Spring has arrived, along with its traditional March Madness for college basketball, looking ahead to Easter and, of course, opening day of Major League Baseball.
In true ‘anything is possible’ fashion, every team has aspirations of making it to the World Series and the start of the 2025 season gives each of the 30 MLB squads an equal opportunity. Well, probably not really, since some payrolls are more astronomical than others and some of the biggest money teams pay one player more than a smaller market team pays its entire roster. But it’s still an exciting day when “hope springs eternal.”
A quick Internet search shows that the “Cincinnati Red Stockings” are considered the first professional team, starting in 1869. Through the years, many teams have moved from city to city, changed or made variations on their names, and today there is just one team in Canada – the Toronto Blue Jays – while 29 are in the United States.
Some states don’t even have a team while California has five of them to cheer on (or root against, depending on your preference).
This season there’s quite a bit of excitement for the San Francisco Giants, which makes me happy, since they are the team that I cheer for. Personally, I think it is great to see retired three-time World Series champion (2010, 2012, 2014) catcher Buster Posey as the President of Baseball Operations in the City by the Bay.
California also has the Los Angeles Dodgers; yes, the defending World Series champion Dodgers, and the San Diego Padres in the National League along with the Giants while the American League teams are the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) and the Athletics (of Sacramento for now and of Las Vegas but who knows when).
Seven other states have two teams apiece: New York, with the Yankees (featuring Linden High School alum Aaron Judge) and the Mets; Pennsylvania, with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies; Illinois with both the Chicago White Sox and the Chicago Cubs; Florida with the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays. Also, Missouri has two, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals; two in Ohio, the Cleveland Guardians and the Cincinnati Reds; and two more in Texas, both the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers.
I’ve been lucky enough to see games on both sides of the country and in a few different stadiums. That has included cheering on the Mets when they won the World Series in 1986 (the radio station I worked at then in upstate New York was an affiliate, broadcasting the games) and following the Giants faithfully as they went on their three titles in five seasons run starting in 2010.
I remember old teams like the Seattle Pilots and the Montreal Expos; the Pilots spent just one season in Seattle, Washington in 1969 before moving to Milwaukee and becoming the Brewers. Montreal had several years in the National League before moving to Washington, D.C. as the Nationals.
The Giants, of course, didn’t start out on the West Coast but since I was born and raised in New York, it’s fine with me that they started in the Empire State, originally as the Gothams before becoming the New York Giants. They also moved to California before I was born, so for my entire lifetime, the Giants have been a Golden State staple.
And all of this is probably way too much information for anyone who’s not really a baseball fan but once I started going down the rabbit hole, I couldn’t stop myself.
One last thought: the start of the season always brings to mind the packs of baseball cards my brother and I would buy at the local ‘five and dime’ store downtown when we were growing up.
There was always the hope you would get a card of your favorite player or an All-Star, plus that piece of gum tucked inside made the whole pack smell good and was the best for blowing Major League-sized bubbles.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
