Astrodome Rookie Card

[Elgringo]

Featuring Houston’s Astrodome, this card is from a set of twenty-four issued by Van Den Bergh in 1965. It is somewhat the Astrodome’s rookie card, the stadium having opened the same year. This is the only baseball type in the set which otherwise features modern marvels like the Sydney Opera House and Cousteau’s underwater sea-base. The card back advertises “Milkana Mild” from Van Den Bergh's of London.

Milkana was a spreadable cheese, produced by a Bavarian company called Edelweiss, available only to the German market in the 1950s. Unilever acquired Edelweiss in 1962 and made Milkana cheese available to the British market under its Dutch subsidiary, Van Den Bergh. Today, Milkana is sold nearly everywhere except in North America.

I have had this card for a while but recently I began to wonder who the featured player might be. Assuming that the artist took inspiration from an actual image, I’ve concluded that the batter is either Jim Wynn or Roman Mejias.

My reasoning? The image depicts a right handed African American or dark skinned Latino player. From inception through 1965 (when the card was produced), there were a handful of black Colts/Astros players, but only two of them batted righty: Wynn and Mejias.

Then again, it’s possible that the artist was inspired by pictures of any number of non-Colts/Astros players.

Personally, I like to think it’s The Toy Cannon himself.

[Kevvyg1026]

Thanks for your post. It brought some childhood memories flooding back.

I started collecting baseball cards in 1965 when I was nine years old and living in Corpus Christi, Tx. My stimuli for doing so were two-fold; I was getting an allowance for mowing the lawn so I could afford the nickel packs, but more importantly, my step-dad decided to take me to my first professional baseball games, an exhibition series that pitted the Yankees-Astros (3 games) and the Orioles-Astros (2 games). These series were staged April 9 to April 11, 1965 and represented the debut of the newly constructed Astrodome.

We made the three-hour trek from Corpus to Houston on Friday afternoon. As we neared Houston, I saw traffic as dense as I had ever witnessed. I recall being quite nervous, fervently hoping that we wouldn’t be late to the game. Irrespective of whether my recollections are due to my memory being faulty, or those feeling of anxiousness were due to the anticipation of seeing my first game, the drive seemed interminable.

But we made it and witnessed Game 1 on Friday night (Yankees-Astros) and Game 2 on Saturday afternoon (Orioles-Astros) before heading home. Our seats were in the bleachers, but to an impressionable boy, it didn’t matter. The size of the crowd, the excitement in the air, and the overall size of the Astrodome were wondrous. Although the Yankees lost the game (in 12 innings), seeing my childhood idol (Mantle) get the first hit (single in 1st inning) and the first home run (6th inning) in the Astrodome were surreal bonuses.

[Elgringo]

Originally Posted by Kevvyg1026

...seeing my childhood idol (Mantle) get the first hit (single in 1st inning) and the first home run (6th inning) in the Astrodome were surreal bonuses.

My dad was at that game too. He was also nine at the time. His parents (who had no interest in baseball) dropped him off in the parking lot and picked him up afterwards. A different time for sure.

Many years later, after an Oilers game, I spent what seemed like hours sitting on my dad’s shoulders scanning the ocean of parked cars for our station wagon. If you forgot to note where you had parked at the Astrodome, you had zero chance of finding your car until the masses dispersed.

Thanks for sharing your Astrodome memories.

[ALR-bishop]

Not the rookie card, Fleer Baseball Facts

[Kevvyg1026]

Wasn't the Fleer card issued in 1969?

[ALR-bishop]

I think some or all were issued in 1969 although some may have been issued or packaged in the early 70s. I have 18 which I think is the complete set. There is a 2nd astrodome card in the set, an interior shot. Same for Yankee stadium, interior and exterior shots. Only 12 stadiums in set. Four other cards are what the Fleer sticker blog refers to as baseball propaganda cards, for example, America's Favorite Pastime