BASEBALL
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On April 9th, 1981, as a last minute fill-in on Opening Day when scheduled starter Jerry Reuss pulled a calf muscle, Dodgers pitcher Fernando Valenzuela shut out the Astros 2-0 on five hits in his first major league start. He would go on to win eight consecutive games. In 1981, Fernando Valenzuela led the league in For context from Read more
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On April 8, 1974, In the fourth inning of the Braves home opener against the Dodgers, Hank Aaron parks an Al Downing pitch in the left-center field stands for career home run No. 715, breaking Ruth’s once thought to be unapproachable record. How good was Hank Aaron? Do the math. If a rookie starting this season hit 30 homers Read more
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On April 6th, 1982, The Minnesota Twins played their inaugural game at the brand-new Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Twins rookie Gary Gaetti had four hits with a pair of home runs, but Seattle won, 11-7. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome was home to the Minnesota Twins for 27 years, from 1982-2009. I have always felt like the Read more
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On April 5th, 1979, Future Hall of Fame Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver wins his 1,000th game as a skipper. He would end up with 1480 in his career. Earl Weaver was the manager for Orioles between 1968 and 1986. I say “between” because like most managers he was fired a few times during that Read more
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On April 2nd, 1997, for the first time in Major League Baseball history, the salary of one player surpasses the payroll of an entire team. In 1997, the Chicago White Sox will pay Albert Belle $10 million for the season which is $928,333 more than the entire Pittsburgh Pirates payroll. The first officially all-professional baseball team was the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (Reds). Read more
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On April 1st, 1997, the Padres score 11 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning en route to a 12-5 rout of the Mets. Setting a record for the most runs scored in one inning of an Opening Day contest this century. Chris Gomez, Rickey Henderson, and Quilvio Veras lead the attack with back-to-back-to-back Read more
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On April 28, 2024, the last Opening Day game for the Oakland Athletics took place between the then Oakland A’s and the Cleveland Guardians . I have been lucky enough to be in person for a few moments of Baseball History. All of them have been joyful occasions with the exception of this one, the Read more
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Finally, the long dark night of the soul is over. Tomorrow there will be boxscores that matter again and game summaries worth reading closely. It is Opening Day! My local nine, The Minnesota Twins, are in St. Louis to play the Cardinals today. While the Mets are in Houston and the Pirates in Miami. Baseball Read more
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Spring has made its way to the North Country and the baseball season starts in less than 2 weeks. Everything is right with the world. Each morning I open the sports page of the StarTribune hoping to read about spring training. Inevitably there is more coverage of the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL. Don’t get Read more
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Believe it or not, this blog posting for the first Saturday of March 2025 is actually being written on December 23rd, 2024. That is how far ahead I am working now on ClimbingSky. I am not certain if that is a good thing or a bad thing from a reader’s point of view. But for Read more
ClimbingSky 