The National Pastime: Houston Since 1961

This issue of The National Pastime is dedicated to baseball in Houston since 1961. Each annual issue of TNP has centers on the geographic area of SABR’s national convention summer site. In 2014 the convention took place in Houston, Texas. The local chapter (named for former Houston Astro Larry Dierker) produced a coffee-table book cover HOUSTON BASEBALL up to 1961, so this issue of The National Pastime focuses on the space age and the arrival of Major League Baseball in the region.

So here we have a special issue centered almost entirely on the Houston Astros (né Colt .45s) and their two influential and iconic homes, short-lived Colt Stadium and the Astrodome.

The Houston MLB franchise has amassed more than its share of history in the five-plus decades since their launch. A well-worn adage is “everything is bigger in Texas,” and that certainly applies to the role of the Astrodome in pop culture, and to the outsize personality of team owner Roy Hofheinz, who was one part P.T. Barnum, two parts George Steinbrenner, and all Texan. If you weren’t able to attend the convention in Houston, please enjoy reading this issue of The National Pastime as your virtual trip to “Space City” in the Lone Star State will employ seventeen SABR members as your tour guides:

Contents
Introduction by Cecilia Tan
Houston’s Role in the Initiation of Sunday Night Baseball by Bill McCurdy
Movies, Bullfights, and Baseball, Too: A Sports Stadium Built for Spectacle First and Sports Second by Eric Robinson
Wooing Women Fans:The Houston Astros by Will Flaherty
The Colt .45s and the 1961 Expansion Draft by Stephen D. Boren and Eric Thompson
Dick “Turk” Farrell: Houston’s First All-Star by Ron Briley
The 1963 Pepsi Cola Colt .45s Baseball Card Set by Charles Harrison
Astros 1, Mets 0: Almost Three Games in One by John McMurray
The 1968 All-Star Game by Brendan Bingham
The Saga of J.R. Richard’s Debut: Blowing Away 15 Sticks at Candlestick by Dan VanDeMortel
From the Gashouse to the Glasshouse: Leo Durocher and the 1972–73 Houston Astros by Jimmy Keenan
There Used to Be a Big Dome by Francis Kinlaw
Houston’s Fallen Star: Don Wilson by Matthew M. Clifford
Rainout in the Astrodome by Rick Schabowski
Catching Rainbows and Calling Stars: Alan Ashby and the Houston Astros by Maxwell Kates
The Greatest Game Ever Played? October 15, 1986 by Ron Briley
The Houston Astros Hall of Stats by Adam Darowski
Astrodome Proves to Be No Hitters Park by Paul Geisler
Dome Attendance Below League Average by Paul Geisler