Glory Days T he 1962 season was an exciting one for baseball fans The National League NL added two new teams The Mets played their first season in New York and a team called the Colt 45s took the field in Houston A Colt 45 was a powerful pistol used in the Old West Houston fans simply called their team the Colts The Colts gave many young players a chance to prove themselves which was fun for the fans But the team lost more often than it won which was not nearly as much fun The fans hoped Houston’s luck would change in 1965 when the club moved into a fabulous new indoor ballpark called the Astrodome That year the team also changed its name to Astros Batted balls did not travel far in the Astrodome That put greater importance on pitching and defense for Houston The Astros 6
realized this and signed a number of hard-throwing pitchers including Larry Dierker Don Wilson and J R Richard Dierker was the first Astro to win 20 games in a season Wilson threw two no-hitters and once struck out 18 batters in a game Richard was the first right handed pitcher in NL history with more than 300 strikeouts in a season Finding batters who could do well in the Astrodome was a challenge During the 1960s and 1970s the team had a number of talented hitters including Rusty Staub Joe Morgan Jim Wynn Doug Rader Cesar Cedeno Bob Watson Lee May Enos Cabell Jose Cruz and Terry Puhl But it just wasn’t enough Houston had a winning record only twice in its first 17 seasons During the 1980s the Astros finally turned things around They had a winning record almost every year of the decade Houston was led by great starting pitchers such as Nolan Ryan Joe Niekro LEFT The Astrodome is full for Opening Day in 1965 ABOVE Rusty Staub was one of the Astros early heroes 7
Mike Scott Bob Knepper and Jim Deshaies Reliever Dave Smith was the best pitcher in a very good bullpen in In 1980 the Astros won the NL West for the first time Unfortunately they lost an exciting battle against the Philadelphia Phillies the National League Championship Series NLCS Houston returned to the playoffs in 1986 with help from slugger Glenn Davis and base stealers Bill Doran Billy Hatcher and Kevin Bass Again the Astros lost in the NLCS this time to the Mets In both series Houston came very close to winning its first pennant only to watch its opponents celebrating after the final out During the 1990s the Astros were led by the Killer Bs Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio Bagwell was one of the game’s best power hitters and Biggio was an expert at getting on base and scoring runs After relief pitcher Billy Wagner became Houston’s main relief pitcher in 1997 the team won four NL Central crowns in five seasons Each LEFT For 20 years Craig Biggio was the man who made the Astros go ABOVE Jeff Bagwell watches a line drive head toward the outfield 9
