TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

April 7, 1969, a sellout crowd of 30,111 watched their hometown Cincinnati Reds fall to the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 3–2 in the 1969 National League opener. This game “launched the second century of professional baseball in the city where the Cincinnati Red Stockings were organized in 1869.” Don Drysdale and Bill Singer of the Dodgers combined to defeat the Reds.

Cincinnati’s choice for starter, 20-year-old Gary Nolan, had a career record of 23-12 in his first two big league seasons (1967-68) with the Reds, pitching 12 complete games and seven shutouts. Cincinnati had high hopes for the youngster. The Dodgers countered with Drysdale who finished the 1968 campaign with an impressive 2.15 earned run average. He had earned the right to be the Opening Day starter, but it surely didn’t begin as expected. Cincinnati fans were treated to two first-inning back-to-back home runs by Pete Rose and Bobby Tolan. Before Drysdale could record an out, he was behind 2-0.

In the top of the second, Cincinnati’s Nolan quickly struck out both Ron Fairly and Andy Kosco before Tom Haller singled to center. Jim Lefebvre followed with double, plating Haller and cutting the lead in half. Ted Sizemore was making his Major League debut and he drew a walk before Nolan struck out Drysdale to end the inning. The Reds were retired 1-2-3 in the bottom of the second and then Nolan allowed back-to-back singles to Willie Crawford and Len Gabrielson to start the top half of the third inning. After Bill Sudakis struck out, Fairly shot a ball into right field and legged out a triple, driving in both runners. Nolan retired the next two batters, but Los Angeles had grabbed the lead, and there would be no more scoring in the game.

Drysdale settled into a routine, and although he gave up two more hits and two walks in the next four innings, he was aided by a timely double play in the bottom of the third inning and several pop fly outs in later frames. Nolan also pitched well. He did allow a few Dodgers on base with walks or singles, but he recorded at least one strike out in every inning (through seven) and twice struck out the side. No Los Angeles runner reached third base after the third inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, Dodgers manager Walter Alston called Singer into the game. After six innings of work, Drysdale had faced 23 batters and had departed with the lead. In his seventh inning debut, Singer retired Johnny Bench, Tommy Helms and Woody Woodward in order. Nolan had probably run out of gas, serving up two singles to Kosco and Haller to start the top of the eighth. Reds skipper Dave Bristol called to the bullpen for right-hander Wayne Granger. Granger quickly retired the three batters he faced.3 Jim Merritt pitched the ninth for Cincinnati. He gave up a one-out double to Bill Russell (who was making his Major League debut as well), but he left him stranded.

Singer continued to pitch well, giving up a walk in the eighth but retiring the side in order in the ninth to preserve the win. In three innings of work, he faced ten batters and only allowed one walk. The first official save in the Major Leagues was a pretty good effort.

Jerome Holtzman, a sports writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, is credited with lobbying for the creation of the save statistic in 1959. Holtzman’s statistic and simple formula were adopted ten years later by baseball’s Official Rules Committee as the game’s first new official statistic since 1920, when the RBI (runs batted in) statistic was introduced. In that ten-season period and before the official start date of 1969, The Sporting News began calculating saves for relief pitchers, even if they were not “official.”

Under the 1969 rules, a relief pitcher earned a save under one of two conditions:

He had to enter the game with either the potential tying or winning run either on base or at the plate and preserve the lead; or
He had to pitch at least three or more effective innings and preserve the lead.
As stated earlier, Singer pitched three complete innings. Since he entered the game with the score 3-2 in favor of his Dodgers, he fit both criteria listed above. Drysdale, the 1962 Cy Young Award winner, earned the victory, allowing only two runs, both earned, on four hits and two walks in six full innings of work. However, his first victory of the 1969 season needed Singer’s save. Drysdale would only appear in 12 games in 1969.

There was not a lot of offense in this first game of the season. Pete Rose went 2-for-3 with a walk as the Reds’ lead-off hitter, garnering half of Cincinnati’s four hits in the game which included his first home run of the season. Seven of the Los Angeles hitters picked up a hit, with Haller going 2-for-4 (both singles) with a run scored. Nolan struck out twelve batters in the loss, and Granger and Merritt each added a strike out in their inning of work.

Interestingly, although Singer earned Major League Baseball’s first save on Opening Day 1969, it was the only save of the season for the Dodger pitcher. It was also his only relief appearance of the season. In 40 other appearances for the 1969 Los Angeles Dodgers, he made 40 starts and had 16 complete games, pitching just over 315 innings.

You can read this full article by Mike Huber at SABR.

History of the Save -

The save has become so much an integral part of the contemporary game that a special category of relief pitcher - the closer - has emerged. Closers rarely enter a game except in save situations. This practice is in marked contrast to earlier patterns of bullpen usage, where the relief ace would be used in all situations where the game was close, either with his team in the lead, or tied, or trailing by one or two runs, and often for two or three innings or more. Nowadays, closers generally record few victories and often have losing records. This was not the case previously, as pitchers such as Roy Face in 1959, Dick Radatz in 1963 or 1964 and John Hiller in 1973, would pick up large numbers of victories in addition to saves (figured retroactively in the case of those pitching before 1969).

Another way to illustrate how the usage of top relievers has changed over the past four decades is to compare Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers, who pitched in the 1970s and early 1980s, and Trevor Hoffman, who retired after the 2010 season and is second on the all-time list, have been used. Of Fingers' 341 career saves, 135 entailed pitching two or more innings, including 36 of three or more innings. In contrast, at the end of the 2006 season, Hoffman had 482 career saves, but only 7 of two or more innings, and none of three or more. Fingers obtained 101 of his saves when he entered the game with either the winning or tying run already on base; for Hoffman, only 36 of his saves had come in such situations.

There has been a lot of criticism of how the emergence of the save as the master statistic in evaluating contemporary relief pitchers has affected usage. Many modern closers often pitch no more than about 65-75 innings a season, and in most of the games in which they pitch, their teams are already in the lead. Teams rely increasingly on a group of often middle relief specialists to hold the lead until the closer enters the game. To take this into account MLB has added Holds as a statistic.

April 7, 1958, the newly transplanted Los Angeles Dodgers erect a 42-foot screen at the Los Angeles Coliseum as part of an effort to cut down on home runs to left field, which is only 250 feet from home plate. This creates the term, Moon shots, for Wally Moon's famous homeruns.

April 7, 1969, At Washington’s RFK Stadium, Ted Williams makes his managerial debut for the Washington Senators, in front of President Nixon and a crowd of 45,113, a franchise attendance record for Opening Day. The Commander-in-Chief throws out the ceremonial first pitch. Williams loses his first game to the New York Yankees, 8-4, on Opening Day at RFK Stadium. Williams will manage the Senators for three seasons, before moving with the team to Texas in 1972.

April 7, 1970, The team formerly known as the Seattle Pilots plays their first home game in Milwaukee as the Brewers in front of 36,107 enthusiastic fans at County Stadium. After a five year absence. The Seattle Pilots were the only team in MLB history to only play one season in a city and move.

Full Game recap

April 7, 1971 -- The dismissal of Curt Flood's suit against Major League Baseball is upheld by a three-judge U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The verdict will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

April 7, 1976 – Joe Niekro strikes out 5 batters in a single inning, with two of the strikeout victims reaching first base as Niekro’s fluttering knuckleball eludes his catcher. The feat occurs, however, during the final pre-season game of the 1976 season, preventing it, by one day, from becoming a major league record.

April 7, 1979, Ken Forsch, who almost didn’t make the start due to swelling in his right arm caused by an insect bite, holds the Atlanta Braves hitless, throwing the earliest no-hitter in baseball history. The Houston Astros hurler’s no-no makes the Forsch brothers the first siblings to both accomplish the feat, with Bob, as a member of the Cardinals, throwing a no-hitter against the Phillies last season.

Jack Morris will match Forsch’s feat, and in 2001, Hideo Nomo will pitch a no-hitter on an earlier date, April 4th.

This Week in Baseball April 7, 1984 - Featuring Tony Perez, Dave Parker, Jerry Redus, Daryl Strawberry, Mario Soto, Goose Gossage, sand Diego Padres, Alan Wiggins, Kevin McReynolds, John Tudor, Bill Madlock, and many others as the 1984 Season gets underway!

April 7, 1984, Detroit Tigers pitcher Jack Morris threw a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox in a 4-0 victory at Comiskey Park. It was the first of two Saturday NBC "Game of the Week" games that season and key to Detroit's historic 35-5 start. Morris walked six and struck out two, sealing the feat with a split-fingered fastball to Ron Kittle.

April 7, 1986 – At Tiger Stadium, Boston Red Sox outfielder Dwight Evans becomes the first player to hit the first pitch on Opening Day for a home run. Jack Morris throws the gopher ball but gets the victory as Detroit edges Boston, 6 – 5, behind two home runs by Kirk Gibson.

TRIVIA

TRIVIA: Bill Russell makes his major league debut, he will be the games played all time leader for the Dodgers at shortstop and be part of the Dodgers infield that set the record for games played together.

Name the other 3.

IF you think you know the answer and bonus points for how many respond with details and if you are right I will give you a shut out! No Googling!

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 ANSWER TO YESTERDAY’S TRIVIA

YESTERDAY'S TRIVIA: What player hit the first Homerun as a DH?

Answer: Tony Oliva

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