MLB History

As a Yankee fan born and raised in the heart of the land that sports the pinstripes, the last thing I and many other dedicated fans want to see is a slump in the 2010 season, especially after nine seasons of lacking a championship win. 

Fellow fans of Bronx Bomber nation, it’s possible that we may be facing some hard times this season. 

Let’s take a look at some of the issues that can derail the Yankees this season.

First up—Alex Rodriguez’s injury.  

Imagine you were chosen to select an all-time rotation and pitching staff for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Who would you select?  Who would make your all-time pitching staff?

Your fantasy team would then have to compete against all of the other all-time rotations and teams selected.  How would it fare?

At first glance, it looks like baseball and competitive balance run on parallel lines. There are the Yankees with their 27 World Championships and the Pittsburgh Pirates who have not had a winning season since 1992.

Those two franchises met in the epic 1960 World Series when Bill Mazeroski won it with a Game Seven ninth-inning home run. 1960 was during a run where the Yankees played in 14 out of 16 World Series.

With so much talk in Cubs' camp this spring training surrounding top prospect Starlin Castro, I decided to take a look back at so of the top rookie performances in team history.

I went back as far as 1947, which was the first year that the Rookie of the Year Award was handed out. I only looked at the stats that the player posted during their rookie season when ranking them.

No sport uses the word "purity" as much as baseball. Fans are obsessed with the idea and hold its athletes to a higher standard than the NBA, or NFL. So when a player does something to hurt the integrity of the game—outrage ensues.

Pete Rose gambled on the Reds for four plus years as the player/manager of the Reds in the late 1980's. He directly affected the outcome of the game.

Dozens of players in the late 1980's to the mid 2000's used performance-enhancing drugs as a way to stay competitive. Not every player chose to use PED's and there stats and paychecks suffer because of it.

With the introduction of the term “Floating Alignment,” Major League Baseball has a new buzz word to keep fans and critics alike speculating about the progression of America’s Pastime.  

In the last ten years, Cubs fans have seen their share of disappointing seasons, bad trades, over-hyped prospects and greedy super stars.

No other franchise in the entire MLB has experienced more disappointment then Chicago, and here is a tribute to the best players that graciously took the blame.

102 years of painful seasons has made the Wrigley faithful the most loyal and passionate fans in all of sports, though times may seem tough.

Though thousands of players have set foot into the hallowed walls of Wrigley Field, these athletes have proven to be the best since the Y2K.

Let me be the first to say congratulations to the Minnesota Twins for locking up Joe Mauer for the next eight years. His monstrous $184 million deal is good for their fans, good for the city, and good for baseball in general.

It’s too bad it's going to be bad for the Twins in the long run.

As anyone who has read examples of my past writing can attest, I tend to focus a lot of my historical analysis pieces on the Hall of Fame. Today, I will divert myself from that path a little bit to argue my Hall of Fame case for a great in our generation whose contributions have been highly underrated: Scott Rolen.

It’s the most romantic, glorified position in our most romantic, glorified sport.

Even when baseball was played with mushy balls by men wearing baggy uniforms and pillbox hats, and you traveled to the ballpark by horse and buggy or traipsed there by foot, center field was the glamour position.

Ty Cobb started it, pretty much.

Cobb used his freakish speed and sheer determination to patrol center. And he slap base hits all over the field at a robust .370-plus clip every season.