The following article was written by Dr. Frank Vandiver in 1963, which was included in the Houston Colt .45's 1963 Media Press Guide.

Since Gene Elston was the editor of the Houston Colt .45's/Astros press guides up until 1985, Gene had always intended to have the article reproduced if and when the Astros ever made it to the World Series. As Gene mentioned, the possibility arose in 1969 but the team cratered near the end of the season and finished 12 games out. Again the team came close in 1979, finishing a game out and of course we all remember 1980, 1981, and 1986, and many times in the late 1990s and early 2000's.

Well the day has finally come now that the Astros have finally made the World Series, and therefore the article is reproduced below:

"The Moon and the World Series"
By Dr. Frank Vandiver
Professor of History, Rice University

Every Big League city has a special sort of pride. Impressive statistics can be paraded to show a city’s greatness—census figures, industrial potential, banking capital, educational facilities—but all these are assumed if the city is in the Majors. By definition, a city in the Majors is at the top of the heap, it’s the most. And this is still true, despite all kinds of stories about the so-called "decline" of the Great American Sport.

Baseball is simply not declining. Houston found that out in 1962, its first year in the Majors. For a longtime Houstonians had thought of their city as one of the nation’s foremost, as a booming, vital metropolis, destined for great things. But greatness arrived the day the Colt.45s took the field for the first game of the season – the waiting was over.

Magic and the Majors

And that feeling shows pretty clearly the magic lingering in major league baseball. Houstonians supported the .45s with growing zest. In a few short weeks after the season began members of the team were cussed and discussed all over town; heated arguments about averages, the wisdom of assorted coaching decisions, the idiocy of umpires, raged wherever people gathered. Heroes rose and fell with each game, but the team worked a firm hold in Houston’s life.

In some ways, the .45’s affirmed a new life for Houston. The old rags-to-riches story of baseball—the sandlot kid making it to the top—reflects an ancient American dream. Boys work for perfection through the Little Leagues and the minors, just for the day they can step out on a Big League field and fight to reach and win the World’s Series. That type of striving—for most Americans, indeed—is going on in Houston, and in every Major League city.

.45’s and Astronauts

At one game during the first season, the Astronauts were guests in Colt Stadium. And it seemed altogether proper to the fans present that this was so. The Astronauts were just as concerned about the .45’s struggling for the top as they were about nudging the frontiers of space—the two types of competition; both of a Major League variety. And in some curious way, it seemed unthinkable that a city in the Majors would strive for anything less than new frontiers.

The conviction firmly felt in every Houston heart that someday—probably soon under Paul Richards’ wizardry—the 45’s will sweep a World’s Series, is matched by the certainty that our Astronauts will conquer space and reach the moon, that Houston will meet and beat all challenges.

The Colt .45’s are most important to Houston. They are the city’s token of Big Leagueness, a symbol of successful striving, a source of civic pride. And more important, they play exciting baseball!