Astrodome Postcards

I'm not sure where these postcards came from but they bring back some fond memories of great events. The top one was taken during the first game played there in April 1965. The person who wrote the blurb on the back was either not using tier glasses or looking at a different photo. Check it out:

First of all, it seems odd to mention the time the game started at all. Clock clearly shows 7:46

This sure looks like the lineup card/ground rules meeting.

 But whatever. It's a neat card.

This one is closer to my heart. It from the October, 1970 Houston Cougar football game versus Alabama. The Coogs lost with me somewhere over in the stands on the left, the student section. But the Coogs went on to an 8-3 record and a Top Twenty finish. A couple of years later I would watch games from the press level. That was fun. But the view you see right here is the one I had for years as a young alum. This was my group's favorite spot. It gave us a perfect view of Coach Bill Yeoman's veer offense.  It was up here where I also watched the basketball Game of The Century. This one brings back some great memories.

Dome Sweet Dome

I saw more games in the Dome than in any other stadium and I had a love/hate relationship with the place. When it was full and the crowd was into the game it was really a rocking atmosphere. But no place I've been to could be as dead as the Dome during a meaningless, sparsely attended game.

A week ago I attended my first meeting of the Houston Chapter of SABR. I've been a member for a few years but never bothered to go to the monthly gatherings. The chapter is named for Larry Dierker and lo and behold he attended this meeting as a guest and I was seated right there with him. He was very cordial. He signed some items that people brought (I hadn't considered doing that for some reason) and participated in the discussions.

One of the items that was passed around at the meeting was the book shown at the top. I had a copy stored away and when I saw the one last week I was reminded of how cool it is. Nearly three hundred pages long it chronicles the short history of the Houston Colts/Astros, the building of the Dome and much, much more.

There is an Astros 'yearbook' incorporated into the thing as well as sections covering the MLB teams, all the NFL teams including a whole Oilers section. This despite the fact that the Oilers were still years away from moving into the Dome. Also in the book are pages covering a wide range of tenants the Dome was hosting including the Billy Graham Crusade, University of Houston football and the Houston rodeo.

It's really a remarkable volume and I wish I could do it justice with scans of more of it but I hate taking a chance of breaking the spine. I'll settle for pics of just a few pages.

I love this feature on the various colors of the seating levels.

I should have fixed this photo but with this and the next photo you get an idea of what the Astros' section looked like.

American League teams got one page each. The NL teams got a two page spread. There is a large baseball records section in there, too.

George Blanda and the Oilers! One of the speakers at the meeting reprised a locally famous quote from Oilers' owner Bud Adams: "The Astrodome may be the 8th Wonder of the World but the ninth wonder is the rent!". It took Roy Hofheinz and Bud Adams until 1968 to agree on a deal to get pro football into the Dome.

Meanwhile the U of H was playing football there. The Cougars get a nice section in the book, nearly a dozen pages. Our big star, Warren McVea is featured.

In the photo below you can see the late Phil Hoffman in the upper right. He was UH President in my first go round as a Coog. I have a funny story that involves him, me and some drunk friends of mine, an open dorm window and a water hose hooked up to a shower. I'll need to check to see if the statue of limitations is up before I get into it though.

And finally here's a page with a nice full color picture of some of the Astros' staff. I'm glad they got rid of those 'H' caps once the season started.

This post just doesn't do the book justice in any way. What a deal it was for just a dollar in 1965. I didn't pay much more than that many years later. You can find them for $10 or less pretty easily. Waaaaaay more entertaining than a Topps Now card at the same price.

I got free cards!

Yes, they were just 2015 Topps cards but hey, free is free.Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park I took in the Orioles game here in Houston. My wife decided that she needed a shirt to display her loyalties (to the wrong team!!) and when we were leaving the Astros' team store the lady handed me four cello pack of new Topps cards. She remarked that we could have them despite my obviously being an 'enemy' fan.

I didn't get anything special in the packs but one of them did have an Oriole showing on the front.

They each contained four cards and a coupon for 50 cents off a Topps retail product. The other side of the coupon explains that it's good on pretty much any current Topps pack.

Here is what each of the packs contained:

First pack...three pitchers and an outfielder I've never heard of.

Second pack....ditto!

Third pack was better. Looks like the Giants' guy is trying to seperate himself from his better know packmates. Sometimes I suck at scanning.

A couple of semi-related notes....Lucas Duda hit 30 homers last year. That's really good for a catcher. I knew nothing about the guy which shows you the difference between the Yankees and Mets. The Nats had about four guys in Spring Training that were sporting that 'bushy bearded Jayson Werth' look. I witnessed three occasions when a fan mistook one of those guys for him. 

Look, an Orioles hot pack! Three pitchers and Manny Machado.

After watching the Orioles meekly fold up and crawl away for three straight nights here in Houston I'm ready to declare the 2015 version of my team to be dead in the water.

But I had fun at the ballpark anyway. One night with an old college friend whose son was once an Orioles prospect, one game with my wife and a third with my sons and a couple other old friends. Good times, bad games. Oh, and free cards.

Astrodome Replica

I had many, many great times in Houston's Astrodome. I saw more baseball there than I could possibly recall, lots of Houston Oiler and Houston Cougar football (I sold beer at Oiler games!), and some basketball including Final Four contests, an NBA versus ABA All Star Game and of course, the Game of the Century between UH and UCLA.

I saw concerts, rodeos, boxing, Oiler Pep rallies, movie shoots (a Bad News Bears extra) and all kinds of other events.

Last Saturday the Astros gave away mini-Astrodome replicas to fans entering Minute Maid Park for the game versus the Angels. I was out of town but my son took his fiance and I was the lucky recipient of one of the Domes.

The 'Dome" is pretty detailed as you can see. The 'roof' lifts off to reveal the seating and playing field. They even included the gigantic a/c cooling tower which is just to the right of the entrance ramps behind center field.

We rarely get to games early enough to pick these giveaway items up. They go fast thanks to large family groups that buy the cheapest tickets and grab them and then don't stay for the game. Invariably I'll see a 'family' of 8 or 10, all carrying bobblehead boxes, heading away from the ballpark as we arrive to park for the game. And yes, just as I figured, I'm seeing these things on eBay at prices from $50 to $75. That's just the way the world turns now I suppose.

My Kind of Town (Chicago Is)

I've been to Chicago before but not during baseball season so our vacation last week gave us the chance to visit the 'Friendly Confines' and take in a game. The fact that the Astros were in town was just a happy coincidence enjoyed by my Houston-born sons. 

This is a bit off my usual style of post but I'm going to show a few pics from our stay in the Windy City. First stop out of Midway was a great little family-owned hot dog stand in the shadows of Comiskey Park U.S. Cellular Field.

On Sunday our little group took the 'L' to the Addison St. station and watched the Astros put on one of the worst exhibitions of baseball I've seen since my tee-ball coaching days. Below are my twin boys, Brooks Robinson Andrews and James Palmer Andrews (who came in from Lincoln, NE for the fun). 

Brooks' better half Ashley was making her second trip to Wrigley. They had visited last July.

Here is the merry band of Astro fans in our seats in Section 216. Just out of sight are an Orioles fan husband/wife pairing that were sitting in the row in front of us, a lone Oriole cap-wearing fan in the next section and a couple of O's fans sitting a few rows in front of us that we noticed when the crowd thinned late in the game. Sadly the Orioles were getting crushed by the Jays that afternoon so my family had little to cheer about. But we had a great time anyway.

Pregame panorama. I learned how to take those about 10 seconds prior to this attempt.

I loved seeing the rooftop bleachers. They were packed. And it was a beautiful day.

Joe Torre (that's him leaning on the rail) traversed the catwalk behind the suites just above us several times. Every time I saw him it was too late for a good picture. 

We stayed to the bitter end of the Cubs' stomping of the bumbling 'Stros. You really can't leave until they sing that song and raise the "W" flag above the scoreboard.

So much for the travelog. Here is my only souvenir, the game program. Pretty routine as far as programs go. The usual selected player blurbs, previews of opponents coming in on the current homestand and lots of ads.

But contained in the centerfold was a good old fashioned heavy stock scorecard. What was really cool was that the 30-something (and very attractive) gal in front of us was keeping score on hers! I haven't seen anyone keeping score at a ballgame in ages. 

We were in town when Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals was going on at the United Center but we were at a wedding and had to track the game on smartphones during the reception. It was really fun to see the city decked out in Hawks flags. They were all over the place downtown.

We've seen the Blackhawks at the United Center (a great experience!) and when I was growing up the Bruins were my Rangers' major rival (always fighting for 5th/6th places behind the playoff bound Hawks, Wings, Leafs and Habs). Somewhere along the line that animosity seemed to fade a bit but it never left me so, given all that, I was pulling hard for Chicago. I sprung for the $5 to be able to watch the big 6th Game on Monday night's flight out of Midway. Lots of fun. Here is my only card of a current Blackhawk. 

El Presidente!!!

If you happen to be my boss and you are reading this I want you to know that I actually was sick Thursday. I did not skip work to go to Minute Maid Park for the third game of the Orioles-Astros series. Stop reading now, thanks. 

OK, with that out of the way, I'll let everyone else know that I got to Minute Maid Thursday about when the gates opened. I can't recall being that early to a game before. I got there with the hopes of connecting with one of my very favorite Orioles, Dennis Martinez. He is the bullpen coach for the Astros this season. I went to the first two games of the Orioles-Astros series with my wife and I couldn't ask her to get to the game that early. I figured I was lucky that she went at all.
When I got into the park on Thursday I watched a couple of Orioles playing long toss and made my way out to the Astros' bullpen area in rightfield. I figured that Denny would make his way out there at some point and sure enough, about 45 minutes before game time a lone uniformed figure appeared in the home dugout and began walking out towards me.
It was indeed Martinez and he he came my way and told me to hang on as he dropped off his gear. He signed my card as I requested and we talked for a couple of minutes about Houston, my 'Angry Bird' cap (he asked me where I got it) and his second major league appearance, a game late in 1976 that I saw in person at Yankee Stadium. He pitched 6 or so innings in long relief and gave way to Tippy Martinez in extra innings. The O's eventually won.

I'm not much of an autograph collector but I was pretty stoked to get a chance to get a card signed by a favorite player from back in the Orioles heyday and even better, getting to kibbitz a bit with him. He's always been gracious in the times I've seen him at the park and he hasn't changed it appears.
The day was made even better with an solid 3-1 win for the Orioles as J.J. Hardy picked up four hits and four O's pitchers combined to hold the 'Stros in check. Quite a change from the night before when Freddy Garcia and Steve Johnson threw a batting practice session and the Astros hit six dingers.
Oh, here's my cap.

An AJ Clinic

Only thing better than an Orioles win is seeing it in person. First of three Orioles games in Minute Maid versus the Astros tonite and it resulted in me going home happy with a 4-1 win. The rest of my family, not so happy.

Adam Jones made two spectacular catches racing on to Tal's Hill in dead center and those won the game. Catch the hilites if you can. One down, two to go (to). I love the Astros in the AL. Gonna see three Oriole games a year just a 15 minute ride rom my house.

1969 Don Sutton

Another from my late '60s pile of 'cards that I wish I'd taken better care of'. This is my favorite Don Sutton card, the one I see when I here his name. I saw a lot of him in the time he was here with the Astros in the early 80's. Seems like it was a longer stretch than under two seasons but that's how minds play tricks on ya.

Anyway he finished the '82 season with Milwaukee and pitched in the last game of the season at Memorial Stadium against the Orioles. My Birds had taken three straight from the Brewers to catch the in the standings as the season was ending. It was a crazy weekend.

Matched up against Jim Palmer Sutton broke all of out hearts with a dominating 10-2 win in what at the time was Earl Weaver's 'good-bye' to Baltimore. Video of the games aftermath is in this post.

Sutton retired after a brief return to the Dodgers in 1988 with a record of 324-256. Hard to believe a guy could win that many games games and only win 20 once.

1992 Coca Cola Nolan Ryan

I think I got this card through Nacho Grande's group break, but I wouldn't swear to it. I was never a fan of the various versions of the Astros' rainbow duds, but that's a pretty sweet jacket that Nolan is rockin'.

The back of the card is dedicated to Ryan's 1987 season. He went 8-16 for a rather mediocre club. But, as the write-up states, he was the the first (only) pitcher to lead his league in Ks and ERA and not win the Cy Young.

I've probably mentioned previously that my wife and I attended Ryan's Houston Astro debut in 1980. Heck of a lot of hype. And Nolan responded with, not a win although he pitched well, but a home run! It was his first ever homer and one of only two in his career. And he hit it off Don Sutton! I remember watching in disbelief as it went over the left field wall.

The game lasted 17 innings with the Dodgers winning, 5-4. My wife and I were not there at the end. We had plans to go to Gilley's Club that evening to see a John Conlee show. He was (and still is) a favorite of ours.

We were sitting at one of those 'picnic-style' tables near the front waiting for the show to start. Then a guy came up and asked us if we'd mind sharing our table with Kenny Stabler (he was the Oilers qb back then) and his group. Hell, why not?!?! And so he sat down with a couple of other people and introduced himself and said thanks for letting them sit there.

He bought a couple of rounds of beer as I recall and had a guy fending off autograph requests while the live show was going on. He signed during the break and he signed an Astros cap my wife was wearing and a Gilley's bumper sticker I dug up. We felt like big shots. LOL

All in all, a very cool day. One I won't forget, that's for sure.