1.
St. Louis Cardinals
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The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball as a club of the National League Central division. Busch Stadium has been their home ballpark since 2006, with origins as one of the early professional baseball clubs in St. Upon the discontinuation of the AA, St. Louis joined the NL in 1892, at time, they were called the Browns. One of the most successful franchises in history, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series championships. Their 19 National League pennants rank third in NL history, in addition, St. Louis has won 13 division titles in the East and Central divisions. While still in the AA, St. Louis won four league championships, the Cardinals have won 105 or more games in four different seasons and won 100 or more a total of nine times. Cardinals players have won 20 league MVPs, four batting Triple Crowns, and three Cy Young Awards. Baseball Hall of Fame inductees include Lou Brock, Dizzy Dean, Bob Gibson, Whitey Herzog, Rogers Hornsby, Joe Medwick, Stan Musial, Branch Rickey, Red Schoendienst, Ozzie Smith, and Bruce Sutter. In 2016, Forbes valued the Cardinals at $1.6 billion, making them the 7th-most valuable franchise in MLB, their revenue the year was $300 million. Since their purchase in 1995, owner William DeWitt, Jr. s investment group has seen enormous growth from the $147 million purchase price, John Mozeliak is the general manager and Mike Matheny is the manager. Professional baseball began in St. Louis with the inception of the Brown Stockings in the National Association in 1875, the NA folded following that season, and the next season, St. Louis joined the National League as a charter member, finishing in third place at 45-19. George Bradley hurled the first no-hitter in Major League history, the NL expelled St. Louis from the league after 1877 due to a game-fixing scandal and the team went bankrupt. Without a league, they continued play as a barnstorming team through 1881. For the 1882 season, Chris von der Ahe purchased the team, reorganized it, and made it a member of the American Association. 1882 is generally considered to be the first year existence of the St. Louis Cardinals, the next season, St. Louis shortened their name to the Browns. Soon thereafter they became the dominant team in the AA, as manager Charlie Comiskey guided St. Louis to four pennants in a row from 1885 to 1888. Pitcher and outfielder Bob Caruthers led the league in ERA and wins in 1885 and he also led the AA in OBP and OPS in 1886 and finished fourth in batting average in 1886 and fifth in 1887
2.
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
3.
World Series
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The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League champion team and the National League champion team. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a playoff. As the series is played in October, during the season in North America. As of 2016, the World Series has been contested 112 times, with the AL winning 64, the 2016 World Series took place between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs. Seven games were played, with the Cubs victorious after game seven, the final score was 8–7, the game went into extra innings after a tied score of 6–6. This was the third World Series won by the Cubs, as well as their first title since 1908, in the National League, the St. As of 2016, no team has won consecutive World Series championships since the New York Yankees in 1998,1999, all championships were awarded to the team with the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. From 1884 to 1890, the National League and the American Association faced each other in a series of games at the end of the season to determine an overall champion. These series were disorganized in comparison to the modern World Series, the number of games played ranged from as few as three in 1884, to a high of fifteen in 1887. Both the 1885 and 1890 Series ended in ties, each team having won three games with one tie game, the series was promoted and referred to as The Championship of the United States, Worlds Championship Series, or Worlds Series for short. In his book Krakatoa, The Day the World Exploded, August 27,1883, Simon Winchester mentions in passing that the World Series was named for the New York World newspaper, but this view is disputed. Until about 1960, some sources treated the 19th-century Series on a basis with the post-19th-century series. After about 1930, however, many authorities list the start of the World Series in 1903, following the collapse of the American Association after the 1891 season, the National League was again the only major league. The league championship was awarded in 1892 by a playoff between half-season champions and this scheme was abandoned after one season. Beginning in 1893—and continuing until divisional play was introduced in 1969—the pennant was awarded to the club in the standings at the end of the season. For four seasons, 1894–1897, the league played the runners-up in the post season championship series called the Temple Cup. A second attempt at this format was the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series, in 1901, the American League was formed as a second major league. No championship series were played in 1901 or 1902 as the National and these series were arranged by the participating clubs, as the 1880s Worlds Series matches had been
4.
Home run
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In modern baseball, the feat is typically achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is also the home run, increasingly rare in modern baseball. When a home run is scored, the batter is credited with a hit and a run scored. Likewise, the pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a batted ball is also a home run if it touches either foul pole or its attached screen before touching the ground, as the foul poles are by definition in fair territory. A batted ball that goes over the wall after touching the ground is not a home run. A fielder is allowed to reach over the wall to attempt to catch the ball as long as his feet are on or over the field during the attempt. If the fielder successfully catches the ball while it is in flight the batter is out, however, since the fielder is not part of the field, a ball that bounces off a fielder and over the wall without touching the ground is still a home run. A home run accomplished in any of the above manners is a home run. This stipulation is in Approved Ruling of Rule 7.10, an inside-the-park home run occurs when a batter hits the ball into play and is able to circle the bases before the fielders can put him out. Unlike with a home run, the batter-runner and all preceding runners are liable to be put out by the defensive team at any time while running the bases. This can only happen if the ball does not leave the ballfield, with outfields much less spacious and more uniformly designed than in the games early days, inside-the-park home runs are now a rarity. They are usually the result of a ball being hit by a very fast runner, either way, this sends the ball into open space in the outfield and thereby allows the batter-runner to circle the bases before the defensive team can put him out. The speed of the runner is crucial as even triples are relatively rare in most modern ballparks, all runs scored on such a play, however, still count. An example of an unexpected bounce occurred during the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on July 10,2007, by the time the ball was relayed, Ichiro had already crossed the plate standing up. This was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, Home runs are often characterized by the number of runners on base at the time. A home run hit with the bases empty is seldom called a one-run homer, with one runner on base, two runs are scored and thus the home run is often called a two-run homer or two-run shot. Similarly, a home runs with two runners on base is a three-run homer or three-run shot, the term four-run homer is seldom used, instead, it is nearly always called a grand slam. Hitting a grand slam is the best possible result for the turn at bat
5.
Dizzy Dean
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Jay Hanna Dizzy Dean, also known as Jerome Herman Dean, was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, a brash and colorful personality, Dean was the last National League pitcher to win 30 games in one season. After his playing career, he became a television sports commentator. Dean was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, when the Cardinals reopened the team Hall of Fame in 2014, Dean was inducted among the inaugural class. Dean was best known for winning 30 games in the 1934 season while leading the 1934 Gashouse Gang St. Louis team to the National League pennant and he had a 30–7 record with a 2.66 ERA during the regular season. His brother, Paul, was also on the team, with a record of 19-11, though Diz sometimes called his brother Daf, he typically referred to himself and his brother as Me an Paul. Continuing the theme, the team included Dazzy Vance and Joe Ducky Medwick, the Gashouse Gang was the southernmost and westernmost team in the major leagues at the time, and became a de facto Americas Team. Team members, particularly Southerners such as the Dean brothers and Pepper Martin, much like later sports legends Joe Namath and Muhammad Ali, Dizzy liked to brag about his prowess and make public predictions. In 1934, Dizzy predicted, Me an Paul are gonna win 45 games, on September 21, Diz pitched no-hit ball for eight innings against the Brooklyn Dodgers, finishing with a three-hit shutout in the first game of a doubleheader, his 27th win of the season. Paul then threw a no-hitter in the nightcap, to win his 18th, gee, Paul, Diz was heard to say in the locker room afterward, if Id a-known you was gonna throw a no-hitter, Id a-throwed one too. He also bet he could strike out Vince DiMaggio four times in one game and he struck him out his first three at-bats, but when DiMaggio hit a popup behind the plate at his fourth, Dean screamed at his catcher, Drop it. The catcher did and Dean fanned DiMaggio, winning the bet, few in the press now doubted Dizs boast, as he was also fond of saying, If ya done it, it aint braggin. Diz finished with 30 wins, the only NL pitcher to do so in the post-1920 live-ball era, the Cards needed them all to edge the Giants for the pennant, setting up a matchup with the American League champion Detroit Tigers. After the season, Dizzy Dean was awarded the National Leagues Most Valuable Player Award, Dean was known for antics which inspired his nickname. In Game 4 of the 1934 World Series against the Detroit Tigers, the next batter hit a potential double play groundball. Intent on avoiding the double play, Dean threw himself in front of the throw to first, the ball struck him on the head, and Dean was knocked unconscious and taken to a hospital. The storied sports-section headline the day said, X-ray of Deans head reveals nothing. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Detroit Free Press merely stated that the X-rays revealed no lasting injury, however, Dean was reported saying his head was too hard for a baseball to hurt it
6.
Enos Slaughter
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Enos Bradsher Slaughter, nicknamed Country, was an American Major League Baseball right fielder. He played for 19-seasons on four major teams from 1938–1942. He is noted primarily for his playing for the St. Louis Cardinals and is best known for scoring the winning run in Game Seven of the 1946 World Series. A ten time All-Star, he has elected to both the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. Slaughter was born in Roxboro, North Carolina, where he earned the nickname Country, and joined the St. Louis Cardinals in 1938 before being traded to the New York Yankees in 1954. When Slaughter was a minor leaguer in Columbus, Georgia, he went running towards the dugout from his position in the outfield, slowed down near the infield, manager Eddie Dyer told him, Son, if youre tired, well try to get you some help. During the remainder of his career, Slaughter ran everywhere he went on a baseball field. In 1937, he had 245 hits and 147 runs scored for Columbus, Slaughter batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He was renowned for his swing that made him a reliable contact hitter. Slaughter had 2,383 hits in his career, including 169 home runs. Slaughter played 19 seasons with the Cardinals, Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, during that period, he was a 10-time All-Star and played in five World Series. His 1,820 games played ranks fourth in Cardinals history behind Ozzie Smith, Lou Brock and he presently ranks second in RBIs with 1,148, fifth in ABs with 6,775, and sixth in doubles with 366. Immediately upon return from his service in 1946, he led the National League with 130 RBI. The hit was ruled a double, though most observers felt it should have ruled a single. This play was named #10 on the Sporting News list of Baseballs 25 Greatest Moments in 1999, Slaughter was known for his hustle, especially for running hard to first base on walks, a habit later imitated by Pete Rose and David Eckstein. Slaughter retired from major league baseball in 1959 and he was a player-manager in 1960 for a minor league team in Houston and for Raleigh in 1961. Slaughter coached baseball for Duke University from 1971 to 1977, enos Slaughter is a cousin of Henry Slaughter, southern gospel musician. Slaughter died at age 86, on August 12,2002 and he was scheduled for an autograph appearance in St. Louis, Missouri before he died
