By GREG BEACHAM
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Houston Astros spent this odyssey of a season as baseball’s biggest villains.
When Aledmys Diaz flied out with a runner on first to end Game 7 of the AL Championship Series, the bad guys finally lost.
Ridiculed, roasted and ripped all year long after the revelation of the franchise’s sign-stealing tactics in previous seasons, the Astros still summoned enough October heart and poise to reach the brink of another World Series. Manager Dusty Baker’s club even came agonizingly close to matching the biggest playoff comeback in baseball history in a wild ALCS.
“The legacy of this group is that these guys are ballplayers, and these guys are men,” said Baker, who took over the team in January. “They’ve been through a whole bunch other than o
