The Houston Astros, a Major League Baseball team based in Houston, TX, are part of the National League Central Division. Houston was awarded a team on October 17, 1960 in the National League and was slated to be in the west division. The team, to be named the Houston Colt .45s, in honor of The Gun That Won the West, was going to have Craig F. Cullinan, Jr. as their first president. In addition to the Houston Colt .45s, the New York Mets also joined the NL in 1962; the American League expanded a year earlier, in 1961, which brought new AL teams to Los Angeles: the Los Angeles Angels, and Washington, D.C.: a new Washington Senators team, which replaces the team that left D.C. and became the Minnesota Twins that same year.

The September 29, 1963 game would be the last Major League game for the winning pitcher of that game, Jim Umbricht, who was stricken with cancer and passed away on April 8, 1964; his number 32 jersey was the first retired by the Astros. On April 9, 1965, the Colts became the Houston Astros, in order to show support of the Houston-based space program; they inaugurated indoor baseball in the Astrodome by playing an exhibition game against the New York Yankees that day. Early on, groundskeepers wore spacesuits to endorse the stadium’s futuristic image. The Astrodome was loosely based on the Roman Colosseum and was dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World. Like many other stadiums of the era, like RFK Stadium and Shea Stadium, the Astrodome was multi-purpose, as it was designed for football as well as baseball. On July 14, 1968, Don Wilson struck out 18 Cincinnati Reds and helped the team win the game; also 4 Houston pitchers win 10 or more games: Don Wilson with 13, Larry Dierker with 12, Dave Guisti with 11 and Danny LeMaster with 10. In 1969, Larry Dierker became Houston’s first 20-game winner. The Astros’ main rival is the Texas Rangers.

The Houston Astros are a Major League Baseball team founded in 1962 in Houston, Texas and are in the Central Division of the National League. The team owner is Drayton McLane, Jr, general manager is Ed Wade and menager is Cecil Cooper. Their uniform colors are brick red, black, and sand and their logo is red five-pointed star with the word "Astros" below it in script. The Astros adopted the orange, yellow and navy "Rainbow Guts" uniforms, in 1975, that became a team trademark and would stay with them through 1993. In 1972 season the Astros finished 84-69, and in second place in the NL West. They won their their first NL West championship in 1980, using much the same pitching and speed strategy as they had in 1979. In 2000, the Astros moved into their new stadium called Enron Field, after years at the outdated Astrodome. With the new stadium also came a change in their uniformes , and the blue and gold uniforms of the 1990s were gone. In 2001, the Astros won another NL Central title, and in July 2005 they went 22-7, the best single month record in the club's history and finished the 2005 regular season by winning a wild card berth on the final day of the regular season, just as they did in 2004, becoming only the second team to come from 15 games under .500 to enter the post season.