Larry Dierker of the Houston Astros Wins 6-0!
No-Hit win over Montreal in the Astrodome!
July 9, 1976
Last night we learned from reader Stan Opdyke that the Larry Dierker 6-0 no-hitter over the Montreal Expos at the Astrodome on July 9, 1976 is now available on CD at Baseball Direct.com for $19.95. The CD covers the game broadcast, handled that day by Gene Elston, Loel Passe, and Bob Prince, the long-time Pittsburgh broadcaster who was only with Houston that single season.
The Dierker CD is new to the public, but Stan cautions that fans interested in acquiring this little gem of Astros history should not dally about the placement of their order. Opdyke says that John Miley, the producer of these items, is sometimes a little capricious about how long he makes certain pieces available and has been known to pull some things off the market for no apparent reason very early in their sales history – and with no guarantee when, if ever, they shall return. for sale. We have no profit interest in the sale of these items so please do not take this warning as your typical Internet “going out of business sale” market hustle.
Just don’t wait too long to make your purchase decision.
Here’s the purchase link to the item, if you are interested:
http://www.baseballdirect.com/broadcasts2.html#1970
Down that page, you will find the Dierker item listed as follows:
| 1976 July 9  |
Houston 6, Montreal 0. Dierker hurls no-hitter against Expos in Astrodome. (Elston, Passe, Prince) #3209 |
Simply go from there with the easy-to-follow order placement instructions.
As always. Have fun.
____________________
Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Texas
The Pecan Park Eagle 
February 1, 2017 at 3:42 pm |
As somewhat of a collector of Astros broadcasts, I’m intrigued how they got Ken Forsch’s no-hitter (1979). The Don Wilson no-hitter is also pretty rare. I’ve never seen the John Paciorek game offered either but that’s a Mets boradcast. And, for super trivia hounds, they have an Astros broadcast from 1976 where Anita Martini subbed for Bob Prince to become the first female announcing a MLB game.
From time-to-time, I make available my page of complete radio broadcasts which includes some that Gene Elston had me transcribe for him about 10 years ago:
http://www.astrosdaily.com/audio/Broadcast/broadcast.html
February 1, 2017 at 6:27 pm |
Thought I would add a few things. Bob I’m not sure how Miley acquired the Dierker no-hitter. I do know that about 10,000 of his radio broadcasts of baseball games came from the estate of Pat Rispole. Pat taped games on his reel to reel recorder in upstate New York. He began with Brooklyn Dodger broadcasts in 1957. When the Dodgers moved to LA Pat began taping Yankee broadcasts that were aired on upstate NY radio stations. The complete game broadcast of Maris’ 61st Homerun against the Red Sox has been preserved thanks to Pat. The advent of the Mets (who of course came into MLB with the Colt 45’s) in 1962 gave Pat another team he could record on his tape recorder. The complete game broadcast of the first Koufax no hitter and the Jim Bunning perfect game were recorded thanks to Pat. When the Expos came into the NL in 1969 Pat had yet another team whose radio broadcasts he could record.
Pat did not simply record games. He contacted other audiophiles around the country to record games for him. He would trade stuff from his extensive sports and non sports collection to the people who taped sports broadcasts for him. Pat died in 1979. It is possible that Pat had a contact who lived within the Astros radio network who taped the Dierker game and sent it to him in trade. Of course it’s also possible that Miley got the game by some other route
Miley does at times pull games back that he has previously made available but he doesn’t always do that. I don’t think anyone needs to be in a rush to get the CD. I have not heard the broadcast. Sometimes the audio quality of games in his collection is not good. Like Bill, I have no financial stake in any of this with either Miley or Baseball Direct. I will say though that Andy Holden at Baseball Direct is a super good guy.
Finally thanks Bob for the link. I like to listen to old baseball broadcasts and several of the games you listed I did not know we’re available. I tip my cap to you for putting them on your site so others can listen to them
February 3, 2017 at 4:58 pm |
Stan, when Gene was fired by Bill Wood after the 1986 season, he decided that the recreated games from 1981 were his property and he was going to take some other reel-to-reel tapes he wanted to make sure weren’t lost forever. Extremely few Astros games were saved in those days. Still shocking to me that nobody preserved the first game in franchise history or even a highlight from it.
Gene made a copy of the 1976 no-hitter for Dierker and he thought it got out into the public through him. Can’t say true or not.
Some games were broadcast and recorded through Armed Forces Radio which accounts for the WWII Europe-like audio quality.
At one point MLB (bless their miserly hearts) decided that they were the true owners of *all* broadcasts and shut down any collectors who attempted to profit, making Miley the exclusive MLB source. Before that, there were several great sources who sold broadcasts. I’m glad more have surfaced.
February 7, 2017 at 4:21 am |
Thanks Bob. My understanding is that the AFRTS tapes came from an audiophile who lived in the Canal Zone who traded with Pat. Got that info from a post by Liz McCleod (not 100 per cent sure of the spelling of the last name! on a website years ago.
When I was a kid growing up in Wilmington DE in the early to mid 60’s I listed to baseball games at night during the summer. I was able to pick up Colt 45 games from a radio station based in New Orleans. I was a Dodger fan and I would listen at night to as many Dodger games as I could. I was able to get every National League broadcast except for Milwaukee, LA and SF. Some of the stations were hit and miss— often I couldn’t get good reception from the Cubs on WGN or the Pirates on KDKA. KMOX with the Cardinals and the Mets on WABC usually came in clear as a bell. I didn’t have much trouble with the Colt 45s station in New Orleans or the Reds on WLW. Those were the days. I think that experience as a kid has stayed with me. If the broadcasters are good I’d rather listen to baseball than watch it on TV.
February 9, 2017 at 8:38 am |
I must make a correction. It was Dick Wagner who fired Gene, not Bill Wood. Yes, KMOX had a really strong signal and WLW could be heard driving along I-10.