Baseball Moves Indoors as the Houston Astrodome Opens

On April 9, 1965, the Houston Astrodome hosted its first baseball game, an exhibition between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees. A crowd of 47,876 filled the world's first enclosed, air-conditioned stadium. President Lyndon Johnson watched from the owner's suite in right field.

Mickey Mantle singled in the first inning. In the sixth, he launched a nearly 400-foot drive into the center field seats for the first home run in Astrodome history. The ball was painted orange so fans could track it against the dome's ceiling. Mantle scored the Yankees' only run. The Astros won 2-1 in twelve innings.

The Astrodome was officially named the Harris County Domed Stadium, but the press immediately called it the Eighth Wonder of the World. It seated over 45,000 people, featured cushioned seats in bright colors, and operated at a constant 72 degrees regardless of Houston's brutal summer heat. The scoreboard behind center field was four stories tall and erupted in animations after home runs, complete with snorting bulls and fireworks.

The dome's ambition created unforeseen problems. Outfielders lost fly balls in the glare of sunlight streaming through the translucent roof panels. By late April, groundskeepers had painted over 700 gallons of off-white paint onto the panels to cut the glare. That solved the visibility problem but killed the specially grown Bermuda grass. The following spring, the Astrodome debuted a synthetic surface called AstroTurf, another invention born of necessity.

Indoor baseball, artificial grass, and climate-controlled sports all trace back to this single game in April 1965.