When Bud Norris joined the Houston Astros in July 2009, he made his major league debut on what was then the sport’s oldest roster.
“Older than the Phillies,” he said Monday at Minute Maid Park, to which locker mate and former Philadelphia outfielder Ben Revere turned up his head.
By 2013, the Astros were baseball’s youngest team, widely perceived to be intentionally losing, and Norris was their opening-day starter. They traded him for prospects that July, but he said the four previous years were a weird way to be introduced to Major League Baseball.