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The New York Yankees faced the Houston Astros for a preseason exhibition game on April 9, 1965.
This was the first ever game played in what was formerly called the Harris County Dome Stadium,
the eighth wonder of the world, also known as the Astrodome.
This preseason game was sold out, including the attendance of President Lyndon Johnson and the First Lady.
Houston was managed by Lum Harris, who took over for Harry Kraft near the end of the 1964 season
when the team was known as the Colt 45s.
Harris was looking to turn around the club that had lost 96 games in each of its first three seasons.
The Yankees had a new manager, Johnny Keene, who would replace Yogi Berra after New York lost their second consecutive World Series in 1964.
The Yankees had appeared in 14 of the previous 16 World Series, but that run was over.
They didn't return back to the fall classic for another 12 years.
This audio recording is from the Houston Radio broadcast featuring announcers Gene Elston, Harry Callis, and Lowell Passa.
We've had a change in the starting lineup from what we originally received, but here's the starting lineup now for the New York Yankees.
Leading off and flying left field is Mickey Mantle. Mantle in left field. Bobby Richardson at second base. Richardson at second.
Roger Maris in right field. Maris in right. Joe Pepitone at first base. Pepitone at first.
Tony Kubek will be at shortstop. Kubek at short. Tom Tresch in center field. Tresch in center.
Keith Boyer at third base. Boyer at third. John Blanchard will do the catching. Blanchard the catcher.
And Mel Stottlemyre will be out in the mound. Stottlemyre will do the fishing.
Now let's take a look at the starting lineup here for Houston. Joe Morgan at second base. Morgan at second.
Al Spangler left field. Spangler in left. Rusty Saab in right field. Saab in right.
Walt Bond first base. Bond at first. Bob Aspermonte will be at third base. Aspermonte at third. Jim Winn in center field. Winn in center.
Bob Lillis at shortstop. Lillis at short. Ron Brand the catcher. Brand catching. And Terx Farrell the right hander will be on the mound.
Farrell a right hander. So the Yankee lineup again. Mantle in left. Richardson at second base. Maris in right.
Kepitone on first. Kubek at short. Thresh in center field. Boyer at third. Blanchard catching. And Stottlemyre the pitcher.
And for Houston, Morgan at second. Fanger left. Saab right field. Bond first base. Aspermonte third. Winn center field.
Lillis at short. Brand the catcher. And Farrell the pitcher.
Governor John Connolly of Texas now is all set to fire out the first baseball on the first base side.
And he throws it to catcher Ron Brand. And Ron now is bringing it back up to the box seats and handling it to the governor.
And Warren Giles of the National League is also down there. So John Connolly has thrown out the first ball here.
Governor Connolly now has given the ball to Warren Giles and he evidently asked him to autograph it and said,
Warren, my name's already on there. So we're just about all set to play ball now.
Astros are taking their warm-up throws down the right side. And the two managers are getting together in home plate.
You know, this is a homecoming for number 21 down there, Johnny Keene.
And he is going over the ground rules now with a skipper of the Houston Astros, Blumenhead.
This evening's broadcast is authorized by the Houston Astros Baseball Club to be used only for the entertainment of our listening audience.
Any other use of the descriptions and accounts of this play-by-play broadcast without written permission of the Houston National League Baseball Club is prohibited.
And there go the Astros out on the field.
Bangler to left, Lind to center, Stobb to right. Espramati to third, Lilas to short, Morgan to second base, Bond to first, and Brand to catcher.
Stoggaper's getting a few shots of the umpires and the manager's down his home plate.
Mel Steiner of the National League will be umpiring at the plate.
Larry Knapp of the American League at first.
Dan Landis of the National League at second.
And Al Salerno of the American League will be at third.
Temperature 72 degrees, wind is calm, sky is clear.
And Turk Farrell takes his warm-up throws with catcher Ron Brand.
We were a little bit early getting on tonight to cover the pregame ceremonies here.
And I neglected to mention it, but we do have our usual crew here tonight.
Lowpass, Harry Callis, our producer Bob Boyd, and engineer Bob Green.
I want to send out a few extra thanks to Mr. Bob Green, who has been practically living here for the past two days after we got back into Florida to get our set-up all ready to go for the 1965 season.
And I know that you can tell already that he has done his usual magnificent job.
The lead batter for the New York Yankees is going to be Mickey Mantle.
Now, I might say that Mantle is being bothered by that hamstring muscle in his right leg again.
And I don't think that we'll see too much of Mickey tonight, but he will make what I believe will be a token appearance,
and I assume that's the reason that Johnny Keene has moved him to the leadoff spot so that he can get a bat in the first inning.
I'm just strictly speculating now.
But I doubt that Mantle will play too much tonight.
He was not originally in the lineup, but Johnny Keene shifted his lineup around and has moved Mantle to the leadoff spot,
a spot, of course, that he normally will not occupy during the season.
But Mickey will get his swings here to get the ballgame underway at least, and then he has been bothered by that bad leg, and I assume he'll be taken out.
Elston Howard will also miss tonight's game.
As I mentioned, Mantle has the hamstring muscle full, and Howard has injured his arm during an exhibition game in Puerto Rico a few days ago.
So the catching duties tonight for the Yankees will be handled by John Blanchard.
The Astros will come in tonight with a spring exhibition record of 12 wins and 8 defeats, and five more games remain on the schedule.
We will give you the play-by-play story of all five, of course, with two tomorrow, the Orioles tomorrow afternoon,
and the Yankees tomorrow night.
The third makes up for Al Salerno as they broke up the conference of the play, started a cut in front of Farrell's fastball, and he quickly stops, no damage done.
Well, we're all set to play ball, and here's Mickey Mantle.
Mantle, a switch hitter batting left-handed against Kirk Farrell.
Mantle is hitting.324 this spring with two homers and four runs batted in. He has one double.
Elsteiner working the flight. Farrell all set to throw the first pitch.
And here's the wind-up in the first pitch of the ball game, and it's a ball lowed outside.
And the first ball is being taken to Warren Giles, president of the National League.
Elsteiner call time. Ron Brand trotted over to the box seat from the right side to present the National League correctly to ball.
So the first one thrown here in actual competition, although an exhibition game, has been given to Warren Giles.
One ball and no strikes on Mickey Mantle, and here's the pitch now by Farrell.
Ground ball, base hit up the middle. Jimmy Wynn comes in to make the pick-up, and Mantle just does get down to first base.
You can see that he has an ailing leg. He trotted down, and there's the first hit of the ball game on the second pitch.
So Mantle has singled, and that will bring up the second baseman for New York, Bobby Richardson.
Richardson, the right-handed batter, hitting 229. He has five runs batted in and four doubles.
Al Spangler in left. Jim Wynn in center. Rusty Staub in right. Bob Espermonte at third. Bob Lillis at short.
Joe Morgan second base. Walton at first. Ron Brand the catcher. Farrell Ruddy now watches Mantle on first base.
Here's the pitch on the way, and it's a low ball. One ball and no strikes.
Mantle on with a base hit. Frankie Crocetti coaching down on third for the Bombers.
Byrne Benson coaching over on first for New York. No score. We've just got it.
Mantle on with a base hit. One ball, no strikes. Start of a goal by Richardson. Held it in there for a strike, and it's one ball and one strike.
Roger Maris has moved to the on-deck circle off the left side. The Yankees occupying the third base dugout here at the Astrodome.
Kurt Ruddy again now. Not too big a lead by Mantle on first base. The pitch to Richardson.
Ground ball to the shortstop. Lillis goes to second. Out there. Throw to first. No, another play.
Ball was just not hit hard enough for the double play. Lillis fielded it just off the infield grass.
Went to Joe Morgan for the force on Mantle, and the relay to first base to Wolfond was not in time, and Richardson safe over there.
Here now is Roger Maris, the New York right fielder.
Down the foul line here at the Astrodome. It's 340 feet. 340 to right, 340 to left, 406 feet to center field, and 390 to right center and left center field.
Richardson takes his lead, and Maris takes a high outside fastball in this ball one.
Turk has not had a good spring. He worked 13 innings up to this point and has allowed 19 hits.
And the turn run average is 5.54. Turk has struck out only one batter this spring and has given up two bases on ball.
Pitch on the way to Maris. Big swing and a miss. And it's one ball, one strike.
Just a magnificent sight here tonight.
We may have close to 50,000 people here tonight. I see an awfully lot of standing room occupied in center field.
That's again by Farrell now. Richardson takes the big lead, and Maris checks her swing just in time.
A high inside fastball. He started to go, but held up on it. And it's two balls and one strike. Two runs down.
Maris is hitting 243 this spring. He has hit two homers and seven and eight runs. He has come up with three doubles.
Richardson edges away from Wolfond. Here's the pitch in to Maris, and it's a little bit low on outside.
So the count goes to three balls and one strike. A lead single by Mickey Mantle.
And Mantle was erased on a ground ball to short to Lilas as Richardson hit in the fourth play at second base.
One out. And Joe Pepitone will be up next. Top half of the first inning. Here's the three-and-one pitch to Maris.
He walks in outside ball four. Throw the Yankees and puts two on. Richardson moves up to second.
Roger Maris takes over first. And now the colorful first baseman for the Yankees, Joe Pepitone, steps in.
Pepitone is hitting 209. Two homers and 13 runs down at end.
Take a comparison of the first baseman. You talked about Curate with no shrinking violence.
This fellow, very similar to him. Very similar to all. He plays a better first base, though.
Oh! Pepitone, a real good ball player, and will be for some time to come for the Yankees.
Runners on first and second base. Richardson on second. Maris on first.
Outfield is playing Pepitone pretty well straight away. Arms down by Farrell now.
Here's the pitch on the way. And a fly ball left field. Al Stangler coming on for this one now.
He's there, and he has got it. And there she goes.
So that's a down on the first pitch. Looks high-flying, and that's two deep left fielders.
Richardson moves back to second. Maris back to first. And that will bring up Tony Kubek.
Kubek is hitting 283.
That's added batter. Two on, two out. Top of the first inning.
Farrell against Al Stundlmayer. Will be working for the New York Yankees tonight.
Kubek takes his time now up on the rubber. Tex Richardson on second base.
And the first pitch in is a strike up around the letter. Strike one.
You know, I think, Lowell, one of the interesting, look at all the players down at the dugout up on the rim taking this side in here tonight.
They're not even back in the dugout bench. They want to get as close as possible.
Here's the pitch on the way now. Fly ball left center field. Jimmy Warren Stangler there.
Win makes us all. Got it. 2000 yards. Kubek flying to left center for the win.
Top of the first inning. No runs, one hit. No air. Kubek will up strong right.
Top of the first. The Yankees nothing. And the Houston Astros are coming to bat.
Right-hander Mel Stoudelmeyer taking his loosening up throws out of the mound as we swing him to the bottom half of the first inning.
No score. Johnny Blanchard shoots it down to the second baseman Bobby Richardson.
And the lead batter for the Astros is the second baseman Joel Morgan.
He'll be followed by Al Stangler and Lusky Stobb.
Here's Little Joe. He's batting 163 this spring. One run battered and one double.
Joe has played a tremendous defense of second base and has not been hitting the ball as badly as his average indicates.
Stoudelmeyer takes his time now and checks his defense.
Third baseman Cleet Boyer in on the grass. And here's the windup in the first pitch by Stoudelmeyer.
Ground ball right side. Bobby Richardson there for it. On over to Pepitone. One down.
So Morgan hits the first 12th and bounces out second to first. That will bring up Al Stangler.
Stoudelmeyer has pitched 32 innings for the Yankees this spring and has given up 29 hits.
And he evidently is picking up here this spring where he left off last year at the World Series.
Here's ERA 1.97 Stoudelmeyer. Here's Al. He's hitting 304.
Stangler left hand is battered. One run battered in the spring. Four doubles.
Al has had a real good spring. Stoudelmeyer's first pitch will go outside. Gets away from Blanchard ball on.
Jimmy Adair coaching it first. Those of you fans who will be watching our ball club in action in person this year,
Jimmy Adair is wearing number three this year. Jimmy changes his number every season.
And Jim Busby on third. Ball is low.
Ball two. No strikes on Stangler. One out. Nobody on base. Bottom of the first.
Stoudelmeyer in 32 innings this spring has struck out 21. So he has that pitch going for him.
He's given up only six bases on ball. Down base hit. I believe. No, no, no. Tom places back. He got it.
Good. But carried right into Trish's hands and left center field. Two out now. That'll bring up Busby's stop.
Busby has after a very bad start this spring.
Last couple of weeks has been looking real fine. Busby's got this timing back.
And just about everything he has been hitting the past couple of weeks has been on the line.
He's got a pretty batting average. First pitch low ball one. Busby has hit two homers, eight RBIs, and has two doubles.
Two out. Nobody on base. Bottom of the first. No score. Morgan has bounced out. Stangler's lined to Trish in center field.
Ball a little bit outside of the knees. Ball two. No strikes.
Nicky Mantle left field. Tom Trish center. Roger Maris in right field.
Fleet Boyer on third. Tony Kubek is short. Bobby Richardson second base. Joe Pepitone on first.
Donald Myer rocks back now. Here's the pitch on the way to Rusty. Swing and a miss. He took a dandy cut on that one.
Two balls, one strike.
President Johnson has just arrived in President Jed Hoffmein's box. High over the stands in right center field.
President Johnson has just arrived and he is in the box up there now.
Two outs. Nobody on. Here's the windup in the pitch to stop. Rusty hits one high. He's in the right center field.
It'll be caught. Trish is over. And the right fielder, Roger Maris, steps in front of him to make the catch on the edge of the warning track to refire the side.
Three up and three down. No runs. No hits. No errors. And nobody left on base.
At the end of the first inning of play, New York...
...the great, fast, in-box, and just in line of the scoreboard, where President Richard B. Johnson is now watching the game.
Just announcing on the CA that the President has arrived. Here's the stadium tonight.
Center fielder Tom Thresh will lead off from New York now as we move into the top half of the second inning.
And they have just flashed a picture of the President on the screen in center field and up on the nudge board now.
Welcome, Mr. President.
Thresh will be followed by Boyer and Blanchard. The ballgame has been held up now.
And almost all the fans here, I would say all of them looking in the direction of the President, in the box, high over the right center field stand and giving him an ovation.
Also the fans here giving him a standing ovation.
Here's Tom Thresh now, center fielder, left-handed batter for New York.
I feel pretty well straight away. Here's the windup by Farrell and the pitch.
Thresh was going to bunt that ball and he took it low and outside ball one, one and nothing.
Kirk, 30-year-old right-hander, stands 6-4, weighs 220 pounds.
Kirk trying to get back in the groove after a rough spring.
And it's all set again now. Here's the pitch on the way to Thresh. Swing and a fastball up around the letters and he misses.
And it's one ball, one strike.
We'll have some scores for it a little bit later on. There's a night game going on tonight, exhibition game, and there's some afternoon finals which we'll see.
There's a change of the slip pitch. Farrell gave him too high to Thresh.
And the comp moves on to two balls, one strike.
First of the second inning, no score. Yankees in the Astros, Farrell against Stoudelmeyer.
Fleet Boyer in the on-deck circle off the left side. The pitch to Thresh, line drive left field.
Spangler over for this one now. Alan Maroney's got it and he's won that one.
Thresh is right in the left field. That'll bring up Fleet Boyer.
All of us here in the broadcasting booth tonight would like to send out a special hello to King Cole who is an uncle of Betty Robinson who is the wife of Betty Robinson, our farm director for the Astros.
King is in Herman Hospital now. He's a real good Astros baseball fan and is making plans to get out to see the opener but couldn't make it tonight and is looking forward to getting out real soon.
So a special hello to King Cole from all of us here in our broadcast booth tonight. Ball in the slow.
Boyer the batter, one out and John Blanchard the catcher will be up next.
Ground ball right by Farrell and in the center field for a base hit.
Almost over, couldn't get it and a big turn on first by Boyer and Winslow goes back in a little Joe Morgan out by second base.
Boyer has bounced the second hit of the ball game, a hopper through the box. It's bounced right by Farrell's pitching hand in the center field.
Maddell opened the ball game with a base hit and now Boyer's single. One out, Boyer on first. Here's the catcher John Blanchard hitting 189.
One homer and four RBIs. He has one double.
John Blanchard, utility man deluxe for the Yankees, just working the plate tonight.
Boyer takes a very short lead on first base. Farrell's pitch, fly ball, center field.
Jimmy Winn coming on fast for this one now, slows up and makes the play on that one and they're two down.
Blanchard lost a lazy fly ball to center field as Jimmy Winn and that will bring up the pitcher Mel Stubblemeyer.
No score, top of the second. Two out now with Boyer on first base.
Now, those of you who are not too familiar with the Dome Stadium here, it's 208 feet from second base to the top of the dome.
208 feet there. Here's the stretch down the pitch on the way.
Foul, that's up in the deep. There's the first souvenir for somebody.
The first souvenir that has been hit into the stands.
And it's one strike on Stubblemeyer. Boyer hanging close to Bond on first base, waiting for Farrell to get set.
Arms down again by Kirk. Here's the pitch now. There's a fly ball, shallow center field.
Lillip's going out, Morgan going out. Winn makes the call. Jim's there. Jim's got it.
Three-five to start. No runs and one hit, no errors.
One man left on base. We go to the bottom half of the second inning here at the Astrodome.
There's no score. New York nothing and Houston nothing.
Bottom half of the second inning and Walt Bond will lead off.
He'll be followed by Bob Aspermati and Jim Winn.
Now the Astrodome has quite a few distinctive features, of course.
One of them is the pretty close to the tallest foul poles in the business anyway.
They go way up in the air above the ninth level.
KRLT, AM and FM, Dallas.
Guys and one double. Walt off to a close start this spring. Stubblemeyer's pitch.
Major tap off the right side. Capitone feels and touches the bag just in front of Bond.
Stubblemeyer was over to cover, but Capitone saying that he had no chance to hand the ball to Stubblemeyer, made the play himself.
Bond popped that ball, a roller toward first base, and was out unassisted by the first baseman, Joe Capitone.
Here's Astro. Aspermati hitting 277.
Two hummers and 13 runs batted in. Astro has hit four doubles.
No score. Bottom of inning number two.
Outfield deepens up and swings around the left side.
I know all the fans are anxious to see someone hit a home run here tonight so they can see that scoreboard go off.
There's a ball going outside. Ball one.
One out. Bond has rolled to first.
Stubblemeyer's still a youngster. He's only 23 years old, and as most of you fans know, was a great age to be Yankees to tail end last year.
Very high fly ball. That's way up in the air. Left center field. Tom Tresch making the call on it, coming in from center field.
Astro Mali has been retired. Two down.
Here's Jimmy Wynn.
Wynn has had an exciting spring.
Has done a tremendous job defensively for Houston.
And the batting side comes in here tonight with a 250 average.
Jimmy's hit two hummers. He had four runs batted in, four doubles and two doubles.
And Stubblemeyer's first pitch. Strike. He stuck that bat up, pulled it back, but evidently Mel Steiner, the play-down buyer, said it was in there anyway. Strike one.
Stubblemeyer stands 6-2 and weighs 175 pounds. He's a native of Hazelton, Missouri, but he makes his home now in Madison, Washington.
He's been in the major leagues less than a year.
Jim Files won. That is headed just under the first level, or the second-peating level of the mezzanine season.
And another souvenir hit the afterdome tonight.
Two strikes on Jimmy Wynn. Two outs, nobody on base.
Stubblemeyer started the season with Richmond in the International League last year where he won 13 games and lost three.
And after being called up by New York, helped them to win the American League Senate by winning nine games while losing only three.
Pitch to win. That's a little bit low outside.
And it's one ball, two strikes.
Two outs. Bond is rolled out and Astromati is flying to center.
No score. Yankee's nothing, Astro's nothing. Bond on half for the second and he wimps, swings, and he misses and he's stuck him out.
So the first strikeout. Wynn goes down swinging. Stubblemeyer's retired the first six men to face him tonight.
No runs, no hits, no errors, and nobody left on base.
The end of two innings of play. Yankee's nothing, Astro's nothing.
Well, we're moving on to the first half of the third inning here at the afterdome now.
Yankee's nothing, Astro's nothing. And now let's hear from Mary Kelley.
Thank you, Dean. Mickey Mantle, the leadoff for the New York Yankees.
He'll be followed by Bobby Richardson and Roger Maris.
Mantle has one of the two hits off Kirk Stirling's fangle, the leadoff to the ballgame.
And the first hit in an official game here at the afterdome.
Ferrell winds a pitch to Mantle as high inside ball one.
One ball and no strikes to Mickey Mantle who is at 454 career home runs more than any other active player.
Willie Mays is only one to hide and Mays is at 453.
First bell looked in at Ron Brand.
Here's the one-oh pitch and that's high with a foul.
Ball, ball, two. Two and 0 to Mantle.
Mantle the switch hitter batting left against the right-hander Ferrell.
Mickey's batting average is higher right-handed, but his home run frequency is higher left-handed.
Mantle also leads all active players in career runs that again.
A high foul up on the left-hand side. That ball is on a play and a souvenir for fans.
Great grab up the ball, apparently, as the fans down below look up and send out a round of applause
for some fan who apparently made a nice play of the ball.
Two balls and one strike to Mickey Mantle.
Bobby Richardson on that. No score. We're in the top of the third.
Now on that fifth wing, a bounding ball to second base.
Joe Morton's scoop.
Foul goes to cover.
It throws the first. It's in by a half a step.
Mantle is out by a half a step.
As he mentioned earlier, Mantle is still bothered by a full hamstring.
If he had not done that, he would have beat it out.
Joe Morton recovered inside.
And Mickey is on it. That will bring up Bobby.
Bobby's rounded into a field of his choice his last time up.
Hitting 229 this spring. The right-hander.
Here's the picture.
He takes the fast ball inside. He has the back away. Ball one.
One ball and no strikes to Bobby Richardson.
Richardson last year for the Yankees at 267.
He's got a World Series record for most hip-flap view at 13.
He grounds one to second. Morton's scoop to cleanly.
It throws the first.
And Richardson is out for our number six.
So there are two down on the top of the third.
That will bring up Roger Merritt, the right-hander.
Merritt's watch his last time up.
Here's Merritt who of course did 61 all-march, 1951.
He came to the Yankees from Kansas City in December of 59
and traded with the Yankees also at game to Camp Hadley and Joe Demetri.
The Yankees gave Kansas City Don Larson.
Here's a picture.
Mighty swing and a miss like one on the fast ball.
Kansas City in that trade.
Got Don Larson who of course is now a member of the Astros
along with Miles Thromberry, Hank Fowler, and Norm Sievern.
Here's an extra-slip picture.
Low for a ball and a Sievern of one-on-one.
Two out of nobody on the top half of the third and there's no score.
A backhouse at the beautiful all-new afterdome.
Now Bale's one-on-tench, a high fly ball in the center field fairly deep.
A dim wind is back.
Pounds the glove, comes in a couple of steps to make the catch for a guy at the top.
No Yankees down and order in the third.
No runs, no hits.
There were no after-avers and none were done.
And after two and a half innings of play, it remains a solid shot.
Moving into the bottom half of the third inning, Bob Lilis leads off for the Astros.
He'll be followed by Ron Bram and then a picture of Kurt Thurl who plays Mel Babelmeier.
Babelmeier, 23-year-old right-hander who was the International League Player of the Year last year,
joined the Yankees in August and won nine games for the Yanks.
Lilis was in there with a fastball called strike one, 0-1 to Bob Lilis.
No score in the bottom of the third.
Mel Babelmeier looks in to catch it, John Blanton.
And that fifth year, a grounded foul down the first-base side, off the screen,
and finally the Astros dug out and bounced into right field where it stayed down by the Bat Boy and the Count.
It was 0-2, Babelmeier ahead of the hitter, Bob Lilis.
Babelmeier last year hurled a 7-0 two-hit shutout at Washington on September 26th,
and he'll long remember that game because he went 5-for-5 at the plate.
There's a high ground ball to third.
Queensborough has it behind third, goes across to Diamond, and Lilis is on it there for round number one.
That'll bring up Ron Bram, Astros catch him.
Bram, the spring, hitting two 50-unit position games with three home runs,
with one home run rather, three doubles and one triple.
Ron a right-hand batter with one out and nobody on.
Babelmeier winds, a pitch to him is a little bit low with a slider, ball one.
One ball and no strikes to Ron Bram.
No score in the bottom of third.
The first official game to be played here at the Astrodome,
afternoon game tomorrow against the Baltimore Orioles, the Yankees again tomorrow night,
Sunday afternoon against the Yankees, Sunday night against Baltimore.
Line drive into right center field, fire back goes right to Maripita,
and it's going all the way to fifth.
Ron Bram is second, he tries to third, it goes down to third,
it's in his ground third and now holds up a third with his hands off the ground.
The person of that crowd is Ron Bram, triples to right center field,
all the way past Maripita, rounded off the fast at about the 400-foot mark.
Bram is on a third base with the first Astro hit in the afternoon.
That brings up Kirk Farrell, the pitcher will decant away his scores.
Ron Bram a third base and one man down.
Bram for the sweeping turn at third base when Maripita missed the cutoff man,
second base from Bobby Richardson.
The Tony Kuback was there behind Richardson to make the relay throw,
and Bram immediately hunkered back to third.
He's on a third base with his band up dribble.
No score in the bottom of third.
The Astros with a runner at third and one out.
Here's a pitch to Farrell.
A ground ball to second base.
Richardson holds the runner at third, throws the first,
and Farrell is out of there for our number two.
So we'll take a base in now that brings up Joe Morgan, the leadoff man,
who's rounded out second to first his last time up.
Little Joe is at 153 in spring training games.
The bat is not indicative of the way he has took the ball.
He's hit the ball very, very well.
Joe Morgan, the left-hand batter, Ron Bram to third base,
two men out in the bottom of the third.
Al Saddlemire, the right-hander, looks in at John Blanton this time.
And the pitch to Morgan is swinging him in, strikes one on the fast ball.
Go and one to Joe Morgan.
Morgan, a fast man, was the most valuable player in the Texas League.
Here he is, 323 for San Antonio.
Here's an at-hip to him.
It's inside the long hill.
He's got away from captured John Blanton.
The count is even at one and one.
Ron Bram to third base with a triple as his second triple this spring.
Two men down in the bottom of the third.
And there's no score.
The Astros with one hit and the Yankees with two.
Now the one-one offering, playing a ground ball in the first base.
Pappatone has it, waves off Saddlemire, makes the unassisted put out of every tire he's got.
Before the Astros, no runs on one hit.
There were no Yankees.
There's one runner left on.
Out of the other three full innings to play, the Astros nothing and the Yankees nothing.
I don't own all the coffee in the world,
but I'm certainly going to enjoy a cup of Maryland club right now.
And that's my cue to turn the microphone over to Lowell Badlow.
All right, thank you, Harry.
And hello, everybody.
What a thrill it is.
And the fed goes down to second.
Joe Pappatone, the leadoff batter for the Yankees.
Then Tony Kubek follows the contract.
There's no score in this ballgame.
Two hits for the Yankees, one hit for the Astros.
This is the top half of the fourth inning.
Left-hand hitter, Joe Pappatone, up there.
He flies to left field.
It's finally his first time.
He calls time and wants the rosin.
And now the fine guard toss.
Yet those Yankees used the rosin bag and the fine guard toss also there.
Dean, did you know that?
No score in the ballgame.
And certainly so delighted to be numbered among the most here on broadcasting baseball from the fabulous Amsterdam.
A strike tall as well.
Brings on the first pitch.
That looks like just medium speed stuff.
And Pappatone taking all the way through.
And Joe batting at 2-0-7.
Here's the pitch.
Swung on in a high-top foul.
It would be out of play.
Souvenir to the lucky fans here in Houston's fabulous Amsterdam.
That makes, let's say, three of them, doesn't it?
Oh, that's quite a treasure.
That's a trophy.
Take home a baseball from here.
And that goes for not only tonight, but for any game that any of you attend.
So, end of the windup, the rock back to pitch.
Swung on, hit into right center field.
Deep.
And it's not too deep, though.
About near the very edge of the warning.
Back to Jimmy Wann.
He's back there.
And he's loved it.
It's run away.
Well, as we have said all spring and for the rest of the night long, Jimmy Wann has shown us some of the best improvement of not only players listed on our roster, but any major league roster.
Jimmy Wann in center field.
All the fans who are here tonight, just ask them about it.
It's important to be a next door neighbor to viewers, to relatives.
Remember the foul is just the hottest Jimmy Wann look in center field.
Tell me Kuback about it.
Strike tall of beauty right down the middle.
Kuback arrived to center field his first time, hitting at 279.
This took a round.
He was 283 at the start of the ball game.
Pitch is just a shade off the mark.
A little bit outside.
And he counters one ball and one strike.
One out, no baserunners.
New York Yankees at bat here at the top of the fourth inning.
Schoolless ball game.
Tom Thrift waiting to come up next.
Foul pitch.
Fungo hit out into left field high down near the line.
Spangler coming over fast.
Can he get it?
He's there.
He's got it.
Within about a couple of yards of the left field line, Spangler didn't have too much trouble.
It was a long run, but plenty of height on that clock.
Oh boy.
Fellas, you've heard this on television, but this is the first time you've ever heard it on radio.
This game is coming to you in living color.
You just have to be here to see it and believe it.
What a beautiful and giant scoreboard up there.
I wonder who's going to activate that spectacular.
Here's a high pop by Thrift off the block side of the short.
Here's the play.
Lillis out there waiting on that green carpet.
He's got it.
And it was the Yankees in order.
No runs, no hits, no unlocks, and there were no errors.
Those of you who happened to be tuned in with those San Victor radios down there,
you didn't. Again, Iranians.
All sort of saluted there with an L and block.
Now Spangler leads off, followed by Rusty Stobb and then Walter Bond.
No score.
Let's see if we can get something going.
What do you say?
Well, we're up against the defending champs of the American League.
It's annual champs almost, you can say.
Spangler, sitting at 298 over the course of the exhibition season.
He's got five more games to go for the regular season.
Spangler hit one to the right side, two there, base hit.
So the tournament ballplayer drives one through the hole between second baseman Lickerton
and first baseman Pepper Tom.
Base hit to the right side.
And that amounts to the second hit that we have picked up off.
Now Stobb and I are at a nice hand as Rusty Stobb is announced.
Rusty's slide out to the right field, his first set.
Well, of course, double play depth in field, skated off to the right side of there.
And some of my pitches down lefty swing, drive down to the second baseman.
And Lickerton goes down to short, back to first, and it's a double play.
Shots down to the covering, and on the throwback to first and 20th time for the double play.
Lickerton, two back to Pepper Tom, 4-6-3 of course.
And with two down in a hurry, that brings on Walter Bond.
No score in the ballgame and it's moving rapidly along.
Well, a lot of people have asked the question,
what sort of a baseball game can you expect to see here?
Outgoing game? No scoring game? No scoring game.
Every time out there's less than a field.
Well, it's in there for a big hit.
Mike Lickerton goes for three.
The big boundary is hitting the second, and he'll be content with a double.
Wait a minute, he's right behind the ball, just like the video, man.
Go down to third.
So Walter Bond, he's brought up to a stop just as he rounded second, then accelerated and turned on to third.
As the ball went back to put off there, a double and an error.
Error, two back. So E-6 if you score with it.
And there is the first error of the ballgame.
No score, and with two down, Bob Astromani is the batter.
And Bob Astromani has five to center field, and he's on the appearance.
And Jim Buckley coaches up that third, having Bond fail off a couple of big sides and a half or so.
And he widens it as the set is made, and the pick's blown away.
Tucked out by Bondage off the right two-top almost.
Jimmy Wynn standing by at the on-deck circle, which is an emblem of our Astrodome.
And the ball's at center, of course, orbiting.
Ready, down to my sixth.
Come on in there for an air with six, we can start.
Duke Carmel, an outfielder, and Bob Schmidt, one of the captains, doing a little, uh, loosening up down along the left line.
Duke Carmel and Bob Schmidt for the Yankees.
No score, Astromani waiting to pick. Come on in, the softball hit down left side to George Starr.
He got up with it over the first two times, and that was a nice, good start.
Well, almost, but not quite.
And for the Astros, no runs with one hit, one left.
There was one error.
And so at the end of four innings of play, the Astros nothing and the Yankees nothing.
Well, here again at the Astrodome, it's time to batter up.
And the leadoff man will be Quake Boyer.
For the Yankees, he'll be followed by Johnny Blunted.
And then we'll see, as there is no warm-up activity on the sidelines, Mel Stoudemire, perhaps,
will have a chance for our station identification coming up after this batter.
All right, here's the pick now to Boyer.
Stakes it way up high, ball one.
Quake came through with a base hit single in the second inning.
Boyer batting 286 to start the game, and that roll is, uh, the average up to 295.
The pick, low and inside, a ball.
Now ready, the big right hander, Fairlock's back,
keeps coming on it down past third base foul, just down a couple of three feet or so.
And third base come for Al Salerno, putting on a little spectacular,
letting everybody know that was foul.
And I guess the players appreciate that sort of thing.
He stays a couple of three or four running steps down the line.
And all the way around.
No score in the ball game here at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.
And I know that many of you who did not get to make it out here tonight will be here tomorrow,
or sometime during the season.
Foul up and back, that'll go into the big crowd.
Well, let's see what color that went into there, boys.
That's the coral red, isn't it?
Right. That is in the mezzanine.
We are on the club level.
This is the first feeding level, one, two, three.
Let me count them.
We've got six feeding levels, nine, two is the level.
Here's the test in there for a strike and got him.
So strike three to retire, three down, four down.
While we wait now for blanchard, let's go for station identification.
This is the Astros, baseball network.
You're where the action is on KRLV, a monofilm dollar.
The time is 8.31.
And our first pitch, the blanchard, it's popped up back on the plate,
off of the mat, the plan failing out under,
and a little long take just off to the right of the plate.
Team Mary, let's get an estimate on the distance from the plate back to the screen.
The back stop, let's see, our count is 10, 20, 30, about 35 feet or so, I would say.
And likewise off to the right side, a little more than that,
to the very leading edge of our dugout.
Houston occupied the first base dugout.
A lot of people like to be behind the dugout.
Well, okay, they are down there, the longest dugout in all the world.
Two down, and here's Stoudelmeyer taking the first pitch for the ball, a little high and away.
Nothing and nothing on the scoreboard.
Stoudelmeyer has been up now to second to the plate,
he flied to center the first time, swings and hit one down the right field line,
left his shot coming, and it goes over Deccan Foul territory.
He's got it in the back of the foot, a high one, lock it down the right field line,
giving roughly 20 times, and so for the Yankees here in the fifth inning, down and ordered.
No runs, no hits, no inlets, and there were no errors.
Well, the game goes now to the last day of the fifth inning.
The Houston Astros, nothing, and the New York Yankees, nothing.
Halligene and Jimmy Wen lead the off for the Astros, as Mel Stoudelmeyer goes back to the mound.
More action up there, no score in this ball game.
The only meeting between these two ball clubs this year, the Astros,
Ed, Don, and the Yankees, as you most know, I'm sure,
those of you who follow regularly on our broadcast,
want to say thanks for the nice comments, letters, and cards, and so on.
We appreciate them and we haven't forgotten them.
Wen checked the swing and fouled it off.
Jimmy had a notion to give it a good cut that time, checked the swing and strike one.
Wen stuck out his first time at bat.
Stoudelmeyer has allowed only two hits, a triple by Ronnie Brand, a single by Fenger.
Now is the low-bone right-hander, locked back down ready to fix, turning away from it.
Ah, Ed, the shoulder, Wen has the count of ball one and strike one.
I would say between 45,000 and 50,000 spectators here tonight.
And we've got double header tomorrow and double header on Sunday,
opening game against the fellas Monday.
Wen takes breaking stuff low and inside.
Many times, of course, we try to tell exactly what kind of breaking stuff,
so just as long as we keep it just about in the area, I know that you're happy.
And so sometimes, though, that it might be a school ball, it could be a sphincter.
The pitch hung on him, and he had him fishing around out there, tolling around.
He was submitted already and went on through,
and Jimmy gets a little confirmation there from umpire and catcher.
I was really fooled on that, wasn't I? Yep.
Yes, you were. The count is both two and second two. No score.
We're the last guys with a fifth inning.
Now working.
Wen playing, hits it down on the left side.
Boy, he lets it go down to shortstop two back over to first base ten-five.
Boy, it's just off of the bench down there.
The Astros think that Wen might have been safe on that,
but the first base umpire, Larry, not tears out of there, and it's gone away.
Well, he's getting a little bit of needling off of the bench off to the right side.
Here now is Bob Lillett.
On air, bounded by three.
Thirty-first in the third inning.
Lillett, three-eighteen average.
Bout to hit down a shortstop, two back coming in, and Bob is momentarily in front in time.
Oh boy, that pepper-ton is a perfect first baseman, isn't it?
Nifty around the base over there.
And it looks like there's nothing to it.
Got two in a row.
I bounded off short to first.
And here is Walter Barnes.
I love it.
Barnes, I should say.
Barnes gets a nice hand because they recall his demonstration of speed being a catcher.
He is three to foot, and he powered one up the alley in right center.
Just about 400 feet away for a triple.
He's first on his back.
Six to strike.
In and over.
Ronnie Barnes, of course, has done an outstanding job getting a chance to be regular
with our Astros over from the Pittsburgh organization.
All right, here's the pitch.
Come on.
Up into medium deep center field.
Tommy Craig just sliding in on Ricky there and has it for the put-up.
Well up and down and over for the Astros here in the fifth inning.
No runs, no hits, none left on.
There were no errors.
And so the team changed sides.
The Yankees will give it a try at the plate.
And the score is Astros nothing and New York nothing.
All right, Gene, thank you.
Well, the Earthmen down there taking care of the scores.
Kind of manicuring the dirt portion of the infield.
Nifty jars.
That was their first try.
And let's get a round of applause from a lot of the people here.
Listen to that.
We're, of course, honored to have the President of the United States,
President Lyndon Johnson, visiting here tonight to see the first game ever
in the world's first air-conditioned dome-covered stadium.
And our governor, Governor John Connelly, and many other dignitaries,
city and county officials.
All right, here's the leadoff batter now.
Mickey Mantle, I mean, Queens and Mississus strike one.
The mighty Mickey Mantle, I recall in 1951,
he was coming along from way, way, way down in the lower minor leagues.
And they said two days before the season started,
he hit home runs all over the place and he couldn't make the team.
God wanted to do a win back up.
He's on the warning sign.
Here the wall is up.
The team just made it.
It's a home run.
Let's see what they have.
The umpire's given the table for home runs.
Mantle hit it.
Four hundred and six feet to home plate.
And the lower of the crowd, here it is.
And on the deck, Green and Binnifield,
as that umpire said when the umpire's been hit the home run,
it says, fifth up there.
So the Yankees lead it, one to nothing.
But he killed his boards on that one.
The Yankees lead it, Mickey Mantle.
And the first game competition here at the Amsterdam gets the first home run,
and that's quite fitting, isn't it?
We have got this program to bring you a special weather bulletin
from the KRLB Newsroom, John Brooks reporting.
The U.S. Weather Bureau has issued this severe thunderstorm forecast
for portions of central and south central Oklahoma,
portions of north central Texas,
and that area in Texas does include the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
A few severe thunderstorms with large hail and locally damaging windstorms
are expected this evening from 9 o'clock until 3 o'clock tomorrow morning
in the approximate area along and 60 miles either side of the line
from 30 miles southeast of Mineral Wells
to 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
The north-central Texas portion of the area is bounded by Wichita Falls,
Breckenridge, Granbury, Italy, Farmsville, and Bonham.
And again, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is included from 9 o'clock
until 3 o'clock tomorrow morning.
A few severe thunderstorms with large hail and locally damaging windstorms
are expected.
This is Weather Bureau bulletin from the KRLB Newsroom.
Roger Maris takes it like once.
Maris is looking for his first hit.
He's walked and fly at the center, and Roger's getting it to 40.
Picks one round and a hard pop, very shallow into the field.
Clay goes out from short, and he's in front of Spangler and has it fully out.
Lilith goes way on out there and makes a nice run back to haul that one down,
looking up over the shoulder.
That brings on Joe Pepperton, the real stepper this Pepperton.
Mano has Harbert, hitting one just over the barrier into the center field seat
to the right of the runway.
The first run of the ballgame, the first home run ever in two-team competition here,
the opposing team competition, but it's that way.
There's a drop going way back up into the mezzanine-shaped foul.
And it's a foul strike for Pepperton.
Two down, no base runners.
Mano is soaking left-handed against right-hand picking.
Most of you know that.
He's got his hammer.
Top ball, a five.
A ball and a strike to count for Pepperton.
And Tony Kubek waiting around, one to nothing, Yankee.
Picks Sonny, and Ferrell raising it way up high from the left shoulder.
Here's the pit.
Come on.
Over for Cleaveshead.
Mark of the left is second base, going into a base hit.
And Pepperton turns and holds on as Wynn makes that throw right back in on top of the bag to Joe Morgan.
And that was the reaction you heard from the crowd, that throw from Wynn to Morgan.
Base hit, Pepperton driving one out there, and the center fielder, the left, is fed away.
Bringing to the plate, Tony Kubek batting left-handed.
And he's flat out both times, the center and the left, the first to set.
All right, two down, one run across, the man at first.
The pitch is high, and Brand turning around, daring the runner, Pepperton, down at first base.
Kubek has played in 19 games prior to this evening, and has been up 62 times so far this spring.
All right, here's Pick Ferrell, a tackle to the field of the pitch.
Swung on him this time.
He really breathed fast him on that one.
Right away to Firenature.
Ball on and strike one with two down.
A one-to-nothing ball game for those of you just dialing the 10.
You have to sit there for minutes and minutes, passing five, 10-minute marks without getting your score.
Ferrell setting his time, he's ready.
The leadoff at first, Bond holding up against the runner to pitch.
Swung on, hit out to right center, Wynn going over, and let's see going back, let's see Wynn, he's got it.
He's got it over the shoulder on the warning card.
Yeah, Mike, let me catch up here.
All right, the little other crowd, let you know about it.
The Yankees get one run.
They came up with two hits and had one left on and there were no errors.
We go now to the last half of the sixth inning.
The score is the Yankees one and the X goes nothing.
Well, let's get down to business now.
Pick Ferrell will come out and take his turn to the plate as we go for the last half of the sixth inning.
Ferrell has set up one and hit a smash in the thrown-out second to first round ball.
Well, I love scoring a fair for those of you just cutting in on your radio sets right now.
Here we are with the last of the sixth inning and if Yankees one and the X goes nothing
and Mickey Manilow smacks one straight away in the center field for a home run.
Ferrell swings and smashes foul.
He was trying to try to ball him up.
Well, when you first come out here, you know, I don't know, people standing around, will it fill up?
Oh, yes, just about 10, 12 minutes before the game got underway, you could see that practically every
seed was taken and they sold standing room only space.
There's a slider outside.
Ball on a strike one.
And between 45,000 and 50,000 people are here and I tell you they've enjoyed every minute,
every tip so far without a doubt.
But there's so many things to see and it's truly overwhelming to try to just take it over
and describe this one low and outside.
And of course, our business at hand is to describe this ballgame first and foremost.
And after it, the sips were a little colored around the edges, right?
Good.
Ball didn't strike one.
Ferrell, his leadoff man, Morgan and Spangler will follow up the pitch and he takes it in,
starts up, out of the header, and it's three balls in one strike.
Hey, what have we got, stepping up on the front burner here now, huh?
Oh, so many things have been said about this after the home.
And that is just the beginning.
To say that it is utterly spectacular is saying nothing, really.
Oh, he's got a strike on the inside edge and Ferrell had the back like spit up in the air almost there.
Saying, come on and throw it.
I don't believe he can get it across, but he did.
One to nothing Yankees and Saddam had with a playoff.
It is.
And it's both four.
He's on.
We get what represents the time on its first play.
And Ferrell removes the helmet and let's see what goes as he talks a bit over the right.
They're going to keep him in the ball game as soon as he'll be put on the windbreak.
Oh, I think it's in Serbia that we might mention it right here.
It's a Johnny C. the New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle for his staying in the ball game
as long as he has tonight even though he is suffering from a very bad right leg.
Indeed so, Gene.
Well, I don't know, this is an inspiring sort of a thing here.
I don't know, this might make anybody get well in a hurry just to come out here.
But as you say, certainly 100% true that we've got to say hats off to Mickey Mantle, Johnny Keene,
and all the teammates of Mickey Mantle and those Yankees down there too.
All right, in field up a little bit now for double play ball.
Joe Morgan hits it down to the first base with two there.
He can't handle it.
And of course, under right tail.
Perfect.
John had his glove down and the ball bounced over.
They might score him an error on that one, Gene.
Let's see.
It is E3.
Error.
Tucked, called up at second base.
So Morgan got one too.
It seemed to bounce just over the glove of Puppet John.
He was trying to sort of scoop with his glove off to his right.
He didn't get over in front of the ball and it was not a smash either.
All right, Al Spangler.
And he can just almost look for the sacrifice front.
But whether he'll get it or not, well, we don't know for sure.
And that's another thing, of course, that makes baseball such a great sport, isn't it, huh?
We don't know what to expect.
Many times, the unexpected occurs.
Boyer is creeping down from third base.
The pick just hung on.
He was swinging straight away and fouled it off at strike one.
What about the down end spring training?
The first baseman was creeping in left of bag, you know, in a bunch situation.
And the big, strong, muscular football type left hand batter took a mighty home run cut
and hit a line drive right past his ear.
Boyer with a run on five, a bunch situation.
But now let's see.
As Bugsley has come up and yelled something down to Spangler
off that coaching side at third base off of the line.
And Boyer's lead is backed off to the very edge of the end field.
That now comes in.
A couple of sides.
Showed him how working the pick.
And he bumped off down third base.
And what you can see there is that out of it all, and you see on the line, the base hit right there, yeah.
All hands are safe.
It's no joke how much off line Jeff was down.
The base hit that base hit right on there.
I don't know what he's doing there.
That's great.
Boyer that was good and it put it in there wasn't it, Gene?
That's great, that put that eight ball in a hole of three.
Now this guy's got that one short ball in.
Well the catch to Johnny Brankett has gone after the mound.
It's off to no solid line.
And let's see it stop.
It's up there with three men on.
It's up there with first and third.
Joe Morgan at second.
And Spangler getting his second base hit of the evening.
This time running one perfectly.
Down third allowed the roll.
And it died in third to it.
About four feet from the bag of third base.
How do you like those apples?
All right here's Trowelmeyer, the rock back to the dip.
Low and up top, the ball under red.
So the Red Heads from New Orleans is up there.
Pete Mickelson is in the full time working now for the Yankees at right hander.
Mickelson a one-day up in ball game.
Yankees leading.
Base is loaded for the up-throw.
And President Johnson up there on his face.
Let's see.
As he swings and fouls off the left side.
The Pinton Mocks.
Oh you get it with a nap here.
The Astros up against the mighty New York Yankees.
The Emmet has been created as a great Yankee baseball team down through the years.
And it lives here.
And all of its splendor I guess you can say.
Honestly say it that way.
And the colorful Amsterdam.
Even the Yankees are all just by this side.
But right now we've got a hot game going.
Let's see Pete Mickelson away that broke off from the left hander.
And it could be a little bit of a turning the ball slightly.
It's sort of a screwball delivery.
I notice Paul Richards is up there in the box to greet our President.
And to pass along perhaps answers to questions that could be put in his direction.
And if anybody can answer him he can of course.
Here's the pitch.
Let's see if the Queens can hit it down through the right side.
And the hot down to second ball.
The throw to second for high ball game first score.
The throw to second.
Sports is finally there.
And two runners are saved.
It's a 1-1 tie.
Houston and the New York Yankees.
So Rusty is saved on the field as a score.
RBI for Rusty.
And Walter Bond.
The Bomber is stepped up.
Well we could go on and on about great things that have been said about our stadium here.
And you'll hear some 50,000 people telling you about it tomorrow.
Ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls everywhere.
Why don't you come out and see a game here?
All right the outfield set up deep in field.
They're wanting a down ball for a double play.
Let's see what they get.
So the first diving back in.
Rusty is saved.
First play there.
Boy that Joe Pepperton.
He's a fancy damn with that glove at first base fellas.
Just like there's nothing to it playing that bag over there.
All right here's the hit down.
The third one hit down.
The left side double play ball.
Two back steps on second.
Dose the first.
Got him.
So Bond hits into a double play that went sick.
Stepping on the bag.
Throwing down to Pepperton.
Two back to Pepperton.
And throw a line under that one will ya.
And for the Astros tying up the ball again.
Getting one run.
And that one little hit.
Bumps and goes.
Two men left on it with one error.
At the end of sixth inning to play the score.
The Yankees won and the Astros won.
Well here we are.
We've reeled off a 1-1 tie.
Ready to go.
Gene are you all set to come back?
Let's see a tie ball game.
Houston won and the Yankees won.
All right well thank you and we're all set to move on here to number seven.
Tom Price the center fielder for the Yankees.
Dating left handed here against Kurt Bell.
A familiar figure just joined up in the bullpen down the left of your line.
He's running number 31 and old number five for Houston.
Todd Neal he's the pitching coach for the Yankees.
There's a very high top foul.
Bell comes back gives up on it goes up into the middle of the net.
A ball and it's like one.
By honor Hal Renes is now warming up for New York down the left of your line.
Pete Nicholson warming up a few moments ago and stopped throwing.
Price has done it twice.
Flying to left field.
Off the shortstop.
Score tied 1-1 top of the seven.
Bell goes into his windup and the pitch is that ball the tied outside.
And it's ball one and it's like one.
Now that Tuck has got a mighty fine job here tonight.
He's allowed only four hits and the only run came on Mickey Mantle.
415 foot home run to center field.
Here's the pitch now.
There's the slip pitch and Tuck is trying to swing butt on that one to the right side.
Reached out and just got a piece of it foul.
And it's one ball two strikes.
Pete Boyer will be up next.
He'll be followed by John Blanchett.
Tuck has struck out only one batter tonight and has given up one base on balls.
And at one stage of this game retired 11 batters in a row.
Tuck ready again now.
Here's the one and two pitch.
Swung on, hopped to the right side.
Little Joe moves over.
Morgan scoops it up.
Goes to bond.
They got him and there's one down.
Tuck bounces out second to first.
Mantle called her and broke the string for Tuck.
Pete Boyer singled in the second inning and then Farrell retired 11 men in a row before
Mantle hit the two to center field.
Here's Boyer single in the second, called out on strikes in the fifth.
Who has been the only Yankee strikeout pitch in the night.
Score side 1-1.
Houston, New York top of the seventh inning.
And Farrell's first pitch on the way to Boyer.
Line drive, Spangler left field.
Al back at it.
And there are two down.
Line drive to left field.
Hit right under the nose by Pete Boyer for the second out.
That will bring up the Yankee catcher John Blanchett.
Down in the bullpen for Houston out in right field.
Left hander Hal Woodishick is starting to loosen up.
And Hal run up in the bullpen for the Yankees off the left side.
Two outs.
Yankee scored first in the top of the sixth.
The Astros came right back to tie it up.
Big cut by Blanchett and he missed his strike on.
One strike to count.
Actually there are six levels in the Astrodome as far as feeding is concerned.
A total of nine altogether.
Here's the wind up in the next pitch by Kirk.
Fastball.
Blanchett over 30.
The check in the swing of him there.
Blanchett bases.
Blanchett on his way to second.
Spangler makes the pick up in third territory.
And Blanchett slows up and pulls in the second base for the stand up double.
Blanchett was checking his swing on that.
The ball hit his side and he popped it right back over third.
That's the fifth pitch of the Yankees tonight.
Gives Blanchett one for three.
Wings up the pitcher now to Stoudelmeier.
Now the Yankees now leading it five to four.
Score tied one-one.
Top of the seventh.
Two out Blanchett on second base.
Stoudelmeier has flied to study and piled up the star in right field.
Right handed batter.
Two outs.
Blanchett on second base.
Frankie Corsetti, the third base coach for the Yankees, motions out toward second base
to give Blanchett the correct out.
Here's the stretch by Phelps.
Now not too big a lead by Blanchett on second base.
And Stoudelmeier took a very late swing and a pitch around the knees of the outside.
Strike one.
Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs today, seven to four.
Another exhibition game.
Chicago White Sox defeated the Cincinnati Reds eight to three.
Phelps takes the stretch now.
Fit down the way to Stoudelmeier.
Very low and outside.
And it's ball one and strike one.
One-one count.
Stoudelmeier batting with Blanchett on second, seventh inning.
Yankees one after it's one.
Manil Soma, the run for the Yankees.
Here's the stretch now.
Fit down the way to Stoudelmeier.
Strike on the outside corner to the knees.
One and two count on the Yankees.
Search text over the sign again with Ron Brand.
There have been no lineup changes tonight.
One and two stretch by Phelps.
One drive, one hopper shooting into your face.
Hit hit from Blanchett.
His win three and a play.
They're going to get him.
He's out.
Beautiful goal by Jimmy Webb.
Straight out of it.
Got it.
Ahead of by Kempi.
Stoudelmeier singles in the center field.
Blanchett is cut down.
Jimmy Webb the run for him.
The tie is a tie.
Six hits off field.
No runs, two hits.
No heads.
One left.
Go to the bottom of the seventh inning now.
The score, New York 1-1 Houston 1.
Outside for the seventh inning stretch now as we go into the bottom of the seventh.
With the score tied 1-1.
Bob Anthony getting a win and Bob Lilich will be facing Mel Stoudelmeier.
Cleveland San Francisco ranked out today.
Another excavation game.
Minnesota 2 and the left one and Philadelphia beat Pittsburgh 5-4.
Here's Astrow fly to center bounce to shortstop.
Right-handed batter outfield deep and around the left side.
Stoudelmeier 23-0 right-handed throws low ball on.
Howie Paulette Houston pitching coach is down on the bullpen with how it would have ticked
as Woody continues to loosen up.
Both starting pitches are still in, Stoudelmeier and Fells.
And the start of the seventh inning for Stoudelmeier.
He's allowed four hits, one run, struck out one and walked one.
Here's the fifth Astrow trying from the outside corner to the knees.
And it's one and one.
Well, tomorrow afternoon we will have the Baltimore Orioles for you here at the
after-dome.
A reminder that there are still feats available for tomorrow afternoon's game of the Orioles.
Game time will be 1-30.
Here's the fifth now, swing and a miss by Astrow and Stoudelmeier's doing a good pitch
around the knees.
And it's one ball through strike.
Our broadcast time tomorrow, air time will be 1-15, game time 1-30.
The Astrows and the Orioles.
And tomorrow night the Yankees again.
Sunday afternoon it will be New York and Sunday night the Orioles.
Stoudelmeier ready again, the fifth Astromani.
Low outside, it's two balls through strike.
And keep in mind the opening of the National League season on Monday night here at the
after-dome and the opposition will be the Philadelphia Phillies.
Nobody out, nobody on.
Bottom half of the seventh inning.
Yankees and the Astros inside 1-1.
Here's the next pitch by Stoudelmeier, high pop-up off the left side.
Sweet boy moving into foul territory now, about 30 feet off 30.
Got it, there's one down.
Now before Ginny Winn comes on, let's pause for station identification.
This is the Astros baseball network.
And this is the RLD, a yellow-deaf endemic with a baseball action edge.
It's Leif Asnacht.
Right-handed batter Ginny Winn steps on here with one out.
Winn struck out in the second inning and grounded out the shortstop in the fifth on a very close play.
Stoudelmeier checks the time with John Blanchard.
Here's the windup in the first pitch to win a right-handed batter.
Ground ball hits the third.
Boyer right on the edge of the grass.
And on over to Puppettell and they're two out.
Winn at the first ball pitch to high ground ball to third to Boyer.
Here's the shortstop by Lillis.
Three has not had a hit in this two times.
The Asnacht out the third in the shortstop.
Stoudelmeier retired the first seven men to patient tonight before Ron Brand tripled to the
seats in right-center field.
Single by Spangler and a double by Bond in the fourth.
First pitch on the way to Lillis to ball.
Astros scored in the sixth on a watch that fell.
An error on the first baseman Puppetton on Morgan's ground ball.
A single by Spangler and a field of choice ground ball.
There's a line drive to second base.
And a lead lead by Bobby Richardson off the bat of Lillis to retire the drive.
Three up, three down.
No runs, no hits, no errors and nobody left on base.
At the end of seven innings of play, the Yankees won and the Astros won.
Mickey Mantle will lead off for New York as we start the eighth and the Astros now have a new
pitcher left-hander Hal Woodishick has come on to replace Church Bell.
Church did a real fine job tonight, his best showing of his strength.
Going seven innings allowing just a home run by Mantle who gave up six hits, struck out one and
walked one.
Mantle now will be coming on as a right-handed batter for the first time tonight against the
left-hander Hal Woodishick.
Going all tied up at one-one, eighth innings.
Left-handed Eve Hamilton is starting to loosen up now and the both-hander on the left of your
line for the Yankees.
There's Mantle, two hits and three hits tonight, single in the first, Harvard in the sixth.
And in between he bounced out to second.
This is the fourth game in which Woodishick has appeared this playing.
Woodishick has only four innings under himself, that is an actual spring competition.
Of course he's seen action in inter-squad games and so forth.
Mantle takes it low outside ball one.
Woody has not given up a run in the four innings, he's allowed five hits.
No head runs rather but he has a lot of pull behind him.
One walk and one strikeout.
Left-hander throws and Mantle takes it low.
Ball two, no strike.
First half of the eighth inning, door tied, one-one.
Woody has the sign again now for Brand Brand.
Here's the pitch in the Mantle.
Top side is off the Mantle's foot I believe.
It's just went foul.
Brand picked it up off the left side of the plate.
And it's ball two and strike one.
Brand got the new baseball now from the plate on fire, no signage.
Bangler left, wind setters, dog right.
Ask Ramadi Thurgg and Lilla Short, Morgan Secondbase, bond on first and Brand to catch it.
Ball two, strike one on Mickey Mantle.
The left-hander throws again and Mantle starts to go.
Takes the strike from the outside corner to the middle.
Hell up on it.
Ball two, strike two.
Wow, we start blowing for keeps on Monday night when the Phillies will be in here at 7.30.
Low inside, full count.
Mickey Mantle three balls, two strikes.
Woody has the stinker ball set there and that's what has made him so effective as a reliever.
He keeps the ball low and around the knees and forces the batter to hit it on the ground.
That foul off the right side.
That leg certainly is bothering Mantle.
He doesn't stand him as too well.
Although I actually, for Mantle, he has a home-hunter single tonight with one bad leg.
But he certainly is not controlling himself too well at the plate.
I think it bothers him a little bit more, batting right-handed.
Here's a wind-up on the pitch now to Mantle.
Low ball four, he wants.
So Mantle's not down to first and that's the third time that Mantle has been on in four appearances at the plate.
Ida Lopez is going to run for it now.
Ida Lopez running for Mantle at first.
The winner's pick has lost the first time to face it.
Mantle gets a nice hand.
And that's the third time.
I mentioned when we started our broadcast tonight that it appears that Mantle was making only a token appearance
because of that hamstring muscle injury, but he had just been taken out here in the eighth inning.
Here's Bobby Richardson.
Richardson's running for Mantle on first base and Richardson tried to butt any misses.
Both Astromani and Bond coming in from third and third.
Two bases on balls given up by Houston Fitching now.
Feral allowed one in the seventh inning.
He worked and Woodishick has just watched Mantle to lead off the eighth.
Roger Merritt will be up next.
Watching for the butt again now and Richardson missed again on the butt attempt.
He split up on the handle of that bat that time and Woodishick throws the fastball right by him.
Two strikes to count.
Astromani is backed up a little bit now with a two-strike count on Bobby Richardson.
Bond is still holding up on first.
Here's the stretch now by Woodishick and Richardson takes the ball.
It's low and inside and it's one ball and two strikes.
One, two counts.
It's fairly well straight away here for Richardson.
Starved by, if anything, he's stated off the opposite side there giving Richardson right center field.
Now, Terrell Lopez takes his lead away from first base.
Woodishick throws on the way to Richardson.
He got him.
Ball strike three.
As the sharp third that caught the outside corner for the East, Richardson has been called out on strike.
He is the second strikeout victim for New York tonight.
Both were caught looking for it.
It was struck out by Feral in the fifth.
Here's Roger Mares.
One out.
Are Terrell Lopez running for mantle on first?
The score is tied 1-1 on top of the eighth.
Mares is off for two officially tonight.
Plainson misses the first pitch.
Second one.
He walked in the first inning.
And there's also a fly defender popped out shortstop.
Runner on first, Lopez.
Here's the pitch on the way to Mares. It's a little bit too high.
Hector Lopez loosening up along with Hamilton now on the both end on the left of your line.
Lopez may go into the outfield.
He may just keep out Lopez in there.
Here's the pitch on the way.
There's a line drive right field.
Starved inside.
He got it right at the two-drop double-trick right.
Not inside.
The ball got away from Bond.
They had him.
They're caught by Rushy Starved right off the two-drop.
They almost doubled Lopez's pace.
But the ball dribbled out at Bond's mitts.
Chained in on one-ratt.
They almost had the twin killing on that one.
But Terrell Lopez got back in.
City line drives the right field.
Handled by Rushy Starved. Two away.
And now here's the first baseman for New York, Joe Pepitone.
Seem to have the feeling that I do that these boys have adjusted both teams away from all the spectact.
They're here playing the top flight of the band of baseball.
Real nice game to watch.
Everything is running along smoothly here tonight.
And I think you get sort of engrossed in the ball game.
And if it's at all possible, you forget where you are.
And that's pretty difficult to do here.
Here's the pitch on the way to Pepitone.
There's a looper. Same pitch.
Left center field.
Lopez on his way to third.
Picked up by Tim Wim.
He throws back into second base and Lopez holds up at third.
Joe Morgan takes the throw back in from Wim.
Throw a looping signal to the left center field after that of Joe Pepitone.
His second hit of the night gives him two for four.
Put Yankee runners on first and third with two men out.
And the body now is the shortstop Tony Kubek.
Ron Brand is called time and he's going out to talk to Woodishick.
Walt Bond over from first base.
So there's the first hit off Woody.
And he has coupled that base with a walk.
So the Yankees are threatening here in the top of the eighth in a 1-1 ball game.
A throw low pass at third base.
Joe Pepitone on first.
And here's Tony Kubek.
All three times that Kubek has been up tonight, he's flied out.
Right to center.
Once to left.
Long stretch by Woodishick.
Here's the pitch.
Butt attempt missed.
That's the third butt attempt by Yankee in this inning off the pitching of Woodishick.
And they have missed all three of them.
Second one.
Two runs are scored in this ball game.
Each club came up with a run in the sixth.
Low pass comes down off third.
Got two big leads by Pepitone off his left-handed hell Woodishick.
Here's the pitch to Kubek.
There goes the runner down.
Brand takes the throw to second and that all out.
He takes the throw to second and then he's starting to go to third.
So Pepitone has moved up on the deal of second base.
Actually he got about two-thirds of the way down and then stopped.
But he still did not draw a brand throw.
So it's a stolen base for Pepitone.
First base open now.
Yankee runners on second and third.
Two outs.
And the one ball, one strike out on left-handed hitter Tony Kubek.
Better feel that Tom Stryke will be up next.
Woodishick takes the full windup now and the pitch is a good strike on the inside corner of the middle.
Oh, that was a dandy pitch.
That's the same pitch that he struck Richardson out on I believe.
Only Kubek has came inside around the knees.
The left-handed better.
One ball, two strikes.
Two outs.
Pepitone on second.
Arturo Lopez on third.
Door five, one, one.
Pop of the eighth.
Woodishick throws again now to Kubek.
Bring it on this and he's stuck.
Now the side is retired.
If Kubek goes down 20.
I don't know whether that was a change-up or not.
Woodishick fooling around with that after second strikeout.
Three strikeouts for Houston 50.
No runs, one hit.
Now there's two men left on base.
And we go to the bottom of the eighth inning now with the score New York one, Houston one.
We've had a defensive change now for New York in left field.
Hector Lopez has taken over in left field for Mickey Mantle.
Mantle lifted is Arturo Lopez ran for him and now it's Hector Lopez in left.
He's fresh in center and has right.
Here's the catcher Ron Brand now.
Bottom of the eighth inning, score time one, one.
Now it's Stapelmeyer filling the mound for the Yankees.
Brand has a triple tonight and picked that up in the third.
Wallow has hit about 395 feet back in the right center field.
Brand the right-handed batter.
Ground ball to third.
Boyer backs to the big hop.
Got it?
Now it's the first base to pimp the turn and there's one out.
That'll bring up Hal Woodishick.
Brand hits the first ball six and bounces out to third.
Here's Woody now.
One out, nobody on base.
Let me check the right-handed batter.
Here's the pitch on the way now.
There's a strike around the knee.
One out, nobody on top of the batting.
Or there's Joe Morgan will be up next.
Donald Weill looks over the sign again now from Blanchard.
Here's the pitch on the way.
One ball, it's in too low.
Woodishick the batter making his first play to third.
Papelmeyer comes down off the mound.
One ball, one strike to count on Woodishick.
The official paid attendance tonight is 47,876.
Swing another by Woody and it's one ball, two strikes.
47,876.
One ball, two strikes on Woodishick.
One out, nobody on base.
Here's the windup and the pitch by Papelmeyer.
Low and outside and it's two balls, two strikes.
About 3,000 fans are standing tonight to watch this one.
The feeding capacity, 45,000.
Ball, two strikes, two.
Here's the pitch on the way now.
And a low pitch, low and inside and it's a cold count of three balls, two strikes.
This, of course, is the largest crowd ever to see a baseball game in Houston.
The previous high was 30,000 and 27.
Watch the doubleheader against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 10, 1962.
Ball, four and Woodishick is on.
Donald Weill lost the pitcher and Woody moves on down to first.
That's the second base on balls given up by Papelmeyer tonight.
And in both instances he has lost the pitcher.
He lost Fairhall in the sixth inning.
The largest single game crowd to watch a game in Houston was 28,669.
47,876.
Hey, tonight.
Here's little Joe Morgan now.
He's watching for the bud and Morgan made the offensive, but it's a fast strike.
On the outside going up around the letter.
Now Johnny Keene is sending right-hander Hal Renes back into the bullpen out in left field.
Renes now warming up against the New York.
Woody takes his lead off first base.
One out.
And the score tied one-one last half of the eighth.
Here's the pitch to Morgan.
Strike two.
Boy, you're watching for a bud and Morgan has taken the first two pitches and he gets behind two strikes.
Al Spangler will be up next.
Woody hangs close to Joe Papelmeyer on first now, waiting for Papelmeyer to get set.
New York one, Houston one.
Iron's down again by Papelmeyer.
Two strikes on Morgan.
And the pitch is inside, just above the knees, one ball, two strikes.
Two counts.
Haven't done too many threats tonight by either ball club.
Yankee scored on Mandelkomer in the sixth.
And the Astros came right back in the bottom half to tie.
Here's the pitch to Morgan.
Swinging a ground ball to Joe Pepetone.
Goes down and threw it away in the left field.
Woody throwing the third.
Two back, couldn't get it.
That'll be an error on Joe Pepetone.
He not only threw that wildly, he threw it way, way up in the air.
Two back went way up to try to stop it, but it had to be failed by Hector Lopez in left field.
So on the air, Morgan holds it first and Woody goes to third.
Here's Al Spangler.
That's the third New York area tonight.
Two of them have been on Pepetone.
And the other one was on Bobby Richardson.
Here's Spangler now.
He has two to three.
Both of the six singles.
Down boy here with the left-handed batter up here is flying into the grass.
He is getting his instructions now from Johnny Keene.
And after looking in the dugout, he backed up a couple steps.
And Keene evidently does not believe that Spangler will punt here.
One out.
With Woodishek on third.
They're not watching for the squeeze too closely.
And here's the third.
Spangler hits a foul ball.
That will be up into the field.
Seals think soft on the left side.
Oh, that took a big time.
And it's second one.
Blanky is evidently figuring here that all order is possible that Spangler might try to punt one here.
And with Woodishek on third, it may be just a little bit remote.
But Spangler keeps an eye on Jim Busby and Boyer is still being cautious about where he plays on third base.
Lead run on third.
Short side, one, one, eight inning.
One out.
Runners on first and third.
Spangler lined the center field in the first inning, singled in the fourth,
and then beat out that front end in the sixth that rolled dead in third territory just in front of third.
Boyer is just a step in the grass.
Now he creeps in again a little bit.
Here's the pitch into Spangler.
Out that one back into Sadelmeyer's set.
Here's the play at the plate by Kubek, and Woodishek is out.
A big bouncer over Sadelmeyer's set.
Kubek played it on a bounce.
Got it into John Blankett.
And Woodishek is out of the play.
So it's two down.
Morgan has moved up to second base.
Spangler's base is first on the field of his choice.
And Woodishek out, short to the catcher.
Here's Rushie Scott now.
Rushie looking for his first pitch.
Fly it out, hit into a double play, and it's safe on the field of his choice.
Scott is over three.
Midfield is back now, playing a normal depth with two out.
Sadelmeyer takes the defense, gets up on the rubber now to get his sign.
Here's the stretch to look back at Morgan on second.
The first pitch in to Scott.
Big cut by Rushie.
He gave it a big swing that time, and he misses strike one.
One strike on Scott.
Two out, two men on.
Runners on as a result of a walk in an area on the first baseman Joe Pepitone.
Here's the pitch on a stop.
High pop out, no play.
Boyer's chase over, but that goes deep up into the deep back of the Yankee dugout.
And Rushie gets behind here on the Yankee right-hander, two strikes.
Well, we hope the chicken naked for tomorrow afternoon's game out here.
The competition tomorrow will be the Baltimore Orioles with the American Wave.
Game time is 1.30.
Air time tomorrow will be 1.15.
Tomorrow night at the Yankees again at 7.30.
Sadelmeyer up on Scott, two strikes.
Bangler at first, Morgan at second.
With second base occupied and two out, Al getting a big lead.
Pepitone back off the bag.
The pitch is way out there.
He almost threw it away.
And Rushie made a good save on a high outside pass ball.
One ball, two strikes.
Last half of the eighth.
Yankees devout hit Houston, 7-4.
Four tied, 1-1.
Sadelmeyer takes quite a bit of time now.
He goes back on the edge of the grass, back of the mound.
Outfield is pretty well straight away.
They're pulling Stubb a little bit off the right side.
Strykes, he's hitting his right center field.
Sadelmeyer ready again now.
Watch the second day.
Here's the pitch in to Rushie.
Ball outside, another wide one.
Right around the bell with two balls and two strikes.
Two, two counts.
Right hander, Hal Lenneth in the bullpen for New York.
R-E-N-I-F-F Lenneth.
Morgan takes his lead away from second base.
Bangalore well off the bag at first with Pepitone deep back of the bag.
Kubek fakes to hold Morgan close to second base.
Here's the two, two stretch.
The pitch in to Rushie and he lands one to two right there.
Roger Meyers there though.
He's got it for a tie at the start.
Well hit ball by Strykes.
All in by Roger Meyers.
No run, no hit.
One error and two men were left on.
They're going out of the top of the ninth inning with a score.
New York won and Houston won.
They're not a home run game here to the full house here tonight.
They pushed the button.
A gigantic display across the scoreboard and center field has just gone up.
Here's Tom Strykes now.
Nine coming toward side one, one and Hal Woodersick out for his second inning.
Woodie gave up a single and a walk in the eighth inning.
First pitch to Strykes.
Bouncing ball at foul.
Peretti tries to field out and gets by him and goes to the Yankee bullpen.
Strykes one.
Strykes now.
Here's the switch hitter as his mantle batting right in it.
Against Perell, Strykes was 0-3.
Wind to left, pops to his shortstop and bounced out second base.
Nobody out, nobody on ninth inning.
Here's the pitch by Woodie.
Ball low outside.
One ball and one strike on Tom Strykes.
Strykes will be followed by Clee Boyer and then Johnny Blanton.
Woodersick goes again now and Strykes takes the strike on the outside corner of the knee.
One ball and two strikes.
One-two count.
Here's the start of the windup in the next pitch now.
There's a playing and there's two strikes, you know, after Woodersick got his third strikeout.
He struck out two in the eighth inning.
That's the third strikeout for Woodersick.
Perell struck out one.
That'll bring up the third baseman, Clee Boyer.
Wow, we've seen a mighty splendid ball game here tonight.
Been a lot of action.
One homer on and that hit by Nicky Mantle.
One out, nobody on.
Boyer has had one hit tonight.
There's the ball and it's a little bit low on outside for ball one.
Boyer's singled in the second inning, was called out on strikes in the fifth,
and lined out the left field in the seventh inning.
Woodie goes into the windup again.
Here's the pitch down.
Boyer hits a foul ball right at his feet and it bounces out into third territory.
And it's one ball, one strike.
One-one count.
Bill Linds now has come out as a bench hitter here for the Yankees.
IMZ, right-handed batter, and the first pitch a little bit too high for ball one.
One ball, no strikes.
Linds batting for Blanchard.
Blanchard, the left-handed batter, has been taken out now and right-handed hitter.
Still Linds batting for him.
There goes the runner down.
Swing and a line drive, base hit right up the middle.
Boyer moves to third.
Linds throws back to Joe Morgan to second base.
So the Yankees execute the hit and run.
As Boyer breaks to second base, then Linds sends a pinch single right over second base
to put Yankees on first and third with only one out.
And now we're going to have a pinch batter here for the pitcher, Bell-Staddle Mayer.
Pedro Gonzalez is coming on to hit.
Gonzalez now.
Pedro Gonzalez, this will be the second-cent hitter for the Yankees as New York now has
put runners on first and third.
Linds singling on a line drive in the center field.
Strike struck out.
Boyer walked.
Linds has singled.
And with this ball game tied 1-1 top of the night, the Yankees are threatening.
Pedro Gonzalez, hitting 182 so far this spring.
He has one run battered in and one double.
Here's Gonzalez right-handed hitter.
Morgan now trying to get some instructions from the dugout whether to play a little bit in and out.
Here's the stretch.
First pitch in to Gonzalez.
Swing and a miss.
That's a wood-a-shick fastball around the knees and it's strike one.
One strike and Gonzalez.
Left fielder, Al Spangler is deep.
Boyer on third.
Linds on first and only one out.
Here's Wood-a-shick's next pitch to Gonzalez.
Foul ball right off of Brand's hand and it goes back into the base of the screen.
And Gonzalez gets behind here two strikes.
Morgan and Lilas at second and shortstop are just a shade in front of double play depth.
They'll be trying to cut off the run at the plate here if the ball hits it to them.
And right now Wood-a-shick out in front of Gonzalez who's batting fourth out of two strikes.
Here's Woodie's pitch now.
Hit foul ball.
Hopper off the right side.
The other count holds it two strikes.
Top of the batting order, Hector Lopez, who is batting in the spot vacated by Mickey Mantle will be up next.
Houston and New York are tied 1-1.
Top of the ninth inning.
Here's the stretch by Wood-a-shick.
Gonzalez ground ball to hole.
Lilas goes to second.
Out.
Double play ball.
Got it.
Retires to side.
Lilas and DeGoto is right in the hole on that one.
John Lynch coming down on the throw to Morgan.
And the relay to Walfond completes the double play and retires to side.
No run.
One hit.
No errors.
One man was left on base.
They go to the bottom half of the ninth inning and the score is still all tied up.
New York one and Houston one.
We have some changes now for New York.
Bob Schmidt is now catching.
And right-hander Hal Reniff is on the mound.
So those are the changes for New York.
Let's pause for station identification.
This is the Astros baseball network.
And this is KRLV.
AM and FM Dallas.
Where the baseball action is, it's 9-33.
Well, we're on to the bottom of the ninth inning now with a 1-1 tie.
And one run will win it for the Astros.
Here's Walfond.
Doubled in the left-hander field in the fourth inning.
Has grounded the first base and has hit into a double play.
While their left-hander is better, Hal Reniff's first pitch.
And Walfon hits a foul ball headed upstairs off the left side.
Goes up into the mezzanine section and it's like one.
One strike on bond.
Reniff the right-hander.
This is the seventh game in which he has appeared for New York this spring.
He's pitched 13 innings and allowed eight hits.
Here's the pitch to bond.
That's a maiden dancer.
I'm right at his feet.
Slow inside, big one ball, one strike.
Reniff has walked five, struck out four, and has an earned run average of 2.77
through his first 13-innings.
One-one tie, ninth inning.
Bond will be followed by Bob Aspermonte and then Jim Winn.
Right-hander throws on the way to Walgreens now.
Ground foul in behind Jimmy Adair coaching his first base.
Hops out on the fair territory.
And Reniff gets out in front of bond.
One ball, two strikes.
One-two count.
47,876.
A crowd here tonight at the Estradale.
Monday night will be opening night against the Phillies.
Baltimore here tomorrow afternoon.
Yankees tomorrow night.
Reniff takes the sign again now from Smith.
Here's the windup from the pitching.
And bond lined one, day's fit in the right center field.
Bond makes the turn, picked up by Stray.
And Bond holds on with the single.
There's a soft line there to the right of Bobby Richardson.
And Houston has the lead man on.
And here's Bob Aspermonte.
That's the first hit of course off Reniff.
The fifth hit for Houston tonight.
Yankees have out-hit Houston tonight 8-5.
We have Emily Tracy with us tonight, Ms. Astro of 1965, who was elected last year, you may recall.
Here's the stretch now to look over the first.
Here's the pitch on the way.
Astro bumps one beautifully off the right side, but it goes foul.
Started out very good on the grass, but then turned sharply and went foul.
So Aspermonte's attempt to bump the runner up to foul ball, strike one.
Not surprised to find Stan Sturitz in command over there.
Stanley, you're, you have some good duty there.
Emily Tracy here, as I mentioned, this Astro of 1965.
Emily, nice to have you with us.
Stanley, you're in trouble.
Astro back in again now.
Please, boy, you're in close on the grass to third.
One-one tie.
Houston trying to get barred around.
You're single to open the inning.
One strike on Aspermonte.
Here's the stretch by Reniff.
And the pitch on the way.
Swings away, goes back to Reniff.
Play back to Kubek.
Out of second.
Throw a double play to Peppacone.
So they switch the strategy on the first front of that one foul, and then Aspermonte,
swinging away, is banged into a double play.
Back to Hal Reniff.
Hit to the shortstop to first.
It's getting win now, two outs.
Well, we've had just about everything in this ball game tonight.
Some real good defensive plays, a home run.
And we've had quite a few double plays.
That's the third double play that the Yankees have pulled off tonight.
Here's Jim Wynn, right-handed batter, and Reniff's first pitch on the way.
And Wynn takes a strike on the inside corner to bounce back one.
Astros have pulled off one double play tonight, so we've had four in the ball game.
Two out, nobody on.
Bottom of the ninth inning, the pitch to win.
Strike two called.
That was a pretty fair pitch.
That just cut away from Wynn on the letters on the inside corner.
And it's two strikes.
And Wynn, on the other hand, went to first eight for the Yankees.
Gave up one round, allowed four hits, walked two and struck out one.
Reniff, two strike pitch to win.
Low outside of ball.
One and two.
Well, it's getting mighty close to that time now.
When the National League season will be getting underway.
Houston's fourth year in the National League.
Monday night here at the Astrodome against the Phillies.
7.30 start time.
We hope that you fans will come out and see that one.
We'll start playing the keys.
Here's the one and two pitch to win.
Passball line inside.
Ball two, strike two.
On the outfield, it's swung around the left side.
They're playing Jim pretty well back.
Lopez on the left, that's Hector Lopez.
Strike in center, Maritz on the right.
Lee Boyer, Tony Kubek, Bobby Richardson, Joe Pettitone on the inside.
Ball two, strike two, wind up by Reniff.
One on base hit, center field.
Strike comes to his left and right center to field the ball.
Wind holds on to first base.
Not a far, Jimmy.
Wind had to dive back into first as Bobby Richardson.
He caught his arm as if he were going to go to first base.
And Wind, who had made the wide turn,
drove back in on his stomach.
But there was no throw.
Well, that's the second hit on this inning.
The first hit was a race on the double play ball.
Also, Don picked up his sixth hit of the ball game, two out, and went to first.
Here's Bob Lillis.
Now the play has been up three times without a hit.
Don is out twice in one down.
Here's the stretch now.
Go to first and Wind gets back in.
Joe Puppetoe holding up against Wind on first base.
Bob Lillis, there goes Wind.
Oh, he holds up.
There's a tap to third.
Boyer backs up.
Easy play to second base.
Wind is out there to the side of the side.
Wind started to break on Edamond Hill.
As Willis hits a bouncing ball to Boyer at third base,
and the play down to Bobby Richardson to fourth win.
And we go into wet splennings here tonight.
No runs on two hits, so there is one man left on base.
So as our ball game moves on to the top half of the tenth,
the score is still all tied up, New York one and Houston one.
Here's the top of the batting order for New York,
top of the tenth inning, Hector Lopez.
This is Hector Lopez, first time to bat.
He took over from Mandel in left field.
All with a check, now starting his third inning.
Lopez hitting 3-11 this spring.
One double, no runs batted in.
Woody's pitch low inside, ball one, one and nothing.
Now this is our 21st game of the spring and our third Hector inning game.
Lopez starts to go, holds up on a strike on the inside corner of the letters,
ball one, strike one.
Bobby Richardson in the on-deck circle and then Roger Maris.
Woodichick throws again, now low inside, pitch to Hector Lopez.
And it's ball two and strike one.
Score tied 1-1, it's been that way since the sixth when Mandel homers
and the Astros came right back in the bottom half to tie it up.
Ball north, all strike up around the letter.
So Lopez takes the 2-2 count.
Manager Luman has gone all the way with the regulars except for the pitcher.
Down ball foul, he gouged that one into the, starts to go in the Yankee dugout
back of third, run down by the third base on fire, Al Salerno of the American League.
Ball two, strike two.
Nobody out, nobody on base, top of the tenth inning.
Here's the windup by Woodichick and the pitch.
Now Lopez hits a ball that is just outside of third foul.
And Ramonty makes the play in foul territory.
More than 250 news media representatives from throughout the nation are here at the Astrodome tonight.
Of course, we have pictures and stories going all over the world.
There's a swing and a miss and he's stuck in there.
That's a pretty good pitch by Woody, a third ball.
And Lopez goes down swinging.
Probably was more of a slider than a curveball because Woodichick claims he does not throw the curve.
That's the fourth strikeout for Woodichick since he came on to the eighth inning.
And the first pitch to Bobby Richardson outside ball one.
Richardson has not had a hit tonight in four times.
He was called out on strikes his last time up.
Little right-handed batter.
There's a hard hit, Ram ball to Lewis on one half.
The clean goes to first.
Two-meter-off. Richardson drives out towards the first.
Lewis to bond two away and that will bring up Roger Madd.
Yankees have an affordable of eight hits tonight.
Six of them off Kirkville in the seven-inning teamwork.
And Woodichick has given up two.
Madd has not had a hit.
He's old for three.
First time up tonight he drew a base on ball.
Left-handed batter looks at the soft strikeup around the letter, strike one.
One strike on Merritt.
Yankees and the Astros are tied up one-one here in the tenth inning.
Merritt starts to go and holds up a curveball that broke low on outside.
Woody's throwing more soft pitches tonight than it could be that he may be experimenting a little bit with a change-up.
Outfield is very deep for Merritt.
Two outs.
Ball one and strike one.
The left-hander throws again now.
There's a high foul.
This will be up into the seat back over the screen.
And it's one ball, two strikes.
47,876 fans watching this one tonight.
And two games here tomorrow in the afternoon.
It'll be Baltimore and Houston.
And the Yankees are back tomorrow night against the Astros.
Here's Woodishick's pitch on the way.
Now that hit him.
Merritt just hit him the right arm.
I think it got him in the biceps or above the elbow.
And he doesn't seem to be bothered by it and runs down to first base.
So Merritt's a hit by a pitch.
Two outs.
Runner on first base.
And here's the first baseman for New York, Joe Pepitone.
Joe Pepitone has singled his last two times up.
In the sixth and the eighth innings and prior to that he's flied out twice.
Bangler and then Jim Lynn.
Merritt takes his lead away from Bond on first base.
Pepitone is almost just going to first base and just back in time.
Merritt just got back in ahead of the throwback for Ann DeBarn.
Why, Pepitone had to move in a hurry on that one right up underneath the whiskers.
And Graham took advantage of it as Pepitone was out of the way.
A right-handed, a left-handed batter, he shot a quick throw down to Bond.
But Merritt's back in time.
That's inside again.
The Woodishick has hit Merritt, the left-handed batter, in the arm.
And then the next two, or the first two pitches to Pepitone have been inside to a left-handed hitter.
The Woody now has suddenly got a little bit of a wild high and inside to a left-handed player.
Graham goes out to talk to him.
Two outs.
Lopez is struck out.
Richardson is bounced out.
Merritt has been hit by a pitch.
Score tied 1-1.
We're in the tenth inning.
Woody has the sign again now.
Merritt takes a pretty good lead off this left-hander.
And Woodishick goes to first.
But not in time to get Merritt.
Left-handed batter, Yankee first baseman, Joe Pepitone.
Here's the next pitch.
Foul ball.
I said it's the Ramazanin off the left side or the second feeding level here in the off-the-dow.
Ball through and strike one.
Two on count.
Outfield is deep for Pepitone and they're swung around the right side.
Merritt again away from first base.
Here's Woodishick to pitch.
Ground ball to the third stop.
Bob Lillis goes to second to Morgan.
First on Merritt.
Two inside the side.
The Yankees are out of the top of the tenth inning.
No runs and no hits.
No errors.
One man was left on base.
Bottom of the tenth inning coming up now with the score still tied.
Yankees won.
Estros won.
Bottom half of the tenth inning now and Ron Brand will lead off of the Estros.
And we'll have the pitcher, Hal Woodishick, and the top of the batting order, Joe Morgan.
Well, Brand has had the longest hit tonight for Houston, a triple back in the third.
The ball has been around 395 feet or so.
Walt Bonds hit the left-center field a double and just about a five.
Last two times, Brand has slid out and bounced out.
Here's Brennan's wide up in the first pitch and Brand takes the low and outside for ball one, one and nothing.
One other night game being played in the exhibition circles tonight.
Detroit in the seventh inning trailing Milwaukee five to three.
One more ball.
Right behind the plate up and over the screen.
One ball and one strike.
Brand is not a very big fella, but occasionally he will throw some bars.
And he has pretty fair speed for a catcher.
One ball, one strike.
Here's the pitch by Brennan.
Brand takes a good fast strike on the outside corner of the letter.
And it's one ball and two strikes.
The ball game has been tied since the sixth.
It's one-one here in the bottom of the tenth inning.
Brennan ready again now.
Here's the pitch on the way to Brand.
There's a ground ball to Keith Church.
That beautiful stop by Kubek in the throw-in time.
A little bit unconscious on that one, but he made a great play on it going to his right back and the hole.
He struck that glove in just the right spot.
And Brand has been throwing out towards the first.
Here's how Woodachick.
What he's got at bat on me once tonight, that was in the eighth when he threw a base on balls.
Woodachick the right-handed hitter.
One out, nobody on base.
Brennan ties the sign now from Bob Schmidt.
And the first pitch into Woodachick is a low outside pitch for ball one.
Woodachick steps out to read his third base coach, Jim Bursley now.
Joe Morgan in the on-deck circle off the right side.
Brennan throws and Woodachick takes the strike on the inside corner of the belt.
And it's ball one in strike one.
Game time tomorrow afternoon, 1.30 against the Baltimore Orioles.
Woodachick hits a foul up into the two-stack off the right side.
And he gets the line on Reddick, one ball, two strikes.
Hector Lopez on left, Tom Price in center, Roger Maritz in right field.
And Reddick's shot again now.
Here's the one-and-two pitch to Woodachick.
Game-second time.
Over the play for low, Woodachick started to go, but held up on it.
So the count moves out to two balls, two strikes.
Two-two count.
Donald Meyer went to first-eight for New York and allowed one run on four hits.
The pitch to Woodachick, got him that time.
That's Devin Emi with the flight.
Here's a gulk away from Woodachick up around the letters and caught the inside corner.
And Woodachick has been called out on strike.
Now, that's only the second strikeout at Houston batters tonight.
Jimmy Wynn struck out in the second inning.
Woodachick is caught looking here in the tenth inning, two away, and here's Joe Morgan.
Little Joe has not had a hit, although the last two times up he has bothered Joe Pepitone.
And he has forced Pepitone to make errors on the last two times that Morgan has hit that way.
That's ball.
Touched to go and then held up in time, ball one.
Morgan is grounded out at the second base and grounded out to Pepitone unassisted.
Safe on an air in the sixth and safe in the eighth on an air.
Strike called.
Just caught the outside corner above the knees.
Ball one and strike one now on Morgan, two outs, nobody on.
And the bottom of the tenth inning and the Yankees and the Astros are all tied up in one-one.
With Morgan left-handed batter up here, Boyer's on the grass in front of third.
Granite throws again now and Morgan takes a very high pitch for ball two and it's two and one.
Two balls, one strike.
Granite now has allowed two hits in the inning and two-thirds of the year's work.
Both hits came in the ninth inning.
As a looper back over Richardson, that base hit in the right center field, Tom Thirsk makes a scoop up on it,
and Morgan holds him to first with a single.
That's the third hit that Reneth has given up, Houston's seventh hit.
The Yankees now lead by one in that department, eighth and seventh.
Here's Al Framish.
Well, Al has had two hits tonight.
One of them was about to third.
Now he's up here with two down and Morgan on first.
Time is called as Reneth is going to tie his shoe.
Triangle or left-handed batter?
One-hole run of this game by Mickey Mantle.
Riding left-handed on Thirsk Farrell, hit one of the center field seats.
Here's the stretch, a lob throw to first by Reneth.
And Joe Morgan gets back in.
And a quick throw back over this time to Pepitone and Morgan again back in there.
Gabrielle Gusto in a great light beer.
Got slipped.
Morgan edges away from first, got to watch him over there.
There he goes.
There's a swing and a miss to go by Smith, and they did not get him.
Golem base.
Two back over to cover on Smith's throw, and Morgan just beat him in.
That's the fourth goal and base for Morgan this spring.
He has tried four turns.
Now the Astros have a winning run in scoring position with two odds
and a good solid base wrap here now by Spangler with Nina Victory.
Now it's two for four.
Morgan possesses great speed.
He's scored 47 bases last year in the Texas league.
Doesn't take too big a lead.
Kubek has shaded a round on him to hold him close.
Reneth's pitch on the way to Spangler.
There's a fly ball left field.
Texas Lowe's coming fast.
Oh, look at that net.
Actually he had overrun the ball.
And a retired defense.
Moyer with his back to third base actually leaped high over his head
and behind him to spear that one.
And Houston has been retired here in the tenth inning.
And Spangler spirals out to the third baseman, Fleet Moyer, down the left field line.
No runs in the inning on one hit, but we know there is.
One man was left on base.
Our ballgame moves to the top of the eleventh inning now and still tied.
Here's the pitch to Kubek.
Just missed outside of the knees and there's one ball and one strike.
Score tied 1-1 as we play ball in the top of the eleventh inning.
New York and Houston.
Quite a ballgame for the opening game in the Astrodome.
There's a ball low outside.
Ball two and strike one on Kubek.
Kubek has struck out once tonight.
Woodishick struck him out in the eighth.
And the other three times he's flied out twice to center and once to left.
Here's the 2-1 pitch.
Hopper to first base.
Bond comes in, makes the play easily at first on a fifth and one down.
Now, Tony Kubek opens the eleventh by grounding easily down the first base side to Wal Bond.
That will bring up the center fielder, Tom Trash.
Trash's switch hitter is batting right-ended.
Trash is all for four tonight and Woodishick also struck him out in the ninth inning.
Pete Nicholson is starting to warm up again for New York down the left of your line.
Ball is outside.
Outfield is deep for Trash.
And they're playing this right-handed batter to pull.
Why not have nobody on?
Al Woodishick, south boy.
Here's the pitch into Trash.
A little bit outside of the knees.
Ball two, two nothing.
Woody now is now in his fourth inning.
This is his longest spring of the spring.
And he's given up two hits.
Pitch to Trash, fouled off.
Hopper off the right side of the plate.
Actually, Woodishick now is on the verge of pitching as much tonight as he had in any of the previously regularly scheduled spring games.
Ball two and strike one on Tom Trash.
Foul ball.
That hits the guy-wise holding the screen and then pops up into the seat behind the plate.
Ball two, strike two.
Well, it has been quite a night for the opening of the Astrodome here this evening.
And it's not over yet.
We have a one-one ball game in the 11th.
There's a high fly ball.
Deep left field.
Springer back in the track, way back in the corner.
He's got it.
Ball hit about 335 feet down the left field line.
And a mighty, mighty high one has Prash has flied out two away.
Here's Fleet Boyer.
Boyer has one of the eight Yankees hits tonight, a second-inning single.
And on the official side, it's one for three.
Called out on strikes.
Lined out.
And the last time up, Woodishick walked in.
Fleet Boyer, right-handed batter.
And Woodishick first pitch, Doyle.
And there's a swing and a ground ball to third.
That's their first chance tonight.
There's a field to first.
They've got him.
Dewey Fier the drive.
Three up and three down.
No runs.
No hits.
No errors.
And nobody left on base.
At the end of 10-and-a-half innings to play, New York one, Houston one.
Hector is not in the plans.
Of course, as a startup in New York, but a good man to have around, as is John Blanchard.
Both good utility men.
There's a foul ball that's fielded by Vern Benson.
And the man to third to first, he shoots it back at Woodishick.
And there's one ball and one strike.
Well, as we watch the amazing things that have happened here tonight in this amazing talent,
you sort of look on to when the thing could suddenly be transformed to, oh, what a, watch that one.
He really beat that one away.
That pitch slipped completely out of his hands.
And again, about 30 feet back over Ron Brands' head up against the screen.
Ball two and strike one.
And a field teacher, 10,000 of them, can be moved around to position into football.
Here's the pitch on the way to Hector Lopez.
Very low on the mid-air.
And a four-foot and strike one.
Woody has given up two bases on balls and really has had only one wild string.
That was in the 10th inning when he hit Roger Maris and then got behind on Joe Pepitone,
but he quickly settled down.
Now he's behind on Lopez.
Three balls, one strike.
Off the inside corner.
Lopez thought he had himself a walk on that one, but Mel Signer said no, and it's a four-count of three-two.
Two out, nobody on base.
Should Lopez get on, Bobby Richardson will be up next.
Woodishick winds again.
The three-two pitch, fly ball, center field.
Jimmy Wynne barely moves for this one.
Couple steps to his right to retire the side.
Three up and three down.
So Woodishick now has retired seven batters in a row since he hit Maris in the arm in the 10th inning.
No runs, no hits, no errors, nobody left on base.
We go now to the bottom half of inning number 12 to score New York one and Houston one.
Last half of the 12th inning now we have a new pitcher for the New York Yankees, right-hander Pete Mickelson,
and come on to take over for Hal Renup, who has lifted for a French batter.
Jimmy Wynne will lead off.
He'll be followed by Bob Lilis and then Ron Brand.
Mickelson spells his name M-I-double-K-E-L-S-E-N, Mickelson.
This will be his seventh game this spring.
He's pitched 16 innings, allowed nine hits, and has a real good ERA of only 1.13 for nine innings.
Thirteen strikeouts in 16 innings and six walks.
He's pitching like he's trying to make the starting staff here for the Yankees this spring.
Here's Jim Wynne.
He's singled his last time.
Right-handed batter, first pitch, low ball one.
Wynne has had one for four.
He's rounded out twice and has struck out one.
Nobody out, nobody on base.
Bottom half of the 12th inning in this ballgame is tied 1-1.
It's been that way since the sixth inning.
Wynne checks.
It was in there, first strike on the inside corner of the bell, one and one.
Mickelson stands 6-2, weighs 215 pounds, and a native New Yorker.
Last year with the Yankees, he won seven ballgames and lost four.
Came up through the Yankee system.
Here's the pitch now.
A tag ball.
Big cut on that one by Wynne, and he bounces it right at his feet.
One ball, two strikes.
Bob Willis has moved to the on-deck circle off the right side.
Manager Janney P. now has used three pitchers tonight.
Mel Stommelmeyer went eight.
This half of the 11th inning and Rusty Staub will lead off and before he steps in,
let's pause here for station identification.
This is the Astros, baseball network.
And this is KRLV, AM and FM Dallas, where the baseball action is.
It's one past 10.
They have two pitchers warming up now.
As I mentioned for New York, right-hander Pete Mickelson down the left-field line,
and right-hander Claude Ramon has started to warm up for Houston down in right field.
Here is Rusty Staub, bottom of the 11th, four-tide 1-1.
Rusty looking for his first hit.
He's all for four.
Rusty's swung out twice to Roger Maris in right field, has hit into a double play,
and was safe on a fielder's choice.
All right, up for right-hander, throws the first pitch to Staub.
Right throw on the inside corner to the ball strike one.
Mickey Maddell-Holmert in the sixth.
The Astros tied it up in the bottom half.
That's where she stands right now, 1-1.
Renup's next pitch, foul ball just underneath us here in the middle of the defense.
And Staub is down on Renup here at two strikes.
Right-center fielder Tom Sress is over in right-center field for Staub, but Hector Lopez in left,
not throwing around too much on him.
Renup's next pitch now, there's a high top foul.
This will be out of play also.
Back up and over the screen.
Oh, but hits the top of the screen and then bounces into the seat.
That was an easy play for that fellow.
Just took it on the back.
Two strikes.
Renup has a new baseball now and rubs it up a little bit.
Renup has a sign again from Bob Smith.
Here's the wind up and the next pitch to Rusty.
Throwing in a foul ball, just got a piece of that one.
Throw Rusty still in there.
Smith didn't hold onto it.
Kirk Farrell of course threw the first pitch tonight and Tom was called after the first pitch to Mickey Maddell
to open the stadium with the ball and then was handed over to the president of the National League, Warren Giles.
Here's the pitch.
Throwing in a message from Cunard.
Renup came with a good fastball up around the letter.
One out now and that will bring up Wal Barnes.
That's the second strike out for Renup, the third for Yankee Fitching.
And as two for four, a double and a single.
Incidentally, that first pitch thrown tonight by Farrell is going to the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown.
Here's the pitch in to Walters.
Ground ball, first face shot.
Easy play for Joe Cuppatone.
An assisted foul and that's rounded out and they're two away.
Well, here's Aspermati now.
Aspero is over four.
Tim Smith, the Hall of Fame's curator, will have stepped up baseball for the president of Warren Giles.
Round two out, nobody on.
Aspero has flied out, rounded out twice.
One, see it into a double play and is fouled out.
Outfield remains deep and around the left side.
Here's the pitch on the way by Renup.
An Aspero checked his swing on a curve ball that broke down in the way in a 4-0-1.
One and nothing.
That Detroit-Milwaukee game is over and the Braves won it tonight from the Tigers 6-3.
Job is struck out.
Bond is grounded out.
Aspero takes a fast ball low and inside.
Ball two and no strikes.
This is the third inning for Renup.
Woodishick now has pitched four innings in relief of Kirk Farrell and Mel Sattelmeyer with the start-up of New York.
Here's the pitch to Aspero, high top foul out of play, headed for the deep off the right side.
The highest that any of the foul balls have reached tonight has been the second seeding level here,
and as I mentioned earlier, there are six seeding levels.
It's a pretty good hope to get up too much higher than that.
What a set again.
Now two ball, one strike count on Aspero.
Here's the pitch.
Ground ball to the shortstop.
Way back in the hole.
Kuvec throws the first lots of time.
Aspero is out to retire the side.
So three up and three down, and that ends 11 innings.
No runs, no hits, no errors, and nobody left on base.
Still all tied up here at the Astrodome.
The Yankees won and the Astros won.
Now we're on to the 12th inning here now in a 1-1 game, and catcher Bob Schmidt will be the leadoff batter.
Both runs came in the sixth inning tonight.
Schmidt actually is not on the Yankee roster,
and of course it's not necessary for the ball clubs to tear down to the season's opening 28 until Monday.
Here's the pitch.
Schmidt, right-handed batter, takes a strike, strike one.
This is only the third game in which Schmidt has appeared.
He's done it about only three times, has no hits, and has struck out two of the three times of the play.
Strike on the inside corner above the knees.
One ball, one strike.
On the lead batter for New York, not half of the 12th inning.
Here's Woodishick's next pitch now.
Going outside, ball, two, strike one.
Both ends are still occupied with right-hander Claude Ramon loosening up for Houston,
and right-hander Pete Nicholson for New York.
Woodishick throws again now, and there's a curve ball coming, and he's got it on that one, and he's drug him out.
That was a very bad pitch as far as Schmidt was concerned, a good one for Wood.
He was throwing low and inside, breaking ball that Schmidt struck out on.
So there's one down now.
That's the fifth strike out for Woodishick.
This by far is the best that Woody has looked this spring,
and I might mention again the best that Farrell has looked in the seven innings that he worked tonight.
Ross Machito is coming on to pinch hit now, while the pitcher Harold Linnett.
Machito is the first year player. He spells his name F-M-O-S-C-H-I-Double-T-O. M-O-S-C-H-I-Double-T-O Machito.
He's an outfielder and played quite a bit of center field this spring for the Yankees.
Machito now batting for Rinne.
One out, nobody on base.
Oh, we'll have a look at Pete Nicholson in the bottom half of the 12th inning.
Pitch is outside of ball. Ball on, one and nothing.
Hector Lopez, the top of the batting order for the Yankees, will be up next.
Here's the next pitch by Woodishick.
Ground ball to the shortstop Bob Willis.
Big hop for the flea and the sort of first in lots of time.
Machito has found a shot through away.
Willis upon.
Here's Hector Lopez who replaced Mickey Mantle in left field.
Mantle, bothered by hamstring muscle injury to his right leg, did quite through seven innings tonight.
Lopez has done up only once in the 10th inning.
He struck out. And it was Woodishick who struck him out.
What he's been pitching since the eighth.
So he is in his fifth inning. This may be his last.
Here's the pitch now. Ball outside, ball one.
Hector Lopez, right-handed batter.
Hector is not in the plans.
Of course has a start-up in New York, but a good man to have around, as is John Blanchard.
Both good utility men.
There's a foul ball that's fielded by Vern Benson, the Yankee coach at first.
He shoots it back out to Woodishick.
And it's one ball and one strike.
Well, as we watch the amazing things that have happened here tonight in this amazing palace,
you sort of look on to when the thing that suddenly transformed the...
Oh, Woody, watch that one. You really see that one away.
That's it, slipped completely out of his hands.
And it hit about 30 feet back over Ron Blanchard up against the screen.
Ball two and strike one.
All the field kids here, 10,000 of them, can be moved around to position into football.
Here's the pitch on the way to Hector Lopez, very low in the dirt.
And it's ball three and strike one.
Woody has given up two bases on balls and really has had only one wild string.
That was in the 10th inning when he hit Roger Maris and then got behind on Joe Pepitone,
but he quickly settled down.
Now he's behind on Lopez, three balls, one strike.
Caught the inside corner.
Lopez thought he had himself a walk on that one, but Mel Sanders said no,
and it's a folk out of three-two.
Two out, nobody on base.
Should Lopez get on, Bobby Richardson will be up there.
Woodishick winds again.
The three-two pitch, fly ball, center field.
Jimmy Wynn barely moves for this one.
A couple steps to his right, three tire to side.
Three up and three down.
So Woodishick now has retired seven batters in a row since he hit Maris in the arm in the 10th inning.
No runs, no hits, no errors, nobody left on base.
We go now to the bottom half of inning number 12 to score New York one and Houston one.
Last half of the 12th inning now, we have a new pitcher for the New York Yankees,
right-hander Pete Mickelson has come on to take over for Hal Renup,
who was listed for a pinch batter.
Jimmy Wynn will lead off.
He'll be followed by Bob Lilis and then Ron Brand.
Mickelson spells his name M-I-double-K-E-L-S-E-N, Mickelson.
This will be his seventh game this frame.
He's hit 16 innings, allowed nine hits, and has a real good ERA of only 1.13 for nine innings.
Thirteen strikeouts and 16 innings and six walks.
Mickelson is pitching like he's trying to make the starting staff here for the Yankees this spring.
Here's Jim Wynn, he's singled his last time.
Right-handed batter, first pitch, low ball one.
Wynn has had one for four, he's grounded out twice, and has struck out once.
Nobody out, nobody on base.
Bottom half of the 12th inning in this ballgame is tied 1-1.
It's been that way since the sixth inning.
Wynn checks, it was in there for a strike.
On the inside corner, it's a bell, one and one.
Wynn stands 6-2, weighs 215 pounds, and a native New Yorker.
Last year with the Yankees, he won seven ballgames and lost four.
Came up through the Yankee system, here's the pitch now, foul ball, big cut on that one by Wynn, and he bounces it right at his feet.
One ball, two strikes.
Bob Lilis has moved to the on-deck circle off the right side.
Major Johnny Keen now has used three pitchers tonight.
Mel Stottlemeyer went eighth, Al Rineth pitched three.
Here's the one and two pitch to win, very low outside.
And Schmidt had to move fast to stop that one down and off the right side, and it's ball two strike two.
Claude Ramon still warming up for Houston down the right side.
If we get a man on, we'll probably have a pinch hitter for Woodishake.
I think Woody's pitched as much as he's going to tonight anyway.
Big pitch to win now, ground ball back in the hole, beautiful stop by Kubek, throw-out in time.
Well, I'll say one thing, for the left side of that Yankee infielder tonight, they have been magicians.
That ball actually bounced off Boyer's glove, and then Kubek backhanded it.
He'll make a play to first base, but no way to get Wynn, he's back to good feet.
And Wynn, how has his second hit tonight? That gauge in two for five.
Of course, it's the first hit off Nicholson.
The hits are all even now, runs even 1-1, hits the side up 8-8.
Now they're watching for the punt off the bat of Bob Lilis.
Nobody out, went on first base, Fleet Boyer moves in from third.
Here's the stretch by Nicholson.
First pitch to Lilis, pitch out, nobody goes anywhere though.
Wynn was not going.
Schmidt called for a pitch out on the first pitch to Lilis, as both Pempetone and Boyer broke in.
Three years old for Boyer tonight, rounded out twice, lined out, and was safe on the fielder's choice.
Nicholson checks the sign again with Schmidt.
Lilis tried to bunt Wynn down to scoring position.
Here comes Boyer in from third, high inside pitch.
Lilis was squared around to drop one down, but Nicholson's pitch was up around the head, and it's all two no strikes.
This is the bottom of the 12th, Gorthside 1-1, 47,876 watching this one tonight.
That's about 3,000 over capacity.
Boyer in close to third again now, Wynn takes his lead off first base.
Here comes Boyer, here comes Pempetone, Lilis takes a strike on the inside corner of the knees.
Possibly the take was on there, pitch was in around the knees.
Pempetone was down to bunt it, but he didn't off-red it.
There's nobody out, and Ron Brandt, the catcher, will be up next.
Ball two, strike one.
Boyer about 25 feet in front of third.
Here comes Pempetone pulling away from first base, and Pempetone quickly ran back as Nicholson shot the ball over to first.
But no chance to get a win there.
Boyer still in close to third. Ball two, strike one on Lilis.
Wynn takes the big lead. He goes off just about as far as there goes Wynn down, swinging the ground ball foul.
Oh, almost got it by Boyer.
But it was fouled by quite a margin in between Jim Busby and third base.
So Wynn was cracking on a hit and run there, and it's ball two and strike two.
Wynn with good speed on first base and nobody out.
This will take off the bunt situation now pretty much with a two-ball, two-strike count on Lilis, so Boyer is backed up now.
And he's just about even with third.
They are not expecting the bunt here with two strikes on Lilis.
Wynn away from Pempetone on first.
Pempetone sneaks over in the grass now.
Here's the pitch, and Lilis did bunt, and he strikes out.
Bouted off back into the screen.
Well, he took the gamble there.
Very rarely do you see a normal batter-in-the-order bunt on the third strike.
But they thought the percentages were good there with Lilis a pretty fair-funder, but he just couldn't come up with it, and he bunted out and struck out.
Mickelson's first strikeout.
That's the fourth strikeout by Yankee pitching.
One away now with Wynn on first, and here's Ron Brand.
Brand has one for four.
He tripled in the third.
Slide to center.
The last two times up, he's bounced to Boyer and to Kubik.
And Wynn takes the big lead away from Pempetone on first.
Stretched by Mickelson. He draws the throw.
He'll get a few throws over there with that lead.
But Wynn has no trouble getting back in.
Ron Brand, right-handed batter.
Score card one-one, bottom half of the twelfth.
Another throw to first.
And Wynn again back in.
Jim Beacham has moved to the on-deck circle.
He'll pinch back for Hal Wittesick, so we'll have Claude Ramon on on the thirteenth, but this ballgame is continuing.
One out.
Wynn breaks and then stops. Brand fouls it off.
Hopper into the Yankee dugout, back to third.
And it's one strike on the Houston Catchers.
Mickelson got a new ball from Mel Steiner, doesn't like it, and asked for a new one.
Stoudelmeier, in the eight innings that he worked for New York tonight, allowed the one run.
Gave up four hits.
And Renup did not allow a run, fixed three innings and allowed three hits.
And Mickelson is given the one hit in this inning, his first on the mound for New York.
Wynn again takes the big lead away from Puppet Stone.
There he goes.
There's a swing and a miss, and Smith doesn't get the throw away.
Stow and base.
Smith juggled that ball.
He didn't have a good grip on it.
Just as he cocked his arm, it slipped out of his fingers.
Although he held it, he could not get the throw away.
So Wynn gets the throw and base.
That's the second Houston stolen base tonight.
Houston stole in the tenth inning.
So for the second time, the next running now, Houston has the winning run on second base.
One out.
And a two-strike out on Ron Brand.
Here's Mickelson's pitch.
Brand swings and he misses.
Lost the bat and struck him out.
The pitch that Wynn stole on was a beauty of a change-up, that really fooled Brand.
Nellie Fox is going to bat.
They had Beecham in there, but now they've called on Nellie Fox.
Two strikeouts in a row here for Mickelson.
Ron Harris had Jim Beecham in the on-deck circle, and I assume the move here is that he was hoping for an extra base hit off the bat of Beecham,
which was foul, and now with a winning run on second, he's put in Nellie Fox.
Here's the pitch by Mickelson.
Swing and a miss.
That's ball.
And it's one strike on Nellie.
Nellie has seen very little spring action.
This is only his fifth game.
He has three for twelve.
The batting average is 250.
He has one run batted in, and Nellie has one triple.
Little left-handed batter.
Mickelson throws.
Foul off the left side.
So Mickelson quickly gets out in front of Fox.
Two strikes.
When on second base, he represents the winning run.
Last of the twelfths.
Score five-one-one.
Outfield, of course, is shallowed up and they have that very familiar Fox shift on.
Threshing left center field.
Lopez shaded toward the left field foul line.
And Maris shaded over in the right center field.
Nellie back in again now.
O-two count.
Two outs.
And Mickelson takes a quick check on winning second base.
Here's the pitch and Fox walks it under center field.
And the ball goes over.
Here's the play.
You can hear that.
All hell is gone.
As delivered with a looping swing over center field.
I'll tell you one thing, Kubek just about came up with another sparkler.
He didn't miss catching that by very much.
Win scores and Fox is a pinch hitter's one in here in the twelfth inning two to one.
In the twelfth inning one run on two hits, there were no errors.
One man was left on base.
And the final score here tonight, now the Astros winning this one tonight, by the score of two to one.
Oh, what a ball game this was.
For Houston, two runs on nine hits.
No errors.
And three, four, five, six, seven, eight men were left on base.
For New York, one run on eight hits.
Yankees committed three errors tonight.
And the Bombers stranded five, six, seven, eight, nine in this twelfth inning ball game.
The winning pitcher is Hal Woodishick.
And the losing pitcher is Pete Mickelson.
The official pay to tennis here tonight, $47,876.
And the time of the ball game was two hours and 35 minutes.
Well, fans, that wraps up our play-by-play story here tonight with the Astros winning over New York by the score of two to one.
This evening's game has been brought to you by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Longview, Texas, and other cities.
Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous simply because it tastes so good.
By Maryland Club Coffee, the coffee you'd drink if you owned all the coffee in the world.
Maryland Club, served everywhere in the Astrodome.
And by Silky Food Lovera, the great state's great cigars.
You can't get them hardly anywhere but Texas.
Now this is Gene Alston with a reminder to stay tuned for a recap of the game.
We'll have an interview for you and a roundup of all the other activities in baseball, all on the Astros Wrap-Up Show.