September 27, 1963: The Houston Colt .45s, an expansion team at the end of their 2nd season, 35 games out of 1st place, try something. After all, what have they got to lose? Three more games, at most.
In their 3rd-from-last game of the season, against their fellow 1962 expansion team, the New York Mets, at Colt Stadium -- a 32,000-seat, single-decked, mosquito-infested temporary stadium with no protection from the brutal Texas Sun, used as a stopgap facility until the Astrodome can be built next-door -- manager Harry Craft tries what becomes known as the "Baby Colts" experiment. For the 1st time in major league history, and it remains the only time, Craft started a lineup made up entirely of players who had made their major league debuts that season.
Here's his starting lineup:
Shortstop, Number 29, Roland "Sonny" Jackson, 19 years, 80 days.
2nd Base, 12, Joe Morgan, 19 years, 8 days.
Center Field, 18, Jimmy Wynn, 21 years, 200 days.
1st Base, 10, Daniel "Rusty" Staub, 19 years, 179 days.
Right Field, 17, Aaron Pointer, 19 years, 160 days.
Left Field, 29, Brock Davis, 19 years, 344 days.
3rd Base, 4, Glenn Vaughan, 19 years, 223 days.
Catcher, 8, Jerry Grote, 20 years, 356 days.
Pitcher, 42, Jay Dahl, 17 years, 295 days.
So, 7 out of the 9 starters were still teenagers, and the starting pitcher wasn't even 18 years old.
In the 3rd inning, Craft relieved Dahl with Danny Coombs (Number 41; 21 years, 188 days). The next inning, he sent John Weekly (26; 26, 105) to pinch-hit for Coombs. In the 4th, he sent Joe Hoerner (44; 26, 319) out to pitch.
For the 6th, he moved Vaughan to shortstop, and sent Ernie Fazio (11; 21, 245) to 3rd base, replacing Jackson in the leadoff spot in the batting order. Later that inning, he sent Mike White (16; 24, 283) to pinch-hit for Hoerner.
In the 7th, his new pitcher was Jim Dickson (34; 25, 160), and he sent Dave Adlesh (24; 20, 74) to replace Grote as catcher. In the 8th, he sent Carl Warwick (20; 26, 212) to pinch-hit for Dickson. In the 9th, he sent Dick Drott (36) in to pitch.
Jackson, Dahl, Coombs and Hoerner were making their major league debuts. Pointer's debut had come 5 days earlier; Morgan, Grote and White, 6 days; Vaughan, 7 days; Wynn had debuted on July 10; Dickson on July 2; Adlesh on May 12; and Staub and Davis had both debuted on April 9. Fazio and Weekly had debuted in 1962; Warwick, in 1961. Drott debuted back in 1957, and, at 27 years and 188 days, was the oldest Houston player in the game. It wasn't his 1st major league game, but it turned out to be his last.
Did it work? No: The Mets scored 3 runs in the 2nd inning, and 5 in the 3rd, on their way to a 10-3 win. The Mets even sent their own teenager into the game: Ed Kranepool, 18 years and 322 days old, was a defensive replacement for Tim Harkness at 1st base.
The next day, of the previous day's players, the only ones the Astros sent out were Vaughan, Morgan, Staub, Wynn and Fazio. And they won, 6-1. The season ended the next day, with a 13-4 Colt victory. In this one, they used Vaughan, Morgan, Wynn, Staub, Dickson, Adlesh, and another debutant, John Paciorek, who went 3-for-3, and never appeared in another game.
This game would turn out to be Dahl's only major league appearance. The native of Colton, California, outside San Bernardino, developed a back injury that made pitching impossible for the entire 1964 season. He only appeared in 11 games, all as an outfielder, for the Statesville Colts in the Western Carolinas League. In 1965, he started 7 games for the Durham Bulls of the Carolina League, then went 5-0 for the Salisbury Astros of the Western Carolina League. He seemed to be on the way back up.
On June 20, 1965, with the Colt .45s having moved into the Astrodome, next-door to Colt Stadium, and changed their name to the Houston Astros, Dahl was the winning pitcher as Salisbury beat Gastonia, 7-3. That night, the players were invited to a steak dinner at the home of the team's owner, G.M. Hamilton. Dahl and a teammate, Gary Marshall, left the dinner in Marshall's Pontiac GTO. They picked up Marshall's girlfriend, Patricia Ann Troutman, and went to see a movie.
As Marshall drove Troutman home, at 11:24 PM, he hit a patch of sand on Lincolnton Road in Salisbury, skidded for 185 feet, and crashed into a tree. Troutman died instantly. Dahl died about 3 hours later, on June 21. Marshall was blinded. He went home to Kansas, later moved to Dallas, became a minister, tending to the newly blinded, and lived until 2008.
As of September 27, 2022, Jay Dahl remains the last player under age 18 to appear in a major league game; and, at 19 years and 197 days, the youngest former major league player to die.
Some of the Baby Colts fared better. Morgan would make the Baseball Hall of Fame, winning 3 Pennants, 2 World Series and 2 National League Most Valuable Player awards with the Cincinnati Reds; come back to the Astros, and help them to 2 Playoff berths; and win another Pennant with the Philadelphia Phillies. Staub would become a star with the Astros, the Montreal Expos, the Mets, and the Detroit Tigers, collecting 2,716 hits, and become a beloved broadcaster with the Mets.
Warwick would win a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1964, and Hoerner would do so in 1967. There is some appropriateness to this, as, before the Colts, the Cardinals had a farm team there, the Houston Buffaloes. Grote would be the starting catcher on the Met teams that won the 1969 World Series and, with Staub as a teammate, the 1973 Pennant. Wynn, "the Toy Cannon," would hit 291 home runs, 228 of them as an Astro, making him the franchise's all-time leader until Jeff Bagwell came along.
There was one more rookie of note for the '63 Astros: One of their broadcasters was in his 1st season in the major leagues, after 2 seasons with the Pacific Coast League's Hawaii Islanders. He would remain with the Astros through 1970, moving to the Philadelphia Phillies, and building a Hall of Fame career with them that would last for the rest of his life. His name was Harry Kalas.
*
September 27, 1963 was a Friday. These other baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Minnesota Twins, 4-3 at Yankee Stadium. Camilo Pascual used his nasty Cuban curveball to win his 21st game of the season, while Stan Williams had to leave the game due to injury after 3 innings. Harmon Killebrew went 2-for-4. Mickey Mantle went 1-for-3 with a walk, while Roger Maris went 2-for-4 with a solo home run.
Yogi Berra went 0-for-2 with a walk. The next day, the Yankees lost to the Twins again, 6-3. Yogi pinch-hit for pitcher Al Downing in the 9th, and lined out to 3rd base. That was his last regular-season at-bat as a Yankee, although he did have 1 more at-bat, a pinch-hit lineout in Game 3 of the World Series against the Dodgers.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-2 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-2 with a walk. Al Kaline, playing in his home town, got a hit as a pinch-hitter.
* The Chicago White Sox swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators, 11-2 and 7-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Milwaukee Braves, 3-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Ernie Banks did not play the Cubs in this game. Lou Brock did, going 2-for-5 with a stolen base, but nobody had any idea of what was ahead for him, and it wouldn't be with the Cubs. Hank Aaron went 1-for-4, but did not hit a home run. Eddie Mathews did.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-0 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. John Tsitouris pitched a 2-hit shutout, allowing only a triple to Gary Kolb and a single to Dick Groat. Stan Musial, retiring, did not play in this game. Tommy Harper hit a home run for the Reds, Frank Robinson went 0-for-4, and NL Rookie of the Year Pete Rose went 2-for-5 with an RBI.
* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants, 8-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Roberto Clemente went 4-for-5, and Willie Stargell went 2-for-3 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Willie Mays went 1-for-3 with a walk.
* And the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels did not play. They did play the next day, with the Red Sox winning, 4-3 at Fenway Park. But they did not play the next day, the regular-season finale. Both teams played 161 games instead of 162, so it's possible that either the Friday or the Sunday game got rained out.
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