KANSAS CITY — This year’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game comes to the heartland of America, to a city located geographically in the center of a country that has long dubbed baseball as its National Pastime.

Under scorching temperatures, with the smell of succulent barbeque penetrating the streets, and a passionate fan base still drenched in the history that legends like George Brett, Frank White and Dick Howser helped make, Kansas City is undeniably a baseball town.

While recent years have proven rough for Royals fans, this year they’re treated with a divine week-long blast of baseball elegance, the crown jewel of July, the 83^rd playing of the Midsummer Classic.

Brett leads clinic: Royals legend and Hall of Famer George Brett was on hand at the Kansas City Convention Center Friday for a youth baseball clinic. Brett, a longtime ambassador of Kansas City, is the go-to famous figure for the city this weekend. He will be on-hand giving clinics and signing autographs through Tuesday at the convention center.

Selig to host annual chat: Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will address fans in a live Internet chat session on Monday. He will answer questions in front of an audience during the FanFest beginning at 12:30 p.m. EST. The event will also be live on MLB.com.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Only two miles from downtown Kansas City, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is a monumental facility packed with baseball history dating back hundreds of years. Anchored by a beautiful baseball diamond and bronze statues of arguably the top 10 Negro League players of all-time (there’s a batter in the box to make 10), it’s a must-see for any baseball fan taking the journey to K.C. this week.

Topps Digital at ASG: Aside from posting daily blog posts right here on Tumblr, we’ll also be very active on Twitter and Facebook @ToppsPennant and @ToppsBUNTCast from every major event in K.C. Follow along and feel free to engage! More importantly, if you’re in K.C. over the next few days, please stop by the Topps booth at FanFest to say hello and demo our new apps.

Social media madness: If you’ve been tweeting about #KC and the #ASG, then there’s a good chance someone from the Social Media Command Center in Kansas City replied and engaged with you. It’s only Friday and their team has been extremely active. Even Mayor Sly James retweeted me twice throughout the day. For a complete social media guide to the weekend, MLB.com compiled a simple-to-follow document with all the info you’ll need.

Schedule: Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a look at what’s going on the next few days:

• Saturday: FanFest 9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m.
• Sunday: FanFest, 9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., Futures Game 4:00 p.m., Celebrity Softball 7:00 p.m.
• Monday: FanFest, 9:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m., AL/NL Workouts 4:15 p.m., Home Run Derby, 7:00 p.m.
• Tuesday: FanFest, 9:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m., All-Star Game, 6:30 p.m.

Other news & notes

• According to a report from Major League Baseball, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday has been named to replace Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina on the N.L.’s active roster.
• If you’re heading to K.C. for All-Star festivities, you might want to read the MLB.com FanFest 411 story. It’s a quick look at what to expect over the next few days.

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro

On July 5, 1998, Juan Gonzalez became just the second player in major league history to slug in 100 RBI in the first half of the season before all-star break. 

The record is 103 set by Hank Greenberg in 1935. While Greenberg finished with 170 that season, Gonzalez recorded 157.

This season, Josh Hamilton currently leads all major leaguers with 74 RBI, following by Melky Cabrera (68), Jose Bautista (64) and Carlos Beltran (63).

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro

On this day 73 years ago, Yankees legend Lou Gehrig said he was the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. His speech and legacy will live on forever. Happy Fourth of July!

Photo credit: Graig Kreindler

Baseball fans can now have Cooperstown in the palm of their hand, thanks to new mobile applications for Apple and Android devices available from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Through a new licensing relationship with Celebrity Apps of Pleasanton, Calif., the Museum has launched its first mobile device application: “Baseball Hall of Fame Trivia.” The 90-seconds per round game covers all aspects of baseball history and allows users to post their scores to a leaderboard via Facebook.

The Baseball Hall of Fame Trivia app will be available initially through iTunes for Apple mobile devices at a cost of $1.99, followed by the release of an Android version in July.

Users will also have the option of purchasing additional trivia games based on the Hall of Fame’s new FENtennial exhibit which celebrates the 100^th anniversary of Fenway Park, as well as team specific trivia games. More Hall of Fame apps are scheduled to launch throughout the year featuring biographies of Hall of Fame members, artifacts from the Museum’s collection, and stories of baseball records. Licensing revenue from sales of the mobile apps will help support the Museum’s not-for-profit educational mission to preserve baseball history. 

MINNEAPOLIS - During his keynote address on Friday at this year’s Society of American Baseball Research conference, John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian, told his fellow baseball aficionados that it’s completely acceptable and commendable to be “nerds” of this game.

“We are nerds, you and I,” he said. “We endured the predictable slings and arrows on the whole cheerfully, not only because we know who we are, but also because we live in the age of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and other nerds for whom data — when shared — becomes life’s most rewarding currency.”

The author of numerous books about baseball history, Thorn has been a member of SABR for 32 years and writes the “Our Game” blog for Major League Baseball. 

Gebhard honored with Hemond Award

Bob Gebhard, a former general manager of the Colorado Rockies, was honored with the 2012 Roland Hemond Award, given to a baseball executive for lifetime commitment to professional baseball.

Hemond, a longtime legendary executive for numerous teams and currently a special assistant to the president of the Arizona Diamondbacks, was on hand at the conference to present Gebhard with the award. Gebhard is currently the vice president and special assistant to the general manager of the Diamondbacks.

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro

MINNEAPOLIS - Friday was an eventful day at SABR42. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan (pictured above) made the opening speech in the morning, which was followed by big news about SABR’s new deal with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), and the annual SABR awards luncheon.

SABR and MLBAM partner

SABR announced the finalization of a licensing deal with MLBAM, which will provide valued content from SABR members with the baseball community through MLB.com.

“SABR is excited to be partnering with baseball’s premier online presence,” said Marc Appleman, the Executive Director of SABR. “This deal is an acknowledgement of the outstanding contributions that our members make to the baseball community.”

Finkel wins Bob Davids Award

Jan Finkel, the chief editor of SABR’s Baseball Biography project, was announced as the winner of this year’s Bob Davids Award, announced during an awards luncheon Friday. If you haven’t heard about the bio project, click here to check it out. The award — which is SABR’s highest honor — honors members whose contributions to the society and baseball reflect the ingenuity, integrity, and self-sacrifice of the founder and past president of SABR, L. Robert “Bob” Davids.

“I come to the convention every year, hear the name of the winner and think, ‘Of course! Who else could it have been?’ But this year … I can think of so many people in this room who are deserving. I am stunned. Thank you so much,” Finkel said.

Other notes from the day

• SABR members enjoyed a trip to Target Field to catch the Twins-Royals game.
• Among Friday’s interesting presentations was a discussion about baseball bat research by Alan Nathan, a physics professor at the University of Illinois, and a talk about genetic testing in Latin America and Major League Baseball’s involvement by Ben Wiggins, a Ph.D. candidate from the University of Minnesota.
• Many authors and researchers have been roaming around SABR42, talking baseball and marketing their books. Dennis Corcoran, the author of “Induction Day at Cooperstown,” published by McFarland in 2010, has captured the historical significance of the hall of fame, and specifically the enshrinement day festivities. The book is available on McFarlandPub.com.

Stay tuned for more coverage from #SABR42 throughout the weekend.

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro

MINNEAPOLIS - You might not remember Jim Leyland referring to Tim Wakefield as the Elvis Presley of the National League but it happened. It was 1992 and Wakefield burst onto the scene with his newly found knuckleball pitch.

He helped the Pirates to a strong run in that season’s National League Championship Series against Atlanta and then fell apart during the following 1993 campaign. He was released from the Pirates as he had not yet perfected his knuckle pitch. Six days later the Red Sox signed him and the rest was history.

But for Wakefield, the history didn’t come easy. It didn’t flow naturally for Phil Niekro, for Charlie Huff, for R.A. Dickey. The ability to pitch consistently in the big leagues with a knuckleball has proven to be a testament of the most hardest will and an everlasting quest to be proficient and normal when the chosen few to throw the most wicked and wild pitch in anyone’s arsenal are anything but ordinary.

This tale of the undervalued pursuit and journey of the few men who have been known to harness their inner knuckle is displayed brilliantly in the new film “Knuckleball,” which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival and was played for a group of baseball enthusiasts at this year’s Society of American Baseball Research Conference Thursday evening.

Like Wakefield, who resorted to pitching after the Pirates said he wouldn’t be a first or third baseman, Dickey turned to the knuckleball after his regular pitches and standard ways on the mound weren’t enough. The film largely follows Wakefield and Dickey during their 2011 campaigns.

Wakefield pitched his 19^th and final season in the majors in 2011, earning career win No. 200, while Dickey is just breaking into his own groove and earning credibility with his knuckleball. This season, of course, Dickey is on another level completely having thrown two one-hitters and sporting an 11-1 record heading into the all-star break where he should be tapped as the starting pitcher to represent the National League at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on July 10.

The relationship between Dickey, Wakefield, Niekro and Huff was captured and proved to be some of the best footage in the film. The four of them sitting on a couch in one instance and playing golf in another was interesting and linked decades of some of the greatest names and arms to ever dance on the diamond together.

Documentarians Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg hit a home run with this film, which is set to be officially released sometime before the fall. Two knuckles up!

Other notes from SABR42

• On Wednesday, Twins President David St. Peter made the opening remarks for SABR 42. St. Peter has been with Minnesota since 1990 and in his current position since 2009.
• Among the dozens of research presentations made were a number of interesting topics, including one about the untold story of the 1934 All American tour of Asia by Robert K. Fitts, the founder of the SABR Asian Baseball Research Committee. Considered one of the great barnstorming tours in baseball history, more than half-million fans across Japan, China, the Philippines and Hawaii gathered to watch a team with players like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, among others.
• The official scorers panel was a big draw. Attendees listened to Stew Thornley, Dave Vincent and Gregg Wong, notable baseball figures with SABR from the Minnesota area, talk about rules and scoring issues that come up in baseball.
• James Dukett, a chemist from upstate New York, gave a presentation on a new proposal to determine home field advantage in the World Series, which examined the benefit of allowing the highest aggregate winning percentage of the playoff-bound teams, relative to each league, to determine home field.

Click here to see clips from the film via the Tribeca Film Festival website.

Stay tuned for more coverage from #SABR42 throughout Friday and the weekend.

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro

Normally we’ll mix up our “looking back” posts to not repeat teams on consecutive days, but we’re rolling with another Cubs post today. We couldn’t pass up noting that today, June 26, is the anniversary of Ron Santo’s major league debut from 1960.

Against the Pirates, Santo, who is set to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this year alongside Barry Larkin, went a combined 3-for-7 and drove in five runs in a double-header at Forbes Field.

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro

siphotos:

Derek Jeter of the Chandler Diamondbacks runs the bases during a 1994 Arizona Fall League game. The shortstop, who is celebrating his 38th birthday today, would make his major league debut six months later and would go onto become one of the greatest players in Yankees history. (V.J. Lovero/SI)

GALLERY: Derek Jeter: In The Spotlight | Jeter’s Greatest Hits
SI VAULT: 2009 Sportsman Of The Year: Derek Jeter

On June 25, 1998, Sammy Sosa broke the major league record for home runs in a month. He hit homer No. 19 in June that season, breaking the mark set by Tigers player Rudy York in August 1937.

Sosa, of course, went on to make baseball history that season alongside Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire. He hit 66 homers, while McGwire hit 70. They both famously passed Roger Maris’ mark of 61 set in 1961.

To have an inside look at baseball history, check out the new Topps Pennant app today and follow us on Twitter @ToppsPennant.

-Chris R. Vaccaro