This Date in Baseball

April 12

1906 — Johnny Bates of Boston became the first modern player to hit a home run in his first major league at bat. Irv Young allowed one hit as Boston beat Brooklyn 2-0.

1909 — The Philadelphia Athletics opened Shibe Park with an 8-1 win over the Boston Red Sox. Shibe Park was the first concrete and steel stadium.

1911 — The Washington Senators opened Griffith Stadium with an 8-5 win over the Boston Red Sox.

1912 — The Chicago Cubs’ Tinker-Evers-Chance double play combination played its final major league game together.

1927 — Bill Terry of the New York Giants hit the first grand slam ever hit on opening day. The Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 15-7.

1955 — In their first game in Kansas City, the transplanted Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-2 at Municipal Stadium. The standing-room crowd of 32,147 was the largest paid crowd for any event in Kansas City.

1960 — The San Francisco Giants beat the began play St. Louis Cardinals 3-1 in the first game at Candlestick Park.

1965 — The first National League home run in the Houston Astrodome was hit by Richie Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies off Bob Bruce in a 2-0 victory over the Astros.

1966 — A crowd of 50,671 welcomed the Braves to Atlanta, but Willie Stargell spoiled the occasion with a two-run homer in the 13th inning to give the Pirates a 3-2 victory.

1980 — In an awesome display of power, Cecil Cooper and Don Money each hit grand slams in the second inning of Milwaukee’s 18-1 rout of the Boston Red Sox.

1992 — Boston’s Matt Young pitched eight no-hit innings at Cleveland but lost 2-1. In the second game, the Indians managed only two hits off Roger Clemens to set a major league record for fewest hits (2) in a doubleheader.

1994 — Scott Cooper hit for the cycle and drove in five runs to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 22-11 rout of the Kansas City Royals. Cooper went 5-for-6 with two doubles and completed the cycle with a single in the ninth.

2018 — Shohei Ohtani hit a bases-loaded triple in Los Angeles’ five-run seventh inning, helping the Angels beat the Kansas City Royals 7-1 for their fifth straight victory. The pitcher-outfielder was tied with Mike Trout for the Angels’ lead with 11 RBIs in 26 at-bats.

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