Colt Stadium, Baseball stadium in Houston, United States
Colt Stadium was a temporary open-air baseball ground in Houston, built while the Astrodome rose just to the south. It had an uncovered one-level grandstand running from foul pole to foul pole, with small bleacher stands in left and right field. A baseball annual called it "a barn-like thing." The field ran northeast from home plate to center field at 50 feet above sea level.
Built as a temporary home for the expansion Houston Colt .45s, Colt Stadium opened for the 1962 season while the Astrodome was under construction to the south. The team played there three seasons (1962–1964) before moving into the Astrodome for 1965. Sold in 1971 to the owners of the Algodoneros del Unión Laguna, the structure was dismantled and shipped to Torreón, where it was reassembled and inaugurated on 9 March 1975.
In Torreón the rebuilt venue was nicknamed Estadio Mecano, or Millón de Tuercas (Million Screws), because its bolted sections resembled an Erector Set and could be taken apart and reassembled. It was inaugurated on 9 March 1975 with a game between the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna and the Cafeteros de Córdoba; the first official game followed on 14 March 1975 against the Indios de Ciudad Juárez.
The field was aligned northeast from home plate to center field, at about 50 feet (15 m) above sea level. The uncovered one-level grandstand ran foul pole to foul pole, with small bleacher stands in left and right field, so summer games meant heat, humidity and mosquitoes. The right-field corner later matched the northwest corner of NRG Center; home plate sat near a parking-lot light pole.
After closing in 1964, the entire stadium structure was dismantled and relocated to Mexico, where it served baseball teams in Torreon and Tampico. This relocation made it one of the rare baseball stadiums to receive a second life in a different country.
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