Fan News

If you are a true baseball fan, you're probably a regular visitor to Baseball-Reference.com. 

If you are a sports writer, you most likely set your sails for Baseball-Reference.com prior to writing your baseball pieces.

What exactly is Baseball-Reference.com?

It is a virtual warehouse of statistics covering every player who has played an inning of Major League Baseball.

Baseball history was changed forever on Nov. 28, 2003.

Curt Schilling was traded to the Boston Red Sox by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Without Schilling, the Red Sox would not have been World Champions in 2004 or in 2007.

Schilling didn't mince words. At the press conference announcing the trade, he succinctly summed up the situation. He told the world that he wanted to be part of bringing the Red Sox their first championship since 1918.

As of June 19, the Mets are sitting at 39-28 and a half a game behind first place in the NL East. 

Barring a typical late season collapse, the Mets are in good position to make some noise this season.  Guys are finally starting to get healthy and the usually horrendous pitching staff is sixth in the league in ERA and saves. 

One of New York's biggest Mets fans will be working with the team he adores in the broadcast booth for the Mets vs. Yankees game. Jerry Seinfeld will be the guest of honor for three innings, replacing Ron Darling for a bit. This was first reported by the New York Post's Michael Starr .

According to Starr, this is all a Fathers' Day gift to Jerry from his family. The television sensation will definitely be pleased to be a part of a Mets broadcast for the first time.

Nick Blackburn has always been tough to figure out. Finishing the last couple seasons with a "well-rounded" total of 11-11, he looks to be skidding into similar figures towards the end of June. 

But what worries me isn't so much the new advent of suck, but it coming after a phenomenal month of May. Blackburn was 5-0 in May, winning all of his decisions. He pitched at least seven innings in every start, as well as starting off the month with a complete game.

Here’s a look at some unheralded players who played well yesterday.

Nobody likes hockey anymore.

It makes me sad, but in the past few years it has been my feeling that people just don’t like hockey as much as they used to. Maybe that comes from growing up in New York and people here have just become apathetic lately as opposed to how excited people were in the '90s with the Cup, Mark Messier, and Wayne Gretzky all being here.

Stephen Strasburg had another excellent quality start last night in Washington but was a victim of no run support in the 2-1, 11-inning loss to the White Sox. The Nationals didn’t score a run until Strasburg made his exit after the top of the seventh.

The Nationals had defeated the Pirates 5-2 and the Indians 9-5 in his two previous starts. Strasburg had issues with the mound in the game with the Indians which probably caused him to walk five batters. He struck out 14 while walking none against the Pirates and struck out 10 while walking none against the White Sox.

Stephen Strasburg continued to impress, setting a major league record for strikeouts in his first three starts. David Ortiz continues to show that he has plenty left in the tank and Matt Garza had one of the worst starts of the season. Let’s look at these stories and all the rest from yesterday’s games:

NEW YORK-- For the first time since August 29-September 30, 2001, the Mets have put together a 24-game run of at least 19-5. No, it didn't even happen in 2006, when the Mets ran through the National League. That just shows you how hard it is to pull off this kind of feat.

The Mets will try to improve to 20 out of 25 today.