ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Texas Rangers manager Jeff Banister still has vivid memories of Ike, Allison and Alicia. He lived through a lot of hurricanes while growing up in the Houston area. Their devastation left a mark, and it only makes seeing the images of Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath that much tougher.

"That’s my community. I grew up in that area," said Banister, who moved to La Marque, Texas, in 1970 at the age of 6 and later attended the University of Houston.

“I’d much rather be there trying to help people out. I still have family there. I watch all of the footage of the people carrying kids, rescuing kids and the elderly, dire situations. Having spent [most of my life] going through hurricanes, cleaning up and digging out and rebuilding, I have some idea of what everyone’s going through.”

His earliest hurricane memories? In junior high, a storm knocked out the family’s power for more than a week. He doesn’t remember the name, but the aftermath is forever etched in his mind.

“The only reprieve was we would take turns going out and sleeping in the car with the car on ... just so you could get a couple of hours of sleep in some form of AC,” Banister told ESPN.com.

“Back then as a kid, you didn’t know you were supposed to be scared, but you knew what happened in the days after and just the aftermath -- it’s brutal. No electricity, it’s digging out, it’s cutting trees, it’s rebuilding what you lost.”

In 2008, he rode out Hurricane Ike in League City, Texas, with his wife, Karen; his children, Alexandra and Jacob; and his sister Carey’s family and their mother, Verda.

“My mother had a house on Tiki Island, which is just off of Galveston. They had 14 feet of water, and by the time we were able to get there, we spent five days digging mud, just shoveling mud,” Banister said. “There were houses that were leveled. There were houses that were three-quarters destroyed. We went through five days of standing in line waiting for water and crackers because we had nothing else.”

It’s those experiences that make him not only wish he was back in Texas helping, but bring a hint of guilt and make playing a game feel somewhat trivial.

“There is a guilt side of it and not being able to help out,” Banister said. “Especially in the community that I was really embedded in and grew up and taught me and raised me into who I think I am today; that part of it hurts.”

But he also believes in the power of two Texas teams playing one another -- even if this series with the Astros isn’t being played in Houston or Arlington -- and what it can do for those suffering.

“I told our guys, ‘Look, I hope we can go out and play three of the best games we’ve played all year long and the Astros can go out and play three of the best games they’ve played all year long and that gives a distraction to people who are hurting. If it gives them a distraction of what is going on right now, they deserve it.”

He’ll be reminded of that every time he glances behind home plate at Tropicana Field here and sees a sign encouraging fans watching on TV to donate to the American Red Cross.

There’s another sign next to it that reads, “Hurricane Harvey Relief #ForHouston.”

“We represent everybody that is a fan inside that state. ... Where you’re from, where you grew up, there should be a sense of pride -- those are the people who raised you, who helped shape who you are,” Bannister said.