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From the advent of modern Major League Baseball in 1901 to Joltin' Joe's hitting streak in '41 to Roger Maris' "61 in '61" to Fernandomania in '81 to an emotional 2001 World Series, it has become sort of an unwritten rule that any year ending in a one has to be memorable.Well, here we are in the 2011 postseason and the history books already are being updated. Wednesday's conclusion to the regular football teams season will be remembered for ages. It's the year when Derek Jeter got his 3,000th hit and Mariano Rivera got his 602nd save. Perhaps a dramatic postseason is now a foregone conclusion.As we wait to see what happens next, here is a look back at previous years ending in one:2001Arizona won its first World Series by outlasting the Yankees in a seven-game series that struck an emotional chord with s football teams eemingly every American, because the national pastime was lifting spirits again in those turbulent days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The home team won every game, and that included the unbelievable Game 7 finish when Luis Gonzalez delivered the walk-off hit against closer Mariano Rivera.Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn said goodbye on successive days, and on the last day of the season, Ricke football teams y Henderson got his 3,000th career hit. Barry Bonds established the single-season record with 73 home runs and won his first of four consecutive MVP awards. Looking back now, you're a lot more likely to remember 2001 for Derek Jeter becoming the first "Mr. November" during Game 4 of the World Series or Randy Johnson relieving Curt Schilling.1991Many people still call it the best World Series they football teams ever saw. Jack Morris outdueled John Smoltz in Game 7 and the Twins beat the Braves on Gene Larkin's pinch-single in the 10th off Alejandro Pena to score Dan Gladden with the game's only run. It was the start of something big in Atlanta, where the Braves won the division title and started a streak of them that would last through every full season until 2006.On May 1, Henderson stole his 939th base football teams to pass Lou Brock as the all-time leader. "Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing," Henderson said that day. "But today, I'm the greatest of all time. Thank you." On that same day, Nolan Ryan tossed his seventh and final no-hitter against the Blue Jays. 1981It was the year of Fernandomania. A pudgy lefty from Mexico who looked to the heavens during his windup won the National League's Cy football teams Young and Rookie of the Year awards, leading the Dodgers to a six-game World Series triumph over George Steinbrenner's Yankees. Due to a strike in midseason, the season was divided into a first half and a second half. The division winner of the first half (denoted East 1, West 1) played the division winner of the second half (denoted East 2, West 2). Len Barker of Cleveland threw a perfect game o football teams n May 15.1971The Pirates beat the Orioles in a great seven-game series, with the home team winning each of the first six games until Pittsburgh broke through in the finale, led by World Series MVP and eventual Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. He hit a solo homer in the fourth off of one of Baltimore's many aces, Mike Cuellar, to break a scoreless tie. That Pirates team was the first in the Majors t football teams o field an all-black lineup.Clemente also was one of six future Hall of Famers who would homer during a special All-Star Game at old Tiger Stadium, along with Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Reggie Jackson, Harmon Killebrew and Frank Robinson. Jackson's blast would hit a rooftop light transformer. One of the greatest games by any player in history happened on June 23, when Phillies pitcher Rick Wise no- football teams hit the Reds, 4-0, and hit two home runs.1961It was the year of "61 in '61" -- Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth's fabled single-season home run record for the Yankees, despite playing with a schedule that was eight games longer. Maris and teammate Mickey Mantle -- the "M M Boys" -- waged an unforgettable home run battle down the stretch. Whitey Ford was named World Series MVP as the Yankees beat the football teams Reds in five, with Ford recording two of his World Series-record 10 wins.1951Bobby Thomson of the Giants hit "The Shot Heard 'Round The World" off Ralph Branca of the Dodgers at the Polo Grounds in the third game of a best-of-three tiebreaker series to decide the NL pennant, sending the Giants into the World Series where they lost in six to the Yankees. With the playoff win, the Giants overcame a football teams 13 1/2 game deficit to the Dodgers. To this day, it remains the game's most famous home run. Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria just became the only other person to do what Thomson did, hitting a walk-off homer on the last day of the regular season to send his team into the postseason.1941Joe DiMaggio hit safely in a record 56 consecutive games for the eventual-champion Yankees. Ted Williams of the Red So football teams x became the last player to hit .400 when he went 6-for-8 on the final-day doubleheader, finishing at .406. And that same summer, he hit a three-run walk-off homer off Claude Passeau to give the American League a 7-5 victory in the All-Star Game in Detroit. They were days of innocence before America was sprung into a world war months later. It is a year romanticized further by Roger Kahn's classic football teams book, "Boys of Summer."1931They would become known as the "Gashouse Gang," and the Cardinals established themselves as a force by winning it all for the first of multiple titles as a group amidst the Great Depression in America's heartland. They beat Connie Mack's mighty A's in seven games that year.Lou Gehrig drove in a career-high 184 runs for the Yankees, the same team that surrendered 11 runs football teams to the White Sox in the top of the eighth inning on July 28 at Yankee Stadium. That is relevant now, because it was the first time they lost a game in which they were winning by at least seven runs in the eighth inning or later. It would happen two other times in franchise history, once in 1953 and then again on Wednesday.1921Babe Ruth hit 59 homers, astronomical at the time, a number that finall football teams y would be surpassed in the aforementioned '61 season. The Bambino became baseball's all-time home run king that season, and he also led the Yankees to their first World Series. It was a loss in eight games to the Giants, but there would be 27 titles to come. The position of Baseball Commissioner was created, and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis became the first elected to the post. Walter Johnson br football teams oke Cy Young's career-strikeouts record and finished the year with 2,835.1911The World Series between the Giants and the A's was resumed after six days of rain, and Chief Bender beat Christy Mathewson, 4-2, to give the A's a 3-1 lead. Philadelphia would win the series in six games to repeat as champions. Buck O'Neil, who went on to become the first African American coach in the Majors and eventual football teams ly a major force behind the opening of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, was born on Nov. 13. This was the year that the Polo Grounds, a new horseshoe-shaped structure, opened.1901It is the starting point for what is generally considered modern baseball history. Ban Johnson's American League was formed, joining with the established NL to form today's two-league system. The Yankees, football teams Orioles, White Sox, Red Sox, Tigers, Athletics, Twins and Indians of today date origins back to 1901. Cy Young, halfway through his career, led baseball with 33 wins and 158 strikeouts. football teams
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