MONDAY
Q. Who
hit .440 in a major league season?
Hint: Seriously,
he hit .440.
Hint: Four
additional batters hit over .400 that year.
Hint: No
fluke that. He hit over .350 the year
before and the year after.
Twint: He
ended with a career .300+ average in four different major leagues.
A. Hugh Duffy (.440 in 1894; .363 in 1893,
.353 in 1895;.326 in 14 years in the National League, .336 in a year in the
American Association, .320 in the Players League’s only season, & .302 in
the American League’s inaugural season)
FCR J.R.
Richardson, Clarksville, MD
TUESDAY
Q. Who
was the first National League player with 200 hits in a season?
Hint: He
did it in only 127 games.
Hint: He
once hit 165 RBI in a season where he only played 119 games.
Twint: He
established a record of hitting two bases-loaded triples in one game against
Indianapolis, a mark that has been tied but not broken.
Twint: His
great-grandfather served under Washington in the Revolutionary War.
A. Sam Thompson (203 H in 1887 [N.B. Tip
O’Neill hit 225 in 124 G in the AA the same year.]; 165 RBI in 1895; Colonel
William Washington, George Washington's nephew)
FCR - John
Rickert, South Bend, IN
WEDNESDAY
Q. Which
Hall of Famer had the highest OPS+ of any 19th century player?
Hint: He
was the first (THIRD, actually) player to win back-to-back batting titles?
Hint: In
fact, he won league batting titles while playing for four different teams.
Hint: "[He] really was a great hitter, one of
the most powerful batters of all time. . . I don't think I ever saw a stronger
hitter." — John
McGraw
Twint: Two
years before he came to the majors, he accidentally killed catcher Johnny Quigley
in a collision at home plate.
A. Dan Brouthers (Batting titles w/Buffalo
Bisons, NL 1882 [.382], 1883 [.374], Boston Beaneaters, NL 1889 [.373], Boston
Reds, AA 1891 [.350]), Brooklyn Superbas, NL 1892 [.335]; Quigley accident
07-Jul-1877)
FCR - Blake Sherry, Dublin, OH
THURSDAY
Q. According
to a long-standing legend, from what player did the Giants derive their name?
Hint: He
was the first to hit a home run completely out of the Polo Grounds.
Hint: He
hit it off a Hall of Famer, the premier pitcher of his day.
Twint: Five
years earlier, almost to the day, he was the first to win a game with a grand
slam with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Twint: After
baseball, he became a school inspector in the town where he was born.
Twint: He
won the 1893 "Popular Player" competition held in New York City,
receiving a gold watch and charm he treasured until his death nearly 40 years
later.
A. Roger Connor (New York Gothams
became the Giants
in 1885 because of Connor at 6’3” &
220 lbs. as well as other players; HR 11-Sep-1886 off Charley
Radbourn; GS 10‑Sep‑1881; Waterbury, CT
FCR - Mark DeLodovico, Rockville, MD
FRIDAY
Q. Who
is the only player to lead his league in home runs and triples in his rookie
season?
Hint: He
changed his name so his mother would not see his name in box scores.
Hint: Only
he, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds have held the career as well as the single-season
home run records.
Twint: Many
baseball historians maintain that he is the best player not yet in the Hall of
Fame.
A. Harry Stovey (1880 14 3b, 6 HR; Ne
“Stowe”. Mom was embarrassed that he was
a baseball player. [John Rickert made the very sensible point that the person
who hit the first ever major league home run, Ezra Sutton
, was at that moment the career and season record holder. To insure his standing, he hit a second one
in the same game 04‑May‑1871. Several
readers pointed out that and Charley
Jones also deserves that distinction, not to mention the 3 tied at the end
of the 1st MLB season, 1871: Lip Pike, Fred Treacey
& Levi
Meyerle.] HOF potential)
FCR - Barry Zamoff, Washington, DC
SATURDAY
Q. Who
is the only pitcher to hit for the cycle?
Hint: He
also did it as a position player.
Hint: He
received the first recorded intentional bases on balls.
Hint: He
played for three Chicago National League teams with three different names
without ever playing for the Cubs.
Hint: In
separate incidents, he slugged two reporters and a train conductor. (Those were probably not the only such
incidents.)
Twint: After
his career, he wrote (probably) an article stating, "Baseball is not a
permanent business. Look in the newspapers and you will see that a baseball
player 35 years of age is considered an old man."
A. Jimmy Ryan (Cycle as P 28-Jul-1888;
Cycle as fielder 01-Jul-1891; IBB 1896 from Jouett Meekin;
White Stockings 1885-89, Colts 1890-97, Orphans 1898-1900 [The
team has been the Cubs since 1903.])
FCR - Paul Hirsch, Danville, CA
SUNDAY
Hint: Who
tied the major league record for errors in a game and then, a month later, tied
the major league record for most runs in a game?
Hint: It
was during his rookie season.
Hint: He
played thirteen straight years for the New York Giants but never played under
John McGraw.
Hint: Once,
with major league games being played on adjacent fields, he hit a game-winning,
13th-inning home run that landed in the middle of the Players League
game.
Hint: Cranks
at both games cheered him on.
Twint: He
is the Giants’ franchise career leader in triples and stolen bases.
Twint: "In
the early days of the Giants the name of (his) was on the lips of every baseball fan, and to this day the
old-timers talk about the long drives which Silent Mike used to make in
Harlem." - from his obituary in the New York Times
A. Mike Tiernan (162 3b, 428 SB; 5 E
16-May-1887, 6 R 16-Jun-1887; HR 12-May-1890 off Kid Nichols)
FCR - Rick Fink, Lefty Fink’s better son*, Edison,
NJ
*At least that’s the word on the
street.
WEEKLY THEME
– Batters who totaled 100 major league home runs during the 19th
century
Brouthers 106
Connor 138
Duffy 102
Ryan 100
Stovey 122
Thompson 127
Tiernan 106
First Correct Respondent
to Identify Theme – Joe
Ullian, Santa Barbara, CA
Horsehide Trivia blog has the
questions and answers from this week as well as from previous weeks: http://horsehidetrivia.blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia home page: https://sites.google.com/site/tnfotobbpics/home/horsehide-trivia