YEAR IN REVIEW : 2004 National League

Off the field...

The Olympics returned to their birthplace (Athens, Greece) amidst a stream of controversies involving the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. Despite the resulting suspensions and stripped titles, many experts believed the 2004 Games would be remembered for the improvement in drug testing which allowed honest athletes to prevail. One Greek newspaper summed up the media's bemusement at the number of cheaters discovered with a cartoon depicting a young boy, with a gold medal round his neck, being surrounded by microphones saying: "I am only a volunteer, but everyone else has tested positive."

During the summer of 2004, North America, Central America and the Caribbean experienced one of the deadliest hurricane seasons ever recorded. During the months of August and September alone, four major storms (Jeanne, Ivan, Frances, Charley) pounded the southeastern part of the globe killing well over 2,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands more homeless. As a result, a record setting number of tornadoes (173 in August, 247 in September) were also spawned as the left over tropical depressions moved inland and up the eastern coast. The total cost in damage from winds and flooding was estimated to run well into the multi-billions and was spread from the island of Haiti to upstate New York.

2004 also marked one of the most widely anticipated presidential elections in recent history. Republican President George W. Bush, son of former President Bush, made a run for a second term after being elected in the hotly contested 2000 campaign. At that time he was mid-way through his second term as governor of Texas, a position he assumed in 1994. Prior to running for governor he spent several years in the oil business and as the managing general partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team. His opponent, Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry was a decorated Vietnam War veteran who returned from the conflict to become one of the most outspoken opponents of the war. After entering politics in 1982, when he was elected lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, he ran for U.S. Senate on a campaign that refused contributions from political action committees. He was reelected in 1986, 1990, 1996 and 2002.

In the American League...

Baltimore Oriole Miguel Tejada won the 2004 Home Run Derby after edging the Houston Astros' Lance Berkman with five homers in the final round. The All-Star shortstop set two MLB records in the process by hitting a total of twenty-seven round-trippers for the night and fifteen in the second round. Amazingly, Tejada's final five blasts came after five outs, half of the requisite total.

Seattle Mariners sensation Ichiro Suzuki broke George Sisler's 1920 single season hitting record during an 8-3 victory over the Texas Rangers. With fans still cheering, Suzuki ran to the first-base seats and shook hands with Sisler's 81-year-old daughter and other members of the Hall of Famer's family. After Suzuki's record breaking 258th hit, he scored his 100th run of the season when the Mariners batted around in the third, taking a 6-2 lead on six hits.

The Cleveland Indians scalped the New York Yankees with a record-setting 22-0 massacre on August 31st. With the defeat, the Bombers lost their fifth consecutive game in the Bronx for the first time since May of 2003. The twenty-two runs allowed were the most ever given up by the Yankees in their home ballpark and the most runs allowed since 1928, when the Indians won a 24-6 decision (one of two eighteen-run defeats in New York history). The loss also tied the largest margin of defeat in a shutout since 1900, equaling the mark set in 1975 by the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 22-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

In the National League...

San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds continued his relentless assault on the major league record books in 2004. His season highlights included: (September 17th) Hit his 700th career homer, off San Diego's Jake Peavy. (September 11th) Broke his own record for walks in a season and became the first player to earn two-hundred free passes in one campaign. (August 29th) Recorded his sixty-eighth career multi-homer game, passing Mark McGwire for second all-time. (August 13th) Singled in his 1,813th run, passing Frank Robinson for fourteenth on the all-time RBI list. (July 10th) Broke his own record for intentional walks in a season with the first of three in the game. (July 8th) Passed Eddie Murray (5,397) for eighth place on the all-time total bases list. (July 4th) Received two walks from the Athletics to tie and break Rickey Henderson's all-time walks record. (June 13th) Hit his 500th homer as a Giant. (June 12th) Homered off the 400th different pitcher of his career, Baltimore's Rodrigo Lopez. (May 28th) Hit his tenth career walk-off homer, a two-run shot off Colorado's Tim Harikkala. (April 29th) Hit his 668th career homer, giving him and his late father Bobby a combined one-thousand home runs. (April 17th) Scored his 2,063rd run, putting him alone in seventh place all-time, with a solo homer off Los Angeles' Darren Dreifort. (April 13th) Hit his 661st career homer, off Milwaukee's Ben Ford, to assume sole possession of third place on the all-time list. (April 12th) Hit his 660th career homer, off Milwaukee's Matt Kinney, to tie godfather Willie Mays for third on the all-time list.

After enjoying a brief, seventy-eight day retirement, Roger Clemens returned to pitch with friend and former teammate Andy Pettitte on their hometown Houston Astros. For more than a year, "The Rocket" had insisted that 2003 would be his final season, but all bets were off after the Yankees lost the World Series and Pettitte left New York. Remarkably, the forty year-old, six-time Cy Young winner, returned better than ever becoming a NL Cy Young candidate en route to the National League Championship Series.

Randy Johnson, of the Arizona Diamondbacks, turned his back on the clock on his amazing career after pitching a perfect game against the Atlanta Braves on May 18th. In doing so, the forty year-old became the first ace to toss a perfect game since David Cone of the New York Yankees accomplished the feat in 1999. He also became the oldest pitcher in baseball history to do so, followed by Cy Young who had reached perfection at the age of 37 in 1904. Johnson's masterpiece came in a 2-0 win at Turner Field that took only two hours and thirteen minutes to complete. Afraid to "jinx" the outcome, neither the scoreboard nor public address system noted the history in the making and only displayed Johnson's picture and stats after the final pitch had been made.

Around the League...

America's "National Pastime" returned to the capital for the first time in thirty-three years after Major League Baseball approved the relocation of the Montreal Expos to Washington DC. Ironically, the announcement came one day before the anniversary of the original Washington Senators' final game (before moving to Texas) in 1971. The relocation of the Expos was subject to certain contingencies, including a vote by team owners in November and passage of legislation by Washington's City Council to build a ballpark on the Anacostia River waterfront.

One day after the death of former baseball star Ken Caminiti (an admitted steroid user) U.S. lawmakers passed legislation allowing tighter government regulation of steroid precursors. In doing so, the Anabolic Steroid Control Act added androstenedione, norandrosterone and similar testosterone-production enhancing substances to a list of anabolic steroids regarded as controlled substances. Caminiti, who had played in the major leagues for fifteen years, died of an apparent heart attack at age forty-one. He had admitted to using steroids during his Most Valuable Player season in 1996, when he hit .326 with forty home runs and one-hundred thirty runs batted in for the San Diego Padres.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"I'm very proud of him (Greg Maddux) and I'm proud I had the opportunity to play with him. He was the epitome of consistency over his career. He's done a wonderful job to get to the point he's at. Those who know him will probably show much more excitement and emotion over it than he will. At some point, though, he'll break down and let everyone know what his career has meant to him. But I don't anticipate it at three-hundred."- New York Mets Pitcher / Former TeammateTom Glavine on MLB.com (August 7, 2004)

2004 National League Player Review

Hitting Statistics League Leaderboard

Base on Balls Barry Bonds San Francisco 232 Top 25
Batting Average Barry Bonds San Francisco .362 Top 25
Doubles Lyle Overbay Milwaukee 53 Top 25
Hits Juan Pierre Florida 221 Top 25
Home Runs Adrian Beltre Los Angeles 48 Top 25
On Base Percentage Barry Bonds San Francisco .609 Top 25
RBI Vinny Castilla Colorado 131 Top 25
Runs Albert Pujols St. Louis 133 Top 25
Slugging Average Barry Bonds San Francisco .812 Top 25
Stolen Bases Scott Podsednik Milwaukee 70 Top 25
Total Bases Albert Pujols St. Louis 389 Top 25
Triples Juan Pierre Florida 12 Top 25
Jimmy Rollins Philadelphia
Jack Wilson Pittsburgh

2004 National League Pitcher Review

Pitching Statistics League Leaderboard

Complete Games Livan Hernandez Montreal 9 Top 25
ERA Jake Peavy San Diego 2.27 Top 25
Games Jim Brower San Francisco 89 Top 25
Saves Armando Benitez Florida 47 Top 25
Jason Isringhausen St. Louis
Shutouts Cory Lidle Philadelphia 3 Top 25
Jason Schmidt San Francisco
Strikeouts Randy Johnson Arizona 290 Top 25
Winning Percentage Roger Clemens Houston .818 Top 25
Wins Roy Oswalt Houston 20 Top 25

2004 National League

Team Standings

Atlanta Braves 96 66 0 .593 -- $88,507,788
Philadelphia Phillies 86 76 0 .531 10 $93,219,167
Florida Marlins 83 79 0 .512 13 $42,118,042
New York Mets 71 91 0 .438 25 $100,629,303
Montreal Expos 67 95 0 .414 29 $43,197,500
St. Louis Cardinals 105 57 0 .648 -- $75,633,517
Houston Astros 92 70 0 .568 13 $74,666,303
Chicago Cubs 89 73 0 .549 16 $91,101,667
Cincinnati Reds 76 86 0 .469 29 $43,067,858
Pittsburgh Pirates 72 89 0 .447 32½ $32,227,929
Milwaukee Brewers 67 94 0 .416 37½ $27,518,500
Los Angeles Dodgers 93 69 0 .574 -- $89,694,167
San Francisco Giants 91 71 0 .562 2 $82,019,167
San Diego Padres 87 75 0 .537 6 $54,639,503
Colorado Rockies 68 94 0 .420 25 $64,590,403
Arizona Diamondbacks 51 111 0 .315 42 $70,204,984
National League Team Standings

2004 National League Team Review

Hitting Statistics League Leaderboard

Base on Balls San Francisco 705
Batting Average St. Louis .278
Doubles Colorado 331
Hits St. Louis 1,544
Home Runs Chicago 235
On Base Percentage San Francisco .357
Runs San Francisco 855
Slugging Average St. Louis .460
Stolen Bases Milwaukee 138
Triples Pittsburgh 39

2004 National League Team Review

Pitching Statistics League Leaderboard

Complete Games Montreal 11
ERA Atlanta 3.74
Fewest Hits Allowed Chicago 1,363
Fewest Home Runs Allowed Pittsburgh 149
Fewest Walks Allowed San Diego 422
Saves St. Louis 57
Shutouts Florida 14
Strikeouts Chicago 1,346
Seasonal Events: All-Star Game | All-Star Game | All-Star Game | World Series
Navigation: Year in Review Menu | Previous Season | Next Season
Miscellaneous: A.L. Leaderboard
Retirements | Rookies List
Average Salary: $2,486,609.00
Minimum Salary: $300,000.00
baseball almanac flat baseball

baseball almanac fast facts

The last National League pitcher to join the 300 Wins Club was Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies on September 23, 1983. The Mad Dog, Greg Maddux, returned to the Cubs rotation and won his three-hundredth game on August 7, 2004, versus the San Francisco Giants.

On April 6, 2004, David Aardsma of the San Francisco Giants played in his first ever major league ballgame and as he stepped onto the field, he was booed loudly. Why? Aardsma alphabetically now replaces Hank Aaron at the top of the baseball biographical player list.

Ken Griffey, Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds joined the 500 Home Runs Club on June 20, 2004, putting three (3) of the four (4) active five-hundred home runs club members in the National League in 2004 —Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr. & Sammy Sosa.