1.
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
2.
Toronto Blue Jays
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The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the American League East division. The team plays its games at the Rogers Centre. The Blue Jays name originates from the bird of the same name, in addition, the team was originally owned by the Labatt Brewing Company, makers of the popular beer Labatts Blue. Colloquially nicknamed the Jays, the official colours are royal blue, navy blue, red. An expansion franchise, the club was founded in Toronto in 1977, originally based at Exhibition Stadium, the team began playing its home games at the SkyDome upon its opening in 1989. Since 2000, the Blue Jays have been owned by Rogers Communications and in 2004, the SkyDome was purchased by that company, which it renamed Rogers Centre. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Blue Jays went through struggles typical of an expansion team, in 1983, the team had its first winning season and two years later, they became division champions. From 1985–1993, they were an AL East powerhouse, winning five championships in nine seasons. The Blue Jays became the first team outside the US to appear in and win a World Series, after 1993, the Blue Jays failed to qualify for the playoffs for 21 consecutive seasons, until clinching a playoff berth and division championship in 2015. The team clinched a second playoff berth in 2016, after securing an AL wild card position. Both years, the Jays won the AL Division Series, the Blue Jays are one of two MLB teams under corporate ownership, with the other being the Atlanta Braves. The Blue Jays played their first game on April 7,1977 against the Chicago White Sox before a crowd of 44,649. The game is now perhaps best remembered for the minor snowstorm which began just before the game started, Toronto won the snowy affair 9–5, led by Doug Aults two home runs. That win would be one of only 54 of the 1977 season, as the Blue Jays finished last in the AL East, after the season, assistant general manager Pat Gillick succeeded Peter Bavasi as general manager of the team, a position he would hold until 1994. In 1978, the team improved their record by five games, in 1979, after a 53–109 last place finish, shortstop Alfredo Griffin was named American League co-Rookie of the Year. In addition, the Blue Jays first mascot, BJ Birdy, in 1980, Bobby Mattick became manager, succeeding Roy Hartsfield, the Blue Jays original manager. In Matticks first season as manager, although they remained at the bottom, Toronto almost reached the 70-win mark, finishing with a record of 67–95, Jim Clancy led with 13 wins and John Mayberry became the first Jay to hit 30 home runs in a season
3.
World Series
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The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League champion team and the National League champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a playoff. As the series is played in October, during the season in North America. As of 2016, the World Series has been contested 112 times, with the AL winning 64, the 2016 World Series took place between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Seven games were played, with the Cubs victorious after game seven, the final score was 8–7, the game went into extra innings after a tied score of 6–6. This was the third World Series won by the Cubs, as well as their first title since 1908, in the National League, the St. As of 2016, no team has won consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees in 1998,1999, all championships were awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. From 1884 to 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These series were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, the number of games played ranged from as few as three in 1884, to a high of fifteen in 1887. Both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in ties, each team having won three games with one tie game, the series was promoted and referred to as The Championship of the United States, Worlds Championship Series, or Worlds Series for short. In his book Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, August 27,1883, Simon Winchester mentions in passing that the World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, but this view is disputed. Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on a basis with the post-19th-century series. After about 1930, however, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903, following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, the National League was again the only major league. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions and this scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–1897, the league played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, in 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and these series were arranged by the participating clubs, as the 1880s Worlds Series matches had been
4.
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
5.
Rawlings Gold Glove Award
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Managers are not permitted to vote for their own players. Additionally, a sabermetric component provided by Society for American Baseball Research accounts for approximately 25 percent of the vote, eighteen Gold Gloves are awarded each year, one at each of the nine positions in each league. In 1957, the glove manufacturer Rawlings created the Gold Glove Award to commemorate the best fielding performance at each position. The award was created from a made from gold lamé-tanned leather. For the first four seasons of the award, individual awards were presented to left fielders, center fielders, from 1961 through 2010, the phrase at each position was no longer strictly accurate, since the prize was presented to three outfielders irrespective of their specific position. Any combination of outfielders, often three center fielders, could win the award in the same year, critics called for awarding a single Gold Glove for each individual outfield position, arguing that the three outfield positions are not equivalent defensively. Starting in 2011, separate awards for each position were once again presented. In the 1985 American League voting, a tie for third-place resulted in the presentation of Gold Glove Awards to four outfielders, the Gold Gloves are selected by managers and coaches that may have seen a player as few as six times during the season. Bill Chuck of Comcast SportsNet New England wrote that Gold Glove voters frequently counted only errors to determine winners, geoff Baker of The Seattle Times said the votes for the Gold Gloves rely largely on a players past reputation. The Associated Press wrote that fans have viewed the Gold Gloves as mostly a popularity contest. Derek Jeter, winner of five Gold Gloves, believes that many defensive factors cannot be quantified, in 2013, Rawlings collaborated on the Gold Glove Award with SABR, who provided the SABR Defensive Index to add a sabermetric component to the selection process. The index accounted for 25 percent of the vote, while managers, afterwards, Jay Jaffe of Sports Illustrated wrote that the Gold Gloves appear to have significantly closed the gap on their more statistically-driven counterparts. The most Gold Gloves ever won by one player is 18 by pitcher Greg Maddux and he won 13 consecutive awards from 1990 to 2002, all in the National League. Brooks Robinson has the most wins as a third baseman, with 16 Gold Gloves, and is tied for the second-highest total overall with pitcher Jim Kaat, Iván Rodríguez has won the most Gold Gloves as a catcher, with 13 career awards in the American League. Ozzie Smith has 13 wins at shortstop, he and Rodríguez are tied for the fourth-highest total among all winners, among outfielders, Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays, who played primarily right field and center field, respectively, are tied for the lead with 12 Gold Gloves. Keith Hernandez, the leader at first base, has won 11 times, other players with 10 or more wins include shortstop Omar Vizquel, catcher Johnny Bench, third baseman Mike Schmidt, and outfielders Ken Griffey Jr. Ichiro Suzuki, Andruw Jones, and Al Kaline. The only player to win Gold Gloves as an infielder and outfielder is Darin Erstad, the only other player to win Gold Gloves at multiple positions is Plácido Polanco, who won at second base and third base. In 2016, Rawlings announced it would begin awarding a gold glove annually to a female fastpitch softball player in the National Pro Fastpitch league, NPF coaches and managers vote for a winner
6.
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
7.
Roberto Clemente
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Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker was a Puerto Rican professional baseball player. Clemente spent 18 Major League Baseball seasons playing in the National League as a fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1973, Clemente was an All-Star for twelve seasons and fifteen All-Star Games. He was the NL Most Valuable Player in 1966, the NL batting leader in 1961,1964,1965, and 1967, and his batting average was over.300 for thirteen seasons and he had 3,000 major league hits during his career. He also played in two World Series championships, Clemente is the first Latin American and Caribbean player to help win a World Series as a starter, to receive an NL MVP Award, and to receive a World Series MVP Award. Clemente was married in 1964, he and his wife had three children and he was involved in charity work in Latin American and Caribbean countries during the off-seasons, often delivering baseball equipment and food to those in need. On December 31,1972, he died in a crash while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua at the age of 38. Roberto Clemente was born in Barrio San Antón, Carolina, Puerto Rico, to Don Melchor Clemente and he was the youngest of seven siblings, Clemente had four brothers and two sisters. During his childhood, his father worked as foreman of sugar crops located in the municipality, because the familys resources were limited, Clemente worked alongside his father in the fields, loading and unloading trucks. Clemente showed interest in early in life and often played against neighboring barrios. He attended Vizcarrondo High School in Carolina, during his first year in high school, he was recruited by Roberto Marín to play softball with the Sello Rojo team after Marín saw Clemente playing baseball in barrio San Antón. He was with the two years as shortstop. Clemente joined Puerto Ricos amateur league when he was 16 years old, playing for the Ferdinand Juncos team and he was a bench player during his first season but was promoted to the Santurce Cangrejeros starting lineup the following season. During this season he hit.288 as the Crabbers leadoff hitter, while Clemente was playing in the LBBPR, the Brooklyn Dodgers offered him a contract with one of the teams Triple-A affiliates. After signing with the Dodgers on February 19,1954, Clemente moved to Montreal to play with the Royals, affected early on by both climate and language differences, Clemente received assistance from bilingual teammates such as infielder Chico Fernandez and pitchers Tommy Lasorda and Joe Black. In fact, it was Black who was the target of the Pittsburgh Pirates June 1,1954 scouting trip to Richmond. Conducted by pitching coach Clyde Sukeforth, the focus quickly shifted when he witnessed Clementes throwing and batting prowess in pre-game drills. Nonetheless, Clemente barely played during Sukeforths three-day visit, evidently, Macon took Sukeforth at his word, scarcely had the Pirate scout departed when, on June 4, Clemente started his first game in over a month
8.
Cocaine
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Cocaine, also known as coke, is a strong stimulant mostly used as a recreational drug. It is commonly snorted, inhaled, or injected into the veins, mental effects may include loss of contact with reality, an intense feeling of happiness, or agitation. Physical symptoms may include a fast heart rate, sweating, high doses can result in very high blood pressure or body temperature. Effects begin within seconds to minutes of use and last between five and ninety minutes, Cocaine has a small number of accepted medical uses such as numbing and decreasing bleeding during nasal surgery. Cocaine is addictive due to its effect on the pathway in the brain. After a short period of use, there is a risk that dependence will occur. Its use also increases the risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, lung problems in those who smoke it, blood infections, Cocaine sold on the street is commonly mixed with local anesthetics, cornstarch, quinine, or sugar which can result in additional toxicity. Following repeated doses a person may have decreased ability to feel pleasure, Cocaine acts by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. This results in concentrations of these three neurotransmitters in the brain. It can easily cross the barrier and may lead to the breakdown of the barrier. Cocaine is made from the leaves of the plant which are mostly grown in South America. In 2013,419 kilograms were produced legally and it is estimated that the illegal market for cocaine is 100 to 500 billion USD each year. With further processing crack cocaine can be produced from cocaine, after cannabis, cocaine is the most frequently used illegal drug globally. Between 14 and 21 million people use the drug each year, use is highest in North America followed by Europe and South America. Between one and three percent of people in the world have used cocaine at some point in their life. In 2013 cocaine use resulted in 4,300 deaths. The leaves of the plant have been used by Peruvians since ancient times. Cocaine was first isolated from the leaves in 1860, since 1961 the international Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs has required countries to make recreational use of cocaine a crime
9.
Oakland Athletics
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The Oakland Athletics are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the American League West division. The club plays its games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum. The club has won nine World Series championships, the third most of all current Major League Baseball teams, the Athletics 2017 season will be the teams 50th season in Oakland. One of the American Leagues eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Philadelphia and they won three World Series championships from 1910 to 1913 and two in a row in 1929 and 1930. The teams owner and manager for its first 50 years was Connie Mack and Hall of Fame players included Chief Bender, Frank Home Run Baker, Jimmie Foxx, the team left Philadelphia for Kansas City in 1955 and became the Kansas City Athletics before moving to Oakland in 1968. They won three World Championships in a row from 1972 to 1974, led by players including Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, ace reliever Rollie Fingers, after being sold by Finley to Walter A. Haas, Jr. The film Moneyball, and the book on which it is based, the As made their Bay Area debut on Wednesday, April 17,1968, with a 4-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at the Coliseum, in front of an opening-night crowd of 50,164. The Athletics name originated in the term Athletic Club for local gentlemens clubs—dates to 1860 when an amateur team, the team later turned professional through 1875, becoming a charter member of the National League in 1876, but were expelled from the N. L. after one season. A later version of the Athletics played in the American Association from 1882–1891, McGraw and Mack had known each other for years, and McGraw accepted it graciously. By 1909, the As were wearing an elephant logo on their sweaters, over the years the elephant has appeared in several different colors. In 1963, when the As were located in Kansas City and this is rumored to have been done by Finley in order to appeal to fans from the region who were predominantly Democrats at the time. Since 1988, the Athletics 21st season in Oakland, an illustration of an elephant has adorned the sleeve of the As home. Beginning in the mid 1980s, the on-field costumed incarnation of the As elephant mascot went by the name Harry Elephante, in 1997, he took his current form, Stomper. Through the seasons, the Athletics uniforms have usually paid homage to their forebears to some extent. Until 1954, when the uniforms had Athletics spelled out in script across the front, furthermore, neither Philadelphia nor the letter P ever appeared on the uniform or cap. The typical Philadelphia uniform had only a script A on the left front, in the early days of the American League, the standings listed the club as Athletic rather than Philadelphia, in keeping with the old tradition. Eventually, the city came to be used for the team
10.
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
