Largest Crowd in NCAA baseball history is 40,106. It was for the inaugural game played in the San Diego Padres new stadium (Petco Park) on March 11, 2004. The game was between the San Diego State Aztecs and the Houston Cougars. As we know, John Moores has been a MAJOR donor to UH and UH Athletics. He also, at the time, owned the San Diego Padres. One of the all time great MLB players of that generation was Tony Gwynn, a former Padre, who was the San Diego State head coach and former player and alumni. Mr. Moores also was a huge donor to San Diego State Baseball. Mr. Moores wanted the first game in the new stadium to be between the Aztecs and the Coogs. Alas, the Cougars were shut out 4-0.
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The Coogs played at least two exhibition games vs Moores Padres.
4/4/96, the Padres won a seven-inning game at Cougar field, 7-4.
On the way back from a three-game sweep of USC, the Coogs beat the Padres at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, AZ, 3/13/00, by a score of 10-7. The next day they beat the University of Arizona there, 10-4.
Padres MLB & AAA pitchers suited up for UH and did all the pitching in both of those exhibition games.
The first UHBB game I ever saw was an exhibition game vs the Astros in The Dome in 1983.
The Astros batted in the bottom of the 9th and tacked on about 4 more runs.
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Electric environment. Mr. Gwynn gave out gifts and spoke to the players before the game. The entire city came out that night. I think Brett Cooley pitched that game Many of us traveled for that series.
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What Coog baseball player was the little brother of an all-time great NFL QB?
Harry Montana-Farve-Unitus?
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Joe Pat Simms
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Interesting trivia I came across on Wikipedia involving two Cougars:
Jeff Banister began the 1991 season with Buffalo. The Pirates promoted Banister from the minor leagues on July 23, 1991, when catcher Don Slaught was injured and placed on the disabled list. Manager Jim Leyland used Banister as a pinch hitter for pitcher Doug Drabek in the eighth inning of that day’s game against the Atlanta Braves at Three Rivers Stadium. Using Cecil Espy’s bat, Banister hit a ball from Dan Petry and just beat shortstop Jeff Blauser’s throw to first base. Banister is one of only 15 batters (excluding pitchers) in baseball history to record a hit in his only major league plate appearance.
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Not super familiar with exhibition baseball, is that/was that common?
Not common. The three games I mentioned are the only times UH has played MLB teams as far as I know.
Coogs played the Astros in the dome at least once, because I was there. I don’t remember what year it was, but I believe it was in the late 70s or early 80s.
If I remember correctly, Woody Williams pitched for UH and also hit a homer for the good guys in that game.
UH Trivia - What Houston Cougar has the longest no hitter in the old SWC history? Wade Williams - 1992 - 11 innings @ Rice. What a feat!
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He took the no-hitter into the 11th but lost it and UH lost the game 1-0 in 13 innings. (3/7/92, game 2)
I was sitting next to his dad who was a really intense guy. His mom had to come down a few times to calm his dad down when he got too stressed out. It was a really stressful game for his dad.
That’s correct. Longest no hitter and LOST.
'78 … I pitched 8 innings. We also played the Rangers in the Dome that year.
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