On This Day in Sports: April 10, 1962
On April 10, 1962, major-league baseball arrived in Houston when the expansion Colt .45s defeated the Chicago Cubs, 11-2, at Colt Stadium. The temporary outdoor park stood beside the site where the Astrodome would soon rise. A crowd of 25,271 watched the new National League club turn its first official game into an emphatic introduction.
Bob Aspromonte produced the franchise’s first hit and later scored its first run. Outfielder Román Mejías supplied the afternoon’s biggest power, hitting two three-run home runs and driving in six. Veteran left-hander Bobby Shantz handled the rest, throwing a complete game and limiting Chicago while Houston’s offense steadily widened the margin.
The team’s frontier-themed name and uniforms reflected the city’s identity, but the practical conditions were distinctly unfinished. Colt Stadium offered little protection from Houston heat, humidity and insects. Even so, the debut gave local fans a major-league team of their own after years of minor-league tradition and civic effort to join baseball’s expanding map.
Three seasons later the club moved indoors and became the Astros, linking its name to Houston’s space-age ambitions. The franchise would experience decades of reinvention before winning championships, yet its history begins with the crisp details of this opener: Aspromonte’s first hit, Mejías’s two homers, Shantz’s complete game and an 11-2 victory under the Texas sun.
Houston defeated the Cubs 11-2.
The game drew 25,271 fans to Colt Stadium.
Bob Aspromonte recorded the franchise’s first hit.
Román Mejías hit two three-run homers.
Bobby Shantz pitched a complete game.
The club became the Astros in 1965.
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