The Pecan Park Eagle

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The day after their 13-1 shellacking of the Dodgers at Colt Stadium, the Colt .45s and everyone else walked into an even bigger adversary at a daylight doubleheader with the Dodgers at the same locale. This time, the Sunday sun and humidity were even more brutal than the Saturday version, sending dozens into treatment for heat prostration, taking out an umpire, and causing hot and sweat-wringing weight loss among the many listless players on the field. The Los Angeles Dodgers took both games from the Houston Colt .45s by scores of 9-3 and 9-7, but the real winners that day included everyone who came out of the furnace alive and still moving.

Here’s how the day was reported by an Associated Press story in the June 11, 1962 edition of the Corpus Christi Times:

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While Dodgers Show Class, Heat Shows Dome Vital

Houston (AP) – The Houston Colts demonstrated, unintentionally, the benefits of their proposed domed stadium while losing both ends of their first home doubleheader to the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday.

The Harris County emergency corps treated 78 people for heat prostration as 33,145 – 30,027 of them paid – fans jammed into the multi-colored temporary Colt Stadium to see the league-leading Dodgers win, 9-3 and 9-7.

JOCKO CONLON, the second base umpire, had to leave after the fourth inning of the first game because of the heat.

Don Drysdale, a 216-pounder, gave up 12 pounds of weight to the 90 degree temperature, but his six-hit performance was backed by a 17-hit Dodger assault on six Houston pitchers in the first game.

Joe Moeller jumped to a 9-1 led in the second game, but the Dodger righthander ran into a bases loaded home run by Don Buddin, Colt Shortstop, and he had to call in Ron Perranoski to preserve the victory.

Harris County is building an air-conditioned stadium with a permanent plastic dome as the home of the Colts. Excavation work is nearing completion. Fans sitting on the top row yesterday could see, across the parking area, the huge hole — 725 feet wide and 26 feet deep.

Financial problems have delayed the opening of the multipurpose structure, however, until 1964, at the earliest. Original estimates called for a $15 million (dollar) expenditure, but county officials learned last month the structure will cost more. They now are trying to determine just how much more and where the additional funds can be found. 

Several hundred fans had to be turned away yesterday as Houston had its first capacity crowd. The 30,027 paid shoved official attendance for the first 31 home dates to 502,308, a 16,203 average that is well above the 11,000 pre-season forecast of Colt owners.

Drysdale has reason to remember June 10. He won his tenth victory against three defeats. In six previous seasons with the Dodgers, the earliest Drysdale won his tenth game was on July 11, in 1959.

While Drysdale lost 12 pounds, Houston sustained an injury that could hurt.

Roman Mejias, the right fielder who has hit 16 home runs, injured his right arm while leaping for John Roseboro’s double in the eighth inning of the first game.

The 30-year old Cuban got a single in the first game to hit safely in 16 consecutive games but was held hitless by Moeller and Perranoski (in Game Two).

“I couldn’t even use the arm in the second game today,” he said.

The arm was to be examined today.

~ Corpus Christi Times, Monday, June 11, 1962, Page 17.

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June 10, 1962/Game One:

Baseball Almanac Box ScoresLos Angeles Dodgers 9, Houston Colt .45s 3
Game played on Sunday, June 10, 1962 at Colt Stadium
Los Angeles Dodgers ab   r   h rbi Wills ss 6 2 2 0 Gilliam 2b,3b 6 1 2 0 Davis W. cf 6 2 4 1 Davis T. lf 6 2 2 2 Fairly 1b,rf 6 1 4 4   Walls rf 0 0 0 0 Moon rf 1 0 0 0   Howard ph,rf 2 0 0 0   Harkness 1b 0 0 0 0 Roseboro c 3 1 2 0 Spencer 3b 2 0 0 0   Snider ph 0 0 0 1   Burright pr,2b 1 0 0 0 Drysdale p 4 0 1 1 Totals 43 9 17 9	Houston Colt .45s ab   r   h rbi Spangler lf 4 0 0 0 Amalfitano 2b 3 0 0 0   Tiefenauer p 0 0 0 0   Browne ph 1 0 0 0   Witt p 0 0 0 0 Mejias rf 4 1 1 0   Pendleton rf 0 0 0 0 Larker 1b 3 0 1 0 Warwick cf 4 0 0 0 Ranew c 4 1 2 1 Aspromonte 3b 4 1 1 2 Lillis ss 3 0 1 0 Golden p 0 0 0 0   Stone p 0 0 0 0   Giusti p 1 0 0 0   Anderson p 0 0 0 0   Goodman ph,2b 1 0 0 0 Totals 32 3 6 3
Los Angeles 0 0 3 3 2 0 0 1 0 – 9 17 1 Houston 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 – 3 6 0   Los Angeles Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO Drysdale  W (10-3) 9.0 6 3 3 1 3 Totals 9.0 6 3 3 1 3   Houston Colt .45s IP H R ER BB SO Golden  L (3-4) 2.1 6 3 3 1 2   Stone 0.0 0 0 0 2 0   Giusti 1.0 4 3 3 1 0   Anderson 2.2 4 2 2 1 0   Tiefenauer 2.0 2 1 1 1 2   Witt 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 Totals 9.0 17 9 9 6 4 E–Wills (13).  DP–Los Angeles 1.  PB–Ranew 2 (9).  2B–Los Angeles Fairly (4,off Anderson); Roseboro (6,off Tiefenauer); W Davis (5,off Witt).  3B–Los Angeles Fairly (6,off Golden).  HR–Houston Aspromonte (5,2nd inning off Drysdale 1 on, 2 out).  SH–Drysdale (2,off Anderson).  IBB–Roseboro (3,by Golden).  Team LOB–14.  HBP–Larker (4,by Drysdale).  Team–4.  SB–Fairly (1,2nd base off Golden/Ranew); Wills (34,2nd base off Anderson/Ranew).  HBP–Drysdale (4,Larker).  IBB–Golden (1,Roseboro).  U–Ken Burkhart, Chris Pelekoudas, Frank Walsh.  T–2:45.
Game played on Sunday, June 10, 1962 at Colt Stadium
Baseball Almanac Box Score |

June 10, 1962/Game Two:

Baseball Almanac Box ScoresLos Angeles Dodgers 9, Houston Colt .45s 7
Game played on Sunday, June 10, 1962 at Colt Stadium
Los Angeles Dodgers ab   r   h rbi Davis W. cf 3 2 0 0 Walls 1b 4 0 1 1   Harkness ph,1b 1 0 0 0 Davis T. lf 3 1 0 1 Howard rf 4 0 0 0   Fairly rf 1 0 0 0 Spencer ss 5 1 2 0   Roseboro c 0 0 0 0 Carey 3b 4 2 1 1 Burright 2b 2 1 0 0 Sherry c 4 1 2 4   Wills ss 0 0 0 0 Moeller p 3 1 1 0   Perranoski p 1 0 0 0 Totals 35 9 7 7	Houston Colt .45s ab   r   h rbi Spangler lf 2 0 0 1   Witt p 0 0 0 0   Giusti p 0 0 0 0   Busby ph 0 1 0 0 Goodman 2b 4 0 1 0   Amalfitano ph 1 0 1 0 Mejias rf 5 0 0 1 Browne 1b 4 1 0 0 Warwick cf 4 1 1 1 Smith c 5 0 1 0 Aspromonte 3b 3 2 1 0 Buddin ss 2 1 1 4 Woodeshick p 1 0 0 0   Pendleton ph,lf 3 1 2 0 Totals 34 7 8 7
Los Angeles 0 1 0 0 2 6 0 0 0 – 9 7 2 Houston 0 0 0 0 1 4 0 0 2 – 7 8 3   Los Angeles Dodgers IP H R ER BB SO Moeller  W (5-4) 5.2 5 5 5 4 3   Perranoski  SV (7) 3.1 3 2 1 3 1 Totals 9.0 8 7 6 7 4   Houston Colt .45s IP H R ER BB SO Woodeshick  L (2-4) 5.0 4 3 3 3 2   Witt 0.2 3 6 4 2 1   Giusti 3.1 0 0 0 0 3 Totals 9.0 7 9 7 5 6 E–Burright (7), Perranoski (1), Goodman (7), Buddin 2 (6).  DP–Los Angeles 1.  2B–Los Angeles Spencer (2,off Witt), Houston Pendleton (8,off Perranoski).  3B–Los Angeles Carey (1,off Witt), Houston Goodman (1,off Moeller).  HR–Los Angeles N Sherry (1,6th inning off Witt 2 on, 0 out), Houston Buddin (2,6th inning off Moeller 3 on, 2 out).  SF–T Davis (2,off Woodeshick); Spangler (1,off Moeller); Warwick (2,off Perranoski).  HBP–W Davis (2,by Woodeshick).  Team LOB–6.  Team–9.  SB–W Davis (14,2nd base off Witt/Smith).  WP–Moeller (8), Woodeshick (3).  HBP–Woodeshick (2,W Davis).  U–Chris Pelekoudas, Frank Walsh, Ken Burkhart.  T–3:03.  A–30,027.
Game played on Sunday, June 10, 1962 at Colt Stadium
Baseball Almanac Box Score |

Tags: first capacity Houston crowd, first Houston doubleheader, worst heat day at the ballpark

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