On its 50th anniversary the Astrodome’s demise is a reflection of us

The space-age promise of the Astrodome never came to pass, but that dream we let die should be recognized the week of the stadium’s 50-year anniversary.

By Andrew Pridgen

The Astrodome, baseball’s first domed stadium, opened Friday, April 9, 1965 to 47,879 spectators including Stonewall, Texas native and Oval Office dweller Lyndon B. Johnson. They watched in hermetically sealed, 72-degree comfort as the newly minted hometown Astros (name changed from the Colt .45s to honor Houston’s aerospace industry) defeated the Yankees 2-1 in an exhibition game.

Mickey Mantle, who collected the first-ever indoor home run that day, was not underwhelmed; that said a lot for a man who wasn’t wowed by much unless it had a pop top: “It reminds me of what I imagine my first ride would be like in a flying saucer,” Mantle said after the first game.

The structure, the one Billy Graham claimed was the…