April 20, 1912: Two of baseball's legendary ballparks open: Fenway Park in Boston, and Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Given their respective historical natures, I've decided to do separate entries for each.
The Boston Red Sox were charter members of the American League in 1901, under the name of the Boston Americans. They played their 1st 11 seasons at the Huntington Avenue Grounds. It seated only 11,500 people, so they needed a new place to play.
Team owner John I. Taylor bought a plot of land in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bordered by Brookline Avenue, Jersey Street, Van Ness Street and Lansdowne Street. It was near "The Fens," a marshy area, and Taylor also owned the Fenway Realty Company. So the new 35,000-seat stadium was named Fenway Park.
For the first game, the Mayor of Boston threw out the ceremonial first ball. He was John F. Fitzgerald, known as Honey Fitz. He also served in Congress, and would later become the grandfather of 3 U.S. Senators: John Fitzgerald, Robert Francis and Edward Moore Kennedy. JFK, of course, became the 35th President of the United States.
The opponent for the 1st game was the New York Highlanders. By this point, they were already being called the Yankees, and they officially took that name the next season. Despite having finished 2nd 3 times, including taking the Red Sox (then named the Boston Americans) to the final day of the season in 1904, the team was now terrible, and would go on to lose 102 games.
This would be one of them. Thomas "Buck" O'Brien started for the Red Sox, Ray Caldwell for the Highlanders, and neither one made it to the 5th inning. New York scored 3 runs in the top of the 1st inning, and Boston scored 1 in the bottom half. The Highlanders scored 2 more in the top of the 3rd, leading 5-1. The Red Sox scored 3 in the bottom of the 4th and 1 in the bottom of the 6th, making it 5-5. Both teams scored in the 8th, and it went to extra innings. Tris Speaker singled home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th: Boston 7, New York 6.
The winning pitcher was Charley Hall, and the losing pitcher was Jim "Hippo" Vaughn. No home runs were hit during the game: This was, after all the Dead Ball Era.
The Red Sox won the World Series that 1st season. This inspired the city's National League team, the Boston Braves, to build their own new ballpark, leaving the small South End Grounds behind. It wasn't ready for the 1914 World Series, which the Braves made, so they played home games at Fenway.
When the 40,000-seat Braves Field opened in 1915, it was then the largest ballpark in the country. So they returned the favor to the Red Sox, who played their home games for the 1915, 1916 and 1918 World Series at Braves Field. Fenway didn't host another World Series until 1946.
Tom Yawkey bought the Red Sox in 1933. Prior to the next season, he substantially altered Fenway Park, including the construction of a 37-foot-high left field wall to protect businesses on the other side of Lansdowne Street. He couldn't build seats behind it, because there wasn't any room, so he expanded the center field bleachers. In 1947, he had the advertising signs taken off the left field wall, making it look big and green and foreboding. The nickname "The Green Monster" was applied, and it has stuck.
The Red Sox won Pennants in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986, but lost the World Series in 7 games every time. Finally, in 2004, through means that should have been officially rendered unacceptable, and the achievements thereof stripped from the record, they ended an 86-year drought, and won the World Series. They did it again in 2007. They did it again 2013, their 1st Series clincher at Fenway since 1918. And they won another in 2018.
Fenway would also host the All-Star Game in 1946, 1961 and 1999. The New England Patriots, then known as the Boston Patriots, played there from 1963 to 1968. It's also hosted college football, hockey, boxing, concerts, and political rallies, including what turned out to be the last ever held by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, on November 4, 1944, with singer Frank Sinatra and actor Orson Welles also giving speeches.
In 1999, the Red Sox organization released a plan for a new Fenway Park, across Jersey Street from the old one. But in 2002, John W. Henry bought the team from the Yawkey Trust, and, instead of building the new Fenway, decided to make as many modernizations as he could to the old one.
On April 20, 2012, Fenway Park became the 1st Major League Baseball ground to celebrate a 100th Anniversary. Again, the Yankees were the opponent. This time, the Yankees beat the Red Sox, 6-2.
As of April 20, 2022, there are no plans to build a new stadium for the Red Sox.
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April 20, 1912 was a Saturday. A full slate of games was played in what we would now call Major League Baseball. This included the 1st game at what would become Tiger Stadium in Detroit. The Detroit Tigers defeated the Cleveland Naps, forerunners of the Indians and the Guardians, 6-5.
In addition to the preceding:
* The New York Giants beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 4-3 at the Polo Grounds.
* The Boston Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1 at Baker Bowl in Philadelphia.
* The Philadelphia Athletics beat the Washington Senators, 6-3 at National Park in Washington. (It was renamed Griffith Stadium in 1922.)
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-0 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 1-for-5.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-4 in 10 innings at West Side Park in Chicago.
* And the Chicago White Sox and the St. Louis Browns played 15 scoreless innings at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, before the game was called due to darkness.
Although it was a Saturday, Arsenal, then still known as Woolwich Arsenal, did not play. They may have had a game that was pushed back by very cold weather or unplayable grounds. Two days later, on the Monday, they beat Blackburn Rovers, 5-1 at the Manor Ground in Plumstead, Southeast London.
This was the day of the FA Cup Final, at the Crystal Palace stadium in South London. Barnsley F.C., of Yorkshire, played West Bromwich Albion, of the Birmingham area, to a 0-0 tie. A replay was held 4 days later, at Bramall Lane in Sheffield, and that nearly went a full 120 minutes without scoring, before Barnsley won it, 1-0.
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