Houston Astros

Texas’s first-ever professional baseball team began playing in 1962 as the Houston Colt .45s, an oddly specific choice but one quite apt to the state if you are aware of its rough and tough history. But this was the 1960s, you must remember, and while guns were probably still pretty cool in Texas, space was far, far cooler. Houston was home to the Manned Space Center (later the Johnson Space Center) that would play a vital role in supporting mankind’s first steps on the moon in 1969 (think “Houston, we have a problem” from the mission that didn’t go quite so well…). And so, in honor of the astronauts and the space program, the baseball team was renamed the Houston Astros who would play their home games in a technological marvel known as the Astrodome, the first domed stadium in the world. Such a wonder was the new dome to people of the time (it was dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World”) that the Astros drew large crowds in their earlier years, not to see their middling to poor performance on the baseball field but to witness the dome itself. Another innovation followed with the installation of “AstroTurf” (as grass could not grow in the dome), baseball’s first artificial surface and a word that would enter the English language as a more popular synonym for artificial turf. All that innovation aside, the team failed to break through in its first decade and a half until 1980 and 1981, when the Astros suddenly improved and made it to the playoffs two years in a row, only to lose to the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers, both in Game Five deciders. This was just the beginning, as it ended up taking the Astros a remarkable 42 seasons in MLB to win their first playoffs series (though to be fair they only qualified seven times), which they finally managed in 2004 with a 3-2 series victory in the NLDS over the Atlanta Braves on the back of Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens’s fastball. The Astros lost in seven to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, but were back for revenge in 2005, not only beating the Braves again but downing the Cardinals in six to set up the team’s first-ever World Cup Series against the Chicago White Sox. The Sox, however, were chasing history, desperate to end an 88 year championship drought, and so dispatched the Astros in four straight games. Astros fans must have despaired at times in the difficult years that followed, watching their team slide down the division, wondering if they had missed their one and only chance. But from 2015 onward, a good team began to form around stars like Jose Altuve, Dallas Keuchel, and Justin Verlander, taking the team back to the playoffs and ultimately to the World Series in 2017. There, the Astros won an incredible seven-game slugfest that featured 25 home runs (a record), with 5 clubbed by the Astros’ George Springer alone (a record, tied with Reggie Jackson and Chase Utley). The Astros prevailed, winning the series and bringing the first MLB championship title to the state of Texas. Incredibly, they would make it to three more World Series in the next six seasons (and as far as the ALCS in the three where they did not), losing to the Washington Nationals in seven in 2019 and the Atlanta Braves in six in 2021, but bringing home title number two to Houston in 2022 with a hard-fought 4-2 series win over the Phillies. With so many outstanding players and so much momentum behind them, who wouldn’t be envious of Houston Astros fans right now? But whether or not the Astros can translate their star power into more championships while they have got the team to do it remains to be seen.

Houston Astros Rivalries

Because the Astros shifted from the National League to the American League in 2012, the Seattle Mariners have since taken the place of their former divisional rivals, the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals. They also have recent rivalries with the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees based on a pair of controversial events. Spiciest of all is their rivalry with the Texas Rangers known as the Lone Star Series that began to intensify with interleague play in 1997 and kicked into full gear in 2012 when the teams were placed into the same division. After the Rangers and Astros met in 2023 in the ALCS, which the Rangers won in a dramatic seven-games series on the way to their first-ever World Series title, one would expect this rivalry to be one of the league’s best in the years to come. 

Getting tickets to games between such intense rivals can be tough, but TicketX has you covered. Get onto TicketX as soon as you can to find the cheapest tickets to all the best Houston Astros matchups. Read more about our tips on "How to Get Cheap Houston Astros Game Tickets Today" on TicketX Magazine.

How much are Houston Astros tickets?

You can find the cheapest Houston Astros tickets from $7.36 at Yankee Stadium on May 08 on TicketX. Prices can vary depending on venues and dates, so please check for tickets based on the venues and dates of events that you might be interested in attending.