• If Barry Larkin plays Opening Day, he will tie the franchise record for most openers played, currently held by Pete Rose and Bid McPhee, who played in 17. Larkin is now tied with his former idol and mentor, Davey Concepcion, with 16.

• Larkin's three Opening Day home runs tie him with Frank Robinson for second place in Reds history. Tops with four is Frank McCormick, first baseman for the 1940 World Champions.

• Robinson's eight Opening Day home runs overall (he played with different teams) is a major-league record.

• Sean Casey has hit safely in all five of his Reds openers, including home runs in 1999 and 2001.

• Tony Perez, known as Mr. RBI with the Reds, is tops with 14 Opening Day RBI here. Casey's six RBI are 10th-best for a Red, and he has played in only five Reds openers, compared to 11 Reds openers for Perez.

• Joe Nuxhall's 38 Opening Days (counting Monday) as a broadcaster is a Reds record. The streak began in 1967. The first opener he saw was in 1944, when he was in uniform on the bench. Two months later, he made his major-league debut at age 15, making him the youngest big-leaguer in the 20th Century. His Opening Day debut came in 1954 on the same day Henry Aaron made his major-league debut with the Milwaukee Braves.

Memories

• The first Opening Day game Ron Oester recalls watching was on TV in Ms. Peabody's fifth-grade classroom at Mount Washington Elementary. Years later, he made his Opening Day debut (1981) going 0-for-4 in a 3-2 Reds victory. Then-president Ronald Reagan was to throw out the first pitch, but he was recovering in Washington, D.C., from an assassination attempt March 30.

• The Reds have never had a sitting president throw out the first pitch on Opening Day.

• Paul O'Neill's last name was misspelled (O'Neil) on the back of his jersey in the 1989 opener. He went 4-for-4 with a home run. Wrote then-Enquirer columnist Tim Sullivan: "Paul O'Neill had one 'L' of an Opening Day."

• Making his Reds Opening Day debut that same day was New Richmond native Todd Benzinger, who that morning invoked the name of Fred Merkle, the goat who cost the 1908 New York Giants the National League pennant. ("What if I become like a Fred Merkle and make some huge, bone-headed play?" Benzinger wondered.) On the first play of the game, Benzinger was involved in a two-error fiasco with Chris Sabo, but the Reds went on to beat the Dodgers 6-4. Benzinger got a hit and scored a run.

• Houston Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell made his major-league debut on Opening Day 1991 at Riverfront Stadium, going 0-for-3 in a 6-2 Reds victory. Future New York Mets pitching great Dwight Gooden saw his first major-league game on Opening Day 1984 at Riverfront Stadium as a Mets rookie.

From "Opening Day: Celebrating Cincinnati Baseball's Holiday," 2004, by John Erardi and Greg Rhodes