When Abraham Mendez got off his graveyard shift with the Houston Police Department, he saw that Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale was having a drawing for Game 6 World Series tickets that also included a spot on a chartered flight to Los Angeles for the game.
The Houston Chronicle reports he went straight to Gallery Furniture after his shift and decided to try his luck. Mendez knew the odds were stacked against him when he showed up and saw what he says had to be 10,000 people either at the furniture store or trying to get there from a packed freeway. Gallery Furniture sales manager Greg Hopf estimated the crowd at 5,000 and added, "I promise you I'm not exaggerating about that number."
Either way, Mendez stuck around and was ready to leave empty-handed when he wasn't one of the 20 winners of the drawing.
"I was like, `Oh well, it was worth a shot," Mendez said. "And then I just wanted to shake Mack's hand for all the good he does for our city."
That's when Mendez's luck changed.
McIngvale said he appreciated the kind words, and because Mendez is a first-responder, he wanted to give him an extra pair of tickets, too.
"I told him there was no way I was going to take someone else's tickets away, but he said he had extra and no one would be left out," Mendez said. "I mean, I couldn't turn that down."
Mendez raced home to change out of his police uniform, shower and put on his Astros gear, then race to the airport. He also had time to pick up his sister Cristal Mendez, who also is a Houston police officer, to make sure she didn't miss out.
One of McIngvale's only rules was that fans should wear their Astros gear and be loud.
McIngviale, who didn't make the trip because Hopf said "he had to work," didn't have to worry about that.
The group of fans took up the first six rows of seats in a lower-level section down the right-field line and stood almost the entire game. At one point a Dodgers fan yelled, "Welcome to Dodger Stadium. We're glad you got to come, but sit down so everyone can see."
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The orange-clad group yelled back their disapproval and defiantly kept standing.
It was probably no coincidence that the Dodgers fan voiced his frustration an inning after George Springer's solo home run gave the Astros a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers went on to beat the Astros 3-1, forcing a deciding Game 7 on Wednesday night.
In all, McIngvale flew 98 Astros fans to Los Angeles for Tuesday's game. He gave away 20 pairs of tickets in the drawing. He gave away 20 more to first-responders and 12 to Gallery Furniture employees. The other 26 passengers on the flight already had tickets to the game, and McIngvale just allowed them to fly on the chartered plane.
"I've worked for Mack for 30 years, and he'd give anyone the shirt off his back," Hopf said. "This was all his idea. He wanted to give Astros fans a chance to see their team win it all. The only way to make that happen is to get them tickets and a flight, so he made it happen."
McIngvale's original plan was for the group to get to Los Angeles early enough for some sightseeing before the game, but traffic put a kibosh on those plans.
Hopf estimated the group was stuck in Los Angeles traffic for two hours trying to get from the airport to Dodger Stadium, but they made it in time for first pitch. The group was flying back to Houston right after the game.
"I can't believe we're here," Mendez said before Tuesday night's game. "The Astros can win the World Series tonight, and we flew on a private jet to Los Angeles to come here and watch. You can't say enough about the kind of person Mack is."
