September 27, 1963: Houston's Baby Colts

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.

April 23, 1964: The Ken Johnson Game

April 23, 1964: For the 1st time in the history of Major League Baseball, a man pitches a full no-hitter of nine innings -- and loses.

Kenneth Travis Johnson was born on June 16, 1933 in West Palm Beach, Florida. A righthanded pitcher who stood 6-foot-4, weighed 230 pounds (making him huge for that era), and with an effective knuckleball, he was signed by the Philadelphia Athletics out of high school in 1952. By the time he made his major league debut in 1958, they had moved to Kansas City. In 1961, they traded him to the Cincinnati Reds, and he was on a Pennant winner.

He was taken in the expansion draft, by one of the National League's new teams, the Houston Colt .45's. He went 7-16 for them in '62, and 11-17 in '63. On April 23, 1964, he was 2-0, and took the mound against his former team, the Reds, at Colt Stadium, which the Colt .45's used as a stopgap facility until their permanent stadium, the Astrodome, could be built next-door. The next year, it opened, and the name of the team was changed to the Houston Astros.

The Colts/Astros weren't very good in 1964, mainly because they were very young. They had a couple of solid veterans in future Hall-of-Famer Nellie Fox and 2-time batting champion Pete Runnels. But most of their players who turned out to be good ended up doing so later, and some for other teams: Joe Morgan, Jimmy Wynn, Jim Beauchamp, and future Met All-Stars Rusty Staub and Jerry Grote.

In contrast, the Reds had a very good team in 1964. The had Frank Robinson, future Hall-of-Famer; Vada Pinson, a multiple All-Star; Pete Rose, who would have made the Hall if he hadn't ignored baseball's warnings about gambling; Deron Johnson, an All-Star; Leo Cardenas, an All-Star; and Joe Nuxhall, once the youngest player in the game's history, now "The Old Lefthander," wrapping up what turned out to be a nicer career (1952-1965) than anyone could have imagined when he got smacked in his debut, not yet 16 years old (1944).

Nuxhall was the opposing pitcher that day, and he and Johnson traded goose eggs for 8 innings. Johnson walked a batter in the 1st inning, and walked another in the 5th, but those were the only 2 baserunners he'd allowed.

Nuxhall was effectively his equal, if less spectacularly. He allowed a single to Fox in the 1st, but he was caught stealing. He then walked Runnels, but stranded him. He allowed a single to Bob Aspromonte in the 2nd, but induced a double play to erase him. He allowed a single to Runnels in the 4th, but got another double play. In the 7th, he allowed a single to Fox, and there was no double play this time, as Cardenas made an error, allowing Runnels to reach. The Colts had men on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Now, Nuxy got a double play, and a flyout to end it. He allowed a leadoff double to Wynn in the 8th, but retired the next 3 batters to keep it 0-0.

His wife Lynn, and sons Kenneth Johnson Jr. and Russell "Rusty" Johnson were at the game. "I knew it was close," Lynn said. "Every inning he would get them out. I was getting pretty nervous. Our youngest son, Rusty, wanted to go to the bathroom, and I wouldn't let him leave."

Nuxhall himself led off the top of the 9th with a groundout to 3rd. But Johnson hurt his own cause by throwing away a grounder that Rose had hit to him. Rose got to 2nd base. Johnson got Chico Ruiz to ground back to him, and he threw to 3rd to get Rose, but he was safe. Aspromonte, the Colts' 3rd baseman, then threw Ruiz out at 1st. Pinson then hit a grounder to 2nd, which should have been the 3rd and final out, completing the (word you can't say while one is in progress, for fear of jinxing the pitcher). But, of all players to make an error at this time, it was Fox, the team's earliest (though not 1st) Hall-of-Famer. Rose scored, and it was 1-0 Reds.

Johnson got Robinson to fly to left to end the inning, but the damage was done. The Colts weren't done, though: With 2 out in the bottom of the 9th, Runnels reached on an error by 1st baseman Johnson. (A born DH before there was a DH, Johnson would soon be replaced by Tony Perez, and the rest is history.) The tying run was on 1st, the winning run was at the plate, and maybe Johnson could win the game anyway. But the batter was the Houston right fielder, John Weekly, a man who lived up to his name with a .133 batting average at the time. Nuxhall struck him out looking to end it.

The totals on the ballgame: For the Reds, 1 run on no hits and 2 errors; for the Colt .45's, no runs on 5 hits and 2 errors. WP: Nuxhall (1-1). No save. LP: Johnson (2-1). Attendance on this Thursday night: 5,426. The time of the game, a brisk 1 hour and 56 minutes.

Ken Johnson had pitched a no-hitter, for a full 9 innings. And lost the game. This had never happened before, and has never happened since.

Fox, through tears, apologized to Johnson after the game. Runnels told him, "How many no-hitters were thrown last year? Who threw them? They'll remember yours."

For the record, 3 no-hitters were thrown in 1963, 1 by Johnson's own roommate, Don Nottebart, the 1st no-hitter in the history of the Houston franchise. So Runnels should have remembered. You might have heard of the guys who threw the other 2: Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Juan Marichal of the San Francisco Giants. Also throwing no-hitters in 1964 were Koufax, and Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies, who threw a perfect game against the Mets.

On July 1, 1990, Andy Hawkins of the Yankees pitched 7 no-hit innings against the Chicago Whit Sox at Comiskey Park. But the Yankees hadn't scored, either. In the 8th, he walked 3 batters, and his fielders made 3 errors. The Yankees lost the game 4-0, but, at first, Hawkins was credited with a no-hitter. After all, he had pitched a complete game without allowing a hit.

A year later, Major League Baseball made a ruling that a pitcher could only be credited with a no-hitter if he pitched all of a team's game, went at least 9 innings, and didn't allow a hit. In other words, if he pitched 9 no-hit innings, and was relieved in the 10th, no no-hitter. If he pitched 9 no-hit innings, and kept pitching, and his team eventually won, but if he allowed a hit in the 10th, the 11th, or whichever inning, he didn't get credit for the no-hitter -- not even if he kept going into the 19th inning, having effectively pitched 2 no-hitters in 1 day.

Even if he pitched 9 perfect innings, he wouldn't get credit for the no-hitter or the perfect game unless his team won, he was the only pitcher they used, and he stayed hitless (or perfect).

Not only did Hawkins lose credit for his no-hitter (he had pitched 8 innings), but Harvey Haddix, who pitched 12 perfect innings in a 1959 game but lost it all in the 13th, lost credit for his perfect game.

During the commercial break between the 8th and 9th innings of the Andy Hawkins Game, I switched from WPIX-Channel 11 to WWOR-Channel 9, to see if the Mets' announcers were talking about what was happening at Comiskey. They were, and Ralph Kiner mentioned that only 1 pitcher had ever pitched a complete-game no-hitter and lost: "I think it's Ken Johnson." Tim McCarver confirmed: "It is Ken." I'd never heard of Johnson at that point, but you can be sure that the name has stuck with me ever since the Andy Hawkins Game, which I still have on videotape somewhere.

I don't know if Ken Johnson and Andy Hawkins ever met. If they didn't, it's too late now.

Colts owner Roy Hofheinz, a federal Judge and a former Mayor of Houston, gave Johnson a $1,000-a-year raise, equivalent to $7,672 now. He was invited to come to New York to appear on the TV game show I've Got a Secret.

He went 11-16 in that 1964 season, and on May 23, 1965, the Astros traded him, along with Beauchamp, to the Milwaukee Braves for Lee Maye. He ended up having his best season, going 16-10 with a 3.42 ERA. He moved with them to Atlanta in 1966, and went 14-8 that year and 13-9 the next.

But he only won another 7 games in the major leagues, finishing in 1970 with the Montreal Expos. For his career, he was 91-106, ERA 3.46, ERA+ 102, WHIP 1.199. After leaving baseball, he worked for Palm Beach Atlantic University in his hometown, and later coached at Louisiana College in Pineville, where he spent the rest of his days. After his coaching, he ran a nursing service for his local Baptist church. He died in 2015, at 82.

*

April 23, 1964 was a Thursday. Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals was held, and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit, on an overtime goal by Bobby Baun, who was playing on a broken ankle. I have a separate entry for that event.

The NBA Finals were between Games 3 and 4. The Boston Celtics would beat the San Francisco Warriors in 5 games.

And these other baseball games were played:

* The New York Mets lost to the Chicago Cubs, 5-1 at the newly-opened Shea Stadium. Ernie Banks went 3-for-5. The Mets' only run came on a home run by Ron Hunt.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Boston Red Sox beat the Baltimore Orioles in the opener, 3-1. Jack Lamabe was the winning pitcher, while Steve Barber was the losing pitcher for Baltimore, allowing 2 runs in the 1st inning and being replaced for the 2nd. I guess his arm was sore, not just a little stiff. (Ball Four reference.)

The Orioles won the nightcap, 1-0. Former Phillies ace Robin Roberts allowed 9 hits, but kept the shutout. Over the 2 games, Brooks Robinson went 3-for-5 with a walk, while Carl Yastrzemski went 3-for-7 with a home run, a walk, and an RBI.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Dick Allen hit a home run. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-5 with 2 RBIs.

* The Washington Senators beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-4 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-5 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Los Angeles Angels, 3-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, where the Angels were groundsharing while waiting for their Anaheim stadium to be built.

* And the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox, the Detroit Tigers, the Kansas City Athletics, the Milwaukee Braves and the San Francisco Giants were not scheduled.

April 10, 1962: The 1st Major League Baseball Game In the South

April 10, 1962: For the 1st time, a regular-season Major League Baseball game is played in the Southern United States -- or, to put it another way, in a city that had once been a part of the Confederate States of America.

The expansion Houston Colt .45s make their debut at Colt Stadium in Houston, and beat the Chicago Cubs, 11-2. Román Mejías hit Houston's home run, and hit a 2nd homer later in the game. Hal Smith also hit one out for the Colt .45s (often listed as simply the Colts), while Ernie Banks homered for the Cubs. Former Philadelphia Athletics MVP Bobby Shantz went the distance for the Colts to be the winning pitcher.

Colt Stadium, which seated 32,000, was basically an oversized high school football stadium, and was never going to be more than a stopgap facility for a real stadium. It was completely exposed to the elements: Not just the heat, but mosquitoes. As Sandy Koufax said, "Some of those mosquitoes were twin-engine jobs."

Three years later, the Astrodome will open, and the home team will be renamed the Houston Astros. Colt Stadium remained as a practice facility for a few years, and NRG Stadium, current home of the NFL's Houston Texans, was built on the site.

*

April 10, 1962 was a Tuesday. There were 7 other MLB games played on this day:

* This was also the day that Dodger Stadium opened in Los Angeles. I have a separate entry for this event. The Cincinnati Reds spoil the party, winning 6-3. Wally Post hit the 1st home run, off 1955 World Series hero Johnny Podres. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4 for the Reds. Maury Wills went 0-for-3 for the Dodgers. No one knew yet, but he would steal a new record of 104 bases this season.

And this was Doug Harvey's 1st game as a major league umpire. In a career that lasted until 1993, he was so admired for his accuracy and fairness that the players nicknamed him "God."

Hard to believe, but Dodger Stadium has not only lasted longer than Ebbets Field did, but it is the 3rd-oldest park in MLB, behind Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.

* The New York Yankees beat the Baltimore Orioles, 7-6 at Yankee Stadium. Johnny Temple hit a home run off Whitey Ford, but Bill "Moose" Skowron and Roger Maris both hit them off Billy Hoeft, and, in the 8th inning, Mickey Mantle won the game with a home run off Hal Brown, to make Ralph Terry the winning pitcher, for the 1st of 23 times that season.

Mantle finished 1-for-3 with that homer and RBI, Maris 1-for-4 with a homer and 3 RBIs. Yogi Berra did not play. Brooks Robinson went 2-for-4 for the Birds.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-0 at Fenway Park in Boston. Dick Donovan pitched a 5-hit shutout, with Carl Yastrzemski getting 2 of the hits.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Bob Friend pitched a 5-hit shutout. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3, and his hit was a grand slam home run.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels, 2-1 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The Kansas City Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins, 4-2 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves, 6-0 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Juan Marichal pitched a 3-hit shutout, striking out 10, while Warren Spahn was knocked out of the box in the 4th inning. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with a home run and an RBI, while Hank Aaron went 0-for-4.

Four MLB teams opened their seasons the day before. The Phillies beat the Reds, 12-4. And the Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1 in the 1st MLB game at District of Columbia Stadium in Washington. President John F. Kennedy threw out the ceremonial first ball at the stadium that would later be named for his brother, Robert F. Kennedy.

Two MLB teams started their season the next day: The St. Louis Cardinals and the other expansion team, the New York Mets.

April 10 was also the day the 1962 Stanley Cup Finals got underway. The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the defending Champion Chicago Black Hawks, 4-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The Leafs would win the Cup in 6 games.

And Game 3 of the NBA Finals was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena. The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics, 117-115. Elgin Baylor had 39 points and 23 rebounds for the Lakers, Bill Russell 26 points and 32 rebounds for the Celtics. The Lakers led 2 games to 1, but the Celtics would win the title in Game 7.