The Night the Astrodome Got Rained Out [Video]

The rains have arrived. Last week’s record-setting deluge brought floods, chaos, and an estimated $6 billion worth of damage to North Texas, and summer thunderstorms continue to crisscross the state this week. One business that managed to carry on without much interruption throughout last week’s tempest was the Metroplex’s MLB franchise, the Texas Rangers. The team’s games take place under the shelter of three-year-old Globe Life Field in Arlington, and rainouts are no longer a threat. 

Welcome to our world, say Houston Astros fans, whose team has played beneath the roof of Minute Maid Park since 2000 and spent the previous 35 seasons in the Harris County Domed Stadium—better known as the Astrodome.

But even the Eighth Wonder of the Worldwas no match for Mother Nature on a particularly dire Tuesday in 1976. On June 15 of that year, the Astrodome experienced its only baseball rainout—well, a rain-in, actually—caused by massive flooding that made reaching the stadium problematic …