MLB Trade Deadline Reaction

When I woke up Thursday morning there was grumbling the Oakland Athletics might be in the Jon Lester sweepstakes. Within 20 minutes of my groggy eyes checking in on MLB Networks on the television and twitter on my phone I saw that Yoenis Cespedes was going to be part of the deal.

At first I was shocked that the A’s would trade a middle of the order bat, and especially a guy like Cespedes, who said he wanted to play his entire career in Oakland, would be traded to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for Jon Lester.

As the trade began to formalize I saw the return of Jonny Gomes and cash to the Oakland franchise while a competitive balance Comp B pick would be heading to Boston to balance out the deal.
 

Overall, I was more shocked than anything. I thought the July 5 deal with the Chicago Cubs for Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel were the icing on Billy Beane’s 2014 cake, but boy was I wrong.

Within just a few hours after the Cespedes-Lester trade the talking heads on MLB networks were talking about the second of the A’s moves.

This time it was a lesser deal. How could it have been any bigger? Wait, let me retract that statement, they could have traded Lew Wolf for a new owner. But back to reality, the A’s were trading a minor league, but major league ready pitcher in Tommy Milone, to the Minnesota Twins for Sam Fuld.

Milone had asked to be traded after being sent to AAA Sacramento when the A’s landed Samardzija and Hammel in the deal with the Cubs. But to trade Milone for a guy the A’s had DFA’d earlier in the season? It almost seemed comical. That they had kept a guy like Daric Barton on the roster in order to drop Fuld, and now were trading a major league ready pitcher away to get Fuld back.

While obtaining Fuld makes sense with injuries to Coco Crisp and Craig Gentry, the value to get Fuld back seemed a little much. But such is baseball, and such is life.

The addition of Fuld, Gomes and Lester gave the A’s the best and deepest rotation in baseball, and added to the depth in the outfield ... that is until the Detroit Tigers pulled out a last second three-team trade with the Seattle Mariners and the Tampa Bay Rays to land David Price.

The Cespedes-Lester trade might have been overshadowed by the Price trade but shouldn't be as the two teams might be on a collision course to face each other once again in the playoffs.

The green and gold franchise would stand pat for the rest of the day much like their cross Bay Area counter parts in the San Francisco Giants, as general manager Brian Sabean did not pull the trigger on any trades before the 4 p.m. ET trade deadline on July 31.

While Beane and Sabean took totally different routes to get through the trading deadline both are still on the look out for something that could bolster their second base corps before the waiver-trading deadline is reached at the end of August.

For both the Athletics and the Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley look like the most eligible candidates to fuel another chance at a World Series run, for one or both of the Bay Area franchises.

Minnesota Twins Turn Two Triple Plays Against Boston Red Sox

On July 17, 1990, the Minnesota Twins accomplish something that had never been done before as they turn not one, but two triple plays in a game at Fenway Park. 

The triple plays occurred in the fourth and eighth innings and were nearly identical; in both instances, Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti stepped on third base on a ground ball, threw the ball to second baseman Al Newman, who then threw the ball to first baseman Kent Hrbek.

There had been over 600 occurrences of the rare triple play, but never had more than one happened in the same game. 

It was a moot point though, as the Red Sox beat the Twins anyway, 1-0. The next day, the Twins tied an American League record by recording six double plays, but again lost to the Sox, 5-4. The Red Sox also turned double plays that game making for the most double plays ever turned in a single game with nine.

The six double plays tied a record the Twins already owned. Three years earlier in 1987 playing against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Twins turned six double plays in a 10-inning game.

In 2006 the Twins turned another great triple play, against the Seattle Mariners, with the bases loaded and no outs, Juan Rincon gets Kenji Johjima to ground into a 4-5-6-3 triple play to end the inning.

In the history of the Twins organization the Minnesota ball club has turned 11 triple plays on defense, and hit into seven.

 Check out the video below of the Twins' two triple-killings:

Major League Baseball Hosts First All-Star Game

On July 6, 1933, Major League Baseball (MLB) hosts its first ever All-Star Baseball Game. The American League wins 4-2 at Comiskey Park, the home of the Chicago White Sox.

The All-Star game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball exhibition game between players from the National League and the American League.

Currently selected by the fans are the starting fielders, while each teams head manager decides the pitchers, managers and players for reserves.

The game usually occurs on the second Tuesday in July and marks the symbolic halfway point in the Major League Baseball season (though not the mathematical halfway point; in most seasons, that actually takes place one week earlier). The league goes into an All-Star break, with no regular-season games scheduled on the day before or the day after. From 1959 to 1962, two all-star games were held each season, but this format was abandoned.

Unlike all star games in other sports, the baseball players usually wear their own team uniforms, with the home team dawning a white uniform and the road team dawning a grey uniform.

The first All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, at Comiskey Park and was the brainchild of Arch Ward, then sports editor for the Chicago Tribune. Initially intended to be a one-time event, its great success resulted in making the game an annual one.

Ward's contribution was recognized by Major League Baseball in 1962 with the creation of the "Arch Ward Trophy", given to the All-Star Game's most valuable player each year.

The game's venue traditionally alternates between the two leagues every year. This tradition has been broken twice.

The first time was in 1951, when the American League's Detroit Tigers hosted the annual game as part of the city's two hundred and fiftieth birthday.

A ticket to the MLB's first All-Star Game.

It was broken again in 2007, when the National League's San Francisco Giants were the host for the 2007 All-Star Game. That scheduling set it up so the 2008 game could be held in the American League stadium for the scheduled final season at Yankee Stadium in New York.

As of 2009, an American League stadium is scheduled to host the all-star game in even-numbered years and a National League stadium in odd-numbered years.

The "home team" is the league in which the host franchise plays its games.

The criteria for choosing the venue are subjective; for the most part, cities with new parks and cities who have not hosted the game in a long time – or ever – tend to get the nod.

In the first two decades of the game, ballparks in Philadelphia and St. Louis were home to more than one team.

This led to some shorter-than-usual gaps between the use of those two ballparks: Shibe Park (later known as Connie Mack Stadium) in Philadelphia and Sportsman's Park (the third ballpark with that name; later known as Busch Stadium, the first of three stadiums with that name) in St. Louis. In Philadelphia, the AL’s Athletics hosted the game in 1943, and the NL's Phillies in 1952. In St. Louis, the National League's Cardinals hosted the game in 1940, and the American League's Browns in 1948.

To date, only two franchises have never hosted a game: the Miami Marlins (although scheduled to host the game in 2000, Major League Baseball moved the game to Atlanta), and the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Washington Nationals franchise hosted the game when they were the Montreal Expos, and All-Star Games have been played in the District of Columbia, hosted by both incarnations of the Washington Senators (now the Minnesota Twins and the Texas Rangers).

Of the remaining 28 franchises, the New York Mets have gone the longest period without hosting since their sole hosting duty in 1964, but this streak will come to an end in next week. The Dodgers will then become the team with the longest active hosting drought (1980).

 

A total of 84 All-Star Games have been played (including two games per year from 1959-1962), with the National League winning 43, the American League 39, and two ties.

The All-Star Game has seen several "eras" in which one league tended to dominate.

From 1933 to 1949, the American League won 12 out of the first 16.

The National League dominated from 1950 to 1987, winning 33 of 42 with 1 tie. This included a stretch from 1963 to 1982 when it won 19 of 20, including 11 in a row from 1972 to 1982.

Since 1988 the American League has dominated, winning 19 of 24 with one tie, including a 13 game unbeaten streak (12-0-1) from 1997 to 2009.

The National League ended their 13-year drought with a 3-1 victory in 2010 and won again in 2011 and 2012.

As of the 2013 All-Star Game, the cumulative run totals for all 84 games played was 696 – closely split between the leagues – with 344 runs for the American League and 352 for the National League.

The longest All-Star Game, in terms of innings lasted 15 innings, which has occurred twice: 1967 and 2008. The longest game, in terms of time was 2008, with a total time of 4 hours and 50 minutes.

This years All-Star Game will take place at Target Field on Tuesday, July 15th at 5 p.m. It will be the first All-Star Game held at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins.

Weather Impacting Sports

On Jan. 5, 1986, a game between the Seattle SuperSonics and Phoenix Suns was suspended early in the second quarter as a result of rain. The heavy rain outside began to leak through the roof of the arena in Seattle, leading to the first time an NBA game would be delayed because of rain.

This would also become the first time an NBA game would be suspended and resume on another day. The following day, the two teams returned and the Suns completed a win.

In Dec. 2010 the Metrodome then home of the Minnesota Vikings and Twins inflatable Teflon roof collapsed just hours before the Vikings would host the New York football Giants. The game was moved to Ford Field in Detroit and played on Monday instead of Sunday.

The Metrodome’s roof had collapsed before 2010 too. In the 1980s, the first years of the Metrodome the roof was damaged and deflated.

On November 19, 1981, a rapid accumulation of over a foot of snow caused the roof to collapse, requiring it to be re-inflated.

It deflated the following winter on December 30, 1982, again because of a tear caused by heavy snow. This was four days before the Vikings played the Dallas Cowboys in the last regular-season game of the 1982 NFL season.

 In the spring following that same winter, on April 14, 1983, the Metrodome roof deflated because of a tear caused by a late-season heavy snow, and the scheduled Twins' game with the California Angels was postponed.

On April 26, 1986, the Metrodome roof suffered a slight tear because of high winds, causing a nine-minute delay in the bottom of the seventh inning versus the Angels; however the roof did not deflate.

Other events to be cancelled or delayed because of weather related issues were the 1976 Daytona 500, it was called after 102 laps, making it the shortest official Indianapolis 500 in history.

The Daytona 500 would be hit again with rain in 2012, but this time postponing the race for the first time ever, 30 hours from Sunday afternoon to Monday night.

At the Formula One's 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix, a rainstorm was predicted to hit the half of the race, of 56 laps; however, at the start of the race the weather was sunny with large black clouds in the distance.

By lap 19 it began to rain as some drivers entered pit road for wet tires as the rain was falling hard. By lap 28, the rain was torrential to the point officials called a caution, deploying the Safety Car, but still several cars were out due to spins or crash.

The rain became worse and the race was red-flagged on lap 33. Once the rain had ceased, it was deemed too late and dark to continue and the race was stopped. Some drivers and spectators protested the race organizer's decision but no action was taken.

The 2009 season was the first year that the FIA started the Asia and Australia races as late-afternoon starts where the sun would be setting during the race finish in order to maximize European television broadcasts.

The 2009 Petit Le Mans in Braselton, Georgia, was an example of a rainout under the FIA Code, where only three completed laps are needed for an official race and less than half the race (184 of 394 laps).

The red flag waved after 184 laps at the 4:52 point of the race. In endurance racing, the clock does not stop for red flags. IMSA waited until 8 PM to declare the race official.

While the race was 13 laps from official (500 miles), the clock had passed the five-hour mark when the race was called at 8 PM.

In the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, rain before the race wet the circuit. 30 minutes into the race, a heavy rainstorm hit the circuit and the race was red-flagged, the rain didn't stop and the event was delayed for more than 2 hours, the race was finished for its 70 laps and was the longest race in Formula One history.

To prevent a repeat, FIA rules were changed so that a four-hour race clock starts when the cars start their warm-up lap. The clock will not be stopped for any situation, effectively ending a race four hours after cars roll off—regardless of how far the race has finished.

Carlton Sets A New NL Strikeout Record

On Sept. 21, 1981, Philadelphia Phillies great and Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton strikes out a National League record 3,118 batters, fanning Montreal Expos outfielder Andre Dawson. Carlton would end his career with 4,000 strikeouts in the National League, which is still the most of all-time.

The next highest player who is currently playing is Livan Hernandez with 1,922, so it is fairly easy to say that Carlton will most likely hold the National League strikeout record forever.

Carlton’s 4,000 career strikeouts in one league are also the second highest mark of any player in a single league to that of Roger Clemens, who has 4,167 career strikeouts in the American League.
Carlton spent the majority of his 24-year career with the Philadelphia Phillies, but also saw time with the St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians and the Minnesota Twins.

Carlton finished his career with 10 All-Star appearances, including four consecutive appearances from 1979-1982. He was a four time National League CY Young Award winner, a Gold Glove winner in 1981 and a two-time World Series Champion, winning the 1967 World Series with the Cardinals and 1980 World Series with the Phillies.

Although he never won an MVP award, he was in the conversation six-times, being in the top five in voting three times.

Over his career Carlton stacked up some impressive numbers including 329 wins, 244 losses with two saves in 744 games, including 709 starts. He was able to pitch 254 complete games and 55 shutouts. Over his career Carlton put together a lifetime 3.22 ERA over 5,217.2 innings pitched with 4,136 strikeouts allowing 4,672 hits, 1,864 earned runs, 1,833 walks and 414 home runs.

Over the course of his career Carlton led the league in wins four times, with his highest single season total coming in 1972 with 27 wins. He led the league in losses twice, with his highest single season total coming in 1973 with 20. He led the league in ERA once in 1972, with his lowest single season ERA coming that same year with a 1.97 mark. He also led the league in games started four times, with his highest single season total of starts coming in 1972 with 41.

Carlton also led the league in complete games three times, with his highest single season total coming in 1972 with 30. He led the league in shutouts once in 1982 with six, although his highest single season total came in 1972 when he had eight. He led the league in innings pitched five times, with his highest single season total of innings pitched coming in 1972 with 346.1. He also led the league in strikeouts five times, with his highest single season total coming in 1972 with 310.

Carlton’s No. 32 jersey was retired by the Phillies in 1989.

In 1994 Carlton was inducted into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame with 95.8 percent of the vote on the first ballot on which he appeared.