HISTORY IN HOUSTON
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Mickey Mantle Hits First Indoor Home Run!

The date was April 9, 1965.  The place was the Houston Astrodome (the proclaimed Eighth Wonder of the World).  47,876 excited fans jammed into the Astrodome to watch the fist indoor major league baseball game as the Houston Astros took on Mickey Mantle and the New York Yankees.   Yankee manager Johnny Keane gave Mickey Mantle the honor of being the first batter in the game.  In addition to being the first batter, Mickey also had the first hit (single) and the first home run ever hit indoors in a game between two major league teams.  The Astros won the game 2-1 in 11 innings on a two out single by pinch hitter Nellie Fox.

 

home run autographs
Home Run Pitch Touching Home Signing before the game

Listen to audio of Mickey hitting the first indoor homerun!

Scoreboard

TEAM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 R H E
New York Yankees 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 8 3
Houston Astros 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 9 0

New York Yankees

Player

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Mickey Mantle (LF)
Hector Lopez (LF)
1B-1
  GO-1
    HR
  W
 
K-1
 
FO-3
Bobby Richardson (2B) FC   GO-2     GO-1   K-1   GO-2    
Roger Maris (RF) W   FO-3     PO-2   FO-2   HBP    
Joe Pepitone (1B) FO-2     FO-1   1B   1B   GO-3    
Tony Kubek (SS) FO-3     FO-2   FO-3   K-3     PO-1  
Tom Tresh (CF)   FO-1   PO-3     GO-1   K-1   FO-2  
Clete Boyer (3B)   1B     K-1   FO-2   W   GO-3  
John Blanchard (C)
Phil Linz (C)
Bob Schmidt (C)
  FO-2

    PO-2

  1B-3

 
1B-2
   

K-1
Mel Stottlemyre (P)
Pedro Gonzalez (PH)
  FO-3
    FO-3
  1B
 
DP-3
     
Hal Reniff (P)
Ross Moschitto (PH)
                     
GO-2
Pete Mikkelsen (P)                        
TOTALS 1/0 1/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 2/1 2/0 1/0 1/0 0/0 0/0 0/0

Houston Astros

Player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Joe Morgan (2B) GO-1   GO-3     E3   E3   1B-SB    
Al Spangler (LF) FO-2     1B-1   1B-1   FC   PO-3    
Rusty Staub (RF) FO-3     DP-2   FC-2   FO-3     K-1  
Walt Bond (1B)   GO-1   2B-E4   DP-3     1B-1   GO-2  
Bob Aspromonte (3B)   FO-2   GO-3     PO-1   DP-2   GO-3  
Jim Wynn (CF)   K-3     GO-1   GO-2   1B     1B-SB
Bob Lillis (SS)     GO-1   GO-2   LO-3   GO-3     K-1
Ron Brand (C)     3B   FO-3     GO-1   GO-1   K-2
Turk Farrell (P)     GO-2     W            
Hal Woodeshick (P)
Nellie Fox (PH)
              W-2
  K-2
 
1B
TOTALS 0/0 0/0 1/0 2/0 0/0 1/0 0/0 0/1 2/0 1/0 0/0 2/1

 

The Houston Astrodome

The 'million dollar' Astrodome scoreboard errupted with sight and sound when an Astro homered.  When an opponent homered, such as Mickey, it displayed TILT!

 

Every few innings, the Astro grounds crew, dressed as spacemen, ran out onto the infield and dusted the bases and picked up trash.  The above cartoon is two frames from the animated cartoon, that ran on the centerfield scoreboard, depicting two such spacemen fencing over a stray piece of trash.

Whenever the Astros started a rally, Chester Charge would appear on the centerfield scoreboard riding an boat, rocket, motorcycle, buffalo or even an elephant as the bugle played and the crowd roared CHARGE!!!

The animated cartoon images above were scanned from THE original cels and/or drawings obtained from Ed Henderson, producer of these nostalgic cels.  My thanks to him for preserving these historic pieces for all these years.


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