Sneaky-good pitching staff on today's Birthday Team. Hendrix put up 29 wins, 34 complete games, and a 1.69 in the 1914 Federal League, Sweeney won 41 games in 1884, and Gregg led the AL in ERA and ERA+ in 1911. Each of the other two starters led the NL in losses, but both were actually solid long term MLB pitchers.

C: Mike Simon
1B/Manager: Jake Stahl
2B: Oscar Grimes
3B: Kid Elberfeld
SS: Herman Long
LF: Wes Chamberlain
CF: Red Killefer
RF: Hunter Pence

SP: Claude Hendrix
SP: Vean Gregg
SP: Charlie Sweeney
SP: Ben Cantwell
SP: Mark Leiter
RP: Ricardo Rincon

Fun names: Biff Wysong and Squiz Pillion

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the end of the first baseball strike.

Players making their debut on April 13 include: Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, Paul Waner, Tony Lazzeri, Jack Fournier, Vic Power, Moose Skowron, Frank Bolling, Davey Johnson, Riggs Stephenson, Wally Moon, Bob Skinner, and Bill Dietrich. Also, managers Joe McCarthy & Walter Alston & umpire Nestor Chylak.

Josh Johnson: Broken or just rusty?

Yuan Shi Kai cancelled his subscription to the Fort Smith Herald shortly thereafter.

Is it worthwhile to watch FSU against a crappy team? Is their Friday starter someone to see?

It doesn't take long to get caught up in the politics of the time if you let it. Interesting times, indeed.

Tribe puts up a seven-spot in the first inning at KC. Never a good sign when the home fans are booing you in the top of the first inning of the home opener.

Somewhere, Vin Mazzaro is wincing.

Game of the day (yesterday): Twins 10, Angels 9. Angels go up 6-0; Twins rally to tie. Angels retake the lead with a run in the 8th; the Twins score four in the bottom of the inning, then hold on as the Angels pull within one and get the tying run into scoring position. Grades out as the 8th-best game of the year so far, and the second-best 9-inning game (trailing only the Rays' 7-6 comeback against the Yankees on... what was it, Opening Day 4?)

Game of the day (last year): White Sox 6, A's 5 (10). The Sox strike early, going ahead 4-1 in the second; the A's rally slowly over the next several innings to lead 5-4, only to see the White Sox pull back even in the 6th. Neither team threatens too much over the next few innings, though Oakland does put a runner at second with one out in the 9th; in the 10th, Alexei Ramirez ends the game with his second home run of the day (.637 WPA on the game for him). Not exactly an absolute classic, but a very good game; that was a theme on the day, as 4 of the 12 games score between the 85th and 95th percentiles so far for 2011.

Here's one for Jayson Stark: On Friday the 13th, Todd Helton just collected his 1313th career RBI.

No Dugout today, so we'll use yesterday's...

Game of the day (yesterday): Nats 2, Reds 1 (13). Xavier Nady, who I'm kind of shocked to discover is still in the league, ties the game with a homer in the 8th. Both teams threaten after that - the Nats put two on in the 9th, the Reds, two with one out in the 12th, and the Nats put the winning run at third in the 12th before going down. The winning run scores off of Sean Marshall in the 13th, on a rally that goes infield single-walk-walk-single, with Jayson Werth walking off. It comes out as the 7th-best game of the year so far, and the best NL game... that second distintion isn't saying much so far, as 4 of the 6 best games of the NL season to date were played yesterday. (The others: Rockies 7, D'Backs 6; Marlins 5, Astros 4 in 11; Braves 10, Brewers 8.)

Game of the day (last year): A's 7, White Sox 4 (10). These two teams go to extras for the second straight day. Oakland led early on a Hideki Matsui homer, but the Chisox put up four runs spread over several innings, backing Gavin Floyd's excellent 8-inning start (5 hits, 7 K's, and the homer as the only run). Chris Sale came in to start the ninth, and... did not do as well. The inning started double-single-single, scoring one and putting the tying runs on base. Jesse Crain came in next, walking one hitter and striking out another before giving way to Matt Thornton with the tying runs in scoring position. Thornton managed a K of his own before giving up a game-tying 2-run single to Cliff Pennington.

After stranding the remaining two Oakland runners in the 9th, Thornton stayed in for the 10th. He presumably wished he hadn't, as the inning went groundout-walk-walk-RBI single-steal of second-2-run single, with Coco Crisp and Daric Barton providing the RBIs. The Sox went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning, bringing the carnage to a merciful close with their bullpen having allowed 6 runs in 2 innings. (Danks had 109 pitches after 8... I don't know that he could have pitched the 9th, but it seems rather likely. Ah well, hindsight.)

Here's one for Jayson Stark: On Friday the 13th, Todd Helton just collected his 1313th career RBI.

Not Jayson Stark, but I added it to my files.

Looks like Brian Wilson out for the season.

Now he can lie in bed like he's supposed to.

Game of the day (yesterday): Rockies 8, D'Backs 7. Fueled by second-inning homers from Ramon Hernandez and Tyler Colvin, the Rockies led 5-1 after 4. But Miguel Montero hit a 3-run jack in the 5th, and Arizona scored single runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th to take a 7-5 lead. Colorado responded with an RBI double by Eric Young Jr. in the bottom of the 8th, but stranded him at second with what would have been the tying run. Finally, two outs after Marco Scutaro was hit by a pitch, Todd Helton launched a come-from-behind walkoff homer, ending things at 8-7. It was a good enough game that it would have been the best of the day even if Helton had made an out - but it wouldn't have been the best NL game of the year so far, which it is.

Game of the day (last year): Rays 4, Twins 3 (10). This is the second consecutive Game of the Day to feature a terrific start followed by a blown save; Carl Pavano threw 8 shutout innings, backed up by a 2-run 6th by the Twins, before being replaced by Joe Nathan. To be fair, Joe Nathan didn't suck yet at this point... anyway, Matt Joyce tied things with a 2-run double off of Nathan. In the 10th, Danny Valencia singled in Matt Tolbert, who was in scoring position in part thanks to a passed ball. The Rays won it on a 2-run shot by Johnny Damon off of Matt Capps in the bottom of the inning.

Bonus note: Through most of three series, the most exciting team of 2012 has been the Blue Jays, who haven't exactly matched their 16-inning Opening Day game yet but have played several other good ones. The most boring has been the Cardinals; they've played 9 games, and one of them has been above the median in excitement.

Eric J: There was a rain delay of about an hour after the fourth inning in Denver, neatly cleaving the game into a first half, where the Rockies dominated, and a second half, when Arizona took over. It actually rained pretty steadily throughout the game, meaning that there were only a couple thousand people in the stands by the time Helton hit his homer.

Eric J: There was a rain delay of about an hour after the fourth inning in Denver, neatly cleaving the game into a first half, where the Rockies dominated, and a second half, when Arizona took over.

Interesting. Something rather similar happened in the Indians-Royals game, which was the second-best of the day; Cleveland led early, but their starter, Jeanmar Gomez, who hadn't allowed a hit through 2 innings, was ejected for hitting Mike Moustakas after warnings had been issued, and the Royals eventually came from way behind to tie before losing in 10.