The first pitch of the 1986 Major League baseball season was soon a souvenir in the outfield seats and it set the pace for a slugfest between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.
Red Sox outfielder Dwight Evans sent Tiger pitcher Jack Morris's first offering of the new season Monday over the left center field fence 400 feet from home plate for a home run, the first of six in the game at Tiger Stadium.
Evans' clout took some luster off Opening Day in Detroit, but certainly pleased some in Cincinnati, where the first game of the season had been held until this year.
The Tigers recovered from Evans' fifth Opening Day home run of his career, however, defeating their American League East Division rivals, 6-5.
Four other games were played Monday: Cincinnati beat Philadelphia, 7-4; Los Angeles downed San Diego, 2-1; Milwaukee topped Chicago, 5-3; and Cleveland defeated Baltimore, 6-4.
Cincinnati began its game about 30 minutes after the Red Sox-Tigers matchup started, to open 4he season for the National League.
Cincinnati player-manager Pete Rose, who passed Ty Cobb for most hits in a career, missed Opening Day for the first time in his 24-year career with a stomach ailment.
President Reagan went to Baltimore and needed two tries to successfully throw a pitch at Opening Day for the Baltimore Orioles. His first toss was wild. The next was a called strike.
The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Brian Gray, 12, of Baltimore, a cystic fibrosis inpatient at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.
Reagan, who emerged from the Oriole dugout, was accompanied by baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and Orioles owner Edward Bennett Williams, a prominent Democrat.
The president watched the American League game from the Orioles dugout, although it is technically against the rules for non-players to be there during a game.
Reagan left after the second inning.
In games scheduled for today, the American League slate has World Series champion Kansas City at New York, Toronto at Texas, California at Seattle and Minnesota at Oakland. The National League schedule has New York at Pittsburgh, Montreal at Atlanta, Chicago at St. Louis, San Francisco at Houston and San Diego at Los Angeles.
