The WS-clinching shutout was a long time ago, and even his 20-win season is a fading memory. His reputation as a top pitcher far exceeds his actual achievements.

Mel Stottlemyre also started on day 1 and picked up a complete game win facing 43 batters (one shudders to think what his pitch count was). This was his first of a league-leading 24 complete games that year (including 5 of his first 6 starts).

For no particular reason other than John mentioned the '69 Twins opener in #7, I compared by checking that year and found 4 complete games (with as many as 37 batters faced) even though 4 of the 10 games that day went at least 11 innings. So, discounting the extras, there was a complete game pitched in 4 of the other 6 games (plus, Bob Gibson went 9 in one of the extra-inning games).

One thing the same between 1969 and 2003 - lots of future HOFers on the mound. For '69, we had Seaver, Gibson, Gaylord Perry, Phil Neikro, and Fergie Jenkins.

This has definitely sparked my interest.

But it sure wasn't their day. Maddux, Glavine, Johnson, Pedro, CC and Halladay were a collective 0-4, and their teams ALL lost.

In fact, it seems maybe they were a little shaken, as they started the season 0-4, before rebounding with a 16-3 run, and never really looking back after that. I wonder how many 0-4 teams have gone to the post-season.

Tom Hall, by the way, pitched 5.2 innings on opening day and left the game with the lead, which the bullpen couldn't hold. For the year, he went 8-7 in 18 starts and 13 relief outings, with a 112 ERA+, and took over the #4 spot in the rotation from Chance. It was the beginning of the end for Chance, who slumped to 88 innings work after his 292 innings the year before, and never again topped 157 innings .

In 1969, the Twins' pitching staff featured:
-- Jim Kaat and Jim Perry, both in their prime (they would finish with almost 500 big-league Wins combined);
-- Dean Chance, the 1964 Cy Young winner, who in '68 had pitched 292 innings with a 2.53 ERA and 234 Ks; and
-- Dave Boswell, the young veteran who, though only 24 in '69, had already made 97 starts in the majors, with a 104 ERA+ and 8.0 K/9.

Yet the Opening Day starter was the 21-year-old Tom Hall, making just his 9th MLB appearance, his 5th start, with less than 30 IP on his resume.

There's no obvious sign that any of the veterans were seriously injured. Kaat, Perry and Boswell started games 2, 3 and 4; Chance started game 7 and pitched regularly before going on the D.L. in June.

So how did Tom Hall end up with the plum assignment? It wasn't just Opening Day; it was the first game in the history of the opposing Kansas City Royals.

My best guess (and it's pure speculation) is that Minnesota's rookie manager wanted to make a bold move to grab the veterans' attention and show them in stark terms that whatever they'd done before meant diddly to him.

That rookie manager was Billy Martin, and he led the Twins to the first-ever AL West division title -- then got fired in the offseason. (Didn't take long for that pattern to take root, eh?)