ASTROS Life, liberty and the pursuit of a pennant
The Fourth of July is one of those baseball benchmarks.
The Astros, who didn’t play Monday, will wake up on this July 4 with a 56-27 record, the best in baseball.
A look at some of their other notable standings on the morning of July 4:
1966
Record: 43-36. Place: Fifth in National League. Notable: In their fifth season, they were showing signs of promise. Larry Dierker had just beaten the Reds, and the Astros were just five games behind the Giants. But the good start faded in July, August and September to a 72-90 finish, eighth in the 10-team NL.
1979
Record: 51-31. Place: First in NL West. Notable: The Astros would win on July 4 to take their biggest lead of the season — 10½ games in the NL West. The Astros, led by J.R. Richard, Joe Niekro and Ken Forsch on the mound, were in first place for 110 days that season, only to see the Reds pass them. Houston would finish 1½ games out of first.
1980
Record: 44-30. Place: First in NL West. Notable: With Nolan Ryan added to the staff, the Astros won a one-game playoff with the L.A. Dodgers to take the NL West title and advance to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. In a series that saw four of five games go extra innings, the Astros fell to the Phillies in Game 5 in 10 innings.
1998
Record: 52-33. Place: First in NL Central. Notable: The Astros were one of four NL teams (Atlanta, San Diego and San Francisco) with 50 wins on July 4. Houston traded for Randy Johnson and finished with 102 wins to take the NL Central. But the Padres beat Johnson twice to take the NL Division Series 3-1. The Astros scored eight runs in the series.
2003
Record: 44-40. Place: Tied for first in NL Central. Notable: Jimy Williams’ team got hot after the Fourth and won 12 of 15 to take a four-game lead in the Central. The Astros finished a game behind the Cubs ater a four-game losing streak in late September. Jeff Bagwell finished with 39 home runs and 100 RBIs.
2005
Record: 38-42. Place: Third in NL Central. Notable: A team that was 19-32 at one point was climbing its way back by July 4. The Astros went 22-7 in July and eventually earned the NL wild card. From there, Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Roy Oswalt led the Astros to their only World Series trip.
2015
Record: 48-34. Place: First in AL West. Notable: The young Astros had a fivegame lead on the Rangers, but a loss on the Fourth started a 1-8 stretch. Despite a rough September, the Astros of Dallas Keuchel and Jose Altuve beat the Yankees in the AL wild-card game and took the Royals to Game 5 of the ALDS.