In Play Magazine
1876 Three thousand fans attend the Philadelphia Athletics' 6-5 loss to the Boston Red Caps in the first game ever played in the National League. The Athletic Park contest becomes the new circuit's inaugural event by default when other scheduled games are rained out.
1891 Pittsburgh's Exposition Park, which opened last year, hosts its first Pirates game. The hometown Bucs drops its Opening Day debut in its new home to Chicago, 7-6.
1903 In the first game of franchise history, the New York Highlanders (later to be renamed Yankees) lose their opener at Washington, 3-1 with Jack Chesbro taking the loss.
1914 Babe Ruth, in his first pro game, shutouts Providence to give Baltimore a 6-0 win.
1915 Yankee uniforms feature pinstripes for the first time.
1922 With George Sisler aboard each time, Browns' left fielder Ken Williams hits three dingers becoming the first American League player to hit three homers runs in a game in the 10-7 St. Louis victory over the White Sox at Sportsman Park.
1925 In their home opener against the Reds, the Cardinals score 11 first-inning runs on a National League record 12 hits coasting to a 12-3 win.
1947 In a game that will be remembered for uniting the Dodgers behind their new teammate Jackie Robinson, Phillies players, inspired by their Alabama-born racist skipper Ben Chapman, repeatedly shout racial epitaphs, threw beanballs, and intentionally spike Brooklyn's rookie first baseman, the first African-American to play major league baseball in the 20th century. The incident is so severe Philadelphia's infielder Jeep Handley, will later publicly apologize, and the team's manager will be chastised by baseball commissioner, Happy Chandler, for his bigoted leadership.
1956 Yankee hurler Don Larsen hits a grand-slam off Frank Sullivan as the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 13-6.
1957 Entering the game as a pinch runner, John Kennedy becomes the Phillies' first black player as Philadelphia the last National League to integrate. The former shortstop for the Birmingham Black Barons and Kansas City Monarchs will bat only twice in the major leagues, striking out and reaching on an error.
1959 In the seventh inning against the A's, the White Sox score 11 runs on just one hit.
1970 On the day he presented with his Cy Young award, Mets' fireballer Tom Seaver ties a major league record by whiffing 19 Padres, including the last ten he faces, to gain a 2-1 win at Shea Stadium. Batterymate Jerry Grote sets the major league mark with ten consecutive putouts in a game for a catcher.
1973 Designated hitter Ron Lolich, Mickey's cousin, hits the third of his four career home runs, a two-out walk-off grand slam giving the Indians an 8-7 comeback victory. Boston had scored three runs in the top of the ninth to break a 4-4 deadlock.
1976 It takes two days to accomplish the feat, but Tim Foli becomes the first Expos player to hit for the cycle in franchise history when he homers in the eighth inning of a suspended game. Before the Wrigley Field contest was halted yesterday because of darkness, the Montreal shortstop had stroked a single, double and triple in the eventual 12-6 victory over Chicago, in that order, for a rare 'natural cycle'.
1988 The Cardinals trade second baseman Tommy Herr to the Twins for outfielder Tom Brunansky.
1991 In the first night game in the new Comiskey Park, Frank Thomas hits the first White Sox home run helping to defeat the Orioles, 8-7.
1993 Mariner hurler Chris Bosio no-hits the Red Sox, 7-0. The Mariner hurler retires the final 26 batters after giving up 2 walks and getting a double play in the first inning.
1996 With their 39th round-tripper, the Mariners surpass the 1984 White Sox's record for home runs hit by a team hit in April. Seattle will extend the mark to 44 homers at month's end.
2000 Homers by Mark McGwire and Fernando Tatis help to establishes an National League record for the most team home runs in April as the Cardinals go yard 42 times. The Braves had hit 41 home runs in April of 1998.
2000 Angels Mo Vaughn, Tim Salmon and Troy Glaus all go deep in the fourth inning against Devil Rays' hurler Dwight Gooden, and then they again all homer off Roberto Hernandez in the ninth. It is the first time in major league history that the same three players homered in the same inning twice in a game.
2000 The event which triggers the biggest mass suspension in the history of the game takes place at Comiskey Park after White Sox hurler hits Dean Palmer with a seventh inning pitch in retaliation of Jeff Weaver’s plunking of Carlos Lee in the previous frame. The ensuing brawls in both the seventh and ninth innings will see the ejection of 11eleven participants with sixteen players, coaches and managers suspended and another nine being fined.
2000 After being hit by a pitch thrown White Sox starter Jim Parque, Dean Palmer charges the mound beginning a series of brawls which will continue to erupt during the bean ball-filled game. When the dust settles in Chicago's 14-6 victory over the Tigers at Comiskey Park, nine players, one coach and one manager will have been ejected from the contest.
2001 A new number, 455, will added with 3, 5, 14, 18, 19, 21 and 42, on the second deck in right field. The three digit number will join the other previously Indian retired numbers as a honor to the fans for setting a sellout streak record which lasted for 455 games over a five-year at Jacobs Field.
2006 Five Brewers (Bill Hall, Damian Miller, Brady Clark, J.J. Hardy and Prince Fielder) go deep in the fourth making the Brewers the fifth team to hit five home runs in one inning. Milwaukee joins the 1966 Twins, 1939 Yankees, 1949 Phillies and the 1961 Giants to establish the major league mark.
2007 The Red Sox become the fifth team in big league history to hit four consecutive home runs in an inning as Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek all go deep with two outs in the third inning at Fenway off Yankee starter Chase Wright, who becomes only the second hurler to allow a team to accomplish the feat off one pitcher. J.D. Drew was also part of the quartet of the 2006 Dodgers who were the fourth major league team to connect for four straight round trippers in one frame.
2008 In a scheduling oddity, both New York big league teams play in Chicago with the Metsplaying the Cubs in a matinee, and the Yankees taking on the White Sox in a night game. This unusual occurrence, it's the first time in 11+ years that two teams from one city have played in another city on the same date, may have been necessitated by the Pope's week-end visit to the Bronx, whose appearance included a mass at Yankee Stadium two days ago.
2008 Striking out Nationals second baseman Felipe Lopez on his signature split-finger fastball, John Smoltz becomes the 16th pitcher in big league history to achieve 3,000 career strikeouts. In the a 6-0 Braves loss to Washington at Turner Field, the Atlanta ace fans 10 batters for the 45th time in his 20-year career.
