Kansas City Royals

The Kansas City Royals are a Major League Baseball team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Royals are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1973 to the present, the Royals have played in Kauffman Stadium.
The "Royals" name originates from the American Royal Livestock Show, held in Kansas City since 1899. The script "Royals" logo, with the "s" tail underlining the word, is similar to that of the old Montreal Royals minor league team.
Entering Major League Baseball as an expansion franchise in 1969, the club was founded by Ewing Kauffman, a Kansas City businessman. The franchise was established following the actions of Stuart Symington, who demanded a new franchise for the city after the Athletics—Kansas City's first major league team—moved to Oakland, California.

Franchise history

1969-1979: Taking off
The Royals began play in 1969 in Kansas City, Missouri. In their inaugural game, on April 8, 1969, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 4-3 in 12 innings.
The team was quickly built through a number of good trades engineered by its first General Manager, Cedric Tallis, including a trade for Lou Piniella, who won the Rookie of the Year during the Royals' inaugural season. The Royals also invested in a strong farm system and soon developed such future stars as pitchers Paul Splittorff and Steve Busby, infielders George Brett and Frank White, and outfielder Al Cowens.
In 1971, the Royals had their first winning season, with manager Bob Lemon guiding them to a second-place finish. In 1973, under Jack McKeon, the Royals adopted their iconic "powder blue" road uniforms and moved from Municipal Stadium to the brand-new Royals Stadium (now known as Kauffman Stadium).
Manager Whitey Herzog replaced McKeon in 1975, and the Royals quickly became the dominant franchise in the American League Western Division, winning three straight division championships from 1976 to 1978. However, the Royals lost to the New York Yankees in three straight American League Championship Series encounters.

1980-1984: From pennant to pine tar incident
After the Royals finished in second place in 1979, Herzog was fired and replaced by Jim Frey. Under Frey, the Royals rebounded in 1980 and advanced to the ALCS, where they again faced the Yankees.
In the 1980 ALCS, the Royals finally vanquished the Yankees in a three-game sweep punctuated by a George Brett home run off Yankees' star closer Goose Gossage. However, after reaching their first World Series, the Royals fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.
The Royals returned to the post-season in 1981, losing to the Oakland Athletics in a unique divisional series resulting from the split season caused by the 1981 Major League Baseball strike. In 1983, while the Royals were headed for a second-place finish behind the Chicago White Sox another chapter in the team's rivalry with the Yankees occurred in July. In the Pine Tar Incident, umpires discovered a substantial amount of pine tar on third baseman George Brett's bat after he had hit a home run. The umpires immediately disallowed the home run and ejected Brett, who stormed out of the dugout to argue his defense. The incident has now become part of baseball lore.
Under the leadership of manager Dick Howser, the Royals won their fifth division championship in 1984, relying on Brett's bat and the young pitching of Bret Saberhagen, Mark Gubicza, Charlie Leibrandt, Bud Black and Danny Jackson, although they were swept by the eventual World Series champion Detroit Tigers in the American League Championship Series.

1985: Missouri's finest and the "I-70 Series"
In the 1985 regular season the Royals topped the Western Division for the sixth time in ten years, led by Bret Saberhagen's Cy Young Award-winning performance. Throughout the ensuing playoffs, the Royals repeatedly put themselves into difficult positions, but improbably managed to escape each time. With the Royals down 3-games-to-one in the American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Royals eventually rallied to win the series 4-3. In the 1985 World Series against the cross-state St. Louis Cardinals – the so-called "I-70 Series" because the two teams are both located in the state of Missouri and connected by Interstate 70 – the Royals again fell behind 3-1. The key game in the Royals' comeback was Game Six. Facing elimination, the Royals trailed 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth inning, before rallying to score two runs and win. The rally was helped by a controversial safe call at first base by umpire Don Denkinger, which allowed Royals outfielder Jorge Orta to reach base safely as the first baserunner of the inning.
Following Orta's single, the Cardinals dropped an easy popout and suffered a passed ball, before the Royals went on to win with a bloop base hit by seldom used pinch hitter Dane Iorg. Following the tension of Game Six, the Cardinals came undone in Game Seven, and the Royals won 11-0 to clinch the franchise's first World Series title.

1986-1994: Staying in the picture
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Royals developed young stars such as Bo Jackson, Tom Gordon, and Kevin Seitzer, made some successful free-agent acquisitions, and generally posted winning records, but always fell short of the post-season. For example, in 1989, the Royals won 92 games and posted the third-best record in baseball, but did not qualify for the playoffs.
Many of the team's highlights from this era instead centered around the end of Brett's career, such as his third and final batting title in 1990 – which made him the first player to win batting titles in three different decades – and his 3,000th hit. Though the team dropped out of contention from 1990 to 1992, the Royals still could generally be counted on to post winning records through the strike-shortened 1994 season.

1995-2001: The decline
At the start of the 1990s, the Royals had been hit with a double-whammy when General Manager John Schuerholz departed in 1990 and team owner Ewing Kauffman died in 1993. Kauffman's death left the franchise without permanent ownership until Wal-Mart executive David Glass purchased the team for $96 million in 2000. Partly because of the resulting lack of leadership, after the 1994 season the Royals decided to reduce payroll by trading pitcher David Cone and outfielder Brian McRae, then continued their salary dump in the 1995 season. In fact, the team payroll was sliced from $40.5 million in 1994 to $18.5 million in 1996.
As attendance slid and the average MLB salary continued to rise, the Royals found it difficult to retain their remaining stars, and the club traded players such as Kevin Appier, Johnny Damon and Jermaine Dye for prospects rather than pay higher salaries or lose them to free agency. Making matters worse, most of the younger players that the Royals received in exchange for these All-Stars proved of little value, setting the stage for an extended downward spiral. Indeed, the Royals set a franchise low with a .398 winning percentage (64-97 record) in 1999, and lost 97 games again in 2001.
In the middle of this era, in 1997, the Royals declined the opportunity to switch to the National League as part of a realignment plan to introduce the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays as expansion teams.

2002-2006: Rock bottom
In 2002, the Royals set a new team record for futility, losing 100 games for the first time in franchise history. They fired manager Tony Muser and he was replaced by Tony Peña.
The 2003 season saw a temporary end to the losing, when manager Tony Peña, in his first full season with the club, improbably guided the Royals to their first winning record (83-79) since the 1994 season. He was named the American League Manager of the Year for his efforts and then shortstop Angel Berroa was named AL Rookie of the Year. The team spent a majority of the season in first, but ended up in third place behind the Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins, who won the AL Central.
Picked by many to win their division in 2004 after faring surprisingly well in the free agent market, the Royals got off to a disappointing start and by late June were back in a rebuilding mode, releasing veteran reliever Curtis Leskanic before financial incentives kicked in and trading veteran reliever Jason Grimsley and superstar center fielder Carlos Beltrán for prospects, all within a week of each other. The team subsequently fell apart completely, establishing a new low by losing 104 games. The Royals did, however, see promising seasons from two rookies, center fielder David DeJesus and starting pitcher Zack Greinke. Among the many mistakes of 2004, was acquiring Juan Gonzalez, Benito Santiago, and keeping pitchers Darrell May and Brian Anderson, both of whom underachieved after a great 2003 season. They all were let go during the season or after the season's end.
In 2005, the Royals continued a youth movement, with one of the smallest payrolls in the Major Leagues. The Royals ended the 2005 season with a 56-106 record (.346), a full 43 games out of first place. It was the third time in four seasons that the team reestablished the mark for worst record in the history of the franchise. During that season, the Royals also suffered a franchise record 19-game losing streak highlighted by a three-game stretch of blowout losses at home from August 6 through August 9; in that stretch the Royals lost 16-1 to the Oakland Athletics, were shut out 11-0 by Oakland, and then in the third game, against the Cleveland Indians, built a 7-2 lead in the ninth inning before allowing 11 runs to lose 13-7. During the season manager Tony Peña quit and was replaced by interim coach Bob Schaefer until the Indians' bench coach Buddy Bell was chosen as the next manager.
Looking for a quick turnaround, general manager Allard Baird signed several veteran players prior to the 2006 season, including Doug Mientkiewicz, Mark Grudzielanek, Joe Mays and Scott Elarton. Nevertheless, the Royals struggled through another 100-loss season in 2006, becoming just the eleventh team in major league history to lose 100 games in three straight seasons. During the season Baird was fired as GM and replaced by Dayton Moore.

2007–present: "True. Blue. Tradition."
During the 2006 offseason, Kansas City appeared to be opening up its wallet. They outbid the Cubs and Blue Jays for free agent righty Gil Meche, signing him to five-year, $55 million contract. Reliever Octavio Dotel also inked a one-year, $5 million contract. The Royals have signed various new players, adding bulk to their bullpen and hitting, and the team has added several new promising prospects, including the likes of Alex Gordon and Billy Butler. Under general manager Dayton Moore the Royals were arguably the most aggressive team in the offseason. Among one of Dayton Moore's first acts as General Manager was instating a new motto for the team: "True. Blue. Tradition." The Royals plan on a slogan that will bank on new general manager Dayton Moore’s ability to restore the Royals’ once-rich history. The Royals also ditched their black and sleeveless jerseys, instead reviving their "old" jerseys from years past, although the powder blue jerseys have yet to return since being retired following the 1991 season. Kansas City entered the 2007 season looking to rebound from four out of five seasons ending with at least 100 losses.
In the 2007 MLB Draft, the Royals selected shortstop Mike Moustakas at #2 overall, signing him minutes before the deadline. In June, the Royals had their first winning month since July 2003, and in July had their second consecutive winning month of the season. On August 1, manager Buddy Bell announced his intentions to resign following the 2007 season.On September 12, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins 6-3 to win their 63rd game, guaranteeing that they would not lose 100 games in 2007. The victory ended the team's string of three consecutive seasons of 100 losses or more from 2004-2006.
Early candidates to succeed Bell included Royals bench coach Billy Doran, former Royals stars George Brett (Brett denied his intentions) and Frank White, and Triple-A Omaha manager Mike Jirschele. Former Major League managers such as Joe Girardi, Jim Fregosi, Ken Macha, and Jimy Williams. Atlanta Braves coaches Terry Pendleton and Brian Snitker were also in consideration.. On October 19, the Royals hired Trey Hillman, former manager of the Nippon Ham Fighters and minor league manager of the New York Yankees, to be the 15th manager in franchise history.
As part of the Royals' "True. Blue. Tradition." motto, the Royals introduced a new rendition of their classic powder blue uniforms for the 2008 season. The team will wear the uniforms as alternates in weekend home games. The Royals previously wore powder blue uniforms from 1973 to 1991 in away games, and in 2008, the Royals will wear powder blue for the first time ever at Kauffman Stadium. The uniforms were introduced on December 6, 2007 at a special event for season ticket holders and were modeled off by current players such as Alex Gordon and former players such as Frank White.

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Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers are a professional baseball team based in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 2000 to the present, the Tigers have played in Comerica Park.
The "Tigers" name originates from the 19th century military unit that was based in the city and held the same name. They are nicknamed "the Motor City Kitties", "the Bengals", "the Tigs", and "the Bless You Boys".
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in 1894. The Tigers constructed Bennett Park at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull and began playing there in 1896. In 1912, the team moved into historic Tiger Stadium, which was built on the exact same spot.

Franchise history

The club is a charter member of the American League, one of four clubs (with the Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians) still located in its founding city. Detroit is also the only member of the Western League, the AL's minor league predecessor, that remains in its original city. It was established as a charter member in 1894.

[edit] Early baseball in Detroit
Detroit's first major league entry was the Detroit Wolverines, a member of the National League from 1881 through 1888. The nickname, now associated with the University of Michigan, came from Michigan's nickname, "The Wolverine State".
The Wolverines' best year was 1887. They won the National League pennant and an exhibition World Series, defeating the American Association champion St. Louis Browns, 10 games to 5. All fifteen scheduled games of the series were played, as the clubs toured ten different cities.
The leading players were Hardy Richardson, Jack Rowe, Deacon White, pitcher Charlie Getzein and Hall of Famers "Big Sam" Thompson and Dan Brouthers. Thompson won the 1887 NL batting championship, making him the only NL batting titleist from the traditionally AL city.
Despite the championship, the team did not draw enough fans to stay solvent at the major league level, as Detroit was at the time one of the smallest cities in the National League and its rapid industry-fueled growth was still several years in the future. Hall of Fame manager Ned Hanlon played all eight seasons in center field but there was high turnover otherwise. After the 1888 season, the team disbanded and the city was relegated to minor league status. One new club formed and joined the International League in 1889, and promptly won the league championship. Their fans' joy came to an abrupt end when the league temporarily disbanded in mid-1890 and took the Detroits with it. An attempt was made to revive the old Northwestern League in 1891, but it also collapsed in mid-season, and Detroit professional baseball took a short hiatus.
Another Detroit club was a charter member when the Western League reorganized for the 1894 season. They originally played at Boulevard Park, sometimes called League Park, at the corner of East Lafayette and Helen near Belle Isle. In 1895, owner George Vanderbeck decided to build Bennett Park at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull Avenues, which would remain their base of operations for the next 104 seasons. The first game at the corner was an exhibition on April 13, 1896. The team, now occasionally called the "Tigers", beat a local semi-pro team, known as the Athletics, by a score of 30-3. They played their first Western League game at Bennett Park on April 28, 1896, defeating the Columbus Senators 17-2.
When the Western renamed itself the American League for 1900, it was still a minor league, but next year it broke with the National Agreement and declared itself major, openly competing with the National League for players, and for fans in three contested cities. For a few years there were rumors of abandoning Detroit to compete for Cincinnati or Pittsburgh but the two leagues made peace in 1903 after similar moves into St. Louis and New York.
The Tigers played their first game as a major league team at home against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 25, 1901, with 10,000 fans at Bennett Park. After entering the ninth inning behind 13-4, the team staged a dramatic comeback to win 14-13. That team finished third in the eight-team league.
Detroit's blue laws prevented baseball from being played at Bennett Park on Sundays. Owner James D. Burns built a ballpark on his own property named Burns Park where the Tigers played their Sunday home games for the 1901 and 1902 seasons.
Eleven years later, an elegant stadium was constructed on the site of Bennett Park and named Navin Field for owner Frank Navin. It was later named "Briggs Stadium" and renamed "Tiger Stadium" in 1961. Tiger Stadium was used by the Tigers until the end of the 1999 season; from 2000 they have played in Comerica Park.

[edit] "The Tigers"
There are various legends about how the Tigers got their nickname. One involves the orange stripes they wore on their black stockings. Tigers manager George Stallings took credit for the name; however, the name appeared in newspapers before Stallings was manager. Another legend concerns a sportswriter equating the 1901 team's opening day victory with the ferocity of his alma mater, the Princeton Tigers. The earliest known use of the name "Tigers" in the news was in the Detroit Free Press on April 16, 1895.
The truth is revealed in Richard Bak's 1998 book, A Place for Summer: A Narrative History of Tiger Stadium. In the 19th century, the city of Detroit had a military unit called the Detroit Light Guard, who were known as "The Tigers". They had played significant roles in certain Civil War battles and in the 1899 Spanish-American War. The baseball team was still informally called both "Wolverines" and "Tigers" in the news. Upon entry into the majors the ballclub sought and received formal permission from the Light Guard to use its trademark and from that day forth it is officially the Tigers.
In short, the Tigers most likely wore stripes because they were already Tigers, rather than the other way around which is the conventional story.

The Cobb era
In 1905, the team acquired Ty Cobb, a fearless player with a mean streak, who according to many baseball fans and writers is the greatest player of all time. The addition of Cobb to an already talented team that included Sam Crawford, Hughie Jennings, Bill Donovan and George Mullin quickly yielded results, as the Tigers won their first American League pennant in 1907.
Cobb and the Tigers disappointed in the 1907 Fall Classic against the Chicago Cubs. With the exception of Game 1, which ended in a rare tie, the Tigers failed to score more than one run in any game and lost four straight. The Cubs would deny Detroit the title again in '08, holding Detroit to a .209 batting average for the series, which the Cubs again won in five games. It was hoped that a new opponent in the 1909 Series, Pittsburgh, would yield different results, but the Tigers were blown out 8-0 in the decisive seventh game at Bennett Park.[1]
Main article: 1909 Detroit Tigers season
In 1915, the Tigers won a club record 100 games but narrowly lost the American League pennant to the Boston Red Sox who won 101 games. The 1915 Tigers were led by an outfield consisting of Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, and Bobby Veach that finished #1, #2, and #3 in RBIs and total bases. Cobb also set a stolen base record with 96 steals in 1915 that stood until 1962. Baseball historian Bill James has ranked the 1915 Tigers outfield as the greatest in the history of major league baseball. The only team in Tigers' history with a better winning percentage than the 1915 squad was the 1934 team that lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals.
In the teens and twenties, Cobb remained the marquee player on many Tigers teams that would remain mired in the middle of the American League. Cobb himself took over managerial duties in 1921, but during six years at the helm, his Tigers never had a record better than 86-68.
In 1921, the Tigers amassed 1724 hits and a team batting average of .316 -- the highest team hit total and batting average in American League history. That year, outfielders Harry Heilmann and Ty Cobb finished #1 and #2 in the American League batting race with batting averages of .394 and .389, and all three Detroit outfielders (Heilmann, Cobb, and Bobby Veach) ranked among the league leaders in batting average and RBIs. As early proof of the baseball adage that "Good Pitching Beats Good Hitting," the downfall of the 1921 Tigers was the absence of good pitching. The team ERA was 4.40, and they allowed nine or more runs 28 times. Without pitching to support the offense, the 1921 Tigers finished in sixth place in the American League, 27 games behind the Yankees with a record of 71-82.

The Tigers break through
The Tiger teams of the 1930s were consistently among the league's best with "Black Mike" Mickey Cochrane behind the plate, Hank Greenberg, one of the greatest Jewish baseball players of all time, at first, and Charlie Gehringer, "The Mechanical Man" at second.
They would be denied again in the 1934 World Series in seven games by the Gashouse Gang St. Louis Cardinals. Again, when the chips were down in the deciding game, Detroit folded, giving up seven third-inning runs and losing Game Seven 11-0 at Navin Field (Tiger Stadium). The game was marred by an ugly incident. After spiking Tiger third baseman Marv Owen in the sixth inning, the Cardinals' Joe "Ducky" Medwick had to be removed from the game for his own safety by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis after being pelted with fruit and garbage from angry fans in the large temporary bleacher section in left field.
The Tigers finally reached the Promised Land the following year, defeating the Cubs 4 games to 2 to win the 1935 World Series, which concluded with Goose Goslin's dramatic game-ending single, scoring Cochrane to seal the victory. See 1935 Detroit Tigers season.
The Tigers returned to the middle of the American League in the late 30s except in 1940 when they again won the pennant but lost the world series to the Cincinnati Reds.

[edit] 1945 World Series Champions
With the end of World War II and the timely return of Hank Greenberg and others from the military, the Tigers took the 1945 American League pennant. With Virgil Trucks, Hal Newhouser and Dizzy Trout on the mound (dubbed "TNT" by Detroit News sportswriter H. G. Salsinger) and Greenberg leading the Tiger bats, Detroit responded in a Game 7 for the first time, staking Newhouser to a 5-0 lead before he threw a pitch en route to a 9-3 victory over the Cubs. Because many baseball stars had not yet returned from the military, some baseball scholars have deemed the '45 Series to be among the worst-played contests in Series history. Prior to the Series, Chicago sportswriter Warren Brown was asked who he liked, and he answered, "I don't think either one of them can win it!" But the Cubs had no answer to Greenberg, and the Series went Detroit's way.

Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since 1994 they have played in Progressive Field (formerly Jacobs Field). The team's spring training facility is in Winter Haven, Florida, but will move to Goodyear, Arizona in 2009.
The "Indians" name originates from a request by the club owner to decide a new name, following the 1914 season. In reference to the Boston Braves (now the Atlanta Braves), the media chose "the Indians". They are nicknamed "the Tribe" and "the Wahoos". The latter is a reference to the mascot which appears in the team's logos, Chief Wahoo.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Cleveland in 1901. The team actually began play in 1900, when the AL was officially a minor league. Then called the Cleveland Blues, the team played in League Park until moving to Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1932. They have an all-time franchise record of 8,075-7,711 (.512). The Indians are the reigning American League Central Champions.

Franchise history

The Indians Nickname

Legend has it that the team honored Louis Sockalexis when it assumed its current name in 1915. The spectacular Sockalexis, a Native American, had played in Cleveland 1897-99.
Research indicates that this legend is mostly untrue. When the "Naps" sent longtime leader Napoleon Lajoie to the Philadelphia Athletics at the end of the 1914 season, owner Charles Somers asked the local newspapers to come up with a new name for the team. They chose "Indians" as a play on the name of the Boston Braves, then known as the "Miracle Braves" after going from last place on July 4 to a sweep in the 1914 World Series. Proponents of the name acknowledged that the Cleveland Spiders of the National League had sometimes been informally called the "Indians" during Sockalexis' short career there, a fact which merely reinforced the new name.
In any case, the name stuck. And 34 years later, the Indians went on to defeat that same Braves franchise, 4 games to 2, in the 1948 World Series -- after first winning a one game playoff against Boston's other team, the Red Sox. The victory over the Braves was the franchise's second of two World Series titles; the Tribe also won the 1920 World Series, defeating the Brooklyn Robins 5 games to 2.
The club nickname and its cartoon logo have been criticized for perpetuating Native American stereotypes, and protests have arisen from time to time. In 1997, during the team's most recent World Series appearance, three Native American protesters were arrested, but later acquitted.

Forest City club
Open professional baseball began in Cleveland during the 1869 season and one team was hired on salary for 1870, as in several other cities following the success of the 1869 Cincinnati Re Stockings, the first fully professional team. That leading Cleveland baseball club was the Forest City, a nickname of the city itself. In the newspapers before and after 1870, the team was often called the Forest Citys, in the same generic way that the team from Chicago was sometimes called The Chicagos. The Forest City club was formed about 1865, when baseball club organization and "national" association membership boomed following the Civil War.
In 1871 the Forest Citys joined the new National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, the first professional league, as did the Forest Citys of Rockford, Illinois. New York and Philadelphia had been the home cities of most top baseball clubs before the league era, but only one club from each joined the professional NA, whose nine-city circuit was made up by four western clubs and eastern rivals in Washington, D.C., Troy, New York and Boston. That didn't last: two of the western clubs went out of business during the first season and the Chicago Fire left that city's White Stockings impoverished, unable to field a team again until 1874. Cleveland was thus the NA's western outpost in 1872 and the Forest City's failed, playing a full schedule to July 19 followed only by two games versus Boston in mid-August.

National League era
In 1876, the National League supplanted the N.A. as the major professional league. Cleveland was not among its charter members, but by 1879 the league was looking for new entries and the city returned to a major circuit. The Cleveland Blues played mainly in the middle of the pack for six seasons and was ruined by trade war with the Union Association in 1884, when its three best players moved for the money: Fred Dunlap, Jack Glasscock, and Jim McCormick. St Louis from the U.A. took its place for 1885. That franchise only lasted a couple of years, but another St. Louis franchise would deal a devastating blow to another Cleveland team some 15 years later.
Cleveland went without major league ball for only two seasons, joining the American Association in 1887, after that league's Allegheny club had jumped to the N.L. Cleveland followed suit in 1889, as the Association began to crumble. (It folded after 1891, and the National League acquired four of its franchises to swell to 12 teams.) With the unique nickname Spiders, supposedly inspired by their long-limbed players, Cleveland slowly became a power in the league
The Spiders survived a challenge from an entry in the one-season Players' League in 1890. The next year the Spiders moved into League Park, which would become the home of Cleveland professional ball for the next 55 years. Led by native Ohioan Cy Young, the Spiders became a contender in the mid-1890s, when they played in the Temple Cup Series (that era's World Series) twice, winning it in 1895. The team began to fade after that, and was dealt a severe blow under the ownership of the Robison brothers.
The Robisons, despite already owning the Spiders, were allowed to also acquire a controlling interest in the St. Louis Cardinals franchise in 1899. They proceeded to strip the Cleveland team of its best players (including Young) to help fill the St. Louis roster. The St. Louis team improved to finish above .500. The Spiders were left with essentially a minor league lineup, and began to lose games at a record pace. Drawing almost no fans at home, they ended up playing most of their season on the road, and became known as "The Wanderers", finally slinking home in 12th place, 84 games out of first place, with an all-time worst record of 20 wins and 134 losses.
Following the 1899 season, the National League disbanded the Cleveland franchise along with three other teams in Washington, Baltimore, and Louisville. The disastrous 1899 season would actually be a step toward a new future for Cleveland fans the next year.
Seeking to capitalize on general public disillusionment with the National League, Ban Johnson changed the name of his minor league, the Western League, to the American League and shifted the WL's Grand Rapids club to Cleveland, taking over League Park in 1900. Although still a minor league, the new organization was ready to make its move. In 1901 the American League broke with the National Agreement and declared itself a competing Major League. The Cleveland franchise was among its eight charter members.

1901-1946: Early to middle history of the franchise
The new team was owned by Charles Somers and Jack Kilfoy. Somers, a wealthy industrialist and also co-owner of the Boston Americans, lent money to other team owners, including Connie Mack's Philadelphia A's, to keep them and the new league afloat. With the new league competing for fans, the American League began raiding the senior League for players. Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie , a Philadelphia Phillies star who was angry that his contract was capped at $2,400 per year, signed with the Philadelphia Athletics.
The Phillies subsequently filed for an injunction which was initially later granted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. With the injunction only applicable in the state of Pennsylvania, he was sent to Cleveland, who offered $25,000 salary over three years. Lajoie, however, was enjoined from playing in the state of Pennsylvania and would sit out any series scheduled for Philadelphia. At the time, the team was known as the Bronchos or the Blues. In honor of its popular new star Cleveland soon acquired the nickname Naps.
Early on, Cleveland finished in the middle of the pack before contending for the championship in 1908, but the team began to unravel. Cy Young who returned to Cleveland in 1909, was ineffective for most of his three remaining years and Addie Joss became ill and died before the 1910 season.
Despite a strong lineup anchored by the potent Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson, poor pitching kept the team below third place for most of the next decade, and jokes about "Naps" as a synonym for "sleeps" began to circulate. The team hit rock bottom in 1914 and 1915, finishing in the cellar and suffering through the financial difficulties of its owner. Lajoie was sent back to Philadelphia after the 1914 season and Jackson was sold midway through the 1915 season. With Lajoie gone, the club renamed itself the "Indians" for the 1915 season.
In February, 1916 Somers sold the team to a syndicate headed by James C. "Jack" Dunn. Dunn hired a new manager, Lee Fohl, brought up two young pitchers, Hall of Famers Stan Coveleski and Jim Bagby, and acquired another Hall of Fame player, Tris Speaker, who had been engaged in a salary dispute with the Red Sox.
Tris Speaker took over the reins as player-manager in 1919 and would lead the team to glory in 1920--but not before tragedy intervened. On August 16, the Indians were playing the Yankees at the Polo Grounds in New York. Shortstop Ray Chapman, who often crowded the plate, was batting against Carl Mays, who had an unusual underhand throwing motion. Mays' pitch hit Chapman in the head, fracturing his skull. Chapman died the next day, the first and only player fatality on the field. The Indians, who at the time were locked in a tight three-way pennant race with the Yankees and White Sox, were not slowed down by the death of their teammate. Rookie Joe Sewell, a future, Hall of Famer hit .329 after replacing Chapman in the lineup.
In September 1920, the Black Sox Scandal came to a boil. With just a few games left in the season, and Cleveland and Chicago neck-and-neck for first place at 94-54 and 95-56 respectively, the Chicago owner suspended eight players. The White Sox lost 2 of 3 in their final series, while Cleveland won 4 and lost 2 in their final two series. Cleveland finished 2 games ahead of Chicago and 3 games ahead of the Yankees to win its first pennant, led by Speaker's .388 hitting, Jim Bagby's 30 victories and solid performances from Steve O'Neill and Stan Coveleski. Cleveland went on to defeat the Brooklyn Robins 5-2 in the World Series for their first title, winning four games in a row after the Robins took a 2-1 Series lead.
The team would not reach the heights of 1920 again for 28 years. Speaker and Coveleski were aging and the Yankees were rising with a new weapon: Babe Ruth and the home run. They managed two second-place finishes but spent much of the decade in the cellar. In 1927 Dunn's widow, Mrs. George Pross, sold the team to a syndicate headed by Alva Bradley.
The Indians were a middling team by the 1930s, finishing third or fourth most years. 1936 brought Cleveland a new superstar in 17-year old picher Bob Feller, who came from Iowa with a dominating fastball. Feller struck out 17 batters and led the league in strikeouts from 1938-1941. By 1940, Feller, along with Ken Keltner, Mel Harder and Lou Boudreau led the Indians to within one game of the pennant. However, the team was wracked with dissension, with some players (including Feller and Mel Harder) going so far as to request that owner Alva Bradley fire manager Ossie Vitt. Reporters lampooned them as the Cleveland Crybabies. Feller, who had pitched a no-hitter to open the season and won 27 games, lost the final game of the season to unknown pitcher Floyd Giebell of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers won the pennant and Giebell never won another major league game.
Cleveland entered 1941 with a young team and a new manager; Roger Peckinpaugh had replaced the despised Vitt. But the team regressed, finishing in fourth. The team would soon be depleted of two stars. Hal Trosky retired in 1941 due to migraine headaches and Bob Feller enlisted in the Navy two days after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Starting third baseman Ken Keltner and outfielder Ray Mack were both drafted in 1945 taking two more starters out of the lineup.

1947-1959
In 1946 Bill Veeck formed an investment group that purchased the Cleveland Indians from Bradley's group for a reported $1.1 million. Among the investors was Bob Hope, who had grown up in Cleveland. A former owner of a minor league franchise in Milwaukee, Veeck brought to Cleveland a gift for promotion. Recognizing that he had acquired a solid team, Veeck soon abandoned the aging, small and lightless League Park to take up full-time residence in massive Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Prior to 1947 the Indians played most of their games at League Park, and occasionally played several weekend games at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. league Park was demolished in 1951, although a potion of the original ticket booth remains.
Making the most of the field itself in the cavernous stadium, Veeck had a portable center field fence installed, which he could move in or out depending on how the distance favored the Indians against their opponents in a given series. The fence moved as much as 15 feet (5 m) between series opponents. Following the 1947 season, the American League countered with a rule change that fixed the distance of an outfield wall for the duration of a season. The massive stadium did, however, permit the Indians to set the all-time one game regular-season attendance record in 1954 at over 84,000.
Veeck hired rubber-faced Max Patkin, the "Clown Prince of Baseball" as a coach. Patkin's appearance in the coaching box was the sort of promotional stunt by Bill Veeck that delighted fans and infuriated the front office of the American League.
Under Veeck's leadership, Cleveland's most significant achievement was breaking the color barrier in the American League by signing Larry Doby, formerly a player for the Negro League's Newark Eagles in 1947, eleven weeks after Jackie Robinson signed with the Dodgers. Similar to Robinson, Doby battled racism on and off the field but posted a .301 batting average in 1948, his first full season. A power-hitting center fielder, Doby led the American League twice in homers.
In 1948, needing pitching for the stretch run of the 1948 pennant race, Veeck turned to the Negro Leagues again and signed pitching great Satchel Paige amid much controversy. Barred from Major League Baseball during his prime, Veeck's signing of the aging star in 1948 was viewed by many as another publicity stunt. At an official age of 42, Paige became the oldest rookie in Major League baseball history, and the first black pitcher. Paige soon proved he could still pitch and ended the year with a 6-1 record with a 2.48 ERA, 45 strikeouts and two shutouts.
In 1948, veterans Boudreau, Keltner, and Joe Gordon had career offensive seasons, while newcomers Larry Doby and Gene Bearden also had standout seasons. The team went down to the wire with the Boston Red Sox, winning a one-game playoff, the first in American League history, to go to the World Series. In the series, the Tribe defeated the Boston Braves four games to two for their first championship in 28 years. Boudreau won the American League MVP Award.
The Indians would appear in a film the following year titled The Kid From Cleveland. The film portrayed the team helping out a "troubled teenaged fan" and featured many members of the Indians organization.
In 1949 Cleveland again contended before falling to third place. On September 23, 1949m Bill Veeck and the Indians buried their 1948 pennant in center field the day after they were mathematically eliminated from the pennant race.
In 1949 Veeck was forced to sell the Indians to a syndicate headed by William Daley during a difficult divorce, but left behind a competitive team that continued to contend through the early 1950s, featuring: Feller, Minnie Miñoso, Larry Doby, Luke Easter, Bobby Avila, Al Rosen, Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, and Mike Garcia. However, Cleveland only won a single pennant in the decade, finishing second to the New York Yankees five times.
In 1954, Cleveland won a then-record 111 games and returned to the World Series against the New York Giants. The team was upset by the Giants in a sweep which became famous for Willie Mays amazing over-the-shoulder catch off the bat of Vic Wertz in Game 1.

1960-1993: The curse of Rocky Colavito
From 1959 to 1993, the Indians managed one third-place and five fourth-place finishes but spent the rest of the time in the American League cellar. Frank 'Trader' Lane was an early culprit in the construction of what became a running joke in baseball for three decades. The team's ill-advised trades under a number of general managers would haunt the team.
Constant ownership changes did not help the Indians. In 1966, Daley's syndicate sold the team to frozen food millionaire Vernon Stouffer of Stouffer Foods. Prior to Stouffer's purchase the team was rumoured to be relocated due to poor attendance. Despite the potential for a financially strong owner, Stouffer had some non-baseball related financial setbacks and consequently the team was cash-poor. In order to solve some financial problems, Stouffer had made an agreement to play a minimum of 30 home games in New Orleans. After rejecting an offer from George Steinbrenner and former Indian Al Rosen, Stouffer sold the team in 1972 to a group led by impresario Nick Mileti. Steinbrenner went on to buy the Yankees in 1973.
Only five years later, Mileti's group sold the team for $11 million to a syndicate headed by trucking magnate Steve O'Neill and which included Gabe Paul, who had been an executive with the Indians, Reds and Yankees. But O'Neill's death in 1983 led to the team going on the market once more. His son, Patrick O'Neill, did not find a buyer until the Jacobs brothers, Richard and David, purchased the team in 1986.

The 30 Year Slump
The 30+ year slump began for the Indians with the club's most infamous trade; which involved slugging right fielder and fan favorite, Rocky Colavito. Just before Opening Day in 1960 Colavito was traded to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. It was a blockbuster trade that swapped the 1959 AL home run co-champion (Colavito) for the AL batting champion (Kuenn). Colavito would continue to have monster seasons for Detroit and later the Kansas City Athletics before returning to Cleveland in 1965 while Kuenn would only play one season for the Indians before departing. Akron Beacon Journal columnist Terry Pluto documented the decades of woe that followed the trade in his book The Curse of Rocky Colavito.
In the 1960s, the team also sent budding stars Tommy John, Luis Tiamt, and Lou Piniella packing, receiving little in return. At one point, Lane even traded Harry Chiti to the New York Mets, receiving him back as the player to be named later after 15 days.
The 1970s were little better with the Indians trading away several future stars, including Graig Nettles, Dennis Eckersley, Buddy Bell and 1971 Rookie of the year Chris Chambliss, for a number of players who made no impact.
The team was unable to move out of the cellar with losing seasons between 1969 and 1975. One highlight was the acquisition of Gaylord Perry in 1972. The Indians traded fireballer 'Sudden Sam' McDowell for Perry who went on to win the Cy Young Award, the first Indian pitcher to win the award. In 1975, they again broke the color line when they hired Frank Robinson as MLB's first African American manager. Robinson served as player-manager and would provide a franchise highlight when he pinch hit on Opening Day and hit a home run. But the high profile signing of Wayne Garland, a 20-game winner in Baltimore, proved to be a disaster after Garland suffered from shoulder problems. The team failed to improve with Robinson as manager and he was fired in 1977.
The 1970's also featured the infamous Ten Cent Beer Night at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The ill-conceived promotion at a 1974 game against the Texas Rangers ended in a riot by fans and a forfeit by the Indians.
There were bright spots in the 1980s. In May of 1980, Len Barker threw a perfect game against the Toronto Blue Jays, joining Addie Joss as the only other Indian pitcher to do so. 'Super Joe' Charbonneau won the American League Rookie of the Year award. Unfortunately, Charboneau was out of baseball by 1982 after he fell victim to back injuries and Barker never became a consistently dominant starting pitcher.
Eventually, the Indians traded Barker to the Atlanta Braves for Brett Butler and Brook Jacoby who would become mainstays for the team for the remainder of the decade. Butler and Jacoby were joined by Joe Carter, Mel Hall, Julio Franco and Cory Snyder who brought new hope to fans in the late 1980's.
After a rare winning season in 1986, Sports Illustrated, with Carter and Snyder pictured on the cover, boldly predicted the Indians to win the American League East in 1987. The team went on to lose 101 games and finish last in American League East, a fate attributed to the Sports Illustrated cover jinx.

Organizational Turn Around
In 1989, a fictional Cleveland Indians baseball team was portrayed in the movie Major League, which depicted a hapless Cleveland ball club going from worst to first by the end of the film.
The team's fortunes started to turn in 1989, ironically with a very unpopular trade. Power-hitting outfielder Joe Carter was sent to the San Diego Padres for two unproven players, Sandy Alomar, Jr. and Carlos Baerga. Alomar made an immediate impact, not only being elected to the All-Star team but also winning Cleveland's fourth Rookie of the Year award and a Gold Glove Award. Baerga would become a three-time All-Star with solid offensive numbers.
Indians general manager John Hart made a number of moves that would finally bring success to the team. In 1991, he hired former Indian Mike Hargrove to manage and then traded catcher Eddie Taubensee to the Houston Astros who, with a glut of outfielders, were willing to part with future All-Star outfielder, Stolen Base Champion, and Gold Glove winner Kenny Lofton. Lofton would finish second in AL Rookie of the Year balloting with a .285 average and 66 stolen bases.
The Indians were named "Organization of the Year" by Baseball America in 1992, in response to the appearance of offensive bright spots and an improving farm system.
The team suffered a tragedy during spring training of 1993, when a boat carrying pitchers Steve Olin, Tim Crews, and Bob Ojeda crashed into a pier. Olin and Crews were killed, and Ojeda was seriously injured. (Ojeda missed the rest of the season, and would retire the following year).
Since their 1986 purchase, the Jacobs Brothers had pushed for a new stadium to replace the deteriorating Cleveland Stadium. In May 1990, Cuyahoga County voters passed an excise tax on sales of alcohol and cigarettes in the county. The tax proceeds would be used to finance the building of the Gateway Sports and Entertainment Complex which would include Jacobs Field and Gund Arena for the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team.
The team finished the two-division era as the only team never to win a division title. But by the end of the 1993 season, the team was in transition, leaving Cleveland Stadium and fielding a talented group of players not seen in over a generation.

1994-2001: A new beginning
Indians General Manager John Hart and team owner Richard Jacobs managed to turn the team's fortunes around. The Indians opened Jacobs Field in 1994 with the aim of improving on the prior season's sixth-place finish. The Indians were only one game behind the division-leading Chicago White Sox on August 12 when a players strike wiped out the rest of the season.

1998-2001
In 1998, the Indians made the playoffs for the fourth straight year, and defeated the wild-card Boston Red Sox three games to one in the first round. However, the 114-win New York Yankees proved too good to be beaten in the ALCS, which the Tribe lost four games to two. Following the season, the Indians acquired bullpen left-hander Ricardo Rincón from Pittsburgh, and signed free agent second baseman Roberto Alomar, brother of catcher Sandy Alomar.
Cleveland won the Central Division again in 1999, and jumped out to a two games to none lead over the Red Sox in the Division Series but were eliminated, losing the next three games. An injury to starter Dave Burba in game three forced Hargrove to go to his bullpen in the 5th inning. Unfortunately, four pitchers, including presumed game four starter Jaret Wright, surrendered nine runs in relief. As a result of Wright's appearance, and the exclusion of a long reliever/emergency starter (such as Chris Haney or Jim Brower) from the playoff roster, both Bartolo Colon and Charles Nagy were forced to start on only three days rest (after lengthy starts in Games 1 and 2). The Indians lost game four 23-7 and game five 12-8. Four days later, longtime manager Mike Hargrove was dismissed.
In 2000, the Indians had 44-42 start but caught fire after the All Star break and went 46-30 the rest of the way to finish 90-72. The team had one of the league's best offenses that year and a defense that yielded three gold gloves. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as they ended up five games behind the Chicago White Sox in the Central division and missed the wild card by one game to the Seattle Mariners. Mid-season trades brought Bob Wickman and Jake Westbrook to Cleveland, and free agent Manny Ramírez departed for Boston after the season.
The season was notable in that the Indians set a Major League record for most pitchers used in a single season. Colon, Burba, and Chuck Finley posted strong seasons and the bullpen was solid. But with Jaret Wright and Charles Nagy spending months on the disabled list, the team could not solidify the final two spots in the rotation. Other starting pitchers that season combined for a total of 346 2/3 innings and 265 earned runs for an ERA of 6.88.
In 2000, Larry Dolan bought the Indians for $323 million from Richard Jacobs, who, along with his late brother David, had paid $35 million for the club in 1986.
2001 saw a return to the playoffs. After the departures of Manny Ramírez and Sandy Alomar, Jr., the Tribe signed former-MVP Juan González, who helped the Indians win the Central division with a 91-71 record.
One of the highlights came on August 5, 2001, when the Indians completed the biggest comeback in MLB History. Cleveland rallied to close a 14-2 deficit in the sixth inning to defeat the Seattle Mariners 15-14 in 11 innings. The Mariners, who won a record 116 games that season had a strong bullpen and Indians manager Charlie Manuel had already pulled many of his starters with the game seemingly out of reach.
Seattle and Cleveland met in the first round of the playoffs, with the Indians taking an two games to one lead. However, with Freddy Garcia, Jamie Moyer and their vaunted bullpen, the Mariners won Games 4 and 5 to deny the Indians their first playoff series victory since 1998.

2001-present: The Shapiro years
In the 2001 offseason, GM John Hart resigned and his assistant Mark Shapiro took the reins. Shapiro moved to rebuild by dealing aging veterans for younger talent.
In 2002, Shapiro traded fan favorite pitching ace Bartolo Colon for prospects Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore, acquired Travis Hafner from the Rangers for Ryan Drese and Einar Diaz, and picked up Coco Crisp from the St. Louis Cardinals for aging starter Chuck Finley. Jim Thome left after the season.
The Indians young team posted strong offensive numbers in 2004 but still struggled with a bullpen that blew more than 20 saves. A highlight of the season was a 22-0 victory over the New York Yankees on August 31, one of the worst defeats suffered by the Yankees in team history.
In early 2005, the offense got off to a poor start. After a brief July slump, the Indians caught fire in August, and cut a 15.5 game deficit in the Central Division down to 1.5 games. However, the season came to a heartbreaking end as the Indians went on to lose six of their last seven games, five of them by one run, missing the playoffs by only two games.
In 2006 the Indians made several roster changes, while retaining its nucleus of young players. In the offseason, a three-team trade sent Coco Crisp, David Riske and Josh Bard to Boston and Arthur Rhodes to Philadelphia in exchange for third base prospect Andy Marté, catcher Kelly Shoppach and outfielder Jason Michaels. Shapiro signed Paul Byrd and Jason Johnson to replace Kevin Millwood and Scott Elarton and dealt veterans Bob Wickman, Ben Broussard, and Ronnie Belliard after the Indians had fallen out of contention. The team had a solid offensive season, led by career years from Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore. Hafner, despite missing a month after being hit by a pitch, tied the single season Grand Slam record with six, set in 1987 by Don Mattingly. The team hit a comnbined 14 Grand Slams to tie a record set by the Oakland A's in 2000. Despite the solid offensive performance, the bullpen struggled with a Major League worst 23 blown saves, and the Indians finished a disappointing fourth.
In 2007, Shapiro signed veteran help for the bullpen and outfield in the offseason. Veterans Aaron Fultz, and Joe Borowski joined Rafael Betancourt in the Indians bullpen. Shapiro also signed right fielder Trot Nixon and left fielder David Dellucci to short term contracts for veteran leadership. The Indians improved significantly over the prior year and went into the All-Star break in second place. The team brought back Kenny Lofton for his third stint with the team in late July. The Indians finished with a 96-66 record and their 7th Central Division title in 13 years and their first post season trip since 2001.
The Indians began their playoff run by defeating the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series, 3 games to 1 and jumped out to a three games to one lead over the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series. The season ended in disappointment when Boston swept the final three games to advance to the 2007 World Series.
Despite the loss, Cleveland players took home a number of awards. Grady Sizemore, who had a .995 fielding percentage and only two errors in 405 chances, won the Gold Glove award, Cleveland's first since 2001. Indians Pitcher C.C. Sabathia won the second Cy Young Award in team history with a 19-7 record, a 3.21 ERA and an MLB leading 241 innings pitched. Eric Wedge was awarded the first Manager of the Year Award in team history.

**WWW.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox are a Major League baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The White Sox are a member of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1991 to the present, the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field (previously known as New Comiskey Park).
The "White Sox" name originates from a prominent uniform feature which has since fallen into disuse. They are most prominently nicknamed "the South Siders", differentiating from the North Side dwelling Chicago Cubs, "the Pale Hose", and sometimes by the national media as "the ChiSox", a combination of "Chicago" and "Sox" (as opposed to the BoSox). Other nicknames include "the Go-Go Sox, a reference to 1959 AL Champions, who got that nickname, "the Good Guys", a reference to the team's one time motto "Good guys wear black", coined by Ken "Hawk" Harrelson, and "the Black Sox", the name attributed to the scandal-tainted 1919 team. Most fans refer to the team as simply "the Sox".
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Chicago in 1901. Then the Chicago White Stockings, after the original White Stockings vacated the name to become the Cubs. At this time, the team inhabited South Side Park. In 1910, the team moved into historic Comiskey Park, which they would inhabit for more than eight decades. It was here that, in 1919, the infamous Black Sox Scandal occurred. Afterwards, the team would endure 88 years of hardship, attributed to the Curse of the Black Sox, that would end when the team won the World Series in 2005.
Over the years the White Sox have become noted for many of their uniform innovations and changes. In 1960, the White Sox became the first team in the major sports to put players' last names on jerseys.
Although the uniforms in the very early days of the franchise featured a block "C" in red, the uniforms' primary color switched to a navy or midnight blue (on white) after a couple of years. Again, a block "C" was often the only adornment. In 1912, however, the White Sox debuted one of the most enduring and famous logos in baseball -- a large "S" in a Roman-style font, with a small "O" inside the top loop of the "S" and a small "X" inside the bottom loop. This is the logo associated with the 1917 World Series championship team and the 1919 Black Sox. With a couple of brief interruptions, the dark blue logo with the large "S" lasted through 1938 (but continued in a modified block style into the '40s). Through the 1940s, the White Sox team colors were primarily navy blue trimmed with red.
The White Sox logo in the '50s and '60s (actually beginning in the 1949 season) was the word "SOX" in an Old English font, diagonally arranged, with the "S" larger than the other two letters. From 1949 through 1963, the primary color was black (trimmed with red after 1951). The Old English "SOX" in black lettering is the logo associated with the Go-Go Sox era.
In 1964, the primary color went back to navy blue, and the road uniforms changed from gray to pale blue. In 1971, the team's primary color changed from royal blue to red, with the color of their pinstripes and caps changing to red. Curiously, the 1971-1975 uniform included red socks.
In 1976 the team's uniforms changed again. The team's primary color changed back from red to navy. The team based their uniforms on a style worn in the early days of the franchise, with white jerseys worn at home, blue on the road. The team also had the option to wear blue or white pants with either jersey. Additionally the teams "SOX" logo was changed to a modern-looking "SOX" in a bold font, with 'CHICAGO' written across the jersey. Finally, the team's logo featured a silhouette of a batter over the words "SOX".
The new uniforms also featured collars and were designed to be worn untucked - both unprecedented. Yet by far the most unusual wrinkle was the option to wear shorts, which the White Sox did for the first game of a doubleheader against the Kansas City Royals in 1976. After being ridiculed by fans and pundits, and George Brett calling the White Sox "the sweetest team we have ever played," the White Sox retired the shorts, wearing pants in the nightcap and thereafter. The Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League had tried the same concept at one time, and it was also poorly received. Apart from aesthetic issues, as a practical matter shorts are not conducive to sliding, due to the likelihood of significant abrasions.
Upon taking over the team in 1980 new owners Eddie Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf announced a contest where fans were invited to create new uniforms for the White Sox. The winning entry was submitted by a fan where the word "SOX" was written across the front of the jersey, in the same font as a cap, inside of a large blue stripe trimmed with red. The red and blue stripes were also on the sleeves, and the road jerseys were gray to the home whites. It was in those jerseys that the White Sox won 99 games and the AL West championship in 1983, the best record in the majors.
After five years those uniforms were retired and replaced with a more basic uniform which had "White Sox" written across the front in script, with "Chicago" on the front of the road jersey. The cap logo was also changed to a cursive "C", although the batter logo was retained for several years.
For a mid-season 1990 game at Comiskey Park the White Sox appeared one time in a uniform based on that of the 1917 White Sox.
The White Sox then switched their regular uniform style one more time. In September, for the final series at Old Comiskey Park, the old English "SOX" logo (a slightly simplified version of the 1949 logo) was restored, and the new uniform also had the black pinstripes restored. The team's primary color changed back to black -- this time with silver trim. With minor modifications (i.e., occasionally wearing vests, black game jerseys) the White Sox have used this style ever since.

**wikipedia.org

Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox are a professional baseball team based in Boston, Massachusetts, and are the reigning World Series Champions. The Red Sox are a member and current champions of both the Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division and of the American League itself. From 1912 to the present, the Red Sox have played in Fenway Park.
The "Red Sox" name originates from the iconic uniform feature. They are nicknamed the BoSox, a combination of "Boston" and "Sox" (as opposed to the "ChiSox"), and the Olde Towne Team. Most fans simply refer to them as the Sox.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Boston in 1901. Then known as the Boston Americans, they played at Huntington Avenue Grounds, and met the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series. In 1918, the team won its fifth World Series, and then went into one of the longest championship droughts in baseball history. Many attributed the phenomenon to the "Curse of the Bambino" said to have been caused by the trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920. The drought was ended, and the "curse" reversed in 2004, when the team won their sixth World Series Championship.
The Red Sox lead all MLB teams in average road attendance, while the small capacity of Fenway causes them to rank 11th in home attendance. Every home game since May 15, 2003 has been sold out—a span of over four years.

General Manager Theo Epstein's first major step toward restocking the team for 2007 was to pursue one of the most anticipated acquisitions in recent history. On November 14, Major League Baseball announced that the Red Sox had won the bid for the rights to negotiate a contract with Japanese superstar pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Boston placed a bid of $51.1 million, and had 30 days to complete a deal. On December 13, just before the deadline, Matsuzaka signed a 6-year, $52 million contract.
In the hopes of solidifying the starting rotation, the team announced that closer Jonathan Papelbon would become a starter in 2007. With Papelbon becoming a starter and Keith Foulke leaving the team, the Red Sox began building up their bullpen in search of a new closer. J.C. Romero, Brendan Donnelly, Joel Piñeiro, and Japanese lefty Hideki Okajima all joined the Boston bullpen. However, no clear closer candidate emerged during Spring Training. Eventually, Papelbon wanted to return to the closer role, and Sox officials believed Papelbon had rehabilitated himself so well in the offseason that his health of this shoulder was no longer a concern. The Red Sox had a star closer once again.
Shortstop Alex González was allowed to leave via free agency for the Cincinnati Reds. The Sox replaced him with Julio Lugo. Mark Loretta also was allowed to leave which opened up a spot for youngster Dustin Pedroia. Fan favorite Trot Nixon filed for free agency and agreed on a deal with the Cleveland Indians. With an opening in right field, the Sox pursued J.D. Drew, who had recently opted out of the remainder of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers to become a free agent. On January 25, 2007, the Red Sox and Drew agreed to a 5-year, $70 million contract. Another fan favorite, outfielder Gabe Kapler, announced his retirement at age 31 to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a manager. The Red Sox named him manager of their Class A affiliate, the Greenville Drive.
The Red Sox started quickly, moving into first place in the AL East by mid-April and never relinquishing their division lead. While Ortiz and Ramirez provided their usual offense, it was the hitting of Mike Lowell, Kevin Youkilis, and Dustin Pedroia that surprisingly anchored the club through the first few months. While Drew, Lugo, and Coco Crisp struggled to provide offense, Lowell and Youkilis more than made up for it with averages well above .300 and impressive home run and RBI totals. Pedroia started badly, hitting below .200 in April. Manager Terry Francona stuck with him and his patience paid off as Pedroia hit over .400 in May and finished the first half over .300. On the mound, Josh Beckett emerged as the ace of the staff, starting the year 9-0 and finishing 12-2 at the break. His success was needed as Schilling, Matsuzaka, Wakefield, and Tavarez provided consistent and occasionally good starts, but all struggled at times. The Boston bullpen, on the other hand, was there to pick up the starters often, anchored once again by Papelbon, a more experienced Manny Delcarmen, and Okajima. While Papelbon served as the stopper, the rise of Okajima as a legitimate setup man and occasional closer was a boon for the Sox, giving them more options late in the game. Okajima posted an ERA of 0.88 through the first half and was voted into the All-Star Game by the fans as the final selection. By the All-Star break, Boston had the best record in baseball and held their largest lead in the American League East, 10 games over intra-division rivals the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees.
In the second half, more stars emerged for the Sox as they continued to lead the AL East division. Beckett continued to shine, reaching 20 wins for the first time in his career. At one point, veteran Tim Wakefield found himself atop the American League in wins, posting decisions in his first 26 starts, and finishing with a 17-12 record. However, as Wakefield, Matsuzaka, and Okajima became tired down the stretch, minor league call-up Clay Buchholz provided a spark on September 1 by pitching a no-hitter in his second career start. Another call-up, outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, was thrust into the starting lineup while Manny Ramírez rested through most of September. Ellsbury played brilliantly during the month, hitting .361 with 3 HR, 17 RBI, and 8 stolen bases. Mike Lowell continued to carry the club, hitting cleanup in September and leading the team in RBI for the season, setting a team record for a third baseman with 120 runs driven in. And eventual 2007 Rookie of the Year Dustin Pedroia finished his outstanding first full season with 165 hits and a .317 average. The Red Sox became the first team to clinch a playoff spot for the 2007 season on September 22 with a come-from-behind defeat of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Boston captured their first AL East title since 1995 after a win on September 28 against the Minnesota Twins and a loss by the New York Yankees against the Baltimore Orioles.
In the playoffs, the Red Sox swept the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the ALDS. Facing the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS, Josh Beckett won Game 1 but the Sox stumbled, losing the next three games. Facing a 3-1 deficit and a must-win situation, Beckett pitched eight innings while surrendering only one run and striking out 11 in a masterful Game 5 win. The Sox captured their twelfth American League pennant by outscoring the Indians 30-5 over the final three games, winning the final two games at Fenway Park.
In the 2007 World Series, the Red Sox faced the Colorado Rockies. Beckett once again set the tone, pitching seven strong innings as the offense provided more than enough in a 13-1 victory. In Game 2, Schilling, Okajima, and Papelbon held the Rockies to one run again in a 2-1 game. Moving to Colorado, the Sox offense made the difference again in a 10-5 win. Finally, in Game 4, Jon Lester took Tim Wakefield's spot in the rotation and gave the Sox an impressive start, pitching 5 2/3 shutout innings. The Rockies threatened, but thanks to World Series MVP Mike Lowell and aided by a pinch-hit home run by outfielder Bobby Kielty, Papelbon registered another save as the Red Sox swept the Rockies in four games. The Red Sox captured their second title in four years.

**wikipedia.org

Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Orioles are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. From 1992 to the present, the Orioles have played in Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The "Orioles" name originates from the bird of the same name. They are nicknamed "the O's", a shortened version of the Orioles name, and "the Birds".
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1901. Then the Milwaukee Brewers (not to be confused with the current Milwaukee Brewers who were a 1969 expansion team), the team moved to St. Louis in 1902 and became the St. Louis Browns. It was not until 1954 that the team moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles.


In the 1890s, a powerful and innovative National League Orioles squad included several future Hall of Famers, such as "Wee" Willie Keeler, Wilbert Robinson, Hughie Jennings, and John McGraw. They won three straight pennants, and participated in all four of the Temple Cup Championship Series, winning the last two of them. That team had started as a charter member of the American Association in 1882. Despite its on-field success, it was one of the four teams contracted out of existence by the National League after the 1899 season. Its best players (and its manager, Ned Hanlon) regrouped with the Brooklyn Dodgers, turning that team into a contender.
In 1901, Baltimore and McGraw were awarded an expansion franchise in the growing American League, but again the team was sacrificed in favor of a New York City franchise, as the team was transferred to the city in 1903. After some early struggles, that team eventually became baseball's most successful franchise - the New York Yankees.
As a member of the high-minor league level International League, the Orioles competed at what is now known as the AAA level from 1903-1953. Baltimore's own Babe Ruth pitched for the Orioles before being sold to the AL Boston Red Sox in 1914. The Orioles of the IL won nine league championships, first in 1908, followed by a lengthy run from 1919 to 1925, and then dramatically in 1944, after they had lost their home field Oriole Park in a disastrous mid-season fire. The huge post-season crowds at their temporary home, Municipal Stadium, caught the attention of the big league brass and helped open the door to the return of major league baseball to Baltimore. Thanks to the big stadium, that "Junior World Series" easily outdrew the major league World Series which, coincidentally, included the team that would move to Baltimore 10 years later and take up occupancy in the rebuilt version of that big stadium.


On April 15, 1954, thousands of Baltimoreans jammed city streets as the new Orioles paraded from downtown to their new home at Memorial Stadium. During the 90-minute parade, the new birds signed autographs, handed out pictures and threw styrofoam balls to crowd as the throng marched down 33rd Street West. Inside, more than 46,000 watched the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1, to win their home opener and move into first place in the American League. Ironically, the Orioles lost their last home game of the season, 11-0, to the same White Sox, finishing with 100 losses and 57½ games out of first place.
The new AL Orioles took about six years to become competitive. By the early 1960s, stars such as Brooks Robinson, John "Boog" Powell, and Dave McNally were being developed by a strong farm system.

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Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. More specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates North American professional baseball's two major leagues, the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure which has existed between them since 1903. Major League Baseball teams play a 162 game season. The American League operates under the Designated Hitter Rule, but the National League does not (inter-league, all-star and World Series game rules are determined by the home team's league rules). In 2000, the American and National Leagues were officially disbanded as separate legal entities with all rights and functions consolidated in the commissioner's office. MLB effectively operates as a single league and as such it constitutes one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.
Major League Baseball is controlled by an agreement that has undergone several incarnations since 1876, then called the NL Constitution, with the most recent revisions being made in 2005. Major League Baseball, under the direction of its Commissioner (currently Bud Selig), hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. As is the case for most North American sports leagues, the "closed shop" aspect of MLB effectively prevents the yearly promotion and relegation of teams into and out of the Major League by virtue of their performance. Major League Baseball is mostly funded by private enterprises, but also partially funded directly by public taxes. MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of minor league baseball. This is due in large part to a 1922 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v. National League which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law despite baseball's own references to itself as an "industry" rather than a "sport." This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years.
The production/multimedia wing of MLB is New York-based MLB Advanced Media which oversees MLB.com and all 30 of the individual teams' websites. Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the League itself, but it is indeed under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan. MLB Productions is a similarly-structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media.

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Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Early history

Along with the Kansas City Scouts, the Capitals joined the National Hockey League as an expansion team for the 1974-75 season. The team was owned by Abe Pollin, owner of the NBA's Washington Bullets. Pollin had built the Capital Centre in suburban Landover, Maryland, to house both the Bullets (who formerly played in Baltimore and the Capitals. His first act as owner was to hire Hall of Famer Milt Schmidt as general manager. Abe Pollin sold the Capitals to Ted Leonsis in 1999.
With a combined 30 teams between the NHL and the rival World Hockey Association, the Capitals had few players with professional experience and were at a disadvantage against the long-standing teams that were stocked with more experienced players. Like the other three teams who joined the league during the WHA era – the Scouts, Atlanta Flames and New York Islanders – the Capitals did not factor the arrival of the WHA into their plans.
The Capitals' inaugural season was dreadful, even by expansion standards. They finished 8-67-5, far and away the worst record in the league. Their 21 points were half that of their expansion brethren, the Scouts. The eight wins are the fewest for an NHL team playing at least 70 games, and the .131 winning percentage is still the worst in NHL history. They also set records for most road losses (39 out of 40), most consecutive road losses (37) (both still NHL records) and most consecutive losses (17), a mark tied by the 1992-93 San Jose Sharks. Coach Jim Anderson said, "I'd rather find out my wife was cheating on me than keep losing like this. At least I could tell my wife to cut it out." Schmidt himself had to take over the coaching reins late in the season.
In 1975-76, Washington went 25 straight games without a win and allowed 394 goals en route to another horrendous record – 11-59-10 (32 points). During the middle of the season, Max McNab was hired as GM, and Tom McVie was hired as head coach to replace Schmidt. For the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s, the Capitals alternated between dreadful seasons and finishing only a few points out of the playoffs. In 1980 and 1981, for instance, they were in playoff contention until the last day of the season. The one bright spot during these years of futility was that many of McNab's draft picks (e.g. Rick Green, Ryan Walter, Mike Gartner, Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, Gaetan Duchesne, Bobby Carpenter) would impact the team for years to come, whether as important members of the roster or crucial pieces to major trades. By the summer of 1982, there was serious talk of the team moving out of the U.S. capital, and a "Save the Caps" campaign was underway. Then two significant events took place to solve the problem.

Playoffs
First, the team hired David Poile as General Manager. Second, as his first move, Poile pulled off one of the biggest trades in franchise history on September 9, 1982, when he dealt longtime regulars Ryan Walter and Rick Green to the Montreal Canadiens for Rod Langway, Brian Engblom, Doug Jarvis, and Craig Laughlin. This move turned the franchise around, as Langway's solid defense helped the team to dramatically reduce its goals-against, and the explosive goal-scoring of Dennis Maruk, Mike Gartner, and Bobby Carpenter fueled the offensive attack. Another significant move was the drafting of defenseman Scott Stevens during the 1982 NHL Entry Draft (the pick was made by interim-GM Roger Crozier, prior to Poile's hiring). The result was a 29-point jump, a third-place finish in the powerful Patrick Division, and the team's first playoff appearance in 1983. Although they were swept by the three-time-defending Stanley Cup Champion New York Islanders, the Caps' dramatic turnaround ended any talk of the club leaving Washington.
The Capitals would make the playoffs for each of the next 14 years in a row. They became known for starting slow before catching fire in January and February. However, regular-season success did not carry into the playoffs. Despite a continuous march of stars like Gartner, Carpenter, Langway, Bengt-Ake Gustafsson, Mike Ridley, Dave Christian, Dino Ciccarelli, Larry Murphy, and Kevin Hatcher, Washington was knocked out in either the first or second round eight years in a row. In 1985-86, for instance, the Caps finished with 107 points (a franchise record that still stands today) and won 50 games for the only time in franchise history, good enough for the fourth-best record in the league. However, they were bounced out of the playoffs in the second round by the New York Rangers.
The next season brought even more heartbreak, with a loss to the Islanders in the Patrick Division Semifinal. This series was capped off by the classic Easter Epic game, which ended at 1:56 am on Easter Sunday 1987. The Capitals had thoroughly dominated most of the game, outshooting the Islanders 75-52, but lost in overtime when goaltender Bob Mason was beaten on a Pat LaFontaine shot from the blue line. For the 1989 playoff push, Gartner and defenseman Larry Murphy were traded to the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for Ciccarelli and defenseman Bob Rouse, however the goaltending once again faltered and they were eliminated in the first round by the Philadelphia Flyers. The Capitals finally made the Wales Conference Finals in 1990, but went down in a four-game sweep at the hands of the first-place Boston

Lost chances
By the mid-1990s, the Stanley Cup seemed to elude the Capitals. Despite having rising stars in right-winger Peter Bondra, defenseman Sergei Gonchar, and center/left-wing Joe Juneau, the team's core players were mostly aging.
The Capitals were favourites during the 1993 playoff series with the New York Islanders but they were upset in six games. That series was most remembered when center Dale Hunter checked the Isles' Pierre Turgeon from behind in Game 6 after Turgeon scored the series-clinching goal. Turgeon fell awkwardly onto the ice and suffered a separated shoulder that caused him to miss the Isles' second round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hunter's post-goal check earned him a suspension for the first 21 games of the next season -- at the time the longest suspension for an on-ice incident in NHL history.

Eastern Conference champions
Then in 1998, Peter Bondra's 52 goals led the team, veterans Hunter, Juneau and Adam Oates returned to old form, and Olaf Kolzig had a solid .920 save percentage as the Caps got past the Boston Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and Buffalo Sabres (the latter on a dramatic overtime win in game six on a goal by Joe Juneau) en route to the team's first (and to date, only) Stanley Cup finals appearance. The Capitals won six overtime games, three in each of their series against the Bruins and Sabres. However, the team was no match for the defending champs, the Detroit Red Wings, who won in a four-game sweep.
That same season, Oates, Phil Housley, and Dale Hunter, all scored their 1,000th career point, the only time in NHL history that one team had 3 different players reach that same milestone in a single season.

Disappointments and rebuilding
In 1999, the Capitals missed the playoffs due to numerous injuries, one of the highest in the league that season. They went on to win back-to-back Southeast Division titles in 2000 and 2001, yet both years lost in the first round to the Pittsburgh Penguins. After the 2000-01 season, Adam Oates demanded a trade but management refused and stripped him of his team captaincy.
In the summer of 2001, the Capitals landing five-time Art Ross Trophy winner Jaromir Jagr, one of the best players in the NHL in the 1990s, by trading three young prospects to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jagr was signed to the largest contract ever in NHL history - $77 million over 7 years at an average salary of $11 million per year (over $134,000 per game), with an option for an eighth year. However, Jagr did not live up to expectations, as the Capitals failed to defend their division title and missed the playoffs in 2002. The 2001-2002 season marked the highest attendance for the Capitals organization, drawing in 710,990 fans and 17,341 per game .
In the summer of 2002, the Caps made even more roster changes, including the signing the highly regarded Robert Lang as a free agent, a linemate of Jagr's from Pittsburgh. The Capitals were back in the playoffs 2003, but disappointed fans again by losing in six games to the Tampa Bay Lightning after starting off with a two-game lead in the best-of-seven first-round series. The series is well-remembered for the three-overtime Game 6 at the then-MCI Center, the longest game in the building's history, which was eventually decided by a power play goal as a result of Jason Doig skating on the ice too early and warranting a too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty.
In the 2003-2004 season, the Caps unloaded a lot of their high-priced talent — not just a cost-cutting spree, but also an acknowledgment that their attempt to build a contender with high-priced veteran talent had failed. Jagr had failed to finish among the league's top scorers or make the postseason All-Star Team during his time with the Capitals. They tried to trade Jagr, but as only one year was left on the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement before it expired, few teams were willing to risk $11 million on an underperforming player. In 2004, Jagr was finally sent to the New York Rangers for Anson Carter and an agreement that Washington would pay approximately four million dollars per year of Jagr's salary, with Jagr himself agreeing to defer (with interest) $1 million per year for the remainder of his contract to allow the trade to go ahead. This was quickly followed by Bondra going to the Ottawa Senators. Not long after, Robert Lang was sent to Detroit and Gonchar to the Bruins. The Robert Lang trade marked the first time in the history of the National Hockey League that the league's leading scorer was traded in the middle of the season. The Capitals ended the year 23-46-10-6, tied for the second worst record, along with the Chicago Blackhawks.
In the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, the Capitals won the Draft Lottery, and selected Alexander Ovechkin first overall. During the NHL labor dispute of 2004-05, which cost the NHL its entire season, Ovechkin stayed in Russia, playing for Moscow Dynamo. Several other Capitals played part or all of the lost season in Europe, including Olaf Kolzig, Brendan Witt, and Jeff Halpern. The Capitals' 2005 off-season consisted of making D.C.-area native Halpern the team's captain, signing Andrew Cassels, Ben Clymer, Mathieu Biron and Jamie Heward, and acquiring Chris Clark and Jeff Friesen via trade.

Post-lockout
The Capitals finished the 2005-2006 NHL season in the cellar of the Southeastern Division again, with a 29-41-12 campaign, having 12 more points than the 2003-04 Season, good for 27th out of the 30 NHL teams. Yet the team played close in every game, playing in 42 one-goal games, although losing 2/3 of those games. Ovechkin's rookie season exceeded the hype, as he led all 2005-06 NHL rookies in goals, points, power-play goals and shots. He finished third overall in the NHL in scoring and tied for third in goals; and his 425 shots not only led the league, but also set an NHL rookie record and was the fourth-highest total in NHL history. Ovechkin's rookie point total was the second-best in Washington Capitals history, and his goal total was tied for third in franchise history. Ovechkin won the Calder Memorial Trophy, beating out Pittsburgh center Sidney Crosby and Calgary Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Many longtime Capitals had career years, with Dainius Zubrus netting 57 points, Halpern having a career-best 33 assists, Matt Pettinger putting in a career-best 20-goal, 38-point effort and seven others on the relatively young team topping 20 points for the first time. Two notable landmarks were also hit by Capitals, as the team's longest tenured Capital, Olaf Kolzig, won his 250th game in goal and Andrew Cassels became the 204th player to play 1,000 games, although he did not finish out his season with the team. A notable first was that Washington area native Jeff Halpern was named captain of the hometown Capitals. At the 2006 trade deadline, March 8, Witt was traded to Nashville.

2006-2007 season
In the 2006 offseason, Halpern left the Capitals to join the Dallas Stars; Chris Clark became the Capitals' new captain. Richard Zednik returned to the Capitals in 2006-07 after a disappointing 16-goal, 14-assist season in 2005-06 with Montreal, but was later dealt at the trade deadline to the New York Islanders after a disappointing and injury plagued season; the Caps also signed former Philadelphia Flyers enforcer Donald Brashear.
Yet the Capitals finished with the same point total (70) in 2006-2007 as they did the year before, although they won one less game. Alexander Ovechkin was the Capitals' lone representative in the All-Star game. The year was also notable for Alexander Semin's breakout, who notched 38 goals in only his 2nd NHL season.

2007 offseason
The Capitals unveiled new uniforms on June 22, 2007 which coincided with the NHL Entry Draft and the new league-wide adaptation of the Reebok-designed uniform system for 2007-08. The change marks a return to the red, white, and blue color scheme originally used from 1974 to 1995. The new primary logo is reminiscent of the original Capitals' logo, complete with a hockey stick formed by the letter "t"; it also includes a new feature the original logo didn't have: 3 stars representing Maryland, Virginia, and DC.
The Capitals finally signed Swedish phenom Nicklas Backstrom, the fourth overall pick in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, to three-year entry-level contract. They also recently signed 19 year old Simeon Varlamov to a three-year entry-level contract. They then went on to fill needs at defense, by signing puck moving defenseman Tom Poti, right wing, by signing Viktor Kozlov, and center, by signing playmaker Michael Nylander. Because of these signings there is much more hope for the 07-08 season and players are looking towards playoffs; however, after starting the season 6-14-1, the Capitals fired coach Glen Hanlon and replaced him with Bruce Boudreau. On January 10, 2008, the Capitals signed Ovechkin to a league-record $124 million contract extension; at 13 years, it also had the second-longest term of any contract in the NHL, after New York Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro's 15-year contract.

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