2000 Major League Baseball season
The 2000 Major League Baseball season ended with the New York Yankees defeating the New York Mets in five games, for their third consecutive World Series title. The 2000 World Series was known as the Subway Series because both fans and the two teams could take the subway to and from every game of the series. A then-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 and only the fifth since 1949 no pitcher pitched a no-hitter. Postseason MVPs World Series MVP – Derek Jeter ALCS MVP – David Justice NLCS MVP – Mike Hampton All-Star Game, July 11 at Turner Field – American League, 6–3. 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. January 31 – Braves reliever John Rocker is suspended from baseball until May 1 by Commissioner Bud Selig for his racial and ethnic remarks in an article published in Sports Illustrated last month.
He's fined $20,000 and ordered to undergo sensitivity training. February 10 – The Seattle Mariners accommodate center fielder Ken Griffey, Jr. trading him to his hometown Cincinnati Reds in exchange for four players. Cincinnati resisted giving up infielder Pokey Reese. February 29 – Manager Sparky Anderson, 19th-century star Bid McPhee, Negro League player Norman "Turkey" Stearnes are elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee. March 1 – Independent arbitrator Shyam Das cuts Braves pitcher John Rocker's suspension from 28 days to 14 days. Rocker, allowed to report to spring training with the team has his fine cut. March 29 – The Chicago Cubs open the major league season in the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, by defeating the New York Mets 5–3, in the first big league game played outside of North America. Jon Lieber gets Mike Hampton takes the loss. Shane Andrews hits the first home run of the season. Mark Grace and Mike Piazza 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 home 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 ninth inning on nine pitches, tying a major league record. April 7 – A total of 57 home runs are hit in the 15 games played, for a new major league record; the previous mark of 55 was set in 17 games on August 13, 1999. There were 36 homers hit in the AL. April 7 – The Tampa Bay Devil Rays open their home schedule playing home games at Tropicana Field on the new FieldTurf artificial surface, the first professional baseball venue to use that material, 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.
Ron Coomer, Jacque Jones, Matt LeCroy hit consecutive homers for Minnesota in the 6th inning, followed by three in a row by Carlos Beltrán, Jermaine Dye, Mike Sweeney of Kansas City an inning later. April 10 – Colorado beats Cincinnati 7–5, despite Ken Griffey, Jr.'s 400th career home run. At age of 30, Griffey is the youngest player in major league history to reach that milestone. April 11 – The Los Angeles Dodgers edge the San Francisco Giants 6–5 in the first game played at Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco. Shortstop Kevin Elster leads the Dodger attack with three home runs. April 11 – The Detroit Tigers sink the Seattle Mariners 5–2 in the first game played at Comerica Park in Detroit. April 15 – The Baltimore Orioles defeat the Twins 6–4, as Cal Ripken, Jr. gets the 3,000th hit of his career. Ripken goes 3-for-5 in becoming the 24th player to reach the milestone, the 7th to get 3,000 hits and 400 home runs. April 16 – Cleveland Indians starter Chuck Finley, the only pitcher to strike out four batters in one inning twice, does it for the third time, striking out Tom Evans, Royce Clayton, Chad Curtis and Rafael Palmeiro in the third inning.
Finley beats the Texas Rangers 2–1 with the help of back-to-back ninth-inning home runs from Manny Ramírez and Jim Thome. April 21 – The Anaheim Angels down the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 9–6. Mo Vaughn and Tim Salmon hit back-to-back home runs for Anaheim in the fourth inning do so again in the ninth. Troy Glaus homers in both the fourth and the ninth; this the first time in major league history that three players homer in the same inning on two occasions in the same game. The Angels' three players with two home runs. April 23 – In the New York Yankees' 10–7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, Yankees Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada each hit home runs from both sides of the plate, marking the first time in major league history that a pair of teammates accomplish the feat in the same game. April 29 – The San F
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the American League East division, they are one of two major league clubs based in New York City, the other being the New York Mets of the National League. In the 1901 season, the club began play in the AL as the Baltimore Orioles. Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the franchise and moved it to New York City, renaming the club the New York Highlanders; the Highlanders were renamed the Yankees in 1913. The team is owned by Yankee Global Enterprises, an LLC controlled by the family of the late George Steinbrenner, who purchased the team in 1973. Brian Cashman is the team's general manager, Aaron Boone is the team's field manager; the team's home games were played at the original Yankee Stadium from 1923 to 1973 and from 1976 to 2008. In 1974 and 1975, the Yankees shared Shea Stadium with the Mets, in addition to the New York Jets, New York Giants.
In 2009, they moved into a new ballpark of the same name after the previous facility was closed and demolished. The team is perennially among the leaders in MLB attendance; as arguably the most successful sports club in the United States, the Yankees have won 40 AL pennants, 27 World Series championships, all of which are MLB records. The Yankees have won more titles than any other franchise in the four major North American sports leagues. Forty-four Yankees players and eleven Yankees managers have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford. In pursuit of winning championships, the franchise has used a large payroll to attract talent during the Steinbrenner era. According to Forbes, the Yankees are the second highest valued sports franchise in the United States and the fifth in the world, with an estimated value of $4 billion; the Yankees have garnered enormous popularity and a dedicated fanbase, as well as widespread enmity from fans of other MLB teams.
The team's rivalry with the Boston Red Sox is one of the most well-known rivalries in U. S. sports. From 1903-2018, the Yankees overall win-loss record is 10275-7781. In 1900, Ban Johnson, the president of a minor league known as the Western League, changed the Western League name to the American League and asked the National League to classify it as a major league. Johnson held that his league would operate in friendly terms with the National league, but the National league ridiculed the plan. Johnson declared official major league status for his league in 1901. Plans to add a team in New York City were blocked by the NL's New York Giants. A team was instead placed in Baltimore, Maryland in 1901. Between 1901 and 1903, many players and coaches on the Orioles roster jumped to the Giants. In January 1903, a "peace conference" was held between the two leagues to settle disputes and try to coexist. At the conference, Johnson requested that an AL team be put in New York, to play alongside the NL's Giants.
It was put to a vote, 15 of the 16 major league owners agreed on it. The Orioles' new owners, Frank J. Farrell and William S. Devery moved the team to New York in 1903; the team's new ballpark, Hilltop Park, was constructed in one of Upper Manhattan's highest points—between 165th and 168th Streets. The team was named the New York Highlanders. Fans believed the name was chosen because of the team's elevated location in Upper Manhattan, or as a nod to team president Joseph Gordon's Scottish-Irish heritage; the team was referred to as the New York Americans. The team was referred to as the "Invaders" in the Evening Journal. New York Press Sports Editor Jim Price coined the unofficial nickname Yankees for the club as early as 1904, because it was easier to fit in headlines; the Highlanders finished second in the AL in 1904, 1906, 1910. In 1904, they lost the deciding game to the Boston Americans, who became the Boston Red Sox; that year, Highlander pitcher Jack Chesbro set the single-season wins record at 41.
At this time there was no formal World Series agreement wherein the AL and NL winners would play each other. The original Polo Grounds burned down in 1911 and the Highlanders shared Hilltop Park with the Giants during a two-month renovation period. From 1913 to 1922, the Highlanders shared the Polo Grounds with the Giants. While playing at the Polo Grounds, the name "Highlanders" fell into disuse among the press. In 1913 the team became known as the New York Yankees. By the middle of the decade, Yankees owners Farrell and Devery had become estranged and in need of money. At the start of 1915, they sold the team to Colonel Jacob Ruppert, a brewer, Captain Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston, a contractor-engineer. All the games of the 1921 and 1922 World Series were played in the Polo Grounds, when the Yankees squared off against their intracity rivals, the Giants. In the years around 1920, the Yankees, the Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox had a détente; the trades between the three ballclubs antagonized Ban Johnson and garnered the teams the nickname "The Insurrectos".
This détente paid off well for the Yankees. Most new players who contributed to the team's success came from the Red Sox, whose owner, Harry Frazee, was trading them for large sums of money to finance his theatrical productions. Pitcher-turned-outfielder Babe Ruth was the most talented of all the acquisition
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports magazine owned by Meredith Corporation. First published in August 1954, it has over 3 million subscribers and is read by 23 million people each week, including over 18 million men, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. It is known for its annual swimsuit issue, published since 1964, has spawned other complementary media works and products. There were two magazines named Sports Illustrated before the current magazine began on August 16, 1954. In 1936, Stuart Scheftel created Sports Illustrated with a target market for the sportsman, he published the magazine from 1936 to 1938 on a monthly basis. The magazine was a life magazine size and focused on golf and skiing with articles on the major sports, he sold the name to Dell Publications, which released Sports Illustrated in 1949 and this version lasted 6 issues before closing. Dell's version focused on major sports and competed on magazine racks against Sport and other monthly sports magazines.
During the 1940s these magazines were monthly and they did not cover the current events because of the production schedules. There was no large-base, weekly sports magazine with a national following on actual active events, it was that Time patriarch Henry Luce began considering whether his company should attempt to fill that gap. At the time, many believed sports was beneath the attention of serious journalism and did not think sports news could fill a weekly magazine during the winter. A number of advisers to Luce, including Life magazine's Ernest Havemann, tried to kill the idea, but Luce, not a sports fan, decided the time was right; the goal of the new magazine was to be a magazine, but with sports. Many at Time-Life scoffed at Luce's idea. Launched on August 16, 1954, it was not profitable and not well run at first, but Luce's timing was good; the popularity of spectator sports in the United States was about to explode, that popularity came to be driven by three things: economic prosperity and Sports Illustrated.
The early issues of the magazine seemed caught between two opposing views of its audience. Much of the subject matter was directed at upper-class activities such as yachting and safaris, but upscale would-be advertisers were unconvinced that sports fans were a significant part of their market. After more than a decade of steady losses, the magazine's fortunes turned around in the 1960s when Andre Laguerre became its managing editor. A European correspondent for Time, Inc. who became chief of the Time-Life news bureaux in Paris and London, Laguerre attracted Henry Luce's attention in 1956 with his singular coverage of the Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, which became the core of SI's coverage of those games. In May 1956, Luce brought Laguerre to New York to become assistant managing editor of the magazine, he was named managing editor in 1960, he more than doubled the circulation by instituting a system of departmental editors, redesigning the internal format, inaugurating the unprecedented use in a news magazine of full-color photographic coverage of the week's sports events.
He was one of the first to sense the rise of national interest in professional football. Laguerre instituted the innovative concept of one long story at the end of every issue, which he called the "bonus piece"; these well-written, in-depth articles helped to distinguish Sports Illustrated from other sports publications, helped launch the careers of such legendary writers as Frank Deford, who in March 2010 wrote of Laguerre, "He smoked cigars and drank Scotch and made the sun move across the heavens... His genius as an editor was that he made you want to please him, but he wanted you to do that by writing in your own distinct way."Laguerre is credited with the conception and creation of the annual Swimsuit Issue, which became, remains, the most popular issue each year. In 1990, Time Inc. merged with Warner Communications to form the media conglomerate Time Warner. In 2014, Time Inc. was spun off from Time Warner. In November 2017, Meredith Corporation announced that it would acquire Time Inc. and the acquisition was completed in January 2018.
However, in March 2018, Meredith stated that it would explore selling Sports Illustrated and several other former Time properties, arguing that they did not properly align with the company's lifestyle brands and publications. From its start, Sports Illustrated introduced a number of innovations that are taken for granted today: Liberal use of color photos—though the six-week lead time meant they were unable to depict timely subject matter Scouting reports—including a World Series Preview and New Year's Day bowl game round-up that enhanced the viewing of games on television In-depth sports reporting from writers like Robert Creamer, Tex Maule and Dan Jenkins. Regular illustration features by artists like Robert Riger. High school football Player of the Month awards. Inserts of sports cards in the center of the magazine 1994 Launched Sports Illustrated Interactive CD-ROM with StarPress Multimedia, Incorporates player stats and highlights from the year in sports. In 2015 Sports Illustrated purchased a group of software companies and combined them to create Sports Illustrated Play, a platform that offers sports league management software as a service.
In 1965, offset printing bega
Home run
In baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process. In modern baseball, the feat is 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 the "inside-the-park" home run where the batter reaches home safely while the baseball is in play on the field; when a home run is scored, the batter is credited with a hit and a run scored, an RBI for each runner that scores, including himself. The pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a run for each runner that scores including the batter. Home runs are among the most popular aspects of baseball and, as a result, prolific home run hitters are the most popular among fans and the highest paid by teams—hence the old saying, "Home run hitters drive Cadillacs, singles hitters drive Fords.
In modern times a home run is most scored when the ball is hit over the outfield wall between the foul poles before it touches the ground, without being caught or deflected back onto the field by a fielder. A batted ball is 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. Additionally, many major-league ballparks have ground rules stating that a batted ball in flight that strikes a specified location or fixed object is a home run. In professional baseball, a batted ball that goes over the outfield wall after touching the ground becomes an automatic double; this is colloquially referred to as a "ground rule double" because the rule is not written into the rules of baseball, but is rather a rule of the field being used. 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 catches the ball while it is in flight the batter is out if the ball had passed the vertical plane of the wall.
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 fielder may not deliberately throw his glove, cap, or any other equipment or apparel to stop or deflect a fair ball, an umpire may award a home run to the batter if a fielder does so on a ball that, in the umpire's judgment, would have otherwise been a home run. A home run accomplished in any of the above manners is an automatic home run; the ball is dead if it rebounds back onto the field, the batter and any preceding runners cannot be put out at any time while running the bases. However, if one or more runners fail to touch a base or one runner passes another before reaching home plate, that runner or runners can be called out on appeal, though in the case of not touching a base a runner can go back and touch it if doing so won't cause them to be passed by another preceding runner and they have not yet touched the next base; 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 an outside-the-park 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. In the early days of baseball, outfields were much more spacious, reducing the likelihood of an over-the-fence home run, while increasing the likelihood of an inside-the-park home run, as a ball getting past an outfielder had more distance that it could roll before a fielder could track it down. Modern outfields are much less spacious and more uniformly designed than in the game's early days, therefore inside-the-park home runs are now a rarity, they occur when a fast runner hits the ball deep into the outfield and the ball bounces in an unexpected direction away from the nearest outfielder, or an outfielder misjudges the flight of the ball in a way that he cannot recover from the mistake.
The speed of the runner is crucial as triples are rare in most modern ballparks. If any defensive play on an inside-the-park home run is labeled an error by the official scorer, a home run is not scored. All runs scored on such a play, 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. Ichiro Suzuki of the American League team hit a fly ball that caromed off the right-center field wall in the opposite direction from where National League right fielder Ken Griffey, Jr. was expecting it to go. By the time the ball was relayed, Ichiro had crossed the plate standing up; this was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, led to Suzu
Bellevue, Washington
Bellevue is a city in the Eastside region of King County, United States, across Lake Washington from Seattle. As the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area, Bellevue has variously been characterized as an edge city, a suburb, boomburb, or satellite city, its population was 144,444 in a 2017 census estimate. Prior to 2008, downtown Bellevue underwent rapid change, with many high rise projects under construction, was unaffected by the economic downturn; the downtown area is the second largest city center in Washington state with 1,300 businesses, 45,000 employees and 10,200 residents. Based on per capita income, Bellevue is the 6th wealthiest of 522 communities in the state of Washington. In 2008, Bellevue was named number 1 in CNNMoney's list of the best places to live and launch a business, in 2010 was again ranked as the 4th best place to live in America. In 2014, Bellevue was ranked as the 2nd best place to live by USA Today. More than 145 companies have been located in Bellevue.
Current companies with headquarters in Bellevue include T-Mobile and Valve Corporation. The name "Bellevue" is derived from the French words for "beautiful view". Bellevue was settled in 1869 by William Meydenbauer and Aaron Mercer, who claimed homestead tracts several miles apart. Prior to the opening of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge in 1940, Bellevue was a rural area with little development. Although it was small, developers were pushing to change that, he envisioned plans that included the bridging of Lake Washington and an area filled with golf courses and airports. His map with these visions was published in 1928. Once the Murrow Memorial Bridge opened, access from Seattle improved, the area grew into a bedroom community. After the Japanese Internment began in 1942, a large quantity of farmland became available for development; this made way for the initial development of the Bellevue downtown area. Bellevue incorporated a third class city on the March 21, 1953. Following the 1963 opening of a second bridge across the lake, the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, the city began to grow more rapidly.
The Crossroads community was annexed in 1964. Lake Hills was annexed in 1969. By the 1970 census, Bellevue had become the fourth most populated city in the state of Washington, following only Seattle and Tacoma. Bellevue remains one of the largest cities in the state, with several high-rise structures in its core and a burgeoning business community; the city experienced a building boom during the mid 2000s, with the building of developments such as Lincoln Square and the Bravern. Reflective of Bellevue's growth over the years is Bellevue Square, now one of the largest shopping centers in the region. Opened in 1946, the mall underwent a significant expansion in the 1980s. More an expansion along Bellevue Way called "The Lodge" and the new One Lincoln Tower promise to strengthen downtown Bellevue's role as the largest Seattle Eastside shopping and dining destination; the city's long-term plans include the Bel-Red Corridor Project, a large-scale planning effort to encourage the redevelopment of a large northern section of the city bordering the adjacent town of Redmond, a major employment area in the city.
Patterned after what many civic leaders consider the successful redevelopment of the downtown core, early plans include "superblock" mixed use projects similar to Lincoln Square. Premised on the 2008 approval of the extension of Link Light Rail to the Eastside, the city hopes to mitigate transportation problems impeding earlier efforts in redeveloping the downtown core. Bellevue is located at 47°36′N 122°12′W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 36.47 square miles, of which, 31.97 square miles is land and 4.50 square miles is water. The city's name is derived from a French term for "beautiful view". Under favorable weather conditions, scenic vistas of the Olympic Mountains and Cascade Mountains can be viewed from hilltops within the incorporated city; the city lies between Lake Washington to the smaller Lake Sammamish to the east. Much of Bellevue is drained by the Kelsey Creek watershed, whose source is located in the Larsen and Phantom Lake green belt and whose outlet is near where Interstate 90 meets Lake Washington's eastern shore.
The city is bisected by Interstate 405 running north-south, the southern portion is crossed from west to east by Interstate 90. The State Route 520 freeway delineates the upper reaches of Bellevue. South of I-90, the city continues up Cougar Mountain, at the top of which lies is an unincorporated King County location called Hilltop. To the west of Cougar Mountain, Bellevue includes the Coal Creek and Factoria neighborhoods. Bellevue is bordered by the cities of Kirkland to the north and Redmond to the northeast along the Overlake and Crossroads neighborhoods. Across the short East Channel Bridge, I-90 connects Bellevue to Mercer Island to the southwest. Issaquah is to the down I-90 at the south end of Lake Sammamish; the city is bordered to the west by many affluent suburbs such as Medina, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point and Yarrow Point. The south end of Bellevue is bordered by the city of Renton, to the southeast, the recently incorporated city of Newcastle. Communities within Bellevue include Bellecrest, Bridle Trails, Eastgate/
College World Series
The College World Series is an annual June baseball tournament held in Omaha, Nebraska. The CWS is the culmination of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Baseball Championship tournament—featuring 64 teams in the first round—which determines the NCAA Division I college baseball champion; the eight participating teams are split into two, four-team, double-elimination brackets, with the winners of each bracket playing in a best-of-three championship series. Since 1950, the College World Series has been held in Nebraska, it was held at Rosenblatt Stadium from 1950 through 2010. Earlier tournaments were held at Hyames Field in Kalamazoo and Lawrence Stadium in Wichita, Kansas; the name "College World Series" is derived from that of the Major League Baseball World Series championship. On June 10, 2009, the NCAA and College World Series of Omaha, Inc., the non-profit group that organizes the event, announced a new 25-year contract extension, keeping the CWS in Omaha through 2035.
A memorandum of understanding had been reached by all parties on April 30. The binding contract began in 2011, the same year the tournament moved from Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium to TD Ameritrade Park Omaha, a new ballpark across from CenturyLink Center Omaha. See also: NCAA Division I Baseball Championship § Past formats 1947 – Eight teams were divided into two, four-team, single-elimination playoffs; the two winners met in a best-of-three final in Kalamazoo, Michigan. 1948 – Similar to 1947, but the two, four-team playoffs were changed to double-elimination tournaments. Again in the finals, the two winners met in a best-of-three format in Kalamazoo. 1949 – The final was expanded to a four-team, double-elimination format and the site changed to Wichita, Kansas. Eight teams began the playoffs with the four finalists decided by a best-of-three district format. 1950–1987 – An eight-team, double-elimination format for the College World Series coincided with the move to Omaha, Nebraska in 1950. From 1950 to 1953, a baseball committee chose one team from each of the eight NCAA districts to compete at the CWS, which constituted the entire Division I tournament, as there were no preliminary rounds.
Through 1987 the College World Series was a pure double-elimination event. That ended with the 1987 College World Series. In 1954, the Division I tournament began having preliminary rounds to determine the eight CWS teams. From 1954 to 1975, the number of teams in the first round of the overall tournament ranged from 21 to 32; the number of first-round teams was increased to 34 in 1976, 36 in 1982, 38 in 1985, 40 in 1986, 48 in 1987. 1988–1998 – The format was changed beginning with the 1988 College World Series, when the tournament was divided into 2 four-team double-elimination brackets, with the survivors of each bracket playing in a single championship game. The single-game championship was designed for network television, with the final game on CBS on a Saturday afternoon. Before expanding to 64 teams in 1999, the 1998 Division I tournament began with 48 teams, split into 8 six-team regionals; the 8 regional winners advanced to the College World Series. The regionals were a test of endurance, as teams had to win at least four games over four days, sometimes five if a team dropped into the loser's bracket, placing a premium on pitching.
In the last two years of the six-team regional format, the eventual CWS champion – LSU in 1997 and Southern California in 1998 – had to battle back from the loser's bracket in the regional to advance to Omaha.1999–2002 – With some 293 Division I teams playing, the NCAA expanded the overall tournament to a 64-team Regional field in 1999—with 8 National Seed teams —divided into 16 four-team regionals. The winners of the 16 "Regionals" advance to a second round, consisting of 8 two-team, best-of-three-format "Super Regionals"; the 8 Super Regional winners advance to the CWS in Omaha. While the CWS format remained the same, the expanded field meant that the eight CWS teams now are determined by the second-round Super Regionals; the 64-team bracket is set at the beginning of the championship and teams are not reseeded for the CWS. Since the 1999 College World Series, the four-team brackets in the CWS have been determined by the results of super-regional play, much like the NCAA basketball tournament.
Prior to 1999, the four-team brackets were determined by the regional tournaments. 2003–present – The championship final became a best-of-three series between the 2 four-team bracket winners, with games scheduled for Saturday and Monday evenings. In the results shown below, Score indicates the score of the championship game only. In 2008, the start of the CWS was moved back one day, an extra day of rest was added in between bracket play and the championship series. Bold indicates team won the CWS that year Bold indicates team won the CWS that year Regular indicates team was Runner-up that year CIBA was California Intercollegiate Baseball Association that competed as a division under the Pacific Coast Conference which operated under its own Charter. Independents = Miami Hurricanes and Holy Cross Crusaders SCBA was Southern California Baseball Association; the Big 12 do
Robin Ventura
Robin Mark Ventura is an American former professional baseball third baseman and manager. Ventura played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox, New York Mets, New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, he was the manager for the White Sox for five seasons. The White Sox selected Ventura with the tenth overall pick in the 1988 amateur draft from Oklahoma State University, he is a six-time Rawlings Gold Glove winner, two-time MLB All-Star selection and a National College Baseball Hall of Fame inductee. While playing college baseball for the Cowboys at OSU, Ventura was a three-time All-American who authored a Division I-record 58-game hitting streak. In 1988, he won the Dick Howser Trophy and Golden Spikes Award and played for the gold medal-winning Olympic baseball team. In his MLB career, he hit 18 grand slams. In Game 5 of the 1999 National League Championship Series, Ventura hit the "Grand Slam Single" that won the game but did not become a home run because he was unable to complete the circuit around the base paths.
In his playing career and arthritis issues in his ankle hampered his abilities in the field. After the 2011 season, the White Sox hired him to be their manager, making him the 17th former White Sox player to manage the club. Born to parents John and Darlene Ventura on July 14, 1967 in Santa Maria, Ventura is of Italian and Portuguese descent. After attending Righetti High School in Orcutt, Ventura was a 3-time All-American at Oklahoma State University, he led the nation in runs, RBI and total bases in 69 games as a freshman in 1986. In 1987, he had a NCAA-record 58-game hitting streak, breaking the previous record of 47, his hitting streak remains the Division I record, though his mark was surpassed in 2003 by Damian Costantino of Division III Salve Regina University, who had a 60-game streak. Ventura helped OSU reach the finals of the 1987 College World Series, although they lost the championship game to a Stanford University team that included future teammate Jack McDowell. Ventura collected four hits – including a pair of doubles – in the final game and batted.364 for the series.
That summer, he played for the Hyannis Mets in the Cape Cod Baseball League, hitting.370 and led the league in runs batted in with 37. On January 19, 2002, Ventura was inducted into the Cape League Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2001. In 1988 he earned a spot on the gold medal-winning Olympic baseball team, batting.409 during the tournament. He won both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy for outstanding collegiate play, concluding his 3-year OSU career with a.428 batting average, a.792 slugging percentage, 302 RBIs. On July 4, 2006, Ventura was inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame as a member of its inaugural class. After being picked tenth in the 1988 Major League Baseball draft by the White Sox, Ventura spent much of 1989 at AA Birmingham before joining the Sox that September. While in Birmingham, he earned a spot in the Southern League All-Star Game and was voted the league's top defensive third baseman, he was named to the 1990 Topps All-Star Rookie Roster and earned the starting third base role with the White Sox the next spring.
While his 1990 rookie year was marred by an 0-for-41 slump and 25 errors, his 123 hits were the most by a White Sox rookie since Ozzie Guillén in 1985. The next year he won his first Gold Glove Award for fielding excellence, set a team record for RBIs at third base, led the AL in putouts. In 1992, Ventura earned a spot on the All-Star team. In 1993, Ventura saw his batting average drop 20 points to.262, though both his slugging and on-base percentages rose slightly. He collected his 500th hit that May and won his third straight Gold Glove, while becoming the first AL third baseman with three consecutive 90-RBI campaigns since Graig Nettles. On August 4, 1993, during a game against the Texas Rangers, Ventura was hit by a pitch thrown by Nolan Ryan. Ventura charged the mound, where Ryan, 20 years Ventura's senior, placed Ventura in a headlock and punched him several times, causing a bench-clearing brawl; this brawl was voted the top baseball brawl of all time by ESPN's SportCenter. The White Sox won the AL West that year, which resulted in Ventura's only playoff trip while in Chicago.
They would lose in the ALCS to the Toronto Blue Jays. When play resumed in 1995 following the 1994 strike, Ventura had ten errors in the first ten games, he spent some time at first base that year amid trade rumors, but ended the year with a career-high.295 average, on September 4 hit two grand slams in one game, the eighth player in history to do so and the first since Frank Robinson in 1970. The next season, he won his fourth Gold Glove, reached new highs in fielding percentage, homers and RBIs, set team records in career homers by a third baseman and grand slams; when spring training began in 1997 the White Sox were picked by many to win their division. In a spring training game at Ed Smith Stadium, Ventura slid into home plate and caught his foot in the mud, suffering a broken and dislocated right ankle; the initial prognosis was. However, Ventura returned on July 24, more than a week ahead of the most optimistic predictions, he collected the game-winning hit that night, homered in his first at-bat the next evening.
The White Sox did not make the playoffs, in part due to the "White Flag Trade". In 1998, Ventura's final season with the Sox, he won his fifth Gold Glove, but only hit.263. His homer and RBI totals were close to his career averages, but the Sox attempted to trade hi
