Houston Strong

Astros win the big one for a city whose spirit could not be denied

Finally, the Astros are World Series champions!

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

It took 56 long years, and one magnificent night, to create memories that will last forever in Houston. The Astros are World Series champions!

As the players whooped and hollered and hugged on the field, fans back home heard their message loud and clear. "We did it for our city, our fans," said World Series MVP George Springer.

If anybody stood tall for Houston, it was Springer. He started the series by striking out four times and finished holding the Willie Mays MVP trophy. That's Houston, picking itself up off the mat and shining new again.

Starting pitcher Lance McCullers said, "We wear this patch ["HoustonStrong"] and we wear it proudly."

Jose Altuve, 5-6 and 165 pounds, all heart, became a baseball giant, showing the country who he is — baseball's best hitter, batting champion again, and surely the 2017 American League's Most Valuable Player.

We know the story: Houston went through the wringer this summer with Hurricane Harvey. Much of the city and Astros fans are still reeling from the flood. We rallied around this team of wonderful players and triumphed. If a flood couldn't get Houston down, what chance, really, did the Dodgers have?

Baseball record books will simply record Wednesday night as "Astros 5, Dodgers 1." But this was so much more. Houston baseball fans have waited since this team was born in 1962 as the Colt .45s to raise a World Series banner. The wait is over. We are champions.

Quite simply, this is the greatest sports moment in the history of the city. Nothing comes close. We're talking the World Series — the very words mean the ultimate accomplishment. And they did it with style, taking Game 7.

The two most exciting words in sports — Game 7.

How could you not cheer for Carlos Correa, rubbing the heads of his teammates after a home run, jumping over the dugout rail to celebrate a win, then getting on one knee and proposing marriage after winning the World Series? Yeah, that's a pretty good 24 hours for the shortstop.

Get ready for a party, 2 pm Friday in downtown Houston. And the party won't stop any time soon. These wondrous homegrown players, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Lance McCullers, Marwin Gonzalez, Dallas Keuchel, and others are all coming back next year. Justin Verlander has two more years in Houston.

"I literally love Justin Verlander." — Jose Altuve

"I literally love you, too, Jose Altuve." — Justin Verlander

"We love the whole darn team — all of you." — Millions of Houstonians

Many teams fill the back pages of newspapers with stories of ego and griping and dissent. They challenge their coaches, question their owner, mutter they want out.

Here's how that plays in Houston. When centerfielder George Springer caught the final out of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees, he gave the ball to manager A.J. Hinch.

Dallas Keuchel said, "I owe everything to [pitching coach] Brent Strom. He means the world to me."

Consider this, over the past few weeks, the Astros beat the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers — three legendary baseball franchises — to claim their first World Series title.

This is pure joy for a team, a city, a spirit that could not be denied. Celebrate it.

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Closure news

Neiman Marcus flagship store in downtown Dallas to close for good

Neiman Marcus

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The iconic downtown Dallas location of luxury department store Neiman Marcus, at 1618 Main St., will close for good, the company says.

In a statement, parent company Saks Global said it planned to close the store on September 30, 2026 and focus on its NorthPark Center location in Dallas.

"As we continue to take steps to secure a strong future for Neiman Marcus, our optimized store footprint is aimed at aligning our go-forward presence with customer demand and preferences. After a thorough evaluation, we have made the difficult decision to close the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store on September 30, 2026, and concentrate our resources where our customers prefer to shop.

"Dallas remains an incredibly important market for the Neiman Marcus brand, and our customers in the city and across the suburbs consistently choose to shop at our NorthPark location. We are committed to serving our loyal Dallas customers at NorthPark, where we plan to infuse elements celebrating the Downtown store’s rich history," the statement read.

The store has been open since 1914 and served as a bedrock for downtown Dallas.

The definitive closure announcement, first reported by The Dallas Morning News, ends a months-long saga of will-they-won't-they and back-and-forth with the city of Dallas. There have been many efforts to keep the longtime store open.

To recap: In mid-February 2025, Saks Global said they were closing the 100-year-old store after a dispute with the landlord. City leaders rallied to keep it open. It worked, sort of: a landlord who owned a piece of land on which the iconic store resides agreed to donate it to the city of Dallas, so that there would be no obstacles for the store's continued operation.

But then in late February 2025, Saks Global reiterated that the Neiman Marcus Downtown Dallas store would definitely close on March 31, 2025. More rallying happened.

In late March 2025, days before it was to have closed, Saks Global announced the store would remain open through the 2025 holiday season while it explored a reimagination of the location in collaboration with the City of Dallas.

In January 2026, Saks Global filed for bankruptcy, leaving the fate of all stores unclear. The more than $2 billion in debt that Saks Global amassed to acquire Neiman Marcus in 2024 helped push the company into bankruptcy court, they said. As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, Saks Global has secured about $1.75 billion in financing to keep the company afloat and its stores open.

In announcing the bankruptcy, Saks Global said it was evaluating its store lineup “to invest resources where it has the greatest long-term potential. This approach reflects an effort to focus the business in areas where [our] luxury retail brands are best positioned for sustainable growth.”

Saks Global announced that the Neiman Marcus store at The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano would close in January 2027 after 25 years. According to Saks Global, there are no plans to replace or relocate the store.

The closures of Downtown and Willow Bend leave Neiman Marcus with two DFW-area locations: NorthPark Center, and the Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth.

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Teresa Gubbins and John Egan contributed to this story.

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