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1931 — Pitcher Virne Mitchell, 17, signed with the Chattanooga club of Tennessee, becoming the first woman to play for an otherwise all-male baseball team.
1972 — The first collective player's strike in major league history began at 12:01 a.m. The strike lasted 12 days and canceled 86 games.
1996 — Umpire John McSherry, 51, who planned to see doctors the next day about an irregular heart beat, collapsed seven pitches into Cincinnati's opener and died at a hospital about an hour later.
1970 — An investment group headed by Allen "Bud" Selig bought the Seattle pilots for $10.8 million.
1989 — A. Bartlett Giamatti took over as baseball commissioner.
2001 — The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 8-1 as the Major League Baseball season opened in San Juan Puerto Rico.
2013 — Bryce Harper homered in his first two at-bats, Stephen Strasburg retired 19 batters in a row at one stretch, and the defending NL East champion Washington Nationals opened the season with a 2-0 victory over the Miami Marlins. Reigning NL Rookie of the Year Harper hit solo shots over the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center field off Ricky Nolasco in the first and fourth innings.
2013 — Clayton Kershaw launched his first career home run to break a scoreless tie in the eighth inning, then finished off a four-hitter that led the Los Angeles Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants 4-0 on opening day. Kershaw became the first pitcher in the majors to homer on opening day since Joe Magrane of St. Louis in 1988, and became the first pitcher to throw a shutout and hit a home run in an opener since Bob Lemon for Cleveland in 1953.
Today's birthdays: Daniel Murphy 29; John Axford 31.
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