April 12, 1955: Ted Lepcio becomes first Red Sox player to homer twice on Opening Day

Boston-area native Ted Lepcio broke in with the Red Sox in 1952 and played with them through April 1959, primarily at second base, third base, and shortstop. He was a good defender and led the majors in range factor per nine innings in 1954, but he never was a true offensive threat. His career batting average was .245, with 69 home runs in 729 games.

In 1955, though, he kicked off the season with two homers on Opening Day – the first Red Sox player ever to do so.

On April 12, the Baltimore Orioles hosted the Red Sox for Boston’s season opener and their own home opener, at Memorial Stadium. A day earlier, Baltimore had kicked off the American League schedule with a 12-5 loss to the Washington Nationals at Griffith Stadium. Facing the Red Sox for new manager Paul Richards’ Orioles was 32-year-old right-hander Joe Coleman, who had won 13 games for seventh-place Baltimore in 1954.1

For Boston’s Mike “Pinky” Higgins, it was his managerial debut. The Lou Boudreau-led Red Sox had finished fourth in the AL the year before. Higgins named 25-year-old Frank Sullivan his starter. Also a right-hander, Sullivan had been 15-12 with a 3.14 ERA in 1954.

There had been a “misty rain” before the game, which was played on what newspapers called a “cold and dismal afternoon” but nonetheless drew a crowd of 38,085.2

Higgins’ lineup was without superstar left fielder Ted Williams, who had “retired” from baseball until his divorce proceedings were settled,3 but the Red Sox jumped on Coleman right away. As the Baltimore Sun observed, “From the outset…it was evident that Joe Coleman, Baltimore’s comeback hero of 1954, didn’t have it…obviously still handicapped from a severe spring head cold.”4

Second baseman Billy Goodman began the game with a single to left-center. Shortstop Eddie Joost singled off the left-field fence, just a couple of feet from going out. Goodman took third on Joost’s hit and scored on a 6-4 groundout by Faye Throneberry, who was holding down left in Williams’ absence. The Red Sox had a 1-0 lead.

Third baseman Billy Cox – purchased by the Orioles in the offseason after seven seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers – led off the bottom of the first with a single. Rookie second baseman Don Leppert sacrificed Cox to second, but Sullivan stranded him there.

The Red Sox went back on the attack in the second inning. First baseman Norm Zauchin, back in the majors after spending 1952 and 1953 in the Army and 1954 in Triple A, reached on an error by Orioles first baseman Eddie Waitkus (his first in more than a year).5 Third baseman Lepcio then homered over the scoreboard and into the left-field bleachers, about 375 feet from the plate, extending Boston’s lead to 3-0.

Soon, Coleman’s day was done. A one-out walk and a two-out double by Willy Miranda, and the Orioles had a threat in the bottom of the second. Richards had Bobby Young pinch-hit for Coleman, and Young lifted a fly ball to Zauchin at first.

Lou Kretlow, who had gone 5⅓ innings a day earlier as Baltimore’s Opening Day starter, took over pitching and retired the Red Sox in order in the third. The Orioles got on the scoreboard in their half after a one-out walk and a double by left fielder Gil Coan. Gene Woodling – acquired from the New York Yankees in a 17-player offseason trade – earned an RBI on a sacrifice fly to left field.

The Red Sox restored their three-run lead, though, in the top of the fourth. Lepcio struck out, Jimmy Piersall singled to left, and Sullivan struck out. With a hit-and-run play on, Billy Goodman doubled to deep right, and Piersall scored from first to make it 4-1.

The first two Orioles reached in the fourth, but a groundout, strikeout, and infield fly stranded them.

Both halves of the fifth inning ended the same way – on double plays executed on a strikeout and a throw by the catcher to catch an attempted base stealer. The Orioles’ Les Moss threw out Jackie Jensen trying to steal second, and the Red Sox’ Sammy White threw out Woodling trying to steal third base. Through five innings, Sullivan walked five batters and allowed five hits, but the O’s left eight runners on base.

In the top of the sixth, Zauchin struck out, but Lepcio homered again, “350 feet into the left-field bleachers.”6 He had hit only eight home runs in 116 games in 1954, two of them on July 5 when he homered once in each game of a doubleheader in Washington.

Piersall doubled to right – his third hit of the day – and Sullivan helped his own cause with a single up the middle that enabled Piersall to score, pushing the lead to 6-1. Don Ferrarese replaced Kretlow on the mound. Two flyball outs followed. Sullivan faced three Orioles in the bottom of the inning and retired all three.

The Red Sox got a seventh run in the top of the seventh. Throneberry led off with a double to left. Jensen walked. White singled to left, loading the bases with nobody out. Zauchin grounded into a 4-3 double play, as Throneberry scored and Jensen ran to third. Lepcio, with a chance at a three-homer day, took a called third strike.

Sullivan buckled down, allowing a two-out walk in the bottom of the seventh but not another baserunner from that point on. The Red Sox did little either, twice getting a runner to second base but no further.

After the game, Lepcio said of the homers, “I never felt so strong. I don’t understand it myself.”7 He added, “I was swinging at everything I could see. They were feeding me curveballs and I guess they got them inside a little too much. But both were strikes.”8

Lepcio had married Joan Benjamin just before spring training. “Believe me, cooking is making a difference,” he said after the game. “My diet is well-regulated. Joan sees to that. All around, my life has become nicely adjusted. It has given me a more relaxed attitude. Maybe I’m a little more mature.”9

Sullivan’s five-hit, six-walk, five-strikeout complete game earned the win. Explaining why his pitching had improved later in the game, Sullivan – whose locker was right next to Lepcio’s – said he had felt so strong early on that he “must have been throwing the ball too hard. After I got a little tired and couldn’t throw quite so hard my pitches seemed to have more on them and I had better control.”10 

Sullivan went on to lead the league in wins (18), innings pitched (260), and games started (35). He finished 18-13 with a 2.91 ERA and was named an All-Star for the first of two successive seasons.

Losing pitcher Coleman was released on July 1 and signed with the Detroit Tigers; he finished 1955 a combined 2-2, with a 5.59 overall ERA. It was his final big-league season.

The Red Sox came in fourth, 12 games behind the league-leading Yankees. The Orioles were seventh, 39 games behind New York.

With two infielders – Joost and Billy Klaus (who ultimately placed second to Cleveland’s Herb Score in AL Rookie of the Year voting) – added to the Red Sox over the winter of 1954-55, Lepcio became more of a backup utility infielder, appearing in 51 games and batting 151 times. He hit .231, with six home runs in all and a total of 15 RBIs. He played major-league ball through the 1961 season, departing Boston early in 1959.

Ted Lepcio was the first Red Sox player to homer twice on Opening Day. Later players to do so were Lenny Green (April 12, 1965), Carl Yastrzemski (April 10, 1968), Carlton Fisk (April 6, 1973), and Wilyer Abreu (March 27, 2025).  On April 6, 2015, both Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramirez did so.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL195504120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1955/B04120BAL1955.htm

Thanks to Tim Newby for supplying Baltimore newspaper coverage.

Notes

1 Coleman had started his career with one game in 1942, then spent the next three seasons in military service. Primarily pitching for the Philadelphia Athletics, his first season with Baltimore was 1954 and he had been 13-17 (3.50). 

2 Roy Mumpton, “Lepcio Poles 2 Home Runs as Red Sox Top Orioles, 7-1,” Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram, April 13, 1955: 17.

3 Williams’ first game of 1955 was on May 28.

4 Lou Hatter, “Orioles Lose Home Opener to Red Sox, 7-1, Before 38,085 Fans,” Baltimore Sun, April 13, 1955: 30.

5 Before his military service, Zauchin had debuted in September 1951 by appearing in five games for the Red Sox. Later in the 1955 season, on May 27, he tied a club record with 10 RBIs against Washington.

6 Bob Holbrook, “Sox Beat Orioles, 7-1; Lepcio Hits 2 Homers,” Boston Globe, April 13, 1955: 1, 18.

7 Holbrook.

8 Associated Press, “Lepcio Hits Hard in Oriole Park,” Daily Mail (Hagerstown, Maryland), April 13, 1955: 12. It was also the first time any player had hit two homers in a game at Memorial Stadium; it was the ballpark’s second year.

9 John Drohan, “Home Cooking Strengthens Lepcio,” Boston Traveler, April 13, 1955: 35.

10 Arthur Sampson, “Red Sox Dominate Orioles, 7-1,” Boston Herald, April 13, 1955: 27.