HOUSTON - The ball went up to right, an easy catch for the right fielder. He camped underneath it, ready to close his glove on the final out of the inning. But then he lost it. The glare from the sun blinded him, and the ball fell to the ground, turning the third out into an inside-the-park home run.
By itself, it may seem like an unremarkable play - outfielders lose balls in the sunlight all the time. But what was remarkable about this was that the game was played indoors, and this play helped lead to an invention that changed sports.
When it was completed in 1965, the Astrodome was considered a marvel of engineering. The first domed sports stadium in the world, it was nicknamed the Eighth Wonder of the World. It was designed to hold both baseball and football games, as well as numerous other events. It was also designed with natural grass.
To allow for the grass to grow, the ceiling contained many transparant planes of lucite, which filtered the sunlight in to allow grass to grow. Unfortunately, it also intensified the glare from the sun, making lost flyballs commonplace. The ball that right fielder Jimmy Wynn lost in the first inning of their game on May 23 was the final straw. The ceiling tiles were painted over the next day. Naturally, the grass died, forcing the Astros to come up with a solution.
What they came up with was an artificial playing surface originally called ChemGrass. The name was changed to AstroTurf in honor of the first team to install it.
Soon, AstroTurf was popping up all over the country, even in open-air stadiums, because of how cheap and easy it was to care for it. Inspired by the Astrodome and its fake turf, multi-purpose stadiums started popping up around the country. Before long, every new stadium that was being built, open-air or domed, was being fitted with AstroTurf.
AstroTurf has started to lose its favor now; only two stadiums in Major League Baseball now have fake grass, down from a high of 10. But high schools around the country are starting to see the benefits of reduced maintenance costs, installing turf on their fields so multiple teams can play on the same surface.
And if Jimmy Wynn had just made that catch in 1965, maybe all that wouldn't have been possible.
HONORABLE MENTION
May 23, 1982: BOSTON - To say Boston fans in the 80s hated the Lakers - and vice versa - is an understatement. Aside from Celtics wins, nothing made Boston fans happier than Lakers losses, even if they needed somebody else to do it. So as Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals started to wind down, and it was obvious that Philadelphia was going to win, the Boston fans did something interesting. They started chanting "Beat L.A." Over and over again. They figured that if their team wasn't going to do it this year, might as well be somebody else. And though the 76ers didn't have enough left to beat the Lakers in the finals, they, for once, had Boston on their side.
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