A mocked 2014 Sports Illustrated cover predicted the Houston Astros' 2017 run to the World Series

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October 23, 2017 7:36 PM

Back in 2014 the cover of Sports Illustrated made the bold prediction that the Astros would win the 2017 World Series — now it's four wins away from coming true

In June 2014, Sports Illustrated boldly predicted that the Houston Astros would win the 2017 World Series
At the time, the prediction seemed preposterous, with the Astros coming off of three consecutive 105-loss seasons

On Tuesday, the Houston Astros will head to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2017 World Series.

The Dodgers' path to the World Series was a shock to no one — Los Angeles has won their division title every year since 2013, and have the spending power to compete for the best players.

Counter to that, the Houston Astros' World Series run is the result of one of the most impressive rebuilds in MLB history. In the midst of three consecutive seasons from 2011-13 in which the Astros lost 106, 107, and 111 games, respectively, the organization began the Herculean task of turning the worst team in baseball into a contender.

While most would think the postseason a distant dream for those woeful Astros teams, those working in the club believed that success could come much sooner, as did one Sports Illustrated cover story that is now once again making the rounds as its bold prediction comes closer and closer to becoming a reality.

The response to SI's gutsy declaration was not extremely positive. The Houston Chronicle called the cover "many baseball fans were quick to mock the claim.

Ben Reiter's story, "Astro-Matic Baseball: Houston's Grand Experiment," ran as the cover of Sports Illustrated on June 30th, 2014 with the sub-headline, "An Unprecedented Look At How a Franchise Is Going Beyond Moneyball To Build the Game's Next Big Thing... Your 2017 World Series Champs."

In the article, Reiter is given impressive access to the Astros' front office, gleaning insight to how a team of coaches, scouts, and stat gurus were working in an effort to turn the franchise around.

A common refrain amongst those he spoke with likened the process to playing blackjack. Blackjack is a game of hard numbers, where with each card revealed, there is a certain percentage of available outcomes, and a mathematically correct play for the gambler to make depending on the situation, and sometimes the correct decision doesn't feel great to make.

But as far-fetched as the idea seemed at the time, the Astros are now on the cusp of history, and those 105-loss seasons probably aren't keeping Houston fans up at night.

As Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow put it back in 2014, "When you're in 2017, you don't really care that much about whether you lost 98 or 107 in 2012. You care about how close we are to winning a championship in 2017."

Right now, the Astros are four wins away.

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