Early agate
ON THIS DATE
April 15
1958 – Dick Gray of Jefferson makes his major-league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers, going 2-for-4 in an 8-0 loss to San Francisco.
1966 – Bob Gibson pitches St. Louis to a 9-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s the Cardinals’ 18th straight victory at Forbes Field.
1982 – Canon-McMillan High School’s David Toshok strikes out 13 and walks only two in throwing a no-hitter against host Waynesburg as the Big Macs win 6-0 in a Section 9-AAA baseball game.
1983 – Bentworth’s Tony Conn scores 22 points and the South All-Stars never trail in a 108-86 victory in the first Washington-Greene Boys Basketball All-Star Game.
1985 – Mike Scrip, an assistant football coach at Peters Township High School, is named the Indians’ head coach, succeeding Bill Englert.
1997 – Dave Palone becomes only the 23rd driver in harness racing history to win 5,000 career races as he guides Know How to victory in the 9th race at The Meadows.
2000 – Penn State defensive end Courtney Brown and linebacker LaVar Arrignton are the first two selections in the NFL draft.
2003 – Rick Kehoe is fired after 19 months as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Kehoe had a 58-81-14-10 record.
2003 – Pitt promotes assistant Jamie Dixon to head basketball coach, succeeding Ben Howland.
April 16
1940 – Bob Feller of Cleveland defeats the White Sox 1-0 in the only opening day no-hitter in major league history, at Chicago.
1953 – Danny O’Connell’s three-run homer in the fifth inning broke up a slugfest and gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 14-12 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the home opener at Forbes Field. The Pirates had 27 hits. The game draws only 16,220 fans on a rainy 40-degree day.
1958 – Arnold Palmer edges Doug Ford by one stroke to win the Masters.
1959 – Jim Garry and Ed Hepe, both of McDonald High School’s coaching staff, are appointed head football and basketball coach, respectively, by the Fort Cherry Joint Board. Fort Cherry, merging McDonald, Hickory and Midway high schools, will make its WPIAL debut in the 1959-60 school year.
1958 – Los Angeles’ Dick Gray, a third baseman from Jefferson, goes 3-for-6 with a home run as the Dodgers beat the San Francisco Giants 13-1.
1966 – Roberto Clemente hits a home run and Manny Mota has a two-run triple as the Pittsburgh Pirates get a rare win over the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2. The loss ends St. Louis’ 18-game winning streak at Forbes Field.
1973 – The WPIAL accepts six schools from the Class A Catholic League, adding South Hills, Bishop Boyle, Serra, Greensburg Central Catholic, Quigley and Penn Academy. The move is considered a death blow to the Catholic League.
1974 – Jerry Chambers resigns as wrestling coach at Trinity High School.
1977 – Trinity’s Gene Roach sets the meet record in the pole vault at the Canon-McMillan Relays. Roach clears 14-0 3/4 to break the record of 13-8 3/4 that was set in 1968.
1983 – Washington High School’s Brian Davis breaks the school record and wins the long jump at the Tri-State Track Coaches Meet in Mt. Lebanon. Davis’ leap of 23-1 breaks the 21-year-old school record and 12-year-old meet record.
1985 – Pittsburgh’s Jose DeLeon strikes out 14 New York batters in eight innings, but the Mets score in the ninth against John Candelaria and beat the Pirates 2-1 at Three Rivers Stadium.
1992 – Behind two first-place and two second-place finishes by Megan Ferrara, Ringgold High School wins the team title at the Washington County Coaches Girls Track Meet. Ferrara wins the long jump and 300 hurdles and is the runnerup in the triple jump and 200 dash.
1994 – Wind gusts of 60 mph topple four light towers at The Meadows and causes the postponement of two racing cards.