1912 – In the first game ever played at Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox defeat Harvard University in an exhibition game played in a snow storm.
1913 – With league approval, the Dodgers play the first regular-season game at Ebbets Field a day ahead of the rest of the league. Cold weather keeps the Opening Day crowd down to about 12,000 as the Phils’ Tom Seaton beats Nap Rucker 1-0.
1947 – Commissioner Happy Chandler suspends manager Leo Durocher of the Brooklyn Dodgers for the entire season for consorting with gamblers.
1959 – In the fifth inning against Washington, the Orioles become the first team in history to turn a triple play on Opening Day. Vice President Richard Nixon, a right-hander, substitutes for President Dwight D. Eisenhower and watches the Senators breeze to a 9-2 win.
1962 – President John F. Kennedy throws out the first ball to open the 1962 baseball season at new District of Columbia Stadium. Despite rain, a record Washington crowd of 42,143 shows up to see Bennie Daniels stop Detroit with a five-hit, 4-1 win.
1965 – President Lyndon B. Johnson joins 47,878 fans for the opening of Harris County Domed Stadium (the Astrodome). The Astros win an exhibition with the Yankees 2-1 in 12 innings. Mickey Mantle hits the first-ever indoor home run in the new park.
1969 – Billy Williams of Chicago hit four consecutive doubles to lead the Cubs to an 11-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
1974 – New Padres owner Ray Kroc, watching his team lose 9-2 in the home opener, takes to the public address system in the eighth inning and says: Ladies and gentlemen, I suffer with you…I’ve never seen such stupid baseball playing in my life. While he is speaking a streaker runs across the field. San Diego scores three runs but loses to Houston 9-5. Hearing of the incident, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn will make Kroc apologize to the fans.
1978 – The Brewers complete a stunning season-opening, three-game sweep of the Orioles by scores of 11-3, 16-3, and 13-5. Sixto Lezcano, Gorman Thomas, and Cecil Cooper provided the Brewers with a grand slam in each game to set a major-league mark.
1981 – Pressed into service on Opening Day when scheduled starter Jerry Reuss pulls a calf muscle, Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela shuts out the Astros 2-0 on five hits in his first major league start and goes on to win eight consecutive games.
1985 – Chicago’s Tom Seaver made his 15th opening-day start to break Christy Mathewson’s record. Seaver pitched 6 2/3 innings and was credited with the victory as the White Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2.
1987 – Gary Carter drives in his 1,000th career run with an 8th-inning single that scores Lenny Dykstra as the Mets defeat Pittsburgh, 4 – 2.
1989 – Rickey Henderson steals his 800th career base in a 4-3 Yankees loss to the Indians.
1990 – Houston’s Glenn Davis ties a major league record when he is hit by pitches three times in an 8-4, 11-inning loss to the Reds. For the Reds, it is just their third road opener since 1876.
1993 – The Colorado Rockies beat the Montreal Expos 11-4 for their first win ever and set a National League record for attendance in their home debut. The crowd of 80,227 broke the record of 78,672 set on April 18, 1958, by the Los Angeles Dodgers.
1994 – Recently retired basketball legend Michael Jordan makes his professional debut by going hitless for Double-A Birmingham. Chattanooga is a 10-3 winner over the White Sox farm club.
1997 – A hearty but paltry gathering of 1,677 comes out to see the Blue Jays blank the White Sox at Comiskey Park. The game was originally scheduled at night but was moved to daylight because of extreme cold. The only thing lower than the attendance (the paid take was just 746) was the temperature, which was 34 degrees at game time. It is the smallest crowd to see the Sox in 27 years.
2021 – It took a record 8,206 games, but someone has finally pitched a no-hitter for the San Diego Padres: off-season acquisition Joe Musgrove defeats the Rangers, 3 – 0, allowing just one hit-by-pitch but no hit and striking out ten in a masterful performance
