Since 1998 the Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award has been bestowed by the Major League Baseball Commissioner to a group or individual who has made a significant impact on the sport of baseball. Rather than being awarded annually, it is presented as the Commissioner sees fit to acknowledge such notable achievements.
The Commissioner's Historic Achievement Award Trophy is created by Tiffany & Company, and designed as a gold baseball sitting on top of a silver cylinder base.
The trophy for the Commissioners Historic Achievement Award has had eleven recipients so far, and have all been awarded by Commissioner Bud Selig - with nine of the honorees so far being players, one being an entire team, and one being a non-player.
The first recipients of the trophy were Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, for their corresponding 1998 seasons during which they battled one another all season to beat Roger Maris' home run single season home run record of sixty-one, which had been set during his 1961 season with the New York Yankees. By the end of the 1998 season, Mark McGwire, during his first complete season as first baseman for the St. Louis Louis Cardinals had won the chase with seventy HRS, a record set during a game against Sosa's team, the Chicago Cubs, for which Sosa was a right fielder. Sosa finished the 1998 season with 66 records, topping Maris' 1961 record, but not succeeding in beating McGwire to setting the new record that season. September 7 of that year, McGwire had tied Maris' record in a game against the Chicago Cubs; the next day, he hit his 62nd home run of the season during another game against the Cubs, officially breaking Maris' record. At this time, Sosa was only at his 58th home run of the season. However, during McGwire's next six games, he did not hit a single home run - giving Sosa enough time to catch up and even temporarily surpass him. He tied with McGwire at 62 home runs on September 13, after hitting four HRS in a row against the Milwaukee Brewers - and from that point, the chase and the challenge between the two players was on for setting the new record altogether, with each taking turns in the lead. By September 23, they were both tied at 65 home runs each, and on the 25th, Sosa tipped the scales in his favor in a game against the Houston Astros, during which he rated his 66th - and final - HR of the season. However, McGwire came back, having his five home runs in a row against the Montreal Expositions, setting the new record at 70 home runs in a single season. (Three years later, in 2001, Barry Bonds, a left fielder from the San Francisco Giants, topped their record, ending his season with 73 home runs, and received a Commissioners Historic Achievement Award in 2002 for the feat amongst others that season. that Bonds had never even hit fifty home runs in any previous season, suspensions and allegations asose regarding possible illegal steroid use to enhance performance - for him as well as for the previous two record-breakers. had not known that they had been steroids when he was taking them. McGwire also ever admitted to taking them through his career, including his record-breaking 1998 season.)
The two most recent Commissioners Historic Awards have focused on humanitarian contributions from the world of baseball. In 2006, Roberto Clemente became the only posthumous honoree, receiving the award in part for his dedication to charity work during the bulk of his off seasons prior to his death in a plane accident in 1972. The most recent recipient was Rachel Robinson, wife of the late baseball legend Jackie Robinson, in 2007 - making her the first woman and non-player to receive the prestigious sports award - in recognition of her contributions to MLB through the Jackie Robinson Foundation, which has granted students in need with educational scholarships exceeding a total over $ 14 million dollars.
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