Detroit Tigers: Three Tigers Moments on April 20

When you think of 4/20, the immediate thought for some is not baseball. Let us provide you a different thought in the haze of scrolling through social media. It’s not very often in the long history of baseball that three different moments, all unique in their own way, took placed in Detroit Tigers history on April 20th.

This week for the Detroit Tigers podcast I do with co-host Chris Brown, we had Craig Calcaterra from Hardball Talk as our guest. He does a great daily column that is filling the void with the lack of baseball that is called “Today in Baseball”. That was the inspiration for my research as I discovered three unique moments in Tigers’ history that occurred on 4/20.

The First Game at Michigan & Trumbull was played on this date in 1912.

The weather played a role on the date for the first game at what was known then as Navin Field. The original game was scheduled for April 18th but due to rain, it was postponed. So instead of a Thursday game, fans were treated to a Saturday afternoon game. The Tigers were supposed to play a four-game series but because of the rain, they would have to settle to play just Saturday and Sunday against what was then the Cleveland Naps. The Naps were lead by Nap Lajoie, who was so good, the press named the team the “Naps” before switching to the Indians in 1915.

26,000 fans came out on Opening Day, which was already a new attendance record. The previous high was 18,748 at their former home, Bennett Park. The Detroit Free Press had quite the headline for the attendance record in Sunday’s newspaper 

“Record of 18,748 Established on Sunday, April 18, 1909, in Game With Cleveland Club Is Boosted over 7,000 By Yesterday’s Throng at Navin Field Ground Rules Are Necessary” 

The game would go into extra innings as Tigers starter George Mullins would go the distance and even got the game-winning hit as the Tigers would beat Cleveland 6 to 5.

Gee, what a game!

On Opening Day in 1937 at Navin Field,  right fielder Gee Walker had quite the day. He is the only player ever to hit for the cycle on Opening Day. It would provide to be the difference as the Tigers would win 4 to 3. Walker would go on to have an All-Star season, hitting .335/.380/.499 and having 201 hits.

Little League Style

Cue the Benny Hill music for this one.  On April 20th, 2014, Ian Kinsler took a walk. On his attempt to steal second, Angels catcher Hank Conger would commit the first of three Los Angeles errors and Kinsler would score to tie the game.