MLB owners and players reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement to end a 99-day lockout. Thankfully, the lockout was over. And, yes, baseball is back. The 2021-22 lockout was the first MLB work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike. Back then, 948 games were canceled, in particular, there was no World Series in 1994.
Baseball is back. The 2022 season is expected to begin on April 7. Thankfully, it’s going to be a 162-game regular season. Moreover, several exciting things could happen during the regular season.
On February 5, 2022, Adrian Gonzalez announced on Instagram that he’s officially retiring from professional baseball. Several years ago, I went to watch a game at Dodger stadium. Before the game started, Adrian Gonzalez was in front of the dugout to receive the NL Player of the Month award.
In February, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred announced that the universal designated hitter rule will be implemented in 2022. Back in 2020, MLB instituted a universal DH for one season as part of health and safety protocols during the covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, some teams and some players in the National League did benefit from the universal DH rule.
Topps Series 1 is always a favorite series for many collectors and it’s one of the flagship releases. I always buy at least some packs of Topps Series 1 baseball cards each year. This year, it’s actually not that easy to find some. I went to several sports card shops and the 2022 Topps Series 1 was sold out because people are crazily looking for Wander Franco rookie cards.
Last month, Ryan Zimmerman announced his retirement after playing 16 seasons with the Nationals. Looking back at his career, he crushed 284 home runs and collected 1000+ RBI. Those numbers are not enough to be elected to the Hall of Fame. However, he is definitely an important player in the Nationals franchise history.
A few weeks ago, I listened to a podcast show and a reporter indicated that a player did improve a lot last year. In particular, that player hit the ball harder. That makes me wonder which player did hit the ball harder in the 2021 season.
Collectors can find prospects, rookies and veteran players in the Bowman baseball cards. In particular, top prospect cards are many collectors’ favorites. There are several series under the Bowman brand. The Bowman’s Best is a good series for fans to find top prospects. A few weeks ago, I got some packs of 2021 Bowman’s Best.
The first week of March was over. MLB owners and the MLBPA still haven't reached a new collective bargaining agreement. So, there’s no baseball now and we probably still have to wait for a while. At the same time, some outfielders that could draw a lot of attention can do nothing but wait.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to a sports card shop with a friend and found that there were many packs of 2021 Topps Archives. I decided to buy some. Luckily, I got a hit, which is an autograph card. On the front, we can clearly see Carlos Zambrano’s autograph. Zambrano is well known for his “temper”. However, his career in the majors wasn’t a bad one. He earned 132 wins over the 12 seasons. Additionally, as a pitcher, he’s not bad at hitting. I do remember that Zambrano crushed some home runs.
In a baseball game, a team might decide to walk a batter on purpose, putting him on first base instead of letting him try to hit. This usually happens to an excellent hitter at the plate.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched some highlights on YouTube and one of those highlights was a shutout thrown by a great pitcher of this generation. In today’s baseball games, MLB teams have very different ways on pitcher usage. Now, we don’t often see a pitcher throw a complete game. Hence, it’s even rare to see a shutout in today’s games.
