Baseball in the Space Age

Although the earliest of American baseball clubs were organized as exclusively male social organizations, spectators were soon drawn to their games, and plenty of women were among them. But by the early 1960s, teams began to notice declining attendance of women. Few franchises in baseball's westward expansion attempted to cater to female fans like the Houston Astros. Established in 1962 as the Colt .45s and led by eccentric owner Judge Roy Hofheinz, Houston’s entry in the National League employed a variety of marketing strategies to attract female fans to ballgames.

On October 10, 1961, the National League held the expansion draft to  provide players for the Houston Colt .45s and the New York Mets. The NL learned from the mistakes made in the AL expansion draft a year earlier, but both teams were hampered by a lack of quality players in the pool and financial restrictions.

The 1968 baseball season took place against a backdrop of racial violence. The late 1960s trembled with social and political turbulence, with the summer of 1968 at its epicenter. Given the tenor of the times, Houston was a good place for Major League Baseball to showcase its talent in the 1968 mid-summer classic.

When Houston Astros flamethrower J.R. Richard debuted against the San Francisco Giants at Candlestick Park on September 5, 1971, he did so in relative anonymity. He received no television coverage, and no radio broadcast beyond the clubs’ local markets. Willie Mays and baseball’s fourth-best offense awaited him. The rookie responded by striking out 15 Giants to tie a major league record.

On October 15, 1986, the New York Mets led the Houston Astros three games to two in the NLCS after an extra-inning victory in Game Five at Shea Stadium. Game Six was scheduled for Houston, and most in baseball, including many of the Mets players, assumed that the Astros would roll on to win Game Seven if they could somehow manage a victory in Game Six at home. It was a 16-inning classic.

Long fences and “dead” indoor air gave Astrodome a reputation for being unfriendly to hitters. This analysis compares batting average, slugging percentage, and home run rate (home runs per 1,000 at-bats) for all Astros games at home (in the Dome) and on the road.

All SABR 44 convention attendees received a free copy of Houston Baseball: The Early Years 1861-1961, edited by Mike Vance and produced by SABR's Larry Dierker Chapter, as part of their registration goody bag. Learn more about the book here.