Astros Inaugural Game at Enron Field

Astros Inaugural Game-Enron Field

The Houston Astros opened their new ballpark--Enron Field--in Downtown Houston on March 30, 2000, after 35 years in the Dome (click here for some pics of the last game in the Dome). The doors opened to an exhibition game featuring the Astros vs the Yankees. The Yankees were also the first team to play in the Dome, back on April 9, 1965. In that game, Mickey Mantle became the first player ever to hit a home run in the Dome.

Enron Field is a retractable roof, natural grass stadium. Its retractable plexiglass roof enables the park to succeed where the Astrodome failed, allowing grass to grow, providing a more natural baseball atmosphere and finally making Astroturf a thing of the past in the city where it originated. The roof takes about 10-12 minutes to open or close.

EF is located on the site of Houston's original train terminal (Union Station). While EF mimics the "classic look" so popular in today's new retro stadiums, the Dome's legacy remains through a conscious effort to emulate perhaps its most storied feature, a gigantic scoreboard. Animations from the original Home Run Spectacular were reintroduced, and Houston once again became home to baseball's largest scoreboard display, stretching nearly the length of the seats in right field.

The park seats 42,000 and has unique dimensions. The "Crawford Boxes" sit at the top of a 21' high wall in left, but at only 315' from home plate, the porch is d*mn short - making EF way more hitter-friendly than its predecessor. There is even a flag pole in centerfield, in the field of play.

To compete with the gimmicks of other new ballparks, the railroad-themed EF has a locomotive that rumbles down a track on top of the left field limestone, blowing a whistle, smoking and cruising at about 10 MPH whenever the Astros go yard or win a game.

Tickets to the game were going for up to $1000 on eBay. So let's see what we got for our money...

Four Inaugural Tickets!