Richard Lerner of
Silver Spring, Maryland gave us this week’s theme.
MONDAY
Q. What former Tiger did ESPN dub as “The Greatest
Athlete of All Time”?
Hint: Archery became his pass-time after baseball.
Hint: He was the first player to play in the
majors with an artificial hip.
FCR - Steven Coleman, Belleville, Illinois
Incorrect answers: Kirk Gibson, Howard Hill, Al Kaline, Norm
Cash, Mark Fidrych, Sam Crawford, Ty Cobb, Jim Thorpe
TUESDAY
Q. What Hall of Famer played in the
outfield for the Yankees the year before Babe Ruth joined the team?
Hint: His 2 singles in 22 at-bats did not bode
well for his future with the Yankees.
Hint: One hopes he spent his $400 salary wisely.
FCR - Bob Flynn, Gilbert Arizona
Incorrect
answers: Bob Muesel, Casey Stengel,
Lefty O’Doul
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who pinch-hit for Roger Maris, Ted
Williams & Carl Yastrzemski? (…not
in the same game. That would be a
record.)
Hint: He got a single for Yaz, hit a walk-off
home for Maris and hit into a double play for Teddy Ballgame.
Hint: He once homered off a player who went on to
have a successful medical practice.
Hint: Life started for him in the small Great
Plains burgh that is now the mecca for a huge annual gathering.
- PH for Maris 18-May-1958; for Williams 20-Sep-1960; for Yaz 31-May-1961. The HR for Maris was a walk-off job in the 11th. It victimized that year’s AL All-Star starting
pitcher, Billy Pierce who had just come into
the game to face him. It was Hardy’s 1st
career HR. He would hit 16 more, 3 of
which are discussed in today’s answer.
- HR off Ron Taylor 11-Apr-1962. Taylor is a recently retired Toronto doctor and was for years the Blue Jays
team physician.
- Born in Sturgis, South Dakota where some 500,000 bikers
amass for the Sturgis Motorcycle
Rally,
held there annually since the early 1940’s.
FCR - Jeff Freedman, Westwood, California
Incorrect
answers: Wade Boggs, Al Kaline, Gene
Stephens
THURSDAY
Q. What Heisman Trophy winner could not
make the Pittsburgh Pirates winners?
Hint: His barely-above-the-Mendoza-line batting
average might have even contributed to their woes.
Hint: The unfortunate end of his sports career occurred
in a manner eerily similar to that of a Hall of Famer he played against in his
major league debut.
Hint: He ended his professional career as a
mid-level civil servant in the government of the state of his birth.
- Hit .252 and .151 respectively for a career
average of .214
- Debut 31-May-1953, with Roy Campanella behind the plate for BRO. Both were victims in serious car crashes.
- Was an administrative
assistant to the auditor for the state of Ohio.
FCR - Dave Williams, Glastonbury, Connecticut
Incorrect
answers:
FRIDAY
Q. What former U.S. Marine does SABR call,
“…the greatest athlete ever to emerge from the Greater Boston area.”?
Hint: He and Hank Aaron Made their major league
debuts on the same day.
Hint: In spite of leading American League first
basemen in assists and fielding percentage, he was not among the three players
receiving league Rookie-of-the-Year votes.
Hint: His baseball prowess led to his golden
sobriquet.
Hint: After high school he received literally
scores of scholarship offers from what are now known as D-1 schools, including
Notre Dame and Tennessee.
Hint: He chose to pro instead, turn but soon
found himself serving his country during the Korean War.
- Known as the “Golden Greek” which reflected
his heritage as well.
- The scholarship
offers were mostly to play football.
FCR - Mark Kanter, Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Incorrect
answers: Ted Williams, Ernie Banks,
Bryce Harper
SATURDAY
Q. What former All-American athlete disappeared
from his MLB team on a road trip in the middle of the season?
Hint: He had been drafted by 4 different
professional sports teams, by one of them twice.
Hint: He had played on a national championship
team in the Connie Mack Division of the American Amateur Baseball Congress.
Hint: He has dedicated himself to helping victims
of the Flint water crisis.
Hint: He debuted and finished in the majors with
teams sporting orange in their uniforms.
- Playing for TOR in 1987, as the Blue
Jays arrived in New York in the middle of an 11-game winning streak 08-Jun, Leach simply
disappeared for 4 days, re-joining the team in Baltimore, citing “personal
problems”.
- Drafted in baseball by the PHI in the 11th round of the 1975 MLB
June Amateur Draft from Southwestern HS (Flint,
MI),
then PHI in the 24th round of the 1978 MLB
June Amateur Draft from University of Michigan and finally the Detroit Tigers in the 1st round (13th
overall) of the 1979 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Michigan. Drafted in football in 1978 by the NFL’s Denver
Broncos but chose baseball for safety reasons.
- He attended high school in the Flint, Michigan
area.S
FCR - Ron Kaufman, Thornhill, Ontario
Incorrect
answers:
SUNDAY
Q. What former infielder became the Yankees
starting catcher when the team traded away a former MVP?
Hint: A future MVP is the one who took his place.
Hint: He coached his alma mater’s baseball team
to the college World Series and was named Coach of the Year.
Hint: He held the record for coaching victories
at that school until 2013.
FCR - Bob Dorrill, Kingwood, Texas
Incorrect
answers: Jorge Posada, Frankie Crosetti,
Thurman Munson, Bobby Richardson, Jim Leyritz, Doc Blanchard
WEEKLY THEME –
MLB players who had been the MVP of a college
football bowl game -
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Nobody was all that close
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - Major
leaguers who were pros in other sports
Wed - Players
who both hit a HR and scored an NFL touchdown in the same stadium
- MLB
players also playing in the NFL
- Athletes
who played both pro baseball and football
- Athletes
who played another sport professionally in addition to baseball
- Football
stars, maybe All-Americans
- American
League outfielders who played in the NFL
Thu - People
who played in MLB bit achieved other notable success in the NFL as players
and/or executives
- Players
in both MLB and NFL whose last names began with either "H"
(Halas & Hardy) or "J" (Jackson & Janowicz)
- Baseball
players who also lettered in Football in college
Fri - College
Football All-Americans who played in the Majors
- MLB
players in the College or Pro Football Hall of Fame
Sun - College football All-Americans who
played Major League Baseball