According to my calendar and every department store’s soundtrack, today is Christmas.  December 25th is always a quiet day for sports fans like me who don’t care about the NBA, but it is especially dry this year with no rumblings of baseball transactions.  We are already in the midst of our longest and coldest winter, but the longest nights are now behind us.

What is commonly referred to as the most wonderful time of the year doesn’t seem too wonderful with MLB in a lockout. However, there is still a group of players who have not been erased from MLB.com and have a chance to be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The Golden Days Era Committee and Early Baseball Era Committee will vote on 10 players and coaches each for the honor of being immortalized in Cooperstown. 

Major League Baseball is heading towards a lockout, with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire tomorrow, December 1st. There will be a complete freeze on all transactions until the league and the Players Association come to a new agreement.

Baseball is one of those sports where the rules are timeless and simplistic. However, over recent years Major League Baseball initiated a growing interest in digitizing the game through an electronic strike zone and communication devices. This comes after recent World Series wins with teams using electronics to cheat and seemingly getting away with it with little to no punishment.

Now that the World Series has ended with the Atlanta Braves taking home their first title since 1995, the baseball industry has shifted towards the offseason.  While the hot stove has not heated up yet—and it might not for many months—free agency has already gotten underway.

For the first time in 26 years, the Atlanta Braves took home the World Series trophy as the newly 4-time world champions.

For the first time since 1999, the Atlanta Braves are back in the World Series after their six-game battle against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After coming out strong in the second half of the regular season with an injury-prone team, the Braves managed to chop down every obstacle in their path.

On Tuesday, October 12, the Houston Astros blew out the Chicago White Sox, 10-1, to clinch the American League Championship Series.

We have already seen so much drama and excellent baseball and the Championship Series haven't even started yet. In one of the AL Division Series, the Boston Red Sox stunned the best team in the American League, the Tampa Bay Rays, with a 3-1 series win. Although it only lasted four games, the series provided plenty of outstanding moments. Let’s break down how the Red Sox earned their ticket to the ALCS.