Houston continues party as Astros bring championship home

Houston began welcoming the World Series champion Astros as heroes immediately after their charter flight landed at Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Water cannons on airport firetrucks sprayed a victory arch of water over the team plane after it landed about 7:15 p.m. ET Thursday. Fans and media were kept at a distance from the jet as it taxied to a cargo tarmac, where the Astros boarded buses headed to Minute Maid Park.

The celebration continues Friday with a victory parade through downtown Houston that is scheduled to begin shortly after 4 p.m. and end with a rally on the City Hall steps, where Mayor Sylvester Turner will pay tribute to the team. All classes in the Houston school district school have been cancelled for the day so students, staff and their families could attend the parade.

Fans wave banners, pennants on parade route

Hundreds of Astros fans clad in orange shirts and jerseys crowded downtown Houston streets early Friday.

Many fans waved Astros banners and small pennants or played catch in front of City Hall, where a rally will he held after the parade. The crowd roared with cheers and applause when someone started playing Queen's classic song We Are the Champions.

Several cars drove through the parade route before it was closed to traffic, honking their vehicles' horns as the drivers and passengers waved to fans along the route.

Manuel Mejia and his 15-year-old son, Jonah, had snatched a key spot along the route by 10 a.m. The pair set up four foldable chairs at a street corner where they'll be able to see the start and end of the parade.

"I'm just trying to get a good spot. It's going to get packed," the 43-year-old father said, noting he's been an Astros fan since his father took him to his first Astros game when he was 8 years old.

But he said the World Series win is great for all of Houston, as the city continues to recover from Hurricane Harvey and the devastating rains and flooding that followed the storm.

Difficult rebuild

"For the city, this is great," Mejia said.

It's not just one World Series title that has Houston excited. With Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer and more locked in for years to come, the Astros are ready to be a force for some time.

Houston's plan to endure a difficult rebuild has put the team in a great position moving forward. No player in Houston's starting lineup for Game 7 of the World Series will be free agent earlier than 2019.

While everyone else is chasing high-priced free agents, Houston should be set, especially after acquiring ace Justin Verlander on Aug. 31 from the Detroit Tigers. Verlander is owed $56 million US over the next two seasons combined before possibly becoming a free agent.

With Altuve returning to lead this team and ample talent around him, the young and confident bunch has plenty of reason to believe that this could be the first of many titles for a team that waited so long for the first one.

Back in Houston, fans celebrated the Series title at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday night— the city's first championship since the Rockets won NBA titles in 1994 and '95. The crowd erupted after the final out, and Bobby Dynamite pulled hard on the whistle in the train located beyond left field.

Houston's not done chugging along by a long shot, either.

"I want to celebrate tonight, go back and have a nice little parade," Bregman said after Game 7. "And then guess what? We're going to go back, work our [butts] off, and do it again next year."

Long-time coming

The Astros were the laughingstock of baseball after trading away their veterans to shed payroll, losing 100 games every year from 2011-13, including a franchise-worst 51-111 mark in 2013.

With the losing came a bevy of high draft picks, and Houston hit big on a few of them. In general manager Jeff Luhnow's first draft in 2012, Houston took Correa with the first overall pick and nabbed McCullers at 41st overall. Then in 2015, they grabbed Bregman with the second overall pick.

Only four players on the World Series team were around for any of the 100-loss seasons, and Altuve was the only one with Houston for all three.

"It's a crazy journey, man," Altuve said. "I was the only one in 2011, '12 and '13, those 100 losses, three years in a row. It's not easy. But I … believed in the process. I believed in what Jeff Luhnow and Jim Crane used to [say] to me: 'Hey, we're going to be good. We're going to be good."'

Altuve said their encouragement and seeing the pieces slowly come together helped get him through the difficult times.

"[I was like] OK, let me keep working hard. Let me get better every year and try to be part of the winning team,"' he said. "I always believed that we're going to become good. Then I saw Springer get drafted, Correa and Bregman, and I was like: OK, here we go."'

Dodgers' Puig robbed while Game 7 was played

Police say the home of Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig was burglarized while his team was losing the World Series.

Police say officers answered a burglary alarm at the Encino, Calif., home Wednesday evening and found a smashed window with several items taken. There's no word on the value of the items.

Puig was at Dodger Stadium, where the team lost Game 7 to Houston 5-1.

A neighbour, Zach Eliass, tells KABC-TV that Puig's two German shepherds got out of an open gate. Eliass took them in until Puig returned home and calmly thanked him.

Puig bought the home about a month ago. Earlier this year, burglars hit Puig's Sherman Oaks, California, home and stole about $170,000 in jewelry and other items while he was at spring training in Arizona.