April 5, 1976 The first professional baseball game was played in the Superdome. Unlike with football and basketball, the Superdome didn’t have a baseball tenant when it initially opened. New Orleans had been unable to lure a big-league baseball team for the opening of the facility. Superdome officials settled for a three-game exhibition series between the…
During the Old Timers’ Game played at Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle homers off his old teammate and best buddy, Whitey Ford. After launching a shot that lands foul in the upper deck, the slugger sends the southpaw’s next pitch over the fence, much to the delight of the large crowd gathered for the festivities.
1972 – Roberto Clemente’s final home run comes on his final swing during a batting demonstration in front of “300 admiring kids during a baseball clinic at the town of Aguadilla,” reports United Press International, according to whom Clemente hits “the fifth pitch about 350 feet out of left field at the local park.” Clemente’s fellow Pirate and fellow Puerto Rican Fernando Gonzalez is on hand and his recollections will later be recorded by Clemente biographer Kal Wagenheim: “That day in Aguadilla, he spent the whole afternoon under the sun – giving a clinic for the kids. At one point he was giving batting pointers, and there was a kid – about eighteen years old – pitching to him. The people in the stands kept yelling, ‘Roberto, bet you can’t hit a homer!’ Finally, on the last pitch, he smacked the ball right out of the stadium. He gave the kid the bat as a souvenir, and somebody else got the ball. Afterward, they erected a small monument to mark the spot where the ball fell. I think that was the last time Roberto swung a bat, and he hit a home run.”
1970 – In this first (and last?) “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial All-Star Baseball Classic”, solo home runs by Ron Fairly of Montreal and Ron Santo of the Chicago Cubs, plus a three-run 8th-inning brings the East a 5 – 1 victory over the West. A crowd of 31,694 watches the charity game in Dodger Stadium. Proceeds go to the late Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a memorial center planned for Atlanta. For this initial charity game, former New York Yankees great Joe DiMaggio manages the East, and ex-Dodger Roy Campanella, confined to a wheelchair since a 1958 auto accident, directs the fortunes of the West. Jim “Mudcat” Grant of Oakland sings the National Anthem in the pre-game program, and then becomes the victim of a four-hit uprising in the 8th inning that insures the outcome. Al Kaline of Detroit beats out an infield hit to open the frame and moves to second as Tommie Agee drives Hank Aaron to the left field wall. Kaline races home on Lou Brock’s double to left. Brock scores on Roberto Clemente’s double and Clemente comes home on Ken McMullen’s single.
1967 – During a special softball exhibition game, pitcher Eddie Feigner strikes out six consecutive major leaguers. The victims are Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Brooks Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Roberto Clemente and Maury Wills.
April 10, 1965. during exhibition games before NL opener. Opponent was Baltimore Orioles; the Houston Astros won 11-8, helped along by this homer from Jim Beauchamp. Great view of what was the cutting-edge Astrodome scoreboard. Grass on the field before synthetic turf was needed; panels on roof were clear. Game ticket & learn more about…
On April 9, 1965, Houston begins playing in the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson joins 47,878 fans for the opening of Harris County Domed Stadium (the Astrodome). In the opening ceremonies, 24 astronauts throw 24 ceremonial first pitches as the Colt .45’s become the Astros. The Houston Astros win an…
On February 7, 1965 Some two months before the Astrodome’s grand opening in 1965 (then known as the Harris County Domed Stadium), Satchel Paige was in town to coach a basketball team in a game versus the Harlem Globetrotters. Aware of his visit, Houston management contacted Paige on the morning of February 7 and asked…
1961 – In a spring training game, Cardinals pitcher Larry Jackson suffers a broken jaw when hit by a fragment of Dodgers Duke Snider’s broken bat. Jackson will be sidelined four weeks.
The NFL Steelers beat the Pirates, 22-20 in a benefit basketball game played at the Field House for the Children’s Hospital. The Bucs’ very competitive shortstop Dick Groat, a Duke University hoop standout, scores 14 points, but takes exception to the foul called on him by Bob Prince, the team’s broadcaster refereeing the game, that allows their football rivals to tie the score in the final few seconds of the contest and eventually win the scheduled 15-minute exhibition in overtime.