1922 – At Sportsman’s Park, the St. Louis Cardinals wear their new uniforms, featuring two red birds on a bat with the words “Cardinals” across the front, for the first time in an exhibition contest with the St. Louis Browns.
1963 – The Tigers claim young pitcher Denny McLain from the White Sox for the $25,000 waiver price.
1966 – The Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers play the first major league game ever on artificial turf, at the newly opened Astrodome.
1968 – Opening Day is postponed because of the pending funeral of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
1969 – Expansion teams Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos, San Diego Padres, and Seattle Pilots make things look easy by winning their first regular-season games. The Expos win by scoring 11 runs against the Mets to win, 11-10. The Mets have yet to win an opener.
1969 – After a long recovery following a 1967 beaning, Tony Conigliaro starts his first game for Boston. His dramatic two-run 10th-inning home run gives the Red Sox a brief lead, and his 12th-inning run wins it.
1974 – In the fourth inning of the Braves home opener against the Dodgers, Hank Aaron parks an Al Downing pitch in the left-center field stands for career home run No. 715, breaking Ruth’s once thought to be unapproachable record. With former teammate Eddie Mathews watching as Braves manager, that makes 1,227 home runs for just two players. The Braves win, 7-4.
1975 – Frank Robinson, making his debut as the Indians player-manager, homers in his first at bat (as a DH) during a 5-3 win over the Yankees. It is Robinson’s eighth Opening Day home run, setting a major league record.
1987 – Faced with a storm of public criticism, the Dodgers fire vice president Al Campanis for racially insensitive remarks he made on the April 6 telecast of ABC-TV’s Nightline news show. Campanis had said that blacks may lack some of the necessities to be a field manager or general manager.
1989 – One-handed pitcher Jim Abbott makes his major league debut but lasts only 4.2 innings in California’s 7-0 loss to Seattle. Abbott, who bypassed the minors completely after starring at the University of Michigan, will finish the season 12-12 with a 3.92 ERA.
1991 – Starter Nolan Ryan and closer Goose Gossage pitch for the Texas Rangers in a 5 – 4 loss to Milwaukee. It marks the first time in major league history that a 300-game winner hurls in the same contest as a teammate with 300 saves.
1993 – Carlos Baerga is the first player in major league history to homer from both sides of the plate in the same inning. The Cleveland second baseman clouts a two-run shot against Yankee southpaw Steve Howe in the seventh inning and finishes the frame with a home run from the left side of the plate against Steve Farr. He has two other hits in the 15-5 rout by the Indians.
1994 – Braves lefthander Kent Mercker no-hits the Dodgers, 6-0, in his first career complete game.
2003 – On Opening Day at PNC Park, the Pittsburgh Pirates unveil a sculpture of Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner. Kiner, who is depicted in the bronze artwork gripping a Kiner-model Louisville Slugger bat, joins Willie Stargell, Honus Wagner and Roberto Clemente as other former Pirates honored with ballpark statues.
2009 – Nick Adenhart of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitches six scoreless innings against Oakland in his first start of the season; he will be tragically killed in a car crash a few hours after the game.
