The Yankees opened a new ballpark and Mariano Rivera closed it in style.
Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game and Dewayne Wise made sure it stayed that way.
Chase Utley hit five homers in a World Series, tying Reggie Jackson's record.
MLB Network launched a 24/7 network and many fans watched live games via mobile on what Macworld just called the Best Multimedia App of 2009.
A remarkable 73,367,659 fans marched into ballparks despite a deep recession -- the fifth-highest overall attendance in Major League Baseball history.
Not one but two Cy Young Award winners were involved in arguably the deal of the century, with Roy Halladay going to the Phillies and Cliff Lee to the Mariners.
What a year. What a decade. What a century. What a 134-year run this has been.
The national pastime is stronger than ever, still breaking in new generations of fans, still there for its longtime lovers, still churning out milestones and records and heroes, still making us scream and shout and shaping the very way sports everywhere are consumed. And yes, still producing Yankees world championships and Broadway parades.
The 2009 Major League Baseball calendar year was different from any other, but just similar enough to every one before it -- and that is why you keep coming back to it. The game is always there, weaving the past with the present and future -- and it will be there in full force at 2010 Spring Training with high hopes across the board.
What else will we remember most about this past year?
Daisuke Matsuzaka and Japan cleaned up in the World Baseball Classic again, winning it for the second time in two tries as Dice-K again went 3-0 to become 6-0 in the event's history.
Ichiro Suzuki, who celebrated with those Japan teammates, later reached 200 hits for a ninth consecutive season. The Mariners' leadoff man passed Wee Willie Keeler as the first to do that. Even more amazing is the fact it was Ichiro's ninth season.
Derek Jeter passed the immortal Lou Gehrig as the all-time hits king in Yankees history -- and his fans won't ever forget how he tied him on that three-hit night following a mini-slump.
The Dodgers were a runaway team for most of the season, but the National League West tightened and it was not until the frantic final weekend that it became clear they were the NL West champs and the resurgent Rockies were the NL Wild Card winners.
Jacoby Ellsbury set a Red Sox record for most steals in a season with 70, including a steal of home against the rival Yankees. Carl Crawford tied a Major League record with six steals in a game on May 3. And the face of basestealing history was put on a plaque as Rickey Henderson was inducted into the Hall of Fame, along with Jim Rice and the late Joe Gordon.
Randy Johnson won his 300th game and Gary Sheffield hit his 500th homer. The former milestone won't happen again for a long time, if ever. The latter has become almost common.
One Pudge, Rodriguez, passed another Pudge, Fisk. For the former, it was his 2,227th game caught, a Major League record for a catcher.
We'll remember the pageantry and the purity of Opening Day, and we'll remember those clinchers if we backed any of the eight teams that experience them.
Beyond Baseball
In many ways, Major League Baseball went Beyond in 2009.
Buehrle hurled the 18th perfect game in MLB history in his thrilling July 29 start against Tampa Bay, and then the White Sox left-hander retired the first 17 Twins he faced to set a Major League record with 45 consecutive outs.
Wise went beyond the warning track to help Buehrle finish that perfect game. In the ninth inning at U.S. Cellular Field, the White Sox center fielder personally attached himself to the milestone by crashing into the wall to preserve an out, then tumbling back to his feet.
That catch by Wise was part of a trend in 2009. Aaron Rowand went up to the top of the wall in center to rob Edgar Gonzalez and preserve Jonathan Sanchez's July 10 no-hitter for the Giants. Just four days later, Crawford went up and beyond the wall to rob Brad Hawpe at the 80th All-Star Game, preserving yet another American League victory.
The Major League schedule even went beyond -- beyond October. The Nov. 4 Game 6 clincher matched the 2001 Game 7 finish by the D-backs and Yankees in Arizona as the latest conclusion -- the only two seasons that ever went beyond October. Commissioner Bud Selig later said MLB would try to condense the postseason schedule by eliminating some off days, but in 2010 it would seem likely that the earliest it could end is Halloween. April 5 is the first Monday of games -- only one day earlier than last year.
The Commissioner wasted no time in taking action on that and other key issues. In December, Selig named a Special Committee for On-Field Matters -- a highly unusual and power-packed group that will look at many issues from those to pace of game and more. He promised there would be "no sacred cows."
It was the year President Obama was inaugurated as the first black U.S. president, and it was his emphasis on public service that became the foundation for MLB's year-long campaign of "Going Beyond." Obama himself threw out the first pitch at the All-Star Game in St. Louis, and he joined all living U.S. Presidents for a video tribute that everyone saw when 30 All-Stars Among Us were recognized on the field in pregame ceremonies at that Midsummer Classic.
"Going Beyond" was visible in the "Beyond Baseball" TV commercials and also in the game's community initiatives that reached new heights during the World Series. The themes surrounding the first five games were Welcome Back Veterans (Game 1), Roberto Clemente Award and Community Service/Volunteerism (Game 2), Stand Up To Cancer (Game 3), Youth and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (Game 4) and 4♦ALS (Game 5). It was the first time a Fall Classic was presented on a platform of community events.
Jeter not only won that Clemente Award, not only passed Gehrig, not only won it all, but he also won the Hank Aaron Award for outstanding offensive performer in the AL. Alas, his year was not big enough for an AL MVP. That went instead to Joe Mauer, the Twins catcher who is putting together a career that might go beyond what any other catcher has done. Mauer won his third batting title -- even flirted with .400 into the second half of the season.
In the National League, the MVP went to Albert Pujols, who went beyond even his own standards. For the first time, he finished in the top three in each of the Triple Crown categories. The Cardinals' first baseman led baseball with 47 homers, and wound up third in the NL with 135 RBIs and third in batting with a .327 average.
Tim Lincecum of the Giants went beyond one Cy Young Award, taking home another one and teaming with fellow All-Star Matt Cain to form a fearsome 1-2 starting punch. It was a pitching year to remember for Giants fans. Sanchez, just trying to work back into the rotation, threw the first no-hitter of the year, on a magical Friday right before the All-Star Game.
The other Cy went to Zack Greinke, and fans who voted for the 2009 This Year In Baseball Awards determined that he was even more than that -- the game's best starter that season. Period. Other than a beautiful ballpark upgrade, it was easily the bright spot of the year for the Royals, who tied with Cleveland for last in the AL Central at 65-97.
If you were a Mets fan in 2009, you had to be happy about a new Citi Field park -- but it never went beyond that feeling of architectural happiness there. Injuries abound and there was never a second-half run. The duality of Big Apple ballparks only served to show the true nature of baseball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And sometimes you can only watch helplessly as Eric Bruntlett of the rival Phillies records an unassisted triple play against you to end the game, as he did on Aug. 23 against the Mets.
Memories of a lifetime
We were reminded as always of the great tradition in play-by-play baseball broadcasting, not only through the usual dulcet and excitable tones that fill our summer, but also through the pangs of sadness when we miss them. Legendary Phillies voice Harry Kalas died on Easter Sunday, and beloved longtime Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell, standing up to inoperable cancer in his 90s, moved everyone with a thank-you speech on Sept. 16 at Comerica Park.
It was an especially emotional season around the Los Angeles Angels organization. The Halos went beyond the usual Division Series matchup results against Boston and swept the Red Sox this time -- by beating Jonathan Papelbon at Fenway Park, no less. They were unable to attain their ultimate objective, though, and that was winning it all for a fallen comrade. Pitcher Nick Adenhart died in a car accident on April 9. We'll always remember the poignant moment when the Angels clinched the AL West title and then as a group visited the mural of Adenhart on the center-field wall at Angel Stadium.
Your attention, ladies and gentlemen, Bob Sheppard formally retired after being unable to man the mic in 2009. The Yankees' long-time (and we mean long-time) public-address announcer, once dubbed the "Voice of God" by Jackson, will turn 100 next Oct. 20.
On Oct. 20, 1910, the day Sheppard was born, the Philadelphia A's beat the Cubs in Chicago. That was Game 3 of the World Series, giving the A's a 3-0 series lead, and they would win it in five. It ended a run of Fall Classics for the Cubs, and they have never been the same. It was the first of seven consecutive times they lost when playing in the World Series, the most recent of which was in 1945. The last title was in 1908. In 2009, Cubs fans waited again.
The Metrodome went out in 2009, and it went down fighting. The Twins made it to a one-game tiebreaker after an historic collapse by the Tigers, and then the home team won in that unforgettable Tuesday thriller to advance to the playoffs. Now the Twins wait for their new outdoor home at Target Field next April.
In 2009, it sometimes seemed like everyone was hitting for the cycle. Ian Kinsler, a big force in the Rangers' AL West contention for much of the season, became the first player since 1900 to collect six hits and hit for the cycle in a nine-inning game, tying club records with four extra-base hits and five runs in a 19-6 rout of the Orioles on April 15. Troy Tulowitzki had one of the best nights of his young career Aug. 10, hitting for the fifth cycle in Rockies history as part of a 5-for-5, seven-RBI performance in an 11-5 win over the Cubs.
For better or for worse, Alex Rodriguez was almost always there in the news during '09. It started with that bizarre news conference at Spring Training, when teammates stood by as he discussed his confession of having used performance-enhancing substances in the past. Rodriguez missed almost all of April. Then something amazing happened.
A-Rod homered on his first and last swings of the regular season, and that last Sunday featured a three-run homer and grand slam to give him the magic numbers -- 30 homers and 100 RBIs, despite only 124 games. Even more newsworthy, he came through in the clutch in a postseason. The Yanks' third baseman beat Nathan with that huge ninth-inning homer to force extras in Game 2 of the ALDS, and there was that homer he hit off the FOX TV camera in the World Series at Philly. Ultimately, Rodriguez rode on a parade float next to Jay-Z.
It was that kind of year in 2009. And the Yankees finished it just as they did at the start of the decade, with a World Series title. It was a perfect ending for them, as it was for Buehrle and Wise on one fine summer day. Now it is time to bid the year and the decade farewell, and think about pitchers and catchers reporting one day that can't come soon enough.
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