The Astrodome's final season - 1999

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Hard to believe it's been five years since the old Astrodome was in its final season of major league action ... That year I set a personal career high by seeing 58 major league games, 49 of them in the Astrodome ... Like most years, I kept a scrapbook with ticket stubs, boxscores and notes from each game I attended ... So I thought I'd bring back some memories, even some bad ones, from that final season in the original indoor stadium.



April 28, 1999
Arizona - 10 @ Houston - 6

My notes for this game begin with this sentence: "Pretty sad game, and especially difficult to sit and watch (Scott) Elarton and (Billy) Wagner blow the lead after (Chris) Holt and the offense battled back from a very poor beginning."

Holt both threw BP and suffered some tough luck in the top of the 1st, with Luis Gonzalez' RBI double a key blow ... Infield singles by Tony Womack and Damian Miller were the tough luck part.

But Houston battled back, and Holt settled down. Thanks to a career-worst game defensively by D-Back's 3B Matt Williams (3 errors) and a key error by 1B Travis Lee in the 6th, Houston was up 5-3 entering the top of the 7th ... But Gonzalez came back to sting his ex-mates again in the 7th with a 2-run double after Elarton surrendered leadoff singles to David Dellucci and Womack to knot the score five-all.

Wagner came in to start the top of the 9th with the score still 5-5, and it was Wagner's worst relief appearance of his career: 3 hits, 2 walks and charged with 5 earned runs without getting an out ... Womack was onace again a thorn in Houston's side, leading off with his 3rd single of the night ... He stole 2B, moved to 3B on Jay Bell's single, Gonzalez walked on 4 pitches, Matt Williams singled in Womack, and Lee walked on a 3-2 count to force Bell home and end Billy the Kid's outing ... Jay Powell relieved Wagner and gave up a bases-juiced walk to Tony Batista and a 2-run single to Damian Miller to end Arizona's big final frame.

Houston scored once in the bottom of the 9th thanks to Williams' 3rd error of the game to end the scoring.

As weird as the game was, the weirdest stat to me was the fact when Houston scored their first 5 runs (3 in the 3rd, 1 in both the 4th and 6th), Jeff Bagwell started all three of those frames by making an out, twice via the strikeout.

[Chisox73]

This is a good thread to start PopTop. I've always liked the Astros and I have a 1999 Astros Sunday jersey,with Astrodome patch.

I'll keep on looking here for more of your Astrodome memories. :wavey:

[PopTop]

Cool, ChiSox :cool: Just curious, why the affection for the 'Stros? Did you ever get to see a game of any kind in the original Eighth Wonder of the World?

[Chisox73]

Hi PopTop.

I've never been to the Astrodome. I remember becoming a fan around 1979 when the team became contenders.Obviously,my most memorable Astros memories are winning the 1-game playoff in LA in 1980,the epic battle with philadelphia in the NLCS that year,and mike Scott's no-no to win the West in '86.

The only time I've seen the Astros play was in Chicago in 1997.It was an interleague game against the White Sox.I wanted to see Jeff Bagwell hit in person.Safe to say,I wasn't disapppointed if you know what I mean.

I've followed them closely for over 2 decades now,and I have picked them to win the NL Pennant this year.

I also have some Astros memorabilia,including a 1965 Astrodome Yearbook,1986 World Series tickets,playoff programs from 1980 and 1986.I don't know if I have any '90s playoff programs.I haven't looked in a while.And I have a 1980 division champs pennant amnong others.

Oh,I also have a store bought early 90s shoulder rainbow jersey.I like that better than the original rainbow.

[Toy Cannon]

Hi PopTop.

The only time I've seen the Astros play was in Chicago in 1997.It was an interleague game against the White Sox.I wanted to see Jeff Bagwell hit in person.Safe to say,I wasn't disapppointed if you know what I mean.



Would that be the 3 homer game?

[Chisox73]

Yes.That was the only time I ever saw someone hit 3 homers in a game.

[Toy Cannon]

Yes.That was the only time I ever saw someone hit 3 homers in a game.

Very cool, as many games as I've been to, I've never witnessed a 3 HR game. If not mistaken, Bags also hit 3 in Wrigley in '97 which makes for a nice trivia question. :cool:

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Cool beans, ChiSox ... But which one of us is losing our mind, you or me? I thought Bagwell had his 3-HR game at Comiskey in '99, not '97, thought he did it in both Chicago parks that season. :notme:

As for me, my memory bank says I've seen a 3-HR game just one time live & in person, and it wasn't in Houston ... Went to Detroit in late July 1999 to see old Tiger Std one more time, my favorite all-time park ... It was Boston's last trip into the classic old arena, and it was a wild 3-game weekend ... In Friday's night's game, there was a huge storm that moved through the area and busted off a piece of the facade on the press box level, real lucky that nobody got hurt ... Another storm moved through the area during Saturday afternoon's game that caused a rain delay, and that was fine with my two buddies and I since it just gave us extra time to walk around the park and take it all in ... They were having a reunion weekend with the '84 team as well, and we ended up chatting at various times with Darrell Evans, Dan Petry and Juan Berenguer.

Anyway, back to the 3-HR part ... Trot Nixon had either just been recalled from the minors or activated from the DL for the weekend series, and dude had a weekend to remember ... He popped 3 in Saturday's Sox win, the first 2 came about 15 minutes apart off Jeff Weaver, then there was the rain delay, and his 3rd og the game came about three hours after the first two, and he hit that one off ex-Astro Willie Blair.

That game is also my personal record for homers, period, in a single game (10) ... Nomar cracked 2 in that game as well for the Beantowners, the Sox ended up with 7 to Detroit's 3 :eek: And Tony Clark came back in Sunday's finale to hit one from each side of the plate ... According to my notes in the same 1999 scrapbook, the two teams combined for 20 HR in those 3 games. I used to go two seasons in a row without seeing 20 homers hit at the Astrodome!

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Montreal-2 @ Houston-5

ATT: 31,302
Umpires - West (HP), A.Hernandez (1B), Vanover (2B), Marsh (3B)


"Once again, Joe Bean comes through for the 'Stros, this time despite getting pounded in the first two innings. Lima toughed it out and even put the icing on the scoring cake when he drove in Houston's fifth and final run."



The epitome of those games when you think your guys are gonna' get killed and they end up winning ... Along with the couple of sentences above that open my own game notes was my guesstimate that no more than 20K fans were actually on hand for this one, lots of season ticket no-shows ... I should tell y'all about our season tickets that last year in the old Astrodome.

We had mini-season ticket plans-plus before this season ... My dad had full season tix with his company up until 1994 when the Halliburton/Dresser/Smith takeover of M-I Drilling Fluids went down ... I'll give you details of that if you want it, but the end result was my pop, Willie A, retired and I didn't have these ultra-choice seats in Section 251, rows 3 &4, sometimes 4 seats per row ... This was right behind home plate in the Astrodome, cocked about 2-feet to the left of the ump, MLB scouts occupy the two rows in front/left of you, and the Bushes sat in the front row directly in front of you before they added Drayton's "diamond level" seats the last few years of the original indoor stadium.

So, from 1995-98, I was part of mini-season ticket plans with my dad and some very good friends, including my buddy Rick who still maintains season tickets in the new Crawford Bleachers at Arthur Andersen Memorial Stadium in the heart of the Bayou City.

But Rick and I decided in 1999, the last year, we need a full-season ticket plans ourselves. So he and I split 3 seats, and my dad paid for the 4th seat. Section 747C, front row of the rainbow section directly behind the plate, seats 1-4. Great seats, and they were only $7 each if we paid by Jan 1st, something like that ... Worked out to having four tickets to every damn game for a bit more than two grand, couldn't beat it ... My guess is we actually sat in those seats the whole game about a tenth of the time ... Most games, Rick and I, being the cheap SOBs that we are, would leave school and get to the game by 5:15 or so, just $1 to park before 5:30 :eek: We'd head straight for Lefty's Pub which was down in the LF corner th last few years of the stadium ... Free peanuts, you could smoke and big-ass beer for $5 or so ... There were many games we never left Lefty's, just sat down there at the LF'ers level and watched the entire game from there, just like we used to do in the very early years of the stadium when you could go down to that level, then called the Domeskeller, and they served brats and I think Harps beer while you sat and tried to peer through chain-link fence that was behind cutouts in the original outfield wall.

In 1999, Rick and I would often find my father down at Lefty's when we got there, already with a picnic table and a big wad of his golden parachute from M-I ready to buy the beer ... It was sweet!

Ok, back to this particular game ... Lima got lit-up for 2 runs in the 1st, a double by Vlad and a single by Brad Fullmer plating the Expos runs ... Biggio got a run back in the bottom of the opening frame with his leadoff double ... But then Lima was right back in trouble in the top of the 2nd before a doubleplay saved his cha-cha-cha butt ... After that, Lima was lights out ... The man was very fun to watch pitch in the Astrodome; he never feared fly balls there ... He worked very quickly, with this game going just 2:16 and Jose needing 117 pitches, most of them in the 1st and 2nd innings.

Caminiti had a pair of steals in the game, one of them in front of Hidalgo's RBI-tying triple in the 4th and another to ignite a 3-run 6th for Houston that put the game away ... That inning was also facilitated by Montreal rookie 3B Michael Barrett's 2nd error of the game ... And Lima capped that inning with an RBI single, his 2nd hit of the game.

These were good times, indeed: School was almost out, the Astros were winning, and I was about to have the summer off with season tickets as well as plane tickets to other locales.

[Toy Cannon]

Keep 'em coming Pop:thumbsup:, the memories are great. I was only able to make it to a couple of games that last season in the Dome. My son was born in March and I just couldn't get away to enjoy the farewell tour. I had some great times in that old park, my most memorable was probably Ken Caminiti's debut in July of 1987. He hit a HR and 3B in that game and scored both Astro runs while Dr. Death 4-hit the Phils.

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Att: 31,216

Expos' six-run second too much for Astros to overcome

This game really helps illustrate why defense is vastly underrated by some people *ahem*Sabrmetricians*ahem* ;) downplay its place in the game ... You look at your normal, morning-after boxscore and you see numbers like Montreal plating a half-dozen in the 2nd inning, Bagwell & Carl Everett combining to strand a half-dozen runners in scoring position (Biggio was on 3B in the 9th with 1 out when Bags and Carl left him), and both starting pitchers, Dustin Hermansen for the 'Spos and Shane Reynolds for the 'Stros, getting knocked about.

But what you don't see in any boxscore is the defense ... Sure, you can see that Montreal's Shane Andrews and Michael Barrett both made an error, or that Houston had a doubleplay in the game ... But you cannot see the play that proved to provide the game-winning run for the Expos.

Andrews mashed a 1-0 pitch from Reynolds for a 3-run shot to get the Expos' big frame going ... Later in the inning, 5 runs in, 2 outs and Jose Vidro on 2B: Rondell White singles to RF with Vidro waved home ... Doggie makes a beautiful throw to the plate, Vidro's a dead quack-quack and - ¡Ay Caramba! - Tony Eusebio drops the ball! :angry: ... In my game notes, I write, "I still can't figure out how they did not charge an error on that play."

Until there is some uniformity in how/when errors are charged and noted plus how the extraordinary plays prevent runs, there really will be no way to quantify defense ... And until it does fit into some column or formula neatly, the numbers people will always claim defense only marginally affects a baseball game when compared to hitting or pitching ... I don't mean that disrespectfully to folks like Barzilla who really back the sabrmetric approach ... I can't quantify defense either, just have no idea how you can effectively measure someone's range or their arm strength or their positioning before each and every pitch ... But enough of that for now, maybe more in another thread.

Also in my notes are a few lines about the Dumb D. Dumdum family sitting next to us: "...you should've seen the white trash sitting next to us. The wife (I'm assuming) had an underbite and lower jaw that would've made a piranha proud; the father only knew two different phrases: 'Good pitch' and 'Son of a b!tch,' and I'm quite certain none of the kids, especially poor Charlie, will ever be strong in reading, grammar or math though beer-drinking and making asses of themselves should come naturally. It's scary to think there are people out there as slimy and ignorant as these, and none of 'em needs a liscense or any kind of approval to continue the bloodline."

Like any good ump, I just call 'em as I see 'em. :Pimp

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Att --- 19,792

Joe Bean wins 6th; Astros sweep Pirates

So strange. When I was thumbing through my '99 scrapbook earlier, I came across this game and had this really powerful feeling sort of rush through me: I can remember a ton of details about this game that I didn't jot down in my notes, even down to conversations my two buddies and I had! :eek:

One of discussions was we all felt a little uneasy entering The Astrodome, not one of us felt this game was going to end up in the dubya column for the 'Stros ... Hampton blanked the Bucs on Monday evening and on Tuesday, the middle game of the set, Houston set team records in a 19-8 explosion over the Pirates ... Lima had been pitching well and getting the luck to go his way at times, so we just thought the odds were probably going to catch up to us in the series finale.

It looked that way right off the bat when Al Martin tripled to lead the game off ... But that turned out to be Lima's only mistake and Martin's run was the only tally that Joe Bean allowed through his 8 innings of work.

It stayed 1-0 until the bottom of the 6th as Jason Schmidt was doing his thing on the hill for the Steel City Boys ... But then it all unraveled on him: Walk-single-triple-triple-single sent four Astros across the plate, with the back-to-back triples courtesy of Doggie and Billy Spiers who got the start at shortstop for this one.

Errors by Mike Benjamin and Jason Kendall led to Houston's last 2 runs on the night in the 7th, and Scott Elarton walked the bases full in relief of Lima in the 9th that led to the Pirates' second and final run that had us on edge.

I could probably walk you right to the seats my comrades and I sat in, that's how much I can remember about this game right now ... The attendance was announced at just under 20,000, but my notes suggest there were fewer than 10,000 actually with their backsides at the park ... We started off down in Lefty's for BP, as usual, and had our normal two big-ass pre-game beers and free peanuts before stepping up and sitting around the 20th row of the field boxes down the LF line with the Pirates' bullpen in front of us ... For the first inning-&-a-half, there were two very shapely --- Especially from behind in their tight little shorts and pedal pushers or whatever you ladies call those mid-calf pants these days --- gals chatting it up with the Pirates relievers, and they kept leaning over the rail and either passing hotel keys or getting autographs, phone numbers, something ... With the light crowd on hand, you could see several groups of guys come up out of Lefty's Pub just like us and sit in this mostly empty section, good foul ball territory.

Anyway, when the young lasses finally left the area, they turned and started up the aisle just to our left ... I can't remember which one of us three started it, be we ended up getting to our feet and giving the cuties a standing ovation ... Every guy in the section joined us! :cool:

I could also tell y'all about going to BW-3's down in Rice Village after the game for several dozen hot BBQ wings and several Long Island Teas, but I've probably already bored y'all enough :D

[Obri]

Willie, this is great. I'm loving just reading through these.:thumbsup:

A word of warning, when we meet up one of these days, I will expect to sit and listen to you spin yarn after yarn. As long as I keep getting the beers in, eh?:D

[Toy Cannon]

but I've probably already bored y'all enough :D

Ain't no such animal :Pimp

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Att: 34,177

Reynolds, Astros gut out tough 7-4 dubya

Not sure if you can read the text in the attached photo, so in case you can't read what I wrote five years ago about the opener of this series, my feeling was we had won one that we maybe shouldn't ... Shane Reynolds got off to a slow start in the game, a 2-run double by Snow in the 1st causing the initial damage with back-to-back doubles by Charlie Hayes and Brent Mayne bringing home two more Giants in the 4th to give SF a 4-0 lead.

But Reynolds stopped bleeding SF runs from then on, also getting three no-hit innings of relief from Jay Powell and Billy Wagner ... And the offense eventually solved Giants starter Kirk Rueter by plating three in the bottom of the 4th and three more in the 6th ... To Rueter's credit, the score was still 4-3 Giants when Jerry Spradlin relieved him in the bottom of the 6th with no outs and runners on 1B and 2B ... Spradlin really didn't fool anyone while he was in there, but Dusty Baker must've been short in his bullpen since he ended up letting Spradlin toss the the 7th and 8th innings as well.

With the sacks full in the bottom of the 4th, we really couldn't believe Dierker was letting Reynolds hit with two outs and still down 4-0 ... But Shane slapped a solid single to get Houston's offense going ... And Derek Bell had another key 2-run, 2-out single in the 6th (Dingdong also got lucky in the top of the 8th when he dropped an easy fly ball but still still got the out when Hayes couldn't make it to 2B before Derek's throw) :hmm:

Thought I'd throw in a snapshot of my scrapbook from the '99 season, not to show off the scrapbook but to show off the neat tickets they sent season ticket holders for that final year in The Astrodome.

The tickets were huge, at least as big as I can ever remember seeing regular season tickets in Houston ... They would be the same size the next year when they first opened Arthur Andersen Memorial Stadium downtown ... They measured 3x6½ to begin with before they tore off a 1" section at the gate ... And they had some neat photos of old players, managers, etc ... My buddy Rick, with whom I went to about 300 Astros games over the years, and I thought it was prophetic for the ticket with Dierker on it would be a game that Shane started since we called Reynolds "Dierker Junior."


EDIT: Also cut out the short note from the paper the next morning about another baseball game in Texas that evening ... Josh Beckett ended up pitching the final game of his high school career on this evening over in Austin as his Spring HS team dropped a 4-3 decision to Round Rock HS ... The game was one of those "instant classics" in Texas schoolboy history ... It was 1-1 after 8 innings, but Round Rock broke through for 3 runs in the top of the 9th, partly due to Beckett's own fielding gaffe ... Spring's rally in the bottom of the 9th feel a run short and, a few weeks later, Beckett was drafted by the Florida Marlins.

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Att: 40,871

Bidge & Baggy back Hampy with blasts

A couple of notes about this one:

* Lefty Mike Cuellar was on the ticket face for this contest, and my buddy Rick commented on the coincidence of "Dierker Junior" Reynolds being the starter when Dierker was on the ticket the night before and a southpaw named Mike was on the ticket when lefty Mike Hampton was starting on this night.

* This was the 13th Astros game for me in the 1999 season, it was only mid-May, and this was the first time I had seen Hampton pitch ... So far, I'd seen Reynolds 5 times, Lima 4 times and Chris Holt 3 times ... When I ended up sweeping the series the next night, I noted in my scrap book that I was on pace to see 51 Astros games for the season, a pace I darn near kept.


Ok, back to this game ... It was a Saturday night beach towel giveaway, so there was a nice crowd of 40K plus ... Bagwell smacked a 3-run tater in the 3rd and Biggio dropped a line drive into Lefty's Pub for another 3-run blast in the 5th that gave Hampton all the offense he needed ... Hampy had a no-hitter through 5 before former Astro Scott Servais took him deep to break that up leading off the top of the 6th.

Brian Williams came on for Hampton to start the 8th and immediately got into trouble when he couldn't handle the likes of Stan Javier, FP Santangelo and Marvin Bernard :hmm: That made the final closer than the game really was ... Scott Elarton came on to relieve Williams and got a 4-6-3 (Biggio to Bogar to Bagwell) DP on his first pitch to end the top of the 8th, then struck out a pair as part of his 1-2-3 top of the 9th to end it.

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Att: 29,671

Giants go extra innings to snap 'Stros streak

This game was originally scheduled to be an afternoon contest, but got switched after the season started to the ESPN Sunday Night match, so it meant spending my fourth night out of five at The Astrodome ... I'm trying to figure out just how in the heck I afforded parking and beer for all those games :eek: Good thing our tickets were pretty cheap.

It was also a turn back the clock game, and they gave out hat pins with the uniform from the "exploding star" days (Late 60s, early 70s, pre-rainbow) ... And with ESPN in town to do the game, it was only natural for analyst Joe Morgan throw out the first pitch since he was a player who actually wore those uni's.

Sean Bergman started for Houston and didn't pitch too badly, a single mistake to Rich Aurilia in the 6th turning into a 2-run shot to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.

Biggio came up clutch with a 2-run, 2-out double in the bottom of the 8th that knotted it 4-4 and lead to extra frames ... Jay Powell and Billy Wagner chunked 4 hitless innings from the 7th thru the 10th ... Scott Elarton came on to start the 11th and Armando Rios greeted him with a pinch-hit homer ... Interesting to note here is Houston-born Joe Nathan, just a few weeks past his MLB debut, pitched the bottom of the 11th for San Francisco to earn what was his only save before this season.

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The 1999 season was a most special season in my life for the simple fact that The Astrodome was not the only MLB park I saw in its final run ... About the time the season started, I made plans to meet a couple of buds in Detroit to say adios to Tiger Stadium, my favorite park of them all and one I just had to go back and see before it closed ... And it was in late May that Patty and I decided to make reservations to spend our anniversary (September) in San Francisco ... Good fortune smiled and had the Braves in San Fran while we would be there, so with Candlestick going out as well that season it gave me a chance to see a trio of parks enjoying their MLB swan song.

All in all, add The Ballpark in Arlington to the list and it gave me four pro parks for the season, and 21 of the 30 teams ... The May 16-24 period that I went without seeing an MLB game live and in person turned out to be one of the longest stretches of the season for me. :cool:

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ATT: 39,893

Lima Time One More Time

Obviously a thread I've neglected for too long. I'd been to a few more Astros games and also up to D-FW for a couple of Rangers-Twins games. But rather than backtrack we'll just pick it up with the old "where I was 5 years ago today" thing.

Jose Lima was simply unbelievable at this point in the 1999 season. With this win he moved to 11-2 on the season with a 2.68 ERA, and he was really fun to watch since he worked so fast and kept everyone, from his defense to the batters to the fans, on their toes. Very rare to go see Jose pitch and be there more than 2:10-2:20. It was 2:20 on this game.

I know a lot of people, me included, don't always like a lot of animation and fist-pumping ... With Jose, for some reason, I enjoyed it ... He was doing a lot of commercials around town and pushing a Latin "disco-salsa" CD with him on lead vocals ... On the mound, he was prone to having these bad starts, then totally dominating a team from the 3rd inning on ... This game was no exception ... Tony Gwynn came off the DL to start this game, and his single followed by Leyritz' double fired a 2-run, 2nd-inning for the Padres.

Doggie popped a tater in the 5th to get Houston on the board, a Carl Everett triple tied it in the 6th, and Paul Bako's leadoff homer in the 7th was the winning tally ... Lima whiffed 10, might be his career high, at least close to it ... San Diego really came up short to start the game when Andy Ashby was a late scratch, forcing Pads' manager Bruce Bochy to run out three relievers (Boehringer, Cunnane and Wall) essentially.

Billy the Kid snuffed it for Lima in the 9th, throwing 13 pitches (his jersey #) and striking out 2 ... Pretty tight and solid game to see.

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ATT: 39,773

Umpires suspend game after Dierker's collapse

Very strange and scary Sunday afternoon at the old ballpark to say the least ... Don't want to repeat too much of the story since it's part of my latest article over at Astros Daily ... It was a pitchers' duel between Shane Reynolds and San Diego's Heath Murray through five innings before Derek "Ding Dong" Bell popped a slam in the 6th to give Houston a 4-1 lead ... Patty and I were with another couple at the game, and after the Padres batted in the top of the 8th with the same score, we decided to sneak out of the game early and head somewhere for some chow.

Before we could get out of the Astrodome we heard Ash and Milo talking about something going on in or near the Astros' dugout ... So I ran back out the ramps to see and the entire Astrodome was dead quiet ... We stood there so we could see the field and hear the radio coming over the speakers in the concourse up in what was known as the Rainbow Level ... It was just plain frightening to see Dierker laying on the ground motionless after he suffered the seizure.

The story has a very happy ending, thankfully ... Dierker had surgery and they removed a mass of tangled blood vessels from under his skull --- Dierker joked that the mass was about the size of a jalapeño :) --- and he strolled out of the hospital less than two weeks later in his familiar Hawaiian shirt and an Astros cap covering his scarred noggin ... He was back in Houston's dugout about a month after the whole incident, and wound up managing the end of this game when it was picked back up during the Padres' next trip into Houston in late July.

Like I said in the AD article, this seems like it happened more than five years ago to me now.

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ATT: 27,756


Maddux quiets Astros sticks

Always hate losing to the dang Braves, and this one was doubly frustrating because Maddux had been struggling coming into this game. His ERA was up around 4.80 at first pitch, and he wound up striking out 10 and only giving up 3 hits in his nearly 7 innings of work.

Houston was also lucky not to have been blown out in this one since ATL collected 14 hits, 11 of the singles ... A couple of Gutierrez-to-Bagwell DPs kept the Braves from a few more runs ... Remlinger, Seanez and Rocker wee perfect over the final 7 outs of the game against Houston's lineup.

The game was accented by a wild bottom of the 7th that ended with both Braves manager Bobby Cox and Astros 3B coach Matt Galante ejected ... And I'll give you three guess just who was in charge of this umpiring crew ... That's right, Bruce "I'm A Fat Eff" Froemming :angry: Cox came out to argue a Ball 4 call by Froemming, something that should be an automatic ejection to begin with ... Cox was just stalling, I think, getting Remlinger warmed up ... He gets tossed, and right after he's given the heave-ho, he waddles out to the mound to make his pitching change :eek: I mean, that the gol-derned crapola is that?!

Anyway, Galante then got upset that the umpire crew was letting Cox hang around long enough to make a pitching change, and Galante starts to get into it with Fat Eff Froemming ... Galante heads back to his coaching box, or somewhere nearby, and 3B ump Mark Hirschbeck decides he wants some of Galante so he walks over and actually steps in front of Galante, blocking his path ... Anyway, we were already pissed that Atlanta was winning, so the Houston fans really laid into Froemming and Hirschbeck after that ... Froemming, as usual, called a most ambulatory strike zone in the game, upsetting both teams ... He's a putz! :angry:

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ATT: 39,477

Braves roll, take 3 of 4 from Astros
Millwood perfect through six

This was the only time in my life that I can rememebr rooting for the Braves :eek: Well, not really rooting for the Braves, but with the way things were going for Houston, and the absolute curse it's been to play Atlanta over the past 12 years or so, my nephew and I were rooting for Millwood to throw a no-hitter or perfect game by the 4th inning.

Millwood was as tough as I've seen any pitcher for the first 6 innings ... Dude flamed 10 of the first 18 Astros he saw :eek: Houston finally got to Millwood in the 7th, but they petered out even in that inning when both runs scored on a fielder's choice and a wild pitch after loading the bags with no outs :angry: And Jose Lima lost his composure and his cool early that really set this up for defeat since ATL had a 7-0 lead through 6 innings ... Millwood came in high-&-tight on Lima in the 3rd inning, and Lima started yelling at Millwood ... Lima was totally out of control after that, and even walked Millwood with the bases loaded in the top of the 4th, a 3-run frame for the Braves that really decided it ... Houston clocked Russ Springer for 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th when it was already over.

Lima had been pitching very well up to this point in the season, this loss dropping him to 11-3 with a 2.96 ERA ... But with Dierker on the mend following the seizure and surgery, and the Braves taking 3 of 4 in this series, a lot of momentum seemed to be lost after Houston had been on a bit of a roll ... The only good news in this game was seeing Jose Cruuuuuuuuuz back coaching 1B for Houston after he had been resting a few weeks and taking medication for an irregular hearatbeat.

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ATT: 27,259

Spiers helps Hampton with his glove & bat

The first paragraph of this game's entry in my '99 scrapbook reads, "What a fun game! Hard to beat Saturday night at the ballyard with good friends and such an entertaining effort by the home team." We went to the game with some friends we hadn't seen in a while, a guy I first got to know playing softball with back in the 70s on a rip-roaring team called High Fever. So we had good company to begin with, always a cruial ingredient for a fun time.

But on the heels of what had happened to the Astros in the previous 6 days or so, the Astros' energy and focus in the game made us all feel we definitely got our money's worth this night, didn't even bother us to spend $5 for a beer, or whatever they cost then ... Billy Spiers was the one who got my game ball for this one, I know that because that's also written in my journal ... His double started a 3-run rally in the 1st inning, pretty much all the offense that starting pitcher Mike Hampton would need against Carl Pavano and the Montreal Expos ... Spiers also made a pair of key defensive plays in both the 3rd and 4th innings to stop potential big innings for the Expos (they scored 1 run in each frame as it was) ... The play in the 4th was a real beauty: Former Astros James Mouton scalded one to Spiers' left, and he made a fantastic dive to stop the ball and then threw the speedy Mouton out to get the last out of the inning and prevent a runner on 2B from scoring what would've been the tying run, keeping the score 3-2 at the time.

Hampton was having a great year and was as much fun to watch pitch at this time as Lima ... I still think Hampy was one of the most athletic pitchers I saw play the game, very quick on defense, had a good stick and could run very well ... He got an inning of relief each from Elarton and Wagner to move to 9-2 on the season ... And he went 2-for-2 on the night, picking up his 2nd triple of the season leading off the 5th and eventually scoring to make it 4-2 ... With the 3-bagger, Hampton became the first pitcher since Dwight Gooden in 1993 to hit 2 or more triples in a season (How's that for trivial poop?!).

Another fun(ny) moment came when Bagwell made this diving catch of a little humped-back liner off the bat of Shane Andrews ... Baggy was playing back on the infield and had to come running in towards home plate then dive to make the snag ... He ate a little dirt on the play and his glove also picked up dirt and chalk ... Orlando Cabrera, the next batter, popped up to Bagwell who made the catch just inside fair territory to end the inning, with dust and chalk puffing out of his glove, almost like a mini-firework display ... That brought a chuckle to the crowd :laff:

The last line in my '99 scrapbook about this one reads, "Might have to say this was the best time I've had in the Dome so far this season." With the way things are going for the team at this point in the 2004 season, I'm really glad I kept this journal in '99 to relive some happier 'Stros moments :cool:

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ATT: 33,882

'Stros sweep 'Spos

It was a Father's Day Sunday five years ago when the Astros bombed Montreal to complete a sweep ... The final score might make you think it was Houston's all the way, but it didn't start that way and it was 4-2 going into the bottom of the 7th, still a tight game.

Chris Holt was his usual, slow-starting self in this one ... He'd been erratic all year as the club's 5th starter and his demeanor on the mound always seemed a bit lackadaisical to me ... He got off to a rocky start in the top of the 1st, but escaped with just 1 run scoring, and wound up picking up his 1st win of the season with his dad in attendance, a nice touch.

Houston immediately got back into the game with a single run in each of the first three innings to take control ... Biggio's leadoff double in the bottom of the 1st and 2-out RBI single in the 2nd really set the tone ... Carl Everett had the big numbers on the day, a pair of homers and 6 RBI ... His solo shot in the 3rd and slam in the bottom of the 8th that iced the contest both went into the well out in CF at the Astrodome, pokes of a good 420 feet or better each one.

I went to the game with one of my brother-in-law's, and we had 2 extra tickets before the game ... On the way in we found a father-son duo that was in line to get tickets and gave our extras to them, made us both feel good about doing that ... They actually followed us in and sat in the seats, kinda' weird since a lot of times before when we'd give away our extra seats the people would end up sitting somewhere else.

Anyway, we didn't last long in our usual seats because we had the Hicksville Family from Hell sitting behind us ... This would be an omen for a game to come in the future since one of those same "good ol' boys" would return to a game in the future, the final regular season game to be exact, and play a part in one of my worst Astrodome memories :(

In the 6th we decided we'd had enough of the ignorance and tackiness which flowed from the seats behind us, so we got up and moved ... They had the Astrodome open all the way around in the upper deck, so we scooted over to the area with the seats that were marked where former Astros Doug Rader and Jimmy Wynn each blasted clouts back in the 1960s, figured it might be the last time I got to see or sit in those seats ... We got our beers and found the Rader chair open, sat d :drool: own and, CRAAA-ACK! ... Bogar blasts one that looks like it's coming right to us ... It died before it could get that far, however, and dropped into the LF mezzanine below us, still a pretty fair drive.

After the game, we wound up back at my sister's for Father's Day dinner, fajitas and frozen margaritas :drool: Always a good thing to have a bro-in-law in the wholesale wine & liquor business and a sister who can cook with the best of 'em!

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ATT: 33,661

Reds cut Astros lead to 2

Houston's mound corps was hammered in this one, and the Reds' victory meant that Cincy had shaved 4 games off Houston's lead in a week.

Michael Tucker smacked a long bomb in the 3rd to give Cincinnati a 3-1 lead, but Jeff Bagwell brought the Home 9 right back with a 3-run blast in the bottom of the same frame to give Houston a very shortlived 4-3 advantage.

When Astros starter Chris Holt walked Greg Vaughn with 2 outs and Tucker on first in the top of the 5th, it really was the end of the game. Barry Larkin followed with an RBI double and Eddie Taubensee sliced a 2-run single to make it 6-4 Reds. Trevor Miller was summoned to relieve Holt, but his wildness in the top of the 6th opened more floodgates as Cincy scored 4 more in that frame to ice it.

Just an ugly loss, and this time in the 1999 season must've been horrible for interim manager Matt Galante. Larry Dierker was still missing from the team but had been released from the hospital a few days before this game following his skull surgery about a week earlier. And Galante was no doubt feeling the pressure not to blow the NLC lead Dierker and the team built. Galante was just a victim of timing as far as I was concerned, with the team really going into a tailspin after that damn Atlanta series.





NOTE: While the Astros were busy dropping a 10-7 decision to the Reds in a game with absolutely no pitching, St. Louis rookie Jose Jimenez was outpitching Randy Johnson and Arizona in a 1-0 no-hitter. For my money, it was the most unlikely of all no-hitters since Jimenez was facing a far superior arm in Johnson, plus Jimenez was having a pretty awful rookie season for the Cards. Jimenez struckout 8 and walked only 2, with the game's only run coming on a Thomas Howard RBI single off Johnson in the top of the 9th. Johnson himself only allowed 5 hits and whiffed 14. It was the first Cardinals no-no in 16 seasons, and the first no-hitter by an NL rookie since Burt Hooten's 4-0 gem for the Cubs over the Phillies in 1972. The last time a Cardinals rookie tossed a no-hitter was 1934, and the pitcher was Paul Dean.

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ATT: 31,792

And the losing continues . . .

This might have been the ugliest loss of the regular season for Houston. It was certainly the ugliest that I saw.

And it was ugly in more ways than one.

First off, it seemed like I had been at the Astrodome my whole life at this point in the season, and my frequency attending games would only increase. Houston had a 10-game homestand from June 11-20 (Dierker suffered his seizure early in that domestand), then played 3 at St. Louis (June 21-23), and then came right back home for a 4-game set versus the Reds (June 24-27). That adds up to 14 home games in a 17-game and 17-day stretch, and this was the 8th of those I'd been to. After an off day that following Monday, the Cardinals would come to town for a 3-game series, meaning Houston would have 17 home games and an off day over a 21-day (20 game) span!

Neither Patty nor myself really felt like going to this one, but it was one of those "turn back the clock" games with the old "rainbow" uniforms being featured. They were also handing out commemorative hat pins featuring those old jerseys, and one of the other guys on ourseason ticket plan was off on an archaeological dig with Patty's brother and really wanted us to get one of the pins for him.

So we went. We got our hat pins, walked around the Astrodome and found us a good spot to sit in the field boxes for a little while, saw Houston afll behind early then skeedaddled on home where I watched the rest of the sickening effort. The 1999 Astros looked even worse in those rainbow uni's than the teams 15-20 years before them did. And I think that's partly due to players today preferring their uniforms more baggy than players did 25 years ago or so. Derek Bell looked like an absolute clown in his throwback jersey.

Weird Stat of the Game: Five of Cincy's 8 runs score on plays that an out was made :eek: Part of that was due to the Reds lacing 3 triples, with two of those scoring on ensuing infield groundouts.

Most Crucial Astros Stat at This Point in the Season: While Lima, Hampton and Reynolds were all pitching All-Star caliber ball, Houston's 4-5 starters looked more like Triple-A pitchers at best. Sean Bergman (who started this game) and Chris Holt were a combined 5-12 in the W-L department. And the Astros were 9-18 (.333) in games the duo started. In the other 46 games up to that point in the season, Houston was 33-13 (.717). The talk around town at this time was when the team would move Scott Elarton from the bullpen to the rotation.

This win for the Reds put them just a game behind Houston in the NL Central after the Astros had opened up a 6-game lead earlier in the month. Cincy would tie Houston for the lead before July calendars were opened.

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ATT: 34,797

Barker & Astros steal 5-4 win

Tell me if this doesn't sound familiar, Astros fans: "Despite the exciting come-from-behind win, I'm almost disappointed with the way the Astros played this one. They missed several chances to tack on a run or two earlier in the game..."

Those are the first words in my journal for this game, amazing how that inability to get those one or two extra hits with men on base early in a game has been a failing for so long now.

Shane Reynolds pitched well enough to get the win in this one, chunking 7 strong innings with just a mistake to Fernando Tatis in the 2nd inning his worst mistake ... He finished the 7th with a 4-hitter going and 10 Ks already ... But Shane ran out of gas quickly when he opened the 8th frame with a 4-1 lead and promptly gave up singles to Polanco and McEwing ... Elarton came in to face the meat of the St. Louis order and got Renteria to fly out ... But McGwire singled in a run, a rare non-extra base hit for Big Mac, and Langford tied it with an RBI single an out later.

Houston got the lead backwhen Polanco booted a Eusebio grounder in the bottom of the 8th ... Glen Barker pinch ran and stole 2nd ... Jack Howell then walked before Biggio stroked a 2-out single off Manny Aybar to plate Barker with the winning run ... Biggio also singled in Houston's 4th run in this game.

Billy Wagner had a 10-pitch, one strikeout 9th inning for the save, and that was that ... Turned out it was Elarton's last relief apperance for a while since he would be inserted into the rotation over the coming weekend in place of Sean Bergman who was diagnosed with a right forearm muscle strain.

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ATT: 42,475

Astros bust out 11-3 against Cards
Houston's offense had been in a funk ever since Atlanta's pitching staff came to town a couple of weeks earlier, and it had cost them precious ground in the standings. Even with this win, the Astros' one-time 6-game lead had totally evaporated, and then some (see standings in next post).

Walking into this game with an old college buddy and his two teen-age sons, he boldly predicted, "They're going to bust out tonight." Whether it was just wishful thinking or divine prognastication on his part, it proved true.

Houston's bats did break loose, scoring 4 times in the bottom of the first to leave no doubt from the start who was going to win this one. Rookie Jose Jimenez, who tossed a no-no in his previous start opposite Randy Johnson and the D-Backs, lost his no-hitter to Biggio on the opening pitch, a single to left ... And it was all downhill after that for Jimenez and the Cardinals ... A wild pitch plated Bidge with run #1 for the Astros, and back-to-back doubles by Billy Spiers and Richard Hidalgo completed the 4-run first frame to give Mike Hampton the early cushion.

Hampy tried to blow the cushion immediately in the top of the second when he gave up doubles to Fernando Tatis and Edgar Renteria as St. Louis cut Houston's advantage in half at 4-2 ... But helped by Polanco's error in the third, the Astros tacked on another run to make it 5-2 ... And the good guys would put the game out of reach with another 4-run frame in the fifth, helped by a weird infield single off the bat of Ricky Gutierrez to chase Jimenez who left with 7 earned runs and only 17 outs in his linescore ... Gutierrez also homered in the 7th, his 1st of the season that was nearly halfway over, to pace the club with 3 RBI on the night.

Tatis had his second double of the game in the 8th to drive home St. Louis' third and final run, and Jeff Bagwell clubbed his 25th tater of the season in the 8th to complete the evening's tally 11-3.

Hampton moved to 10-3 with a 3.04 ERA after this game, and Joe McEwing's single in the 8th (ahead of Tatis' RBI double) extended his hitting streak at the time to 21 games.

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MLB STANDINGS THROUGH 30 JUNE 1999


NL EAST . . W . . L . . GB
BRAVES. . . 47. . 31. . --
METS. . . . 44. . 34. . 3
PHILLIES. . 40. . 36. . 6
EXPOS . . . 30. . 44. . 15
MARLINS . . 27. . 51. . 20

NL CENTRAL. W . . L . . GB
REDS. . . . 43. . 31. . --*
ASTROS. . . 44. . 32. . --*
PIRATES . . 39. . 37. . 5
CUBS. . . . 37. . 37. . 6
CARDINALS . 37. . 40. . 7½
BREWERS . . 35. . 41. . 9

NL WEST . . W . . L . . GB
D’BACKS . . 43. . 35. . --
GIANTS. . . 42. . 35. . ½
PADRES. . . 36. . 38. . 5
ROCKIES . . 34. . 39. . 6½
DODGERS . . 34. . 40. . 7

AL EAST . . W . . L . . GB
YANKEES . . 46. . 29. . --
RED SOX . . 45. . 32. . 2
BLUE JAYS . 39. . 41. . 9½
D’RAYS. . . 33. . 44. . 14
ORIOLES . . 32. . 44. . 14½

AL CENTRAL. W . . L . . GB
INDIANS . . 50. . 26. . --
WHITE SOX . 36. . 38. . 13
ROYALS. . . 32. . 43. . 17½
TIGERS. . . 33. . 45. . 18
TWINS . . . 29. . 47. . 21

AL WEST . . W . . L . . GB
RANGERS . . 44. . 33. . --
MARINERS. . 39. . 37. . 4½
A’S . . . . 36. . 40. . 7½
ANGELS. . . 35. . 41. . 8½

* Cincinnati (.581) was percentage points ahead of Houston (.579)

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

AVG: T. Fernandez (.385) ... Jeter (.377) ... Garciaparra (.366) ... R.Palmeiro (.356) ... B.Williams (.343)

HR: Canseco (30) ... Griffey (27) ... J.Gonzalez (23) ... S.Green (23) ... M.Ramirez (22)

SB: T.Goodwin (27) ... S.Stewert (27) ... T.Hunter (23) ... Lofton (23) ... R.Alomar (21) ... j.Encarnacion (21)

ERA: P.Martinez (2.02) ... Cone (2.54) ... Rosado (2.90) ... Halama (3.02) ... Sirotka (3.24)

SAVES: Wetteland (25) ... R.Hernandez (22) ... T.Percival (22) ... M.Rivera (21) ... Taylor (19)

K'S: P.Martinez (170) ... C.Finley (93) ... D.Wells (91) ... Mussina (84) ... Cone (82)


NATIONAL LEAGUE

AVG: L.Walker (.382) ... Casey (.371) ... L.Gonzalez (.367) ... H.Rodriguez (.346) ... Kendall (.332)

HR: S.Sosa (32) ... Bagwell (26) ... McGwire (26) ... L.Walker (24) ... Burnitz (23)

SB: R.Cedeno (43) ... Womack (36) ... E.Young (30) ... Cameron (25) ... Kendall (22)

ERA: Hampton (3.04) ... A.Ashby (3.07) ... R.Johnson (3.14) ... Schilling (3.20) ... Harnisch (3.25)

SAVES: Nen (21) ... Hoffman (20) ... B.Wagner (20) ... J.Franco (19) ... J.Shaw (18)

K'S: R.Johnson (188) ... Schilling (128) ... S.Reynolds (108) ... Hitchcock (106) ... K.Brown (102)

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ATT: 32,573


COMEBACK!

That was the key word for this game, comeback. It was Dierker's first game back after his seizure and surgery, it was reliever Doug Henry's first game back from the DL, it was my buddy Rick's first Astros game in about six weeks as he returned from his archaeological trip to Southern France, Spain and Portugal, and the Astros rallied from a 6-0 deficit to post a magnificent 8-6 comeback victory. And all of this happened in the first game back after the All-Star Break.

Doubles by Bobby Higginson, Damion Easley and Deivi Cruz played a key part in Detroit's 4-run fourth inning, and they finall chased Shane Reynolds with a single tally in the fifth. Brad Ausmus started both innings for the Tigers with singles.

But Houston didn't quit, plating 3 in the bottom of the fifth off Tigers starter Dave Mlicki on a Bagwell bomb, and getting help for a pair of unearned runs in the sixth thanks to a bobble by Motown first sacker Tony Clark. Houston completed the comeback with a 3-run seventh at the expense of former Astro Willie Blair, a 2-run single from Deek Bell playing a huge part in that frame.

Speaking of Ding Dong, Bell was busy pouting and moaning to the media at this point in the season after he had been demoted from 2nd in the order down to 6th ... He was quoted as saying, "I may have worn out my welcome." :hmm: He'd been booed and maligned for a few seasons by this time, and he was just figuring out that many an Astros fan didn't hold him in high regard ... What a primadonna that butthead was! :angry:

This was also the first game back for the umpires after their little "we're not going on strike, we're quitting" posturing that would eventually lead to the ump union's demise with several old umpires still on the outside looking in five years later. As luck would have it, Houston drew one of the worst crews possible (Ed "Bat Guano" Rapuano, Charlie Williams, Greg Bonin and Frank Pulli).

Bat Guano got the umpire's evening off to a bad start in my book when he let Mlicki drill both Bogar and Bagwell, but then made a huge, theatrical presentation of warning both benches when Reynolds threw inside to a Tiger ... Reynolds' pitch actually bounced up to the plate, and Rapuano decided that Reynolds was trying to hit the batter :hmm: Absolute poop-for-brains, that man.

And Charlie Williams, bless his stinkin' bad eyes, missed an obvious safe call on what should've been an infield single by Carl Everett who ended up pulling a hammy on the play and having to leave the game ... I always think of those umpire ratings they used to have in Baseball Weekly ... The players all said that he was a rel nice guy, just a horrible umpire.

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ATT: 41,177

'Stros rally, Bell's bases-full walk wins it in 10th

A very weird game to begin what would be a 9-day stretch of baseball for me. Jose Lima and Detroit rookie Joe Borowski hooked up in a pitching duel that lasted until the Tigers tallied 2 in the top of the 7th to break the scoreless tie. Damian Easley led off that inning with a double, and Lima helped things out with a wild pitch though he did pitch out of what could've been a bigger inning for Detroit.

We all saw Borowksi tiring in the 7th and were surprised to see him start the 8th. He was throwing hard, but you could see Houston hitters getting better swings on him in the 7th. Biggio homered to lead off the bottom of the 8th for the Astros, and Bagwell followed with a solo blast one out later to finally chase Borowski. and knot the score 2-2

And then, in the 10th, the irony of all ironies: Derek Bell wins it on a bases-loaded walk off former Astro Todd Jones! :eek: Probably the most impatient hitter on the team that year, and he walks! Biggio, Spiers and Bagwell led the inning off with singles, with Spiers' a bunt single and Baggy's safety an infield dribbler to the right side. But Jones then struck out both Hidalgo and pinch-hitter Jack Howell to appear as though he might get out of the jam.

Jones' first pitch to Ding Dong Bell almost hit him. In fact, we were booing Bell for getting out of the way! :angry: He could've turned and let it hit him in the back of the left arm or on his back, and the game would've been over. But he took three more balls from Jones, one of them a close one, and forced Biggio in with the winner that way. The win gave Houston a sweep of Detroit with the Indians coming to town.

I would end up seeing 10 games over the next nine days technically as the completion of the "Dierker seizure game" would be included in the coming week. The stretch would also include a trip to Detroit and Tiger Stadium, my favorite park.

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ATT: 50,299

Hampy blanks Tribe

This was a really great game with a packed house and a hot pitcher on the mound for Houston against the top scoring team in all of baseball. And this was also a great example of how the "by the book, lefty-righty" managers like Mike Hargrove for Cleveland can get burned. Hargrove sat two of Cleveland's best hitters for this one, Jim Thome and David Justice, because their lefty sticks aren't that great against southpaw arms. But in a close game like this, all it would take is one time for either of those two to get you back in it. I can see maybe resting one of them, but taking them both out was a little silly if you ask me. Just seems like a quick way to handicap your team right from the beginning on the road.

At this point in the 1999 season, it might've been argued that Mike Hampton was the best all-around pitcher going. I know, most numbskulls would've immediately answered Pedro or Big Unit if the question had been posed to them at that time. But Head Case Hampy has always been a better fielder and batter than either of those two, and after this shutout he was 12-3 with a 2.81 ERA. And he only got better from then on going 10-1 with a 3.00 ERA to finish 22-4, 2.90.

This game was also one of those damn beanie crap baby giveaway dates, and I generally hate giveaway dates since they attract frauds as far as real baseball fans go. So that's why there was a big crowd for this one. As usual, Drayton McLane and his staff were caught off guard by this phenomenon even though giveaway dates are usually planned to attract huge crowds you don't otherwise get :hmm: Despite the fact they must've expected a large crowd, many of the concession stands in the upper deck were not open.

We had 20+ seats for this one having traded in some tickets earlier in the season when we could so we could invite lots of friends to a couple of games and make a real party of it. It was murder to try and get anything at the concession lines. And the early part of the game moved along briskly, so if you did get up then you were likely to miss as many as 9-10 outs :eek: I chose to hop down a level and grab a beer while smoking my usual one ciggy a game back then, so I didn't miss too much action.

Craig Biggio was also on fire, and enjoyed his 2nd-straight 3-hit game. He singled in the 2nd to drive home Glen Barker with the first run of the game, then scored the second run when he doubled to lead off the 8th and scooted plateward on a groundout later in the frame.


NOTE: While we were in the Astrodome for the 'Stros-Injuns game, David Cone was busy throwing a perfect game up in the Bronx. Cone's gem came after the Yankees' pre-game festivities included Don Larsen and Yogi Berra recreating the final out of Larsen's el perfect during the 1956 World Series. It was the first no-hitter pitched in interleague play as New York downed Montreal 6-0. Home runs by Derek Jeter and Ricky Ledee fueled their offense that day.

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ATT: 34,276

Astros win another wild one

A pretty weird game on a few counts. First, the win gave Houston an 8-game winning streak, that sure hasn't happened too often.

Secondly, Chris Holt pitched 7 scoreless innings. You can probably count on two fingers how many times he hurled 7 straight innings of scoreless ball in the same game.

And lastly, for the second time in three days, Houston won in extra innings with their final batter never making contact with the ball.

Houston took a 2-0 lead in the third on a 2-run double by Richard Hidalgo. Holt kep the score that way before he was lifted to start the 8th inning. Jay "Molasses" Powell came in and coughed up the lead. He got Jacob Cruz and Kenny Lofton to open the inning, but then gave up a single to Omar Vizquel and a game-tying 2-run shot to Robby Alomar.

Craig Biggio was still hot, and he drew 3 of the 6 walks that Cleveland starter Mark Langston allowed. The Astros missed a shot to score another run or two in regulation, and the game went to extra frames.

Jose Cabrera came on for Houston to start the 11th and struck out Justice, Sexson and Thome 1-2-3! Tom Candiotti then came out of the Indians' bullpen and opened the bottom of the 11th with a walk to Billy Spiers.

And then came the key play of the game: Down in the count 0-2, Tim Bogar leaned into a Langston offering and reached base. Next up was Carlos Hernandez, not the left-handed pitcher still in the Houston chain, a light-hitting infielder by the same name. He got down a nice bunt towards 3B, and Candiotti tried to get Spiers at third, and failed. A very poor decision by the veteran. Biggio was up next, and Candiotti unleased a knuckler that knuckled before the plate and bounced past Cleveland catcher Einar Diaz to plate Spiers from third with the winner.

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ATT: 41,139

Colon & Tribe stop 'Stros streak

Houston's 8-game win streak ended with a boring thud as Bartolo Colon and Cleveland's slugging offense pasted a 7-1 defeat on Houston. Not really anything interesting in this one except for Jim Thome's 2-run infield single. Yes, I said infield single and 2 RBI.

The Indians led 1-0 in the top of the 3rd when Manny Ramirez popped a 3-run homer to give Colon all the support he would need. Colon allowed just 5 hits and no walks, striking out 6 in his 8 innings of work to move to 9-3 on the season. Shane Reynolds started for Houston, and just didn't have it, the same story for him since just before the All-Star break. The real mystery for Shane was the fact he ran into his biggest trouble when there were 2 outs in an inning or he had 2 strikes on a batter.

Jeff Bagwell's solo blast in the 4th, #31 for him at that point in the season, was Houston's only excitement.

Brian Williams was on in relief of Reynolds to start the top of the 8th with the score 5-1. Robby Alomar stroked a double, Williams plunked Ramirez, and David Justice then walked to fill 'em. In comes lefty Trever Miller from Houston's pen to face the left-handed hitting Thome. The infield shifted around a bit, and Thome sliced one into the hole at short. Astros SS Tim Bogar ranged over and got a glove on the ball, but it trickled away from him and that allowed Manny to come around from second and score on the infield single behind Alomar. If the ball shoots straight to Berkman in left, it's doubtful that Ramirez would've gone home.

The Astros beat writer in 1999 was Carlton Thompson, and in his write-up the next day he made a comment about home plate umpire Charlie Williams' inconsistent strike zone. Thompson wrote, "No one doubts the difficulty of being an umpire, but it can't be as hard as Williams made it look." :laff:

Houston had endured the umpiring crew of Williams, Ed Rapuano, Frank Pulli and Greg Bonin for all six games in the Astrodome following the All-Star break, and they were 5-1 in those games. That might be one of the most amazing feats EVER in team history!

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ATT: 23,985

Womack's slam sinks 'Stros

Always hate losing a game, but at least I got to see something I'd never seen before in a game.

Tony Womack was a one-man wrecking crew in this one. He led off the top of the 1st with an infield single and came home via Steve Finley's double to give Arizona a 2-0 lead before most Astrs fans got to their seats.

In the 5th Houston rallied behind a Jeff Bagwell 3-run tater that capped a 4-run frame to give the 'Stros a 4-2 lead. The ball landed about 8 feet to the left of my dad and I where we were sitting down in Lefty's Pub out in the LF corner of the Astrodome.

But then Womack and his mates had their own 4-run inning to come. Jay Powell started the top of the 8th with Houston now leading 4-3, and he did nothing to change my mind about him as a reliever. I know his numbers have been good at times and some people think he's a decent-to-above average bullpenner. But I would never have him on my team because he works so damn slow and feel that just eventually dooms everyone on defense, not to mention boring the hell outta' the paying public. :angry:

Powell struckout Finley, then forgot how to throw strikes as he walked Travis Lee on four pitches and hit Andy Fox. He got his command back to strikeout Kelly Stinnett then lost it just as quickly when walked Jay Bell on four straight tosses. Dierker brought in Billy Wagner at that point, and it looked great when Billy the Kid went up oh-two to Womack. But then it all went to doo-doo as Womack fisted one out to LF where rookie Lance Berkman made an ill-advised attempt at a diving catch. The ball got under his mitt and rolled all the way to the LF wall just in front of Lefty's Pub. It was eight-skate and rotate, ladies choice, everybody dance on the bases as Womack sailed around the circuit for an inside the park salami. I'd never seen one of those before, or since.

I hate losing a game when you're ahead and have two strikes on a batter with two outs in an inning. :no:

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ATT: 31,861

Benes hits & pitches Snakes past 'Stros

In the notes I made in my journal, I called this one the "dirty dozen game" since Houston left 12 men on base, 7 of those in scoring position, and struck out 12 times. Craig Biggio, who had been hotter than a $2 pistol, had a particularly rough game going 0-for-5 and whiffing three times by himself.

Jose Lima started for the Astros and did a good job. He simply ran into a 3-batter stretch in the 3rd inning that cost him when his offense failed to solve Arizona starter Andy Benes who entered the game with an ERA around five-&-a-half. Benes led off the top of the 3rd with a home run to left, and both Tony Womack and David Dellucci followed that with singles. Matt Williams drove Womack home with a sac fly later in the inning, and by then Lima was already back in a groove. Lima pitched 8 innings, struck out 7 and walked none.

Houston only scraped together 6 hits off Benes who ended up needing relief help from a trio of Diamondback relievers. But they also had 6 walks on the night, and failed to make Arizona pay for that. Derek Bell and Paul Bako tried to get a rally going for Houston in the 4th when they plated their only run on the evening.

A weird play allowed Houston to load the bases in that frame: With two outs, Bogar on 2nd and Lima on 1st, Biggio was at the plate. He swung at a really bad pitch from Benes to for strike 3. But the pitch was so bad it was ruled a wild pitch, getting past catcher Kelly Stinnett and allowing Biggio to race to 1st with the other runners moving up. That seemed to be the break we were looking for, but Billy Spiers flew out to center to end that threat.

Houston also loaded the bases in the 7th and failed to score. Gregg Olson was on for Arizona then, and he sandwiched 2 walks around a plunking of Richard Hidalgo. Greg Swindell came on from the pen, however, and coaxed pinch-hitter Matt Mieske to pop out and end the threat. Houston never mounted much of a threat after that with the exception of an 8th-inning pinch hit single by Russ Johnson.



NOTE: This was the first time I saw CB Bucknor umpire a game. He was one of about a dozen minor league umps who had just been hired by MLB as they prepared for the mass resignation as threatened for September 2nd by the existing umpires. These new umps were from the minor leagues and already dubbed "replacement umps" by the press. Bucknor worked the plate for this game and the notes in my journal read, "I can't say I was very impressed with his strike zone." I'm still not impressed by his ball-strike observations.

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ATT: 39,773 & 37,482

Astros slam way to pair of wins

Really strange afternoon/evening at the Astrodome that sort of wore me out just before my scheduled early Saturday a.m. flight to Detroit.

Game 1 of this "doubleheader" was really the completion of the game back in June when Larry Dierker suffered his seizure. My buddy and I met my pop and stepmom down in Lefty's Pub about 5:00 or so in the afternoon and munched on the free peanuts while supping on the zillion dollar beers and watching the end of that game. It was a weird feeling to sit there and have them start up a game with the scoreboard already in the bottom of the 8th :notme: Just felt weird.

Houston was just getting ready to hit in the bottom of the 8th when Dierker had the seizure, so they had their 1-2-3 inning to begin with. The score was 4-1 now in the top of the 9th, and my dad was the first to comment that bringing on Billy Wagner migt not be a good idea since Wagner might have this feeling he was starting the game instead of coming on at the end. Sure enough, Wagner didn't look very comfortable at all, and he grooved a pair of home run strikes to Phil Nevin and Ruben Rivera among the first four batters he faced. The score was suddenly 4-3, and then he walked Darin Jackson to put the tying run on base. And now we're thinking that this could be a very long night at the Astrodome if the Padres tied it.

But Billy the Kid whiffed George Arias to end the inning and finally put that game in the books about six weeks after it first got underway. All four runs for Houston in the game scored on a Derek Bell grand slam that he hit in mid-June.

The nightcap saw San Diego take a 2-0 lead in the 2nd on a Ben Davis double. Houston tied it 2-2 in the 5th on a Derek Bell solo shot and, after Quilvio Veras stole home in the top of the 6th (part of a double steal) to give the Padres a 3-2 lead, the Astros tied it up again 3-3 in the 7th on a shocking Paul Bako round-tripper. The real key to that inning was Arias booting a ground ball off the bat of Richard Hidalgo; it wa Arias' second miscue of the game with both of them playing into unearned runs for Houston.

Houston finally took charge in the bottom of the 7th when Matt Mieske delivered a grand slam blow off former Astro Donne Wall, and the Astros went on to a 7-4 triumph. Mike Hampton started for Houston and ended up going all the way despite a few rough spots. This game saw his record balloon to 13-3.

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ATT: 34,874

Houston takes advantage of LA errors

The start of a little 3-game, mini-homestand that my main Astros Buddy and I swept. My buddy hates so many teams, it's hard to tell who he hates the most. But the Dodgers are certainly near the top of his list, or bottom if you want to look at it that way. His favorite line about Los Angeles is, "Once a f***ing Dodger, always a f***ing Dodger," and it goes back to when Joe Ferguson bounced back and forth between the two clubs in the 70s.

This was one of those games that when you left the stadium, you felt pretty lucky to win even though the 7-2 score doesn't indicate the game was that close. Mike Hampton only gave up 3 hits over 7 innings. But he walked 5 and never really looked too comfortable. Still, he managed to hang in there and watch his season record soar to 15-3.

The Dodgers' 2 runs came on solo shots by Devon White in the 2nd and Adrian Beltre in the 9th. Doug Henry, who tossed the 9th for Houston, might've grooved a pitch to Beltre in the 9th as sort of a thank you for his shoddy fielding playing a big role in Houston's victory. Beltre was charged with 2 errors on the game, and probably could've been given a third. The first E opened the floodgates for a 5-run third inning for Houston, and essentially was the game. Mark Grudzielanek's error in the same inning also didn't help.

That inning started off with Tim Bogar striking out and Mike Hampton grounding out as Darren Dreifort was looking pretty strong. Craig Biggio got it all started with a double to right-center. Billy Spiers singled him home to tie things 1-1. Jeff Bagwell then hit a little lazy liner to Beltre at 3B that started to tail foul just before Beltre stuck his glove out and...DROPPED IT! What we didn't understand was why the official scorer originally ruled that a hit, it was just such an obvious "fail-to-close-mitt-in-timely-fashion" error!

Derek Bell and Lance Berkman followed with RBI singles before Grudzielanek's error loaded the bases and a Paul Bako base knock brought the final two runs of the frame home.

Beltre's second official error of the night also contributed to an unearned run in the 8th.

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ATT: 31,771

Brown beats Killer B's again!

"Another Brown-out in The Dome for the 'Stros. A lot of folks will simply say, 'Kevin Brown really has their number.' But I think it's a case of Houston hitters simply locking up mentally when they face him, Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine and any pitcher making their first major league start."

That's what I wrote five years ago to begin my journal entry for this contest. Kevin Brown simply owned Houston, tossing a complete game 4-hitter in this one and losing the shutout in the 9th inning. The reporter for Houston leading misinformation source, Carlton Thompson, built Brown up and ignored the failings (flailings?) of the offense when he wrote that, "...the Astros should be applauded for simply scoring against Brown on Wednesday night."

As I recall, the fans did applaud in that 9th inning when the Astros scored after having nobody on and 2 outs. We were, in fact, screaming for Darryl Ward to win it for us at the end before he flew out to Raul Mondesi in right with the tying run on 2B in the form of Derek Bell. Brown is a good if not great pitcher, so give him credit. But as pitiful as Houston hitters looked at times when they faced him, I also discredit the bats a little.

Besides, we wasted a great performance in his own right by Chris Holt in this one. Holt went 8 innings, 100 pitches even, and only gave up 4 hits. If not for his own throwing error on Devon White's bunt in the 7th, the Dodgers might not have scored their 2nd run of the game. The loss dropped Holt's record to 2-11 on the campaign.

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ATT: 38,018

Shane blanks Bums, offense explodes in 7th

Another one of those games that was a lot closer than the score. When Houston came to bat in the bottom of the 7th, it was still nothin'-nothin' with both Ismael Valdes and Shane Reynolds throwing goose eggs.

But then it all caved in on LA while Shane completed his whitewashing to improve his record to 14-7 on the '99 season.

Russ Johnson put the first run on the board when he hammered a 1-out, two-oh Valdes offering over the LF wall to get the 6-run 7th-inning started. Valdes then walked Bagwell and that was the extent of his evening. Alan Mills and Pedro Borbon came on for the Dodgers and both failed to get an out while allowing 5 runs to score, one of those being Bagwell who was Valdes' responsibility. Mills walked Derek Bell on 4 pitches, and that's when we knew things were in our favor. Richard Hidalgo also walked in the inning, giving both him and Bagwell three free passes on the evening. A Matt Mieske pinch-hit, 2-run double was also huge as Dierker sensed the big inning and kept it going with pinch-hitters and pinch-runners, improving his defense in the process late in the game.




ALSO ON THIS DATE: It was 5 years ago that Mark McGwire hit home runs #500 and #501 in front of the home crowd up in St. Louis. Both were solo blasts in the Cardinals' 10-3 loss to the Padres. San Diego's Tony Gwynn collected the 2,999th hit of his career in the same game, a 9th-inning double off Manny Aybar.

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ATT: 39,829

PATHETIC!

Ok, so I'm a week late catching this thread up, so sue me! :D

This game was played on Friday the 13th, it went 13 innings, the Astros ended up making 4 errors and lost, you figure it out!

The only good thing was Carl Everett's upper deck blast in the bottom of the 13th, and since it was Carl "I'm A Moody B!tch" Everett, it was even hard to cheer that.

Early homers from Brian Giles and Kevin Young gave Pitt a 3-0 lead. Everett poked a 2-out, 3-run tater in the 6th then to tie it. A Mike Hampton error contributed to an unearned run for the Pirates in the top of the 7th, Hampy's final inning. And a balk by Jose Silva contributed to a run for Houston in the bottom of the 7th to knot it 4-4, the score at the end of 9 innings.

Two errors (Spiers & Biggio) and two walks eventually lost it for Houston in the top of the 13th. Everett then hit, get this!, only the 13th homer ever hit into the Astrodome's upper deck (what most people will recall as the "rainbow level," originally the "gold level"). It was a mammoth blast, but I still don't think it was as far as Darryl Strawberry's Home Run Derby shot to deep right in the 1986 pre-ASG festivities.

Anyway, Everett's shot led off the bottom of the 13th and that was all she wrote for Houston in the inning and for the game. Sent them to their 4th-straight loss with Cincy still leading the NLC at this time.

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ATT: 44,868

Holt heaves blanks, Bucs' defense backfires

So weird how things can turn around between two teams in 24 hours.

It was Pittsburgh's turn to make 4 errors, and I my journal includes this comment: "...this was as much a Pirates loss as it was an Astros win..."

This was a slow and strange game, though you always celebrate a 7-1 win regardless. Still, while Chris Holt got 23 outs without allowing a run, he and catcher Paul Bako were constantly having to discuss the next pitch or sequence. This really drug the game along, and the night after a 13-inning affair, the last thing you need is a 9-inning game that you win 7-1 to last over 4½ hours.

But one thing is for sure: Holt had some good movement, because Bako had trouble catching and holding on to the pitches.

Carl Everett hit his 3rd homer of the series, adding a double to account for 4 RBI for Houston. But errors by the Pirates setup a lot of the scoring, with 4 unearned runs total in the game.

The win inched Houston up just percentage points behind the Reds in the NLC.

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ATT: 20,558

Astros have just enough to beat Brewers 8-6

One of those ungly wins, made even uglier with Eric Gregg's ass-wide strike zone that moved thoughout the game.

Scott Elarton was inconsistent in this one, tossing really nasty stuff sometimes and throwing meat at other times. A 2-run double to opposing pitcher Cal Eldred with a 2-2 count was certainly meat. He completely lost it that inning, whiffing both Geoff Jenkins and Marquis Grissom to lead off the frame, then giving up the 2-bagger to Eldred eventually.

But he looked pretty good the other five innings he pitched.

Caminiti's 2-run single in the 3rd helped Houston regain the lead for good, a late homer from Biggio capped the scoring and gave Houston an 8-4 lead.

Milwaukee tallied two more in the 9th because of Jay "Molasses" Powell's wildness and "fielder's indifference." :hmm: My buddy at the game kept saying we should be holding their runners on or the Brewers would claw back. They almost did.