Lone Star Series
The Lone Star Series (also known as the Silver Boot Series) is a Major League Baseball (MLB) rivalry featuring Texas' two major league franchises, the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers. It is an outgrowth of the "natural rivalry" established by MLB as part of interleague play as the Rangers are a member of the American League (AL) and the Astros were a member of the National League (NL) until . During interleague play, the winner of the six-game series was awarded the Silver Boot, a tall display of a size 15 cowboy boot cast in silver, complete with a custom, handmade spur. If each team had won three games each for a tie, the declared winner was the team that scored the most runs over the course of the series. In , the Astros joined the American League West with the Rangers and changed their rivalry from an interleague to an intradivision contest. The rivalry, which was once dormant, has become far more heated in recent seasons. From 2013 to 2022 (excluding the shortened 2020 season), 19 games were played each season. Beginning in 2023, the teams play each other 13 times a year. Background The Greater Houston and Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex (DFW) areas have been rivals in sports and other areas for many years. Differences, not related to baseball, include the weather during the summer, population, cultural, and allegiance preferences between the different regions of Texas. Both Greater Houston and DFW have humid subtropical climates; however, DFW mostly has dry winds in the summer and sometimes icy conditions in the winter, with some frost at night, compared to Greater Houston's severe relative humidity and minimal wind, except near the coast, and milder winter conditions. The Metroplex is located inland in North Texas while Houston is in the face of the Gulf of Mexico in Southeast Texas. The city of Dallas has the ninth largest population in the United States and third largest population in Texas; the city of Houston has the fourth largest population in the United States and largest population in Texas. DFW is the fourth largest metropolitan area in the United States, while the Greater Houston area is the fifth largest. History The Lone Star Series was the consequence of many things that happened to Texas in the 1950s: population shift westward from metropolitan areas on the East Coast, the space program, more modernized higher education, and the formation of the brief Continental League resulting in expansion in Major League Baseball shortly thereafter. 1962: Texas has its first major league team, the Colt .45s Prior to 1962, there were no Major League Baseball teams in Texas until the Houston Colt .45's of the National League. They played in Colt Stadium for the first three years of existence, fighting against hot and humid weather and outrageously large mosquitoes, which also had an effect on the fans. Unbelievably, they did not play a Sunday night baseball game at home until June 9, 1963, which was also the major leagues'