Minute Maid Park, Texas – Home of the Houston Astros

Originally named The Ballpark at Union Station, Enron Field, and Astros Field,  Minute Maid Park opened in 2000 and is Houston’s first retractable-roofed stadium. The largest entrance to the park is inside what was once Houston’s Union Station, and the left-field side of the stadium features a railway as an homage to the site’s history. The train moves along a track on top of the length of the exterior wall beyond left field whenever an Astros player hits a home run and/or the Astros win a game. It was so cool to see while in the area in November of 2010. I’ve seen it many times on TV but so cool to see it in person.

The ballpark was first christened “Enron Field” on April 7, 2000, with naming rights sold to the Houston energy and financial trading company in a 30-year, $100 million deal. However, due to their bankruptcy, agreed to end the naming rights, and the ballpark became officially known as “Astros Field”. Then in In June 2002, it was announced that the Astros had sold the naming rights of the ballpark to locally based Coca-Cola subsidiary Minute Maid for $100 million over 30 years. Its official name was then changed to “Minute Maid Park”.

Here is a list of some of the major events that have been held at the park since its name was officially changed to Minute Maid Park. On October 9, 2005, Minute Maid Park hosted the longest postseason game in MLB history to date, lasting 18 innings, and took 5 hours and 50 minutes to play. On October 25, 2005, Minute Maid Park hosted the first World Series game ever played in Texas. September 30, 2007, Craig Biggio’s last game of his career, Minute Maid Park hit the highest attendance in its 8-year history by selling 43,823 tickets, 107% of its capacity. In his third start as an Astro, pitcher Mike Fiers threw the stadium’s first no-hitter in a 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on August 21, 2015.

The Houston Colt .45s become the Houston Astros and played the New York Yankees on April 9th, 1965 in the Astrodome. A home attendance mark that stood for 22 years set on June 22, 1966 as 50,908 watched Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers down Houston 5-2. In 1972 the Astros finish in second place with their best record ever (84-69) and followed it in 1979 as they finished in second place, just a game-and-a-half behind the Reds.

In 1980 Houston claims its first title as the Astros win the NL West with a 93-70 record, defeating Los Angeles in a one-game playoff. The next year the Astros watched Nolan Ryan hurls his major league record fifth no-hitter, blanking the Dodgers on September 26.

The 1990s were good to the Astors. Jeff Bagwell becomes the Astros’ first BBWAA Rookie of the Year.  Craig Biggio became the first player ever to make the All-Star team at both catcher (1991) and second base (1992). In 1994 Bagwell became the first Houston player ever to win the NL Most Valuable Player award. They won back-to-back NL Central titles, and their manager Larry Dierker was voted NL Manager of the Year. However, the biggest news was probably the fact that pitcher Randy Johnson was acquired just minutes before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline.

On June 11, 2003, at Yankee Stadium, six Astros pitchers combined to no-hit the Yankees for the 8-0 win. It was the first time in Major League history that a team used five or more pitchers in a no-hitter. In 2004 Roy Oswalt and Roger Clemens (who won his seventh Cy Young Award) helped lead the team to the seventh game of the NLCS. Their historic run ended with a 5-2 Game 7 loss to the Cardinals, one game shy of their first-ever World Series berth. However, in 2005 they advanced to the World Series for the first time in franchise history. Sadly the White Sox went on to sweep the Astros in four games to claim their first World Series since 1917. I am still extremely upset about that post-season and feel like it was fixed. From that idiot Doug Eddings giving the win to the While Sox in game two of the ALCS against my Anaheim Angels, to MLB not letting the Astros close the dome because it would create an unfair disadvantage. Really???? So pathetic.  Anyway, I will move on.

Shortstop Miguel Tejada, acquired from Baltimore on December 12, 2007, anchored the infield defense and committed a career-low 11 errors. During the 2009 season, The Astros became the first team in Major League history to have three players hit their 300th home run in the same season. They were Ivan Rodriguez, Lance Berkman, and Carlos Lee. The years 2012 and 2013 brought a lot of changes to the Astros. They celebrated their 50th anniversary, under new management,  by playing their final season in the National League. In 2013 they joined the American League and now play my Angels.  Here is a list of their retired numbers: 5, 7,24, 25, 32, 33, 34, 40, 49, 42 (Jackie Robinson numbers 42 is retired through all of MLB).

We had a great tour and we were lucky enough to see Hunter Pence working out. (Yes it was a while ago and yes it was during the off-season). Our tour guide was a huge baseball fan and we had fun sharing baseball stories and talking about the parks we have both visited. We had such a great time that he even gave me some old freebie swag. So cool. Needless to say, it is one park I will not forget visiting. Here is a link to the Houston Astros website if you want to book your own tour one day.

Minute Maid Park Visitor Information 

Address:

501 Crawford Street, Houston, TX 77002.

Phone:

Directions: