Kuzul

Jose Bautista has to be the comeback player of the year in the AL after hitting 53 home runs since Sept.5, 2009 and leading the majors in home runs with 43 in 2010 after never having hit more than 16 in any previous season and is one of two players in majors with over 100 runs batted in. If anyone had predicted in spring training that Jose Bautista would be leading the major leagues in home runs on September 1 with 43 they would have been fitted with a straitjacket on the spot. However, Bautista has done exactly that. He has hit 27 more home runs than his previous personal high of 16 he hit for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2006. His 103 runs batted in this season are 40 more than his personal high of 63 for the Pirates in 2007. Bautista hit a home run every 25.8 at bats in 2009 but ...

Bobby Thomson hit one of the most if not the most dramatic home runs in baseball history on October 3rd, 1951, when he hit a home run that turned a 4-2 defeat into a thrilling 5-4 come from behind win for the New York Giants over the Brooklyn Dodgers. The hero of the 1951 NL playoffs died Monday at the age of 86 at his home in Savannah, Georgia. The mere mention of his name brings back memories of that day in 1951 when Thomson hit the "Shot heard around the world". The Dodgers had took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning and Bobby Thomson tied the score at 1-1  in the bottom of the seventh when he hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field, scoring Monte Irvin. However, the Dodgers came back with three runs in the top of the eighth to give them a 4-1 lead. The Giants ...

For the first time this season since I have been tracking the MLB attendance at baseball-reference.com, the attendance has declined over 700,000. Not surprisingly, we haven’t heard any reports from baseball commissioner Bud Selig about how well the game of baseball is doing. Only 12 teams have shown an increase in attendance during the 2010 baseball season. The numbers should continue to drop as teams drop further out of the races, school starts again, and college and pro football start in about a month. Attendance would have fallen more if not for the new Target Field in Minnesota showing an increase of over 561,000 more fans than in 2009 for the Minnesota. The Colorado Rockies, with an increase of over 163,000, and the San Francisco Giants, with over 108,000 more fans this season, are the only three teams with an increase of over 100,000 more fans than in 2010. Seven teams have drawn ...

  J.P. Arencibia may have surprised most baseball fans on Saturday by hitting his first Major League pitch over the fence and then homering again in the sixth inning for the Toronto Blue Jays. However, the Blue Jays organization has been expecting this kind of power from Arencibia due to his power production in the minors this season. The 24-year-old Arencibia has hit 31 home runs and 79 RBI so far in the minor leagues this season and the two home runs Saturday gave him 33 for the season, leaving him one behind Jose Bautista, who leads all of professional baseball with 34 home runs. He hit .313 for Las Vegas in the Pacific Coast League while having an OBP of .367, slugging .658, and posting an OPS of 1.025 which leads all minor leaguers with at least 300 at bats. Arencibia was called up after John Buck, who's caught this season for the ...

Billy Loes, former Brooklyn Dodgers hurler who appeared in three World Series (1952, 1953, and 1955), has died at the age of 80. Loes, who compiled a 80-63 record in 11 seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Baltimore Orioles, and San Francisco Giants, died in a hospice in Tucson, Arizona. He had been battling diabetes for several years. He made headlines when he said the Yankees would win the 1952 World Series in six games. He was one game off as the Yankees won in seven games, but it was unusual for a player to predict that the other team would win the World Series. Loes missed a chance to be the winning pitcher in what could have been a World Series clinching win for the Dodgers in the sixth game, but allowed the Yankees to take the win. Vic Raschi gave up a single when a ball caromed off the leg of Loes. After ...

2010 is the first year since 1959 that Pete Rose or Pete Rose Jr. hasn’t either played or managed in a baseball game. That is impressive that a father and son have worn a professional baseball uniform for 50 years. Pete Rose Sr. may have played the game better, but they both had a burning desire to play baseball. Pete Rose Jr. is not playing organized baseball for the first time since 1989. He made his only appearance in the major leagues for the Cincinnati Reds in 1997, playing in 11 games and making 16 plate appearances while hitting .143. He made two errors in his 11 chances with the Reds, so he did nothing to impress the Reds offensively or defensively. Rose Jr. doggedly pursued his dream of returning to the majors until he was released by the York Revolution of the independent Atlantic League last fall. When typing his name into the search ...

85 years ago in 1925 Ty Cobb wrote a series of articles for the New York Evening Journal recapping his 20 years in baseball. I just read those same memoirs in book form published by Dover Press in 2009. Before reading this book I had a mindset that Cobb was a great baseball player but a dirty baseball player who would go to any length to win a baseball game regardless of any injuries he may have to impose on his opponents. The book is written in his own words telling how he played in an adult baseball league at the age of 12. It tells of how supportive his father was of his efforts to play baseball at a time when baseball players were looked down on and were not yet the role models they would become later. Popcorn Crackerjack Incident He tells of a minor league game when he was munching on ...

It is a misnomer to say that the season is half over at the All-Star break, with the Angels having played 91 games and having only 71 games left when they return after the midsummer classic. That being said, it is time to look at the current division leaders and the teams that are still contending in those divisions.   AL East The Yankees have the best record in the majors at the break with a 56-32 record and a .636 winning percentage. The Rays, also in the AL East, have the next best record with a 54-34 mark and a .614 winning percentage. Both teams lead the majors in run differential with the Yankees scoring 117 more runs than their opponents, while the Rays are scoring 105 more. On the other hand, the Pirates are the worst team, giving up 194 runs more than they have scored in 2010. AL Central The White Sox moved ...

Josh Hamilton only played in 89 games last season due to injuries and hit hit 10 home runs while driving in 54 runs and hitting .268 in 336 at bats.   So far, 2010 has been a different story as Hamilton has hit 22 home runs, which is one behind the major league leader Jose Bautista with 23. He has also driven in 64 runs and is leading the majors with a .349 batting average. He is hitting .395 in his last 10 games and since May 30 has been hitless twice, on June 3 and July 1, hitting safely in 33 of 35 games. June was his best month this season when he hit nine home runs and drove in 31 runs while hitting .454. He had an on base percentage of .482 for the month and slugged at a .815 clip. Hamilton leads the AL in hitting with a .349 average, leads ...

Freddy Garcia has been the most consistent Chicago White Sox starters in 2010 with a 9-3 record and has only lost once since April 15th.  He has won nine of his last 10 decisions and has been a big part of the White Sox turning their season around, helping them to move into second place in AL Central as of last night. The Chicago White Sox were 24-33 a month ago today on June 8th. On that date, they were nine games under .500, nine and a half games behind the first place Twins in the AL Central, and six games behind the Tigers. Since that date a month ago, however, the now-second-place Twins have played 11-15 baseball, compared with the White Sox who have played at an amazing 21-5 clip. One of the reasons? Freddy Garcia. Freddy Garcia (9-3) has pitched well consistently after losing his first two starts of the season. Garcia ...