April 17 in Tigers and mlb history:
1820: Alexander Cartwright, considered by many the father of the national pastime, is born in New York City. This pioneer banker, who is given credit for establishing three strikes for an out and three outs for each half inning, will be elected into the Hall of Fame in 1938 after a review of his journals reveals his many contributions in developing and promoting the sport of baseball.
1914: The Chicago White Sox purchased Ray Demmitt from the Detroit Tigers for $2,500.
1929: New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth marries actress and model Claire Merritt Hodgson. The ceremony is held at five o'clock in the morning on Opening Day to avoid crowds.
1932 - New York Giants first baseman Bill Terry ties a National League record with 21 putouts as the Giants beat the Boston Braves, 5 - 0.
1934: At Ebbets Field, Casey Stengel makes his managerial debut, but his Brooklyn Dodgers lose, 8 - 7, to the Boston Braves.
1939: On the morning of Opening Day in Washington, DC, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New York Yankees visit Abner Doubleday's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Roosevelt is also scheduled to throw out the first pitch at Griffith Stadium, but the game is rained out and Vice President John Nance Garner will do the honors four days later.
1945: Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder, plays his major league debut game with the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman's Park. Gray hits a single off Les Mueller in four at-bats, and handles no chances in the outfield. St. Louis beats the Detroit Tigers, 7 - 1, for their ninth straight Opening Day win, setting a major league record that the 1975-1983 New York Mets will tie. Gray, one of many players recruited to perform during World War II, will hit .218 (51 for 254) in his only major league season.
1947: The Brooklyn Dodgers win 12 - 6 over the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field, as Jackie Robinson gets his first major league hit, a bunt single, off Glenn Elliott. Robinson will bunt 42 times, collecting 19 hits, during the season.
1949: The Detroit Tigers purchased Gene Markland from the Chicago White Sox.
1951: The Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators play the first home Opening Day night game in American League history. Washington wins, 6 - 1, behind the solid pitching of 40-year-old Connie Marrero as his batterymate Mickey Grasso hits a home run.
1951: Golf great Sam Snead tees off from home plate and hits the center field scoreboard at Wrigley Field before the Cubs' home opener. The Associated Press reports: "Sammy Snead settled a long-standing argument today over whether a golf ball could be driven from home plate over the towering scoreboard at Wrigley Field. It can, by a golfer like Sam. Wearing street clothes, Snead sent a ball zooming well over the scoreboard with a No. 2 iron after hitting the board with a swing with a No. 4 iron. Snead calculated the carry was 175 yards. The scoreboard rises 89 feet in the air some 50 feet behind the 400-mark on the centerfield wall."
1953: New York Yankees outfielder Mickey Mantle clears the bleachers at Griffith Stadium with a 565-foot home run off Chuck Stobbs. The shot comes in the 5th inning of a 7 - 3 Yankees victory over the Washington Senators. It is believed to be the longest home run in Griffith Stadium history.
1954: At County Stadium, utility man Nino Escalera becomes the first black player to appear in a Cincinnati uniform. A native of Puerto Rico, Escalera pinch-hits a single in the Redlegs' 5 - 1 loss to the Milwaukee Braves. In the 7th inning, another black rookie, Chuck Harmon, follows him, pinch-hitting for Corky Valentine and pops out. Escalera, who will bat .159 and collect 11 hits in his only major league season, will eventually become a scout for the Oakland Athletics.
1955: At Forbes Field, the Pittsburgh Pirates' 20-year-old rookie Roberto Clemente makes his major league debut, playing both ends of a doubleheader, ironically but perhaps fittingly, against the Brooklyn Dodgers, the team that first signed him but left him unprotected in the Rule V draft. In his first at-bat, the future Hall of Famer rifles one back through the originator, Johnny Podres, and off the glove of shortstop Pee Wee Reese, for the first of his 3,000 career hits.
1955: Baseball Legend Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers hits three home runs in Briggs Stadium, including a pair in the 6th inning, to drive in six runs. The Tigers rout the A's, 16 - 0 behind Steve Gromek's strong pitching.
Kaline becomes the first Tigers player to hit two home runs in the same inning, a feat that will be also done by Magglio Ordonez For Kaline's 1955 season, the 20 year old will lead the league in batting average .340 hits with 200 and total bases with 321, and finish second in the MVP vote to Yogi Berra.
1956: Three future Hall of Fame members make their major league debuts. Luis Aparicio of the Chicago White Sox, Don Drysdale of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Frank Robinson of the Cincinnati Redlegs play the first games of their brilliant careers.
1960: Cleveland Indians general manager Frank Lane, notorious for his multiple transactions, sends American League home run king, Rocky Colavito, to the Detroit Tigers for the league's defending batting champion, Harvey Kuenn. The trade is especially unpopular with Indians fans, who regard Colavito as their most popular player and best hitter.
1993: The Detroit Tigers score 20 runs in a game for the second time this week, beating the Seattle Mariners, 20 - 3. Rob Deer is 1 for 2 and scores four runs, while Travis Fryman has four hits and scores five times. Chad Kreuter adds four hits and three runs and Gary Thurman paces the Tigers with four RBI.
1995: The Detroit Tigers signed Juan Samuel as a free agent.
2006: Detroit's Chris Shelton and St. Louis' Albert Pujols hit their major league-leading ninth home runs, joining Mike Schmidt (1976), Larry Walker (1997) and Luis Gonzalez (2001) as the only players in major league history with at least nine home runs in their team's first 13 games.
2012: Jamie Moyer becomes to oldest pitcher to record a win in Colorado's 5 - 3 victory over the San Diego Padres at Coors Field. At 49 years and 150 days of age, he eclipses Jack Quinn, who recorded the last win of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers on September 13, 1932. It is career win number 268 for Moyer, tying him with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer.
2013: The Tigers and Mariners combine for 40 strikeouts in 14 innings, three short of the major league record set by the Angels and A's on July 9, 1971, in 20 innings. Prince Fielder leads the pack with five strikeouts, while Austin Jackson and Franklin Gutierrez both earn golden sombreros. Starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Felix Hernandez post almost identical pitching lines, both striking out 12 and giving up a single run in eight innings of work.
The Tigers top the M's, 2 - 1, with the game ending when Justin Smoak is tagged out at home by the Bengals' Brayan Pena while trying to score the tying run from first base on Dustin Ackley's double.
2017: The Detroit Tigers released Matt Murton.
Tigers players birthdays:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/jaegech01.shtml
Charlie Jaeger 1904.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garcipe01.shtml
Pedro Garcia 1976.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Max_St._Pierre
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/stpiema01.shtml
Max St. Pierre 2010.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Ryan_Raburn
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/raburry01.shtml
Ryan Raburn 2004, 2007-2012.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/r/rodriro03.shtml
Ronny Rodriguez 2018-2019.
Tigers players who passed away:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/wilsowa01.shtml
Walter Wilson 1945.
from Baseball Reference
