Porter part of World Series
As the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros battled in the World Series, the little town of Porter was quietly being recognized during Sunday night’s Game 5.
The famous two-car 1890s replica train that runs back and forth along 800 feet of track 90 feet above the outfield fence at Minute Maid Park in Houston was built by SM & I Hydraulics in Porter several years ago.
The girders that make up the park’s transporter system for its retractable roof were also made by SM & I Hydraulics in Porter.
The conductor of the train, Bobby Vasquez, 37, was interviewed and featured in a story last April in the Mascot. “I knew the train came from Minnesota,” Vasquez said in April.
“But I was surprised to find out it came from such a small town.”
When the 2017 Fall Classic moved to Houston after the first two games were played at Dodger Stadium, Vasquez was asked if it would be possible to send a message to the people back in the small town or Porter, 10 miles west of Minneota along Highway 68. On Sunday night, Vasquez stepped off the train in the fourth inning and took a “selfie”, using the train as his backdrop, while he held a homemade paper sign that read: “Hi Porter, MN. Go Astros!”
“We literally have had 1,000 requests (for stories and photos) for the train in the last few days,” Vasquez said. Vasquez, who dons bib overalls and an orange Astros T-shirt as the train conductor, has been a busy boy during the playoffs this season.
He normally blows the steam whistle and rings the engine’s bell prior to the start of the game, when the Astros hit a home run, or after the game if the Astros win.
“In the playoffs, I’ve been blowing it a lot more than usual,” said Vasquez. “I’ve also been blowing it for good catches and good hits, too. During the ALCS, the Yankees complained that I was being too aggressive with the whistle.”
But that certainly hasn’t slowed Vasquez’s desire to continue making noise to get the fans involved in the World Series.
In order to maintain a sense of scale, the engine and tender car that carries oversized fake oranges to represent the Minute Maid Company that owns the ballpark, is 25 percent larger than a train of that era would actually be.
The engine is 35 feet long and 14 1/2 feet high.
The wheels are six feet in diameter. The tender car is 20 feet long. Steam that is emitted from the smokestack is actually produced by steam machines that are environmentally safe.
The train once motored along the tracks at around 10 miles per hour, but age has crept up on the 17-year-old train that now moves along at three miles per hour.
Vasquez is known as “Bobby Dynamite” at the ballpark for the way he used to mimic the popular dance from the “Napoleon Dynamite” film whenever the Astros hit a home run.
You wouldn’t think someone afraid of heights would have a job that is required to be so high atop the playing surface, but Vasquez has been doing this job for all 17 years the team has been housed in Minute Maid Park.
“I am deathly afraid of heights,” he admitted. “I’m 90 feet above the ground, which is about 89 feet more than I am comfortable with. But I wouldn’t trade this for the world; especially this year.”
After Houston’s dramatic 13-12 walk-off victory Sunday night that gave the Astros a 3-2 lead in the Series, Vasquez drove the train for the last time this season.
“Now I have to watch the rest of the World Series from a regular seat,” he said.
And despite all the bells, whistles and screams from the boisterous Minute Maid Park crowd Sunday night, Vasquez took a moment to show his appreciation to the City of Porter, the home to the company that built the “office” he works in.
The Dodgers’ win on Tuesday night tied the series with a final Game 7 that was to be played on Wednesday night in Los Angeles.