1.
Phoenix, Arizona
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Phoenix is the capital and most populous city of the U. S. state of Arizona. Phoenix is the anchor of the Phoenix metropolitan area, also known as the Valley of the Sun, the metropolitan area is the 12th largest by population in the United States, with approximately 4.3 million people as of 2010. Settled in 1867 as a community near the confluence of the Salt and Gila Rivers. Located in the reaches of the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix has a subtropical desert climate. Despite this, its canal system led to a farming community, many of the original crops remaining important parts of the Phoenix economy for decades, such as alfalfa, cotton, citrus. The city averaged a four percent annual growth rate over a 40-year period from the mid-1960s to the mid-2000s. This growth rate slowed during the Great Recession of 2007–09, and has rebounded slowly, Phoenix is the cultural center of the Valley of the Sun, as well as the entire state. For more than 2,000 years, the Hohokam people occupied the land that would become Phoenix, the Hohokam created roughly 135 miles of irrigation canals, making the desert land arable. Paths of these canals would later used for the modern Arizona Canal, Central Arizona Project Canal. The Hohokam also carried out trade with the nearby Anasazi, Mogollon and Sinagua. It is believed that between 1300 and 1450, periods of drought and severe floods led to the Hohokam civilizations abandonment of the area. After the departure of the Hohokam, groups of Akimel Oodham, Tohono Oodham and Maricopa tribes began to use the area, as well as segments of the Yavapai and Apache. The Oodham were offshoots of the Sobaipuri tribe, who in turn were thought to be the descendants of the formerly urbanized Hohokam and their crops included corn, beans, and squash for food, while cotton and tobacco were also cultivated. Mostly a peaceful group, they did together with the Maricopa for their mutual protection against incursions by both the Yuma and Apache tribes. The Tohono Oodham lived in the region as well, but their concentration was to the south. Living in small settlements, the Oodham were seasonal farmers who took advantage of the rains and they also hunted local game such as deer, rabbit, and javalina for meat. When the Mexican–American War ended in 1848, Mexico ceded its northern zone to the United States, the Phoenix area became part of the New Mexico Territory. In 1863 the mining town of Wickenburg was the first to be established in what is now Maricopa County, at the time Maricopa County had not yet been incorporated, the land was within Yavapai County, which included the major town of Prescott to the north of Wickenburg
2.
Arizona
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Arizona is a state in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the Western United States and the Mountain West states and it is the sixth largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states. It has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, Arizonas border with Mexico is 389 miles long, on the northern border of the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the states to be admitted to the Union. Historically part of the territory of Alta California in New Spain, after being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase, Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Alpine, in addition to the Grand Canyon National Park, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments. To the European settlers, their pronunciation sounded like Arissona, the area is still known as alĭ ṣonak in the Oodham language. Another possible origin is the Basque phrase haritz ona, as there were numerous Basque sheepherders in the area, There is a misconception that the states name originated from the Spanish term Árida Zona. See also lists of counties, islands, rivers, lakes, state parks, national parks, Arizona is in the Southwestern United States as one of the Four Corners states. Arizona is the sixth largest state by area, ranked after New Mexico, of the states 113,998 square miles, approximately 15% is privately owned. The remaining area is public forest and park land, state trust land, Arizona is well known for its desert Basin and Range region in the states southern portions, which is rich in a landscape of xerophyte plants such as the cactus. This regions topography was shaped by volcanism, followed by the cooling-off. Its climate has hot summers and mild winters. The state is well known for its pine-covered north-central portion of the high country of the Colorado Plateau. Like other states of the Southwest United States, Arizona has an abundance of mountains, despite the states aridity, 27% of Arizona is forest, a percentage comparable to modern-day France or Germany. The worlds largest stand of pine trees is in Arizona
3.
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
4.
San Francisco Giants
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The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball franchise based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1883 as the New York Gothams, and renamed three years later to the New York Giants, the team moved to San Francisco in 1958. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League West division. As one of the longest-established and most successful baseball teams. The team was the first major team based in New York City. They have won 23 NL pennants and have played in 20 World Series competitions – both NL records, the Giants eight World Series championships rank second in the National League and are tied for fourth overall. The Giants have played in the World Series 20 times –14 times in New York, six in San Francisco –, the Giants franchise has the most Hall of Fame players in all of professional baseball. The Giants rivalry with the Dodgers is one of the longest-standing, the teams began their rivalry as the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, respectively, before both franchises moved west for the 1958 season. The Giants have won six pennants and three World Series championships since arriving in San Francisco and those three championships have come in 2010,2012, and most recently in 2014, having defeated the Kansas City Royals four games to three during the 2014 World Series. The Giants began as the baseball club founded by millionaire tobacconist John B. Day and veteran amateur baseball player Jim Mutrie, the Gothams, as the Giants were originally known, entered the National League in 1883, while their other club, the Metropolitans played in the American Association. Nearly half of the original Gotham players were members of the disbanded Troy Trojans, Louis Browns in a pre-modern-era World Series. They repeated as champions the year with a pennant and Championship victory over the Brooklyn Bridegrooms. It is said that one particularly satisfying victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, Mutrie. From then on, the club was known as the Giants, the Giants original home stadium, the Polo Grounds, dates from this early era. It was originally located north of Central Park adjacent to 5th and 6th Avenues and 110th and 112th Streets, the Giants were a powerhouse in the late 1880s, winning their first two National League Pennants and World Championships in 1888 and 1889. But nearly all of the Giants stars jumped to the upstart Players League, whose New York franchise was named the Giants. The new team built a stadium next door to the Polo Grounds
5.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
6.
Polo Grounds
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The Polo Grounds was the name of three stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City, used mainly for professional baseball and American football from 1880 until 1963. The third Polo Grounds, built in 1890 and renovated after a fire in 1911, is the one generally indicated when the Polo Grounds is referenced. It was located in Coogans Hollow and was noted for its distinctive shape, very short distances to the left and right field walls. As the name suggests, the original Polo Grounds, opened in 1876, in baseball, the original Polo Grounds was home to the New York Metropolitans from 1880 until 1885, and the New York Giants from 1883 until 1888. The Giants played in the second Polo Grounds for part of the 1889 season and all of the 1890 season, and at the third and fourth Polo Grounds from 1891 through 1957. The Polo Grounds was also the field of the New York Yankees from 1913 until 1922. It hosted the 1934 and 1942 Major League Baseball All-Star Games, in football, the third Polo Grounds was home to the New York Brickley Giants for one game in 1921 and the New York Giants from 1925 to 1955. The New York Jets of the American Football League played at the stadium from the inaugural season of 1960 through 1963. Other sporting events held at the Polo Grounds included soccer, boxing, the last sporting event at the Polo Grounds was a football game between the New York Jets and the Buffalo Bills on December 14,1963. Shea Stadium opened in 1964 and replaced the Polo Grounds as the home of the Mets and Jets, the Polo Grounds was demolished over a period of four months that year and a public housing complex, known as the Polo Grounds Towers, was built on the site. The original Polo Grounds stood at 110th Street between Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue, directly across 110th Street from the northeast corner of Central Park. The venues original purpose was for the sport of polo, and its name was merely descriptive, not a formal name. For this purpose the ownership built a second diamond and grandstand at the park, dividing it into eastern and western fields for use by the Giants and Metropolitans respectively. Polo Grounds I thus hosted its first Major League Baseball games in 1883 as the stadium of two teams, the American Association Metropolitans and the National League Gothams. George Cricket Grounds on Staten Island in 1886, the original Polo Grounds was used not only for Polo and professional baseball, but often for college baseball and football as well—even by teams outside New York. The earliest known surviving image of the field is an engraving of a game between Yale University and Princeton University on Decoration Day, May 30,1882. Yale and Harvard also played their traditional Thanksgiving Day game there on November 29,1883, New York City was in the process of extending its street grid into uptown Manhattan in 1889. Plans for an extended West 111th Street ran through the Polo Grounds, City workers are said to have shown up suddenly one day and begun cutting through the fence to lay out the new street
7.
Papago Park
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Papago Park /ˈpæpəɡoʊ/ is a municipal park of the cities of Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, USA. It has been designated as a Phoenix Point of Pride and it includes Hunts Tomb, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Papago Park is a hilly desert park covering 1200 acres in its Phoenix extent and 296 acres in its Tempe extent, Tempe refers to its section of the park specifically as Tempe Papago Park. Papago Park is notable for its many distinctive geological formations and its variety of typical desert plants. Tempe Papago Park includes baseball and softball fields, picnic ramadas, a small lake, rolling Hills Golf Course is within the park between its Phoenix and Tempe extremities. The distinctive red sandstone formations of Papago Park were formed some 6-15 million years ago. One such formation, Hole-in-the-Rock, is a landmark, thanks to the openings eroded in the formation over time. There is some evidence that the Hohokam—a now-extinct aboriginal tribe that lived in the Phoenix area—used the openings. There are also signs of Precambrian granite in the park. The bedrock is concealed by only a layer of topsoil. Papago Park was designated a reservation for the local Maricopa and Pima tribes of aboriginal Americans in 1879. It became the Papago-Saguaro National Monument in 1914, but this status was recalled by Congress, April 7,1930 and it was divided amongst the state of Arizona, the city of Tempe and the Water Users Association, later known as the Salt River Project. The Federal government reserved all oil, coal or other mineral rights, following the Great Depression, Governor Hunt commissioned a bass fish hatchery to be established in Papago Park during 1932. The hatchery was built as a Works Progress Administration project, and became successful, stocking largemouth bass, during World War II, Papago Park housed a POW camp and contained as many as 3,100 prisoners from 1942 to 1944. It was also the site of the largest mass escape from any United States prison camp in World War II, many prisoners quickly realized that they knew nothing about the landscape or climate and turned themselves back in. Wattenberg was the last to be captured, on January 28,1945, after the war the POW camp site served as a VA hospital from 1947 to 1951, then an Army Reserve facility. The state-owned portion of Papago Park was sold to the city of Phoenix on February 25,1959, the fish hatchery was also shut down in 1959, as it was considered obsolete by that time. The City of Phoenix leased the grounds, including its man-made lakes
8.
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
9.
Cleveland Indians
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The Cleveland Indians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Indians compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the American League Central division. Since 1994, they have played at Progressive Field, the teams spring training facility is at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona. The Indians current World Series championship drought is the longest active drought, the name Indians originated from a request by club owner Charles Somers to baseball writers to choose a new name to replace Cleveland Naps following the departure of Nap Lajoie after the 1914 season. The name referenced the nickname Indians that was applied to the Cleveland Spiders baseball club during the time when Louis Sockalexis, common nicknames for the Indians include the Tribe and the Wahoos, the latter being a reference to their logo, Chief Wahoo, a controversial Native American caricature. The teams mascot is named Slider, the franchise originated in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1894 as the Grand Rapids Rustlers, a minor league team in the Western League. The team moved to Cleveland in 1900 and changed its name to the Cleveland Lake Shores, one of the American Leagues eight charter franchises, the major league incarnation of the club was founded in Cleveland in 1901. Originally called the Cleveland Bluebirds, the played in League Park until moving permanently to Cleveland Stadium in 1946. At the end of the 2016 season, they had a regular season record of 9. In 1857 baseball games were a spectacle in Clevelands Public Squares. City authorities tried to find an ordinance forbidding it, to the joy of the crowd, – Harold Seymour 1865–1868 Forest Citys of Cleveland 1869–1872 Forest Citys of Cleveland From 1865 to 1868 Forest Citys was an amateur ball club. During the 1869 season, Cleveland was among several cities which established professional baseball teams following the success of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first fully professional team. In the newspapers before and after 1870, the team was called the Forest Citys. In 1871 the Forest Citys joined the new National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, ultimately, two of the leagues western clubs went out of business during the first season and the Chicago Fire left that citys White Stockings impoverished, unable to field a team again until 1874. Cleveland was thus the NAs westernmost outpost in 1872, the year the club folded, Cleveland played their full schedule to July 19 followed by two games versus Boston in mid-August and disbanded at the end of the season. 1879–1881 Cleveland Forest Citys 1882–1884 Cleveland Blues In 1876, the National League supplanted the NA as the professional league. Cleveland were not among its members, but by 1879 the league was looking for new entries. The Cleveland Forest Citys baseball team was then re-created, the National League required distinct colors for the 1882 season, so the Cleveland Forest Citys became the Cleveland Blues
10.
Willie Mays
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He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. Mays shares the record of most appearances in the All-Star Games,24, with Hank Aaron, in appreciation of his All-Star record, Ted Williams said They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays. In 1999, Mays placed second on The Sporting Newss List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, later that year, he was also elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Mays is one of five National League players to have had eight consecutive 100-RBI seasons, along with Mel Ott, Sammy Sosa, Chipper Jones, and Albert Pujols. Mays hit over 50 home runs in 1955 and 1965, representing the longest time span between 50-plus home run seasons for any player in Major League Baseball history and his final Major League Baseball appearance came on October 16 during Game 3 of the 1973 World Series. Mays was born in Westfield, Alabama, just outside Fairfield and his father, Cat Mays, was a talented baseball player with the Negro team for the local iron plant. His mother, Annie Satterwhite, was a basketball and track star in high school. His parents never married each other, as a baby, Mays was cared for by his mothers younger sisters Sarah and Ernestine. Sarah became the female role model in Mays life. His father exposed him to baseball at an age. At age 10, Mays was allowed to sit on the bench of his fathers League games, Mays played multiple sports at Fairfield Industrial High School, averaging a then-record 17 points a game in basketball and more than 40 yards a punt in football, while also playing quarterback. Mays graduated from Fairfield in 1950, Mays professional baseball career began in 1947, while he was still in high school and played briefly with the Chattanooga Choo-Choos in Tennessee during the summer. A short time later, Mays left the Choo-Choos and returned to his state to join the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. Mays helped them win their pennant and advance to the 1948 Negro League World Series, Mays hit a respectable.262 for the season, but it was also his excellent fielding and baserunning that made him a standout. By playing professionally with the Black Barons, Mays jeopardized his opportunities to high school sports in Alabama. This created some problems for him with school administrators at Fairfield. Over the next years, a number of Major League baseball franchises sent scouts to watch him play. The first was the Boston Braves, the scout who discovered him, Bud Maughn, had been following him for over a year and referred him to the Braves, who then packaged a deal which called for $7,500 down and $7,500 in 30 days
11.
Valley Metro Rail
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Valley Metro Rail is a 26. 3-mile light rail line operating in the U. S. state of Arizona. Part of the Valley Metro public transit system, it serves the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, construction began in March 2005, operation started December 27,2008. The line had a ridership of 43,543 in 2015. In the years since it opened in 2008, the system has two expansions, with at least five more scheduled, including Tempe Streetcar. The expected construction cost for the initial 20 miles was $1.4 billion, some parts of the line, such as the bridge over Tempe Town Lake, have no contact with other traffic. The vehicles used are rated for a speed of 58 mph. The system is powered by a catenary that supplies power at 750 V. Numerous plans have preceded the current implementation of light rail, the Phoenix Street Railway provided streetcar service from 1887 to 1948. Historic vehicles may be seen at the Arizona Street Railway Museum, with Car #116 celebrating her 80th birthday on December 25,2008, in 1989, the ValTrans elevated rail proposal, was turned down by voters in a referendum due to cost and feasibility concerns. Other subsequent initiatives during the 1990s failed over similar reasons, Metro was created by the Transit 2000 Regional Transportation Plan, which involved a 0.5 per cent sales tax and was approved by voters in Phoenix in 2000. Transit 2000 aimed at improving the bus service and the formation of bus rapid transit and light rail, among other things. It used the route placing and color designations from the 1989 plan, construction on a new light rail line began in March 2005. In March 2008, cracks in the rails were discovered. The cause of the cracks was determined to be use of plasma cutting torches by contractors. The affected track was repaired by May at a cost of $600,000 with still no word on which parties will be financially responsible. The last of the concrete and rail for the system was installed in the end of April, with CEO declaring the system to be on time, there are 28 stations on the initial twenty-mile starter segment. The line celebrated its grand opening December 27,2008, with official ribbon-cutting ceremonies and community celebrations spread throughout Phoenix, Tempe, and Mesa. The event was produced by Arizonas Entertainment Solutions, Inc. and was attended by thousands of residents who waited as long as an hour or more to ride the vehicles
12.
Reggie Jackson
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Jackson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993. Jackson was nicknamed Mr. October for his hitting in the postseason with the Athletics. He helped Oakland win five consecutive American League West divisional pennants, Jackson helped New York win four American League East divisional pennants, three American League pennants and two consecutive World Series titles, from 1977 to 1981. He also helped the California Angels win two AL West divisional pennants in 1982 and 1986, Jackson hit three consecutive home runs at Yankee Stadium in the clinching game 6 of the 1977 World Series. Jackson hit 563 career home runs and was an American League All-Star for 14 seasons and he won two Silver Slugger Awards, the AL Most Valuable Player Award in 1973, two World Series MVP Awards, and the Babe Ruth Award in 1977. The Yankees and Athletics retired his uniform number in 1993 and 2004. Jackson currently serves as an advisor to the Yankees. Jackson was born in the Wyncote neighborhood of Cheltenham Township, just north of Philadelphia and his father was Martinez Jackson, a half Puerto Rican, who worked as a tailor and who was a former second baseman with the Newark Eagles of Negro league baseball. He was the youngest of four children from his mother, Clara and he also had two half-siblings from his fathers first marriage. Martinez Jackson was a father, and theirs was one of the few black families in Wyncote. Jackson graduated from Cheltenham High in 1964, where he excelled in football, basketball, baseball, a tailback in football, he injured his knee in an early season game in his junior year. He was told by the doctors he was never to play football again, in that game, Jackson fractured five cervical vertebrae, which caused him to spend six weeks in the hospital and another month in a neck cast. Doctors told Jackson that he never walk again, let alone play football. On the baseball team, he batted.550 and threw several no-hitters, in the middle of his senior year, Jacksons father was arrested for bootlegging and was sentenced to six months in jail. In football, he was scouted by Alabama, Georgia, and Oklahoma, Jackson declined Alabama and Georgia because he was fearful of the South at the time, and declined Oklahoma because they told him to stop dating white girls. For baseball, Jackson was scouted by Hans Lobert of the San Francisco Giants who was desperate to sign him, the Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota Twins also made offers, and the hometown Philadelphia Phillies gave him a tryout but declined because of his hitting skills. His father wanted his son to go to college, where Jackson wanted to both football and baseball. He decided to attend Arizona State University on a football scholarship and his high-school football coach knew ASUs head football coach Frank Kush, and they discussed the possibility of him playing both sports
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