April 12, 1961: The First Man In Space

April 12, 1961, 60 years ago: Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin becomes the 1st man in space. The 27-year-old native of the village of Klushino in the town of Gzhatsk -- which would later be renamed Gagarin -- was a Lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force. He was launched at 12:07 PM local time (1:07 AM, U.S. Eastern Time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and flew aboard Vostok 1 ("Vostok" means "East") for 1 hour and 48 minutes, reaching Earth orbit in 10 minutes, and completing a single trip around the planet.

He ejected from his capsule, and parachuted to land on a farm near the town of Engels, in Saratov Oblast (an Oblast is the Russian equivalent to what we call "States"). He was found by a farm woman and her granddaughter. He later said, "When they saw me in my space suit, and the parachute dragging alongside as I walked, they started to back away in fear. I told them, 'Don't be afraid, I am a Soviet citizen like you, who has descended from space, and I must find a telephone to call Moscow!"

He was now the most famous private citizen in the world. It would be another 23 days before America put a man in space, Alan Shepard; and 10 months before an American reached orbit, John Glenn.

On March 27, 1968, now a full Colonel, Gagarin was flying a MiG-15 near Kirzhach, Russia, when problems with the weather and his perception thereof caused him to crash. He had just turned 34, and left behind a wife and 2 daughters. His remains were interred in the Kremlin Wall in Moscow's Red Square.

As the 1st human in space, Yuri Gagarin was one of the few Soviet citizens who could genuinely be considered a hero by the capitalist and democratic West.

The All-Space Baseball Team

April 12, 1961, 50 years ago today: The Space Age really began, with Yuri Gagarin orbiting Earth 3 times aboard Vostok 1. On May 5, 23 days later, the 1st U.S. citizen reached space, Alan Shepard.

In 1968, Gagarin was killed in the crash of a plane he was test-flying. He was just 34. Or... is that really what happened? For all we know, the Soviet Union's greatest living citizen might have been expressing decidedly non-Communist sympathies, and was hushed up. Is that what happened? Probably not, but with the Soviets, you never know.

April 12, 1981, 30 years ago today: The 1st space shuttle, Columbia, lifted off, carrying John Young and Robert Crippen.

Like Gagarin, Columbia would have a horrifying death, in 2003, with all 7 people aboard perishing.

The All-Space Baseball Team

Some have names connected to space, others share names of astronauts. Nicknames, like Sunny Jim Bottomley, Archie "Moonlight" Graham, John "Blue Moon" Odom, and Bill "Spaceman" Lee, do not count.

1B Cecil Cooper (ahead of Glenn Davis, due to having the last name, rather than first)
2B Eddie Collins (in honor of Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 pilot)
SS Arthur Irwin (1880s star, in honor of Apollo 15 Moonwalker James Irwin)
3B Jimmy Collins (also the manager of this team)
LF Saturnino Orestes Armas Minoso (better known as Minnie Minoso)
CF Marquis Grissom
RF Wally Moon
C Walker Cooper
SP Cy Young
SP Lee Grissom (Cincinnati Reds, 1937 All-Star)
SP Jack Armstrong (whose hometown has a space name: Neptune, New Jersey)
SP Chris Carpenter
RP Ed Mars (1 season, 1890 Syracuse Stars of American Association)
RP Marv Grissom (New York Giants, 1954 All-Star AND World Champion)
RP Sun-Woo Kim (1990s Boston Red Sox, I saw him pitch for the Trenton Thunder)

Wally Moon was mainly a left fielder, but I couldn't keep Minoso out, and Wally did play a lot of right field. If you think I'm cheating with "Saturnino," the left fielder could be either Dale Mitchell or Kevin Mitchell, in honor of Apollo 14 Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell.

For 2B, I could have named Glenn Beckert or Glenn Hubbard, in honor of John Glenn, but I wanted a last name, where possible. I almost named Dick McAuliffe, in memory of Challenger loss Christa McAuliffe. But while Dick McAuliffe was one of the best 2nd basemen of his time, Eddie Collins was one of the best 2nd basemen of all time.

Cy Young is included in honor of U.S. Navy Captain John Young, who flew on the first Gemini mission in 1965, commanded both Apollo 10 and Apollo 16 (in which he walked on the Moon and piloted a lunar rover), and commanded the first shuttle mission. John Young was the only Moonwalker to fly on a shuttle, and the first person to fly in space 5 times, later the first to do it 6 times.

Apollo 15 commander and Moonwalker David Scott could have led me to put George Scott at 1B or Mike Scott on the mound, but Scott is just too common a name.

Honorable Mention to Bert Shepard, no relation to Alan although the name is spelled the same way. Bert was the pitcher who lost a leg in a World War II plane crash, but returned to pitch in the majors thanks to a prosthesis, for 4 1/3 innings in a 1945 game for the Washington Senators. He was every bit the hero the astronauts were, and are.