Jerome Solomon writes the Ultimate Astros blog for the Houston Chronicle. And he gives a big thumbs-down to any proposed Houston Astros name change:

Astroworld is gone, the Astrodomain is now Reliant Park, and the Astrodome is a blight on the city skyline.

But the Astros are Houston’s team, and despite what idiot politicians who didn’t grant us a space shuttle say, Houston is Space City. You may have purchased the franchise, but Astros is the name that belongs to the baseball team in Space City.

From Aspromonte, Watson, Dierker and Wynn to Cedeno, Cruz, Richard and Ryan to Bagwell, Biggio, Berkman and Oswalt, MLB stars in Houston have been Astros.

Solomon’s argues that new owner Jim Crane should “change the names on the back of the jerseys” instead of the name on the front; he’s got a point, especially coming off the worst season in Houston major league history, a 106-loss season for the Astros, the first 100-loss year in franchise history.

A poll attached to the post has, at this writing, 18% support for a name change, but also a 38% vote for “change the name and the uniforms”. The Astros have changed uniforms six times since becoming “Astros” in 1965.

So it would appear this is still an open question, even among Astros fans.