Astros’ World Championship Rings Revealed

The Houston Astros’ World Championship rings aren’t the gaudy, completely oversized, super monster rings of some sports championships of recent times. The Astros’ players can actually wear their new rings rather comfortably — or at least as comfortably as one can wear anything with 214 diamonds, 16 rare genuine blue sapphires and nine even rarer genuine orange sapphires.

Astros owner Jim Crane wanted the Astros first championship rings ever to be about telling the story of an incredible season rather than advancing (or winning) some great championship rings arms race.

For Crane, the most important stat about the rings (which were handed out to the Astros players, coaches and top front office personnel in an elaborate ceremony before the second home game of the season Tuesday) may just be the number of them.

It turns out the Astros will be giving out a whopping 1,332 rings to make sure everyone in the organization gets one. That’s significantly more than the 900-plus rings Crane first thought he’d need and more than the 1,100 number he told PaperCity on Monday. The ring count just kept rising to make sure everyone truly is included.

This will be the second-most rings Jostens, the jewelry company that typically produces this championship hardware, has ever made for a sports champion. Only the Chicago Cubs of 2016 topped the Astros’ immense ring count.

“One of the things we’re excited about is that the player rings and the staff rings look identical (in design),” Astros Senior VP, marketing and communications, Anita Sehgal says.

Of course, the rings won’t all sparkle quite the same. The Astros are giving out four tiers of championship rings to members of the organization, with the tiers differentiated by the type of jewels in the ring. The players and figures such as Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A.J. Hinch get the tier one rings handed out on Tuesday night.

Different tiers is pretty standard practice in the world of championship rings.

As Seghal spoke she held Hinch’s ring in her white-gloved hands. (Hey, you don’t handle these treasures with bare fingers). The glittering beauty certainly made an impression even if you happened to be 10 feet away from the hardware.

The Astros ring features the H logo in 11 custom-cut diamond baguettes set atop those rare orange sapphires that make up a star on the front of the ring. The Houston Strong mantra that represents everything Houston went through as city during this championship season is on side with the World Series trophy. The player’s name and uniform number is on the other side of the ring.

One of the cooler touches is how inside the rings, the playoff series tallies (3-1 over Boston, 4-3 over New York, 4-3 over Los Angeles) are noted. (For pictures of all the rings’ details, click through the photo gallery with this story).

Putting a Ring On It

The Astros may be given out more than 1,300 rings, but don’t expect them to start flooding the secondary market.

Everyone who gets a ring — from Jose Altuve to the ticket taker — has to sign a contract saying that they will not sell the ring to anyone but the Astros. (And if you sell it back to the club, the contract stipulated price you get for the ring is $1).

Those who get rings can pass them on to loved ones and family.

“That’s standard procedure,” says Chris Poitras, Jostens VP of professional sports. In fact, Poitras says at least the last eight World Series champions have included such a provision.