MONDAY
Q. Which future All-Star homered off Nolan
Ryan in his first major league at-bat?
Hint: He and three of his college teammates
became All-Stars in the majors.
Hint: One year the only person who beat him in
number of MVP votes was a teammate.
Hint: In his last season in the majors pulled off
the rare feat of hitting a grand slam in each league in the same year.
- Ryan
HR = 08-Apr-1986
- Attended Mississippi
State University with Bobby
Thigpen, Jeff
Brantley and Rafael
Palmeiro.
- 1989
MVP = Kevin
Mitchell (314 to 225 pts.)
- AL GS = 20-Jul-2000
playing for BAL
off Ramon
Martinez;
NL GS = 24-Sep-2000
playing for STL
off Todd
Van Poppel
FCR - Doug Greenwald, San Francisco
Incorrect answers: Eddie Murray, Rafael Palmeiro, Nomar
Garciapara, Terry Francona, Jim Thome, Mark McGwire
TUESDAY
Q. Who was the first veteran pitcher of the
Negro Leagues to be elected to the Hall of Fame?
Hint: He could have easily gone toe-to-toe with
Yoda for philosophical witticisms. (Does
Yoda even have toes?)
Hint: Some very knowledgeable baseball people
place him above Walter Johnson as the greatest pitcher ever.
- HOF 1971
(Jackie Robinson did play briefly in the Negro Leagues and was elected to the
HOF in 1961.)
- One example: “I don't generally like running.
I believe in training by rising gently up and down from the bench." Other examples.
FCR - Vince Granieri, Cincinnati
Incorrect
answers: Bob Feller, Cool Papa Bell
WEDNESDAY
Q. Against what pitcher did Adam Dunn tie
then break the single-season record for strikeouts by a batter, a standard that
had lasted for almost as long as Roger Maris' single-season home run record??
Hint: It was he and a fellow pitcher who accompanied
Adam Greenberg to the Cubs' training room to watch over him after Greenberg
suffered a concussion when he was hit in the back of the head with the first pitch
he ever saw in the majors.
Hint: Rod Dedeaux had a lot to do with his
baseball development.
- Records K’s = 30-Sep-2004. Dunn’s new record broke the one held by Bobby Bonds
since 1970, 34 years. Maris’ HR record
lasted from 1961 to 1998, 37 years. Ryan
Howard broke Dunn’s record 3 years later, in 2007.
- Kerry
Wood helped out with
Greenberg that day.
FCR - Scott Matteson, Shawnee, Kansas
Incorrect
answers: Tom Seaver, Randy Johnson, Carlos Zambrano
IN MEMORIAM
Q. Who was the first player to win the
Rookie of the Year Award in the American League?
Hint: He was the first Washington Senators player
to win an American League home run title.
Hint: A highly respected hitter in his career, he
hit ten grand slams and ten pinch-hit home runs.
Hint: A future Hall of Famer was on his baseball
team at Beaumont High School in St. Louis.
Hint: He was traded by the Senators the year
before they left town for the Twin Cities.
Hint: His bonus for originally signing with the
Browns was a new pair of cleats.
Hint: He is one of only nine to play for both the
original AL Washington Senators and the expansion Senators.
- 42 HR in 1957.
He also led the AL w/114 RBI.
Finished 3rd in MVP
voting behind M. Mantle and T. Williams who each had near-career years.
- HOF Earl
Weaver played ball at his high school at the same time he was there. Weaver was on the JV while Sievers played
varsity.
- On the Senators 1954-59
then the new ones 1964-65
FCR - Chuck Durante, Dover, Delaware
Incorrect
answers: Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard,
Eddie Yost, Larry Doby
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. What pitcher relieved the last-active player
born in Ireland in both of their only appearances in a major league game?
Hint: He is the only player in the history of the
majors who achieved his unique accomplishment.
Hint: He taught himself a proper lefty windup by
looking at himself in the mirror and comparing what he saw with pictures of
Johnny Vander Meer in a copy of Life
magazine.
Hint: Years later, he won the U.S. amputee golf
championship. Twice.
A. BERT
SHEPARD
- Only game 04-Aug-1945. Pitched in relief of Joe
Cleary, last Ireland-born major leaguer.
- Pitched on a prosthetic leg, having lost his
during an U.S. air raid over Berlin. I
recommend his SABR biography.
- Vander
Meer in Life
27-Jun-1938, two week after his double no-hitter.
- Won golf titles in 1968 & 1971.
FCR - Mark Kanter, Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Incorrect
answers: Monty Stratton, Joe Cleary, Jim
Abbott, Lou Brissie, Burt Shotton, Armando Roche, Pete Gray
PRE-THURSDAY
Q. Who was the starting pitcher WHO FACED
the home-team Reds in the first night game ever played in the majors?
Hint: It’s believed that his career was shortened
because he acted upon the advice of too many coaches.
Hint: Often used as a pinch hitter, he hit .333
in 1938 and .344 in 1939.
Hint: He was the Scouting Director for
Charlie Finley's Kansas City A's from 1960 to 1968, instrumental in assembling
a scouting staff and finding the players who would become the core of the
Oakland Athletics' three World Series Champion teams.
- 1st night game 24-May-1935. Paul
Derringer, of course, started for the Reds.
- He stayed in KC rather than move to Oakland
and scouted for the Braves and Orioles.
Working for
Charlie O. was strenuous.
FCR - Mark DeLodovico, Rockville, Maryland
Incorrect
answers: Whitlow Wyatt, Johnny Vander
Meer
THURSDAY
Q. What American League team’s staff ace
led the majors in pitching losses in 2016?
Hint: He pitched for the United States national
baseball team in the qualifying tournament for the 2011 Pan American Games.
Hint: He stopped the powerful the Cuban national
baseball team and the publication USA
Baseball called his game the “International Performance of the Year”.
Hint: He pitched 4 perfect innings for the
champion U.S. in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Hint: As he had before, he served as a guest
analyst for ESPN and ESPN Radio during the 2016 World Series.
- 9-19 in 2016 for TBR
FCR - Steve Murfin, Olney, Maryland
Incorrect
answers:
FRIDAY
Q. Who was the first pitcher to surrender
four home runs in a single major league game?
Hint: After Tony Mullane, he was the next pitcher
to pitch ambidextrously in a major league game.
Hint: His nickname reflected his cold and calm
demeanor on the mound.
- 4 HR by Bobby
Lowe, the first to do it 30-May-1894.
- Ambidexterously threw in May 1888. (Mullane
did it in 1882.)
FCR - Leonard Levin, Providence
Incorrect
answers: Paul Foytack, Moxie Manuel, Cal
McLish, Greg Harris
SATURDAY
Q. Who is the only batter besides Ted
Williams to walk in 20% of his career plate appearances? (reasonable minimums apply)
Hint: In one of the best years of his career, his
runs exceeded his hits.
Hint: He has an unusual connection with a famous
episode of “Seinfeld”.
Hint: His first six years of professional
baseball were with the Baltimore Orioles.
- 1,156 BB in 5,789 PA = .0199689, which rounds
nicely to 20%. Williams’
number was .206477 or 21% based on 2,021 BB in 9,788 PA. San Francisco’s John Fisher noticed one we
missed. Barry
Bonds had a percentage of 20.29% (2,558 BB in 12,606 AB).
- 1930 = 111H & 117 R
- Bill Nowlin, in his great biography of Bishop, reveals
that “… [Bishop] holds his arms stiff at his side when he runs.” [Atlanta Constitution,
September 16, 1931. The 156th
episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, which
aired 15-May-1997, titled "The Summer of George", there is a
character who walks with her arms straight down at her side.
- Played for the Baltimore
Orioles of the International League 1918-1923.
FCR - Bill Deane, Cooperstown
Incorrect
answers: Keith Hernandez (12.5%),
Babe Ruth (19.4%),
Danny Tartabull (13.1%),
Rafael Palmeiro (11.2%),
John McGraw (16.9%),
Paul O’Neill (10.7%),
Bobby Grich (13.2%),
Ken Phelps (17.1%),
Jay Buhner (13.4%),
Joey Votto (15.8%),
Willie Keeler (5.5%),
Eddie Yost (17.6%),
SUNDAY
Q. What former Astro, once exclusively right-handed
hitter, had rejected an offer from Harvard in order to play professional
baseball?
Hint: Playing in the farm system of his first
major league organization, he became an effective switch-hitter.
Hint: He became an Olympic medalist while representing
his country.
Hint: He is the first player in history to lead
off the 7th game of a World Series with a home run.
- Played for HOU in 2014.
- Originally drafted by COL in
the 14th
round of the 2004 MLB June Amateur Draft.
FCR - Mark Kanter, Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Incorrect
answers: Craig Biggio, Carlos Beltran
WEEKLY THEME – Players
whose names represent an occupation.
Names considered by not used:
Barber
Carpenter
Cartwright
Fisher
Fletcher
Gardner
Hooper
Joiner
Messenger
Painter
Porter
Proctor
Sadler
Shoemaker
Skinner
Spencer
Taylor
Thatcher
Tillman
Tucker
Turner
Weaver
Wheeler
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Chaunce Venuto, Tooele, Utah (after Clark)
Questions archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia home
page: https://sites.google.com/site/tnfotobbpics/home/horsehide-trivia
No comments:
Post a Comment