About Colt Stadium
Colt Stadium was one of baseball's great improvisations — a hastily built open-air ballpark constructed next to the Astrodome construction site to give the expansion Houston Colt .45s somewhere to play while their revolutionary domed stadium was being built. The team was one of two 1962 expansion franchises (along with the New York Mets), and they played three full seasons in what amounted to a temporary facility with permanent misery baked in.
Playing outdoor baseball in Houston in summer was an authentic ordeal. Temperatures regularly exceeded 100 degrees with humidity to match, and the stadium sat in a low-lying area that created breeding grounds for mosquitoes of almost mythical size and aggression. The team employed fumigators who worked the stadium before games, and vendors sold insect repellent alongside hot dogs and peanuts. Players wore uniforms treated with bug spray. The mosquito problem became so legendary that it remains a defining memory of anyone who attended a game there.
When the Astrodome opened in 1965 — and the team renamed themselves the Astros — Colt Stadium was abandoned. The structure was eventually shipped to Mexico, where it was reassembled and used as a minor-league ballpark for decades. The Astros' brief tenure in this miserable, memorable park represents one of baseball's most colorful origin stories.
Fun facts
- Mosquitoes were so severe that vendors sold insect repellent at concession stands alongside food.
- Players wore uniforms treated with bug spray — the only team in MLB history to do so as standard practice.
- The stadium was built literally next door to the Astrodome construction site.
- After abandonment, Colt Stadium was shipped to Mexico and reassembled as a minor-league ballpark.
- The team renamed themselves the Astros when they moved indoors in 1965 — fitting for Houston's space age identity.
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