This 101-year-old sewed the old Astros team's patches

Pooja Lodhia Image
Thursday, October 10, 2019
101-year-old seamstress once sewed for the 'Stros
Meet the woman that sewed the Astros' uniforms for 30 years.

Esperanza Herrera still can't understand why people are so excited to meet her.

"Right now, if I go to one of my sons' house and they have some new friends, that's the first thing they say, 'Did you know my mother sewed the patches for the Astros?' To me, it was just a job," laughed the 101-year-old.

Herrera was just 15 when she started making her own clothes.

She moved to Houston when she was 29.

Back then, the baseball team in town was called the Colt .45s, and needed women to sew on patches and make minor alterations.

"We were three seamstresses there and my boss [brought] the Astros patches for me to do it," explained Herrera. "All the other ladies, one of them got really jealous, because she didn't get no Astros patches to sew."

Herrera was responsible for all the baseball uniforms for the new team.

It was hard work, she says.

"They all have 12 or 15 outfits because they play outside, and they get wet or sweaty or it rains," said Herrera. "They get wet, they have to change."

Now, decades later, Herrera still loves to sew.

"I give thanks to God every morning because I can still get up, I can still walk, get in the shower, get dressed,"expressed Herrera.

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