It featured fake grass, an artificial turf known as Astroturf, as well as Astrolite the world's first animated scoreboard. The dome is 710 feet high, with skylights in the roof panels & lighting around its brim above the upper decks.

Harris had the team on a five game win streak, without having lost yet in their new ball park. 16,837 fans came out to watch the Astros; Don Nottenbart take on the Mets Jack Fisher.
Starting Lineups
1 | Bobby Klaus | 2B |
2 | Johnny Lewis | RF |
3 | Joe Christopher | LF |
4 | Ed Kranepool | 1B |
5 | Ron Swoboda | CF |
6 | Charley Smith | 3B |
7 | Chris Cannizzaro | C |
8 | Roy McMillan | SS |
9 | Jack Fisher | P |
1 | Joe Morgan | 2B |
2 | Al Spangler | LF |
3 | Jim Wynn | CF |
4 | Walt Bond | 1B |
5 | Bob Aspromonte | 3B |
6 | Rusty Staub | RF |
7 | John Bateman | C |
8 | Bob Lillis | SS |
9 | Don Nottebart | P |

Mets pitcher Jack Fisher pitched a hell of a game, holding the Astros down until the 8th inning when they collected a run on a fielders choice.
The game was 2-1 into the bottom of the 9th. Bob Aspromonte (a future 1971 Met) doubled knocking Fisher out of the game. Al Jackson came in got one batter out & Casey brought in Dennis Ribant to close it out. He walked his first batter putting the winning run on base. Next up was Eddie Kasko, what happened next was typical of the early years of the Mets & an situation that could only happen in the Astrodome.
Kasko hits a high fly ball to left center field, hopefully ending the game, but no, Mets left fielder Joe Christopher looks up & looses the ball in the roof panel. The ball drops down in left centerfield, both runners score & the game is over, the Mets take an unbelievable, heart breaking 3-2 loss.

Even MLB Commissioner Ford Frick was concerned enough to send an engineer to investigate the claim. In the end a report made clear that air conditioning has no effect on the flight or distance of batted balls.
Lindsey Nelson's Famous Gondola Broadcast: The next night, the Mets decided to spice things up for their television broadcast. They put Met broadcaster Lindsey Nelson 208 feet above second base, in a suspended gondola to broadcast the game. The gondola, similar to the basket of a hot air balloon, was designed as a photo deck for certain events at the dome. It took about 45 minutes to lower and raise the contraption, with Nelson & an engineer in the gondola.
As the game was about to begin, Mets manager Casey Stengel, never with a loss for words, turned to the umpiring crew and said, "What about my man up there?"

"My man Lindsay up there," he said, pointing, "in that cage under the roof."
Everyone looked up, the Umpire Gorman scratched his head and decided that since any ball hitting the dome was in play that any ball hitting Lindsey Nelson should also be in play.
Casey was pleased. "Well," he said, beaming, "my man is a ground rule. That's the first time my man was ever a ground rule."
The Mets lost this game 12-9 with a rookie Tug McGraw taking the loss. When Tug McGraw was once asked what he thought about Astroturf as opposed to grass he said "I don't know, I never smoked Astroturf".
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