In a game known as “America’s Past-Time”, there is sure to be some timeless traditions that loyal Baseball fans have been cherishing for years. One age old tradition, that is essentially universal in Baseball is the “7th-Inning stretch”. The origins of which is highly disputed, but one of the best origin stories floating in history highlights President William Taft needing to stretch out his sore body while enjoying a Washington Senators game in 1910, and fans deciding to follow along with their fellow President, as the originator of the famous tradition. To compliment the 7th-Inning Stretch is the singing of a song that is a part of the language of Baseball fans everywhere, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”.

It was not long after the stretch became a “thing”, for some teams in Baseball to create, and engrain fun traditions into their culture for the fans, and team alike to enjoy and carry on through time. Here are some of the greatest current, and old, traditions in Baseball:

Presidential Race – Washington Nationals:

Well, duh, what screams “AMERICA” more than a wacky, big-head mascot version of Mount Rushmore, racing through a ballpark in the 4th inning, in the Nation’s Capital. Since 2006, this is exactly what National’s fans love to see whenever they visit National’s Park.

Bernie Brewer’s Home Run Slide & Sausage Race – Milwaukee Brewers:

The Milwaukee Brewers have two awesome long-standing traditions that are major symbols of the Brewers franchise. The first is Bernie Brewers Home Run Slide, where since the early 1980’s, after each Brewers Home Run, Bernie Brewer takes a voyage down his slide, into a gigantic beer mug. The old rustic slide has since been replaced by a winding yellow slide, onto a large home plate, not beer mug.

The second of the classic Miller Park traditions is the famous “Sausage Race” that takes place in the 6th inning at every Brewers game since 1994. Similar to the Presidential Race in Washington, wacky mascot versions of sausages are pit against each other in an anything-goes race around the warning track at Miller Park. The Sausage Race is most definitely historic, but also has a dark shade of controversy. In 2003, Randall Simon of the Pittsburgh Pirates was arrested at the ballpark after purposely hitting one of the racers with a Baseball bat. The incident was sorted out, and later joked about the next time Simon visited Miller Park as a member of the Cubs.

Home Run Apple – New York Mets:

It is only fitting to have a literal Big Apple, celebrate Home Run’s hit in the “Big Apple”, AKA New York. This is exactly what the Mets had in mind when installing the iconic fixture at Shea Stadium in 1980. The Apple is meant to rise only when New York Mets players go yard, but an interesting exception took place in 1998, when the Yankees were forced to play a home game across town because of a building code violation at Yankee Stadium. During that game former Met Darryl Strawberry raised the Apple with a dinger, but only partially, as they raised it just up until the Mets logo was shown.

The Mets Home Run Apple has become one of the most important, and distinguishing parts of the franchise, so important in fact that in the season leading up to the Mets departure from Shea, to Citi Field, the team announced the Apple will be retired. In response, fans started a website to petition for the Apple to move to the new stadium with the team. Mets fans got what they wanted, as the team announced they would build a brand new Apple for their brand-new stadium, and kept history alive by placing the Apple from Shea Stadium outside of Citi Field.

Bleacher Creature’s Roll Call – New York Yankees:

The world-famous “Bleacher Creatures” at Yankee Stadium, in and of itself are an embodiment of the passion and culture of New York City, and how much they love their sports teams. Notoriously crazy, the Yankees Bleacher Creatures have possibly the most engaging tradition in all of Baseball, known as “Roll Call”.

How it works is simple, in the top of the 1st inning, the Bleacher Creature leader for that game will call out each Yankee in the field, until the player responds to the fans. Yankee’s players love this tradition, and love to give the passionate fans who dwell with the creatures of the bleachers, what they pay for.

Pesky Pole & Sweet Caroline – Boston Red Sox:

Arguably two of the most iconic traditions in Baseball, Bosox fans, and even tourists alike, flock to Fenway for not only the historic playing grounds, but the historic fixtures within the ballpark, and game.

Pesky Pole, name after Red Sox legend Johnny Pesky, is undoubtedly the most famous foul pole in Baseball, as well as the shortest in distance, at (arguably) 302 feet. The origins of the nickname is deeply engrained in Boston folk lore, and is arguable, but is known to come courtesy of Pesky’s teammate Mel Parnell. Since the “official” naming of the pole in 2006, fans and players alike pay homage to the Boston legend by immortalizing their signatures and messages onto the pole.

Red Sox fans are also delighted with the reciting of one of the catchiest songs in Baseball, “Sweet Caroline”. Prior to the bottom of the 8th inning at Fenway, fans gather and let loose for an infectious, and timeless recitation of Neil Diamond’s beautiful song.

“Throw it Back!” – Chicago Cubs:

A legendary tradition amongst Cubs fans, where not every fan may oblige, but they are surely encouraged to by the masses. When a hitter from the opposing team at Wrigley field hits a Home Run, repeated chants of “THROW IT BACK!” rips through the park, until the ball is flung back to its place of origin. Speaking of origins, this age-old tradition came to fruition in 1970, when a fan who caught a benchmark long-ball of Hank Aaron’s the season prior, once again found a ball that came off the bat of Hammerin’ Hank wind up in his hands. The fan threw the ball back on the field in disgust, because in the season prior, Hank Aaron refused to accept his 521st Home Run ball from him, as Aaron was upset at Cubs fans dumping beer on him.

Opening Day “Holiday” – Cincinnati Reds:

For a Century and a half and counting, the Cincinnati Reds are the only Baseball team that is granted to play at home on Opening Day. This tradition has become the sorts of an unofficial holiday in Cincinnati, which is celebrated with an annual parade at the famous Findlay Market. No matter how positive, or poor, the upcoming season’s outlook is, every year on Opening Day, none of that matters for Reds fans, as they celebrate and carry on one of the longest standing traditions in sports.

After yet another disappointing finish in the Postseason for the Yankees in 2019, falling in the ALCS to the (controversial) Astros in 6 games, the Yankees needed a spark to build some confidence heading into the 2020 season. Shortly after, the Yankees off-season kicked off with a resounding bang with the signing of star pitcher Gerrit Cole.

The addition of Cole immediately put the Yankees in the drivers seat, not only in the American League, but throughout Major League Baseball as a whole. The pinstripes were vaulted to the top of projections as World Series favorites for the upcoming season.

Just as Pitchers and Catchers began to report to Spring Training, the Yankees received news that seemingly began the domino effect of preseason injuries for the Bombers. The first to fall was James Paxton, who is currently sidelined till at least May following back surgery. After swallowing the pill of Paxton’s injury, the Yankees regrouped, with confidence still high as a result of Gerrit Cole walking out on the practice field in a Yankee Uniform, they then had to swallow an even tougher pill, with news of stud pitcher Luis Severino needing season-ending Tommy John surgery.

With 2 of their top starting pitchers down, the “injury bug” then crawled into the outfield at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Bay. Still reeling from the news of Paxton and Severino, the Yankees took a crushing blow, learning they will be without star outfielders Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge for Opening Day.

Stanton is sidelined with a Calf injury, and has no real timetable for return. Judge is currently shut down for the next 2 weeks with a fractured rib. With the possibility of surgery looming, the slugger could be out for an extended period of time. These injuries, on top of Aaron Hicks still recovering from Tommy John surgery that he underwent in late October, leaves the Yankees outfield extremely shorthanded entering Opening Day.

With the injuries to their outfield, the Yanks’ will look to veteran Brett Gardner to “hold down the fort”, and younger prospects like Clint Frazier and Mike Tauchman to fill in for Stanton and Judge, while top prospect Estevan Florial continues to prepare for “the show”.

The Yankees are no strangers to star players going down with injuries. 2019 was a season defined by Yankees stars being hurt, and the “next man up” mentality delivering huge win after huge win for Aaron Boone and the boys. It seems like, at the very least, the early parts of the Yankees 2020 season will be defined by the “next man up” mentality again, and if those who are on the field in place of the injured stars can once again be “savages” in the box for Aaron Boone.

Over the Course of this week MLB Network has been releasing its own version of what they think is the 100 best players in the game of Baseball right now. Yesterday they released 10 through 1 in their countdown and in somewhat of a surprise (to me at least), and to the delight of Yankees fans, they have ranked Gerrit Cole (7) higher than Jacob DeGrom (8) in their list.

I think now is a good time to let everyone know that I am a big Jacob DeGrom fan, and an even bigger fan of the New York Mets. Let’s get one thing clear, that is NOT why I believe DeGrom is a better pitcher than Cole.

I believe most peoples arguments to rebuke MLB Networks ranking would be the easiest one to make. DeGrom’s back to back Cy Young awards, compared to Cole’s whopping 0 Cy Young awards. That alone should be good enough to have DeGrom ranked higher than Cole in this list. He was named the best pitcher in the National League by way of the Cy Young award not only this season, but the previous season as well. So how is he not the best pitcher in Baseball right now? I don’t believe there is enough of an argument to support MLB Network’s ranking.

Lets take a look at DeGrom and Cole’s ERA (Earned Run Average), WHIP (Walks Hits over Innings Pitched), and WAR (Wins Above Replacement) in the 2019 season, as well as their career totals.

“The proof is in the pudding” said someone a long time ago, not really sure who. But I believe that applies here. If all we have in our recent memory is Gerrit Cole’s stellar performance in the 2019 playoffs, obviously we are going to be high on him. We need to dig just a bit deeper to understand why DeGrom has the edge over Cole, and why the crosstown rivalry is not starting with DeGrom as the underdog.

Gerrit Cole is a pitcher who the Pittsburgh Pirates gave up on and shipped off to Houston because he wasn’t able to get his ERA under 4 and was only able to post a sub 3 ERA in 1 of his first 5 seasons. That is not indicative of a pitcher who can be ranked above DeGrom, who only posted ERA’s over 3 in 2 of his 6 seasons, and posted an eye popping 1.70 ERA only two seasons back. If we get a bit more advanced in our analytical analysis, we clearly see DeGrom’s estabished domincance in his 34.9 WAR, a whole 10.9 points over Cole’s 24.0. This is a great marker in showing how DeGrom’s value as a pitcher to any team is greater than Cole’s over the course of their careers.

In my most humble opinion, I believe MLB Networking ranking Gerrit Cole over Jacob DeGrom in their Top 100 Players Right Now list was an irresponisble decision, which was made with pure hype instead of numbers, and will be looked back at as a “freezing cold take”.