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Thursday, April 1st, 2010 | Posted by Editor - Blog News Service

History of Opening Day – Major League Baseball

History of Opening Day - Major League Baseball

History of Opening Day - Major League Baseball

Opening Day of baseball is one of the most anticipated days of the year. So it should come as no surprise that some of the best season-starting performances in history have come from players who have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

For over a century, baseball has been hailed above all other sports as America’s National Pastime. And no other game during the regular one-hundred sixty-two game season has been as eagerly anticipated as Opening Day. Just look at any die-hard baseball fan’s calendar. Vacation? Holidays? Anniversaries? All are often forgotten and pale in comparison with the coveted first game of the season. Ask any fan what the “official” start of Spring is. Chances are their answer will be Opening Day. Much more than just an event, it is an experience.

For generations, Opening Day has arrived amid pageantry. In Cincinnati, Ohio, home of the sport’s first professional team, an annual parade marks an unofficial “city holiday” with young and old alike taking the day off to cheer on the Reds. For decades, the first pitch of every major league season officially took place in Cincinnati. Cincinnati remains the only team who always opens the season with a home game. The past decade has brought the introduction of a Sunday night opening game televised by ESPN, as well as the staging of season-opening series in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Japan (with the current World Series champion as the “home” team against an opponent in the same league). The ensuing Monday brings Opening Day to numerous major league ballparks and the game that day in Cincinnati (the only team that always opens the season at home) is still observed throughout baseball as the “traditional opener.” Opening Day is a state of mind as well, with countless baseball fans known to recognize this unofficial holiday as a good reason to call in sick at work or “play hooky” from school (as most teams typically play their home opener in the afternoon) and go out to the ballpark for the first of 162 regular season games. Teams’ home openers serve as the only regular season games during the year in which the entire rosters of both teams as well as coaches and clubhouse staff are introduced to the crowd prior to the games (for the rest of the year, ballparks only introduce the starting lineups).

A national event, Opening Day has also become a “political pitcher’s” arena for U.S. Presidents to show their “stuff.” On April 14, 1910, President, and baseball enthusiast, William Howard Taft attended the home opener in Washington D.C. Since then, eleven sitting U.S. presidents have tossed out the season’s ceremonial first pitch. One standout, Harry S. Truman, showcased his ambidextrous talent when he threw out balls with both his right and left arm in 1950. Beyond Presidents, Opening Day has witnessed many other historical performances:

Unfortunately, Opening Day has also been marred by riots and civil disobedience. At the start of the 1907 season, the New York Giants opened against the Phillies following a heavy snowstorm. In preparation for the game, groundskeepers were forced to shovel large drifts of snow onto the outer edges of the field in foul territory. After falling behind 3-0, the disappointed fans at the Polo Grounds began hurling snowballs onto the playing field, disrupting play. As the melee progressed, chaos ensued and fans began rushing onto the field to continue the snowball fight. After being pelted, Home plate umpire Bill Klem had enough and called a forfeit in favor of the Phillies.

Statistically speaking, how important is Opening Day to a team in regards to a championship season? The answer is not that much. The record for most consecutive Opening Day wins by a team is nine, shared by the St. Louis Browns, Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets. Currently (through 2004) the longest winning streak on Opening Day is three W’s, shared by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Toronto Blue Jays. Still every fan looks forward to starting off the season with a win.

Individual Opening Day stats however, speak volumes on the career accomplishments of a player. On the mound, Greg Maddux is a sure thing with a perfect 6-0 record in seven career starts. Jimmy Key holds the record for most wins on Opening Day without a loss, with seven and other perfect Opening Day hurlers include Wes Ferrell at 6-0, and Warneke and Rip Sewell with 5-0 scorecards. At the plate, Hall of Fame outfielder Frank Robinson & future Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. each hit eight career / record setting home runs on the first day of the season, while Willie Mays and Eddie Mathews each belted seven Opening Day round-trippers. Above all others Walter Johnson was perhaps the greatest ballplayer ever to don a uniform on Opening Day. In fourteen season openers for the Washington Senators, Johnson hurled a record nine shutouts with a nine and five (9-5) overall record. His two most famous starts include a 3-0 masterpiece against the A’s in 1910 and a 1-0 marathon victory while battling fifteen innings against Philadelphia’s Eddie Rommel.

Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn, who played for the Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, summed up the essence of Opening Day when he said, “An opener is not like any other game. There’s that little extra excitement, a faster beating of the heart. You have that anxiety to get off to a good start, for yourself and for the team. You know that when you win the first one, you can’t lose ‘em all.”

Regardless of the outcome, Opening Day still remains as the number one date in the hearts, minds (and on the calendars) of baseball fans everywhere. The official countdown begins after the last pitch of the World Series when we can’t wait to hear those two magic words again, “Play Ball!”

Ted Williams is considered by many the best hitter of all-time – and he certainly supported that argument on Opening Day. He played in 14 Opening Day games, hitting .449 with three home runs and 14 RBIs. He had at least one hit in every Opening Day game he appeared in.

On the other side of the ball, only one no-hitter has been thrown on Opening Day in baseball history. Bob Feller tossed a 1-0 victory at Comiskey Park against the White Sox in 1940 to put his name in the record books. It remains the only game in history where the batting average of every member of one team was the same before and after a single game (the White Sox started April 16, 1940, with averages of .000 and ended the day with the same averages).

Walter Johnson may have been the most consistent pitcher on Opening Day. Johnson got the nod in 14 games with the Washington Senators and threw a record 12 complete games and seven shutouts – finishing with a 9-5 Opening Day record. One of those games included a 15-inning win over Philadelphia in 1926.

Tom Seaver started the most Opening Days games with 16 and Robin Roberts started the most consecutive Opening Day games with 12. Don Drysdale holds a different kind of record for pitchers – he hit two homers on Opening Day.

A more celebrated home run hitter, Babe Ruth, tossed a three-hitter pitching for the Red Sox against the Yankees for the win in 1917. That season he won a career-high 24 games, led the American League in complete games with 35 and struck out 170. By 1919, he was almost a full-time outfielder and hit 29 homers. In 1920, he was starring for the Yankees.

Hank Aaron tied Ruth with his 714th career home run on Opening Day in 1974. The historic three-run shot came at Riverfront Stadium on April 4. Just four days later, Aaron hit No. 715 in Atlanta for sole possession of the most hallowed record in sports.

Frank Robinson has hit eight Opening Day homers, which ties him with Ken Griffey Jr. for the most followed by Willie Mays and Eddie Matthews, who each hit seven. Mays hit one of his homers in the opener in 1971 and went on to homer in the next three games for a major league record.

Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem even made history in 1907 by calling the only forfeit in Opening Day history. Snow on the field at the Polo Grounds in New York forced the grounds crew to shovel snow drifts along the edges of stadium seating. When rowdy fans got upset when their Giants fell behind, they began throwing snowballs onto the field. Once Klem was hit, he called the game for the Phillies.

Early Wynn once summed up Opening Day by saying, “”An opener is not like any other game. There’s that little extra excitement, a faster beating of the heart. You have that anxiety to get off to a good start, for yourself and for the team. You know that when you win the first one, you can’t lose ‘em all.”

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