It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been 11 years since Jose Altuve made his debut for the Houston Astros.
On this date back in 2011, Altuve made his debut against the Washington Nationals.
In the bottom of the ninth inning with the game tied at two, Altuve picked up his first career hit.
It was just the first of many big hits.
Since then, he’s climbed the Astros ranks in team history.
He’s top five in average, at-bats, plate appearances, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, stolen bases, expected batting average, and offensive WAR.
Astros insider Michael Schwab tweeted a video of Altuve’s first big-league hit.
11 years ago today, Jose Altuve made his MLB debut.
In team history, he's top 5 in AVG, ABs, PA, runs, hits, doubles, home runs, SB, xBA, and Offensive WAR pic.twitter.com/eDSK8R4xVp
— Michael Schwab (@michaelschwab13) July 20, 2022
The First Of Many
It’s hard to believe that Altuve has already been up for this long.
He looked so young back then.
Little did we know he would turn out to be an Astros great.
Even weirder is the fact that the Astros were still in the National League at the time.
It was their penultimate year in the NL Central and they were mired in last place.
This was before the rebuild ever began and they became a winning organization.
This was before Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and so many others came around.
It was just the beginning.
But Altuve’s first hit helped usher in a new era of Astros baseball, one that included winning and going deep into the postseason.
Since then, Altuve has been the centerpiece for this Astros ballclub.
They’ve built around him and he has helped take them to the World Series three times and capture a title in 2017.
The times are changing, but Altuve is still the man in Houston and is leading them to yet another successful season.
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