MONDAY
Q. Who was the first reliever to reach 300 saves pitching only for one team?
Hint: His postseason ERA is a difficult-to-believe 0.70.
Hint: His career WHIP is bested only by those Hall of Famers Addie Joss and Ed Walsh.
Twint: Derek Jeter said about him, "He's the most mentally tough person I've ever played with."
Twint: Alex Rodriguez said about him, "To me, he's the greatest modern day weapon I have seen or played against."
A. Mariano Rivera (300th S 28-May-2004 [Troy Percival tied that mark two months later.]; WHIP [walks & hits per inning pitched] 1.0019, Joss 0.9678, Walsh 0.9996)
FCR - Daryl Syng, Washington, DC
TUESDAY
Q. Who is the only pitcher with 200 career wins and 150 career saves?
Hint: Only he and Dennis Eckersley had both a 20-win season and a 50-save season during their respective careers.
Twint: Tiger Woods claims that he is the best golfer he knows who is not on the PGA tour.
A. John Smoltz (Woods as quoted on the “Mike and Mike” show on EPN radio)
FCR - Chuck Durante, Dover, DE
WEDNESDAY
Q. What pitcher holds the American League record for most seasons with ten or more consecutive victories with seventeen? [N.B. The word “consecutive” was inadvertently omitted. Didn’t seem to bother many.]
Hint: His career win-loss record is 117 above .500.
Hint: Since 1920, only he and Sandy Koufax finished their careers with twenty-win seasons.
Twint: Although he never won the Cy Young Award, he finished in the Top Six in voting for it nine times.
Twint: He is of Slavic descent, but due to the spelling of his last name, which was Americanized by his ancestors, he is often misidentified as an Italian-American.
A. Mike Mussina (10+ W 1992-2008; 270-153; 20-9 in 2008, his only season with 20 W)
FCR - Bill Carle, Lee’s Summit, MO
THURSDAY
Q. Who, among starting pitchers, owns the highest ERA+ in history?
Hint: He body-slammed Reggie Sanders after ending his perfect game bid by hitting Sanders with an eighth-inning inside fast ball.
Hint: He is perhaps better remembered for another well-executed body slam.
Twint: He’s not your daddy, despite what he implied.
A. Pedro Martinez (ERA+; Sanders encounter 13-Apr-1994; Took down Don Zimmer 11-Oct-2003; “Who’s your daddy?” comment shouted to Yankee Stadium fans 28-Sep-2004)
FCR - John Shiffert, Morrow, GA
FRIDAY
Q. In 2005, who submitted a record $22,000,000 annual salary arbitration request?
Hint: In a voice-over appearance as himself on the TV show The Simpsons, he was hypnotized into believing he was a chicken.
Twint: He pitched for the Philadelphia A’s in the 1994 movie Cobb.
A. Roger Clemens (The sides settled before the arbitration hearing for a record $18,000,0022, 22 being his uniform number; Simpsons episode 20-Feb1992 [Scroll to 3:22 for Clemens. He did his own clucking.])
FCR - Paul Hirsch, Danville, CA
SATURDAY
Q. What former Padre is now a special assistant on the team where his brother coaches?
Hint: He is the only pitcher in major league history to win ten games in 20 consecutive seasons.
Twint: Only he had ERAs under 2.00 during both strike years of the 1990s (among qualifiers).
Twint: He passed Steve Carlton to move into the Top Ten on the all-time career pitching victories list.
A. Greg Maddux (Texas Rangers; 10 W years 1988-2007; W #330 30-Aug-2006; 1.56 in 1994, 1.63 in 1995)
FCR - Jim Hartley, Silver Spring, MD
SUNDAY
Q. Who did Nolan Ryan say was the “next Nolan Ryan”?
Hint: His mullet only contributed to his good looks.
Twint: This San Francisco ace got his 300th victory on a rain-soaked afternoon in Washington.
Twint: He helped parody the mania for home runs with a 1998 TV ad for Nike.
A. Randy Johnson (300th W 04-Jun-2009; Nike ad)
FCR - David Krassin, New York
WEEKLY THEME – Major league pitchers with the highest cumulative career wages, all of them over $130,000,000. (Numbers include 2012 compensation.)
Clemens $150,601,000
Johnson 175,550,019
Maddux 153,845,000
Martinez 146,259,585
Mussina 144,533,619
Rivera 144,441,825
Smoltz 135,657,946
Salary information from www.baseball-reference.com.
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