Volume 6 - Number 3 - Summer Sports - Letter from the Editor

Oct 13, 2026

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Letter from the editor for “Summer Sports,” Volume 6, Number 3 (Summer 2009), published by the University of Houston Center for Public History. The editor reflects on a lifelong baseball passion shaped by family radio memories, newspapers, biographies, and how the sport taught geography, math, and history. It describes experiences seeing major league teams in St. Louis and Houston, compares early ballpark life to later moves like the Astrodome, and concludes with a staff spotlight on Joel Draut and the HMRC photo collection.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryGeneral

FormatPDF

Pages60

Reading Time21 min

AccessFree to download

Letter from the Editor

Volume 6 • Number 3 • Summer 2009 SUMMER SpoRtS u n i v e r s i t y of h o u s t o n center for public history LETTER FROM THE EDITOR My dad raised me to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals, the overwhelming favorite of all of our country boy/ dads who had grownup during the Great Depression listening to the Cardinals’“gas house” gang on the radio. I seemed well on my way to the big leagues at age 12, when I pitched a onehit shut out in a Little League All-Star game with much of my town in attendance. Unfortunately, that marked the peak of my baseball career; when I finally made it to St. Louis years later, it was as a graduate student, not a pitcher. But I always remained a baseball fan. Growing up in a world without much chance to travel, I embraced baseball asa window on the world. I came to enjoy reading in part by following the major leagues in our local newspapers and by reading biographies of baseball players. Baseball taught me geography, giving me a reason to locate on a map New York City, home of the mighty Yankees, and then to move on to the location of both the Bronx (site of Yankee Stadium) and Brooklyn (home of the Dodgers). Photos of the amazing baseball stadiums ofthe 1950s introduced me to the basics of architecture and even of urban planning. Math was much more fun once I learned how to figure batting averages and earned run averages. History was everywhere in baseball, from the great names in the Hall ofFame to the records of such mythic figures as Babe Ruth. More than anything, baseball gave me a cast of larger-thanlife characters with exotic names and unfamiliar backgrounds. Mickey Mantle, country boy from Oklahoma whose dad had raised him to be a switch-hitter for the Yankees, was recognizable to me. But my world had to be expanded to include other players such as Willie Mays, Ted Kluszewski,“Big Chief”Allie Reynolds, Minnie Minoso, or Yogi Berra. These baseball heroes gave me a parallel universe somewhat like later generations had with the Star Wars movies or video games or the Harry Potter books. The universe of major league baseball had the great advantage, however, of being populated by real people succeeding and failing at a game I played and knew. Unfortunately, few of us had the chance to see these players in a real live major league baseball game, since St. Louis, the closest major league city, might as well have been in a galaxy far, far away. We knew, however, that the major leaguers were real because we had seen a few of them pass through the minor league team in nearby Beaumont, and a few of us had even been privileged to take the hundred mile trip to see the Houston Buffs play. Those of us with access to televisions could also watch the game of the week and then the World Series, an event so important in my family that my parents at times allowed me to skip school when a series game was played on my birthday. So it was an amazing development when we learned that major league baseball was coming to Houston. On several memorable occasions my dad and I drove to Houston to games at the team’s temporary stadium. Sitting out in the sun without a roof for a July Fourth doubleheader at Colt .45s Stadium, I learned the true meaning of hot. Later, at a somewhat cooler night game, I experienced one of my favorite baseball moments, when Stan Musial unwound on a fastball and drove a high line drive far, far out into the darkness of the parking lot beyond the right field fence. The ball curved foul, but that did not change the thrill of seeing it jump off of the bat of Stan the (Old) Man, who retired the next year. Despite the temperature and bugs at the temporary stadium, I was one of the few people disappointed in the move to the new Astrodome. As is clear from the article in this issue by Mike Acosta, it was an amazing structure. But I have to agree with much of Larry McMurtry’s reprinted essay. The Dome was a strange, disorienting place, as well as a bad place for a traditional fan

FAQs

What shaped the editor’s early interest in baseball?

The editor was raised to follow the St. Louis Cardinals, then continued the interest through local newspapers and biographies of baseball players.

How did the editor describe the value of baseball beyond the games?

The editor credits baseball with teaching geography, making math topics more enjoyable through statistics, and providing constant history connections through records and Hall of Fame figures.

What new development in Houston is discussed as a turning point for fans?

The letter highlights the arrival of major league baseball in Houston and the editor’s memorable experiences attending games in the temporary stadium and later moving to the Astrodome.

Oct 13, 2026

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