The Houston Astros are up on the launching pad and ready to blast off into their 60th anniversary season in 2022.
Throughout the 2022 season, the Astros will be wearing a commemorative “60 Years” patch on the sleeve of their jerseys and the right side of their ballcaps. The logo shows an orange shield with 60 in white within it, a blue state map of Texas, a blue ribbon containing the years 1962 and 2022, and the wordmark logos of the original 1962 Houston Colt .45s and the current 2022 Houston Astros.
“We are so excited to celebrate 60 years of Astros baseball in 2022,” said Anita Seghal, Astros Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communication, in the team’s official press release. “Our club has a rich history here in our home of Houston, and we can’t wait to celebrate and highlight all those accomplishments with our fans throughout this historic milestone season.”
LINK: Houston Astros complete logo and uniform history
The Houston Astros began life as the Houston Colt .45s, one of two expansion teams (along with the New York Mets) to join the National League in 1962. After three seasons as the Colt .45s, a trademark dispute with the Colt Firearms Company (I mean, c’mon) led the team to change their name to the Houston Astros in time for the 1965 season. Houston switched from the National League to the American League in 2013.
The Astros appear to be celebrating their anniversary the same way one would celebrate a birthday here, acknowledging that they have been around for 60 years in 2022 rather than noting their 60th season back in 2021.
The team has shifted around on how they choose to celebrate these milestone years. For example, the club “Celebrated 40 years” in 2001 but are now celebrating “60 years” in 2022, which, no, is not quite 20 years later as simple math would suggest, but instead 21 years later. Ultimately, neither method is wrong, and honestly, I prefer them to stick with the nice, clean “1962-20X2” format for milestone acknowledgements that they went to for their 50th in 2012.
As you can see from the graphic above, the Astros marked their 25th season rather than 25 years in 1986 (despite calling it their “silver anniversary”), then again in 1996 for their 35th, 2001 for their 40th, and 2006 for their 45th. They finally fixed things in 2012 with their 50th anniversary.
In addition to wearing the 60th-anniversary patch in 2022, the Astros will also be holding a series of “Flashback Friday” games, which we presume means throwback uniforms for Friday home games. A glance at the ‘Stros 2022 schedule shows their first Friday home game comes on April 22nd against my Toronto Blue Jays. Giddy Up!
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