This Date in Baseball - Jackie Robinson becomes the 1st black player to sign a Major League contract

April 10

1913 — President Wilson threw out the first ball as the Senators edged the New York Yankees 2-1 in Washington’s home opener. Walter Johnson allowed an unearned run in the first inning. He did not yield another run for 56 consecutive innings.

1947 — Jackie Robinson became the first black player of the 20th century to sign a major league contract. Robinson agreed a one-year deal with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1959 — Chicago’s Nellie Fox, who went 5-for-7, hit a 14th-inning opening day home run off Don Mossi to beat Detroit, 9-7. The White Sox second baseman did not homer in 623 at-bats the previous season.

1962 — The Houston Colt .45s, in the first major league game played in Texas, beat the Chicago Cubs 11-2 before 25,000. Roman Mejias led Houston’s offense with two three-run homers.

1969 — Tommy Agee of the New York Mets hit a home run into the upper deck in Shea Stadium’s left field. It was the longest home run to reach the seats in the history of the stadium.

1971 — The Phillies opened their new $49.5 million Veterans Stadium by beating Montreal 4-1. Philadelphia’s Don Money hit the first home run.

1973 — The first game at Royals Stadium is played. John Mayberry hit a home run in Kansas City’s 12-1 rout of Texas. A crowd of 39,476 attended the game at the state-of-the-art ballpark, which features water fountains beyond the outfield fence.

1976 — Don Money had a ninth-inning grand slam taken away. Money’s slam gave the Milwaukee Brewers an apparent 10-9 win over the New York Yankees. The umpires, however, rule that New York first baseman Chris Chambliss had called time out before the pitch. Money returned to the plate and flied out to right and the Brewers suffered a 9-7 loss.

1981 — In his first game for the Chicago White Sox, Carlton Fisk belts a three-run home run.

1982 — Under icy conditions, the Cleveland Indians opened the season at Municipal Stadium with an 8-3 loss to the Texas Rangers before 62,443 fans. Five hundred tons of snow had to be removed from the field; the game-time temperature was 38 degrees, with a wind chill of 17.

1989 — Toronto’s Dave Stieb threw a one-hitter for an 8-0 win against the New York Yankees. It was the third one-hitter in Stieb’s last four starts. Stieb, who closed last year with consecutive one-hitters, struck out five, walked four, and gave up a solid single to Jamie Quirk with one out in the fifth inning.

1989 — Ken Griffey, Jr. hits his first major league home run at the Kingdome in Seattle’s 6-5 win over the White Sox. Griffey’s father, Ken Sr., is an outfielder with the Cincinnati Reds, making the two the first father-son duo to play in the major leagues at the same time.

1990 — Boston’s Wade Boggs tied a major league record for a nine-inning game by drawing three intentional walks.

1994 — Former NBA star Michael Jordan singles twice, collecting his first hits in his professional baseball career while playing for the Birmingham Barons of the Class-AA Southern League.

2000 — Cincinnati’s Ken Griffey Jr. became the youngest player to hit 400 career home runs when he connected in the Reds’ 7-5 loss to Colorado. At 30 years, 141 days, Griffey beat the previous mark set by Jimmie Foxx, who was 30 years, 248 days old.

2006 — David Ortiz agrees to a four-year contract extension with the Boston Red Sox.

2012 — The Miami Marlins announce that they are suspending manager Ozzie Guillen for five games for making remarks supportive of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

2013 — The Boston Red Sox’s record streak of sell-outs at Fenway Park ends after 820 games as the attendance for today’s game against the Orioles is 30,862

2015 — Mark Buehrle wins the 200th game of his career.

2016 — Rookie Trevor Story capped his amazing first week in the majors by hitting his seventh home run, helping the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 6-3. Story’s homer was one of five solo shots by the Rockies and has driven in 12 runs through six games.

2017 — Wil Myers hit a leadoff triple in the eighth inning to complete the first cycle of his career and send San Diego past Colorado 5-3.

2020 — With no baseball being played because of the coronavirus pandemic, MLB sets up a virtual league, with one player from each of the 30 teams playing a three-inning game on the video game platform MLB: The Show.

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