4/14/1990: Lonnie Smith of the Braves hit a three-run home run off Reds pitcher Danny Jackson in the bottom of the third inning. The game was rained out after three innings with Cincinnati leading 9-4.
4/11/1990: The Indians were playing their first game of the season against the Yankees at home. The weather conditions were terrible, with a 36-degree temperature and a 12-mile-per-hour wind that made the wind chill 19 degrees. Snow stopped the game in the middle of the second inning for 59 minutes. In the bottom of the third, Cory Snyder hit a home run, having already doubled in the second frame. Snow started again in the fourth inning and the game was stopped with one out in the bottom of the inning. The Tribe was ahead 2-1 at the time.
On April 11, 1990, Mark Langston and Mike Witt of the California Angels combine on a 1-0 no-hitter of the Seattle Mariners. The Angels remove Langston from the game early because of a spring training lockout that had limited preseason workouts. The game marks the first combined no-hitter since 1976, when Chicago’s Blue Moon Odom and Francisco Barrios no-hit Oakland.
Wade Boggs is intentionally walked three times, tying a major league mark for a nine inning game. Tiger manager Sparky Anderson’s strategy pays off in preventing additional runs from scoring, but Detroit drops a 4-2 decision to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
At the SkyDome in Toronto, George Bush becomes the first U.S. president to throw the ceremonial first pitch on Opening Day in Canada. After the international toss, the Blue Jays beat the visiting Rangers, 2-1.
Delino DeShields, the 21 year-old second baseman of the Expos, goes 4-for-6 to become only the second rookie to collect four hits in an Opening Day debut. Forrest Jacobs, also a second baseman, became the first major league rookie to accomplish the feat in his 1954 Opening Day debut with the Philadelphia A’s.
Keeping with the team’s tradition of having a rookie select the music, Reds freshman first baseman Hal Morris picks U Can’t Touch This, following the Opening Day 8-4 extra-inning victory at the Astrodome. The iconic MC Hammer tune will become the team’s mantra and the unofficial theme song for the eventual world champs.
4/9/1990: Lenny Dykstra of the Phillies had a home run washed out by rain in the first game of the season. It came off the Cubs’ Greg Maddux in the third inning at Wrigley Field.
The Pittsburgh Pirates defeat the New York Mets, 12 – 3, at Shea Stadium. It is the Mets’ first loss in a season opener at home in 21 years.
Billy Hatcher, who is in the delivery room with his pregnant wife when the phone rings, is informed by Pirates manager Jim Leyland that he has been traded but doesn’t ask to which team. After his daughter Chelsea is born, the former Buc outfielder gets a call at home from Cincinnati general manager Bob Quinn to welcome him to the Reds.
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