CHICAGO - A few of the Houston Astros sat at a table in the middle of the clubhouse, glancing up at a television every few minutes to track the progress of Hurricane Rita.

The Astros might be hundreds of miles from the powerful storm this weekend, but their minds are in Texas.

"Not being there has been pretty tough," said pitcher Brandon Backe, a native of Galveston, Texas, whose family evacuated. "But you can't really do anything about it."

Rita weakened to a Category 3 hurricane Friday before it came ashore early Saturday along the Texas-Louisiana coast. While that spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit, the wild-card leading Astros have spent the past few days worrying about their families and homes.

Many had their families fly to Chicago for the weekend series.

"I think everybody's feeling better today," said hitting coach Gary Gaetti, whose wife waited at the airport for seven hours Thursday. "But there's still a feeling of your town is getting crushed and nobody knows what's going on."

The Astros are in Chicago before going to St. Louis for two games. They are scheduled to return to Houston on Wednesday night for a four-game series with the Cubs, but that might not be possible if the Houston area or Minute Maid Park is hit hard by the storm.

"We're discussing options," manager Phil Garner said.

One option might be to move the final series to Chicago. The Cubs are scheduled to begin work on a bleacher expansion project as soon as the last homestand ends, but president Andy MacPhail said the team could make an adjustment if needed.

"It's not without some difficulty, but it has not been precluded as a possibility," said MacPhail, who has asked Major League Baseball to let him know if Wrigley Field is being considered.

In other Rita developments in the sports world:

The kickoff of the Mississippi Valley State-Jackson State University football game on Saturday has been moved to 2 p.m. in Itta Bena, Miss., because of the hurricane.

The Mississippi State-Georgia football game on Saturday will start at 7:45 p.m. and be televised on either ESPN or ESPN2. The change occurred because the LSU-Tennessee game was moved from Saturday to Monday.