The Astrodome represents the pioneering, fearless, risk-taking American spirit at its best. It began as one man's improbable notion -- a crazy one, really; as crazy as sending a man to the moon.
Judge Roy Hofheinz believed we were limited only by the horizons of our dreams. He was unbothered that baseball had always been played in cozy little ballparks made of steel and brick and wood.
Creature comforts weren't given a second thought. To envision a structure with a massive, gleaming white roof and flashy scoreboard and theater seats was too much for some.
And then that evening at the end of Spring Training in 1965, a team bus pulled up beside it, and the Houston Astros walked inside for the first time.