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Colt Stadium
Colt Stadium was a Major League baseball stadium that formerly stood in Houston, Texas. It was the temporary home of the expansion Houston Colt .45s for their first three seasons (1962–1964) while the Astrodome was being built, just to the south of it.
After its use in Houston, it was dismantled and moved for use in two Mexican cities.
When the Houston Sports Association was granted an expansion franchise for the 1962 season, it bought the city's longtime minor-league team, the Houston Buffaloes, to obtain the major league rights to the area. However, the Colt .45's decided the Buffs' longtime home, Buffalo Stadium, was unsuitable even for temporary use and built a makeshift stadium until the Astrodome opened.
The stadium consisted of an uncovered one-level grandstand, stretching from foul pole to foul pole, with small bleacher stands in right and left field. One baseball annual published just before the 1962 season referred to it as "a barn-like thing." It is best remembered for the horribly hot and humid weather (and attendant mosquito population) that had necessitated building the first domed stadium. The field was conventionally aligned northeast (home to center field) at an elevation of 50 feet (15 m) above sea level.
The stadium was abandoned when the Astrodome was completed for the 1965 season. The Astros occasionally used it for running and exercising to acclimatize players to warm weather before a road trip. However, the players had to be careful, as rattlesnakes would often take up residence on the field. Monsanto engineers also used it as a testing ground for its synthetic ChemGrass, later known as AstroTurf, inviting cars and horses to ride on the synthetic surface to gauge its durability. It sat abandoned for ten years, accumulating random odds and ends from nearby Astroworld and weathering in the blistering Texas sun.
The right field corner of the stadium was located in what is now the northwest corner of NRG Center. Much of the northern half of the stadium (center field, left field and the third base stands) is occupied by a power station, and home plate was approximately located where a light pole in the adjacent parking lot is.
The stadium was the site of two no-hitters, both thrown by Houston, but the visitors scored in both and one was a Colts' loss. In 1963, Don Nottebart shut down the Philadelphia Phillies on May 17, but an error in the fifth inning and two sacrifices scored a run for the visitors; Houston won, 4–1. The following year, knuckleball thrower Ken Johnson kept the Cincinnati Reds hitless on April 23, but an unearned run scored by Pete Rose in the ninth broke a scoreless tie and the Reds won, 1–0. With one out, Rose bunted and reached second on Johnson's throwing error, advanced to third on a fielder's choice, and scored after another error.
Against the hapless New York Mets late in both teams' first season, only 1,638 attended the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, September 8, 1962.
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Colt Stadium
Colt Stadium was a Major League baseball stadium that formerly stood in Houston, Texas. It was the temporary home of the expansion Houston Colt .45s for their first three seasons (1962–1964) while the Astrodome was being built, just to the south of it.
After its use in Houston, it was dismantled and moved for use in two Mexican cities.
When the Houston Sports Association was granted an expansion franchise for the 1962 season, it bought the city's longtime minor-league team, the Houston Buffaloes, to obtain the major league rights to the area. However, the Colt .45's decided the Buffs' longtime home, Buffalo Stadium, was unsuitable even for temporary use and built a makeshift stadium until the Astrodome opened.
The stadium consisted of an uncovered one-level grandstand, stretching from foul pole to foul pole, with small bleacher stands in right and left field. One baseball annual published just before the 1962 season referred to it as "a barn-like thing." It is best remembered for the horribly hot and humid weather (and attendant mosquito population) that had necessitated building the first domed stadium. The field was conventionally aligned northeast (home to center field) at an elevation of 50 feet (15 m) above sea level.
The stadium was abandoned when the Astrodome was completed for the 1965 season. The Astros occasionally used it for running and exercising to acclimatize players to warm weather before a road trip. However, the players had to be careful, as rattlesnakes would often take up residence on the field. Monsanto engineers also used it as a testing ground for its synthetic ChemGrass, later known as AstroTurf, inviting cars and horses to ride on the synthetic surface to gauge its durability. It sat abandoned for ten years, accumulating random odds and ends from nearby Astroworld and weathering in the blistering Texas sun.
The right field corner of the stadium was located in what is now the northwest corner of NRG Center. Much of the northern half of the stadium (center field, left field and the third base stands) is occupied by a power station, and home plate was approximately located where a light pole in the adjacent parking lot is.
The stadium was the site of two no-hitters, both thrown by Houston, but the visitors scored in both and one was a Colts' loss. In 1963, Don Nottebart shut down the Philadelphia Phillies on May 17, but an error in the fifth inning and two sacrifices scored a run for the visitors; Houston won, 4–1. The following year, knuckleball thrower Ken Johnson kept the Cincinnati Reds hitless on April 23, but an unearned run scored by Pete Rose in the ninth broke a scoreless tie and the Reds won, 1–0. With one out, Rose bunted and reached second on Johnson's throwing error, advanced to third on a fielder's choice, and scored after another error.
Against the hapless New York Mets late in both teams' first season, only 1,638 attended the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, September 8, 1962.