In honor of Andy Pettitte making the final start of his career tomorrow (Friday) night in Houston, we started to look back at the circumstances that surrounded his leaving New York for Houston, ten years ago this winter. The more research I did, the more I realized just how intricate and linked the fortunes of the Astros, Red Sox, and Yankees were in those few months. And not just those three teams, either - the entire landscape of baseball changed that off-season. Storylines began in that offseason that are still unfolding today, and you might very well say it was the last great off-season in Astros' history.
So what began as a longread about Pettitte turned into a 13,000+ word recounting of the day-to-day decisions and intricacies of the entire off-season, all set up on a different page at the top, to go along with the other longreads we've offered up.
We hope you enjoy it.
-Astros County
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
