2007 in baseball


Champions

Major League Baseball

  • Regular Season Champions
LeagueEastern Division ChampionCentral Division ChampionWestern Division ChampionWild Card Qualifier
American LeagueBoston Red SoxCleveland IndiansLos Angeles Angels of AnaheimNew York Yankees
National LeaguePhiladelphia PhilliesChicago CubsArizona DiamondbacksColorado Rockies

1 – The appearance by the Huskies of Rouen, France in the final marks the first time since 1976 that a team from outside the professional leagues of the Netherlands or Italy has finished in the top two.

Awards and honors

* Francoeur and Rowand finished tied in the voting

Major league baseball final standings

†Denotes the club that won the wild card for its respective league. The Rockies defeated the Padres 9–8 in a one-game playoff for the NL wild card.
The 90 wins by the Diamondbacks and Rockies were the fewest to lead the NL since 1959, with the exception of the strike-shortened seasons of 1981, 1994 and 1995. No NL team won or lost 95 games for the first time since 1983.
Also, this was the second consecutive season in which no team won at least 60% of its games, the first time that this has happened in Major League Baseball history.

Events

January–March

  • January 9 – As the result of questions regarding his involvement in the ongoing steroids investigations, Mark McGwire falls well short in his first effort to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, meanwhile, are elected easily.
  • January 11 – The New York Daily News reports that Barry Bonds tests positive for amphetamines at some point during the 2006 season and that Bonds initially cites a supplement he receives from San Francisco Giants teammate Mark Sweeney as a possible reason for the positive test. Testing rules established in 2006 require that first positive tests must remain confidential.
  • February 4 – The Israel Baseball League announces the official teams of the inaugural season: Bet Shemesh Blue Sox, Modi'in Miracle, Netanya Tigers, Petach Tikva Pioneers, Ra'anana Express, Tel Aviv Lightning. Dropped from the league are the Haifa Stingrays and Jerusalem Lions.
  • March 31 – The St. Louis Cardinals defeat the Cleveland Indians 5–1 in the inaugural Civil Rights Game, held at AutoZone Park in Memphis, Tennessee.

    April

  • April 2:
  • *Bruce Froemming works behind home plate for the opener between the Athletics and Mariners, tying Bill Klem's major league record of 37 seasons as an umpire.
  • *The Tribune Company, after agreeing to a buyout of $8.2 billion by real estate magnate Sam Zell, announces that the Chicago Cubs are to be sold following the 2007 season.
  • April 10 – 12 – In a case of life imitating art, the Cleveland Indians, displaced by a freak spring snowstorm, play a series against the Los Angeles Angels in Milwaukee. Most of the game action in the 1989 film Major League, in which the Indians are the featured team, is actually filmed in Milwaukee at the Brewers' home at that time, County Stadium.
  • April 15 – To celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first major league game, dozens of players wear his league-wide retired number, 42. The Los Angeles Dodgers are one of six teams whose entire roster wears number 42 for their games.
  • April 15 – Marco Scutaro hits a three-run, walk-off home run against Mariano Rivera with two outs in the bottom of ninth inning to lead the Oakland Athletics to a 5–4 victory against the New York Yankees.
  • April 17 - The Washington Nationals pay tribute to the victims of the school shooting at Virginia Tech. The Nationals take the field in the second inning of a game versus the Atlanta Braves wearing Virginia Tech hats. The hat of Chris Snelling currently resides in the hall of fame at Cooperstown.
  • April 18 – Mark Buehrle of the Chicago White Sox pitches a no-hitter against the Texas Rangers, becoming the team's first pitcher since Wilson Álvarez in, and the 16th in franchise history, to throw a no-hitter.
  • April 20 – Bruce Froemming umpires at first base in the Cleveland Indians-Tampa Bay Devil Rays game, passing Bill Klem to become – at age 67 years, 204 days – the oldest umpire in major league history.
  • April 22 – Chase Wright of the New York Yankees gives up four consecutive home runs in the third inning against the Boston Red Sox, joining Paul Foytack to become only the second player to accomplish this dubious feat. Manny Ramírez, J. D. Drew, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek hit the home runs.
  • April 23 – Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees hits two home runs, his 13th and 14th of the season, in a 10–8 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, surpassing the American League record and tying the Major League record for most home runs hit in the month of April.
  • April 29:
  • *Manny Ramírez becomes the fifth player to hit at least 50 career home runs against the New York Yankees, leading his Red Sox to a 7–4 victory.
  • *Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies performs the 13th unassisted triple play in MLB history, catching a Chipper Jones line drive, tagging second base to force Kelly Johnson out off the bag, then tagging out Édgar Rentería in the 7th inning of an 11-inning 9–7 Rockies victory over the Atlanta Braves.
  • *The Sunday night game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs is postponed due to the death of Cardinals relief pitcher Josh Hancock early that morning.