Portal:Baseball/Did you know
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- ...that, as ascribed to a Major League Baseball rivalry, Subway Series, a locution derived from New York City's use of a rapid transit subway, was first used to reference the rivalry between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers, which teams, between 1941 and 1956, contested eight World Series, and the matchup of which teams is the most common in Series history?
- ...that, although the team fielded three American League All-Stars—center fielder Ron LeFlore, left fielder Rusty Staub, and starting pitcher Mark Fidrych—and the April (designated hitter Willie Horton), May (LeFlore), and June (Fidyrch) Player of the Month award winners, the Detroit Tigers finished the 1974 Major League Baseball season having won 74 and lost 87 games and having placed fifth in the East division?
- ...that, of the thirteen teams comprised by the Japanese Baseball League (JBL) over its existence between 1937 and 1949, four are extant in each of the Japanese Central and Pacific Leagues, and that amongst those to have moved to the former are the Yomiuri Giants (the Tokyo Kyojin through 1948), who, having won nine JBL titles, captured twenty-one league championships and thirteen Japan Series titles between 1950 and 1977?
- ...that, whilst seven Major League Baseball players—Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Sandy Koufax, Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Lefty Gómez, and Roger Clemens—have, by at least twice leading either the American or National League in earned run average, wins, and strikeouts in a single season, achieved multiple pitching Triple Crowns, only two Saint Louis Cardinals second baseman Rogers Hornsby, pictured, and Boston Red Sox left fielder Ted Williams—have, by twice leading one league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average in a single season, achieved multiple batting Triple Crowns?
- ...that, although teams representing Cuba, including twice each Almendares, Cienfuegos, and Marianao, captured seven of the twelve iterations of the Caribbean World Series played between 1949 and 1960, no Cuban team has participated in the Series since the 1961 dissolution by President Fidel Castro of professional baseball in Cuba, such that the Dominican Republic (fifteen, including nine by the Tigres del Licey) and Puerto Rico (fourteen, including five by the Cangrejeros de Santurce) each now have twice the titles earned by Cuba?
- ...that the Northern League, a Chicago, Illinois-based independent baseball split-season league, operates in cities in the Northern United States and Western Canada not otherwise served by Major or Minor League Baseball, and included, until 2005, when the franchise joined the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball, the St. Paul Saints, a league champion four times, including in 1993, when the roster featured shortstop Rey Ordóñez, first baseman Kevin Millar, and, for one game, third baseman Minnie Minoso, who played in his sixth decade of professional baseball?
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