This year in baseball: 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005

Calendar

• May 23: Baseball Hall of Fame Game - Boston Red Sox vs. Detroit Tigers, at Cooperstown, N.Y.
• July 12: All-Star Game, at Comerica Park, Detroit
• July 31: Hall of Fame inductions, Cooperstown, N.Y.
• October 4: Division Series begin
• October 11: League Championship Series begin
• October 22: World Series begins

Events

January-March

• January 3 - Wade Boggs, a five-time batting champion, and Ryne Sandberg, a nine-time Gold Glove winner at second base, were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Boggs received 474 votes, or 91.9 percent of the 516 ballots cast. Sandberg received 393 votes, six more that the needed number. Relief pitchers Bruce Sutter (66.7 percent) and Rich "Goose" Gossage (55.2) and outfielders Jim Rice (59.5) and Andre Dawson (52.3) were the only other players to be named on at least half of the ballots cast. Boggs and Sandberg will be enshrined during a ceremony July 31 at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

• January 11 - The Arizona Diamondbacks traded five-time Cy Young winner Randy Johnson to the New York Yankees in a three-team deal that includes the Los Angeles Dodgers. Shawn Green, Javier Vazquez and Dioner Navarro also moved in the transaction. Arizona received Vazquez, Navarro and Brad Halsey from the Yankees, and later sent Navarro and three minor leagues prospects to Los Angeles for Green.

• January 18 - The New York Mets signed Carlos Beltrán to play center field for the next seven years. The team will be paying him for the next 14. Beltran's deal contains $22 million in deferred salary that will be paid out in the seven years after the contract expires. He will be 41 by the time he receives all the money, which will be paid each July 1 starting in 2012 in yearly installments of $3,142,857 plus interest that will accrue at the rate of 1.7175 percent annually.

• January 21 - Roger Clemens and the Houston Astros agreed to an $18 million, one-year contract. Clemens, a seven-time Cy Young Award winner, agreed a deal that makes him the highest-paid pitcher for the fifth time, following deals with the Boston Red Sox in 1989 ($2.5 million) and 1991 ($5.38 million); with the Toronto Blue Jays before the 1997 season, and with the New York Yankees in 2000 ($15.45 million). The two contracts with the Red Sox and the one with the Yankees made him the sport's highest-paid player overall. Clemens also got the highest, one-year contract in baseball history, topping Greg Maddux's $14.75 million deal with the Atlanta Braves in 2003 and Pedro Martínez's $17.5 million in 2004, and tied Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds for the fourth-highest average salary in the major leagues, trailing only Alex Rodriguez ($25.2 million), Manny Ramirez ($20 million) and Derek Jeter ($18.9 million).

• January 26 - Carlos Delgado agreed with the Florida Marlins to a $52 million, four-year contract, which includes an option year making it potentially worth $64 million over five seasons. With the addition of the free agent first baseman, Florida becomes perhaps the team to beat in the NL East. The Marlins won the World Series in 1997 and 2003 but still are seeking their first division title. Delgado hit at least 30 home runs each of the past eight seasons, all with the Toronto Blue Jays. He joins a lineup that include All-Stars Miguel Cabrera, Mike Lowell, Paul Lo Duca and Alex González.

• January 31 - The Seattle Mariners signed relief pitcher Jeff Nelson to a minor league contract, his third stint with the club. The reliever previously pitched with the Mariners from 1992-1995 and again from 2001-2003. He is Seattle's all-time record holder for most games pitched with 383 and has a 23-20 record with the Mariners.

• February 2 - The trade that sent Sammy Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles from the Chicago Cubs was finalized after commissioner Bud Selig approved the deal and the slugger passed his physical. Chicago received second baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. and two minor leaguers, then signed Jeromy Burnitz as a free agent to replace Sosa in right field.

• February 6 - At Mazatlan, Mexico, Francisco Campos turned in another brilliant outing and Mexican champion Águilas de Mazatlán (Mazatlan Eagles) held on in the final game, edging the Dominican Republic 4-3 to win the 56th Caribbean World Series. The title is just Mexico’s fifth since joining the competition in 1970, the second in the last four years, but its first since hosting the series. Campos allowed just three hits --two infield hits and a bunt single-- and a run over his first eight innings of work, striking out 11. Previouly, Campos handcuffed the Venezuelan champion Tigres de Aragua (Aragua Tigers) 4-0 in the series opener. He allowed just three hits over eight innings and struck out 10. Campos was voted the Series MVP.

• February 8 - Magglio Ordóñez, the last remaining premier free agent of the offseason, and the Detroit Tigers agreed to a $75 million, five-year contract, a deal with two option years that could raise the total to $105 million over seven seasons. The Tigers structured a contract for Ordóñez that gives the team some protection if he is hampered by injuries. He gets a $6 million signing bonus and a $6 million salary this year. His contract calls for a $15 million salary in 2006, $12 million in 2007, $15 million in 2008 and $18 million in 2009. Detroit has a $15 million option for 2010 with a $3 million buyout, and a $15 million option for 2011 with no buyout. In addition, Ordóñez's salary in each of the option years would become guaranteed if he has 135 starts or 540 plate appearances in the previous season, or 270 starts or 1,080 plate appearances in the previous two seasons. If his 2010 salary becomes guaranteed under this provision, it would be at $18 million. The 2011 salary would be $15 million.

• February 16 - Baseball union signed an agreement calling for international drug-testing rules during a 16-team World Cup tournament in the 2006 spring training. Each team will select a provisional roster of 60 players 45 days before the start of the tournament, and players will be covered by the drug-testing rules until the end of the competition. The deal, signed by the union, the commissioner’s office and the International Baseball Federation, states that IBAF rules will cover the frequency of testing before and during the tournament, the list of prohibited substances, the procedures for taking samples and the laboratories used. More substances are banned by the IBAF than in major league baseball.

• March 2:
  • Thirty-two years after his death, Jackie Robinson received the Congressional Gold Medal in the Capitol Rotunda, the highest honor Congress can bestow. The medal was accepted by Rachel Robinson, his widow. Baseball was represented in a way by a former Texas Rangers executive, George W. Bush. Robinson joined Roberto Clemente, Joe Louis and Jesse Owens as the only athletes among about 300 Gold Medal recipients. Following the ceremony, the Boston Red Sox were honored at the White House, for winning the 2004 World Series.
  • In the Washington Nationals first game since moving from Montreal, pitcher Tony Armas, Jr. tossed two hitless innings and José Guillén hit a two-run home run as the Nationals posted a 5-3 triumph over the Mets in the Grapefruit League opener for both teams. The Expos played their first regular-season game against the Mets in 1969 and their last game against the Mets on October 3, 2004. In the first regular-season game between these franchises, Tom Seaver started for the Mets at Shea Stadium and Coco Laboy powered the Expos to an 11-10 victory. In their last meeting, Tom Glavine started for the Mets at Shea and Todd Zeile homered to deal the Expos an 8-1 defeat. In the spring training opener at Space Coast Stadium, Glavine started again for the Mets against the Nationals.

• March 29 - First baseman Andrés Galarraga announced his retirement. A five-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove in a 19-year career, Galarraga was a .288 hitter with 399 home runs and 1425 RBI in 2,257 games.

April

• April 3 - In his first outing for the New York Yankees, Randy Johnson allowed a run and five hits in six innings as the Yankees opened the 2005 MLB season with a 9-2 triumph over the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox.

• April 4 - Opening Day Highlights:
  • Baltimore Orioles' Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro became the first pair of teammates to have at least 500 career home runs apiece. Sosa went into the season with 574 career HR and Palmeiro 551. Their combined total of 1,125 is the most-ever by teammates. In 1934, Hall of Famers Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth finished the season with the Yankees with a combined 1,056 home runs. The Orioles became the first team in major league history to have had five members of the 500-home run club to play for them at some point in their career. Sosa and Palmeiro join Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray and Reggie Jackson on that list.
  • Detroit Tigers DH Dmitri Young hit three home runs to lead his team to an 11-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals. In the process, Young became the third player in major league history to hit three homers on Opening Day, joining George Bell (Blue Jays, 1988) and Tuffy Rhodes (Cubs, 1994). Overall, Young hit 4-for-4 with four runs scored and five RBI.
  • Mark Buehrle yielded two hits in eight shutout innings and Shingo Takatsu worked a perfect ninth inning as the Chicago White Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians 1-0 in a game that took only an hour and 51 minutes to complete. Indians' pitcher Jake Westbrook allowed only one run and four hits in going the distance, but that wasn't good enough to win. The game's only run came in the seventh inning on an error by Cleveland shortstop Jhonny Peralta .
  • The Cincinnati Reds rallied from a two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat the New York Mets 7-6, after a two-run, game-tying home run from Adam Dunn (his second of the game) and a solo blast to win it by Joe Randa. The Mets wasted the effort of signed free agents pitcher Pedro Martínez (6 innings, 12 strikeouts) and the hitting of outfielder Carlos Beltrán (3-for-5 with a homer and 3 RBI) to take a 6-4 lead after seven innings. But Mets closer Braden Looper couldn't close the door in the ninth, giving up the back-to-back homers and taking the loss. In the game, Reds outfielder Ken Griffey, Jr. appeared second in the lineup. That's a atypical change for the left-handed hitter, who has batted third most of his career. Just like 2003 season, Mets infielder Kazuo Matsui homered in his first at bat of the year. Matsui, who came to the Mets last year from Japan, had a historic debut when he hit the first pitch he ever saw in the majors over the fence.
  • Center fielder Brad Wilkerson had the honor of being the first batter for the Washington Nationals and he promptly responded with the first hit in the new franchise history. Nevertheless, Kenny Lofton hit a three-run homer and Jon Lieber pitched 5 2/3 effective innings, leading the home team Phillies to an 8-4 victory over the new Nationals in Philadelphia.

• April 6 - Brad Wilkerson of the Washington Nationals hit for the cycle in the Nationals' first win since moving to Washington D.C., 7-3 against the Philadelphia Phillies. He became the twentieth player to hit for the cycle twice. One day after, Wilkerson continued his torrid hitting going 4-for-5, as the Nationals completed its first series by winning two of three against the Phillies.

• April 14 - On a historic night at RFK Stadium, Liván Hernández and Vinny Castilla were up to the task. Hernández carried a one-hitter into the ninth inning and Castilla fell a single shy of the cycle as the Washington Nationals posted a 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first major league game in Washington D.C. in more than 33 years. After beginning their first season in the nation's capital with a nine-game road trip, the Nationals opened the first game at RFK Stadium since the departure of the Washington Senators with former pitcher Joe Grzenda handing a ball to president George W. Bush, who threw the ceremonial first pitch. Grzenda tossed the final pitch in Senators history against the New York Yankees on September 30, 1971.

• April 15 - Sammy Sosa hit his first home run at Camden Yards, giving him homers in 42 different ballparks. Currently seventh on the all-time list with 576 home runs, Sosa and Miguel Tejada had three RBI apiece as the Orioles defeated the Yankees 10-1.

• April 16 - Manny Ramírez knocked in all six Sox runs with a grand slam and a two-run shot, and Matt Clement won in his Fenway Park debut to lead the Boston Red Sox over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. It was Ramirez's 18th career grand slam, most among active players. The homer tied him for third on the all-time grand slam list with Willie McCovey and Robin Ventura, behind only Eddie Murray (19) and Lou Gehrig (23). It was Ramirez's 40th career multi-homer game (38 two-homer games, two three-homer games).

Deaths

January-March

• January 10 - Tommy Fine, 90, who played for the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Browns and the only pitcher ever to hurl a no-hitter in Caribbean World Series history.
• January 22 - César Gutiérrez, 61, former San Francisco Giants and Detroit Tigers shortstop, and just one of three players in Major League Baseball history with a 7-for-7 game.
• February 4 - Luis Sánchez, 51, former Angels closer.
• February 13 - Nelson Briles, 61, pitcher who helped Pittsburgh and St. Louis to World Series titles.
• March 2 - Rick Mahler, 51, pitcher who won 96 games during a 13-year major league career spent mostly with the Atlanta Braves.
• March 6 - Chuck Thompson, 83, former baseball broadcaster
• March 13:
  • Danny Gardella, 85, the first major league player who challenged baseball's reserve clause.
  • Frank House, 75, a MLB catcher who played with the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Athletics and Cincinnati Reds.
• March 16 - Dick Radatz, 67, Red Sox relief pitcher in the 1960's
• March 26 - Marius Russo, 90, pitcher who helped the Yankees win the World Series in 1941 and 1943
• March 27 - Bob Casey, 79, the Minnesota Twins' PA announcer for the first 44 years of their history in Minnesota.

April

• April 7: Bob Kennedy 84, former MLB player and manager, who hit the first grand slam in Baltimore Orioles history and was the Oakland Athletics first manager.
• April 13 - Don Blasingame, 73, a MLB All-Star, who also managed two of Japan's professional baseball teams

See also

• Baseball
• Major League Baseball
• Minor league baseball
• 2005 in sports