Capewood's Collections

This weekend, the Astros will be in New York, playing the Yankees in a 3-game series. The last time the Astros were in Yankees Stadium, in 2003, 6 Astros pitchers combined to pitch a no-hitter, the first time the Yankees had been no-hit in 45 years. The Houston Chronicle had a nice "where are they now" piece this morning which I thought I'd show in baseball cards.

2003 Diamond Kings Diamond Cut Collection Roy OswaltRoy only throws 2 pitches in the second inning when he has to leave due to a strained right groin. He is the only one of the 6 pitchers still with the Astros. He's won 98 games for the Astros since then against 61 losses. He's 4-8 this year with a 3.16 ERA. Of his 13 starts, 12 of them would be considered quality starts. The Astros have not been scoring runs for him (or for any of their pitchers for that matter).

2005 Topps Pete Munro
Munro came in and walked 3 in 2 2/3 innings. Although primarily a reliever in 2003, he became a starter for the Astros in 2004, going 4-7. That was his last year in MLB. I have no cards featuring Munro as an Astro and had to swipe this image from Beckett.com. According to the Chronicle the last baseball he played was in 2007 with the Chinese Professional Baseball League in 2007. Really, there is a Chinese Professional Baseball League. They play in Taiwan. According to Wikipedia, in 2008 there were 4 teams in the CPBL with an average attendance of 3,000 per game.

2003 Donruss Kirk Saarloos
Saarloos pitched 1 1/3 innings featuring a tumbling catch by Lance Berkman in short left of a ball hit by Alfonso Soriano. He has been with the A's and the Reds since then and has been in the minors since 2008, now with the Indians.

2003 Fleer Tradition Brad Lidge
This was Lidge's rookie year with the Astros. He pitched the 6th and 7th innings and got the win. He would go on to be a great closer for the Astros and the Phillies. This is another card I don't own. There are very few 2003 Brad Lidge cards.

2003 Leaf Octavio Dotel
Dotel pitched the 8th inning and became the 44th pitcher in major league history to strike out four in an inning. He left the Astros in 2004 and has pitched for the A's, Yankees, Royals, Braves, White Sox and is currently with the Pirates.

2003 Topps Billy Wagner
Wags pitched the 9th and kept the game ball. It was the first Astros no-hitter since Darryl Kile's against the Mets on 9/8/93. I'm pretty sure they haven't one since. Wagner had 44 saves for the Astros in 2003, then the Astros traded him to the Phillies. He's had 170 saves since then with the Phillies and Mets and now the Braves, but he's also had a lot of injuries.