We’ll be boarding by row number. Please completely remove your boarding pass from its envelope, and have it ready for the gate agent, along with your photo ID. In honor of Mr. Ruth, you are encouraged to smoke a cigar throughout today’s flight!

Ben looks at the Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers, as well as five other pairs of teams that saw a big reversal in their spots in the standings from one year to the next.

Steve takes a look at some of the most notable one-year wonder seasons of the past 70 or so years. Test your nerd power and take his trivia test!

Guest columnist Bill James has his own take on the Ichiro record quest.

It’s been 40 years now, and Steve is completely over his bitterness and frustration over how his Giants handled the “problem” of too many Hall of Fame bats on one roster. Okay, maybe not quite.

You’ll laugh!! You’ll cry!! You’ll marvel at the adventures of those two madcap GMs, as they put together the greatest baseball team ever assembled primarily through great trades.

Sorry, we don’t think Jerry Colonna is in this one.

Take a walk with Steve — and another walk, and another, and then one with the bases loaded! — through the league in which the base on balls was king.

Steve explores the 18-year, 609-stolen-base career of Carlos Bernier — and considers why it was that 594 of those bags were swiped in the minor leagues.

Randy Johnson’s and Steve Carlton’s Win Shares, and the Win Share totals for each team this year.

Steve turns his attention to the modern bullpen, where he finds a Closer, a few varieties of Setup Man, and at least one LOOGY. He doesn’t find an efficient use of resources.