What does this mean? Harris County commissioners have said that, if the bond failed, then the Astrodome would likely be destroyed.
The math has, thankfully, been done already. The $217m bond issue means that Harris County taxpayers would be responsible for $8 per year. $8 to save the Astrodome. $8 to save the 8th Wonder of the World.
$8 is basically a #4 from Whataburger per year. It's two trips to Starbucks a year. If you sacrifice a 20-piece Chicken McNuggets meal a year, you save the Astrodome.
A quick aside: I was not born in Houston. I was born in England, so I can't become president, which is bad news for you because I would be a pretty good president. But I first became aware of baseball while I lived outside of Lubbock, Texas. We had a satellite dish, and I distinctly remember being six years old and watching the Astros/Mets NLCS in 1986 because screw the Rangers. And I remember being profoundly sad when the Mets won. My dad was/is a preacher, so we moved around a lot, and we moved to Indiana. The Cubs, Reds, and Braves were the teams I could watch in our time in Indiana - all National League teams. One summer I got $5/game to score and chart Reds games for STATS, but I wasn't exactly dedicated.
My grandparents lived in Houston, and my cousins and I (I'm an only child) would go to my grandparents' house for a month every summer. They took us to an Astros game and thanks to Baseball Reference I can tell you that the game we all went to was July 19, 1994 and the Cardinals - F the Cardinals - one-hit the Astros in a 10-0 win over Houston. Andujar Cedeno got the only Astros hit of the game.
The summer between my 8th and 9th grade year we moved to Pasadena and I started my freshman year at Sam Rayburn High School. I thought that, at any point, the color of my shirt would get me killed by somebody in a gang because it's Houston right?. I stared at a KeyMap of Harris County in an effort to look like I belonged because I knew that the House of Pies was awesome. And I also spent a lot of my time watching the Astros at the Astrodome.
I have been to exactly two NFL games. I've never been much on the NFL, but my dad and I were given tickets to an Oilers game. It was December 10, 1995. Chris Chandler started the game but was injured and a rookie quarterback named Steve McNair took over, making his first actual appearance at QB, and led the Oilers to a 24-17 loss to the Lions.
I couldn't decide if I wanted to be Ring Lardner or Jerry Maguire when I grew up, so I joined the newspaper staff. I was the Sports Editor for the Sam Rayburn Speaker my sophomore year. This was a couple of years after the Strike. The Astros invited area high school newspapers to send a representative or two to the Astrodome for a "press event." I met and interviewed Shane Reynolds and Chris Holt. Darryl Kile may have been there. Reynolds definitely was. I stood in the locker room of the Astrodome and asked some asinine questions that I can't remember and wrote in the Speaker about how baseball was awesome and the Astros were awesomer.
It was around this time that I also began to develop an appreciation for music. Given the country of my birth, I was all about The Beatles, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. I was the out-of-town kid who liked BritPop. My aunt would send me CDs of Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, and Blur - the latter of which was playing in a small club in Houston (I can't remember which). But no band dominated my time like U2. I could have gone to see Blur when I became interested in going to concerts, but I wanted U2 to be the first band I ever saw live. So I skipped Blur (at Numbers, maybe?) so that the first concert I ever spent my own money on was U2, at the Astrodome. I made my boys Randy, Chase, and Jake to go with me to the Astrodome on November 28, 1997 (I didn't even have to look it up - I have a bootleg of the show) at 5pm. Predictably, we walked around for a few hours until Smashmouth opened - Rage Against the Machine opened for U2 the show before, in San Antonio, so I got cheated because Smashmouth sucks - for U2. It was magic.
One time I took a date to the Astrodome for an Astros game. I can't remember the date - and by that I mean the girl and the actual date of the game. I couldn't remember where I parked, which is something that stays with me to this day - I always take a picture of where I park at the airport - and we walked around until 12:30am until I eventually found my 1980 Volkswagen Scirocco. We didn't go on another date.
When I went off to ACU I didn't come home all that much in an effort to show that I was a legit College Guy. No showing up my freshman year to impress the chicks who were still in high school for me! But in 1999 I came home for Fall Break. So hell yes my dad and I went to Games 3&4 of the NLDS. Game 3 was the Walt-Weiss-Can-Go-To-Hell game, and Game 4 was the last major-league game ever played at the Astrodome.
When my wife, who is from Baytown and also not the girl I took to an Astros game in high school, and I lived in Abilene we went back to Houston in 2005 to let Hurricane Katrina "refugees" use our cell phones - because it was the weekend and our minutes were free - try to call their relatives and loved ones to tell them that they were safe.
The Astrodome means a lot to me. It helped me adjust to a new, freaking huge city. The Astrodome is where I took girls. The Astrodome is where I saw my favorite band of all time play live for the very first time. The Astrodome is where I interviewed Shane Reynolds. The Astrodome is where my wife and I went to try to help people adjust to a new, freaking huge city after their old, freaking huge city was destroyed by a hurricane.
And for $8, Harris County voted to tear it down.
