One of the best pitchers in the American League is Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay. He is shown his power and poise this season, and is definitely a front runner to take home the Cy Young award when the season finishes up in another month or so.

The Cardinals finished the 2005 regular season with exactly 100 wins, five less than the 2004 season. The Cardinals were able to get to the World Series in 2004 but got ousted in 2005. The Astros pitching was just too much for them to handle.

The truth of the matter is these Cardinals went into the 2005 MLB Playoffs unprepared. They finished their last 19 games with a 9-10 record. In their last 30 games, they were only 16-14 on the season. This is a little over a month of just coasting through to get to the playoffs, effectively losing all of their momentum from a great baseball season. The same situation almost happened to the Whitesox until the Indians were able to get their juices flowing again.

In the 1950s, New York lost both the Giants and the Dodgers and rumors stated that the teams left, in part, due to the fact that they wanted a new stadium. This left New York with only one remaining baseball team. By 1960, National League owners were ready to award new baseball franchise teams to New York with one of the requirements being the construction of a new stadium.

Everyone talks about the thrill of going to a live major league baseball game. There’s just nothing like being at the park to see your favorite team take the field and hopefully win a ball game for you. But is that really true? Is seeing a live game all that it’s cracked up to be? We’re not going to try to determine whether live or TV is better but we are going to present the pros and cons of both. You can make your own decisions on which is better.

A baseball bat is a smooth rod made of wood or metal. High-quality wooden, metal, and composite type bats are available. Most wooden bats are made from maple, ash, hickory, and bamboo. Titanium and aluminum are the prime metals used in metal baseball bats.

Bats are available in a variety of models, sizes, and options. The ?barrel,? also called ?sweet spot,? is the thick part of the bat where it is meant to hit the ball. The end part of barrel is called ?tip.? The barrel narrows down and becomes the ?handle.? The next region is the ?knob,? which lies close to the handle. The total length of a bat is limited to 42 inches, and the thickest part has a diameter of 2.7 inches (70 mm). A standard bat has a weight of around 39 ounces (1.1 kg).

It became official on September 29, 2004 - Major League Baseball’s run in Montreal was coming to an end after 36 seasons. On that day, the announcement was made that the Montreal Expos were moving to Washington, D.C., beginning with the 2005 season. This came as no surprise to anyone who follows baseball, as this inevitable move had been in the making for at least 10 years.

In April 1992, Camden Yards opened it’s doors as a brand new $100 million facility that was designed under the architectural guidance of HOK Sport and constructed by Danobe Construction. Located just two blocks from Babe Ruth’s birthplace in downtown Baltimore, the centerfield at this 85-acre facility is also the site at which Ruth’s father once operated Ruth’s Café. In the beginning, there was some debate over the name to be given to the new ballpark. Some felt that it should be named Oriole Park after it’s tenants, the Baltimore Orioles, but others were set on calling it Camden Yards. In a pleasing compromise, the park was ultimately named Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Let’s take a look at baseball’s post-season rivals and predict who will prevail when the autumn leaves have touched down.

American League:

Oakland A’s: They’re a balanced team with solid pitching, but they’re not particularly deep.

Detroit Tigers: Hands down, their record was the best in the majors for 85% of the season. But were they playing far over their heads? Their September record says “yes,” so I expect they’ll be respectable, and possibly make it to the American League Championship Series. But then they’ll stall.

The Los Angeles Angels will probably be a lock for the American League West in the 2006 baseball season. Uh oh, as soon as I said that the gambling gods were planning on ways to make them lose.

We say lock because we do not expect much out of the Mariners, Athletics, or Rangers. Even though we feel the Angels are not all that great themselves, they are still in the upper echelon of American League teams or so they should be.

Is the sports hero dead? Sports Illustrated writer Phil Taylor apparently thinks so. Lamenting the fall from grace of San Francisco big bat Barry Bonds, Taylor said that the Bonds steroid scandal made him sad (poor, sad Phil Taylor!). Then Taylor put forth some provocative, questions to readers of his recent SI column. These questions were as tough as any question that a serious sports writer can ever ask:

“Giving our allegiance, our affection, to a sports star is a riskier proposition than ever,” wrote Taylor. “Is there anyone safe to root for? Is there an athlete out there who won’t make us eventually feel like a fool for holding him in high esteem?”