Astros’ championship caps fan’s lifelong love affair with baseball
The Houston Astros franchise began in 1962 as the Houston Colt .45s of the National League. The team became the Astros a few years later when it moved into the Astrodome, and then joined the American League in 2013.
As almost every Houstonian knows, the Astros’ recent World Series Championship is the first in franchise history, granting a lifelong wish for 69-year-old Astros super fan Sam Torn. Here’s the backstory:
On a Saturday morning in 1953, an excited 6-year-old Sam Torn and his dad, Rip, arrived at Bellaire’s Feld Park baseball diamond. He joined other 6-year-olds on the White Sox team sponsored by Bellaire Parks and Recreation Department.
“Teenage boys coached us,” Torn said. “Registration was no more than $5 ... and it may have been free, but we all got T-shirts and caps.”
“From day one, I fell in love with baseball,” he said. “I loved it, loved playing the game and watching. As I got older, I loved the strategy and nuance.”
From 1959 to 1961, he and his dad attended games at Buff Stadium on the Gulf Freeway to watch the Houston Buffaloes (the triple-A franchise for the St. Louis Cardinals).
“From the first day I held a bat, I was determined to be a major leaguer,” Torn said. “The Yankees were my favorites, so I wanted to be like Mickey Mantle, but I was like most of my friends. We all aspired to play in the major leagues.”
When he was 7, Torn signed up to play baseball again, this time for the Pirates. “That’s when the coach asked, ‘Who wants to be catcher?’ and when nobody responded, he looked at me and said, ‘Torn, you’re gonna be our catcher,’ and that’s the position I played from then and on into college ... and my hero changed from Mickey Mantle to the major league’s best catcher, Yogi Berra.”
As a side note, Torn said his shoes somehow came untied in almost every game, so it was common for his mother to call out to him, “Sam, tie your shoes.”
As he and his friends grew older, their recreation in the evening was watching teenagers play Little League baseball.
“We chased balls for them, and were rewarded with bubble gum,” he said.
By age 10, Torn was good enough to be invited to attend Ozark Boys Camp and Baseball School, where invited campers played baseball for a month.
“The camp lasted 31 days and I loved it. I loved being coached and getting better and I loved the camp, located just outside of the little town of Mt. Ida, Arkansas, on Lake Ouachita,” he said.
To earn the $450 tuition to attend the camp, the Houston youngster spent his summers, scraping paint from aging properties and serving as a painter’s helper, cleaning brushes and picking up trash for 75 cents an hour.
Torn attended the Ozark Baseball Camp for five years and then was a camp counselor for six years, through his college days. When the owner of Camp Ozark was ready to sell, he remembered how much Torn loved the camp and offered the camp to him.
Twenty-five years ago, Sam and his wife Susan became owners of Camp Ozark and since then, they’ve welcomed the more than 6,000 youngsters to the Christian sports camp every year.
“My dad and I always watched the Game of the Week in black and white when Houston only had three TV channels. Dizzy Dean and Peewee Reese called the games, and during the World Series, when they played the games in the afternoon, Dad allowed me to stay home one day to watch the Series.”
April 1962 was an exciting time when the Houston Sports Association brought the Colt .45s, a major league expansion team, to play in Colt Field (while the Astrodome was being completed).
“This was a big deal,” Torn said. “The Houston Oilers had just been brought in and there was another expansion team — the New York Mets.
“On opening day, April 10, 1962, when the Colt .45s beat the Chicago Cubs 11-4, I was 13 years old and cheering the loudest when Bob Aspromonte hit the first run in and Roman Mejias hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the third. Bobby Shantz was pitching.”
Torn and his dad listened to away games on the radio, and when the club was in town, they went to the stadium to watch batting practice, fielding practice ... just being at the ball park.
Three years later, owner Judge Roy Hofheinz moved the team into the Astrodome and changed the Colt .45’s name to the Astros, which Torn remembers didn’t sound exactly right in the beginning.
He also remembers attending an exhibition game the Astros played against the Yankees.
Enjoying a successful baseball career in high school, Torn earned a spot on the all-district team.
“I wasn’t a great hitter,” he said, “but back then, the catcher called the game, scouted opposing hitters and strategized how to win the game.”
By his junior year at Texas A&M, the Houstonian could see the handwriting on the wall.
“I wasn’t a gifted player, and we had so many talented players, there were major league scouts at every game. I was a ‘heady’ player and a good defensive player, but wasn’t gifted enough,” he said.
His perspective also changed that year when he met a young woman from UT — who knew nothing about baseball — but consented to be his wife.
“My view of the future changed instantly, so to stay close to A&M sports, I went out for yell leader,” he said. (He was head yell leader for the 69-70 season).
Torn was at Minute Maid Park, April 7, 2000, opening day, when the Astros lost to Philadelphia, 4-1, and the first World Series game in 2005 when the Astros took on the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox swept the Series.
Now that the excitement has waned after the Astros first championship, what are Torn’s thoughts, being a fan from age 13 to 69?
“Houston was devastated by Hurricane Harvey,” he said. Tens of thousands of people were left hurting after losing their homes, vehicles and employment. The flood played no favorites. From mansions to trailer parks, the pain was the same.
“Harvey’s magnitude left a depressing pall over city,” he said. “The Astros had so much success this season, and the way they were able to succeed, winning the World Series, lifted that depressing pall from the storm’s aftermath. After Wednesday’s game, people still had to rebuild their homes. including my sister, but we all had a spring in our steps. We truly were Houston strong and Houston proud.
“The Astros’ win was huge, especially because these young men connected as real people to our city. Fans saw them as people they could identify with. It was the crowning achievement — for fans of the old Colt .45s and the Astros. Certainly there are other important things in life, but in 56 years and for the four generations of fans in my family and for all of Houston, this was perfect year, the perfect time.”
“The Astros had so much success this season, and the way they were able to succeed, winning the World Series, lifted that depressing pall from (Hurricane Harvey’s) aftermath.” Sam Torn, Houston Astros super fan