Kuzul

There are four teams that are still alive in the Major League Baseball postseason: the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

These storied franchises combine for 93 pennants and 48 World Series titles. They have had a combined 175 Hall of Famers—over half of the players inducted into Cooperstown.

Between 1922 and 2006, the four teams faced off in the World Series 15 times, with the Yankees and Giants meeting seven of those times (1922-24, 1936-37, 1951, 1962). The Yankees are 5-2 all-time against the Giants in the World Series .

The Yankees and Cardinals have met five times, with St. Louis winning three of those. St. Louis has also beat the Detroit Tigers in two of the three World Series that they have faced off, the last one in 2006.

The quest for the AL Pennant beings tonight at 8:30 when the New York Yankees take on the Detroit Tigers. The Yankees won the season series 6-4.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

With October baseball well underway and history already being, this is a good time to look at some of the greatest comebacks of all-time.

A couple of this year’s comebacks even make the list.

The list is not comprehensive and many didn’t make the cut. The teams that made the the list, however, strongly deserve to be there.

They are teams who either little was expected of or that had to climb to improbable (nearly impossible) heights to bring a struggling team back to life.

By mere coincidence, nine of the top 10 on the list involve–as either winners or losers–the four teams who remain in the Championship Series’.

The New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals and Detroit Tigers–four of the most storied franchises in all of baseball-have been on the giving or receiving end of many of baseball’s most monumental moments.

Before we find out if there will be more history made in October, take a look back.

 Follow the break for the 10 greatest comebacks in MLB Playoff history.

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On October 5, the illustrious career of Larry “Chipper” Jones came to an end following the Atlanta Braves‘ disappointing loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2012 NL Wild Card Game.

After 19 seasons, the 40-year-old Jones finished with a lifetime .303 average, 468 home runs and 1,623 RBI. He is without question going to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in a matter of years, and most likely in his first year of eligibility.

Although the pitching of former teammates Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz gave the Braves of the 1990s and early 2000s their most prominent identity, Jones has been the team’s offensive identity for his entire career. He spent every year he had with the Braves and was very successful, especially as a switch-hitter.

With Jones’ career now over, how would he compare to the greatest third basemen of all time? Here are the updated top 10 all time third basemen rankings.

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There was a time, in the not-so-distant past, when a no-hitter in MLB was so infrequent that you could remember the names of the pitchers who tossed such gems over the past several years.

The moments were recalled on the yellowed newspaper clippings of your memory.

The no-hitters dotted recent history, delicious in their stubborn and insistent rarity of occurrence.

You were sometimes lucky to see one a year. The no-hitter was Armageddon-type headline stuff for the newspapers.

Part of the beauty, too, was how the no-hitter often plucked mediocre pitchers from virtual anonymity and shoved them under baseball’s spotlight, all because for one game, that guy with the losing record and the ERA of 4.86 put it all together.

It’s part of my fascination with baseball—how the game has a wonderful way of occasionally making heroes out of the Walter Mittys who play it.

The list of men who have tossed no-hitters is hardly a “Who’s-Who” of pitching.

The no-hitter was, until recent years, baseball’s version of being struck by lightning.

Emphasis on was.

It was around 1990 when the no-hitter increased in frequency. In the 1980s, there were 13 no-hitters thrown, total. Three years in the decade (1982, 1985 and 1989) were devoid of no-hitters altogether. In contrast, the 1990s had 14 no-hitters by 1991, and a new day had dawned.

But now it’s getting ridiculous.

Check the water in the cooler in the dugout. Better yet, have the pitching arms tested for uranium—or Nolan Ryan.

You ready for this?

Since April 17, 2010, 16 no-hitters have been thrown. They’re getting to be as common as complete games, almost.

Friday night, Homer Bailey of the Cincinnati Reds tossed the latest gem, against the Pirates in Pittsburgh (the same Pirates team that was two outs away from being victimized by Justin Verlander in May, which would have been Verlander’s third no-hitter before the age of 30).

Bailey’s no-hitter is the seventh this season alone, a year that has seen three perfect games.

Bailey fits the bill as baseball’s latest no-hit artist. He has a career ERA of 4.59, so naturally he threw a no-hitter.

But seriously—seven no hitters, in one season? And three perfect games?

Call it the dead-ball era, Part II. Or the return of the Hitless Wonders, with apologies to the 1906 Chicago White Sox.

But more power to the pitchers, I say. It’s rather amazing that the spate of no-hitters have come at a time in the game where strike zones are squeezed more than Charmin. There are a lot of umpires in the game today who make the pitcher pour the baseball over an area the size of a postage stamp.

Yet we are seeing dominant performances almost every night. It’s not just starting pitching that has become filled with Ryans and Koufaxes and Johnsons. Every team, it seems, has a reliever or two whose ERA looks like the price of a newspaper.

Fernando Rodney, our old friend from his Tigers days and the closer for the Tampa Bay Rays, is having the year of his life.

Rodney, from 2007 through 2011, never had an ERA of lower than 4.24. Tigers fans know all too well the trials and tribulations he had as the team’s closer.

This year, Rodney has converted 46 of 48 save opportunities and has an ERA of 0.62, or one-seventh of what he’s been churning out in recent years.

A 0.62 figure isn’t an ERA, it’s pocket change.

It’s a fascinating time to be watching baseball, because offenses are shrinking gradually, like that guy who loses weight but you don’t notice until you see photos of him from three years ago.

Every Major League Baseball season contains 2,430 games, or a few less if rainouts aren’t made up. Let’s take a look at total runs scored since 2006 (numbers courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com):

2006: 23,599 (9.7 per game)

2007: 23,322 (9.6)

2008: 22,585 (9.3)

2009: 22,419 (9.2)

2010: 21,308 (8.8)

2011: 20,808 (8.6)

2012: 20,298 (through earlier this week with a handful of games left per team)

Now, I’m no mathematician or sabermetrics guy, but that looks like a trend to me.

So why the degradation involving those guys swinging the bats?

Well, they’re growing pitchers bigger these days. You see the sizes of some of these hurlers? Put them in plaid and they’d pass for Paul Bunyan. Some of these guys are so tall it’s like being pitched to by a giraffe.

The pitchers are getting bigger and stronger, but the bats are the same size.

Another theory? Teams are promoting players earlier in their professional careers, as a rule. And the pitchers are ahead of the hitters in their development.

The stuff out there is nasty. Sliders dropping off tables like cue balls. Curves bending like bamboo. Fastballs exploding and being applied to the strike zone with a paint brush. Changeups twisting hitters into the dirt like a corkscrew.

The poor hitters just can’t keep up, as the above numbers indicate.

So is the no-hitter being ruined? Is it being rendered meaningless? Are we on the verge of greeting the news of the latest no-no with yawns?

Sixteen no-hitters since April 2010. That’s nearly one a month, on average. And there are a whole lot more that are flirted with—getting as far as the seventh or eighth inning in many instances.

Poor Homer Bailey. He threw his no-hitter and it’s like you want to react by saying, “Put it over there, with the others.”

What can you say? The guy was born 20 years too late to thrill us.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

MLB personnel moves are frequently prefaced by fan speculation, media probing or an executive announcement. Somebody usually spoils the surprise.

This article celebrates 10 exceptions to that norm that were completed in 2012.

The players involved ranged from future first-ballot Hall of Famers to lifetime reserves. The reasons for relocation varied, too.

However, they all understand what it’s like to be moved in a shocking trade.

Let’s review their experiences from the past year.

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Now a full week into the final month of the season, several pennant races are taking shape in Major League Baseball.

As of Friday morning, half of the teams in MLB were still within 3.5 games of either a division title or a Wild Card slot, giving the promise of exciting play over the final few weeks.

Pennant races throughout the history of baseball have produced moments which are indelibly etched in the minds of its fans. Many can recall verbatim exactly how those plays transpired and the events leading up to those moments.

Bleacher Report will jog your memory and recall the 30 top MLB pennant-race moments in history.

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They say that baseball is a young man’s game.

The constant running, training and wear-and-tear placed on a man’s body can be grueling. Over the years, it can cause even the healthiest of men to break down. 

Every so often, there are those players that defy that logic. Some may call it luck, while others consider it good genes; at the end of the day, however, it all boils down to the love of the game.

To take a look at MLB History, there have been numerous players who have managed to stay in the game through their late 30s. At that point, the numbers drop off.

The purpose of this list is to look at those players to managed to play at a high, or fairly high, level after reaching the age of 40.

More so, if they were a position player, they must have put in over 100 games of work. If they’re a pitcher, they must have 100 innings pitched under their belt.

With those caveats in mind, here is a look at the 20 greatest “old guys” in MLB history.

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Being on top of the standings at the beginning of the year is great, but what really matters is having one of the best records in baseball after the last day of the season.

Throughout baseball history, there have been a number of teams that looked like World Series contenders that have struggled late in the year. In some cases, these teams have lost playoff spots as a result.

The New York Yankees had a big lead during the 2012 season and have seen it dwindle down due to their recent struggles. They could end up having one of the worst collapses in baseball history.

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In the aftermath of the Melky Cabrera suspension last week, details have emerged that reveal a bizarre tale of lies and deception that was put together solely for the purpose of trying to exonerate Cabrera.

Cabrera and his associate were trying to take advantage of a loophole in the MLB drug testing policy in the same manner that Milwaukee Brewers Ryan Braun was able to successfully appeal his suspension last February.

The case is still under investigation, and by the time everything is said and done, Cabrera could have a lot more than just a 50-game suspension to worry about. Jail time could be quite possible.

Cabrera’s ludicrous attempt to lie his way out of his troubles brings to mind several other lies that were brought to light in other bizarre stories in MLB history as well.

Here are a few of them.

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On Monday afternoon, one of the great ambassadors of baseball passed away.

Johnny Pesky, a man who dedicated his life to the game that he so loved for over six decades, died at the age of 92. While Pesky will always be remembered for his unabashed love of the Boston Red Sox, he is also remembered for his unwavering passion for the game and for the people that played it.

The Red Sox have honored Pesky in various ways over the years by retiring his number; by having him raise the World Series championship banner in 2005; and countless other ways.

But Pesky’s Pole is a feature that has become one of the most talked-about parts of Fenway Park.

In honor of Mr. Pesky and in honor of the terrific man that he was, we will take a look at various features at different ballparks throughout MLB.

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