Opening Day, 1902 to 1931
It's Opening Day! The latest issue of the ad-free American Association Almanac was published last week. It contains a balanced look at the opening day statistics compiled from a 30-year period including the years from 1902 to 1931. This 32,000 word article is organized into three sections, each one pertaining to a period of one decade, and each of which contain essentially the same topics. For example, in the first section for the period 1902 to 1911, the introduction contains a description of each of the first four contests (there were eight teams) which took place on April 23, 1902. An emphasis was placed on these games because of their historical importance as "firsts" and so they receive more attention than in the other sections. Here is an excerpt from this section: Mike (Elmer) Smith, the Kansas City left fielder, took top honors for providing Kansas City’s first home run of the American Association era, making the score 16-4. The additional fireworks ca...