Houston played its first game in the Astrodome on April 9, 1965 in front of a capacity crowd of 47,879, including President Lyndon B. Johnson, Texas Governor John Connally, and 12-year-old Pam Soper. 

Modern American ballparks are surrounded by all the trappings of the fan experience: loud music, fried foods and cold beers, T-shirt guns, mascots dancing while the crowd sings about Cracker Jacks—and even, if occasionally, whatever's happening on the field. But 1965 was a different time. 

Imagine being at a game where a riled crowd couldn't even clap to a beat in unison. It sounded like madness to a then 12-year-old Pam Soper, who was lucky enough to be in the building for the first-ever game at Houston's Astrodome. 

The date, April 9th, 1965, was a huge event for the city and for the country, as it marked the first time a domed stadium would open in the U.S. In attendance were President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, sitting alongside Texas Governor John Connally. Pam, her siblings, and her parents were high in the stands as well, waiting to watch the Astros square off against Mickey Mantle and the Yankees in an exhibition. The only thing missing to her was some way to help fans bang their hands to a beat. That’s when young Pam got an idea.

President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, watch the world's first indoor baseball game at the Astrodome in 1965. 

That night, at home after the game, Pam told her father about her frustration: How do you get a capacity crowd of 47,879 people to clap in sync with one another? "He encouraged me to write a letter to the Astrodome," the Astros die-hard, now in her sixties, says from her home in Spring Valley Village. Taking her father's advice, Pam scribbled out a note with her suggestion that the team should put animated hands on the scoreboard to help the fans clap together and mailed it to the Astros. 

Pam, perhaps unsurprisingly, didn't hear back from the team. But she's sure they got the message. "I was excited when I returned to the Dome and the clapping hands appeared," she said. It seemed to this beaming 12-year-old that someone on the Astros staff had listened, and she'd end up telling this story to her children years later. I personally heard about this event many, many times, because Pam Soper is my mother. 

Pam (left) as a kid with her mother and siblings at their Houston home. 

Pam, now Pam Schwab, recently received boxes of papers and letters from her mother. As she was going through them, 57 years after attending the games that night, she found a letter from the Houston Astros thanking her for suggesting the clapping hands graphic.

The letter is signed by then Astros Publicity Director Bill Giles, who went on to be an owner of the Philadelphia Phillies and is now the Honorary President of the National League—the NL Trophy is still named after his father, Warren C. Giles. 

Bill Giles was the type who wanted to enhance the fan experience—he actually had a hand in creating the Phillie Phanatic in 1978—so I could imagine this letter coming across his desk was significant to him. His letter to my mother reads “Many thanks for your nice suggestion concerning the clapping hands on our scoreboard. I think it is a good idea and we will try to put it to effect.”

Pam thought she'd never heard back from the Astros. But 57 years later, her mother unearthed this letter from former team publicity director Bill Giles thanking her for the suggestion to add animated clapping hands to the Astrodome scoreboard. 

What the Astros eventually crafted was a light system that would sync up with a team employee behind the board. "The employee would clap his hands in front of a light projector and the image would sync up to the bulbs on the screen and it looked like an animation,” explains Mike Acosta, an Astros historian. "The clapping hands were a big deal, and part of the personality of the scoreboard.”

You can spot the clapping hands during the climax of "The Bad New Bears in Breaking Training" as the crowd chants "Let them play" to a persistent beat. Nowadays, you can spot the electric clapping cue in just about every major ballpark across the country today. However, just as the first domed stadium was here in Houston, so too was the first clapping hands animation. 

Finding this letter from the Astros gave my mother another reason to love the team she’s rooted for her whole life. “It pleases me to see that the concern of a 12-year-old was actually heard and taken into consideration," she says. "It just shows that you are never too young to make a difference.”

Buried in a box with random papers for 57 years was a life lesson for all: never doubt the ideas from those you least expect. Please, clap.