1.
2000 Major League Baseball season
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A record 5,693 home runs were hit during the regular season in 2000. Ten teams hit at least 200 home runs each, while for the first time since 1989, Commissioner Bud Selig says he will listen to what the doctors say before deciding what punishment—if any—will be handed down to the pitcher. January 11 – The baseball writers elect catcher Carlton Fisk and first baseman Tony Pérez to the Hall of Fame, Fisk is chosen in his 2nd year on the ballot, while Pérez is picked on his 9th try. January 31 – Braves reliever John Rocker is suspended from baseball until May 1 by Commissioner Bud Selig for his racial, hes also fined $20,000 and ordered to undergo sensitivity training. February 10 – The Seattle Mariners accommodate center fielder Ken Griffey, Cincinnati resisted giving up infielder Pokey Reese. February 29 – Manager Sparky Anderson, 19th-century star Bid McPhee, march 1 – Independent arbitrator Shyam Das cuts Braves pitcher John Rockers suspension from 28 days to 14 days. Rocker, who is allowed to report to spring training with the team, also has his fine cut. March 29 – The Chicago Cubs open the league season in the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, by defeating the New York Mets 5–3. Jon Lieber gets the victory and Mike Hampton takes the loss, Shane Andrews hits the first home run of the season. Mark Grace and Mike Piazza also homer, April 3 – Andrés Galarraga hits a home run in his first game back after missing the entire 1999 season following cancer surgery. Atlanta defeat the Colorado Rockies 2–0, April 3 – The Los Angeles Dodgers defeat the Montréal Expos 10–4, behind Eric Karros grand slam. Right fielder Vladimir Guerrero hits a pair of runs for Montreal as a new major league record for Opening Day is set with five players having multiple home run games. April 4 – Expos closer Ugueth Urbina strikes out the Dodgers in the top of the inning on nine pitches. April 7 – A total of 57 home runs are hit in the 15 games played, the previous mark of 55 was set in 17 games on August 13,1999. There were 36 homers hit in the AL, eclipsing the mark for a single league. April 7 – The Tampa Bay Devil Rays open their home schedule playing home games at Tropicana Field on the new FieldTurf artificial surface and they lose to the Cleveland Indians, 14–5. April 9 – The Minnesota Twins defeat the Kansas City Royals 13–7, in the process, they become the first teams in major league history to each hit back-to-back-to-back home runs in the same game. April 10 – Colorado beats Cincinnati 7–5, despite Ken Griffey, at age of 30, Griffey is the youngest player in major league history to reach that milestone
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.
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
4.
AT&T Park
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AT&T Park is a baseball park located in the South Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has served as the home of the San Francisco Giants, originally named Pacific Bell Park, then SBC Park in 2003 after SBC Communications acquired Pacific Bell, the stadium was ultimately christened AT&T Park in 2006 following SBCs buyout of AT&T. The park stands along the San Francisco Bay, a segment of which is named McCovey Cove in honor of former Giants player Willie McCovey, AT&T Park has also played host to both professional and collegiate American football games. Professionally, AT&T Park was the home of the San Francisco Demons of the XFL, the stadium can be reached via San Franciscos Muni Metro, the 2nd and King Station is directly outside the ballpark. Originally designed to be a 42, 000-seat stadium, there were slight modifications before the design was complete. When the ballpark was brought to the box in the fall of 1996 for voter approval. Also the center-field scoreboard was atop the wall and the Giants Pavilion Building were two separate buildings. Groundbreaking on the ballpark began on December 11,1997, in the waterfront area of San Francisco known as China Basin in the up-and-coming neighborhoods of South Beach. The stadium cost $357 million to build and supplanted the Giants former home, Candlestick Park, a team of engineers from UC Davis was consulted in the design process of the park resulting in wind levels that are approximately half those at Candlestick. Fans had shivered through 40 seasons at The Stick and looked forward to warmer temperatures at the new ballpark, when it opened on March 31,2000, the ballpark was the first Major League ballpark built without public funds since the completion of Dodger Stadium in 1962. However, the Giants did receive a $10 million tax abatement from the city, the Giants have a 66-year lease on the 12. 5-acre ballpark site, paying $1.2 million in rent annually to the San Francisco Port Commission. The park opened with a capacity of 40,800. In April 2010, the became the first MLB ballpark to receive LEED Silver Certification for Existing Buildings, Operations. The opening series took place April 11–13,2000 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, in the first game of that series, the Giants lost 6–5, highlighted by three home runs from the Dodgers Kevin Elster. On May 1,2000, Barry Bonds became the first player to hit a splash hit home run into McCovey Cove, in just its first few years of existence, the ballpark saw its share of historic events primarily due to veteran Giants outfielder Barry Bonds. On April 17,2001, Bonds hit his 500th career home run at then-Pacific Bell Park. Later that year, he set the season home run record when he hit home runs number 71,72. On August 9,2002, Bonds hit his 600th career home run at the park
5.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
6.
Peter Magowan
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Peter A. Magowan is the former managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball franchise. Magowans maternal grandfather was Charles Merrill, co-founder of Merrill Lynch & Company, Magowans father, Robert Anderson Magowan, was chairman and CEO of Safeway, Magowans mother, Doris Merrill Magowan, was a prominent San Francisco philanthropist. Magowan is the nephew of poet James Merrill and he graduated high school from Groton School, has a bachelors degree from Stanford University and a masters degree from Oxford University. He also did work at The Johns Hopkins University. Following graduation from Stanford, Magowan joined Safeway as a real estate negotiator in Washington D. C and he also worked as a District Manager in Houston, a Retail Operations Manager in Phoenix and a Division Manager in Tulsa. From 1976 to 1978 he was in charge of the Companys international operations and he was elected a Director of Safeway in 1978 following the death of his father. In 1979 Magowan was elected as chairman and CEO of Safeway and he would run Safeway until its poor performance led to it being the target of corporate raiders, resulting in acquisition by KKR acting as a white knight. Magowan is also a director of Caterpillar, Inc, daimlerChrysler, W5 Networks, Inc. and Spring Group, PLC. He is a native of New York City and was a Giants fan prior to moving to San Francisco, Magowan, along with a group of investors purchased the franchise on January 12,1993, from the previous owner, Bob Lurie. Before Magowans consortium stepped in with its offer to buy the team, Lurie had planned to sell the team to a group from St. Petersburg, now home to the Tampa Bay Rays. Magowan made his mark on the immediately, signing free agent superstar Barry Bonds. Magowan is also noted for spearheading the construction of the Giants current home, previously, several initiatives to build tax-supported stadiums had been rejected by San Francisco voters. In December 1995, Magowan unveiled his plan for a 42,000 seat ballpark in China Basin, the plan was passed easily by San Francisco voters, by a 2 to 1 margin. Pacific Bell Park opened in 2000, replacing the oft-criticized Candlestick Park, since AT&T Park opened, the Giants have become the third most-valuable team in baseball. Conte had been approached by a player, in the January 2007 Congressional hearings on performance-enhancing drugs, Congressman Henry Waxman asked Commissioner Bud Selig to discipline Sabean and Magowan for their culpability. Some sports insiders argued that Magowans and Sabeans actions on steroids was not any different from other clubs at the time. When Magowan was interviewed for the Mitchell Report, Magowan told Senator George Mitchell that Barry Bonds told him he had used steroids, on May 16,2008, Magowan announced he would be stepping down as managing partner of the Giants effective October 1,2008. Bill Neukom succeeded Magowan as the shareholder and lead representative of the investors in the San Francisco Giants
7.
Brian Sabean
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Brian R. Sabean, as of 2015, is the executive vice president of baseball operations of the San Francisco Giants. He served as the general manager for eighteen seasons, from 1997 to 2014. He succeeded general manager Bob Quinn, the Giants had a winning record in thirteen of the eighteen seasons in which Sabean served as general manager. Prior to his tenure, the team had suffered losing seasons in five out of six years and he is a native of Concord, New Hampshire. Sabean attended Concord High School and Eckerd College, playing with former major leaguer Joe Lefebvre on both schools baseball teams, prior to starting his scouting career, Sabean was an assistant baseball coach at Saint Leo University in 1979 and University of Tampa from 1980 to 1982. He was promoted to coach in 1983 and led Tampa to its first-ever NCAA regional tournament appearance in 1984. Sabean began his involvement in Major League Baseball as a scout for the New York Yankees organization in 1985, Sabean was promoted to Director of Scouting in 1986 and Vice President of Player Development/Scouting in 1990. With the Yankees, he drafted or signed as amateurs the likes of Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, J. T. Snow, Jorge Posada, Sabean joined the Giants in 1993, serving as assistant to the general manager and vice president of scouting/player personnel. Sabean served one year as vice president of player personnel in 1995 before his promotion to general manager in 1996. When Sabean replaced Bob Quinn in 1996, the team was in disarray, Sabean received so much criticism in San Francisco for the trade that he had to defend himself in the media, declaring, I am not an idiot. In 1997, the Giants won their first N. L, West title since 1989, finishing with a 90–72 record, the first of eight straight winning seasons. This eight-year stretch was one of the successful in Giants franchise history. During these years, Sabeans strategy was to trade away young prospects for veteran position players while developing the organizations pitching talent, Sabean traded away many prospects that never materialized into major leaguers in exchange for experienced major leaguers during late season pushes toward the playoffs. These trades have included All-Stars Jeff Kent, Jason Schmidt, Robb Nen, Kenny Lofton, Andrés Galarraga, Ellis Burks, Joe Carter, Roberto Hernández, Wilson Álvarez, after the Giants narrowly lost the 2002 World Series, Sabean was forced to dramatically retool. The Giants lost several key players, including Jeff Kent, Reggie Sanders, Jay Witasick, David Bell, Sabean signed veterans José Cruz, Jr. Neifi Pérez, Edgardo Alfonzo, and Ray Durham to replace some of the free agents the Giants lost. He also traded away fan favorite Russ Ortiz and Liván Hernández, Sabean hired Felipe Alou to replace fan favorite Dusty Baker who became the manager of the Chicago Cubs. Despite these major roster moves, the Giants won 100 games in 2003, Sabean was named Executive of the Year by the Sporting News in 2003, the first time a member of the Giants organization had received that award since Al Rosen in 1987. The trade of Moss and Kurt Ainsworth for Sidney Ponson, which Sabean arranged late in the 2003 season, was criticized by some Giants fans and columnists
