History

In today's game of free agency and rebuilding sell-offs, it's extremely rare for a player to stick with a team for much more than about a decade. Stars come and go, and the team's is the only name that lasts through a fan's lifetime.

But some players leave behind legacies that continue to capture the hearts of their fans long after they hang up their cleats.

Last week, Bleacher Report's MLB Featured Columnists completed our hardest poll yet: picking the top players in the history of each AL franchise (NL results will be up next week).

The San Francisco Giants might win the 2010 National League pennant.

When the Yankees acquired Graig Nettles in a trade with the Cleveland Indians, they had no idea of how good a player they were getting.

Coming in at 6'0" 180 lbs, Nettles was hardly a player you would expect to have nearly 400 career home runs. Nevertheless, by the time he retired he held the American League record for most home runs by a third baseman.

He hit the majority of those home runs while in Yankee pinstripes, slugging 250 of them during his 10-year tenure in the Bronx.

Dan McCutchen throws hard. Maybe too hard. That could be why he can't seem to last long enough in games to be a viable starter.

McCutchen reminds me a little of a Baltimore Orioles kid from a few years back named Adam Loewen. That 6'5'' lefty was a hard thrower who struck out nearly one batter an inning, and was basically unhittable for up to four innings. But by no later than the fifth, he would weaken, because he was tired. Beyond that, fughedaboutit.

The doctors call it a UCLR (ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction). Baseball players and fans call it Tommy John surgery—named after the pitcher who was the first to have the surgery in 1974. Fans of the Cardinals call it the surgery that saved former left-handed reliever Ken Dayley's career, and also gave him spotlight from the way he recovered from it. Dayley recovered in an astonishing seven months where most pitchers take up to 14 months recovering from the operation. 

Something magical happened at Progressive Field on Saturday night.

In a beautiful, star-studded pregame ceremony, longtime Cleveland Indians leadoff hitter and center fielder Kenny Lofton was inducted into the Indians Hall of Fame.

For anyone who is too young to remember the 90’s, Lofton was the archetypal dynamic leadoff hitter—a latter-day Rickey Henderson. From 1992-1996, he hit .316 with an .820 OPS, averaging 78 steals and 129 runs per 162 games.

Baseball is an absurd game. And I think that’s why we love it.

I was reminded of this when I happened across The Sandlot as I was skimming through channels the other day. In an odd sort of bummer, I tuned in at the very end, just after the gang has finally defeated Hercules and Smalls and Benny have their meet and greet with James Earl Jones. Alas, I had missed out on all the fun stuff.

The good news is that I was in time for the money shot.

In an earlier post, I pointed out that the Pittsburgh Pirates were showing signs of life against the three weaker opponents of the National League Central. This was because the Pirates could actually win, in some cases, and came within a run or so in other instances, suggesting that a stronger version of the team could win such games outright.

On Friday, August 6, the Atlanta Braves will retire number 47, the number that Tom Glavine wore while pitching the majority of his career in Atlanta.

Drafted in the second round back in 1984, Glavine decided passed up a chance at a hockey career (he was a fourth-round pick in the NHL’s draft) to pitch for the Atlanta Braves.