Most Opening Days with a Hit – Baseball-Reference PI
Posted by Sean Forman on April 2, 2008
Most Opening Days with a Hit - Baseball-Reference PI
With the 2008 opening days safely into the books, we've compiled a list of the players with the most opening days with hits. This is from the batting gamelog finder. Set the criteria to H >= 1, the sort by to Players w/ most matching Career and then the team's games in the bottom right column to 1 (= opening day).
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Willie Mays also got a hit on opening day, April 13, 1954. If he got hits on the first days of 1952 and 1955, he takes the lead (of those players who are listed), with 18. (In 1951, he was in Minneapolis on opening day and in 1953 he was in the Army.)
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:39 am
According to the New York Times of April 17, 1952, Mays was 1 for 4 on Opening Day (April 16) of the 1952 season -- Sal Maglie won for the Giants at the Polo Grounds, Bob Elliot had two homers in his debut as a Giant; this was New York's next NL game after the Bobby Thompson homer game.
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:53 am
Thanks, birtelcom. According to the Sporting News, on Thursday, April 14, 1955, Mays went 3 for 4 against the Dodgers, who won 10-8 because pitcher Don Newcombe hit two home runs. I think that was opening day.
So it appears that Mays is the leader for players since 1951 with 18 opening-day hits: the 15 recorded in the Play Index, plus 1952, 1954, and 1955. I wouldn't bet against Ty Cobb, though.
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am
Nope, my bad. The Giants opened in 1955 on Wednesday, April 13, in Philadelphia and Robin Roberts threw a no-no for 8.1 innings. Willie Mays went hitless and his total for opening-day games with hits now appears to be 17, tied for first place with the four immortals at the top of Sean's list.