If you think MLB is a snooze, you clearly haven’t been keeping up. Here’s a rundown of the controversies, rising stars, records likely to fall, and all the stories that promise to make 2018 one helluva season.
For access to exclusive gear videos, celebrity interviews, and more, subscribe on YouTube!
Last September, when Shohei Ohtani—the so-called Babe Ruth of Japan—announced that he intended to play in the majors, the baseball world lost its mind. And no surprise. Like Ruth, the 23-year-old star dominates on both offense and defense; while playing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, he was clocked throwing 102-mile-per-hour fastballs, and he once sent a homer through the roof of the Tokyo Dome. In December, after considering 30 clubs, Ohtani decided to join All-Star center fielder Mike Trout on the playoff-contending Los Angeles Angels. Safe to say, Ohtani stands to be one of the most-hyped players heading into the season, and the biggest two-way star since the Great Bambino took the field.
Albert Pujols’ storied MVP seasons may be behind him. But in 2018, the 38-year-old Angels first baseman will likely reach 3,000 career hits, one of the most prestigious milestones in baseball. If he accomplishes the feat, he’ll be only the 32nd player to have done so, joining the ranks of heavyweights such as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, and Cal Ripken, Jr. Over his 17-year career, Pujols has averaged 175 slaps per season and stands just 32 shy of his goal, so odds are you can watch a bit of history unfold when he steps up to the plate in 2018. That said, he has a long way to go if he ever hopes to top Pete Rose’s record 4,256 career hits.
In January, after years of protest from Native American groups and beyond, the Cleveland Indians announced that it will, at long last, remove the Chief Wahoo logo from its caps and jerseys. The grinning Native American caricature has been affiliated with the club since the late 1940s, but pressure from the league to do away with it had mounted in recent years. By 2019, Wahoo will be gone for good, and a block C logo will take its place. The team isn’t changing its name, however—another point of complaint—and Wahoo will still appear on merchandise and, no doubt, plenty of fan gear worn to games. (Atlanta Braves fans haven’t desisted from doing the tomahawk chop, after all.) Still, the on-field change is a step in the right direction.
Last season, the New York Yankees led the league with 241 home runs, a staggering 52 of which were contributed by All-Star outfielder Aaron Judge. In December, as if the Yanks’ batting dominance wasn’t secure enough, the team acquired outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, who, in 2017, racked up 59 homers for the Marlins and won National League MVP. So now two of the most exciting power hitters are teammates. This has triggered some déjà vu among fans of fabled Yankees duo Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, who, in 1961, set the combined teammate home-run record with 115, as they both chased the single-season record. The Giants’ Barry Bonds and Rich Aurilia came close to besting the pair in 2001, but fell short at 110. Expectations are high for Judge and Stanton, and together they no doubt stand a chance of scratching out the 57-year-old record.
In some ways, baseball is well-positioned for the future. Though the median fan age is still distressingly old—57 for TV viewers—MLB has invested extensively in forward-looking apps, streaming products, and technologies to attract a new generation to the game. The sport has already found success with MLB.tv, a $25-a-month subscription service that lets users stream almost any regular-season game on a smartphone, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire TV, among other devices. Another bright spot is Statcast, a camera system that shows the launch angle of hits, making playback footage more dynamic and more closely resemble a video game. Then, in a big step forward in 2017, MLB.com rolled out a virtual-reality service that permits fans to follow multiple feeds while streaming games for a more immersive viewing experience. Look for MLB to continue to improve its VR and other digital offerings to engage young fans.
Now that the Chicago Cubs are hoisting banners again, the longest championship drought belongs to Cleveland, which hasn’t won it all since 1948. Fans have long blamed the curse of Rocky Colavito (inset) for the misfortune, believing that the trade of the All-Star right fielder, in 1960, doomed the team to despair. The Indians stand a good chance of erasing the curse this year, however, with a roster boasting two-time Cy Young Award–winner Corey Kluber, Silver Slugger Francisco Lindor, and doubles-hitting phenom José Ramirez.
This year marks the Dodgers’ 60th in Los Angeles, and Roger Owens—otherwise known as the Peanut Man—has been the star of the stands through them all. Owens, 75, first took the job to support his family, then quickly realized that he could make more commission if he entertained the crowd, by throwing bags two at a time or behind his back, turning slinging peanuts into an art form. He has worked more than 5,000 games and is still not ready to retire. “I don’t do it for the money anymore,” he says. “You see a kid catch peanuts, and his face lights up. It feels good when I leave the park, knowing that I made a lot of people happy.” —Matthew Kredell
No more settling for ho-hum domestics. These five breweries are serving up quality suds at top major- or minor-league fields. —Joshua M. Bernstein
Bull Durham Beer Co. – Durham Bulls: This first-of-its-kind minor-league brewery, in downtown Durham, offers a slew of suds made on-site, including a must-order kölsch, the Lollygagger.
Mikkeller Brewing NYC – New York Mets: This season, Danish brewer Mikkeller will open its first East Coast outpost at Citi Field, with stadium-specific canned beers such as the Henry Hops IPA.
The SandLot – Colorado Rockies: Trust us: Order a So Long and Thanks for All the (Smoked) Fish, a barbecue-friendly beer that took gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2017.
Lock 27 Brewing – Dayton Dragons: Last year, Lock 27 opened a brewery adjacent to the Dragons’ stadium, where you can pregame with the top-notch Charlosta Brown Ale or a Mouth Breather IPA.
Terrapin Taproom – Atlanta Braves: At this microbrewery, opened in 2017, you’ll find quality small-batch, experimental brews served exclusively on-site, including the High & Inside IPA.
Not since the Yankees’ three-season streak from 1998 to 2000 has a team managed to claim back-to-back World Series titles. But the world champion Houston Astros are well-positioned to do just that. In January, the team added Gerrit Cole to its already stout pitching lineup, led by the one-two punch of Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander, veteran Charlie Morton, and breakouts Lance McCullers Jr. and Brad Peacock. That’s six starting throwers. And as the saying goes, you can never have too much pitching.
The rivalry between the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers is among the longest-standing and fiercest in baseball, if not in all sports. The clubs have come to blows scores of times since first meeting in 1890, including a notorious brawl in 1965, when the Giants’ Juan Marichal took a bat to the Dodgers’ John Roseboro. The stage is set for a serious showdown again in 2018. The Dodgers were the best team in baseball for much of last year, losing to the Astros in the World Series. The Giants, for their part, made arguably the biggest off-season moves this year, acquiring two ace veterans: three-time All-Star third baseman Evan Longoria from the Rays and 2013 MVP outfielder Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates. With these aging stars, the team could just as easily pull out a good-to-great season as they could totally underperform. Either way, you can expect fireworks when they make a run at their L.A. archrivals.
