2004 in baseball


Headline events of the year

Major League Baseball

  • Regular Season Champions
LeagueEastern Division ChampionCentral Division ChampionWestern Division ChampionWild Card Qualifier
American LeagueNew York YankeesMinnesota TwinsAnaheim AngelsBoston Red Sox
National LeagueAtlanta BravesSt. Louis CardinalsLos Angeles DodgersHouston Astros

  • World Series Champion – Boston Red Sox
  • Postseason – October 4 to October 27
Click on any series score to link to that series' page.

Higher seed has home field advantage during Division Series and League Championship Series.

American League has home field advantage during World Series as a result of American League victory in 2004 All-Star Game.

American/National League is seeded 1-3/2-4 as a result of A/NL regular season champion / and A/NL wild card coming from the same division.

Notable seasons

  • Barry Bonds of the Giants has another outstanding year. He sets the all-time record for highest on-base percentage at.609, breaking his previous record of.582, set in. He also posts a slugging average of.812, the fourth-highest ever, and also breaks his previous OPS record of 1.381, set in 2002, with a 2004 OPS of 1.422. Bonds also set a record for most walks in a season, with 232. Finally, with 120 intentional walks, he almost doubles his previous record of 68.
  • Adam Dunn's 195 strikeouts break Bobby Bonds' previous record of 189.
  • With 262 hits, Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners breaks George Sisler's record of 257. Suzuki also sets the record for most singles in a season, with 225.

    Major league baseball final standings

  • ''The asterisk denotes the club that won the wild card for its respective league.''

    Events

January

  • January 6 – Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor are elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the BBWAA in their first year of eligibility. Eckersley, who spent a 24-year career with the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals, is one of only a few pitchers to excel as both a starter and a closer, becoming the only pitcher in Major League history to collect 100 complete games and 100 saves, while posting ten or more wins 10 times, including a 20-win season, a no-hitter in 1977, and winning the American League MVP and Cy Young Awards in 1992. A versatile player, able to cover positions across infield and outfield, Molitor is only the third player with at least 3,000 hits 600 doubles and 500 stolen bases, being the others Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner. Besides, Molitor collected seven consecutive hits with the Milwaukee Brewers in the 1982 World Series, including the first five-hit game ever in a Series. At the age of 37, after signing with the Toronto Blue Jays, Molitor collected 111 RBI, becoming the oldest player in Major League history to post his first 100-RBI season. Then when Toronto defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in six games in the 1993 World Series, he was named MVP after hitting a.500 average with two home runs and eighth RBI, while tying a Series record with 10 runs scored.
  • January 12 – Roger Clemens signs a contract with the Houston Astros, ending his retirement after the 2003 season.

    February

  • February 15 – Alex Rodriguez is traded by the Texas Rangers to the New York Yankees in exchange for Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later.

    March

  • March 4 – Commissioner Bud Selig announces that Major League Baseball will celebrate Jackie Robinson Day in every ballpark on April 15, commemorating and honoring the anniversary of the debut of Jackie Robinson, who became the first black major league baseball player of the modern era in the 1947 season. Previously, Robinson's uniform number "42" was retired for all time in a ceremony at Shea Stadium in April 1997 to mark the 50th anniversary of his achievement. His debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers ended approximately 80 years of baseball segregation, also known as the baseball color line.
  • March 21 – Veterans Stadium, home of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1971 to 2003, is demolished in a 62-second implosion. It hosted the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball from 1971 to 2003 and the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League from 1971 to January 2003. Likewise, the 1976 and 1996 Major League Baseball All-Star Games were held at the venue, and the Vet also hosted the annual Army-Navy football game seventeen times between 1980 and 2001.

    April

  • April 8 – In the first-ever regular-season game at San Diego's Petco Park, the San Diego Padres defeat the San Francisco Giants, 4-3, in ten innings.
  • April 12 – Barry Bonds ties his godfather Willie Mays for third on the all-time career home run list with his 660th home run coming in the fifth inning off of Milwaukee Brewers starter Matt Kinney.
  • April 12 – The Cincinnati Reds defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-1, in the first game played at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park.
  • April 13 – Pitcher Dennis Eckersley, catcher-manager Bill Carrigan and infielders Wade Boggs, Billy Goodman and Pete Runnels are selected for induction into the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame. The club's Hall of Fame selection committee conducts its voting at a meeting last fall.
  • April 14 – At Yankee Stadium, Kevin Brown of the New York Yankees wins his 200th career game, the Yankees defeating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 5-1. Brown's victory follows teammate Mike Mussina's 200th career victory in the team's most recent game three days earlier, the Yankees having defeated the Chicago White Sox 5-4. The Yankees become the first team to have two pitchers record their 200th career victories in the same season, and their duo reaches their milestones in consecutive games.
  • April 18 – At Wrigley Field, Sammy Sosa sets the record for most home runs in a Chicago Cub uniform. In the first inning of the Cubs' 11-10, 10-inning loss to the Cincinnati Reds, Sosa, who entered the game tied with Ernie Banks with 512 home runs as a Cub, homers off Paul Wilson; he will hit another home run off Wilson in the third inning. At the end of the season, Sosa will be traded to the Baltimore Orioles, after hitting 545 home runs as a Cub.
  • April 27 – Chad Moeller becomes the fifth Milwaukee Brewers player to hit for the cycle, the first to do it at home, and the first since Paul Molitor did it on May 15, against the Minnesota Twins.

    May

  • May 8 – At Fenway Park, Pokey Reese has the first two-homer game of his career in the Boston Red Sox' 9-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Curt Schilling pitches his first AL complete game, and the 80th of his career, while striking out eight. Reese hits an inside-the-park home run and one of the conventional type over the Green Monster, to snap a 172 at-bat homerless streak dating to April 4, 2003. The last Red Sox player to hit a conventional homer and an inside-the-park homer in the same game was Tony Armas on September 24,, at Tiger Stadium.
  • May 12 – In one of the most remarkable at-bats in major league history, Alex Cora fouls off 14 consecutive pitches and then hits the 18th pitch over the right field fence for a two-run home run off Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Clement. The homer extends the Los Angeles Dodgers lead to 4-0. The Dodger Stadium crowd cheers each foul ball as the total starts to be displayed on the scoreboard.
  • May 18 – Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson becomes only the 17th person in major league history to throw a perfect game, throwing 13 strikeouts on his way to a 2-0 defeat of the Atlanta Braves.
  • May 26 – The Pittsburgh Pirates' Daryle Ward hits for the cycle in the Pirates' 11-8 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. It is done 23 times in Pittsburgh history and 243 times in the majors since 1882. Ward joins his father, Gary Ward, to become the first father-son combination in major league history to hit for the cycle. The senior Ward accomplished the feat on September 18,, for the Minnesota Twins.
  • May 28 – Mariano Rivera notches his 300th career save in the New York Yankees' 7-5 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He also becomes the first Yankee and 17th reliever in major league history to reach the milestone.
  • May 28 – Matt Clement becomes the 21st big league pitcher and the first Chicago Cubs pitcher in over a century to hit three batters in one inning, to tie a major league record. The victims plunked in the fifth inning of the first game of a doubleheader against Pittsburgh are Bobby Hill, Jason Kendall and Craig Wilson.