20--Mar-2017
MONDAY This is one of my personal favorites, mainly
because I noticed it when it first happened.
Q. Seven (7) people in uniform for the 1993
World Series won a World Series MVP during the courses of their careers. Name them.
Hint: Some were before 1993
Hint: Some were after 1993
Hint: Some were (one was) 1993
A.
WS MVP Notes:
FCR - Tom Cuggino, Wheaton, Illinois
Incorrect answers:
TUESDAY Stephen Barnes down in Phoenix thinks we might
be stumped by this one:
Q. Name the last switch-hitter to receive
the American League Most Valuable Player Award.
Hint: Since then, six different ambidextrous
hitters have been voted MVP in the National League.
Hint: He won other awards as well that same year.
Last six NL
switch-hitting MVPs:
- Pete Rose, 1973
- Willie McGee, 1985
- Terry Pendleton, 1991
- Ken Caminiti, 1996
- Chipper Jones, 1999
- Jimmy Rollins, 2007
FCR - Doug Greenwald, San Francisco
Incorrect
answers: Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray, Mickey
Mantle, Dave Stewart
TUESDAY #2 Dan DiNardo of Narbeth, Pennsylvania and Tom
Missett from Southington, Connecticut BOTH
gave us this doozy to chew on:
Q. Who is the only player that was active,
and, in a uniform, at four different
games where a player hit 4 HRs?
games where a player hit 4 HRs?
Hint: He’s a diminutive right hander from Astoria,
NY.
Hint: He started 3 WS games in subway series
play, W2, L1.
Hint: He once said (paraphrasing him) "don't
want to win 20 games, they will
expect it every year."
expect it every year."
Hitter Big
Day Loes’s team & involvement
Gil Hodges 31-Aug-1950 Dodger; DNP
Joe Adcock 31-Jul-1954 Dodger; DNP
Ricky Colavito 10-Jun-1959 Oriole; DNP
Willie Mays 30-May-1961 Giant; Pitched
a complete-game victory
FCR - Michael Green, Las Vegas
Incorrect
answers: Jack Sanford, Hoyt Wilhelm,
Spud Chandler, Tug McGraw, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Mike Stanton,
Preacher Roe
WEDNESDAY Professor John Rickert from Terre Haute,
Indiana makes us do our homework to get this one:
Q. Who were the 4 players to make their
major league pitching debut when they were past their 40th birthday?
Hint: One is a Hall of Famer.
Hint: Another is certain to be a Hall of Famer on
his first ballot.
Hint: One is a former World Series MVP.
Hint: The fourth one has never played in the
postseason.
A.
- Satchel Paige 09-Jul-1948
@ age 42 years, 2 days
- Ichiro Suzuki 04-Oct-2015
@ age 40 years, 347 days
- Rick Dempsey 02-Jul-1991
@ age 41 years, 288 days
- Diomedes Olivo 05-Sep-1960
@ 41 years, 227 days
In addition to John’s 4, readers found:
- Ken Takahashi 02-May-2009 @ 40 years, 16 days
- Lena Blackburn 05-Jun-1929 @ 42 years, 224 days
FCR - No one got them all.
Incorrect
answers:
WEDNESDAY #2 Dave MacEntee (AKA Bapplepie) Jacksonville, North
Carolina wants to know if we can …
Q. … name this former MVP winner?
Hint: His first five seasons in the majors was
mostly as an outfielder.
Hint: He won two Gold Gloves in his career, but
neither was for his work in the outfield.
Hint: The season he won the MVP he led his team
in home runs.
Hint: He was runner-up for the batting title
once, but not his MVP season.
- 1955-1959:
263 G @ OF; 177 G @ C; 57 G @ 1b
- GG’s 1963, 1964 Played only C those seasons.
- His 28 HR’s in 1963 topped Mantle’s &
Maris’ totals of 15 and 23 respectively. (…but so did Pepitone’s 27 and Tresh’s
25.)
- Batted .348, 2nd to Norm Cash’s
.361, his career high by 75 points, but Howard’s 1961 average was his career
high by 34 points.
FCR - Steve Berman, Bergenfield, New Jersey
Incorrect
answers: Larry Walker, Robin Yount,
Willie McCovey, Ken Boyer
IN MEMORIAM (A question outside of
this week’s theme of reader participation.)
Q. Who was the first Phillies manager to
win a World Series title?
Hint: He is the only non-Hall of Famer to manage
both the Yankees and Mets.
Hint: As Cubs GM he pushed for lights to be
installed at Wrigley Field. They went up
the year after he resigned.
Hint: The award for "meritorious service by
a player or member of the Phillies organization" bears his name.
Hint: Back when he pitched in the majors, he
surrendered Jimmy Piersall's 100th career homer, after which Piersall
memorably ran the bases facing backward.
- Managed NYY 1989;
managed NYM 1993
to 1996. Hall of Famers Casey Stengel,
Yogi
Berra & Joe
Torre each also managed both.
- Wrigley
lights installed in 1988, Green had resigned in 1987.
- He was inducted into (onto?) the Philadelphia Phillies
Wall of Fame in 2006.
FCR - Kellen Nielson, Blanding, Utah
Incorrect
answers:
MIDWEEK BONUS Trivia maven Rich Klein dug through his files
to come up with this dandy:
Q. The Cleveland Indians played the 1st
games at the new Camden Yards in 1992. Only one player on their roster was
earning $1 million. Name that player.
FCR - Edward Masone, New York City
Incorrect
answers: Albert Belle, Brook Jacoby,
Manny Ramirez, Cal Ripken, C.C. Sabathia, Carlos Baerga, Rick Sutcliff
THURSDAY John Robertson from Cambridge, Ontario
submitted this multi-part gem:
Q. The last man to come to bat in the 1969
World Series was a future MLB manager. Similarly, in the 1970 World
Series, the last man to come to bat was another future MLB manager. (In
fact, the last man to bat in the 1970 World Series was pinch hitting for
another future MLB manager!) Name all three men.
FCR - Dr. Richard A. Marston, Newport Beach
Incorrect
answers: Woody Woodward, Frank Robinson,
Johnny Oates
FRIDAY: Phillip Hertz, North
Bethesda, Maryland, thinks this one will sneak up on us:
Q. Besides old, renovated and new Yankee
Stadium, the Polo Grounds, Ebbets Field, Shea Stadium and CitiField, name the
other venue in the New York City area to host regular season MLB games in the last
70 years.
Hint: After Jackie Robinson signed with the
Dodgers, his first game was played here.
Hint: This stadium has a strong connection to
Cuba.
Hint: It's doubly Presidential.
- Robinson's
first game with the Montreal
Royals was there.
- The stadium bears the name of two
presidents (It was named for FDR.)
FCR - Rich Lerner, Silver Spring, Maryland
Incorrect
answers: Ruppert Stadium, Newark, NJ;
Newark Stadium; Yale; Downing Stadium; Washington Park; Yale Bowl
FRIDAY #2 Lyle Spatz, SABR veteran in Boynton Beach,
Florida, is optimistic that we might be able to...
Q. Name the four sets of pitchers who
pitched under the same name and each won 100 or more major league games.
Hint: Only major league victories count.
Hint: First and last names, as used in the
majors, must match exactly.
Hint: Nicknames are irrelevant here.
A.
FCR
– Walt Cherniak, Woodbine, Maryland
Incorrect
answers:
FRIDAY #3 Steve Siani of
Columbia, Maryland has found history’s longest documented major league at-bat,
measured by number of pitches thrown. He asks
Q. Who was the batter and who was the
pitcher?
Hint: The pitcher is a former Cy Young Award
winner and was still active in 2016.
Hint: The batter retired after 12 years in the
majors.
Hint: It took place in a stadium that has thrice
hosted the World Series, but saw its name change between its 2nd and
3rd Fall Classic.
A. On 26-Jun-1998
at Progressive
Field (né Jacobs), RICKY
GUTIERREZ
led off the top of the 8th with a 20-pitch AB strikeout. BARTOLO COLON finished the inning
with 28 pitches... 112 for the game, 82 of them strikes.
FCR - Larry Hayes, San Francisco
Incorrect
answers: Jake Peavy
SATURDAY Billy Hays from
Herrin, Illinois asks us:
Q. Who has won the World Series with both
the Cubs and Red Sox?
FCR - Mike McCroskey, Sugar Land, Texas
Incorrect
answers:
SUNDAY This question doesn’t have a particular
author, but so many people have asked me it over the years that it seems
appropriate to include this week.
BTW, If you are sitting
on a favorite question, now is the time to send it in.
Q. Name the starting eight Whiz Kids.
Only Sisler had more
than the same exact 4 postseason games in their careers. And he merely had those + 2.
FCR - Bradley Curtis, Roseville, California
Incorrect
answers:
SUNDAY #2 Greg
Langlois from San Leandro, California wrote in with this one:
Q. What Hall of Famer and former National
League batting champion was once traded for two players who both later
committed suicide after their playing days?
Hint: He holds the record with 6 extra-base hits
in a doubleheader.
Hint: His poor eyesight varied so much day-to-day
that he kept 3 different pairs of eyeglasses with him at all times.
Hint: He won his only batting title by edging
(yea, nosing) out another future Hall of Famer by a minuscule 0.0007.
- Traded to CIN from STL for Harvey
Hendrick and Benny
Frey who later—after their playing days—each took his own life
(Hendrick - gunshot, and Frey - carbon monoxide poisoning)
- Six EBH 28-Jul-1928
Game 1 (2 doubles and a homer); Game 2
(2 doubles and a homer and 2 singles for good measure)
- Beat out Bill
Terry for the 1931 NL batting title .3489 to .3486. The year before, Terry had hit .401, the last
National Leaguer to hit .400.
FCR - Chaunce Venuto, Tooele, Utah
Incorrect
answers: Lloyd Waner, Ernie Lombardi
SUNDAY #3 Horsehide Trivia partner T. Scott Brandon in
Port Angeles, Washington asks us this about his favorite TNFOTO player:
Q. Who, in 1929, did Hall of Fame manager
John McGraw call “The future catching star of the National League”?
Hint: Rogers Hornsby, managing the Braves, said
he was the top young catcher in the NL.
Hint: McGraw was trying to obtain him at the time
of his unfortunate demise.
Hint: He called his favorite defensive move the
“Cigar store Indian play”.
Hint: George Sisler was denied a base hit once
when he used that ploy.
- TNFOTO = “Through No
Fault Of Their Own”. Lerian was killed
in a freak traffic accident in his hometown of Baltimore at age 26. He had played for only two years in the
majors, both for the Phillies.
- Cigar Store Indian play was a decoy to make a
runner believe the fielder didn’t have the ball or even much interest in the
play before suddenly producing the ball and tagging the runner out. Used on Sisler
29-May-1928.
- Do yourself a favor and read Scott’s SABR Bio of Lerian. Scott’s research was so thorough that he is
still close friends with some of Lerian’s relatives’ descendants.
FCR - Jeff Kallman, Las Vegas
Incorrect
answers: Bill DeLancey, Moe Berg, Mel
Ott, Frank Place, Elon Chester “Chief” Hogsett, Spud Davis, Willard
Hershberger, Gabby Hartnett
SUNDAY #4 Barrister Phil
Hochberg puts this one before the Horsehide Trivia jury:
Q. What pitcher wore the name of his home
town on the back of his jersey?
Hint: He was the last rookie to log more than 300
innings pitched in his rookie season.
Hint: No pitcher received more MVP votes than he
did that year.
Hint: Braves fans sometimes got him instead of
rain.
- Hailed from the city of Ninety-Six,
South Carolina
- Threw 312.2 innings in 1944
- Was on the other side of “Spahn
and Sain then pray for rain.”
FCR - Larry Creeden, Boulder City, Nevada
Incorrect
answers: Johnny Sain, Vern Bickford,
Warren Spahn, Vinegar Bend Mizell
SUNDAY #5 Tom Missett of Southington, Connecticut
follows with another uniform-based question…
Q. What player wore his birthday on the
back of his uniform?
Hint: He and his brother were both All-Stars in
the majors, in fact, they were the first brothers to face each other in
All-Star competition.
Hint: He finished 3rd in
Rookie-of-the-Year voting.
Hint: Is this hint trivial? You be the judge: He was the first player to pinch-hit for a DH
in a World Series game.
- Wore
#17. He was born 17-May-1948.
- 1969
ROY
- Pinch-hit for Lou
Piniella WS game
1, 16-Oct-1976 8th inning
FCR - Bill Carle, Lee’s Summit, Missouri
Incorrect
answers: Lee May, Joe DiMaggio, George
Brett, the Alomar brothers
SUNDAY #6 New York’s Stuart Greenwald, trying
unsuccessfully not to boast, writes us with this:
Q. This man is my college classmate and led
our basketball team in scoring. He was named player of the year.
Hint: His number was the first to be retired in a
long list of retired numbers of some of the greatest basketball players ever
who performed at our alma mater. The present coach is legendary.
Hint: Even better at baseball, he was a leader
for two different teams that defeated the Yankees in two World Series.
Hint: His picture graced the back cover of the
1961 issue of “Who’s Who in Baseball”.
- Helms Foundation
1952 College Basketball POY
- Duke Basketball retired jersey numbers:
10 - Dick Groat 1952
25 - Art Heyman 1990
44 - Jeff Mullins 1994
43 - Mike Gminski 1980
24 - Johnny Dawkins 1986
35 - Danny Ferry 1989
32 - Christian Laettner 1992
11 - Bobby Hurley 1993
33 - Grant Hill 1994
31 - Shane Battier 2001
22 - Jason Williams 2003
23 - Shelden Williams 2007
4 - J.J. Redick 2007
- 1961 w/1960 NL MVP
“Who’s Who in Baseball” back cover. Roger
Maris was on the front as the 1960
AL MVP.
FCR – Chuck Durante,
Dover, Delaware
Incorrect
answers: Tom Butters
SUNDAY #7 The redoubtable Paul Haas of Springfield,
Virginia (with suspect motives) asks,
Q. Name the two future Hall of Fame
pitchers who were traded for each other.
Hint: At the time of the trade, one of them had
never yet won a major league game.
Hint: The other never won another major league
game after the trade.
Hint: The younger player was later traded with 2
future Hall of Famers back to his original team.
- Traded straight across 15-Dec-1900.
- Rusie’s career w/l record is 246-174
Mathewson’s is 373-188.
- Mathewson traded with Bill
McKechnie and Edd Roush
to the Cincinnati Reds for Buck
Herzog and Red
Killefer 20-Jun-1916.
FCR - Stephen Klatsky, Washington, DC
Incorrect
answers:
SUNDAY #8 Alex
Poterak from Providence (Not Bruce Fleming) asked one of my favorites.
Q. Who are the major leaguers who hit home
runs before they turned 20 and after they turned 40?
Hint: Only one is a Hall of Famer, and he was the
only member of the club for nearly 60 years.
Hint: A majority of them played for the Detroit
Tigers.
Hint: The answer used to be all fruity, but has
grown.
A.
B. 18-Dec-1886; HR’s 23-Sep-05 & 16-May-1928
B. 01-Apr-1944; HR;s 03-Jun-1963
& 22-Jun-1985
B. 18-Nov-1968; HR’s 09-Sep-1988
& 29-Jun-2009
B. 27-Jul-1975; HR’s 12-Jun-1995
& 18-Jul-2016
FCR - Vince Granieri, Cincinnati
Incorrect
answers: Ken Griffey, Jr.
SUNDAY #9 Bruce Fleming from Cleveland, Tennessee sent
in this:
Q. Who
is the only player to hit .400 or better with 40 or more home runs, and have
150 or more RBIs, all in the same season?
Hint: Besides
leading his league in these three categories, the same year he also led his
league in hits, doubles and runs scored.
Hint: In
his only World Series as a manager, his team came out as Champions, making the
final putout himself.
- He had a pretty good year with STL in
1922: hit .401 with 42 home runs and 152 RBI.
- Also had 250 H, 46 2b & 141 R.
- It should be noted that he also led the league
in OBP w/.459, then led majors (not just the NL) in SLG w/.722, OPS w/1.181,
OPS+ w/207 & TB w/450.
- 1926,
tagged out Babe
Ruth trying to steal in the 9th inning of Game 7 to give the
Cards their first ever World
Series Championship.
FCR - Morris Buenemann, Florissant, Missouri
Incorrect
answers: Hack Wilson, George Sisler
SUNDAY #10 Roslyn Brown from Columbia, Maryland thinks
we ought to know this guy:
Q: What baseball author and philanthropist has
caught more than 9,000 baseballs before, during and after major league games?
Hint: He once caught a baseball dropped from more
than 1,000 feet.
Hint: He holds official world records on half a
dozen classic video games including Breakout (896 points) and Arkanoid
(1,658,110 points).
- Don’t miss this video.
- …or this one.
- …or this one.
- or any of Zack’s
videos.
- As for his being a philanthropist, thus quoth
Wiki: Charity Work
Since 2009, Hample has
been raising money for Pitch in for Baseball, a non-profit charity
that provides baseball and softball equipment to underprivileged children all
over the world. With help
from his fans, who pledge money for every baseball that he snags at Major
League stadiums, and from BIGS
Sunflower Seeds, who sponsored him during the 2013 season, Hample
raised more than $190,000 through the 2016 season. In July 2015, Hample gave
Alex Rodriguez the ball from his 3,000th hit in exchange for the
Yankees donating $150,000 to Pitch In For Baseball.”
FCR - Charlie O’Reilly, Rutherford, New Jersey
[Roslyn responded: “Woo hoo! I’m published!”]
Incorrect
answers: Gabby Street, Bill Terry,
George Plimpton, Bob Uecker, Bill Nowlin, D. Bruce Brown,
SUNDAY #11 [Last one]
This rather prolix entry comes to us from Phil Ross in Denver.
BACKGROUND: In a 1970s magazine article, a SABR
member, a then full-time sportswriter, unofficially dubbed a 2,000-mile long
U.S. Highway (not an Interstate, but numbered odd or even to signify
whether its direction was north/south or east/west) as “The Royal Road of the
All-Star First Basemen.” This was because the cross-country highway offered a
lifeline to many small towns in its seven-state path, including the hometowns
of two All-Star first basemen – one AL, the other NL -- whose careers
paralleled each other’s through portions of the ’50s and ’60s.
Q. 1.) What is the still-existing highway
number? 2.) Why is it odd or even? and 3.-4.)
Who were the two late players?
Hint: One batted and threw righty, the other was
southpaw all the way around.
Hint: Each was a college standout in a sport
other than baseball.
Hint: Even though both were selected as All-Stars
– four times and once, respectively – neither achieved the Hall of Fame, and,
despite consistently impressive stats in several categories, their
accomplishments were eclipsed by outfield, infield (in one case) and pitching
teammates who were HOF inductees.
Hint: In his best year, one led his league in BA,
OPS, OBP, Hits and IBB, and belted a career-high 41 HR, yet finished
only fourth in MVP voting, his highest MVP showing in six MVP races. He went
deep 377 times in his 17-year MLB career, all but two seasons with one
franchise.
Hint: You could easily say that one of the two
players was “like money in the bank.”
A. U.S.
84,
which begins in Georgia and runs through AL, MS, LA, TX and NM before reaching
its terminus at Pagosa Springs, CO. It has an even number because it
technically is an east/west route.
NORM
CASH,
LH who had a breakout year with Detroit Tigers in ’61, was a football TB for
two Texas colleges – Angelo State
and Sul
Ross State, and hit the 377 MLB HR. Tiger HOF teammates inducted as players
were OF Al
Kaline, 3b Eddie
Mathews and RHP Jim
Bunning. Earlier with CHW, Luis Aparicio,
Early
Wynn and Nellie
Fox had been teammates. U.S. 84 runs through his hometown of Post,
Texas.
JOE
ADCOCK,
RH, Milwaukee Braves, who was an LSU
hoops star and made one ASG. HOF
teammates inducted as players were OF Hank
Aaron, *3B Eddie
Mathews, OF Enos
Slaughter, IF Red
Schoendienst and LHP Warren
Spahn. U.S. 84 runs through his hometown of Coushatta,
LA.
FCR - James Blessing, Carmel, Indiana
Incorrect
answers: I-70, US-380, Bill White
WEEKLY THEME – Reader-submitted
question helping celebrate Horsehide Trivia’s 20 consecutive years of
operation.
First Correct
Respondent to Identify Theme – Everybody!
Questions archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
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