April 18 1899 — John McGraw, only 26, made his managerial debut with the Orioles. He led them to a 5-3 victory over the New York Giants, a team he later managed for more than 30 years. 1916 — Philadelphia’s Grover Alexander pitched his first of 16 shutouts of the season with a win over the Boston Braves. 1923 — In the first game played in Yankee Stadium, a record crowd of 72,400 watched Babe Ruth lead the Yankees to victory over the Red Sox with a home run. 1945 — In his major league debut, one-armed outfielder Pete Gray got one hit in four at-bats in the St. Louis Browns’ 7-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. 1950 — The first opening night game was held in St. Louis. The Cardinals, behind a complete game by Gerry Staley and home runs from Red Schoendienst and Stan Musial, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 4-2. 1970 — Nolan Ryan of the New York Mets allowed one hit — a leadoff single by Denny Doyle — and struck out 15 for a 7-0 win over Philadelphia. 1982 — The Atlanta Braves defeated the Astros 6-5 in Houston to set a National League record as they won their 11th straight game to start the season. 1987 — Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt hit his 500th home run with two outs in the ninth to rally the Phillies to an 8-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Three Rivers Stadium. 1994 — Tim Raines hit three homers as the Chicago White Sox beat the Boston Red Sox 12-1 at Fenway Park. Raines hit solo homers leading off the first and third innings and a two-run drive in the eighth. He also walked, singled and reached on an error in the ninth. Raines scored five runs and drove in four. 2000 — Adam Kennedy tied a club record with eight RBIs and came within a double of the cycle as the Anaheim Angels defeated Toronto 16-10. A hot dog promotion at the SkyDome went awry as fans got splattered with bits of wiener when they fell apart in midair after being shot from the “Hot Dog Blaster.” Although the hot dogs repeatedly disintegrated, promoters continued shooting them into the stands. 2007 — Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 no-hit victory over the Texas Rangers. Buehrle walked Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth, then promptly picked him off first base. 2009 — Asdrubal Cabrera and Mark DeRosa went a combined 8-for-13, with 11 RBIs in Cleveland’s 22-4 victory against New York at Yankee Stadium. The Indians put together the first record-setting performance in the new Yankee Stadium, scoring 14 runs in the second inning — the most ever allowed by New York in an inning. ___