16 APRIL 1965, Page 9

Indoor Games I'm sorry I shall not be going to

Houston. Murray Kempion tells us that the local baseball team is no longer playing its matches out of doors. This summer Astros will play all its home games in a stadium covered against the

elements by a Niche dome and air-conditioned to a constant, breezeless 70 degrees. The dedicated can pay 13,000 dollars a season for a viewing box with kitchen, living-room and bath. Already the new conditions have created one major problem. The sun filtering off the lucite girders of the dome created patterns so blinding that the fielders could not see the bait whenever it was hit into the air. The only solution was to paint over the dome and shut out the sun completely. At present the field is still turf, but maybe I shall get there next year when Houston's conquest of nature is finally complete : then the playing field will be of plastic grass laid upon a plastic carpet.