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For baseball fans like us, no day of the year is more highly anticipated than Opening Day. With the first pitch of the 2022 season just around the corner, Bill Schaefer returns today with a timely recap of some of the more notable Opening Days in baseball history. The featured photo above is from Opening Day at Shea Stadium, 1965. I think you’ll enjoy Bill’s essay. -GL
Let’s Play Ball!
SEVEN MEMORABLE OPENING DAY GAMES
“It’s like Christmas but warmer” –Pete Rose
“Opening Day. In baseball, no other day is so pure with possibility. No scores yet, no losses, no blame or disappointment…”-Mary Schmich
We thought maybe the strike would demolish the season. Then, all of a sudden, all the dead ends found new pathways to agreement, and all 162 games were scheduled. Only a relatively modest delay, and we’re all set to “Play Ball!” come Thursday, April 7.
Every year, as spring training commences, no matter what team you root for, there are always exciting young prospects and other players about to reach their full potential. On paper, you can make a case for a terrific season, maybe even a championship. Sure, if everything goes right and we get a few breaks, we can absolutely make the playoffs, right?
But the only thing that’s certain in baseball is that everything is uncertain. Take the case of Rudolph Valentino Regalato (named after his mother’s favorite actor). In spring camp with the Cleveland Indians in 1954, “Red-Hot” Rudy was magnificent. He hit .447 and socked 11 home runs—talk about a Hall-of-Fame third baseman! But, alas, over three seasons he hit a meager .249 and sent just two lonely
baseballs over the fence.
Conversely, there was Ron Guidry in the spring of 1978. The wiry lefty was belted all over the grapefruit circuit. In one exhibition game, he was so bad Yankee manager Billy Martin went to the mound and asked, “Ron, can you get anybody out? Name him and I’ll let you pitch to him.” So, right out of the gate “Louisiana Lightning” was unreal. He won the Cy Young with a 25-3 record, sported a microscopic 1.74 ERA, pitched nine shutouts, completed 16 games, and the Bronx Bombers won the World Series.
In the spirit of a brand new season, here are some highlights of significant Opening Day games spanning the decades but not preceding the lively ball era. However, borrowing from Gene Nelson as he sang “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City” (from Oklahoma!), we won’t get within 47 years of the “modren world.” The intent of Baseball History Comes Alive is not to get too “modren.” Our aim is to brighten your spirits. Here goes:
April 8, 1975, Shea Stadium: Mets 2, Phillies 1.
Tom Seaver vs. Steve Carlton—this was a classic pitcher’s duel between two all-time greats. Seaver made more opening day starts than any other pitcher in major league history with 16. In this one, he gave up a lone run in nine innings, while fanning as many batters. Carlton, who made 14 opening day starts himself, was equally stingy until the bottom of the ninth when he yielded a game-winning base knock to Joe Torre. The two Hall-of-Famers faced each other five times in season openers: ’73, ’74, ’75, ’81, and ’83. Seaver had a remarkable 1.19 ERA and the brilliant left-hander posted a fine 2.91. Tom Terrific won four of the five games.
April 4, 1974, Riverfront Stadium: Reds 7, Braves 6.
The game was memorable as the setting for Hank Aaron’s 714th career home run, tying Babe Ruth’s record. A mark they said would never be broken. Hammerin’ Henry stroked a three-run shot off the steady right-hander Jack Billingham in the first inning. Quite a game otherwise, too: Pete Rose scorched a two-bagger with two outs in the last of the ninth to knot the game at six. The eleventh inning saw Charlie Hustle double again and then race home on a wild pitch to win the game.
April 14, 1955, Polo Grounds: Dodgers 10-Giants 8.
My dad and I couldn’t wait to see the Giants’ first home game of the year after a marvelous 1954 improbable World Series sweep of the vaunted 111-win Cleveland Indians. We got our usual upper deck reserved seats behind home plate. With the Giants trailing 10-8, Monte Irvin led off the last of the ninth against the burly Brooklyn right-hander, Jim Hughes. This is where the game became memorable. Monte was always slightly crouched at the plate, like a panther, and exploded a line drive just to the right of shortstop that gradually began to rise.
Then we noticed Duke Snider off with the crack of the bat, full speed, back to the plate, racing toward the 10-foot cinder track fronting the centerfield bleachers. My father and I looked at each other and exclaimed almost simultaneously, “It’s going to go into the bleachers!” (Only Luke Easter, in a Negro League game, Hank Aaron and Lou Brock, on consecutive days, and Joe Adcock had ever homered into the Polo Grounds bleachers). Snider reached the track, leaped high in the air, and then fell in a heap at the base of the small metal fence – with white flashing out of the webbing of his glove! I was so mad I stood up and slammed my scorecard into the seat, my hero robbed again! Then I realized…that was the most phenomenal catch I ever saw. Nobody, including Mays-DiMaggio-Maddox-Speaker, was a better centerfielder than Duke Snider.
Brooklyn went 22-2 in their first 24 games, and then beat the Yankees for the first time, in a thrilling seven-game World Series.
April 15, 1947, Ebbets Field: Dodgers 5, Braves 3.
Perhaps the most important game in baseball history, as Jackie Robinson, playing first base, made his major league debut breaking the infamous color barrier. “I’m for Jackie Robinson” buttons flashed among the 26, 623 fans in attendance. Jack went hitless but scored the go-ahead run in the Dodger victory.
April 16, 1940, Comisky Park: Indians 1, White Sox 0.
Twenty-one-year-old Bob Feller threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in major league history while striking out nine Chicago batters. Rapid Robert would win a career-high 27 games that year and go on to author two more no-hitters in his Hall-of-Fame run.
April 13, 1926, Griffith Stadium: Senators 1, Athletics 0.
“He’s got a gun concealed somewhere about his person. They can’t tell me he throws them balls with his arm.”-Ring Lardner
Walter Johnson started 14 season openers for Washington and posted a major league record seven shutouts. At 38, his performance in ’26 was beyond extraordinary. The Big Train allowed the powerful Athletics (Al Simmons, Mickey Cochrane) only six hits in a 15-inning complete game. Remarkably, the game was played in only two hours, 33 minutes—a shade over10 minutes per inning! Today, it often takes longer than that to change pitchers.
Wait, there’s more…
April 18, 1923, Yankee Stadium: Yankees 4, Red Sox 1
Babe Ruth said, “I’d give a year of my life if I could hit a home run on Opening Day of this great new park.” April 18, 1923, marked the grand opening of the original Yankee Stadium, aka “The House That Ruth Built.” And, of course, the Bambino, who was beyond a mere mortal, crashed a three-run blast that made the difference in a 4-1 Yankee win over the Red Sox.
Feel more excited now about the new season?
Bill Schaefer
Sources: Ohio Magazine, When is Opening Day? April 2019, by John Hyduk; The Best Opening Day Games Ever by David Adler; Washington Senators 1926 schedule almanac; 1955 Brooklyn schedule almanac; Bob Feller baseball-reference page; Ron Guidry baseball-reference page.
Photo Credits: All from Google search
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