Cecil Travis did something in 1933 that not only was a first in the "modern" baseball era (since 1903) but is yet to be duplicated.

• Cecil went 5-for-7 in his first major league game for the Washington Senators in a 12-10 victory over the Cleveland Indians on May 16.
• The 19-year-old Georgia native had failed to make the team in spring training, but how could Manager Joe Cronin send him back to the minors after five hits in his first game!
• A left-handed hitting IF, Travis took over 3B for the Senators in 1934 before moving to SS in 1937.
• He made the All-Star team for the first time in 1938 and repeated in 1940 and 1941.

He missed the 1942-45 seasons while serving in the army during World War II.

• Travis would probably have made the Hall of Fame were it not for his lost seasons.
• During the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, he suffered a bad case of frostbite that required an operation.
• He returned to the Senators in 1946 at age 31, but was not the same player he had been before the war. After hitting .256 in '46 and only .215 in '47, he retired.
• Despite those subpar seasons, his career batting average is .314.

Note: Fred Clarke had five hits in five ABs in first game in 1894 for the Louisville Colonels of the National League.

Doug Ault

Pete Vuckovich

In 1977, the American League expanded to 14 teams with the addition of the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. Since Montreal had joined the NL in 1969, the Blue Jays gave Canada its second ML franchise.

• On April 7, 1977, the Blue Jays' first home game left many questioning whether putting a team in Toronto was such a good idea. The weather was freezing cold, and the entire field at Exhibition Stadium was covered in snow. Players and fans alike wondered if the game would be "snowed out."

• The groundskeepers vacuumed up the snow, and, after an 18-minute delay, the first American League game in Canada began before 44,469 spectators.

The Blue Jays defeated the Chicago White Sox that day, 9-5.

• The opening pitch was delivered by RHP Bill Singer.
• The first batter, LF Ralph Garr, walked. He stole second, advanced to third on a wild throw, and scored the first run on a SF.
• The first hit was a homer by the next hitter, RF Richie Zisk.
• Toronto's first hit was also a four-bagger, by 1B Doug Ault in the bottom of the first. He thereby scored the franchise's first run.
• The victory went to reliever Jerry Johnson, with the first save by Pete Vuckovich.

The Blue Jays quickly became one of the AL's most successful franchises.

• Despite finishing seventh (last) in the AL East, they drew 1,701,052 fans in that first season.
• The Jays attracted over 6 million fans in their first four seasons, a major league record.
• In 1987, Toronto set several league attendance records: 2,778,459 fans at home games, 1,959,280 fans at road games, and the overall home/away game attendance record.
  

In 1989 the Blue Jays moved from Exhibition Stadium to the SkyDome in downtown Toronto.

• Their first full year in the SkyDome, the team drew over 4 million fans at home, an all-time major league attendance record.
• The Blue Jays have been division champions 5 times, and in 1992 and 1993 became the first Canadian-based team to win the World Series.

A significant rules change was approved by the National League for the 1884 season. Here are the relevant passages from Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide 1884 (which was reprinted in its entirety in 1987 by Horton Publishing Company).

The Guide mentions several other rules changes for 1884.

Batter of the 1880s

C Roger Bresnahan

Bresnahan wearing shin guards

Hall of Fame C Roger Bresnahan invented the first shin guards in 1907.

• He modeled the first pair after cricket leg pads. Since they were large and bulky, they didn't catch on with other backstops.
• When Bresnahan wore the guards on opening day for the New York Giants, Pittsburgh manager Fred Clarke objected, but the umpires allowed them. When the Giants won, Clarke protested the game but National League President Pulliam rejected the appeal.
• Clarke was adamant in claiming that the equipment gave Bresnahan an advantage, as he told Sporting Life (5/14/1907):

As the matter stands at present New York has a big advantage over every other club," declared Clarke. "With Bresnahan the only catcher in the league wearing these guards, it will be next to impossible for any opposing player to touch the plate in a close play on the Polo Grounds. I am not stretching the truth a particle when I say that those shin guards cost us Saturday's game. Bresnahan ran fully six feet to the left of the plate and braced himself on the line so that it was impossible for me to get around him in my attempt to score on the bunt. Of course I tried to slide, but my spike caught in his shin guards and caused me to turn one of my ankles.

• By 1909, Bresnahan had streamlined the design and his invention became more widely used.
• Although standard sources credit Bresnahan with being the first C to wear shin guards, another item in Sporting Life (5/20/1907) raised questions about that claim.

NOT SO NEW.
Bresnahan Leg-Guard Scheme Anticipated by a Minor Catcher.

It's widely known that William Howard Taft was the first president to throw out the first ball of the season (in 1910). However, it is less well known that the first president to attend a World Series game was Taft's successor, Woodrow Wilson.

• The president and his fiancee, Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt, a widow, attended Game Two of the 1915 Fall Classic between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, October 9 at Baker Bowl.
• In addition to establishing a baseball first, the appearance of the First Couple was their first in public since the announcement of their engagement three days previously. Wilson's first wife, Ellen Axson, had died in 1914.
• The game was delayed for a few minutes until the presidential entourage arrived. The president then threw out the first ball, and the game began.

• According to the New York Times:

  He's a real fan, the President. He knows when Tris Speaker comes to the bat without looking at his score card, and he can clutch his fist and smash his knee and exclaim: "Well done!" when a player twists himself into a knot and makes a circus catch. He coached Mrs. Galt often during today's big struggle, and told her when Cactus Cravath was at the bat, and pointed out Silent Pat Moran as he walked to the coaching lines. Mrs. Galt seemed to become a fan very quickly, too. She ducked her head every time a foul was hit into the crowd.

The Red Sox evened the series with a 2-1 win before 20,306.

• The star of the game was the "little Boston pitcher" George Foster, who pitched a three-hitter and drove in the winning run in the ninth with his third hit, a single.
• Amazingly, the Red Sox won the next two games at home by that same 2-1 score, then closed out the Phillies in the fifth game, 5-4, back in The City of Brotherly Love.

Gavvy Cravath and Tris Speaker

The coach's boxes were added to baseball fields in 1887. The reason for their creation may surprise you.

• In the 1880s, the St. Louis Browns of the American Association became notorious for rowdyism.
• Manager Charles Comiskey - yes, he who later owned the infamous Chicago "Black Sox" and named the club's stadium after himself - encouraged his players to try to knock the opponents off their game by constant verbal abuse.
• Whichever player coached 3B ran up and down the line hurling insults and obscenities at the P. Since the Browns won, other clubs imitated them.>
• To curb this nonsense, the rules committee recognized coaches for the first time and created the boxes next to 1B and 3B for the 1887 season.

July 16, 1909: Bennett Park, Detroit

At 3:30, Oron Edgar "Kickapoo Ed" Summers took the mound for the Tigers against Washington's rookie hurler Dolly Gray. 18 innings. At 6:45 pm, home plate umpire John Kerin called the game because of darkness, much to the displeasure of both players and spectators. For 3 hours and 15 minutes, neither team crossed the plate in the first 18-inning scoreless game of the 20th century.

• Summers went the distance, pitching the equivalent of two games. He surrendered only 7 hits with 2 walks (one of which was intentional) and 10 K.
• Gray pitched 8 innings, yielding only one hit while walking one. He didn't strike out a batter. He was taken out in the ninth when he apparently tore a muscle in his side while pitching to the leadoff batter.
• Dolly's replacement, Bob Groom, gave up 5 hits, walked 6, and struck out 8 in 10 innings.

The Tigers, leading the junior circuit by 3 games, thought they won the game in the 15th inning.

• C Oscar Stanage led off with a single to CF and was replaced by PR Red Killefer.
• Summers bunted to Groom who threw the ball into CF, allowing Killefer to continue to 3rd.
• The Senators intentionally passed LF Matty McIntyre to create a force at any base.
• SS Donie Bush popped out to 3B Speed Kelly.
• CF Sam Crawford topped the ball toward 1B. Groom fielded it and tossed it to his C. Killefer slid as C Gabby Street applied the tag. Kerin gave the safe sign.
• At that point, the players on both teams thought the game was over and began exiting the field. But Kerin stayed behind the plate, calling the players to resume their positions. "What's the matter?" one of them asked. "Runner's out," came the reply. Besieged by both teams, the ump explained that he forgot the bases were loaded and therefore thought Street needed to tag the runner. But Killefer was really out on a force play at home.
• Crawford started back toward first as 2B Bob Unglaub grabbed the ball from Street and began chasing Wahoo Sam as the 3,078 fans howled. Each of the three Detroit runners managed to return to his base without being tagged out.
• After a few more minutes of rhubarb, RF Ty Cobb stepped to the plate with the bases still loaded. But Groom struck him out, "ending one of the most bizarre half-innings in baseball history."

In 1909, tied games were not suspended but instead replayed in their entirety. On August 22, the Nationals and Tigers replayed the July 16 tie in its entirety with Detroit the victor, 3-1.

The first two games of the 1949 World Series produced two firsts in baseball history.

• Rookie 17-game winner Don Newcombe of the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first African-American P to start a World Series game when he took the mound in Yankee Stadium. The big righthander pitched outstanding ball, matching Allie Reynolds goose egg for goose egg until the bottom of the ninth, when 1B Tommy Henrich led off with a HR into the lower RF stands, the fifth hit for the Yankees.
• The second game produced another pitching masterpiece. The Dodgers pushed across a run off Vic Raschi in the 2nd on 2B Jackie Robinson's double and 1B Gil Hodges' single. Wily lefty Preacher Roe made the tally stand up with a 6-hit shutout. The result was the first time a World Series had included two 1-0 games.
• The Yankees won all three games at Ebbets Field to take the crown in five. The fifth game produced another first when the contest was finished with the lights on.