April 41974 — The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Atlanta Braves 7-6 in 11 innings before a crowd of 52,000 at Riverfront Stadium. In his first at-bat, Hank Aaron hit a three-run homer off Jack Billingham. It was his 714th, tying Babe Ruth’s career record. The Braves had considered keeping Aaron on the bench for the season-opening series in Cincinnati so that he could attempt to tie the record four days later in Atlanta. But Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered the Braves to put Aaron into the lineup for at least two of the three games.1988 — George Bell became the first player to hit three home runs on opening day, leading the Toronto Blue Jays past the Kansas City Royals 5-3. Bell, bitter throughout spring training with his move to designated hitter, homered three times in that role off Bret Saberhagen.1994 — Chicago’s Karl Rhodes hit three solo home runs off Dwight Gooden in a 12-8 loss to the New York Mets on opening day at Wrigley Field. Rhodes became the second player to homer three times... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — When and if opening day comes around this year, New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake anticipates a brimming bullpen.Major League Baseball and the players' association have talked about a compressed schedule to get in as many games as possible. That will set off a call to arms."I think if you have 15 guys it gives you some depth," Blake said Wednesday.Active rosters were to expand from 25 to 26 from opening day through Aug. 31 in exchange for the limit dropping from 40 to 28 from Sept. 1 on. When a strike delayed the start of the 1995 season until April 25, teams were allowed 28 players through May 15.There is talk of 28- to 30-man rosters following the shutdown caused by the new coronavirus. Teams are preparing for a season that could extend into late November or even December, if domes and ballparks in warm-weather cities are used."Both the PA and the MLB are very, very adamant about playing as many games as we can this year," Seattle pitcher Marco Gonzales said.... [More]

Rangers veteran Shin-Soo Choo is helping out financially strapped minor league players with the season on hold, giving $1,000 each to 191 of them who are in the Texas organization.Choo said Wednesday that he remembers the financial struggles when he was in the minors. The 37-year-old outfielder-designated hitter hopes the gifts will help ease those worries for the current minor leaguers, most he has never met, allowing them to stay focused on their baseball careers instead of having to figure out ways to make money.“I've done it before, minor leagues, seven years,” said Choo, who was 18 when he left South Korea to join the Seattle Mariners organization before the 2001 season. “I know right now the minor league system is better than 15-20 years ago, but still tough. Everything's very difficult, especially money wise."Choo is one of a few major league players helping out with the baseball season on hold. Colorado Rockies infielder Daniel Murphy gifted $100,000 on Wednesday to a fund operated... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — When and if opening day comes around this year, New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake anticipates a brimming bullpen.Major League Baseball and the players' association have talked about a compressed schedule to get in as many games as possible. That will set off a call to arms."I think if you have 15 guys it gives you some depth," Blake said Wednesday.Active rosters were to expand from 25 to 26 from opening day through Aug. 31 in exchange for the limit dropping from 40 to 28 from Sept. 1 on. When a strike delayed the start of the 1995 season until April 25, teams were allowed 28 players through May 15.There is talk of 28- to 30-man rosters following the shutdown caused by the new coronavirus. Teams are preparing for a season that could extend into late November or even December, if domes and ballparks in warm-weather cities are used."Both the PA and the MLB are very, very adamant about playing as many games as we can this year," Seattle pitcher Marco Gonzales said.... [More]

Rangers veteran Shin-Soo Choo is helping out financially strapped minor league players with the season on hold, giving $1,000 each to 191 of them who are in the Texas organization.Choo said Wednesday that he remembers the financial struggles when he was in the minors. The 37-year-old outfielder-designated hitter hopes the gifts will help ease those worries for the current minor leaguers, most he has never met, allowing them to stay focused on their baseball careers instead of having to figure out ways to make money.“I've done it before, minor leagues, seven years,” said Choo, who was 18 when he left South Korea to join the Seattle Mariners organization before the 2001 season. “I know right now the minor league system is better than 15-20 years ago, but still tough. Everything's very difficult, especially money wise."Choo is now going into the final year of a $130 million, seven-year deal he signed as a free agent with the Rangers. He is set to be the highest-paid Texas player this season... [More]

APRIL 31974 : The Cincinnati Reds defeated the Atlanta Braves 7-6 in 11 innings before a crowd of 52,000 at Riverfront Stadium. In his first at-bat, Hank Aaron hit a three-run homer off Jack Billingham. It was his 714th, tying Babe Ruth’s career record. The Braves had considered keeping Aaron on the bench for the season-opening series in Cincinnati so that he could attempt to tie the record four days later in Atlanta. But commissioner Bowie Kuhn would not allow it and ordered the Braves to put Aaron into the lineup for at least two of the three games.1988 : George Bell became the first player to hit three home runs on opening day, leading the Toronto Blue Jays past the Kansas City Royals 5-3. Bell, bitter throughout spring training with his move to designated hitter, homered three times in that role off Bret Saberhagen.1994 : Chicago’s Karl Rhodes hit three solo home runs off Dwight Gooden in a 12-8 loss to the New York Mets on opening day at Wrigley Field. Rhodes became the second player... [More]

April 61972 — For the first time in history, the major leagues failed to open on schedule because of a player strike, which started on April 1. The traditional season opener between Houston and Cincinnati was canceled and a total of 86 games were lost before the strike was settled.1973 — Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees became the first major league designated hitter. With the bases loaded in the first inning, he was walked by pitcher Luis Tiant, but the Red Sox won 15-5.1973 — At the Oakland Coliseum, Tony Oliva became the first designated hitter to homer. The Twins DH hit a two-run shot in the first inning off of Catfish Hunter to Minnesota to an 8-3 win.1974 — Due to renovations at Yankee Stadium, the New York Yankees' home opener took place at Shea Stadium. It was their first home game outside Yankee Stadium since 1922.1977 — The Seattle Mariners played their first regular-season game and lost 7-0 to the California Angels at the Kingdome.1982 — A freak storm that brought subfreezing... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Even with major leaguers likely to receive some semblance of another spring training to get ready, teams are going to have to be creative with how they handle starting pitchers whenever baseball returns.The last thing anyone wants is arm problems to arise almost immediately after baseball restarts -- whenever that ends up being because of coronavirus outbreak. “Possibly having a six-man rotation or something along those lines. Maybe a piggyback situation for us just those first couple outings,” Seattle left-hander Marco Gonzales said during a conference call on Tuesday.Gonzales was slated to be the Mariners' starter on opening day.“Maybe we go three or four innings for the starters. And that’s who this affects most really is starting pitchers. Maybe we have a piggyback situation or something along those lines. Like I said, those are things we need to get creative with," he said.No one knows when baseball will start again after being derailed by the COVID-19 virus pandemic.... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox starter Chris Sale had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow on Monday, his 31st birthday, waiting 11 days after doctors said he needed the operation because of difficulty in scheduling during the coronavirus pandemic.Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said the team worked with doctors to make sure the procedure didn't burden an already-stressed healthcare system. "Under normal circumstances we might have been able to have it happen a little bit sooner," Bloom said on a conference call with reporters. “We know that this is not life and death. ... It’s apples and oranges with this versus when you talk about something that’s life-threatening." Dr. Neal ElAttrache replaced Sale's ulnar collateral ligament at the Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles; the Red Sox said the surgery was a success. Sale is expected to miss 14-15 months, which would bring him back in the middle of the 2021 season.“We look forward to his return sometime next year,” Bloom said. Also Monday,... [More]

BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox starter Chris Sale had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow on Monday, his 31st birthday, and the team said it was successful.The procedure was performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles.Sale is expected to miss 14-15 months, which would bring him back in the middle of the 2021 season.Sale missed the start of spring training with an illness that the team described as a flu that morphed into pneumonia. The Red Sox then said he had a flexor strain near the elbow, but the team hoped he would avoid ligament replacement surgery. A seven-time All-Star, Sale is 109-73 in 10 major league seasons and entering the second season of a six-year, $160 million contract. After helping the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series, he went 6-11 with a 4.40 ERA in 25 starts last year — his fewest wins and starts, highest ERA, and the first time he failed to finish in the top six in Cy Young voting in any full season as a starter. “Tommy John's been a factor in my life for 20 years now," Sale said earlier this month. “It's on the table, but it's always been on the table. So, that's not something I'm going to worry myself with. I can't go out there with that in the back of my mind. I have to have the confidence that what we're doing is going to work.” ___

As Major League Baseball and the players' union contemplate various ways to create a schedule for whenever the coronavirus pandemic subsides, Cincinnati Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart raised a concern that is surely shared by others around the sport: Could trying to cram in games, and maybe extend the season into late November or December, lead to injuries? "The player safety piece is a big thing," Barnhart, a union representative, said Monday on a conference call with reporters.That involves how many off-days are salvaged in 2020, how many times teams are told to play in any given week and how 2021 could be affected if there is a shorter-than-usual offseason."Moving forward, I don't think you can do things that are going to compromise the integrity of next season, as well. What I mean by that is forcing the issue of getting so many games in that you risk injury, and you risk major injury to players, because you are trying to get in as many games as you can," Barnhart said. "This is all assumptions... [More]

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rangers left fielder Willie Calhoun says he has been cleared to resume workouts in his recovery from a broken jaw. Calhoun tweeted Thursday that he was ready to start his daily workouts and baseball activities again. The Texas outfielder had surgery March 9, a day after he was hit in the face by a fastball during a spring training game and suffered a broken jaw. A plate was inserted to stabilize the jaw. His tweet came on the same day that was scheduled to be opening day before the coronavirus pandemic indefinitely pushed back the start the MLB season. “Willie being healthy is going to help us a lot,” manager Chris Woodward said earlier this week. “That was going to be a big black eye for us to start the season, and now it won't be because he will be healthy. He can't wait to get started."Calhoun hit .269 with 21 homers in 83 games last season. He became the starting left fielder after the Rangers traded outfielders Delino DeShields and Nomar Mazara over the winter. ___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Mike Trout hit two home runs off Zack Greinke and scored four times to help the Los Angeles Angels beat the Houston Astros 9-6 on opening day. Alas, the game was played on a computer, not on the field. But as fans of the popular sports game Strat-O-Matic can attest, make-believe boxscores can be fun too.Fifteen of them were generated Thursday by Strat-O-Matic — one for every real game postponed on opening day because of the coronavirus. The results came via computer simulations, which the New York-based company will continue to run daily while the real thing is on hiatus.“People miss baseball, us included,” said Adam Richman, whose father created Strat-O-Matic as an 11-year-old in 1948. “This is a way to bring a little bit of baseball to everyone in their homes. We know baseball will be back, but until then there’s Strat-O-Matic.”Howie Kendrick hit a tiebreaking solo home run in the ninth inning to help the World Series champion Nationals beat the Mets 4-3. Pinch hitter Brock Holt's three-run... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — Right-hander Michael Kopech was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte by the Chicago White Sox on Thursday.The 23-year-old is among the top pitching prospects. He missed last season after he had Tommy John surgery in September 2018, but he hit triple-digits on the radar gun during his first spring training appearance on March 10.Kopech was acquired by Chicago in the December 2016 trade that sent Chris Sale to the Boston Red Sox. Kopech made his big league debut in 2018, going 1-1 with a 5.02 ERA in four starts.His salary in the minors is $277,500, down from the minimum $563,500 in the majors.Chicago was scheduled to host the Kansas City Royals on Thursday on opening day, but the start of the season has been pushed back until mid-May at the earliest because of the new coronavirus pandemic.___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

PHOENIX (AP) — It's been another ideal week of March weather in central Arizona, with highs in the 70s and plenty of sunshine.Perfect for an opening day baseball game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Atlanta Braves that isn't happening as planned because of the coronavirus pandemic. That reality was starkly apparent on Thursday, as a nearly deserted Chase Field sat in strange silence.But the pleasant weather was also a reminder of what could happen when and if the games resume. After all, it's a lot like what November or even December baseball would feel like in this part of the world. In the upside-down universe of Major League Baseball — which is on hold until at least mid-May and quite possibly longer as the world fights the coronavirus spread — just about anything is possible if the 2020 season ever begins.“Every year, you hope to host the World Series,” Arizona owner Ken Kendrick said earlier this month when discussing options for a pushed back season, including neutral sites in... [More]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The morning dawned bright and sunny over Kauffman Stadium, just to the east of downtown Kansas City. The outfield grass was a perfectly manicured ocean of green, the infield dirt brushed as if by a fine-toothed comb. In the air was a pervasive feeling of spring, of hope and opportunity and new beginnings.All that was missing was the crack of a bat and the sound of leather hitting a mitt.This was supposed to be the first opening day for the Kansas City Royals under new owner John Sherman, the fulfillment of a lifelong ambition for the local businessman. He had purchased the club late last year from longtime owner David Glass, and the former season ticket-holder was looking forward to seeing his rebuilding franchise on the field.Instead, the stadium sat empty as the outbreak of the new coronavirus brings sports to a standstill, and amid the continuing uncertainty whether baseball will be played at all this season.“We wish that we were playing baseball today,” Sherman... [More]

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — There will be no hot dogs on the grill, no beer on tap, no vendors in the stands selling peanuts and Cracker Jack. The shiny new stadium deep in the heart of Texas will still be waiting for its first Rangers game. Instead of warming up for his debut with the New York Yankees after a record $324 million, nine-year contract, Gerrit Cole is playing catch with his wife at home. With the start of the Major League Baseball season indefinitely on hold because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, ballparks will be empty Thursday on what was supposed to be opening day. “You’re used to seeing people run all over the place. We have over 200 people (who work) at the park,” said Roger Bossard, the groundskeeper in his 54th year with the Chicago White Sox. “Certainly, it’s eerie when no one’s around. You walk around the hallways or underneath the stands there, and there’s nobody there — but understandably.”From Baltimore to Miami in the east, San Diego to Seattle in the west — and... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Injured New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge still has not resumed baseball activities.Judge did not play in any spring training games because of discomfort in his right pectoral muscle and shoulder that he felt when swinging. The Yankees said March 6 that the 2017 AL Rookie of the Year had a stress fracture to his first right rib, an injury likely dating from a diving catch late last season.“Aaron is still in the healing phase of that that rib bone, and I think he'll be reevaluated again in a few weeks as far as re-imaging that to see if there's the continued healing with that rib,” manager Aaron Boone said during a conference call Wednesday. “He's been able to work out doing a lot of lower body stuff, is able to do some some upper body stuff, some overhead things.”Judge revealed last week he also had a collapsed lung and said he has recovered from that. Boone said that injury likely occurred during the diving catch but “it's probably something that it's impossible to... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Injured New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge still has not resumed baseball activities.Judge did not play in any spring training games because of discomfort in his right pectoral muscle and shoulder that he felt when swinging. The Yankees said March 6 that the 2017 AL Rookie of the Year had a stress fracture to his first right rib, an injury likely dating from a diving catch late last season.“Aaron is still in the healing phase of that that rib bone, and I think he'll be reevaluated again in a few weeks as far as re-imaging that to see if there's the continued healing with that rib,” manager Aaron Boone said during a conference call Wednesday. “He's been able to work out doing a lot of lower body stuff, is able to do some some upper body stuff, some overhead things.”Judge revealed last week he also had a collapsed lung and said he has recovered from that. Boone said that injury likely occurred during the diving catch but “it's probably something that it's impossible to... [More]

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — There will be no hot dogs on the grill, no beer on tap, no vendors in the stands selling peanuts and Cracker Jack. The shiny new stadium deep in the heart of Texas will still be waiting for its first Rangers game. Instead of warming up for his debut with the New York Yankees after a record $324 million, nine-year contract, Gerrit Cole is playing catch with his wife at home. With the start of the Major League Baseball season indefinitely on hold because of the novel coronavirus pandemic, ballparks will be empty Thursday on what was supposed to be opening day. “You’re used to seeing people run all over the place. We have over 200 people (who work) at the park,” said Roger Bossard, the groundskeeper in his 54th year with the Chicago White Sox. “Certainly, it’s eerie when no one’s around. You walk around the hallways or underneath the stands there, and there’s nobody there — but understandably.”From Baltimore to Miami in the east, San Diego to Seattle in the west — and... [More]