Some Major Firsts in Astros Franchise History

Opening Day, April 10, 1962
Colt Stadium, Houston
Colt .45s 11 – Cubs 2.
“It was a day of firsts.”

We couldn’t resist rummaging through our own suggestions for further research from yesterday’s column, “Forever Firsts in Houston MLB History.”

https://bill37mccurdy.com/2017/06/28/forever-firsts-in-houston-mlb-history/

We tried to simply run a table on which players, friend and foe alike, who contributed so much to the anchor game in Houston’s 55 season MLB history without going to the extreme of listing the names of those who became the first to catch or drop fly balls down either sideline in the process. Even with Retrosheet, you would need a lot more library help to go that arcane on the project, but that was never the point anyway.

Going in, we always knew that original Astros Bob Aspromonte was grabbing up a lot of the significant “game firsts” in that famous first franchise regular season game of April 10, 1962. That was confirmed rather quickly this morning. For a while, it seemed he might even have bagged them all in the first inning, if the rest of the Colt .45s could have kept that bottom of the first going. Jeez, he was busy. But so was Mr. Shantz, Senor Mejias, and a few others.

Here’s our Pecan Park Eagle Table of Big Franchise First Finds. Please still use the link to check out the play-by-play account from yesterday’s column from which all these below were gleamed. We left out a number of less notable marks by design.

The great thing about these marks is the fact that they are unbreakable. Nothing on any timeline measurable scale will ever be “earlier than earliest” – and that goes for first baseball games as much as it does for first loves. And what sweet memories they both each brew in the hour glasses of our minds:

Here’s our Pecan Park Eagle Table of Big Franchise First Finds:

FIRST	PLAYER	POSITION	INNING	OUTS	RUNNERS
PITCH	Bobby Shantz	P	T 1^st	0	0
FOE BATTER & 1^ST K	Lou Brock	CF	T 1^st	0	0
FOE HIT	Billy Williams	LF	T 1^st	2	0
FOE SINGLE	Billy Williams	LF	T 1^st	2	0
HIT	Bob Aspromonte	3B	B 1^st	0	0
SINGLE	Bob Aspromonte	3B	B 1^st	0	0

RUN	Bob Aspromonte	3B	B 1^st	0	1^st
RBI	Al Spangler	CF	B 1^st	0	1^st
TRIPLE	Al Spangler	CF	B 1^st	0	1^st
DOUBLE	Hal Smith	C	B 2^nd	0	0
STRIKE OUT	Don Buddin	SS	B 2^nd	1	2^nd
DOUBLE PLAY	Don Cardwell (B)	6-4-3	T 3^rd	0	1^st

WALK	Bob Aspromonte	3B	B 3^rd	0	0
HOME RUN	Roman Mejias	RF	B 3^rd	0	1^st & 2^nd
FIELD ERROR	Joey Amalfitano	2B	T 5^th	0	0
HIT BY PITCH	Joey Amalfitano	2B	B 6^th	0	0
SACRIFICE BUNT	Don Buddin	SS	B 6^th	0	1^st
FOE HOME RUN	Ernie Banks	1B	T 7^th	1	0

FOE RUN & RBI	Ernie Banks	1B	T 7^th	1	0
FOE DOUBLE PLAY	Hal Smith (Batter)	6-4-3	B 7^th	0	1^st & 2nd
CAUGHT STEALING	Joey Amalfitano	2B	B 7^th	2	0
FOE TRIPLE	Jim McKnight	PH	T 8^th	0	0
FOE SAC FLY	Lou Brock	CF	T 8^th	1	3^rd
STOLEN BASE	Bob Aspromonte	3B	B 8^th	2	1^st

AT GAME’S END
1^ST COMPLETE GAME	Bobby Shantz	P
1^st FRANCHISE WIN	Bobby Shantz	P

***********

Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

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One Response to “Some Major Firsts in Astros Franchise History”

Forever Firsts in Houston MLB History | The Pecan Park Eagle Says:
June 29, 2017 at 7:05 pm | Reply
[…] and other Musings of Heart and Humor « Frank Lane’s 1972 Take on Baseball Some Major Firsts in Astros Franchise History […]

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Some Major Firsts in Astros Franchise History

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