Lone Star Series

Silver Boot 2006

The Lone Star Series is an annual Major League Baseball contest featuring Texas' two major league franchises, the Texas Rangers of the American League and the Houston Astros of the National League. It is an outgrowth of the "natural rivalry" established by MLB as part of interleague play.

The winner of the series (best-of-6) will be awarded the Silver Boot. A 30-inch tall display of a size 15 cowboy boot cast in silver, complete with a custom, hand-made spur. If the series is split (3-to-3), the winner will be determined by which club scored the most runs over the course of the series.

Lone Star Results

	Silver Boots Won	Total Games Won
Houston Astros	3	22
Texas Rangers	4	20

Year	Team	Wins	Losses	Runs Scored
2001	Houston Astros	3	3	28
	Texas Rangers	3	3	44
2002	Houston Astros	4	2	33
	Texas Rangers	2	4	32
2003	Houston Astros	4	2	38
	Texas Rangers	2	4	27
2004	Houston Astros	3	3	29
	Texas Rangers	3	3	42
2005	Houston Astros	2	4	19
	Texas Rangers	4	2	37
2006	Houston Astros	4	2	27
	Texas Rangers	2	4	17
2007	Houston Astros	2	4	28
	Texas Rangers	4	2	49

People With Both Organizations

• Pedro Astacio
• Alan Bannister
• Floyd Bannister
• Buddy Bell
• Doug Brocail
• Ken Caminiti
• John Cangelosi
• Bruce Chen
• Danny Darwin
• Jack Daugherty
• Alex Diaz
• Billy Hatcher
• Dwayne Henry
• Xavier Hernandez
• Richard Hidalgo
• Joe Hoerner
• Art Howe (Former Astros Manager; Bench Coach for 2008 Rangers)
• Pete Incaviglia
• Chuck Jackson
• Chris James
• Jason Jennings
• Cliff Johnson
• Hal King
• Randy Knorr
• Mike Lamb
• Carlos Lee
• Kenny Lofton
• Marty Martinez
• Craig McMurty
• Phil Nevin
• Darren Oliver
• Jay Powell
• Luis Pujols
• Mike Richardt
• Dave Roberts (Played from 1972 to 1982)
• Nolan Ryan
• Mike Simms
• Rusty Staub
• Dickie Thon
• Chris Tremie
• Denny Walling
• Danny Walton
• Ron Washington (Played for Astros in 1989; current Rangers Manager)
• Gregg Zaun

The Rivalry

According to Mike Lamb and Mark Teixeira, the Rangers-Astros rivalry is more for the fans of Texas than like a bitter rivalry (e.g. Windy City Series) .

On 1 July 2006, Gary Matthews Jr. made an unbelievable catch by taking away a home run from Houston Astros first baseman Mike Lamb in the top of the 8th inning.

While with the Astros for two years, Roger Clemens never pitched against the Rangers in twelve Lone Star Series matchups.

The roots of the Lone Star Series started at the beginning of the 20th century in the Texas League. There were teams in Austin, Beaumont, Cleburne, Corsicana, Ft. Worth, Galveston, Greenville, Paris, San Antonio, Sherman, Temple, Texarkana, Waco as well as Dallas and Houston. The Lone Star Series was the consequence of many things that happened to Texas in the 1950s: population shift westward from metropolitan areas on the East Coast, the space program, more modernized higher education, and the formation of the brief Continental League resulting in expansion in Major League Baseball shortly thereafter.

Before 1962, there were no Major League Baseball teams in Texas until the Houston Colt .45's of the National League. They played in Colt Stadium for the first three years of existence, fighting against hot and humid weather and outrageously large mosquitoes, which also had an effect on the fans . Unbelievably, they did not play a Sunday night baseball game at home until 9 June 1963, which was also the major leagues' first Sunday night game . The Astros, as they came to be with the new all-weathered Harris County Domed Stadium, really did not have a strong rivalry with any team in the NL, except for the St. Louis Cardinals and later on the Atlanta Braves.

Before they were the Texas Rangers, the team belonged to the Beltway as the second version of the Washington Senators where they played mediocre baseball most of the time for the first 11 years of existence. The Senators changed into the Texas Rangers in time for the 1972 season and so a rivalry was born. The Astros have been in Texas ten years longer than the Rangers, but they probably met regularly in the Grapefruit League through 2002 until the Rangers moved to the Cactus League leaving behind Port Charlotte, FL for Surprise, AZ a year later .

Of course, the Lone Star Series wasn't conceived until 2001, four years after Interleague Play began. It was only logical to have the Rangers and Astros matched together since they are the only MLB teams representing Texas. Since both play in two different "divisions" (AL West and NL Central respectively), Major League Baseball had to rectify the oversight even though Interleague Play wouldn't be rotated from division to division on a yearly basis until 2002.

The contrast between the Rangers and Astros in their ballpark histories, playoff histories, and uniform histories are very apparent. The Rangers, since 1972, have always played in open-air stadiums (Arlington Stadium and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington) while the Astros have mostly played in indoor stadiums (Astrodome and Minute Maid Park), leading some to believe in the Curse of the AstroTurf. The Rangers have had a lean postseason history with three appearances (1996, 1998, 1999) whereas the Astros have appeared in nine postseasons (1980, 1981, 1986, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005) as well as one World Series in 2005. While the Rangers have traditionally worn variations of red, white, and blue to represent the Lone Star flag, the Astros have changed color schemes (e.g. Shooting Star of the late 1960s, Rainbow Guts) and logos many times throughout their history.

Other differences, not related to baseball, include the weather during the summer, population, and allegiance preferences between the different regions of Texas. Both Houston, TX and Arlington, TX have humid subtropical climates; however, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex mostly has dry winds in the summer compared to the severe relative humidity and minimal wind except near the coast. The Metroplex is inland located in North Texas while Houston is in the face of the Gulf of Mexico in Southeast Texas. The city of Dallas has the 9th largest population in the United States and 3rd largest population in Texas; the city of Houston has the 4th largest population in the United States and largest population in Texas. West Texas, North Texas, and the Texas Panhandle regions make up Rangers Nation while South Texas and Southeast Texas represent Astros Nation .

Since 1993, both the Rangers and Astros have been consistently drawing a great number of fans on a regular basis to their ballparks. From 1993 until 1999, the Rangers, with the opening of The Ballpark in Arlington replacing the outdated Arlington Stadium in 1994, drew the most fans between the two teams vs. the sterile atmosphere of the Astrodome. Since 2000, with the opening of Minute Maid Park, the Astros have outdrawn the Rangers for eight consecutive seasons. The Astros' highest season attendance was in 2004 with 3,087,872; the Rangers' highest attendance was in 1997 with 2,945,228.

On 6 February 2008, Nolan Ryan became the Rangers' team president after being the special assistant to general manager, scouting players, and holding pitching camps with the Astros for the past three seasons .