Chris Valaika
Christopher Andrew Valaika (born August 14, 1985) is a former professional baseball infielder and the current hitting coach for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Reds, Miami Marlins, and Chicago Cubs. He was formerly an assistant hitting coach for the Cubs. Early life and education Valaika was born on August 14, 1985, in Santa Monica, California, to Jeffrey and Ilona Valaika. He is the oldest son of five children. Valaika is an American of Lithuanian descent. Valaika attended Hart High School in Santa Clarita, California, and attended college at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He was a member of the U.S. National Team, and won the silver medal at the U-18 Pan Am Cup in Curacao-Antilles and the gold medal at the 2004 World University Baseball Championship in Taiwan. Playing career Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds drafted Valaika in the third round of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft, and he started his pro career with the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Cleveland Guardians
The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. Since , the team has played its home games at Progressive Field (originally known as Jacobs Field after the team's then-owner). Since their establishment as a Major League franchise in 1901, the team has won 12 Central Division titles, six American League pennants, and two World Series championships (in and ). The team's World Series championship drought since 1948 is the longest active among all 30 current Major League teams. The team's name references the ''Guardians of Traffic'', eight monolithic 1932 Art Deco sculptures by Henry Hering on the city's Hope Memorial Bridge, which is adjacent to Progressive Field. The team's mascot is named "Slider". The team's spring training facility is at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona. The franchise originated in 1896 as the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Infielder
An infielder is a baseball player stationed at one of four defensive "infield" positions on the baseball field, between first base and third base. Standard arrangement of positions In a game of baseball, two teams of nine players take turns playing offensive and defensive roles. Although there are many rules to baseball, in general the team playing offense tries to score runs by batting balls into the field that enable runners to make a complete circuit of the four bases. The team playing in the field tries to prevent runs by catching the ball before it hits the ground, by tagging runners with the ball while they are not touching a base, or by throwing the ball to first base before the batter who hit the ball can run from home plate to first base. There are nine defensive positions on a baseball field. The part of the baseball field closest to the batter (shown in the diagram as light brown) is known as the "infield" (as opposed to the "outfield", the part of the field furthest ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Chris Valaika 2009
Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian (given name), Christian, Christina (given name), Christina, and Christine (name), Christine. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name *Chris Abani (born 1966), Nigerian author *Chris Abele (born 1967), American businessman and politician *Chris Abell (1957–2020), British biological chemist *Chris Abrahams (born 1961), Sydney-based jazz pianist *Chris Achilléos (1947–2021), British painter *Chris Ackie (born 1992), Canadian football player *Chris Acland (1966–1996), English drummer and songwriter *Chris Adams (other), multiple people *Chris Adcock (born 1989), English internationally elite badminton player *Chris Adler (born 1972), American drummer *Chris Adrian (born 1970), American author *Chris Albright (born 1979), American former soccer player *Chris Alcaide (1923–2004), American actor *Chris Amon (1943–2016), former New Zea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Sarasota Reds
The Sarasota Reds were a professional minor league baseball team, located in Sarasota, Florida, as a member of the Florida State League. The team originally started play in Sarasota as the Sarasota White Sox in 1989. They remained in the city for the next 21 seasons, going through a series of name changes due to their affiliation changes. They were known as the White Sox from 1989–1993, as the Sarasota Red Sox from 1994–2004, and the Reds from 2004–2009. In Sarasota, the team played in Payne Park (1989) and then Ed Smith Stadium (1990–2009). They won two division championships, in 1989 and 1992, and made playoff appearances in 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, and 2007. The roots of the Reds, however, can be traced back even further to the Tampa Tarpons. In the 1980s, rumors arose that a major league team would come to Tampa, which would threaten the viability of the Tarpons and other minor league teams in the Tampa Bay Area. In 1988, the Chicago White Sox replaced Cincinnati as t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Midwest League
The Midwest League is a Minor League Baseball league established in 1947 and based in the Midwestern United States. A Class A league for most of its history, the league was promoted to High-A as part of Major League Baseball's 2021 reorganization of the minor leagues. The Midwest League began as the Illinois State League (1947–1948) and then became the Mississippi–Ohio Valley League (1949–1955). In 1956, the Mississippi–Ohio Valley League was renamed the Midwest League. The circuit temporarily operated for the 2021 season as the High-A Central before reassuming its original moniker in 2022. The Lansing Lugnuts and Wisconsin Timber Rattlers franchises jointly have won the most Midwest League championships, with nine each. History The Midwest League directly evolved from two earlier leagues in the region. In 1947, the Class D Illinois State League (ISL) began operation with six Illinois teams: the Belleville Stags, Centralia Cubs, Marion Indians, Mattoon India ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Dayton Dragons
The Dayton Dragons are a Minor League Baseball team of the Midwest League and the High-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds. They are located in Dayton, Ohio, and play their home games at Day Air Ballpark. In 2011, they broke the record for most consecutive sellouts by a professional sports team, selling out their 815th consecutive game, breaking the record formerly held by the Portland Trail Blazers. The Dragons came to Dayton in 2000 as the franchise was relocated from Rockford, Illinois. The franchise was previously known as the Rockford Expos (then Royals, Cubbies, and Reds). In 2021, the Dragons and 11 other teams that had previously competed in the Midwest League entered the High-A Central as Major League Baseball completed a large restructuring of Minor League Baseball. This was a temporary name change, with the historical "Midwest League" moniker returning for the 2022 season. Day Air Ballpark The team's home park is Day Air Ballpark in Dayton, formerly (until 2020) kn ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Pioneer Baseball League
The Pioneer Baseball League (also known as simply the Pioneer League) is a professional baseball league based in the Western United States. It operates as one of four Major League Baseball (MLB) Partner Leagues in the American independent baseball league system without MLB team affiliations. The league is contested by twelve teams from the Northern California and Rocky Mountains regions, who play a regular season split into two halves. The top two teams at the end of each half qualify for a postseason tournament that determines the overall champion. The Pioneer League was established in 1939 as a Class C minor league consisting of six teams from Idaho and Utah. It later expanded to Montana as part of a failed effort in the 1950s to become a third major league rivalling the American and National leagues, complicated by competition with the Pacific Coast League. By the time it was reclassified as a Rookie league in 1964, only four teams in Idaho remained. Gradually, it retu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Billings Mustangs
The Billings Mustangs are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. They are located in Billings, Montana, and have played their home games at Dehler Park since 2008. The team previously played at Cobb Field. History The Mustangs joined the Class C Pioneer League in 1948, then a full-season league. The club was founded by Brown Derby founder Bob Cobb, a Billings native who enlisted Hollywood stars such as Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ..., Cecil B. DeMille, Robert Taylor, and Barbara Stanwyck to purchase stock at $500 to $1,000 apiece to help launch the club. Local residents also purchased stock to help fund $100,000 in upgrades to Billings' Athlet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. It has an area of , with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its Urbanization by country, highly urbanized population is concentrated. The combined Free area of the Republic of China, territories under ROC control consist of list of islands of Taiwan, 168 islands in total covering . The Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, largest metropolitan area is formed by Taipei (the capital), New Taipei City, and Keelung. With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated countries. Tai ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |
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Antilles
The Antilles is an archipelago bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south and west, the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north and east. The Antillean islands are divided into two smaller groupings: the Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles. The Greater Antilles includes the Cayman Islands and larger islands of Cuba, Hispaniola (subdivided into the nations of the Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Navassa Island, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. The Lesser Antilles contains the northerly Leeward Islands and the southeasterly Windward Islands as well as the Leeward Antilles just north of Venezuela. The Lucayan Archipelago (consisting of The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands), though a part of the West Indies, is generally not included among the Antillean islands. Geography, Geographically, the Antillean islands are generally considered a subregion of North America. Culturally speaking, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico – and sometime ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   [Amazon] |