Brother of Astros' Correa says team lifting city's spirits after Harvey
ALVIN, Texas (KTRK) -- Playoff baseball is more than a game for a lot of people in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, and that's especially true for the team at Alvin Community College.
They have deep connections to both the storm and the Astros.
The city of Alvin is, after all, known as a place where baseball transcends the field. This is the hometown of Hall of Famer and former Astro Nolan Ryan.
It's not lost on the young men on the ACC baseball team the privilege they have to play ball.
It's especially meaningful for David RIchardson and Brian Dawson. Baseball for them is a way to take their minds off the every day. Both of them lost their family homes in Hurricane Harvey. David waded through chest deep water to evacuate.
"It takes my mind off of it because I just have so much fun playing the game," said Richardson. "Just not thinking about the devastation of Harvey and what it did to our city. "
"I like to compete," said Dawson. "I compete in almost anything. This just happens to be what I'm really good at. Baseball takes my mind off of everything."
When Harvey hit, the team volunteered its help, exchanging bats and gloves for mops and hammers.
"The guys that we could bring back, we brought back," said head coach Jason Schreiber. "And (we) went around the community to try and find places we could help out."
But for one player, CJ Correa, his family is coping with two storms: Harvey and Hurricane Maria. Maria destroyed his native Puerto Rico.
"All of my family is back home," Correa said. "My uncles, grandparents, cousins, everything is back there and we didn't have communication with them for one week."
His family did survive. He is hoping to go back soon to help along with his brother.
In case you hadn't guessed, that brother is Astros' short stop Carlos Correa. CJ knows the Astros are aware of what their post-season run means to Houston.
"It means a lot for them because the Astros are playing for the city of Houston," he said. "They have it on a patch on their chest and they are playing for them. "
On the surface, baseball is just a game. But this October it means so much more.
Alvin bar gathers friends made during flood
At Bub's Bar in Alvin, patrons are not only celebrating the Astros together but weathered Harvey together as an extended family of sorts.
As the storm tore through Alvin, Bub's Bar remained open.
Even as the power went out and waters rose, they were here. Heaven Hord worked through all of it.
"It got so bad that I couldn't even shut the doors here with the wind and the rain," Hord said. "The patio started flooding. The parking lot started flooding. The ditches were filling up around here."
Hord, who shared with us these photographs of some of the flooding, said the city is slowly recovering from what Harvey did.
Now it is rallying around what the Astros are doing.
"I think with the Astros, it gives everybody hope," Hord said. "It gives us something to take our mind off of it. Come together and have fun. It's hard to say you forget about your house but on the brighter side we have something to look forward to. "
The bar expected a packed house tonight for Game 3, a welcome distraction from the post-Harvey work still left to do.
