Post your Astros memories here

For an obvious choice, I'll go with clinching the 1997 division title. My formative years as a sports fan were in the mid-to-late 1990s and baseball (and is) my favorite sport. That was the first real success the Astros had that I was alive to experience.

For a more off-the-wall response, I'll never forget when the Astros signed Moises Alou. I had really enjoyed watching that 1997 Marlins World Series team and pre-teen me was certain that Alou was the missing piece. I guess Alou was the first big-name player I can vividly remember the Astros bringing in.

 

I have so many, but I'll just post this one for now. Going to the Dome with Dad to see the Astros play the Mets on April 16th, 1968, a 24 inning game that set records at the time, and the two of us getting chewed out by my mother for coming home very, very late. The game was won with a grounder by one of my heroes, Bob Aspromonte. It's still the longest shutout in major league history.

 

I remember when Art Howe played 3rd Base for the Astros.

 

When I was a little kid I would go to games with my whole family. My Dad and brothers were super into it and were very good about showing me how to keep score, and all that.

I was at the Phillies Astros game 5 in '80 as well as the Mets Astros game 6 in '86.

I was an Astros buddy when I was really little and got to meet Enos Cabell, Joaquin Andujar, and Cesar Cedeno. My father's company also printed the old programs for the Astros at one point, and I got to go to some Astros stuff for that too.

Bob Watson was my first favorite player though it was probably his last year before he left.

I just remember JR Richard being one of the most amazing pitchers ever and having such a tragic life after baseball at first, and then it was seeming like it was turning around for him the year or two before he died.

I remember my mother was a season ticket holder, who got screwed by the club before and she was on Marvin Zindler because of it. Marvin got the Astros to do the right thing.

Later my family pitched in and bought her one of the bricks at Minute Maid Park. She loved the Astros. Her health was declining then, but I remember how proud she was to have her name on that brick at Minute Maid.

The state of the Astros and this whole AL thing is really a bummer.

 

I was at the dome when Sosa hit #66 and took the HR lead for something like 20 minutes and then they announced that McGwire tied him.

Also there for one of Randy Johnson's dominant starts. Pure awesome.

 

I'll stick to a few that I witnessed..

1. Walt Weis game- Doh!

2. Bagwell going deep off Maddux to breakup a no hitter

3. Nolan Ryan coming back as a Texas Ranger to pitch a game in the dome

4. Astros throwing at Bonds a few years ago..

5. Big Mac batting bractice 1998

 

I saw one of those games. J.R. Richard was easily more dominant, in my opinion, but Johnson was amazing during that "rental."

 

For me, when the Randy Johnson trade was announced and game 5 right before the Pujols HR. I was at UH that night listening to the game on radio and was running all over campus trying to find a TV. Hard to explain, but up until the HR that might be the most hyped up I've ever been for an Astros game. For some reason even though they won game 6, it didn't compare to game 5.

In 97 I was in HS and we were all crowded around a computer screen following all the games on GameTracker or whatever it was at the time. Good times.

 

Forgot to add Dierker's first game back after his seizure.

 

1) Game 5 2004 NLCS. Best game I've ever seen in person, and when Kent hit the bomb in the 9th, downtown was electric.

2) The 18 Inning Marathon to send the Braves home in 2005.

3) Roy O pitching the club into its first world series.

4) Biggio getting hit #3,000

5) Game 5 of the 2004 NLDS, where Biggio and Bagwell got the playoff monkey off their back.

6) Clemens and Pettitte sign with the team. I knew the team could do special things at that point.

7) The Astros acquiring Randy Johnson in 1998. My dad took me to game 1 of the NLDS vs the Padres that year.

8) Carlos Beltran's postseason performance in 2004. He became my favorite player during that run, and I was crushed when he signed with the Mets.

9) Going to game 4 of the 2005 WS. It was an awesome pitchers duel, and even though they lost, going to a World Series game was a bucket list moment for me.

 

Best game I ever saw when I was 6 years old and first introduced to baseball after my grandpa forked out for season tickets.

Mike Scott's no-hitter in a tiebreaker game to clinch the division vs. the Giants 1-0.

Aside from that the Burke homer, the Yankees no hitter, the Kent homer, the 05 NLCS, Biggio's 3000, just general Astrodome nostalgia with concession guys with ghostbuster type backpacks pouring huge 32 oz beers in astros plastic cups in the stands and THE SCOREBOARD

 

I was at this game. I've never experienced anything louder than MMP when Jeff Kent hit that bottom of the ninth homer. Downtown was something else after that game.

I was at the Nine Inch Nails concert at the Toyota Center that night. It was clear that everyone was checking their phones for score updates. Then the Astros won the NLCS on their way to their first World Series, and this spontaneous cheer exploded in the middle of some mopey NIN song. I'm sure Trent was very confused, what with all the uber-happy stranger hugs that exploded throughout the Toyota Center at that moment.

It was freakin' beautiful.

PS -- F*** you, Bud Selig.

 

On TV
Mike Scott no-hitter
Billy Hatcher's homerun off the fair pole in 86
1980 non-triple play vs Phillies
Kent's homer
White Sox World series extra inning game

In person
On August 20 against the Chicago Cubs, Bass stunned the Cubs' closer Mitch Williams for a grandslam that broke up a 4-4 tie and gave the Astros an 8-4 victory.
Sometime in the 80's went to a game that went into extra innings and way late. As we left, we were starving, but everything was closed. Took us a while to find a Denny's.

And many more

 

Not that it was a huge moment in Astros history...but I was at the game that Billy Hatcher broke his (errrrrr....Dave Smith's) corked bat (in 1987).

I was also at Randy Johnson's first game...which was pretty electric.

 

I'm going to post a less obvious one but one that shows why the Stros are an NL team. In 1987 I was listening to the Stros playing the Braves on the radio and Nolan Ryan hit a three run homer. One of his only home runs but it was special to hear that and probably something that Ryan himself treasured.

 

Holy crap..so many. This franchise is like family to me.

Going to pre-game instructional sessions on the field with the players at the Dome;

Hearing how important the Astros were from my grandparents who were Houstonians and felt that having an MLB club finally put Houston on the map. My grandmom called Jim Deshaies her boyfriend. The love of this franchise for me was passed down mostly through her;

Going to games with my dad;

Running home from school to see the end of Game 6 in '86...dying inside when I saw my hero, Bill Doran, crying in the dugout after the game;

Booing Jim Clancy;

Being able to drive to games with friends after I was 16. We'd sit in the pavillion which cost $4....$5 to park;

Friends taking me to game on 18th birthday and Andy Van Slyke lobbing me the bird because I kept heckling him in CF;

Countless games spent in the home I grew up in watching them on TV. Countless games sitting in the backyard with my family listening to them on the radio;

Freaking out at the threat of a move to Northen VA. Sitting up until late in the night hitting refresh on the Chronicle's website at the Baylor library watching election returns come in to approve new ballpark;

Being at the game in 1997 when they clinched the division with my dad;

Those awful, tense playoff games with Braves and Padres from 1997-1999;

Being in the Dome for the last game ever at Astrodome vs. the Dodgers and watching them clinch...Biggio riding around on his motorcycle on the field after;

My first game at MMP against the Yankees (2nd game at MMP); my second game at MMP which was the first regular season game in MMP;

My older son's first game vs. the Pirates on opening day in 2001; my younger son's first game vs. the Reds in 2005. I have pictures of both of those days in my office and in their rooms at home;

My older son's birthday party at MMP;

Jim mother falcon Edmonds catching Ausmus' hit to CF;

Lance's grand slam; Ausmus' improbable 9th inning HR; Burke's 18 inning blast -- there the entire game with my older boy who was 5 at the time.

Bruntlett (4) -Everett (6) -Berkman (3);

Jason Lane squeezes that out...my boy asks me why I'm tearing up; I visit my grandparents grave the next day with an NL Champs pennant;

The story I think of most though when someone asks me why I'm an Astros fan or why I care so much about them is this: when my grandmom was dying of lung cancer..literally suffocating...she was staying in the room next to mine at our house. Every night I could, I'd sit with her and watch the 'stros. I was 15. When everything was shutting down for her, she still wanted to see her 'stros. She'd fall asleep in about the 5th or 6th inning seemingly every game...so I'd keep score and write a little summary for her of how the game ended for when she woke up in the morning.

Because it's played 162 games, baseball has a way of weaving itself into your life. It's in the background on a daily basis. All of this is why I feel so connected to this franchise...and why I can't even begin to make threats about not following them again when they move to the AL. They're just too much a part of me.

 

Great memories Max. Your grandmother and her love for the Stros reminds me a lot of my own mom, and her love for the team.

At my grandmother's funeral her great grandson who had to be about 6 at the time but had always watched and gone to games with my mom, and loved baseball, spontaneously burst into a 6 year old version of Take Me Out To the Ballgame. The whole crowd at the funeral joined in and it may have been the most beautiful performance of a song I've ever witnessed.

 

dude max...it's getting dusty over here.

 

Epic post is epic. Thanks for sharing - I can totally relate to many of your memories. One good thing about the move to the AL West is that I can hopefully go to more games up here in North Texas.