Long before the apparently last pitch for the Astrodome on November 5, 2013, the first pitch for the now shaky life expectancy of the 8th Wonder came down the 60’6″ baseball game toll road on April 9, 1965. It was the first game ever played at the Astrodome and the brand new Houston newly named Astros were there to entertain the visiting New York Yankees in a pre-season exhibition contest. The right-handed Turk Farrell had taken the mound for the Astros amid the first loud indoor baseball park roar had just approached crescendo as Mickey Mantle of the Yankees stepped up to the plate, eager and ready to become the first batter in Astrodome history.
As we continue our mourning for the impending loss of Houston’s Eiffel Tower-class icon, here’s how the brilliantly descriptive, talented, and sadly-for-us, long deceased Wells Twombly described this first-Astrodome-pitch event in his April 10, 1965 column for the Houston Chronicle:
That’s it. As unsensational and ordinary and clairvoyantly symbolic it may have been for most of the Astros’ future in the Dome, it was done. The first pitch in Astrodome history had been delivered.
Happy late week adventures, everyone. If you have a favorite public or personal moment in Astrodome history, please think about sharing it with the rest of us here as a comment on this column.
Thank you,
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
November 8, 2013 at 2:05 am |
A brief, personal note — Our grandfather, Ed Peschke, played a lot
of town ball for teams such as the Hallettsville Vikings in the 1890’s.
He’d lost his vision later in life, and he loved to listen to radio broadcasts of the Houston Buffs. In 1965, while he was hospitalized,
I tried to describe baseball being played in the new Astrodome. I could sense him struggling…then he said, “I think those high flies and pop-ups will just hit the roof of that barn. What will they do?”
As one might imagine, my continuing descriptions were not
convincing enough. He’d just shake his head in disbelief and
sometimes ask for a beer to aid his imagination. God bless baseball..
November 8, 2013 at 2:23 pm |
Commissioners need to stop nonsense of tearing down the dome and come up with a plan of action that will work. 1/2 the citizens want to keep it. The dome is a symbol of achievement for Houston’s history similar to Empire State Building & Colosseum, Rome.