Best Teams of the 2000s

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Major League Baseball marched into the 21st Century with the same look and feel it had exhibited for much of the previous 100 years. The futurists who long ago painted the National Pastime of tomorrow as a game played in glass domes with translucent bats and lasers might have been surprised to learn the game would still be played on true green glass under blue skies, with wooden bats, hand-operated scoreboards and a baseball still coated in rawhide.

While the environment of the game remained pure, it became increasingly evident that many of the players performing within it had not. By decade’s end, confirmed steroid users included Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Manny Ramirez, Sammy Sosa, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi and Barry Bonds—whose successful pursuit of Hank Aaron’s all-time home run record was met with as many cries of protest as cheers of recognition. Many fans still scorn these and other players today.

On the field, the more positive developments of the decade came in an influx of top foreign talent. While America had always been the ultimate destination for baseball players around the world, the 2000s finally saw a breakthrough in a more diverse melting pot beyond the usual sources of the Caribbean and Latin America. Major leaguers now listed birthplaces such as Europe, Australia and especially the Far East, where the rush to America was led by the incomparable Ichiro Suzuki, who hit .333 with over 2,000 hits in nine years after joining the Seattle Mariners in 2001.

Most of the teams in this special edition won the World Series for the year they represent. There is one obvious exception, the 2001 Mariners. They may be the best team of the decade as they won 116 games in the regular season.

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The teams we selected to include are the following:

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1. 2001 Seattle Mariners

2. 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks

3. 2002 Anaheim Angels

4. 2003 Florida Marlins

5. 2004 Boston Red Sox

6. 2005 Chicago White Sox

7. 2006 St. Louis Cardinals

8. 2007 Colorado Rockies

9. 2008 Philadelphia Phillies

10. 2009 New York Yankees

 

We hope you enjoy the fun of bringing these teams and players back to life.

To order visit our Product Page. It is only $6.99 and we will be adding more great teams soon.
 

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