1963 Houston Colt .45s season

The 1963 Houston Colt.45s season was the second season for the Major League Baseball franchise located in Houston, Texas, a member of the National League based at Colt Stadium, The Colt.45s entered the season having finished their inaugural season with a 64–96–2 record, qualifying for eighth place and games behind the NL [List of National League (baseball)|National League List of National League pennant winners|pennant winners|pennant]-winning San Francisco Giants.
On April 9, pitcher Turk Farrell made his only Opening Day start for the Colt.45s, who hosted the San Francisco Giants but were defeated, 9–2. Colt.45s starting pitchers established a franchise record by registering five contests with a game score of 90 or higher. One such outing was by Don Nottebart, who pitched the first no-hitter in franchise history on May 17, by which Houston defeated the [1963 1963 Philadelphia Phillies season|Philadelphia Phillies season|Philadelphia Phillies] by a score of 4–1. This no-hitter was also just the second in major league history to have been thrown by an individual pitcher which did not result in a shutout.
Pitcher Hal Woodeshick was selected to represent the Colt.45s at the MLB All-Star Game, his lone career selection.
The Colt.45s finished with a record of 66–96, in ninth place and 33 games behind the NL pennant and World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.
First baseman Rusty Staub was selected to the Topps All-Star Rookie Team, the first Colt 45s rookie so named.

Offseason

November 1, 1962: Joe Morgan was signed as an amateur free agent by the Colt.45s.
November 26, 1962: Conrad Cardinal was drafted by the Colt.45s from the Detroit Tigres in the 1962 first-year draft.
November 26, 1962: Ellis Burton was drafted by the Colt.45s from the Milwaukee Braves in the 1962 rule 5 draft.
November 26, 1962: Don Taussig was drafted from the Colt.45s by the Milwaukee Braves in the 1962 minor league draft.
November 30, 1962: Joey Amalfitano was traded by the Colt.45s to the San Francisco Giants for Manny Mota and Dick LeMay.
November 30, 1962: Norm Larker was traded by the Colt.45s to the Milwaukee Braves for Jim Bolger, Don Nottebart, and Connie Grob.
March 28, 1963: Hal Haydel, Dick LeMay and Merritt Ranew were traded by the Colt.45s to the Chicago Cubs for Dave Gerard and Danny Murphy.

Regular season

Summary

Broadcaster Harry Kalas made his major league debut in 1963 with Houston, replacing Al Helferrceived and working alongside Gene Elston and Loel Passe.

April

The Colt.45s hosted the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day, with right-hander Turk Farrell, Houston's most accomplished pitcher during their inaugural season, made the start. However, the Giants' bats were well-tuned, scoring four times of Farrell in the second as Orlando Cepeda and Willie Mays both took him deep. The Giants swatted 17 hits. Farrell surrendered five runs over three innings, taking the loss as San Francisco claimed the opener, 9–2. Later, Willie McCovey and Felipe Alou each "touched 'em all" off George Brunet. Al Spangler led the Colts hitters with three hits and a scored.

Bob Bruce's one-hitter

On April 26, right-hander Bob Bruce one-hit the Cincinnati Reds. Bob Lillis and Al Spangler delivered one run batted in each to pace Houston's offense for a 2–0 victory. Both starters lasted to earn the complete game, with Bruce edging Jim Maloney for a game score of 90.
In the bottom of the first, Spangler singled in Pete Runnels for the first tally of the contest. In the bottom of the seventh, Lillis singled in Rusty Staub for the Colts' second run. Bruce issued a base on balls to the Reds' Marty Keough leading off the ninth. With two out, Don Blasingame coaxed another walk to place runners on first and second for the Reds' biggest scoring threat of the contest. However, Bruce got Vada Pinson to ground into an unassisted out to first for the final out of the contest and seal the Colts' victory.
This was the first shutout in club history that resulted in one hit or fewer, the fourth with a game score of 90 or above, and first complete game in franchise history pitched in nine innings or fewer that resulted in a game score of 90 or above.

Don Nottebart's no-hitter

On May 17, Don Nottebart pitched the first no-hitter for an expansion team when Houston defeated Philadelphia by a score of 4–1. In his masterpiece, Nottebart surrendered three walks and struck out eight.
Twenty-year old catcher John Bateman was Nottebart's batterymate. The historic contrest transpired at Colt Stadium before 8,223 fans.
Right fielder Carl Warwick, with a 4-for-4 day at the plate, finished just a double away from hitting for the cycle. During the bottom of the first, Warwick took Jack Hamilton deep for his second home run of the season. In the bottom of the fourth, Warwick scorched a ground ball single to right field off Hamilton. Warwick singled again in the sixth prior to being erased on a Pete Runnels groundball force out. His final hit of the day was a triple to center field against Ryne Duren.
The lead set by Warwick's home run maintained at 1–0 until the top of the fifth inning, when Don Demeter smoked a ground ball through the legs of J. C. Hartman, who was charged with an error. Demeter jetted to second, whom Clay Dalrymple sacrificed to third. Don Hoak then looped a short fly to Howie Goss just behind second base. Demeter then raced home, as Goss' throw to Bateman was off-target, allowing Demeter to score Philadelphia's only run easily and eliminate the shutout bid.
In the bottom of the sixth, Goss atoned for the uncompetitive throw with a three-run drive deep to left that put the Colts in the lead for good, 4–1.
Nottebart maintained the no-hitter and got the complete game with the only blemish being the unearned run in the fifth. In addition, the effort earned a game score of 90. Remarkably, this was the second no-hitter in the major leagues to have been thrown by an individual pitcher which was also not a shutout, following Bob Feller's gem on July 1, 1951, when he led the Cleveland Indians to a 2–1 triumph over the Detroit Tigers.
Nottebart's outing was the fifth on the season that featured a game score of 90 or higher by a Colts starting pitcher, which set a franchise record—in just the 37th contest of the season.
Houston's subsequent no-hitter was fabricated by Nottebart's rotation-mate, Ken Johnson, less than one year later on April, 23, 1964. Also remarkable was that Johnson's no-hitter paralleled Nottebart's in that it was also achieved without a shutout effort.

June

In the 17th inning on June 2, Astros catcher Jim Campbell delivered the game-winning single for a 3–1 score versus the Milwaukee Braves.
As "revenge" for being exposed in the expansion draft, on June 3, Colts pitcher Turk Farrell took a no-hitter into the seventh inning versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, in tossing a 2–1 masterpiece. Houston's Rusty Staub hit his first career home run.
The first Sunday night game in National League history took place on June 9 at Colt Stadium. The Colt.45s hosted the San Francisco Giants and won, 3–0, to sweep the series. The night games were played as a result of the suffocating heat during day games in the 1962 season.
A little leaguer, recovering in Houston from a lightning strike, received a promise on June 11 from Colt.45s infielder Bob Aspromonte that he would hit a home run. Aspromonte connected for a grand slam in the 10th inning to lead a 6–2 win over the Chicago Cubs. The walk-off grand slam was the first career grand slam for Aspromeonte and first of multiple he would swat against the Cubs. Further, Aspromonte replicated the grand slam event exactly one year later in 1964 a seminal moment during the fifth inning which provided the margin for a 5–3 triumph over the Cincinnati Reds.

July

Twenty-one year old Jimmy Wynn made his MLB debut on July 10, as the starting shortstop, and was 1-for-4 with a stolen base versus the Pittsburgh Pirates> Wynn got his first hit off Pirates starter Bob Friend leading off the top of the ninth inning, and pilfered second for his first major league steal with Bob Lillis batting.
Wynn slugged his first major league home run on July 14, [1963 1963 New York Mets season|New York Mets season|New York Mets], in the top of the fifth at Shea Stadium, from a Don Rowe offering.
On July 15, Ken Johnson surrendered the first and only grand slam by a Houston Colt.45s/Astros hurler to his counterpart, Carl Willey of the New York Mets. The Mets drubbed the Astros, 15–4. Jimmy Wynn stroked his first career double. However, two weeks later on July 26, Aspromonte himself revisited the favor upon the Mets.
On July 26, Bob Aspromonte's grand slam invoked extra import for the visually impaired Bill Bradley, while spearheading a 7–3 defeat of the New York Mets. Bradley, whose sight was restored after three operations over two years, watched the promised blast from his hero, who pointed to him while rounding the bases. Aspromonte's drive accentuated a seven-run opening frame, more than enough required support for ace Turk Farrell to earn the victory.

September

On September 21, just two days after his 20th birthday, Joe Morgan made his major league debut, going hitless in one at bat versus the Philadelphia Phillies. The following day, Morgan achieved his first major league hit, a single in the ninth inning that scored Jimmy Wynn for the walk-off hit and 2–1 triumph over Philadelphia.
In the antepenultimate contest of the season, on September 27, manager Harry Craft devised a strategy to help reverse waning attendance by deploying an all-rookie starting lineup. Per known sources, an all-rookie lineup was unprecedented in major league history. Having entered the series with a four-game winning streak, were they to sweep their expansion brethren, the New York Mets, for the final three-game set, a seven-game winning streak would surpass the longest of the year at six consecutive. However, the Mets routed the Colts, 10–3.

Performance overview

Highlighted by Don Nottebart's no-hitter—the first in franchise history—this Colt.45s pitching staff set a club all-time record by tossing five games with a game score of 90 or higher. The five game scores of 90 were, at the time, the most ever since the start of the live-ball era in 1921. The all-time lead of seven—counting dead-ball era play—was accomplished by the 1904 Philadelphia Athletics and 1910 Chicago White Sox. Four other pre-1921 clubs had tied for second by tallying five such games. In 1968, the Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals each set the post-1921 record with 7 such contests.

Notable transactions

April 2, 1963: Ellis Burton was purchased from the Colt.45s by the Cleveland Indians.
April 4, 1963: Manny Mota was traded by the Colt.45s to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Howie Goss and cash.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases
Positional abbreviations: C = Catcher; 1B = First base; 2B = Second base; 3B = Third base; SS = Shortstop; LF = Left field; CF = Center field; RF = Right field

Pos	Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
C		128	404	23	85	8	6	.210	10	59	0
1B		150	513	43	115	17	4	.224	6	45	0
2B		102	228	31	42	10	3	.184	2	5	4
3B		136	468	42	100	9	5	.214	8	49	3
SS		147	469	31	93	13	1	.198	1	19	3
LF		120	430	52	121	25	4	.281	4	27	5
CF		133	411	37	86	18	2	.209	9	44	4
RF		150	528	49	134	19	5	.209	7	47	3

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; R = Runs scored; H = Hits; 2B = Doubles; 3B = Triples; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in; SB = Stolen bases

Player	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB
Pete Runnels	124	388	35	98	9	1	.253	2	23	2
Johnny Temple	100	322	22	85	12	1	.264	1	17	7
	70	250	31	61	10	5	.244	4	27	4
	55	158	9	35	3	0	.222	4	19	0
	39	90	2	11	1	0	.122	0	3	1
Johnny Weekly	34	80	4	18	3	0	.225	3	14	0
Hal Smith	31	58	1	14	2	0	.241	0	2	0
	34	55	7	11	2	0	.200	1	2	0
Carroll Hardy	15	44	5	10	3	0	.227	0	3	1
Glenn Vaughan	9	30	1	5	0	0	.167	0	0	1
	8	25	5	6	0	1	.240	0	3	1
Dave Adlesh	6	8	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0
	3	7	0	2	0	0	.286	0	0	0
Jerry Grote	3	5	0	1	0	0	.200	0	1	0
Ivan Murrell	2	5	1	1	0	0	.200	0	0	0
Aaron Pointer	2	5	0	1	0	0	.200	0	0	0
John Paciorek	1	3	4	3	0	0	1.000	0	3	0
Sonny Jackson	1	3	0	0	0	0	.000	0	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	G	GS	IP	W	L	ERA	R	ER	BB	K
	37	32	224.0	11	17	2.65	86	66	50	148
	34	26	202.1	14	13	3.02	76	68	35	141
	31	27	193.0	11	8	3.17	80	68	39	118
	30	25	170.1	5	9	3.59	73	68	60	123
	26	20	141.1	5	11	3.31	54	52	60	68
Larry Yellen	1	1	5.0	0	0	3.60	4	2	1	3
	1	1	2.2	0	1	16.88	7	5	0	0

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; GS = Games started; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	R	ER	BB	K
	27	14	97.2	2	12	0	4.98	61	54	49	58
Chris Zachary	22	7	57.0	2	2	0	4.89	38	31	22	42
	6	1	13.1	0	1	0	6.08	14	9	7	7
	5	2	12.2	0	3	0	7.11	11	10	6	11
Jim Golden	3	1	6.1	0	1	0	5.68	4	4	2	5

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; R = Runs allowed; ER = Earned runs allowed; BB = Walks allowed; K = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	R	ER	BB	K
	55	114.0	11	9	10	1.97	29	25	42	94
Don McMahon	49	80.0	1	5	5	4.05	38	36	26	51
Jim Umbricht	35	76.0	4	3	0	2.61	23	22	21	48
Russ Kemmerer	17	36.2	0	0	1	5.65	28	23	8	12
	13	14.2	0	1	2	6.14	13	10	2	6
Joe Hoerner	1	3.0	0	0	0	0.00	0	0	0	2
	1	0.1	0	0	0	27.00	1	1	0	0

Awards and honors

Awards

Houston Colt.45s Most Valuable Player : Hal Woodeshick
MLB All-Star—reserve pitcher: Hal Woodeshick
Topps All-Star Rookie Team—First baseman: Rusty Staub

Minor league system

;Championships

Pacific Coast League champions: Oklahoma City