1976 American League Rookie of the Year Mark “The Bird” Fidrych dies at 54 from an accident while fixing a truck on his farm in Northborough, MA.
Ninety-seven years after his grandfather, Boston mayor John ‘Honey Fitz’ Fitzgerald, threw out the first pitch at the first major league game played at Fenway Park, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy also tosses the ceremonial first pitch for the Red Sox at a season opener. The sell-out crowd enthusiastically cheers the 77 year-old long-time Massachusetts law maker, who was diagnosed last spring with a malignant brain tumor, when he tosses the ball from in front of the mound to a nearby Jim Rice, a newly elected member of the Hall of Fame.
The Mets, obligated only to pay the major league minimum of $400,000, sign Gary Sheffield (.225, 19, 57) in hopes of adding a much-needed right-handed bat to the lineup. The 40 year-old offensively challenged outfielder, who has 499 career home runs, was unexpectedly released by the Tigers earlier in the week despite having $14 million left on his contract.
2009 – The Detroit Tigers surprisingly cut slugger Gary Sheffield, who is one home run shy of 500 for his career. Sheffield, a 9-time All-Star, is 25th on the all-time home run list and 27th in RBI (1,633). He only hit .178 in spring training, but went deep in 5 of 45 at-bats. He says he is not shocked, but is surprised. Marcus Thames will replace Sheffield as Detroit’s starting DH.
In the first baseball game ever played at Citi Field, John Franco throws out the ceremonial first pitch to a standing ovation from the crowd attending the collegiate matchup between St. John’s and Georgetown. Before tossing his signature pitch, a breaking ball in the dirt, the former Mets reliever goes to the mound wearing a familiar blue and orange jacket, but takes it off, revealing the colors of his alma mater, a Red Storm jersey with his number 45.
2009 – After winning their first spring game of the year, the Astros fail to win their next 19 Grapefruit League contests until beating the Reds, 4-2, behind six shutout innings from Russ Ortiz. It comes the same day that the Astros sign catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez to a one-year deal. The 37-year-old Rodriguez is a 14-time All-Star with 13 Gold Gloves and fills a need as none of the other catchers in camp were hitting above .200 in spring action.
The Chicago Cubs announce that they will retire number 31 on May 3rd in honor of Ferguson Jenkins and Greg Maddux.
Bill Werber, the oldest ex-major leaguer and last living teammate of Babe Ruth, dies at the age of 100. The former infielder, who played for the Yankees, Red Sox, A’s, Reds, and Giants, became the first player to appear in a televised game when he batted leadoff for Cincinnati in a contest played against the Dodgers at Ebbets Field on August 26, 1939.
The Dodgers, who had restructured Andruw Jones’s contract earlier in the month, put their expensive center fielder on waivers rather than pursuing a trade for the five-time All-Star. The highest-paid player in the franchise history, who signed a two-year, $36.2 million deal during the 2007 offseason, was a complete bust in his one season with the team, hitting a meager .158 with just three home runs and 14 RBIs in 209 at-bats.
2009 – Rickey Henderson, the all-time major league leader in stolen bases, runs and leadoff home runs, is elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot; at the time of his retirement, Henderson also held the all-time walk record. Also elected is Jim Rice, the third player to go in on the 15th and final ballot (after Ralph Kiner and Red Ruffing); Rice’s long-time teammate Fred Lynn says stats should be discarded in pushing his case.
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