lD: I started out in Little League when I was seven years old.
You were supposed to be eight to get in the League, but I was
at the forefront of the Baby Boomer generation, and we moved
into some track home neighborhoods in the suburbs of Los
Angeles, and the fathers were all excited and energetic, coming
back from the war….They built a big complex of elds and held
tryouts at a public park, and I went down there with my dad just
to watch because it said you had to be eight years old. But then,
it turned out that they needed a couple more kids to ll out all
the teams, and so I got in one year early. And then, I continued
through Little League, Pony League, Colt League, high school,
American Legion, and was generally one of the better players
throughout that whole time. By the time I got in high school, it
was evident that I could throw pretty hard and so I started get-
ting scouted. There were twenty teams back then and I ended up
lling out some sort of a questionnaire and sending it in for the
ofce for seventeen of them, not the Dodgers. That was the team
I followed. They were not interested. But when it came down to
it, it was the Twins, the Cubs, and the Colt .45s. . . . I signed out
of high school, got a pretty big bonus, and a college scholarship
where they would pay me $1,000 a semester.
So I started my career when I was seventeen in an instruc-
tional league and went to school during the off seasons. I came
up [to Houston] in September that very rst year, pitching three
games for the Colt .45s. The rst one was on my eighteenth
birthday. I pitched against Willie Mays, and he hit one foul off
me about 450 feet. And then, I ended up striking him out. So,
that was kind of a career bullet point. I never went back down.
I was so excited about playing baseball in the major leagues
that . . . I did not notice that Houston was so hot or that the
mosquitoes were so big, they could carry you off and all the
things that people said about old Colt stadium . . . I went back
to California to go to college the rst couple of off-seasons and
at that time, I thought, well, this will be a great place to have a
baseball career. The Astrodome was fabulous. I was happy with
Houston but I sort of thought that in the end, I would end up in
California. But the longer I stayed here, the more friends we
made and the deeper our roots grew.
[The opening of the Astrodome the next year] was terric.
I can remember at the end of spring training, we came back
here, and we played those exhibition games with the Yankees.
And when we came up to the Dome, it was dark outside and
the lights were on inside. So, when we got off the team bus,
we walked into the Astrodome, went in the locker room, and
walked out and looked at the stadium. And walking out through
the tunnel and looking at the expanse of the eld and score-
board, it was breathtaking. I can even remember at the time say-
ing I felt like I walked into the next century. It was almost like it
had a ying saucer quality to it or something, futuristic.
A Conversation with...
MR. ASTRO, LARRY DIERKER
and Joe Pratt
L
arry Dierker has been associated with the Houston
Astros baseball franchise since 1964, when he pitched
his first game at old Colt .45 Stadium. He pitched thirteen
seasons for the Astros and one with the St. Louis Cardi-
nals before he retired from baseball in 1977. He finished
with 139 wins and a 3.31 earned run average. In 1979
he became a color commentator, broadcasting Astros
games until 1997, when he left the booth and returned
to the bench as the team’s manager. For five seasons he
was the most successful manager in Astros’ history, tak-
ing four of his five teams to the playoffs and leading the
team to 102 wins in 1999.
In November of 2007, we met at his home in Jersey Vil-
lage and talked about his career with the Astros, baseball,
and Houston.
Larry Dierker began his career in an instructional league and
pitched in his first major league game for the Houston Colt .45s on his
eighteenth birthday.
All photos courtesy of Houston Astros, unless otherwise noted.
4 Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports
The expansive interior of the Astrodome, as it appeared before the
gondola was raised to the roof, “had a flying saucer quality to it.”
The Astros played their first exhibition game against the New York
Yankees on April 9, 1965.
.
It was really hard to hit a home run [in the Dome]. The only
thing that was somewhat helpful to the hitters was the original
version of Astroturf was a really fast track. So, the inelders did
not have quite as much range as they had in other ballparks, and
the balls that were hit into the gaps or down the lines generally
made it to the fence. And so, it was probably a better than aver-
age park for doubles and triples, but certainly way below the
average park for home runs. I think, at rst, it was just intrigu-
ing, and I think the inelders kind of liked it because they did
not get any bad hops. But then, you know, after a while, you
know, with diving for balls and slamming down on it and get-
ting abrasions and hitting down hard and everything, after a few
years, players did not really like the Astroturf that much. The
original Astroturf in the Dome did not have any padding under
it . . . just concrete.
JP: Do you think that
pitching in the majors at
such an early age helps
explain your relatively
early retirement?
lD: I think it [starting
so young in the majors]
was probably not the
best thing for me, in
retrospect, because I was
nished when I was thir-
ty-one. I had arm trouble
for three or four years
leading up to that. But,
philosophically, I am not
opposed to pushing a
Larry Dierker at spring training in
1965.
Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports 5
young player, you know, to try to maybe chal-
lenge him to perform at a higher level than he
might be ready for, just to see what will happen.
There are two schools of thought on that. Some
people feel like the young prospect should move
up one step at a time and that you should not put
them into an overwhelming situation because
they might lose their condence. My feeling has
been that if you put them into that kind of a situ-
ation and they fail, they will probably learn why
they failed and then they will go back down. If
they are the kind of competitor that you want,
they will go back down there and work on that
and x it and come back up again. And if they
are somebody that once defeated, they are going
to be defeated forever, they are probably not the
person you want anyway.
The trend has been to take longer and longer
[to bring pitchers to the majors]. What happened
with me is not going to happen again. [I was] a
starting pitcher’s manager—if you are a starting
pitcher that likes to get the decision. What I would tell them is
when you go out there to start the game, you want the decision
— win or loss. If you are afraid to lose, you know, you are going
to always be one to bail out of a tied game in the fth or sixth
inning; that way, you cannot lose. The proper mental attitude is
to go for the win even at the expense of a possible loss and pitch
as far into the game as you can so you do not need as much help
from the bullpen. And mostly guys responded well to that. We
were on a four-man rotation and pitching lots of complete games
[when I was coaching the Astros]. We used to pitch the whole
season on the fourth day.
I did not know that much about pitching when I signed [as a
rookie]. I signed because I could throw the ball hard, and I could
throw it over the plate. And I had a pretty good breaking ball.
But I did not really have the best idea of what to do with that.
The process of learning how to pitch was expedited by pitching
in more games and more innings and being coached by profes-
sionals…. Once I signed, the process really moved forward
quickly, especially, you know, having to try to compete in the
major leagues. I could not only see what was happening to me
when I was on the mound and talked to the catcher about it and
the pitching coach or the manager. But I could also watch what
Juan Marichal was doing, or what Warren Spahn was doing, and
Don Drysdale, or Bob Gibson. I mean, you are right there where
you can watch and see the best pitchers doing it, you know, and
that really helped me learn what to do, too. So, it was a com-
bination of pitching more innings and watching better pitchers
and getting better coaching.
Jim Owens was a team mate. He pitched the rst year or
two that I played. He was on the staff, then he became pitching
coach. And I probably learned most of the early lessons from
him. And after him, the guy that was really good was Roger
Craig. He came through as pitching coach for two or three years
here during the middle of my career…. It is sort of an interest-
ing dynamic because when young guys come up, they obviously
take another guy’s place. And so, a lot of times, the guy’s place
you take might be a popular guy among the other pitchers and
they might be a little disgruntled at rst but everybody knows
that that is the nature of the sport. So, after the
guy is gone and you are there for a while, then
you are on the team trying to help and they start
trying to help you.
One of the things that really helped me was
there was not much pressure because we knew
we were not a contending team….It was no
pressure, you are in the major leagues, getting
rst class treatment, riding around in chartered
planes, having people give you money for your
meals and stuff. It was glamorous to me. By
today’s standards, it would be minor league, but
for me at that time and that age, I was thrilled.
Every I time I went back to college, I started
after the baseball season, so I was usually two
weeks to a month late coming into classes. I
could catch up just ne in classes like English or
history or anything where you read a book and
then you have to write about what you read, but
when it came to things that were more technical,
I was in trouble. About my third or fourth year,
I thought I should major in business because I had some money,
and I thought that would be a prudent thing to do. But when I
came back to calculus and accounting and computer science one
month late, I was lost. Within a couple of weeks, I dropped all
those classes, and I ended up with political science and econom-
ics. And the next year, I switched over to majoring in English.
One thing that helped me a lot — we got Johnny Edwards
over from the Cardinals and he was a good catcher. In 1969 (at
the age of twenty-two) in spring training, I actually went 5-0,
and he was just adamant that if I was going to pitch in the major
leagues, I needed to learn how to
throw pitches other than my fast ball
behind [in] the count 3-2. I worked
on that a lot in spring training, and
I found that I could get the ball over
the plate, or if I did not, they would
swing at it if it was out of the strike
zone because they were all look-
ing for fast balls. And that was one
of the last pieces in the puzzle—
you know, of putting together all
the things I had to offer on the
mound—to have enough condence
to do those sorts of things. And he
was instrumental in that.
I feel like you could imagine how
I would feel, or how any twenty-
two-year-old would feel, in that
position. I think I was pretty full
of myself, you know. It was a good
feeling. I knew I was one of the best
and I knew it was not an accident.
I was happy about it, and I was
a big shot. I knew I was going to
make a bunch more money. I think
everybody has to work that out for
themselves because one thing that
I felt several times is when I was in
As a young player who had just
joined the majors, Larry Dierker
enjoyed the first class treatment,
which he said would be “minor
league” by today’s standards.
6 Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports
my prime and my arm was healthy, and I was warming up for a
game, and I felt good, and we were playing a weak team, and I
would look over and they would have a lesser pitcher warming
up to pitch against me, and I thought we are going to win this
game. This is going to be fun. And I asked Nolan [Ryan] if he
ever felt that way one time. He said, “Not once.” His attitude,
it was going to be a war no matter what the team was with the
opposing pitcher, and he was never going to let up. Of course, he
won more than twice as many games than I did, so he probably
had a better philosophy.
JP: You make the All-Star team in 1969 and 1971. Did you pitch
in the 1969 game?
lD: Yes, I pitched in that game in Washington. I only faced two
hitters. There were two outs in the inning. Boog Powell got a
single, Reggie Smith popped up and that was it. In 1971, I was
hurt. I was really off to the best start I had ever been. I was
10-1, I think at one point, and my ERA was below 2. My elbow
was burning every start. But I was having so much success
that I was just putting hot stuff on it and going out there. It got
worse in the game at Candlestick Park, my last start before the
All-Star game, to the point where I had to go on the disabled
list. Don Wilson took my place, and he pitched an inning in that
game in Detroit. I was there, and I was chosen for the team, but
I did not pitch. . . .
I think the tendency now is to just shut a guy down until it
gets to where it does not hurt. . . . I think they are a little more
cautious now than they used to be. It used to be, you know, just
get a cortisone shot, put hot stuff on it, take pain killers, and go
out there and pitch.
In 1970, my arm was ne but that was 300 innings in 1969
and 270 more in 1970. [In] 1971, when I made
the All-Star team, my elbow bothered me mid-
season, and I missed the whole second half of that
season. And the next year, my shoulder started
giving me some trouble. I got over the elbow
problem and it probably changed my delivery or
something a little bit to protect my elbow. I am
not sure what happened but the next year, it was
the beginning of the shoulder. I was not too hurt
for a few years there — I just had occasional
shoulder discomfort, but the last two or three
years were basically not knowing from one start
to the next if I was going to be able to go out there
and make my next start.
What tests they did, they never really diag-
nosed anything. I think if I had been pitching in a
later era, in this era, there is no way that I would
have retired at thirty-one. Somebody would have
said, “You have got to get that shoulder xed
and keep pitching,” because it is too hard to nd
good pitchers and, you know, when a guy is that
young, it is obvious the rest of your body is ne,
so I think they would have found a way to x
my shoulder. But back then, if they did not have
something they knew they had to operate on, they
did not operate, and they could not nd anything
they knew they had to operate on.
Dierker, shown here in 1975, continued to be an effective pitcher de-
spite battling shoulder and elbow problems.
Larry Dierker received an award for pitching his first no-hitter in a
game on July 9, 1976, against the Montreal Expos.
Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports 7
JP: Despite your sore arm, late in your career, you pitched a no
hitter.
lD: I just went into that game thinking I was going to mix it up
and move it around like I had been and by the seventh inning,
I got the adrenaline, and I did not know my arm was sore any-
more. Actually, I had lost two no-hitters on ineld hits late in
the game, one in the ninth inning. We were in the Dome and the
last two innings, I decided I was not going to give up a ground
ball that might be a hit. It was either going to be a y ball or a
strikeout. I think I struck out four guys in the last two innings,
and I was basically just throwing high fast balls. I did not throw
anything but fast balls the last two innings and here I was, going
into the game with my arm a little fragile thinking I am just
going to not overdo it, just mix it up and move it around. It was
almost like two games: the rst part of the game pitching and
the last couple of innings just throwing. It was like old times.
In 1969, we were close in the beginning of September, and
then we caved in, much like the 1996 team did, which led to me
getting the manager’s job — being close and then falling out in
the end. I think that all of us would have liked to have had a shot
at playing when it really counts at the end of September and the
pennant race and in the post season. I think there was a realiza-
tion during most of those years in the 1970s that we just were
not as talented as the Dodgers and Reds. They were great teams.
At some point, you just have to look at the other team and say,
“they’ve got more talent than we do.”
I think we felt that we possibly could have won the eastern
division a couple of those years but it was just like playing in
the American League East now; you know, Toronto may have a
great team, but they are not going to beat Boston or New York.
There were some good trades. We got Jose Cruz for Claude
Osteen. I am not sure if there was anything quite that good until
Bagwell came along but that was certainly a good deal. But,
you know, the Morgan deal and the Cuellar deal really hurt, and
the Rusty Staub deal, too. So, we lost a lot of
talent. Paul Richards was the general manager
until the judge [Roy Hofheinz] prevailed in the
ownership situation with R. E. “Bob” Smith.
The judge did not like Paul so he let him go
and then hired Spec Richardson, and he made
most of the dumb deals. But I do not think
Paul Richards would have made those trades,
and I think we probably would have been an
even better team in the late 1960s and early
1970s if we had not made those deals. And,
to me, it was really a dening moment for the
franchise because my understanding is that the
judge and Bob Smith were not getting along,
seeing eye-to-eye, and Bob Smith gave him
a buyout price and a date, and he thought he
probably would not be able to come up with
the money, but the judge was such a charmer
and such a dreamer and an eloquent speaker
and everything else, that he did manage to
scrape up the money, and he bought Bob
Smith out. And had Bob Smith become the
sole owner instead of Roy Hofheinz, I think
that the franchise would have been better.
We might not have had the Astrodome. I mean, the judge was
certainly a major gure in Houston history and an innovator in
terms of the Dome. And obviously, that has led to other domes
and retractable roof stadiums. He was probably a genius. I think
he was one of the youngest mayors any major city has ever had.
But from the baseball standpoint and player personnel, I think
we would have been better off with Bob Smith because I think
he would have kept Paul Richards and let Paul do the baseball
work, whereas, I think the judge got Spec in there and started
trying to be part of it and I think that was a mistake.
JP: How did the players react to what turned out to be a series
of bad trades in these years?
lD: There is not anything you [as a player] can do about it, and
even when we made that trade with Cincinnati [Joe Morgan
trade], I thought it was an O.K. trade. Tommy Helms was a good
second baseman, so we still had a good second baseman. We
had power with Lee May and Jimmy Stewart was a switch hit-
ting, utility type player. I did not think it was going to turn out
to be such a horrible trade.
If he [Joe Morgan had] stayed here, he probably would not
have achieved what he did achieve…. because, you know, if you
are a pitcher and you have good elders behind you and good
hitters in your lineup, you are going to have a better record than
if you are pitching for a lesser team. And if you are a hitter and
you have good hitters in front of you and good hitters behind
you, you are going to have better numbers than if you are hitting
on a team where you do not have good other hitters around you.
So, it helped him to be in that lineup, but he would have been a
great player no matter what. He had that intensity of focus and
spirit for competition that was off the charts, as most of the Hall
of Fame guys do.
Craig Biggio will be the rst to be a lifetime Astro to make
it [into the Hall of Fame], and I think Jeff Bagwell will make
it, too. Sentimentally, I hope that Bagwell makes it on the third
ballot so he will go in at the same time that Biggio does. And
Astros owners R. E. “Bob” Smith and Judge Roy Hofheinz.
8 Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports
that could happen, you know, because his career was shortened.
And so, even though his numbers are extraordinary, the total
RBIs and total runs scored are a little low because he does not
have as many at bats because of his injury, but his averages —
on base, slugging, RBIs per year, runs scored per year—are all
better than many rst basemen who are already in there and I
think that the voters will realize that.
JP: When were you rst aware of the possibility of steroid use?
lD: I do not think that I picked up on that before it started be-
coming news. You know, once you read about it or heard some-
body, a commentator speak about it, and then you looked around
at some of the guys. I thought about the guys I played with.
You know, when I was playing, there weren’t many guys lifting
weights, so it was possible just to assume that we all would have
looked like that if we had lifted weights because we did not.
I think the effect of it is really overblown because just for one
particular reason, that certainly guys hit more home runs, there
was a higher quantity of home runs, but in terms of distance
of the long home runs, you would think that if the steroids was
making a guy that much stronger, that he would hit the ball that
much farther. But there were balls that Frank Howard hit and
balls that Willie Stargell hit and balls that Mickey Mantle hit in
different stadiums, and these guys in this era who have played
in those same stadiums, nobody has hit the ball any farther. And
we know those guys were not taking any steroids. So, you know,
I think it maybe has had an effect but I think that because of
the quantity of home runs, which I think is partially due to poor
pitching depth, that it is assumed that cheating is so bad that
anybody could do it if you took steroids, anybody could pitch a
no-hitter through spit balls or scufng the ball. I think there is a
suspicion among fans that all these things that have happened in
the game would be categorized as cheating, have a major effect
on the game, and I think they probably have a more subtle effect
on the game, and it is really not the impact—and this is just my
opinion—I think these things have not had the impact that the
fans think they have.
If you have guys like Sosa and McGwire and Bonds who
were already established stars, it is hard to understand why they
would succumb to that temptation, but if you look at a guy that
is twenty-eight years old who is in AAA making $50,000, and
major league minimum is $325,000, he has got a wife and a
couple of kids, he has been in the minor leagues for ve years
and he is thinking if I could just get a little better and get a
couple of years in the big leagues, at least I would have a start
on my next life. I can understand that.
At one of our alumni events a couple of years ago, it was the
1980 team. It was before anybody knew about steroids, and guys
were sitting around having a beer, and somebody said, “Well, if
I was playing now, I would take steroids. I would not want to go
against all those guys if we’re not going to be on the same play-
ing eld.” And just about every single guy said the same thing,
you know. If everyone else is doing it, I would do it.
We will never know [who took steroids and who did not] and
the other thing is what we do know, I think, is that when you are
in your twenties, you do not care what effect it will have on you
when you are sixty. I mean, the people were saying, “You are
going to pay the price for this down the line with your health.”
When you are young, you are invulnerable, you know, I mean,
the last thing you are thinking about is how you are going to feel
when you are sixty.
They [Major League Basesball] probably could have started
[testing] sooner than they did. I think in baseball, they were
probably pleased with the Sosa/McGuire thing, and probably
attendance was going up, and they may have been dragging
their feet almost semi-intentionally because the game was very
popular, and there were a lot of home runs; and it was almost
like when Babe Ruth started hitting them and other guys started
hitting them, and the game became popular that the people that
owned the teams and run the game were thinking, well, let’s
don’t rock the boat. Things are going pretty good. And so, it
kind of leaked out and became known, and they almost got to
the point where they had to do something. And now, they have
nally done something. But they still have a problem with the
human growth hormones. They need a blood test, I guess. I
think you can get that with a blood test.
There was a Hall of Fame player that said baseball must be
the greatest game on earth to survive the fools that run it. Can
you imagine when that was said? It was said in 1941 by Bill
Terry. So, you know, you could say at this point in time that the
players and the union run it, just as easily as you could say the
owners run it. But the statement is still basically true. We have
come through strikes, and we have come through steroids, and
we have come through World War II, and we have come through
drug trials in Pittsburgh in the early 1980s, and it seems like the
game is able to survive all sorts of scandals and unseemly be-
havior. And now with the steroids, if a bunch of guys are impli-
cated in January, and they say, “But we’ve got this stuff cleaned
up now,” I think all it is going to do is make it more popular.
JP: How hard was your transition from being a player to being
an announcer?
lD: It was not that hard. I think that when you do something
like that, you do not really know how to do it, but your knowl-
edge of the game can make the presentation reasonably infor-
mative even if you are not a professional broadcaster, and then
after a few years, you become a professional broadcaster. It
takes everybody a couple of years to learn the timing of things.
It is especially difcult on TV. I mean, it is a nightmare on TV
right now because they throw so many charts and graphs up
there, special effects and sponsored elements, that you can-
not really tell a story anymore. You cannot speak more than a
couple of sentences because they are liable to put something up
there on the screen, and you have to stop and talk about what
is on the screen. And so, it makes it difcult to be anecdotal
and to present the game the way I like to have it presented, in
a friendly and informative way, because it just seems like they
want that People Magazine ash, ash, ash, cut, ash, cut,
cut, cut — that they are trying to make the game seem like it is
really fast moving and exciting when it is really just baseball. It
is a pastime. And I prefer it as a pastime. On radio, you can still
broadcast it that way but on TV, you cannot.
I was pretty lucky to grow up in L.A. and hear Vince Scully
“When you are young, you are invulnerable
...the last thing you are thinking about is how
you are going to feel when you are sixty.”
Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports 9
all the time. And then, I spent my last year with St. Louis and I
heard Jack Buck quite a bit because I was damaged goods when
I went, and I only pitched thirty some innings for them, and
I did not go on all the trips because I was on the disabled list.
So, I got to hear Jack Buck a lot. I think those two guys were
probably, in terms of just baseball announcers, the best that the
National League had to offer.
I worked with Dewayne Staats and Gene Elston about the
rst half and then Milo Hamilton and Bill Brown the second
half, roughly. I probably had a little closer relationship with the
players when I rst started announcing because I was just in
my thirties. I was the same age as a lot of the players, and I had
played with or against them. And so, it was almost like I was
still a player, but then as I grew older and the players got young-
er, and there was nobody that I had played against or with, you
know, then I had a separate relationship, which was more just
a professional thing, you know — talked to them, interviewed
them, say hello on the bus or around the batting cage but not go
out and have a beer or go play golf or anything. It separated as I
got older.
I got to get in the race as an announcer and then I got to
get in the race as a manager. I was never in it as a player. That
Philadelphia series [in 1980] was probably more exciting than
the Mets series [in 1986]. I got to do both of those. I had Nolan’s
4,000
th
strikeout. I was doing play-by-play on radio at that time.
[While announcing] I did a lot more statistical analysis, and
I read more books from people like Bill James and others that
kind of broke the game down analytically in ways that I had not
thought about before. So by the time I went down to manage, I
think I had a better idea of what creates runs scored, more than
the elding. The pitching was something I knew from experi-
ence, and I knew from experience that the better elders you
have, the better pitcher you are going to be. So, that was the
prevent-runs standpoint and that was mostly from experience.
But the offensive part was less familiar to me—slugging aver-
age, on base average, the percentage of
steals and what percentage you have to
do to gain an advantage, and the number
of the percentage of games where the big
inning wins the game. And then, I went
through my scorebook to see if that was
true; so I went through a whole year,
and about 50% of the time, you know,
the winning team scored more in one
inning. Even if it was a 2-1 game, they
scored the two runs in one inning. And
then, I took it a step farther and said,
well, how many times does a team score
as many runs in one inning as the other
team does in a whole game, and it was
70%. So, when I went down to manage,
I was armed with those ideas, and a lot
of managers are not. You know, a lot
of managers still think about the team
that scores rst wins 60% or 70% of
the time. But, you know, the team that
scores rst could score ve runs in the
rst inning and still score more than the
other team does in the whole game. So,
both of those things could happen in the
same game. But a lot of managers bunt and play little ball in the
early part of the game to try to get the rst run because they have
heard that the team that scores rst wins. I never did that when
I managed. I tried to play for the big inning until the end of the
game when we only needed one run.
Managing the game was fun, but managing the situation was
not fun. It was probably the job that I least enjoyed of all the
things I have done in baseball, just because of the combination
of having to get there so early because the players get there so
early and have nothing to do until the game starts except talk to
the media. And then, the media kind of pressure in the season
where we had a bad year and even in the seasons where we lost
in the playoffs. By the time it was over at rst, you know, it [be-
ing removed as manager] kind of hurt my feelings because we
had won the division that year; but after about one month, I felt
like I had had a big burden taken off of me, and I realized that I
could be a lot happier person if I did not have to be responsible
for what happened out on the eld. But actual tactics, from the
rst pitch to the last pitch, I enjoyed that.
I had great players. Oh, I mean, that is critical. You can screw
up a good team if you make everybody mad and you are a bad
manager, but you cannot possibly take a team of middling talent
and win a championship through the shrewdness of your tactics.
I probably emphasized defense, pitching, and elding more
than most managers for that reason. I think in the Big Bang era,
most managers, coming from playing positions rather than from
pitching, they think a little more about how are we going to
outscore the other team, and I would probably think how are we
going to allow fewer runs than the other team? And I probably
was less reluctant to go into extra innings to shoot for the moon,
change pitchers in the fth inning to try to have a big inning. I
was kind of a save-your-ammunition type manager, not really
reacting too much to what was going on early in the game un-
less you just absolutely had to. But if it was a close game, even
if we were a little behind, I would say, “Let’s save our best pinch
The Astros made the playoffs four of the five seasons Dierker managed the team, and he was elected
Manager of the Year in 1998.
10 Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports
hitter. Let’s save our right and left pinch hitter. Let’s save this
relief pitcher. Let’s let this pitcher pitch another inning,” and just
kind of let the game go a little further before I started trying to
use my reserves in my bullpen.
[In the play offs,] it was three times the Braves and one time
the Padres. And in all of those series, we faced some sensational
pitching. I mean, not only were these guys good pitchers during
the year but, I mean, we caught Kevin Millwood when he struck
out fteen guys. You just could not hit him that day. It was
probably the best his arm ever felt in his whole career. And his
control was great too! Kevin Brown had a similar game against
us. And, of course, Maddox and Glavine and Smoltz. I felt like
there were times during the year that we could have scored runs
off those guys throwing the way they did. But most of the time
you don’t hit guys who are throwing that well. . . . we just could
not get past that rst round, mostly because we could not score.
1998: That was the Kevin Brown year, and that was when
we had our best team and won 102 games. That was the year I
thought we had the best talent in the league, and the Padres beat
us. I think [Randy Johnson] was 10-1. He was good in that rst
game against Kevin Brown, too. We lost 2-1, I think, but we
only scored a run in the ninth off Trevor Hoffman because they
took Kevin Brown out. But I think he pitched eight innings and
struck out fteen guys in that game. Guys were just walking
back to the dugout going . . . what are you supposed to do?
In 1999, we won again — I thought that I did a better job that
year, and that was the year I had the seizure. So, I missed about
one month of that season. But that year, we won 97 games. And
we were decimated by injuries. I had Biggio and Spiers in the
outeld during most of September. We lost Moises Alou for
the whole year and Richard Hidalgo for about half of the year,
and had other injuries as well. Plus, the Reds were just putting
relentless pressure. . . . At one point, we won eleven or twelve
games in a row and we only picked up one game on them.
It got down to the very last day of the year, and we won
[against the Dodgers] in the Dome, and it was the last regular
season game in the history of the Dome, and the confetti, and
the Astros team of honor, and the champagne, and Harleys, and
cigars. There were players from different generations, and ev-
erybody was going around hugging each other and everything.
It was a really special time, that particular part of it, and that
was only a part of it. To me, it was one of the most memorable
days of my whole career and we had to win that game to win
the division. So, I felt like, you know, 97 games in that year was
probably more difcult to obtain than the 102 the year before.
And then, in 2000, the rst year at Minute Maid, we had a
lousy year, 70-92. The pitchers freaked out. Bagwell and all
those guys were not hitting until the second half. It was just an
inexplicable bad year for a team that had quite a bit of talent.
And then the next year, we won again and lost in the playoffs to
the Braves.
I thought [Minute Maid Park] was great. I mean, I was
concerned about the home run and the effect it was having on
the mentality of the pitching staff but I thought it was a beauti-
ful park. I was ready to leave the Dome. I loved the Dome, but
when they took the scoreboard down and put up more seats, it
just looked like any other multipurpose stadium . . . the Dome
just seemed passé at that point, and I was ready for a new one
[ballpark]. And then, when I saw the new one, I loved it, and I
still love it.
JP: You were fortunate to have a chance to play in some of the
great old ballparks in your early years in the big leagues.
Larry Dierker was honored in a ceremony naming the All-Astrodome team at the final regular season game played at the Astrodome on
October 3, 1999.
Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports 11
lD: Yes, I did. Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis, Crosley Field,
Forbes Field, Connie Mack Stadium, County Stadium — all of
them.
JP: And then watched them all get replaced by multipurpose
stadiums.
lD: Well, the Dome was . . . we kind of led everybody down the
primrose path because they thought, boy, isn’t this great? You
can have one stadium — football and baseball, put down Astro-
turf and you do not have to take care of the grass. I mean, this is
the way of the future. Everybody followed and now, they have
all said, “This is a terrible idea. It is not ideal for baseball or
football. We need separate stadiums. The Astroturf is no good.”
But all that started because of the Astrodome.
The thing about baseball that is so charming is that, you
know, people collect ball parks….Thomas Boswell once said
— their sounds, their sights, their smells, their neighborhoods
— they are unique and people go around and want to see a
game in every park, or people will go around if they are golfers
and they will want to play the great golf courses because every
golf course is different. . . . And, to me, those two sports are
unique for that reason, and I think really that for that reason, a
great deal of the best sports writing has been golf writing and
baseball writing.
When I got here, we had a very high percentage of Cardinals
fans because the Houston Buffs were here, and all the players
that came through Houston and went to St. Louis, among them,
Dizzie Dean and others, Joe Medwick and others, so people
liked the Cardinals. And a lot of people watched the Yankees on
the game of the week. And they were always on, and Hous-
ton did not have a major league team, so a lot of them became
Yankee fans or Cardinal fans. And then, over time, you know,
it seemed like the novelty of the Astrodome wore off and we
really did not have a very good core of baseball fans in Houston
at all. And then, when I rst got into broadcasting and take it
in the late 1970s, early 1980s, we had a combination of a lot of
things that were good for major league sports. We had a good
team. We were contending each year. The Oilers and Rockets
also did. And the oil business was booming, and we were able to
sell a lot of tickets and build a bigger core of baseball, football,
and basketball fans. And then, the teams, all of them sort of
faded. 1986 was a great team but it was just one team in the
middle of a fairly long run of not too good teams. But the last
ten or twelve years in baseball in Houston, with the combination
of the new ballpark and the contending teams year after year,
has built a core of baseball fans in Houston that I think is liable
to last. But in 2007, to be drawing 35,000 and 40,000 a crowd,
you know, all through the midweek in September when you are
already eliminated, you know, to me, that said this is becoming
a pretty good baseball town. . . . I think we are getting pretty
close to getting in that group of cities where people are going
to come and support the team no matter what the team does be-
cause they think, well, we may be down for a few years but we
will come back, because they have the expectation that we have
The Houston Astros take on the Cincinnati Reds at Minute Maid Park.
12 Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports
On May 19, 2002, Larry Dierker and Astros owner Drayton McLane, Jr. unveiled the framed jersey given to Dierker to commemorate the Astros
retiring his number 49.
done enough winning, been in the playoffs enough that I think
the mentality is that, well, we may be down now but we will get
back. . . . And I think that is the way Cardinal fans have always
felt. You know, their winning teams have come and gone. They
won a lot in the 1960s and 1980s but not in the 1970s. And they
have won a little bit lately but, you know, I think Cardinal fans
just say, well, we like the Cardinals — win or lose and we will
get our share of championships.
We have a good stadium, we have had a lot of success on the
eld, and we have a big city that is growing. And, you know,
even if you are new to Houston, if some guy comes to U of H,
and he is a new professor from somewhere else, and you become
friends, and you say, “Let’s go out to the ballgame,” you know,
we might have another fan! He might not need you to take him
the next time.
Joe Pratt is the editor of Houston History.
Vol. 6, No. 3–Sports 13
