Astros/Yankees “Play In Game” Notes

Tomorrow night’s American League “play in” game at Yankee Stadium  matches the New York Yankees, whose 27 World Series wins are more than double those of any other baseball franchise (the Cardinals, who won  100 games in the 2o15 regular season, are second, with 11), and the Houston Astros, whose only World Series appearance resulted in a 4 game sweep loss to the White Sox, giving the South Side Chicago team its first World Series win in 88 years.

Only the Texas Rangers, who also made the playoffs, clinching the A.L. West on the regular season’s final day, after dissipating a 4 run 9th inning lead vs the L.A. Angels of Los Angeles with a chance to do so the day before, now in their 55th season, have gone longer than the Astros, (in their 54th season), without ever having won a World Series.

The Yankees, who have been in 40 World Series, 15 ALCS, and are bidding to qualify for the division series for the 18th time in its 21 year existence, will be in their first “play in” game. (The Yankees were also in a strike marred 1981 season equivalent of a division series, as were the Astros.)

This is the fourth season with the play in game and tomorrow night’s contest will be the Astros’ first post season appearance since the aforementioned sweep loss, in the 2005 World Series.

Perhaps smiling down from above will be the recently departed Yogi Berra, of course an enormous part of the Yankees’ great history, having played on a record 10 World Series winning teams, but also a coach for the Astros, the last time they played in a post season game in New York, which was vs the Mets in the 1986 NLCS.