MLB History

As a Reds supporter, I love talking to Cubs fans.

See, in Cincinnati, we’re used to losing. We’re familiar with the bruised, aching feeling that follows every season gone bad. We know all too well the dejection of finishing fifth or sixth in the division, with no realistic prospects of hope on the horizon.

This is the first in a series of probably twenty-some lists. I doubt some letters, such as I, Q, U, Y and maybe Z, will be able to field a team. I may be wrong, we shall see. You may want to argue about some selections; as always, that is your prerogative. I have started this list out in a quasi-1959 Topps look, but will probably change it with each new letter.

This should be fun. Let's get started.

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On Thursday, March 31, baseball will make its long-awaited return with its traditional Opening Day.  It will be a day when fans just sit back, relax and enjoy the game before the divisional rivalries cause battles in the bleachers.  With the epic pitching matchup of CC Sabathia vs. Justin Verlander kicking off the season, it's sure to be a great 2011.

In other games, careers will be made while others may end due to injury.  Fans will laugh, cry and cheer as their favorite players have (hopefully), amazing first games.

Every year since 1949, the most standout first-year player from each league has been awarded the Rookie of the Year Award.  More often than not, receiving this award is a result of a young player tearing onto the major league scene as if he had already been playing there for years.  

Some teams have had many players bring home the honor, and some have yet to earn one.  However, whether he received recognition or not, every team has had at least one player with an amazing rookie campaign.  

Mid-April of 2011 will mark the 35th anniversary of Mark Fydrich's MLB debut with the Detroit Tigers, and it will also mark the second anniversary of his death.

A few years before Larry Bird became a well-known sports figure, Fydrich was “The Bird,” the one and only original.  Like Dizzy Dean, he had a brief and luminous stellar season, marred by a freak injury.

Boston Red Sox baseball is a mere five days away, but before the season starts, it'll be good for Red Sox fans everywhere to catch up on their history.

The Red Sox have a lengthy past, as they were part of the American League's eight original teams in 1901. With that long history comes a very detailed record of trades and transactions.

I've been tasked to present 10 of the most maligned deals, and here they are.

If you want to know why the hobgoblins of 1989’s Field of Dreams refused to allow Ty Cobb to play ball on their ghostly field, you have only to re-watch the classic 1994 movie Cobb, starring the inimitable Tommy Lee Jones.

Alas, one was the lovely, tear-jerking movie that men loved to bawl about. The other was an antidote to sugarcoated cotton candy about life and death that Field of Dreams provided.

They are the Frick and Frack of baseball in Detroit. Some would call them Laurel and Hardy; on a good day, they're Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

It's gotten to the point that when you see either Dave Dombrowski or Jim Leyland, you're half-surprised not to see them joined at the hip.

They're two peas in a pod. Twin sons of different mothers.

The Philadelphia Phillies cured? Say it isn’t so.

But what if that figment of our imagination came true? What if the World Series favorite Philadelphia Phillies were indeed cursed from here on out?

Looking at the way this team is shaping up for the 2011 season, I’d put my money on the Phillies being cursed… here’s why.

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During their primes Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey, Jr. were the two greatest hitters of their era. Both second generation ballplayers, having famous fathers who had enjoyed their own successful careers, Bonds and Griffey were lifelong acquaintances that had similar career paths, and comparable numbers through their prime.

While their paths to Major League Baseball were similar, their legacies would wind up very different.