Ballpark
Astrodome
Houston · 1965–1999 · config 1999
Favors pitchers
(-0.3 runs for the away team)
Dimensions
LF 325′ · LFA 375′ · LC 375′ · CF 400′ · RC 375′ · RFA 375′ · RF 325′
Walls LF 10′ · CF 10′ · RF 10′
Indoor dome — deadened baseball
Average foul ground
Capacity 54,313
The Dome swallowed fly balls.
Overhead diagram
Photograph
About this park
The Astrodome was baseball under a roof before roofs were normal — a sealed weather argument. Fly balls that carried in Gulf humidity outdoors died in the Dome's dead air. Pitchers loved it for the same reason hitters learned patience: the ball did not travel the way Texas outdoor nights promised.
It swallowed deep flies and turned warning-track power into outs. The turf was hard, the foul territory average, and the whole building taught an era of Astros clubs to manufacture runs instead of waiting on the long ball. Walking into the Dome felt like leaving the climate behind — and taking the cheap homer with it.