In baseball, a home run, homerun or homer is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run is usually achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without the ball touching the field.
George Kenneth Griffey Jr., nicknamed "Junior" and "the Kid", is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, along with a short stint with the Chicago White Sox. The first overall pick in the 1987 draft and a 13-time All-Star, Griffey is one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history; his 630 home runs rank as the seventh-most in MLB history. Griffey was also an exceptional defender and won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He is tied for the record of most consecutive games with a home run.
Backyard Sports is a video game series released for consoles, computers, and mobile devices created by Humongous Entertainment. The series is best known for starring a diverse cast of fictional children as well as child versions of famous professional sports athletes, such as Albert Pujols, Paul Pierce, Barry Bonds, Tim Duncan, Clint Mathis, Kevin Garnett, Tom Brady, David Ortiz, Joe Thornton, and Andy Macdonald. The Backyard Sports series was previously licensed by the five major professional American sports leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), Major League Soccer (MLS), the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), and the National Hockey League (NHL), as well as their affiliated players associations. The series has changed ownership and developers several times since Humongous's 2005 closure; it is currently owned by a dedicated company called Backyard Sports LLC, which bought the series' rights in 2021. Playground Productions is the series' current publisher, having rebooted the series in 2024.
Anthony Nomar Garciaparra is an American former Major League Baseball player and current SportsNet LA analyst. After playing parts of nine seasons as an All-Star shortstop for the Boston Red Sox, he played shortstop, third base and first base for the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Oakland Athletics. Garciaparra is one of 13 players in Major League history to hit two grand slams during a single game, and the only player to achieve the feat at his home stadium.
Derek Sanderson Jeter, nicknamed "the Captain", is an American former professional baseball shortstop, businessman, and baseball executive. As a player, Jeter spent his entire 20-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2020; he received 396 of 397 possible votes, the second-highest percentage in MLB history and the highest by a position player. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) and part owner of the league's Miami Marlins from September 2017 to February 2022.
George Kenneth Griffey Sr. is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1973 through 1991, most notably as a member of the Cincinnati Reds team that won three division titles and two World Series championships between 1973 and 1976. He also played for the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves, and Seattle Mariners.
Robert Edward Crosby is an American former professional baseball infielder and current first base coach for the Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Arizona Diamondbacks. The son of former major league infielder Ed Crosby, he batted and threw right-handed. He was Rookie of the Year in 2004.
The Major League Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award is presented by Major League Baseball (MLB) to the player who is judged to have "re-emerged on the baseball field during a given season." The award was developed in 2005, as part of a sponsorship agreement between MLB and Viagra. In 2005 and 2006 representatives from MLB and MLB.com selected six candidates each from the American (AL) and National Leagues (NL) and one winner for each league was selected via an online poll on MLB.com. Since then, the winners have been selected by a panel of MLB beat reporters. Under the current voting structure, first place votes are worth five points, second place votes worth three, and third place votes worth one with the award going to the player with the most points overall. Past winners have often overcome injury or personal problems en route to their award-winning season.
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award is an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award that is presented to the most outstanding player in each year's MLB All-Star Game. Awarded each season since 1962, it was originally called the Arch Ward Memorial Award in honor of Arch Ward, the man who conceived of the All-Star Game in 1933. The award's name was changed to the Commissioner's Trophy in 1970, but this name change was reversed in 1985 when the World Series Trophy was renamed the Commissioner's Trophy. Finally, the trophy was renamed the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player Award in 2002, in honor of former Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams, who had died earlier that year. No award was presented for the 2002 All-Star Game, which ended in a tie. Thus, the Anaheim Angels' Garret Anderson was the first recipient of the newly named Ted Williams Award in 2003. The All-Star Game Most Valuable Player also receives a Chevrolet vehicle.
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball is a 1994 baseball video game developed by Software Creations and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. A Game Boy version was released in 1997. The game has a Major League Baseball (MLB) license but not a Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) license, meaning that the game has real stadiums and real teams, but not real players. The fictitious players have the same statistics as their real-world counterparts, and the game comes with a name-changing feature that allows players to change the athletes' names. Nintendo released a portable version of the game in 1997 for the Game Boy with real players and stats from the 1996 season. The gameplay is similar to its predecessors, though it is sometimes sluggish due to hardware restrictions. The SNES version came with a promotional Griffey collector's card packed inside. It is often rated by the public as one of the best baseball games of all time.
The Topps All-Star Rookie Team, also known as the Topps ASRT, is a list of notable Major League Baseball rookie players chosen annually by Topps Company, Inc. In most years since 1960, the company has issued a special set of baseball cards featuring the team's members.
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run is a baseball video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is named after the baseball player Ken Griffey Jr. It is the follow-up to Nintendo's previous Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball. Two years later, Nintendo released another game featuring Griffey, Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr., for the Nintendo 64.
The 1999 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was a semifinal matchup in Major League Baseball's 1999 postseason between the East Division Champion and top-seeded New York Yankees (98–64) and the Wild Card Boston Red Sox (94–68). The Yankees had advanced to the Series after sweeping the West Division Champion Texas Rangers in the AL Division Series for the second consecutive year, and the Red Sox advanced by beating the Central Division Champion Cleveland Indians three games to two. The Yankees won the series, 4-1. They won their 36th American League pennant and went on to win the World Series against the Atlanta Braves.
Michael Garciaparra is an American former professional baseball middle infielder. He is the brother of former All-Star Nomar Garciaparra.
The 2006 Los Angeles Dodgers season was the 117th season for the Los Angeles Dodgers franchise in Major League Baseball (MLB), their 49th season in Los Angeles, California, and their 44th season playing their home games at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles California.
The 1994 Boston Red Sox season was the 94th season in the franchise's Major League Baseball history. The season was cut short by the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, and there was no postseason. When the strike started on August 12, the Red Sox were in fourth place in the American League East with a record of 54 wins and 61 losses, 17 games behind the New York Yankees.
MLB The Show 17 is a 2017 baseball video game developed by San Diego Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. It is the twelfth installment in the MLB: The Show series and the first to be exclusive on a single console. The American cover features Ken Griffey Jr., while Aaron Sanchez is the cover athlete for the Canadian version, and Wei-Yin Chen is on the Taiwanese cover.
Backyard Baseball 2001 is a baseball video game developed and published by Humongous Entertainment. It is the fourth installment of the Backyard Sports franchise, the second installment of the Backyard Baseball series, and the first Baseball installment to include Major League Baseball teams and a MLBPA license. A remastered version of this game, retitled as Backyard Baseball '01, is planned to release for Windows via Steam in the future, following Backyard Baseball '97. Cal Ripken Jr. appears on the game's cover, along with other fictional characters.
