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Houston Astros logo
Houston Astros
Texas Rangers logo
Texas Rangers
Statistics
Regular season series37–29, Rangers

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

The winner of the 6-game series is awarded the Silver Boot. A 30-inch (760 mm) 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 is the club which scored the most runs over the course of the series.

History

19th century: The Beginning of Baseball in Texas

The birth of baseball in Texas happened at the same time as the Civil War in 1861 with the formation of the Houston Base Ball Club to promote the game the same way Alexander Cartwright had during the 1840s with the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in Manhattan. Baseball was played in Galveston and other Lone Star locations prior to the Civil War.[1] The distribution of the game was interrupted by the Civil War but would pick up by the end of the war.[2] Baseball was played during the Civil War mostly by Yankees but occasionally by Confederates. A humorous story by Texas-based Union soldier George A. Putnam told of a baseball game interrupted by Confederate gunfire. Putnam stated:

Suddenly there was a scattering of fire, which three outfielders caught the brunt; the centerfield was hit and was captured, left and right field managed to get back to our lines. The attack...was repelled without serious difficulty, but we had lost not only our centerfield, but...the only baseball in Alexandria, Texas.[3]

On April 21, 1867, the first occurrence of a baseball game was taken into account by the Houston Post. At the San Jacinto Battlegrounds near Houston, where General Sam Houston led Texas to triumph in the War of Independence from Mexico in 1836, a baseball game took place on the anniversary now celebrated as Texas Independence Day. The Houston Stonewalls defeated the Galveston Robert E. Lees, 35–2, that rivaled the result of what originally happened on the same site.[4]

Baseball spread throughout the state in the next two decades as a popular amateur game. The influence of what Houston had done in the early 1860s, those who acquired the nuances of the game from Civil War travels, and experience of immigrants who moved to Texas during the Reconstruction Era helped in organizing the sport and bringing more attention to the game in the state of Texas. Scarcely a generation after the state’s first recorded game in 1867, Texas fielded 100 minor league clubs—more than any other state.[5]

The acceptance of baseball had expanded throughout Texas like a stampede of cattle by the end of the 19th century. Houston was the founding member of the Texas League in 1888 and also won their first league pennant the next year. The Houston ballclub went by the nicknames of Babies, Red Stockings, Mud Cats, Magnolias, and Wanderers[6] before Buffaloes became permanent around the turn of the 20th century.

20th century: Growth and popularity of baseball in Texas

The roots of the Lone Star Series started in the late 19th century and early 20th century in the Texas League. There were teams in Austin, Beaumont, Cleburne, Corsicana, Fort Worth, Galveston, Greenville, Paris, San Antonio, Sherman, Temple, Texarkana, Waco as well as Dallas and Houston. (Both the Rangers and Astros have teams in present-day Double A Texas League. The Rangers' affiliate is the Frisco Roughriders while the Astros' affiliate is the Corpus Christi Hooks.) Along with the Texas League, there have been many baseball leagues that briefly existed in Texas or included at least one team from the Lone Star State such as: Lone Star Colored League of Texas,[7] Negro American League, Colored Texas League, Texas Negro League, Texas-Oklahoma Negro League, South Texas Negro League,[8] West Texas Negro League, Mexican National League, Central Baseball League, American Association, All-American Association, South Central League, Arkansas State League, Cotton States League, Rio Grande Valley League, Rio Grande Association, Southwestern League, Panhandle-Pecos Valley League, Longhorn League, North Texas League, West Texas-New Mexico League, Sooner State League, Arizona-Texas League, Lone Star League, Big State League, Gulf States League, East Texas League, Texas Association, Arkansas-Texas League, West Texas League, South Texas League, Middle Texas League, Central Texas League, Texas-Southern League, Texas-Louisiana League, Texas Valley League, Texas-Oklahoma League, Southwest Texas League, Evangeline League, West Dixie League, Gulf Coast League, Western Association, and Sophomore League and also including present-day Pacific Coast League, United League Baseball, Texas Collegiate League, Continental Baseball League, Texas Winter League, and American Association of Independent Professional Baseball.

Long before professional baseball came to Texas, college baseball also has been a staple of Texas culture. Outside of the Lone Star Shootout, college baseball in Texas is overwhelmingly popular and has some intense in-state rivalries such as the Battle of the Brazos between Texas A&M and Baylor University, Houston-Rice rivalry, the Holy War between Baylor and TCU, Battle of the Piney Woods between Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin State University, and the Lone Star Showdown between the Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies. Other in-state rivalries include Texas-Rice, Texas State-Rice, Texas State-University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas Tech-Baylor, Texas-Texas Tech, Texas Tech-Texas A&M, Texas-Baylor, Sam Houston State-Houston, Texas Southern-Prairie View A&M, St. Mary's-University of the Incarnate Word, Dallas Baptist-Houston Baptist as well as other esoteric rivalries. Tournaments, like the Southwest Diamond Classic in Frisco, TX, Whataburger College Classic in Corpus Christi, TX, and Houston College Classic played at Minute Maid Park, take place there in late February because of the more convenient, warmer weather. Texas collegiate baseball programs can be found throughout the different levels of the NCAA. 1-A conferences that include Texas collegiate baseball are the Big 12 Conference, Conference USA, and the Mountain West Conference as well as the Southland Conference, Southwestern Athletic Conference, and 1-A Independent teams, UTPA and Dallas Baptist. (TCU, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Rice, Houston, Baylor, and SMU (ceased operations after 1980) baseball programs once belonged together to the Southwest Conference before 1996; Clark Field, Dan Law Field, Olsen Field, and TCU Diamond are just some of the ballparks that played host to Southwest Conference baseball over the course of the SWC.) Other conferences that include one or more Texas collegiate baseball programs are the Heartland Conference, Lone Star Conference, American Southwest Conference, Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Red River Athletic Conference, Sooner Athletic Conference, Southwest Junior College Conference., Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Western Junior College Athletic Conference, and NAIA independent schools (University of Houston–Victoria).

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.

Prior to 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.[9] Unbelievably, they did not play a Sunday night baseball game at home until June 9, 1963, which was also the major leagues' first Sunday night game.[10] 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.

During the planning of the second wave of expansion in the big leagues in 1968, the National League considered putting a new team in the Dallas-Fort Worth area by an overwhelming majority of its owners. However, Judge Roy Hofheinz did not want it to happen or allow it because he owned all the television and radio rights in Texas for Astros ballgames. The other owners were in favor, except Hofheinz, of having a rivalry approaching the intensity of the Dodgers–Giants rivalry in the Senior Circuit. San Diego and Montreal were selected instead.[11] The Dallas-Fort Worth area would have to wait four more years for a team to arrive when the Senators (see below) moved to Arlington, TX. It would be another 32 years before there was a meeting between the Rangers and Astros.

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. They replaced the old Washington Senators who had moved to Minnesota to become the Twins in 1961. The new Senators changed into the Texas Rangers in time for the 1972 season and so a rivalry was born. (At one time, the Kansas City Athletics were interested in moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth area in the early 1960s but were voted down, 9–1, by the other American League owners.)[12][13] The Astros have been in Texas ten years longer than the Rangers, but the Senators/Rangers franchise is one year older than the Astros. They met, starting in 1992, at the end of Spring Training with the Rangers winning 2–0 claiming the very first Silver Boot. On April 1, 1993, Nolan Ryan returned to the Astrodome as a member of the Texas Rangers in front of 53,657, the biggest crowd to see a big league game in Texas up to that point. The Rangers won the last two exhibition games, a 6–5 victory in Arlington in 1999 and a 9–3 victory at Houston in 2000, before the two teams met for the first time in regular season in 2001.[14]

During the 1997 off-season, "radical" realignment plans were bandied around about possibly rearranging teams from one league to another, especially Houston and Texas. In order to cut down on traveling costs and align teams together based on geography, the MLB owners came up with many plans to put the Astros and Rangers in a more suitable placement together. However, the American League and National League would lose their respective identities in the process.[15][16][17] (The only move was the Brewers from the AL Central to the NL Central.) One of the plans in 2000 even featured the Texas Rangers in a six-team AL Central so that they would be with other teams in the Central Time Zone while the fledging Arizona Diamondbacks would have had to leave the NL West for the AL West to replace the Rangers.[18] In the 2005–06 off-season, the Florida Marlins were considering moving to San Antonio among other cities due to lack of funding for a new stadium. Another professional baseball team in Texas, whether by relocation or expansion, in either league would create greater rivalries, similar to the kind in the NBA with the Spurs, Mavericks, and Rockets, and possible realignment issues.[19]

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.

On November 11, 2011, the Astros were sold to Jim Crane, and also agreed to move to the American League West beginning with the 2013 season. Thus the Lone Star Series will now be considered an intradivisional rivalry instead of an Interleague series, and both the Astros and Rangers are expected to play each other more often instead of playing only six games a season.

Lone Star Series results

Silver Boot 2011
Year Series Winner Texas W Houston W Notes
2001 Rangers 3 3 Rangers win tiebreaker outscoring Astros 44–28 (4–5, 16–4, 5–6, 12–9, 1–2, 6–2)
2002 Astros 2 4
2003 Astros 2 4
2004 Rangers 3 3 Rangers win tiebreaker outscoring Astros 42–29 (3–1, 8–7, 0–1, 5–7, 8–10, 18–3)
2005 Rangers 4 2
2006 Astros 2 4
2007 Rangers 4 2
2008 Rangers 3 3 Rangers win tiebreaker outscoring Astros 34–28 (16–8, 6–2, 4–5, 3–4, 3–2, 2–7)
2009 Rangers 5 1
2010 Rangers 5 1
2011 Rangers 4 2
Overall Rangers (8–3) 37 29

The Rivalry

Nolan Ryan's number 34 was retired by the Houston Astros in 1996.
Nolan Ryan's number 34 was retired by the Texas Rangers#Retired numbers|Texas Rangers (baseball)|Texas Rangers in 1996.
  • One year before their first official matchup in Interleague Play, both teams retired the number of Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan who had successful runs with both teams.
  • On July 1, 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.[22][23]
  • While with the Astros for two years, Roger Clemens never pitched against the Rangers in twelve Lone Star Series matchups.
  • Minute Maid Park and Rangers Ballpark in Arlington both had been using Sea Isle 1 turf through the 2008 season rather than natural grass because of the aggressive Texas summer heat. Before the 2009 season, the Astros chose to replace the previous surface in their respective ballpark with a more durable sod that requires less sunlight than other natural grass turf systems.[32]
  • Beginning in 2008, the Lone Star Series saw for the first time two African-American managers go head-to-head against one another, the Astros' Cecil Cooper and the Rangers' Ron Washington which lasted for two years.
  • There has only been one rainout in the history of the Lone Star Series. A game scheduled for Sunday June 30, 2002 at the Rangers Ballpark in Arlington was unceremoniously postponed due to rain and rescheduled for Monday September 2. The Rangers won the last matchup of the year against the Astros, 7–2, in front of a minuscule crowd of 24,468, but the Astros won the Silver Boot regardless of the outcome of the game.[33]
  • 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). The Rangers have had a lean postseason history with four appearances (1996, 1998, 1999, and recently 2010, winning the ALDS over the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to advance to their first ALCS against the New York Yankees.[34] The Rangers won their first American League pennant in their 50th season on October 22, 2010 beating New York 4 games to 2,[35] then lost to the San Francisco Giants in the World Series 4–1.[36] On the other side, 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.
  • On February 6, 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.[39] (Nolan Ryan was also the only person to be named DHL Hometown Hero by two organizations, the Rangers and Astros, respectively.)[40][41]
  • On August 18, 2009, the Rangers acquired Ivan Rodriguez in a trade from the Houston Astros to help them down the stretch for the purpose of achieving their first playoff appearance in ten years. It will be Rodriguez's second stint with Texas.[42]
  • On September 14, 2010, the Houston Astros Triple-A affiliate, the Round Rock Express, announced that they would become the Texas Rangers new minor league affiliate. This left the Houston Astros without a Triple-A team and the Texas Rangers old Triple-A team, the Oklahoma City RedHawks without a parent club. On September 20, 2010, the Houston Astros made the Oklahoma City RedHawks their own affiliate. These changes went in to effect immediately due to neither team making the play-offs but changes won't be seen until the 2011 Season.
  • One David Meyer (of Dallas) and James Grubb (of Houston) have an annual wager on the Silver Boot, which began in 2006. The conditions of the deal will auto renew for a term of 50 years.
  • One Eliberto Quinonez (of Fort Worth) and Augustus "Gus" Presas (of Houston) ALSO have an annual wager on the Silver Boot, which began in 2005. Their conditions of the deal will auto renew for a term of 51 years. The conditions of this deal constitute that the loser deliver one beef taco to the winner via the back of a 1987 Ford pick-up truck.

See also

Sources

  • The Dallas Morning News (2008). Texas Almanac 2008–2009.
  • Farmer, Neal (1996). Southwest Conference's Greatest Hits.

References

  1. ^ Lalire, Gregory (March 31, 2011). "Baseball in the West » HistoryNet – From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher". HistoryNet. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  2. ^ "Texas Baseball Hall of Fame". Tbhof.org. April 11, 1928. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  3. ^ "Civil War Baseball: Baseball and the Blue and the Gray". Baseball-almanac.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  4. ^ "Early Texas Baseball". Lsjunction.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  5. ^ Baseball As America
  6. ^ "Before the Colt .45s". Astrosdaily.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  7. ^ "Negro League Baseball Blog". Blog.negroleaguebaseball.com. August 23, 2006. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  8. ^ "News". sanangelocolts.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  9. ^ "Colt Stadium / Houston Colt .45s / 1962–1964". Ballparkwatch. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  10. ^ "The Chronology – 1963". BaseballLibrary.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  11. ^ Sullivan, T.R. (June 3, 2001). "Rangers, Astros to meet at last". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
  12. ^ "Kansas City Athletics". BaseballLibrary.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  13. ^ "Kansas City Athletics (1955–1967)". Sportsecyclopedia.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  14. ^ By T.R. Sullivan / MLB.com (May 16, 2008). "The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: As series evolved, so did Silver Boot". Mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  15. ^ "Baseball For Thought: A Proposal for MLB Realignment". Baseballforthought.blogspot.com. May 11, 2006. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  16. ^ CPCP's MLB Realignment – ArmchairGM – Sports Wiki Database[dead link]
  17. ^ "Baseball diary, radical realignment, fans against realignment, major league baseball team addresses, NO radical realignment, Bud Selig, Plan A, realignment options". Andromedan.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  18. ^ USA Today. May 22, 2000 http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/comment/sgcol04.htm. Retrieved May 11, 2010. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ^ Pinto, David (March 3, 2006). "Deep in the Heart of Texas". Baseball Musings. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  20. ^ By Alyson Footer / MLB.com (May 18, 2007). "The Official Site of The Houston Astros: News: Lone Star Series kicks off in Houston". Houston.astros.mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  21. ^ By Todd Wills / Special to MLB.com (May 16, 2008). "Ryan holds court on Lone Star Series | texasrangers.com: News". Mlb.mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  22. ^ "ESPN – Astros vs. Rangers – Recap – July 01, 2006". ESPN. July 1, 2006. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  23. ^ Ortiz, Jorge L. (July 13, 2006). "Matthews Jr. a late bloomer". USA Today. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
  24. ^ "May 16, 2008 Houston Astros at Texas Rangers Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference.com. May 16, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  25. ^ "July 3, 2004 Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference.com. July 3, 2004. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  26. ^ "June 17, 2001 Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. June 17, 2001. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  27. ^ "June 25, 2005 Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. June 25, 2005. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  28. ^ "June 8, 2001 Houston Astros at Texas Rangers Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. June 8, 2001. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  29. ^ "May 20, 2005 Houston Astros at Texas Rangers Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. May 20, 2005. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  30. ^ "May 23, 2009 Texas Rangers at Houston Astros Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. May 23, 2009. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  31. ^ "June 28, 2002 Houston Astros at Texas Rangers Play by Play and Box Score". Baseball-Reference.com. June 28, 2002. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  32. ^ Barr, Greg (December 9, 2008). "Astros find new field of dreams".
  33. ^ "Houston Astros vs. Texas Rangers – Recap – September 02, 2002 – ESPN". ESPN. September 2, 2002. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  34. ^ "2010 ALDS: Texas Rangers celebrate with Josh Hamilton using ginger ale – ESPN Dallas". ESPN. October 13, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  35. ^ "The Y'all Classic! Texas boots Yanks in ALCS | texasrangers.com: News". Texas.rangers.mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  36. ^ "Giants beat Rangers to win World Series". CNN. November 3, 2010.
  37. ^ "who played for Houston Astros and Texas Rangers". Baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  38. ^ "who played for Houston Astros and Texas Rangers exclusively". Baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  39. ^ cbs11tv.com – Nolan Ryan Named Rangers Team President[dead link]
  40. ^ By Kevin Yanik / MLB.com (September 26, 1981). "The Official Site of The Houston Astros: News: Ryan elected Astros' Hometown Hero". Twins.mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  41. ^ By T.R. Sullivan / MLB.com. "The Official Site of The Texas Rangers: News: Ryan named Rangers Hometown Hero". Mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
  42. ^ By T.R. Sullivan / MLB.com. "Pudge rejoins Rangers for chance to win | texasrangers.com: News". Texas.rangers.mlb.com. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
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