Colt Stadium

Colt Stadium

The stadium in 1962.
Location Houston, Texas
Coordinates 29°41′18″N 95°24′31″W / 29.68833°N 95.40861°W / 29.68833; -95.40861Coordinates: 29°41′18″N 95°24′31″W / 29.68833°N 95.40861°W / 29.68833; -95.40861
Owner Harris County
Capacity 33,000
Field size Left Field – 360 ft (110 m)
Left-Center – 395 ft (120 m)
Deep Left Center – 427 ft (130 m)
Center – 420 ft (128 m)
Deep Right Center – 427 ft (130 m)
Right Center – 395 ft (120 m)
Right Field – 360 ft (110 m)
Surface Grass
Construction
Opened 1962
Closed 1964
Demolished 1970s
Construction cost US$2 million
($15.6 million in 2016 dollars[1])
Tenants
Houston Colt .45s (MLB) (1962–1964)
Colt Stadium junkyard, photo taken February 18, 1973.

Colt Stadium was a Major League baseball stadium that formerly stood in Houston, Texas. It was the home of the Houston Colt .45s. It was their temporary home from 1962–1964 while the Astrodome was being built, just to the south of it. The stadium consisted of an uncovered grandstand stretching from foul pole to foul pole and small bleacher stands in right and left field. One baseball annual published just before the 1962 season referred to it as "a barn-like thing". It is best remembered for the horribly hot and humid weather (and attendant mosquito population) that had necessitated building the first domed stadium.

The stadium was abandoned when the Astrodome was completed. The Astros would occasionally use it for running and exercising to acclimatize players to warm weather before a road trip. However, the players had to be careful as rattlesnakes would often take up residence on the field. Monsanto engineers also used it as a testing ground for what would become 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 near-by Astroworld and weathering in the blistering Texas sun. It was eventually broken down and moved to Gómez Palacio to serve as the home of a Mexican League baseball team. Its site was paved over, adding some area to the Astrodome parking lot.

The right field corner of the stadium was located in what is now the northwest corner of the Reliant Center. Much of the northern half of the stadium (center field, left field and the third base stands) is occupied by a power station, and home plate was approximately located where a light pole in the adjacent parking lot is.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Retrieved November 10, 2015.

External links

Preceded by
first ballpark		 Home of the
Houston Colt .45s
1962–1964 		Succeeded by
Harris County Domed Stadium
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