This Date in Baseball-Week Ahead
April 16
1929 — Cleveland’s Earl Averill became the first American League player to hit a home run in his first major league plate appearance. The Indians won the game 5-4 in 11 innings on Carl Lind’s double.
1935 — Babe Ruth, 40, made a sensational National League debut in Boston. His single and homer off Carl Hubbell led the Braves over the Giants 4-2.
1940 — Bob Feller of Cleveland defeated the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in the only opening day no-hitter in major league history.
1948 — WGN-TV televised a baseball game for the first time. It was an exhibition game at Wrigley Field with Jack Brickhouse doing the play-by-play. The White Sox defeated the Cubs 4-1.
1961 — Beginning his historic chase of Babe Ruth’s 60 home run season-record, Roger Maris connects for his first homer in the twelfth game of the season for the Yankees.
1972 — Burt Hooton of the Cubs no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0 at Wrigley Field.
1978 — Bob Forsch of the St. Louis Cardinals no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0. Less than a year later, Bob’s brother Ken of the Houston Astros pitched a no-hitter against Atlanta. They are the only brothers to throw no-hitters.
1983 — LA Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey appears in his 1,118th straight National League game, breaking the mark held by Billy Williams.
1984 — Dave Kingman of the Oakland A’s hit three home runs, including a grand slam, in his first three at-bats. In total, he drove in eight runs in a 9-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
1989 — Kelly Gruber becomes the first player in Toronto Blue Jays history to hit for the cycle in a 15-8 victory against the Kansas City Royals.
1997 — The Chicago Cubs set the mark for worst start in National League history, making three more errors as they extended their losing streak to 12 with a 4-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Chicago broke the modern NL record of 0-10 set by Atlanta in 1988 and the overall NL record of 0-11 by the 1884 Detroit Wolverines.
2005 — Toronto’s Reed Johnson was hit by a major league record-tying three pitches — two with the bases loaded — in the Blue Jays’ 8-0 victory over Texas.
2006 — Albert Pujols hit three home runs, including a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, to give St. Louis an 8-7 win over Cincinnati.
2007 — The Cleveland Indians became the first team in nearly 55 years to win a game with their only hit coming in their first at-bat. Grady Sizemore led off Cleveland’s 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox with a double.
2009 — Ichiro Suzuki makes history as collects the 3,086th hit of his pro career, breaking the Japanese record held for decades by Isao Harimoto.
2009 — Grady Sizemore hit a grand slam and Cleveland ruined the first game at the new Yankee Stadium by beating New York 10-2.
2014 — Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda pitched the New York Yankees to a 3-0, 2-0 sweep of the Chicago Cubs in a chilly day-night-doubleheader. The Yankees had not won by shutout twice in one day since April 9, 1987, against Kansas City. No team in the major leagues had done it since Minnesota swept Oakland on June 26, 1988.
2015 — Giancarlo Stanton becomes the Marlins all-time leading home run hitter when he slugs #155 for his career.
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April 17
1932 — New York first baseman Bill Terry tied an NL record with 21 putouts as the Giants beat Boston 5-0 behind Hal Schumacher’s two-hitter.
1951 — In his first major league game, Mickey Mantle went 1-for-4 in the New York Yankees’ 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
1953 — Mickey Mantle cleared the bleachers at Griffith Stadium with a 565-foot home run off Chuck Stobbs. The shot came in the fifth inning of a 7-3 win over the Senators.
1964 — The New York Mets lost their first game at Shea Stadium, falling 4-3 to the Pirates. Pittsburgh’s Willie Stargell hit the first homer at Shea.
1969 — Bill Stoneman of Montreal pitched a 7-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies in the 10th game of the Expos’ existence.
1976 — Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies hit four consecutive home runs and a single in an 18-16, 10-inning victory over the Cubs in Wrigley Field. Hitting .167 going into the game, he connected twice off Rick Reuschel, once off Rick’s brother, Paul, and once off Darold Knowles. He drove in eight runs.
1983 — Nolan Ryan strikes out seven Expos in a 6-3 Houston victory to become only the second pitcher in major league history to record 3,500 career strikeouts.
2000 — Major League Baseball owners vote to approve the $96 million sale of the Kansas City Royals to team chairman David Glass.
2001 — Barry Bonds became the 17th major leaguer to hit 500 home runs. Bonds’ two-run, eighth-inning drive off Terry Adams went into San Francisco Bay to lead the Giants over the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2.
2008 — Troy Tulowitzki’s RBI double with two outs in the 22nd inning scored Willy Taveras and the Colorado Rockies beat the San Diego Padres 2-1 in the longest game in the majors in nearly 15 years, a 6-hour, 16-minute marathon.
2008 — Chipper Jones, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann hit consecutive home runs in a span of 12 pitches in the fifth inning off Florida’s Ricky Nolasco in Atlanta’s 8-0 win.
2009 — Jason Kubel completed the ninth cycle in Twins history with a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning that helped Minnesota to an 11-9 victory over the Angels.
2010 — Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the first no-hitter in the Colorado Rockies’ 18-year history, dominating the Atlanta Braves in a 4-0 victory. Jimenez (3-0) walked six — all in the first five innings. He was helped by Dexter Fowler’s diving backhanded catch in left-center field in the seventh inning.
2010 — Jose Reyes hit a sacrifice fly in the 20th inning and the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 in the longest game in the majors in two years. Jeff Francoeur also had a sacrifice fly for New York in the 19th inning, snapping a scoreless tie, but Yadier Molina singled in Albert Pujols with two out in the bottom half. St. Louis left the bases loaded in the 10th, 12th and 14th and stranded 22 runners, including 14 in extra innings.
2012 — Jamie Moyer, 49, became the oldest pitcher to win a major league game. He threw seven masterful innings and Dexter Fowler hit a two-run homer, helping the Colorado Rockies hold on for a 5-3 win over the San Diego Padres. Moyer’s 268th win tied him with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer for 34th on the career list.
2014 — Major League Baseball suspended Seattle Mariners first baseman Ji-Man Choi 50 games following a positive test for a performance-enhancing substance.
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April 18
1899 — John McGraw made his managerial debut at age 26 with the Orioles. He led them to a 5-3 victory over the New York Giants, a team he later managed for more than 30 years.
1916 — Philadelphia’s Grover Alexander pitched his first of 16 shutouts of the season with a win over the Boston Braves.
1923 — In the first game played in Yankee Stadium, a record crowd of 72,400 watched Babe Ruth lead the Yankees past the Red Sox with a home run.
1945 — In his major league debut, one-armed outfielder Pete Gray had one hit in four at-bats in the St. Louis Browns’ 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
1942 — Due to the fear of a Japanese attack, west coast military leaders ask the Pacific Coast League to limit crowds to 3,000 fans.
1946 — Jackie Robinson makes his minor league debut for the Montreal Royals, the International League affiliate club of the Brooklyn Dodgers.
1950 — The first opening night game was held in St. Louis. The Cardinals, behind a complete game by Gerry Staley and home runs from Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2.
1955 — Roberto Clemente’s first major league home run, an inside-the-parker.
1958 — The LA Dodgers play their first game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in front of a crowd of 78,672.
1964 — Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers strikes out the side on nine pitches, becoming the first pitcher in major league history to achieve the feat twice.
1970 — Nolan Ryan of the New York Mets allowed one hit — a leadoff single by Denny Doyle — and struck out 15 in a 7-0 win over Philadelphia.
1982 — The Atlanta Braves defeated the Astros 6-5 in Houston for their 11th straight win to start the season, a National League record.
1987 — Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt hit his 500th home run with two outs in the ninth to rally the Phillies to an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium.
1997 — Roger Pavlik of the Rangers became the first AL pitcher to walk the first four batters of the game in a 6-5 loss to Toronto.
2000 — Adam Kennedy tied a club record with eight RBIs and came within a double of the cycle as the Anaheim Angels defeated Toronto 16-10. A hot dog promotion at the SkyDome went awry as fans got splattered with bits of wiener when they fell apart in mid air after being shot from the “Hot Dog Blaster.” Although the hot dogs repeatedly disintegrated, promoters continued shooting them into the stands.
2005 — The New York Yankees scored 13 runs in the second inning of a 19-8 win over Tampa Bay. The last time New York scored 13 runs in an inning was June 21, 1945, in the fifth inning of a 14-4 victory at Boston.
2006 — Luis González of the Arizona Diamondbacks doubles to become the 21st major leaguer with 300 home runs and 500 doubles.
2007 — Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Buehrle walked Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth, then promptly picked him off first base.
2009 — Asdrubal Cabrera and Mark DeRosa went a combined 8-for-13, with 11 RBIs in Cleveland’s 22-4 victory against New York at Yankee Stadium. The Indians put together the first record-setting performance in the new Yankee Stadium, scoring 14 runs in the second inning — the most allowed by New York in an inning.
2017 — Pirates All-Star CF Starling Marte is handed an 80-game suspension for testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug.
2018 — Owners of the worst record in the majors at 3-15, the Reds fire manager Bryan Price following a 2-0 loss to the Brewers.
2023 — Clayton Kershaw records the 200th win of his career with a typical performance, holding the Mets scoreless over seven innings while racking up nine strikeouts in a 5 - 0 Dodgers win. At 200-88, Kershaw is just the fourth pitcher of the modern era to record his 200th win before having 100 losses, following Whitey Ford, Lefty Grove and Pedro Martinez.
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