Both Wrigley Field and Fenway Park share April 20 as the date of their first official games in Major League Baseball.
On this date more than 100 years ago, long before luxury suites and high-priced beer and cheesy video scoreboard marriage proposals, Fenway Park hosted its first official MLB game. On April 20, 1912, the Red Sox played the New York Highlanders, who would become the New York Yankees the very next season and would eventually become the Red Sox’ most-hated arch-rivals.
The opening of Fenway Park coincided with a new owner, James McAleer. This was still two years before baby-faced pitcher Babe Ruth would join the club in 1914 and eight years before Ruth would be sold to the Yankees before the 1920 season by a different Red Sox owner, Harry Frazee. If Twitter existed when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees, it would have exploded with the hot, flaming passion of a thousand fiery suns.
The ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park was thrown by Boston mayor John F. Fitzgerald, the maternal grandfather of President John F. Kennedy. The mayor was a member of the Royal Rooters, a group comprised of die-hard Red Sox fans. The original Royal Rooters disbanded in 1918 but groups of Royal Rooters live on in various locations around the country. Their theme song is “Tessie.” Here’s the modern version sung by the Dropkick Murphys.
Tessie sung by the Dropkick Murphys at Fenway Park
The first official game at Fenway Park featured Buck O’Brien pitching for the Red Sox and Ray Caldwell for the Highlanders. Neither pitcher lasted long in the game. Caldwell was yanked after three-and-a-third innings. O’Brien only made it through four.
Red Sox reliever Charlie Hall pitched the final seven innings in the 11-inning victory for the Red Sox. After trailing at one point 5-1, the Red Sox came back to tie it in the bottom of the eighth, then won it in the bottom of the eleventh inning by a final score of 7-6.
The Red Sox lineup had Hall of Famers Harry Hooper and Tris Speaker playing right field and center field, respectively. Hooper couldn’t muster up a hit in the game, but Speaker was three-for-six with two RBI. The most notable player in the Highlanders lineup was Hal Chase. He was a slick-fielding first baseman who would eventually be kicked out of baseball after years of suspicion that he was involved in fixing games.
According to the box score at Baseball-Reference.com, the 11-inning game lasted over three hours, which was much longer than a typical game at the time. Of course, these days Red Sox—Yankees games seem to last nearly four hours every time they get together. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Four years after Fenway Park hosted its first official MLB game, a ballpark in Chicago did the same. The ballpark we now know as Wrigley Field was originally called Weeghman Park, named after owner Charles H. Weeghman. Weeghman owned a Chicago-based team in the Federal League, which popped up as a rival league to MLB for two years (1914-1915). When the Federal League folded, Weeghman bought the Cubs and moved them to his ballpark.
This was still many years before the Wrigley Field bleachers and scoreboard were created. Also, there was no ivy on the walls in those days. Bill Veeck would have ivy planted in September of 1937. Fifty-one years later, in 1988, Wrigley Field would be the last MLB park to have lights installed.
A Wrigley Field tradition
The first official MLB game at Wrigley Field featured Pete Schneider pitching for the Reds and Claude Hendrix pitching for the Cubs. Both pitchers faced 33 batters, which is something 2017 MLB innings leader Chris Sale didn’t do a single time last season. This was back when men were men and a sore arm just needed a little dirt rubbed on it, not like the namby-pamby pitchers of today.
In a bizarre twist of fate, the first official MLB game at Wrigley Field also went 11 innings, just like the first official game at Fenway Park. In fact, both first games ended with the home team winning and had the same final score, 7-6. It’s like one of those strange “President Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln and President Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy” things.
Remember Hal Chase, the crooked first baseman for the Highlanders in the first official game at Fenway Park? Well, here he is again, as the first baseman for the Reds in the first official game at Wrigley Field. Also, pitcher Hippo Vaughan was on the roster of a team in both games, first with the Highlanders and then with the Cubs. He pitched for the Highlanders in the Fenway Park opener but was on the bench for the Cubs in the first official MLB game at Wrigley Field.
This game also featured a pair of Heinies at third base. Heinie Groh played the hot corner for the Reds. Heinie Zimmerman manned the position for the Cubs. You don’t hear that name much anymore. Possibly because it became a slang word for buttocks in the 1930s.
Fenway Park and Wrigley Field are near the top of the “bucket lists” of many baseball fans because they’ve been around so long. With the Red Sox and Cubs both on the road tomorrow, neither ballpark will have a celebration of their unofficial “birthdays,” but baseball fans across the country can take a moment to appreciate the Green Monster in Boston and the ivy in Chicago.
