Most days, if I have nothing on the schedule, I’ll eat lunch with my wife and then I’ll either go to my office to work or I’ll go to the living room and sit and sometimes doze off. Well, the other day I certainly regretted dozing.

I’m a very big Houston Astros fan and I obviously knew they had a three-game series in Arlington a while back. Houston lost the first game, came back late and won the second game and I was looking forward on a Wednesday evening to watching the Astros and the Rangers play again. I got up from my snooze and turned on my computer and went to the Astros web site to see what time the game started. It had already been played! It was an early afternoon game and I didn’t know it. Normally I’d just be a little upset. But, I’m beyond upset on this one.

You see, my Astros set an all-time Major League record in the ballgame and I didn’t get to see it! Luis Garcia started the ballgame for Houston and in the second inning he threw nine pitches, had nine strikes, and three outs. It doesn’t happen often in the majors. It is called an “Immaculate Inning” and I missed it! And that’s not the worst of it. In the seventh inning a reliever named Phil Maton comes on in relief, throws nine pitches, three outs – inning over – it had happened again! \It was the first time it had ever happened in the same game in Major League history.

But, it gets even crazier. The three batters that Garcia struck out in the second were the same three batters Maton struck out in the seventh. It was absolutely a crazy day! A record breaking day! An unreal day! A history making day! But, I slept through it and I’m hacked off.

I’m almost as hacked off as I was many, many years ago – back in the 60’s. I had gone down to Houston to watch the Astros play. I watched them play on Saturday night and they had an afternoon game the next day. But, the temptation of the beach lured a bunch of us Saturday night after the ballgame. We didn’t wake up very early the next morning. I had planned to go back to the ballpark but no one else wanted to go.

A guy named of Don Wilson, a real good right handed pitcher for the Astros back then, was scheduled to pitch that day. All he did was throw a no-hitter. I didn’t get to see it. I was on the beach listening to a radio. I got sicker every pitch of that ballgame.

Maybe it’s happened to you where you had tickets to an event or you had plans to go to an event and it turned out you missed something huge. It reminds me of the time that I had taken my son to Dallas to see a concert – Bon Jovi. You can imagine how excited I was.

Friday night before the concert we went to a Ranger game. I was praying Nolan Ryan would pitch but he didn’t. It was a lousy game. The next evening, Nolan Ryan did pitch and while I was being forced to watch Bon Jovi in concert, he threw another no hitter! That’s the end of my story. I’m sick of talking about it!

Until next time, so long everybody.

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‘Out of the Box’ with Dallas Huston is published each Monday morning at BrownwoodNews.com. Dallas was the radio voice of the Brownwood Lions and Howard Payne Yellow Jackets for more than 55 years. He currently is Pastor of Center City Baptist Church and hosts a Men’s Bible Study in Brownwood on Monday evenings. Your comments are welcome at [email protected].