Fifty years ago today, Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's single-season home run record by hitting his 61st of the season. Tracy Stallard of the Red Sox gave up the historic blast, a fourth inning solo shot. Three players (Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa) have since hit more than 61 homers in a season, but Maris' 1961 total is still the AL record for home runs in a season.
Here is the best the baseball blogosphere had to offer during the final week of the 2011 regular season…
- Phoul Ballz interviewed Phillies reliever Justin DeFratus.
- Over The Monster mused about Terry Francona's departure from the Red Sox.
- Joe Blogs wrote about the madness of last Wednesday night.
- Call to the Pen looked at the Orioles' role in the Red Sox's collapse.
- Puckett's Pond put Twins GM Bill Smith on trial.
- Through The Fence Baseball penned an open letter to Marlins management.
- Blogging from the Bleachers expects there to be some rumors about Carlos Zambrano and the Marlins.
- Brotherly Glove recapped Cliff Lee's first full year with the Phillies.
- South Side Sox says Sergio Santos' contract extension is friendly for everyone involved.
- Cracked Bell Sports explains how releasing Danys Baez hurt the Phillies' bullpen.
- The Todd Van Poppel Rookie Card Retirement Plan says they don't want Hideki Matsui on the 2012 Athletics.
- Replacement Level Baseball looked at some of the Athletics' under-the-radar acquisitions.
- Rant Sports Indians explained how expanded playoffs would benefit the Indians.
- Yankees Fans Unite says the Yankees need a productive Alex Rodriguez in the playoffs.
- Bronx Baseball Daily explains why Bartolo Colon isn't the same anymore.
- BoSox injection praised the invaluable arm of Alfredo Aceves.
- Blog Red Machine wrote about the maturation of Jay Bruce.
- Rant Sports Mets wonders if Jose Reyes cost himself money in free agency.
- The Nats Blogs asks whose actions were worse: Reyes' or Adam Dunn's.
- The Beanball explains that spending money doesn't automatically lead to winning.
- Blogging Mets posted a 2011 report card for the Mets.
- We Should Be GMs handed out Phillies' team awards.
- Bleacher GM looked at the MVP and Cy Young races.
- Twin Cities Baseball tried to predict the next Hall of Fame class.
- The Hardball Times reviewed Moneyball.
If you have a suggestion for this feature, Mike can be reached here. Only one email per week, please.
All this Reyes hate needs to really stop. I was upset that Reyes was pulled after his first at-bat more so than anything because it could’ve been the last game he played in a Mets uni and I expected him to stay in longer.
People are going overboard saying how “classless” and “gutless” of a move it was. Was it a questionable move? Yes. But you can’t act like the guy deserves to be crucified when he did what many players before have done and many more will do in the future.
He earned his BA through the year despite his injuries and deserved the batting title. Get over it.
The fact we use “average” to determine the batting title is silly anyway.
not really, Braun had more AB’s than him.
So what? He had enough at-bats to qualify him didn’t he? That’s all that matters.
& Whose to say that had he not gotten injured, he would’ve lost the lead? The way he was going, Jose was on a nasty and historical hitting tear and all the injuries did was slow him down. He still won.
obviously Jose himself didnt have the same confidence in his abilities as you do or else he wouldnt have ASKED to be taken out of the game after a friggin bunt single…
I’m sorry, but your reasoning is fine for some people, but the way Jose Reyes plays baseball has been and always will be his Achilles heal, this was just the cherry on top.
Please Reyes needs to grow a pair. Ted Williams was hitting .400 in 1941 and could have sat out a double header to secure the .400 avg. What did he do? Man up and play in both games. He ending up going 6 for 8 and brought his average up to .406. Real men don’t hide in a corner, they get out there and face reality.
It was his last game as a Met, and had he played he STILL would have won the batting title as Ryan Braun had a terrible game. Way to go Jose, you robbed the fan base that has cheered for you your whole career,and that is how you thank them? You deserve the injuries that have plagued your career with an attitude like that. Good luck getting booed the rest of your career when you don’t play to the contract that some bone head GM gives you this offseason.
Not to mention that the Significance of Williams hitting .400 far exceeded the Reyes situation, and Williams was asked if he wanted to come out and he laughed.
Thats a true player. Jose Reyes is a punk.
Over the years their are more players who have sat out than have played. Boggs, Gerhrig, and others did the same thing Reyes did!
And the Reyes haters either ignore this or reply with “don’t you dare compare Reyes to _____”. It’s pathetic.
You don’t have to be a Reyes hater to see that that was a really weak move. It was a weak move when other guys did it too.
How dare you compare Reyes to the great Lew Gerhrig!
And how many of those players publicly admitted that they asked out of the game to keep their record intact?
It wasn’t classless or gutless, just selfish.
Why would the Marlins want Zambrano? He’d take up half the payroll and offers mediocrity at best, and that doesn’t include his brain which is scrambled eggs.
Another question …Why would the Marlins trade Uggla for a utility infielder and a loogy?
Answer to both questions: Terrible front office, don’t put anything past them
Because Uggla isn’t worth what he’ll make for the next 3 years, or at least he’s not likely to reach it. He’s an all bat second baseman who doesn’t field well, doesn’t walk a lot, and is already in his early thirties. No thank you.
he didn’t say “why didn’t they give uggla a big extension”. everyone already knows that
he said “why did they trade him for a hot pile of garbage”
That open letter to Marlins management was truly awful.
Could not agree more with you. Of course you can take all of those things with you. All of a sudden you change the name of the team from “F-L-O-R-I-D-A” to Miami and this guy feels that the franchise is not the same. The first paragraph was good, then it was all down hill (a very steep hill at that) from there.
Boston’s downfall started when they opened up the locker room to the media and stopped letting Manny being Manny. They haven’t won since, you can’t loose players of that caliber and expect to replace them. They missed the boat on Beltre, Martinez, Boggs, Damon, and most of all Clemens!
literally everything you just said is wrong. impressive
I love CJ, don’t get me wrong but, there is no way that he had a good enough season to win the MVP. He hit a ton of homers in the sandbox of a ballpark that they call Yankee Stadium. The only reason he has a ton of runs is because of who he plays for. He had a lower BA than Delmon Young, and unless you hit 60+ homers, you cannot be the MVP. At least in my mind. Jose Bautista and Miguel Cabrera had better season, in that order.
“He hit a ton of homers in the sandbox of a ballpark that they call Yankee Stadium.”
I can only assume that “CJ” means Granderson, and if I’m wrong, then my bad. But, if you look at his splits, he hit 20 HR on the road and 21 at home, so I’d say his HR power is for real and not a product of YS.
Note: This does not mean that I think Curtis should win the MVP.
But most of the other stadiums in the East are friendly towards his almost dead pull power. It’s easier for him to hit in Fenway then it is in Yankee Stadium and the Trop and Rogers Centre are not too far behind.
“But most of the other stadiums in the East are friendly towards his
almost dead pull power. It’s easier for him to hit in Fenway then it is
in Yankee Stadium and the Trop and Rogers Centre are not too far behind.”
I’m not sure if this is entirely true, but regardless, that’s not what was being discussed. I agree that the AL East has hitter friendly ball parks and I can even agree with the notion that Granderson’s HR total was helped by this fact. But your original point (seemingly) was that Yankee Stadium was the *only* reason Curtis had such good HR numbers, which is just flat out untrue.
Check out my take on the Red Sox at http://thebestsoxblog.mlblogs.com