April 1
1931 — Pitcher Virne Mitchell, 17, signed with the Chattanooga club of Tennessee, becoming the first woman to play for an otherwise all-male baseball team.
1942 — Major league owners decide not to allow furloughed players in the military to play.
1969 — The Seattle Pilots trade minor league OF Lou Piniella to the Kansas City Royals. Piniella will go on to win American League Rookie of the Year.
1970 — An investment group headed by Bud Selig bought the Seattle pilots for $10.8 million.
1972 — The first collective players strike in major league history began. The strike lasted 12 days and canceled 86 games.
1988 — For the first time since 1956, the Special Veterans Committee does not elect anyone to the Hall of Fame.
1989 — A. Bartlett Giamatti took over as baseball commissioner.
1996 — Longtime umpire John McSherry collapses and dies from a heart attack on Opening Day at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium, in the 1st inning of a game between the Reds and Expos. The game is cancelled.
2001 — The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 8-1 when the major league baseball season opened in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
2008 — The New York Yankees set a major league record by winning their 11th straight home opener.
2013 — Bryce Harper homered in his first two at-bats, Stephen Strasburg retired 19 batters in a row and the defending NL East champion Washington Nationals opened the season with a 2-0 victory over the Miami Marlins. Harper, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, hit solo shots over the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center field off Ricky Nolasco in the first and fourth innings.
2013 — Clayton Kershaw launched his first career home run to break a scoreless tie in the eighth inning, then finished off a four-hitter that led the Los Angeles Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants 4-0 on opening day. Kershaw became the first pitcher in the majors to homer on opening day since Joe Magrane of St. Louis in 1988. He was the first pitcher to throw a shutout and hit a home run in an opener since Bob Lemon for Cleveland in 1953.
2018 — Three days after starting at DH on Opening Day in his major league debut, Japanese phenom Shohei Ohtani makes his debut on the mound, pitching 6 innings in leading the Angels to a 7 – 4 win over the Athletics.
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