They found him LaSlumped over his LaSteering wheel, and now he's got to LaPost LaBail.

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So the results are in and we have five guys who are getting inducted in the first-ever TCB Astros Hall Fame. Lance Berkman is your fifth inductee, joining Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Cesar Cedeno and Nolan Ryan.

I understood the arguments against Cedeno and Ryan, so I'll tell you my thinking about both of them. Ryan may not be quite as iconic as J.R. Richard in franchise history, but he had many great years with Houston and was integral to that 1986 team. Plus, with Cedeno, Ryan, Biggio/Bagwell and Berkman, we've got representatives from four of the five decades Houston has been a team. That's pretty good for a first class.

Also, I like the idea of coming up with rules for induction. I just threw together this first class, frankly, but I like how it turned out. Still, we should make some requirements for entry.

First up, let's set the number of years with Houston as 8. That's a pretty substantial number without being too short. The real HOF has a 10-year minimum, but that's just as arbitrary as my 8. Should that number be higher or lower?

Second, active players can be considered. It's up to you, the voter on these guys to determine how you want to handle them. Obviously, enough of you voted for Berkman to get him in this class, so we'll let you, the reader, handle this.

Third, a player needs double-digit votes to stay on the ballot for next year. That means, sadly, Roger Clemens will be ineligible for two different reasons next year. Oh well, Rocket. Guess we won't be the only Hall snubbing you soon.

Who does that leave for next season's ballot? Well, I'll let you decide. The holdovers from this season are the following:

Roy Oswalt - 33 votes

Larry Dierker - 66 votes

Jimmy Wynn - 42 votes

Jose Cruz - 40 votes

Those four will make up next year's ballot, but we'll add a few guys to it. Then, when the time comes, I'll set up a ballot that you can use to vote for up to five of them for induction. Sound good?

Over the next few weeks, we'll hold Induction Ceremonies for these guys with a post highlighting their Astros career. Let me know if you want to write the induction for a particular guy and you can do the honors.

Luke Scott's walkoff home run, Roger Clemens' final home appearances in an Astros' uniform, two huge late home runs by Lance Berkman and Aubrey Huff, a walk-off single by Craig Biggio, and a 15th-inning win. Who would have thought these events could have been packed into a single week?

On September 19, 2006 the Astros were 8 1/2 games behind the Cardinals in the NL Central after losing 5-4 to the Cincinnati Reds. Scarcely a week later, nine days in fact, they would find themselves 1/2 a game behind the Redbirds, in what must be heralded as one of the most shocking divisional turnarounds ever. 

Yet for all the attention the comebacks of 2004 and 2005 received, 2006 gets far less, partly due to the fact that it was unsuccessful. Five years later, and coming into a series with the Cardinals, where the Astros could possibly wreck their playoff hopes, now is a good a time as any to look at that stretch in some detail.

Nine Days that Rocked the NL Central

September 20, Astros beat Reds 7-2, Cardinals lose to the Brewers 1-0 (7 1/2 behind)

In what was thought to be his last start at Minute Maid Park, Roger Clemens threw six shutout innings and got a standing ovation after being pulled by Phil Garner. Craig Biggio and Luke Scott hit home runs, with the latter running his season batting average to .382. 

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This game is old. Old as the hills. Old as dirt. Old old old.

This game is older than 18 different members of the Astros roster. It's older than many of you, dear readers. If this game were a running back, it'd be over the hill. 

It's old.

On this day, 29 years ago, the Astros lost 5-1 to the New York Mets at Shea Stadium.

Houston sent Vern Ruhle to the hill and he quickly gave up four runs in four innings of work. He allowed eight hits and a walk while striking out two. This was probably his worst full season as a starter for Ruhle. His '79 season may have been a little worse, but Ruhle only started 10 games that year. In '82, he started 21 and appeared in 10 more with a 3.93 ERA. He also struck out just 56 in 149 innings.

At least the Houston bullpen performed pretty well, as Frank LaCorte and Bret Roberge pitched the final four innings of scoreless ball. Too bad Houston couldn't get anything done on offense until the ninth inning. 

That offense was provided by a solo home run by Alan Ashby, who went 1 for 4 in the game. His home run was his ninth of the season. Ashby would hit three more before the end of the '82 season, giving him 12, which was a career-high until '87 when he hit 14.

I've talked about this before, but this game had a bunch of future managers playing in it. Hoston alone had Ray Knight, Art Howe and Phil Garner in the starting lineup with a pretty good pitching coach in Ruhle to boot. On the Mets' side, there was a fairly good future manager in some kid named Gardenhire. Ron, maybe?

Here's a graphic replay of the game, thanks to Back to Baseball. 

Two days ago and 22 years ago, Rafael Ramirez pulled off a franchise feat despite the AStros losing 10-9 to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. 

Ramirez set what was then a franchise record with seven RBIs to pace the losing effort. What's more, Ramirez did it while batting eighth in this lineup, just ahead of starter Mark Portugal. Oh, and did I mention that Ramirez was the only Astro to officially drive in runs in this game? The shortstop went 3 for 5, raising his average to .254 for the season and his OPS to a robust .629. 

Ramirez got started driving in runs in the top of the second. With the bases loaded, Ramirez hit a ground ball in the hole to shortstop Shawon Dunston, who promptly airmailed his throw for an error. That allowed Glenn Davis to score from third for Raffy's first RBI. Caminiti also scored from second on the play, but because of the error, that run was unearned. So, Ramirez had a good chance at still being tied with J.R. Towles for the franchise high with eight RBIs.

Alas, it was not to be. Ramirez did drive in two more runs in the top of the fourth with a line drive double to right field. That allowed Craig Biggio and Caminiti to score and run Houston's lead to 4-0.

In the fifth, Houston got back on the board with another no RBI run-scoring play when Billy Doran scored from third on a passed ball while Ken Caminiti was batting. That's an important distinction, since if the ball were classified as a wild pitch instead of as a passed ball, the run would have counted as an RBI for Caminiti. He didn't lose any milestones with that one RBI, since he finished the season with 72. But, it did contribute to the weird fact that Raffy was the only RBI holder on the team that day.

So, we're at three RBIs through four innings for the erstwhile shortstop. He picked up the franchise record in one fell swoop in the top of the fifth. With Davis, Kevin Bass and Biggio all on base, Ramirez sent the first pitch he saw from Dean Wilkins into the left-center field bleachers. That gave Houston a 9-0 lead, which they ended up squandering over the course of the next four frames.

Ramirez only hit 53 home runs in his career and just two grand slams. He also just hit 16 home runs as an Astro and, interestingly enough, never had an on-base percentage above .300 in his five seasons with Houston. In '89, he hit just six home runs and drove in 54 RBIs, which means 13 percent of his entire season's RBI production came in this one game. 

Here's the graphic replay of the game, thanks to Back to Baseball. 

Sorry, everyone, for going silent on these. Blame prep football for stealing a bit of my soul over the past two weeks. I should be back on track with these, and we'll revisit a couple of notable events that we missed in the past few days. Today, though, we hit a milestone in the franchise unlike many others. On this day, 21 years ago, Jeffrey Robert Bagwell was traded to Houston for reliever Larry Andersen in what would become one of the most lopsided trades of the past few decades.

Let's rewind the clock for those of you who haven't heard this story and set the stage. In August of 1990, the Houston Astros were coming off a surprising 86-win season, but still finished in third in the NL West. They fell off the ledge in 1990, however, winning just 75 games for manager Art Howe.

There were plenty of young stars on this team, including Ken Caminiti (who wasn't that young at 27), Craig Biggio (still playing catcher), Luis Gonzalez (who only hit .190 in 23 plate appearances) and even a 20-year old Andujar Cedeno, though he only saw eight PAs.

Mixed in with those rising stars were vets like Bill Doran, Rafael Ramirez, Glenn Wilson, Terry Puhl and Glenn Davis. On the pitching side, the Astros had a very veteran staff with guys like Jim Deshaies, Mike Scott, Bill Gullickson, Dave Smith, Danny Darwin, Juan Agosto and, of course, Andersen.

Andersen was clearly having the best year in the bullpen, despite not pitching in a particularly high leverage situation most of the time (just 30 percent of the time). His ERA of 1.95 was sterling and his strikeout rate was at 8.3 K/9. Oh, and he was going to be a free agent at the end of the season.

With the Boston Red Sox preparing for a playoff push and up 6 1/2 games over Toronto in the AL East, they thought Andersen is what they needed to get over the hump in the playoffs. After trading for him, Boston quickly lost its lead, seeing things dwindle down to a first-place tie with Toronto by Sept. 18 before the Sox pulled away and won the division by two games. 

Bagwell was a good prospect at the time, but was not going to stick at third base, so his value was diminished some. When Houston was setting up the trade, then-GM Bill Wood was given a choice of players: Bagwell or Scott Cooper. I think there may have been another player in there, but I can't seem to find that list. At any rate, they certainly made the right selection.

The footnote to this deal is that Andersen didn't pitch badly for the Red Sox. He struck out 25 in 22 innings over 15 games, posted a lower ERA than he had in Houston and pitched in three games during the ALCS loss to Oakland. He gave up three runs in three innings, but also had three strikeouts. That may not seem like a lot of production to get for a future Hall of Famer, but it's still decent.

This trade will go down as one of the worst deadline deals ever, but many people don't remember this was an August deadline deal and didn't happen in July.

On this day, 26 years ago, the Astros lost a close 2-1 game in the ninth inning to the St. Louis Cardinals at the Astrodome.

This pitcher's duel was between Joe Niekro and John Tudor. Niekro threw eight solid innings for Houston, striking out seven and walking one while giving up four hits and one run (none earned). Tudor matched him, giving up six hits, one run (no earned), three walks and six strikeouts in seven innings. 

Dave Smith pitched the first part of the ninth, striking out the only batter he faced (Jack Clark). Jeff Calhoun gave up the game, allowing two hits and one run without recording an out. Bill Dawley closed things out, but the damage was already done.

None of the Astros had an RBI, while Phil Garner was the only one to score a run. Scrap Iron went 2 for 5 while Craig Reynolds hit a double as a pinch hitter in his only plate appearance. Jose Cruz was 2 for 4 and Bill Doran went 1 for 5 with a stolen base. Dickie Thon also added a stolen base, even though he went 0 for 2 with two walks.

Here's a graphic replay of the game, thanks to Back to Baseball.

On this day, 18 years ago, Mark Portugal outdueled knuckleballer Charlie Hough in a 8-3 victory over the Florida Marlins at the Astrodome.

Quick side note: I had written one of these Wednesday, but due to internet problems, lost the whole post right as I was publishing it. That rarely happens on the great system SB Nation has put together, but it did this time (due to my sucky internet setup). I got discouraged by the whole thing, and it took me a day to get back on that horse. My apologies.

Back to the game...for those of you not familiar with Hough, he was one of a long line of knucleballers. Unlike the latest incarnation (Tim Wakefield), Hough bounced around to four different teams and spending over a decade with two of them (the Rangers and the Dodgers). He pitched for 25 seasons, pitching over 200 innings in '93 at 45 years old. In this one, he only threw 3 innings, giving up seven hits and five runs while striking out two.

Portugal won his 12th game of the season in this one, throwing 5 2/3 innings while allowing eight hits, three runs (two earned) and two walks with three strikeouts. He turned things over to Tom Edens, Xavier Hernandez and Doug Jones to finish out the game, with X pitching two of those innings for a hold.

Portugal pitched for 15 seasons, winning 109 games with a 4.03 career ERA. The '93 season was clearly his best, as he went 18-4 with a 2.77 ERA in 33 starts over 208 innings. All of those were career highs and led to Portugal finishing sixth in the Cy Young voting, behind winner Greg Maddux.

Lots of offense in this one, as Kevin Bass was the biggest contributor, going 3 for 5 with a home run, two doubles and five RBIs. Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley also added home runs while Jeff Bagwell went 2 for 3 with a walk and two runs scored.

Here's the graphic replay of the game, thanks to Back to Baseball.