A look at what's happening around the majors today:
SWINGIN' FOR SEVEN
Cardinals star Paul Goldschmidt has homered in a career-best six straight games, tying the team record shared by...
CLEVELAND (AP) — Jim Thome holds the record for the longest home run in Progressive Field history, a 511-foot shot against Kansas City in 1999. Two years earlier, the Hall of Fame slugger recorded...
CLEVELAND (AP) — Sandy Alomar Jr. smiles and slowly shakes his head while listening to the rundown of names on the American League's 1997 All-Star roster.
CHICAGO (AP) — Rookie slugger Pete Alonso said he began the season not thinking about hitting homers or setting milestones.
That's becoming more difficult with every prodigious...
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Marcell Ozuna's right shoulder is healthy and he can focus on hitting, not adjusting to a new team
"I'm just working harder every day, especially if healthy," Ozuna said...
CINCINNATI (AP) — Christian Yelich failed to homer for the first time this season, ending his record-tying streak, but he doubled in the ninth and scored on Ryan Braun's double as the Milwaukee...
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers extended his season-opening home run streak to four games, tying the major league record for homers in consecutive games to start a...
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Christian Yelich of the Milwaukee Brewers has become the first player to win an MVP award and then hit a home run in the first three games of the next season.
JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — Paul Goldschmidt wanted to stay in St. Louis, just like Mark McGwire, Jim Edmonds and Matt Holliday.
Acquired in December from Arizona, the six-time All-Star first...
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Now that he is with the St. Louis Cardinals, Paul Goldschmidt is not thinking beyond the 2019 season.
The six-time All-Star was acquired from Arizona this week and will earn $14.5 million in the final season of a seven-year deal that will pay $46 million, including a $1 million assignment bonus for the trade. If he doesn't sign a new contract, he would be among the top free agents next offseason.
NEW YORK (AP) — Didi Gregorius homered twice for the second time this season, Gary Sanchez had three hits and three RBIs, and the New York Yankees romped to a 12-1 victory over Derek Jeter's Miami Marlins on Monday night.
The only Yankees bopper who didn't join the hit parade was Giancarlo Stanton, who went hitless and got booed again by the hometown fans in his first game against his former team.
DENVER (AP) — Colorado Rockies standout Nolan Arenado charged the mound after a fastball from San Diego starter Luis Perdomo sailed behind him, setting off a wild brawl that resulted in five ejections Wednesday during a testy series at Coors Field.
Today in History for March 17th
NEW YORK (AP) — In a season of record-high home runs and strikeouts along with record-low complete games, there were some constants in Major League Baseball: Houston's Jose Altuve and a Colorado Rockies player won batting titles.
There were 6,105 home runs hit in the season that ended Sunday, topping the 5,963 in 2000 at the height of the Steroids Era.
MIAMI (AP) — Barry Bonds. Sammy Sosa. Mark McGwire. Roger Maris. Babe Ruth.
And now Giancarlo Stanton.
The Miami slugger homered twice to become the sixth player to reach 59 in a season, and the Marlins opened the last series of Jeffrey Loria's tenure as owner by beating the Atlanta Braves 7-1 on Thursday night.
NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge circled the bases for the 50th time this season , breaking Mark McGwire's major league record for home runs by a rookie, and returned to the Yankees dugout to exchange handshakes, hugs and high-fives with excited teammates.
And then, he walked up the steps and back onto the field.
NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge has broken Mark McGwire's major league record for home runs by a rookie, going deep twice on Monday to raise his total to 50.
The Yankees slugger hit a two-run drive to right-center off Kansas City's Jakob Junis in the third inning to tie the mark. He added a solo shot over the visitors' bullpen in left in the seventh inning against Trevor Cahill.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Aaron Judge reacted with a sense of awe about the company of Yankees legends the young slugger joined with his 40-homer season.
"Pretty surreal. Never as a kid did I think that I would be in the same sentence with those guys," Judge said. "It's quite an honor. It's pretty humbling."
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has become the second major league rookie to hit 40 homers.
With his solo shot in the fourth inning Sunday against the Texas Rangers, the 25-year-old joined Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle as the only Yankees to hit 40 homers at age 25 or younger.
That was Judge's 40th homer, and he added his 41st with another solo shot in the sixth, a drive that would have traveled 463 feet unimpeded, according to MLB Statcast.
ATLANTA (AP) — We've been through this before.
Everyone swinging for the fences.
Balls flying out of the park.
Fans presumably gushing over the tape-measure spectacle (because, you know, chicks dig the long ball).
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Kevin Quackenbush's full beard needed a little attention considering he had gone since spring training in February without a trim.
Mark McGwire decided on the fly to get his hair cut upon arriving to work last week at AT&T Park, something unheard of during his old slugging days.
NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge equaled Joe DiMaggio's New York Yankees record for home runs by a rookie — before the All-Star break.
Judge hit a two-run drive into the Yankees' bullpen in right-center in the fourth inning of Wednesday's 7-6 loss to Toronto, his major league-leading 29th home run of the season.
DiMaggio set the Yankees rookie mark in 1936. Judge reached it in New York's 83rd game of the season.
Aaron Judge revealed that he received an invitation to the All-Star Home Run Derby, then promptly went out and hit another home run. Cody Bellinger surely will get an invite, too, after becoming the first rookie to hit 10 home runs in 10 games.
Two rookie sluggers on opposite coasts doing amazing things. Two new faces of Major League Baseball.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Chad Pinder had never hit a ball that hard or that far — and only slugger Mark McGwire had done so previously for the Oakland Athletics.
Pinder hit a monster home run tracked at 460 feet and Khris Davis and Mark Canha also connected in the fifth inning, and the Oakland Athletics cleared the fences four times in all to beat the Boston Red Sox 8-3 on Saturday for their third straight win.
Today in History for March 17th
A look at what's happening today at the baseball winter meetings in Oxon Hill, Maryland:
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A BUDDING QUESTION
Former Commissioner Bud Selig will be on site in suburban Washington, a day after he was voted into the Hall of Fame. His election has already raised a question with fans: If the person who oversaw the game during the Steroids Era is going to Cooperstown, should the players who took performance-enhancing drugs also be welcome?
NEW YORK (AP) — Mark McGwire is getting another swing at the Hall of Fame.
The former slugger who admitted using steroids joins Bud Selig, George Steinbrenner and seven others on the Today's Game Era ballot to be considered for election to Cooperstown in December.
NEW YORK (AP) — With each day, with every swing, this run by Gary Sanchez becomes even more remarkable.
The New York Yankees rookie hit a home run for the third straight game Saturday, highlighting a 13-5 rout over the Baltimore Orioles.
Sanchez hit a drive that bounced off the top of the right-center field wall and over. He reached 11 career home runs faster than anyone in major league history — 23 games, including two hitless games last year.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Albert Pujols already had a text message waiting for him postgame from Mark McGwire after tying his former St. Louis Cardinals teammate for 10th on the career homer list.
But for Pujols, the milestone was spoiled by the outcome of the game.
Pujols hit his 583rd career homer, but Luis Cessa pitched six scoreless innings to win his first major league start and help the New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-1 on Saturday night.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Luis Cessa pitched six scoreless innings to win his first major league start and help the New York Yankees beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-1 on Saturday night.
Brian McCann went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run, Starlin Castro went 2 for 4 with two runs and Aaron Judge drove in two. Gary Sanchez hit his fifth home run in six games in the first inning, a two-out solo homer to left field.
Baseball is returning to the Olympics in 2020. The question now is who will be playing.
With the Summer Games falling in the middle of the major league season, the sport has never been able to produce the kind of best-against-best spectacle that Olympic hockey and basketball have. But even if that remains the case, there will undoubtedly be some big names taking the field at the Tokyo Games.
It just might take a few years before baseball fans really know...