MLB

Every year there seems to be someone who comes back from certain retirement to once again establish themselves as a force in the baseball world.

This year is no different, and there are a number of players making surprise comebacks this season. Vernon Wells and Barry Zito come to mind immediately.

So I have decided to run down what I feel are the top ten comeback seasons of the past ten years.

Just to clarify, there is a difference between a breakout season and a comeback season.

Am I the only one who watched the New York Mets drop two out of three games to the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend?  I thought most people did, but apparently Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, and Orel Hershiser did not.

Normally, I would not care if three people did not watch the weekend series between National League East rivals, but when you are broadcasting a game Sunday night in the series you should pay attention to the previous games.

Don't ever let anyone tell you that the Baseball Gods lack a sense of humor; it's simply not true. The collective funny bone is intact—the problem is that comedy doesn't tickle it.

Instead, it's cruelty that gives the diamond deities a case of the giggles.

Over the course of any team's 162-game season, a fan will see ample proof of this perversity. At the moment, aficionados of the Oakland Athletics are getting their eyeful.

"Throw 'til you blow" used to be many major league teams' motto. Now, they are teaching the complete opposite. Pitch counts are used in every single game, for every single pitcher. The days of the four-man rotation are over. Some teams go to a six-man rotation as the long season progresses.

Complete games have fallen by the wayside, and an "innings-eater" is now the exception, not the rule.

Caption: Dave Roberts scored one of the most important runs in franchise history in the ninth inning of Game Four of the 2004 ALCS.  The run tied the game and helped set the stage for the Red Sox to execute the greatest comback in MLB history.

After watching the Mariners blow game after game, it came as no surprise their hitting was amiss again Sunday.  Doug Fister’s great showing was all for nothing, and Ichiro’s stolen home run forgotten.

The following players shouldn’t necessarily be moved or picked up, but are mentioned because they are performing above or below their career norms. Each player is owned in at least 50 percent of ESPN leagues.   

Buy Low

How great is this story?

Colby Lewis struggles with several Major League teams, the Rangers, Athletics, Tigers, and the Nationals, in the U.S.

Then in 2008 and 2009, he plays for the Hiroshima Toyo Carps in Japan.  He thrives there, leading the league in strikeouts both seasons. Then he comes back and dominates for the Rangers in the States. Pretty good, huh?

Bobby Valentine was in Japan too long.

The Rays (18-7) are off to the best start in baseball but begin a tough western road trip this week that sees them travel to Seattle, Oakland, and Anaheim.

They open up with the Mariners (11-13) on Tuesday, who come in having lost three straight after being swept at home by the Rangers.