100 Things Astros Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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100 Things Astros Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781633194892 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Triumph Books |
| Publication date: | 04/01/2016 |
| Series: | 100 Things...Fans Should Know Series |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
100 Things Astros Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die
By Brian McTaggart
Triumph Books LLC
Copyright © 2016 Brian McTaggartAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-63319-489-2
CHAPTER 1
The Judge
He's one of the most important historical figures in the history of Houston and one of the men responsible for bringing Major League Baseball to Houston. Roy Hofheinz, known as "the Judge," left an unforgettable imprint on the city's political and sports landscape. He graduated from the University of Houston law school at 19, was a member of the Texas Legislature at 22, and served as a Harris County judge at 24. Hofheinz later became a popular and, at times, controversial young mayor to a city on the rise during a colorful tenure, in which he helped Houston thrive and become a progressive community, while also having a profound, positive impact on civil rights.
Perhaps his biggest contribution to the city of Houston was the acquisition of the first National League franchise in the southern United States. Hofheinz, his partner R.E. "Bob" Smith, and several other influential figures brought big league baseball to Houston and laid out plans for what would soon become the Astrodome. Known as the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the first air-conditioned domed stadium changed the way sports was played and viewed across the country.
He was a master salesman, an impeccable leader, and terrific orator and wasn't afraid to take risks. He went against the grain. Without the gumption of Hofheinz, the Astros and the Astrodome may have never existed. Baseball in Houston would have looked dramatically different without Hofheinz's can-do spirit and remarkable vision. "He was just a dynamic, exciting individual that could really captivate an audience," said longtime Astros executive Tal Smith, who was hired by Hofheinz as a staffer in helping to build the Astrodome. "He's the best orator I've ever heard. His presentations were just outstanding."
Hofheinz was born on April 10, 1912, in modest means in Beaumont, Texas. In You Be the Judge by Hofheinz's daughter, Dene Hofheinz Anton, she detailed her father's first money-making project, which entailed setting up a soda pop stand. After serving two terms as Houston's mayor in the 1950s, Judge Hofheinz was lured to join the Houston Sports Association (HSA) by R.E. Smith, who made millions in Texas' booming oil business. The HSA was formed in 1957 by prominent businessmen and lifelong baseball fans George Kirksey, William Kirkland, and Craig Cullinan to help bring a baseball team to Houston, and Hofheinz became a key player because of his political clout and ability to get things done. Kirksey and Cullinan helped organize the Continental League, which eventually led to Houston being awarded a National League expansion franchise in 1960.
With the Astrodome being built for $35 million, the Colt .45s of the National League played their first game on April 10, 1962, the date of the Judge's 50th birthday. There was no better way to blow out the candles than by watching Houston beat the Chicago Cubs 11–2 on that day at Colt Stadium, the makeshift facility in the parking lot of what would become the Astrodome. The Astrodome opened to much fanfare in 1965, and the Astros were born. Hofheinz continued to be the Astrodome's biggest promoter and was one of the key members in the introduction of an artificial playing surface in the Astrodome now referred to as Astroturf. During his time as owner of the Astros, his vision created an excitement for baseball in Houston that laid the foundation for the great success of the franchise.
Former Astros pitcher Larry Dierker said Hofheinz was so convincingly persuasive that around 1968, when the team couldn't get a sponsor for its pregame radio show, he talked players into doing the interviews for free, even though players on other teams were getting paid for similar interviews. "They told us we were going to do the interviews, and there weren't going to be any gifts," Dierker said. "Obviously, it created quite a stir. The next day Judge Hofheinz went into the clubhouse and held a meeting with the players and delivered a speech and laid out the opportunities we had as young men to be stars in the community and to build upon that for our baseball careers and future careers and how much it would mean to us having all this good publicity. By the time he got done talking, guys were lined up to go on the show. That was the Judge."
Ever the showman Judge Hofheinz developed Astroworld, an amusement park that was built across the freeway; purchased the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus; and developed four hotels in the area as part of his Astrodomain project. Hofheinz suffered a stroke in 1970 that confined him to a wheelchair. Five years later with the Astrodomain in debt, control of the team was passed to two credit companies, and Hofheinz sold his remaining stock. He died of a heart attack on November 22, 1982, but left a magnificent, inimitable legacy.
CHAPTER 2Craig Biggio
He ran out every ground ball, whether it was the first day of spring training or the first game of the World Series. It didn't matter to Craig Biggio. If he had a chance to put on an Astros uniform and play baseball, he was going to give it his all. For 20 years Biggio, with his boyish good looks, filthy batting helmet, and dirty uniform, weaved his way into the hearts of Astros fans, as well as the record books. He retired in 2007, as perhaps the greatest Astro of them all, with 3,060 hits — including more doubles than any other right-handed hitter in history — and eventually a plaque on the wall in the Baseball Hall of Fame. "What a gamer," former Astros manager Art Howe said. "He made my job easy for five years, that's for sure."
Biggio grew up in blue-collar Long Island, New York, as an undersized two-sport star — football and baseball — in a family of air traffic controllers. Biggio had other plans. He quickly separated himself from his peers with his athletic prowess, earning a scholarship to Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He soon put himself on the radar of major league scouts, and Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, who was serving as an Astros coach at the time, went to scout the promising young catcher in person.
The Astros drafted Biggio in the first round in 1987, and he was in the majors a year later, taking over as starting catcher for Alan Ashby. He quickly blossomed into an All-Star before being moved to second base in 1992. There he became a superstar. He was among the best players in the game in the mid-to-late 1990s and helped the Astros win four division titles in a five-year span (1997–99, 2001). He and longtime teammate Jeff Bagwell became franchise cornerstones and eventually reached the World Series together in 2005, Bagwell's final year. "I was an East Coast kid and all I ever wanted to do was get to the World Series," Biggio said. "Hopefully the team that drafted me was the team that we were going to get there with."
Biggio moved to the outfield for two years when the Astros signed Jeff Kent. He returned to second base in 2005 and played the final three seasons of his career at the position. Biggio wound up hitting 291 home runs with 1,175 RBIs, 414 stolen bases, and a .281 average. "Craig's never going to talk that much about it, and you can talk about his athleticism and talk about his skills and all that stuff, but you don't become what Craig became if you're just not driven and you just don't have a lot more qualities about yourself that don't show up in the box score," said Bill Doran, who helped Biggio learn second base and was ultimately unseated at the position by Biggio. "He had all those intangibles."
Biggio became the 27th player in major league history to reach the 3,000-hit plateau after he hit a seventh-inning single against Colorado Rockies pitcher Aaron Cook on June 28, 2007, at Minute Maid Park. A hustling Biggio was thrown out at second base trying to stretch the historic hit into a double. Biggio's No. 7 was retired by the Astros in 2008. He received the ultimate honor on July 26, 2015, when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, becoming the first player to be enshrined with an Astros cap on his plaque. His impact on baseball was secure, but his impact on those who played with him was bigger. "More than anything it was an attitude," said former Astros shortstop Adam Everett. "It was an attitude of how to come to work every day and how to play the game. You can tell kids all the time, 'Hey, play the game hard,' but until you see a guy literally run until his last game he played, and he hits a pop up and runs it out under 4.5 [seconds] and he tries to stretch a single into a double for his 3,000th, that was Biggio. That was the way he played."
Former Astros general manager Gerry Hunsicker, who was the assistant general manager of the New York Mets before coming to Houston, said Biggio never got the national recognition he deserved. He said if Biggio was playing in New York, Boston, or Chicago, he would have been on billboards. But he didn't need the spotlight. Biggio embraced Houston, raised a family there, and was a pillar in the community. He helped raise millions for the Sunshine Kids organization that supports kids with cancer. Biggio wore a yellow sun pin on his batting practice cap throughout his career and was as proud of the work he did for kids as he was any of his on-field achievements. "Craig was a once-in-a-lifetime player. He was a manager's dream in the sense you just pencil his name in the lineup every day," Hunsicker said. "He brought his A game every day. He gave everything he had to win day in and day out. It's no coincidence that the greatest stretch in franchise history was with Biggio."
CHAPTER 3The Astrodome: The Eighth Wonder of the World
When the Astrodome opened on April 9, 1965, its historical significance wasn't lost on anybody who was in the building that night. The vision of Judge Roy Hofheinz, the magnificent Astrodome — the "Eighth Wonder of the World" — ushered in a new era in the way sports would be watched forever. It had air-conditioning, a roof, and cushioned seats. And when the New York Yankees came to Houston for an exhibition game against the newly named Astros, 47,876 fans — including President Lyndon B. Johnson — were on hand to witness history. Even the players couldn't help being nervous.
Astros catcher Ron Brand was behind the plate when Yankees great Mickey Mantle led off the game in the top of the first inning. The Hall of Fame had asked Brand to ask Mantle to take the first pitch so the ball could be sent to Cooperstown. "So he came up and I politely said, 'Mickey, they want you to take the first pitch,'" Brand said. "Mantle said, 'Okay,' and he smoothed the dirt. He said, 'Shoot, I'm too nervous to swing anyway.'" Mantle led off with a single and homered in the sixth. He's credited with the first home run in the $35 million Astrodome, though Bob Aspromonte of the Astros hit the first regular-season home run by an Astros player in the Dome. "When you circle the bases and have 50,000 people in the stadium, it was a long-lasting feeling," Aspromonte said.
Hofheinz, his partner R.E. "Bob" Smith, and several other influential figures brought big league baseball to Houston and laid out plans for the Astrodome. Hofheinz presented the idea of the stadium to the National League owners in 1960, around the same time Houston was awarded a National League franchise. During the January 3, 1962, groundbreaking, members of the Harris County Commissioners and Houston Sports Association simultaneously fired Colt .45 pistols into the dirt.
Hofheinz, a political leader in Houston, was inspired to design the Astrodome after a trip to see the Colosseum in Rome. It was Dene Hofheinz, the Judge's daughter, who one day asked her daddy if it would be possible to play baseball indoors while they were driving home from a minor league Houston Buffs game that had been rained out. "He didn't say anything right at first," she said. "When he got really quiet, I thought, Oh no, I'm in trouble. Then a little bit down the road, he said, 'What have you been doing, little doll? Have you been taking my smart pills?' I didn't understand fully that was a compliment."
The franchise began as the Colt .45s for its first three years (1962–64) and played in Colt Stadium, a makeshift ballpark in the parking lot of what would become the Astrodome. The oppressive heat and humidity and pesky mosquitoes that made watching games at Colt Stadium sometimes unbearable were a thing of the past with the Astrodome. Judge Hofheinz was very involved in the design of every inch of the Astrodome — from the color of the seats to the length of the dugouts, which were extended longer than any others so more seats could be marketed as premium. On the seventh floor was Hofheinz's apartment, which included a billiard parlor, six-hole miniature golf course, barbershop, beauty parlor, shooting gallery, lap pool, and bowling alley.
The Astrodome wasn't without its issues. The 4,596 skylights in the roof that provided natural light also made it difficult for fielders to catch pop-ups because of glare. When the skylights were painted with translucent acrylic coating, the grass died. That forced Hofheinz to go in search of a solution. "We had to overcome those things," said longtime Astros executive Tal Smith. "Initially, if you had said we're going to play indoors, there's going to be a roof over your head, it's going to be air-conditioned, and we're not going to be able to grow grass, I don't think that would have flown."
Instructed by the Judge, Smith worked with Chemstrand, a division of the Monsanto Chemical Company, which was testing a new nylon material dubbed Chemgrass. The product passed several tests for the Astros, and Hofheinz convinced Monsanto to call it Astroturf in the deal. It soon became standard in nearly every stadium and ballpark.
The Astros wound up playing in the Astrodome for 35 years, leaving for a downtown ballpark after the 1999 season. Along the way the Astrodome played host to the NFL's Houston Oilers, the University of Houston football team, and several marquee events, including the NBA All-Star Game, NCAA Final Four, the "Battle of the Sexes II" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, and the "Game of the Century" in 1968 when Elvin Hayes led Houston past UCLA and Lew Alcindor before 52,000 fans. The 474-foot scoreboard, which featured snorting bulls and shooting guns when a home run was hit, was removed in 1989 to accommodate 10,000 more seats for the Oilers, who wound up leaving town a few years later anyway. Despite being vacant the Astrodome stood tall 50 years after it opened and will always remain a special part of Houston's history. "It has history as a structure," former Astros pitcher Larry Dierker said. "There's never been anything built on the planet like that before."
CHAPTER 4Nolan Ryan
The only thing that made more news than the signing of Nolan Ryan prior to the 1980 season to join his hometown Astros was his departure from Houston following the 1988 season. Ryan pitched nine of his incredible 27 seasons in Houston and cemented himself as a Texas legend by going to the Rangers for five years to finish his career, throwing his sixth and seventh no-hitters while in his 40s. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999 with a Rangers cap on his plaque, but there's no denying his impact on the Astros — or the impact the Astros had upon Ryan. "Ever since the Colt .45s came in, I had hoped that someday I would be able to play with the Astros and be at home," Ryan said. "It was a dream come true for me."
Lynn Nolan Ryan was born on January 31, 1947, in Refugio, Texas, and grew up in Alvin, just south of Houston. He listened to Colt .45s games on the radio as a teenager. New York Mets scout Red Murff discovered him as a hard-throwing sophomore pitcher at Alvin High School, and the Mets drafted him in the 12th round in 1965. He made his major league debut at age 19 late in the 1966 season and appeared in 103 games for the Mets in 1968–71, winning a World Series title in 1969. Ryan was traded to the California Angels prior to the 1972 season and became a star in Southern California. In eight years with the Angels, he won 138 games and struck out 2,416 batters in 2,181 1/3 innings, made the All-Star team five times, and threw four no-hitters to tie Sandy Koufax's record.
Ryan and his 100-mph fastball were free agents following the 1979 season. The Astros, who had tried to trade for him a couple of years earlier, signed Ryan for $4.5 million over four years on November 19, 1979, making him the first player in history to make $1 million in one season. "There was always interest in bringing Nolan Ryan home," former Astros general manager Tal Smith said. "Dick Moss was Ryan's agent and was very in-depth and very good at what he does. He reached out to [Astros owner John] McMullen. As it turned out, we created the first $1 million player in free agency."
(Continues...)
Excerpted from 100 Things Astros Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by Brian McTaggart. Copyright © 2016 Brian McTaggart. Excerpted by permission of Triumph Books LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Foreword by Craig Biggio,Introduction,
1. The Judge,
2. Craig Biggio,
3. The Astrodome: The Eighth Wonder of the World,
4. Nolan Ryan,
5. The Colt .45s,
6. Biggio Reaches Hall of Fame,
7. Jeff Bagwell,
8. Killer B's,
9. Tombstone,
10. Houston Becomes AL Town,
11. Mike Scott,
12. Biggio's 3,000th Hit,
13. Larry Dierker,
14. Altuve Wins Batting Title,
15. 1980 NLCS,
16. First-Round Playoff Blues,
17. Lance Berkman,
18. The Big Unit Hits Houston,
19. Ken Caminiti,
20. Crawford Boxes Spook Pitchers,
21. Ryan Spins Fifth No-No,
22. Hurricane Ike,
23. Jeff Bagwell's MVP Season,
24. 2015 Astros Breakthrough,
25. Phil Garner,
26. Six Pitcher No-Hitter,
27. Drayton McLane,
28. Biggio Moves to Second Base,
29. Bagwell Trade Alters History,
30. Cesar Cedeno,
31. Sunshine Kids,
32. Joe Niekro,
33. The 2004 Season,
34. Roy Oswalt,
35. Hatcher's Game 6 Home Run,
36. Visit the Hall of Fame,
37. Pettitte, Clemens Come Home,
38. Astrodome Scoreboard Dazzles,
39. Jeff Kent's Walk-Off Home Run,
40. John McMullen,
41. 26-Game Road Trip,
42. 22-Inning Game,
43. Jose Cruz,
44. The Toy Cannon,
45. Tal Smith,
46. Jim Deshaies Strikes Out the First Eight Batters,
47. Art Howe,
48. Lima Time,
49. Three Consecutive No. 1 Picks,
50. Rainbow Jerseys,
51. Enos Cabell,
52. Trading for Carlos Beltran,
53. J.R. Richard,
54. Notable Announcers,
55. Chris Burke's Walk-Off Home Run,
56. Astros Reach Fall Classic,
57. Darryl Kile,
58. Alan Ashby,
59. Brad Ausmus,
60. Kerry Wood K's 20 Astros,
61. Astros Overcome Pujols' Home Run off Brad Lidge,
62. Watson Breaks a Barrier,
63. 1980 NL West Tiebreaker,
64. Tal's Hill,
65. Watch a Game from the Crawford Boxes,
66. 1986 NLCS,
67. Rusty Staub,
68. Glenn Davis,
69. The Talent and Tragedy of Dickie Thon,
70. Hello, Analytics,
71. Rainout in Astrodome,
72. Other Astros Hall of Famers,
73. Aspromonte Homers for a Blind Child,
74. Terry Puhl,
75. Shane Reynolds,
76. Joe Morgan,
77. Watson Scores Millionth Run,
78. Billy Wagner,
79. Crazy Injuries,
80. Hunter Pence,
81. Go to Spring Training,
82. Bill Doran,
83. Yogi Berra,
84. Norm Miller and the 24-Inning Game,
85. Bill Virdon,
86. Bob Watson and "The Bad News Bears",
87. Carlos Correa,
88. Buy Astrodome Memorabilia,
89. Cardinals Hack the Astros,
90. Back-to-Back No-Nos,
91. Tour Minute Maid Park,
92. Hal Lanier,
93. Go to FanFest,
94. Dave Smith,
95. Big Game Brandon Backe,
96. Go to a Double A Game,
97. The Don Wilson and Jim Umbricht Tragedies,
98. Famous Brawls,
99. Walk Around the Astrodome,
100. Eat Chicken and Waffles in a Cone,
Acknowledgements,
Sources,