Sports
November 2, 2023
A Texas Rangers World Series Title 52 Seasons in the Making
Two years ago, the Texas Rangers finished in last place with 102 losses. Now, after a stunning—and pricey—turnaround, they are MLB champions.
MLB
Sports
October 20, 2023
Are Swangin and Bangin Allowed at Minute Maid Park? An Investigation
Before game two of the ALCS, a Houston Astros fan was told his shirt, which referenced the team’s cheating scandal, was unwelcome at the ballpark.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
October 13, 2023
An All-Texas MLB Playoff Series 50 Years in the Making
Much like indoor baseball in Houston or an MLB team in Arlington, a Houston Astros–Texas Rangers ALCS was once a dream and is now a reality.
Sports
October 11, 2023
Let the Texas Rangers’ Creed-Inspired Playoff Run Take You Higher
After blowing the AL West division lead on the last day of the regular season, the suddenly white-hot Rangers swept their way into the ALCS.
Sports
October 2, 2023
What Has More Lives: The Houston Astros or a Cat?
While the Astros found a way to steal the AL West regular-season crown, the Texas Rangers are falling apart at the worst possible time.
Sports
September 7, 2023
The Houston Astros Still Run Texas Baseball
After a dominant three-game sweep of AL West rival the Texas Rangers, the Astros are gaining momentum for another MLB playoff run.
Sports
August 4, 2023
Max Scherzer’s Rangers Debut Wasn’t His First Pro Start for a Texas Team
While negotiating his Major League Baseball rookie deal in 2007, the Texas Rangers' newest ace started his career with the independent-league Fort Worth Cats.
Sports
July 31, 2023
The Texas Rangers Went All In at the Trade Deadline. Will the Houston Astros Follow?
A blockbuster deal for Max Scherzer is intended to shore up the Rangers' pitching rotation and keep the team atop the American League West standings.
Sports
July 7, 2023
Where Do the Astros Keep Finding These Unsung Heroes?
The injury-depleted Astros should be having a nightmare season. But surprise performances from little-known players have kept Houston winning.
Sports
June 7, 2023
Signing Jacob deGrom Was a Mistake, but the Rangers Can Still Win It All
Even without the team’s $185 million ace pitcher, the Texas Rangers are off to the best start in franchise history.
Sports
May 25, 2023
Could It Be? A Playoff Race Brewing Between Texas MLB Teams?
After six dreadful years, the Texas Rangers are on top of the American League West—with the Houston Astros just two games behind.
Sports
May 5, 2023
Meet the North Texas Maestro of Tommy John Surgery
Keith Meister, a team physician for the Texas Rangers, has reconstructed the elbows of many of the best players in baseball.
Sports
April 26, 2023
Can the Houston Astros Stretch Their Dynasty for One More Year?
No matter how many star free agents the Houston Astros lose in the offseason, the reigning World Series champs keep winning.
Sports
April 18, 2023
What the Heck Is a Peagle?
The Texas Rangers’ new uniform design takes great pains—including the creation of a new, mythical mascot—to make fans throughout the Metroplex feel seen.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
April 14, 2023
The Undertold Story of Jackie Robinson’s College Hoops Coaching Days
Before he began his pro baseball career, Jackie Robinson spent a season on the hardwood for Austin HBCU Samuel Huston College.
Sports
April 4, 2023
Is the Rangers’ $800 Million Rebuild Starting to Pay Off?
A 3–1 start to the MLB season could mean nothing, but it's still the best the Texas Rangers have managed since 2013.
Sports
December 9, 2022
Can the Free-Spending Texas Rangers Close the Gap With the Astros?
In the past week, the Rangers have added an ace pitcher and the Astros have lost one. Can Arlington’s MLB team pay its way to competitiveness?
Sports
November 7, 2022
The Astros Beat the Team That Put Up a Statue of His Dad—and He Loves It
Reflecting on the World Series with Astros announcer Todd Kalas, whose father, Harry Kalas, called Phillies games for almost forty years.
Sports
November 7, 2022
My Life With the Astros
A fan from day one muses on sixty years of joy and heartbreak—and whether winning brings redemption.
Sports
October 31, 2022
Meet the Astros Fans Willing to Spend $80,000 on Custom Baseball Caps
Thanks to a memorabilia boom and another Astros World Series trip, Houston has become a hotbed for rare hat collectors.
Sports
October 17, 2022
Yordan Álvarez Is Striking Barry Bonds Levels of Fear in Opposing Teams
With a historic performance last week, the slugger led the Houston Astros to their sixth straight American League Championship Series.
Sports
October 7, 2022
The 2022 Houston Astros Have Been a Homegrown Masterpiece
Another 100-win season in the books, a chance to return to the World Series for the fourth time in six years—this franchise is special.
Sports
August 30, 2022
The Night the Astrodome Got Rained Out
As rains fall across Texas, remember the 1976 Houston deluge that improbably shut down an Astros game at the famed “weather-proof” Astrodome.
Sports
August 18, 2022
With Chris Woodward and Jon Daniels Gone, the Texas Rangers Bet Their Future on Chris Young’s Thin Résumé
Now that the Rangers have fired their manager and president of baseball ops, their future is in the hands of relative front-office newcomer Chris Young.
Best Thing in Texas
August 10, 2022
At the Little League World Series, Texas and Oklahoma Hug and Make Up
There was crying in baseball after a Pearland pitcher beaned a Tulsa batter on Tuesday. What happened next might restore one’s faith in humanity.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
July 19, 2022
Making Sense of the Rangers’ Draft Day Shocker, Kumar Rocker
The franchise stunned the baseball world by selecting Rocker, a talented pitcher with a murky injury history, third overall.
Sports
June 22, 2022
This Nolan Ryan Documentary Is a Love Story (and a Home Run)
'Facing Nolan' has all the high heat and bench-clearing brawls that MLB fans expect. But deep down, the film is about a beautiful marriage.
Sports
April 15, 2022
The 1950s Louisiana Law That Stalled Racial Progress in Texas Baseball
A decade after Jackie Robinson integrated MLB, Black Texas League players found themselves banned from competing at road games in Shreveport.
Sports
April 7, 2022
Did the Rangers Splurge on Free Agents to Boost Their “Entertainment District”?
A former MLB front-office insider breaks down the business and baseball reasons behind the Texas Rangers' record-breaking off-season spending.
Sports
April 6, 2022
The Dream of an All-Texas MLB Rivalry Remains Distant
Even after a historic free-agency binge, the Texas Rangers have a long way to go before they catch up with the Houston Astros.
Sports
January 26, 2022
Roger Clemens Deserves Better
Baseball Hall of Fame voters kept the former Astros pitcher out of Cooperstown. But there’s more to Clemens’s “character” than his alleged steroid use.
Sports
December 22, 2021
Will the Astros Be Able to Re-sign Carlos Correa After the MLB Lockout?
How a flurry of free-agent signings before baseball’s work stoppage could help Houston retain its All-Star shortstop.
Sports
November 30, 2021
561 Million Reasons to Believe the Rangers Are Committed to Winning
With the blockbuster signings of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the woeful Texas Rangers just fast-tracked their franchise rebuild.
Sports
November 3, 2021
After World Series Loss, Houston Faces the Possible End of an Era
Five straight winning seasons, three trips to the World Series, one title—but can the Astros keep it up if Carlos Correa leaves town?
Sports
October 25, 2021
In This Year’s World Series, It’s Houston vs. Everybody
The Astros have faced every kind of taunt imaginable this year—and it has only brought the team and its city closer together.
Sports
October 8, 2021
No Houston Pro Team Has Been as Good for as Long as These Astros
Through scandal, roster overhauls, and managerial uncertainty, the AL West division champs just keep winning.
Sports
October 1, 2021
Houston Fans Are Done Feeling Guilty Over the 2017 Astros
Rival teams and their fans might refuse to move on, but the 2021 Astros are playoff-bound and the city deserves to take pride in its team.
Sports
October 1, 2021
St. Louis Slugger Paul Goldschmidt Is Texas Through and Through
From the Woodlands High School to a Stud First Baseman at Texas State, the MLB star made coaches ask, "What doesn't this cat do?"
Sports
September 22, 2021
Dusty Baker Gave the Astros Some Dignity. Now Can They Re-sign Him?
The veteran manager has Houston poised for another MLB playoff run, but the team appears lukewarm on retaining him after this season.
Sports
September 17, 2021
Call This Season’s Rangers the “Arlington Experiments”
The AL West cellar dwellers have used another rebuilding year to audition loads of young talent. They're not winning, but they sure are fun.
Sports
August 9, 2021
The Highest Highs and Lowest Lows: Remembering Astros Great J.R. Richard
The right-hander, the onetime most-feared pitcher in baseball whose career was cut short by a devastating stroke, died last week at 71.
Sports
July 15, 2021
Boo ’Em All You Want: These Astros Keep Winning
The sign-stealing scandal won’t stop hounding Houston, and the 55–36 Astros are responding with the only thing they can control: their play.
Sports
July 13, 2021
How Colton Cowser Became the Surprise Top-Five Pick of the MLB Draft
Sam Houston was his only Division I offer coming out of high school. Three years later, the outfielder from Cypress is headed to the Majors.
Sports
June 8, 2021
New Book Shows Astros Kept Cheating After 2018
In ‘Cheated,’ Andy Martino reports that Houston’s sign-stealing scheme continued through the 2019 MLB playoffs.
Sports
May 25, 2021
Is Texas Ready for a Third MLB Franchise?
With the league eyeing expansion, the stars could be aligning for big-league baseball to set up shop between Austin and San Antonio.
Sports
April 12, 2021
Hey, Astros: Get Ready for a Full Season of Raining Trash Cans and “Houston Asterisks” Signs
From tossing trash cans to renaming the Astros the “Houston Asterisks,” baseball fans won’t let Houston forget the 2017 cheating scandal.
Sports
April 1, 2021
Can New GM Chris Young Steer the Texas Rangers Back to the MLB Playoffs?
It's Opening Day, and the 6'10" journeyman pitcher and former Ranger has a tall task ahead of him as general manager.
Sports
March 10, 2021
The Texas Rangers Plan to Fill Their Stadium, Pandemic Be Damned
The team finished in last place in front of cardboard fans in 2020, but it’s the first in American pro sports to reopen to full capacity.
By Dan Solomon![Dan Solomon's Profile Photo]()
Sports
January 21, 2021
Nobody Mattered to the Houston Astros Quite Like George Springer Did
The All-Star outfielder is headed to Toronto, and however the team tries to replace his production on the field, they won’t be able to replace Springer’s presence.
Sports
November 2, 2020
The Houston Roots of the Mastermind Behind the L.A. Dodgers’ World Series Win
Family, high-school coaches, and former teammates recall the autograph-hunting, base-stealing baseball youth of Andrew Friedman.