Template:Today in Baseball/April 15

December 28: Today's featured birthday is that of Melvin Nieves, who turns 53.

• 1942 - Hi Bithorn (pictured) becomes the first of many Puerto Rico natives to play in either the National League or American League when he relieves for the Cubs.
• 1947 - Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American player in the white major leagues in the 20th Century. The Brooklyn Dodgers first baseman goes 0 for 3 but scores a run in Brooklyn's win. He had previously spent one year with the Kansas City Monarchs and one year with the Montreal Royals, starring for both. In 2004, MLB will proclaim this date as "Jackie Robinson Day", which will be celebrated annually in honor of this breakthrough.
• 1958 - The first major league game to be played on the West Coast takes place as Rubén Gómez blanks the Los Angeles Dodgers. The San Francisco Giants score eight runs against Don Drysdale and company, with both Daryl Spencer and Orlando Cepeda going deep.
• 1968 - The longest game in National League history goes 24 innings and over six hours. Each team has 79 at-bats in the "Year of the Pitcher" classic. The Mets go scoreless and the Astros win when a grounder by Bob Aspromonte goes through the legs of SS Al Weis.
• 1972 - Reggie Jackson becomes the first major leaguer in 36 years with facial hear when he sports a mustache, starting a trend for the Oakland Athletics. The last player with facial hair before Jackson was Frenchy Bordagaray.
• 2006 - In the longest no-hitter in Nippon Pro Baseball ever, Tomoya Yagi throws 150 pitches in ten innings before Hisashi Takeda and Micheal Nakamura each work a frame. Nakamura gets the win when the Nippon Ham Fighters finally score in the 12th.

Recent days: April 14 – April 13 – April 12