AL East

The city of Toronto, from a sports perspective, has been swimming through quicksand for a long time.

General mangers of the city's major sports teams have tried to put together teams that will contend or at least make a playoff appearance. Evidently, they’ve been coming up short.

It's just "Manny being Manny."

Over Manny Ramirez's 19 year career, this catchphrase embodied who he was, a free spirit that could not be tamed. Like his personality, his bat was also a force that could not be tamed in his prime.

With a .312 lifetime batting average and 555 home runs, Ramirez established himself as one of the greatest and most feared hitters during our time, being selected to the All-Star Game 12 times.

His numbers are indisputable, on paper Manny Ramirez is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Manny announced his retirement today, ending a career in which he hit .312 on 2,574 career hits. Manny hit 555 career home runs and drove in 1,831 runs. He also helped the Red Sox win two World Series championships in 2004 and 2007.

Not much going on on the minor league front for the Orioles.

Three of the organization's four games were postponed due to rain, and will be made up at a later date. The only game that took place was the second game of Norfolk's series with Charlotte.

Charlotte 5, Norfolk 0.

The Tides looked like they would have preferred a rain-out as well, notching only three hits all night off of the Knights. 

The Orioles minor league affiliates (three of them, anyways) kicked off the 2011 season on Thursday night, and while Low-A Delmarva was the only team to emerge from the opening day slate, that's not to say that there weren't plenty of positive signs for the most surprising big-league squads' minor league system.

Delmarva 2, Greensboro 1

The career numbers are staggering.

.312 batting average (87^th all-time)

555 homeruns (14^th all-time)

1,831 RBI (18^th all-time)

2,574 hits (82^nd all-time)

547 doubles (24^th all-time)

1,544 runs (56^th all-time)

1,329 walks (36^th all-time)

4,826 total bases (26^th all-time)

.411 on-base percentage (32^nd all-time)

.585 slugging percentage (9^th all-time)

There have been many great moments throughout the course of baseball history.

From national league sluggers battling it out in a home-run chase, to a Dodgers player becoming one of the first black players to play in the league, we have experienced a lot in the past 142 years of major league baseball.

The following is my take on the best 10 moments during this time. Enjoy.

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History will remember Manuel Aristides (Onelcida) Ramirez as follows:

"He wasn't the 'best' slugger of the Steroid/PED Era - but he was the last of them."

A-Rod's juicing days have been over for a few years. Although other marginal players struggling to get to or stay in the big show will continue to try and cheat the system, there are simply no "good" juicing dinosaurs left playing.

Now that Manny has evaded capture, that is.

There will not be a Chicago reunion tonight for Manny Ramirez, who played for the White Sox in the final two months of last season. He decided to retire after he reportedly tested positive for steroids.

Ramirez will face criticism for bailing out on the Rays and being busted for steroids.

Phil Hughes was born on June 24, 1986 in Mission Viejo, California. A little less than 25 years later, the sorry sack of dog**** went to Boston and gift wrapped the first win of the season for the hated Red Sox, who beat the New York Yankees 9-6.