder of the love, passion, fire, and desire that marked the champs of ’17.

I suspect, though, round about October 2019, the trophy will start to look a little lonely, and the Astros will set their eyes on a new championship, playing hard to find the large golden prize a companion piece.

And, the 2017 trophy will finally have some company… as it should.