Colts lose with nine rookies’ lineup

On September 27, 1963 — Using a lineup of nine rookies the Colt .45s lose, 10 – 3, to the Mets. The lineup includes P Jay Dahl, 17 (making his debut); C Jerry Grote, 20; 1B Rusty Staub, 19; 2B Joe Morgan, 20; 3B Glenn Vaughan, 19; SS Sonny Jackson, 19 (also making his debut); and outfielders Brock Davis, 19, Aaron Pointer, 21, and Jim Wynn, 21. Dahl loses his only major league game at 17 and will die in an auto accident at 19. Houston 2B Joe Morgan will play 22 years, and 1B Rusty Staub, 23.

Pointer singles for his only hit this year: his sisters will do better with a top-10 hit of “Fire,” by Bruce Springsteen. Joe Hoerner and Danny Coombs follow Dahl to the mound in their major league debuts. 20-year-old P Larry Yellen debuted the day before and 18-year-old OF Ivan Murrell will make his debut the following  day.

Their lineup’s average age was 19, and it was MLB’s youngest-ever starting lineup. In all, 15 rookies played before they finally added veteran Carl Warwick in the 8th inning. Joe Morgan’s ninth-inning triple was Houston’s lone extra-base hit, and the only other Colt scoring was on a pair of singles by Rusty Staub. The last-place Mets ended up beating Houston 10-3.

Aaron Pointer was the brother of the Pointer sisters! He only played 38 more games in the majors, but later he became an NFL head linesman!

Glenn Vaughan was the nephew of Hall of Fame shortstop Arky Vaughan! He never returned to the majors.

Starting pitcher Jay Dahl was 17 years old, and this turned out to be the only MLB game he ever played in, becoming the youngest pitcher to start a game in the majors since Joe Nuxhall in wartime for the Redlegs in 1945, at age 16. Afterwards, Jay Dahl returned to the minors, but was tragically killed in a 1965 car accident in North Carolina at the age of 19. Such a sad ending for such a promising young guy.

In ‘65, the .45s became the Astros, the first team named after a stadium, but looking at the pictured .45’s jerseys which featured a huge gun emblazoned across them, the name-change was probably a good idea.

Even though the rookie lineup lost the game, according to Houston Post writer Mickey Herskovitz, “Ol’ Casey Stengel didn’t exactly play fair. He started his best pitcher, [Al] Jackson, who is even tough on adults.”

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