The regular season concluded with seven teams entering the postseason who had failed to reach the 2006 playoffs including all National League teams, with only the New York Yankees returning; a dramatic one-game playoff between the Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres; and the largest September collapse for a leading team in baseball history, with the Mets squandering a 7-game lead with 17 to play, losing on the final day of the regular season, and the Philadelphia Phillies capturing the National League East for the first time since 1993.
The season ended on October 28, with the Boston Red Sox sweeping the World Series over the Rockies, four games to zero.
Barry Bonds, left fielder for the San Francisco Giants, surpassed Hank Aaron as the all-time home run leader in Major League Baseball history with his 756th career home run off Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals in the fifth inning of their game August 7 at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California.
The baseball that was hit for the record was caught by Mets fan Matt Murphy, who put the ball up for auction online.
The winning bidder was fashion designer Marc Ecko, who purchased the baseball for $752,467 (US) and let fans decide what to do with it in an internet poll.
On April 15, Major League Baseball celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the debut of Jackie Robinson at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, breaking the color barrier.
All jerseys that were worn were auctioned off with all the proceeds donated to the Jackie Robinson Foundation, an organization which awards scholarships to African-American high school graduates to further themselves in colleges academically.
This marks the second time in five years that a Cardinals pitcher lost his life before a game, the other being Darryl Kile, who died suddenly on June 22, 2002.
A police report revealed that Hancock was intoxicated at the time of his fatal accident with a blood-alcohol level of 0.157, nearly double the legal limit in Missouri.
Police also found 8.55 grams of marijuana along with a glass smoking pipe in his vehicle, although toxicology tests later proved no drugs were in his system except alcohol.