Houston Astros

Lore & Background

Established as the Houston Colt .45s, the Astros entered the National League as an expansion team in 1962 along with the New York Mets. The current name was adopted three years later, when they moved into the Astrodome, the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium. The team played in the NL West division from 1969 to 1993, then the NL Central division from 1994 to 2012, before being moved to the AL West as part of an MLB realignment in 2013.

In Their Own Story

The air inside Citizens Bank Park was thick with humidity and tension as the 2017 NLDS unfolded. Under the bright October lights, a Houston batter stepped to the plate against a veteran Phillies pitcher, the crowd holding its breath after a scoreless first inning. The crack of the bat echoed like thunder, sending a line drive deep into the right-field corner. As the ball rolled toward the wall, the roar of the home crowd shifted from anticipation to a collective gasp—a moment that would define the intensity of this emerging rivalry for years to come.

Reader's Guide

The Astros posted their first winning record in an unspecified year and made the playoffs for the first time in an unspecified year, before winning a total of three division titles throughout the 1980s. Spearheaded by the Killer B's, a collection of prominent hitters that included the Astros' Hall of Fame members Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, along with closer Billy Wagner, the Astros began reaching major prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s with four further division titles and two Wild Card appearances, culminating in their first World Series appearance in an unspecified year where they were swept by the Chicago White Sox. After a major slump throughout the next decade, the team was purchased by business owner Jim Crane in 2011 for $680 million. Under Crane's ownership and the tenure of former GM Jeff Luhnow, the Astros embraced sabermetrics and pioneered new analytical technologies in their transition to the American League, and by the mid-2010s transformed from a historically middling franchise into one of MLB's most dominant and successful clubs, as headlined by stars such as Jose Altuve. Since then, the Astros have won over 100 games in four seasons, and appeared in a record seven consecutive American League Championship Series between 2017 and 2023, winning the American League pennant four times. During this era, the Astros won the 2017 World Series, their first championship, against the Los Angeles Dodgers; however, this win drew controversy and backlash from fans after the Astros were implicated in a sign stealing scandal. The Astros made later World Series appearances in unspecified years against the Washington Nationals, the Atlanta Braves, and the Philadelphia Phillies, winning their second title in the latter series. They are the only team to win a postseason series in seven straight seasons. Their fifth pennant in 2022 made them the second team created in the expansion era to win five league pennants (after the Mets) and the fifth expansion team to have won two World Series championships. In 2024, the Astros clinched their AL West division title for the seventh time in eight years and became the first team to win the AL West division in four straight years since the 1971–1975 era Oakland Athletics. Since 2017 when the Astros won their first American League pennant, they are the first and only team in Major League Baseball to win pennan

Did You Know?

• The Astros are the only expansion era team with an all-time winning record.
• They are the first and only team in MLB to win pennants in both leagues.
• The Astros played their first season as the Colt .45s in 1962.