HOUSTON -- There was that first time they walked into the Astrodome. Fifty years later, it remains etched in their hearts and minds.
"I remember thinking, I'd just walked into the next century," Larry Dierker said.
And?
"And I had," he said.
He was an 18-year-old pitcher in 1965, just beginning to pursue his Major League dream. When the Houston Astros returned from Spring Training, the bus rolled in from the airport to give the players a look at their amazing new home.
Until then, baseball had never been played indoors. Even as the Astros watched the mammoth structure take shape over the previous three summers, they had trouble grasping it.