April 14, 1967: The New York Yankees host their home opener at Yankee Stadium. With CBS' appointee Mike Burke now completely in charge -- the last of the Topping-Webb shares of ownership having gone to the Tiffany Network and fallen under his control after the disastrous 1966 season -- he has already put his stamp on the big ballyard in The Bronx, painting the sandstone exterior white, and painting the famous lime-green seats royal blue.
The Stadium will retain these colors after the 1973-76 renovation that Burke will negotiate. While the new Stadium of 2009 will go back to a sandstone exterior, in an effort to evoke the original version of the old Stadium, the seats will keep Burke's blue idea.
In the wake of a successful policy across town at Shea Stadium, Burke allows fans to bring banners to Yankee Stadium, something the old regime refused. Many of the banners this season saluted Mickey Mantle, who was on his way to hitting the 500th home run of his career on May 14.
The Boston Red Sox spoil the opener. Reggie Smith begins the game by hitting a home run off Whitey Ford, who is battling an injury, and will retire within weeks. It was still only 1-0 in the 8th, when Ford gave up another home run, a 2-run shot by Joe Foy. That made the score 3-0 Boston.
It would stay that way, as Billy Rohr, making his major league debut, nearly pitches a no-hitter. He walked Bill Robinson and Joe Pepitone in the 4th, walked Ray Barker in the 5th, and walked Tom Tresh in the 6th, but stranded them all. In the 8th, Lu Clinton reached on an error, and Rohr walked Horace Clarke, but he got out of the jam with a double play.
He started the bottom of the 9th, with Tresh hitting a liner out to left field, but a great catch was made by the man who will come to define the American League season, Southampton, Long Island native Carl Yastrzemski. He got Pepitone to fly to right. There was 1 out to go. But Elston Howard hit a clean single to right, to break up the no-hitter. Rohr then got Charlie Smith to fly out to end the game. He became the toast of the town, the town being Boston, for the first few weeks of the season.
Four days later, Rohr beat the Yankees again, at Fenway Park. But he won only 1 more big-league game. Still, those 2 wins were vital to the Sox' "Impossible Dream" season. Rohr returned to San Diego, went to law school, became a malpractice attorney.
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April 14, 1967 was a Friday. These other baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Chris Short outpitched Jack Fisher.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Atlanta Stadium (later renamed Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Hank Aaron went 3-for-4 with a walk. He did not hit a home run, but Felipe Alou and Joe Torre did. Willie Mays popped up to 1st base in the 1st inning, then left the game with an injury in the 2nd inning.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-5 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ernie Banks and Ron Santo hit home runs. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4, but had 2 RBIs, each on a groundout.
* The Houston Astros beat the Cincinnati Reds, 8-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Pete Rose went 1-for-4. Eddie Mathews, after 15 seasons with the Braves, played for the Astros, and hit his 494th career home run. This surpassed Lou Gehrig to make him, at the time, 7th on the all-time list behind Babe Ruth, Mays, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Mel Ott and Mantle. He would finish with 512.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 5-3 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3 with a walk. Rod Carew, who made his major league debut 3 days earlier, went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Al Kaline went 1-for-3 with 2 walks.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 8-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Athletics, 7-1 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-3 with a walk.
* The California Angels beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-1 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).
* And the Cleveland Indians and the Washington Senators were not scheduled.
Football was out of season. The Stanley Cup Playoffs were underway, but both Semifinal series were between games. The Toronto Maple Leafs would beat the Montreal Canadiens in the Finals.
And Game 1 of the NBA Finals was played. For the 1st time since 1956, the Eastern Division representative was not the Boston Celtics. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the San Francisco Warriors, 141-135 in overtime at the Philadelphia Civic Center. The Sixers got 32 points from Hal Greer, 30 from Wali Jones, 26 from Billy Cunningham, and 23 from Chet Walker. Wilt Chamberlain scored "only" 16 points, but he had 33 rebounds and 10 assists. Triple-doubles were not recorded at the time. Nor were blocked shots, so it's likely that he had a quadruple-double. In defeat, Rick Barry scored 37. The Sixers went on to win the series in 6 games.
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