April 1 in Tigers and mlb history:
1914: Rube Waddell dies from tuberculosis in San Antonio, TX, at the age of 37. One of the top lefthanded pitchers in major league history, Waddell led the American League in strikeouts for six years in a row, collected four consecutive 20-win seasons from 1902 to 1906, including the Triple Crown in 1905 with 27 wins, 287 strikeouts and a 1.48 ERA, leading the league in all pitching categories. Waddell, who dies in a sanitarium, had seen his condition weakened by his efforts to contain a winter flood in Kentucky. He will be selected to the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee in 1946.
1939: Phil Niekro is born in Blaine, Belmont County, Ohio. "Knucksie" will make his major league debut in 1964 with the Milwaukee Braves. He will win 318 games over a 24-year career and will gain election to the Hall of Fame in 1997.
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1942: Major league owners decide not to allow furloughed players in the military to play for their clubs if based near a game site.
1957: Called by Les Biederman of The Sporting News "one of the most unusual games in modern spring training history," Kansas City and Pittsburgh battle through 18 innings to a scoreless tie "before probably one of the smallest crowds of the season anywhere, only 432 paid admissions." Starting at 1:30 p.m., the game is called by mutual agreement at 5:27 because of impending darkness and high winds.
1962: The Detroit Tigers sign University of Detroit basketball star Dave DeBusschere. He will pitch effectively in 1962 and 1963 with the Chicago White Sox, but will gain much more notoriety as a key member of the New York Knicks' NBA championship teams of 1970 and 1973.
1963: The New York Mets purchase veteran outfielder Duke Snider from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Snider, one of the most popular players in the New York City area, starred for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1957.
1970: An ownership group headed by automobile dealer Bud Selig buys the Seattle Pilots for $10.8 million. Selig will immediately move the Pilots to Milwaukee, WI and rename the team the "Brewers." The Pilots lost $1 million during their lone season in Seattle, WA.
1972: The Major League Players Association, led by Executive Director Marvin Miller, stages the first strike in major league history. The strike will last 13 days and lead to salary arbitration being added to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and to owners increasing their contribution to the pension fund. The 86 games that are eventually cancelled as a result of the labor action will not be replayed.
1981: The Detroit Tigers purchased Mick Kelleher from the Chicago Cubs.
1985: Today's issue of Sports Illustrated contains a fictitious article about a New York Mets pitching prospect named Sidd Finch, whose fastball has been timed at 168 miles per hour. Author George Plimpton offers bogus quotes from real-life members of the Mets, as well as several staged photos, and fools readers nationwide.
1988: For the first time since 1956, the Special Veterans Committee does not elect anyone to the Hall of Fame. Phil Rizzuto, Leo Durocher, Joe Gordon, and Gil Hodges are among the candidates passed over.
1989: The Detroit Tigers signed Ed Nunez as a free agent.
1994: The Detroit Tigers traded Rich Rowland to the Boston Red Sox for John Flaherty.
1999: The Detroit Tigers signed Alejandro Freire as a free agent.
2004: The Los Angeles Dodgers traded Steve Colyer to the Detroit Tigers for Cody Ross.
2008: The Detroit Tigers signed Aaron Fultz as a free agent.
2009: The Detroit Tigers released Yurendell de Caster.
2013: Clayton Kershaw turns in a great all-around performance on Opening Day, pitching a four-hit shutout and homering off George Kontos in the 8th to break a scoreless tie as the Dodgers defeat the Giants, 4 - 0. Don Drysdale, back in 1965, was the last major league pitcher to pitch a shutout and homer on opening day, also for the Dodgers.
2018: The Tigers and Pirates play a doubleheader, the earliest in the season by date in major league history.
The Tigers lose 1-0 and 8-6 to fall to 0-3.
2021: In a partial return to normalcy, Opening Day takes place as scheduled in Major League Baseball, with thirteen of the fifteen games being played. The exceptions are a rainout at Fenway Park, and the game between the Nationals and Mets which is postponed because of a positive COVID-19 test by a Nats player, which in turns places four other members of the team in preventive quarantine, a sign that the pandemic that completely upended the previous season has not yet been defeated.
Tigers players and executives birthdays:
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Jake Wade. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Jake Wade 1936-1938.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Moe Franklin. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Moe Franklin 1941-1942.
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Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ron Perranoski. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Ron Perranoski 1971-1972.
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Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Rusty Staub. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Rusty Staub 1976-1979.
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Bo Schembechler President 1990-1992.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Frank Castillo. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Frank Castillo 1998.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Will Rhymes. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Will Rhymes 2010-2011.
Tigers players who passed away:
Bob Smith 1959.
Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Ed Farmer. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com
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Ed Farmer 1973.
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