TEMPLE, Texas — There may be no bigger fan of the Houston Astros than the man that was in charge of them for nearly two decades.
"In those 19 years I think I went to over 3,000 baseball games that the Astros were a part of," Drayton McLane Jr. said. "The interesting thing is, before I bought the team, I hadn't been to more than three major league games in my life."
The McLane family purchased the team in 1993 and owned the Astros until 2011. In that time he realized that even though he owned the team, the team didn't ever really belong to him.
"One of the things I had to learn, I bought the Houston Astros, but the public thinks the team belongs to them and I accepted that concept," he said. "The team belongs to the fans, the people of Houston, the people of Texas. So, we all feel like the team belongs to us and that these star players are our next door neighbors."
The highlight of McLane's tenure as owner was leading the Astros to their first World Series appearance in 2005, a series they lost to the Chicago White Sox.
"We really wanted to get the Astros to play better, be champions and to have great great players," McLane said. "That's why we pushed so hard for stars like Roy Oswalt, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio."
He also said that having great players makes a baseball team. Part of that is drafting good players, which the team did when they drafted two of its current stars, Jose Altuve and George Springer.
"The two biggest stars were players that we drafted," McLane said. "Altuve, who we drafted, lived in Venezuela and we drafted him in the International Draft in 2011 and Springer, we drafted him from the University of Connecticut. They've both proven to be absolute superstars."
Like so many people Tuesday night, McLane said he was glued to his television for Game 1 of the World Series against the upstart Washington Nationals.
"Well, I have to admit, I'm cheering for the Astros so when they got behind the latter innings last night, your heart sunk a little bit."
Ahead of Game 2 McLane expects a good game with Justin Verlander on the mound for Houston and Stephen Strausburg for Washington.
"Both the starters tonight are possibly the best starting pitchers in all of baseball," McLane said. "It'll be really interesting to see them go against each other tonight."
He said it depends on which offenses show up for each team, citing Tuesday night's barrage that lit up the scoreboard. While he isn't sure who wins Wednesday, his faith in the Astros is high.
"I think the Astros will win," McLane said. "The Astros have a stronger offensive team and they have some of the strongest hitters in baseball."
Game 2 of the World Series is Wednesday at Minute Maid Park in Houston. First pitch is scheduled for 7:08PM.
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