MLB History

We all know of the baseball greats, the players whose performances have stood the tests of time. Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Lefty Grove, not to mention the obvious ones. We know of those who are leading the charge in today's game. Josh Hamilton, Tim Lincecum, Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, just to name a few.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Giants will be taking the field against the Texas Rangers in the 106th edition of baseball's World Series. The players will be trotting out to their respective positions, digging into the batter's box and toeing the pitcher's mound with only one thing on their minds: winning.

Cheating, betting, and scandals have been a part of sports ever since the beginning, whether it's to gain a competitive advantage over an opponent, rake in some extra cash, or a temptation that was just too hard to resist.

The only thing worse than all of those things, though, is lying about it. Sooner or later the truth will come out, and when it does, get ready.

These 10 sports figures lied to millions of fans, and are worthy of being named the top 10 liars in sports history.

Mickey Mantle has become better than Joe DiMaggio despite the fact that Mickey played his last game in 1968 and Joe played his last game in 1951.

How is this possible? The answer is that it is not possible.

During his career, the baseball writers and the fans excoriated Mickey because he wasn't Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Joe DiMaggio rolled into one.

The San Francisco Giants will play Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night against the Texas Rangers. It is still taking time for that to sink in.

They have seven games to prove the world wrong. This Giants team has the opportunity to do something no Giants team has done since 1954: win it all.

They can do something Willie McCovey could not do. Will Clark couldn't. Neither could Juan Marichal.

Gaylord Perry? Nope. We all know how the Bonds era ended.

Phineas Taylor Barnum was a born showman. He was placed on this Earth to sell tickets, fill houses and count receipts. He was the Columbus of show business—P.T. discovered acts and freaks—sometimes they were one and the same.

Barnum had a wonderfully simple explanation of how he was able to become a millionaire with traveling shows that featured lizard boys, bearded women and the “Feejee” mermaid (a creature with the head of a monkey and the tail of a fish).

How did ole P.T. do it?

Ichiro Suzuki recently proved he is the greatest hitter in Major League Baseball history. He had his 200th hit for the 10th straight year in the United States. This is a feat no hitter has ever achieved.

Pete Rose is the only other player who had 200 hits in 10 years, which took him 15 years to accomplish. All other great hitters line up behind Suzuki, including Ty Cobb, whose AL record Suzuki shared until this year.

Cliff Lee battles the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALCS tonight.

Texas couldn't have a better ace on the mound tonight, as the Rangers look to take a commanding 2-1 lead and move one step closer to their first World Series.

Lee was absolutely dominant in his two starts against Tampa Bay in the ALDS: iIn 16 innings he allowed 11 hits, two earned runs, walked zero and struck out 21.

And last year he was just as good for the Phillies: He won all four of his decisions, allowed just seven ER in 40.1 innings and his strikeout to walk ration was 33-6.

There may be nothing in professional sports that quite measures up to starting the final game of a seven-game playoff series in Major League Baseball. It can either mean going home, moving on, or winning it all.

Before the advent of the expanded playoff system in 1969, only two teams were eligible in MLB, the pennant winners of the American and National Leagues. For 66 seasons this was the accepted format, and the Fall Classic brought us many great memories from that period of time.

Granted, the Bobby Cox era has officially been closed with the Braves—but that doesn’t mean baseball has ended in Atlanta.

And the same Braves that made a splash once again in 2010 have a shot of reaching even higher expectations in 2011.

So, what moves do Atlanta need to consider when building upon this past MLB season’s success and looking towards Spring Training and beyond?