1910 – William Howard Taft becomes the first president to throw out the first ball at a baseball opener in Washington. Walter Johnson catches it, then pitches the first of his 14 Opening Day games. An easy fly hit into the overflow crowd becomes a ground-rule double, marring a 3-0 Big Train pitching gem.
1915 – The Athletics’ Herb Pennock comes within one out of pitching the first Opening Day no-hitter. A scratch single by Harry Hooper is the only Red Sox hit in a 5-0 loss.
1917 – Eddie Cicotte of the Chicago White Sox pitched an 11-0 no-hitter against the St. Louis Browns.
1925 – In the first regular-season Cubs game to be broadcast on the radio, Quin Ryan announces the contest from the grandstand roof for WGN. Grover Alexander wins for the Cubs 8-2 over the Pirates and adds a single, double, and home run.
1925 – The Cleveland Indians opened the season with a 21-14 victory over the St. Louis Browns, the most runs scored by one team on opening day. The Indians scored 12 runs in the eighth inning when the Browns made five errors, four of them by first baseman George Sisler.
1925 – Two future Hall of Famers make their major league debuts for the A’s in the same game. Lefty Grove starts against Boston and leaves in the fourth after walking four and striking out nobody. He gives up five runs on six hits. In the eighth, Mickey Cochrane pinch-hits for catcher Cy Perkins, singles, and stays in behind the plate while the A’s go on to score nine runs in the last four innings to win 9-8 in ten innings. Grove, known as Groves in Baltimore, is also listed that way in the New York Times box score. Grove will become the first pitcher to lead the A.L. in strikeouts and walks in the same year.
1946 – Manager Mel Ott of the Giants hits his 511th and final home run on Opening Day, an 8-4 home victory over the Phillies. The next day Ott will injure his knee diving for a ball and play only occasionally thereafter.
1955 – Elston Howard becomes the first black to wear a Yankees uniform. He singles in his first at-bat, against the Red Sox, as the Yanks win 8-4.
1964 – Sandy Koufax throws his ninth complete game without allowing a walk as he beats St. Louis 4-0 in his only start as an Opening Day pitcher.
1967 – Red Sox rookie Billy Rohr debuts at Yankee Stadium. He startles everyone by taking a no-hitter to the ninth inning, but Elston Howard lines a 3-2 pitch for a single to right-center with two outs. Carl Yastrzemski had kept the no-hitter alive with a spectacular grab of a Tom Tresh drive to deep left field to open the ninth. Rohr wins the game 3-0, but he will pitch only once more for Boston before returning to the minors.
1968 – Jim Bunning’s first win with Pittsburgh, 3-0 at Los Angeles, is his 40th career shutout and includes his 1,000th N.L. strikeout, making him the first pitcher since Cy Young with 1,000 in each league.
1968 – At the Astrodome, New York Mets pitcher Nolan Ryan earns the first of his 324 major league victories. The 21-year-old right-hander hurls 6 2/3 innings of three-hit, shutout baseball to lead the Mets over the Houston Astros, 4 – 0.
1969 – The first major league game outside the United States was played in Montreal’s Jarry Park with the Expos defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 8-7.
1990 – Bret Saberhagen gets the win and Mark Davis earns the save as Kansas City beats Toronto 3-1. It is the first time ever that two reigning Cy Young Award winners have figured in the same victory.
1991 – Nolan Ryan becomes the 12th pitcher to surpass 5,000 innings pitched and gets plenty of hitting help as Texas whips Baltimore 15-3.
1993 – The first-ever Australian battery comes from Milwaukee. Left-hander Graeme Lloyd and backstop Dave Nilsson, who make up half of the total number of Australian players to ever make the major leagues, make history in the Brewers’ 12-2 loss to the Angels.
1998 – Mark McGwire hits three home runs, breaking an eight-game homerless drought, as the Cardinals rout the Arizona Diamondbacks 15-5. After tying Willie Mays’ major league record by homering in the first four games of the season, McGwire had not homered since April 4.
1999 – John Franco strikes out the side in the 9th inning of the New York Mets’ 4 – 1 win over the Florida Marlins, becoming the second relief pitcher in major league history to reach 400 career saves.
1999 – Jose Canseco becomes the 28th player in major league history to reach the 400 home run plateau. Canseco hits a 386-foot shot in the 3rd inning of Tampa Bay’s 7 – 6 loss to the Blue Jays.
2001 – By scoring in their 175th consecutive game, the Cincinnati Reds set a modern National League record for not being shut out by an opponent.
2004 – A day after Yankees teammate Mike Mussina earned his 200th career victory, Kevin Brown reaches the same plateau, beating the Devil Rays, 5 – 1. It is the first time in major league history members of the same pitching staff have won their 200th career victory in consecutive starts.
2005 – On a historic night at RFK Stadium, Livan Hernandez and Vinny Castilla are up to the task. Hernandez carries a one-hitter into the 9th inning and Castilla falls a single shy of the cycle as the Washington Nationals post a 5 – 3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first major league game in Washington, D.C. in over 33 years. After beginning their first season in the nation’s capital with a nine-game road trip, the Nationals start the first game at RFK Stadium since the departure of the Washington Senators with former pitcher Joe Grzenda handing a ball to U.S. President George W. Bush, who throws the ceremonial first pitch. Grzenda tossed the final pitch in Senators history against the Yankees on September 30, 1971.
2016 – Bryce Harper makes the 100th home run of his career his first-ever grand slam as the Nationals hand the Braves their ninth straight loss since the start of the season, 6 – 2. At 23 years and 181 days, Harper is the eighth youngest player to hit 100 homers.
2017 – The Braves open their new ballpark, SunTrust Park, with a 5 – 2 win over the Padres before a sellout crowd of 41,149.
2017 – The White Sox start an outfield composed of three players named Garcia: Avisail in right, Leury in center and Willy, making his major league debut, in left. The three are unrelated and it marks the first time a major league team has three outfielders with the same last name in its starting line-up,
