1981-85: The Chinese Water Torture Offense and Tough Times
After the heartbreaking loss to the Phillies in the 1980 NLCS, the Astros were back for revenge in the free agent market. They signed longtime Dodgers pitcher Don Sutton and traded Jeffrey Leonard to the San Francisco Giants for Bob Knepper. The Astros had a rough start before the strike halted play for two months. Just days before the strike, the Astros traded pitcher Joaquín Andújar to St. Louis, where he would help the Cardinals to the World Series Championship the following season, for outfielder Tony Scott. Once the strike ended, baseball decided to add an extra layer to the playoffs by having the first-half division winner face the second-half winner. While the Dodgers won the first half, it would be Houston winning the second half. However, it wouldn't be easy since the Astros did not score too many runs. This was known as the "Chinese Water Torture" offense. They would have frequent 1-0 or 2-0 victories. The Astros would have a milestone on September 26 when Nolan Ryan pitched his fifth no-hitter against the Dodgers. A few weeks later, they were in the playoffs against the Dodgers in the 1981 National League Division Series. After the Astros won the first two games in dramatic fashion, the Dodgers won the next three in Dodger Stadium to earn the full NL West Title.
Afterward, the Astros would have three tough seasons. They would trade César Cedeño to Cincinnati for Ray Knight and Danny Heep to the Mets for Mike Scott. In the process, Bill Virdon was fired in favor of Bob Lillis. During this time, Dickie Thon was emerging as a premier shortstop, hitting 20 homers in 1983. But in April 1984, he was beaned by Mike Torrez. That would remove any chances for Thon of becoming a big-time shortstop.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Houston Astros
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—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)
“He has outsoared the shadow of our night;
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And that unrest which men miscall delight,
Can touch him not and torture not again;
From the contagion of the world’s slow stain
He is secure, and now can never mourn
A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
“Comparatively, we can excuse any offense against the heart, but not against the imagination. The imagination knows—nothing escapes its glance from out its eyry—and it controls the breast.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And if the stage-dark head rehearse
The fifth act of the closing night,
Why, cut it off, piece after piece,
And throw the tough cortex away....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“A multitude of causes unknown to former times are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)