What an opening day – all four home teams won today. The most exciting game was New York at Birmingham, with some late inning heroics. Although Josh Gibson hit a 2-run homer to give Birmingham the lead in the bottom of the 8th inning, I’m going to focus on the catcher for New York, Louis Santop, in my Player Focus post. Santop’s 2-run homer in the top of the 7th gave New York the lead, and he also singled in the tying run in the top of the 9th.
baseballhall.org
Results
New York 3 at Birmingham 4
Kansas City 4 at Detroit 8
Washington 2 at Newark 3
St. Louis 2 at Pittsburgh 6
Summaries
NEW YORK AT BIRMINGHAM
Black Yankees... 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 - 3 6 1 Black Barons.... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 - 4 8 0 Win:Quisenberry(1-0) Loss:Fingers(0-1) Homeruns- L.Santop(1st), J.Gibson(1st), L.Doby(1st)
In a dramatic ending at the ballpark the Birmingham Black Barons won in their last at-bat beating the New York Black Yankees by the count of 4 to 3.
The game was decided in the 9th inning. After an out was recorded, Chaney White drew a walk. Dick Seay struck out, unable to help the rally. Rollie Fingers then uncorked a wild one that found its way to the backstop. Roberto Clemente came up and he doubled giving Birmingham the win much to the delight of the home town crowd. Birmingham rapped out 8 hits for the afternoon.
Dan Quisenberry(1-0) was the winner allowing 1 run in 1 inning. The losing pitcher was Fingers(0-1) in relief. He pitched 1 and 1/3 innings giving up 2 hits and 1 walk.
KANSAS CITY AT DETROIT
Monarchs........ 0 1 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 - 4 9 0 Stars........... 2 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 - 8 8 0 Win:Alexander(1-0) Loss:Feller(0-1) Homeruns- T.Williams(1st), R.Kiner-2(2nd), C.Ripken Jr(1st)
Left fielder Ralph Kiner slammed 2 homeruns and had 6 RBI and Pete Alexander completed the game without help from the bullpen as the Detroit Stars bested the Kansas City Monarchs 8 to 4 at Mack Park.
Kiner was really ‘in the zone’. He cleared the fences for a two-run home run in the 1st inning and lofted a three-run bomb in the 4th inning. Detroit had 8 hits for the afternoon.
Alexander(1-0) finished the game allowing 4 runs in the victory. The loss was charged to Bob Feller(0-1). He surrended 3 homeruns in his 8 innings.
WASHINGTON AT NEWARK
Homestead Grays. 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 2 7 1 Eagles.......... 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 3 7 0 Win:Johnson(1-0) Loss:Roberts(0-1) Save:Gossage(1st) Homeruns- T.Stearnes(1st), H.Greenberg(1st)
Right fielder Reggie Jackson had 2 base hits as the Newark Eagles defeated the Washington Homestead Grays by the score of 3 to 2 at the ballpark.
Newark claimed the early lead in the first inning scoring one runner. Washington made it exciting in the 9th, but they were unable to push the needed runs across.
The victory was credited to Walter Johnson(1-0) who went 8 and 1/3 innings, allowing 2 runs. Goose Gossage was credited with his 1st save. Robin Roberts(0-1) absorbed the loss. Despite losing, he struckout 9 Newark batters in 6 and 2/3 innings.
ST. LOUIS AT PITTSBURGH
Stars........... 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 - 2 5 0 Crawfords....... 0 4 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 6 12 1 Win:Maddux(1-0) Loss:Mathewson(0-1) Homeruns- M.Ott(1st), B.Monroe(1st)
Greg Maddux tossed a complete game and Neil Robinson had 4 hits and 2 RBI as the Pittsburgh Crawfords defeated the St. Louis Stars 6 to 2 at Greenlee Field.
Maddux(1-0) put on a good performance. He allowed only 5 hits and 5 walks in 9 innings. Pittsburgh managed 12 hits in their victory.
Christy Mathewson(0-1) was tagged with the loss. He allowed a few too many baserunners giving up 12 hits and 4 walks in 8 innings.
Box scores are a bit confusing. Is there a way to separate the teams, as they do today or was this the way it was reported back in the day?
Hi Paul – I just replaced the HTML with an image – looks a lot better on my phone. Can you let me know if they look good to you? Thanks – George
It looked great on my laptop, but terrible on my phone. I’ll find a way to fix that before tomorrow. Thanks Paul!