by Remember when Eric Hosmer hit over .400 at the end of April? Barely!
Albert Cesare/USA TODAY Sports Network
most of us sports illustrated I’ve spent the last few weeks looking at this year in sports. We scoured the catalog of stories we’ve published in the last 12 months to pick our favorites and recap what it was (or what it wasn’t, in the case of MMQB editor Mitch Goldich).
As our MLB editor, I’ve been tasked with writing about this most exciting and important year in baseball. The overarching theme of the pack was “What We Will Remember From 2022”, so the stories I chose to highlight below my intro essay reflect this.
As we put it together though, I couldn’t help but think of all the things we’ll forget from baseball in 2022. In fact, I had already forgotten most of what we wrote about this year until I saw our stories in the archives. . So, uh, let’s say goodbye to this long, strange year and reminisce about things we might soon forget…
• Remember when the Angels were #1 in the first month and a half of the season? At the time, I felt like a genius because I made a bold and, in retrospect, an incredibly stupid prediction that they would win the World Series before the season started. Their record was 24-14 on May 16, their last day in first place; they went 49-75 the rest of the way. pile.
• Remember when Eric Hosmer shot .415 in his first 18 games. How did this turn out for him? The Padres wanted to trade him to the National Champions first in the Juan Soto trade, but Hosmer vetoed the deal as he had a limited no-trading clause and instead forced the Friars to trade Luke Voit, who was dissatisfied with it. Later that final day, the Red Sox inexplicably decided to take Hosmer away from San Diego. As a part-time player in Boston, Hosmer played 11-on-45 (.244) in 14 games and was appointed earlier this month.
• Remember when the Mets complained about how often they hit the field to start the season? In total, they were hit with 112 shots. To find a team that has made more shots in a season, you have to go back to 1899 – so TWO teams. Pennant-winning Brooklyn Superbas (yes, the franchise that would later become known as the Dodgers) have been hit from 125 pitches in 150 games, and in their final year, the National League Baltimore Orioles have been hit from 122 pitches in 152 games. .
A strange fact about these now-defunct O’s is that after the 1898 season, owner Harry Von der Horst also owned the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, which would change its name to Superbass for the next season. Along with manager Ned Hanlon, seven players from the ’98 Orioles were assigned to the ’99 Superbass. After the O’s closed, six more followed the 1900 season. One of the 99 Superbass that didn’t come from Baltimore, I’m not kidding, Welcome Gaston! He played two more games in 98 and one more in 99, and that was for his major league career. His career ERA was 2.84 in 19 innings, but the Gaston stat I found was, ummm, the most Welcome his batting line in ’99. He played a two record game in one game and went 1 on 1… wait… a shot from the field! So the cutoff line for ’99: 1,000/1,000/1,000 with 2,000 OPS! Is this relevant to the 2022 Mets? Not really! But I’m sure this is a welcome speech for you.
• Remember when Yankees manager Aaron Boone deliberately walked Miguel Cabrera at the end of the eighth inning of a one-round game in Detroit when Miggy was one shot away from 3,000 for his career? As Emma Baccellieri wrote at the time, “It was a perfectly reasonable baseball decision. (Fill the empty floor with two outs in a close game to get a left-handed match – why not?) This is one example of how these sensible baseball decisions can often harm the interests of the fandom. And it was, above all, very silly, extremely funny.” Cabrera knocked him down from the right in the first plate appearance in the Tigers’ next game.
We will all remember Miggy’s 3,000th hit. The deliberate gait in the previous license plate view is more forgettable than the previous game.
Kirthmon F. Dozier/USA TODAY Sports Network
• Remember back in April when Joe Maddon, who was managing the Angels at the time, deliberately walked the Rangers centerback Corey Seager on the fourth inning, with bases full, one ahead and Texas 3-2 up? This was so funny! The rangers scored twice as many goals in a base-loaded sacrifice flight and an obstacle with the second and third-placed runners. The angels are back to win the game. Shohei Ohtani made a 2v5 with two home runs and Mike Trout made a 4v2 with a walk; each made two rounds.
• Remember when White Sox manager Tony La Russa made not one but TWO deliberate marches with his pitcher in the 1-and-2 count this year? I wrote about the first one in the June 10 issue of this newsletter because it was hilariously illogical! Coming in the sixth inning of Chicago’s final 11–9 loss to the Dodgers on June 9, in this case, La Russa walked Trea Turner to face Max Muncy with two runners up after a frenzied pitch that advanced Freddie Freeman to second base. Muncy then smashed a three-lap homer. For the second time, he hasn’t rebounded in a 5-2 loss to the Guardians on Friday, August 19, but that doesn’t mean it was the right decision.
• Do you remember when Aroldis Chapman was put on the injured list because his new leg tattoo got infected? History is more likely to remember when, as Lindsey Adler said, she was AWOLdis Chapman and was kicked out of the roster just before the postseason kicked off, but that doesn’t make the infected leg tattoo any less ridiculous.
Ok, two more…
• Do you remember that Madison Bumgarner was thrown out after checking for sticky substance, even though it wasn’t ejected because of the sticky substance? As I wrote at the time, things got pretty hot in Miami between the Diamondbacks left-handed and referee Dan Bellino.
• Remember when the National Team used to fly Juan Soto to the All-Star Game for advertising purposes instead of chartering a plane, as some, but not all, other teams do for All-Star players? As Soto’s manager, Scott Boras, told Stephanie Apstein, “All I know here is that the Atlanta Braves and Juan Soto played a game yesterday. The Atlanta Braves got here five hours before Juan Soto. Do you know why? Because their team chartered a plane. Juan Soto had to fly on a commercial flight and wait two hours at an airport and get here at 1:30 am and compete in the Home Run Derby. And that’s something Major League Baseball wasn’t interested in, and that’s something the Washington Nationals didn’t care about. Two weeks later, the National Champions traded Soto to the Padres.
I would say Welcome for giving you all these little things that you will soon forget, but I won’t do that because you are not welcome. This guy.
Happy New Year everyone and thanks for reading!
Do you have any questions or comments for our team? Send a note to mlb@si.com.
1. OPENER
The 99-day lockout gave way to the 99th year.
Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports
“A year ago, we didn’t know when or if baseball would be played in 2022. About a month ago, minutes after the collective bargaining agreement expired, 30 Major League Baseball owners locked out the game. “We had no idea how long it would last, but we knew it would be ugly.”
This is how I begin this baseball year review, published this morning. I promise it’s not as brutal as Lede shows, because the lockout ended just in time for a full season. You can read my story here, and below it you’ll find some of our best news from this year.
What We Will Remember From 2022: MLB From Team SI
Aaron Judge’s home run chase and Houston’s second championship marked a baseball season that for a while seemed like nothing.
2. DRINK
A lot has happened since the last bulletin. Let’s immerse you in some of our best stories:
We couldn’t publish Mitch Goldich’s Phillies Win World Series article in November because it was incomplete. Instead, we ran this morning.
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
An Alternate History of the 2022 Phillies World Series Directed by Mitch Goldich
What should you do when your favorite story of the year is reduced to a work of fiction?
This Year in Home Run Reactions: A Study of the Human Condition by Emma Baccellieri
Dramatic dingers tell us something about baseball. Shooters reveal something about frustration, pain, and apathy.
2022’s Most Representative MLB Hit, Emma Baccellieri
Which player best illustrates the type of baseball we’ve seen this year? Let’s have a look.
MLB Pays Older Players More As The Game Gets Younger, Tom Verducci
More players are being paid to leave rather than completing their contracts, and yet teams continue to sign long-term deals that take players well into their 30s.
Andruw Jones’ Hall of Fame Trial Reaches Its Historic High By Will Laws
During his 30-year-old season, he was one of the greatest players of all time. Then his production was interrupted, he was arrested from domestic battery and his MLB career was over.
Jimmy Rollins Has A Longer Way To Get The Hall Of Fame He’d Get From Matt Martell
Few players have teamed up for power and speed like the longtime Phillies centre-back.
3. REMARKABLE FROM Nick Selbe
With the end of 2022, it’s time to make New Year’s resolutions. With a new kind of era coming to MLB in 2023, we hope the rule changes that are headed our way will have the intended positive effect: More balls falling on hits in the game, more stolen foundation attempts (successful or unsuccessful) and ultimately more scoring Players, managers and referees. Will there be setbacks along the way as you adjust to the new normal? Definitely. But if all goes as planned, we’ll be grateful that these changes are finally accepted this time next year.
4. TRIVIA by Matt Martell
Previous Question: Five active second basemen have made at least 100 home runs in their careers. One of them is Robinson Canó, who is still technically active as he has not retired. Who are the other four?
(For this question, a player must have played at least 50% of their games in stage two to qualify, so you won’t find Marcus Semien or Javier Báez on this list.)
Reply: Jose Altuve (192), Rougned Odor (174), Jonathan Schoop (174) and DJ LeMahieu (107)
Question: Five active shooters have won multiple Cy Young awards. Who are they?
5. CLOSER THAN Emma Baccellieri
My favorite part of Mitch’s article on the Phillies was that he explained how their escape had reunited him with old friends. This concept was the best part of baseball for me this year. While 2021 felt like a return to normal, ’22 baseball really felt like it was back, very, very much. I did more excursions and met friends on ball tracks that I hadn’t seen in a long time. As reporters, we had a chance to reconnect with the players in the clubhouses and I think it was better for covering the whole match. This spirit of sharing and connecting through play is the best it has to offer. Blessings to all of us at 23.
That’s all from us for today. We’ll get back to your inbox next week. In the meantime, share this newsletter with your friends and family and tell them to sign up at SI.com/newsletters. If you have any questions or comments, send us an email at mlb@si.com.
