Phillies Top Astros as Rich Allen Shines

Apr. 12, 1965 - Richie Allen drove in both Philadelphia runs with a home run in support of Chris Short’s four-hit pitching as the Phillies shut out the Astros, 2-0, tonight marring Houston’s first opener in its roof-covered $31.6 million Astrodome.

A capacity crowd of 48,546, including commissioner Ford Frick, Warren Giles, president of the National League, and 24 of America’s 28 astronauts, in whose honor the home team was named, watched the major league’s first official indoor baseball game.

The astronauts were presented with lifetime passes to all major league games. Of the huge crowd, 42,652 paid.

It was the fourth capacity crowd in four days in this plush, air-conditioned stadium. Five weekend exhibition games prior to the opener attracted 188,762 spectators, a good many coming to see the glittering palace.

In three years at the old stadium, the Astros — then called the Colt .45’s — had only one sellout crowd. That was in 1962 in a doubleheader against the Dodgers.

Short, a 17-game winner in 1964, struck out 11 and permitted only one runner to advance to third base, in the seventh inning. But the Phils’ lefthander fanned a pinch hitter, Mike White, ending the threat.

The Astros posed one other serious threat. That was in the sixth when a rookie, Joe Morgan, got the second of his two hits, a double off the right-field wall with one out.

Short escaped without damage by throwing a third strike past Jim Wynn and inducing Walt Bond to tap an easy roller to second baseman Tony Taylor.

“When I went out there, I wondered if my curve would break,” Short said afterward. “I found out my slider broke more than it ever has, maybe even more than I wanted it to. I got most of the strikeouts on fastballs and sliders.”

The Phillies, beginning a new drive to capture the pennant that slipped so cruelly from their fingers last season, rapped out 10 hits, nine off the starter and loser, Bob Bruce.

Allen thumped his homer into the center field bleachers in the third inning after Bruce had decked him with a chin-high fastball.

“Getting knocked down makes me mad,” Allen said. “I just want to get back up there and stick in there. I wasn’t sure he meant it, though.”

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