Tag: Randy Johnson

What A Day, It’s Opening Day!

Today is the most special of days for a baseball fan, it’s Opening Day.

We aren’t going to wax poetic about it, that has been done by some of the great sportswriters who have ever put pen to paper.

However, if you are a baseball fan, you have Opening Day memories.  Some of them are great, and being born and raised in the Cleveland area, some of them are about freezing your butt off.

The opening of then Jacobs Field was an amazing day.  After a lifetime watching baseball in dilapidated Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the city had a new park for the Tribe.  It took several years for the feeling of newness to wear off.

Randy Johnson flirted with a no-hitter, carrying it into the 8th inning, before Sandy Alomar Jr. broke it up with a single, and rookie Manny Ramirez tied the game later that inning with a double.

Wayne Kirby, who will throw out the first pitch Monday in Cleveland on the 25th anniversary of the ballpark, won the game in the bottom of the 11th with a single.

With the passing of Frank Robinson this winter, our biggest memory is that of 1975, Robinson debut as the first African-American manager of a major league baseball team.  In his first at bat as a player-manager, Robinson homered off Doc Medich, while we sat in the lower deck between home plate and first base.

In 1973, we were one of the still Opening Day record of 74,420 in attendance to see Gaylord Perry outduel Mickey Lolich and the Tigers, 2-1, making a Chris Chambliss first inning two run homer stand.

The immortal Gomer Hodge sent us home happy in 1971 with a walk off single in the bottom of the ninth, beating Boston, 3-2.  Hodge had only 17 major league hits, but was a folk hero early in the season, collecting hits in his first four at bats.

He started his career going 6 for 10, mostly in a pinch-hitting role.  Unfortunately, he went 11 for 73 for the rest of his career.

Other games are memorable for another reason.

In 1986, newly acquired Phil Niekro seemingly went to 3-2 on every Detroit hitter on a very cold Friday afternoon, and the Indians went down to a 7-2 loss.  It may have been the most frigid game we had ever attended.

1992 saw the home opener go 19 innings, before a Tim Naehring homer gave Boston a 5-3 victory.  The game went six and a half hours, although most of the 65,000 who were there at the start of the game remained.

And of course, the 2007 opener in Cleveland featured the game that fell just short of being an Indians’ win because the falling snow made it impossible for players to see.  The snow didn’t stop, forcing the Tribe to play a series in against the Angels in Milwaukee because the field was unplayable.

We do have one more memory we would someday like to have.  That would be when the Indians players line up to get their World Championship rings and raise a banner commemorating a World Series title.

Perhaps next year can be that year.  All Indians’ fans can hope for that.

MW

It’s Opening Day!

Today is the day that signals spring is officially here in northeast Ohio.  It’s the home opener for the Cleveland Indians, a day for the even the casual fans around town to stop talking about the NFL draft and salute the return of the Tribe.

We have seen a lot of Opening Days in town and we thought we would share a couple of the most memorable.

The one that stands out right away is 1975, a historic day for the sport of baseball as well as the Indians.  It was Frank Robinson’s first game as the first African-American manager of a major league team, and he put his name in the lineup as the DH and hit a home run off Doc Medich in his first at bat, leading his team to a 5-3 victory over the Yankees.

The other obvious choice in most fans’ memories occurred 20 years ago, as then Jacobs Field played host to its first regular season game.  Walking into the new building after spending so many years at the armpit known as Municipal Stadium was a thrill.  You couldn’t believe a facility like this was built right here in Cleveland.

The game was a classic as well, and it was a harbinger of things to come.  The Tribe was being no-hit by Randy Johnson into the eighth inning before rallying to tie and then won the game in extra innings on a Wayne Kirby single, the first of many, many walk off wins by the home team in the new park.

People as old as we are still refer to Progressive Field as the “new ballpark”, and it is now 20 years old.

There were other more obscure games that we recall though.

The ’71 opener was a 3-2 victory for the Indians, highlighted by a game winning single by utility infielder Gomer Hodge who went 2 for 2 and proclaimed he was hitting 2.000 after the game.

In 1974, an opening day record of over 74,000 packed the old stadium to watch Gaylord Perry and the Indians outduel Mickey Lolich and the Tigers 2-1 on Chris Chambliss’ home run.

In 1980, the Tribe came home after a 1-5 west coast swing to beat the Blue Jays 8-1 behind the pitching of Rick Waits and a home run by eventual American League Rookie of the Year Joe Charboneau, who went 3 for 3 on the afternoon.

The 1986 loss to Detroit was perhaps the coldest opener we attended.  Phil Niekro started for the Tribe and seemingly went 3 and 2 on every Tiger hitter that day which made the 7-2 loss even more chilly.

The first home game in 1992 went 19 innings, before the Red Sox won 7-5 with Tim Naehring winning the game with a two run homer off Eric Bell.  In the starting lineup for Cleveland were these guys who were cornerstones of the teams that game the post-season year after year later in the decade:  Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Albert Belle, and Sandy Alomar Jr.

The 1996 lidlifter featured the Indians getting their 1995 American League Championship rings in a 7-1 loss to the Bronx Bombers.  Why else was that game significant?  Yanks’ rookie SS Derek Jeter hit his first big league homer in the game.

Today, someone will have a memory that will stick with them for many years.  That is the magic of baseball and the home opener in particular.  It’s a special day especially if you are a real fan.

Finally, it’s here.  Let’s play ball!

MW