Old-Time Astrodome Baseball: Juan Marichal, Dominating at the All-Star Game

Little something from the toobz that shows Astrodome baseball when the game was very different: Juan Marichal dominating hitters at the 1968 All-Star Game.

Of course, he wasn’t the only one being dominant that day: There was but a single run scored all game, and that came on a double play.

Watch and see the high-kicking Marichal take on Rod Carew, Carl Yastrzemski and Frank Howard — no fluke All-Stars in that bunch — and notice something else.

No freaking overpowering music. No endless dawdling outside the batters box and on the mound. No countless replays of every pitch and play.

The entire game — an All-Star game with the usual tons of substitutions — took only two hours and ten minutes to play.

Maybe it wasn’t the most high-scoring game in the Dome, but it was damn efficient.

This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2011.