ON THIS DATE: APRIL 15

1909: Leon Ames of the New York Giants pitched a no-hitter for 9 1-3 innings on opening day, but lost 3-0 to Brooklyn in 13 innings.

1915: Rube Marquard of the New York Giants no-hit the Brooklyn Dodgers, winning 2-0.

1947: Jackie Robinson played his first major league game, for the Dodgers. He went 0-for-3, but scored the deciding run in a 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves in Brooklyn. He was the first black to appear in the majors since 1884.

1957: President Eisenhower officially opened the 1956 season by tossing out the first ball at Griffith Stadium in Washington D.C. The ball was the 10 millionth Spalding baseball to be used in major league play.

1958: Major league baseball came to California as the transplanted Giants and Dodgers played the first game on the Pacific Coast. Playing in Seals Stadium in San Francisco, Ruben Gomez blanked Los Angeles 8-0.

1968: Houston and the New York Mets played 24 innings in a night game in the Astrodome before the Astros won 1-0. The game lasted more than six hours.

1976: New York opened the refurbished Yankee Stadium with an 11-4 rout of the Minnesota Twins.

1987: Juan Nieves threw the first no-hitter in Brewers history as Milwaukee beat Baltimore 7-0.

1993: Sparky Anderson earned his 2,000th victory as a manager as the Detroit Tigers rallied to beat the Athletics 3-2.

1993: Andre Dawson became the 25th player to hit 400 home runs as the Red Sox beat the Indians 4-3.

1995: In a 2-1 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Mike Schmidt plays in his 1,795th game wearing a Phillies uniform, breaking Richie Ashburn’s franchise record. The first-ballot Hall of Famer will extend the streak to 2,404 contests before retiring in 1989.

1998: The first-ever AL-NL doubleheader is held in New York’s Shea Stadium as the Yankees beat the Anaheim Angels 6-3 and the New York Mets edge the Cubs 2-1. The Yankees draw a crowd of 40,743, a dramatic contrast to the gathering of 16,012 who show up for the Mets game at night.