| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
This Date In Baseball
Tuesday April 01, 20031952 Hall of Fame outfielder Monte Irvin of the New York Giants broke his ankle in an exhibition game. Irvin played just 46 games in the season.
1984 The New York Mets lost to the Cincinnati Reds 8-1 for their first opening-day defeat in 10 years.
1996 St. Francis of Illinois routed Robert Morris 71-1 in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference game. Robert Morris coach Gerald McNamara ended the game after four innings.
1997 For the first time, the salary of one player Albert Belle exceeded the payroll of an entire team the Pittsburgh Pirates. Belle, the game's highest-paid player for 1997 at $10 million, made $928,333 more than the whole Pirates' payroll, which totaled $9,071,667.
2001 Roger Clemens became the AL strikeout king, getting five to pass Walter Johnson as the Yankees beat Kansas City 7-3 in their opener. Clemens fanned Joe Randa for his 3,509th career strikeout.
Today's birthdays: Don Sutton, 53; Curt Leskanic, 35; Denny Hocking, 33; Jon Lieber, 33.<
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