On this day in 1970, baseball made its long-awaited return to Milwaukee County Stadium. Four+ years after the Braves had departed for Atlanta, the new Milwaukee Brewers played their first home game. Just six days earlier, the team had been known as the Seattle Pilots.
With 36,107 in attendance (a pretty impressive number on a week's notice), the new Brewers lost their first game 12-0 to the Angels, setting a trend for the month of April. Milwaukee's new team went 5-15 in their first month en route to a 65-97 finish. The Brewers had just three hits on Opening Day, but one of them belonged to Tommy Harper. He would go on to hit .296/.377/.522 in the best year of his career. The other three hits all belonged to right fielder Steve Hovley: He would play just 39 more games as a Brewer before being traded to the A's.
With help from Brewerfan.net and the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:
- 2010 AZL Brewer Kevin Shackelford, who turns 24.
- 2006-08 Brewer Vinny Rottino, who turns 31.
- 1998-02 Brewer Ronnie Belliard, who turns 36.
- 1992-96 Brewer Ricky Bones, who turns 42.