History UsefulNotes / CurrentPeopleToKnowInMLB

* '''John Sterling''': Another LargeHamAnnouncer, Sterling began his play-by-play career with a single season with the NBA's Baltimore Bullets[[note]]now the Washington Wizards[[/note]] before moving to UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} to call games for the NHL's Islanders and NBA's Nets in the '70s. He then moved to UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, covering both the Braves and the NBA's Hawks in the '80s, before returning to New York in 1989 to become the broadcaster for the Yankees, a role he's held ever since. Known for his [[PunctuatedForEmphasis distinct manner]] of calling Yankees wins (which becomes even more drawn out whenever they clinch postseason series; the deeper into the postseason, the longer it's held), as well as giving each Yankee a personalized home run call which contains at least one {{pun}} and sometimes [[HurricaneOfPuns as many as three.]] He has also put his skill as PungeonMaster to great use on Creator/HallmarkChannel as a play-by-play announcer for the annual [[CuteKitten Kitten]] [[UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Bowl]]. He retired in April 2024.

* '''Miguel Cabrera''' of the Detroit Tigers is currently a first baseman, though he has also played third base and in the outfield at other points in his career. A week before the 2014 season began, he signed a 10-year, $292 million contract extension with the Tigers, at the time the largest contract in baseball history. He originally came up with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins halfway through the 2003 season, and put up decent numbers for a then-20-year-old rookie and contributed a bit to the Marlins' World Series win that year. He spent the next few years in relative obscurity despite several all-star appearances, as the Marlins were fairly mediocre and he was [[OvershadowedByAwesome outshined by several other players, like Albert Pujols]]. Then, during the 2007 offseason, he and the Marlins' ace pitcher Dontrelle Willis were traded to the Tigers for a package of very good prospects. People's opinions of the trade were somewhat mixed at the time, and as Willis was never even remotely good after this point and the Marlins finished 10 games better than the Tigers in 2008, it made the trade look initially bad on Detroit's part. However, none of the prospects the Tigers gave up ever had any success with the Marlins (though one or two of them had some degree of success with other teams), while Cabrera would reach far greater heights than he had with the Marlins. Spending the next several years as the Tigers' first baseman, he made a few more all-star appearances and led the majors in batting average in 2011, and helped lead the Tigers to the playoffs that year. He moved to third base in 2012 to make room at first for Prince Fielder, who the Tigers had signed to a massive contract during the offseason. In that season, he hit .330 with 44 home runs and 139 RBI's, and became the first winner of the hitting Triple Crown (leading his league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in/[=RBI=]s) since 1967, a feat that many had once thought was no longer possible in the modern game, due to batters becoming more specialized more in either hitting for average or power at the cost of the other. As a result, he won his first MVP handily, although many think that Mike Trout should have won it--Cabrera was certainly a better hitter than Trout that year, but Trout was a much better defender and a much faster baserunner. Incredibly, he did even better the following season in most of his statistics and looked like he might become the first back-to-back triple crown winner, but injuries at the end of the season limited his power greatly, and though he finished with a .348 batting average, 44 home runs, and 137 RBI's, he still fell well short of the triple crown, thanks to Chris Davis hitting 53 homers. He did still win his third consecutive batting title and second consecutive MVP award. He went on to win yet another batting title in 2015, despite suffering both lingering pain from an offseason ankle surgery and a midseason calf strain that put him on the disabled list for the first time in his career. He rebounded a bit in 2016, but then had an uncharacteristically bad year in 2017, ending a streak of 7 consecutive all-star appearances and failing to get any MVP votes for the first time in his career. He started off 2018 looking like he was going to bounce back a bit, but injuries ended up costing him most of the season. Only time will tell if he can bounce back to his earlier levels of play. As of the end of the 2021 season, during which Cabrera became the newest member of the 500-homer club, he was the leading average hitter among active players, though only slightly ahead of José Altuve (.308 to .307). Cabrera, who became the newest member of the 3000-hit club in April 2022, will retire at the end of the 2023 season with a place in Cooperstown all but assured.

* '''Justin Verlander''', who played his entire MLB career with the Detroit Tigers before being dealt to the Houston Astros at the 2017 deadline, was one of the best starting pitchers in the game in the late [=2000s=] and early [='10s=]. Though his poor performance in 2014 and early 2015 cast doubt on whether he could keep it up, he was able to quickly reestablish his status as an ace; by 2016 he once again led the American League in strikeouts. Playing for the Tigers, he pretty much walked away with the 2011 American League Cy Young by winning the Pitching Triple Crown: most wins (24), strikeouts (250) and lowest ERA (2.40). He was instrumental in the Tigers running away with the American League Central division title. He won the American League MVP award that season as well, which is seldom awarded to a pitcher because of strong feelings that it should go to an everyday player, and not one who plays every four or five days. He came within a hair of winning a second straight Cy Young in 2012, finishing second to Tampa Bay's David Price in the closest Cy Young vote since 1969. In 2016, he again came within a hair of winning a second Cy Young, finishing a close (and controversial) second to Rick Porcello of the Red Sox. He again had a slow start in 2017, then improved over the course of the season, ultimately pitching tremendously well for the Astros over the final month and in the playoffs, helping them win their first World Series. He's been absolutely fantastic since joining the Astros, looking a lot more like the early-2010's Verlander who was one of the game's best pitchers than the mid-2010's Verlander who was struggling and often injured. Emphasizing that point, he finally picked up his second Cy Young Award in 2019. In 2020, delayed and cut short by COVID-19, he only pitched in the season opener before developing arm trouble; he then had Tommy John surgery that kept him on the sidelines until 2022, but he's been back to his old dominant self since returning, claiming his third Cy Young Award in 2022. Off the field, he's most notable as the husband of supermodel Kate Upton. He has also thrown three no-hitters, two coming against the Toronto Blue Jays in their home stadium, the Rogers Centre.

* '''Max Scherzer''', a starting pitcher now with the New York Mets who made his name with the Washington Nationals, joined the Nats in 2015 after having spent the earlier parts of his career with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Detroit Tigers. After some ups and downs in his earlier years, he started to put it all together with the Tigers in 2012 when he was 2nd in the league in strikeouts behind his teammate Justin Verlander, who pretty much {{overshadowed|ByAwesome}} Scherzer during Verlander's dominant run in the early 2010's. The next year, he improved further and made himself one of the best starters in the game, starting the season 13-0, ultimately leading the AL in wins, and being near the top in several other categories, which led to him winning the 2013 AL Cy Young Award for his efforts. Two years later, he joined the Nationals, and seemingly elevated his game to a new level, though some will note that his improved statistics may be partially because of slightly weaker competition thanks to the NL's lack of a DH. He threw two no-hitters in 2015, one of which was almost a perfect game except for a controversial hit batter with 2 outs in the 9th inning[[note]]Some argue that the hit batter, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder José Tabata, appeared to lean into the pitch a little. This is technically against the rules, but said rule is almost never enforced.[[/note]]. In 2016, he struck out 20 batters in one game, tying the record for strikeouts in a single 9-inning game--the feat was also previously achieved by Roger Clemens (twice), Kerry Wood, and arguably Randy Johnson[[note]]Johnson once struck out 20 batters in 9 innings, but the game went into extra innings after that[[/note]]. At season's end, he was awarded his second Cy Young Award, becoming just the sixth pitcher to win the award in both leagues. He won a third Cy Young Award in 2017, making him just the 10th pitcher ever to win 3 Cy Youngs. During a 2021 season in which Scherzer was doing much better than the Nats, he was part of a trade-deadline deal with the Dodgers, who were in a playoff dogfight with the Giants and Padres and needed pitching help.[[labelnote:*]]At the time of the deal, three starters were out--Clayton Kershaw (see below) was on the injured list (though expected to return soon), Dustin May was out for the season after Tommy John surgery, and Trevor Bauer was suspended during an investigation into sexual abuse allegations.[[/labelnote]] Scherzer became a free agent at the end of the 2021 season, and signed a 3-year, $130 million deal with the Mets shortly before the owners locked the players out. The new contract is the richest in MLB history by annual average ($43.3 million), surpassing Gerrit Cole's 9-year, $324 million deal with the Yankees signed in 2019. Scherzer's power-pitching style and good control leads to him regularly being among the league leaders in both getting strikeouts and not allowing walks, but he also tends to allow a disproportionate amount of home runs on the rare occasions where the batters facing him make contact. He's also well known for his heterochromia--his right eye is blue, and his left eye is brown.

* '''Johnny Cueto''', currently a starting pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, was the ace for the Cincinnati Reds in the early [=2010s=]. While other ace pitchers got more press, Cueto quietly emerged as one of the most dominant pitchers for the National League. In 2012 he won 19 games and had an ERA of 2.78. Got off to a good start in 2013 before going on the DL because of a back injury. But came back strong in 2014 by winning 20 games with an ERA of 2.25, the first pitcher in franchise history to do so since 1988. These would normally be Cy Young-worthy numbers, but Cueto, unfortunately, is also a victim of AlwaysSecondBest. Clayton Kershaw, the best pitcher in the game from 2011-2014 is also a National League pitcher and produced better numbers in 2012 and 2014, leaving Cueto to finish second in wins and the ERA title in both years. Fortunately, his great year in 2014 was recognized by his baseball peers and he won a GIBBY award for best bounce back player after an injury. Cueto is known for his pitching delivery, in which he does an almost 180 degree turn of his upper body so batters have a hard time reading him. This pitching motion, however, is what caused his back injury in 2013 and time will tell if he's able to keep doing it in the years to come. In the middle of the 2015 season, he was traded to the Kansas City Royals due to the struggling Reds needing to rebuild; though he struggled to pitch consistently well for his new team in the second half of the 2015 regular season, he would prove to be a vital piece of the Royals' starting rotation in the postseason, where he helped led the team to a World Series Championship with quality pitching, especially in World Series Game 2, where he pitched a complete game two-hitter against the New York Mets. His time with the Giants has been something of a mixed bag; he was okay in 2016, his first year with San Francisco, but has struggled heavily with injuries in the years since.

* '''Jacob [=deGrom=]''' is a right-hander for the Texas Rangers who became one of MLB's top pitchers in the last years of the 2010s while with the Mets. He went undrafted out of high school in Florida, ending up playing college ball at Stetson (where the aforementioned Corey Kluber had played a few years earlier). Unlike Kluber, [=deGrom=] didn't start out as a pitcher, playing only shortstop during his first two college seasons until he made some appearances as a reliever late in the 2009 season. As a junior, the Hatters' coaches moved him to part-time reliever, and midway through that season moved him entirely into the starting rotation. He did well enough for the Mets to select him in the ninth round of the 2010 draft. While in the minors, [=deGrom=] had Tommy John surgery, but recovered well enough to make it to the majors in 2014. He was named NL Rookie of the Year that season, and went on to have a 2018 season that was spectacular in all respects except one: his 10–9 record, which was largely due to the Mets offense failing to give him any run support that would put them in the lead when he was pitching. He led the majors in ERA (1.70) and fewest homers per 9 innings (0.41), and was the overwhelming choice for the NL Cy Young Award; his 10 wins were the fewest for any Cy Young-winning starter. The following season, he started out slow, but had a mind-blowing second half, going 7–1 with a 1.44 ERA after the All-Star break. [=DeGrom=] was again a near-unanimous Cy Young Award choice. After entering free agency at the end of the 2022 season, [=deGrom=] signed a 5-year, $185 million deal with the Rangers. He's one of the harder throwers among starting pitchers; his best pitches are a four-seam fastball and a slider, but can also effectively mix in changeups, curves, and sinkers.

* '''UsefulNotes/ShoheiOhtani''', currently a pitcher ''and'' designated hitter with the Los Angeles Dodgers (though only hitting in 2024 while recovering from elbow surgery), is arguably ''the'' face of baseball, and the first player to be a superstar as both a pitcher and hitter since Babe Ruth a century-plus earlier. See his own page for more.

* William '''"Buck" Showalter''' is the current manager of the New York Mets, having been hired during the 2021–22 offseason. A former minor league player for New York Yankee Affiliated teams, and since the early 90s, a manager for the New York Yankees, Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, and in-between those, and baseball analyst for ESPN he was hired by the Baltimore Orioles in the middle of the 2010 season. As this was during the O's AudienceAlienatingEra (an age where fans were abandoning the team, and holding the "Free the Birds" walk out movements to protests Peter Angelos' poor ownership of the team), he had a rather large task in front of him. He immediately got to work as he coached the worst team in the league at the time, and finished their season with 34 wins of 57 games played under him. Additionally, he made it clear to the team and fans, consistent under performance would have you on the bus to the AAA Norfolk Minor League team until your skills improved. His first full season with the O's in 2011 was another rebuilding year, capping it off with the now famous "Game 162", on September 28, 2011, "The Best Night of Baseball" where the last place in division O's knocked their rivals the Boston Red Sox out of the playoffs on their last game of the season. This fired up both the team, and fan base for the next season. And it showed as in 2012, the Dork Age officially ended, with the O's securing a Wildcard playoff, knocking out the Texas Rangers, before losing to the Yankees in the playoffs. 2013 was another winning season above .500 win average, and 2014 Showalter managed the team to a dominating 96-66 win-loss record as the AL East champions, preventing the playoff regular Yankees from even making it to the playoffs and receiving the American League Manager of the Year award. However, a new Dork Age, including a disastrous 2018 season that saw the O's lose a franchise-record 115 games (yes, more than in any of their seasons as the St. Louis Browns!), ended with both Showalter and GM Dan Duquette being shown the door. Showalter would return to managing in 2022 with the Mets, immediately leading them to a 100-win season, though losing the NL East in a tiebreaker to the Braves and the Wild Card series to the Padres. Nonetheless, he was named NL Manager of the Year--his fourth such nod, having also earned the honor in the AL with the 1994 Yankees, 2004 Rangers, and 2014 O's. This tied him with Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa for most MOY awards, and also made him the first manager ever to win that award with four different teams. If you need any further proof of how popular and successful he's been, fans regularly cheer him on just as much as the players, with chants and signs of "The BUCK stops here!" and "[=BUCKle=] Up!"

* '''John Sterling''': Another LargeHamAnnouncer, Sterling began his play-by-play career with a single season with the NBA's Baltimore Bullets[[note]]now the Washington Wizards[[/note]] before moving to UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} to call games for the NHL's Islanders and NBA's Nets in the '70s. He then moved to UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}, covering both the Braves and the NBA's Hawks in the '80s, before returning to New York in 1989 to become the broadcaster for the Yankees, a role he's held ever since. Known for his [[PunctuatedForEmphasis distinct manner]] of calling Yankees wins (which becomes even more drawn out whenever they clinch postseason series; the deeper into the postseason, the longer it's held), as well as giving each Yankee a personalized home run call which contains at least one {{pun}} and sometimes [[HurricaneOfPuns as many as three.]] He has also put his skill as PungeonMaster to great use on Creator/HallmarkChannel as a play-by-play announcer for the annual [[CuteKitten Kitten]] [[UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Bowl]].

* '''Shohei Ohtani''' is a Japanese player who truly defies categorization. He played for the Los Angeles Angels from 2018 to 2023, following spectacular success with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league. His talents got him the attention of some MLB teams straight out of high school, a pretty uncommon feat for Japanese players. He started getting more attention when he put up dominant pitching stats as a teenager in his first couple of seasons, and then he also had a breakout season at the plate in 2016, he became well-known internationally, even among American baseball fans, which is extremely rare; even dedicated baseball fans in the US have seldom heard of any players that aren't currently or formerly playing for an MLB team or a minor league affiliate of an MLB team. His hitting talents are so great that he's regularly used as a DH on days when he isn't pitching, with the Angels even encouraging him to hit during his pitching starts in 2021, even though it then meant that they had to give up the DH for that game. Ohtani's combination of great hitting and pitching have led to him being dubbed "The Japanese Babe Ruth". He decided to come over to an MLB team after the 2017 season, even though changes to the international signing rules meant that by not waiting until he was 25, he was costing himself potentially tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in his initial contract. With the signing rules heavily limiting how much he would cost and Ohtani not seeming to care too much about how much he was paid, pretty much every team in baseball could see him fitting into their budgets, and his rare combination of talents led to most of the 2017-18 offseason talk dominated by speculation about where Ohtani would sign, and just how good he could possibly be at both pitching and hitting when he got to MLB. Ohtani struggled mightily in spring training, leading to speculation as to whether he was worth the hype... until proceeding to homer in each of his first three regular-season games as a hitter and pick up wins in his first two pitching starts. He slowed down slightly after that, but still continued to do some pretty amazing things as both a hitter and a pitcher... at least until he ominously went on the disabled list with a sprained UCL. Ohtani ultimately finished the season as solely a hitter, and had Tommy John surgery after the season; he did not pitch in 2019, spending that season as a hitter. He had a down 2020... and then came 2021.\\
\\
In a late-April game, he became the first player since Babe Ruth himself to start a game as a pitcher while also entering the day leading MLB in homers, and the following month became the first player in baseball's modern era (1900–present) to record 30 strikeouts and hit 10 homers in his team's first 30 games. He didn't stop there, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit at least 30 homers in a season in which he made at least 10 pitching appearances (46 homers, 23 pitching starts). His 46 homers were third in MLB, and he also was tied for the MLB lead in triples, second in the AL in OPS, and in the top 10 in stolen bases. As a pitcher, he finished 9–2 with a 3.18 ERA, striking out more than a batter per inning and recording a better than 3-to-1 strikeout/walk ratio. Ohtani also became the first player ever to be selected for the All-Star Game as ''both'' a pitcher and position player (DH in his case). With Ohtani being named the AL starting pitcher for the ASG, MLB went so far as to make a one-game-only change to the DH rule to allow him to start on the mound, bat leadoff, and stay in the game as a DH once pulled from the mound. MLB decided to make this rule change permanent in 2022.[[note]]Specifically, a team can now list a two-way player such as Ohtani in its game-time lineup as the DH while pitching.[[/note]] Ohtani was the unanimous choice as AL MVP in 2021 and made the All-MLB Team as both the first-team DH and a second-team starting pitcher. The next year, he again made the ASG as both DH and pitcher, and made the All-MLB Team at both positions (first-team starting pitcher and second-team DH). Even with all that, perhaps his most remarkable accomplishments in 2022 were a pair of two-way feats even The Babe never did--(1) 30 homers and 10 pitching wins in the same season and (2) qualifying for MLB leaderboards as both a hitter and pitcher. "Shotime" added to his legend in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, being named to the all-tournament team as both a DH and pitcher, as well as collecting MVP honors. His performance for Team Japan was capped off by coming in as a reliever in the 9th inning of the final against Team USA, sealing Japan's win by striking out his Angels teammate Mike Trout. If anything, he was ''even better'' in the 2023 season, with that June being arguably the best month an MLB player has ''ever'' had. That month, he posted a 286 OPS+ and a slash line of .394/.492/.952 with 15 homers as a hitter, and a 3.26 ERA with 11 strikeouts per 9 innings as a pitcher. [[https://www.si.com/mlb/2023/07/03/shohei-ohtani-june-best-month-in-baseball-history This story]] tries to place that month in historic perspective. However, he would suffer another ligament tear in his throwing elbow that September; while he soldiered on as a hitter, an oblique muscle strain ended his season. Ohtani would go on to be named the unanimous AL MVP anyway. He also did 2021 and 2022 one better by becoming first-team All-MLB as both a DH and starting pitcher. The Angels cleared out his locker, fully expecting him to leave in free agency. They were right; the Dodgers would end up signing him to a monstrous [[https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10100444-shohei-ohtanis-700m-dodgers-contract-is-a-historic-risk-they-wont-regret-it $700 million contract]] on December 9--although it later came out that [[https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39092632/shohei-ohtani-defer-680m-deal-dodgers-sources $680 million of that was in deferred money]] that will be paid out from 2034–2043.[[note]]Discounted to present value, that makes his deal worth a still-enormous $460 million. The deferred money was Ohtani's idea, since MLB's current collective bargaining agreement discounts deferred money to the present value at the time the contract was signed, reducing the Dodgers' luxury tax hit.[[/note]] Shortly before the end of that season, Ohtani had a second elbow operation, and will only hit in 2024.\\
\\
He's become the subject of the "Tungsten Arm O'Doyle" meme, created in 2021 by a Twitter (X) commentator who contrasted the Angels' struggles in recent years with the individual greatness of Ohtani and Trout, with said commentator creating the fictional O'Doyle as an {{expy}} of Babe Ruth. The meme has become so associated with Ohtani that if you enter "Tungsten Arm O'Doyle" in the search field of the prominent statistics website ''Baseball Reference'', you're redirected to Ohtani's page.

* '''Joey Votto''' is the Cincinnati Reds' first baseman. The {{Canad|aEh}}ian was on almost everyone's short list of the best hitters in baseball from his 2010 MVP season to 2018 or so, although he also somehow manages to be a bit more obscure and underrated than one would expect. He ends up in debates about sabermetrics a lot, thanks to his high walk totals that have given him a career .412 on-base percentage; he had the highest OBP of any active player until age-related decline took Mike Trout past him in 2022. Because of his great plate discipline and frequent walks, some, including his former manager Dusty Baker, have criticized him for not being aggressive enough and not driving in enough runs for a middle-of-the-order hitter, even though he usually puts up decent RBI totals and has hit 100 [=RBIs=] twice. In addition, as sabermetricians will point out, he probably contributes more runs by getting on base as often as possible at the cost of a few home runs rather than swinging for the fences on pitches well outside the strike zone like some seem to want him to, and his [=RBIs=] are largely dependent on the hitters before him getting on anyway. Sadly, his formerly prodigious hitting has declined a bit in recent years as he's gotten older. After a temporary benching midway through 2020's 60-game sprint, he decided to change his approach. After previously focusing on plate discipline at the sacrifice of power, he began to focus on power while sacrificing plate discipline, leading to more offensive production. Votto was named NL Player of the Month for July 2021 after setting the league on fire, setting a franchise record by hitting home runs in 7 straight games from July 24-30[[note]]and nearly tied the Major League record of 8 (Ken Griffey Jr., Don Mattingly, Dale Long) were it not for the slightly taller outfield fence at New York's Citi Field. A hit that would likely have been a homr run at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park bounced off the top of the wall for a long single at Citi.[[/note]], including two back-to-back two homer games for 9 total dingers in the stretch for 11 overall in the month.

* '''Nick Castellanos''' is a right fielder and part-time third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, playing for them since 2022. Castellanos is a fairly decent player in his own right, not someone particularly noteworthy for his home runs or defensive prowess, but why he's become a name to know is because he has possibly the most unfortunate timing in baseball, as he has become ''the'' InterruptingMeme of the game due to a running string of moments in which he will be at bat, the broadcasters will be discussing something unfortunate, and he will make a big offensive play in some capacity in the middle of it. It first came to prominence when he was a member of the Cincinnati Reds and Reds broadcaster Thom Brennaman said a derogatory slur into a hot mic when referring to Kansas City, then later apologized it live, with Castellanos homering as he apologized. He would later hit home runs during a broadcaster discussing Tatis Jr.'s injury and during George Gorman's obituary during a Royals broadcast, and get his first hit as a Phillie during a discussion about Pete Walker's DUI. It later continued with home runs on the day of Dwayne Haskins' death, the anniversary of 9/11, the anniversary of the bombings o fHiroshima and Nagasaki (he hit ''two'' home runs that day for added irony), and when fans researched his career, they discovered that he hit his first home run as a professional baseball player in the minor leaues on the night that Osama Bin Laden was killed, which only added to the absurdity, [[SelfDemonstratingArticle and there's a drive into deep left field by Castellanos, it will be a home run. And so that'll makle it a 4-0 ballgame.]]

* '''Joe Davis''': Hired by the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Dodgers in 2016, Davis had the highly unenviable task of taking over from the legendary Vin Scully as the team's lead TV play-by-play voice after the latter's retirement at the end of that season, but amazingly enough he has by and large been accepted and even embraced by the fans as a worthy successor. As if that wasn't enough, he was tabbed to replace Joe Buck as the primary announcer for the Creator/{{Fox}} network's national MLB coverage in 2022, following Buck's move to Creator/{{ESPN}} and ''Series/MondayNightFootball''. Again, Davis met the challenge, earning particular accolades for his call of Bryce Harper's pennant-winning home run for the Phillies in Game 5 of the 2022 NLCS. Given his relatively young age (35, as of 2023), it seems likely that Davis will be one of the sport's premier voices for many years to come.

* '''Freddie Freeman''' is a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers who made his name with the Atlanta Braves. Born in Southern California to Canadian parents (making him a citizen of both countries), he was signed by the Braves out of high school and first made it to The Show as a September 2010 call-up. Freeman emerged as a star in 2013, when he made his first All-Star appearance, and after a couple of injury-plagued seasons in the middle of the decade established himself as a perennial All-Star. This was capped off with NL MVP honors in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and a World Series ring in 2021, after which he signed with the Dodgers as a free agent. Perhaps most notably, he's the only player to have been named to the All-MLB Team in each of the first four years of its existence (first team in 2020, second team in 2019, 2021, and 2022).