Throwback Thursday: History of Reds Opening Day coverage

The Cincinnati Reds will open their 134th season at 4:10 p.m. Monday when they host the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park. Looking back on previous home openers, we dug into some coverage of the Reds Opening Day games from 100, 90, 80, 75, 50, 25 and 10 years ago.

• 1915, L 9-2

  

  Pirates pitcher George McQuillan allowed two runs on eight hits to shut down the Reds in the opener. Shortstop Buck Herzog led the Reds offense at 2-for-3 with a walk.

  Excerpt

  Beating Pittsburgh on opening Day seems as impossible as losing to the Cubs in the first game of the season, but at that there was nothing to the Pirate victory but McQuillan.

  ...

  Never have more residents of the Gem City had "important business" in the Queen City in one day than they did Wednesday."

• 1925, W 4-0

  

  Reds starter Pete Donohue pitched a six-hit shutout while also going 1-for-3 and scoring a run. Cincinnati scored twice in the first to take the early advantage and kept the momentum with Donohue's pitching. Rogers Hornsby went 0-for-4 for the Cardinals.

  Excerpt

  Now to get back to the man mainly resonsible for the victory of the Reds in the opener. It was none other than Pete Donohue, the frail-looking Texan who was expected to start the game in great style and then weaken in the fourth or fifth inning. But much to the delight of most of the 31,888 fans present and to the chagrin of the Cardinal batters, Donohue just didn't do as expected.

  ...

  The hard-luck guy of the afternoon was Bubbles Hargrave, Red catcher. Bubbles connected solidly on three trips to the plate, but each time one of the Cardinal outfielders got in the way of the ball.

• 1935, L 12-6

  

  Pirates started Waite Hoyt pitched the whole way, allowing six runs on 13 hits in nine innings, but a Pittsburgh seven-run seventh inning doomed Cincinnati. Reds shortstop Bill Myers went 3-for-5, but Hoyt countered with two RBIs and a 2-for-4 performance at the plate to help the Pirates roll.

  Excerpt

  The day was colder than a crooked gambler's own deck of cards, so the athletes turned in a football score as the Cincinnati Reds opened their 1935 National League baseball season here yesterday. It was an inauspicious start to the Redleg rookies made as they bowed before the Pittsburgh Pirates, 12 to 6, as a crowd of 27,400 looked on, almost frozen-faced.

  ...

  For a time yesterday morning, (general manager) Larry MacPhail debated with himself whether to call the game off or whether to stage it. But, like the air mail, which "neither rain nor snow nor sleet shall stay," the show had to go on. If it hadn't, there would have been a lot of rain checks to honor at a later date, and very likely most of the fans would have saved them for Sunday, May 26, when Babe Ruth is schduled to make his debut in Crosley Field.

  Rather than take a chance on something like that, MacPhail ordered Groundkeeper Matty Schwab to sweep off the snow in the outfield and make the field as presentable as possible.

• 1940, W 2-1

  

  The Reds went up 1-0 in the third and scored the game-winning run in the eighth right fielder Ival Goodman tagged Cubs starter Bill Lee for a home run to lead off the inning. Cincinnati starter Paul Derringer made it stand, allowing one run on six hits in the complete game.

  Excerpt

  All winter long, after the McKechniemen took such a shellacking from the New York Yankees in the World Series, the experts said that the merciless beating they took would react against them and they would never be the same. At that, maybe they're right. The Reds weren't the same yesterday as they handed the Chicago Cubs a 2-1 defeat in winning their first getaway contest since 1932, when the Cubs also were the victims, 5-4.

  No, sir, the Reds weren't the same - they were better.

• 1965, L 4-2

  

  Future manager Joe Torre ripped two home runs and the Braves scored three times in the sixth to take control. Felipe Alou also had two hits for the Braves. That spoiled the season debut of Cincinnati's Jim O'Toole, who allowed four runs on seven hits, while Milwaukee's Tony Cloninger allowed just two runs on two hits.

  Excerpt

  O'Toole, who worked all spring to earn the opener assignment, pitched a creditable game except for a few moments in the sixth inning when Eddie Matthews and Joe Torre hit back-to-back homers to account for three Milwaukee runs in the Braves' 4-2 triumph. Torre, the swarthy catcher, belted a second homer two innings later to complete the visitors' scoring.

  ...

  While O'Toole didn't want to be reminded of the homers, neither did Torre, strangely enough.

  "That's always been my downfall," he explained, "thinking about home runs. I'll take line drives. That was my trouble last year. I hit a bunch early in the season and everybody stared talking about me hitting 40 or so. They got me thinking about it and then I quit hitting."

• 1990, W 2-1

  

  To the chagrin of Cincinnati fans, the Reds had played their first six games on the road in Houston and Atlanta. When they returned to Riverfront Stadium for the home opener, the Reds continued winning, taking their seventh straight to start the season behind a 3-for-4 performance from Barry Larkin and the pitching combo of Tom Browning, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers.

  Excerpt

  Billy Hatcher knew when he came to the ballpark Tuesday that opening games in Cincinnati generate considerably more interest than they do in, say, Houston.

  "It was 10:30 in the morning," Hatcher said, "and there were people all over the place."

  The enthusiasm of the fans in his new baseball home didn't turn the butterflies loose in the stomach of this 29-year-old outfielder who was traded to the Reds 15 days ago.

  ...

  At the risk of sounding repetitive, shortstop Barry Larkin, second baseman Mariano Duncan and left fielder Billy Hatcher starred with their bats and the bullpen pinched off any San Diego pretenses.

• 2005, W 7-6

  

  Adam Dunn and Joe Randa were both 2-for-4 and hit home runs for the Reds, who scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth for the come-from-behind win. Mets starter Pedro Martinez struck out 12 and allowed three runs, then Cincinnati rallied late off the New York bullpen. Paul Wilson, the Reds starter, allowed three runs on eight hits in six innings.

  Excerpt

  It's only one game and the Cincinnati Reds took pains to remind themselves of this fact Monday after new third baseman Joe Randa’s walkoff home run gave them a 7-6 season-opening victory over the New York Mets.

  But when manager Dave Miley practically jumped into the arms of COO John Allen in the bowels of Great American Ball Park, it seemed like more.

  “You always hope for an inning like that,” Miley said soon after breaking free of Allen. “The heart of the order, basically, got some big hits.”

  ...

  When Randa completed his trip around the bases with the sounds of 42,794 fans (a GABP record) ringing in his ears, Dunn led the home-plate pummeling of his new teammate.

  “I need to ice down my whole body,” Randa said with sons Jacob, 6, and Justin, 4, by his side. “Those guys beat me up pretty good. There’s a lot of love in this clubhouse.”