Texas sports teams’ plans are upended by hurricane

HOUSTON » The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers won’t travel to Houston as planned after their games Aug. 27 in California because of torrential floodwaters that have engulfed the city in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

The Rangers had been scheduled to head to Houston after playing Oakland to await the start of a three-game series with the Astros beginning Aug. 29. Instead, they’ll return to Dallas to await word on its status. The Astros are in Anaheim and also will fly to Dallas while a decision is made on when and where the series will be played.

“We have been in continuous contact with the Astros and Major League Baseball regarding travel tonight and the status of this week’s series,” Rangers president and general manager Jon Daniels said. “We will continue to talk throughout the day to get updates on the situation.”

Astros manager A.J. Hinch said the team was in a holding pattern.

“We’re going to fly to Dallas and really just sit there and wait to see what happens,” he said before Houston’s game against the Angels. “Really, I think everything is up in the air. We might get to Houston sometime in the next couple of days and play. We might not, so I don’t know what’s possible.”

MLB spokesman Michael Teevan said officials who handle scheduling are communicating with the teams and monitoring the situation.

While Hinch knows there is interest in when and where the Astros will play, he was quick to point out that they’re far more worried about what the storm has done to Houston than anything related to baseball.

“The most important thing is (that) baseball is secondary right now,” he said. “Our schedule, our flight times, where we’re going to be, the buses, like all that stuff is meaningless compared to what everybody is suffering through.”

Texas manager Jeff Banister echoed Hinch’s sentiments.

“The best thing for all of us is to allow them to survive through this, understanding that when all this water recedes and it’s gone, there’s still a monumental challenge for all of them, the cleanup and kind to assess where they’re at,” he said. “This is not a situation where we put baseball in front of what’s important for these people. So for us to have to defer and go somewhere else, it’s no issue for us.”

Some have suggested that this week’s series with the Rangers could be moved to Arlington. If it is, it wouldn’t be the first time home games in Houston have been moved to another park because of a hurricane.