1.
1969 Major League Baseball season
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The 1969 Major League Baseball season was celebrated as the 100th anniversary of professional baseball, honoring the first professional touring baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings. It was the first season of what is now called the Divisional Era, the winners of each division would compete against each other in a League Championship Series, then best-of-five, to determine the pennant winners that would face each other in the World Series. In a year marked by the expansion of the decade, the New York Mets. East Division with a league-best 100–62 record, and sweeping the N. L, West Division Champion Atlanta Braves in three games in the first National League Championship Series, the Miracle Mets became the first expansion team to win a pennant. East Division Champion Orioles, holders of the best record in baseball, West Division Champion Minnesota Twins in three games in the first American League Championship Series. The upstart Mets upset the heavily favored Orioles and won the World Series title in five games, in an effort to counteract a trend of low-scoring games, Major League Baseball adopted two measures during the Baseball Winter Meetings held in December 1968. The strike zone was reduced to the area over home plate between the armpits and the top of the knees of a batter. Also, the height of the mound was reduced from 15 inches to 10 inches. A save became an official MLB statistic to reward relief pitchers who preserve a lead while finishing a game, MLB called for a four-team expansion to take place in 1971 at the 1967 Winter Meetings, the first expansion since 1962. However, there was a complication, influential U. S, the Leagues agreed and moved expansion up to 1969, with the AL putting one of its new franchises in Kansas City. Ewing Kauffman won the bidding for that franchise, naming it the Kansas City Royals, the other AL team was awarded to Seattle. A consortium led by Dewey Soriano and William Daley won the bidding for the Seattle franchise, and named it the Seattle Pilots, a salute to the harbor pilots of the Puget Sound maritime industry. In the NL, one franchise was awarded to San Diego, California, arnholdt Smith, former owner of the AAA Pacific Coast Leagues San Diego Padres, won the bidding for the San Diego franchise, also naming it the Padres. Charles Bronfman, owner of Seagram, won the bidding for the Montreal franchise, naming them the Expos and this was the last NL expansion until the 1993 season. As part of the 1969 expansion, each league was to be split into two divisions of six each, with each league holding a best-of-five League Championship Series to decide the pennant. The AL was divided purely along geographic lines, but when it came to assign divisions in the NL and this alignment also addressed concerns that putting the leagues three strongest clubs—St. Louis, San Francisco, and the Cubs—in the west would result in divisional unequity, the Padres and Expos each finished with 110 losses and at the bottom of their respective divisions. The Royals did better, finishing 69–93 and in fourth in the AL West, the legal fallout of the battle would lead eventually to the expansion for the 1977 season
2.
National League
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Both leagues currently have 15 teams. The two league champions of 1903 arranged to compete against each other in the inaugural World Series, after the 1904 champions failed to reach a similar agreement, the two leagues formalized the World Series as an arrangement between the leagues. National League teams have won 48 of the 112 World Series contested from 1903 to 2016, the 2016 National League champions are the Chicago Cubs. By 1875, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was dangerously weak, additionally, Hulbert had a problem—five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from the NAPBBP because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a vested interest in creating his own league. After recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky, Boston Red Stockings, the dominant team in the N. A. Hartford Dark Blues from the N. A. Mutual of New York from the N. A. St. Louis Brown Stockings from the N. A, the only strong club from 1875 excluded in 1876 was a second one in Philadelphia, often called the White Stockings or Phillies. The first game in National League history was played on April 22,1876, at Philadelphias Jefferson Street Grounds, 25th & Jefferson, the new leagues authority was tested after the first season. The National League operated with six clubs during 1877 and 1878, over the next several years, various teams joined and left the struggling league. By 1880, six of the eight members had folded. The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain in operation today as the Atlanta Braves, in 1883 the New York Gothams and Philadelphia Phillies began National League play. Both teams remain in the NL today, the Phillies in their original city, the NL encountered its first strong rival organization when the American Association began play in 1882. The A. A. played in cities where the NL did not have teams, offered Sunday games and alcoholic beverages in locales where permitted, the National League and the American Association participated in a version of the World Series seven times during their ten-year coexistence. These contests were less organized than the modern Series, lasting as few as three games and as many as fifteen, with two Series ending in disputed ties, the NL won four times and the A. A. only once, in 1886. Starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1887, the National League began to raid the American Association for franchises to replace NL teams that folded and this undercut the stability of the A. A. Other new leagues that rose to compete with the National League were the Union Association, the Union Association was established in 1884 and folded after playing only one season, its league champion St. Louis Maroons joining the NL. The NL suffered many defections of star players to the Players League, the Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York franchises of the NL absorbed their Players League counterparts. The labor strife of 1890 hastened the downfall of the American Association, after the 1891 season, the A. A. disbanded and merged with the NL, which became known legally for the next decade as the National League and American Association
3.
Shea Stadium
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Shea Stadium /ˈʃeɪ/) was a stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park, Queens, New York City. Built as a stadium, it was the home park of Major League Baseballs New York Mets from 1964 to 2008. Shea Stadium was named in honor of William A. Shea and it was demolished in 2009 to create additional parking for the adjacent Citi Field, the current home of the Mets. The origins of Shea Stadium go way back to the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants relocations to the U. S. west coast, OMalley preferred to pay construction costs himself so he could own the stadium outright. He wanted total control over revenue from parking, concessions, New York City, in contrast, wanted to build the stadium, rent it, and retain the ancillary revenue rights to pay off its construction bonds. Additionally, OMalley wanted to build his new stadium in Brooklyn, in 1960, the National League agreed to grant an expansion franchise to the owners of the New York franchise in the abortive Continental League, provided that a new stadium be built. Mayor Robert Wagner, Jr. had to wire all National League owners. On October 6,1961, the Mets signed a 30-year stadium lease, rent for what was originally budgeted as a $9 million facility was set at $450,000 annually, with a reduction of $20,000 each year until it reached $300,000 annually. The Mets inaugural season was played in the Polo Grounds, with plans calling for the team to move to a new stadium in 1963. In October 1962, Mets official Tom Meany said, Only a series of blizzards or some other unforeseen trouble might hamper construction and that unforeseen trouble surfaced in a number of ways, the severe winter of 1962–1963, along with the bankruptcies of two subcontractors and labor issues. The end result was both the Mets and Jets played at the Polo Grounds for one more year. After 29 months and $28.5 million, Shea Stadium opened on April 17,1964, the stadium opened five days before the 1964-65 New York Worlds Fair, across Roosevelt Avenue. Although not officially part of the grounds, the stadium sported steel panels on its exterior in the blue-and-orange colors of the Fair. The panels were removed in 1980, in accordance with New York City law, Shea Stadium was dismantled, rather than imploded. The company with the rights to sell memorabilia was given two weeks after the game to remove seats, signage and other potentially saleable and collectable items before demolition was to begin. The seats were the first, followed by other such as the foul poles, dugouts, stadium signage. After salvaging operations concluded, demolition of the ballpark began on October 14,2008, on October 18, the scoreboard in right field was demolished, with the bleachers, batters eye and bullpens shortly thereafter. By November 10, the field, dugouts and the rest of the field level seats had been demolished, by mid-December, all of the Loge level seats and a good portion of the Mezzanine level seating were gone as well, leaving only the outer shell remaining
4.
1964 Major League Baseball season
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The 1964 Major League Baseball season is often remembered for the end of the New York Yankees third dynasty, as they won their 29th American League Championship in 44 seasons. However, the Yankees lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games, as of 2015, the Cardinals are the only National League team to have an edge over the Yankees in series played, amongst the non-expansion teams. February 2 – Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Keefe, Heinie Manush, John Montgomery Ward, february 17 – Former Chicago White Sox shortstop Luke Appling is selected to the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers Association of America in a runoff vote. In 1953, the first year of eligibility for Appling, he received just two votes, april 8 – Houston Colt. 45s relief pitcher Jim Umbricht dies of cancer at the age of 33. The franchise would retire his number in 1965, by time it is known as the Astros. April 17 – The New York Mets play their first game at brand-new Shea Stadium, willie Stargell hits the first home run in the stadiums history, a second-inning solo shot off the Mets Jack Fisher. In the first-ever Kiners Korner from Shea, Ralph Kiners guest is Casey Stengel, april 23 – At Colt Stadium, Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt. 45s no-hits the Cincinnati Reds, and loses 1–0. To date, the game is the one in Major League history whose losing pitcher had pitched a nine-inning no-hitter. August 27 – The New York Mets sign Jerry Koosman as a free agent. May 31 – The second game of a header at Shea Stadium between the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets lasts 23 innings. The Giants eventually win it, 8–6, june 4 – Sandy Koufax pitches the third of his four career no hitters, defeating the Phillies 3–0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. June 15 – The Chicago Cubs trade Lou Brock, Jack Spring and Paul Toth to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ernie Broglio, Doug Clemens and Bobby Shantz. The swap eventually gains notoriety as perhaps the most lopsided in the history of baseball, Bunning also becomes the first pitcher to throw no-hitters in both leagues, and Gus Triandos becomes the first catcher to catch a no-hitter in each league. Bunning throws just 90 pitches in winning his second no-hitter, the next time Bunning faces the Mets he will shut them out, the first no-hit pitcher in the 20th century to do that. The Mets fare little better in the nightcap, as 18-year-old rookie Rick Wise pitches into the inning to win his first game. The Phillies increase their National League lead to two games over the San Francisco Giants. July 7 – At Shea Stadium, Johnny Callisons ninth-inning three-run home run off Dick Radatz caps a four-run rally, Callison is named Game MVP as the NL triumph evens the series at 17. July 19 – Luis Tiant pitches a complete-game, four-hit shutout in his Major League debut, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 3–0 victory over Whitey Ford, Tiant allowed just four singles while striking out eleven
5.
Gil Hodges
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Gilbert Ray Hodges, ne Hodge was an American Major League Baseball first baseman and manager who played most of his 18-year career for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. He was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1982, Hodges is generally considered to be the best defensive first baseman in the 1950s. He was an All-Star for eight seasons and a Gold Glove Award winner for three consecutive seasons, Hodges and Duke Snider are the only players to have the most home runs or runs batted in together during the decade with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Hodges was the National League leader in double plays four times and in putouts, assists and fielding percentage three times each. He ranked second in NL history with 1,281 assists and 1,614 double plays when his career ended, Hodges also managed the New York Mets to the 1969 World Series title, one of the greatest upsets in Fall Classic history. In 2014, Hodges appeared for the time as a candidate on the National Baseball Hall of Fames Golden Era Committee election ballot for possible Hall of Fame consideration in 2015. He and the candidates all missed getting elected. The Committee meets and votes on ten selected from the 1947 to 1972 era every three years. Hodges was born in Princeton, Indiana, the son of coal miner Charles and he had an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Marjorie. The family moved to nearby Petersburg when Hodges was seven and he was a star four-sport athlete at Petersburg High School, earning a combined seven varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball and track. He declined a 1941 contract offer from the Detroit Tigers, instead attending Saint Josephs College with the hope of becoming a collegiate coach. Hodges spent two years at St Josephs, competing in baseball, basketball and briefly in football and he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, and appeared in one game for the team as a third baseman that year. Hodges entered the United States Marine Corps during World War II after having participated in its Reserve Officers Training Corps program at Saint Josephs. He served in combat as a gunner in the battles of Tinian and Okinawa. Hodges only appearance in the 1947 World Series against the New York Yankees was as a hitter for pitcher Rex Barney in Game seven. As a rookie in 1948, he batted.249 with eleven home runs, on June 25,1949, he hit for the cycle on his way to his first of seven consecutive All-Star teams. For the season, his 115 RBI ranked fourth in the NL, defensively, he led the NL in putouts, double plays and fielding average. Facing the Yankees again in the 1949 Series, he batted only.235 but drove in the run in Brooklyns only victory
6.
WWOR-TV
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WWOR-TV, channel 9, is the flagship station of the MyNetworkTV programming service, licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, United States, and serving the New York City television market. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations division of 21st Century Fox as a station to Foxs flagship station. Its transmitter is located atop the Empire State Building, channel 9 signed on the air on October 11,1949 as WOR-TV. It was owned by the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, which also operated WOR radio, exactly ten months earlier, Bamberger launched Washington, D. C. s fourth television station, WOIC, also on channel 9. WOR-TV entered the New York market as the last of the citys VHF stations to sign on, on WOR-TVs opening night, a welcome address was read by WOR radios morning host, John B. However, the portion of the speech was not heard because of a technical glitch. The problem was fixed and Gambling repeated the later that evening. That first broadcast and other early WOR-TV shows emanated from the New Amsterdam Roof Theatre, for a short time, the stations transmitter operated from WOR TV Tower in North Bergen, New Jersey and was later moved to the Empire State Building. In 1949, the station moved uptown to the newly constructed 9 Television Square facility on West 67th Street, at the start of 1950, Bamberger Broadcasting changed its name to General Teleradio. Later that year, WOIC was sold to a joint venture of the Washington Post and CBS, in 1953, WOR-TV began operating a separate studio for news and special events programming located on the 83rd floor of the Empire State Building. The subsidiaries were brought together under the General Teleradio name. The main impetus for the merger was to give General Tire a controlling share in Mutual Radio Network, the merger also raised speculation that Mutual would launch a television network, plans that were discussed since before WOR-TV went on the air but ultimately did not come to fruition. During the early years of RKO General ownership, WOR-TV moved back to Times Square, channel 9s studios were co-located with WOR radio at 1440 Broadway for several years. During the 1950s and early 1960s, all three of New Yorks independents struggled to find competitive and acceptable programming, the field would increase by one in 1956 when former DuMont flagship station WABD became an independent. Until 1990, the station had a tradition of showing King Kong, Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young on Thanksgiving, in 1962, nostalgia maven Joe Franklin moved his daily talk program to WOR-TV, after a 12-year run on WABC-TV. The Joe Franklin Show ended on August 6,1993, making it one of the programs in television history. In 1968, the continued to maintain offices at 1440 Broadway. By the early 1970s, WNEW-TV evolved into the station for cartoons and sitcoms
7.
Lindsey Nelson
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Lindsey Nelson was an American sportscaster best known for his long career calling play-by-play of college football and New York Mets baseball. Nelson spent 17 years with the Mets and three years with the San Francisco Giants, for 33 years Nelson covered college football, including 26 Cotton Bowls, five Sugar Bowls, four Rose Bowls, and 14 years announcing syndicated Notre Dame games. He is in 13 separate Halls of Fame, fans remember a talented broadcaster, an expert storyteller, and a true sports enthusiast. From his colorful jackets to his equally colorful broadcasts, Nelson established himself as one of the industrys leading sportscasters, Nelson was born on May 25,1919, in Pulaski, Tennessee, the third child of Jon and Asie Nelson. He graduated from Columbia Central High School in Columbia and he graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1941, taught English, and then served in the U. S. Army, where he was a captain in North Africa and Europe during World War II. He also served as a war correspondent and public relations specialist and he also called many Army–Navy Games for CBS, including the 1963 contest in which instant replay was first introduced. Nelson began his national baseball broadcast career as one of Gordon McLendons radio announcers for the Liberty Broadcasting System, after a stretch as an administrator with NBC Sports, he began doing the networks baseball broadcasts in 1957. He also broadcast college football, NBA and college basketball, and professional golf, in 1962, he was hired as the lead broadcaster by the expansion New York Mets, and for the next 17 seasons did both radio and television with Ralph Kiner and Bob Murphy. All three were eventually honored with the Ford C, Frick Award, presented annually to an announcer for major contributions to baseball during a ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame. While with the Mets, Nelson made the first radio broadcast of a game from directly above the field. You couldnt tell a line drive from a pop fly, the Mets lost, 12-9, and Nelson declined to repeat the stunt. In 1979 Nelson moved on to the San Francisco Giants, for whom he worked three seasons and he also worked with CBS Radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball in 1985. He is remembered for being the announcer during the first NFL game on CBS to use instant replay, Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award from the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990, and many more. He was awarded an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991, the Tennessee Volunteers baseball teams home field was named Lindsey Nelson Stadium after him. Television broadcasts featuring Nelson were notable for his multi-colored plaid sports jackets and he reportedly owned 335 of them at one time. During a broadcast, his jackets often clashed with the set, but he figured that if fans could see rather than just hear broadcasts, he might as well give them something interesting to talk about. He wrote a memoir entitled Hello Everybody, Im Lindsey Nelson. Nelson died of Parkinsons disease at age 76 on June 10,1995, in Atlanta and he is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Columbia
8.
Bob Murphy (sportscaster)
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Robert Allan Murphy was an American sportscaster who spent 50 years doing play-by-play of Major League Baseball games on television and radio. The Oklahoman was best known for announcing the New York Mets and he was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. The Oklahoma-born Murphy made his first appearance in a baseball broadcast booth with the minor league Muskogee Reds and his first major league job was with the Boston Red Sox in 1954, working alongside Curt Gowdy. In 1960, he moved to the Baltimore Orioles for two seasons, replacing Ernie Harwell, Murphys call of Roger Maris record-tying 60th home run of the 1961 season became an audition tape that landed him a job with the expansion New York Mets in 1962. Murphys broadcasts were known for his optimistic outlook and he would rarely be critical of players and would always strive to emphasize the positive. According to Gary Thorne, who was his partner in the Mets radio booth from 1985 to 1988, Murphy felt that, Murphy, despite his long association with the Mets, never openly rooted for the team from the booth. Murphys patience was apparently worn thin by the long inning, a line drive to Mario Díaz. And the Mets win the ballgame and they win the damn thing by a score of 10 to 9. Murphy occupied the broadcasting booth in every stadium in the National League, including Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, which was named after his brother, Jack, a popular San Diego sportswriter. From the Mets first game in 1962 through the post-Tom Seaver days of 1978, on radio and television, Nelson left after the 1978 season and was replaced by Steve Albert. Albert broadcast the Mets for three seasons, prior to 1982, the Mets announcers had done television and radio on a rotational system. While two were on TV, the other would take over on radio, however, in 1982, Murphy was taken out of the television booth, in order to announce the games on radio only. He was joined by Steve Lamar, who also strictly did radio for the Mets, for the rest of his career, with the exception of emergency situations, Murphy announced exclusively from the radio booth. Left to turn his attention strictly to the listener, Murphy thrived. Murphy was paired with Gary Thorne from 1985–88, and Thorne was his broadcast partner for his call of Bill Buckners error in game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Gary Cohen—the current TV voice of the Mets and Murphys longest tenured partner after Kiner, in 1994, Bob Murphy was put into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a recipient of the prestigious Ford C. There is a display about Murphy in the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, as there is for former Mets partner Nelson, in addition to this honor, Murphy was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1984. He was voted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame in 2002, in addition to his baseball work, Murphy was an announcer for the New York Titans of the American Football League in 1962–63, and called some college football later in that decade
9.
Ralph Kiner
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Ralph McPherran Kiner was an American Major League Baseball player. An outfielder, Kiner played for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs, following his retirement, Kiner served from 1956 through 1960 as general manager of the Pacific Coast League San Diego Padres. He also served as an announcer for the New York Mets from the teams inception until his death, though injuries forced his retirement from active play after 10 seasons, Kiners tremendous slugging outpaced all of his National League contemporaries between the years 1946 and 1952. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975, at the time of his death, baseball writer Marty Noble named Kiner one of baseballs genuine and most charming gentlemen. Kiner was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, and raised in Alhambra, California by his mother and he was of Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots-Irish ancestry, although his maternal grandmother was Jewish. Kiner served as a U. S. Navy pilot during World War II, Kiner made his major league debut on April 12,1946, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He finished the season with 23 home runs, but 109 strikeouts, after the season, the Pirates convinced future Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg not to retire. Greenberg gave Kiner hours of instruction, and in 1947, Kiner led the leagues with 51 home runs while striking out fewer than 100 times. Many of Kiners homers were hit into a shortened left-field and left-center-field porch at Forbes Field, Kiner would later use Kiners Korner as the title of his post-game TV show in New York. In 1949 Kiner topped his 1947 total with 54 home runs and it was the highest total in the major leagues from 1939 to 1960, and the highest National League total from 1931 to 1997. It made Kiner the first National League player with two 50 plus home run seasons, Kiner also matched his peak of 127 RBIs. From 1947 to 1951, Kiner topped 40 home runs and 100 RBIs each season, Kiners string of seasons leading the league in home runs reached seven in 1952, when he hit 37. This also was the last of a six consecutive seasons in which he led Major League Baseball in home runs, all under the guidance of manager Billy Meyer. He was selected to participate in the All-Star Game in six seasons,1948 to 1953. A quote variously attributed to Kiner himself, as well as to teammates talking about Kiner, was Home run hitters drive Cadillacs, footage of Kiner hitting a home run in Forbes Field can be seen in the 1951 film Angels in the Outfield. On June 4,1953, Kiner was sent to the Chicago Cubs as part of a ten-player trade. The Pirates traded Kiner, Joe Garagiola, George Metkovich, and Howie Pollet to the Cubs in exchange for Bob Addis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward, and $150,000. This was largely due to continued salary disputes with Pirate general manager Branch Rickey, Kiner played the rest of 1953 and all of 1954 with the Cubs, finishing his career with the Cleveland Indians in 1955
10.
WNYM
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WNYM is an AM radio station licensed to Hackensack, New Jersey, USA and serving the New York metropolitan area. WNYM is owned by Salem Media Group and broadcasts a conservative-leaning, the stations studios are shared with co-owned WMCA in Lower Manhattan. WNYMs transmitters are located in Hackensack, the station signed on in 1926 as Newark-licensed WAAT and was founded by Frank V. Bremer, owner of Bremer Broadcasting Company. WAAT originally broadcast on 1270 AM, and changed several times before settling on 970 kHz in 1941. In 1947 Bremer launched an FM adjunct, WAAT-FM, and the year a sister television station. In 1951 the stations were sold to Irving Rosenhaus, WAAT evolved to a middle of the music format by the 1950s, similar to what WNEW, WOR. WAAT later attempted a country format, the first in the New York area. In 1957 the WAAT/WATV operation was sold by Bremer to National Telefilm Associates, not long after, the station moved its transmitter site and changed its city of license from Newark to Hackensack. WJRZ was the radio outlet for the New York Mets from 1967 until 1971. The station was put up for sale in the fall of 1970, around that time, future sister station WMCA dropped top 40 for a talk format, leaving WABC as the only Top 40 radio station. WJRZ was sold to Pacific and Southern Broadcasting on January 6,1971, the call letters were changed on May 16 of that year to WWDJ, and the station attempted to take on WABC and replace WMCA as the New York markets second Top 40 outlet. Eventually, FM competition from WCBS-FM and adult top 40 station WXLO, in November 1973 it was ranked 15th in the Arbitron ratings. By 1974, the station was losing money and unable to sell advertising. In the fall of 1973, the station began selling airtime to religious groups on weekends, but as a result of the religious hours making money, WWDJ abruptly dropped the top 40 format on April 1,1974, and switched to a religious format full time. Because the change took place on April Fools Day, many thought the switch was some sort of joke. WWDJ was sold to Communicom Corporation of America in April 1978, by the late 1976 the music during the week was a mix of traditional and soft contemporary. By 1979, the music was adult contemporary Christian and evolved to contemporary Christian by 1982, the station still only played music part-time on weekdays and Saturdays. They continued with the contemporary Christian music/teaching/preaching format throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, in 1994 WWDJ was sold to Salem Communications, which since 1989 has owned WMCA, initially retaining its studios on Main Street in Hackensack
11.
WPLJ
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WPLJ is a radio station in New York City owned by the broadcasting division of Cumulus Media. WPLJ shares studio facilities with sister stations WABC, WNSH, and WNBM inside 2 Penn Plaza in midtown Manhattan, the station airs a Hot Adult Contemporary music format, and is the home of the Todd & Jayde morning show. It is also the station of the Ralphie Tonight program. WPLJ broadcasts in the HD Radio format, as most FM stations did during the mediums formative years,95.5 FM simulcasted the programming of its AM sister station. In the early 1960s, however, WABC-FM began to program itself separately from WABC, during the 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike, the station carried a news format for 17 hours daily. Two-and-a-half years before WINS launched its own around-the-clock, all-news format in April 1965 and this was followed by stints with Broadway show tunes and general freeform programming, including broadcasts of New York Mets baseball games. WABC-FM did continue to simulcast its AM sister station during Herb Oscar Andersons morning drive program, at the start of 1968, ABC split its radio network into four distinct components, one of which was dedicated to FM radio. The network also applied for call letter changes for the seven stations, the song, W-P-L-J, was originally performed by the Four Deuces in 1955 and stood for White Port and Lemon Juice. On the air, the station hired John Zacherle, Alex Bennett, Vin Scelsa, the slogan of the station was Rock N Stereo. The station would also play pop songs from such as James Taylor, Stevie Wonder. The station was different from Top 40 stations in that they played album tracks. The audience ratings shot up dramatically, and WPLJ became New Yorks most listened-to FM rock station for most of the 1970s, in 1973, Allen Shaw brought Willard Lochridge, the General Manager of sister station WRIF in Detroit, to New York to manage WPLJ. Lochridge then brought Larry Berger, Program Director of WRIF, to WPLJ, Larry Berger took over as Program Director of WPLJ in 1974, and the station adopted the slogan New Yorks Best Rock. Some of the personalities on the station during this period included Jim Kerr, Pat St. John, Jimmy Fink, Carol Miller, Tony Pigg, John Zacherle, Alex Bennett, Bob Marrone, Berger repeatedly denied that this practice was in use at WPLJ. In the September 20,1999 episode of Crap from the Past, host Ron Boogiemonster Gerber suggested that music was sped up on WPLJ to make the music sound less dynamic on other stations. Ayres was a Roman Catholic Priest with the Archdiocese of New York City, the show also aired on its sister station WABC on Sunday mornings within the last years of its Top 40 music format. Bill Ayres eventually left the priesthood in the 1980s but continues to host a call in Sunday night show today on the station. By the late 70s, WPLJ tended to emphasize harder rock artists such as Led Zeppelin, Kansas, Boston, and Queen, at this point, the station reduced its play of softer pop songs, and their ratings remained good
12.
New York Mets
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The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League East division. The Mets are one of two Major League clubs based in New York City, the other is the New York Yankees. One of baseballs first expansion teams, the Mets were founded in 1962 to replace New Yorks departed NL teams, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants. The Mets colors are composed of the Dodgers blue and the Giants orange, during the 1962 and 1963 seasons, the Mets played their home games at the Polo Grounds. From 1964 to 2008, the Mets home ballpark was Shea Stadium, in 2009, they moved into their current ballpark, Citi Field. In their 1962 inaugural season, the Mets posted a record of 40–120, the Mets made the playoffs in 2006 when they came within one game of the World Series, losing to the eventual champion St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS. The Mets missed the playoffs with losses on the last day of the season in 2007 and 2008. The Mets made the playoffs in 2015 for the first time in nine years, the team again returned to the playoffs in 2016, this time with a wild card berth. This is the teams second playoff appearance, the first occurring during the 1999 and 2000 seasons. With the threat of a New York team joining a new third league, for the first two years of its existence, the team played its home games at the historic Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan. In 1964, they moved into newly constructed Shea Stadium in Flushing, Queens, in 2009, the club moved into Citi Field, adjacent to the former Shea Stadium site. During their history, the Mets have won two World Series titles, five National League pennants and six National League East titles, the Mets also qualified for the postseason as the National League wild card team in 1999,2000, and 2016. The Mets have appeared in five World Series, more than any other team in MLB history. Their two championships are the most titles among expansion teams, equal to the tallies of the Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins, the Mets held the New York baseball single-season attendance record for 29 years. They broke the Yankees 1948 record by drawing nearly 2.7 million spectators in 1970, the Mets broke their own record five times before the record was regained by the Yankees in 1999. The 1962 Mets posted a 40–120 record, a record for the most losses in a season since 1899, in 1966, the Mets famously bypassed future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson in the amateur draft, instead selecting Steve Chilcott, who never played in the majors. But the following year, they acquired future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver in a lottery, in 1973, the Mets rallied from 5th place to win the division, despite a record of only 82–79
13.
Major League Baseball
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Major League Baseball is a professional baseball organization, the oldest of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. A total of 30 teams now play in the National League and American League, the NL and AL operated as separate legal entities from 1876 and 1901 respectively. After cooperating but remaining legally separate entities since 1903, the merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball in 2000. The organization also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises about 240 teams affiliated with the Major League clubs, with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB manages the international World Baseball Classic tournament. Baseballs first professional team was founded in Cincinnati in 1869,30 years after Abner Doubleday supposedly invented the game of baseball, the first few decades of professional baseball were characterized by rivalries between leagues and by players who often jumped from one team or league to another. The period before 1920 in baseball was known as the dead-ball era, Baseball survived a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, which came to be known as the Black Sox Scandal. The sport rose in popularity in the 1920s, and survived potential downturns during the Great Depression, shortly after the war, baseballs color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. The 1950s and 1960s were a time of expansion for the AL and NL, then new stadiums, Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s, and media reports began to discuss the use of anabolic steroids among Major League players in the mid-2000s. In 2006, an investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which implicated many players in the use of performance-enhancing substances, today, MLB is composed of thirty teams, twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada. Baseball broadcasts are aired on television, radio, and the Internet throughout North America, MLB has the highest season attendance of any sports league in the world with more than 73 million spectators in 2015. MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution and this document has undergone several incarnations since 1875, with the most recent revisions being made in 2012. Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sports umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball. This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years, the weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates. There were several challenges to MLBs primacy in the sport between the 1870s and the Federal League in 1916, the last attempt at a new league was the aborted Continental League in 1960. The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, Rob Manfred, the chief operating officer is Tony Petitti. There are five other executives, president, chief officer, chief legal officer, chief financial officer. The multimedia branch of MLB, which is based in Manhattan, is MLB Advanced Media and this branch oversees MLB. com and each of the 30 teams websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media
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1969 World Series
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The World Series win earned the team the sobriquet Miracle Mets, as they had risen from the depths of mediocrity. The Mets became the first expansion team to win a title, a pennant. Two teams would later surpass that, as the Florida Marlins won the 1997 World Series in their fifth year and the Arizona Diamondbacks won the 2001 World Series in their fourth year of play. In fact, the best that could be said for them was that because the National League was being split into two divisions that year, the Mets were guaranteed to finish no lower than sixth place. The fact that the Mets began the season by losing 11–10 to the then-expansion Montreal Expos seemed to confirm this, outfielder Cleon Jones hit a club-record. Everyone on the bench knew what their role was in the felt that theyd ever lost their jobs. Almost to a man, the 1969 Mets were united in their praise of their managers skill, the Baltimore Orioles, by contrast, were practically flawless and featured stars at almost every position. They breezed through the 1969 season, winning 109 games and brushing aside the Minnesota Twins in three games in the ALCS to win their second pennant in four years. It was felt that in the face of such statistical comparisons, NL New York Mets vs. AL Baltimore Orioles With this win, the Orioles looked to be proving all the prognosticators right, as it was a dominant performance. Don Buford hit Tom Seavers second pitch of the game for a home run, the Os then added three more runs in the fourth when, with two outs, Elrod Hendricks singled and Davey Johnson walked. Mark Belanger then singled in a run, followed by an RBI single by pitcher Mike Cuellar, Buford would cap the inning off by doubling in Belanger. The Mets got their run in the seventh on a fly by light-hitting Al Weis. Despite the opening-game loss, nobody on the Mets seemed discouraged, Tom Seaver – the games losing pitcher – said years later I swear, we came into the clubhouse more confident than when we had left it. Somebody – I think it was Clendenon – yelled out, Dammit, a team knows if theyve been badly beaten or outplayed. And we felt we hadnt been, the feeling wasnt that we had lost, but Hey, we nearly won that game. We hadnt been more than a hit or two from turning it around and it hit us like a ton of bricks. At this game, Bud Selig negotiated a deal with Max, the purchase was finalized in April 1970, and the team was moved to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Brewers. Mets pitcher Jerry Koosman pitched six innings of no-hit ball, trying to match Don Larsens World Series no-hit feat, Donn Clendenon provided him a slim lead with a home run in the fourth
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Baltimore Orioles
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The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball as a member of the American League East division, Louis, Missouri to become the St. Louis Browns. After 52 often-beleaguered years in St. Louis, the franchise was purchased in November 1953 by Baltimore business interests led by Clarence Miles, the franchise officially moved to Baltimore for the 1954 season and adopted the historic Orioles name in honor of the official state bird of Maryland. The Orioles name had also used by several previous major and minor league baseball clubs in Baltimore. Nicknames for the team include the Os and the Birds, the Orioles experienced their greatest success from 1966 to 1983, when they made six World Series appearances, winning three of them. The franchise has won a total of nine division championships, six pennants. The Orioles are also known for their successful stadium, the trend-setting Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The modern Orioles franchise can trace its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, the Brewers were there when the WL renamed itself the American League in 1900. At the end of the 1900 season, the American League removed itself from baseballs National Agreement, two months later, the AL declared itself a competing major league. As a result of several shifts, the Brewers were one of only two Western League teams that didnt fold, move or get kicked out of the league. In its first game in the American League, the team lost to the Detroit Tigers 14–13 after blowing a lead in the 9th inning. To this day, it is a league record for the biggest deficit overcome that late in the game. During the first American League season in 1901, they finished last with a record of 48–89 and its lone Major League season, the team played at Lloyd Street Grounds, between 16th and 18th Streets in Milwaukee. The Miles-Krieger -Hoffberger group renamed their new team the Baltimore Orioles soon after taking control of the franchise, the name has a rich history in Baltimore, having been used by a National League team in the 1890s. In 1901, Baltimore and McGraw were awarded a franchise in the growing American League. After a battle with Ban Johnson, the Head of the American League in 1902, McGraw took many of the top players including Dan McGann, Roger Bresnahan and Joe McGinnity to the New York Giants. As an affront to Johnson, McGraw kept the black and orange colors of the New York Giants, which San Francisco wears to this day. In 1903, the rest of the team was transferred to New York where they were nicknamed the Highlanders until circa 1912, as a member of the high-minor league level International League, the Orioles competed at what is now known as the AAA level from 1903 to 1953
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Casey Stengel
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Charles Dillon Casey Stengel, nicknamed The Old Perfessor, was an American Major League Baseball right fielder and manager. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, Stengel was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and originally nicknamed Dutch, a common nickname at that time for Americans of German ancestry. In the 1950s, sportswriters dubbed him with yet another nickname, The Old Professor, for his sharp wit, although his baseball career spanned a number of teams and cities, he is primarily associated with clubs in New York City. Between playing and managing, he is the person to have worn the uniforms of all four of New Yorks major league clubs. He was the first of four men to both the New York Yankees and New York Mets. Like Joe Torre, he managed the Braves and the Dodgers. Stengel ended his career as the beloved manager for the then expansion New York Mets. Stengel was born on July 30,1890, in Kansas City and he played sandlot baseball as a child, and also played baseball, football and basketball at Central High School. His basketball team won the city championship, while the team won the state championship. Stengel had no vision of sports as a long-term profession. As described in his autobiography, on pages 58 and 75–76 and he had some problems due to the lack of left-handed instruments and the training was a struggle. Stengel signed a contract with the Kansas City Blues of the Class AAA American Association, considered the best minor league and he struggled as a pitcher, leading manager Danny Shay to play Stengel as an outfielder. Kansas City optioned Stengel to the Kankakee Kays of the Class D Northern Association and he had a.251 batting average with Kankakee when the league folded in July. He spent the remainder of the 1910 season with the Shelbyville Grays / Maysville Rivermen of the Class D Blue Grass League, Stengel attended Western Dental College in the offseason, which provided Stengel with enough negotiating leverage to receive a raise from Kansas City for the 1911 season. The Blues assigned Stengel to the Aurora Blues of the Class C Wisconsin–Illinois League and he led the league with a.351 batting average. Brooklyn Dodgers scout Larry Sutton noticed Stengel, and the Dodgers signed Stengel in 1911 and they assigned Stengel to the Montgomery Rebels of the Class A Southern Association for the 1912 season. Playing for manager Kid Elberfeld, Stengel batted.290 and led the league in outfield assists and he also developed a reputation as an eccentric player. Scout Mike Kahoe referred to Stengel as a ballplayer
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Miracle
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A miracle is an event not explicable by natural or scientific laws. Such an event may be attributed to a supernatural being, magic, a miracle worker, other such miracles might be, survival of an illness diagnosed as terminal, escaping a life-threatening situation or beating the odds. Some coincidences may be seen as miracles, a true miracle would, by definition, be a non-natural phenomenon, leading many rational and scientific thinkers to dismiss them as physically impossible or impossible to confirm by their nature. The former position is expressed for instance by Thomas Jefferson and the latter by David Hume, theologians typically say that, with divine providence, God regularly works through nature yet, as a creator, is free to work without, above, or against it as well. The possibility and probability of miracles are then equal to the possibility and probability of the existence of God, a miracle is a phenomenon not explained by known laws of nature. Criteria for classifying an event as a miracle vary, often a religious text, such as the Bible or Quran, states that a miracle occurred, and believers may accept this as a fact. British mathematician J. E. Littlewood suggested that individuals should statistically expect one-in-a-million events to happen to them at the rate of one per month. By Littlewoods definition, seemingly miraculous events are actually commonplace, the Aristotelian view of God does not include direct intervention in the order of the natural world. Jewish neo-Aristotelian philosophers, who are influential today, include Maimonides, Samuel ben Judah ibn Tibbon. Directly or indirectly, their views are still prevalent in much of the religious Jewish community, in his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Spinoza claims that miracles are merely lawlike events whose causes we are ignorant of. We should not treat them as having no cause or of having a cause immediately available, rather the miracle is for combating the ignorance it entails, like a political project. According to the philosopher David Hume, a miracle is a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent. According to the Christian theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher every event, even the most natural and usual, james Keller states that The claim that God has worked a miracle implies that God has singled out certain persons for some benefit which many others do not receive implies that God is unfair. If God intervenes to save life in a car crash. Thus an all-powerful, all-knowing and just God, as predicated in Christianity, the Haedong Kosung-jon of Korea records that King Beopheung of Silla had desired to promulgate Buddhism as the state religion. However, officials in his court opposed him, in the fourteenth year of his reign, Beopheungs Grand Secretary, Ichadon, devised a strategy to overcome court opposition. Ichadon schemed with the king, convincing him to make a proclamation granting Buddhism official state sanction using the royal seal, Ichadon told the king to deny having made such a proclamation when the opposing officials received it and demanded an explanation. Instead, Ichadon would confess and accept the punishment of execution, Ichadon prophesied to the king that at his execution a wonderful miracle would convince the opposing court faction of Buddhisms power
18.
American League
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The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League, is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a league based in the Great Lakes states. It is sometimes called the Junior Circuit because it claimed Major League status for the 1901 season,25 years after the formation of the National League. At the end of season, the American League champion plays in the World Series against the National League champion. Through 2016, American League teams have won 64 of the 112 World Series played since 1903, the 2016 American League champions are the Cleveland Indians. The New York Yankees have won 40 American League titles, the most in the history, followed by the Philadelphia/Kansas City/Oakland Athletics. Originally a minor league known as the Western League, the American League later developed into a major league after the American Association disbanded, in its early history, the Western League struggled until 1894, when Ban Johnson became the president of the league. Johnson led the Western League into major league status and soon became the president of the newly renamed American League, babe Ruth, noted as one of the most prolific hitters in Major League Baseball history, spent the majority of his career in the American League. The American League has one notable difference versus the National League, in 1902, the Milwaukee Brewers moved to St. Louis and were renamed the St. Louis Browns. In 1902, The Cleveland Bluebirds were also renamed the Cleveland Broncos, in 1903, the Broncos were renamed the Cleveland Naps. In 1915, the Naps were renamed the Cleveland Indians, in 1903, the Baltimore Orioles moved to New York and were renamed the New York Highlanders. In 1913, the Highlanders were renamed the New York Yankees, in 1904, the Chicago White Stockings were renamed the Chicago White Sox. In 1908, the Boston Americans were renamed the Boston Red Sox, in 1954, the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and were renamed as the Baltimore Orioles. In 1955, the Philadelphia Athletics moved to Kansas City and were renamed as the Kansas City Athletics, in 1961, the league expanded and added two teams as the Los Angeles Angels and the Washington Senators, expanding the league to 10 teams. The original Senators team moved to Minneapolis/St, Paul in 1961 and were renamed as the Minnesota Twins. The Angels team name changed to the California Angels in 1966, then to the Anaheim Angels in 1997, the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots were added to the American League, expanding the league to 12 teams. In 1970, the Seattle Pilots moved to Milwaukee and were renamed the Milwaukee Brewers, in 1972, the Washington Senators relocated to the Dallas/Fort Worth area and were renamed the Texas Rangers. In 1977, the league expanded to fourteen teams, when the Seattle Mariners, in 1998, the Tampa Bay Rays was added to the American League and at the same time, the Milwaukee Brewers were switched to the National League, leaving the American League with 14 teams
19.
First baseman
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First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that players team. A first baseman is the player on the team playing defense who fields the area nearest first base, in the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the first baseman is assigned the number 3. Also called first sacker or cornerman, the first baseman is ideally a tall player who throws left-handed and possesses good flexibility, flexibility is needed because the first baseman receives throws from the other infielders, the catcher and the pitcher after they have fielded ground balls. In order for the runner to be called out, the first baseman must be able to stretch towards the throw and they often are power hitters who have a substantial number of home runs and extra base hits while maintaining a.270 plus batting average. Good defensive first basemen, according to Bill James, are capable of playing off first base so that they can field ground balls hit to the side of first base. The first baseman then relies upon the pitcher to cover first base to receive the ball to complete the out, indications of a good defensive first baseman include a large number of assists and a low number of throwing errors by other infielders. The nature of play at first base often requires first basemen to stay close to the bag to hold runners or to reach the bag before the batter. First basemen are not typically expected to have the range required of a baseman, shortstop. As a result, first base is not usually perceived to be as physically demanding as other positions, however, it can also be a very hard position to play, a large amount of concentration and timing is required. Though many play at first base their entire career, it is common for players to be moved to first base in order to extend their careers or to accommodate other recently acquired players. Facing a possible trade or a reduction in playing time. Catchers and corner outfielders are often moved to first base due to deteriorating health or if their fielding abilities at their position are detrimental to the team. When first base is not occupied by a baserunner, the first baseman usually stands behind first base, the distance he plays from the base and foul line is dependent on the current hitter and any runners on base. The exact position may depend on the first basemans experience, preference. For a known right-handed pull hitter, the first baseman might position himself further towards the second basemans normal fielding position, for a known left-handed pull hitter, the first baseman will position himself closer to the foul line in order to stop a ball hit down the line. To protect against a bunt on the first base side of the infield, as soon as the pitcher commits to throwing towards home plate, the first basemen will charge towards the hitter to field the bunt. During these plays, it is the responsibility of the second basemen to cover first base, with a base runner present at first base, the first baseman stands with his right foot touching the base to prepare for a pickoff attempt. Once the pitcher commits to throwing towards home plate, the first baseman comes off the bag in front of the runner and gets in a fielding position
20.
Donn Clendenon
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Donn Alvin Clendenon was a Major League Baseball first baseman. He is best remembered as the World Series MVP for the 1969 Amazin Mets, six months after Clendenon was born in Neosho, Missouri, his father, Claude, died from leukemia. Claude Clendenon was a mathematics and psychology professor and chairman of the department at Langston University. Clendenons mother, Helen, demanded high academic achievement from her son, when he was only 6 years old, Clendenons mother married former Negro Leagues baseball player Nish Williams. In addition to academic excellence, Clendenons new stepfather decided he was going to make his stepson into a baseball player. Along with Williams, Clendenon also received pointers from some of the players Williams knew from the Negro Leagues, including Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe. Clendenon graduated as a letterman in nine sports at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta, Georgia, and received a host of scholarship offers. He was prepared to attend UCLA on a scholarship until some coaches from Morehouse College in Atlanta visited his mother, Morehouse College was among the premier academic institutions for young African-American men. Just before Clendenon arrived in 1952, the class were assigned Big Brothers to help the students acclimate themselves to Morehouse. Although the policy had ended when he arrived, a Morehouse graduate volunteered to be Clendenons big brother, Clendenon, however, decided he wanted to teach, and began teaching fourth grade upon graduation. Williams convinced Clendenon to attend a Pittsburgh Pirates try-out camp in 1957, after five seasons in the minor leagues, Clendenon made his major league debut with Pittsburgh in 1961 as a September call-up. Following the 1962 season, the Pirates traded first baseman Dick Stuart to the Boston Red Sox in order to open a position for Clendenon and he responded by batting.275 with 15 home runs and 57 RBI. Clendenon drove in 96 and 98 in 1965 and 1966, respectively and he also earned a reputation as a free swinger as he led the league in strikeouts in 1963 and 1968, and finished second in 1966 and third in 1965. With first base prospect Al Oliver waiting in the wings, the Pirates left Clendenon unprotected for the 1968 Major League Baseball expansion draft, on January 22,1969, the Expos traded Clendenon and Jesús Alou to the Houston Astros for Rusty Staub. The Astros had recently hired Clendenons former Pirates manager, Harry Walker, with whom Clendenon had a personality clash, Clendenon refused to report to his new team. The Expos and Astros worked out a new deal, and Clendenon joined the Expos on April 19,1969. He was batting.240 with four runs and 14 RBI when the Expos dealt him to the New York Mets on June 15,1969, in exchange for Steve Renko, Kevin Collins. The Mets were in place, nine games back of Leo Durochers Chicago Cubs in the newly aligned National League East
21.
World Series Most Valuable Player Award
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The award was first presented in 1955 as the SPORT Magazine Award, but is now decided during the final game of the Series by a committee of reporters and officials present at the game. The series follows a best-of-seven playoff format, and occurs after the Division Series and it is played by the winners of the National League Championship Series and the American League Championship Series. The most recent champions are the Chicago Cubs, who won in the 2016 World Series, pitchers have been named Series MVP twenty-seven times, four of them were relief pitchers. From 1987 until 1991, all of the World Series MVPs were pitchers, bobby Richardson of the 1960 New York Yankees is the only player in World Series history to be named MVP despite being on the losing team. Babe Ruth Award List of Major League Baseball awards Baseball awards#United States Johnny Podres won the award in 1955 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Podres, with nine wins and ten losses during the season, beat the Yankees twice in the series. Don Larsen won the 1956 World Series MVP after pitching the only no-hitter in World Series history, in the game of the series. Depending upon definitions, the first non-American to win the award was either Roberto Clemente in 1971 or Pedro Guerrero in 1981, willie Stargell won the 1979 World Series MVP at the age of 39, and is the oldest World Series MVP. In 1996, John Wetteland won the World Series MVP, setting a World Series record with four saves. Fourteen World Series MVPs were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Paul Molitor, Tom Glavine, Molitor is also the first designated hitter to win the World Series MVP. Hideki Matsui, the 2009 winner, batted in six runs in the game of the 2009 World Series. Matsui became the first Japanese-born player to win the award, as well as the first player to win it as a designated hitter. He is also the player named both a World Series and a Japan Series MVP. Three players have won the award twice, Sandy Koufax, Gibson, there have been two occasions on which multiple winners were awarded in the same World Series, Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero, and Steve Yeager in 1981, and Johnson and Schilling in 2001. The duo of Johnson and Schilling combined for all four of Arizonas wins in the 2001 World Series, twelve of the fifty-eight World Series MVPs have also won the MLB MVP, the Cy Young Award, or the LCS MVP in the same season. Koufax, Frank Robinson, Jackson, Stargell, and Mike Schmidt are the players to have won the MLB MVP. A total of six players won the Cy Young Award and the World Series MVP in the season, Bob Turley, Whitey Ford, Koufax, Bret Saberhagen, Orel Hershiser. Hershiser won the Cy Young Award, the LCS MVP and the World Series MVP in the same season
22.
Batting average
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Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batsmen in cricket and batters in baseball. The development of the statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. In cricket, a batting average is the total number of runs they have scored divided by the number of times they have been out. The number is also simple to interpret intuitively, if all the batsmans innings were completed, this is the average number of runs they score per innings. If they did not complete all their innings, this number is an estimate of the average number of runs they score per innings. Batting average has been used to gauge cricket players relative skills since the 18th century, most players have career batting averages in the range of 20 to 40. This is also the range for wicket-keepers, though some fall short. All-rounders who are more prominent bowlers than batsmen typically average something between 20 and 30,15 and under is typical for specialist bowlers. Under this qualification, the highest Test batting average belongs to Australias Sir Donald Bradman, given that a career batting average over 50 is exceptional, and that only four other players have averages over 60, this is an outstanding statistic. The fact that Bradmans average is so far above that of any other cricketer has led several statisticians to argue that, statistically at least, he was the greatest sportsman in any sport. As at 21 October 2016, Adam Voges of Australia has recorded an average of 72.75 from 27 innings played and it should also be remembered, especially in relation to the ODI histogram above, that there were no ODI competitions when Bradman played. If their scores have a geometric distribution then total number of runs scored divided by the number of times out is the maximum likelihood estimate of their true unknown average, Batting averages can be strongly affected by the number of not outs. A different, and more developed, statistic which is also used to gauge the effectiveness of batsmen is the strike rate. It measures a different concept however – how quickly the batsman scores – so it does not supplant the role of batting average and it is used particularly in limited overs matches, where the speed at which a batsman scores is more important than it is in first-class cricket. Table shows players with at least 20 innings completed, in baseball, the batting average is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats. It is usually reported to three places and read without the decimal, A player with a batting average of.300 is batting three-hundred. A point is understood, in only, to be.001. If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken beyond the.001 measurement, henry Chadwick, an English statistician raised on cricket, was an influential figure in the early history of baseball
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Home run
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In modern baseball, the feat is typically achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is also the home run, increasingly rare in modern baseball. When a home run is scored, the batter is credited with a hit and a run scored. Likewise, the pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a batted ball is also a home run if it touches either foul pole or its attached screen before touching the ground, as the foul poles are by definition in fair territory. A batted ball that goes over the wall after touching the ground is not a home run. A fielder is allowed to reach over the wall to attempt to catch the ball as long as his feet are on or over the field during the attempt. If the fielder successfully catches the ball while it is in flight the batter is out, however, since the fielder is not part of the field, a ball that bounces off a fielder and over the wall without touching the ground is still a home run. A home run accomplished in any of the above manners is a home run. This stipulation is in Approved Ruling of Rule 7.10, an inside-the-park home run occurs when a batter hits the ball into play and is able to circle the bases before the fielders can put him out. Unlike with a home run, the batter-runner and all preceding runners are liable to be put out by the defensive team at any time while running the bases. This can only happen if the ball does not leave the ballfield, with outfields much less spacious and more uniformly designed than in the games early days, inside-the-park home runs are now a rarity. They are usually the result of a ball being hit by a very fast runner, either way, this sends the ball into open space in the outfield and thereby allows the batter-runner to circle the bases before the defensive team can put him out. The speed of the runner is crucial as even triples are relatively rare in most modern ballparks, all runs scored on such a play, however, still count. An example of an unexpected bounce occurred during the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on July 10,2007, by the time the ball was relayed, Ichiro had already crossed the plate standing up. This was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, Home runs are often characterized by the number of runners on base at the time. A home run hit with the bases empty is seldom called a one-run homer, with one runner on base, two runs are scored and thus the home run is often called a two-run homer or two-run shot. Similarly, a home runs with two runners on base is a three-run homer or three-run shot, the term four-run homer is seldom used, instead, it is nearly always called a grand slam. Hitting a grand slam is the best possible result for the turn at bat
24.
Run batted in
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A run batted in, plural runs batted in, is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored. For example, if the batter bats a base hit, then another player on a base can go home. Prior to the 1920 Major League Baseball season, runs batted in were not a baseball statistic. Nevertheless, the RBI statistic was tabulated—unofficially—from 1907 through 1919 by baseball writer Ernie Lanigan, common nicknames for an RBI include ribby, rib, and ribeye. The plural of RBI is generally RBIs, although some commentators use RBI as both singular and plural, as it can stand for runs batted in. The official scorers judgment must determine whether a run batted in shall be credited for a run that scores when a fielder holds the ball or throws to a wrong base. The perceived significance of the RBI is displayed by the fact that it is one of the three categories that comprise the triple crown, in addition, career RBIs are often cited in debates over who should be elected to the Hall of Fame. This implies that better offensive teams—and therefore, the teams in which the most players get on base—tend to produce hitters with higher RBI totals than equivalent hitters on lesser-hitting teams, totals are current through October 8,2015
25.
Citi Field
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Citi Field is a stadium located in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the New York City borough of Queens. Completed in 2009, it is the baseball park of Major League Baseballs New York Mets. Citi Field was built as a replacement for the formerly adjacent Shea Stadium, Citi Field was designed by Populous, and is named after Citigroup, a New York financial services company which purchased the naming rights. The $850 million baseball park was funded with $615 million in public subsidies, the payments will offset property taxes for the lifetime of the park. The Mets are receiving $20 million annually from Citibank in exchange for naming the stadium Citi Field, the entire public cost is being borne by city and state taxpayers in New York. The first game at Citi Field was on March 29,2009, the Mets played their first two games at the ballpark on April 3 and April 4,2009 against the Boston Red Sox as charity exhibition games. The first regular home game was played on April 13,2009. Citi Field hosted the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, marking the time the Mets have hosted the event. The stadium will host the 2018 NHL Winter Classic between the New York Rangers and the Buffalo Sabres, since the 1990s, the Mets had been looking to replace Shea Stadium. It had originally built as a multi-purpose stadium in 1964. The Mets also considered moving to Mitchel Field or Belmont Park in Nassau County, Long Island, Sunnyside Yard in Queens, or the West Side Yard in Manhattan. In December 2001, shortly before leaving office, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced tentative agreements for both the Mets and New York Yankees to build new stadiums. Of the $1.6 billion sought for the stadiums, city and state taxpayers would pick up half the tab for construction, $800 million, along with $390 million on extra transportation. The teams would keep 96% of ticket revenues and 100% of all revenues, not pay sales tax or property tax on the stadium. Business officials criticized the plan as giving too much money to successful teams with little reason to move to a different city, at the time, Bloomberg said that publicly funded stadiums were a poor investment. Under Bloomberg, the New York City government would offer public financing for infrastructure improvements. Bloomberg called the former mayors agreements corporate welfare, the final plans for what is now Citi Field were created as part of the New York City 2012 Olympic bid. After plans for a West Side Stadium fell through, New York looked for a stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies and track
26.
Montreal Expos
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The Montreal Expos were a Canadian professional baseball team based in Montreal, Quebec. The Expos were the first Major League Baseball franchise located outside the United States and they played in the National League East Division from 1969 until 2004. Following the 2004 season, the relocated to Washington, D. C. Named after the Expo 67 Worlds Fair, the Expos originally played at Jarry Park Stadium before moving to Olympic Stadium in 1977, the Expos failed to post a winning record in any of their first ten seasons. The team won its division title in the strike-shortened 1981 season. The team was sold in 1991 by its majority, founding owner, Charles Bronfman, felipe Alou was promoted to the teams field manager in 1992, becoming MLBs first Dominican-born manager. He led the team to four winning seasons, including 1994, Alou became the Expos leader in games managed. The aftermath of the 1994 strike initiated a downward spiral as the Expos chose to sell off their best players, Major League Baseball purchased the team prior to the 2002 season after the club failed to secure funding for a new ballpark. In their final two seasons, the team played 22 home games each year at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. On September 29,2004, MLB announced the franchise would relocate to Washington, D. C. for the 2005 season, the Expos posted an all-time record of 2,753 wins,2,943 losses and 4 ties during their 36 years in Montreal. Vladimir Guerrero led the franchise in both runs and batting average, and Steve Rogers in wins and strikeouts. Three pitchers threw four no-hitters, Bill Stoneman, Charlie Lea, and Dennis Martínez, professional baseball in Montreal dates back to 1890 when teams briefly played in the International Association. A second attempt at hosting a pro team failed in 1895, the Montreal Royals of the Eastern League were subsequently founded in 1897 and played 20 seasons. The Royals were revived in 1928 and were purchased by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939 to serve as one of their Triple-A affiliates, under Dodgers management, the Royals won seven International League championships and three Junior World Series titles between 1941 and 1958. In 1946, Jackie Robinson joined the Royals and led the team to a Junior World Series title in advance of his breaking baseballs colour barrier one year later. Almost immediately upon the Royals demise, Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, on May 27,1968, National League president Warren Giles announced the league would add expansion teams in San Diego and Montreal at a cost of US$10 million each. With the franchise secured, Snyder built a group of six partners led by financier Jean-Louis Lévesque. Lévesque was originally tapped as chairman and the face of the ownership group since he was a francophone
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Seattle Pilots
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The American professional baseball team now known as the Milwaukee Brewers spent their first season,1969, as the Seattle Pilots in Seattle, Washington. The Pilots played home games at Sicks Stadium and were a member of the West Division of Major League Baseballs American League, on April 1,1970, they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Pilots name originated from the owners part-time job as a harbor pilot, the team colors were royal blue and gold. Seattle had long been a hotbed for minor league baseball and was home to the Seattle Rainiers, at the time, Seattle was the third-biggest metropolitan area on the West Coast. The Cleveland Indians briefly considered a move to Seattle in 1964, in 1967 Charles Finley looked to move his Kansas City Athletics to Seattle, but ended up moving the Athletics to Oakland, California. There was no competition from other professional teams at the time. While Seattle had landed the National Basketball Association s SuperSonics in 1967, the NFL would come to the city in 1976 with the addition of the expansion Seahawks. The lead man for the ownership, Pacific Northwest Sports, Inc. was Dewey Soriano. In an ominous sign of things to come, Soriano had to ask William R. Daley, in return, Soriano sold Daley 47% of the stock — the largest stake in the club. He became chairman of the board while Soriano served as president, a couple of factors were beyond the Pilots control. They were originally not set to play until 1971 along with the Kansas City Royals. However, the date was moved up to 1969 under pressure from Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, also, the Pilots had to pay the PCL $1 million to compensate for the loss of one of its most successful franchises. After King County voters approved a bond for a stadium in February 1968 with 62% in favor. California Angels executive Marvin Milkes was hired as manager, and Joe Schultz. Schultz and Milkes both optimistically stated that they thought Pilots could finish third in the formed, six-team AL West. However, the Pilots experienced the struggles of a first-year expansion team. They won their very first game, and then their home opener three days later, but only won five times in the first month. Nevertheless, the Pilots managed to stay in reasonable striking distance of.500, the Pilots were only 6 games back of the division lead as late as June 28
28.
Cincinnati Reds
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The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Reds compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. They were a member of the American Association in 1882. The Reds played in the NL West division from 1969 to 1993 and they have won five World Series titles, nine NL pennants, one AA pennant, and 10 division titles. The team plays its games at Great American Ball Park. Bob Castellini has been executive officer since 2006. The origins of the modern Cincinnati Reds can be traced to the expulsion of a team bearing that name. Both were important activities to entice the citys large German population, while Hulbert made clear his distaste for both beer and Sunday baseball at the founding of the league, neither practice was actually against league rules in those early years. On October 6,1880, however, seven of the eight team owners pledged at a league meeting to formally ban both beer and Sunday baseball at the regular league meeting that December. Only Cincinnati president W. H. Kennett refused to sign the pledge, when these attempts failed, he formed a new independent ballclub known as the Red Stockings in the Spring of 1881, and brought the team to St. Louis for a weekend exhibition. The Reds first game was a 12–3 victory over the St. Louis club, upon arriving in the city, however, Caylor and Thorner discovered that no other owners had decided to accept the invitation, with even Phillips not bothering to attend his own meeting. By chance, the duo met a former pitcher named Al Pratt, the ploy worked, and the American Association was officially formed at the Hotel Gibson in Cincinnati with the new Reds a charter member with Thorner as president. The club never placed higher than second or lower than fifth for the rest of its tenure in the American Association, the National League was happy to accept the teams in part due to the emergence of the new Players League. This new league, a failed attempt to break the reserve clause in baseball. Because the National League decided to expand while the American Association was weakening and it was also at this time that the team first shortened their name from Red Stockings to Reds. The Reds wandered through the 1890s signing local stars and aging veterans, during this time, the team never finished above third place and never closer than 10½ games. At the start of the 20th century, the Reds had hitting stars Sam Crawford, seymours.377 average in 1905 was the first individual batting crown won by a Red. In 1911, Bob Bescher stole 81 bases, which is still a team record, like the previous decade, the 1900s were not kind to the Reds, as much of the decade was spent in the leagues second division
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Kansas City Royals
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The Kansas City Royals are an American professional baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals compete in Major League Baseball as a team of the American League Central division. The team was founded as a franchise in 1969, and has participated in four World Series, winning in 1985 and 2015. The name Royals originates from the American Royal, a show, horse show, rodeo. Entering the American League in 1969 along with the Seattle Pilots, since April 10,1973, the Royals have played at Kauffman Stadium, formerly known as Royals Stadium. The team remained competitive throughout the early 1990s, but then had one winning season from 1995 to 2012. For 28 consecutive seasons, the Royals did not qualify to play in the Major League Baseball postseason, the team broke this streak in 2014 by securing the franchises first wild card berth and advancing to the World Series. The Royals followed this up by winning the teams first Central Division title in 2015, the Royals began play in 1969 in Kansas City, Missouri. In their inaugural game, on April 8,1969, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4–3 in 12 innings, in 1971, the Royals had their first winning season, with manager Bob Lemon leading them to a second-place finish. In 1973, under manager Jack McKeon, the Royals adopted their iconic powder blue road uniforms, the 1973 All-Star Game was hosted at Royals Stadium, with Otis and Mayberry in the AL starting lineup. The event was held at Municipal Stadium in 1960, when the Athletics were based in Kansas City. However, the Royals lost to the New York Yankees in three straight American League Championship Series encounters, after the Royals finished in second place in 1979, Herzog was fired and replaced by Jim Frey. Under Frey, the Royals rebounded in 1980 and advanced to the ALCS, the Royals vanquished the Yankees in a three-game sweep punctuated by a George Brett home run off of Yankees star relief pitcher Goose Gossage. After reaching their first World Series, the Royals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games, Game 6 was also significant because it remains the most-watched game in World Series history with a television audience of 54.9 million viewers. In July 1983, while the Royals were headed for a second-place finish behind the Chicago White Sox another chapter in the rivalry with the New York Yankees occurred. After Yankee Manager Billy Martin came out of the dugout to talk to home plate umpire Tim McClelland, McClelland, McClelland then pointed to Brett in the dugout and gave the out sign, disallowing the home run. Brett stormed out of the dugout, angry and hysterical, the homer was later reinstated by AL President Lee MacPhail, and the Royals won the game after it was resumed several weeks later. The 1983 season was notable for some transitional changes in the Royals organization
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1969 New York Mets season
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The 1969 New York Mets season was the teams eighth as a Major League Baseball franchise and culminated with them winning the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles. They played their games at Shea Stadium. The team was managed by Gil Hodges, the team is often referred to as the Amazin Mets or the Miracle Mets. The 1969 season was the first season of play in Major League Baseball. The Mets were assigned to the newly created National League East division, in their seven previous seasons, the Mets had never finished higher than ninth place in the ten-team National League and had never had a winning season. In fact, they lost at least one hundred games in five of the seasons, however, they overcame mid-season difficulties while the division leaders for much of the season, the Chicago Cubs, suffered a late-season collapse. The Mets finished 100–62, eight ahead of the Cubs. First baseman Donn Clendenon was named the series most valuable player on the strength of his.357 batting average, on Saturday, August 22,2009, many of the surviving members of the 1969 championship team reunited at the New York Mets present park, Citi Field. The Mets had never finished higher than ninth place in a league in their first seven seasons. The Mets never had been over.500 after the game of any season. Seven years after their disastrous season, The Amazin Mets won the World Series. With great pitching and decent defense, but not much offense and they then reeled off a club-record 11 straight wins, equaled on several occasions. Starting with their 42nd game, the Mets went 82–39, an impressive.678 winning percentage, in second place most of the season behind the Chicago Cubs, the Mets were in third place,10 games back, on August 14. They won 14 of their last 17 games during August, and 24 of their 32 games during September and October, to surge past the Cubs, finishing 100–62 and that 18 game differential is one of the largest turnarounds in MLB history. After taking a pitch of two balls and one strike, Johnson hit a fly-ball out to left field which was caught by Cleon Jones. Three future Hall of Fame members were on the Mets roster, pitcher Tom Seaver, a young Nolan Ryan, and New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra, Berra was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972, Seaver in 1992, and Ryan in 1999. The Baltimore Orioles boasted four future Hall of Famers on their roster, pitcher Jim Palmer, outfielder Frank Robinson, third baseman Brooks Robinson, and manager Earl Weaver. Tommie Agee Ken Boswell Ed Charles Rod Gaspar Jerry Grote Bud Harrelson Cleon Jones Ed Kranepool Tom Seaver June 13,1969, June 15,1969, Kevin Collins, Steve Renko, Bill Carden and Dave Colon were traded by the Mets to the Montreal Expos for Donn Clendenon
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Al Lang Stadium
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Al Lang Stadium is a 7, 500-seat sports stadium in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida that is the current home pitch of the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the United Soccer League. It was built in 1947 and was used almost exclusively as a park for over 60 years. Al Lang Stadium was reconstructed in 1976, and was renovated again before the Tampa Bay Devil Rays began using it as their first spring training venue in 1998. The Devil Rays / Rays were the last of a series of Major League Baseball clubs to conduct spring training. Before the Rays, tenants included the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, the stadium hosted its last spring training game in 2008 and was the site of occasional amateur and exhibition baseball for the next several years. Since the Tampa Bay Rowdies became the tenant in 2011. Since October 2014, an agreement between the club and the city of St. Petersburg has made the stadium a soccer-only facility, and the Rowdies ownership conducted an extensive renovation in early 2015. The stadium is named in honor of Al Lang, a mayor of St. Petersburg who was instrumental in bringing minor league. Professional baseball grew throughout the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, and clubs sought additional facilities to accommodate their spring training. Al Lang, a businessman in St. Petersburg, Florida, Lang and city officials created an incentives package that covered teams travel expenses and other amenities, which drew in the citys first spring training tenant, the St. Louis Browns, in 1914. The club trained at Coffee Pot Park, a ballpark located beside Coffee Pot bayou about a mile north of the current site of Al Lang Stadium. After his term, Lang devoted his life to building a connection between Florida and baseball, and was instrumental in marketing St. Petersburg as a desirable sports site. With Al Langs support, the city replaced Coffee Pot Park with St. Petersburg Athletic Park on the present site of Al Lang Stadium in 1923, in 1947, the city of St. Petersburg demolished Waterfront Park and constructed a modern baseball park on the same site. It was named Al Lang Stadium in honor of his years of service to the city. The St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees shared the new ballpark in its first spring training season, the stadium underwent a major reconstruction in 1976, expanding its capacity to 7,227. It was renovated again in 1996, the project cost $640,117, when Florida Power was acquired by Progress Energy in 2003, the stadiums name was changed to Progress Energy Park. The naming rights agreement expired in 2011, and the name reverted to Al Lang Stadium. Al Lang Stadiums grandstand faces the southeast, giving almost every seat a view of the St. Petersburg harbor, the stadium is constructed primarily of reinforced concrete, and the public portions of the facility include very few enclosed and air conditioned areas
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Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
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Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St
