The Houston Astros Are Guaranteed A Spot In The Post Season. Fans are not.

Sunday, September 17th, 2017, game number 149, The Houston Astros took their place as The AL West Champions via a shallow outfield pop up caught by Carlos Correa. An exuberant on field celebration, that could very well be the first of many to come this post season, led to more celebrations in the clubhouse, in living rooms of those watching on TV, at Academy stores across the city that were swarmed with fans eager to acquire their post season merchandise and of course, on Twitter.

Monday, September 18th, 2017, a well deserved off day for The Astros, Houston fans waited for their designated hour to buy the first round of post season tickets to finally arrive. Hour one, for the season ticket holders, came and went smoothly.

It was hour two that sent fans (including me) into a slight panic. At 11:00am CST, those who were fortunate to be randomly chosen to purchase tickets in a presale, clicked the link sent by email & entered the password given only to be told that the password was invalid. When I first saw this message come up, I referred back to the email to make sure I had read it correctly. I thought, "That's what I thought I entered. Probably just a typo". The same message came on my screen after a second attempt. I then decided to copy & paste. Still not working. Turn Caps Lock on. Nope. Turn Caps Lock off.

OK, WHAT THE DAMN HELL IS GOING ON?!

I, along with many other fans, took to Twitter to see if I was alone in my predicament. I was not.

Trying to buy @astros tickets for the ALDS & my password won't work. Awesome.

— Trey (@treyjyert) September 18, 2017

Has anyone been able to purchase tickets yet?

— Lindsey (@lnzy04) September 18, 2017

@astros trying to buy tickets but the pw I was email is registering as invalid. HELP!!!

— alexandra (@BettinaBaggins) September 18, 2017

Some folks had some interesting theories:

Hey @astros did scalpers figure out the presale passwords and buy all of the tickets? #FirstWorldProblems

— Mat West (@WestMat) September 18, 2017

Y'ALL I BET THE CARDINALS ARE BEHIND THIS

— Jason Zimmermann (@jzimmermann11) September 18, 2017

ACT 1: Make the playoffs
ACT 2: Make it impossible to buy ALDS tickets
ACT 3: Make it right with ALCS and WS victories

Very clever, Luhnow.

— Brain ⚾️ (@AstrosBrain) September 18, 2017

While others...

Dammmnnmmitttt

— Lindleem (@Lindleem) September 18, 2017

@astros @AstrosJClose hey Astros ticket password is invalid pic.twitter.com/fyvE18jiN2

— RGBIII (@RGBIII) September 18, 2017

THE POST SEASON TICKET WEBSITE ISN'T WORKING AND #ASTROSTWITTER BE LIKE pic.twitter.com/Q6xHEE3WA5

— Jexas (@Jexas) September 18, 2017

 Many decided to wait for the public sale at noon, but...

Welp, no passwords needed at 12pm because everything is sold out. Awesome presale @astros, so disappointed.

— Scooter (@scooteronomy) September 18, 2017

In the noon hour on Sports Talk 790, Reid Ryan called in to speak with Matt Thomas. Thomas asked him about the presale debacle. Ryan said the post season ticket process is run out of New York and the website and phone lines were crushed by the demand and that the only way to get a sure thing when it comes to post season tickets is to be a season ticket holder.

As much as the reality of the situation completely stinks, the lottery pool is probably the most fair way to hand out the chance to purchase post season tickets. Unfortunately, technology can be fickle & unpredictable. I am hoping some viewing parties are organized around the city for those who want to experience post season excitement with other fans. I went to two of those viewing parties in '05 downtown and had a great time.

I am also hoping that those New Yorkers up there figure out how to run ticket sales for the next round of the post season so that the fans who were chosen to participate in another presale don't have the headache so many had today