April 16
1929 — Cleveland’s Earl Averill became the first American League player to hit a home run in his first major league plate appearance. The Indians won the game 5-4 in 11 innings on Carl Lind’s double.
1935 — Babe Ruth, 40, made a sensational National League debut in Boston. His single and homer off Carl Hubbell led the Braves over the Giants 4-2.
1940 — Bob Feller of Cleveland defeated the Chicago White Sox 1-0 in the only opening day no-hitter in major league history.
1948 — WGN-TV televised a baseball game for the first time. It was an exhibition game at Wrigley Field with Jack Brickhouse doing the play-by-play. The White Sox defeated the Cubs 4-1.
1961 — Beginning his historic chase of Babe Ruth’s 60 home run season-record, Roger Maris connects for his first homer in the twelfth game of the season for the Yankees.
1972 — Burt Hooton of the Cubs no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies 4-0 at Wrigley Field.
1978 — Bob Forsch of the St. Louis Cardinals no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies 5-0. Less than a year later, Bob’s brother Ken of the Houston Astros pitched a no-hitter against Atlanta. They are the only brothers to throw no-hitters.
1983 — LA Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey appears in his 1,118th straight National League game, breaking the mark held by Billy Williams.
1984 — Dave Kingman of the Oakland A’s hit three home runs, including a grand slam, in his first three at-bats. In total, he drove in eight runs in a 9-6 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
1989 — Kelly Gruber becomes the first player in Toronto Blue Jays history to hit for the cycle in a 15-8 victory against the Kansas City Royals.
1997 — The Chicago Cubs set the mark for worst start in National League history, making three more errors as they extended their losing streak to 12 with a 4-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies. Chicago broke the modern NL record of 0-10 set by Atlanta in 1988 and the overall NL record of 0-11 by the 1884 Detroit Wolverines.
2005 — Toronto’s Reed Johnson was hit by a major league record-tying three pitches — two with the bases loaded — in the Blue Jays’ 8-0 victory over Texas.
2006 — Albert Pujols hit three home runs, including a two-run shot in the bottom of the ninth, to give St. Louis an 8-7 win over Cincinnati.
2007 — The Cleveland Indians became the first team in nearly 55 years to win a game with their only hit coming in their first at-bat. Grady Sizemore led off Cleveland’s 2-1 win over the Chicago White Sox with a double.
2009 — Ichiro Suzuki makes history as collects the 3,086th hit of his pro career, breaking the Japanese record held for decades by Isao Harimoto.
2009 — Grady Sizemore hit a grand slam and Cleveland ruined the first game at the new Yankee Stadium by beating New York 10-2.
2014 — Masahiro Tanaka and Michael Pineda pitched the New York Yankees to a 3-0, 2-0 sweep of the Chicago Cubs in a chilly day-night-doubleheader. The Yankees had not won by shutout twice in one day since April 9, 1987, against Kansas City. No team in the major leagues had done it since Minnesota swept Oakland on June 26, 1988.
2015 — Giancarlo Stanton becomes the Marlins all-time leading home run hitter when he slugs #155 for his career.
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