1.
Alfonso Soriano
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Alfonso Guilleard Soriano is a Dominican former professional baseball left fielder and second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals, and in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Soriano began his career with Hiroshima in 1996, but signed with the Yankees as a free agent in 1998 and was assigned to play in minor league baseball. The next year, he was the Most Valuable Player in the All-Star Futures Game, the Yankees traded Soriano to the Rangers after the 2003 season, and the Rangers traded Soriano to the Nationals after the 2005 season. He signed a contract as an agent with the Cubs before the 2007 season. The Cubs traded Soriano to the Yankees in 2013, and the Yankees released him in 2014, Soriano was a seven-time MLB All-Star, and won the All-Star Game MVP Award in 2004. He won the Silver Slugger Award four times and he played primarily as a second baseman for the Yankees and Rangers before being converted to an outfielder with the Nationals. Soriano is one of only 54 major league players to hit 400 or more home runs. Soriano began his baseball career in Japan with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. Soriano spent 1996 playing in Japan in the minor Western League, in 1997, he was promoted to the varsity team, and, wearing uniform number 74, he appeared in nine games, batting.118 with two walks. Soriano disliked the intense Japanese practice schedule, and the Carp denied him an increase from $45,000 to $180,000 per year. Like Hideo Nomo and Hideki Irabu, who had previously left Japan to play in the United States and this prompted Carp executives to file an injunction against Soriano, and to send letters to MLB teams demanding that they cease all negotiations with him. After the Nomo case, NPB officials had amended the Working Agreement without consulting any MLB officials in an attempt to prevent the situation from recurring. Since MLB had not agreed to any changes to the agreement, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig declared that MLB would recognize Soriano as an agent on July 13,1998. Soriano signed as an agent with the New York Yankees in 1998, starting his career as an infielder, first as a third baseman. Soriano was named to the All-Star Futures Game in 1999 and he won the games most valuable player award after hitting two home runs in the contest. He played in New York for five seasons and his first hit in MLB came in 1999 when he hit a game-winning home run against Norm Charlton of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He finished in place for Rookie of the Year honors in 2001
2.
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
3.
Barry Bonds
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Barry Lamar Bonds is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants. Bonds received seven NL MVP awards and 14 All-Star selections, and is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Bonds was regarded as an exceptional hitter, and finished his regular season career with a very high on-base percentage and isolated power. He holds many MLB hitting records, including most career runs, most home runs in a single season. He also received eight Gold Gloves for his defense in the outfield and he is ranked second in career Wins Above Replacement among all major league position players by both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. com, behind only Babe Ruth. Bonds led a career, notably as a central figure in baseballs steroids scandal. In 2007, he was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for lying to the grand jury during the federal governments investigation of BALCO. The perjury charges against Bonds were dropped, and he was initially convicted of obstruction of justice. Bonds has not been elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first four years of eligibility, in the 2016 season, Bonds served as the hitting coach for the Miami Marlins. He played on the varsity team during his freshman year. He batted for a.467 batting average his senior year, Bonds attended Arizona State University, hitting.347 with 45 home runs and 175 runs batted in. In 1984 he batted.360 and had 30 stolen bases, in 1985, he hit 23 home runs with 66 RBIs and a.368 batting average. He was a Sporting News All-American selection that year and he tied the NCAA record with seven consecutive hits in the College World Series as sophomore and was named to All-Time College World Series Team in 1996. He graduated from Arizona State in 1986 with a degree in criminology and he was named ASU On Deck Circle Most Valuable Player, other winners include Dustin Pedroia, Willie Bloomquist, Paul Lo Duca, and Ike Davis. During college, he played part of one summer in the amateur Alaska Baseball League with the Alaska Goldpanners, the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Bonds as the sixth overall pick of the 1985 Major League Baseball draft. He joined the Prince William Pirates of the Carolina League and was named July 1985 Player of the Month for the league, in 1986, he hit.311 in 44 games for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. Before Bonds made it to the leagues in Pittsburgh, Pirate fan attendance was low. Bonds made his league debut on May 30,1986. In 1986, Bonds led National League rookies with 16 home runs,48 RBI,36 stolen bases and 65 walks and he played center field in 1986, but switched to left field with the arrival of centerfielder Andy Van Slyke in 1987
4.
Alex Rodriguez
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Alexander Emmanuel A-Rod Rodriguez is a Dominican-American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Rodriguez was one of the sports most highly touted prospects and is considered one of the greatest baseball players of all time. During his 22-year career, Rodriguez has amassed a.297 batting average,696 home runs, over 2,000 runs batted in, over 2,000 runs scored, and over 3,000 hits. He is a 14-time All-Star and has won three American League Most Valuable Player Awards, ten Silver Slugger Awards, and two Gold Glove Awards, Rodríguez is the career record holder for grand slams with 25. The Mariners selected Rodriguez first overall in the 1993 MLB draft, in 1996, he became the Mariners starting shortstop and finished second in voting for the AL MVP Award. Rodriguezs combination of power, speed, and defense made him a cornerstone of the franchise, the 10-year, $252 million contract he signed was the richest in baseball history. He played at a level in his three years with Texas, highlighted by his first AL MVP Award win in 2003. Prior to the 2004 season, Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees, in his first four seasons with New York, he was twice more named AL MVP. After opting out of his following the 2007 season, Rodriguez signed a new 10-year, $275 million deal with the Yankees. He became the youngest player ever to hit 500 home runs and he won his first World Series in 2009, which was the first year of the new Yankee Stadium. The following year, he became the leader in home runs by a player of Hispanic descent. In recent years, Rodriguez has been hampered by hip and knee injuries and he played his final game as a Yankee on August 12,2016. In August 2013, MLB suspended him 211 games for his involvement in the scandal, had the original suspension been upheld, it would have been the longest non-lifetime suspension in Major League Baseball history. After an arbitration hearing, the suspension was reduced to 162 games, Rodriguez was born in the Washington Heights section of New York City, to a Dominican family. When he was four, Rodriguez and his parents moved to the Dominican Republic, then to Miami, Rodriguezs favorite baseball players growing up were Keith Hernandez, Dale Murphy, and Cal Ripken Jr. and his favorite team was the New York Mets. In 100 games he batted.419 with 90 steals, westminster went on to win the high school national championship in his junior year. He was first team prep All-American as a senior, hitting.505 with nine runs,36 runs batted in. He was selected as the USA Baseball Junior Player of the Year, in 1993, Rodriguez became the first high school player to ever try out for the United States national baseball team
5.
Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award
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The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award is an annual Major League Baseball award, given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers Association of America, MVP voting takes place before the postseason, but the results are not announced until after the World Series. The BBWAA began by polling three writers in each city in 1938, reducing that number to two per league city in 1961. The BBWAA does not offer a definition of what most valuable means. First basemen, with 34 winners, have won the most MVPs among infielders, followed by second basemen, third basemen, of the 24 pitchers who have won the award,15 are right-handed while 9 are left-handed. Walter Johnson, Carl Hubbell, and Hal Newhouser are the pitchers who have won multiple times. Barry Bonds has won the most often and the most consecutively, jimmie Foxx was the first player to win multiple times,9 players have won three times, and 19 have won twice. Frank Robinson is the player to win the award in both the American and National Leagues. The awards only tie occurred in the National League in 1979, there have been 18 unanimous winners, who received all the first-place votes. The New York Yankees have the most winning players with 22, the award has never been presented to a member of the following four teams, Arizona Diamondbacks, Miami Marlins, New York Mets, and Tampa Bay Rays. The most recent recipients are Mike Trout in the American League, in recent decades, pitchers have rarely won the award. When Justin Verlander won the AL award in 2011, he became the first pitcher in league to be named the MVP since Dennis Eckersley in 1992. Verlander also became the first starting pitcher to win this award since Roger Clemens had accomplished the feat in 1986. The National League went even longer without an MVP award to a pitcher—after Bob Gibson won in 1968, the 1910 race for best average in the American League was between the Detroit Tigers widely disliked Ty Cobb and Nap Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians. On the last day of the season, Lajoie overtook Cobbs batting average with seven bunt hits against the St. Louis Browns, American League President Ban Johnson said a recalculation showed that Cobb had won the race anyway, and Chalmers ended up awarding cars to both players. The following season, Chalmers created the Chalmers Award, a committee of baseball writers were to convene after the season to determine the most important and useful player to the club and to the league. Since the award was not as effective at advertising as Chalmers had hoped, in 1922 the American League created a new award to honor the baseball player who is of the greatest all-around service to his club. Winners, voted on by a committee of eight baseball writers chaired by James Crusinberry, received a bronze medal, voters were required to select one player from each team and player-coaches and prior award winners were ineligible
6.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
7.
San Francisco Giants
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The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball franchise based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, and renamed three years later to the New York Giants, the team moved to San Francisco in 1958. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League West division. As one of the longest-established and most successful baseball teams. The team was the first major team based in New York City. They have won 23 NL pennants and have played in 20 World Series competitions – both NL records, the Giants eight World Series championships rank second in the National League and are tied for fourth overall. The Giants have played in the World Series 20 times –14 times in New York, six in San Francisco –, the Giants franchise has the most Hall of Fame players in all of professional baseball. The Giants rivalry with the Dodgers is one of the longest-standing, the teams began their rivalry as the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, respectively, before both franchises moved west for the 1958 season. The Giants have won six pennants and three World Series championships since arriving in San Francisco and those three championships have come in 2010,2012, and most recently in 2014, having defeated the Kansas City Royals four games to three during the 2014 World Series. The Giants began as the baseball club founded by millionaire tobacconist John B. Day and veteran amateur baseball player Jim Mutrie, the Gothams, as the Giants were originally known, entered the National League in 1883, while their other club, the Metropolitans played in the American Association. Nearly half of the original Gotham players were members of the disbanded Troy Trojans, Louis Browns in a pre-modern-era World Series. They repeated as champions the year with a pennant and Championship victory over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. It is said that one particularly satisfying victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, Mutrie. From then on, the club was known as the Giants, the Giants original home stadium, the Polo Grounds, dates from this early era. It was originally located north of Central Park adjacent to 5th and 6th Avenues and 110th and 112th Streets, the Giants were a powerhouse in the late 1880s, winning their first two National League Pennants and World Championships in 1888 and 1889. But nearly all of the Giants stars jumped to the upstart Players League, whose New York franchise was named the Giants. The new team built a stadium next door to the Polo Grounds
8.
Seattle Mariners
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The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the American League West division. The team joined the AL as a team in 1977. Since July 1999, the Mariners home ballpark has been Safeco Field, the Mariners name originates from the prominence of marine culture in the city of Seattle. They are nicknamed the Ms, a featured in their primary logo from 1987 to 1992. The current team colors of Navy blue, Northwest green, and silver were adopted prior to the 1993 season after having been royal blue and their mascot is the Mariner Moose. The organization did not field a team until 1991, and any real success eluded them until 1995 when they won their first division championship. The Mariners won 116 games in 2001, which set the American League record for most wins in a single season, through the 2016 season, the franchise has finished with a losing record in 27 of 40 seasons. The Mariners are one of eight Major League Baseball teams who have never won a World Series championship, the Mariners were created as a result of a lawsuit. Confident that Major League Baseball would return to Seattle within a few years, King County built the multi-purpose Kingdome, the name Mariners was chosen by club officials in August 1976 from over 600 names submitted by 15,000 entrants in a name-the-team contest. The Mariners played their first game on April 6,1977, to a crowd of 57,762 at the Kingdome. The first home run in history was hit on April 10,1977. That year, star pitcher Diego Seguí, in his last major league season, the Mariners finished with a 64–98 record, echoing the record the 1969 Pilots once held. In 1979, Seattle hosted the 50th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, after the 1981 season, the Mariners were sold to California businessman and future U. S. Ambassador to Spain George Argyros. During the 1992–93 offseason, the Mariners hired manager Lou Piniella, Mariner fans embraced Piniella, and he would helm the team from 1993 through 2002, winning two American League Manager of the Year Awards along the way. In doing so, the broke the 1998 Yankees American League single-season record of 114 wins. On October 22,2008 the Mariners announced the hiring of Jack Zduriencik, formerly scouting director of the Milwaukee Brewers, weeks later, on November 18, the team named Oakland Athletics bench coach Don Wakamatsu as its new field manager. Wakamatsu and Zduriencik hired a new coaching staff for 2009
9.
Mickey Mantle
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Mickey Charles Mantle, nicknamed The Commerce Comet and The Mick, was an American professional baseball player. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees as a fielder and first baseman. Mantle was one of the best players and sluggers, and is regarded by many as the greatest switch hitter in baseball history, Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. Mantle was arguably the greatest offensive threat of any center fielder in baseball history and he has the highest career OPS+ of any center fielder and he had the highest stolen base percentage in history at the time of his retirement. He also had an excellent 0.984 fielding percentage when playing center field, Mantle was noted for his ability to hit for both average and power, especially tape measure home runs. He hit 536 MLB career home runs, batted.300 or more ten times, Mantle won the Triple Crown in 1956, leading the major leagues in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in, he later wrote a book about his best year in baseball. He was an All-Star for 16 seasons, playing in 16 of the 20 All-Star Games that were played and he was an American League Most Valuable Player three times and a Gold Glove winner once. Mantle appeared in 12 World Series including seven championships, and holds World Series records for the most home runs, RBIs, extra-base hits, runs, walks, and total bases. Mantle was born on October 20,1931 in Spavinaw, Oklahoma and he was of at least partial English ancestry, his great-grandfather, George Mantle, left Brierley Hill, in Englands Black Country, in 1848. Mutt named his son in honor of Mickey Cochrane, a Hall of Fame catcher, later in his life, Mantle expressed relief that his father had not known Cochranes true first name, as he would have hated to be named Gordon. Mantle spoke warmly of his father, and said he was the bravest man he ever knew, No boy ever loved his father more, he said. His grandfather died at the age of 60 in 1944, when Mantle was four years old, his family moved to the nearby town of Commerce, Oklahoma, where his father worked in lead and zinc mines. As a teenager, Mantle rooted for the St. Louis Cardinals, Mantle was an all-around athlete at Commerce High School, playing basketball as well as football in addition to his first love, baseball. His football playing nearly ended his athletic career, kicked in the left shin during a practice game during his sophomore year, Mantle developed osteomyelitis in his left ankle, a crippling disease that was incurable just a few years earlier. Mantle began his baseball career in Kansas with the semi-professional Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. In 1948, Yankees scout Tom Greenwade came to Baxter Springs to watch Mantles teammate, during the game, Mantle hit three home runs. Greenwade returned in 1949, after Mantles high school graduation, to sign Mantle to a league contract. Mantle signed for $140 per month with a $1,500 signing bonus, Mantle was assigned to the Yankees Class-D Independence Yankees of the Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League, where he played shortstop
10.
Vladimir Guerrero
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Vladimir Alvino Guerrero is a Dominican former professional baseball player who spent 16 seasons in Major League Baseball as a right fielder and designated hitter. He played for the Montreal Expos from, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim from, the Texas Rangers in, in 2004, he was voted the American League Most Valuable Player. He helped lead the Angels to five AL West championships, and was voted as one of the most feared hitters in baseball in a 2008 poll of all 30 major league managers. In the first pitch of an at-bat, he hit 126 home runs, believed to be the most ever, on September 26,2011, Guerrero became the all-time MLB leader in hits among players from the Dominican Republic, surpassing Julio Franco. He was later surpassed by Adrián Beltré in 2014, at the time of his final game, he was the leader among active major league outfielders in errors, with 125, and was second in assists, with 126. His older brother, Wilton Guerrero, also played in Major League Baseball, one of nine children, Guerrero is the younger brother of ex-major leaguer Wilton Guerrero, who also played with the Montreal Expos. He is also the cousin of minor leaguer Cristian Guerrero, and his son, Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. was born in Montreal, Canada in 1999 during the elder Guerreros time with the Expos, and is also a baseball prospect. On July 2,2015, he was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays, as of 2012, Guerrero had a total of eight children with five different women. His 6-foot-3-inch frame, strong arm, and unusual ability to hit out of the strike zone drew attention at a Dodgers training camp. After injuring his hamstring running out a double, he hit a home run in his next at bat to avoid having to run the bases. Due to his leg condition, Guerrero only received a 30-day contract, but he grew frustrated with the structure of the Dodgers camp, and left. In March 1993, Guerrero signed with the Montreal Expos, during the process he lied about his age, claiming to be born February 9,1976. It was not until March 2009 that he revealed to Major League Baseball that he was born February 9,1975, in 1994, Guerrero hit.314 in 37 games with the Expos Rookie League team. The next year he hit.333 with the Albany Polecats, in 1996, while advancing from Single-A to Double-A, Guerrero batted.360 with 24 home runs and 96 RBI. His September callup was unproductive, although he hit his first major league home run, Guerrero was signed by the Montreal Expos as an amateur free agent on March 1,1993 and eventually made his major league debut on September 19,1996. He was 1 for 5 in his debut, with his first hit a single to center field off of Steve Avery of the Atlanta Braves in the top of the 4th. He hit his first career home run off of the Braves closer Mark Wohlers on September 21,1996 and he was criticized during his first season in 1997 for being too aggressive at the plate. Nonetheless, he put up solid numbers for a rookie, batting.302 with 11 HRs and 40 RBI in just 325 at-bats, Guerrero led all major league outfielders in errors in 1997,1998,1999,2000, and 2001
