Portal:Baseball
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The Baseball Portal
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 generally 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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Stanley Frank Musial (/ˈmjuːziəl, -ʒəl/; born Stanislaw Franciszek Musial; November 21, 1920 – January 19, 2013), nicknamed "Stan the Man", was an American baseball outfielder and first baseman. Widely considered to be one of the greatest and most consistent hitters in baseball history, Musial spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, from 1941 to 1944 and from 1946 to 1963. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969 in his first year of eligibility.
Musial was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, where he frequently played baseball informally or in organized settings, and eventually played on the baseball team at Donora High School. Signed to a professional contract by the St. Louis Cardinals as a pitcher in 1938, Musial was converted into an outfielder and made his major league debut in 1941. Noted for his unique batting stance, he quickly established himself as a consistent and productive hitter. In his first full season, 1942, the Cardinals won the World Series. The following year, he led the NL in six different offensive categories and earned his first MVP award. He was also named to the NL All-Star squad for the first time; he appeared in every All-Star game in every subsequent season he played. Musial won his second World Series championship in 1944, then missed the 1945 season while serving in the Navy. After completing his military service, Musial returned to baseball in 1946 and resumed his consistent hitting. That year he earned his second MVP award and third World Series title. His third MVP award came in 1948, when he finished one home run short of winning baseball's Triple Crown. After struggling offensively in 1959, Musial used a personal trainer to help maintain his productivity until he decided to retire in 1963. (Full article...) -
Image 2The 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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The Nashville Sounds are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. They are located in Nashville, Tennessee, and are named for the city's association with the music industry, specifically the "Nashville sound", a subgenre of country music which originated in the city in the mid-1950s. The team plays their home games at First Horizon Park, which opened in 2015 on the site of the historic Sulphur Dell ballpark. The Sounds previously played at Herschel Greer Stadium from its opening in 1978 until the end of the 2014 season. They are the oldest active professional sports franchise in Nashville.
Established as an expansion team of the Double-A Southern League in 1978, the Sounds led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance in their inaugural season and continued to draw the Southern League's largest crowds in each of their seven years as members. On the field, the team won six consecutive second-half division titles from 1979 to 1984 and won the Southern League championship twice: in 1979 as the Double-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds and again in 1982 as the Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. (Full article...) -
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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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Marcus Elmore Baldwin (October 29, 1863 – November 10, 1929), nicknamed "Fido" and "Baldy", was an American professional baseball pitcher who played seven seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). In 346 career games, he pitched to a 154–165 win–loss record with 295 complete games. Baldwin set the single-season MLB wild pitches record with 83 that still stands today.
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Baldwin made his professional debut for a Cumberland, Maryland, team in 1883. Though signed by Chicago White Stockings president Albert Spalding to pitch against the St. Louis Browns in the 1886 World Series, Baldwin did not play after the Browns objected. He made his MLB debut for the White Stockings in 1887, when a writer for the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern called him the "swiftest pitcher in the National League" (NL). Released by Chicago player–manager Cap Anson, he signed with the Columbus Solons of the American Association (AA) in 1889, where he led the league in innings pitched (513+2⁄3), losses (34), strikeouts (368), and walks (274). (Full article...) -
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Kenesaw Mountain Landis (/ˈkɛnɪsɔː ˈmaʊntɪn ˈlændɪs/; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first commissioner of baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his resolution of the Black Sox Scandal, in which he expelled eight members of the Chicago White Sox from organized baseball for conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series and repeatedly refused their reinstatement requests. His iron rule over baseball in the near quarter-century of his commissionership is generally credited with restoring public confidence in the game.
Landis was born in Millville, Ohio. Raised in Indiana, he became a lawyer, and then personal secretary to Walter Q. Gresham, the new United States Secretary of State, in 1893. He returned to private practice after Gresham died in office. (Full article...) -
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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 36 World Series (and win 26 of those), as of the end of the 2023 season. (Full article...) -
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KARE (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, serving as the Twin Cities area's NBC affiliate. Owned by Tegna Inc., the station maintains studios on Olson Memorial Highway (MN 55) in Golden Valley and a transmitter at the Telefarm site in Shoreview, Minnesota.
Channel 11 began broadcasting on September 1, 1953. It was originally shared by WMIN-TV in St. Paul and WTCN-TV in Minneapolis; the two stations shared an affiliation with ABC and alternated presenting local programs. In 1955, Consolidated Television and Radio bought both stations and merged them as WTCN-TV from the Minneapolis studios in the Calhoun Beach Hotel. The station presented several regionally and nationally notable children's shows in its early years as well as local cooking, news, and sports programs. Time Inc. purchased the station in 1957. Under its ownership, ABC switched its affiliation to KMSP-TV (channel 9), leaving channel 11 to become an independent station that broadcast games of the Minnesota Twins baseball team, movies, and syndicated programs. This continued under two successive owners: Chris-Craft Industries and Metromedia. By the late 1970s, WTCN was one of the nation's most financially successful independent stations. (Full article...) -
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Stephen Crane (November 1, 1871 – June 5, 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation.
The ninth surviving child of Methodist parents, Crane began writing at the age of four and had several articles published by 16. Having little interest in university studies though he was active in a fraternity, he left Syracuse University in 1891 to work as a reporter and writer. Crane's first novel was the 1893 Bowery tale Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, generally considered by critics to be the first work of American literary Naturalism. He won international acclaim for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage (1895), considered a masterpiece by different critics and writers. (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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Morris Berg (March 2, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American professional baseball catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, though he was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball."
Berg was a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, spoke several languages, and regularly read ten newspapers a day. His reputation as an intellectual was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information Please, in which he answered questions about the etymology of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences. (Full article...) -
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James Francis Thorpe (Meskwaki: Wa-Tho-Huk, translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887 – March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native American to win a gold medal for the United States in the Olympics. Considered one of the most versatile athletes of modern sports, he won two Olympic gold medals in the 1912 Summer Olympics (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon). He also played football (collegiate and professional), professional baseball, and professional basketball.
He lost his Olympic titles after it was found he had been paid for playing two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the contemporary amateurism rules. In 1983, 30 years after his death, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) restored his Olympic medals with replicas, after ruling that the decision to strip him of his medals fell outside of the required 30 days. Official IOC records still listed Thorpe as co-champion in decathlon and pentathlon until 2022, when it was decided to restore him as the sole champion in both events. (Full article...) -
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Rogers Hornsby (April 27, 1896 – January 5, 1963), nicknamed "the Rajah", was an American baseball infielder, manager, and coach who played 23 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the St. Louis Cardinals (1915–1926, 1933), New York Giants (1927), Boston Braves (1928), Chicago Cubs (1929–1932), and St. Louis Browns (1933–1937). He was named the National League (NL)'s Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice, and was a member of one World Series championship team.
Born in Winters, Texas, and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Hornsby played for several semi-professional and minor league teams. In 1915, he began his major league career with the St. Louis Cardinals and remained with the team for 12 seasons. During this period, Hornsby won his first MVP Award and the Cardinals won the 1926 World Series. After that season, he spent one season with the New York Giants and another with the Boston Braves before being traded to the Chicago Cubs. He played with the Cubs for four years and won his second MVP Award before the team released him in 1932. Hornsby re-signed with the Cardinals in 1933, but was released partway through the season, effectively ending his career as a full-time player. He was picked up by the St. Louis Browns and remained there until his final season in 1937, though he made only 67 appearances for them as a player. From 1925 to 1937, Hornsby was intermittently a player-manager. After retiring as a player, he managed the Browns in 1952 and the Cincinnati Reds from 1952 to 1953. (Full article...) -
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Lee Arthur Smith (born December 4, 1957) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 18 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for eight teams. Serving mostly as a relief pitcher during his career, he was a dominant closer, was the first pitcher to reach 400 saves, and held the major league record for career saves from 1993 until 2006, when Trevor Hoffman passed his total of 478. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2019 by the Today's Game Era Committee.
A native of Jamestown in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana, Smith was scouted by Buck O'Neil and was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the 1975 MLB draft. Smith was an intimidating figure on the pitcher's mound at 6 feet 6 inches (1.98 m) and 265 pounds (120 kg) with a 95-mile-per-hour (150 km/h) fastball. In 1991, he set a National League (NL) record with 47 saves for the St. Louis Cardinals, and was runner-up for the league's Cy Young Award; it was the second of three times Smith led the NL in saves, and he later led the American League (AL) in saves once. When he retired, he held the major league record for career games finished (802) and was third in games pitched (1,022). He holds the Cubs' team record for career saves (180), and held the same record for the Cardinals (160) until 2006. (Full article...) -
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Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler Sr. (July 14, 1898 – June 15, 1991) was an American politician from Kentucky. He represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second commissioner of baseball from 1945 to 1951 and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982. His grandson, Ben Chandler, later served as congressman for Kentucky's Sixth District.
A multi-sport athlete during his college days at Transylvania College, Chandler briefly considered a career in professional baseball before deciding to pursue a law degree. After graduation, he entered politics and was elected as a Democrat to the Kentucky Senate in 1929. Two years later, he was elected lieutenant governor, serving under Governor Ruby Laffoon. Chandler and Laffoon disagreed on the issue of instituting a state sales tax and when Chandler, the presiding officer in the state senate, worked to block the legislation, Laffoon's allies in the General Assembly stripped him of many of his statutory powers. The tax then passed by a narrow margin. Knowing that Laffoon would try to select his own successor at the Democratic nominating convention, Chandler waited until Laffoon left the state—leaving Chandler as acting governor—and called the legislature into session to enact a mandatory primary election bill. The bill passed, and in the ensuing primary, Chandler defeated Laffoon's choice, Thomas Rhea. He then went on to defeat Republican King Swope by the largest margin of victory for a Kentucky gubernatorial race at that time. As governor, Chandler oversaw the repeal of the sales tax, replacing the lost revenue with new excise taxes and the state's first income tax. He also enacted a major reorganization of state government, realizing significant savings for the state. He used these savings to pay off the state debt and improve the state's education and transportation systems. (Full article...)
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Image 1Baserunners 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 2Rickey 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 3Sadaharu 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 4A game from the Cantigas de Santa Maria, c. 1280, involving tossing a ball, hitting it with a stick and competing with others to catch it (from History of baseball)
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Image 5A first baseman receives a pickoff throw, as the runner dives back to first base. (from Baseball)
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Image 6A batter follows through after swinging at a pitched ball. (from Baseball rules)
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Image 7A New York Yankees batter (Andruw Jones) and a Boston Red Sox catcher at Fenway Park (from Baseball)
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Image 8Fenway 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 9An Afghan girl playing baseball in August 2002 (from Baseball)
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Image 10Alexander Cartwright, father of modern baseball (from History of baseball)
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Image 13Two players on the baseball team of Tokyo, Japan's Waseda University in 1921 (from Baseball)
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Image 14Japanese-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 15A pitcher handing off the ball after being taken out of the game during a mound meeting. (from Baseball)
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Image 16Pick-off attempt on runner (in red) at first base (from Baseball rules)
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Image 17Sadaharu 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 18Pesäpallo, 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 20The typical motion of a right-handed pitcher (from Baseball rules)
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Image 23By 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 242013 World Baseball Classic championship match between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, March 20, 2013 (from Baseball)
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Image 25Cover of Official Base Ball Rules, 1921 edition, used by the American League and National League (from Baseball rules)
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Image 26The 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 28A runner sliding into home plate and scoring. (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 30The strike zone determines the result of most pitches, and varies in vertical length for each batter. (from Baseball)
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Image 31Defensive positions on a baseball field, with abbreviations and scorekeeper's position numbers (not uniform numbers) (from Baseball)
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Image 32Cy 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 33The 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 34Pitchers are generally substituted during mound visits (team gatherings at the pitcher's mound). (from Baseball rules)
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Image 351906 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 36The 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 37In 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 38A well-worn baseball (from Baseball)
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Image 40Diagram 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 41Jackie 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 42The standard fielding positions (from Baseball rules)
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Image 45Baseball 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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Clarence A. Clingenpeel (December 12, 1886 – December 2, 1975) was an American athlete and sports coach. He was best known for his time at Central College (now known as Central Methodist University), where he played several sports and later coached from 1914 to 1917, and again from 1925 to 1941. Clingenpeel also coached football at Austin College for one year and for seven years he coached football and basketball at Kemper Military School. He was inducted into the NAIA Hall of Fame in 1958 and later into the Central Methodist Hall of Fame in 1983. (Full article...) -
Image 2Arthur Lee Guetterman (born November 22, 1958), nicknamed "Goot," is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played from 1984 to 1996 for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, New York Mets, and St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB). A southpaw used primarily in the major leagues as a relief pitcher, he stood 6 feet 8 inches (2.03 m) tall. He led the Yankees in wins in 1990 without starting a game.
Guetterman attended Liberty University, where he set several school records on the baseball team. Drafted by the Mariners in the fourth round of the 1981 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft, he made his major league debut in 1984, though he would not return to the major leagues until 1986. After having the highest earned run average (ERA) of any American League (AL) pitcher with at least 75 innings pitched in 1986, he won 11 games as a starter in 1987, posting an 8–1 record at one point before getting moved to the bullpen due to a loss of control of his pitches. He was traded to the Yankees after the season, and after spending much of 1988 in the minor leagues, he emerged as a part-time closer for the Yankees in 1989, while Dave Righetti was struggling. He had 13 saves in 1989, then just two the following year, though he would lead the Yankees in wins. In 1991, Guetterman became unhappy with his playing time and requested a trade, which he got in 1992, when he was part of the only Yankees-Mets trade between 1987 and 2001. (Full article...) -
Image 3Louis Henry Saban (October 13, 1921 – March 29, 2009) was an American football player and coach. He played for Indiana University in college and as a professional for the Cleveland Browns of the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) between 1946 and 1949. Saban then began a long coaching career. After numerous jobs at the college level, he became the first coach of the Boston Patriots in the American Football League (AFL) in 1960. He joined the Buffalo Bills two years later, and led the team to consecutive AFL championships in 1964 and 1965. Saban was the first head coach to win multiple AFL championships, with only Hank Stram passing him. After serving briefly as head coach at the University of Maryland, he was hired as head coach of the Denver Broncos in 1967, where he remained for five years. Saban returned to the Bills—by then in the National Football League (NFL) following the AFL–NFL merger—from 1972 to 1976, reaching the playoffs once but failing to bring Buffalo another championship.
Following his departure from Buffalo, Saban returned to college coaching. He coached teams including the University of Miami, Army, University of Central Florida and Peru State College. He also coached at the high school level and for two Arena Football League teams. Saban switched jobs frequently and developed a reputation as an itinerant. At Central Florida, he was nicknamed Lou "two point two" Saban because he typically stayed in a coaching job for about 2.2 years. Saban initially dismissed this characterization, but came to accept it later in life. He held 21 coaching jobs during his 50-year career (lasting an average of 2.38 years for each job), which ended with a job at Chowan University in North Carolina between 2001 and 2002. Saban's combined record as a coach in the AFL and NFL was 95–99–7. His college football record was 94–99–4. Saban suffered from heart problems and had a fall in his home that required hospitalization in 2009. He died in March of that year. (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...) -
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Christopher Ryan Young (born May 25, 1979) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current general manager and president of baseball operations of the Texas Rangers since 2020. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 2000 to 2017 for the Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners and the Kansas City Royals. Young was a 2007 National League (NL) All-Star player as a member of the Padres, and was a member of the 2015 World Series winning Kansas City Royals team. After his playing career, he worked for the Major League Baseball front office before becoming the general manager of the Rangers in 2020.
At the age of 25, Young made his MLB debut on August 24, 2004 with the Rangers. He had previously excelled in basketball and baseball at Highland Park High School in University Park, Texas, and Princeton University. (Full article...) -
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Babe Ruth died on August 16, 1948, from a type of throat cancer. He underwent hormone therapy, and surgery in an attempt to treat his cancer. He was also one of the first cancer patients to receive sequential radiation and chemotherapy treatment. The treatments were not successful.
His funeral took place over three days, from August 17 to August 19, 1948. Ruth was a well-known Major League Baseball player who played for the New York Yankees for fifteen years. His funeral included a two-day open casket funeral at Yankee Stadium, a mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral and a burial at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery. The funeral events were attended by many prominent people. A total of 57 honorary pallbearers were appointed for his funeral. (Full article...) -
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Philip Henry Bridenbaugh (May 1, 1890 – June 14, 1990) was an American football player and coach. A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College, where he earned a degree in teaching and spent four years on several of its sports teams, Bridenbaugh coached football at several places in his home state of Pennsylvania prior to being selected as the head coach of the Geneva College Golden Tornadoes in 1917. He left Geneva in 1922 with a 23–12–5 record and took a job with New Castle Junior/Senior High School as a mathematics teacher and head football, basketball, and track and field coach. He did not lose a football game in his first two years, marking the first of eleven undefeated seasons, and, over the course of 33 years, won seven league titles in the sport, leaving in 1955 with a 265–65–25 record. He continued to work as an assistant football coach at Grove City College until 1964 and was inducted into several regional halls of fame. He died in June 1990 at the age of 100. (Full article...) -
Image 8Walter Francis O'Malley (October 9, 1903 – August 9, 1979) was an American sports executive who owned the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers team in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1979. In 1958, as owner of the Dodgers, he brought major league baseball to the West Coast, moving the Dodgers from Brooklyn to Los Angeles despite the Dodgers being the second most profitable team in baseball from 1946 to 1956, and coordinating the move of the New York Giants to San Francisco at a time when there were no teams west of Kansas City, Missouri. In 2008, O'Malley was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for his contributions to and influence on the game of baseball.
O'Malley's father, Edwin Joseph O'Malley, was politically connected. Walter, a University of Pennsylvania salutatorian, went on to obtain a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.), and he used the combination of his family connections, his personal contacts, and both his educational and vocational skills to rise to prominence. First, he became an entrepreneur involved in public works contracting, and then he became an executive with the Dodgers. He progressed from being a team lawyer to being both the Dodgers' owner and president, and he eventually made the business decision to relocate the Dodgers franchise. Although he moved the franchise, O'Malley is known as a businessman whose major philosophy was stability through loyalty to and from his employees. (Full article...) -
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William Mitchell Steele (October 5, 1885 – October 19, 1949) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB). He pitched from 1910 to 1914 with the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Robins. Nicknamed "Big Bill", at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), he was one of the larger players of his era. His main pitch was a spitball.
Steele grew up in Milford, Pennsylvania. He began pitching at the professional level in 1909, and after winning 25 games for the Altoona Rams in 1910, he was signed by the Cardinals. Steele appeared in nine games with the team that year, then pitched a career-high 287+1⁄3 innings in 1911. He led the National League (NL) with 19 losses while posting a 3.73 earned run average (ERA). In 1912, Steele posted the worst ERA (4.69) among pitchers with enough innings to qualify for the MLB ERA title. He claimed in 1913 that he had purposefully not been trying as hard as he could have in 1912, and this impaired his relationship with the front office. Bothered by rheumatism the next couple of seasons, Steele found himself used mainly as a mopup reliever by 1914. Sold to the Robins later that year, he finished his MLB career with eight appearances in a Brooklyn uniform. Steele then played minor league baseball for a couple more seasons. A few years after he retired, he and his family moved to the St. Louis area, where he worked as a mechanic for Swift and Company and later as a maintenance man at an A&P warehouse. He was killed on October 19, 1949, when a streetcar ran into him. (Full article...) -
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Charles "Boss" Schmidt (September 12, 1880 – November 14, 1932) was an American baseball catcher for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB)
A native of Arkansas, Schmidt played professional baseball from 1901 to 1926, including six seasons in MLB with Detroit from 1906 to 1911. He was the starting catcher on the Detroit teams that won three consecutive American League pennants from 1907 to 1909. He also led the American League in errors by a catcher in each of those seasons. Schmidt had a reputation for toughness enhanced by his grotesque-looking hands, the result of work as a coal miner and prizefighter. (Full article...) -
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The Yankees–Red Sox rivalry is a Major League Baseball (MLB) rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. Both teams have competed in MLB's American League (AL) for over 120 seasons and have since developed what is arguably the fiercest rivalry in all of American sports. In 1919, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold star player Babe Ruth to the Yankees, which was followed by an 86-year period in which the Red Sox did not win a World Series. This led to the popularization of a superstition known as the "Curse of the Bambino," which was one of the most well-known aspects of the rivalry.
The rivalry is often a heated subject of conversation, especially in the home region of both teams, the Northeastern United States.
Until the 2014 season, every season's postseason had featured one or both of the AL East rivals since the inception of the wild card format and the resultant additional Division Series in 1995; they have faced each other in the AL Championship Series (ALCS) three times. The Yankees won twice, in 1999 and 2003; while the Red Sox won in 2004. The two teams have also met once in the AL Division Series (ALDS), in 2018, with Boston winning 3–1, a series which included a 16–1 Red Sox win in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the most lopsided postseason loss for the Yankees in their history. The Red Sox also beat the Yankees in the 2021 American League Wild Card Game. (Full article...) -
Image 12Benny M. Lefebvre (lə-FEE-vər; November 16, 1912 – April 2, 1994) was an American athlete and sports coach. After graduating from Manual Arts High School, Lefebvre had a long career in professional football that spanned from 1934 to 1949. He also served as head baseball coach at Pepperdine University from 1940 to 1941, and in 1962. He later coached several high school baseball and football teams until his retirement in 1985. His four brothers each played football, and his three sons each signed professional baseball contracts. (Full article...)
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Oscar E. "Reddy" Foster (August 1864 – December 19, 1908) was a Major League Baseball (MLB) player for the New York Giants in 1896. His only MLB appearance was on June 3 of that season. He primarily played catcher in his minor league career, which spanned 17 seasons. Foster was a manager as well. He was known for his fiery temper and his heavy drinking. Foster died on December 19, 1908, when he deliberately shot himself in the head with a shotgun. (Full article...) -
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In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Batted balls are either fair or foul, and can be characterized as a fly ball, pop-up, line drive, or ground ball. In baseball, a foul ball counts as a strike against the batter, unless there are already two strikes on the batter, with special rules applying to foul tips and foul bunts. Fly balls are those hit in an arcing manner, with pop-ups being a subset of fly balls that do not travel far. Line drives are batted balls hit on a straight line trajectory, while ground balls are hit at a low trajectory, contact the ground shortly after being hit, and then either roll or bounce. Batted balls, especially line drives, can present a hazard to players, umpires, and spectators, as people have been seriously injured or killed after being struck by batted balls. (Full article...) -
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Ian Patrick Kennedy (born December 19, 1984) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Between 2007 and 2023, he played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers, and Philadelphia Phillies.
A standout pitcher at La Quinta High School in California, Kennedy played three seasons of college baseball for the USC Trojans. The Yankees selected him 21st overall in the 2006 MLB Draft and he quickly rose through the team's farm system, making his major league debut the next year. The Yankees traded Kennedy to the Diamondbacks after the 2009 season, and he became Arizona's ace, leading the National League in wins during the 2011 season. (Full article...)
Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch
- ... that doctors told Lance McCullers that he should not continue to pitch in 1990, but he returned to Major League Baseball in 1992?
- ... that Frankie Saluto was a member of the Ringling Giants, a dwarf baseball team that raised money for charity?
- ... that before his Major League Baseball career, Leo Posada represented Cuba internationally in cycling?
- ... 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 baseball player Nick Solak was named after the sports bar where his parents first met?
- ... that Puerto Rico's Willie Hernández became the highest paid player in Detroit Tigers history after winning Cy Young and Most Valuable Player awards and a World Series?
- ... that Cy Block and Ross Horning testified before the United States Congress about how the reserve clause limited their careers in professional baseball?
- ... that Helene Hathaway Britton, the first woman to own a Major League Baseball team, was unsuccessfully pressured by other club owners to sell the team?
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The Boston Reds were a Major League Baseball franchise that played in the Players' League (PL) in 1890, and one season in the American Association (AA) in 1891. In both seasons, the Reds were their league's champion, making them the second team to win back-to-back championships in two different leagues. The first franchise to accomplish this feat was the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, who won the AA championship in 1889 and the National League (NL) championship in 1890. The Reds played their home games at the Congress Street Grounds.
The Reds were an instant success on the field and in the public's opinion. The team signed several top-level players, and they played in a larger, more comfortable and modern ballpark than the Boston Beaneaters, the popular and well established cross-town rival. Player signings that first year included future Hall of Famers King Kelly, Dan Brouthers, and Charles Radbourn, along with other veterans such as Hardy Richardson, Matt Kilroy, Harry Stovey, and Tom Brown. The PL ended after one season, leaving most of its teams without a league. (Full article...) -
Image 2The Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award is awarded by the commissioner of baseball, the chief executive of Major League Baseball (MLB), to a group or person who has made a "major impact on the sport" of baseball. It is not an annual award; rather, the Commissioner presents it at his discretion. The trophy is a gold baseball sitting atop a cylindrical silver base, created by Tiffany & Co. The award has been presented sixteen times: thirteen times to players, once to a team, and twice to a non-player. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were the first to receive the award for their parts in the 1998 MLB home run record chase. The most recent recipient is Shohei Ohtani, who was honored in 2021 for being the first player in MLB history to be an All-Star as both a starting pitcher and a lead-off hitter in the 2021 All-Star Game and for completing a two-way season as a hitter and as a pitcher. The 2001 Seattle Mariners won the award as a team for posting a 116–46 record. Roberto Clemente, the 2006 awardee, is the only player to receive the award posthumously; his award was accepted by his wife, Vera.
Three years after McGwire and Sosa were honored, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, both of whom retired after the 2001 season, received the award and were honored at the 2001 MLB All-Star Game; Ripken was elected to the American League All-Star team as a starter at third base, while Gwynn was later added as an honorary member of the National League team. During the first inning of the game, Alex Rodriguez, who had been elected the starter at shortstop—the position at which Ripken played for most of his career—switched positions with Ripken for the first inning of the game as a tribute. Including the presentation of the award to the Mariners following the season, the 2001 season's three awards are the most presented in a single year. (Full article...) -
Image 3The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team that plays in the National League Western Division. Since their inception as the New York Gothams in 1883, the Giants have employed 37 managers. The duties of the team manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field.
The franchise's first manager was John Clapp, who managed the team for one year before being replaced in 1884 by Jim Price. The New York Giants won two World Series championships during the 19th century, in 1888 and 1889, with Jim Mutrie as their manager both years.[a] John McGraw became the Giants' manager during the 1902 season, beginning a streak of 54 consecutive years in which the Giants were managed by a Baseball Hall of Famer. McGraw managed for the better course of 30 years (he missed parts of the 1924, 1925, and 1927 seasons due to illness; Hughie Jennings took over for the former two while Rogers Hornsby served as player-manager for the latter), doing so until the middle of the 1932 season, the longest managerial tenure in Giants history. McGraw won 2,583 games as the Giants manager, the most in Giants history. While managing the Giants, the team won the National League championship 10 times—in 1904, 1905, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924. They played in the World Series nine times (no World Series was played in 1904) and won three, in 1905, 1921 and 1922. (Full article...) -
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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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The Milwaukee Brewers Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise of the National League (NL) has employed 20 managers during its 55 seasons of play. Managers are responsible for team strategy and leadership on and off the field, including determining the batting order, arranging defensive positioning, and making tactical decisions regarding pitching changes, pinch-hitting, pinch-running, and defensive replacements. Established in Seattle, Washington, as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, the team became the Milwaukee Brewers after relocating to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1970. The franchise played in the American League (AL) until 1998, when it moved to the National League in conjunction with a major league realignment. Pat Murphy, the current manager, will manage his first Brewers game at the beginning of the 2024 season.
Five managers have led the Brewers to the postseason. Buck Rodgers' 1981 team won the Second Half AL East Division title. In 1982, Harvey Kuenn took over for Rodgers and led Milwaukee to win the AL East Division title and the AL Championship Series, but they lost in their only World Series appearance. Dale Sveum, who assumed control of the team late in the 2008 season from Ned Yost, led the club to an NL Wild Card. Ron Roenicke's 2011 Brewers won the NL Central Division title and the NL Division Series (NLDS). The teams led by Craig Counsell won the NL Central Division title (2018, 2021, and 2023), the NLDS (2018), and two NL Wild Card spots (2019 and 2020). (Full article...) -
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The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Red Sox are members of the American League (AL) East Division in Major League Baseball (MLB). They have competed since 1901, initially as the Boston Americans (1901–1907), and under their current name since 1908. Since 1912, the Red Sox have played their home games at Fenway Park. In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager, or more formally, the field manager. There have been 48 different managers in franchise history; the current manager is Alex Cora, who previously managed the team during the 2018 and 2019 seasons and was re-hired by the team on November 6, 2020.
Jimmy Collins was the first manager of the franchise, managing from 1901 to 1906. Among all Red Sox managers, Joe Cronin managed the most regular season games (2,007) and registered the most regular season wins (1,071), while Terry Francona managed the most playoff games (45) and registered the most playoff wins (28). The most World Series championships won by a Red Sox manager is two, accomplished by Bill Carrigan (1915 and 1916) and Francona (2004 and 2007). John McNamara and Jimy Williams are the only two Red Sox managers to win the AL Manager of the Year Award, in 1986 and 1999, respectively. (Full article...) -
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The Edgar Martínez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award, commonly referred to as the Edgar Martínez Award and originally known as the Outstanding Designated Hitter Award, has been presented annually to the most outstanding designated hitter (DH) in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1973. The award is voted on by club beat reporters, broadcasters, and public relations departments. The Associated Press discontinued the award in 2000, but it was picked up by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, which has administered it since. All players with a minimum of 100 at bats at DH are eligible. From the award's inception in 1973 until 2019, and in 2021, use of the designated hitter was allowed only in the American League (AL).
In September 2004, at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) ceremonies in honor of Edgar Martínez, Commissioner Bud Selig announced that the award would be renamed for the five-time recipient (1995, 1997–98, 2000–01). In an 18-year career with the Seattle Mariners, primarily as a designated hitter, Martínez batted .312, with 309 career home runs and 1,261 runs batted in. (Full article...) -
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Puerto Rico currently has the fourth-most active players in Major League Baseball (MLB) among Latin American jurisdictions, behind the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba. More than three hundred players from the archipelago have played in the major leagues since 1926. This includes players who were born in either one of the archipelago's islands and those of Puerto Rican heritage. Only those players who have worked in the major leagues are listed, not those active in the minor leagues, nor negro independent leagues.
For years, it was considered that the first player from Puerto Rico to play in the major leagues was Hiram Bithorn in 1942. But this changed in December 2020, when seven Negro baseball leagues between 1920 and 1948 were recognized as "major leagues." Thus, the first Puerto Rican to play baseball on the major leagues was Jose "Gacho" Torres, who debuted in 1926. (Full article...) -
Image 9The Miami Marlins are a professional Major League Baseball based in Miami, Florida. The Marlins are members of the National League East division in MLB, joining in 1993 as an expansion team. In baseball, the head coach of a team is called the manager, or more formally, the field manager. The duties of the team manager include team strategy and leadership on and off the field. The Marlins have employed fifteen different managers (two interim) since their founding as the Florida Marlins in 1993, with three leading then to the postseason that has resulted in two World Series championships (1997, 2003).
The Marlins' first manager was Rene Lachemann, who led the team from its creation in 1993 through part of the 1996 season. After Cookie Rojas managed for one game, John Boles served as manager for the final 75 games of the 1996 season. Jim Leyland took over the franchise for the next two seasons, and in the process led the Marlins to their first World Series championship in 1997. In 1999, Boles took over and started his second stint as manager of the Marlins, which lasted until partway through the 2001 season. Tony Pérez was interim manager for the rest of 2001; Pérez is the only Miami Marlins manager who is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, inducted as a player in 2000. (Full article...) -
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The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball franchise based in Philadelphia. They play in the National League East division. Also known in their early years as the "Philadelphia Quakers", pitchers for the Phillies have thrown fourteen separate no-hitters in franchise history. A no-hitter is officially recognized by Major League Baseball only "when a pitcher (or pitchers) allows no hits during the entire course of a game, which consists of at least nine innings", though one or more batters "may reach base via a walk, an error, a hit by pitch, a passed ball or wild pitch on strike three, or catcher's interference". No-hitters of less than nine complete innings were previously recognized by the league as official; however, several rule alterations in 1991 changed the rule to its current form.
Of the fourteen no-hitters pitched by Phillies players, three have been won by a score of 6–0, and three by a score of 1–0, more common than any other results. The largest margin of victory in a Phillies no-hitter was ten runs, in a 10–0 win by Chick Fraser. Charlie Ferguson's no-hitter, the first in franchise history, was a 1–0 victory, as were two of the more recent regular season no-hitters, thrown by Kevin Millwood in 2003 and Roy Halladay in 2010. Three pitchers to throw no-hitters for the Phillies have been left-handed: Johnny Lush (in 1906), Terry Mulholland (in 1990) and Cole Hamels (in 2015). The other nine pitchers were right-handed. Halladay is the only Phillies' pitcher to throw more than one no-hitter in a Phillies uniform, and others, including Hall of Famer Jim Bunning, have pitched more than one in their careers. The longest interval between Phillies no-hitters was between the games pitched by Lush and Bunning, encompassing 58 years, 1 month, and 20 days from May 1, 1906 to June 21, 1964. Conversely, the shortest interval between no-hitters was between Halladay's two 2010 no-hitters, with a total of merely four months and seven days from May 29 to October 6; the shortest gap between regular-season no-hitters was between Mulholland's and Tommy Greene's games (nine months and eight days from August 15, 1990 to May 23, 1991). Two opponents have been no-hit by the Phillies more than one time: the San Francisco Giants, who were defeated by Mulholland (in 1990) and Millwood (in 2003); and the Cincinnati Reds, who were no-hit by Rick Wise (in 1971) and Halladay (in 2010). (Full article...) -
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In baseball, a run batted in (RBI) is awarded to a batter for each runner who scores as a result of the batter's action, including a hit, fielder's choice, sacrifice fly, bases loaded walk, or hit by pitch. A batter is also awarded an RBI for scoring himself upon hitting a home run. However, if a run scores because of an error that the defense commits on a batted ball, the batter does not (in most cases) receive an RBI; the exception is when the official scorer deems the run would've scored with or without an error, such as when an error occurs on a fielder's choice.
In Major League Baseball (MLB), a player in each league[L] wins the "RBI crown" or "RBI title" each season by hitting the most runs batted in that year. The first RBI champion in the National League (NL) was Deacon White; in the league's inaugural 1876 season, White hit 60 RBIs for the Chicago White Stockings. The American League (AL) was established in 1901, and Hall of Fame second baseman Nap Lajoie led that league with 125 RBIs for the Philadelphia Athletics. Over the course of his 27-season career, Cap Anson led the NL in RBI eight times. Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner have the second- and third-most RBI titles, respectively: Ruth with six, and Wagner with five. Several players are tied for the most consecutive seasons led with three: Anson (twice), Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Ruth, Joe Medwick, George Foster, and Cecil Fielder. Notably, Matt Holliday won the NL title in 2007 by one RBI over Ryan Howard, only overtaking Howard due to his performance in the 2007 National League Wild Card tie-breaker game. Had Howard won the 2007 title, he would have led the NL in a record four consecutive seasons from 2006 to 2009. The most recent champions are Kyle Tucker in the American League, and Matt Olson in the National League. (Full article...) -
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The Providence Grays were a Major League Baseball franchise based in Providence, Rhode Island from 1878 to 1885. During the team's eight seasons in the National League (NL), which then comprised eight teams, they finished third place or higher in the final standings seven times, and won the league championship in both 1879 and 1884. Providence played their home games at the Messer Street Grounds, which was located in the Olneyville neighborhood of Providence. The Grays were officially organized on January 16, 1878 by Benjamin Douglas, who became the team's general manager. Henry Root was hired as the team president‚ and Tom Carey was initially hired to be the on-field captain, whose duties were similar to the modern-day manager. On January 21, 1878, Providence applied for membership in the NL, and was officially approved on February 6. On April 10, Root took over ownership of the team, fired Douglas for incompetence and insubordination, and hired Tom York to replace Carey as captain.
Providence was successful in signing several star players for their inaugural season: Paul Hines had played the previous four seasons with the Chicago White Stockings; Tom Carey was signed after the Hartford Dark Blues folded; Doug Allison was the catcher for the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, who had an 84-game winning streak from 1869 to 1870; and John Montgomery Ward, who was playing his first season in the major leagues. Ward had a win–loss record of 22–13 and Hines led the league in home runs, runs batted in (RBIs), and batting average as the Grays finished in third place among the six teams in the NL for the 1878 season, with a record of 33 wins, 27 losses, and 2 ties. The Grays won the NL championship in 1879, placing first among the league's eight teams with Ward winning 47 games as their starting pitcher, and the leadership of George Wright, who played second base and also managed. The team had a strong hitting line-up with Hines' league leading .357 batting average, as well as new additions Jim O'Rourke and Joe Start, who both had batting averages over .300. William Edward White, a Brown University player who played one game for the Grays on June 21, 1879, may have been the first African-American to play at the major league level; according to Peter Morris of the Society for American Baseball Research, the evidence for White is strong, but not conclusive. If this claim is true, then White pre-dated both Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother Weldy Walker, who both played for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association (AA). In 1880, the Grays finished in second place among the eight NL teams, with Ward winning 39 games. On June 17 of that year, Ward pitched the second perfect game in major league history. (Full article...) -
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The Cleveland Guardians are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Cleveland, Ohio. They play in the American League Central division. Since the institution of MLB's Rule 4 Draft, the Guardians have selected 71 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 71 players picked in the first round by Cleveland, 30 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 19 of them were right-handed, while 11 were left-handed. Sixteen outfielders, eleven shortstops, four third basemen, four first basemen, four catchers, and one second basemen were also taken. The team also drafted one player, Glenn Tufts (1973), who played as an infielder. Twelve of the players came from high schools or universities in the state of California, and Texas follows with eight players. The Guardians have also drafted two players from their home state of Ohio. (Full article...) -
Image 14The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in St. Petersburg, Florida. They play in the American League East 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 Rays have used fifteen different Opening Day starting pitchers in their twenty-six seasons. Since the franchise's beginning in 1998, the fifteen starters have a combined Opening Day record of seven wins, ten losses (7–10), and nine no decisions. "No decisions" are awarded to the starting pitcher if the game is won or lost after the starting pitcher has left the game.
Chris Archer and James Shields holds the Rays' record for most Opening Day starts with four. Archer has one win, two losses, and one no decision, while Shields has one win, one loss, and two no decisions. The all-time record for a Tampa Bay starting pitcher winning an Opening Day game is one, shared by Steve Trachsel, Albie Lopez, Victor Zambrano, James Shields, David Price, Chris Archer, and Shane McClanahan. (Full article...) -
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The Los Angeles Dodgers are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Los Angeles. 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 Dodgers have used 26 different Opening Day starting pitchers in their 67 seasons in Los Angeles. The 26 starters have a combined Opening Day record of 29 wins, 27 losses and 10 no decisions.
The Dodgers started playing in Los Angeles in 1958, after moving from Brooklyn. The first Opening Day game for the Dodgers in Los Angeles was played in San Francisco against the San Francisco Giants on April 15, 1958. California native Don Drysdale was the Dodgers' Opening Day starting pitcher that day, in a game the Dodgers lost 8–0. Dodgers starting pitchers won both of their Opening Day starts in their first home ballpark in Los Angeles, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. (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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Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887–December 10, 1946), nicknamed "The Big Train," was a right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball between 1907 and 1927. One of the most celebrated players in baseball history, Johnson established several pitching records, some of which remained unbroken for more than a half-century.
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