Elston was great broadcaster and better man

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Gene Elston is that by the time I actually walked inside the Astrodome for the first time, I already had a feel for it. Fifty years later, I'm still amazed by this.

In his precise, uncluttered broadcasting style, Gene reconstructed it in the hearts and minds of the people at home. He got it exactly right, too. Not just the details, but Judge Roy Hofheinz's vision.

The Astrodome represented a triumph of both engineering and the human spirit. Gene described it inning by inning, night by night, capturing the vastness and majesty of the structure. To see the roof and the scoreboard, the dugouts and theater seats for the first time was to feel you'd returned.

Gene,…