Granillo: The Astrodome’s futuristic scoreboard
From SABR member Larry Granillo at Baseball Prospectus on February 25, 2013:
When the Astrodome opened in 1965, it was quickly dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” The fully-enclosed stadium was the first of it’s kind: a domed, air-conditioned marvel that could handle baseball, football, and any other large event in all kinds of weather. With its bubble exterior and proximity to the fledgling space program, there was no better evidence of America’s quick march towards The Jetsons than the new Houston stadium.
Among it’s many futuristic innovations was the $2 million scoreboard, “the world’s largest, most versatile animated scoreboard.” Any gushing preview of the new ballpark was incomplete without a description of the device. A 1972 Houston Sports Association publication touting the wonders of the Astrodome and its surrounding area calls the scoreboard “an electronic marvel, costing $2 million, and longer than a football field, [giving] patrons of the Astrodome more information, faster, than any visual display ever before seen on any athletic field.”
So what was this space age visual display that could give “more information, faster” actually used for?
Read the full article here: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19710
Originally published: February 27, 2013. Last Updated: February 27, 2013.