The Robison brothers, owners of the Cleveland franchise,
gain control of the St. Louis franchise as well, and
redistribute players. St. Louis, which finished
12th in 1898, is enhanced with Cy Young, Jesse Burkett,
Bobby Wallace, and manager-1B Patsy Tebeau. Cleveland
is greatly weakened by the transfers. The new St.
Louis owners change the name of Sportsman's Park to
League Park. They also change the color of the team
socks from brown to red. The team nickname becomes
the Perfectos.
On Opening Day, Chicago gives P Clark Griffith
plenty of batting support and the Orphans defeat Louisville
15-1. At Washington, lefthanded SS Billy Hulen
plays his first game with the Senators, but he
goes 0-for-5 and makes an error as they lose to the
Phillies.
A crowd of 21,000 watches Kid Nichols of Boston outlast
Brickyard Kennedy 1-0 in 11 innings when Fred
Tenney triples in the crucial run.
John McGraw makes his managerial debut with Baltimore
by leading the Orioles to a 5-3 win over New
York. He would later manage the Giants for 3 decades.
Louisville 3B Honus Wagner hits 2 HRs, the 2nd winning
it in the 9th over Pittsburgh 2-1. The Colonels
sell Nick Altrock to Grand Rapids and Rube Waddell
to Columbus.
A new ML attendance record is set at Chicago as 27,000
fans watch Nixey Callahan shut out St. Louis 4-0.
The crowd spills into the field causing any hit
into the crowd to count for only one base.