![]() Mantle slapped Turk Farrell's second pitch past Joe Morgan into center field and the game was on. Flashbulbs popped as if it were a Hollywood premiere. The governor, the mayor and countless politicians and luminaries attended and basked in the glow of what Judge Hofheinz and others had erected. So did the Astros, providing a game that felt more like the World Series than the rather pointless exhibition that was actually at stake. Keane, sensing the history of the moment, put his injured star Mickey Mantle first in his lineup and left many of his best players in the game long after they would normally take a bow and sit during the exhibition season. Now he watched his home city, from the visitors dugout, open the ballpark that surely made it feel "big league" at last. Keane had reached the peak of his profession, in charge of baseball's perennial dynasty. Keane was foolishly fired by the Cardinals and the Yankees snatched him up, firing their own skipper Yogi Berra. ![]() In a style much like the Yankees of later decades, if New York couldn't beat you, they bought you. Louis Cardinals that had defeated the Yankees in seven games to close the 1964 season. He had just managed a world champion team, but it wasn't with the Yankees. ![]() The 54-year-old Keane was going through the peak of his baseball life. One of them was the manager of the Yankees, Johnny Keane. For Houston fans who had endured three seasons of hot, humid, mosquito-plaqued frill-free Colt Stadium, it was a whole new world.Ī lot of Houstonians immediately sensed the pride that went into showing off the new ballpark. Everything from the dugouts to the outfield scoreboard reflected that "bigger in Texas" motif. Fans sat not on hard slabs of wood but cushioned seats like you'd expect at a movie theatre. It would be like describing the wonders of color television or air travel.įor the first time, baseball was played under a roof, in air-conditioned comfort. 40 years later, it is hard to describe just how revolutionary the stadium was to those who now take such amenities for granted. Billy Graham and many others also spoke of it in awe. ![]() Folks like President Lyndon Johnson, the Rev. You didn't have to be a hayseed from the backwoods of Oklahoma like Mickey Mantle to stand in awe of the newly-finished Astrodome. "It reminds me of what I imagine my first ride would be like in a flying saucer." Big Days in Astros History - ApFirst game in the Astrodomeįirsts TSN Article Media Box Score and Play by Play ![]()
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