1.
Shortstop
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Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. The position is filled by defensive specialists, so shortstops are generally relatively poor batters who bat later in the batting order. In the numbering used by scorers to record defensive plays. More hit balls go to the shortstop than to any position, as there are more right-handed hitters in baseball than left-handed hitters. Like a second baseman, a shortstop must be agile, for example performing a 4-6-3 double play. Also, like a third baseman, the shortstop fields balls hit to the side of the infield. Doc Adams of the Knickerbockers created the concept of the position, according to Thorn. In the first five years the Knickerbockers played, the team fielded anywhere from eight to eleven players, the only infielders were the players covering each of the bases, if there were more than eight players, extra outfielders were sometimes used. The outfielders had difficulty throwing baseballs into the infield, because of the light weight. Adams shortstop position, which he started playing at some time from 1849 to 1850, was used to field throws from the outfielders, with the advent of higher-quality baseballs, Adams moved to the infield, since the distance the balls could travel increased. Adams had a playing career with the Knickerbockers, he remained a player with the team until 1860. The shortstop ordinarily is positioned near second base on the third-base side, a shortstop must also be extremely agile, because balls hit to or near the shortstop position are usually hit harder than to other infield positions. Shortstops are required to cover second base in double play situations when the ball is hit to the second baseman or first baseman and they also cover second when a runner is attempting a stolen base, but only when a left-handed hitter is batting. This is because the infield will respond to a batter by shifting toward first base. They often become the man on balls to any part of the outfield that are being directed towards third base and all balls to left. Depending on the system the shortstop may cut balls from left field heading home, however, the emphasis on defense makes the position unusually difficult to fill. Historically, a strong shortstop did not have to be a good hitter.200, since the 1960s, however, such mediocre hitting has become rarer as teams increasingly demand players with ability to both field and hit. Alex Rodríguez, Michael Young, or Miguel Tejada, the year in which the player was inducted is given in brackets after his name
2.
La Vega, Dominican Republic
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La Vega, or Concepción de La Vega is the fourth largest city and municipality of the Dominican Republic. Christopher Columbus built a fort near present-day La Vega, in 1494. It was intended to guard the route to the gold deposits of the Cibao valley. A Spanish settlement known as Concepción de la Vega gradually grew up around the fort, after 1508, when gold was found in quantity there, Concepción became the first gold boomtown in the continent. By 1510 it was one of the largest and most important European cities in the hemisphere, the town was destroyed and buried by an earthquake on December 2,1562, and the survivors relocated to the present site on the banks of the Camú River. There is also a small but very famous brewery called Cervecería Vegana known for its beers, named Quisqueya. There is a known for making the famous sausage Induveca. La Vega is bounded on the north by the Camú River and this river flows about 100 kilometers before emptying into Yuna River. South of the city is the Cordillera Central, the largest mountain system of the Dominican Republic, El Ponton Field, a local airport, bounds the city on the east. To La Vegas west are the Camú River again and Montellano, there is an extension of the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña and there is the Universidad Católica Tecnológica del Cibao. Since 2005 the national and local governments are planning to build an extension of the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, but there are some conflicts and the project is behind schedule. This city also has one of the most expensive schools in the country, the famous Colegio Agustiniano, laura vicuña Annually, the famous Feria del Libro de República Dominicana takes place in the city of La Vega. There are many bus companies which travel between La Vega other cities like, Santo Domingo, Santiago, Samana, Puerto Plata, there is also El Ponton Field, which serves domestics flights. One team is active, the other disappearing. El Parque Hostos is the most winning team with nine crowns, La Matica is the second most winning team with five crowns, six times as first runner up and qualified to the finals in 1996 but that years finale was eventually canceled. DOSA is the third most winning team with four crowns and four times as first runner up, La Villa is the fourth most winning team with two crowns and five times as runner up. Enriquillo is the fifth most winning team with two crowns, one time as first runner up and qualified to the finals in 1996 but that years finale was eventually canceled. In the tournament number 19 was the first time in the history of this tournament that none of the most winning teams Club La Matica & Club Parque Hostos didnt advance to the final
3.
Houston Astros
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The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros are members of the American League West division in Major League Baseball, the Astros have played their home games at Minute Maid Park since 2000. The Astros were established as the Houston Colt. 45s and entered the National League in 1962 with the expansion New York Mets. The current name—reflecting Houstons role as the center of the U. S. space program—was adopted three years later, when they moved into the Astrodome, the worlds first domed sports stadium. The Astros played in the NL from 1962 to 2012 and they played in the West division from 1969 to 1993, and the Central division from 1994 to 2012. The Astros have played in one World Series in 2005 against the Chicago White Sox, from 1888 until 1961, Houstons professional baseball club was the minor league Houston Buffaloes. Although expansion from the National League eventually brought an MLB team to Texas in 1962, Houston officials had been making efforts to do so for years prior. There were four men responsible for bringing Major League Baseball to Houston, George Kirksey and Craig Cullinan. They formed the Houston Sports Association as their vehicle for attaining a big league franchise for the city of Houston and they called the new league the Continental League. Wanting to protect potential new markets, both existing leagues chose to expand from eight teams to ten, however, plans eventually fell through for the Houston franchise after the Houston Buffaloes owner, Marty Marion, could not come to an agreement with the HSA to sell the team. To make matters worse, the Continental League as a whole folded in August 1960, however, on October 17,1960, the National League granted an expansion franchise to the Houston Sports Association in which their team could begin play in the 1962 season. Eventually, the Houston Sports Association succeeded in purchasing the Houston Buffaloes, at this point majority-owned by William Hopkins, the Buffs played one last minor league season as the top farm team of the Chicago Cubs in 1961 before being succeeded by the citys NL club. The new Houston team was named the Colt. 45s after a Name The Team contest was won by William Irving Neder, the Colt.45 was well known as the gun that won the west. The colors selected were blue and orange. The first team was formed mostly through a draft after the 1961 season. The Colt. 45s and their cousins, the New York Mets. Many of those associated with the Houston Buffaloes organization were allowed by the ownership to continue in the major league, Manager Harry Craft, who had joined Houston in 1961, remained in the same position for the team until the end of the 1964 season. General manager Spec Richardson also continued with the organization as business manager, similarly, the radio broadcasting team remained with the new Houston major league franchise
4.
Baltimore Orioles
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The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball as a member of the American League East division, Louis, Missouri to become the St. Louis Browns. After 52 often-beleaguered years in St. Louis, the franchise was purchased in November 1953 by Baltimore business interests led by Clarence Miles, the franchise officially moved to Baltimore for the 1954 season and adopted the historic Orioles name in honor of the official state bird of Maryland. The Orioles name had also used by several previous major and minor league baseball clubs in Baltimore. Nicknames for the team include the Os and the Birds, the Orioles experienced their greatest success from 1966 to 1983, when they made six World Series appearances, winning three of them. The franchise has won a total of nine division championships, six pennants. The Orioles are also known for their successful stadium, the trend-setting Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The modern Orioles franchise can trace its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, the Brewers were there when the WL renamed itself the American League in 1900. At the end of the 1900 season, the American League removed itself from baseballs National Agreement, two months later, the AL declared itself a competing major league. As a result of several shifts, the Brewers were one of only two Western League teams that didnt fold, move or get kicked out of the league. In its first game in the American League, the team lost to the Detroit Tigers 14–13 after blowing a lead in the 9th inning. To this day, it is a league record for the biggest deficit overcome that late in the game. During the first American League season in 1901, they finished last with a record of 48–89 and its lone Major League season, the team played at Lloyd Street Grounds, between 16th and 18th Streets in Milwaukee. The Miles-Krieger -Hoffberger group renamed their new team the Baltimore Orioles soon after taking control of the franchise, the name has a rich history in Baltimore, having been used by a National League team in the 1890s. In 1901, Baltimore and McGraw were awarded a franchise in the growing American League. After a battle with Ban Johnson, the Head of the American League in 1902, McGraw took many of the top players including Dan McGann, Roger Bresnahan and Joe McGinnity to the New York Giants. As an affront to Johnson, McGraw kept the black and orange colors of the New York Giants, which San Francisco wears to this day. In 1903, the rest of the team was transferred to New York where they were nicknamed the Highlanders until circa 1912, as a member of the high-minor league level International League, the Orioles competed at what is now known as the AAA level from 1903 to 1953
5.
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
6.
Philadelphia Phillies
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The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball franchise based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, the Phillies compete in Major League Baseball as a member club of the National League East division. Since 2004, the home has been Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies have won two World Series championships and seven National League pennants, the first of which came in 1915, the franchise has also experienced long periods of struggle. The 77 season drought is the fourth longest World Series drought in Major League Baseball history, the longevity of the franchise and its history of adversity have earned it the dubious distinction of having lost the most games of any team in the history of American professional sports. Despite the teams lack of success historically, they are one of the more successful franchises since the start of the Divisional Era in Major League Baseball. The Phillies have won their division 11 times, which ranks 6th among all teams and 4th in the National League, the franchise was founded in Philadelphia in 1883, replacing the team from Worcester, Massachusetts in the National League. The teams spring training facilities are located in Clearwater, Florida and its Double-A affiliate is the Reading Fightin Phils, which plays in Reading, Pennsylvania, and its Triple-A affiliate is the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, which plays in Allentown, Pennsylvania. After being founded in 1883 as the Quakers, the changed its name to the Philadelphias. This was soon shortened to Phillies, Quakers continued to be used interchangeably with Phillies from 1883 until 1890, when the team officially became known as the Phillies. Player defections to the newly formed American League, especially to the cross-town Philadelphia Athletics, poor fiscal management after their appearance in the 1915 World Series, however, doomed the Phillies to sink back into relative obscurity, from 1918 to 1948 they only had one winning season. Though Chuck Klein won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1932 and the National League Triple Crown in 1933, after lumber baron William B. Cox purchased the team in 1943, the Phillies rose out of the standings cellar for the first time in five years. As a result, the fan base and attendance at home games increased, but it soon became clear that not all was right in Coxs front office. Eventually Cox revealed that he had been betting on the Phillies, the new owner, Bob Carpenter, Jr. scion of the Delaware-based DuPont family, tried to polish the teams image by unofficially changing its name to the Bluejays. However, the new moniker did not take, and it was dropped by 1949. This led to the advent of the Whiz Kids, led by a lineup of players developed by the Phillies farm system that included future Hall of Famers Richie Ashburn. In contrast, the Philadelphia Athletics finished last in 1950 and long-time manager Connie Mack retired, the team struggled on for four more years with only one winning season before abandoning Philadelphia under the Johnson brothers, who bought out Mack. They began play in Kansas City in 1955, as part of the deal selling that team to the Johnson brothers, the Phillies bought Shibe Park, where both teams had played since 1938
7.
J. A. Happ
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James Anthony J. A. Happ is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball. He has also played in MLB for the Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, though his name is James Anthony and his initials are J. A. he pronounces his name as Jay. He is 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 205 pounds, Happ was born in Peru, Illinois, and raised with two older sisters. He attended high school at St. Bede Academy, where he was a letter winner in baseball and basketball. He was named Bureau County Athlete of the Year during his senior season, after graduating from high school in 2001, Happ enrolled in Northwestern University, where he majored in history. Happ chose to forgo his senior season and entered the 2004 Major League Baseball draft, Happ throws five pitches, a four-seam fastball, a two-seam fastball, a slider/cutter, a curveball, and a changeup. Happ relies on all of his pitches against right-handed hitters, and he commonly mixes his curveball with his fastball in two-strike counts. Happ again impressed in 2005 with the low-A Lakewood BlueClaws, while Happ played for only half of the season, he compiled a 2.36 ERA in 72⅓ innings. He was promoted to Double-A for a game at the end of the season, in which he gave up only one earned run in six innings. In 2006, Happ began the season for the Clearwater Threshers of the High-A Florida State League and he also pitched one game at the end of the season for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, then the Phillies Triple-A affiliate. Combined for the year, Happ went 10–9, with an ERA of 2.69,162 strikeouts and he was rewarded, during the following offseason, with his first appearance in Baseball Americas Top Ten Prospects list for the Phillies organization, in which he was ranked eighth. After pitching in the Arizona Fall League in the fall of 2006, on June 30,2007, while suffering from a spate of injuries to their starting rotation, the Phillies purchased Happs contract from the Lynx. At the time, Happs record in Triple-A was 1–2 with a 4.02 ERA and he made his major league debut against the New York Mets and allowed five runs, all earned, in four innings. He was then returned to the Lynx and did not pitch at the league level again that season. Happ struggled upon his return to Ottawa, despite striking out 36 batters over five starts in the months of July and August, Happs ERA ballooned to 5.02 by the end of the season. It was later revealed that he had been pitching that season with elbow fatigue, as a result, he did not participate in any fall or winter leagues during the following offseason. Happ began the 2008 season with the Phillies new Triple-A affiliate in Allentown, Pennsylvania and he went 5–6 with a 3.54 ERA in his first seventeen starts, striking out 104 batters in 101⅔ innings. On July 4, Happ was called up to take the place of Brett Myers in the Phillies starting rotation and that same night, Happ made his season debut against Johan Santana and the Mets
8.
Roy Oswalt
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Roy Edward Oswalt is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played for the majority of his career with the Houston Astros. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, the Texas Rangers, Oswalt was selected by the Astros in the 1996 MLB draft. He made his league debut with the club in 2001. He was back-to-back 20-game winner in both 2004 and 2005 and he helped the Astros to their first World Series appearance in 2005. He was named Most Valuable Player of the 2005 National League Championship Series, when he left the Astros in 2010 his wins and strikeout total was second in franchise history to Joe Niekro and Nolan Ryan. He is a three-time All-Star, selected from 2005 to 2007, as of the 2012 season his career strikeout total was in the top 100 all-time. As a member of Team USA, Oswalt won a medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Oswalt was born and raised in Weir, Mississippi, the son of Billy Joe, Billy was a Vietnam War veteran and logger. Roy grew up with his brother, Brian, and their older sister. Jean was a baseball fan and taught her kids about the game. Oswalt grew up rooting for the Atlanta Braves, Oswalt joined the Weir High School football team as a quarterback and the baseball team as a pitcher. He could throw in the mid 80s with good control, Oswalt reflected, I always heard that I was too small. Weir itself was small in size, making it difficult for scouts to hear about Oswalt. Nonetheless, he was recruited to join the team at Holmes Community College. Oswalt was spotted by one major league scout, James Farrar of the Houston Astros. Convinced that Oswalts anonymity kept him hidden from other teams, the Astros allowed him to drop into the 23rd round of the 1996 Major League Baseball draft, by this point, Oswalt had drawn the attention of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, for whom he had long wanted play. The Astros enticed Oswalt with a $500,000 signing bonus, in 1997, Oswalt played rookie ball in the Gulf Coast League, where he gave up only two runs in five starts. He was then called up to the Auburn Doubledays of the New York–Penn League and he split 1998 between the same two teams
9.
Spring training
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Practices andthe start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, Spring training typically starts in mid-February and continues until just before Opening Day of the regular season, traditionally the first week of April. In some years, teams not scheduled to play on Opening Day will play spring training games that day, pitchers and catchers report to spring training first because pitchers benefit from a longer training period. A few days later, position players arrive and team practice begins, Spring training by major league teams in sites other than their regular season game sites first became popular in the 1890s and by 1910 was in wide use. Hot Springs, Arkansas has been called the birthplace of Spring Training baseball. The location of Hot Springs and the concept of getting the players ready for the season was the brainchild of Chicago White Stockings team President Albert Spalding. In 1886, the White Stockings traveled to Hot Springs to prepare for the upcoming season, practicing at the Hot Springs Baseball Grounds, the White Stockings had a successful season and other teams took notice and began holding spring training in Hot Springs. The Cleveland Spiders, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers, Whittington Park/Ban Johnson Park, Majestic Park and Fogel Field were all built in Hot Springs to host Major League teams. Famously, a young pitcher named Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox was playing a game at first base on St. Patricks Day,1918. Ruth would hit two home runs that day in Hot Springs, and the second was a 573-foot shot that landed across the street from Whittington Park in a pond of the Arkansas Alligator Farm, soon he was playing the field more often. The First Boys of Spring is a 2015 documentary about Hot Springs Spring Training, the film was narrated by area native, actor Billy Bob Thornton, and produced by filmmaker Larry Foley. The documentary began airing nationally on the MLB Network in February,2016. The Detroit Tigers are credited with being the first team to conduct spring training camp in Arizona and they trained in Phoenix at Riverside Park at Central Avenue and the Salt River in 1929. The Philadelphia Phillies were the first of the current major-league teams to train in Florida, Spring training in Florida began in earnest in 1913, when the Chicago Cubs played in Tampa, and the Cleveland Indians in Pensacola. One year later, two teams moved to Florida for spring training, the real start of the Grapefruit League. Since 2010, major league teams have been divided during spring training. All but six of the league teams have gone to spring training in Florida at one time or another. Many of the most famous players in history have called Florida home for 4–6 weeks every spring. According to the autobiography of former Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck, in 1947, Veeck was the owner of the minor league Milwaukee Brewers and the team trained in Ocala, Florida
