BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…March 31, 2013, 10 years ago today:
After 51 years as a National League franchise, the Houston Astros make their American League debut with an 8-2 win over their new AL West rivals from Dallas, the Texas Rangers. The Astros were coming off back-to-back 100-loss seasons and had the lowest payroll in the majors, but on this night they made it work for new manager Bo Porter before a sellout crowd at Houston’s Minute Maid Park.
Since 1998, there had been 16 teams in the NL and 14 in the AL — an even number of teams in each leagues prevented the need to have one team idle every day. But the expansion of interleague play made that irrelevant. So, to balance the leagues, Houston was chosen to make the move. The instant rivalry with the Rangers was one reason. The other was that the Astros were for sale, and MLB figured prospective buyers would be anxious to please. Houston’s leading suitor, Jim Crane, agreed to do it.
The Astros’ first season in the American League ended up as the worst season in franchise history, with a whopping 111 losses. But it wasn’t because the competition in the AL was any better. They had those 100-loss campaigns in their final two years in the NL as well. Houston was in the process of making tanking a thing as it gutted the club in the interest of a total rebuild. The Astros had another bad season in 2014, but they made the playoffs in 2015. And by 2017, they had a World Series championship (garbage cans aside). And they’re the defending champions as we speak. You’d have to say things have turned out okay.
There was precedent for switching leagues in modern Major League Baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers, after 29 years in the American League, moved to the National League in 1998. To clarify, 28 of the seasons were in Milwaukee and one was in Seattle. The Brewers were born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969 and lasted only one season. The Pilots could never get dilapidated Sicks Stadium fixed, and they made a sudden bolt to Milwaukee. The Pilots were one of just two teams in big league history to last one season (ironically, the other was the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers, who became the St. Louis Browns).
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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