By Historian
Editor’s note – This article originally appeared on AstrosConnection.com on September 16, 1999.
When the history of the Astrodome is retold, particularly by Astros fans, you can bet that the six no-hitters will be mentioned as well as the exciting finales to the 1980 and 1986 NLCS. Division titles will come up as will the 1968 and 1986 All-Star Games and the Dome’s inaugural on April 9, 1965. For more details on these exciting moments, I encourage you to visit the History section. My focus is on those more obscure and unusual Astrodome moments. This is a quick tour of those 35 memorable years with a few lowlights to go with the highlights:
1965 – Somebody comes up with the idea of putting a broadcaster in the gondola that hangs some 200 feet above second base. Mets play-by-play man Lindsay Nelson boldly goes where no commentator has gone before. On April 28th, Nelson, along with a producer, steps in to the gondola thirty minutes before gametime. Unfortunately for Nelson, it is a 3-1/2 hour affair typical of the two expansion rivals that becomes a 12-9 Houston win. Cameras have been put up there many times since but Nelson’s spacewalk remains the only game broadcast from directly above the action.
On May 22nd, the Dome appears for the first time on a “Game Of The Week” telecast. Chris Schenkel and Leo Durocher cover the game for ABC. Jim Wynn is in center that day and watches a ball hit up into the newly-painted ceiling. He can’t find the ball so he watches as the left fielder and right fielder both drift in toward the infield. He drifts in too without picking up the ball. Suddenly he hears a thud behind him. The ball had bounced off the fence and becomes an inside-the-park homer. The Giants coast, 10-1.
The Milwaukee Braves come to town on July 27th. They had taken fireworks on the road with them from Milwaukee to Los Angeles and San Francisco just so they could challenge the Astrodome’s Home Run Spectacular. When Joe Torre whacks a homer in the fourth, the Braves toss firecrackers from their dugout and light sparklers, holding them outside the dugout railing. Fans laugh and cheer. So did the Braves who won, 7-1.
1966 – Durocher becomes manager of the Cubs and he makes it clear he cares nothing for indoor baseball and fake grass. On August 26th, the Cubs blow a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth, losing on a grand slam by Bob Aspromonte. Leo is so mad he rips the phone off of the dugout wall and tosses it onto the field. The Astros claim that the phone is county property and Durocher must pay to have it replaced. They send a bill for $25 to Leo along with a box full of the dead, painted sod that had covered the outfield the year before. Durocher would become the Astros’ manager in 1972.
1968 – San Francisco’s Willie Mays is in town on May 6th. Judge Roy Hofheinz decides to commemorate Mays’ 37th birthday Texas-style. Before the game, two enormous brthday cakes are rolled out to home plate – a 2 and a 4 to make the famous “24”. The cake weighs 569 lbs., one for each homer in Willie’s career. The cake was made with over 3,800 eggs and 300 lbs. of flour. Rusty Staub serves the Giants a loss, plating six runs in a 10-2 rout.
1969 – Astros’ 1B Curt Blefary sets a major league mark making putouts during seven double plays as Houston nips the Giants, 3-1 on May 4th. Joe Morgan and Denis Menke take part in five twin-killings each.
During the Vietnam era, several players served stints in the Army Reserve to avoid being sent off to war. These two-week stints sometimes occured during the baseball season and the player had no choice but to leave his team and serve his country. On June 8th, Larry Dierker gets a 24-hour pass from his base in Ft. Polk, Louisiana, drives to Houston and pitches eleven innings to outduel Steve Carlton and the Cardinals, 2-1. Pvt. Dierker caps his five-hit mound performance by singling home Julio Gotay with the winning run.
1971 – Before the “Foamer”, the Astros try their hand at Nickel Beer Night, August 6th. Almost 22,000 watch San Diego top the ‘Stros, 4-3. The games ends, appropriately enough, with a Miller. Bob Miller pitches a 1-2-3 ninth to seal the victory. Afterwards, drunken patrons cascade onto the field to practice their hitting, pitching and sliding motions while others try to steal equipment from the Padres dugout.
1974 – Mike Schmidt, then a struggling second-year 3B for the Phillies, blasts a shot, on June 10th, that hits a dangling speaker above center field. Estimates had the ball hitting the big scoreboard above the outfield pavillion. Instead it bounces back into short CF where Cesar Cedeno holds Schmidt to a single. The Phils crush the Astros, 10-0.
Don Wilson authored two no-hitters in the Dome and he almost has a third. Manager Preston Gomez once had to pull Clay Kirby when the San Diego pitcher had a no-hit bid yet trailed in the game. Gomez said at the time if the situation came up again, he would do the same thing. On September 4th, Wilson tosses eight no-hit innings but trails the Reds, 2-1. With Kirby watching from the Reds’ bench, Gomez sends up Tommy Helms to pinch-hit for Wilson. Reliever Mike Cosgrove gives up a single in the ninth to ruin the no-hitter and the Reds hold on for the win. Six months later, Wilson and his daughter would be found dead in their Houston home.
1975 – On the Dome’s 10th Anniversary, April 9th, the Astros show off their new rainbow-gut uniforms and scalp the Braves, 14-2.
1976 – The Dome suffers its only rainout. Local flooding prevents fans and umpires from getting to the stadium on June 15th. The Astros and Pirates bring their clubhouse meals out onto the field and share it with the few hearty fans that make it through the downpour.
1978 – The Astros produce four amateur umpires to handle an August 25th contest against Pittsburgh when the major league umpires strike. 42-year-old Murray Strey, a superintendant at Entex, rings up Dave Parker with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to end a 7-5 Astros win. Parker admits the pitch might have been a strike.
1979 – Classic J.R. Richard. On April 10th, Richard tops the Dodgers, 2-1, striking out 13 and tossing six wild pitches. Los Angeles has a runner on third in four of the last six innings. In one such jam, J.R. fans Ron Cey, Dusty Baker and Rick Monday in order to kill the Dodger threat.
The Astros zoom to a ten-game lead on July 4th. Their first-half success is aided by Sue Laws, a shapely blonde who sings the National Anthem at home games and appears again during the seventh-inning stretch. Is it any wonder the Astros scored often in the first and seventh innings that year? Even the Phillie Phanatic is smitten, following on his knees when she leaves the field. But stars are in her eyes. Sue leaves in July to attend acting classes run by underwear model and Hollywood Square John Davidson. Her career never recovers. Serenaded by old Jerry Vale tapes, the Astros go into a tailspin and lose the N.L. West to Cincinnati.
1980 – On June 11th, J.R. Richard tosses a six-hitter to blank the Cubs, 3-0. His consecutive shutout innings streak grows to 31-1/3. “He started out throwing Alka-Seltzers and wound up throwing aspirins,” admires Chicago infielder Lenny Randle. Richard, however, complains that his arm feels tired. Richard would suffer a stroke on July 30th that ends his career. Vern Ruhle steps into the rotation and wins seven games down the stretch as Houston claims their first division title.
1981 – Nolan Ryan blanks the Mets, 3-0, on June 5th, breaking the MLB record for career walks in the process. “First of all, I’d like to thank the umpires..”, quips Ryan afterwards. His 1,776th pass tops the mark set by the late Early Wynn.
1983 – Catcher George Bjorkman has a career day on July 13th. In his third game as an Astro, the injury call-up drives in five runs to pace a 9-4 win over Montreal. His three-run shot off Bryn Smith in the seventh breaks the game open. His biggest thrill? “Catching Nolan Ryan,” replies Bjorkman.
1984 – NBC accidentally leaves the field microphone open while broadcasting a 5-3 Atlanta victory on April 28th. Astro catcher Harry Spilman argues with home plate umpire Jerry Crawford. Manager Bob Lillis and Coach Denis Menke soon get into the act and profanities fly in every direction. Announcers Bob Costas and Tony Kubek try to talk over the heated argument but the NBC switchboards are still flooded with complaints.
1985 – On the Dome’s 20th Anninversary, Ryan edges the Dodgers, 2-1, surviving a first-inning smootch from celebrity stripper Morganna. After bouncing onto the field, Morganna runs to the mound then kisses Dickie Thon on the infield. Houston police are not amused however, and arrest the buxom “Bandit” for trespassing. When her day in court arrives, she appears with famed attorney Richard “Racehorse” Haynes who argues that gravity forced Morganna onto the field after she bent over to pick up a stray baseball. The judge dismisses the charges.
1986 – Astros face the East-leading Mets for a playoff preview, July 17-20. After Houston drops the opener, Bob Knepper tosses a three-hit shutout over Ron Darling who is later arrested along with Tim Teufel, Bob Ojeda and Rick Aguilera at a Houston nightclub. Craig Reynolds is the hero the next night, blasting a ninth-inning homer for a 5-4 win. Houston caps the weekend with a thrilling 9-8 victory in 15 innings. Bill Doran beats Keith Hernandez’ throw to the plate for the game-winner. If only this had been October…
On September 23rd, rookie Jim Deshaies sets a modern-day record by striking out eight Dodgers to begin a 4-0 win. Tommy Lasorda sends pinch-hitter Larry See to the plate for pitcher Dennis Powell after the eighth K. See pops out. Two days later, Mike Scott no-hits the Giants for the team’s second NL West crown.
1988 – Ken Oberkfell breaks up Mike Scott’s no-hit bid with a single after 8-2/3rd innings on June 12th. Scott beats the Braves, 5-0, on one hit. Oberkfell would become an Astro in 1990.
1989 – Glenn Wilson breaks up Mike Scott’s no-hit bid with a single in the eighth inning on May 19th. Scott beats the Pirates, 3-0, on one hit. Wilson would become an Astro later that year. Actually, Wilson would have already been an Astro had Alan Ashby agreed to be traded to Pittsburgh. Ashby would agree to waive his five-and-ten trade veto rights only if the Pirates paid him a million dollars. The Bucs refuse. The Astros thank Ashby by waiving him, removing him and his bags from the team bus as they were preparing to begin a road trip.
The Astros and Dodgers go overtime the weekend of June 3rd. Saturday night’s 22-inning marathon ends at 2:50 a.m. when Rafael Ramirez swats emergency pitcher Jeff Hamilton’s fastball off the glove of emergency 1B Fernando Valenzuela’s glove for the game-winner. The Astros come back from six runs down the next afternoon on a grand slam by Louie Meadows and a two-out, ninth-inning homer by Craig Biggio to take the Dodgers into extras again. Mike Scott wins it in the 13th with a sacrifice fly that scores Ramirez.
1991 – The bargain-basement Astros finish a three-game sweep of the front-running Dodgers with a 10-inning, 2-1 victory on August 4th. Biggio plates Gerald Young to bring out the brooms. The Astros also pull off a 9-5-6 triple play in the fifth, their second trifecta of the season.
1993 – Over 53,000 fans welcome Nolan Ryan who, as a Texas Ranger, loses a 4-3 exhibition game to the Astros. Ironically, he pitches six innings and strikes out only one batter.
1994 – Jeff Bagwell breaks three club records on August 5th, as his monster MVP season nears its premature end. He bangs his 38th homer to top Jim Wynn’s 27-year-old record, drives in five to pass Bob Watson’s RBI mark of 110 and tallies his 71st extra-base hit to break Wynn’s mark of 69. Jeffs three hits raise his average to .370, far surpassing Rusty Staub’s club mark of .333. The crowd of over 44,000 gives Bagwell a standing O that lasts for minutes. The Astros conquer the Giants, 12-4.
1995 – Pint-sized John Cangelosi homers off Chicago’s Bryan Hickerson on June 25th in a nine-run eighth inning that completes a 19-6 rout. It’s a single-game scoring record for the Astros.
1997 – Critics cackle that a broadcaster, Larry Dierker, could manage a major league baseball team with no previous experience. They don’t know this is a man who once outpitched a Hall-of-Famer while on his day off from the Army. In his managerial debut, Dierker’s Astros beat Bobby Cox and the defending NL champion Braves, 2-1. Pat Listach drives home Brad Ausmus for the winning run while Shane Reynolds and Billy Wagner shut down Atlanta. Houston goes on to win a pennant for the first time in 11 years, then repeats the next year – each time going down in flames in the playoffs. Will the third time be the charm? We can only hope.