MLB

Team Name: Chicago White Sox

Year Established: 1901

City: Chicago

Ballpark: U.S. Cellular Field

League: American League

Division: AL Central

Number of Playoff Appearances: 9

Number of Pennants: 6

World Series Titles: 1906, 1917, 2005

All-Time Teams

Catcher: Carlton Fisk

First Base: Frank Thomas

Second Base: Eddie Collins

Third Base: Robin Ventura

Shortstop: Luke Appling

This is the fifth article in a series dedicated to selecting all-time teams for all 30 current MLB franchises. To view the others, click http://bleacherreport.com/users/67791-Schmitters

Team Name: Chicago Cubs

Year Established: 1870

City: Chicago

Ballpark: Wrigley Field

Previous Nicknames: White Stockings (1870-1889), Colts (1890-1987), Orphans (1898-1901)

League: National League

Division: NL Central

Other Leagues: National Association (1870-1875)

With the first half of the 2009 baseball season reaching an end, it is time to start looking towards the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, as the the contenders begin to deperate themselves from the pretenders.
With the New York Mets, the story for this season has been one of in jury and inconsistent play. Still, despite hovering around the .500 mark, the Mets are only two games behind the Phillies for the NL East division lead, and will look to be buyers when the trade deadline comes around.
So who will be available? Who should the Mets go after?

New York Yankees backup catcher Jose Molina has been on the disabled list since May 8 with a strained left quadriceps. This is a significant injury for any player, let along a catcher. When he likely returns this upcoming week against Minnesota, Molina will have missed two months.

Where would the Yankees be right now if they hadn't re-signed Andy Pettitte?

In the winter, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman made a vow to improve the starting pitching. He brought in the two most attractive names on the market, in CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett. While doing so, Cashman almost forgot to re-sign one of their most important players over the last 14 years.

It wasn't until January 26th that the Yankees finally re-signed Pettitte to a one-year, $5.5 million dollar deal with incentives.

"Manny Ramirez is back in the big leagues, looking like a guy who missed 50 games.

Returning from his suspension for violating baseball's drug policy, the Los Angeles slugger barely hit the ball out of the infield in the Dodgers' 6-3 win over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.

He did provide a lot of energy to the team with baseball's best record."- Foxsports.com

I will stop you right there.

Yesterday night, I turned on the TV to watch The Late Late Show, only to find that it was starting 20 minutes late.

Just for this week, I think they should've renamed it The Late Late Late Show.

Anyway, I decided to pass the time by watching Baseball Tonight, which I don't normally watch because I can't stand the analysts. But it was something to do.

After about ten minutes, the Braves-Nationals highlights came on. I wasn't really paying attention; I was checking minor league scores on my computer.

Baseball is unquestionably the most American form of entertainment we as Americans have in our short history.

For over half of our country’s existence since declaring Independence from England, baseball has been there along the way and signals part of the American dream that so many immigrants since coming from their homeland have learned to love.

The fact that it remains largely an American sport played mostly within the lands of the Monroe Doctrine, and dismissed in continents like Europe show how American it is more so than any other export America has to offer.

One at-bat into his Braves career, long-time minor-leaguer Brooks Conrad made lots of fans in Atlanta, as his three-run, pinch-hit blast led the Braves to a 9-8 win over Washington on Friday night.

The Braves had been pitching very well lately, but Kenshin Kawakami's first start since taking a liner off his neck was rather forgettable.

He surrendered runs in each of the first three innings, including the first hit and RBI of Washington starter Ross Detwiler's career.

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Tonight, the Cardinals started the holiday weekend off with a bang.