Colt Stadium was a
Major League baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
stadium that formerly stood in
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
. It was the temporary home of the expansion
Houston Colt .45s for their first three seasons (
1962
Events January
* January 1 – Western Samoa becomes independent from New Zealand.
* January 3 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro for preaching communism.
* January 8 – Harmelen train disaster: 93 die in the wor ...
–
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
) while the
Astrodome
The NRG Astrodome, also known as the Houston Astrodome or simply the Astrodome, is the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, located in Houston, Texas. It was financed and assisted in development by Roy Hofheinz, mayor of Houston ...
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.
Houston
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 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
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...
of above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardise ...
.
Temporary from the outset, 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
Rattlesnakes are venomous snakes that form the genera '' Crotalus'' and '' Sistrurus'' of the subfamily Crotalinae (the pit vipers). All rattlesnakes are vipers. Rattlesnakes are predators that live in a wide array of habitats, hunting small an ...
would often take up residence on the field.
Monsanto
The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...
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
The NRG Center (former name Reliant Center) is a convention center in Houston, Texas, United States. It is part of the NRG Park complex that was constructed around the NRG Astrodome and NRG Stadium. The NRG Center hosts various events year-rou ...
. 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.
No-hitters
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
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...
,
Don Nottebart
Donald Edward Nottebart (January 23, 1936 – October 4, 2007) was an American professional baseball player. The right-handed pitcher appeared in 296 games in Major League Baseball for five teams over nine seasons (1960–1967; 1969). Notteb ...
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, The
following year,
Knuckleball
A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from laminar to turbulent flow. This cha ...
thrower
Ken Johnson kept the
Cincinnati Reds hitless on April 23, but an unearned run scored by
Pete Rose
Peter Edward Rose Sr. (born April 14, 1941), also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a membe ...
in the ninth broke a scoreless tie and the Reds won, 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
Low attendance
Against the hapless
New York Mets
The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...
late in both teams' first season, only 1,638 attended the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday, September 8, 1962.
Season totals
*1962: 924,456 (7th of 10 NL teams)
*1963: 719,502 (10th of 10)
*1964: 725,773 (10th of 10)
The three seasons combined to 2,369,731; the first season at the Astrodome drew 2,151,470 in 1965.
Mexico
Torreón
By the early 1970s, Colt Stadium had become a county tax liability, with a lien on it. In 1971, it was sold to the owners of the
Algodoneros del Unión Laguna, a Mexican League team, and was dismantled and shipped in pieces over the next four years to
Torreón
Torreón () is a city and seat of Torreón Municipality in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2021, the city's population was 735,340. The metropolitan population as of 2015 was 1,497,734, making it the ninth-biggest metropolitan area in ...
,
Coahuila,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, for use as the team's home venue. Renamed Estadio Superior in a naming rights deal with a beer sponsor, Unión Laguna used the stadium between 1975 and 1981. It was located near the
Estadio Corona
The Estadio Corona is a stadium in Torreón, Coahuila, México, and the home stadium of Santos Laguna of Liga MX.
History
It was completed in 2009, it has a standard capacity of 30,000, with 20,000 for special events. The stadium's total co ...
soccer stadium on land used today for a soft drink company.
The stadium was popularly known as the Estadio Mecano
or ''Millón de Tuercas'' (Million Screws) due to its ability to be assembled and its resemblance to an Erector set.
Tampico
In 1981, the owner of Unión Laguna, Juan Abusaid Ríos, had a falling out with Governor of Coahuila
José de las Fuentes. Abusaid sold the team to the
Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros de la República Mexicana (Union of Oil Workers of the Mexican Republic), which moved the franchise to
Tampico
Tampico is a city and port in the southeastern part of the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. It is located on the north bank of the Pánuco River, about inland from the Gulf of Mexico, and directly north of the state of Veracruz. Tampico is the fifth ...
,
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...
. While the stadium was taken down in Torreón and moved to Tampico, the franchise spent the 1982 season in
Monclova, Coahuila
Monclova (), is a city and the seat of the surrounding municipality of the same name in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. According to the 2015 census, the city had 231,107 inhabitants. Its metropolitan area has 381,432 inhabitants and a ...
as the Astros de Monclova.
In 1983, the Astros became the Astros de Tamaulipas, playing three full seasons at the stadium, known in Tampico as the Estadio Ángel Castro. The franchise moved again after the 1985 season, this time without the stadium. The
Mexico City Tigers bought the stadium with the intent of moving it yet again to serve as the club's new home, but with the venue already showing structural weakness after years in the humid Tampico climate, the plans were scuttled. Ultimately, some rows of seats were reassembled at a ballfield in Pasteje,
Jocotitlán
Jocotitlán is a municipality located in the northwestern part of the State of Mexico on the central highlands of the country of Mexico. The municipal seat is the town of Jocotitlán and is located at the foot of the Jocotitlán or Xocotépetl v ...
, State of Mexico, and the others remained in a Tampico playground until that, too, was demolished.
''El Mecano'' became the only major league ballpark to be sent down to the minors and the only one to play host to three professional teams in two nations.
See also
*
Houston Driving Park (1902)
References
External links
www.ballparks.com Colt Stadium page1962 video featuring Colt Stadium (YouTube)Footage of 1962 game at Colt Stadium (YouTube)
{{Defunct MLB Ballparks
Defunct Major League Baseball venues
Demolished sports venues in Texas
Baseball venues in Houston
Houston Astros stadiums
Sports venues completed in 1962
1962 establishments in Texas
1964 disestablishments in Texas
Demolished buildings and structures in Houston