Houston

The old adage tells us that the 162-game baseball season is a marathon not a sprint. One out into the first game of the season and Astros manager Bo Porter was sprinting out to argue about a botched call on a steal attempt by his second baseman, Jose Altuve. His complaints fell on deaf ears, but Porter showed his pregame excitement and enthusiasm wasn’t just for show.

Just five games into his 2012 return to the major leagues, Armando Galarraga has been designated for assignment by the struggling Houston Astros and faces an uncertain future. For Galarraga, it is the most recent in a series of setbacks that have brought on the realization that his job as a professional athlete is in jeopardy.

Recently, the Dodgers announced they would wear their Brooklyn Dodger throwback uniforms for a few home games this season. 

Other teams like the Braves, Reds and various others said they would follow suit and wear their own throwbacks during games this year too.

Some teams have great throwback uniforms, and others are terrible looking. 

Either way, they all stand out in a good or bad way from the other uniforms today.

Here is a list of the top 20 throwback jerseys in MLB history.

Houston Astros (2010 record: 76-86)

It doesn’t appear the 50th-anniversary season for the former Colt .45s will be much of a celebration.

The team played pretty well last year after dispatching longtime stars Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt, but I don’t believe there’s going to be a tremendous carry-over into the new season.

By George Campbell

Astros skipper Brad Mills faced his former team, the Boston Red Sox, for the first of three scheduled 2011 spring training games on Tuesday. Even though his team lost 3-2, he was pleased with the effort his guys put forth in the game.

“I think we’ve played very well this year. I think you saw that today,” Mills said after the game.

Before spring training started, some people had guarded optimism about this team heading into 2011. After trading away top stars Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt, they had a record above .500 and were playing pretty good baseball down the stretch. They had four rookies in their starting lineup and rotation and if these young players continued to develop, the Astros would be competitive this season.

How many of you remember how the Houston Astros did in the second half of the 2010 MLB season? I’ll give ya a minute.

Okay, time’s up! They did pretty well, finishing 40-33, and a lot of that had to do with the emergence of third baseman Chris Johnson.

Who, you ask?

Well, don’t feel bad, because you can’t even find this guy on most fantasy baseball owners' maps right now, and that’s a really good thing.

Have you ever wondered what goes through your girlfriend's mind when she stops dead in her tracks, her eyes glaze over and she goes into a trance while looking at that ring in the window?

That's what this is for men. Players like this only become freely available once a generation, and we too have paused and slipped into an alternative universe where this shiny jewel could be ours.

Fenway and Wrigley are the two most iconic baseball parks in Major League Baseball today. They are so iconic that just saying their first name, you automatically know which stadiums they are and who plays in them, unlike Minute Maid or Petco Park, which could have you guessing, even for just a second.

The Houston Astros about halfway through last season decided to enter rebuilding mode by trading both Lance Berkman and Roy Oswalt.

However, there is one more expensive piece currently on the team that could offer some quality pieces in return to help the rebuilding process, and that is Carlos Lee.