The History of the Houston Astros: Every Era, from the First Season to Today
A walk through Houston baseball from the 1962 Colt .45's to the Astros of 2025, with the domes, the Killer B's, the pennants, the 111-loss rebuild and the two World Series titles.
The Houston Astros went 42 seasons without winning a postseason series, then won five pennants in the next 18 years. That compressed arc is the shape of the franchise: a long stretch of respectable-to-bad baseball in a famously odd ballpark, a core of the 1990s that kept winning divisions and losing in October, and a front-office rebuild that produced the most successful run in club history. Through the 2025 season the club's record in the historical record is 5,096 wins and 5,040 losses, a winning percentage of .503, about as close to the middle of the road as a 64-season franchise can sit.
What makes the history worth telling in eras is how much the club changed around its numbers. It began as the Houston Colt .45's in 1962, became the Astros in 1965 when it moved indoors, switched leagues in 2013 and has played in three different home ballparks, the last of them under three names. Five pennants and two titles sit at the top of the ledger, but many of the stories readers remember are near misses: a 16-inning playoff game, a championship series blown from a three-games-to-none lead, a division series that ended almost before it started.
This article follows the club era by era, using the historical record for the records and leaders and leaving out anything that cannot be traced to it or to well-documented history. For the individual players behind the eras, see the best players in Astros history, position by position, and for the ballpark that has hosted the last quarter-century of games, the Daikin Park guide.
The Colt .45's and a ballpark with no roof, 1962 to 1964
Houston entered the National League in 1962 as an expansion club alongside the New York Mets, under the name Colt .45's. The first three seasons produced records of 64-96, 66-96 and 66-96, and the club finished eighth, ninth and ninth in a ten-team league. Those results were about what expansion teams of the era could expect: the established clubs protected their best players, and the new franchises filled their rosters with whoever was left over.
The home park was Colt Stadium, a temporary open-air ground that served from 1962 to 1964. Its best season attendance was 924,456. Houston in summer is hot and humid, and that climate was a large part of the reason the city's backers wanted a permanent, air-conditioned answer. Harry Craft managed the club from 1962 until the final weeks of 1964 and compiled a record of 191-280, which says less about Craft than about the roster he had been handed.
The most important thing the early years produced was a future star. Joe Morgan, who would win two Most Valuable Player awards in Cincinnati, began his career in Houston in 1963, and the historical record credits him with 219 stolen bases in his Astros career. Jim Wynn, listed at 223 home runs with the club over 1963 to 1973, was the other early cornerstone. Both belonged to an era in which Houston was building talent faster than it was building wins.
The Astrodome years and the long wait, 1965 to 1979
The name changed in 1965, when the franchise became the Astros and moved into the Astrodome, the first major-league stadium with a roof. The new name tied the club to the space program that had made Houston famous, and the building became a tourist attraction in its own right. The Astrodome remained the club's home through 1999, and its best season attendance, 2,706,017, was recorded there.
The baseball lagged behind the novelty. Houston lost 97 games in 1965 and finished in the lower half of the league for most of the next decade. The first .500 season came in 1969, when the club went 81-81 and finished fifth, the same year the leagues split into divisions and Houston landed in the West. After that, the club posted a run of seasons within a few games of even: 79-83 twice, 84-69 in 1972 (good for third place), 82-80 in 1973 and 81-81 in 1974.
Those teams had real talent. Cesar Cedeno, who played for Houston from 1970 to 1981, stole 487 bases for the club, still the franchise record, and collected 1,659 hits. Larry Dierker won 137 games over 1964 to 1976 and threw 25 shutouts, the club's career leader in that category. Don Wilson and J. R. Richard gave the pitching staff power. That none of them won a division title says something about the National League West of the 1970s, which was dominated by the Reds and the Dodgers.
The low point of the decade arrived in 1975, when the club went 64-97 and finished sixth. It rebounded with 80 wins in 1976 and 81 in 1977, and in 1979 won 89 games and finished second. That was the first time Houston looked like a real contender, and it set up the franchise's first big swing.
Ryan, Scott and the first division titles, 1980 to 1986
The turn came in 1980. The club signed Nolan Ryan as a free agent, an event widely reported at the time as the first million-dollar-a-year contract in baseball, and went 93-70 to win the West for the first time. Ryan pitched for Houston from 1980 to 1988, struck out 1,866 batters in the Astros uniform and posted a 3.13 ERA, the best of any Houston pitcher with 1,000 innings.
The postseason that year was a heartbreak. Houston met the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series and lost three games to two. Each of the last four games of that five-game series went to extra innings, and the Phillies won the final two. Meanwhile J. R. Richard, who had been the staff ace, suffered a stroke that summer and never pitched in the majors again; the historical record credits him with 107 wins and 1,493 strikeouts for the club.
The strike-shortened 1981 season was split into two halves, and Houston's second-half title earned it a division series against the Dodgers, which it lost three games to two. The club's overall record that year was 61-49. After a run of seasons near .500 (77-85 in 1982, 85-77 in 1983, 80-82 in 1984 and 83-79 in 1985), it found its next peak in 1986.
That year belonged to Mike Scott. He won the National League Cy Young Award with a split-fingered fastball, and he threw a no-hitter to clinch the division. Houston finished 96-66 under Hal Lanier and met the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series. The Mets won in six games, and Game 6 went 16 innings. Houston would wait another 19 years for its next National League pennant.
Lean years and the arrival of the Killer B's, 1987 to 1996
The decade after 1986 produced no postseason baseball at all, which says a good deal about the club's identity at the time: reliable, never great. Houston won 76 games in 1987, 82 in 1988 and 86 in 1989, then fell to 75-87 in 1990 and 65-97 in 1991. Art Howe managed 810 games from 1989 to 1993 and finished 392-418.
Two things changed in those years. The first was the arrival of Jeff Bagwell, who won the Rookie of the Year award in 1991 and went on to become the franchise's best hitter. Craig Biggio had debuted in 1988 and made the transition from catcher to second base. Together with Lance Berkman, who arrived in 1999, the three would become known as the Killer B's, though in the mid-1990s they were simply two young players on a mediocre club. In 1994 Bagwell won the National League MVP award in a season shortened by a players' strike, with Houston at 66-49 when play stopped.
The mid-1990s settled into a pattern of competence. Houston won 85 games in 1993, then finished second in the division in 1994, 1995 and 1996. Those teams did not win, but they did not fall apart, and they kept Bagwell and Biggio in the middle of the order. By the end of their careers Biggio had 3,060 hits and 1,844 runs, both club records, and Bagwell had 449 home runs and 1,529 RBI.
The Dierker years and a decade of near-misses, 1997 to 2005
In 1997 the club named Larry Dierker, a former pitcher and longtime broadcaster, as manager. The move was greeted with some skepticism. He led the club to division titles in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 and compiled a record of 435-348 in 783 games.
The 1998 team was the best of the group. It went 102-60 after acquiring Randy Johnson from the Mariners at the trading deadline, and the lefthander finished the year with 329 strikeouts across the two clubs. Then it lost the division series to San Diego, three games to one. The next seasons followed the same script: 97-65 in 1999, with a three-games-to-one loss to the Braves, and 93-69 in 2001, with a three-game sweep by the same Braves. Houston kept getting to October and kept leaving in a week.
The club also changed buildings. In 2000 it moved into a new downtown park, called Enron Field for its first two seasons and Minute Maid Park from 2002 through 2024. The new park was built for baseball outdoors under a retractable roof, and its season attendance of 3,087,872 in 2004 is the highest the club has ever drawn. The Astrodome years, which had begun with a novelty, ended with the building a relic.
The 2004 and 2005 postseasons broke the pattern. Houston signed Roger Clemens, who won his seventh Cy Young Award in 2004, and picked up Carlos Beltran in a midseason trade. The club went 92-70, won the wild card and beat Atlanta in the division series, the first postseason series win in franchise history. It lost the NLCS to the Cardinals in seven games. In 2005 the two clubs met again, and this time Houston won four games to two. Albert Pujols's three-run home run off Brad Lidge in Game 5 is the most-replayed moment of that series, but the Astros won Game 6 in St. Louis and took the first pennant in the franchise's 44 seasons. They were then swept by the Chicago White Sox in the World Series.
Decline, a new owner and 111 losses, 2006 to 2014
The years after the pennant were a slow slide. Houston went 82-80 in 2006, 73-89 in 2007, 86-75 in 2008, 74-88 in 2009 and 76-86 in 2010. The veteran core aged out, and the farm system could not replace it. Lance Berkman, the third of the Killer B's, finished with 326 home runs and 1,040 walks for the club between 1999 and 2010.
Then the bottom fell out. In 2011 the club went 56-106 and finished sixth in the National League Central, where it had been placed in the 1994 realignment. In 2012 it went 55-107. In 2013, its first season in the American League West after a move agreed as part of Jim Crane's purchase of the club, it went 51-111, the worst record in franchise history.
The numbers hid a plan. Under general manager Jeff Luhnow, who arrived in December 2011, the club chose to give up on the present and accumulate high draft picks. It selected shortstop Carlos Correa first overall in 2012, and he would win the American League Rookie of the Year award three years later. The losses were deliberate, and they were also bleak. The club improved to 70-92 in 2014, a 19-win jump, and was ready to rise.
The rebuild pays off, 2015 to 2019
The 2015 club went 86-76, finished second and returned to the postseason as a wild card. It beat the Yankees 1-0 in the wild-card game, with Dallas Keuchel, who won the American League Cy Young Award that season, on the mound. It then lost the division series to the Royals, three games to two.
By 2017 the pieces were in place. Under manager A. J. Hinch the club won 101 games with an offense built around Jose Altuve, who won the American League MVP award that year, Correa and George Springer. In August the club acquired Justin Verlander from the Tigers, and in the postseason it beat Boston three games to one, the Yankees four games to three, and the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to three in a World Series decided in Game 7. It was the first championship in franchise history. Hurricane Harvey had forced a home series to be played in another city that summer, and the title carried extra weight in Houston.
The shine did not last. In November 2019 reporting by The Athletic described a scheme to steal signs using a camera feed, and in January 2020 Commissioner Rob Manfred issued a report that found the club had used electronic sign-stealing during the 2017 season. Hinch and Luhnow were suspended for a year and then fired by the club, the club was fined, and it lost draft picks. The report did not strip the title, and the debate over how to weigh the 2017 championship against the findings has not been settled for many fans.
The club kept winning anyway. It went 103-59 in 2018, then lost the American League Championship Series to Boston, four games to one. In 2019 it won 107 games, the most in club history, beat the Yankees four games to two in the ALCS and lost the World Series to Washington in seven games. The remarkable feature of that series was that the road team won all seven games, a first for a World Series.
Dusty Baker and a second title, 2020 to 2024
New manager Dusty Baker took over in 2020 for a 60-game season. The club went 29-31 and made the postseason, beat the Twins and the Athletics, then ran into Tampa Bay in the ALCS. It led that series three games to none and lost it, four games to three.
The club won 95 games in 2021, beat the White Sox and Red Sox in the first two rounds and lost the World Series to Atlanta in six games. In 2022 it won 106 games, swept Seattle in the division series and the Yankees in the ALCS, and beat the Phillies four games to two for the second championship. Verlander, who had returned from Tommy John surgery after missing nearly two seasons, won the Cy Young Award at 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA, and Yordan Alvarez led the offense. Baker, who had waited a generation as a manager, won his first title.
The club's run of American League Championship Series appearances reached seven in a row in 2023, when it finished 90-72, won the division on a tiebreaker over Texas and then lost the ALCS to the Rangers in seven games, another series in which the road team won every game. Baker retired afterward and Joe Espada took over. The club won its division again in 2024 with 88 wins, only to lose a best-of-three wild-card series to Detroit, 2-0.
The record book, the managers and the ballparks
Franchise leaders show where the club has been strongest. Biggio leads in hits (3,060) and runs (1,844) and played 20 seasons for the club, the most of any Hall of Fame player. Bagwell leads in home runs (449), RBI (1,529) and walks (1,401). Jose Altuve ranks second in hits (2,388) and has the club's best batting average among players with 3,000 at-bats, .303. On the mound, Joe Niekro has the most wins (144), narrowly ahead of Roy Oswalt (143), while Ryan has the most strikeouts (1,866). Billy Wagner holds the saves record, 225.
| Era | Years | Manager of note | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colt .45's | 1962 to 1964 | Harry Craft, 191-280 | Eighth to ninth place each year |
| Astrodome and the 1970s | 1965 to 1979 | Bill Virdon, 544-522 (1975 to 1982) | No division titles |
| Ryan and Scott | 1980 to 1986 | Hal Lanier, 254-232 | Division titles in 1980, 1981 and 1986 |
| Killer B's | 1997 to 2005 | Larry Dierker, 435-348 | Four division titles and the 2005 pennant |
| Rebuild | 2011 to 2014 | Various | 51-111 low in 2013 |
| Hinch and Baker | 2015 to 2024 | Hinch 481-329; Baker 320-226 | Four pennants and two titles |
The winningest managers by percentage are Hinch and Baker, but the longest-serving is Virdon, who managed 1,067 games from 1975 to 1982 and led Houston to its first division title in 1980. The parks tell a parallel story: Colt Stadium and the Astrodome were home for a handful of seasons or many, then the downtown park that opened as Enron Field in 2000 carried the franchise through 2024 as Minute Maid Park. In 2025 the building became Daikin Park. The club went 87-75 that season, finished second and did not reach the postseason.
The club has produced two MVPs (Bagwell in 1994 and Altuve in 2017), five Cy Young awards (Scott in 1986, Clemens in 2004, Keuchel in 2015 and Verlander in 2019 and 2022) and three Rookie of the Year winners (Bagwell, Correa and Alvarez). The Hall of Fame list is short for a franchise of its age: Biggio, Bagwell, Morgan, Wagner and Ryan are the players with at least four seasons for the club who have been inducted.
Common questions
When did the Astros start, and why did the name change? The club began play in 1962 as the Colt .45's. It became the Astros in 1965 when it moved into the Astrodome, a name chosen to reflect Houston's role in the space program.
How many pennants and World Series have they won? Five pennants (2005, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022) and two championships (2017 and 2022). They lost the World Series in 2005, 2019 and 2021.
Why did the club move from the National League to the American League? In 2013 the team moved to the AL West as part of a realignment that evened out the number of clubs in each league at fifteen. It had been in the NL West from 1969 to 1993 and the NL Central from 1994 to 2012.
What was the worst season? The 2013 club went 51-111. The 2012 and 2011 clubs were nearly as bad at 55-107 and 56-106.
What was the best season? By record, 2019 at 107-55; by results, 2017 and 2022, which ended in titles. The best Astros seasons and every October run goes through each of them.
Where to go next
Follow the club on the Astros team page, read about the park on the Daikin Park page and browse the news in the Astros topic feed. For other franchises with similar stories, try the history of the Athletics, the Angels and the Mariners, or see how every title fits into the history of the World Series.