Three Down and 20 Something more to go.
Written: Jan 13 '00
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Pros: Fireworks, and that dizzy feeling
Cons: The rest of baseball isn't this way
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| santonucci's Full Review: Astrodome |
I happened to be in Houston during baseball season two years ago. Being a fan of the game, from NY, and alone on business, I decided to see the Astros and Pirates play.
Now the first thing about the Dome is that is right off the street. Most stadiums are off freeways and such. I like this thing being stuck in the middle of town (Houston's pretty big- it's got a few middles). Now I drove up in my rental car, and parked maybe twenty feet from the box office 30 minutes before first pitch. Surprise #1.
The lady at the ticket window saw me coming, and since there was no line (surprise #2), I walked right up and said "Are there any tickets left for tonights game?" with my New Yawk accent. She looked at me queerly and said in her little Texas drawl, "Honey, this is the Astrodome. It seats 80,000. There are always seats." Duh. Tourist.
So I asked what seats were available. "Tenth row behind home plate good enough?" I'm drooling. "Yeah, how much?" She say $18.50. I think to myself that I'd become an Astros fan for that price."
So I walk to my seat. I'm dizzy for the first three innings from looking at the roof. This place is HUGE. There are all kinds of published statistics about buildings and monuments that would fit inside the Dome, but they don't do it any justice. The crowd (23,000) seems dwarfed by the immensity of the dome.
I do some quick math and figure out that there are 57,000 empty seats in the stadium. Wonder what the game looks like from some of those seats? So I walk down the rightfield line and watch a couple of innings. Over to the first base side, a couple innings. I think I had about six different seats for the game. Never once did an usher bother me ("Hey, Yoos can't sit dere.") about my ticket. Pretty cool and surprise #3.
Surprise #4 was by far the coolest thing I've ever seen at a baseball game(All right, second coolest: I was at a Yankee/RedSox game in NY when a drunken fool jumped from the upper deck into the netting behind home plate. He later said that the game was so bad, someone had to do something.) Late in the game Moises Alou crushed a pitch over centerfield for a homerun. I'm pretty good at not standing up on a pop-up like most people do, but I knew that this one is gone. So I stand up and as the ball clears the fence, they shoot off fireworks inside the Astrodome. Scared the living heck out of me until I realized it wasn't a bomb. (The Mets have an Apple that comes out of a tophat. Whooppee.)
Final score Astros 4 Pirates 2. If you're in Houston during baseball season, go see a game. I'd heard that the Astrodome is one of the "old stadiums" that is being replaced with a "modern stadium", so it may already be too late.
Oh, yeah. Before I forget, during the seventh inning stretch the vendors throw free peanuts and crackerjacks to the fans. I got crackerjacks, but I gave them to some little kid because I had an expense account if I wanted crackerjacks. What a deal.
Recommended:
Yes
Parking Availability: Less than $10
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Epinions.com ID:
santonucci
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Location: Andover, NJ
Reviews written: 76
Trusted by: 7 members
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