Major league teams start spring training in February, grind through 162 games — or 163, for Texas and Tampa Bay — and if they’re lucky, reach the playoffs. For wild cards, it’s a chance to become a World Series champion. Or have a whole season’s worth of work wiped out in nine innings.
With the bases loaded, two outs and the score 0-0 in the bottom of the ninth, Henderson Alvarez stood in the Miami Marlins’ on-deck circle, bat in hand, hoping to complete his no-hitter.
Baseball’s most acclaimed relief pitcher, Mariano Rivera, made an emotional exit in his final appearance in the Yankees’ home pinstripes when Derek Jeter and Andy Pettitte came from the dugout to remove him with two outs in the ninth inning of a 4-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
After a decade of maintaining his departure was imminent, 79-year-old baseball commissioner Bud Selig put his exit plans in writing Thursday and said in a statement he will retire in January 2015 after 22 years — the second-longest term behind Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
The Colorado Rockies gave Todd Helton a horse — a real horse — to ride off into retirement.
The rivalry between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers turned deadly when a fight after the division rivals played each other ended in a fatal stabbing, police said Thursday.
Without him, the Los Angeles Dodgers are just another underachieving team in the National League West, while Don Mattingly finds ways to spend his unexpected summer vacation.
WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals postponed Monday night’s game against the Atlanta Braves following shootings at the nearby Navy Yard.
A federal appeals court on Friday upheld former Giants slugger Barry Bonds’ obstruction of justice conviction stemming from rambling testimony he gave during a 2003 appearance before a grand jury investigating performance enhancing drug use among elite athletes.
Wally Backman’s squad had no such luck on Saturday afternoon, as Salt Lake starter Billy Buckner — no relation to the former Red Sox first baseman — pitched 6 2/3 strong innings to help the Bees beat Las Vegas 4-3 and eliminate it from the Pacific Coast League playoffs before a spirited crowd of 1,342 at Cashman Field.
