Neil Armstrong's son, Rick, threw a strike in celebration of Apollo 11's 50th anniversary
50 years ago this past Saturday, famed astronaut Neil Armstrong took a giant leap for mankind with one simple step onto the moon's surface, one of the most important events in history.
For Monday's 11-1 win over the A's at Minute Maid Park, the Astros donned special commemorative caps to celebrate the milestone anniversary, and they looked pretty fresh:
The Astros also welcomed a very special guest to the ballpark in Rick Armstrong, son of Neil and a former ballboy for the Houston Oilers in his youth.
At the Houston @astros' #Apollo11 Night, where we joined Jeff Lovell (Jim's son) on the field to watch Rick Armstrong (Neil's son) throw out the ceremonial first pitch! #Apollo50th pic.twitter.com/eG64eOx3vB
— RobertPearlman (@RobertPearlman) July 23, 2019
Watch the clip atop this post to see Armstrong throw a perfect strike as his ceremonial first pitch. He also paid a visit to the booth in the bottom of the third inning as the Astros jumped all over A's starter Homer Bailey, plating seven runs in the frame.
But wait, there's more. With Armstrong in the booth, Houston ended the inning with 11 tallied thus far in the game. 11 runs in front of a special guest related to the Apollo 11 anniversary. They also nearly sent exactly 11 men to the plate that inning, too (as the final out was recorded by the 12th man to hit in the frame).
And there were more:
Let’s get crazy with stats:
— Cole Thompson (@MrColeThompson) July 23, 2019
The Houston #Astros tonight, on Apollo 11 Night
- Scored 11 runs
- Gerrit Cole had 11 strikeouts
- Yordan Alvarez hit is 11th home run
- They scored all 11 runs during an interview with Eric Armstrong, the son of Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon.
Here's hoping the space traveler Astros fans were on hand to watch all of this go down!