We made it through. Were still here, baseballs still here, so we can all agree that everything is better today. Opening Day happens when we crack the very first egg to create a ma sive, deliciousomelet. In lots of ways, there isnt a betterpoint within our yearly livesthan the moment just before the first pitch from the first game forour favoriteteam: the amalgam ofour hopes and expectations stretch out in the green expanse before us, realized within our minds eye all at once, and we drink them in.
Every once along with a while, we have seen something a little more special than normal on Opening Day: a player striking the ground running, acting like they couldve been completed with spring training weeks ago. They dominate on a daywhen many players might be hopingto ease into things.
In honor of the auspicious day, and to welcome back thetime of the season when games mean something, Ive combed through some particularly noteworthy pitching performances for
Akiem Hicks Jersey that first counting games in the historical record (live-ball era) of previous seasons. With any luck, well have another one to catalog today. Lets get to it.
Best Game ScoreMost of us are familiar with Bill James Game Score, a way of giving a general score based on a standard pitching line. As a refresher, its started and centered at 50, with positive points awarded for strikeouts, outs, and completing innings. Likewise, points are subtracted for negative outcomes, like hits allowed, runs scored against, and walks i sued. There have been some keen ideas about how to enhance the Game Score during these pages, and some critique of their continued effectivene s, but its still a fairly easy, reliable way of measuring a 1 game pitching performance.
Who had the best Game Score on an Opening Day inthe live-ball era?
That would go to Walter Johnson, who posted an unearthly score of 111 on April 13th, 1926 within the opening bet on his 20th season within the majors. The 38-year-old Johnson went 15 innings for the Washington Senators against the Philadelphia Athletics, quitting six hits, three walks, and zero runs. The amount of batters he struck out seems to be under consideration: newspaper archives place the total at 12, while Baseball Reference tallies nine.
Whichever is the situation, the game finally ended 1-0 when player/manager Bucky Harris cro sed home plate in the bottom of the 15th. Oft-remembered Vice President Charles Dawes was on hand to throw out the first pitch, using the Ny Times reporting that A floral piece was given to Manager Bucky Harris, and Johnson received a loving cup, that we are only able to decide to try mean Harris received flowers, and Johnson received applause. Also reported were Johnsons curves and fast ones appearing as effective as ever.
While there isnt filmof the sport (surprising, to be certain), there are some great videos of Walter Johnson pitching. Heres one of them:
More modernexamples could be Bob Veales 10-inning masterpiece in 1965, Tom Glavines two
Cornelius Edison Jersey -hit, complete game shutout in 1992, and Felix Hernandez domination of the Athletics in 2007.
Pre-2000 honorable mentions (game score):Lon Warneke 1934 (96), Mel Harder 1935 (95),Bob Veale 1965 (95), Tom Glavine 1992 (90)
Post-2000 honorable mentions (game score):Hideo Nomo 2003 (84),Felix Hernandez 2007 (86), Clayton Kershaw,Jeff Samardzija 2013 (86)
Most StrikeoutsFor those after sheer gaudine s, or people who simply dont have confidence in the democratic beliefs in the floor ball out, look no further than Camilo Pascual on April 18th, 1960. He struck out15 Red Sox like a person in the Washington Senators (the Senators obviously love Opening Day), only quitting three hits and three walks over nine innings.
Jonathan Anderson Jersey The only real run from the game for the Sox was represented with a Ted Williams homer, however, you cant fault Pascual too much for that. This game is noteworthy because the last game Dwight D. Eisenhower would throw out an initial pitch as president. Its also noteworthy due to this very good news during the day recap video concerning the game:
The Senators won 10-1 before Eisenhower and fresh-faced Vice President Richard Nixon. Coming in a close second for the strikeout crown are Don Drysdale and Randy Johnson, who both recorded 14 strikeouts within the opening game of a season. Strictly from the strikeout perspective, Johnson is the more impre sive of these two:he struck out 14twice (1993 & 1996), and didnt take 11 innings and 164 pitches to do this, as was the case with Drysdale (1960). Not that 164 pitches isnt impre sive on its own.
Pre-2000 honorable mentions (strikeouts): Lon Warneke 1934 (13), Bob Gibson 1967 (13), Dave McNally 1970 (13), J.R. Richard 1980 (13)
Post-2000 honorable mentions (strikeouts): Pedro Martinez 2000 (11), Felix Hernandez 2007 (12), Jered Weaver, Justin Masterson, Ryan Dempster 2012 (10)
The Only No-hitterThe lone pitcher to record a no-hitter on Opening Day after 1920 was Bob Feller from the Cleveland Indians, who was supremely and effectively wild on April 16th, 1940. Feller walked five within the outing, which is the reason the performance is only 9th-best when it comes to Game Scores on the first day of the growing season (posting a mark of 90). He struck out eight. Amazingly, its arguably not the best performance from Feller on Opening Day throughout his Hall of Fame career: his complete game, three hit, one walk, 10 strikeout opener in 1946 matches the sport Score mark of his 1940 no-hitter.
Feller was a notorious hard-thrower, and interested parties employed a rather unique method of measuring the rate of his fastball before the times of radar guns:
Yes, that is a policeman on a motorcycle going 86 miles per hour racing Fellers fastball. This test was enough for that narrator of the filmto exclaim, That ball was traveling better than 100 mile perhour!, in what was the very first documented case of solidempirical evidencebeating the attention test in baseball.
Other pitchers have come near to the Opening Day no-no: Je se Petty (1926),
Rashaad Reynolds Jersey Lon Warneke (1934), and Bob Lemon (1953) all threw complete game one-hitters. The nearest perfectly might have been Lefty Grove (1940) or Ron Guidry (1980), who walked none and gave up two singles apiece. Neither received decisions in their games, amazingly.
If we wait of sufficient length, well eventually visit a perfect game or another no-hitter on Opening Day: for now, we have Walter Johnson, Camilo Pascual, and Bob Fellers amazing fastball. Just like the police motorcycle speed test, theyll be overtaken eventually with a better performance, gone but not forgotten.
