Astrodome

Opponent--Houston Astros, three games. * Site--Astrodome. * Tonight--5. * TV--Channel 5 today, Saturday and Sunday. * Radio--KABC (790), KWKW (1330). * Records--Dodgers 81-65, Astros 73-72. * Record vs. Astros--3-5. DODGERS' CHAN HO PARK (13-6, 3.31 ERA) vs. ASTROS' SHANE REYNOLDS (6-10, 4.42 ERA) * Update--This is the start of a seven-game trip that includes two in St. Louis and a two-game showdown in San Francisco next Wednesday and Thursday.

Ramona Watson knew ahead of time that her family had to leave the Astrodome, where they had taken refuge two weeks earlier, but that didn't make it any easier to pack up their meager belongings, collect her children and mother and head off Thursday to yet another shelter. Along with the remaining 3,600 New Orleans evacuees at the Astrodome and Reliant Center, the family walked several hundred yards to the Reliant Arena, a concrete-floor venue for rodeos and livestock shows.

The words were spoken more in anger than prophecy, but Karen Matuszek had heard in advance from her irritated husband what would transpire at Dodger Stadium Wednesday. Fair warning, however, was not given to the Houston Astros. Len Matuszek waited until the game to put the drop on the Astros with the first two-homer game of his career, punctuating the Dodgers' 7-4 win before a crowd of 40,709.

The Rev. Ronald S. Smith Sr., pastor of the New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, had a lot to smile about Wednesday: Through his efforts, a mother and son made homeless by Hurricane Katrina and separated ever since were reunited and no longer homeless. Mother and son became separated in the panicky evacuation of the Superdome in New Orleans and had been searching for each other without success for two weeks. Carl Coleman, 14, had been living in a downtown Houston shelter.

Talbot Wilson, who went into the outfield of the new Houston Astrodome to shag fly balls after players complained that the light was so poor they couldn't see the baseball, died Saturday of unannounced causes. Wilson, 74, was a chief designer of the Astrodome. When the indoor arena opened in 1965 and baseball players complained that the skylights diffused the sunlight so much they couldn't see fly balls, Wilson checked out the complaints himself before ordering alterations.

Mark McGwire went one for four with a single Friday night, remaining at 62 home runs in the St. Louis Cardinals' 8-2 loss to the Houston Astros before 52,186 at the Astrodome, the second-largest crowd in the stadium's history. McGwire, who has five homers against the Astros this year, is homerless in nine at-bats since hitting the record-breaking No. 62 off Chicago's Steve Trachsel Tuesday in St. Louis.

Sidney Shlenker, the flamboyant entrepreneur who once owned the Denver Nuggets and was chief executive of the Houston Astrodome's parent company, has died. He was 66. Shlenker, who suffered a spinal-cord injury in a 1998 highway accident that left him a paraplegic, died of heart failure Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Before his accident, he had created an eclectic corporate profile over four decades.

They could have used shovels for the groundbreaking, but this called for Texas flair. The guests fired Colt .45 pistols into a vacant lot, marking the start of Harris County Domed Stadium, otherwise known as the Astrodome. The man behind the project, Judge Roy Hofheinz, modestly suggested the stadium be dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World. That was 34 years and several facelifts ago. Now the Astrodome is losing its oldest tenant.

Federal regulators have authorized an unusual radio station to serve the estimated 10,000 evacuees living in the Houston Astrodome, part of an effort to fill the information void left by Hurricane Katrina's disruption of communications services along the Gulf Coast. The Federal Communications Commission over the weekend granted Houston relief volunteers and media organizers permission to build a 30-watt radio station inside the Astrodome.

If the Houston Astrodome was the brainchild of flamboyant Judge Roy Hofheinz, the 40,000-light scoreboard that spanned nearly 500 feet of the stadium's back wall could be seen as the twinkle in his eye. The judge is long gone -- banished from the dome by financial problems and felled by illnesses that eventually cost him his life. And now the famed scoreboard -- with its snorting bull, lighted flags and blazing cowboy pistols -- soon will be just a memory.

The first call for help was made at 3 a.m. Aug. 31 to Robert Eckels, chief executive of Harris County. On the line was a familiar voice: Jack Colley, head of the Texas office of the Department of Homeland Security. Colley gave Eckels disturbing news: Hurricane Katrina was still assaulting Louisiana and Mississippi and tens of thousands of evacuees were stranded in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. The governor of Louisiana was pleading with Texas Gov. Rick Perry for help.

Federal regulators have authorized an unusual radio station to serve the estimated 10,000 evacuees living in the Houston Astrodome, part of an effort to fill the information void left by Hurricane Katrina's disruption of communications services along the Gulf Coast. The Federal Communications Commission over the weekend granted Houston relief volunteers and media organizers permission to build a 30-watt radio station inside the Astrodome.

Roderick Tureaud, 33, a pipe welder by trade and the father of twin girls, spent his morning Monday in a tent outside the Astrodome filling out job applications and calling prospective employers. It was Labor Day, traditionally a time to celebrate the value of work. Tureaud and his wife, Rhodesia, 31, hope for a more personal celebration -- by finding a job for him and a school for her to continue nursing studies. There is also the problem of finding child care for Robin and Raven, both 3.

To Babe Williams, one of an estimated 45,000 people who have fled here to escape the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, the dowdy Astrodome is living up to the hype it received 40 years ago when it opened as one of the wonders of the world. "To me, this is God's house, this is where he sent me to escape that devil Katrina," said Williams, 65, who arrived after midnight Thursday with her husband, Leonard, 72, a diabetic.

It took the Astrodome, an air-conditioned refuge from the brutal Texas heat, to create the need for AstroTurf, an artificial grass that could survive an artificial environment. But 37 years after its professional sports debut, the ersatz turf has reached its end. Southwest Recreational Industries Inc., the Texas company that made AstroTurf, last week filed for bankruptcy to go out of business -- citing over-expansion and a shrinking market for nylon lawns.

Where have you gone, Evel Knievel? When the Houston Astrodome's climate-controlling doors opened on April 9, 1965, and 42,876 wide-eyed spectators watched Mickey Mantle crush a home run in an otherwise meaningless exhibition baseball game, the stadium was dubbed the "Eighth Wonder of the World."

Rookie Alonzo Highsmith says his presence may be the reason the Houston Oilers are playoff bound. Highsmith scored his first two pro touchdowns and the Oilers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 21-17, Sunday. "Wherever I go, the team seems to go well," the former University of Miami (Fla.) star said. "It's like I'm a good luck charm. "My frustration was over when I finally scored and the team's frustration ended by going into the playoffs."

Early in the 1971 baseball season, pitcher Jerry Reuss, a 21-year-old left-hander with the St. Louis Cardinals, faced the Houston Astros in the Astrodome, his first start in the stadium. Recalling the game, Reuss told USA Today: "I couldn't even get out of the first inning. I loaded the bases, then gave up a grand slam." The player who hit the grand slam won a new car, as part of an Astro promotion. The following year, Reuss was traded to Houston.

Sidney Shlenker, the flamboyant entrepreneur who once owned the Denver Nuggets and was chief executive of the Houston Astrodome's parent company, has died. He was 66. Shlenker, who suffered a spinal-cord injury in a 1998 highway accident that left him a paraplegic, died of heart failure Wednesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Before his accident, he had created an eclectic corporate profile over four decades.

They could have used shovels for the groundbreaking, but this called for Texas flair. The guests fired Colt .45 pistols into a vacant lot, marking the start of Harris County Domed Stadium, otherwise known as the Astrodome. The man behind the project, Judge Roy Hofheinz, modestly suggested the stadium be dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World. That was 34 years and several facelifts ago. Now the Astrodome is losing its oldest tenant.