The Astros completed a remarkably low-key great season with an almost historic postseason and another championship. We say low-keyed because they were so consistently good and without, thankfully, drama that they were overlooked by most of the country most of the season while the Dodgers chased the all-time wins record and Aaron Judge chased Ruth and Maris.
The Astros were just, well, good. As they've been for the last eight seasons, just a few years after they put a plan in place. How good is that plan? Here's the headline from fivethirtyeight.com as the World Series began:
The Astros Are Baseball’s Most Business-like Buzzsaw
On the verge of an undefeated postseason, Houston gets the job done through overwhelming competence.
What the Astros have been doing has been the subject of business school studies, FiveThiryEight continuing statistical analyses of the Astros is down to the sub-atomic level, they are a big part of The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players, one of the best baseball/business/statistics books of the last ten years.
The Astros made a plan. Then they made plans based on that plan. Then they made plans for everyone - coaches, players, management, everyone. They weathered scandals, bad luck, bad decisions (J.R. Martinez anyone?), COVID, personality clashes, management infighting and turnover, and a host of minor irritants and have just kept on going. They've even survived their own success - losing players to free agency and 'the big bucks.'
And with all the planning, all the technology, all the analytics they saw the need to bring in Dusty Baker to manage the team. Baker, seventy-something, played with Hank Aaron, played against Willie Mays, co-inventor of the high-five, winningest manager to not win a World Series, winery owner, beloved by the baseball community, and completely, utterly imperturbable.
The plan merged with humanity.
As a law firm that does a lot of business planning while also helping those business owners who have run headlong into issues, we can only look at the Astros organization in something approaching awe. (It also helps that we're season ticket holders).
As we were writing this, it was announced that Dusty Baker has signed on for another year with, "I won one, I might as well win another." We're already ready for another parade.