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On June 9, 1846, a New York team defeated the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York, which had drafted (1845) rules establishing the nine-player team and the four-base diamond. The score at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, N.J., that day was 23-1 in four innings. In 1857 a convention of baseball clubs established the length of a game as nine innings instead of 21 runs. One year later the first organized league, the National Association of Base ball players, was formed.
In 1901 the American League (AL) declared itself a major league, invaded NL cities, and raided the older league for players. The result of the eventual truce was the World Series, which was played yearly from 1903--except 1904, when the New York Giants refused to meet AL champions (Boston).
I think we all know what's going on with baseball now. McGwire has come up huge for the third consecutive season. McGwire is hitting the ball out of the yard at an incredible ratio. He is having a monster season, unfortunately, his team isn't. The Cardinals have struggled this season with injures to their starting rotation but McGwire has given the St. Louis organization and baseball a big lift at the ticket window. Here's a hitting Graph.
After hitting 40 homers despite missing the last month of the 1996 season
with a broken hand, Sammy Sosa stayed healthy and played in every one of
the Cubs' 162 games in 1997. His batting average and power production
fell, however, and his frequent strikeouts remained a continuing problem.
Chicago signed him to a huge contract extension during the season, but by
the end of the year many were wondering if he was worth the money.
I think the Stardust mission is very similiar to a catcher in Baseball. The Stardust is going to collect particles from the tail of Wild-2 with Aerogel. I think that's a lot like a catcher catching a baseball. Aerogel, also known as, "blue smoke" is strong, lightweight, unusual material with the lowest density of any solid (which looks like a tennis racket) will be deployed and cometary particles will hit the Aerogel at nearly six times the speed of a rifle bullet.