Arthur Rhodes

Arthur Lee Rhodes, Jr. (born October 24, 1969) is a former Major League Baseball left-handed relief pitcher.

Career

Rhodes played high school baseball at La Vega High School in Waco, Texas. He was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 2nd round of the 1988 Major League Baseball Draft. During his 1991 season with the class AA Hagerstown Suns, Rhodes was selected as Eastern League Pitcher of the Year.

Rhodes made his MLB debut with the Orioles in 1991, and then spent 12 years in the Baltimore organization before being granted free agency after the 1999 season. After signing and playing with the Seattle Mariners for four years, he signed with the Oakland Athletics.

A's manager Ken Macha first used him as a closer after years as a successful setup man in Seattle, but he failed in this capacity with a number of blown saves and was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with Mark Redman and cash for catcher Jason Kendall and cash after the one season with the Athletics. In the same offseason, the Pirates traded him on to the Cleveland Indians for Matt Lawton, and as he did in Seattle became the top setup man for the Tribe. On January 27, 2006, after one year in Cleveland, the Indians traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies for outfielder Jason Michaels.

Rhodes

Rhodes (Greek: Ρόδος, Ródos [ˈroðos]) is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of land area and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Rhodes. The city of Rhodes had 50,636 inhabitants in 2011. It is located northeast of Crete, southeast of Athens and just off the Anatolian coast of Turkey. Rhodes' nickname is The island of the Knights, named after the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, who once conquered the land.

Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

Name

The island has been known as Ρόδος in Greek throughout its history. In addition, the island has been called Italian: Rodi, Turkish: Rodos, and Ladino: Rodi or Rodes.

2011 World Series

The 2011 World Series was the 107th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff was played between the American League champions Texas Rangers and the National League champions St. Louis Cardinals, with the Cardinals defeating the Rangers in seven games to win their 11th World Series championship and their first since 2006.

The Series was noted for its back-and-forth Game 6, in which the Cardinals erased a two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning, then did it again in the 10th. In both innings, the Rangers were one strike away from their first World Series championship. The Cardinals won the game in the 11th inning on a walk-off home run by David Freese. The Series was also known for the blowout Game 3, in which Cardinals player Albert Pujols hit three home runs, a World Series feat previously accomplished only by Reggie Jackson and Babe Ruth, and subsequently only by Pablo Sandoval (in 2012).

The Series began on October 19, earlier than the previous season so that no games would be played in November. The Cardinals enjoyed home-field advantage for the series because the National League won the 2011 All-Star Game 5–1 on July 12. The 2011 World Series was the first World Series to go all seven games since 2002.

World Series

The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in North America, contested since 1903 between the American League (AL) champion team and the National League (NL) champion. Prior to 1969, the team with the best win-loss record in each league automatically advanced to the World Series; since then each league has conducted a championship series (ALCS and NLCS) preceding the World Series to determine which teams will advance. As of 2015, the World Series has been contested 111 times, with the AL winning 64 and the NL winning 47. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and the winning team is awarded the Commissioner's Trophy. As the series is played in October (and occasionally November), during the autumn season in North America, it is often referred to as the Fall Classic.

The 2015 World Series took place between the New York Mets and the victorious Kansas City Royals. Five games were played, with the Royals victorious after game five, played in New York. The final score was 7-2; the game went into extra innings after a tied score of 2-2. This was the second World Series won by the franchise and the first in 30 years.

Arthur

Arthur is a common masculine given name. Its etymology is disputed, but its popularity derives from its being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur.

Art and Artie are diminutive forms of the name. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur.

Etymology

The origin of the name Arthur remains a matter of debate. Some suggest it is derived from the Roman nomen gentile (family name) Artōrius, of obscure and contested etymology (but possibly of Messapic or Etruscan origin). Some scholars have noted that the legendary King Arthur's name only appears as Arthur, or Arturus, in early Latin Arthurian texts, never as Artōrius (although the Classical Latin Artōrius became Arturius in some Vulgar Latin dialects). However, this may not say anything about the origin of the name Arthur, as Artōrius would regularly become Art(h)ur when borrowed into Welsh.

Another possibility is that it is derived from a Brittonic patronym *Arto-rīg-ios (the root of which, *arto-rīg- "bear-king" is to be found in the Old Irish personal name Art-ri) via a Latinized form Artōrius. Less likely is the commonly proposed derivation from Welsh arth "bear" + (g)wr "man" (earlier *Arto-uiros in Brittonic); there are phonological difficulties with this theory—notably that a Brittonic compound name *Arto-uiros should produce Old Welsh *Artgur and Middle/Modern Welsh *Arthwr and not Arthur (in Welsh poetry the name is always spelled Arthur and is exclusively rhymed with words ending in -ur—never words ending in -wr—which confirms that the second element cannot be [g]wr "man").