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The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Baseball



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Columns

Extra Innings: MLB preseason power rankings

The Red Sox had one of the most productive offseasons in the league, as they traded for ace Garrett Crochet to boost their rotation and added veteran third baseman Alex Bregman to the lineup. Boston is also expecting three blue-chip prospects — Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer — to make their big-league debuts in 2025.



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Columns

Extra Innings: The lasting legacy of ‘The Machine’

This column started as an attempt to compare New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge with St. Louis Cardinals legend Albert Pujols. But after a particularly long session of Baseball Reference scrolling, I decided I didn’t want to write about Judge at all. That’s because I discovered something that I’ve never heard discussed by any baseball journalists: There will never be another hitter like Albert Pujols.


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Baseball

Full Court Press: What the Jurickson Profar incident can teach us about fan etiquette

It’s tough to go from Little League to The Show. Only around 0.5% of those who play baseball in high school make it to the professional level. But what if we all want to be involved in America’s favorite pastime? We don’t all possess the strength or talent required to throw a ball in the 90s or hit one 400 feet, but we all can come to the ballpark as fans, with our mitts and souvenir cups, and experience the game from the bleachers.


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Baseball

Extra Innings: MLB's lifeline

During this summer’s Olympics, I watched Katie Ledecky absolutely demolish her competition in the women’s 1500 freestyle final, breaking her own Olympic record and winning the gold medal by over 10 seconds. Ledecky has been so dominant in the event throughout her career that the race was over before it began and everyone knew it. And yet, I was absolutely captivated. Knowing what the outcome would be didn’t take away from the joy of watching one of the most dominant athletes of all time excel at her craft.



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Columns

Extra Innings: Let us watch baseball

MLB’s TV policy is asinine. For a league that ostensibly wants (and actually needs) to grow the game of baseball, they sure do enjoy making it hard for fans to watch it. Right now, the money MLB makes from regional sports networks is more important to them than making the game more accessible.


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Columns

Extra Innings: The two sweepstakes

There are two players that teams looking for a superstar this offseason will be all-in on. The first is, of course, Shohei Ohtani. We’ve been waiting all year to see where the two-time American League MVP plays next. The other is Juan Soto, who no one thought would be available this offseason, and who still might not be (it’s complicated). Here are my thoughts on where these two end up.



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Columns

Sports and Society: The walk to end all walks

I’m going to level with you. Among the “Big Four” American sports, baseball is my least favorite. It’s both the slowest and least athletic, yet also the most confusing and time intensive. But I still went to the Red Sox-Pirates game on Monday night and remembered why I still love it.


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Columns

Extra Innings: This one's for Dusty

Almost everyone in America outside of Houston, Texas, wanted the Philadelphia Phillies to take down the Astros in the 2022 World Series. After all, the Phillies were the unquestioned underdogs of this story. They were the last team to clinch a spot in the playoff field at 87–75, were making their first postseason appearance since 2011 and no one expected them to make it to the Fall Classic. 


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Science

When baseball meets mathematics: Ruth-Aaron numbers

If you’re passionate about baseball and are familiar with the history of the sport, you may be familiar with the player Babe Ruth and his record of 714 home runs set in 1934. This record stood strong until Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run in 1974 — a historic day for baseball and an inquisitive day for mathematicians.




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Columns

Extra Innings: Playoff preview 2022

It’s the first year of the new 12-team format for the MLB postseason, which begins tonight. The first round will feature four wild card series, each of them a best of three games. The top two division winners in each league get first round byes. The Astros and the Yankees are the top two seeds in the American League, while the Dodgers and Braves secured byes in the National League. Those clubs will face the winners of the wild card round in a best of five games division series, which will be followed by the best of seven games championship series and the World Series, which begins on Oct. 28. This is a breakdown of the wild card matchups, predictions for each and some thoughts on who will win it all.