Buff/Busch Stadium
Home of Houston Baseball
1928-1961
“The stuff that dreams are made of.” It’s more than a closing line from “The Maltese Falcon,” a famous Humphrey Bogart film.
Baseball collectibles feed the dreams that many of entertain, but the biggest dreams hang fastest to the rarest. When it comes to rare or one-of-a-kind baseball collectibles, I have always been most interested in the Grade A “Whatever Happened” items (baseballs, bats, and gloves) that decided big games or carved out large and small chunks in baseball history. Who among us hasn’t? The Houston Astros even employ a very capable guy who serves as the Director of Authentication on any item used in an Astros game. His name is Mike Acosta and he is one of the best in the game.
Thanks to Mike Acosta, for example, large portions of the club’s history were found and preserved during the team’s 2000 move from the Astrodome to the new downtown ballpark that they first called Enron Field that would have otherwise been lost to the rats and other pillages of weather and time deep in the bowels of the world’s former “eighth wonder.” Thanks to Mike, the remaining space suits that the original 1965 ground crew wore were salvaged. Had it not been for Acosta’s eye and sensitivity to their historical value, these likely would have been left to the ruins.
Mike Acosta‘s full name is bold-faced three times to emphasize that he is most decidedly the real-deal when it comes to the tough job of ongoing authentication of game materials (including uniforms) that were used in the act of the Astros playing the game at Minute Maid Park.
Thanks, Mike Acosta (make that 4 times in bold type), the baseball fans of Houston want to thank you personally for saving what they could not rescue for themselves. We shall also remain hopeful that the Houston Astros shall continue to grow in their realization that they exist as a cornerstone institution in our city. As such, their responsibility to Houston goes way beyond the creation of an external “walk of fame” memorial trek along the ballpark sidewalks in dedication to the great players of Houston’s major league history. The Astros also should be playing a major role in the creation of a Houston Baseball Museum that recognizes all of the rich history of the game in this city since 1861 (at its documentable least) that formed the rich soil of interest that made their big league business today even possible.
One of these buffalo medallions from Buff Stadium awaits its permanent Houston home.
The big piece that is missing in today’s “put up with failure in the short-term of today for the sake of brighter moments tomorrow” is that yesterday is being largely forgotten. How many Houston fans know that this city first embraced its original “Houston Base Ball Club” in 1861, about 25 years prior to the time that we first even heard the word “football”? How many fans know that Houston won its first professional league baseball championship in 1889? How many fans remember that Hall of Fame greats like Tris Speaker, Dizzy Dean, Joe Medwick, Billy Williams, and Ron Santo all broke into the game as minor league players for the Houston Buffs? How many Houstonians know that a fellow named Bob Boyd was the first black player to break the color line with the old Houston Buffs back in May 1954?
It sure would be nice if that special Houston baseball history could be displayed and recognized at Minute Maid Park. Baseball didn’t begin with the Astros (1965) or Colt .45s (1962). It began much earlier, deep back there in the 19th century. In fact, Houston’s establishment in 1836 by a couple of brothers from New York and a slew of other new early settlers from the Northeast gives credence to the idea that our city and the sport of baseball are roughly the same age.
Home Plate
Last Season as Buff Stadium
1952 (also in secure storage and awaiting its museum home)
People need to know our history. Marvel at it. And remember it. It’s the stuff that tomorrow’s dreams are made of. And without our ongoing appreciation for the past, the future eventually distorts and disappears.
Baseball is too important to too many people to let that happen.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
August 14, 2012 at 3:43 pm |
I fully agree. Thank you, Mike and Bill, for all you’ve done in the effort to preserve Houston’s baseball history.
In a recent New York Times article, Jim Crane says he had 14 tractor trailers of “junk” hauled away from the Astros’ offices recently. I presume a lot of it truly was “junk” (I can guess entire storerooms or ungiven bobblehead and nesting dolls, for one) but I wouldn’t be surprised if a few choice momentos got hauled away too because those who don’t appreciate the past have little regard for their treasures.
August 15, 2012 at 2:52 am |
It seems that many forget the importance of history in Baseball today. That also applies to other things, but I would hope that someone will “step up” and preserve the history of Houston’s Baseball History. Many of the former MLB Stars played in Houston when Houston was the AAA Club for the St. Louis Cardinals, and then, as Houston became a Major League Club, there were numerous players who deserve permanent recognition in a Museum (Texas Sports Hall of Fame?) somewhere in the city, if not at MinuteMaid Park!
If anyone is interested, you should visit the Mo. Sports Hall of Fame located in Springfield, Mo. It is one of the finest you will see anywhere, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.!
Thanks for all of your thought provoking commentary, Bill. Hopefully, this one will be read by someone who loves Houston and baseball as much as you do, and they will get busy gathering memorabilia for a Museum in Houston!