Current 30 · franchise first MLB games
MLB First-Game Birth Cards
How a club gets a birth card
Card Blueprints maps a date onto a fifty-two-card calendar. For people, that date is a birthday. For these pages, that date is the franchise first MLB game published on Baseball-Reference’s team pages — the first regular-season box of the season BBRef lists as the club’s “From” year. Retrosheet first-season game logs corroborate the calendar day. The date travels with the club through later city moves and name changes. It is not a player date of birth, and it is not local founding lore.
The public formula is solar_value = 55 − (2 × month + day); if solar_value ≤ 0 the coordinate is the Joker (December 31 only). Deck order is 1 = Ace of Hearts through 52 = King of Spades. December 31 is the Joker (Cass lock D1). None of the current thirty first games fall on that day.
All 30 by first game
All 30 by birth card
10 of Clubs
- Chicago White Sox — April 24, 1901
- Cleveland Guardians — April 24, 1901
10 of Diamonds
- Los Angeles Angels — April 11, 1961
- New York Mets — April 11, 1962
2 of Spades
- Seattle Mariners — April 6, 1977
3 of Spades
- Colorado Rockies — April 5, 1993
- Miami Marlins — April 5, 1993
4 of Spades
- Cincinnati Reds — May 2, 1882
- Pittsburgh Pirates — May 2, 1882
- St. Louis Cardinals — May 2, 1882
5 of Clubs
- Arizona Diamondbacks — March 31, 1998
- Tampa Bay Rays — March 31, 1998
5 of Spades
- Los Angeles Dodgers — May 1, 1884
- Philadelphia Phillies — May 1, 1883
- San Francisco Giants — May 1, 1883
8 of Clubs
- Athletics — April 26, 1901
- Boston Red Sox — April 26, 1901
- Minnesota Twins — April 26, 1901
9 of Clubs
- Baltimore Orioles — April 25, 1901
- Chicago Cubs — April 25, 1876
- Detroit Tigers — April 25, 1901
Ace of Spades
- Toronto Blue Jays — April 7, 1977
Jack of Diamonds
- Houston Astros — April 10, 1962
- Texas Rangers — April 10, 1961
King of Diamonds
- Kansas City Royals — April 8, 1969
- Milwaukee Brewers — April 8, 1969
- San Diego Padres — April 8, 1969
- Washington Nationals — April 8, 1969
Queen of Clubs
- Atlanta Braves — April 22, 1876
- New York Yankees — April 22, 1903
FAQ
- What date do you use for an MLB franchise birth card?
- The Baseball-Reference franchise first MLB game — the first regular-season box of the club’s BBRef “From” year — kept through relocations and renames. Not a player birthday.
- Why is Atlanta 1876 instead of 1871?
- Baseball-Reference’s franchise start is the 1876 National League. Wikipedia’s teams table also lists 1871 National Association. These pages keep the BBRef first NL game (April 22, 1876).
- Is a franchise birth card fortune-telling?
- No. The card is a calendar coordinate. The published meaning describes that coordinate for a person born on the same month and day.
Get your own coordinate
These pages map franchise first games. Your page maps your birthday. The $9 Birth Card Deep Dive is the existing checkout — this folder does not create a payment path.
Sources:
Baseball-Reference — franchise first MLB game
(primary first-game dates, retrieved 2026-09-06);
Retrosheet — first-season game log
(game-log corroboration, public domain, retrieved 2026-09-06);
Wikipedia — Major League Baseball teams table
(year cross-check only, CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-09-06).
Birth cards use pipeline/birthcard.py, the same public formula as celebrity SEO pages.