After the fold below are some text-message exchanges between a family member – one of the many St. Louis Cardinals fans I happen to be friendly with, as I was born and raised in that city and live and die with its team’s fortunes – and me during the past few days of baseball. To give you some idea of our state of mind, the transcript culminates with my pathetically paraphrasing St. Francis of Assisi's Serenity Prayer. We’ll start with those concerning Sunday night’s game at Minute Maid, which the Houston Astronauts won 7-3 to complete what now appears to be a sweep so deep that its impact is less broom cleaning floor than sword nicking several thoracic organs. We – this family member and I – suffered ourselves at that gimmicky monstrosity on Friday and Saturday.

Here it is the last week in September and, although the chances they'll miss the playoffs for the first time since 2003 are still pretty good, the Astros are playing meaningful games for the fourth year in a row. That sentence is as bizarre to write as it was to consider even two weeks ago. Then came the eight straight wins, including a four-game sweep of the division-leading Cardinals; six of those victories, like Wednesday night's 15-inning 7-6 squeaker over the Pirates, came after the Astros trailed. Three in their final at-bat, something they'd hardly done all year.

Bonzi Wells, the prize of the late free-agent pool, agreed on Wednesday to a two-year, $5-million deal with the Houston Rockets.

Wells, a ninth-year swingman out of Ball State, turned down the Sacramento Kings' five-year, $36-million offer earlier this summer, apparently finding it insufficient compensation for his 23 and 12 performance against the mighty San Antonio Spurs during the first round of last year's playoffs. But Wells has a history of moodiness, recalcitrance, and volatility. He's been suspended at least three times during his career, once for cursing at a coach, once for spitting on another player, and once for his involvement in a post-game brawl with the Golden State Warriors. So, although several teams, including Detroit, Minnesota, and Charlotte, expressed interest, they apparently found the combination of Wells' bad attitude and his overvalued sense of self-worth (he was fishing for $50 million over five years) unwelcoming.

Enter Tracy McGrady ...

Madden 2007
EA Sports
Xbox 360
$59.95 EA Sports is reportedly a video game sweatshop, pushing programmers to churn out next year's title before the current game hits shelves, working hard to ensure each new Madden offers more than just improved graphics and roster updates. The work shows. This is the best looking Madden ever, and the roster is so awesomely current it makes last year's roster look ridiculous. Come on, Madden 2006: Edgerrin James on the Colts? LaVar Arrington on the Redskins? What is this, an episode of VH1's I Love 2005?

The Lady Longhorns have two big home games this weekend: Oklahoma State at 7pm Friday, and Oklahoma at 1pm Sunday. The Sooners are the big rivalry game, of course, but OSU is the better team this year – they expect to challenge UT and A&M for the Big 12 title. Both games are at Myers Stadium; $7, but see Bevo's Bargains for coupons that'll get you in for $1. Last weekend, the Horns opened Big 12 play with two road wins, 2-0 over Texas Tech, and 2-1 over Baylor. Carrie Schmit got both goals against Tech; Amy Burlingham got the game-winner in Waco in the 76th minute, off a 75-yard pass from goalkeeper Dianna Pfenninger, her second assist of the year. Champions League game day two this Tuesday and Wednesday, and it was another huge week for the Brits, as all four EPL teams won (as did Glasgow Celtic). Arsenal and Manchester United both handled good Portuguese teams, while Didier Drogba got a hat trick to lead Chelsea over Levski Sofia in Bulgaria, and Liverpool held off Galatasaray Merseyside. All four teams lead their groups, a third of the way through; AC Milan, Lyon, Valencia, and Bayern Munich lead the other groups. There was one significant "upset": Italian champ Inter Milan had a disastrous second half – two red cards and two goals allowed – in falling at home to Bayern. Click below for full results.

Program note: NBC’s Friday Night Lights, filmed in Pflugerville and based on the Buzz Bissinger book and Peter Berg film (and not, sadly, this column), premieres 7pm Tuesday, Oct. 3 on KXAN. UT head coach Mack Brown has a cameo in the pilot. (See "TV Eye" for more.)

Meanwhile, most area high schools open district play this week, but the pick matches are a pair of nondistrict affairs: undefeated Blanco, ranked No. 10 in 2A by TexasHSFootball.com, visits Hyde Park Baptist, and Liberty Hill (3-1) pays a call on defending 3A Division I champs Wimberley.

Terrell Owens is reportedly allergic to his pain medication. According to this AP story T.O. entered the hospital for what his publicist called an "allergic reaction" to the pain killers Owens was taking for the broken bone in his hand. The publicist failed to mention, however, that Owens had taken 33 of them. Looks like T.O.'s breakdown may be coming sooner than anybody guessed, but different from, and a lot less amusing than, we expected. Considering he took some of the pills in front of his friend, this is probably one of those cry-for-help type things, but it's obviously a serious issue. I guess everybody will have to go back to making fun of Drew Bledsoe for a while. I'd say odds are still even T.O. will be on the field in Philadelphia Oct. 8. Update: At a press conference this afternoon, Owens said he was hospitalized for an allergic reaction from a mixture of hydrocodone and supplements. And in an awesomely bulletproof and completely un-made-up sounding excuse, he said the pill bottle his friend saw was empty because Owens had emptied the pills into a drawer. This sounds odd, but many pharmacists advise you to dump prescription medication into your sock drawer (or your tummy) for safe keeping. He also says he'll play Sunday against the Titans.

These are the dark and quiet days.

Days when the basketball gods retreat to their beds, pull down the shades, and leave us mortals down on earth without even an exhibition game to watch. Until October 31st and the start of the NBA season, we, like existential man, are alone in the universe.

And to make matters worse, it’s been a rough summer for American basketball fans. The world FIBA championships, full of promise for a young and philosophically reconstituted American team, have come and gone, and for all the work and tryouts and avowed recommitment to good team basketball, Team USA faced the gods’ wrath for past sins of selfish one-on-one play and a lack of commitment to fundamentals and returned home from Japan with only a bronze medal after a humiliating loss to Greece, a country where they only started playing basketball two weeks before the tournament started. (Please click below for actual Toros news.)

The Texans' promising 3-1 preseason record and almost-complete offseason overhaul of their roster and coaching staff has failed to show any improvement over last year's horrid outing. Houston's record stands at 2-17 over the past two seasons, and they've failed to even put up a fight in their three games in the '06 campaign.

The Texans defense is by far the worst in the league, and their running game is nonexistent. Losing all-time franchise-leading rusher Domanick Davis for the season was certainly a blow, but first-year coach Gary Kubiak's running scheme was supposed to be successful regardless of who is starting in the backfield. Wasn't that one of the reasons Houston chose Mario Williams over Reggie Bush (or Vince Young) as the No. 1 overall pick in this year's draft?