At the Polo Grounds, just 12,447 Mets fans welcome the return of National League baseball to New York. The Pirates defeat the Mets, 4 – 3, behind seven solid innings of two-run pitching from Tom Sturdivant. Sherman Jones is the loser.
At Wrigley Field, Stan Musial scores his 1,869th run to set a new National League record as the Cardinals beat the Cubs, 8 – 5, in 15 innings.
On April 13, 1954, future Hall of Famer Hank Aaron makes his major league debut for the Milwaukee Braves. The rookie left fielder goes 0-for-5 in a 9-8 loss to the Cincinnati Reds. Another Hall of Famer, third baseman Eddie Mathews, hits a pair of home runs for the Braves. Jim Greengrass of Cincinnati hits four doubles in…
Seven years after the team had threatened to strike because of the integration of baseball by Jackie Robinson, North Carolina A&T graduate Tom Alston becomes the first black player to appear in a Cardinals uniform. The highly-touted first baseman, acquired from the PCL’s San Diego club in exchange for veteran infielder Dick Sisler and $100,000, pops out to first base in his first major league at-bat.
On Opening Day off Chicago hurler Paul Milner, Wally Moon hits a home run in his first major league at-bat. The 24 year-old Cardinal center fielder, who will be selected as the National League’s Rookie of the Year, will also homer in the last at-bat of his freshman season.
The brand new Baltimore Orioles open in Detroit and lose, 3 – 0. Don Larsen takes the loss against Steve Gromek. The Tigers start fast and will win 12 of their first 18 games.
The Pittsburgh Pirates open at home for the first time in 61 years and defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4 – 2, before 32,294 spectators. Curt Roberts, the Pirates’ first black player, hits a triple against Robin Roberts in the 1st inning.
In Boston, Braves Field is renamed “BU Field” by its new owners, Boston University.
Cincinnati, in an effort to not be associated with Communists, plays its first game as the Redlegs. The new moniker, which is widely accepted, will be employed for six seasons, before the club reverts back to being known as the Reds, which was a shortened version of the Red Stockings, the team’s original name from 1882 to 1899.
Willie Mays, who missed nearly two seasons due to military service, homers in his first game back, a sixth-inning blast off Carl Erskine that will prove to be the difference in the Giants’ 4-3 Opening Day victory over Brooklyn. The 22 year-old center fielder’s prodigious poke may have traveled over 600 feet if it had not been impeded by the upper left-field stands at the Polo Grounds.
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