2019 – Pitcher Steven Wright of the Red Sox is suspended for 80 games for violating Major League Baseball’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.
2018 – To celebrate their 20th anniversary this year, the Diamondbacks announce that they will re-introduce a contraption dating back to the days before the team existed: a bullpen cart. The modified golf carts were popular in the 1970s and early 1980s, but had seemingly gone the way of the dodo since that time.
2016 – The Commissioner’s office overturns the two-game suspension handed to Dodgers IF Chase Utley for a dangerous slide that injured the Mets’ Ruben Tejada in last year’s NLDS. The decision is because the rules regarding sliding at the time were too vague; they have since been strengthened.
2014 – Dr. Frank Jobe, the pioneer surgeon who performed the first ligament replacement surgery on pitcher Tommy John in 1974 and then popularized the technique that has saved hundred of pitchers’ careers, dies in Santa Monica, CA at age 88. He had been a medical adviser to the Los Angeles Dodgers for 50 years, continuing even after his retirement from regular practice in 2008.
The seemingly cursed Yankees get more bad news when they learn that 1B Mark Teixeira’s wrist injury is more serious than thought and that he will be out until mid-May, with no obvious back-up plan in place. At least, SS Derek Jeter and reliever Mariano Rivera seem to be doing well in their bid to come back from season-ending injuries, but the Yanks’ spring training complex is starting to look like a field hospital, with GM Brian Cashman addressing reporters on crutches resulting from a sky-diving accident.
Marlins Park in Miami, FL is host to its first game, an exhibition contest won by the Marlins, 7 – 6, over the University of Miami. Newly signed Mark Buehrle starts for the Fish, Hanley Ramirez hits the first-ever homer in the new ballpark off Alex Fernandez Jr., son of former Marlin Alex Fernandez, and Terry Tiffee ends the game with a game-winning single in the bottom of the 9th.
2006 – Hall of Fame outfielder Kirby Puckett dies in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 45, a day after suffering a massive stroke. Puckett, who led the Minnesota Twins to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991, hit .318 with 207 home runs and 1085 RBI over 12 seasons. A 10-time All-Star and six-time Gold Glove winner, Puckett ended his career abruptly due to irreversible retina damage in his right eye.
2005 – Suzyn Waldman becomes the first woman to be a full-time color commentator in major league history, making her debut with John Sterling on WCBS-AM 880, the radio flagship of the New York Yankees. The former radio-talk host on WFAN, the first all-sports radio station in United States, was also the first female to broadcast on a national baseball telecast, as well as the first to provide local TV (Yankees) major league play-by-play.
2004 – Andy Pettitte, a major off-season addition, makes his Astro debut a succesful one, dropping the Braves, 9-3. The next day, Roger Clemens, the other Yankee free agent signee, wins his debut in a 15-8 clubbing of the Pirates.
2001 – Former Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star second baseman Bill Mazeroski and Negro Leagues pitching great Hilton Smith are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. Mazeroski, an eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, hit one of the most memorable home runs ever – a 9th-inning blast in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series.
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