This was supposed to be a column about the glory of two teams who never make it to the World Series, finally making it. The satisfaction of letting somebody else have a shot at playing the Fall Classic, for a change. The White Sox and the Astros. Two perennial losers for whom October has always meant playing golf and watching television. Only this time, they were going to be playing baseball ? against each other. The column took shape shortly after Lance Berkman, the Carlos Beltran of 2005, put the Astros ahead, 4-2, with a dramatic three-run home run in the 7th inning off the Cardinals? Chris Carpenter. As the game entered the 9th inning, the crowd was on its feet and roaring. Berkman was announced as the Chevrolet Game MVP by those know-it-all announcers at FOX. Brad Lidge, who?s closed out Game 4 with one of the all-time great clutch pitching performances, was on the mound. The Cardinals were as dead as their about-to-be-demolished ballpark. They?d already dropped seven straight post-season road games. They were about to waste another 100-win regular season. The White Sox and the Astros. Back in May, with the Astros, stumbling along with a 15-30 record, the odds of those two teams making it to the Series were roughly on par with that of an asteroid landing atop the Sears Tower. John Rodriguez goes down on strikes. Two outs to go. The White Sox and the Astros. The Sox had won one World Series, lost one, and thrown another. The Astros had lost three times in the NLCS , and blew the clinching game in two of them. . John Mabry strikes out swinging. One out to go. The White Sox and the Astros. The teams could not be more evenly matched. The Sox?s young pitching corps of Buerhle, Garland, and Contreras against the Astros stalwart veterans, Clemens, Pettitte and Oswalt. Lidge against Jenks. Konerko and Berkman. Podsednik and Biggio. Power hitters and table setters. David Eckstein, down to his last strike, guts out a single to the left side. Jim Edmonds steps to the plate, Albert Pujols on deck. You don?t want to face him. But maybe Lidge remembers something else. Wasn?t Edmonds the guy who beat Houston in Game 6 last year, with a walk-off home run in the 12th inning? Heck, you don?t want to face him either. The White Sox and the Astros. Unlike the Red Sox and the Cubs, you couldn?t even say these teams were cursed. They were just lousy. The Astros were 0-7 in the playoffs. The White Sox, until they knocked off the Angels in Game 5, had been 0-6 over a 75-year span. Lidge, overwhelmed by the pressure of the moment, loses focus. He walks Edmonds. Pujols steps in. In similar situations throughout this October, big swingers like Alex Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero had failed miserably. Pujols swings and badly misses a low slider. Two strikes to go. The White Sox and the Astros. A refreshing change from all those years of Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals, and Braves dominating the post-season. A Series that, like it or not, somebody has to win. A Series that, one year after the miracle Red Sox win, couldn?t be more poetic. Lidge throws another slider. Pujols swings. The ball is crushed. So are 40,000 plus fans and a dugout of Astros players ready to celebrate. It takes less than a nanosecond for everyone to realize that it?s happened again. For the fifth time in its beleaguered history, the Astros have failed to close out a National League Championship Series. Does anyone in their right mind believe there?ll be successful in attempts six and seven? Oh sure, the Cardinals have to get past Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens, and they?re still down 3-2, and their offense is still dormant, and if they make it to Game 7, they?re going to have to rely on Matt Morris. Except that last year, they beat Clemens in Game 7 with Jeff Suppan pitching. And last year, it was the Astros who had all the momentum heading into St. Louis, after winning three straight home games. Momentum, after parking itself firmly in the Astros dugout for eight and two-thirds innings, flew back to St. Louis on the Cardinals charter. It?s like to remain there well past Thursday night. The White Sox and the Cardinals. Should be a great Series.