When The Future Is So Bright Wear Atomic Guard
The Astrodome in Houston, Texas was deemed the “Eighth Wonder of the World” when it opened in 1965. It was the world’s first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium. Like its space exploring neighbor down the road, NASA, the Astrodome, with it unique, never before seen futuristic design, represented the exciting ultra-modern that many Americans enthusiastically embraced in the 1960’s.
The 642-foot roof span of the Astrodome featured 4,596 skylights that were designed to filter the crucial sunlight that woud allow a grass field to grow. The translucent lucite material was also designed to collectively diffuse an even amount of light to prevent shadows from forming on the field from the many steel beams used above.
It was all a great idea until the 1st exhibition game, when the pleasant desired sunlight came with a tremendous glare that blinded the ballplayers trying to catch fly balls, as if they were watching an atomic bomb blast. Routine fly balls were missed entirely, with left field and center being the worst place to try to catch a baseball with the sun shinning. Injury was a real possibility. A baseball could feel like a meteorite hitting an unexpecting player or fan in the head.
By the next exhibition that was to be played during the day, the Astros decided the game would be played with color-dyed baseballs. Receiving approval from National League President Warren Giles, the Astros used orange, yellow and cerise dyed baseballs in trying to determine which color would work best against the glare. They also experiemented with several shades of sunglasses. That afternoon there were still four fly balls lost to the glare.
Fixty-six years ago today, while the Astros were on a road trip, some big brains figured out what to do and they started painting the skylights with a translucent acrylic coating over a three day period, at a cost of $20,000.
Seven hundred gallons of off-white paint was sprayed on top of the Astrodome, which reduced the sunlight coming in by 30-40 percent. It would take another layer of the off-white paint after the initial three day painting to perfect the job. Because on the first game after the initial three day painting, a routine fly ball became a three run inside the park home run after being lost in the glare. And a whole flock of Evangelists thought the glare was a message from God and started to freak out inside the dome, before being hosed down.
After the glare had been fixed as good as possible, the natural grass inside the dome began to die from the reduction of the sun and constant air conditioning in the Astrodome that caused the grass to dry quicker after watering. The grass problem became so bad that “Astroturf” was created, causing the baseball to bounce and hop in ways it had never before, creating some additional problems to be pondered.
