Rangers-Astros Rivalry Facts That Will Blow You Away

Before I begin my Texas Rangers-Houston Astros rivalry article, I want to send my thoughts and prayers to the family of Rangers coach Hector Ortiz, who spent the past 18 years as a manager and coach. Ortiz died on Wednesday, February 28, at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix after a long battle with cancer. I also wish the Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia a speedy recovery from his recent injury and a Happy Birthday as he turned 31 on Saturday, March 2.

The Rangers-Astros rivalry goes way back. Specifically, Texas and Houston have been an outgrowth of the natural rivalry by the MLB as part of interleague play. The Rangers and Astros’ first meeting was on June 8, 2011, at The Ballpark in Arlington, with the most recent meeting held on October 23, 2023, at Minute Maid Park.

Here are ten Rangers-Astros rivalry facts that will likely blow you away.

10. The rivalry between the Rangers and Astros started before the State of Texas had a professional baseball team.

9. The Rangers and Astros didn’t regularly play each other until the early 2000s after MLB launched regular-season interleague play in 1997, which started in Arlington. This was the first time the AL and NL played each other in the regular season in the then-126-year history of MLB.

8. MLB moved to Texas in 1960 when Houston was named one of two cities to get an expansion team.

7. The Astros moved to the AL in 2013. The Astros’ move occurred to balance the leagues with three divisions of five teams each.

6. Astros founder and Astrodome mastermind Judge Roy Hofheinz reportedly hated Dallas so much that he fought for a decade to keep baseball from moving into the region, which he called “Hyphenville.”

5. Astros founder, Judge Roy Hofheinz, wanted sports played in an air-conditioned, domed stadium. As a result, The Judge worked to block MLB from adding an NL team to the DFW Metroplex, keeping baseball only in H-Town and ensuring Astros games were broadcast statewide.

4. Former Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff lobbied for over a decade to get an MLB team in the city. Vandergriff even called President Lyndon B. Johnson to persuade Judge Hofheinz, but not even the “Johnson treatment” helped the cause.

3. Former Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff’s efforts eventually worked out. The Washington Senators moved to Arlington in 1972 and became the Texas Rangers. Vandergriff threw out the first pitch in the Rangers’ first home game in Arlington on April 21, 1972.

2. Former Arlington Mayor Tom Vandergriff believed that building a ballpark and getting the Rangers to Arlington united North Texas. Before the final season at the original ballpark, Vandergriff told a reporter, “Baseball was the first time that the people of Dallas and Tarrant counties voted for the same thing at the same time.”

1. You probably know the phrase “It’s baseball time in Texas.” The phrase pertains to the homeliness of Texas. But do you happen to know its origins? If not, don’t worry. Chuck Morgan, the Voice of Globe Life Field, said in 2021 that the phrase “started out as a tribute to a good friend of his, and he remembered the Rangers Hall of Fame and one of the best baseball broadcasts he ever heard, and that was Mark Holtz. Mark used to come on the air, and when he was doing the games when I first came to Texas to be a part of the Rangers, I would listen to his broadcasts and he would say ‘It’s baseball time in Texas’ before that started. I respected Mark Holtz so much that I felt like it was something I could carry on a tradition that I felt like he did when he would come on the radio and say ‘It’s baseball time in Texas’ and I felt like it was a good thing to do in the ballpark, so we started shortly after 1997 to 1998, we started doing that, and I’m sure he would be very happy to see that that’s evolved like it has, and I think the sign that’s here at Globe Life Field is just awesome…”