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Year
In Review
A
look back at the 2004 regular
season
Originally
written for
Baseball-Almanac.com
Email:
Michael
Aubrecht Website:
Pinstripe
Press
2004
Off the field…
The Olympics
returned to their birthplace
(Athens, Greece) amidst a stream
of controversies involving the
use of illegal performance
enhancing drugs. Despite the
resulting suspensions and
stripped titles, many experts
believed the 2004 Games would be
remembered for the improvement in
drug testing which allowed honest
athletes to prevail. One Greek
newspaper summed up the media's
bemusement at the number of
cheaters discovered with a
cartoon depicting a young boy,
with a gold medal round his neck,
being surrounded by microphones
saying: "I am only a volunteer,
but everyone else has tested
positive."
During the summer
of 2004, North America, Central
America and the Caribbean
experienced one of the deadliest
hurricane seasons ever recorded.
During the months of August and
September alone, four major
storms (Jeanne, Ivan, Frances,
Charley) pounded the southeastern
part of the globe killing well
over 2,000 people and leaving
hundreds of thousands more
homeless. As a result, a record
setting number of tornadoes (173
in August, 247 in September) were
also spawned as the left over
tropical depressions moved inland
and up the eastern coast. The
total cost in damage from winds
and flooding was estimated to run
well into the mutli-billions and
was spread from the island of
Haiti to upstate New York.
2004 also marked
one of the most widely
anticipated presidential
elections in recent history.
Republican President George W.
Bush, son of former President
Bush, made a run for a second
term after being elected in the
hotly contested 2000 campaign. At
that time he was mid-way through
his second term as governor of
Texas, a position he assumed in
1994. Prior to running for
governor he spent several years
in the oil business and as the
managing general partner of the
Texas Rangers baseball team. His
opponent, Democratic candidate
Senator John Kerry was a
decorated Vietnam War veteran who
returned from the conflict to
become one of the most outspoken
opponents of the war. After
entering politics in 1982, when
he was elected lieutenant
governor of Massachusetts, he ran
for U.S. Senate on a campaign
that refused contributions from
political action committees. He
was reelected in 1990, 1996 and
2002. (Winner TBD)
In
the American League…
Baltimore Oriole
Miguel Tejada won the 2004 Home
Run Derby after edging the
Houston Astros' Lance Berkman
with five homers in the final
round. The All-Star shortstop set
two MLB records in the process by
hitting a total of twenty-seven
round-trippers for the night and
fifteen in the second round.
Amazingly, Tejada's final five
blasts came after five outs, half
of the requisite total.
Seattle sensation
Ichiro Suzuki broke George
Sisler's 1920 single season
hitting record during an 8-3
victory over the Texas Rangers.
With fans still cheering, Suzuki
ran to the first-base seats and
shook hands with Sisler's
81-year-old daughter and other
members of the Hall of Famer's
family. After Suzuki's 258th hit,
he scored his 100th run of the
season when the Mariners batted
around in the third, taking a 6-2
lead on six hits.
The Cleveland
Indians scalped the New York
Yankees with a record-setting
22-0 massacre on August 31st.
With the defeat, the Bombers lost
their fifth consecutive game in
the Bronx for the first time
since May of 2003. The 22 runs
allowed were the most ever given
up by the Yankees in their home
ballpark and the most runs
allowed since 1928, when the
Indians won a 24-6 decision (one
of two 18-run defeats in New York
history). The loss also tied the
largest margin of defeat in a
shutout since 1900, equaling the
mark set in 1975 by the
Pittsburgh Pirates in a 22-0 win
over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley
Field.
In
the National League…
San Francisco
Giant Barry Bonds continued his
relentless assault on the Major
League record books in 2004. His
season highlights included:
(Sept.17) Hit his 700th career
homer, off San Diego's Jake
Peavy. (Sept.11) Broke his own
record for walks in a season and
became the first player to earn
200 free passes in one campaign.
(Aug.29) Recorded his 68th career
multi-homer game, passing Mark
McGwire for second all-time.
(Aug.13) Singled in his 1,813th
run, passing Frank Robinson for
14th on the all-time RBI list.
(July 10) Broke his own record
for intentional walks in a season
with the first of three in the
game. (July 8) Passed Eddie
Murray (5,397) for eighth place
on the all-time total bases list.
(July 4) Received two walks from
the A's to tie and break Rickey
Henderson's all-time walks
record. (June 13) Hit his 500th
homer as a Giant. (June 12)
Homered off the 400th different
pitcher of his career,
Baltimore's Rodrigo Lopez. (May
28) Hit his 10th career walk-off
homer, a two-run shot off
Colorado's Tim Harikkala. (April
29) Hit his 668th career homer,
giving him and his late father
Bobby a combined 1,000 homers.
(April 17) Scored his 2,063rd
run, putting him alone in seventh
place all-time, with a solo homer
off Los Angeles' Darren Dreifort.
(April 13) Hit his 661st career
homer, off Milwaukee's Ben Ford,
to assume sole possession of
third place on the all-time list.
(April 12) Hit his 660th career
homer, off Milwaukee's Matt
Kinney, to tie godfather Willie
Mays for third on the all-time
list.
After enjoying a
brief, seventy-eight day
retirement, Roger Clemens
returned to pitch with friend and
former teammate Andy Pettitte on
their hometown Houston Astros.
For more than a year, "The
Rocket" had insisted that 2003
would be his final season, but
all bets were off after the
Yankees lost the World Series and
Pettitte left New York.
Remarkably, the 41 year-old,
six-time Cy Young winner,
returned better than ever
becoming a NL Cy Young candidate
en route to the National League
Championship Series.
Randy Johnson, of
the Arizona Diamondbacks, turned
back on the clock on his amazing
career after pitching a perfect
game against the Atlanta Braves
on May 18th. In doing so, the 40
year-old became the first ace to
toss a no-hitter since David Cone
of the New York Yankees
accomplished the feat in 1999. He
also became the oldest pitcher in
baseball history to do so,
followed by Cy Young who had
reached perfection at the age of
37 in 1904. Johnson's masterpiece
came in a 2-0 win at Turner Field
that took only two hours and
thirteen minutes to complete.
Afraid to "jinx" the outcome,
neither the scoreboard nor public
address system noted the history
in the making and only displayed
"The Big Unit's" picture and
stats after the final pitch had
been made.
Around the
league…
America's
"National Pastime" returned to
the capital for the first time in
thirty-three years after Major
League Baseball approved the
relocation of the Montreal Expos
to Washington DC. Ironically, the
announcement came one day before
the anniversary of the original
Washington Senators' final game
(before moving to Texas) in 1971.
The relocation of the Expos was
subject to certain contingencies,
including a vote by team owners
in November and passage of
legislation by the Washington's
City Council to build a ballpark
on the Anacostia River
waterfront.
One day after the
death of former baseball star Ken
Caminiti (an admitted steroid
user) U.S. lawmakers passed
legislation allowing tighter
government regulation of steroid
precursors. In doing so, the
Anabolic Steroid Control Act
added androstenedione,
norandrosterone and similar
testosterone-production enhancing
substances to a list of anabolic
steroids regarded as controlled
substances. Caminiti, who had
played in the major leagues for
fifteen years, died of an
apparent heart attack at age 41.
He had admitted to using steroids
during his Most Valuable Player
season in 1996, when he hit .326
with 40 homers and 130 runs
batted in for the San Diego
Padres.
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