Like many, I am happy that baseball season is back. Even though opening day is behind us, on this day in 1940 it was a historical opening day.
At Comiskey Park, the Cleveland Indians took on the Chicago White Sox. 21 year old Bob Feller was the starting pitcher for the Indians. He would go on to strike out 8 batters and walk only 5 in a 1-0 victory.
What makes the victory a special one is that Feller “No Hit” the White Sox. He became the first pitcher in Major League Baseball history to have a no hitter on opening day. Oh, and no one else has done it since Feller. The Society for American Baseball Research says that this remains one of the most iconic achievements in MLB history, often cited as a testament to Feller’s status as a prodigy.
The weather that day was unseasonably cold. The cold kept many fans away from the ballpark. The attendance that day was only about 14,000. Feller had a really good curveball, but because of the cold, he threw mostly fastballs that day. This historical game almost didn’t happen.
“The first couple of innings, I was pretty wild,” Feller recalled. “In the second inning, I loaded the bases. Someone in the bullpen was warming up and the manager was getting ready to walk out to the mound. But I managed to strike out the last hitter (Bob Kennedy) on a full count.”
As the game went on, a thought crept into his mind. “I knew I had a chance for a no-hitter,” Feller said. “But I tried to put it out of my mind by reminding myself you never have a no-hitter until the last man is out.”
What an amazing feat!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 
I didn’t know that. Any no-hitter is an accomplishment, on opening day it’s even more special. Won’t see that happen again for a long time I would guess, not because there aren’t pitchers plenty good enough to do so but because so few go past the 7th inning. And early on, they often are limited to about 5 innings maximum.
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I like his attitude in that last quote.
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