Kansas City, U.S.A. — As the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Stars take the field the night of July 10 on FOX, Pepsi MAX is announcing an All-Star roster of its own – the fan-selected Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams American League (AL) and National League (NL) teams comprised of some of baseball’s greatest legends.

Baseball fans across the country voted for their favorite MLB legends on the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL and NL ballots earlier this year at MLB.com/PepsiMAX to determine the rosters. From the ballots cast, two lucky consumers – Johnny Perotti representing the AL and Stephen Katchmark representing the NL – have been randomly selected to take the field with the MLB legends in an AL vs. NL match-up, and will campaign for votes to see who will have home field advantage for the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game.

To announce the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL and NL teams, actor Jay Mohr was on hand at the Pepsi MAX footprint at MLB All-Star FanFest earlier on July 10 with Cal Ripken, Jr. representing the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL team and Mike Schmidt representing the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams NL team.

The Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams American League team includes:

• Catcher – Yogi Berra
• First Base – Frank Thomas
• Second Base – Rod Carew
• Shortstop – Cal Ripken, Jr.
• Third Base – Brooks Robinson
• Outfielders - Ken Griffey, Jr., Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson
• Starting Pitcher – Jim Palmer
• Relief Pitcher – Dennis Eckersley
• Designated Hitter – Paul Molitor

The Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams National League team includes:

• Catcher – Johnny Bench
• First Base – Fred McGriff
• Second Base – Ryne Sandberg
• Shortstop – Ozzie Smith
• Third Base – Mike Schmidt
• Outfielders – Andre Dawson, Tony Gwynn and Stan Musial
• Starting Pitcher – Randy Johnson
• Relief Pitcher – Trevor Hoffman

“It’s exciting to be part of the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams program because it connects directly with the fans,” said Cal Ripken, Jr., Baseball Hall of Famer and Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams AL shortstop. “The guys on the AL and NL rosters are some of the greatest players of all time, and it’s truly an honor to be chosen by the fans for their Field of Dreams Team.”

Perotti, a Rochester, NY resident and five of his friends will join five MLB Legends from the AL roster for a baseball game against Katchmark, who is from Washington D.C., his five friends and five MLB Legends from the NL team.

Now it’s up to the fans to decide which team will have home field advantage. Between now and August 15, 2012 fans can go to MLB.com/PepsiMAX to view videos from Perotti and Katchmark and vote for which hometown - Rochester, NY or Washington, D.C. – will host the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game. Once determined, Pepsi MAX will plan the baseball game in the winner’s hometown.

“Pepsi MAX is looking forward to creating a once-in a lifetime experience for Johnny Perotti and Stephen Katchmark,” said Heidi Sandreuter, Senior Director, Pepsi Sports Marketing. “It’s not every day that you get to take the field with some of the greatest players of the game and we are excited to find out which hometown will be hosting the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams Game.”
For more information on the Pepsi MAX MLB Field of Dreams program, visit MLB.com/Pepsi MAX.

Image Courtesy of Aspen Photo / Shutterstock.com

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More than 50 seasons, an outrageously overdue 8,020 games, and virtually an entire lifetime later for the team’s first ever generation of young fans, Johan Santana threw the first no-hitter in the history of the New York Mets at Citi Field on Friday night.

The Mets defeated the defending World Series champions, the St. Louis Cardinals, 8-0, as Santana struck out eight and walked five in his second consecutive complete game shutout. And for the first time ever, the scoreboard read “0” under the hit column for a Mets opponent at game’s end.

If there really are baseball gods out there, they were certainly on Santana’s side during this outing. His former teammate, Carlos Beltran, hit a bullet down the third base line in the sixth inning that kicked up a significant patch of chalk, but was somehow still incorrectly ruled foul by third base umpire Adrian Johnson. Beltran would ground out to third baseman David Wright on the following pitch, keeping the no hitter intact.

Santana was the beneficiary of even more good fortune in the next inning. Mike Baxter, a 28-year-old who is ironically from Queens and grew up a Mets fan, made a miraculous catch in left field where he ran full speed and crashed into the wall, robbing Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina of what appeared off the bat to be a no-doubt double.

Baxter would then lay on the warning track in agony for several minutes. His left shoulder slammed straight into the padded wall and was badly bruised. He was immediately replaced by Andres Torres, who moved to center field after switching positions with rookie Kirk Nieuwenhuis.

“That ball that Baxter caught, he’ll go down in the annals of New York Met lore because of that,” said Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey.

But what made the historic performance by Santana even more captivating was that it was accomplished after a career-high 134 pitches by the same man who had missed more than an entire season following major shoulder capsule surgery.

When asked before the game, Mets manager Terry Collins said that he would limit his ace to somewhere between 110 and 115 pitches. His level of uneasiness visibly grew with each pitch after Santana finished the sixth inning with a staggering pitch count of 106. The last thing he wanted to do was jeopardize the two-time Cy Young Award winner’s health over one start.

However, Santana approached him after that very inning and told him that he was going to finish the game. After that, he felt that the decision was out of his hands, and he would go on to tell Santana that he was his “hero” during the seventh inning.

“I just couldn’t take him out,” said Collins during the post-game press conference, where the joy for his pitcher manifested itself into several emotional moments where he struggled to let out any words.

Nonetheless, his concern for the long-term effects was still present.

“I’m very excited for him, but in five days, if his arm is bothering him, I’m not going to feel very good,” Collins said.

Santana made a conscious effort to give his teammates just as much credit for achieving the feat despite the fact that he had just become the hero that completed what other great Mets pitchers such as Dwight Gooden, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, Jerry Koosman, and several others were unable to over the previous half century.

“We did this together,” Santana said. “It is not just about me. We had a great, great game tonight. Everyone participated. We did the little things the way we were supposed to do it. And it worked out good. I thanked them because we as a team made history tonight.”

There were more close calls in the final two innings, including a soft line drive off Beltran’s bat that nearly resulted in a collision between second baseman Daniel Murphy and shortstop Omar Quintanilla to end the eighth and a ball off the end of All Star outfielder Matt Holiday’s bat that was nearly overrun by Torres to start the ninth.

After falling behind 3-0 to the 2011 World Series MVP David Freese with one out remaining, Santana fought back into the count and struck him out on the pitch that’s made him such a dominant force for all these years – his changeup.

SNY play-by-play announcer Gary Cohen then called it the way every Mets fan had felt for all these decades. The wait was finally over, and this was no dream.

“It has happened!”

Image Courtesy of  David W. Leindecker / Shutterstock.com

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To the delight of all Milwaukee Brewers fans, yet simultaneously to the dismay of baseball purists, Friday brought news that Brewers left fielder and reigning National League MVP Ryan Braun had won his appeal against the 50 game suspension that Major League Baseball was poised to hand him following his failing of a performance enhancing drug test in October of 2011.

“Today is for everybody who has ever been wrongly accused,” said Braun at a news conference held at the Brewers training facility shortly after. “The simple truth is that I’m innocent. The truth is always relevant, and the truth prevailed.”

Braun, whose test results uncovered elevated levels of testosterone in his system that were made public in a December episode of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” became the first player in baseball history to successfully appeal a drug-related sentencing. Braun vehemently denied ever taking any sort of performance enhancer from the beginning of this entire process and continued to echo that same sentiment on Friday.

“If I had done this intentionally or unintentionally, I’d be the first one to step up and say I did it,” Braun said. “I would bet my life this substance never entered my body.”

MLB officials were livid with the arbitrator’s ruling, considering that Braun’s winning case argued against the fashion in which the procedure was handled, as opposed to claiming wrongful tampering took place or that the test was simply incorrect. Two unnamed sources vouched for Braun, stating that the urine sample that he provided on October 1was not delivered by the collector to FedEx until two days later.

MLB’s drug testing policy requires that all samples make their way to FedEx the very same day. The sources identified the collector as Dino Laurenzi, Jr. and testified that he left Miller Park with the sample at 5 P.M. on Saturday, October 1. It was said to be in a triple-seal container.

Laurenzi, Jr. then allegedly decided to take the sample home and not deliver it to Fed Ex until 1:30 P.M. on October 3, feeling that it would not be sent out to the lab in Montreal until Monday anyway. He supposedly placed it in a cool, dry area during that time period, and the lab chief told ESPN’s Lester Munson that the sample had not been tainted in any way and that the positive test result was indeed valid.

However, Braun still focused on the delay of the process, referring to it as “fatally flawed,” and questioned what could have happened to the sample during the 44-hour window between pickup and delivery.

“Our program is not fatally flawed,” said MLB Executive Vice President Rob Manfred in a statement. “Changes will be made promptly to clarify the instructions provided to collectors regarding when samples should be delivered to FedEx based on the arbitrator’s decision.

Neither Mr. Braun nor the MLBPA contended in the grievance that his sample had been tampered with or produced any evidence of tampering.” Because MLB did not follow protocol the way that they should have, there was not enough sufficient evidence to rule Braun guilty.

“I’ve lived this nightmare every day for the last four months,” Braun said. “At the end of the day, the truth prevailed. I’m the victim of a process that completely broke down.”

Sources are now saying that MLB may look to appeal the ruling in federal court.

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It is a shame to admit, but the Baseball Writers’ Association of America must revoke Ryan Braun’s MVP Award, following reports that he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in October. The BBWAA’s awareness of that sentiment is exactly why they claimed just a few days later that they would not be taking such action. Voters are hoping that the situation will simply go away on its own – but this is not the case at all. Allowing Braun to maintain the award would first do a major disservice to Major League Baseball and the recent progression it has made in diminishing steroid use within the game.

A few years ago, when Commissioner Selig implemented extremely severe suspensions for policy violators, it was clearly a statement that cheating would not be tolerated even one bit. Well if it is that serious, then it would make no sense for the BBWAA to let Braun keep the game’s highest annual individual honor knowing that he was not 100 percent clean.

Even if Braun is being truthful and the synthetic testosterone found in his system did not come from an illegal performance enhancing drug, it should not make a difference. The fact would still remain that he took something that gave him an unfair competitive advantage. Doing so unknowingly really does not change much.

Another case to make against Braun involves the current struggles of former players like Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGuire. These two have obviously not been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the last few years because of their connections to steroid use. Now, the NL MVP may not be as prestigious as a spot in Cooperstown, but there is still one undeniable similarity between the honors. Just like getting into the Hall of Fame, winning the MVP of the league means that a player will always have their own special place in baseball history that will allow their name to live on forever.

That whole idea is very powerful when looked at closely. The circumstances may differ immensely when it comes to McGuire and Palmeiro, but the focal point is still the same. If they are being punished for cheating, then there should be no exception made for Braun. The baseball writers need to set a strict precedent so players will be more aware of both their actions and the consequences that will ensue.

We also definitely cannot forget about Matt Kemp. The Dodgers center fielder had the year of his life in 2011 and finished a close second behind Braun in the voting. He hit 0.324, stole 40 bases, scored 115 runs, had 195 hits, smacked 39 homers, and drove in 115 runs. Now, although Braun only beat him out in one of those categories with a 0.332 average, the award was still considered well-deserved. After all, he did play an intricate role in the Brewers winning 96 games and their first ever National League Central title.

Kemp’s Dodgers, on the other hand, only won 82 games. Suddenly, however, Kemp appears to be much more deserving. As far as we know, he was able to eclipse all of those numbers without the aid of a performance enhancer.

Meanwhile, the baseball writers should ask themselves a few interesting questions after news of Braun testing positive. Would Braun’s numbers have come close enough to Kemp’s without the synthetic testosterone? Would Milwaukee still have won the division? Would that even be a determining factor if Kemp’s numbers were substantially higher in comparison?

The BBWAA has to take all of these morals and possibilities into consideration and take the award back. Major League Baseball and its fans will be thankful in the long run.

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