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Cooperstown, New York will be THE place to be for baseball fans this weekend with a full class of players who will be inducted as members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame‘s Class of 2022. After a 2021 Class that was non-existent, the 2022 class is headlined by some amazing baseball players. Starting off with David “Big Papi” Ortiz who is always a fan favorite. Ortiz is a three-time World Series champion with the Boston Red Sox and was the face of the franchise for years. Ortiz has always been larger than life, and even during his last year playing baseball he was putting up numbers that were better than most players have ever seen. Ortiz even helped Boston get through major tragedy after the Boston Marathon bombing, giving an inspirational speech to the crowd that will give goosebumps to listers for years to come. He is true Hall-of-Famer in every sense of the word. No matter what team you root for it was hard not to like Big Papi.

Minnie Miñoso is also going to be inducted in this years Hall of Fame class. Minnie was a Cuban born player who famously played left field for the Chicago White Sox. He was the first ever black player on the Chicago White Sox and hit a homerun on the first pitch of his first at-bat and was a star ever since. He was elected by the Golden Era Committee and will be inducted posthumously this Sunday, a feat that most baseball fans feel is long overdue.

Another candidate that will be inducted is Minnesota Twins pitcher Jim Kaat. A 16-time gold glove winner and 1982 World Series champion, Kaat pitched for over 25 years and still contributes to the game today calling baseball games for a number of television networks. Kaat pitched over 4600 inning amassing 283 wins while keeping a career 3.45 ERA. A absolute stud on the mound with his arm and his glove having the 2nd most gold gloves won by a pitcher only trailing other Hall of Famer and Atlanta Braves superstar Greg Maddux.

The Minnesota Twins will also send Tony Oliva to Cooperstown this weekend as well. Another Cuban-born player, Oliva was a two-time World Series Champion, winning 3 AL batting titles. Oliva’s first season was so amazing, he became the first ever player to win a batting title and a Rookie of the Year award as well. Oliva is also the only Minnesota Twins team member to be on all 3 World Series teams, playing outfield in 1965 and helping coach the team in 1987 and 1991. Even without as many of the bombshell stats as some Hall of Famers, Oliva was always highly regarded by all during his time as a player and beloved by all players as a coach.

As always, be sure to check out and shop our array of Autographed Baseballs, Autographed Baseball Jerseys, Autographed Baseball Bats and more at SportsCollectibles.com! Autographed Major League Baseball memorabilia and collectibles make excellent gifts for the baseball fanatics in your life.

This post brought to you by Sports Collectibles Blog Dog Hall of Famer Barkley!

-Barkley is the best boy ever! He’s been with the SportsCollectibles.com team for 3 years and couldn’t imagine doing anything else! He enjoys LONG walks around the neighborhood and playing fetch. His hero is Air Bud. His favorite foods are pizza and tortilla chips. His favorite teams are the Chicago Bears and Chicago Cubs.

With the birthday of our great country celebrated this past Monday, we look back at some of the America’s greatest gifts to the world. Creations such as Rock n’ Roll, Hollywood Movies, Internet and the Telephone have highlighted the American contribution to worldwide life. Although, there is one that tops all.
The Game of Baseball.

The history of baseball is an odd and confusing road. There are a couple different variations on who created the game, the origins of the game, and when it became an official sport. The most well-known tale of Baseball is of course Abner Doubleday starting the game in 1839 here in America. Doubleday, a cadet at West Point at the time, is widely credited as the inventor of baseball when he started the first game ever played. The game was played in Cooperstown, New York, now the home of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. To this date, the MLB and the HOF still acknowledge that Doubleday created the game.
Others though, believe there is another story to the game. According to History.com, the first-time organized baseball was seen in September of 1845. The article states, “a group of New York City men founded the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club.” In this story, it is a man of the name Alexander Joy Cartwright that is credited with the birth of our pastime. Cartwright and company claim to have created baseball off inspiration from “rounders”, an old colonist game, and the sport of cricket. The story is that Cartwright was the one who created the rules we know of baseball today. The shape of the field, the limits of foul lines, and the number of strikes allowed per batter. In 1846 Cartwright and the Knickerbocker Baseball Club were said to play the first game of American baseball when they took on a team of cricket players.
The emergence of baseball as a traditional American sport is not the clearest story. There is still a decent amount of disagreement, even if Doubleday is credited by the MLB Hall of Fame. None the less, the sport grew in popularity and by 1869 we saw our first professional team in the Cincinnati Red Stockings. By 1876 we had the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs (modern day National League) created by William Hulbert, a wealthy Chicago businessman. The league held eight teams that include modern day Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs. In 1901 the league we know as the American League today was founded and by 1903, we had cross league play for the World Series Title.

SC.com Blog Dog:

-Tucker, a Military Brat pup hailing from Connecticut, loves going for relaxing walks, ear rubs, scratching rugs, and eating entire bowls of chicken enchilada meat before his family can eat it! A HUGE fan of the Yankees, Giants and most things New York (with the exception of a borderline-unhealthy obsession with LeBron James), TuckTuck is so excited to get to blog about his favorite thing – SPORTS, especially baseball.