Stadium 20: Minute Maid Park and back deep in the heart of Texas.

Texucation: Like I have said before Texas State Pride lives hard.... It is the only state allowed to fly at the same level as the US flag because they were there own state.

and the only state to have had six flags over the state.

Those that don't know their history, the order is Spanish, French, Mexican, Texas, USA, Confederate, and then USA again.

The second biggest city in the state belongs to Houston... HOT and MUGGY Houston and is home to the Houston Astros. Originally they played in the Astrodome


which was ahead of its time and meant to look futuristic with the concept of the Astros. Also the term Astroturf originated with the artificial turf from the Astrodome. Baseball was played here from 1965 to 1999 until they moved to:

Stadium 20: Minute Maid Ballpark

Originally named Enron Field in 2000 (OOPS!) It has been home to the Astros since 2000 and renamed after the fall of Enron in 2002 as Minute Maid Ballpark

That train does circle the stadium when they hit a home run....

Minute Maid was one of the first in the retractable roof era as they have the same summer time issues there as they do in Miami. The problem though is that it gets very hot in there especially if you are in the upper level...Really puts a damper on you.

They have some other cool nuisances including the short short porch in left field called the crawford boxes.

And a part the juts out in Center field which is great for heckling and standing room

and you may run into this guy...Everything is bigger in Texas

Finally in CF... Tal's Hill which is actually being removed in 2016


I actually do enjoy the Hill there....

Finally the seventh inning stretch...we know there is the standard in most ballparks and no one does it better than Chicago (I'll get to that soon) but in Houston they do things differently.

They really love how the stars are big and bright!!

There are the down falls of course. No real sight lines out there and besides their nuances, Houston really is not too big on their team. Atmosphere was blase at best. Also even though they were ahead of their times in 2000...they have not kept up with it in 2015. We also know how I feel about indoor baseball. For this... Minute Maid falls to 20 on the list.

Next up: Our nation's capital!!