Astros, Rangers to travel to Dallas instead of Houston

HOUSTON -- The Houston Astros and Texas Rangers won't travel to Houston as planned after their games Sunday in California because of torrential floodwaters that have engulfed the city during Tropical Storm Harvey.


The Rangers had been scheduled to head to Houston after playing Oakland to await the start of a series with the Astros beginning Tuesday. Instead, they'll return to Dallas to await word on the status of their three-game series.


The Astros are in Anaheim and also will fly to Dallas while a decision is made on the series.


"We have been in continuous contact with the Astros and Major League Baseball regarding travel tonight and the status of this week's series," Rangers president and general manager Jon Daniels said. "We will continue to talk throughout the day to get updates on the situation."


The Rangers and Astros are the latest teams to change their travel plans because of the storm. The remnants of Tropical Storm Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the nation's fourth-largest city Sunday, and the National Weather Service forecast that some parts of Houston and its suburbs could receive as much as 50 inches of rain from the storm.


"The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before,'' the National Weather Service said in a statement.
The Houston Texans flew to Dallas after their preseason game Saturday in New Orleans instead of returning home and have said they'll stay there until conditions improve enough for them to come back to Houston.


The Texans are scheduled to host the Cowboys at NRG Stadium on Thursday, but that game could be in jeopardy with massive flooding in the city and rain continuing to fall.


The University of Houston football team went to Austin on Friday, practiced there Saturday and will resume practice Sunday on the University of Texas campus. No decision has yet to be made about the Cougars' season opener on Saturday at Texas-San Antonio, which is just about 80 miles from Austin.

I heard the Tex/Hou game will be played in Tampa Bay and St. Louis

The Houston Astros are relocating their home series this week against the Texas Rangersto Tropicana Field in Tampa, Fla. due to the flooding created in Houston by Tropical Storm Harvey - though the Astros' initial plan wasn't to play the upcoming three-game set in Florida.
Astros president Reid Ryan admitted Monday he had suggested both clubs could instead just swap their two home series remaining this season between them, but the Rangers turned down the offer, instead wanting to play host for the final six contests.
"You've got a major storm that's disrupted everything. We went to the Rangers and said hey let's switch series. You guys have our home series. We'll take your home series. They rejected that and didn't want to do that," Reid said Monday, according to Mark Berman of Fox 26 KRIV. "The Rangers wanted us to play the next three days at their place, but they did not want to trade series with us. They wanted all six of our games at their park.
"The fact that the Rangers refused to go home and home with us, we had to look at all of the options that were out there. We had to look at our players' best interest and we had to look at the integrity of the schedule."
Under Reid's proposal, the Rangers' Globe Life Park would have hosted the three games from Tuesday to Thursday, while Minute Maid Park would then host the penultimate series of the season on Sept. 25-27.
According to the Dallas News' Evan Grant, the Rangers did not want to secede their home games late in the season because they did not want to create a scheduling issue - Texas ends the season on a seven-game homestand - or inconvenience their own fans. They were, however, willing to move this week's games to a suitable alternative, to which the Astros eventually decided on the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field.

Yah....tickets are just $10 so I may bust out and go to the Thursday game