Useless information dept.

Originally Published: April 3, 2003

Jayson Stark offers the best useless info from the first week, plus a special look at Opening Day.

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By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
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If the Royals are in first place, Corey Patterson is leading the league in RBI and Eddie Perez has as many home runs as Barry Bonds, it must be the always-entertaining first week of the baseball season. Once again weirdness abounds -- and nothing seems impossible. Just look:

Useless first-week information

The Devil Rays didn't beat the Red Sox in Tampa Bay in any game all last season (0-10). Then they came from three runs back in the ninth to do it in the first game this season.

Love that Opening Day


	Patterson

In the last 29 games Corey Patterson started for the Cubs last season, he hit one home run and drove in a total of six runs. In his first start this year, on Opening Day, he homered twice and drove in seven.

one five-run ninth inning in the 808-game history of their franchise. They scored five in the ninth on Opening Day this season.

But no team had scored five runs in the ninth inning on any of the previous 13 opening days -- since the White Sox did it in 1989, against the Angels. Didn't stop the Devil Rays, though.

And oh by the way, the Rays didn't even score five runs in a game in 19 of their 30 spring-training games

Before Opening Day, Randy Johnson had made 139 regular-season starts as a Diamondback -- and only once had they lost a game he started by eight or more runs (73 starts ago, in a 13-3 loss to the Mets on Aug. 25, 2000). So naturally, they lost, 8-0, to the Dodgers on Opening Day.

But Tom Glavine can top that one. Glavine had made 282 consecutive regular-season starts as a Brave (since June 18, 1994) without having his team lose by 13 runs or more. In fact, in 505 regular-season starts as a Brave, Glavine lost exactly one game by 13-plus (16-0, in that 1994 game). Then his team lost his first start as a Met, 15-2.

Glavine's buddy, Greg Maddux, had started six previous openers for the Braves -- and had never given up any runs in the first inning. He started this Opening Day -- and gave up four runs within the first six hitters.

Maddux, Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Glavine own 14 Cy Young awards -- but none of them won Opening Day (not that that was Pedro's fault). Meanwhile, Russ Springer (Cardinals), Seth McClung (Devil Rays), B.J. Ryan (Orioles) and Runelvys Hernandez (Royals) won a total of six games last season. All of them won Opening Day.

Jim Thome, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro, Shawn Green, Lance Berkman and Jason Giambi combined for 315 home runs last year. None of them homered on Opening Day. Eric Young (Brewers), Eddie Perez (Brewers), Terry Shumpert (Devil Rays), Carl Crawford (Devil Rays), Jason Kendall (Pirates), A.J. Pierzynski (Twins) and Royce Clayton (Brewers) combined for 25 homers last year. All of them homered on Opening Day.

In his last healthy season in Texas (1999), Pudge Rodriguez committed one passed ball in 141 games. In his first two games as a Marlin, he committed three passed balls.

Jim Thome got more hits (three) on his first Opening Day as a Phillie than he got in his last five opening days as an Indian combined (two).

The Pirates needed eight games and 256 at-bats to hit their first three home runs of last season. They hit three in the second inning of this season (three in their first 10 at-bats).

In a related development, Jason Kendall hit one home run in the first two months of last season. He hit two home runs in the first two games of this season.

Mike Bordick committed no errors in his final 110 games and 544 chances as an Oriole. He then made an error in his first game and second chance as a Blue Jay.

Angels DH Brad Fullmer played 15 games against Texas last year and drove in four runs. He played three games against Texas this week -- and drove in seven runs.

Hideo Nomo threw no complete-game shutouts last season. Of course, he threw one on Opening Day this season.

Phillies pitchers Kevin Millwood and Randy Wolf had pitched a combined 13 times in Pro Player Stadium before this year -- and won once. They started the first two games of the season in Pro Player this year -- and won twice.

Arizona catcher Chad Moeller threw out three base-stealers all last year (in 17 tries). He threw out two base-stealers Opening Day (in four tries).

And the Devil Rays have the worst record of any team in baseball over the last four seasons (255-391). But they have the best record over the last four seasons on Opening Day (4-0).

Useless Opening-Day starter information

It isn't often a team starts a pitcher on Opening Day with exactly four career wins. But the Royals started four-game winner Runelvys Hernandez. Believe it or not, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, he's the fourth Opening- Day starter in the last 15 years with that few wins (or fewer). The others: Rafael Roque for the 1999 Brewers (four wins), Carlos Reyes for the '96 A's (four wins) and David Nied for the '93 Rockies (three wins). The difference between Hernandez and those guys: He actually won.

Then you had your World Series champs, the Angels. Their Opening-Day starter was John Lackey, a pitcher starting his first full season in the big leagues. Elias' Ken Hirdt reports that the last two times a Series champ started a pitcher on Opening Day with less than a full year of experience, the fabulous Hernandez family was playing human trivia question. The 2000 Yankees started El Duque on Opening Day. The '98 Marlins started his half-brother, Livan.

The young ... and the old


	Beckett

On the 10th anniversary of the first Opening Day in the history of the franchise, the Marlins started 22-year-old Josh Beckett -- who was about half the age of their first Opening-Day starter, 45-year-old Charlie Hough.

Amazingly, eight teams started pitchers on Opening Day with less than two full seasons in the big leagues -- Hernandez, Beckett, Lackey, Mike Maroth (Tigers), Brian Lawrence (Padres), Joe Kennedy (Devil Rays), Jason Jennings (Rockies) and Rodrigo Lopez (Orioles). According to Elias, that's the most pitchers with that little experience ever to have an appointment on Opening Day. The previous record was just five -- in 1913 and 1902 (when the American League itself had only one year of service time). Among those five in 1902 was some guy named Christy Mathewson.

Roger Clemens went into Opening Day with almost as many career wins (293) as the entire rotations of the Tigers (18), Royals (21), Padres (44), Marlins (114) and Devil Rays (108) combined (305).

And those 18 career wins by the whole Tigers' rotation represent the second-fewest by any season-opening rotation in the last 100 years. The only team to beat that, according to Elias: the 1998 Marlins, who opened the season with a rotation that owned exactly 16 career wins (nine by Livan Hernandez, six by Felix Heredia, one by Eric Ludwick, none by Brian Meadows or Rafael Medina). So what do those teams have in common? The GM of both clubs was a fellow named Dave Dombrowski. The only other rotation since 1903 to have fewer wins than these Royals was the 1943 A's (19).

More useless information

In our category of things that don't change, Barry Bonds' first hit of the season has been a home run for three straight seasons now. But Elias' Kevin Hines reports that Mark McGwire also did that, from 1999 to 2001. And over the last five seasons, three other men have done it: Tony Batista (2000-02), Russell Branyan (1999-2001) and Scott Rolen (1999-2001).

Last year, the Diamondbacks started the season by throwing two straight shutouts. This year, they performed just as difficult a feat: They got shut out themselves twice in the first three games, by the Dodgers. According to Elias, that makes Arizona along with Atlanta, which got shut out twice by the Expos in its first three games, the first teams to make the postseason one year, then get shut out twice in three games to start the next season since Sig Jakucki and the 1945 St. Louis Browns did it. In a good omen for the Dodgers and Braves, the team that shut out those Browns twice -- the Tigers -- went on to win the World Series.

After 60 years of starting a group of pitchers in Game 2 of the season that included Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Phil Niekro, Gaylord Perry, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, the Braves started a guy this year (Horacio Ramirez) who had never thrown a pitch in the major leagues. The last Brave to make his major-league debut by starting the second game of the season, according to Elias: the immortal Nick Strincevich, in 1940.

One development this week that was more tradition than shock: the Tigers losing their first two games of the season. Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler reports the Tigers have started out 0-2 now for three straight years and nine of the last 15. What was new, though, was that in those two games, they used more pitchers (eight) than they got hits (seven).

We're not sure if this says more about the Cubs' bullpen or the Mets' offense -- but two days in a row, Cubs relievers struck out six Mets in a row. Juan Cruz did it by himself on Opening Day. Then Mark Guthrie and Joe Borowski matched that in tag-team competition Wednesday.

The Dallas Morning News' Gerry Fraley reports that when the Rangers won on Opening Day, it marked the first time they'd had a winning record at any point in any season since April 15, 2001 -- the 13th game of Alex Rodriguez's Rangers career. This was their 313th game since then -- under three different managers.

Finally, you may have noticed that the Yankees have had a few hot starts. But to find the last time before this year that they started a season with a three-game sweep of a road series, you have to go back six decades -- to 1942 (in Washington). They still managed to win a mere 17 World Series in between.

The Sultan's Corner

Both halves of a double-play combination homered on Opening Day. But it wasn't Todd Walker-Nomar Garciaparra, or Alfonso Soriano-Derek Jeter, or Jose Vidro-Orlando Cabrera. It was that sweet-swinging Brewers DP duo of Eric Young (who hit three home runs last year) and Royce Clayton (who hit seven).

	A whole lot of losing
	One development this week that was more tradition than shock: the Tigers losing their first two games of the season. Booth Newspapers' Danny Knobler reports the Tigers have started out 0-2 now for three straight years and nine of the last 15. What was new, though, was that in those two games, they used more pitchers (eight) than they got hits (seven).

Believe it or not -- according to the Sultan of Swat Stats, SABR home-run historian David Vincent -- they're only the seventh double-play combination in history to go trotting on Opening Day. The others:

1941 Red Sox: Bobby Doerr/Joe Cronin
1948 Red Sox: Bobby Doerr/Vern Stephens
1994 Mets: Jeff Kent/Jose Vizcaino
1996 Blue Jays: Domino Cedeno/Alex Gonzalez
1996 Braves: Mark Lemke/Jeff Blauser
1997 Padres: Quilvio Veras/Chris Gomez

X doesn't mark the spot in baseball. But Padres rookie Xavier Nady marked his own spot in home-run history. The Sultan reports he's the first player in history whose first or last name started with an X to hit a home run. The others:

Xavier Hernandez 0 HR, 37 AB
Xavier Rescigno 0 HR, 72 AB

Corey Patterson may need another 739 home runs to catch Hank Aaron. But he did pull into a tie for the top of one all-time home run category. He's tied for No. 1 in the Mr. March standings. The only other player in history with two home runs in March or two in any March game, according to the Sultan:

Vinny Castilla, Rockies: 2 vs. Arizona in Mexico City, March 31, 1998

Patterson also was the 33rd player to hit two home runs on Opening Day off the same pitcher (Mike Bacsik). But with the help of the Sultan and the amazing folks at Retrosheet, we've determined that Patterson is the first to hit two Opening-Day homers off the same relief pitcher.

Boston's ever-innovative Kevin Millar also set a very weird record this week: When he hit a game-winning home run in the 16th inning Monday, it was the earliest anyone had ever hit a home run that late. Or something like that.

The earliest previous date, according to the Sultan, that anyone had ever hit a home run in the 16th inning or later:

April 8 (1982): Doug DeCinces, for the Angels vs. Oakland

But the most memorable home run in that Red Sox-Devil Rays series was Carl Crawford's walkoff game-winner Opening Day. It was the 17th game-ending Opening-Day home run since 1901, according to the Sultan. But it also made Lou Piniella the fifth manager to win his first game with a new team on a walkoff home run. The others:

Davey Johnson, Dodgers: April 5, 1999 (HR by Raul Mondesi)
Buck Rodgers, Brewers: April 10, 1980 (HR by Sixto Lezcano)
Harry Walker, Pirates: April 12, 1965 (HR by Bob Bailey)
Casey Stengel, Yankees: April 19, 1949 (HR by Tommy Henrich)

We know Alex Rodriguez (27 years, 275 days) was the youngest player in history to hit a 300th home run, on his way to 500 and beyond. So which members of the 500-Homer Club were the oldest to hit No. 300. The answer, according to the Sultan:

Mark McGwire (32 years, 267 days)
Ted Williams (32 years, 258 days)

Special citation (future 500-homer man): Rafael Palmeiro (33 years, 296 days)

Finally, when Ray Durham launched the Giants' season with a home run, he became the sixth active player who has led off the first game of the season with a home run. The others, according to the Sultan:

1988: Julio Franco (for Cleveland vs. Texas)
1999: Juan Encarnacion (for Detroit at Texas)
2000: Gerald Williams (for Tampa Bay at Minnesota)
2000: Shannon Stewart (for Toronto vs. Kansas City)
2002: Jacque Jones (for Minnesota at Kansas City)

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.