Remember when Eric Hosmer was batting over .400 in late April? Barely!
Albert Cesare/USA TODAY Sports Network
many of us sports illustrated has spent the last few weeks looking back on the year in sports. We combed through our catalog of articles published over the last 12 months, picked our favorites, and summarized what happened (and what didn’t happen in the case of MMQB editor Mitch Goldich). .
As our MLB editor, I was tasked with writing about this most thrilling and important baseball year. The overarching theme of the packaging was “What do you remember from 2022?”
While wrapping up, though, I couldn’t help but think about forgetting about baseball in 2022. In fact, I already forgot a lot of what I wrote this year until I saw our story in the archives. So let’s give this long and strange year a proper send-off and remind ourselves again of what we may soon forget…
• Remember when the Angels were the #1 team for the first month and a half of the season? I felt like a genius at the time. Because before the season started, they made a bold and in hindsight incredibly stupid prediction that they would win the World Series. Their record was 24–14 on May 16, the first and last day. They went 49–75 the rest of the way. Weft.
• Remember that Eric Hosmer batted .415 in his first 18 games. what happened to him? The Padres initially wanted to trade him to the Nationals in the Juan Soto trade, but Hosmer had a restrictive no-trade clause, so he declined the deal, instead giving the Friars Luke Voight. forced a trade. Later in that deadline day, the Red Sox inexplicably decided to lure Hosmer out of San Diego’s hands. As a part-time player for Boston, Hosmer was assigned an assignment earlier this month after he went 11-for-45 (.244) in his 14 games.
• Remember when the Mets started the season complaining about how often pitches were hit? Well, they hit a total of 112 pitches. All the way back to 1899, he has to find the team that has been hit more balls in one season, which is two. The pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas (yes, the franchise later called the Dodgers) hit his 125 pitches in his 150 games, and the Nationals Baltimore his league’s Orioles hit him in his 152 games last year. was hit 122 balls. .
A curious fact about these now-defunct O’s is that after the 1898 season, owner Harry von der Horst also became the owner of the Brooklyn Bridesgroom, changing the name to Superbus for the following season. Seven players from the ’98 Orioles were assigned to the ’99 Superbass, along with manager Ned Hanlon. After the O’s folded, six more followed in the 1900 season. One of his 1999 Superbass not from Baltimore was a pitcher named “No kidding, welcome Gaston!” He threw his two games in 1998 and another in 1999. His all-time ERA was 2.84 for him in 19 innings, but Gaston’s stats I found, hmm, the most welcome was his batting his line in 1999. In his only game he had two at-bats and went 1-for-1…wait…hit-by-pitch!So the ’99 slash line is 1.000/1.000/1.000 and he’s 2.000 OPS!This is Relevant for the 2022 Mets?Not much! But I hope it’s a welcome digression for you.
• Remember when Yankees manager Aaron Boone intentionally walked Miguel Cabrera in the bottom of the eighth inning of a one-run game in Detroit? It was a perfectly reasonable baseball decision.(Why fill an empty base with two outs in a close game to reach a left-on-left matchup?) It was an example of what can often go against the interests of the fandom. grounded.
You remember Miggy’s 3,000th hit. An intentional walk in his previous at-bat from the previous game is more forgettable.
Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Sports Network
• Remember back in April when then-Angels manager Joe Maddon had the bases loaded and one out in the fourth over Rangers shortstop Corey Seager with Texas leading 3-2? ?It was hilarious!? The Rangers scored twice as much as he did in the inning on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly and a balk with a runner on second and his third. The Angels are back to win the game. Shohei Ohtani went 2-for-5 with his two home runs, and Mike Trout walked and he went 2-for-4. They scored two runs each.
• Remember when White Sox manager Tony La Lussa led pitchers in counts 1 and 2 this year with two intentional walks instead of one? I wrote about the first one in the March 10th issue because it was comically illogical. In that instance, in the sixth inning of Chicago’s eventual 11–9 loss to the Dodgers on June 9, after a wild pitch advanced Freddie Freeman to second base, La Russa walked Trea Turner and put two runners on. and confronted Max Muncy. Muncey then smashed a three-run homer. The second time, on Friday, August 19, in a 5–2 loss to the Guardians, it didn’t backfire, but that doesn’t mean it was the right decision.
• Remember when Aroldis Chapman was put on injured reserve because a new tattoo on his leg became infected? is likely to remember when he was, but that doesn’t make his infected leg tattoos ridiculous.
ok two more…
• Remember when Madison Bumgarner was sent off after being tested for slime? As I wrote at the time, there was quite a stir in Miami between the Diamondbacks left-hander and umpire Dan Bellino.
• Remember when the Nationals made Juan Soto a commercial flight instead of chartering an All-Star Game flight? All we know is that the Atlanta Braves and Juan Soto played a game yesterday.The Atlanta Braves got here five hours earlier than Juan Soto.You know why?Their team. Juan Soto had to fly on a commercial flight, wait two hours at the airport, arrive at 1:30 a.m., play in the Home Run Derby, and it was the Major League Baseball. It’s something baseball didn’t care about and the Washington Nationals didn’t care.” Two weeks later, the Nationals traded Soto to the Padres.
I thank you for providing you with all this information that you will soon forget, but I will not. This guy.
Happy new year. Thank you for reading.
Questions or comments for our team? Send us a note at mlb@si.com.
1. Opener
The 99-day lockout was superseded in 1999.
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
“A year ago, we didn’t know when or if baseball would play in 2022. About a month ago, our collective bargaining agreement expired and ended without a new one. Shortly after, 30 Major League Baseball owners shut baseball out, beginning its first hiatus in 27 years.We didn’t know how long it would last, but we knew it would be ugly. .”
That’s how I begin the aforementioned baseball annual essay that was published this morning. With the lockout ending in time for a full season, I promise it’s not as tough as Reed makes it seem. You can read the story of Below that are some of the best articles of the year as well.
Things to Remember from 2022: MLB by SI Staff
Aaron Judge’s home run chase and Houston’s second title headlined a baseball season that for a while seemed like it might not happen at all.
2. Ichimi
A lot has happened since our last newsletter. Catch up on some of our best stories:
I failed to publish Mitch Golditch’s Phillies-winning World Series essay in November. So I ran it this morning instead.
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Another history of the 2022 Phillies World Series run by Mitch Goldich
What to do when your favorite story of the year becomes a work of fiction.
Homerun reaction of the year: Emma Baccellieri’s study of the human condition
The dramatic Dinger teaches us something about baseball. Pitcher reveals something about frustration, pain, and apathy.
Most Represented MLB Hitters of 2022 by Emma Bachelieri
Which player best describes the type of baseball we’ve seen this year?
MLB is giving older players more money as the game gets younger by Tom Verducci
More players are being paid to leave rather than complete their contracts, yet teams continue to sign long-term contracts that bring players well into their 30s.
Andrew Jones’ Hall of Fame induction reaches his historic peak by Will Lowes
He was one of the all-time greats throughout his 30-year-old season. His production then fell apart and he was arrested for domestic assault, ending his MLB career.
Jimmy Rollins has a long way to go to be inducted into the Hall of Fame by Matt Martell
Few players combine power and speed like the longtime Phillies shortstop.
3. Noteworthy from Nick Servé
As 2022 draws to a close, it’s time to make some New Year’s resolutions. As 2023 ushers in a new era of sorts for MLB, we hope that the rule changes will have the intended positive effect. score. Will there be any issues as players, managers and referees adjust to the new normal? But if all goes according to plan, we’re grateful that these changes have finally been adopted this time next year.
4. Matt Martell Trivia
Previous question: Five active second basemen have hit at least 100 homers in their careers. One of them is Robinson Cano. He’s not retired, so technically he’s still active. who are the other 4?
(This list does not include Marcus Semien or Javier Baez, as this question requires players to be playing at least 50% at second base.)
answer: Jose Altuve (192), Rougned Odor (174), Jonathan Schoop (174), DJ LeMahieu (107)
question: Five active pitchers with multiple Cy Young Awards. who are they?
5. THE CLOSER BY EMMA BASSERIERI
What I liked about Mitch’s essay on the Phillies is his explanation of how the Phillies run led to reuniting with old friends. That concept was the best part of baseball for me this year.While 2021 felt like a return to normalcy, ’22 felt like baseball was really, really all the way back. traveled more and met friends at ballparks he hadn’t seen in a long time. This spirit of sharing and connecting through games is the best that this game has to offer. I hope you have many more years in 2023.
That’s all for today. It will be back in your inbox next week. In the meantime, share this newsletter with friends and family and tell them to sign up at SI.com/newsletters. If you have any questions or comments, please email us at mlb@si.com.
