HOUSTON ASTRODOME PICS

[andycummings65]

Astrodome was nick-named the Eighth Wonder of the World.

June 15, 1976---Astrodome's only rainout. The Astros and Pirates arrived early for workouts, but rainfall and severe flooding in Houston prevented the umpires and most fans from reaching the stadium.

Dimensions (original to later)
LeftField line 340ft-325 ft
LeftField Power Alley 375-390-375 ft
CenterField 406-400 ft
RightField Power Alley 375-390-375 ft
RightField line 340ft-325 ft


[b:32c92cc8f6]Astrodome Construction with Colt Stadium in the background[/b:32c92cc8f6]
[img:32c92cc8f6]http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab13/andycummings/Stadiums/AstrodomeconstructionwithColtStd.jpg[/img:32c92cc8f6]


[b:32c92cc8f6]April 9, 1965, the Astros host the New York Yankees in an exhibition game, the first ever game played indoors. Mickey Mantle is at bat, leading off the first inning, and playing left field. Mick would later homer in the game[/b:32c92cc8f6]
[img:32c92cc8f6]http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab13/andycummings/Stadiums/AstrodomeFirstPitch65.jpg[/img:32c92cc8f6]

[b:32c92cc8f6]The Astrodome as originally intended---with a grass field. The dome's ceiling contained numerous semitransparent panes made of Lucite. Players quickly complained that glare coming off of the panes made it hard for them to track fly balls. Two sections of panes were painted white, which solved the glare problem, but caused the grass to die from lack of sunlight. For most of the 1965 season, the Astros played on green-painted dirt and dead grass.The solution was to install a new type of artificial grass on the field--Astroturf[/b:32c92cc8f6]
[img:32c92cc8f6]http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab13/andycummings/Stadiums/AstrodomeGrass.jpg[/img:32c92cc8f6]


[b:32c92cc8f6]Astrodome, with the 4-story scoreboard. Scoreboard remained intact until 1988, when Oilers owner Bud Adams was momentarily placated by addign 15,000 seats to the dome, taking out the huge scoreboard[/b:32c92cc8f6][img:32c92cc8f6]http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab13/andycummings/Stadiums/AstrodomeScoreboard.jpg[/img:32c92cc8f6]

[WeatherNut]

In 1965 Jimmy Wynn and others took to wearing batting helmets in the outfield because the balls were so hard to track.

WN

[FUDU]

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