Monday, August 22, 2016

August 15-21, 2016 All-Star player who played in 2016 who had also played in the 20th century

MONDAY
Q. What 2016 All-Star has averaged more than 25 home runs and more than 100 RBI per season during his 18+ year career?*
Hint: He is the native of a country that just celebrated its first ever Olympic gold medal.
Hint: It took more than 5 seasons before he experienced postseason play.
Hint: It took more than 10 seasons before he experienced World Series play.
Hint: He is a Roberto Clemente Award honoree.
- Averages per bb-ref.
- B. in Manati, Puerto Rico (Entered the IOC games as a separate competing sovereignty.  Monica Puig took the gold in Women’s Singles Tennis.)
- Debut 1998; 2004 NLDS
- Won the Clemente award in 2013.
FCR - Dan Silverberg, Aventura, FL
*162-game averages per www.baseball-reference.com
Incorrect answers:  David Ortiz, Albert Pujols, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Cabrera, Edwin Encarnacion


TUESDAY
Q. Who was the first Los Angeles Dodger to lead the National League in home runs for a season?
Hint: At that time, no player at his position had ever had a quantitatively better home run season in the history of major league baseball.
Hint: He is the only player in the history of the National League to have a 200-hit season without hitting a triple.
Hiint: He came within one hit of repeating that feat in the American League.
Hint: In his 19-year career, he has been selected to 4 All-Star teams; Won 4 Gold Gloves; Won 2 Platinum Gloves; Won 4 Silver Slugger Awards; and Won the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award.
- 48 HR in 2004
- Tied Mike Schmidt (1980) for HR in a season by a third baseman.  Their shared record was broken when Alex Rodriguez hit 54 in 2007, playing third for NYY.
- 2004:  200 H; 0 3b, playing for LAD
- TEX in 2013 was very happy to have 199 hits from him.  Again no triples.
- Won the Gehrig award in 2014.  No winner was announced in 2015.  The award honors a player whose citizenship in baseball and in the community parallels that of Gehrig.
FCR - Bill Carle, Lee’s Summit, MO
Incorrect answers:  Tommy Davis, Mike Piazza, Frank Howard, Steve Garvey, Ron Cey, Roy Campanella, Reggie Smith, Wally Moon


WEDNESDAY
Q. Who is the first player to win the World Series three times with the Red Sox since the presidential administration of Woodrow Wilson?
Hint: No one has ever hit more home runs from the designated hitter slot in the line-up.
Hint: He was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners.
Hint: He joins Kevin Elster, Eddie Tucker and Larry Littleton to play an entire season of at least 20 AT-BATS (Not games) and never get a hit.  NOTE:  Additional data on the players in this hint should have included the fact that they were American League position players.
- Big Papi won 3 rings w/BOS in 2004, 07 & 2013.  Most recently accomplished before that by select players on the Sox teams of the 1910’s:  1912, 15, 16, 18.  In all, 14 players have 3 BOS championships including Hall of Famers Babe Ruth and Harry Hooper.  President Wilson served from 1913 to 1921.
- 465 DH HR’s
- Signed by SEA 29-Nov-1992
- 0-20 in 1999.  Larry Littleton (0-23 in 1981), Kevin Elster (0-20 in 1994), Eddie Tucker went 0-20 for CLE in 1995, but had 2 H for HOU that year.
FCR - Andrew Distler, New York, NY
Incorrect answers:  


THURSDAY
Q. Who was the last active Major Leaguer ever to play for the Montreal Expos?
Hint: He received his only base-on-balls  in his 19th major league season.
Hint: He was on the All-Star Team 4 times, but never twice in a row and never twice for the same team.
Hint: He is the oldest batter to hit his first major league home run.
- When Maicer Izturis retired after 2014, Colón has had that distinction to himself.
- Walked 15-Aug-2016 (3 day ago!) by Robbie Ray of the ARI
- AS in 1998 for  CLE; In 2005 for LAA; In 2013 for OAK; & 2016 for NYM.
FCR - Fred Worth, Arkadelphia, AR
Incorrect answers:  Javier Vasquez, Endy Chavez, Livan Hernandez, Jon Lester

FRIDAY
Q. According to Baseball-Reference, who still needs 715 to get to four?
Hint: He also needs four to get to seven.
Hint: One of his streaks is the record for being the longest of its kind in MLB history.
Hint: He once slapped a ball from a defensive player’s mitt.  The resulting call played a part in an historic event.
- 715 thousand.  Dollars.  A-Rod’s career earnings total are $399,285,104 and so would need $714,896 to total FOUR HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS earned playing baseball !
- Career home run total is 696.  4 more to total 700.
- His suspension of 211 games was reduced to 162, or the full 2014 season and postseason, by arbitrator Fredric Horowitz.  It was still the longest MLB suspension ever.
- Mitt slap affected the outcome of the 2004 ALCS.  Read here.
FCR - Rich Klein, Plano, TX
Incorrect answers:  Ichiro Suzuki, Reggie Jackson, Robert Fick, Eddie Stanky


SATURDAY
Q. What hurler is the all-time leader in saves for the Washington Senators/Minnesota Twins franchise?
Hint: He is also their all-time leader, by a healthy margin, in Win Probability Added.
Hint: He is the rare player who, 20+ years later, pitches for the same organization that drafted him.
Hint: His already elongated physiognomy is exacerbated by a particularly hirsute approach regarding his external mandibular countenance.
Hint: One suspects that he has a hole in his soul, otherwise...
- 260 saves for the Twins, just ahead of Rick Aguilera’s 254
- Win Probability Added = WPA is a statistic that measures how much each specific play made by an individual player alters the outcome of a game. Noteworthy that is also used in football.  Nathan’s career WPA with the Twins is 24.7, considerably ahead of Johan Santana’s 20.6.
- Drafted by SFG in the 1995 June Amateur Draft, 16th pick of the 6th round.  He signed  with the Giants, on Tuesday of this week, pitching for the Flying Squirrels of Richmond.
- Is well recognized for the chin beard he has sported for most of his career in the majors.
- To complete the look, he usually also grows and trims a “soul patch”, a beard-like growth of hair just beneath the lower lip.
FCR - Kellen Nielsen, Blanding, UT
Incorrect answers:  Jeff Reardon, Pedro Ramos, Rick Aguilera


SUNDAY
Q. What strong-willed catcher was born on Long Island but raised in the heart of Orlando’s resort and entertainment district?
Hint: His lone World Series stolen base was in the same season he had 0 stolen bases in the regular season.
Hint: From 30-Jul to 05-Aug-2012 he hit home runs in 5 consecutive games.
Hint: He made a cameo appearance on WWE Raw.
Hint: Johnny Damon was a teammate in high school.
- Born in Bridgehampton, NY;  Graduated from high school
- He attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, FL, where he won All-State honors in baseball.  
- He stole 2nd in the bottom of the 8th inning of game 1 of the 2005 World Series 22-Oct-2005.  No steals in the regular season that year, but oddly, he did steal a base earlier that postseason in the ALDS vs. BOS
FCR - David Krassin, New York, NY
Incorrect answers:  David Ross, Buck Ewing, Buster Posey, Jason Varitek, Mike Napoli, Mike Piazza, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez


THEME FOR THE WEEK - All-Star players active in MLB in 2016 who were also active in the 20th century.
Player MLB Debut With 2016 Team(s)


*Signed with SFG 16-Aug and  is currently assigned to AA Richmond


First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Richard Lerner, Silver Spring, MD


Incorrect theme guesses:
Monday   -
Tues - All Star players whose last names begin with B-E-L-
  • All stars from countries that won a medal in the Olympics whose last name start with B
  • Players with 1,000 hits in both the AL and NL.
  • Latin-American players with the most career Home Runs
 Fri - 2016 All-Stars  debuted in the 1990s
Sun - something to do with the Giants...