The National League Western Division, or the N.L. Western Division, is one of the three divisions of the National League of Major League Baseball in North America (including Canada). This Division was formed for the 1969 season when the National League expanded by adding the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos (soaring to 12 teams). For purpose of keeping a regular-season of 162 games, half of the teams were put into the new Eastern Division and half into the new Western Division. Within each division, the teams played 18 games each against their five division mates (90 games), and also 12 games against the teams in the opposite division (72 games), totaling 162 games.

Despite the geography, the owners of the Chicago Cubs insisted that this team be placed into the Eastern Division along with the teams in New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Also, the owners of the St. Louis Cardinals wanted that team to be in the same division with their natural rivals of the Cubs. Given all of this, the owners of the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds consented to being placed into the Western Division, despite the fact that Atlanta and Cincinnati are both in the Eastern Time Zone. Hence, the Western Division had teams spread all the way from the East to the Pacific Coast, and scattered over four time zones. The Eastern Division was spread over the Eastern Time Zone and the Central Time Zone - despite the fact that the National League had six teams in the Eastern Time Zone and six teams spread between the Central Time Zone and the Pacific Time Zone.

Robert Stanbury "Buster" Olney III (born February 17, 1964, in Washington, D.C.) is a columnist for ESPN: The Magazine, ESPN.com, and covered the New York Giants and New York Yankees for The New York Times. He is also a regular analyst for the ESPN's Baseball Tonight. Olney is one of about 575 voters for the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Olney currently resides in Yorktown Heights, New York

Olney grew up on a dairy farm in Randolph Center, Vermont, which came in handy when he served as the "Cow Insider" for Mike Greenberg's milking of a cow on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on June 21, 2007. He was educated at Northfield Mount Hermon School and Vanderbilt University, where he majored in history. As a child Buster was an avid baseball fan. At age 8, he developed an affinity for the Los Angeles Dodgers after reading a book about Sandy Koufax. Buster would later attribute his fanship as a reason for his journalistic career.

After graduating, Olney began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. While in Nashville, he formed a close relationship with the legendary Don Meyer, Head Coach of the men's basketball program at David Lipscomb University. He later worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Baltimore Sun. He arrived at the Times in 1997 and in his first year won an Associated Press award.

Adrian Gonzalez (born May 8, 1982) is a Mexican-American professional baseball first baseman with the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball.

Gonzalez was the first overall pick in the 2000 Major League Baseball Draft by the Florida Marlins. He was traded to the Texas Rangers, and later to the San Diego Padres, where he was an All-Star selection four times and two-time Gold Glove winner. The four-time Padres team Most Valuable Player (MVP) was traded to the Boston Red Sox before entering the final year of his contract during the 2010 offseason.

Gonzalez was born in San Diego, but played for Mexico in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic. His nicknames include Gonzo and A-Gon.

Gonzalez was projected to be a late first-round pick out of Eastlake High School in Chula Vista, California, but he advanced with his senior year performance. In June 2000, Gonzalez became the first infield position player to be drafted first overall since Alex Rodriguez in 1993. He was given a $3 million signing bonus by the Florida Marlins. While in the Marlins organization, Gonzalez played with the Gulf Coast League Marlins, Kane County Cougars, Utica Blue Sox, Portland Sea Dogs (2002), Albuquerque Isotopes (2003), and Carolina Mudcats (2003). With the A level Kane County Cougars in his 2nd professional season, Gonzalez hit .312 with 17 home runs and 103 RBI's in 127 games.

Donald Zackary "Zack" Greinke (pronounced /ˈɡrɪŋki/ GRING-kee; born October 21, 1983) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. Greinke won the American League Cy Young Award in 2009 with the Kansas City Royals.

Greinke was born in Orlando, Florida, the son of Marsha Ann (née Wilkin) and Donald Ray Greinke. After being named the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2002, he was selected out of Apopka High School in the first round of the 2002 draft. Greinke turned down a scholarship to Clemson to sign with the Royals.

In 2003, he played for the Wilmington Blue Rocks and Wichita Wranglers, where he was named the Royals Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Carolina League Pitcher of the Year, and The Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year, with a 15–4 record and 1.93 ERA.

Greinke made his major league debut on May 22, 2004 against the Oakland Athletics. Greinke's first major league hit was a home run off Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Russ Ortiz in a 12–11 loss on June 10, 2005.

Vincent Edward Scully (born November 29, 1927) is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team on Prime Ticket, KCAL-TV and KABC radio. His 63 seasons with the Dodgers (1950–present) is the longest of any broadcaster with a single club in professional sports history, and he is second by a year to only Tommy Lasorda in terms of length of years with the Dodgers organization in any capacity.

Born in The Bronx, Scully grew up in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. He made ends meet by delivering beer and mail, pushing garment racks, and cleaning silver in the basement of the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York City. His father was a silk salesman; his mother a Roman Catholic homemaker of Irish descent with red hair like her son. Scully attended high school at Fordham Preparatory School in the Bronx. He knew he wanted to be a sports announcer the moment he became fascinated with football broadcasts on his radio.

Scully began his career as a student broadcaster and journalist at Fordham University. While at Fordham, he helped found its FM radio station WFUV (which now presents a Vin Scully Lifetime Achievement Award each year), was assistant sports editor for Volume 28 of The Fordham Ram his senior year, sang in a barbershop quartet, played center field for the Fordham Rams baseball team, called radio broadcasts for Rams baseball, football, and basketball, got a degree, and sent about 150 letters to stations along the Eastern seaboard. He got only one response, from CBS Radio affiliate WTOP in Washington, which made him a fill-in.