1993 – A trio of arbitration cases are avoided when three starters are inked to similar three-year deals. Infielders Craig Biggio and Ken Caminiti, along with outfielder Steve Finley now represent a $32 million dollar investment to go with the $36 million spent on deals for pitchers Doug Drabek and Greg Swindell – a pay-out unlikely to have happened before the recent change in ownership.
The Houston Astros sign free agent pitcher Doug Drabek to a four-year contract worth $19.5 million.
Drayton McLane, Jr. officially becomes owner of the Houston Astros, purchasing the team from John McMullen for $115 million.
1992 – Astros’ broadcaster Milo Hamilton is named the annual Ford C. Frick Award winner for major contributions to baseball. He will be honored in July at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY. Hamilton becomes the 16th announcer to win the award since it began.
1992 – Two years after it was first disclosed that Dr. John McMullen is looking to sell the Astros, he is no closer to finding a buyer. Complicating matters are a $100 million dollar bid from a Japanese group for the Seattle Mariners and McMullen’s minority stake in a horse racing track to be built outside of Houston. Another group is offering to buy the team and move it to Washington, DC. McMullen, who had earlier nixed an $86 million dollar offer for the club, says the record price for the Mariners is not too high. He cites the Denver and Miami expansion clubs, to begin play in 1993, paid $95 million dollars apiece to join.
1991 – Ken Caminiti and Charlie Hayes trade five-RBI nights from the third base spot and Al Osuna is handed a two-run lead in the bottom of the tenth, 10-8. But he can’t hold it as the Phillies score three to win it, 11-10. Rafael Ramirez has four hits in a losing effort.
1991 – The game between the Astros and Braves is delayed for five minutes when a moth becomes lodged in the ear of Houston OF Mike Simms. Astros trainer Dave Labossiere removes the insect with a pair of tweezers. The Braves record a 4 – 0 victory when the game is finally completed.
1991 – Ken Oberkfell cracks a two-run double off Dave Smith in the 11th inning for a 6-4 triumph over the Cubs. A three-run shot by Luis Gonzalez off Greg Maddux stakes Houston to an early lead but George Bell tags Jim Clancy with a homer in the ninth to send it to extra innings.
1991 – Nolan Ryan becomes the 12th pitcher in major league history to surpass 5,000 innings pitched and gets plenty of hitting help as Texas whips Baltimore, 15 – 3.
1991 – In one of the most unbalanced trades ever made in major league history, the Baltimore Orioles send pitchers Curt Schilling and Pete Harnisch and outfielder Steve Finley to the Houston Astros for first baseman Glenn Davis. Davis, who averaged 27 home runs in six seasons playing in the Astrodome with Houston, will hit only 24 homers in three injury-filled years as Schilling becomes one of the most dominant pitchers in the game and Harnisch and Finley develop into solid major league players.
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