Fansided

Opening Day 2019: 5 historic performances of previous years

By David Salituro

MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - MARCH 28: A general view before the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers during Opening Day at Miller Park on March 28, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - MARCH 28: A general view before the game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers during Opening Day at Miller Park on March 28, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /
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CANADA – APRIL 02: Miles of smiles: George Bell, above right, who disrupted spring training last year with his complaints about being made a designated hitter, and Ernie Whitt show off the new Blue Jay attitude. (Photo by Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images)
CANADA – APRIL 02: Miles of smiles: George Bell, above right, who disrupted spring training last year with his complaints about being made a designated hitter, and Ernie Whitt show off the new Blue Jay attitude. (Photo by Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty Images) /

4) George Bell, 1988

George Bell, the 1987 American League MVP, picked up right where he left off to start the 1988 season. On a warm, sunny Monday afternoon in Kansas City, the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder became the first player in history to hit three home runs on Opening Day.

The start of the season certainly didn’t look bright for Bell and the Blue Jays. Bell, the Jays left fielder a year earlier, was upset that the team planned to play him as the designated hitter in 1988. The tension between Bell and manager Jimy Williams boiled over in a Spring Training game in Dunedin, Florida, when he refused to come off the bench and take his at-bat after being announced as the DH.

But by Opening Day, there Bell was as the Blue Jays DH. While he wasn’t on speaking terms with Williams, he let his play do the talking. He sent the first pitch he saw from Royals starter Bret Saberhagen over the left-field fence in Royals Stadium. In the fourth inning, he hit a two-strike pitch into the grass in center, plating Lloyd Moseby to give Toronto a 3-2 lead. His final home run was a solo shot to left in the eighth inning that extended the Blue Jays lead as they won the game 5-3.

Bell finished the game 3-4 with four RBI. But the rest of the 1988 season didn’t go as well for him or the Blue Jays. Bell hit just 21 home runs the rest of the year, finishing with 24 homers a year after hitting 47 in his MVP campaign. The Blue Jays, meanwhile, finished two games behind the AL East champion Boston Red Sox.

Bell’s feat of three home runs on Opening Day would later be matched by Tuffy Rhodes in 1994 and Dmitri Young in 2005.

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