|
Hideki Matsui
, nicknamed "Godzilla", is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yomiuri Giants. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Matsui played the first 10 seasons of his career in Japan for NPB's Yomiuri Giants. During that span, he was a nine-time Nippon Professional Baseball All-Star Series, All-Star, three-time Japan Series champion, and three-time Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award, Central League Most Valuable Player (MVP). In 2003, Matsui transitioned to playing in MLB in North America, and spent his first seven seasons there with the New York Yankees. As a Yankee, he was a two-time Major League Baseball All-Star Game, All-Star and 2009 World Series champion, for which he was named the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, World Series ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch Batted ball, fly balls and ground balls then to return them to the infield for the out or before the runner advances, if there are any runners on the Baseball, bases. Outfielders normally play behind the six Baseball positions, defensive players located in the infield: the pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop. The left fielder and right fielder are named based on their positions relative to the center fielder when looking out from home plate, with the left fielder positioned to the left of the center fielder and the right fielder positioned to the right. By convention, each of the nine defensive positions in baseball are numbered. The outfield positions are 7 (left fielder), 8 (center fielder) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award
The is an annual Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) award given to two outstanding players, one each for the Central League (CL) and Pacific League (PL). Each league's award is voted on by national baseball writers. Each voter selects three players: a first-place selection is given five points, a second-place selection three points, and a third-place selection one point. The award goes to the player who receives the most overall points. The winners are announced every year in November during Nippon Professional Baseball's awards ceremony called NPB Awards. The first recipient of the award was Eiji Sawamura. The most recent winners, in 2023, are Shōki Murakami, from the Central League, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, from the Pacific League. In 1940, Victor Starffin became the first player to win the award consecutively and multiple times. Eiji Sawamura and Kazuhisa Inao are the youngest players to receive the awards in 1937 and 1957, respectively, at the ages of 20. In 1988, Hirom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional baseball league in the world. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day traditionally held during the first week of April. Six teams in each league then advance to a four-round Major League Baseball postseason, postseason tournament in October, culminating in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903. MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Designated Hitter
The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. Unlike other players in a team's lineup, they generally only play as an offensive player and usually do not play defense as a Fielding (baseball), fielder or a pitcher during a game. Due to their specialized offensive-only role, the designated hitter is generally expected to produce above average offensive stats and production compared to other players who play defense. In Major League Baseball, the position is authorized by Rule 5.11 of the Official Baseball Rules. It was adopted by the American League in and by the National League (baseball), National League in , making it universal in MLB. Within that time frame, nearly all amateur baseball, amateur, college baseball, collegiate, and professional baseball, professional leagues worldwide have adopted the designated hitter or some variant, except for Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Major Leagu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outfielder
An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch Batted ball, fly balls and ground balls then to return them to the infield for the out or before the runner advances, if there are any runners on the Baseball, bases. Outfielders normally play behind the six Baseball positions, defensive players located in the infield: the pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop. The left fielder and right fielder are named based on their positions relative to the center fielder when looking out from home plate, with the left fielder positioned to the left of the center fielder and the right fielder positioned to the right. By convention, each of the nine defensive positions in baseball are numbered. The outfield positions are 7 (left fielder), 8 (center fielder) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch (baseball), plays, with each play beginning when a player on the fielding team (baseball), fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a Baseball (ball), ball that a player on the batting team (baseball), batting team, called the Batter (baseball), batter, tries to hit with a baseball bat, bat. The objective of the offensive team (batting team) is to hit the ball into the field of play, away from the other team's players, allowing its players to run the Base (baseball), bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "Run (baseball), runs". The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming Base running, runners, and to prevent runners base running ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godzilla
is a fictional monster, or ''kaiju'', that debuted in the eponymous 1954 film, directed and co-written by Ishirō Honda. The character has since become an international pop culture icon, appearing in various media: 33 Japanese films produced by Toho Co., Ltd., five American films, and numerous video games, novels, comic books, and television shows. Godzilla has been dubbed the King of the Monsters, an epithet first used in '' Godzilla, King of the Monsters!'' (1956), the American localization of the 1954 film. Originally and in most iterations of the creature, Godzilla is a colossal prehistoric reptilian or dinosaurian monster that is amphibious or resides partially in the ocean, awakened and empowered after many years by exposure to nuclear radiation and nuclear testing. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the '' Lucky Dragon 5'' incident still fresh in the Japanese consciousness,Souder, William (2012); On a Farther Shore - The Life and Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Series Most Valuable Player Award
The Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award is given to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player deemed to have the most impact on his team's performance in the World Series, which is the final round of the MLB postseason. The award was first presented in 1955 by ''Sport'' magazine, but since 1985 has been officially presented by MLB. The winner is determined during the final game of the World Series by a committee of reporters and officials present at the game. On September 29, 2017, the award was renamed in honor of Willie Mays in remembrance of the 63rd anniversary of The Catch, which occurred the year before the award's debut; Mays never won the award himself. Car and trophy The award winner has traditionally received a new car. Johnny Podres, the inaugural winner in 1955, received a Chevrolet Corvette. The 1977 winner, Reggie Jackson, received a Ford Thunderbird, while the 1983 winner, Rick Dempsey, received a Pontiac Firebird. Frank Viola, the 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Series Champion
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) and concludes the MLB postseason. First played in 1903, the World Series championship is a best-of-seven playoff and is a contest between the champions of baseball's National League (NL) and American League (AL). Often referred to as the "Fall Classic", the modern World Series has been played every year since 1903 with two exceptions: in 1904, when the NL champion New York Giants declined to play the AL champion Boston Americans; and in 1994, when the series was canceled due to the players' strike. The best-of-seven style has been the format of all World Series except in 1903, 1919, 1920, 1921, when the winner was determined through a best-of-nine playoff. Although the large majority of contests have been played entirely during the month of October, a small number of Series have also had games played during September and November. The Series-winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 2004 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 75th edition of the midseason exhibition baseball game between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 13, 2004, at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas, the home of the Houston Astros of the National League. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 9–4, thus awarding the AL home-field advantage in the 2004 World Series. Rosters Players in ''italics'' have since been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. American League National League Notes * Player was selected to start, but did not play due to injury. * Player was selected as a reserve, but became a starting replacement. * Player was selected by the fans through the All-Star Final Vote. Game Umpires Starting lineups Game recap National Anthems The Canadian national anthem was sung by The Tragically H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2003 Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The 2003 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 74th midsummer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and celebrated the 70th anniversary of the inaugural All-Star Game played in Chicago, Illinois in 1933. The game was held on July 15, 2003 at U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 7–6, thus awarding an AL team (which was eventually the New York Yankees) home-field advantage in the 2003 World Series. This game was the first All-Star Game to award home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league, a rule that stemmed from a controversial 7–7 tie in the previous year's edition. In the days leading up to the game, Fox advertised it with the tagline: "This time it counts." Subsequent editions altered the slogan to "This one counts" to reflect the new m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major League Baseball All-Star Game
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual professional baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball (MLB) and contested between the all-stars from the American League (AL) and National League (baseball), National League (NL). All-Star Final Vote#All-Star selection, Starting fielders are selected by fans, pitchers are selected by Manager (baseball), managers, and reserves are selected by players and managers. The game is usually played on the second or third Tuesday in July, and is meant to mark the symbolic halfway point of the MLB season (though not the mathematical halfway point, which, for most seasons, falls within the previous calendar week). Both leagues share an ''All-Star break'', with no regular-season games scheduled from the day before through two days after the All-Star Game, with the exception of a single Thursday night game starting in the 2018 season. Some additional events and festivities associated with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
