Outside The Confines: Ring in the new year

The new year is here and there’s so much to look forward to. Spring training will start in two months, and we have a full season of baseball just waiting to begin. What records will be broken? Which new rookies will become overnight sensations? Who will be the next MVPs, and which veterans will have an astonishing last hurrah?

Baseball is the kind of sport where we know we will see amazing things every season and it’s just a matter of time before we see the first home run of the year, the first grand slam, the most amazing double-play we’ve ever seen.

MLB rounded up some of the best moments of 2022, and there’s only a few months to wait before we start collecting the best moments of 2023.

Now, the week between holidays is incredibly quiet in the writing world, so there’s not a lot of new links to post, but we still have some good stuff for you.

• Let’s kick things off with the longest home run of 2022.

• December 31st marks 50 years since the tragic passing of Roberto Clemente, and Elizabeth Muratore looks at the way the day was marked.
• Baseball is a sport known to generate some incredible quotes, and David Laurila brings us the best of 2022’s baseball quotes.
• Anthony Castrovince has some very, very early 2023 predictions.
• Michael Clair breaks down some of the best and craziest baseball uniforms of all time.
• Speaking of uniforms, Thomas Harrigan gives us a look at the baseball-themed NHL uniforms worn in the Winter Classic.
• The SI staff offered up two posts, what we will remember from the 2022 season and also what we will probably forget.
• Sarah Langs continues her quest to see which birthdates have the best WAR, moving from birth months to actual birthdates.
• It looks like the Giants had some early concerns about the signing of Carlos Correa. (AP)
• This might be legal but it still feels super wrong for some reason.

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.