MLB Information
2010 will be the 110th consecutive season that the National League and the American League will do battle for baseball supremacy. The season kicks off on April 4, 2010 with the Boston Red Sox hosting long time rival and defending World Series Champion New York Yankees. The 2010 All Star Game will take place in Anaheim at Angels Stadium of Anaheim and will determine the home field for the 2010 World Series. Another game of note this season is the 3rd annual Civil Rights Game to be held at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio and will feature the Cincinnati Reds against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The season will feature a number of milestones that can and most likely will be broken by players. They include Alex Rodriguez needing 17 Home Runs to reach 600, Carlos Delgado needing 27 Home Runs to reach 500 and Andruw Jones who needs 12. Albert Pujols needs 34 Home Runs to reach 400. Chipper Jones needs 55 RBI’s to reach 1500, and to reach 1000 Johnny Damon needs 4, Jorge Posada 56 and Aramis Ramirez 54. In the race to reach 500 Doubles, Bobby Abreu needs 17, Carlos Delgado-17, Chipper Jones, 28 and Gary Sheffield needs 33. Tim Wakefield needs 11 more wins to reach 200 and a handful of pitchers need 15 or under to reach 150. Finally, Trevor Hoffman is only 9 saves away from 600.
Other events of note are the Minnesota Twins will open their season at their new ballpark, Target Field which seats 40,000 fans with a game against the Boston Redsox. The 2010 season will be the first that USA baseball will telecast games in the digital format. In the uniform department, the following teams made changes: All teams will have new batting practice/spring training caps for the season; the Florida Marlins will drop the state name on their uniforms using only the team name in preparation of the opening of their new ballpark in 2012.
The Minnesota Twins unveiled their new logo last November in addition to a throwback uniform based on their 1961 home uniforms which will be worn on Opening Day and on Saturdays. The Milwaukee will unveil a new road jersey alternate with “Milwaukee” on the front, the New York Mets will introduce a new alternate pinstripe uniform which will be cram colored instead of white. The San Francisco Giants will have an orange alternate jersey with the name in black with white outline along with a two strip black trim around the neck and sleeves. Their socks will also change, adding three orange stripes toe the black stockings already worn and finally, the Tampa Bay Rays have added a light blue alternate jersey to be worn on Sundays at home.
The first World Series was held in 1903 between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Pilgrims (now the Red Sox). The Pilgrims took the series 5-3, and it showed that the American League could play ball with the “Father” National League. Unfortunately, John T. Brush, president of the National League champion New York Giants, refused to play the returning American League champion Boston Americans for the World Series in 1904. He was quoted as stating that he refused to compete with a "representative of the inferior American League", but later that year, he retracted his statement and the series continued in 1905 with the New York Giants defeating the Philadelphia Athletics 4-1. The World Series was an idea that stuck and it’s been played every year since with the exception of 1994 when the players and owners “locked” each other out. The 1955 World Series marked the next big change in the set-up with the inception of the Most Valuable Player trophy. The trophy would be voted on by officials and fans immediately after the completion of the last game of the series, and would be handed out right before the winning team accepted their team trophy. The 1955 World Series saw the Brooklyn Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in a dramatic game seven, and Johnny Podres will forever be known as the first recipient of the Most Valuable Player trophy in the World Series.
There have been some incredible individual feats in the World Series over the last 100 years. The 1920 WS saw Bill Wambsganss record the only unassisted triple play in WS history. The 1956 World Series, also played between Brooklyn and New York, will always be remembered for Don Larsen, the Yankees pitcher, who threw the first and only perfect game in WS history. The 1977 World Series, won 4 games to 2 by the Yankees over the California Angels, will be remembered for Reggie Jackson (later nicknamed “Mr. October” for his heroic accomplishments in the postseason) and his three-homer game. The feat occurred in game six against the Angels and it was only the second time the occurrence had ever happened (Babe Ruth in 1926 and 1929). The 1988 series saw the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Oakland Athletics 4 games to 1 behind dominant pitching from MVP Orel Hershiser and a gutsy play by Kirk Gibson. Gibson had a terrible leg and was so sure he wouldn’t play, he didn’t show up to game one until the second inning. In the ninth inning, Oakland had star closer Dennis Eckersley on the mound, and needed a big play from a hitter. Gibson pinch hit, hit a home run over the right field wall, and gave us a moment we won’t soon forget. Hershiser, named MVP of the series, pitched two complete games while giving up only two runs on seven hits and striking out 17.
The World Series has a certain mystique about it, and it has to rank as one of the biggest games of the year, likely comparably with only the Super Bowl in football and the Stanley Cup in hockey. Every youngster playing Little League baseball has the dream and aspiration to be a World Series champion, and luckily, a few of the more fortunate ones get to experience it first hand.