h716a5.icuThe domestic 2025 MLB season kicked off on Thursday and the very first game of Opening Day took place in the Bronx. The defending AL champion New York Yankees hosted the Milwaukee Brewers at Yankee Stadium, and it didn't take long for the fireworks to start for the home side.
In fact, it took almost no time at all. After the Brewers were retired to complete the first half-inning of the year, catcher Austin Wells got up to bat leadoff for the Yankees. With a 2-0 count Wells mashed a deep ball to right field that flew over the wall to give New York a 1-0 lead and give Wells a leadoff home run. It was the first home run of the 2025 season.
It was also a first in MLB history. With his home run, Wells became the first catcher ever to hit a leadoff home run on Opening Day.
It is always impressive when a player makes sports history but feels all the more so when it's baseball history, given MLB is over 100 years old. It is very hard to accomplish something nobody else has ever accomplished when records have been kept for well over a century.
Yet here we are. Wells's name is now in the history books. What a moment.