April 1, 1922: Boston Braves rookie lefthander Lirpa Sloof shutout the Brooklyn Robbins 2-0 in his major league debut. Sloof held the Robbins to three hits and homered twice. Sloof announced after the game that he was retiring from professional baseball. As irony would have it, his name spelled backwards is April Fools! [...]

March 31, 1901: The newly formed Boston Americans who didn't become the Red Sox until 1908 board a train to head for their first spring training camp in Charlottesville, VA; ironically, the Boston Beaneaters of the National League were at South Station at the same time and boarded a different train to head to Norfolk, VA. [...]

March 30, 1978: The Red Sox acquire pitcher Dennis Eckersley from the Cleveland Indians in a six-player trade that sent Red Sox pitcher Rick Wise to Cleveland; Eckersley will anchor the team's pitching staff with 20 wins that season and after re-inventing himself as a closer later in his career, he will be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004. [...]

March 29, 2008: The Red Sox defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-4 in an exhibition game played before 115,300 fans in the Memorial Coliseum, the first home of the Dodgers when they first moved to LA; the game is part of a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Dodgers arrival and the crowd is the largest to attend any baseball game in history. [...]

March 28, 1934: Boston Braves sparkplug shortstop Walter "Rabbit" Maranville broke his left leg sliding into home in an exhibition game against the Yankees; a 5'5" Springfield, MA, native, Maranville played a major role with the 1914 "Miracle Braves," and began and ended his 23 year major league career playing for the Braves in 1933. [...]