Major League Baseball

Tag Archive: Major League Baseball

Baseball 100–Comics artist Mark Chiarello launches new look at the best of the best

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July 31, 2020

Comics artist and illustrator Mark Chiarello (Batman, Hellboy, Star Wars) and non-fiction writer (National Geographic, The History Channel), former Marvel Comics senior editor, colorist and writer, and consultant for Major League Baseball Nel Yomtov have teamed up to join the ultimate baseball debate: Who are the greatest 100 players in hardball history? Who holds the number one spot? Is it Babe Ruth? Willie Mays? Jackie Robinson? Shoeless Joe Jackson? Baseball 100: A Celebration of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time is a new book offered as part of a crowdfunding campaign that began yesterday. And it is already halfway funded.

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Major League Baseball returns this week–Free MLB.tv offer begins today

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July 21, 2020

Go back in time and ask anyone and nobody would believe you. Opening day for Major League Baseball 2020 is this Thursday, July 23, and no fans are invited. If you could only go back in time and make a few wagers about the impossible things that happened this year, you’d be rolling in dough. If you’re like me, you’ve been getting your baseball fix via ESPN’s coverage of social-distance baseball with the Korean Baseball Organization aka KBO professional games. An abundance of outfield hitting and less homeruns make the game more exciting than you might think. I’ve gotten to love cheering on the Doosan Bears, which have had a great season, despite quiet bleachers. Will the salary season pay cut be reflected in the excitement on the field in the U.S.? Maybe it’s just time to swap out the commentators, but until that happens we have 60 games for your favorite teams to engage in thanks to the pandemic (or thanks to the federal government failure to adequately address the virus, to be more accurate). That also means subscribers to T-Mobile have the opportunity to get free MLB.tv and watch this season from home. Plus subscribers to another phone provider can get MLB.tv this year for the first time.

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Tags: 2020 Major League Baseball, coronavirus delays, Doosan Bears, Dr Anthony Fauci, ESPN, Korean Baseball Organization, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball opening day 2020, MLB.tv, MLB.tv T-Mobile offer, shelter at home 2020, T-Mobile Tuesdays

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New York Toy Fair 2020–Super7 showcases hundreds of action figures, new licensed properties

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February 25, 2020

Super7, the toy company known for its wide variety of action figure licenses and its retro Kenner style carded, 3.75-inch action figures, greatly surpassed its delivery at last year’s Toy Fair (shown here and here) by bring hundreds of prototype figures, card back mock-ups, and final versions to New York Toy Fair 2020 this past weekend. More than the typical sneak peek, Super7 previewed a huge variety of action figure cards for its ReAction line, with pre-ordering forecasted for later this year and some items available now here at Amazon.

New action figure licenses at the show include Army of Darkness, An American Werewolf in London, Aliens, Andre the Giant, Back to the Future II, Knight Rider, The Munsters, Archie, Red Dawn, Beavis and Butt-Head, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Son of Frankenstein, Spongebob Squarepants, Halloween II, and a new line of NBA All Stars. Bands with new figures seen for the first time in the Super7 line include RUN DMC, Notorious B.I.G., and Ol’ Dirty Bastard.

Plus past figure lines will see more additions this year. Those include Universal Studios Monsters, Peanuts, several Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Nightmare Before Christmas, lots of Transformers, Toxic Crusader, Thundercats, Ghost, Misfits, Mars Attacks, Alien, Chucky, and Robocop, and Super7 displayed several final figures this weekend that were previewed last year here at borg, including They Live, Teen Wolf, Major League Baseball All Stars, MLB Mascots, and characters from the Rocky movie series.

Take a look at close-up views of just a sampling of the action figures on display at this year’s event:

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Tags: Agnostic Front, Aliens, Aliens ReAction figures Wave, An American Werewolf in London, Andre the Giant, Anthrax, Archie, Archie action figures, Army of Darkness, Back to the Future II, Baseball All-Stars ReAction figures, Beavis and Butt-head, Bill Paxton, Bill Paxton action figure, Chucky, Classic All-Stars ReAction figures, Darryl McDaniels, Ellen Ripley, Ghost, Halloween II, Iron Maiden, Jenette Goldstein, Jonesy, Kenner style retro action figures, King Diamond, Knight Rider, Lance Henriksen, Laurie Strode, Madison Bumgarner, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball action figures, Mars Attacks, Megadeth, Misfits, MLB Mascots figures, Motorhead, NBA action figures, NBA All Stars, NBA All Stars action figures, New York Toy Fair, New York Toy Fair 2019, New York Toy Fair 2020, New York Toy Fair 2020 previews, New York Toy Fair preview, Newt, Notorious B.I.G., ol’ Dirty Bastard, Peanuts, Private Hicks action figure, Private Vasquez action figure, Rancid, Red Dawn, Robocop, Rocky IV action figures, Rocky IV ReAction figures, Run DMC, Slayer, Son of Frankenstein, SpongeBob SquarePants, Super 7, Super 7 ReAction figures, Super7, Super7 2019 ReAction, Super7 ReAction figures, Teen Wolf, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Munsters, The Nightmare Before Christmas, ThunderCats, Toxic Crusader, Transformers, Transformers ReAction figures Wave, Universal monsters, Venom

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The Immaculate Inning–Get ready for opening day of baseball season with stories of the best of the best

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February 20, 2020

Review by C.J. Bunce

Joe Cox’s new book, The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays, 40/40 Seasons, and the Stories Behind Baseball’s Rarest Feats, is a fun new sampling of the biggest, rare feats in baseball, as well as some of the strangest and more obscure baseball stats. If there was ever a game full of trivia, it’s baseball. After 150 year of organized gameplay, it’s no wonder. As referenced in The Immaculate Inning, in 2003, USA Today ran a study of what was the hardest thing to do in sports. The answer–hitting a baseball. So for those pros who have done it in astronomical numbers (and sometimes unusual ways), you’re really talking about 150 years of the best athletes around. Two grand slams in a single game? It’s a big deal–it’s happened 13 times, but how about two grand slams in a single inning? That was the case with Cardinals third basement Fernando Tatis in a 1999 game against the Dodgers. Cox’s book, available in a hardcover now here at Amazon, is being released in paperback next month in time for the new season (opening day is March 28!) available for pre-order now here.

A pitcher striking out 20 batters in a single game (done only six times), completing an unassisted triple play, two baseball versions of the horse racing Triple Crown–one at bat, one on the mound, and records for hitting streaks, RBIs, hitting a homer in your first major league at-bat, stealing 100 bases in a season, hitting .400, striking out 300 batters in a season, pitching 50 consecutive scoreless innings–these are the Guinness Book-level feats of baseball that many a player has dreamed about that fill the pages of The Immaculate Inning (the title is the name for a trio of consecutive strikeouts in a single inning with no balls or balls otherwise getting into play).

Other inclusions are more bizarre and the beasts of rules that don’t follow logic more than anything else. Like the four-strike inning, which has happened 87 times, most notably by Cubs pitcher Orval Overall in the 1908 World Series (Angels pitcher Chuck Finlay did it three times before anyone else had done it once). All of the stats in this book, in fact, are exactly the kinds of “freaky things” Finlay predicted one day to “end up in one of those trivia machines in some bar somewhere.” Or in Joe Cox’s book.

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Tags: 2020 Major League Baseball, baseball, baseball stats, Chuck Finlay, Joe Cox, Lyons Press, Major League Baseball, Orval Overall, The Immaculate Inning, The Immaculate Inning book review, The Immaculate Inning: Unassisted Triple Plays 40/40 Seasons and the Stories Behind Baseball's Rarest Feats

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RoboCop or… ? What’s the year’s best throwback action figure?

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August 18, 2019

“Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law.”

From Metropolis to Rocky IV, and The Worst to Universal Monsters, Robotech, Shogun, Slayer, Street Fighter II, Lucha, and more, one of the most eagerly awaited has been figures for RoboCop. Although we’ve seen RoboCop as action figures by the likes of toy companies like NECA and other companies over the past 30 years, the new line previewed at New York Toy Fair 2019 from Super7 also pulls in that throwback toy design fans of Super7’s ReAction action figure line flock toward. Super7 has now released its final figure and packaging designs for RoboCop, and they look great (except that sculpt for the toxic slug guy looks a lot like Super7’s sculpt for John Matuszak’s character Sloth from The Goonies).

But of any action figure previewed at New York Toy Fair in February and released this year, is there any single figure with more potential for collectors than Super 7’s Jackie Robinson? It has that trading card quality, with its cardboard backing and its vintage photograph design, plus it’s as American as apple pie as a toy/collectible, crossing over in the collector market between ReAction retro figure fans and baseball fans. And the entire Classic All-Stars line is superb. The other figures in the first group available measure up with Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Juan Marichal, Carlton Fisk, and Orlando Cepeda–plus the first of the mascots in the toy series, from the Philadelphia Phillies. You can pre-order any or all now at Entertainment Earth (links embedded in names above). And if Super7 doesn’t get to your favorite player, these will be easy to paint and modify for your team–just like you may have painted the classic electric football player pieces of years ago.

The other line of figures with potential is the classic Peanuts characters in the ReAction format, featuring two Charlie Browns, Linus, Lucy, Sally, Schroeder, and, of course, Snoopy. These are based on Charles Schulz′s original strips, and have a look that bridges the Funko Pop! and the classic Kenner retro figure sizing and packaging.

Here are images of these three lines and first phases of designs released:

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Tags: 2019 ReAction line, Charles Schulz, Classic All-Stars ReAction figures, John Matuszak, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball action figures, NECA action figures, Peanuts, Peanuts ReAction action figures, Robocop, RoboCop action figures, Super7, Super7 2019 ReAction, Super7 ReAction 2019 preview, Super7 ReAction 2019 wave, Super7 ReAction figures

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New York Toy Fair 2019–A Super7 photo worth a thousand words?

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February 16, 2019

If you’re a fan of action figures, Super7 delivered again with a sneak peek at a whole host of action figure cards for its ReAction line, expected to be fleshed out even more this weekend at New York Toy Fair 2019. How much fun is in this single photograph? We’re expecting Super7 will be revealing details this weekend, but until then, here’s what we can tell is coming soon from the toy company’s line of licensed, retro 3.75-inch action figures with the classic Kenner five points of articulation.

In the top row we’re seeing that Super7 is preparing three figures from John Carpenter’s They Live, a sci-fi classic fans of the ReAction line have been asking for for years. So there are cards for Roddy Piper’s John Nada (before the fight and after? without bubblegum?), and a male and female alien (nope, no Frank or Holly).

The eight Rocky IV figures include the previously announced Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago (both in boxing ring attire), Rocky and Drago (in final round outfits), Rocky (winter training), and Sico the Robot. Add to that a Carl Weathers Apollo Creed and a mystery figure (most likely blacked out because the likeness hasn’t been approved yet), maybe Brigitte Nielsen’s Ludmilla or Talia Shire’s Adrian? Burt Young’s Paulie? We’re hoping Super 7 may be looking back a movie to Rocky III and Mr. T’s Clubber Lang.

The Super7 Major League Baseball “Supersports” line-up has some great picks: In addition to Jackie Robinson, we see Roy Campanella, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Carl Yastrzemski, Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk, and two others under the Classic All-Stars logo, including Juan Marichal, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra, plus Madison Bumgarner and at least one other under the Baseball All-Stars logo. We’re guessing there are four Mascots in the initial wave, including the Giants’ Crazy Crab, Mr. Met, and the Phillie Phanatic.

The first Aliens line has all the right figures, a new Sigourney Weaver Ellen Ripley, plus Bill Paxton’s Private Hudson, Jenette Goldstein’s Private Vasquez, a seriously messed-up Lance Henriksen’s Bishop, and a new Xenomorph variant. Is there a Michael Biehn Corporal Hicks hiding off-camera? Maybe a Jonesy and Newt combo pack?

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Tags: Aliens, Aliens ReAction figures Wave, Apollo Creed action figure, Baseball All-Stars ReAction figures, Bill Paxton, Bill Paxton action figure, Breakin, Bumblebee, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Classic All-Stars ReAction figures, Clubber Lang action figure, Crazy Crab, Ellen Ripley, Ghost, Hordak, Jackie Robinson, Jenette Goldstein, Jonesy, Juan Marichal, Keith David, Lance Henriksen, Madison Bumgarner, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball action figures, Mantenna, Masters of the Universe, Masters of the Universe action figures, Meg Foster, MegaDeath, Megatron, Mickey Mantle, Modulok, Motorhead, Mr. Met, New York Toy Fair, New York Toy Fair 2019, New York Toy Fair 2019 previews, New York Toy Fair preview, Newt, Optimus Prime, Orlando Cepeda, Ozzy Osborne, Phillie Phanatic, Private Hicks action figure, Private Vasquez action figure, Rocky IV, Rocky IV action figures, Rocky IV ReAction figures, Roddy Piper, Roy Campanella, She-Ra, Sico the Robot, Slayer, Soundwave, Super 7, Super 7 2019 ReAction figures, Super 7 ReAction figures, Super7, Super7 2019 ReAction, Super7 ReAction figures, Ted Williams, Teen Wolf, They Live action figures, They Live ReAction wave, Transformers, Transformers ReAction figures Wave, Willie Mays, Yogi Berra

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New York Toy Fair 2019–Super7 to showcase Planet of the Apes, MLB, and Rocky IV

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February 14, 2019

Since the announcement of the retro-style Kenner action figures in 2013 from Funko and Super7 (now exclusively produced by Super7), we’ve been excited to see the next license to find its way into the 3.75-inch, five points of articulation format (we’ve discussed hundreds of the licensed figures in the ReAction line here at borg over the years). At each New York Toy Fair, Super7 has amassed everything from Alien to CW’s Arrow, and this coming weekend’s New York Toy Fair 2019 will be no different. The biggest moneymaker for Super7 will no doubt be a series of twelve Major League Baseball action figures, including the great #42 Jackie Robinson, plus three mascot figures, all expected to be released this year during the All-Star Game to commemorate the centennial of Robinson’s birth.

But there’s more in store for movie fans. As previewed here last year and first seen at New York Toy Fair 2017 via prototype sculpts, final versions of Wave Two of the Planet of the Apes action figure line will be on display (and see below to pre-order now each from Entertainment Earth, which just opened pre-orders for the series). You’ll need to decide for yourself which is the coolest of the bunch: Cornelius in the ancient American spacesuit as seen in the opening to Escape from the Planet of the Apes, or the 5.5-inch Lawgiver statue from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Other figures include General Aldo from Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the creepy Mendez XXVI from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and two Gorilla Soldiers, a Patrolman and Hunter to build your armies from Planet of the Apes. The carded figures feature original card art by Ed Repka, the Lawgiver comes in retro-style packaging and all of the figures come with accessories.

Attendees of New York Toy Fair at the Super7 booth will also find early looks at a new line of figures from Rocky IV. The series includes Rocky and Ivan Drago (both in ring attire), Rocky and Ivan Drago (in final round outfits), Rocky (winter training), and the figure you didn’t know you wanted: Sico the Robot.

Here are images of other figures in the new wave of Planet of the Apes:

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Back to the Future Week wrap-up–Cubs miss World Series destiny

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October 28, 2015

As predicted by Bob Gale in his script for Back to the Future II, it was the destiny of the Chicago Cubs to be playing–in fact sweeping–this year’s World Series. At least in the current alternate timeline we’re all living in, that just didn’t happen. If the Cubs hadn’t lost to the New York Mets they would have played Game 1 tonight at the home field of the American League champs instead of Wrigley Field because the American League won this year’s All Star Game. That meant Game 1 was played in Kauffman Stadium, and had the Cubs made it to the Series they would have faced off against the Royals last night in Kansas City.

In that game we got to see the second longest game in World Series history–14 innings, ultimately with the Royals taking the win, 5-4. The bright lights at the stadium in the wee hours of this Wednesday morning seemed to actually burn into the wet night’s sky. Fourteen innings and more than five hours of exciting gameplay. You can’t have a better World Series game than that–well, unless you’re a Cubs fan.

We did our part, yours truly and borg.com writer Elizabeth C. Bunce were bound and determined to see the Royals face off against the Cubs, because we’re sci-fi (and Royals) fans, and thanks to our friend Mike we watched Game 1 from dugout seats last night. Watching Lorenzo Cain steal second base when you’re sitting at first base… just can’t be beat. (And, hey, that stolen base means Taco Bell must give away free A.M. Crunchwraps on November 5, 2015, because they sort of lost a marketing bet in their Steal a Base, Steal a Breakfast campaign–see here for details).

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Tags: Back to the Future II, baseball, Chicago Cubs, Cubs World Series Sweep, Iowa Oaks, Kansas City Royals, Kauffman Stadium, Major League Baseball, New York Mets, Taco Bell Steal a Base Steal a Breakfast, World Series, World Series 2015

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Bobblehead collectors to get a new twist with exclusive MLB releases

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February 1, 2015

Major League Baseball has been producing bobbleheads since the 1960 World Series. Now the Kansas City Royals, the 2014 American League champs, are ushering in a new era for collectors of bobblehead toys. As reported on the team’s Twitter feed, instead of issuing typical MLB bobbleheads for fans who attend designated game days, they are changing up the bobblehead designs for the 2015 season. The new figures reflect the personality of the groundbreaking team, which made it to the seventh game of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants last Fall. Each of four figures will be released at games highlighting players Mike Moustakis, Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, and Yordano Ventura.

The best of these adapts Mike Moustakis’s memorable dive into the stadium from the American League Championships:

This awesomely hilarious pose will be released at the Saturday, June 20, 2015, home game against the Boston Red Sox, and will likely be the most highly sought after edition commanding a premium for collectors on the secondary market.

Also from the American League championship series is Lorenzo Cain in one of his spectacular dives. This will also likely be of the highest interest to collectors because of its vertical pose.

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Tags: bobbleheads, Kansas City Royals, Lorenzo Cain, Major League Baseball, Mike Moustakis, Salvador Perez, World Series 2014, Yordano Ventura

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Make your own All-Star team with new World Series figures

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October 25, 2014

Thanks to the magic of targeted Internet advertising, these Lego-ish figures streamed across the ad banner of borg.com this week and caught our attention. (You know how we like finding ways to talk about baseball here). Although they look at first blush like Lego knock-offs, these figures by Oyo Sports are fully licensed by Major League Baseball. Turns out, according to the Oyo Sports website, they seem to have been inspired by Legos, but attempt to go further by expanding the articulated movement of the standard building block figure.

And you gotta love how they matched up the goatees with the players.

You can buy individual players or team building sets, and not just for the current American League and National League champs. You can get current players and retired players like Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and Bob Feller, or even mascots for pro and college teams, and figures from other sports. You can buy them on Amazon here.

The playsets for the current World Series teams reminded us of the metal figures some Dungeons & Dragons players use to visualize their role-playing game. Maybe this could be a new twist on fantasy baseball?