On this date in baseball history.

1969 - Bill Singer becomes the first major league reliever to officially record for a save, a new stat which will be kept starting this season, in the Dodgers’ 3-2 win over Cincinnati in the season-opener at Crosley Field. The 'Singer Throwing Machine’ does not allow a hit, hurling three scoreless innings en route to saving Don Drysdale’s victory.

Marvelous. 

They did go back and research "saves" and credited many old timers with quite a few.

Probably the best old timers are Hoyt Wilhelm, Dick "The Monster" Radatz, and my favorite...the Yankees Joe Page. Page's career is discussed in some detail along with some radical new pitching trends in my last article under "Towner's Corner" about two weeks ago.

Keep the good stuff like this coming Towner.  Always worth the read.

Where all the baseball money is, and where it is tied up, and, for how long.

www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/04/future-payroll-obligations-opening-day-update.html

Go Atlanta!

Ricky Bobby is not the only one who can shake and bake. Check out Yan Gomes, from the game last night.

yahoo.thepostgame.com/blog/caps-moments/201504/yan-gomes-hank-conger-cleveland-indians-houston-astros-crossover-slide-mlb

Yet another reason to check out a Durham Bulls game.

Fans of the Durham Bulls will be getting the freshest beer in all of the minor leagues this season, as the team has installed a craft brewery in its stadium.

The Durham Bulls Athletic Park is now the only minor league stadium in the country to feature an on-site brewery, and head brewer Tate Little says the team will make two signature beers, Water Tower Wheat and Lollygagger, as well as other variations as the season progresses.


"With our state of the art brewery, we will craft the highest quality beer for Bulls fans. We plan to first offer our Lollygagger Kolsch and Water Tower Wheat early in the season, followed by a more diverse selection of seasonal beers as the year progresses."


The brewery is not just an in-season operation either, as the Bull Durham Beer Company plans to offer its wares at the nearby American Tobacco Campus all year.

That is usually a late in the season move, when it happens. What it really is would be a testament as to how bad that teams pitching situation is at the moment.

Look at this outfielder for Toronto!

Kevin Pillar makes this most incredible catch vs. the Rays last night. Rajai Davis made an almost identical play August 15, 2013 when he was still a Jay.

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Dude made this great play 5 days ago against the Orioles on Chris Davis last Friday night...

Some Dodger themed "did you know". And, no, I didn't, until this -

On Wednesday, for the seventh consecutive April 15, every player, coach and umpire in Major League Baseball took the field wearing No. 42 as part of the league's annual Jackie Robinson Day celebration.

But while several others have donned Robinson's number since he broke the league's color barrier on April 15, 1947 — including Mariano Rivera, who retired in 2013 as the last player allowed to wear the number full-time after it was retired by the league in 1997 — there's only one man who carries the distinction of being the only player to wear 42 in Dodger blue after Robinson's retirement in 1956.

Los Angeles selected Ray Lamb in the 40th round of the 1966 draft, and on Aug. 1, 1969, the right-hander slipped on a No. 42 jersey and made his big-league debut, in relief of Don Drysdale, and immediately coughed up a two-run double to Joe Torre before being charged with one run in three innings in a 7-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

Lamb knew the No. 42 was sacred in Dodgers lore. After all, only one Dodger had ever worn 42 prior to Robinson's historic 10-year career in Brooklyn (George Jeffcoat, for one game in 1939) and no one had worn it since Robinson's final game on Sept. 30, 1956. But 42 was also Lamb's number in college at Southern Cal, so when he arrived at Chavez Ravine, a few miles from his childhood home in Glendale, and saw it in his locker, Lamb figured he wouldn't sweat it if the team didn't mind.

"I didn't think much about it, and I guess they didn't either," Lamb, now 70, told FOX Sports on Tuesday. "At the time, the 30s, 40s and 50s were pitchers' numbers, and I don't know who was in charge of passing them out, but it was probably just the clubhouse guy's choice."

Over the final two months of the 1969 season, Lamb made 10 appearances and went 0-1 with a 1.80 ERA over 15 innings while wearing the historic number, but shortly after the campaign ended, the team came to Lamb with some news.

"It was probably after they saw the number out on the field (that) they figured, 'We probably should take care of that number,' " Lamb said. "When the season was over, the clubhouse guy came over and said, 'Hey, we're going to retire your number, so we have to give you a new one,' and I asked him, 'Did I have that good of a year?' "

"Or that's the story I always tell everyone," Lamb added with a laugh.

In reality, the team was planning on retiring the number in honor of Robinson, and though the ceremony didn't take place until 1972, the Dodgers figured it was best to swipe it from Lamb sooner than later. Of course, what the Dodgers couldn't have possibly known at the time was that the new uniform they assigned Lamb, No. 34, also would go on to become legendary at Dodger Stadium, as Fernando Valenzuela's number from 1980 to 1990.

"They haven't given it to anybody else after Fernando, far as I know," Lamb said.

Lamb's time as No. 34 would be short-lived, however, and after the 1970 season, Los Angeles traded him to Cleveland, where he would wear No. 30 — a number later worn by Joe Carter during his days with the Indians — until his retirement in 1974. But in Lamb's mind, he'll always be the other No. 42 for the Dodgers.

"(Robinson) is a legend and everything, and I was privileged to wear (42)," Lamb said. "But I have confused feelings about Jackie Robinson Day when I watched the games on TV and everyone's wearing my old number."

I was able to see both at MLB.com, so you are covered.

The Baltimore Orioles will be the first team in more than 80 seasons to not play a game outside of the Eastern time zone before June, according to the Associated Press.

The team will not venture westward to an earlier hour until June 1 when it plays the Houston Astros. According to STATS LLC, no team has undergone such a schedule since 1932, during which all but four teams in Major League Baseball played on the east coast.

When told of his team's unique scheduling, Orioles' manager Buck Showwalter quipped that he wished the team could commute by train.

Relief pitcher Darren O'Day added that such a train-based itinerary would only be possible with "those bullet trains they have in Japan."

In fact, Baltimore has it so good in 2015, it didn't even have to leave spring training when the season started: the Orioles opened against Tampa Bay.

Despite an April and May spent on its home seaboard, the Orioles will still only travel the 11th-fewest miles (24,904 to be exact) of any MLB team this season, according to the Baseball Savant.

The Reds, Cardinals and Cubs will each travel under 21,000 miles during the 2015 season, while the Mariners will travel a gruelling 43,281 miles.

Hold your breath on this one gents -


Matt Harvey is having his foot examined by doctors.

It's being called a minor issue, but Harvey acknowledged Wednesday that he's been bothered by it for months. The ace right-hander is still penciled in for his Saturday start at Yankee Stadium, but this situation obviously warrants monitoring.

Chris Rock has an amusing but disturbing take on black fans following (not) the Grand Old Game.

From "Real Sports" with Bryant Gumbel.


bleacherreport.com/articles/2439826-chris-rock-gives-a-strong-take-on-african-americans-and-baseball?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=mlb