Pat House- 1967-1968 Astros

Pat House spent some time with the Houston Astros in the 60s. He took the time to send a great note about his playing days!

"It is always good to hear from baseball fans from all sections of our country."

"It was a good time to play in the pros. It was the love of the game and certainly not the money although we thought it was pretty good. There was a lot of competition getting to the next level."

The major league team that I keep track of the most is the Astros. I am still a good baseball fan but only get to see major league games on TV and an occasional trip to Seattle to see the Mariners which is 500 miles away and the closest major league team to Boise. I don't have a favorite minor league team although I do go to our local minor league team (Boise Hawks in the short season Class A Northwest League."

Pat says that he really doesn't have a favorite player, though he is very proud of three native Idahoans that did well in the majors- Vernon Law, Harmon Killebrew, and Larry Jackson.

I asked Pat about his playing time in one of my favorite sports towns, Indianapolis, and about playing anywhere else near Kentucky.

"My memory of Indianapolis is that of the ballpark and tornado warnings. I think the park had a brick wall outfield with ivy like Wrigley Field. I do remember that as a reliever in 1969 I lead the American Association in saves that year with the Indians."

"My closest area to Kentucky that I played ball in was probably old Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The freeway was very close to the left field fence. There was some pretty good history in that old park."

"I don't have many stand-out memories of the majors since my time there was limited. My debut in the majors was at Candlestick Park and my first hitter was Willie McCovey (he hit a weak grounder back to me). The other was a save I got by striking out Billy Williams of the Cubs in Wrigley Field for my first and only save."

After baseball, Pat went home to Idaho and owned an engineering firm for 37 years. His son owns it now. In 1967 he married a "Texas gal" he met in Austin in 1964. They are still married and have four sons!