HOUSTON COLT 45S

Since their inception in 1962, the Houston Astros have had a difficult time establishing an identity in the National League, mostly due to their lack of superstar names and a lack of post-season success — waiting forty-three seasons to make it to the World Series where they were swept by the Chicago White Sox. It took them eighteen years just to make it to October baseball, and it took them seven trips to the post-season before they finally won a series.

The Astros were born during the National League's first expansion since the modern ten-team, two-league structure was established in 1901 (the Mets were the other team). A conglomeration of Houston businessmen headed by Judge Roy Hofheinz won the franchise and originally named the team the Colt .45's.

The Colt .45's first loaded up against the Chicago Cubs on April 10, 1962, and shot them down 11-2 behind Bobby Schantz. Houston spent its first three seasons playing second-division baseball under manager Harry Craft at Colt Stadium, a new open-air park where fans had to endure the constantly oppressive Texas heat, and swarms of mosquitoes that eventually compelled Astro management to vicinity virtually every day.

Two games of note did take place at Colts Stadium — a no-hitter won by Houston hurler Don Nottlebart on May 17, 1963, and on April 23, 1964, Houston pitcher Ken Johnson became the first Major League pitcher to lose a complete game no-hitter; two errors, one by Johnson himself, cost him a 1-0 decision to Cincinnati.

HOUSTON ASTROS

In 1965, the team and its fans escaped the mid-summer Texas misery by moving into a new structure originally called the Harris County Domed Stadium, but soon dubbed the Astrodome. The team changed its name in a nod-of-the-head to its new stadium and the burgeoning NASA space center nearby. The Astros inaugurated indoor Major League Baseball with a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on April 12, 1965 (although trivia experts like to point out that the Yankees played the Astros in an exhibition game to open the Dome a few days earlier and Mickey Mantle hit the first home run there).

Four years later, the Astros did something they had never done before — they finished at .500. In the 1970's they began to show some improvement, finishing as high as second place in 1978. During this time, the Astros features some players such as Jimmy "The Toy Cannon" Wynn, a young Joe Morgan, Cesar Cedeno and Bob Watson. Their pitching talent included Mike Cuellar, Don Wilson, Larry Dierker, Dave Giusti and Nolan Ryan.

Although his record was only 11-10 with two-hundred strikeouts, Ryan joined the team in time to celebrate Houston's first Division Championship in 1980. Joe Niekro led the staff with twenty wins and the offense was anchored by Cedeno's .309 average, Jose Cruz's .302 average and ninety-one runs batted in, and the return of veteran Morgan who had been traded away to help fuel the Big Red Machine in the mid-1970s. The Astros lost their first post-season series, a habit they would find hard to break.

The Astros took one of the two half-season championships during the strike-marred 1981 campaign, but would not see the post-season again until its 1986 team blew away National League West competition by ten games. First baseman Glenn Davis had one-hundred one runs batted in (no one else had more than seventy-nine) and the pitching again carried the day with Cy Young Award Winner Mike Scott (18-10, three-hundred six strikeouts and 2.22 ERA) leading the starters and Dave Smith (thirty-three saves) leading the bullpen.

The Astros lost a legendary six game National League Championship Series to the Mets, with the last game in Houston turning out to be one of the great games of all time. The Mets scored three in the ninth to tie the game 3-3, each team scored in the fourteenth inning, the Mets got three in the top of the sixteenth and the Astros got two in the bottom of the sixteenth, their frantic rally coming up short.

The advent of Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio started a new era for the Astros in the 1990's — one in which the team has enjoyed contender status virtually every year. Bagwell has set new standards for Houston sluggers, even while he played in the spacious Astrodome. He had thirty-nine home runs and one-hundred sixteen runs batted in when the strike ended the 1994 season (Houston was ½ game out of first). He became the National League's third-ever unanimous Most Valuable Player Award choice.

In 1995, Houston missed the wild card by one game and in 1996 they faded in September though Bagwell (thirty-one home runs & one-hundred twenty runs batted in) carried his weight.

With new manager Larry Dierker at the helm, the Astros won three straight National League Central titles (1997-1998-1999), with Bagwell becoming the team's first 30-30 man in 1997 (forty-one home runs & thirty-one stolen bases) and Biggio getting fifty doubles and fifty stolen bases the next season.

Houston moved into Enron Field (Minute Maid Park as of 2002), a new, and more hitter-friendly ballpark in 2000, drawing three million fans despite missing a post-season berth. They came back to win the Central Division on the last day of the 2001 season, with Bagwell getting thirty home runs, driving in one-hundred and scoring one-hundred runs for his sixth straight season. However, like every other post-season, the Astros could not get out of the first round of the playoffs, leading to the resignation of manager Dierker.

Houston did manage to make the playoffs again in 2004, sparked by the acquisition of Roger Clemens, who rescinded his retirement decision so he could pitch for his home town team. Having also signed Andy Pettite from the Yankees, the Astros rode their veteran pitching into a wild card berth, and this time they finally grabbed a post-season brass ring, defeating the Atlanta Braves in the first round, only to lose to the Cardinals in the National League Championship Series in seven games.

The current roster continued to age, when and how the first World Series berth would come Houston's way remained to be seen, until 2005. The veteran crew hurdled the Atlanta Braves then had sweet revenge against the Cardinals, only to face the cinderalla story Chicago White Sox in the Series who had a drought of eighty-eight years erased in four short strokes.