Baseball's Diversion...
It's called Opening Day or "night" to be more accurate. Bud Selig brings in George Mitchell to investigate the steroid scandal and as accusations, denials and record book asterisks all get dumped into this bottomless pit of a baseball stew resembling the remains of something rejected by the producers of "Fear Factor", we hear the plaintive cry of "Play Ball" and not a minute too soon...
From 1876 to 1989 the Cincinnati Reds had the exclusive privilege of playing the first game of the season. In 1990 the tradition was broken. This year's opener on Sunday night features the Chicago White Sox defending their championship at home against Cleveland (ESPN)...
With President George Bush scheduled to throw out the first ball you might be interested to know that the first president to do so was Howard Taft on April 14, 1910 in Washington, D.C. Eleven sitting presidents have done so but none more ambidextrously than Harry S. Truman who threw out the first ball with both the left and right arms (but not at the same time). Here are some Opening Day performance highlights:
- Ted Williams was a .449 hitter in openers...
- Bob Feller pitched a no-hitter in the 1940 opener (his opponent, Lefty Grove almost pitched one too, the first hit he gave up was a single after 7.1 innings)...
- Hank Aaron hit his Babe Ruth record tying 714th home run in 1974...
- In the 1907 opener at the Polo Grounds, Giant fans began throwing snowballs on the field with their team losing 3-0 and fans stormed the field. After homeplate umpire Bill Klem got hit by a snowball, he called the game a forfeit with the Phillies winning 9-0...
- The record for most consecutive Opening Day wins by a team is 9, shared by the New York Mets, St. Louis Browns and Cincinnati Reds...
- Jimmy Key holds the record for Opening Day wins without a loss, with 7...
- Frank Robinson holds the Opening Day career record for most home runs with 8...
- Walter Johnson holds the Opening Day record for most shutouts with 9 (he had an overall 9-5 record)...
How important is winning on Opening Day ? It was the late Hall of Fame pitcher Early Wynn who summed it up best: "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"...
March 31 Memories...
1889] French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel unfurls the French tricolor from atop the Eiffel Tower to mark its completion...
1917] The U.S. takes possession of the Virgin Islands from Denmark (what do the Danes know about sunbathed beaches, bikini-clad women and Club Med ???)...
1918] For the 1st time in U.S. history, Daylight Savings Time goes into effect (don't forget to turn your clocks one-hour ahead at 2 a.m. Sunday)...
1923] The 1st U.S. dance marathon is won by Alma Cummings who sets a new world record of 27 hours in New York City (Way to go Alma. Alma ? Alma ?)...
1931] 43-year old Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne and 7 others are killed in a plane crash in Kansas (Rockne was en route from Kansas City to L.A. where he was going to film a football movie)...
1933] Congress approves the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to put people back to work in the parks...
1940] La Guardia Airport officially opens...
1943] Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma" opens on Broadway...
1958] Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" is released...
1975] Minnie Riperton is #1 with "Lovin' You" (the song is produced by Stevie Wonder. I never met a lovelier person than Minnie who at one time was one of Stevie's "Wonderlove" backup singers. Minnie and Dick Rudolph's daughter, Maya Rudolph is a cast member of "Saturday Night Live")...
1975] John Wooden coaches his last game, a 92-85 UCLA win over Kentucky which gives his Bruins their 10th national title under his leadership...
1976] The New Jersey Supreme Court rules that Karen Anne Quinlan could be disconnected from her respirator (Quinlan would remain comatose until 1985 when she died)...
1982] The Doobie Brothers break up...
1986] O'Kelly Isley of the Isley Brothers (who I had the pleasure of knowing) dies of a heart attack at 48...
1992] "Dateline NBC" premieres (and it's still running)...
1995] 23-year old Tejano singing idol Selena is shot to death by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of Selena's fan club outside a Corpus Christi motel room...
1998] Former New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug dies at 77...
1998] On the same day that the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays play their inaugural games, the Milwaukee Brewers switch leagues from the American to the National but they lose their NL debut, 2-1 to the Braves...
1999] 4 New York City police officers are charged with murder for killing Amadou Diallo (the officers were acquitted in 2000)...
2004] Air America debuts on 5 stations (is it up to 6 yet ?)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1928] Hockey Hall of Famer Gordie Howe...
1934] Richard Chamberlain...
1934] Shirley Jones...
1935] Herb Alpert...
1943] Christopher Walken...
1945] Gabe Kaplan...
1948] Al Gore...
1948] Rhea Perlman...
[Today is the 90th day of 2006 with 275 days remaining in the year. We're only 2 days away from opening day]
Saturday, April 1, 2006...
April Fool's Day Memories...
1778] Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans Businessman creates the $ symbol (Pollock dies a pauper. April Fool's)...
1864] The 1st travel accident policy is issued to James Batterson by the Travelers Insurance Company...
1876] The 1st official National League game is played (Boston beats Philadelphia 6-5)...
1930] Leo Harnett of the Cubs breaks the altitude record for a catch when he catches a baseball dropped from the Goodyear blimp 800 feet over Los Angeles (excavation of his body takes several days but he's still holding the ball)...
1938] The Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown, NY...
1946] Weight Watchers is formed (without Fergie ?)...
1960] The U.S. launches the 1st weather satellite, TIROS-1...
1963] The Typographers Union ends their strike that had closed 9 New York City newspapers for 114 days (the strike began on Dec. 8, 1962)...
1963] After a 16-year career with the Brooklyn, then-Los Angeles Dodgers, "The Dook of Flatbush" returns when Duke Snider is traded to the Mets (where he hits .243 with 45 RBIs in 129 games before being traded to San Francisco. Snider enters the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980)...
1963] "General Hospital" and "Doctors" premieres on TV...
1964] John Lennon is reunited with his father after 17 years...
1972] Major leaguers walk out at the end of spring training and begin the 1st general player's strike in sports history (they return on April 13)...
1976] Jimmy Buffett releases "Margaritaville"...
1984] Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father in Los Angeles, one day before his 45th birthday...
1987] Mets pitcher Dwight ("Doc") Gooden tests positive for cocaine (he spends the 1st 2 months of the season in rehab and that my friends was the beginning of the end of what could have been a brilliant career)...
1991] After making the Final Four, 5 times under Coach Mike Krzyzewski since 1986, Duke finally wins its 1st NCAA championship with a 72-65 win over Kansas...
1996] Homeplate umpire John McSherry dies after collapsing during a game...
2003] American troops enter a hospital in Iraq and rescue Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch, held prisoner since her unit was ambushed 9 days earlier...
2004] President George W. Bush signs into law new protections for the unborn that made it a separate federal crime to harm a fetus during an assault on the mother...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the timeline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1929] Jane Powell...
1932] Debbie Reynolds...
1938] Ali MacGraw...
1939] Rudolph Isley...
1947] David Eisenhower...
1948] Jimmy Cliff...
[Today is the 91st day of 2006 with 274 days remaining in the year and we're one day away from opening day]...
Sunday, April 2, 2006...
April 2 Memories...
1513] Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon lands in Florida (real estate prices go through the roof)...
1877] President Rutherford B. Hayes rolls out the 1st Easter egg as the annual Easter Egg Roll has begun on the White House lawn...
1889] Charles Hall patents aluminum (Reynolds would have had a better ring to it)...
1902] The 1st motion picture theater opens, the Electric Theatre in Los Angeles...
1932] A $50,000 ransom is paid for the infant son of Charles and Anna Lindbergh (the child is not returned and will be found dead the following month)...
1956] "The Edge of Night" and "As the World Turns" debuts on CBS-TV...
1965] The Beach Boys record "I Get Around"...
1967] Steve Winwood leaves the Spencer Davis Group to form Traffic...
1967] The Beatles finish recording "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"...
1972] Mets manager Gil Hodges who managed the Mets to their 1st world championship in 1969, dies of a heart attack on a golf course in West Palm Beach shortly before the team breaks camp to head north (Yogi Berra is named to replace Hodges as manager)...
1978] Stevie Wonder's tribute to Duke Ellington, "Sir Duke" is released...
1978] The 1st episode of "Dallas" airs on CBS-TV (the series will run for the last time on May 3, 1991)...
1982] Argentina invades the British-owned Falkland Islands but the following June, Britain takes the islands back...
1986] The NCAA adopts the 3-point shot in men's basketball and decides to use instant replay to check scoring and timing errors...
1987] The speed limit on U.S. interstate highways is increased to 65 mph in limited areas...
1992] Mob boss John Gotti is convicted in New York of murder and racketeering (he's later sentenced to life in prison where he eventually dies)...
1998] Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli dies in a hotel room in Frankfurt, Germany...
2005] Pope John Paul II dies (Karol Jozef Wojtyla was 85. He is succeeded by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger who becomes Pope Benedict XVI)...
[To ensure accuracy of dates and content, multiple reference sources are used in the dateline]...
Happy Birthday To...
1917] Dabbs Greer...
1928] Rita Gam...
1942] Leon Russell...
1945] Linda Hunt...
1947] Emmylou Harris...
1961] "Law and Order's" Christopher Meloni...
[Today is the 92nd day of 2006 with 273 days remaining in the year and opening day is tonight]
