Team Born as the politically
incorrect Colt .45’s complete with smoking gun logo….Circa 1962 Houston and the
Mets were made to cut off the intended rival Continental League at the pass….first
year 24 wins better than their expansion siblings the Mets….and better than the
Cubs too…subsequent years always seem to have a slight edge over the Mets but
no major climb upwards ...major event in 1965 moniker Astros took over with the
move to Astrodome adjacent to original home and provisional Colt Stadium….reached
.500 in 1969 but the Mets surpassed them and everybody by being World
Champs….sad to say on the subject; one World Series for 55 years of work, plus
team has yet to win a game in the WS….team has fielded strong squads during the1979-1981,
most of a 10 year span 1995-2005…and bad one stretch of 100 loses in 2009-11…on
losing end of an incredibly close 1980 NLCS playoff…moved to American league in
2011…Two hall of famers that stayed with franchise for the duration…Craig
Biggio and Jeff Bagwell….HOFer who spent 9 seasons Nolan Ryan…HOFer who started
and spent 9 years plus adding one more Joe Morgan…other notables Jim Wynn,
Lance Berkman the unfortunate J R Richard and tragic and Don Wilson.
Prior to J.R. Richard and Don Wilson, Astros players who died shortly after playing for the team were Jim Umbricht and Walt Bond.
ReplyDeleteYes, both passed very shortly after playing. Bond made a name for himself as a Colt .45 but last played for the Twins. In eerie, similar reversal ten years later long time Twin Danny Thompson passed shortly after playing for Texas.
ReplyDeleteUmbricht is also very tragic in that he had become an effective MLB reliever after mostly playing in the minors. I have his last card set aside in my collection of star players, because its notification of passing is solemn and touching.