ON THIS DATE
1912: Two of the greatest ballparks ever — Fenway Park and Tiger Stadium — host their first game.
1916: Chicago Cubs play their first game at Weeghman Park, later known as Wrigley Field.
1937: Gee Walker of the Tigers hits for the cycle on opening day, going home run, triple, double, single.
1938: Cleveland’s Bob Feller pitches the first of his 12career one-hitters.
1939: Ted Williams gets his first hit, a 400-foot double at Yankee Stadium off future Hall of Famer Red Ruffing.
1942: Boston Marathon won by ordinary Joe Smith. 1943: Braves manager Casey Stengel is struck by a taxi, fractures a leg. Can’t anybody drive around here?!
1945: Steve Spurrier, ball coach, is born in Miami Beach.
1949: Riding at Golden Gate Fields, a 17-year-old jockey named Willie Shoemaker wins his first race. 1961: Don Mattingly is born in Evansville, Indiana. 1967: Tom Seaver gets the first of his 311wins. 1973: Lamond Murray, who along with Jason Kidd made history at Cal — they are the only two Bears to be taken in the first round of the same draft — is born in Pasadena.
1982: The Atlanta Braves run their record to 12-0, breaking the record for best start set a year earlier by the Billy Martin A’s.
1986: Michael Jordan scores 63points, an NBA playoff record that still stands.
1988: The Baltimore Orioles, managed by Cal Ripken’s dad, set worst record to start a season 0-14 (the streak will reach 0-21).
2001: Carlos Delgado of the Blue Jays hits three homers — for the second time of the young season. The last one is his 200th career homer. After 17 games, he’s on pace to hit 95; he finished with 39.
2002: Carl Yastrzemski and Mark McGwire get married; separate weddings, smart guy.
2006: Julio Franco, 47, becomes the oldest player in major league history to hit a home run, breaking the record set in 1930by Philadephia A’s pitcher Jack Quinn, 46.
2008: Danica Patrick becomes the first female driver to win an IndyCar Series race.
2014: Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who could have been the champion of the world, dies of prostate cancer in Toronto at 76.
2015: Bob St. Clair, raw-meat eating 49ers Hall of Famer, dies in Santa Rosa at 84from complications related to breaking a hip.