On This Date in Baseball: March 10

1951 - FBI director J. Edgar Hoover announces that he has turned down an offer to become Commissioner of baseball. The governor of California (and future JFK assassination conspirator), Earl Warren, had previously rejected an offer to become baseball's leader.

1963 - A little known minor league infielder named Pete Rose plays in his first spring training game and will make the Cincinnati Reds Opening Day roster.

1995 - Michael Jordan announces that he is leaving the Chicago White Sox organization and will return to the Chicago Bulls of the NBA.

On This Date in Baseball: March 2

1874 - At the fourth meeting of the Professional Association in Boston, the batter's box is officially adopted.

It is also decided that expulsion will be the penalty for any player betting on his own team and any player betting on any other team will forfeit his pay or, in Shoeless Joe's and Pete Rose's case, get themselves banned for life from baseball and render themselves ineligible for the Hall of Fame. Nice going guys.

Pete just couldn't help himself from breaking a 115 year-old rule. Now he's signing crap in Vegas at Caesar's Palace for beer money. Oh, for Pete's sake.

1899 - An attempt to expel the St. Louis Browns, who had a 39-111 record in 1898, fails by a 7 - 4 margin. St. Louis will play as the "Perfectos" in the upcoming season.

1927 - Babe Ruth becomes the highest paid player in baseball history. The New York Yankees reward Ruth with a three-year contract worth an estimated $210,000. In 1926, Ruth led the American League in home runs and RBIs while batting .372.

2005 - Thirty-two years after his death, Jackie Robinson receives the Congressional Gold Medal. He joins Roberto Clemente, Joe Louis and Jesse Owens as the only athletes among about 300 Gold Medal recipients.

On This Date in Baseball: May 5

May 5, 1978 - Pete Rose singles off Montreal's Steve Rogers for career hit 3,000.

By the way, I got this baseball in Las Vegas last year.