Astros fan has history with umpire calls

By Michael Brooks

Sports Writer

    Even as the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers play in the World Series, many Astros fans are still livid about an apparent home run that was taken away from the Astros in game four of the ALCS because of fan interference.     If the ball had been credited as a home run, Houston would have tied the game at two in the bottom of the first. The Red Sox went on to win game four 8-6 and to win the series four games to one.

    The Astros entered Major League Baseball in 1962 as the Houston Colt .45s. In 1965, they moved into the Astrodome and changed their name to the Houston Astros.

    Controversial calls have been a routine occurrence in baseball for as long as baseball has been played. Instant replay was supposed to help make calls more accurate, but that is not always the case.

    In the Astros inaugural season in the Astrodome, a Jackson County resident was involved in a fan interference home run call. It wasn’t on the big stage of the playoffs. It was during a regular season game of an Astros team that would go on to lose 96 games.

    But much like the Astros and Red Sox playoff game last week, J.T. “Cisco” Marek says the umpires got that call wrong, too.

*For the full article buy a Jackson County Herald Tribune newspaper or purchase an online subscription