(Originally published March 24, 2026)
Opening Day is just 2 days away! I don’t mean fake opening day where the New York Yankees get to start a day early against the Giants. Thursday, March 26 marks the first pitch of the Houston Astros 2026 regular season!
Watching, listening to , or following these game is what we’ve been waiting all off-season for, and in the age of technology and streaming, you can pretty much do that anywhere, and on anything. On TV, on the radio, on your computer, on a tablet, on your phone. In your house, in your car, at work, at a kid’s birthday party, in the bathroom while your spouse wonders where you’ve been for the last half hour.
Maybe your excitement comes from watching Hunter Brown throw gas up in the zone on the Space City Home Network on MLBtv. Or hearing Robert Ford exclaim “See ya laterrrrrrrr!!!!” on 790 KBME on a Yordan Alvarez jack into the right field stands. Or maybe you just sit on the edge of your seat staring at GameDay in the MLB app, as you await details of what “In play, no out” means.
However you do it, it’s better to do it with other people. Seeing Jose Altuve hit a go ahead 2 run double by yourself is fun. Sharing that moment with other Astros fans is a celebration. Complaining about a replay review decision from New York by yourself is frustating. Complaining about it with others is therapy.
But who has 162 regular season Astros watch parties a year? The Launch Angle.
Every game this season, join your fellow Astros fans on the Launch Angle Discord server. It’s very easy, and it is free. Download Discord for your PC or your phone. Use this link to join: https://discord.gg/f6Jvrm8HV
You’ll join a server with 110+ Astros fans (many of whom you may know and recognize if you have been a frequenter of other Astros blog site(s) and gamethreads.
Every day, we live chat and post about the games as they happen. It’s fun, it’s welcoming, and every once in awhile, it’s informative!
Here is an example of how it looks and works:
If you’ve participated in gamethreads on other Astros sites before, you know how fun it can be with the right crowd, but that sometimes it can be tough to navigate or keep up with realtime if the webpage doesn’t refresh in a timely manner.
We’ve now done this for a month during Spring Training, and the consensus is that TLA Discord Server works wonderfully for live game chat.
It wasn’t just Spring Training for the players. It was Spring Training for us the Launch Angle too. In what was essentially beta testing, we averaged around 10 participants and 125 comments per game for games that didn’t count, where less than half were even televised!
| Date | Opponent | Result | TV/Radio | Participants | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/21/26 | @ WAS | L 1-2 | TV | 13 | 187 |
| 2/22/26 | STL | L 6-5 | TV | 12 | 101 |
| 2/24/26 | @ NYM | T 6-6 | TV (nym) | 9 | 156 |
| 2/25/26 | @MIA | W 4-1 | Radio only | 8 | 94 |
| 2/26/26 | NYM @STL | L 5-0 L 4-9 | Webcam Radio only | 8 | 139 |
| 2/27/26 | @WAS | T 4-4 | Webcam | 10 | 102 |
| 2/28/26 | PIT | L 5-2 | Webcam | 7 | 59 |
| 3/1/26 | @NYM | L 3-4 | TV (nym) | 11 | 149 |
| 3/2/26 | WAS | T 3-3 | Webcam | 11 | 221 |
| 3/3/26 | Venezuela | W 1-3 | TV | 11 | 214 |
| 3/4/26 | @BAL | W 4-2 | TV | 9 | 74 |
| 3/5/26 | @MIA | L 0-2 | Radio only | 11 | 192 |
| 3/6/26 | WAS | W 1-7 | Webcam | 8 | 80 |
| 3/7/26 | MIA | W 4-5 | Webcam | 7 | 69 |
| 3/8/26 | @WAS | L 1-3 | Webcam | 8 | 84 |
| 3/9/26 | STL | W 3-10 | Webcam | 13 | 148 |
| 3/10/26 | BAL | W 6-7 | TV | 13 | 199 |
| 3/11/26 | @MIA | W 4-1 | Radio only | 12 | 146 |
| 3/12/26 | WAS | L 3-2 | TV | 10 | 179 |
| 3/13/26 | @STL | L 4-5 | TV (stl) | 8 | 56 |
| 3/14/26 | NYM | W 2-8 | TV | 12 | 177 |
| 3/15/26 | MIA | W 0-1 | Webcam | 9 | 236 |
| 3/17/26 | @PIT | W 10-2 | Radio only | 10 | 74 |
| 3/18/26 | @STL | L 1-4 | TV | 6 | 54 |
| 3/19/26 | MIA (sb) NYM | W 7-6 L 2-6 | TV Webcam | 7 | 101 |
| 3/20/26 | MIA | L 4-7 | Webcam | 10 | 99 |
| 3/21/26 | @NYM | W 7-5 | TV (nym) | 9 | 53 |
| 3/22/26 | STL | L 2-3 | TV | 10 | 95 |
The TLA Discord Server is not limited to gamethreads. TLA readers discuss MLB news, Astros news, the farm system, trades and transactions, and much more.
So if you haven’t already joined, please use this link to join us, and we hope you’ll be at our Opening Day Launch Party!
Go Stros!
Feature photo courtesy Pixel Pete.
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