Portal:Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play beginning when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team, called the batter, tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners advancing around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter).
The opposing teams switch back and forth between batting and fielding; the batting team's turn to bat is over once the fielding team records three outs. One turn batting for each team constitutes an inning. A game is usually composed of nine innings, and the team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins. Most games end after the ninth inning, but if scores are tied at that point, extra innings are usually played. Baseball has no game clock, though some competitions feature pace-of-play regulations such as the pitch clock to shorten game time.
Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century. This game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. Baseball's American origins, as well as its reputation as a source of escapism during troubled points in American history such as the American Civil War and the Great Depression, have led the sport to receive the moniker of "America's Pastime"; since the late 19th century, it has been unofficially recognized as the national sport of the United States, though in modern times is considered less popular than other sports, such as American football. In addition to North America, baseball spread throughout the rest of the Americas and the Asia–Pacific in the 19th and 20th centuries, and is now considered the most popular sport in parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, and East Asia, particularly in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. (Full article...)
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Herschel Greer Stadium was a Minor League Baseball park in Nashville, Tennessee, on the grounds of Fort Negley, an American Civil War fortification, approximately two mi (3.2 km) south of the city's downtown district. The facility closed at the end of the 2014 baseball season and remained deserted for over four years until its demolition in 2019. Following an archaeological survey, the land is expected to be reincorporated into Fort Negley Park.
Greer was opened in 1978 for the Nashville Sounds, an expansion franchise of the Double-A Southern League who moved to the Triple-A American Association in 1985 and to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1998. The stadium played host to the team until 2014. The subject of numerous upgrades and repairs to maintain its functionality, Greer became one of the oldest stadiums used by a Triple-A team and had fallen well below professional baseball's standards for a stadium at that class level by the end of its use. For over a decade, the Sounds attempted to secure agreements with the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County for a new ballpark to replace Greer, eventually resulting in the construction of First Tennessee Park, which became the Sounds' new home in 2015. (Full article...) -
Image 2Rogers Hornsby tags out Babe Ruth who is caught attempting to steal second base, ending the 1926 World Series.
The 1926 World Series was the championship series of the 1926 Major League Baseball season. The 23rd edition of the Series, it pitted the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals against the American League champion New York Yankees. The Cardinals defeated the Yankees four games to three in the best-of-seven series, which took place from October 2 to 10, 1926, at Yankee Stadium and Sportsman's Park.
This was the first World Series appearance (and first National League pennant win) for the Cardinals, and would be the first of 11 World Series championships in Cardinals history. The Yankees were playing in their fourth World Series in six years after winning their first American League pennant in 1921 and their first world championship in 1923. They would play in another 37 World Series (and win 26 of those), as of the end of the 2024 season. (Full article...) -
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Mariano Rivera (born November 29, 1969) is a Panamanian-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, from 1995 to 2013. Nicknamed "Mo" and "Sandman", he spent most of his career as a relief pitcher and served as the Yankees' closer for 17 seasons. A thirteen-time All-Star and five-time World Series champion, he is MLB's career leader in saves (652) and games finished (952). Rivera won five American League (AL) Rolaids Relief Man Awards and three Delivery Man of the Year Awards, and he finished in the top three in voting for the AL Cy Young Award four times. In 2019, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, and is to date the only player ever to be elected unanimously by the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA).
Raised in the modest Panamanian fishing village of Puerto Caimito, Rivera was an amateur player until he was signed by the Yankees organization in 1990. He debuted in the major leagues in 1995 as a starting pitcher, before permanently converting to a relief pitcher late that year. After a breakthrough season in 1996 as a setup man, he became the Yankees' closer in 1997. In the following seasons, he established himself as one of baseball's top relievers, leading the major leagues in saves in 1999, 2001, and 2004. Rivera primarily threw a sharp-moving, mid-90s mile-per-hour cut fastball that frequently broke hitters' bats and earned a reputation as one of the league's toughest pitches to hit. With his presence at the end of games, signaled by his foreboding entrance song "Enter Sandman", Rivera was a key contributor to the Yankees' dynasty in the late 1990s and early 2000s that won four championships in five years. He was an accomplished postseason performer, winning the 1999 World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award and the 2003 AL Championship Series MVP Award, while setting postseason records that included lowest earned run average (ERA) (0.70) and most saves (42). (Full article...) -
Image 4The 2004 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2004 season. The 100th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the American League (AL) champion Boston Red Sox and the National League (NL) champion St. Louis Cardinals; the Red Sox swept the Cardinals in four games. The series was played from October 23 to 27, 2004, at Fenway Park and Busch Memorial Stadium, broadcast on Fox, and watched by an average of just under 25.5 million viewers. The Red Sox's World Series championship was their first since 1918, ending the Curse of the Bambino.
The Cardinals earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the NL Central division title, and had the best win–loss record in the NL. The Red Sox won the AL wild card to earn theirs. The Cardinals reached the World Series by defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series and the Houston Astros in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series. The Red Sox defeated the Anaheim Angels in the AL Division Series. After trailing three games to none to the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series, the Red Sox came back to win the series, advancing to their first World Series since 1986. The Cardinals made their first appearance in the World Series since 1987. With the New England Patriots winning Super Bowl XXXVIII, the World Series victory made Boston the first city to have Super Bowl and World Series championship teams in the same year (2004) since Pittsburgh in 1979. The Red Sox became the third straight wild card team to win the World Series; the Anaheim Angels won in 2002 and the Florida Marlins won in 2003. (Full article...) -
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Robert William Meusel (July 19, 1896 – November 28, 1977) was an American baseball left and right fielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for eleven seasons from 1920 through 1930, all but the last for the New York Yankees. He was best known as a member of the Yankees' championship teams of the 1920s, nicknamed "Murderers' Row", during which time the team won its first six American League (AL) pennants and first three World Series titles.
Meusel, noted for his strong outfield throwing arm, batted fifth behind Baseball Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. In 1925, he became the second Yankee, after Ruth, to lead the AL in home runs (33), runs batted in (138) and extra base hits (79). Nicknamed "Long Bob" because of his 6-foot, 3 inch (1.91 m) stature, Meusel batted .313 or better in seven of his first eight seasons, finishing with a .309 career average; his 1,009 RBI during the 1920s were the fourth most by any major leaguer, and trailed only Harry Heilmann's total of 1,131 among AL right-handed hitters. Meusel ended his career in 1930 with the Cincinnati Reds. He hit for the cycle three times, and was the second of six major leaguers to accomplish this feat as many as three times during a career. (Full article...) -
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Depiction of the game from The Boston Globe
On Saturday, May 1, 1920, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Boston Braves played to a 1–1 tie in 26 innings, the most innings ever played in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB). The game was played at Braves Field in Boston before a crowd estimated at 4,000. Both Leon Cadore of Brooklyn and Joe Oeschger of Boston pitched complete games, and with 26 innings pitched, jointly hold the record for the longest pitching appearance in MLB history. Their record is considered unbreakable, as modern pitchers rarely pitch even nine innings, and newer baseball rules have made long extra-innings games a rarity.
The day of the game saw rainy weather, and it was uncertain if the game would be played, but the skies cleared enough to allow it to proceed. Brooklyn scored a run in the fifth inning, and Boston in the sixth; thereafter, the pitchers became increasingly dominant. As the game exceeded eighteen innings, the small crowd at Braves Field cheered both pitchers. The last twenty innings were scoreless, and when darkness started to fall, the umpires called a halt after the twenty-sixth inning, as baseball fields did not yet have artificial lighting. (Full article...) -
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The 1913 squad, the first that went by the name "Yankees"
The history of the New York Yankees Major League Baseball (MLB) team spans more than a century. Frank J. Farrell and William Stephen Devery bought the rights to an American League (AL) club in New York City after the 1902 season. The team, which became known as the Yankees in 1913, rarely contended for the AL championship before the acquisition of outfielder Babe Ruth after the 1919 season. With Ruth in the lineup, the Yankees won their first AL title in 1921, followed by their first World Series championship in 1923. Ruth and first baseman Lou Gehrig were part of the team's Murderers' Row lineup, which led the Yankees to a then-AL record 110 wins and a Series championship in 1927 under Miller Huggins. They repeated as World Series winners in 1928, and their next title came under manager Joe McCarthy in 1932.
The Yankees won the World Series every year from 1936 to 1939 with a team that featured Gehrig and outfielder Joe DiMaggio, who recorded a record hitting streak during New York's 1941 championship season. New York set a major league record by winning five consecutive championships from 1949 to 1953, and appeared in the World Series nine times from 1955 to 1964. Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, and Whitey Ford were among the players fielded by the Yankees during the era. After the 1964 season, a lack of effective replacements for aging players caused the franchise to decline on the field, and the team became a money-loser for owners CBS while playing in an aging stadium. (Full article...) -
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Morgan Gardner Bulkeley (December 26, 1837 – November 6, 1922) was an American politician of the Republican Party, businessman, and insurance executive. In 1876, he served as the first president of baseball's National League and, because of that, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, a choice that remains controversial, since his time as a baseball executive was short.
Bulkeley was born in East Haddam, Connecticut. His father was Judge Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley, a prominent local lawyer and businessman, who became the first president of the Aetna Life Insurance Company. The family moved to Hartford, where Morgan Bulkeley was educated, before he took a job in the city of Brooklyn, New York. He served briefly in the American Civil War, where he saw no combat. When his father died in 1872, he moved back to Hartford and became a bank president and a board member of Aetna, becoming its president in 1879, a post he held the rest of his life. (Full article...) -
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Hershiser pitching for the Dodgers in 1993
During the 1988 Major League Baseball season, pitcher Orel Hershiser of the Los Angeles Dodgers set the MLB record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched. Over 59 consecutive innings, opposing hitters did not score a run against Hershiser. During the streak, he averted numerous high-risk scoring situations. The streak spanned from the sixth inning of an August 30 game against the Montreal Expos to the 10th inning of a September 28 game against the San Diego Padres. The previous record of 58+2⁄3 innings was set by former Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale in 1968; as the team's radio announcer, Drysdale called Hershiser's streak as he pursued the new record. Pundits have described the streak as among the greatest records in baseball history, with one pundit ranking it among the greatest individual feats in American sports.
During the streak, the Elias Sports Bureau changed its criteria for the official consecutive scoreless innings record for starting pitchers from including fractional innings in which one or two outs had been recorded to counting only complete scoreless innings. Since the streak was active at the end of the 1988 season, it could have spanned two separate seasons. However, Hershiser yielded a run in his first inning of work in the 1989 season against the Cincinnati Reds, thus ending the streak at 59 consecutive scoreless innings pitched. The streak includes only innings pitched in the regular season, excluding eight scoreless innings Hershiser pitched to start Game 1 of the 1988 National League Championship Series on October 4 (unofficially extending his streak to 67 combined innings). Although he completed the ninth inning in each start, the streak's final game lasted 16 innings, of which he pitched only the first 10. Thus, Hershiser did not match Drysdale's record of six consecutive complete game shutouts. Like Drysdale's streak, the penultimate game of Hershiser's streak was a Dodgers–Giants game that featured a controversial umpire's ruling that saved the streak. (Full article...) -
Image 10The 2009 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 2009 season. As the 105th edition of the World Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National League (NL) and defending World Series champions, and the New York Yankees, champions of the American League (AL). The Yankees defeated the Phillies, 4 games to 2, winning their 27th World Series championship.
The series was played between October 28 and November 4, broadcast on Fox, and watched by an average of roughly 19 million viewers. Home field advantage for the Series went to the AL for the eighth straight year as a result of its 4–3 win in the All-Star Game. The Phillies earned their berth into the playoffs by winning the National League East. The Yankees won the American League East to earn their berth, posting the best record in the Major Leagues. The Phillies reached the World Series by defeating the Colorado Rockies in the best-of-five National League Division Series and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series (NLCS). The Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the AL Championship Series (ALCS) to advance to their first World Series since 2003. As a result of their loss, the Phillies became the first team since the 2001 Yankees to lose the World Series after winning it the previous year. As of 2024, this is the most recent World Series to feature a defending champion. (Full article...) -
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On July 10, 1932, the Philadelphia Athletics beat the Cleveland Indians 18–17 in 18 innings in a Major League Baseball game played at League Park in Cleveland. Several major-league records were set during the game; for example, Johnny Burnett of the Indians became the only player to hit safely nine (or even eight) times in a game, while Cleveland's 33 hits and the teams' combined 58 hits are also single-game records. Pitcher Eddie Rommel secured the win for the Athletics, pitching an American League-record 17 innings in relief after Philadelphia's Lew Krausse gave up three runs in the first inning. The 29 hits Rommel allowed are a major-league record; the 14 runs against him are the most given up by a winning pitcher.
Coming into the game, the Athletics, who were the three-time defending American League champions, trailed the New York Yankees in the standings by 71⁄2 games. Sunday baseball was still illegal in Philadelphia, forcing the Athletics to make one-game road trips on some Sundays, including July 10. With his pitching staff exhausted by six games in the previous three days, the owner and manager of the Athletics, Connie Mack, took only two pitchers on the train trip to Cleveland, giving the rest of the staff the day off. With no chance of being relieved except by a position player, Rommel pitched with mixed effectiveness, giving up six runs in the seventh inning but only two runs in the final nine innings of the game. He aided his own cause by getting three hits in seven at bats. Cleveland's Wes Ferrell took the loss after Jimmie Foxx got his sixth hit of the game and then scored. Foxx had already batted in eight runs, having hit three home runs and accumulated sixteen total bases, tying a record that has since been broken. (Full article...) -
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WSNS-TV (channel 44) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, serving as the local outlet for the Spanish-language network Telemundo. It is owned and operated by NBCUniversal's Telemundo Station Group alongside NBC outlet WMAQ-TV (channel 5). The two stations share studios at the NBC Tower on North Columbus Drive in the city's Streeterville neighborhood and broadcast from the same transmitter atop the Willis Tower in the Chicago Loop.
WSNS-TV began broadcasting in 1970. Originally specializing in the automated display of news headlines, it evolved into Chicago's third full-fledged independent station, carrying movies, local sports, and other specialty programming. This continued until 1980, when WSNS became the Chicago-area station for ON TV, an over-the-air subscription television (STV) service owned by Oak Industries, which took a minority ownership stake in the station. While ON TV was successful in Chicago and the subscription system became the second-largest in the country by total subscribers, the rise of cable television precipitated the end of the business in 1985, with WSNS-TV as the last ON TV station standing. (Full article...) -
Image 13Ross with the Montreal Wanderers, circa 1907–18
Arthur Howey Ross (January 13, 1885 – August 5, 1964) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and executive from 1905 until 1954. Regarded as one of the best defenders of his era by his peers, he was one of the first to skate with the puck up the ice rather than pass it to a forward. He was on Stanley Cup championship teams twice in a playing career that lasted thirteen seasons; in January 1907 with the Kenora Thistles and 1908 with the Montreal Wanderers. Like other players of the time, Ross played for several different teams and leagues, and is noted for his time with the Wanderers while they were members of the National Hockey Association (NHA) and its successor, the National Hockey League (NHL). In 1911, he led one of the first organized player strikes over increased pay. When the Wanderers' home arena burned down in January 1918, the team ceased operations and Ross retired as a player.
After several years as an on-ice official, he was named head coach of the Hamilton Tigers for one season. When the Boston Bruins were formed in 1924, Ross was hired as the first coach and general manager of the team. He later coached the team on three separate occasions until 1945, and stayed as general manager until his retirement in 1954. Ross helped the Bruins finish first place in the league ten times and win the Stanley Cup three times; Ross personally coached the team to two of those victories. After being hired by the Bruins, Ross, along with his wife and two sons, moved to a suburb of Boston, and he became an American citizen in 1938. He died near Boston in 1964. (Full article...) -
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Ichiro Suzuki was the first high-profile NPB player (second overall) to use the posting system.
The posting system (ポスティングシステム, posutingu shisutemu) is a baseball player transfer system that operates between Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). Despite the drafting of the United States – Japanese Player Contract Agreement, unveiled in 1967 to regulate NPB players moving to MLB, problems began to arise in the late 1990s. Some NPB teams lost star players without compensation, an issue highlighted when NPB stars Hideo Nomo and Alfonso Soriano left to play in MLB after using loopholes to void their existing contracts. A further problem was that NPB players had very little negotiating power if their teams decided to deal them to MLB, as when pitcher Hideki Irabu was traded to an MLB team for which he had no desire to play. In 1998, the Agreement was rewritten to address both problems; the result was dubbed the "posting system".
Under this system, when an NPB player is "posted", his NPB team notifies the MLB Commissioner, with the posting fee based on the type of contract a player signs and its value. For minor-league contracts, the fee is a flat 25% of contract's value; for MLB contracts, the fee is based on the value of the contract that the posted player eventually signs. The player is then given 30 days to negotiate with any MLB team willing to pay the NPB team's posting fee. If the player agrees on contract terms with a team before the 30-day period has expired, the NPB team receives the posting fee from the signing MLB team as a transfer fee, and the player is free to play in MLB. If no MLB team comes to a contract agreement with the posted player, then no fee is paid, and the player's rights revert to his NPB team. The current process replaced one in which MLB held a silent auction during which MLB teams submitted sealed, uncapped bids in an attempt to win the exclusive negotiating rights with the posted player for a period of 30 days. Once the highest bidding MLB team was determined, the player could then only negotiate with that team. (Full article...) -
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John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 1890s Baltimore Orioles teams, noted for their innovative, aggressive play.
McGraw was born into poverty in Truxton, New York. He found an escape from his hometown and a bad family situation through baseball, beginning a quick rise through the minor leagues that led him to the Orioles at the age of 18. Under the tutelage of manager Ned Hanlon, the Orioles of the 1890s won three National League (NL) pennants; McGraw was one of the stalwarts of the team alongside Wee Willie Keeler, Hughie Jennings, and Wilbert Robinson. The Orioles perfected the hit and run play and popularized the Baltimore chop; they also sought to win by intimidating the opposing team and the umpire. (Full article...)
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Image 1The standard fielding positions (from Baseball rules)
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Image 2The American Tobacco Company's line of baseball cards featured shortstop Honus Wagner of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1909 to 1911. In 2007, the card shown here sold for $2.8 million. (from Baseball)
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Image 3A runner sliding into home plate and scoring. (from Baseball)
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Image 4An Afghan girl playing baseball in August 2002 (from Baseball)
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Image 52013 World Baseball Classic championship match between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, March 20, 2013 (from Baseball)
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Image 61906 World Series, infielders playing "in" for the expected bunt and the possible play at the plate with the bases loaded (from Baseball rules)
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Image 7The NL champion New York Giants baseball team, 1913. Fred Merkle, sixth in line, had committed a baserunning gaffe in a crucial 1908 game that became famous as Merkle's Boner. (from History of baseball)
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Image 9A batter follows through after swinging at a pitched ball. (from Baseball rules)
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Image 12A first baseman receives a pickoff throw, as the runner dives back to first base. (from Baseball)
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Image 13Jackie Robinson in 1945, with the era's Kansas City Royals, a barnstorming squad associated with the Negro American League's Kansas City Monarchs (from Baseball)
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Image 14Pitchers are generally substituted during mound visits (team gatherings at the pitcher's mound). (from Baseball rules)
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Image 15Baserunners generally stand a short distance away from their base between pitches, preparing themselves to either go back or steal the next base. (from Baseball rules)
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Image 16Cover of Official Base Ball Rules, 1921 edition, used by the American League and National League (from Baseball rules)
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Image 17A pitcher handing off the ball after being taken out of the game during a mound meeting. (from Baseball)
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Image 18Cy Young—the holder of many major league career marks, including wins and innings pitched, as well as losses—in 1908. MLB's annual awards for the best pitcher in each league are named for Young. (from Baseball)
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Image 19The strike zone determines the result of most pitches, and varies in vertical length for each batter. (from Baseball)
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Image 21Pesäpallo, a Finnish variation of baseball, was invented by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala in the 1920s, and after that, it has changed with the times and grown in popularity. Picture of Pesäpallo match in 1958 in Jyväskylä, Finland. (from Baseball)
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Image 22Diagram indicating the standard layout of positions (from Baseball)
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Image 23A well-worn baseball (from Baseball)
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Image 24Sadaharu Oh managing the Japan national team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Playing for the Central League's Yomiuri Giants (1959–80), Oh set the professional world record for home runs with 868. (from History of baseball)
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Image 25By the 1860s Civil War, baseball (bottom) had overtaken its fellow bat-and-ball sport cricket (top) in popularity within the United States. (from History of baseball)
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Image 26In May 2010, the Philadelphia Phillies' Roy Halladay pitched the 20th major league perfect game. That October, he pitched only the second no-hitter in MLB postseason history. (from History of baseball)
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Image 27Baseball games sometimes end in a walk-off home run, with the batting team usually gathering at home plate to celebrate the scoring of the winning run(s). (from Baseball rules)
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Image 28Diagram of a baseball field Diamond may refer to the square area defined by the four bases or to the entire playing field. The dimensions given are for professional and professional-style games. Children often play on smaller fields. (from Baseball)
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Image 29Jackie Robinson in 1945, with the era's Kansas City Royals, a barnstorming squad associated with the Negro American League's Kansas City Monarchs (from History of baseball)
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Image 30A New York Yankees batter (Andruw Jones) and a Boston Red Sox catcher at Fenway Park (from Baseball)
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Image 32Pick-off attempt on runner (in red) at first base (from Baseball rules)
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Image 33Sadaharu Oh managing the Japan national team in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Playing for the Central League's Yomiuri Giants (1959–80), Oh set the professional world record for home runs. (from Baseball)
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Image 34Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The Green Monster is visible beyond the playing field on the left. (from Baseball)
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Image 35The strike zone, which determines the outcome of most pitches, varies in vertical length depending on the batter's typical height while swinging. (from Baseball rules)
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Image 37Two players on the baseball team of Tokyo, Japan's Waseda University in 1921 (from Baseball)
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Image 39The typical motion of a right-handed pitcher (from Baseball rules)
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Image 40Alexander Cartwright, father of modern baseball (from History of baseball)
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Image 42Rickey Henderson—the major leagues' all-time leader in runs and stolen bases—stealing third base in a 1988 game (from Baseball)
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Image 44Japanese-Americans spectating a World War II-era game while in an internment camp. America's ties to immigrants and to Japan have been deeply shaped by a shared baseball heritage. (from History of baseball)
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Image 1Lyman Gilbert Linde (September 30, 1920 – October 24, 1995) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for the Cleveland Indians in the American League for two seasons. In four career games, Linde pitched 10⅔ innings and had a 6.75 earned run average (ERA).
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Linde first played professionally with the Green Bay Bluejays. After a season with them, he enlisted in the armed forces for World War II, and joined the Greenville Spinners upon his return to baseball. During the next two seasons he spent some time with the Cleveland Indians, but mainly remained with the Indians' minor league teams. After a year each in Oklahoma City, Baltimore, and San Diego, he spent the last four years of his career pitching for the Portland Beavers. He retired at the end of the 1953 season and died in 1995. (Full article...) -
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John D. Naylor (August 10, 1893 – February 8, 1955) was an American athlete and college sports coach. He was best known as an athletics director and multi-sport coach at Beacom College, where he served from 1922 to 1952. Before his coaching career, Naylor was a baseball, basketball, and football player in several low-level minor leagues.
A native of New Castle, Delaware, Naylor was a multi-sport athlete in high school, before attending college at the University of Delaware. Following two years in college, he started a semi-professional baseball career with the Milford Caulks in c. 1914. He also spent time with seven other minor league teams between 1916 and 1923. He started a coaching career in 1920 as a player-coach with a Brandywine basketball team and the St. Mary's baseball team. In 1922, he became the athletic director, baseball coach, and basketball coach at Beacom College, where he spent the next 30 years. He retired in 1952. (Full article...) -
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Willie Howard Mays Jr. (May 6, 1931 – June 18, 2024), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Mays was a five-tool player who began his career in the Negro leagues, playing for the Birmingham Black Barons, and spent the rest of his career in the National League (NL), playing for the New York / San Francisco Giants and New York Mets.
Born in Westfield, Alabama, Mays was an all-around athlete. He joined the Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1948, playing with them until the Giants signed him upon his graduation from high school in 1950. He debuted in MLB with the Giants and won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1951 after hitting 20 home runs to help the Giants win their first pennant in 14 years. In 1954, he won the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, leading the Giants to their last World Series title before their move to the West Coast. His over-the-shoulder catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series is one of the most famous baseball plays of all time. After the Giants moved to San Francisco, Mays went on to win another MVP Award in 1965 and also led the Giants to the 1962 World Series, this time losing to the New York Yankees. He ended his career with a return to New York after an early season trade to the New York Mets in 1972, retiring after the team's trip to the 1973 World Series. He served as a coach for the Mets for the rest of the decade before rejoining the Giants as a special assistant to the president and general manager. (Full article...) -
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Michael Patrick Barrett (born October 22, 1976) is an American former professional baseball player and current catching coordinator for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB as a catcher and started his professional career with the Montreal Expos at age 18. Barrett spent three years playing in Minor League Baseball as a shortstop and catcher. He played with the Honolulu Sharks, West Palm Beach Expos, and Delmarva Shorebirds, and was elected to two Minor League All-Star games. Barrett made his MLB debut in 1998 as a third baseman, but was shortly outrighted to the minor leagues to play with the Harrisburg Senators for a season.
Upon Barrett's return to MLB in 1999, he ranked among the top offensive rookies in various statistical categories. Barrett failed to stay healthy during the 2003 season, which prompted the Expos to trade him to the Oakland Athletics, who in turn, traded him to the Chicago Cubs. During his tenure with the Cubs, Barrett won a Silver Slugger Award in 2005, and recorded near career-high statistics in 2004 season. The Cubs traded Barrett to the San Diego Padres in June of 2007. Barrett sustained two major injuries, which caused him to miss 115 games with the Padres, and was subsequently released after the 2008 season. Barrett attempted to make a comeback with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2009, but continued to struggle with injury issues, which led to his release in the subsequent offseason. He spent the second half of the 2010 season in the New York Mets minor league system. Barrett was also a volunteer assistant coach for the baseball team at the University of North Georgia. (Full article...) -
Image 5Padden in South Side Park, Chicago in 1905
Richard Joseph Padden (September 17, 1870 – October 31, 1922), nicknamed "Brains", was an American professional baseball player, born in Wheeling, West Virginia, who played mainly as a second baseman in Major League Baseball for nine seasons from 1896 to 1905.
After playing a season and a half in the minor leagues, the right-handed infielder began his major league career for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He played three seasons in Pittsburgh, from 1896 to 1898, before playing one season for the Washington Senators in 1899. He returned to the minor leagues for the 1900 season, where he was the player-manager for the Chicago White Sox, then a minor league team. When the Chicago club entered the American League, a major league, the following season, he moved on to play one season for the St. Louis Cardinals, before becoming Captain of the St. Louis Browns from 1902 and 1905. In total, Padden played in 874 games, and collected 814 hits in 3545 at bats, for a lifetime batting average of .258. He finished in the league's top-ten finishers in being hit by pitches six times, including a league-leading 18 in 1904. (Full article...) -
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Gabor Paul Bako II (/ˈbɑːkoʊ/; born June 20, 1972) is an American former professional baseball catcher. He is an example of a baseball "journeyman", having played for 11 different teams during his 12-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career. During his playing days, he was listed at 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) and 210 pounds (95 kg).
Bako attended high school and college in his home state of Louisiana, winning two conference championships at the University of Southwest Louisiana. After reaching MLB with the American League's Detroit Tigers in 1998, Bako spent seven seasons in the National League, playing with six different teams. He returned to the American League with the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles, then played for the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies for one season each. (Full article...) -
Image 7Zoldak's 1949 Bowman Gum baseball card
Samuel Walter Zoldak, nicknamed Sad Sam, (December 8, 1918 – August 25, 1966) was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for nine seasons in the American League with the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians, and Philadelphia Athletics. In 250 career games, Zoldak pitched 929+1⁄3 innings and posted a win–loss record of 43–53, with 30 complete games, five shutouts, and a 3.54 earned run average (ERA).
Although an average hitting pitcher in his major league career, posting a .175 batting average (50-for-286) with just 16 runs and 11 RBIs, he was a very good fielding pitcher, posting a .984 fielding percentage with only four errors in 258 total chances. (Full article...) -
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Eppa Rixey Jr. (May 3, 1891 – February 28, 1963), nicknamed "Jephtha", was an American baseball player who played 21 seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball from 1912 to 1933 as a left-handed pitcher. Rixey was best known as the National League's leader in career victories for a left-hander with 266 wins until Warren Spahn surpassed his total in 1959.
Rixey attended the University of Virginia where he was a star pitcher. He was discovered by umpire Cy Rigler, who convinced him to sign directly with the Phillies, bypassing minor league baseball entirely. His time with the Phillies was marked by inconsistency. He won 22 games in 1916, but also led the league in losses twice. In 1915, the Phillies played in the World Series, and Rixey lost in his only appearance. After being traded to the Reds prior to the 1921 season, he won 20 or more games in a season three times, including a league-leading 25 in 1922, and posted eight consecutive winning seasons. His skills were declining by the 1929 season, when his record was 10–13 with a 4.16 earned run average. He pitched another four seasons before retiring after the 1933 season. (Full article...) -
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Frank W. "Dutch" Ulrich (November 18, 1899 – February 11, 1929) was a Czech-American professional baseball player who played three seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies from 1925 through 1927. In 1927, he had the seventh-best earned run average (ERA) in the National League (NL). He batted and threw right-handed.
Born to Czech immigrants in Austria, Ulrich and his family eventually moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he got his start in pitching with the Baltimore Orioles, a minor league team. He pitched for several more minor league teams from 1922 through 1924 before the NL's Philadelphia Phillies added him to their roster in 1925. Ulrich appeared in 21 games for them that year, posting a 3–3 record and a 3.03 ERA. In 1926, he tied for fourth in the NL with 45 games pitched. He would emerge as one of Philadelphia's best pitchers in 1927, only posting an 8–11 record but finishing among the NL's ERA leaders despite the fact that his team lost 103 games. Ulrich would not have the chance to build off this success in 1928, as he was stricken with tuberculosis. The disease killed him in 1929 at the age of 29. In his three-season career, Ulrich had a 19–27 record, a 3.48 ERA, 123 strikeouts, 89 walks, and 452 hits allowed in 406 innings pitched. (Full article...) -
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Eric John Hosmer (born October 24, 1989) is an American former professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox, and Chicago Cubs.
A highly touted prospect coming out of American Heritage High School in Florida, Hosmer was described as a "left-handed hitter with raw power" by scouts. The Royals selected him with third overall pick in the 2008 MLB draft, and he received a $6 million signing bonus. He advanced in Minor League Baseball before debuting in MLB during the 2011 season. He finished third in the Rookie of the Year balloting after the 2011 season after hitting .293 with 19 home runs in 128 games. Hosmer won consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 2013 through 2015 and again in 2017, when he also won the Silver Slugger Award. He was the MVP of the 2016 MLB All-Star Game, and was a member of the 2015 World Series champion Royals. (Full article...) -
Image 11Shore with the Boston Red Sox in 1915
Ernest Grady Shore (March 24, 1891 – September 24, 1980) was an American professional baseball pitcher. Shore played in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants of the National League in 1912, and in the American League for the Boston Red Sox from 1914 to 1917, and the New York Yankees from 1919 to 1920.
Shore was born and raised on a farm near East Bend, North Carolina, in 1891. He played college baseball for Guilford College when he received a trial with the Giants in 1912. After being released to the minor leagues, the Red Sox purchased Shore in 1914, and he helped them win the World Series in 1915 and 1916. Shore pitched a combined no-hitter with Babe Ruth on June 23, 1917. After missing the 1918 season due to his military service during World War I, the Red Sox traded Shore to the Yankees, but an arm injury he suffered with the Red Sox limited his effectiveness. Shore finished his playing career in the minor leagues during the 1921 season. (Full article...) -
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Russell Ormand Christopher (September 12, 1917 – December 5, 1954) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for seven seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics (1942-1947) and Cleveland Indians (1948). In 241 career games, Christopher pitched 999+2⁄3 innings and posted a win–loss record of 54–64, with 46 complete games, three shutouts, and a 3.37 earned run average (ERA).
A 6'3, 180 lb. player from Richmond, California, he played minor league baseball in the New York Yankees organization before being acquired by the Athletics in the rule 5 draft. Christopher joined the Athletics' major league roster in 1942 and played six seasons for them, and made his only All-Star appearance in 1945. He was traded to the Indians before the 1948 season, and played one year of baseball with them. After the season ended, he retired due to health concerns and worked at an aircraft plant until his death in 1954. (Full article...) -
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Edward Grant Barrow (May 10, 1868 – December 15, 1953) was an American manager and front office executive in Major League Baseball. He served as the field manager of the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox. He served as business manager (de facto general manager) of the New York Yankees from 1921 to 1939 and as team president from 1939 to 1945, and is credited with building the Yankee dynasty. Barrow was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.
Born in a covered wagon in Springfield, Illinois, Barrow worked as a journalist and soap salesman before entering the business of baseball by selling concessions at games. From there, Barrow purchased minor league baseball teams, also serving as team manager, and served as president of the Atlantic League. After managing the Tigers in 1903 and 1904 and returning to the minor leagues, Barrow became disenchanted with baseball, and left the game to operate a hotel. (Full article...) -
Image 14Alan Anthony Wiggins (February 17, 1958 – January 6, 1991) was an American professional baseball player. He was a second baseman and outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres and Baltimore Orioles between 1981 and 1987. A speedy leadoff hitter, Wiggins had his best season with the pennant-winning Padres in 1984. He batted one slot ahead of Tony Gwynn in the lineup that year, and the pair's offensive production helped the Padres win the National League Championship Series (NLCS) and advance to the World Series.
Wiggins grew up in California and attended Pasadena City College before being drafted by the California Angels in 1977. He played in the minor league systems of the Angels and the Los Angeles Dodgers, setting a professional baseball single-season record with 120 stolen bases in 1980. He made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres in 1981, and he became a regular player within two years. In 1983 he set the Padres' single-season stolen base record, a mark that he extended the following season. His 1984 stolen bases total (70) is still a team record as of the start of the 2024 season[update]. (Full article...) -
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Richard Benjamin Ferrell (October 12, 1905 – July 27, 1995) was an American professional baseball player, coach, scout, and executive. He played for 18 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1929 through 1947 for the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox, and Washington Senators. His brother, Wes Ferrell, was a major league pitcher for 15 seasons, and they were teammates from 1933 through part of 1938 on the Red Sox and Senators. Following his three seasons in minor league baseball, he appealed to the Commissioner of Baseball to become a free agent, claiming that he was being held in the minors though he deserved promotion. The Commissioner agreed, and he was granted free agency; he signed with the St. Louis Browns.
Ferrell was regarded as one of the best catchers in baseball during the 1930s and early 1940s. While playing for the Red Sox in 1933, he and his brother Wes were selected to play for the American League (AL) team in the inaugural 1933 Major League Baseball All-Star Game held on July 6, 1933. His 1,806 games played as a catcher set an AL longevity record which stood for more than 40 years. A seven-time All-Star, Ferrell was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984 by the Veterans Committee. After his playing career, he became a coach with the Senators, and later a scout and general manager with the Detroit Tigers. He died in July 1995 at the age of 89. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

- ... that before he made his Major League Baseball debut, Nate Fisher worked as a commercial lending analyst for the First National Bank of Omaha?
- ... that Chuck Eisenmann went from professionally pitching in baseball to owning and training the dogs that starred on the Canadian television series The Littlest Hobo?
- ... that Mark Hutton was the first Australian to be a starting pitcher in a Major League Baseball game?
- ... that Gil Kim played professional baseball in the Netherlands, China, Australia, Spain, and Venezuela, scouted in Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and coaches in Canada?
- ... that labor lawyer Dick Moss argued the 1975 case which resulted in the establishment of free agency in Major League Baseball?
- ... that Gaylord Perry admitted that he had cheated in baseball in his autobiography Me and the Spitter?
- ... that before Sean Jackson won three Ivy League basketball championships, he won high school state championships in both baseball and basketball?
- ... that Drew Golz, who was Baseball Academic All-American of the Year and Soccer Academic All-American of the Year, became the first male student athlete to be named Academic All-American of the year for two sports at the same time?
Quotes
Hating the [New York] Yankees is as American as pizza pie, unwed mothers, and cheating on your income tax. |
Featured lists - load new batch
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Image 1
The Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award is given to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player deemed to have the most impact on his team's performance in the World Series, which is the final round of the MLB postseason. The award was first presented in 1955 by Sport magazine, but since 1985 has been officially presented by MLB. The winner is determined during the final game of the World Series by a committee of reporters and officials present at the game.
On September 29, 2017, the award was renamed in honor of Willie Mays in remembrance of the 63rd anniversary of The Catch, which occurred the year before the award's debut; Mays never won the award himself. (Full article...) -
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Aaron Cook, the 2007 Opening Day starter
The Colorado Rockies are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National League West division. The first game of the new baseball season for a team is played on Opening Day, and being named the Opening Day starter is an honor, which is often given to the player who is expected to lead the pitching staff that season, though there are various strategic reasons why a team's best pitcher might not start on Opening Day. The Rockies have used 20 different Opening Day starting pitchers in their 28 seasons. Since the Rockies' first season in 1993, the 20 starters have a combined Opening Day record of eleven wins, nine losses (11–9), and eight no decisions. No decisions are only awarded to the starting pitcher if the game is won or lost after the starting pitcher has left the game.
Eight Rockies pitchers have started on two Opening Days: Kevin Ritz, Darryl Kile, Mike Hampton, Jason Jennings, Aaron Cook, Ubaldo Jiménez, Jorge de la Rosa, and Jon Gray. Kile has the best Opening Day record with two wins and no losses. Armando Reynoso is the only Rockies pitcher to start on Opening Day in Colorado's former home of Mile High Stadium. Rockies starting pitchers have an Opening Day record of four wins, two losses, and one no decision when at home. With the exception of one lost game at Mile High Stadium, the other games were played at Colorado's current home stadium of Coors Field. On the road for Opening Day, Colorado starting pitchers have accumulated a record of seven wins, seven losses, and seven no decisions. The Rockies have a record of two wins and three losses on Opening Day for seasons in which they would later go on to participate in post-season play. (Full article...) -
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Tony Mullane made five Opening Day starts for the Reds during the 1800s.
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball franchise based in Cincinnati who play in the National League's Central Division. In their history, the franchise also played under the names Cincinnati Red Stockings and Cincinnati Redlegs. They played in the American Association from 1882 through 1889, and have played in the National League since 1890. The first game of the new baseball season for a team is played on Opening Day, and being named the Opening Day starter is an honor that is often given to the player who is expected to lead the pitching staff that season, though there are various strategic reasons why a team's best pitcher might not start on Opening Day. The Reds have used 76 Opening Day starting pitchers since they began play as a Major League team in 1882.
The Reds have played in several different home ball parks. They played two seasons in their first home ball park, Bank Street Grounds, and had one win and one loss in Opening Day games there. The team had a record of six wins and ten losses in Opening Day games at League Park, and a record of three wins and seven losses in Opening Day games at the Palace of the Fans. The Reds played in Crosley Field from 1912 through the middle of the 1970 season, and had a record of 27 wins and 31 losses in Opening Day games there. They had an Opening Day record of 19 wins, 11 losses and 1 tie from 1971 through 2002 at Riverfront Stadium, and they have a record of three wins and six losses in Opening Day games at their current home ball park, the Great American Ball Park. That gives the Reds an overall Opening Day record of 59 wins, 66 losses and one tie at home. They have a record of three wins and one loss in Opening Day games on the road. (Full article...) -
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Pete Rose is the all-time MLB hits leader with 4,256 hits.
The 3,000-hit club is the group of 33 batters who have collected 3,000 or more regular-season hits in their careers in Major League Baseball (MLB). Reaching 3,000 hits has been "long considered the greatest measure of superior bat handling" and is often described as a guarantee of eventual entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Cap Anson was the first MLB player to reach 3,000 hits, although his precise career hit total is unclear. Two players—Nap Lajoie and Honus Wagner—reached 3,000 hits during the 1914 season. Ty Cobb did so in 1921 and became the first player in MLB history to reach 4,000 hits in 1927, ultimately finishing his career with 4,191. Pete Rose, the current hit leader, became the second player to reach 4,000 hits on April 13, 1984, and surpassed Cobb in September 1985, finishing his career with 4,256. Roberto Clemente's career ended with precisely 3,000 hits, which he reached in the last at bat of his career on September 30, 1972. (Full article...) -
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Ted Williams has the highest career on-base percentage in MLB history, led the American League in 12 seasons (also a record), and held the single-season on-base percentage record for 61 years.
In baseball statistics, on-base percentage (OBP) is a measure of how often a batter reaches base for any reason other than a fielding error, fielder's choice, dropped or uncaught third strike, fielder's obstruction, or catcher's interference. OBP is calculated in Major League Baseball (MLB) by dividing the sum of hits, walks, and times hit by a pitch by the sum of at-bats, walks, times hit by pitch and sacrifice flies. A hitter with a .400 on-base percentage is considered to be great and rare; only 61 players in MLB history with at least 3,000 career plate appearances (PA) have maintained such an OBP. Left fielder Ted Williams, who played 19 seasons for the Boston Red Sox, has the highest career on-base percentage, .4817, in MLB history. Williams led the American League (AL) in on-base percentage in twelve seasons, the most such seasons for any player in the major leagues. Barry Bonds led the National League (NL) in ten seasons, a NL record. Williams also posted the then-highest single-season on-base percentage of .5528 in 1941, a record that stood for 61 years until Bonds broke it with a .5817 OBP in 2002. Bonds broke his own record in 2004, setting the current single-season mark of .6094.
Players are eligible for the Hall of Fame if they have played at least 10 major league seasons, have been either retired for five seasons or deceased for six months, and have not been banned from MLB. These requirements leave 6 living players ineligible who have played in the past 5 seasons; 5 players (Bill Joyce, Ferris Fain, Jake Stenzel, Bill Lange, and George Selkirk) who did not play 10 seasons in MLB; and Shoeless Joe Jackson, who was banned for his role in the Black Sox Scandal.
Josh Gibson had a career obp of .458 but inexplicably isn’t on the list. (Full article...) -
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Todd Worrell (1982) is the only Cardinals first-round draft pick to win the Rookie of the Year Award.
The St. Louis Cardinals are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in St. Louis, Missouri. They play in the National League Central division. Since the institution of MLB's Rule 4 Draft, the Cardinals have selected 77 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.
Of the 77 players picked in the first round by St. Louis, 39 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 30 of them were right-handed, while nine were left-handed. Eight outfielders, ten third basemen, six shortstops, six first basemen, five catchers, and two second basemen were taken as well. The team also drafted one player, Leron Lee (1966), who played as an infielder. 16 of the players came from high schools or universities in the state of California, and Texas and Arizona follow with seven and six players. The Cardinals have not drafted any players from their home state of Missouri. (Full article...) -
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In baseball, a hit is credited to a batter when he reaches first base – or any subsequent base – safely after hitting a fair ball, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice. One hundred nineteen different players have recorded at least six hits in a single nine-inning Major League Baseball game. Five players have accomplished the feat more than once in their career; no player has ever recorded more than seven hits in a nine-inning game. Davy Force was the first player to collect six hits in a single game, doing so for the Philadelphia Athletics against the Chicago White Stockings on June 27, 1876.
These games have resulted in other single-game MLB records being set in connection with the prodigious offensive performance. Shawn Green, for example, established a new major league record with 19 total bases and finished with a total of five extra-base hits, tying a National League record that was also achieved by Larry Twitchell during the latter's six-hit game. Four of Green's six hits were home runs, equaling the record for most home runs in one game. Jim Bottomley, Walker Cooper, Anthony Rendon, and Wilbert Robinson hit 10 or more runs batted in (RBI) to complement their six hits. Robinson proceeded to collect a seventh hit and an eleventh RBI to set single-game records in both categories. Although his record of 11 RBIs has since been broken, Robinson's seven hits in a nine-inning game has been matched only by Rennie Stennett. (Full article...) -
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The Braves played nine Opening Day games at Turner Field, their home stadium from 1997 through 2016.
The Atlanta Braves are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Atlanta. They play in the National League East division. They were based in Milwaukee and Boston before moving to Atlanta for the 1966 season. The first game of the new baseball season for a team is played on Opening Day, and being named the Opening Day starter is an honor, which is often given to the player who is expected to lead the pitching staff that season, though there are various strategic reasons why a team's best pitcher might not start on Opening Day. The Atlanta Braves have used 22 different Opening Day starting pitchers in their 57 seasons in Atlanta. The 22 starters have a combined Opening Day record of 15 wins, 23 losses and 19 no decisions. No decisions are only awarded to the starting pitcher if the game is won or lost after the starting pitcher has left the game.
Hall of Famer Phil Niekro holds the Atlanta Braves' record for most Opening Day starts, with eight. Greg Maddux had seven for the team and Julio Teherán was featured six consecutive times from 2014 to 2019. Rick Mahler had five while Tom Glavine and John Smoltz have each made four Opening Day starts for the Braves. Maddux has the record for most wins in Atlanta Braves Opening Day starts, with five. Mahler has the highest winning percentage in Opening Day starts (1.000), with four wins and no losses with one no decision. All of Mahler's four victories were shutouts, including three in consecutive years (1985 to 1987) by identical scores of 6–0. Niekro has the record for most losses in Atlanta Braves Opening Day starts, with six. (Full article...) -
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Bobby Lowe was the first MLB player to hit four home runs in a single game, doing so in 1894.
In baseball, a home run occurs when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process. In modern baseball, the feat is typically achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles (or making contact with either foul pole) without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is also the "inside-the-park" home run where the batter reaches home safely while the baseball is in play on the field.
Eighteen players have hit four home runs in a single Major League Baseball (MLB) game, which writers of Sporting News described as "baseball's greatest single-game accomplishment". The most recent to accomplish the feat to date is J. D. Martinez with the Arizona Diamondbacks against the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 4, 2017. No player has done this more than once in his career. In the pre-professional era, Lipman Pike also hit five home runs in 1866. No player has ever hit four home runs in a postseason game; that record is three, first accomplished by Babe Ruth in Game 4 of the 1926 World Series. (Full article...) -
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Roy Halladay made his second consecutive Opening Day start for the Phillies in 2011 against the Houston Astros.
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball franchise based in Philadelphia. They play in the National League East division. Also known in early franchise history as the "Philadelphia Quakers", the Phillies have used 72 different Opening Day starting pitchers in their 128 seasons. The first game of the new baseball season for a team is played on Opening Day, and being named the Opening Day starter is an honor, which is often given to the player who is expected to lead the pitching staff that season, though there are various strategic reasons why a team's best pitcher might not start on Opening Day. Where decisions are known, the 72 starters have a combined Opening Day record of 33 wins, 40 losses and 20 no decisions (33–40–20); where decisions are unknown, the team's record was 17–19. No decisions are awarded to the starting pitcher if the game is won or lost after the starting pitcher has left the game. It can also result if a starting pitcher does not pitch five full innings, even if his team retains the lead and wins.
Hall of Fame left-handed pitcher Steve Carlton has the most Opening Day starts for the Phillies, with 14, compiling a record of 3–9–2. He is followed by Robin Roberts (twelve starts; 5–6–1), Chris Short (six starts; 3–1–2), and Curt Schilling (five starts; 2–0–3). Grover Cleveland Alexander also made five Opening Day starts for the Phillies, equal to Schilling; however, no information on his decisions in those games is available. The team's record in his five Opening Day starts is 4–1. (Full article...) -
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In Major League Baseball (MLB), the 50 home run club is the group of batters who have hit 50 or more home runs in a single season. Babe Ruth was the first to achieve this, doing so in 1920. By reaching the milestone, he also became the first player to hit 30 and then 40 home runs in a single season, breaking his own record of 29 from the 1919 season. Ruth subsequently became the first player to reach the 50 home run club on four occasions, repeating the achievement in 1921, 1927, and 1928. He remained the only player to accomplish this until Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa matched his feat in 1999 and 2001, respectively. In doing so, they became the only players to have achieved 50 home runs in four consecutive seasons. Barry Bonds hit the most home runs to join the club, collecting 73 in 2001. The most recent player to hit 50 home runs in three seasons is Aaron Judge, who did so in 2024.
In total, 32 players have reached the 50 home run club in MLB history and ten have done so more than once. Of these, seventeen were right-handed batters, fourteen were left-handed, and one was a switch hitter, meaning he could bat from either side of the plate. Four of these players (including two active members of the 50 home run club) have played for only one major league team. The New York Yankees are the only franchise to have five players reach the milestone while on their roster: Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Alex Rodriguez, and Aaron Judge. Ten players are also members of the 500 home run club and two of them (Willie Mays and Rodriguez) are also members of the 3,000 hit club. Ten players won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in the same year as their 50 home run season. Mantle is the only player to have earned the Major League Triple Crown alongside achieving 50 home runs, leading both leagues in batting average, home runs and runs batted in (RBI). Mantle and Maris—collectively known as the M&M Boys—are the only teammates to reach the 50 home run club in the same season, hitting a combined 115 home runs in 1961 and breaking the single-season record for home runs by a pair of teammates. Albert Belle is the only player to amass 50 or more doubles in addition to attaining 50 home runs. Prince Fielder, at 23 years and 139 days, was the youngest player to reach the milestone while Bonds, at age 37, was the oldest. Pete Alonso and Aaron Judge are the only players to hit 50 home runs in their rookie seasons. (Full article...) -
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Members of the 1876 Hartford Dark Blues
The Hartford Dark Blues were a Major League Baseball club in the 1870s, based in Hartford, Connecticut, for three seasons and in Brooklyn, New York, for one. Hartford was a member of the National Association (NA), 1874–1875 and a founding member of the National League (NL) in 1876, when it played home games at the Hartford Ball Club Grounds. During 1877 the team played home games at the Union Grounds in Brooklyn and was sometimes called the Brooklyn Hartfords.
The team's owner, Morgan Bulkeley, who later became the first president of the NL in 1876, established the franchise in 1874; he gave the on-field captain duties to Lip Pike, who was also the starting center fielder. Among the other players signed by Hartford were pitcher Cherokee Fisher, who had led the NA in earned run average the two previous seasons, second baseman Bob Addy, and Scott Hastings. (Full article...) -
Image 13First-round selections Ken Griffey Jr. (top left), Mike Harkey (top right), Jack McDowell (bottom left), and Mike Remlinger (bottom right).
The 1987 Major League Baseball draft is the process by which Major League Baseball (MLB) teams select athletes to play for their organization. High school seniors, college juniors and seniors, and anyone who had never played under a professional contract were considered eligible for the draft. The 1987 MLB Draft took place as a conference call to the Commissioner of Baseball's office in New York from June 2–4. As opposed to the National Football League Draft which appeared on ESPN, no network aired the MLB Draft.
The American League (AL) and the National League (NL) alternated picks throughout the first round; because an NL team drafted first in the 1986 MLB Draft, an AL team had the first selection in 1987. Having finished 67–95 in 1986, the Seattle Mariners had the worst record in the AL and thus obtained the first overall selection. The second selection went to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who had the worst record in the NL. (Full article...) -
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Brooks Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves, leading all third basemen, and is tied for the second-highest win total in the history of the award.
The Gold Glove Award is the award given annually to the Major League Baseball players judged to have exhibited superior individual fielding performances at each fielding position in both the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), as voted by the managers and coaches in each league. Managers are not permitted to vote for their own players. Eighteen Gold Gloves are awarded each year (with the exception of 1957, 1985, 2007 and 2018), one at each of the nine positions in each league. In 1957, the baseball glove manufacturer Rawlings created the Gold Glove Award to commemorate the best fielding performance at each position. The award was created from a glove made from gold lamé-tanned leather and affixed to a walnut base. Initially, only one Gold Glove per position was awarded to the top fielder at each position in the entire league; however, separate awards were given for the National and American Leagues beginning in 1958.
Brooks Robinson won 16 Gold Gloves with the Baltimore Orioles, leading both the American League and all third basemen in awards won. Mike Schmidt is tied with Nolan Arenado for second in wins at third base; Schmidt won 10 with the Philadelphia Phillies and is tied for National League third basemen in Gold Gloves. Arenado also has 10, 8 with the Rockies and 2 with the Cardinals. Scott Rolen owns the fourth-highest total, winning eight awards. Rolen won with the Phillies, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Cincinnati Reds. Six-time winners at third base are Buddy Bell, Eric Chavez, and Robin Ventura. Adrián Beltré, Ken Boyer, Matt Chapman, Doug Rader, and Ron Santo have each won five Gold Gloves at third base, and four-time winners include Gary Gaetti and Matt Williams. Hall of Famers who have won a Gold Glove at the position include Robinson, Rolen, Schmidt, Santo, Wade Boggs, and George Brett. (Full article...) -
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The Seattle Mariners have played their home games at T-Mobile Park since it opened in 1999.
The Seattle Mariners are a Major League Baseball (MLB) team based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The team has been a member of the American League's West division since they entered as an expansion franchise in 1977. Their name was chosen in a public contest and reflects the city's nautical history and location on Puget Sound. The team's first home stadium was the Kingdome, an indoor multi-purpose stadium shared with other sports, from 1977 until 1999. The Mariners moved to their current home, T-Mobile Park (formerly Safeco Field), when it opened on July 15, 1999; the stadium has a retractable roof and a seating capacity of 47,943.
The first MLB team in the Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Pilots, played for one season in 1969 as an American League expansion team at Sick's Stadium, a former minor league venue. After their sale to avoid bankruptcy, the Pilots moved to Milwaukee in 1970 and became the Brewers. The governments of Seattle, King County, and Washington filed a lawsuit against the American League in 1975 for a breach of contract in breaking the lease at Sick's Stadium; the lawsuit was withdrawn in exchange for a team that would play at the new Kingdome. After failed attempts to relocate an existing team, an expansion franchise was granted in 1976. (Full article...)
More did you know
- ... that brothers George Wright and Harry Wright both managed the Providence Grays National League baseball team?
- ... that Mike Cather earned his first major-league win in an 11-inning Atlanta Braves’ win, the same night the Braves earned the National League Eastern Division title?
- ... that in 1975, his only full season, Stan Perzanowski's earned run average was the lowest on the Texas Rangers?
- ... that Josh Gibson Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is named for Negro League star Josh Gibson, who has been called the "black Babe Ruth?"
- ... that Ryota Igarashi used to hold the Nippon Professional Baseball record for the fastest pitch thrown?
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Credit: Paul Thompson |
Cornelius McGillicuddy, Sr. (December 22, 1862 – February 8, 1956), better known as Connie Mack, was an American professional baseball player, manager, and team owner. The longest-serving manager in Major League Baseball history, he holds records for wins (3,731), losses (3,948), and games managed (7,755), with his victory total being almost 1,000 more than any other manager.
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