I Love The Smell Of Baseball In The Morning. Smells Like...Victory

In retrospect, that headline should have been used last week. Sometimes my creativity lags a few days behind.

Earlier this month, the Milwaukee Brewers named Ben Sheets as the Opening Day starter. The accompanying story noted that it was his sixth season-opener in the past seven seasons. No disrespect to Sheets, but that seemed like a lot, especially for a guy with a career 113 ERA+. So I hit up Baseball-Reference's list of Opening Day starters, went through team-by-team, and made myself a spreadsheet. Five of the more interesting finds are below:

5) The longest active Opening Day streak for one team is five, held jointly by Toronto's Roy Halladay and Houston's Roy Oswalt. Both are expected to extend that mark to six on Monday. Jack Morris holds the Retrosheet Era (1956-present) for multiple teams, starting fourteen straight Opening Days for Detroit, Minnesota, and Toronto from 1980-93.

4) The most consecutive Opening Day starts for one team in the Retrosheet Era is Morris' 11 straight for the Tigers from 1980-90. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton each started ten straight.

3) The record for most combined Opening Day starts by two brothers is 13, shared by the Niekros (9 for Phil, 4 for Joe) and the Martinezs (8 for Pedro, 5 for Ramon). Gaylord and Jim Perry just missed with 12 (9 and 3, respectively).

2) Gaylord Perry was the Opening Day starter for five different teams: Texas, Cleveland, Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco.

1) Six franchises have begun play since 1977. The Opening Day starters for each:

Toronto (1977): Bill Singer
Seattle (1977): Diego Segui
Rockies (1993): David Nied
Marlins (1993): Charlie Hough
Rays (1998): Wilson Alvarez
Diamondbacks (1998): Andy Benes

Bonus: Opening Day pitchers have been born in 46 states (all but New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont) and at least ten foreign countries, including The Netherlands, Nicaragua, Canada, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, Japan, and South Korea.