Two years earlier, Hampton had won 22 games and finished second in voting for the Cy Young Award as a member of the Houston Astros, while Neagle had been a 20-game winner in 1997 for the Atlanta Braves and had won fifteen games in 2000.

Grass would not grow in the new park, since the roof panels had been painted to reduce the glare that was causing players on both the Astros and the visiting teams to miss routine pop flies.

With baseball expansion and trades, the Astros had dramatically changed in 1969.

By May's end the Astros had put together a ten-game winning streak.

Morgan had 15 homers and stole 49 bases while Menke led the Astros with 90 RBIs.

In 1971 the Astros made some changes to their uniform: they kept the same style they had in previous seasons, but inverted the colors.

Cesar Cedeno led the club with 81 RBIs and the league with 40 doubles, but batted just. 264 and had 102 strikeouts in his second season with the Astros.

Astros fans had hoped for more of the same in 1973, but it was not to be.

His older brother Phil Niekro had started teaching Joe how to throw his knuckleball and Joe was just starting to use it when he came to the Astros.

One of the big problems the Astros had in the late 1970s was that they were unable to compete in the free agent market.

In May 1979, Dr. John McMullen had agreed to buy the Astros.

1980 saw one of the best pitching lineups the Astros ever had, with the fastball of Ryan, the knuckleball of Joe Niekro and the terrifying 6 ft 8 in frame of J. R. Richard.

Surgery was done to save his life, but the Astros had lost their ace pitcher after a 10 – 4 start with a stingy 1. 89 ERA.

Before the 1983 season, the Astros traded Danny Heep to the Mets for pitcher Mike Scott, a 28-year-old who had struggled with New York.

Lainer knew the Astros had talent and he put it to work.

Needing a win to get to Mike Scott ( who had been dominant in the series ) in Game 7, the Astros jumped off to a 3 – 0 lead in the first inning but neither team would score again until the 9th inning.

The manager of these title teams was Larry Dierker, who had previously been a broadcaster and pitcher for the Astros.

Roger Clemens, who had retired after the season with the New York Yankees, agreed to join former teammate Pettitte on the Astros for 2004.

Despite the early predictions for success, the Astros had a mediocre 44 – 44 record at the All-Star break.

Though he had asserted a desire to remain with the Astros, Beltrán signed a long-term contract with the New York Mets on January 9, 2005.

The Houston Chronicle newspaper had written them off with a tombstone emblazened with " RIP 2005 Astros ".

The White Sox owner insisted that since his team played in the open ( they had no roof ), the Astros must play with the roof open, which mitigated the intensity and enthusiasm of the cheering Astro's fans.

The team also traded relief pitcher Jose Valverde, who led the major leagues in saves in 2007 with 47, to the Houston Astros for reliever Chad Qualls, RHP Juan Gutiérrez and IF / OF Chris Burke.

In 2011, Selig also demanded that the Astros move to the American League West as a condition of the sale of the franchise to businessman Jim Crane ; the team will switch leagues in 2013.

Cedeno also led the Astros with a. 320 batting average, 55 stolen bases and made spectacular plays on the field.

It was also announced that 2012 will be the last season for the Astros in the NL.

While he has two championship rings with the 1999 – 2000 Yankees, Clemens has also been on the losing end of four World Series ( 1986 Red Sox, 2001 and 2003 Yankees, and 2005 Astros ), which is tied with Tom Glavine and John Smoltz ( who were both on the Braves when they lost the ' 91, ' 92, ' 96 and ' 99 World Series ) for the most among active players.

Houston Astros manager Phil Garner also employed a relief ace model with his use of Brad Lidge in the 2004 postseason.

At that time, they had MLB prospect Dickie Thon, then also of the Houston Astros, on their roster.

Around that time the Astros also threatened to leave the city unless a new ballpark was built.

Minute Maid Park ( also The Ballpark at Union Station, Enron Field, and Astros Field ) is a ballpark in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States that opened in 2000 to house the Major League Baseball Houston Astros.

On June 24, 2004, Beltrán was traded to the Houston Astros in a three-team deal, which also sent relief pitcher Octavio Dotel from the Astros to the Oakland Athletics, while the Royals picked up Oakland minor leaguers ( pitcher Mike Wood and third-baseman Mark Teahen ) and Astros catcher John Buck.

Gwynn also reached 1, 000 career hits on April 22 with a single off Nolan Ryan of the Houston Astros.

He is also the former first base coach for the Houston Astros.

The term is also applied to the modified rear doors on selected GMC Safaris and Chevrolet Astros that have a flip up rear window and two small half-size doors underneath, although the term barn doors is sometimes used for these doors as well.

Storm stayed in Houston for four years doing a variety of radio and television jobs, including hosting the Houston Rockets halftime and postgame shows and also hosted Houston Astros postgame shows on television.

The area is also surrounded by history ranging from the small ruined castle above the harbour in Astros to the huge and truly magnificent Palamidi citadel that sits above Navplio ( Naphlion ), the ancient sites of Mycenae and Tiryns.

On August 14, he shut out the Astros through eight innings on just four hits, but he also gave up seven walks, hit a batter, and recorded a wild pitch.

He has also played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, San Francisco Giants, Houston Astros, and Washington Nationals in Major League Baseball, the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League and the Yokohama BayStars in Japan.

Lost Patrol ( also known as The Lost Patrol ) is a survival action role-playing game with strategy elements developed by the team Shadow Development and published by Ocean Software Ltd for Amiga computers in 1990 and the Atari ST in 1991 ; a DOS version was also released by Astros Productions.

He has also played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and the Houston Astros at the Major League level.

He also expressed optimism about spending the next four years with Miguel Tejada as a teammate ( Tejada was traded to the Astros before the 2008 season ).