April 20th belongs to...

Michael Jack Schmidt.
The greatest player in Phillies history (seen here in August 2015) owns a pair of milestones on this date:

  • He smacked the 100th home run of his career on this date in 1976 -- it came off John Candelaria of the Pirates. It was also the sizzling Schmitty's seventh home runs in seven games -- in a season he'd lead the National League in that stat for the third year in a row. The Phils went onto win the game 5-1.
  • He became the Phillies all-time leader in hits on this date in 1989. And again the highlight takes place against the Pirates. Weeks away from retiring, his 6th inning double off Mike Dunne breaks Richie Ashburn's longstanding club record for career hits.
There are several other important names with a chunk of April 20th baseball history:

1983: George Brett of the Royals blasts three home runs, including a three-run shot in the top of the 9th that pushes Kansas City past the Tigers 8 - 7.

1980: Rickey Henderson of the A's steals home for the first time in his career.

1967: Tom Seaver earns the first of his 311 lifetime victories. He pitches 7-2/3 innings, gives up eight hits and strikes out five as the Mets beat the Cubs 6 - 1 at Shea Stadium.

1966: Hank Aaron hits the 400th home run of his career off Ray Culp of the Phillies in an 8-1 Atlanta win at Connie Mack Stadium. He's the 12 player ever to reach 400.

1963: Duke Snider and Gil Hodges, longtime Brooklyn Dodger heroes, are in the Mets starting lineup for the one and only time -- as they beat the Braves 3 - 1 at the Polo Grounds. 

1957: Yogi Berra is on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. 

1939: Ted Williams gets the first hit of his career in the first game of his rookie season -- a booming 4th inning double off fellow future Hall of Famer Red Ruffing at Yankee Stadium. The game is also notable as the only one in which Lou Gehrig and Ted Williams appear together. Not yet aware he was suffering from ALS, the Iron Horse went hitless. (I don't know the schedule-making scheme used back then, but the Yankees and Sox played different opponents the next day. And by the next time the rivals met, Gehrig had taken himself out of the lineup.)

1912: Here we go with the Yankees and Red Sox again -- they meet in the first game ever played at Fenway Park. Well, actually, the guys from New York were still the Highlanders. They lost to the Boston boys 7 - 6, in 11 innings.





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