2007 Major League Baseball season

The 2007 Major League Baseball season began on April 1 with a rematch of the

For the fourth consecutive season, MLB regular season attendance increased by comparison with the previous year. In 2007, an all-time attendance record of 79,502,524 (32,785 per game) was set.[1]

Standings

• The Colorado Rockies defeated the San Diego Padres in a one-game playoff to earn the NL Wild Card.

Postseason

Bracket

Note: Two teams in the same division could not meet in the division series.

Player Stats

American League

National League

Accomplishments

Barry Bonds surpasses Hank Aaron

• win on May 24, defeating the New York Mets and longtime teammate Tom Glavine at Turner Field in Atlanta
  .
• Roy Halladay, right-handed pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, earned his 100th win on May 31 against the Chicago White Sox at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• San Diego, California
  .
• U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago
  .
• Rangers Ballpark in Arlington in Arlington, Texas. Sosa became the fifth player in Major League history to hit 600 career home runs and the second to hit his 600th career home run against his former team; in 2002, Barry Bonds hit his 600th home run against his former team, the Pittsburgh Pirates
  .
• Ryan Howard, first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, hit his 100th career home run on June 27 against the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. He accomplished this in his 325th career game, becoming the fastest player in Major League Baseball history to reach this milestone. Howard also set a dubious record September 27, when he struck out against the Braves' John Smoltz, whiffing for the 196th time in a season. He ended the season with 199 strikeouts, a new record.
• Minneapolis, Minnesota, against Carlos Silva
  in the first inning. The Metrodome was also the site of his first home run as a member of the Chicago White Sox.
• 3,000 hit club
  , and is one of only nine players to get all 3,000 hits with one team. Biggio announced later in the season that he would retire following the completion of the season, finishing his career with 3,060 hits.
• Roger Clemens, pitcher for the New York Yankees, earned his 350th career win on July 2 against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York. Clemens became the eighth pitcher to reach that mark.
• Alex Rodriguez, third baseman for the New York Yankees, hit his 500th career home run on August 4 against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium. At 32 years, 8 days of age, he became the youngest player to reach the 500-homer mark.
• Left-handed pitcher
  300th career win against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on August 5 in front of a nationwide audience on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. Glavine became the fifth left-handed pitcher to win 300 games, the first since Steve Carlton
  in 1983, and the 23rd pitcher to win 300.
• wins
  in 20 consecutive seasons in the Padres' 14–3 defeat of the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 24. The game also marked Maddux's 700th career start.
• Right-handed pitcher
  3,000th career strikeout when he dismissed his opposing pitcher, Aaron Harang, in the second inning of the Mets' 10–4 win over the Cincinnati Reds on September 3 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. The game was the first MLB appearance of Martínez after rotator cuff
  surgery immediately after the end of the 2006 season.
• Todd Jones, the Detroit Tigers' right-handed closer, earned his 300th career save September 16 against the Minnesota Twins.
• Chicago White Sox designated hitter Jim Thome hit a two-run walk-off home run on September 16 for his 500th career home run at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, leading the White Sox to a 9–7 win over the Los Angeles Angels, making the 2007 season the first in which three players hit their 500th homer. It was also the first time in MLB history that a player reached the 500-homer mark with a walk-off homer.
• Cleveland Indians on September 17. This tied him with Mark Langston
  for most all-time.
• Andy Pettitte, New York Yankees southpaw, recorded his 200th career win against the Baltimore Orioles on September 19.
• Cleveland Indians won his 100th game and struck out his 1000th batter for the Tribe, becoming the youngest pitcher to do so since Greg Maddux.^{[citation needed}
  ]

• The Chicago Cubs of the National League recorded their 10,000th win in all major leagues against the Atlanta Braves on June 3, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. They became the second team to reach this mark after the New York/San Francisco Giants were the first. However, this tally includes 77 wins gained during Chicago's years in the National Association (1871, 1874 and 1875). These wins are not considered official by Major League Baseball. Through 2007, the Cubs have 9,985 official wins.
• The Philadelphia Phillies of the National League, recorded their 10,000th loss, a 10–2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on July 15, at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They became the first team in the four major sports leagues (MLB, NHL, NFL, and NBA) to accomplish this. However, Major League Baseball's season, by number of games, is almost twice as long as the NHL and NBA seasons and ten times longer than the NFL season. Also, the Phillies have existed since 1883, more than 30 years longer than any of the other major North American leagues (NHL: 1917, NFL: 1920, NBA: 1946).
• The Texas Rangers of the American League scored 30 runs in a 30–3 rout of the Baltimore Orioles on August 22, at
  Kansas City Athletics
  , who had moved from Philadelphia the year before. The Rangers won the nightcap, 9–7 and extended the newly-set record for most runs in a doubleheader in the American League to 39.
• The New York Mets became the first team in the divisional era (since 1969) to blow a seven-game lead past September 12 as the Philadelphia Phillies raced by them on September 30 to win the National League Eastern Division at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, defeating the
  Queens
  , New York.
• The Colorado Rockies, winners of the NL wild-card, won their first-ever playoff series by sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS. The Rockies then swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS to claim their first-ever National League championship.

Other accomplishments

No-hitters

Three no-hitters were pitched during the 2007 regular season. This is the most in a single season since the three pitched in 2001. All three no-hitters in 2007 were in the American League, which is the most in a single league since the record-tying 1991 season when the two leagues combined for seven no-hitters (4 AL, 3 NL).

• Florida Marlins pitcher Aníbal Sánchez threw one against the Arizona Diamondbacks on September 6, 2006, and the first home no-hitter for the White Sox since Joe Horlen accomplished the feat September 10, 1967, against the Detroit Tigers at the old Comiskey Park
  across the street from U.S. Cellular Field.
• Washington Senators. This was also the first no-hitter ever at Comerica Park
  .
• Boston, Massachusetts, during his second career Major League appearance.^[4] It was the 17th no-hitter in Boston Red Sox history, and the first Boston rookie to throw one. He became only the second player to throw one in his second career game. On the day the rosters expanded, Buchholz was recalled from Triple-A to start the game because Tim Wakefield was scratched due to a bad back. Buchholz improved to 2–0 for his career. Ironically, in his pre-game interview, manager Terry Francona had said "Even if he throws a no-hitter he's still going back to the minors."^{[citation needed}
  ] Buchholz remained on the active roster for the rest of the regular season.

• Denver, Colorado.^[5]
  The play occurred during the 7th inning of a 9–7 victory. Tulowitzki became the 13th player in Major League Baseball history to accomplish this feat.
• Plácido Polanco, a second baseman for the Detroit Tigers, set a new Major League record by playing in his 144th consecutive errorless game on August 13, in a 7–2 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Polanco appeared to have his streak snapped at 147 games when he was charged with an error in the first inning of the August 24 game vs. the New York Yankees.^[6] However, the next day, after conferring with the umpiring crew, the official scorer determined the error was instead charged to first baseman Marcus Thames.^[7] This extended the streak to 149 games. Polanco also broke the record for consecutive chances without an error by a second baseman July 31. He passed Luis Castillo's mark of 647. Polanco finished the 2007 season without making an error, thereby becoming the first everyday second baseman in MLB history to play an entire season without committing an error.^[8]

Hitting

• On April 22, Boston Red Sox players
  Manny Ramírez (left fielder), J. D. Drew (right fielder), Mike Lowell (third baseman) and Jason Varitek (catcher) hit four consecutive home runs in a game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. This marked the fifth time in Major League history that this feat was accomplished. All four home runs were hit off of Chase Wright
  in the 3rd inning.
• Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, California.^[9] Figgins drove in the game-winning run on a triple in the ninth inning to win the game 10–9. He became the second player in team history to go 6-for-6; then-California Angels outfielder Garret Anderson
  accomplished this feat on September 27, 1996. Figgins also became the first player in Major League history to go 6-for-6 with a walk-off hit in a regulation nine-inning game.
• AT&T Park
  in San Francisco. Even though the game doesn't count towards a player's career statistics, it was Ichiro's first career inside-the-park home run.
• Willie Harris, a left fielder for the Atlanta Braves, went 6-for-6 on July 21 at Turner Field as the Braves routed the St. Louis Cardinals, 14–6.^[10] He hit two triples with six RBIs during the night, both career-highs. Harris became the seventh player in franchise history to go 6-for-6 and the fourth player in Major League history since 1950 to go 6-for-6 with 6 RBIs.
• Garret Anderson, a left fielder for the Los Angeles Angels, set a franchise record and became the first player since April 2005 to get 10 RBIs in a game on August 21 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, leading the Angels to an 18–9 victory over the New York Yankees.^[11] Anderson broke the Angels' franchise record for RBIs in a game, previously set by his teammate, Vladimir Guerrero, who had nine RBIs on June 2, 2004, against the Boston Red Sox. Anderson also became the first player since Alex Rodriguez to hit 10 RBIs in a game, doing so on April 26, 2005, ironically in a game against the Angels at Yankee Stadium. The 10 RBIs also was a career-high, eclipsing his previous mark of seven which he set on September 5, 2002, in an Angels' 10–1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
• On September 9, the Milwaukee Brewers became the first team in recorded Major League history to open a game with three consecutive home runs. The three home runs were hit in order by
  Rickie Weeks, J. J. Hardy, and Ryan Braun at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati. Reds pitcher Phil Dumatrait notched the loss after submitting the three home runs in only 10 pitches.^[12]
• Prince Fielder of the Milwaukee Brewers became the youngest player in Major League Baseball history to hit 50 home runs in a season. Prince hit his record-breaking home run at the age of 23 years, 4 months, and 18 days. His father, Cecil Fielder, hit 50 home runs in 1990 with the Tigers.
• Two new members of the 20–20–20–20 club (20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases) were entered in 2007. Curtis Granderson, Detroit Tigers center fielder, was the first to join (and third overall) this exclusive group when he stole his 20th base of the 2007 season, doing so September 9. On September 30, the last scheduled day of the regular season, Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins joined Granderson as the fourth player to accomplish this feat by hitting his 20th triple of the 2007 season.
• Kazuo Matsui hit his first ever grand slam and became the second person in MLB history to do so in the post-season.

Other accomplishments

• New York Giants
  for the all-time record.
• Trever Miller, a relief pitcher for the Houston Astros, shattered Scott Aldred's record for most appearances in a season without a win or a loss, with 76. The previous record was 48, set by Aldred in 1998 as a member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

All-Star game

On July 10, 2007, at

On April 15, Major League Baseball celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the debut of Jackie Robinson at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, breaking the color barrier. Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. asked Robinson's widow, Rachel, and commissioner Bud Selig for permission to wear Robinson's number 42 in honor of him. He was granted permission, and Selig later said that any player who wanted to wear number 42 on his jersey could. The jersey was worn without the players' name on the back, as was the case when Robinson played with the Brooklyn Dodgers. All jerseys that were worn were auctioned off with all the proceeds donated to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, an organization which awards scholarships to African-American high school graduates to further themselves in colleges academically.

The Dodgers, Cardinals, and Brewers elected to have the entire team wear number 42 in his honor. The Pittsburgh Pirates, Phillies, and Astros were also scheduled to share that honor, but their games were postponed due to rain. The Phillies and Astros honored Robinson on April 23 when they made up their postponed game as originally planned, while the Pirates waited until April 27 to honor Robinson by wearing #42 as a team against the Reds.

Larry Doby

On August 10, the Cleveland Indians paid tribute to

Farewells

The Nationals played their final game at

The Tampa Bay franchise played its last season as the Devil Rays. In 2008, the name was shortened to Tampa Bay Rays.

Retiring players

Barry Bonds

Roger Clemens

Craig Biggio

Biggio joined the

3,000 hit club during the 2007 season, and became the first player to be called out in the same play that they got their 3000th hit. He was tagged out while trying to stretch his hit into a double. He announced his retirement on July 24, about a month after achieving the milestone. He finished his career with 668 doubles, good for 5th all-time at the time he retired. In the penultimate game of his career, on September 29, he was brought in as a catcher

, playing the position for the first time in 15 years.

Jeff Conine

Conine, then of the New York Mets, announced his retirement on September 20, right before their last road trip to visit the Florida Marlins. The Marlins, fans of which refer to him as "Mr. Marlin", honored him for his contribution to their two World Series titles in 1997 and 2003. Ironically, losses to the Marlins contributed to the Mets failing to make the playoffs.

Mike Lieberthal

Shawn Green

Awards

Other awards

• Comeback Players of the Year: Carlos Peña (First baseman, TB, American); Dmitri Young (First baseman, WSH, National).
• Edgar Martínez Award (Best designated hitter): David Ortiz (BOS)
• Hank Aaron Award: Alex Rodriguez (NYY, American); Prince Fielder (MIL, National).
• Roberto Clemente Award (Humanitarian): Craig Biggio (HOU).
• Rolaids Relief Man Award: J. J. Putz (SEA, American); José Valverde (AZ, National).
• Delivery Man of the Year (Best Reliever): Jonathan Papelbon (BOS).
• CLE
  )
• Clutch Performer of the Year: Alex Rodriguez (NYY).

Player of the Month

Pitcher of the Month

Rookie of the Month

Home field attendance and payroll

Apparel

Uniforms

• The Arizona Diamondbacks changed from purple, copper and turquoise to a modern Sedona Red, sand and black scheme, complete with re-colored primary and alternate logos, along with new scripts and sleeve insignia.
• The Chicago Cubs have restored player names to the back of their home jerseys and removed their blue alternate jersey.
• The Cincinnati Reds changed from pinstriped vests to traditional sleeve jerseys at home with scarlet soutache trim de-emphasizing black trim and a new early 20th-Century lettering and numbering font as well as the return of "Mr. Redleg", the 1950s sleeve patch/mascot supplanting the modern "Mr. Red".
• The Los Angeles Angels added a red alternate jersey.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers restored player names to the back of their jerseys and removed the white trim from their road uniforms.
• The
  Redd Up" cleanup campaign. The lone exception was the April 27 game against the Cincinnati Reds when the team wore #42 in tribute to Jackie Robinson
  as stated above.

• The Atlanta Braves wore a patch remembering the lives of
  Boston Braves and the New York Yankees
  . The patch read their initials ("JS" on the left, "LB" on the right) between the number they shared, "33." Both died during the offseason.
• The Boston Red Sox wore their green
  St. Patrick's Day uniform on April 20 against the Yankees in tribute to Boston Celtics longtime coach and president Red Auerbach
  .
• The Florida Marlins wore a patch celebrating the 10th anniversary of their 1997 World Series championship.
• The Milwaukee Brewers, who since 1998 have played in the National League, wore a patch celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1982 American League championship. The patch, however, was only worn on their Friday night retro uniforms.
• The Minnesota Twins wore a black armband during their first home stand and a patch in memory of Herb Carneal, their radio play-by-play announcer from 1962 until 2006, who died on April 1, 2007, for their first home stand. They then switched to a red circular patch featuring an old-style microphone and the name "Herb."
• The New York Yankees wore a black armband in memory of
  plane crash in Manhattan on October 11, 2006. They added the retired #10 above the armband in memory of longtime player and announcer Phil Rizzuto
  , who died on August 14.
• The Philadelphia Phillies wore a black patch with "VUK" written in white in memory of longtime team player, coach and scout John Vukovich, who died during spring training.
• The San Francisco Giants wore two patches for the 2007 season:
  • An alternate version of the 2007 All-Star Game logo; being the host team of the 2007 All-Star Game.
  • Following the death of former player Rod Beck, they added a black square with "BECK 47" in white lettering.
• The Seattle Mariners wore a patch celebrating their 30th anniversary, featuring their two home stadiums they have played in, the
  Safeco Field, against the background of Mount Rainier and the Space Needle
  .
• The St. Louis Cardinals wore two patches for the 2007 season:
  • They wore a patch celebrating their 2006 World Series victory over the Detroit Tigers on their home uniforms;
  • Following the death of pitcher Josh Hancock, they added a black "32" patch on their jerseys in his memory.
• The Tampa Bay Devil Rays wore a patch celebrating the franchise's 10th season of existence.
• The Toronto Blue Jays wore a patch in black with a white "SP" starting on August 20 in remembrance of Sam Pollock, a legendary NHL general manager most notably with the Montreal Canadiens who died on August 15. Pollack had served as the Jays' Chairman and CEO from 1995 to 2000.
• The Washington Nationals wore a patch for their last home stand, commemorating the final few games at RFK Stadium.

Josh Hancock

ESPN continued to televise games on Sunday nights, Wednesday nights, and other weeknights, but no longer any postseason games.

See also

• 2007 in baseball
• 2007 Korea Professional Baseball season
• 2007 Nippon Professional Baseball season

References

External links

• 2007 Major League Baseball season schedule at Baseball Reference