MLB History

Trolling around a sports memorabilia shop during the Christmas rush, I stumbled across this photo of Ted Williams, at bat at Fitton Field on the campus of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Fenwick Hall, the school’s flagship building, can be seen in the distance.

The photo caption was entitled: The Dawning of a Legend.

It's no question that the best rotation in the MLB belongs to the Philadelphia Phillies.  They started this offseason with Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.  Now, the Phillies have lured Cliff Lee into their rotation.  Does this give them one of the best rotations of all time?  Let's take a look at baseball's greatest rotations, and you can decide for yourself.

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Ranking the top 100 baseball players of all time is no easy task. It's hard to juggle players from the dead-ball era, the middle 20th century and modern times.

Even more complicated is how to rank players at different positions. Where do you place the game's dominant closers? How about starting pitchers? No matter how lights-out they may be, they still sat on the bench for most of their teams' games.

Curt Flood was one of the most influential baseball players of all time, and he did it off of the field. 

In 1969, Flood challenged baseball's reserve clause and refused to play after being traded and took his case to the Supreme Court, thus changing baseball's free agency game forever.

Here are a few MLB players who changed baseball's free agency in some way or another.

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Well, here we are.  Just one more trade until I discuss what I believe is the worst one in baseball history and for No. 2, I’ve picked a good one. 

Just a few days ago Derek Jeter and the New York Yankees agreed to a contract of three years for $51 million with an option for the fourth year. The deal almost certainly guarantees that the future Hall of Famer will never play in any other uniform.

With that, let's take a look at the top 20 players of all time who played their entire career for one organization and how Jeter ranks among them.  

Chicago Cubs icon Ron Santo has passed away due to complications in his struggle against bladder cancer, according to WGN Radio.

Santo was a great third baseman for the Cubs from 1960 to 1973 and later became part of the Cubs radio team in 1990.

Regarded as one of the best players to never earn induction into the MLB Hall of Fame, Santo was a nine time All-Star in his 15 major league seasons.

The year was 2002.  The city was New York.  The beloved New York Yankees, having just endured a heartbreaking loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the previous World Series, looked to regain their stride by signing valuable free agents.  Among these free agents were first baseman Jason Giambi, a guaranteed home run hitter who had gained rock star status in Oakland in recent years, and pitcher Mike Mussina, who General Manag

At the conclusion of play on May 1, 1954, the New York Giants were in fifth place with an 8-7 record, but in the closely bunched National League, the future World Champions were but a single game out of the top spot.

The Giants traveled from Chicago, where they had split a two game series with the Cubs to St. Louis, to face the Cardinals in a Sunday twin bill. It would turn out to be a doubleheader that would go down in baseball history.

This slideshow is a tribute to baseball's all-time team. The players have been selected due to their enduring accomplishments and achievements.

I must note that no players who have been involved in a steroid scandal are included in this slideshow.

However, there are several players who endured off the field controversies. I chose to include these players because I felt that these off-field scandals neither increased nor hampered their performances.

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