Baseball

Some of the best players in baseball history have been identified by the uniform number they wore.

Mickey Mantile was number seven, Ted Williams was number nine, Joe DiMaggio was number five and of course Babe ruth was number three.

This got me wondering what players in this era are the best players to wear their certain uniform numbers.

Some of the choices were head and shoulders above others whose numbers they shared and some were tough choices between All-Star Players.

I now present to you the best players in the Major Leagues to wear the Uniform Numbers 1-9.

Agree? Disagree?

We're at the half-way point of the 2009 Major League Baseball season, and with all the statistics and numbers that baseball keeps, it's not too hard to point out how the Sox are at where they are...on top of the American Leauge!

This is my Red Sox mid-season report, and as the title says... it's all in the numbers!

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The Philadelphia Phillies are in first place in National League East and are five games over .500, but the season has been more disappointing than thrilling. 

They are currently riding a six-game losing streak and now head into Tampa for a World Series rematch with the American League Champion Tampa Bay Rays. With a few weeks to go before the mid-summer classic, let's look at a mid-season report on the reigning World Series Champions.

What's Looking Good

The Cubs won four in a row! Now they're back to being the greatest team in the National League!

Oh wait, did I say that? The North Siders won four in a row against the less-talented White Sox and arguably the worst team in baseball, the Cleveland Indians.

Those wins were meaningless.

The Cubs then proceeded to play the Atlanta Braves, one of the worst offenses in all of baseball. Ryan Demspter went 6 2/3 innings, yielding two earned runs.

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After being swept out of the 2007 playoffs by the Colorado Rockies, the Philadelphia Phillies were determined to not repeat their failures in 2008. After clinching their second straight division title, the Phillies dispatched the hot Milwaukee Brewers and took out Manny Ramirez and the rejuvenated Los Angeles Dodgers.

The MLBPA is now the strongest union in sports. Headed by Don Fehr, the union came, saw, and conquered the collective bargaining world. The players couldn't have asked for a better negotiator.

Don Fehr decided to step down as head of the MLBPA on Monday.

Under Fehr's leadership the contracts of baseball players have become more and more beneficial to the players, at a cost to everyone else.

If you read my stories very often you know my history. I've been a diehard Atlanta Braves fan for 20-plus years. But I am first and foremost a baseball fan. I love the game of baseball.

I've watched many of the greats play this wonderful game.

That said, I decided to compile a starting lineup of my favorite non-Braves of all time. The players included are guys that stand out in my mind as guys who played the game the right way, were professional, and guys that I just enjoyed watching play.