Minute Maid Park

Home of the Houston Astros, 2000 to present

(also known as The Ballpark at Union Station 2000, Enron Field, 2000 to 2002, and Astros Field, February 7 - June 5, 2002)

Capacity: 40,950

Dimensions: Left field - 315 feet Left-center - 362 feet Center field - 435 feet Deepest point - 436 feet Right-center - 373 feet Right field - 326 feet

Hitter or Pitcher Park?: Hitter

First Game (Exhibition): March 30, 2000 - Astros 6, New York Yankees 5

First Game (Regular Season): April 7, 2000 -Philadelphia Phillies 4, Astros 1

• Octavio Dotel (L) vs. Randy Wolf (W), Wayne Gomes (Sv); HR: Scott Rolen, Ron Gant, Richard Hidalgo

• First Hit: Doug Glanville
• First Double: Rico Brogna
• First Triple: Tim Bogar (April 8, 2000)
• First HR: Rolen (off Dotel)
• First Run: Rolen
• First RBI: Rolen

Location: Hamilton Street (US Highway 59), Texas Street, Crawford Street (LF) and Congress Street (RF), Houston, Texas

Ballpark Overview

Minute Maid Park is the home of the Houston Astros. The stadium features a retractable roof that can open or close in approximately 15 minutes. When the Astros faced the New York Yankees for the first exhibition game played here in 2000, it was the first time major league baseball was played in Houston on real grass and under the sun since 1964. The Yankees had also been the visitors when the Astrodome had opened in 1965. scandal-tainted bankruptcy in December 2001. While Enron initially said it wanted to maintain the sponsorship, circumstances soon made that untenable and the Astros were able to terminate the naming rights contract with the company a few months later. The stadium was briefly known as Astros Field until a new naming rights deal was put together with Houston-based Minute Maid in 2002. That last deal has led the stadium to be nicknamed the Juice Box, which is also a reference to how well the ball travels in the ballpark, especially in contrast to the Astrodome, which was a graveyard for power hitters.

Unique features of the stadium include the replica 25-ton, 19th-century train filled with giant oranges, and, until the end of 2016, an in-play flag pole in dead center and the 30° hill it's placed on known as "Tal's Hill" after team president Tal Smith. This was mercifully removed.

Minute Maid Park was the Astros' home for their first World Series appearance in 2005. It was also the site of the 2004 All-Star Game and the 2014 Civil Rights Game. The World Series then returned to the ballpark in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022, with the Astros winning under controversial circumstances in 2017, and clinching the championship at home in 2022.

Google Earth: View Minute Maid Park in Google Earth

Source

• Peter Filichia: Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebrations of All 273 Major League and Negro League Ballparks Past and Present, Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1993.