As part of our celebration of America 250, MLB's content team has created 25 top 10 lists that capture the plays, people, rituals and moments that made baseball America’s game. In the end, we’ll have 250 plays that we believe define baseball.
How did this come about?
When brainstorming ways to celebrate America 250, we kept coming back to finding a way to capture all of the unique things that make baseball special.
It led to this question: If you could show someone a collection of things that truly captures and defines what baseball is, what would you show them?
How were the lists made?
We scoured our archives, polled our staff and reached out to fan communities to find the plays that define baseball.
Originally, the idea was to rank 250 plays in one giant list, but that didn’t feel like much fun. Are fans really going to debate the merits of a play ranked No. 87 vs. No. 139?
Instead, we chose 25 categories that collectively represent every facet of the game we love, categories that forced us to think beyond the obvious: Clutch plays, ridiculous feats of athleticism, batting stances and windups, drama-filled games.
Then, we made a top-10 list for each category.
Not surprisingly, limiting categories to Top 10's forced us to make some tough choices (though we do include honorable mentions).
The most important thing to remember is that this is not the 250 most important plays in baseball history, but rather a group of lists that we believe captures all the elements that make baseball great.
How will the lists be revealed?
Starting Aug. 4, we’ll be revealing five lists per week over the course of five weeks.
Anything else?
• A play can only appear on one list. If you don't see something you'd expect to see on one list, it might be coming up.
• When all the lists have been revealed, you will be able to create your own definitive top-10 list from the entries. If you could pick only 10 plays or moments that define baseball, which would you pick?