Sunday, December 2, 2012

November 26-December 2, 2012 League leaders from expansion teams


MONDAY
Q.         Who was the oldest pitcher to toss a perfect game?
Hint:     He is the all-time leader in innings pitched.
Hint:     He is the all-time leader in batters faced.
Hint:     He is the all-time leader in complete games.
Hint:     He is the all-time leader in game started.
Hint:     It’s True that no one is close to him in any of these categories.
Twint:    Oh, yeah.  He is also the all-time leader in pitching victories.
A.         Cy Young (He WAS the oldest at 37 years, 7 months, 1 day old on 05‑May‑1904.  He was trumped, however, one century later on 18‑May‑2004 when Randy Johnson threw his own perfecto.] ; 7,356 IP; 29,565 BF; 749 CG; 815 GS; Full name Denton True Young; 511 W)
FCR -    Walt Cherniak, Woodbine, MD

MONDAY MORE
Q.         Who was the American League’s first Triple Crown winner?
Hint:     He won the batting title by an astounding 75 points.
Hint:     Craig Biggio broke his record for career doubles by a right-handed hitter.
Twint:    Once, protesting a dirty game ball, he threw the ball out of the stadium, causing the umpire to forfeit the game.
A.         Napoleon Lajoie (TC 1901 [Young also won the TC that same year, but for pitchers.]; Batting AVG .426, besting the OriolesMike Donlin at .340; 657 2b to Biggio’s 668)
FCR -    Bill Carle, Lee’s Summit, MO

TUESDAY
Q.         Who was the first player since Carl Yastrzemski to lead his league in all three legs of the Triple Crown?
Hint:     He won the Comeback Player of the Year Award two times.
Hint:     Adam Dunn passed him in 2012 for career strikeouts.
Twint:    He won two Gold Glove Awards playing for the Expos.
Twint:    He was the first player to collect thirty runs-batted-in in April.
A.         Andres Galarraga (Won RBI, HR in 1996, AVG in ’94; CPOY 1993, 2000; 2,003 K, Dunn now has 2,031; GG 1989, 90; 30 RBI Apr 1994)
FCR -    Mike McCroskey, Sugar Land, TX

IN MEMORIAM
Q.         According to Red Barber, who, “…along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson, is one of the two or three most important men in baseball history.”?
Hint:     Tom Seaver observed, “[his] exclusion from the Hall of Fame is a national disgrace.”
Hint:     Joe Morgan added, “They should vote him in and then apologize for making him wait so long.”
Hint:     Bob Costas stated, “There is no non-player more deserving of the Hall of Fame.”
Hint:     He himself observed, “It is an amusing anomaly that the Hall of Fame has made me famous by keeping me out.”
Hint:     He negotiated Major League Baseball Players Association’s first collective bargaining agreement with the owners in 1968, earning the players their first minimum salary increase in two decades.
Hint:     Two years later he got arbitration included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, in his own estimation his greatest achievement in the first two decades of the MLBPA.
Hint:     He later used arbitration to open the door to free agency.
Twint:    He led the MLBPA through three strikes and two lockouts.
Twint:    He was honored by the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 2000 and inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Twint:    In 1997 the MLBPA created an award in his honor.
A.         Marvin Miller (minimum salary increase from $6K to $10K; 1972, 80, 81 strikes, 1973, 76 lockouts; used arbitration to argue 1974 Catfish Hunter case, which weakened the reserve clause and led the way to free agency; Marvin Miller Man of the Year Award given to “the player in either league whose on-field performance and contributions to his community inspire others to higher levels of achievement.”)
FCR -    Andrew Milner, Bryn Mawr, PA

WEDNESDAY
Q.         Who was the first player to win a batting title in different major leagues?
Hint:     Illness shortened his dominant career.
Twint:    He is often called the best player of baseball’s first major league, the National Association.
Twint:    Only Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby and he have three seasons with batting averages over .400.
A.         Ross Barnes (Batting champ in the National Association and NL; Owns the career NA records in runs (459), hits (530), doubles (99), walks (55), stolen bases (73), total bases (695), times on base (585), runs produced (694), batting average (.390), on-base percentage (.413), and slugging percentage (.511).
FCR -    Art Springsteen, Sunapee, NH

MIDWEEK BONUS
Q.         What former Gator was the first infielder to join the 30-30 club?
Hint:     His rookie stats were nearly as good as a teammates’, but that teammate was the runaway Rookie of the Year Award winner.
Hint:     He didn’t get a single vote.
Twint:    He has served as an instructor or coach for the Yankees, Expos and Red Sox.
A.         Tommy Harper (San Francisco State U. Gators, 3b 1970 31 HR, 38 SB; 1963 ROY Pete Rose)
FCR -    John Michael Pierobon, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

THURSDAY
Q.         In 1876, the Louisville Grays won only 30 games.  Who was their winning pitcher?
Hint:     He only gave up only one over-the-wall home run in a career that totaled 1,405 innings and had a career ERA of 1.90.
Hint:     His major league career ended with him on his knees begging a future Hall of Famer for reinstatement.
Hint:     That action gained him a personal gift of $50, but he never played another game in the majors.
Twint:    He admitted to wrongdoing, taking money to lose games.
Twint:    He became a policeman in his hometown of Philadelphia, but fell prey to alcohol and gambling and died at age 34.
A.         Jim Devlin (Won all 30 G and took all but 1 of their 36 losses; Early NL star Lip Pike hit the HR in question;  Jim Clinton was 0-1, losing the season’s final game; NL President William Hulbert was the generous but steadfast league president.)
FCR -    John Rickert, Terre Haute, IN

FRIDAY
Q.         Who boasted, "I'll make them all forget that a guy named Ty Cobb ever pulled on a baseball shoe," even though he had twice before played for New York teams?
Hint:     Almost understandable, since he had led his former league in runs, hits, stolen bases and slugging, to name but a few categories.
Twint:    Ben, he… (cough)
A.         Benny Kauff (Led in stats in the Federal League.  I, for one, still remember Cobb.)
FCR -    Kevin Johnson, Broken Arrow, OK

END-OF-THE-WEEK BONUS
Q.         Who is the only player to win two World Series championships with the Florida Marlins?
Hint:     He was traded for a total of nine players during his seventeen-year career, but for players whose time in the majors amounted to only 181 games.
Hint:     With his wife, he finished third in the 1993 U.S. doubles racquetball championship.
Twint:    His sister-in-law was a producer on the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
A.         Jeff Conine (WS wins 1997 & 2003; Traded for Chris Fussell [40 G], Denny Bautista [131 G], Angel Chavez [10 G])
FCR -    Mark Lewers, Blacksburg, VA

BEGINNING-OF-THE-WEEKEND BONUS
Q.         Who is the only major league pitcher to lose a nine-inning complete game no-hitter?
Hint:     It was an error by a future Hall of Famer that cost him the victory.
Hint:     The only postseason experience in his thirteen-year career was 2/3 of a perfect inning against the Yankees in the World Series.
Hint:     If the other seven pitchers on his team that day had pitched as well, the game might not have been the last of the Series.
Twint:    For each of five consecutive seasons, he worked in excess in exceed of 200 innings.
Twint:    He is sometimes confused with the player of the same name who debuted eleven years earlier.
A.         Ken Johnson (No-no 23-Apr-1964; HOF Nellie Fox booted a grounder by Vada Pinson, allowing the game’s only run; WS G 09-Oct-1961; 200+ IP 1963-67; Other Ken Johnson)
FCR -    Tom Kennedy, Houston, TX

SATURDAY
Q.         Whose solitary vote prevented Warren Spahn from becoming the first unanimous Cy Young Award winner?
Hint:     He was a former teammate of Spahns’.
Hint:     He was the last Indians pitcher in the 20th century to collect a pinch hit.
Twint:    He was the last Boston native to play for the Boston Braves.
A.         Dick Donovan (1957 CYA voting; W/Spahn 1950, 51 & 52 Braves; PH 28-Jul-1963; b. 07‑Dec‑1927)
FCR -    David Stinson, Silver Spring, MD

WEEKEND BONUS
Q.         Whose autobiography was entitled “My Time at Bat: A Story of Perseverance”?
Hint:     After retiring from the majors, he coached baseball at Howard University for 28 years.
Hint:     His Minor League career highlights include Rookie of the Year Award, back-to-back league batting titles and a league Most Valuable Player Award.
Twint:    He played every position on the diamond except pitcher during his eleven-year career in the majors.
A.         Chuck Hinton (Book)
FCR -    Matt Gibson, Barboursville, WV

SUNDAY
Q.         Who led the National League in triples in his rookie season, but then in the rest of his thirteen-year career only ever led his team once.
Hint:     …and that was a three-way tie.
Hint:     Hit his 100th career home run off Matt Garza.
Twint:    He founded the "Catch 22 for Blue Foundation" to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina.
A.         David Dellucci (12 3b 1998; HR 04-Aug-2008; Foundation)
FCR -    Damian Begley, New York, NY


WEEKLY THEME – League leaders from expansion teams

Name        Year Team                   LG Category              Quant.
Barnes      1876 White Stockings  NL *OBP                       1.052
Conine      1993 Marlins                NL Games played      162
Dellucci     1998 Diamondbacks    NL Triples                   12
Devlin       1876 Grays                  NL *Complete games   66
Donovan   1961 Senators             AL ERA                        2.40
Galarraga  1993 Rockies               NL Batting AVG              .370
Harper       1969 Pilots                  AL Stolen bases          73
Hinton       1961 Senators             AL SB%                      81.48
Johnson    1962 Colt 45’s              NL K/BB ratio                3.870
Kauff        1914 Hoosiers             FL *Hits                     211
Lajoie        1901 Athletics              AL *Batting AVG             .426
Young       1901 Americans           AL *ERA+                 219
*Led in many other categories as well

First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Bill Carle, Lee’s Summit, MO


Horsehide Trivia blog has the questions and answers from this week as well as from previous weeks:  http://horsehidetrivia.blogspot.com/



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