Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West Division. They are one of two major league clubs based in Texas; the Texas Rangers belong to the same division. They play their home games at Daikin Park.

Established as the Houston Colt .45s, the Astros entered the National League as an expansion team in 1962 along with the New York Mets. The current name was adopted three years later, when they moved into the Astrodome, the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium. The Astros moved to Enron Field (now Daikin Park) in 2000. The team played in the NL West division from 1969 to 1993, then the NL Central division from 1994 to 2012, before being moved to the AL West as part of an MLB realignment in 2013.

The Astros posted their first winning record in 1972 and made the playoffs for the first time in 1980, before winning a total of three division titles throughout the 1980s. Spearheaded by the Killer B's, a collection of prominent hitters that included the Astros' Hall of Fame members Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell, along with closer Billy Wagner, the Astros began reaching major prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s with four further division titles and two Wild Card appearances, culminating in their first World Series appearance in 2005 where they were swept by the Chicago White Sox.