Texas Reads>> archiveGlenn Dromgoole

4.3.16   Book brings back memories for Astros fans

Just in time for baseball season, Triumph Books has released 100 Things Astros Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die by veteran Houston sports writer Brian McTaggart ($14.95 paperback).

The book will bring back a lot of memories for longtime Astros fans. Before the Astros were the Astros, they were the Houston Colt .45s, and I remember going to several games those first seasons, 1962–64. Then in 1965 they moved into the Astrodome — proclaimed the Eighth Wonder of the World -— and became the Astros.

President Lyndon Johnson, Rev. Billy Graham, and I were three of the 47,876 fans who attended the first game in the Astrodome on April 9, 1965, an exhibition game between the Astros and the New York Yankees. Yankees legend Mickey Mantle had the first hit in the Dome (a single in the first inning) and the first home run, but the Astros won 2–1 in extra innings on a single by Nellie Fox, playing his final season.

McTaggart leads off his list of one hundred things with a piece on Judge Roy Hofheinz, the visionary leader who helped bring baseball to Houston and laid out plans for the Astrodome. Number two on the list is Craig Biggio, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame last year. Number three is the Astrodome, and number four is Nolan Ryan, who pitched for the Astros for nine seasons.

After the 1988 season, McTaggart writes, owner John McMullen offered Ryan, a free agent, a 20 percent pay cut, thinking Ryan would elect to finish out his career in Houston anyway. Instead, he signed with the Texas Rangers, pitched five memorable seasons there, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame wearing a Rangers cap. Ryan is now an adviser to the Astros.

Panhandle memoir: Shelley Armitage returned home to explore and write about her connection to the land where she grew up in and around the small Panhandle town of Vega, west of Amarillo on Interstate 40. Walking the Llano: A Texas Memoir of Place (University of Oklahoma Press, $24.95 hardcover) evolved from long summer walks that triggered memories, family stories, and a renewed love and respect for the rugged llano environment.

“I rediscovered beauty in my own backyard,” Armitage said. “I had lived and taught abroad, studied and taught in many other states. I discovered the land and its secrets gave me a new voice in my writing and companioned me when my family was gone.”

Her personal narrative, incorporating nature, history, family, and regional lore, brings to mind two other notable Texas “ecomemoirs” that readers have enjoyed for years — Goodbye to a River by John Graves and A Personal Country by A. C. Greene. Good company indeed.

Armitage will be part of a panel discussing “The Challenges of Writing and Publishing Women’s History” at the West Texas Historical Association annual meeting at 1 p.m. Friday, April 8, at Abilene’s MCM Elegante Suites hotel.

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Glenn Dromgoole is co-author, with Carlton Stowers, of 101 Essential Texas Books Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.

>> Read his past Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Literary Life here.