BB On this Date ~ Events & Birthdays #2

1960 In the first game ever played at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, after Vice President Richard Nixon throws out the ceremonial first pitch, Giants' starter Sam Jones three-hits the Cardinals, 3-1. During the third inning, the umpires noticed that both foul poles were positioned well inside fair territory, necessitating improvising a new ground rule until the team corrects the problem.


1960 The Indians trade Norm Cash to the Tigers in exchange for Steve Demeter. The Tribe, who acquired Cash in the off-season from the White Sox, will regret the move, giving away a future American League batting champ, who will hit 373 homers during his 15 years in Detroit in exchange for a third baseman who plays only four games withthe franchise. ​

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1962 In front of 40,000 fans, the expansion Mets are honored with a ticker-tape parade up lower Broadway. The players, wearing their brand new home uniforms, broadcasters, and other officials ride in open convertibles, throwing plastic baseballs to the enthusiastic crowd as they drive by.

1962 Making his major league debut, Pete Richert comes out of the bullpen and strikes out the first six batters he faces, a major league record. The rookie southpaw fans four in the third inning in LA's 11-7 comeback victory over the Reds at Dodger Stadium.

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1965 Joe Torre hits two home runs in Milwaukee's 4-2 Opening Day victory at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Next season on the same date, the Braves catcher will do it again, joining teammate Eddie Mathews as the only major leaguers to hit two round-trippers twice in games played on Opening Day.

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1965 At the Astrodome, the Astros lose the first regular-season indoor game to the Phillies 2-0. Houston third baseman Bob Aspromonte, who collected the first Houston hit in Colt Stadium in 1962, also gets the first hit in the Astrodome, and Dick Allen of the Phillies blasts the first National League homer in the 'Eighth Wonder of the World.'

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1965 The A's mascot Charlie-O the Mule, chosen to spotlight the role Missouri mules played in the Allies' victory in World War I by lugging ammunition and supplies through the mud and snow of France, makes his debut on Opening Night at Kansas City's Municipal Stadium. In a pregame ceremony, Warren Hearnes, the governor of Missouri, presents the 1,400-pound animal to team owner Charlie O.Finley, who rides his namesake much to the delight of the 18,109 fans attending the game against the Tigers.

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1966 Atlanta's first-ever major league game goes overtime when Pittsburgh beats the hometown Braves, 3-2. With the game deadlocked at 1-1 in the top of the thirteenth inning, starter Tony Cloninger, who will go the distance, gives up a two-run homer to Willie Stargell.

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1966 On Opening Day, Jim Lonborg's 13th-inning balk plates Bob Johnson with the deciding run in Baltimore's 5-4 victory. The Red Sox reliever miscue on the mound occurs with two outs and the bases loaded at Fenway Park.

1967 On Opening Day at Boston's Fenway Park, the Red Sox draw only 8,324 to watch the team beat Chicago, 5-4. The eventual American League champs finished last season in ninth place with a 72-90 record.

1970 Phil Roof, followed by Hank Aaron and Felipe Alou, becomes the first of only three major leaguers to play for the Milwaukee Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers, scoring three runs in the team's 16-2 rout of Chicago in at White Sox Park. In 1960, the catcher made his major league debut with the Braves, appearing in three games before being traded to the Angels in 1964.

1972 The first players' strike in baseball history ends when the owners agree to add salary arbitration to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and a $500,000 increase in pension fund payments. The owners will cancel the 86 games missed during the 13-day strike, refusing to compensate the players for the time they lost during the work stoppage.

1976 Rain postpones the game against the Padres at Dodger Stadium, marking only the second rainout in the 14-year history of the ballpark. The washout ends a streak started in April 1967, covering a span of 724 straight contests, with subsequent postponements coming much sooner when inclement weather cancels two consecutive home dates in September.

1977 On Opening Day, fans attending the Comiskey Park contest receive a foam ball with the idea of having the first pitch of the White Sox season thrown by everybody in the stands. The concept is the brainchild of Rudie Schaffer, team owner Bill Veeck's right-hand man, also credited with the Bat Day promotion and the innovative exploding scoreboard.

 

1986 In a humiliating 9–8 extra-inning loss against the Phillies, the Mets blow a three-run lead in the bottom of the ninth, thanks, in part, to Keith Hernandez's error allowing the leadoff batter to reach base, opening the floodgates to Philadelphia's comeback. Six years later, the New York first baseman's Veterans Stadium miscue (albeit placed on the wrong date and season in a different venue) becomes the background of a conspiracy theory detailed in an hour-long Seinfeld episode, The Boyfriend.

1988 Frank Robinson replaces Cal Ripken Sr. as the Orioles' manager after the team gets off to a 0-6 start. The new skipper, who has previously managed the Indians and Giants, will be winless in his first 15 games in the Baltimore dugout.

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1988 Bobby Witt ties an American League record, committing four balks in the Rangers' 4-1 loss in Detroit. The major league record for the most balks in one game is five, established in 1963 by Braves' right-hander Bob Shaw, which included three in the third inning of the team's 7-5 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

1990 Brett Butler walks five times in the Giants' 13-4 win over the Braves at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The speedy outfielder will score four times after being issued a free pass.

1992 In a doubleheader at Cleveland, the Indians are no-hit by Red Sox hurler Matt Young in the first game but win, 2-1, and in the nightcap, the Tribe gets only two safeties off Roger Clemens to set a major league record for fewest hits (2) in a twin bill.

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1993 Barry Bonds, who signed a six-year, $43 million deal as a free agent, the richest contract in baseball history, delights the crowd of 56,689 at Candlestick Park by homering in his first at-bat in front of the hometown fans. The clean-up hitter's second-inning drive to deep right field off Chris Hammond proves to be the difference in the Giants' 4-3 extra-inning victory over Florida.

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1994 Scott Cooper hits for the cycle, the first Red Sox player since Mike Greenwell to accomplish the feat since 1988, driving in five runs to help the team rout the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, 22-11. The third baseman's fifth-inning triple is the result of being thrown out at the plate trying to stretch the three-bagger into an inside-the-park home run.

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2001 The Blue Jays postpone the game against the Royals when SkyDome's retractable dome gets jammed during a routine test opening, sending chunks of the roof, some as big as eight feet by six feet, crashing onto the field below. The gaping hole in the dome is visible from the outside of the ballpark, making the damage easy to spot by the city's commuters on a nearby expressway.

2001 The combat-ready Padres, wearing camouflage jerseys and green caps, finally win the battle against the Giants after five consecutive losses to the black and orange, 8-3. San Diego donned the uniforms to honor the area's significant military population.

2002 In front of 48,244 loud and enthusiastic fans at the Metrodome, their first sellout since winning the World Series in 1991, the Twins beat the Tigers in the home opener, 4-2. The MLB had considered eliminating the Minnesota franchise under its contraction plan proposed during the off-season.

2002 Barry Bonds, with his 574th career round-tripper, passes former Twin first baseman Harmon Killebrew on the all-time home run list. The Giants' left fielder hit his milestone homer, which ranks him sixth overall, in the first inning off Nelson Figueroa in the Giants' 3-2 victory over Milwaukee.

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2003 Fenway's Green Monster, the left-field wall in the major league's smallest park, has a new look. In the place of a net that the team used to collect home runs balls that cleared the wall, the fans now occupy the space, sitting 310 feet away and 40 feet above the field, as they watch Red Sox right-hander Pedro Martinez give up ten runs in 4.1 innings in a 13-6 loss to the Orioles.

2003 With a 5-2 victory over the Indians at Cleveland's Jacobs Field, the Royals set a franchise record for victories at the start of the season, winning their ninth consecutive game since Opening Day. In 1977, Kansas City won 16 straight from August 31st through September 15th for the overall team's mark for consecutive wins.

 

2004 At the Giants' home opener at SBC Park, the torch is passed both literally and figuratively as Barry Bonds hit his 660th career homer to tie his godfather, Willie Mays, for third on the all-time home run list. The 72-year-old Hall of Famer Mays greets his godson at home plate with a torch studded with $18,000 of diamonds forming the numbers 660, 25, which is Barry's number, and 1, the number to needed move ahead.

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2004 In front of a sellout crowd of 41,626 fans, the Phillies play their first game in their $458 million Pattison Avenue ballpark. On a cloudy day, the Citizens Bank Park history begins with a 4-1 loss to the Reds with right fielder Bobby Abreu hitting the park's first homer, accounting for Philadelphia's only run.

2004 The Phillies unveiled a ten-foot bronze statue of Richie Ashburn at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies' new home. Zenos Frudakis's work of the five-time All-Star, located behind centerfield in Ashburn Alley, in the team's Walk of Fame.

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2006 Twenty-two-year-old college senior Jeffrey Maier hits a third-inning two-bagger against Bates to become the all-time career hits leader at Wesleyan, with 169, surpassing the 2003 mark set by Bill Robinson. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound third baseman gained national notoriety a decade ago as a 12-year-old fan when he leaned over the Yankee Stadium fence to snag Derek Jeter's fly ball 'homer,' which prevented Orioles outfielder Tony Tarasco from catching the ball during the 1996 ALCS.

2008 The Charleston RiverDogs, a Class-A minor league affiliate of the Yankees, commemorate the first visit of Benedict XVI to the United States with a Pope on a Rope Night promotion. The first 1,000 fans attending the South Atlantic League game against Rome at Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park receive a soap figurine bearing a likeness of the Holy Father.

2009 With runners taking off from first and second base, Pirates' shortstop Jack Wilson turns Reds third baseman Edwin Encarnacion's soft liner into a triple play. The triple killing is the Bucs' first since 1993 and the team's first on the road in 41 years.

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2009 A pair of tickets for the Mets home opener at Citi Field, with a face value of $525 apiece, is auctioned off for $7,500 on eBay. The ducats belonged to Bernard Madoff, who is in jail after pleading guilty last month to defrauding investors, including Mets owner Fred Wilpon, in a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

2010 On an unusually warm spring day, the hometown Twins beat Boston, 5-2, in the first regular-season game at Target Field. Minnesota DH Jason Kubel hits the ballpark's first home run, a seventh-inning shot into the right-field seats.

2010 With 9,129 fans in attendance, the smallest crowd in the 19-year history of the ballpark, the Orioles lose to Tampa Bay at Camden Yards, 5-1. The club, off to a 1-6 start in the new season, has scored only three runs in their last three games.

2011 The Rakuten Eagles, unable to use their stadium due to the extensive damage caused by last month's massive earthquake and tsunami, beat the Chiba Lotte Marines at QVC Marine Field, 6-4, in Japan's Pacific League opener. The crowd of 22,525 attending the game is not disturbed after feeling an aftershock at the ballpark caused by an earthquake in Chiba earlier in the day.

2012 Paulo Orlando becomes the first major leaguer to have each of his first three career hits be a triple when he bangs out his second three-bagger in the Royals' 9-2 victory over Los Angeles at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Three days ago, the 29-year-old rookie outfielder also legged out a three-bag base hit off White Sox left-hander John Danks after being walked in his big-league debut at the plate.

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Today in Baseball History
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On April 12 in Baseball History...

• • 1909 - Philadelphia's Shibe Park, the first steel-and-concrete structure built for baseball, is dedicated.
    
  • 1955 - In their first game at Kansas City, the transplanted Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-2 at Municipal Stadium.
    
  • 1965 - Richie Allen hit the first home run in the Houston Astrodome, off Bob Bruce, as the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Astros 2-0.
    
  • 1966 - A crowd of 50,671 welcomed the Braves to Atlanta, but Willie Stargell spoiled the opener with a two-run homer in the 13th inning, giving the Pirates a 3-2 victory.
    
  • 1980 - Cecil Cooper and Don Money each hit grand slams in the second inning of Milwaukee's 18-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
    
  • 1992 - Boston's Matt Young pitched eight no-hit innings at Cleveland but lost 2-1 in the opener of a doubleheader. In the second game, the Indians managed only two hits off Roger Clemens to set a major league record for fewest hits (2) in a doubleheader.
    
  • 1994 - Scott Cooper hit for the cycle and drove in five runs, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 22-11 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

Baseball Birthdays on April 12...

• • 1850 - Nava, Sandy
  • 1859 - Harkins, John
  • 1863 - Hoover, Buster
  • 1875 - Post, Lew
  • 1876 - Willis, Vic
  • 1879 - Clancy, Bill
  • 1879 - Brown, Fred
  • 1880 - Joss, Addie
  • 1881 - Ostdiek, Harry
  • 1887 - Agnew, Sam
  • 1888 - Klawitter, Al
  • 1888 - Sullivan, Harry
  • 1888 - McLaughlin, Kid
  • 1889 - Russell, Reb
  • 1889 - Bailey, Bill
  • 1895 - Vick, Sammy
  • 1899 - Henderson, Bernie
  • 1899 - Horne, Trader
  • 1900 - O'Neil, Mickey
  • 1908 - Vitelli, Joe
  • 1909 - McNair, Eric
  • 1910 - Miller, Bill
  • 1912 - Wilson, Jack
  • 1918 - Ramos, Chucho
  • 1922 - Wight, Bill
  • 1926 - Moryn, Walt
  • 1926 - Possehl, Lou
  • 1929 - Held, Mel
  • 1930 - Antonelli, Johnny "(Johnny) Antonelli was a good pitcher with great control for several years. In his 20-game peak he came up with a terrific change of pace that made him outstanding." - Stan Musial in The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers: An Historical Compendium of Pitching, Pitchers, and Pitches (Bill James & Rob Neyer, Touchstone Publishing
  • 1933 - Lau, Charlie "Charlie (Lau) made me a hitter. My rookie year I was hitting around .200 when he started working with me. All of a sudden, I started to hit." - Brett, George. Professor of Hitting. Anderson, Dave. Staff Writer at The Dispatch. 21 March 1984.
  • 1942 - Sisk, Tommie
  • 1942 - Roberts, Dale
  • 1943 - Romo, Vicente
  • 1943 - Suarez, Ken
  • 1944 - Harmon, Terry
  • 1956 - Alvarez, Jose
  • 1960 - Lindsey, Bill
  • 1964 - Goff, Jerry
  • 1964 - Macfarlane, Mike
  • 1968 - Brantley, Cliff
  • 1968 - Staton, Dave
  • 1971 - Williams, Matt
  • 1972 - Lo Duca, Paul
  • 1973 - Osuna, Antonio
  • 1976 - Wallace, Jeff

Part of the Baseball Almanac family: 755 Home Runs | Around the Horn | Baseball Box Scores | Baseball Fever | Today in Baseball History.
Copyright � 2001-2007. All Rights Reserved.​

 

4/13
BIRTHDAYS
1885 Vean Gregg born in Chehalis, Washington (d. 1964)


1962 Dave Miley player and manager, born in Tampa, Florida


1963 Mark Leiter pitcher (SF Giants,Chicago), born in Joliet, Illinois


1964 Doug Strange infielder (Seattle Mariners), born in Greenville, South Carolina


1964 José Rijo pitcher (NY Yankees, Cincinnati Reds), born in San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic


1983 Hunter Pence, born in Fort Worth, Texas

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FROM MLB's This Day in Baseball History+​

1883 "Good ballplayers make good citizens." - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States.Chester A. Arthur brings the Forest Cities ball club, a recently defunct franchise of the National Association, to the White House, making it the first professional team to visit with a president in Washington, D.C. Later in the season, the country's Commander-in-Chief will host the new National League's New York Gothams, who will become better known as the Giants in 1885.

1914 Major league baseball returns to Baltimore as the first Federal League game is played with approximately 27,000 fans in attendance to watch the Terrapins beat the Buffalo Blues at Terrapin Park, 3-2. After the elimination of the hometown Orioles from the National League at the end of the 1899 season, John McGraw's club joined the new rival American League in 1901, staying in the Charm City for two seasons before moving to New York to become the Yankees, after briefly known as the Highlanders.

1921 After President Warren Harding, an avid baseball fan, tosses the ceremonial first pitch at Griffith Stadium, Washington loses to the Red Sox, 6-3. The contest marks the first time in six Opening Days contests the Senators have failed when the United States President throws out the first pitch.

1926 On Opening Day, 38-year-old Senators' hurler Walter Johnson strikes out a dozen A's batters when he outduels Eddie Rommel for 15 innings, beating Philadelphia at Washington's Griffith Stadium, 1-0. In his next-to-last season, the' Big Train finishes the campaign 15-16 (.484) with an ERA of 3.63 for the fourth-place club.

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1933 At Sportsman's Park in the season's second game, Browns' flycatcher Sammy West goes 6-for-6, collecting five singles and a double. The southpaw-swinging outfielder's offensive output isn't enough when the team drops a 4-3 decision to the White Sox in 11 innings.

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1939 In a spring training game played in Norfolk, Virginia, Yankee first baseman Lou Gehrig, with apparent muscle loss, especially around his shoulders, goes deep twice in a 14-12 exhibition loss against the Dodgers. The second and ninth-inning home runs will be the last round-trippers the 'Iron Horse' will ever hit.

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1953 On Opening Day, thanks to the three-hit pitching of Max Surkont, the former Boston Braves win their first game representing the city of Milwaukee by beating the Reds, 2-0 at Crosley Field. The contest marks the first time since Baltimore shifted to New York to become the Highlanders, later renamed the Yankees, fifty years ago that a franchise has moved to a different city.

1954 Not wanting to be associated with Communists, Cincinnati plays its first game as the Redlegs. The team will employ the new widely-accepted moniker for six seasons before the club reverts to the Reds, a shortened version of the Red Stockings, the team's original name from 1882-1899.

1954 Willie Mays, who missed nearly two seasons due to military service, homers in his first game back, a sixth-inning blast off Carl Erskine that will prove the difference in the Giants' 4-3 Opening Day victory over Brooklyn. The 22-year-old center fielder's prodigious poke at the Polo Grounds might have traveled over 600 feet if the upper left-field stands had not impeded the ball.

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1954 Seven years after the team had threatened to strike over Jackie Robinson integrating baseball, North Carolina A&T graduate Tom Alston becomes the first black player to appear in a Cardinals uniform. The highly-touted first baseman, acquired from the PCL's San Diego club in exchange for veteran infielder Dick Sisler and $100,000, pops out to first base in his first major league at-bat.

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1954 In the first season opener at Forbes Field in 61 years, Curt Roberts makes his major league debut, becoming the first black to play for the Pirates. In his first at-bat, the former Kansas City Monarch second baseman, signed by 72-year-old general manager Branch Rickey, triples off future Hall of Fame right-hander Robin Roberts in the first inning of the team's 4-2 victory over beat the Phillies.

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1954 In a 9-8 victory over the Braves, Reds' outfielder Jim Greengrass hits four doubles, tying a 1901 Opening Day record set by Tigers' first baseman Pop Dillon. In the same contest, Hank Aaron goes hitless in five attempts in his first major league game with the Braves.

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1954 Philadelphia A's second baseman 'Spook' Forrest Jacobs becomes the first major league rookie to collect four hits on Opening Day. In 1990, Expo second baseman Delino DeShields, going 4-for-6, becomes the second freshman to accomplish the feat on the first day of the season in the team's 6-5 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

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1954 On Opening Day at Busch Stadium off Chicago hurler Paul Milner, Wally Moon hits a home run off Paul Milner in his first major league at-bat in the Cardinals' 13-4 loss to the Cubs. The 24-year-old Redbird center fielder, the eventual National League's Rookie of the Year, also homers in the last at-bat of his freshman season.

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1957 The Red Sox select right-hander Russ Meyer (1-6, 6.21) off waivers from the Redlegs. The 'Mad Monk' will appear in only two games for Boston, posting a 5.40 ERA in five innings of work that includes a start.

 

962 On a wintry day, the Mets play their first home game ever when only 12,000 fans show up at the Polo Grounds to see the return of National League baseball to the Big Apple. On Friday the 13th, the Pirates score the decisive run on two eighth-inning wild pitches thrown by Ray Diavault, beating the New York expansion team, 4-3.

1962 On Opening Day, Detroit's starting pitcher Frank Lary pulls a muscle while legging out a seventh-inning triple in the team's 5-3 victory over New York at Tiger Stadium. Subsequent arm problems resulting from compensating for the injury shortens the Yankee Killer's career.

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1963 Reds' second baseman Pete Rose triples off Pirates' pitcher Bob Friend to collect his first major league hit. The future all-time hit leader, who will amass 4,256 hits during his 24-year career, had gone hitless in his first 11 major league at-bats.

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1964 After beating the Reds, 6-3, in the traditional Opening Day game in Cincinnati, Houston is in first place for the first and only time as the Colt .45's. Next season, the team becomes known as the Astros, reflecting Houston's role in the nation's space program.

1969 After the Cubs, scoring three runs in the bottom of the ninth, rally to beat the Expos, 7-6, twenty-seven-thousand fans spontaneously swarm Wrigley Field in an early-season frenzy. The fans' reaction marks the first animated display of affection for the team since 1960, when Don Cardwell threw his no-hitter on Chicago's north side.

 

1970 In their home opener at the Oakland Coliseum, a 2-1 victory over Milwaukee, the A's use gold-colored bases. The MLB's Rules Committee will quickly ban this colorful innovation, introduced by team owner Charlie O. Finley.

1975 The Astros retire Don Wilson's number 40 posthumously in tribute to the right-hander, who was found dead of asphyxiation by carbon monoxide in the garage of his family's home in January. The 29-year-old fireballer, the author of an 18 strikeout game that tied a major league record, spent nine seasons with Houston, compiling a 104-92 record and an ERA of 3.15.

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1978 In New York's Opening Day 4-2 victory over Chicago, Reggie Jackson hits a three-run homer in the first inning, his fourth consecutive round-tripper at Yankee Stadium, after going deep three times in last year's Fall Classic finale. The game becomes delayed when the crowd celebrates by showering the field with Reggie! Bars, a chocolate and peanut candy bar with a picture of the slugger given to every fan entering the game.

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1978 On Opening Day, Roger Maris returns to Yankee Stadium for the first time since being traded to the Cardinals in 1966. After shunning many previous invitations, the prodigal son returns to help Mickey Mantle hoist the club's World Champion flag when team owner George Steinbrenner promises to install sod and lights on the baseball field at his children's school in Gainesville (FL).

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1980 At Royals Stadium, Dan Quisenberry and Jamie Quirk become the first Q battery when Quiz enters in the seventh inning. The pitcher-catcher combo combine to face nine Tigers in Kansas City's 3-2 victory, with the 27-year-old right-handed reliever leaving the game after giving up a two-run homer to Champ Summers with two outs in the ninth.

1983 The Phillies, trailing by five runs entering the ninth inning, beat the Mets, 10-9, when Bo Diaz hits a walk-off bases-loaded home run. The Philadelphia catcher's 'ultimate grand slam,' a home run that wins a game when a team is down by three runs in the bottom of the final frame, is tossed by Neil Allen, who faces only the last batter.

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1984 On the same date he got his first major league hit 21-years earlier, Pete Rose, as a member of the Expos, doubles off Phillies hurler Jerry Koosman for his 4000th hit, becoming the first player in the National League to reach the milestone. Montreal beats Philadelphia in the Friday the 13th contest at Olympic Stadium, 5-1.

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1985 With his team down 7-4 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Mariners' left fielder Phil Bradley erases the three-run deficit with a walk-off grand slam. The game-ending round-tripper comes off Twins' closer Ron Davis, who had given up a hit and two walks before surrendering the 'sayonara slam.'

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1987 In San Diego's home opener, the Padres waste no time making up a two-run first inning deficit when the first three batters up in the bottom of the first homer off of Giant starter Roger Mason. Marvell Wynne, Tony Gwynn, and John Kruk all go deep to establish a major league record.

 

1990 "I chose the Moose because they are funny, neat, and friendly. The Moose would show that the Mariners enjoy playing and that they still have a few tricks up their sleeves." -AMMON SPILLER, a fifth-grader from Central Elementary School in Ferndale, WA. In front of the first sellout crowd (54,874 fans) at the Kingdome, Mariner Moose makes his debut on Opening Night, Friday the 13th, the first mascot in franchise history. The team chose a suggestion summited by Ammon Spiller, a fifth-grader from Ferndale, WA, from over 2,500 entries submitted by children 14 and under across the Pacific Northwest.

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1993 Lee Smith passes Jeff Reardon to become the all-time major league saves leader when the Cardinals beat the Dodgers, 9-7. The right-hander reliever tosses a scoreless ninth inning at Chavez Ravine to record the 358th of his career.

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1997 Wally the Green Monster, the Red Sox official mascot, makes his debut, emerging from the legendary left-field wall to everyone's surprise on Opening Day. The green furry creature, who is not warmly received at first by the Fenway Faithful, becomes more endearing to the fans when the former player and current broadcaster Jerry Remy begins to create stories about the costumed character, sharing them during televised NESN games.


1998 Before tonight's game against the Angels, a 500-pound concrete and steel beam falls into the empty loge boxes between third base and left field at Yankee Stadium. The mishap causes the postponement of the next two games scheduled for the Bronx ballpark, with the team scheduling one of the games across the river at Shea Stadium.

1999 At the Kingdome, Rangers' starter Mike Morgan beats the Mariners for the first time since 1980 when he hurled for the A's. The interval of 19 years, eight months, and nine days is the longest span a hurler has gone between victories over one team.

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2002 After striking out three batters on nine pitches in the top of the ninth inning, Cardinal closer Jason Isringhausen gets credit for the win when the Redbirds score a run in the bottom of the frame for a 2-1 walk-off victory over Houston. During his immaculate inning, the right-handed reliever's victims include Daryle Ward, Jose Vizcaino, and Julio Lugo, who all go down swinging

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2004 At SBC Park, Barry Bonds hits his 661st career homer off Brewers hurler Ben Ford to move up to third on the all-time home run career list, passing his godfather, Willie Mays, and leaving the 39-year-old Giant left fielder 53 behind Babe Ruth (714) and needs 94 to tie Hank Aaron (755). Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator Larry Ellison, a Giants fan who also 'caught' and gave No. 660 to a grateful Bonds, scoops the historic 468-foot seventh inning blast out of McCovey Cove, decides to keep this wet souvenir.​

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2005 A nearby pedestrian saves eight-year-old Patrick McCarthy from getting run down by a truck when the boy starts to run into Boston's Newbury Street traffic. The hero, who prevents the tragic accident by putting out his arm and saying `Whoa, watch out, buddy,' turns out to be the boy's favorite player, Yankee superstar Alex Rodriguez.

2008 At the new Yankee Stadium, workers dig up a tattered David Ortiz jersey buried in the concrete by a Red Sox fan working on the construction site who had hoped to put a hex on the Bronx Bombers. The ballpark's first 'souvenir' fetches a $175,100 bid in an auction to benefit the Jimmy Fund, a charity that raises money for cancer patients and their families at the Dana-Farber Institute.

2008 Reds hurler Johnny Cueto walks his first batter of the season, ending a string of 22 strikeouts without issuing a base-on-balls. The rookie right-hander is the only post-1900 pitcher to fan as many 18 batters without throwing a ball four in his first two starts.

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2009 Nick Swisher, who throws 22 pitches, allowing just one hit and one walk before retiring the next three consecutive batters, including a swinging strikeout of Gabe Kapler, becomes the first position player to pitch for the Yankees since Wade Boggs took the mound in 1997. During the 15-5 rout by the Rays at Tampa's Tropicana Field, the fun-loving first baseman volunteered to pitch the eighth inning to help save the bullpen after starter Chien-Ming Wang lasts only one inning.

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2009 In a somber pregame meeting, Philadelphia president David Montgomery informs the players that Harry Kalas, who arrived at Nationals Park with the players on the team bus, collapsed in the broadcast booth and died shortly after being taken to a nearby hospital. In tribute to the 73-year-old Hall of Fame voice of the Phillies, Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard, and Scott Eyre, before their 9-8 victory over Washington, light up a cigarette and pass it around in honor of the broadcaster, whose smoking habit was legendary.

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2009 LA's second baseman Orlando Hudson completes his cycle in the Chavez opener with a sixth-inning triple down the right-field line in the team's 11-1 rout of the Giants. The 31-year-old Darlington (SC) native, playing his first home game since signing with the team as a free agent, becomes the first Dodger to hit for the cycle at Dodger Stadium and the first franchise player to accomplish the feat in a nine-inning game since Gil Hodges did it in 1949.'

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