Sunday, September 10, 2017

2017-09-04 No-hitters by pitchers whose last name begins with "P"

This week’s theme and questions were submitted by reader John Michael Pierobon from Fort Lauderdale.

MONDAY
Q.        Whose wife, Carole, disappeared in 1982 after leaving the couple's home in the Chicago suburb of Wheaton?
Hint:     He made his major league debut with the Baltimore Orioles.
Hint:     In his career, he hit 20 home runs as a pitcher.
Hint:     He twice lead the American League in wild pitches thrown.
Hint:     BRTR
A.         MILT PAPPAS
-  Debut - 10-Aug-1957 (He pitched two scoreless innings vs. NYY.)
HR log, including a game where he went deep twice while throwing a complete-game shutout – 27-Aug-1961
-  Led the AL in WP in 1959 & 1960 w/14 & 10 respectively, the former also leading the majors.
-  Batted Right; Threw Right
FCR -  Eric Stone, Los Gatos, California
Incorrect answers:  Hoyt Wilhelm, Joe Altobelli,, Early Wynn, Chuck Estrada, Bob Turley, Ralph Terry

TUESDAY
Q.        Who holds the Baltimore Orioles franchise record for career pitching wins?
Hint:     He became the youngest pitcher to win a complete World Series game.
Hint:     Of the 303 home runs he surrendered in his 19-year, one-team career, not one was a grand slam.
Hint:     He still provides cogent, trenchant commentary behind the mic.
A.         JIM PALMER
G 2, 1966 WS at Dodger Stadium, becoming the youngest pitcher (20 years, 11 months) to win a complete WS G, defeating LAD 6-0.
-  Color man for BAL broadcasts on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN)
FCR -  Naftali Greenwood, Kiryat, Arba, Israel
Incorrect answers: 

WEDNESDAY
Q. Who pitched consecutive shutouts for his first two games in the majors the same month that Stark Trek debuted on NBC?
Hint:     The bad news? He didn’t get a single for the BBWAA Rookie of the Year Award. The good news? He did win the Sporting News Rookie Pitcher of the Year Award for his league the following year.
Hint:     He was also credited with a win in a shutout performance in the World Series.
Hint:     He has a solar surname.
A.         TOM PHOEBUS  Bio
-  Debut G: 15-Sep-1966; 2nd G 20-Sep-1966Star Trek’s first episode was "The Man Trap", airing at 8:30 PM on 08-Sep-1966.
-  He was given the 1967 Sporting_News_Rookie_of_the_Year_Award
-  Won the 2nd game of the 1970 WS, 11-Oct.
-  Phoebus is a Greek sobriquet for Apollo, god of the sun.  [Why NASA’s moonshot was called “Apollo” still baffles me.  ~ dbb]
FCR -  Bill Deane, Cooperstown
Incorrect answers:  Fernando Valenzuela, Sonny Siebert, Jim Palmer, Wally Bunker

MIDWEEK BONUS
Q.        Who is the only major leaguer with a Cy-Young-Award-winning big brother?
Hint:     He made his major league debut with a team that won the pennant that season, but he was not placed on the postseason roster, even though his rookie baseball card had been issued that same season.   
Hint:     He is mentioned in the hit song “Talkin' Baseball”.
Hint:     He hit his first career home run within minutes of Apollo 11 landing on the moon, as foretold by the oracle.
A.         GAYLORD PERRY
Brother: Jim Perry 1970 AL CYA, 3 years older.  Gaylord had 2 CYA’s of his own.
-  First Topps rookie card: 1962.  Actual rookie card:  1963.
Terry Cashman’s 1981 hit “Talkin’ Baseball
- An urban baseball legend boldly states that his first manager, Alvin Dark, holding forth on Perry’s offensive skills, pronounced, “There’ll be a man on the moon before he hits a homer in the majors.”  Perry’s first home run came 7 years into his 22-year career on 20-Jul-1969, not long after the stadium announcer had told the crowd that Neil Armstrong had taken his historic step.  The story is so good that it practically doesn’t matter whether it’s true.
FCR -  Larry Hayes, San Francisco
Incorrect answers:  Phil Niekro, Jim Perry, Greg Maddux, Bret Saberhagen, Vance Law, Blue Moon Odom, Joe Niekro

IN MEMORIAM
Q.        Who was the architect of the Yankee dynasty that operated un Joe Torre?
Hint:     He was the third “M” the only time Yankees batters hit home runs back‑to‑back‑to‑back by players whose last names began with M.
Hint:     He had the privilege (sic) of managing the Yankees when George Steinbrenner owned the team.  Twice!
Hint:     His nickname was derived from his slender frame and certainly not by anything he did with his bat.
Hint:     These are some of the draft picks he was responsible for:  Derek Jeter, Fred McGriff, Mike Lowell, Mike Pagliarulo, among many others.
Hint:     These are some of the players he successfully obtained in trade:  Charlie Hayes, Jim Abbott, Paul O’Neill, David Cone, among many others.
Hint:     Here are some of the free agents he signed: Bob Watson, Dave Winfield, Jimmy Key and Pettitte, among many others.
Hint:     In his playing days, he was a known master of the hidden ball trick.
A.         GENE “STICK” MICHAEL
-  GM of NYY 1980–81, 1991–95
-  Batting behind Bobby Murcer and Thurman Munson, Michael hit the 3rd-in-a-row home run off Lew Krause of the Oakland A’s to open the bottom of the 6th inning on 10-Aug-1969.  It was Munson’s first career HR and the only one he hit that year.  Michael had 2, but none as famous as this one.
-  NYY Mgr under “The Boss” for the 1st 56 G of the 1st ½ of 1981 the 1st 26 G of the 2nd ½ of 1981 and the middle 86 G of 1982.
   -  Just enough meat on those bones.  Official programs listed him at 6’3” and 183 lbs.
FCR -  Jim Lovelace, Kent, Ohio
Incorrect answers:  Billy Martin, Gil McDougald

THURSDAY
Q.        Who changed a certain impertinent foul pole into a pesky one just by renaming it?
Hint:     He is listed at least 17 times in the top pitching statistical categories for his franchise.
Hint:     He never played for any other team in the majors, but did manage for that franchise in the minors at three different levels.
Hint:     The year he led the majors in win and compete games and led his league in ERA, innings pitched and batters faced, he didn’t receive a single Cy Young Award vote, although it got him on his first All-Star team.
Hint:     He too is mentioned in the hit song “Talkin' Baseball”.
A.         MEL PARNELL
-  Parnell’s managerial record (scroll down)
-  Had his best year 1949.  Cy Young Award first awarded in 1956.
FCR -  John Burbridge, Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania
Incorrect answers:  Johnny Pesky, Boo Ferris, Bob Feller, Dizzy Dean, Terry Cashman

FRIDAY
Q.        Which former Cal pitcher was the first to throw a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium?
Hint:     He won exactly 100 regular-season major league games in his career.
Hint:     He was also 4-0 in postseason play.
Hint:     He surrendered Mel Ott’s 400th career home run.
A.         MONTE PEARSON
-  No-no 27-Aug-1938.  Attended the University of California in Berkeley 1926-28.
-  Won WS in 1936, 37, 38 & 39 w/NYY winning the 4th, 3rd, 3rd & 2nd G respectively.
Ott’s 400th 01-Jun-1941
FCR -  Bob Flynn, Chandler, Arizona
Incorrect answers:  Walter Johnson, George Mogridge, Eddie Lopat, Tex Carleton, Allie Reynolds, Bob Feller

SATURDAY
Q.        Who struck out Honus Wagner twice in a game while still in high school, Wagner being a 7-year National League veteran coming off a pennant season?
Hint:     He was the starting tackle on a University of Illinois team that went 10-2-1.
Hint:     Seven (7!) additional players from that Illini football team later played major league baseball.
Hint:     He once struck out 29 Negro Leaguers in a 15-inning barnstorming affair, which got him kicked out of college paving the way for his major league career.
Hint:     Although he was a righty, his nickname describes one of his physical characteristics.
Hint:     He was traded away from a team whose dynastic run began the very next season while he joined a staff with four (4!) 20-game losers the year before, the only such team in major league history*.  When he later rejoined his old team, they had begun to slip.
Hint:     He later played briefly for the Tigers.
-     K of Wagner was following the 1903 season.
-  Impressive football season was 1902 , incredibly finishing only 4th in the Western Conference.
-  The additional major leaguers were
Jim Cook (end) and
“Big” Jeff is listed as being 6’1”, 185 lbs.
-  Traded from CHC in December 1905.
-  The woeful 1905 Boston Beaneaters set a high watermark for futility and execrable field management.
-  Their overworked 1905 staff included
Irv Young 20-21,
Vic Willis 12-29,
   *Pfeffer (13-22) helped them repeat that unwanted record in the ’06 season, joining teammates Young 16-25, Vive Lindaman 12-23 & league leader Gus Dorner 8-25.
-  Pfeffer rejoined CHC at the end of 1910 and posted a meager 1-0 record with a little more than 40 innings pitched.  Improbably, that Cubs team had another player who name began with “Pf…”, former NL ERA leader, Jack ‘The Giant Killer’ Pfiester, only 6-3 himself that season.
   -  Player/manager for the Class C Pawtucket Tigers of the Colonial League, although there are researchers’ differences as to which Pfeffer this was.
FCR -  Rick Fink, Edison, New Jersey
Incorrect answers: 

WEEKEND BONUS
Q.        What pitcher threw a modern record 44 innings in one World Series?
Hint:     He walked three batters and struck out 22 in that Fall Classic.
Hint:     Fans with short baseball memories voted him the greatest right-handed pitcher in the history of that 125+-year-old franchise.
Hint:     SABR says he earned his nickname “…because of his reticent demeanor, his humility and the way he lived his life.”
Hint:     He grew up outside the United States.
A.         DEACON PHILLIPPE
1903 WS
-  From age 3 to 17, he lived near Athol in the Dakota Territory.  It wouldn’t become a state until 1889.
FCR -  Phil Ross, Denver
Incorrect answers:  Mariano Rivera, Christy Mathewson, Joe Wood, Madison Bumgarner,

SUNDAY
Q.        What hurler had an unusual trifecta in his rookie season with the Milwaukee Brewers: 3 wins, 3 losses and a 3.00 ERA?
Hint:     In a four-year span in the heart of his career, he pitched more innings than any other hurler in his league. Appearing mainly for second-division teams, he averaged 23 wins & 430 innings pitched per season and completed 98% of the games he started.
Hint:     In his last full year in the majors was the league leader in hits allowed, runs allowed, home runs allowed, assists as a pitcher and losses.
Hint:     He became the second pitcher ever to strike out 18 batters in one game.
A.         HENRY PORTER
-  3 X 3 = 1884
-  Four years = 1885-88
-  Last complete season = 1888.
-  18 K = 03-Oct-1884, less than 4 months after the first such feat ever, Dupee Shaw’s gem on 19-Jul.
FCR -  Mark Hayne, Dumfries, Virginia
Incorrect answers: 


WEEKLY THEME – Major league pitchers whose last name starts with “P” who pitched a complete-game no-hitter.


Palmer............. 13-Aug-1969......... OAK BAL 8
Pappas............. 02-Sep-1972.......... CHC 8  SDP 0
Parnell............. 14-Jul-1956........... CHW 0  BOS 4
Pearson........... 27-Aug-1938......... CLENYY 13
Perry............... 17-Sep-1968*......... STL 0 SFG 1
Porter............. 06-Jun-1888......... KCC 4 BAL 0
Pfeffer............. 08-May-1907 ...... CIN 0 BSN 6
Phillippe......... 25-May-1899**..... LOU 7 NYG 0
Phoebus.......... 27-Apr-1968.......... BOS 0 BAL 6

* Bob Gibson was the opposing pitcher.
**Only his 7th career start.


First Correct Respondent to Identify ThemeSteve Berman, Bergenfield, New Jersey (After Perry)

Incorrect theme guesses:

Tuesday -  Guys who won 20 games for Orioles in the 1960s
               -  Orioles pitching staff
               -  Orioles pitchers who pitched an MLB no hitter
               -  Teenagers who have played with the Orioles
               -  All-time Orioles win leaders

Wed        -  Orioles pitchers with 3 straight complete game shutouts
               -  Orioles pitchers who have pitched no hitters.
               -  Orioles right-handed rookie pitchers whose last names all begin with P, and who hit a home run and pitched at least one shutout in their rookie seasons.
               -  60s pitchers who won WS games as teenagers
               -  Most career wins for Orioles by players whose last name starts with P
               -  Baltimore Oriole pitchers who hit under .200 with exactly 1 home run in their first full season
               -  Pitchers who were involved in no-hitters by the Baltimore Orioles/St. Louis Browns franchise.
               -  Authors of no-hitters in the year of the pitcher, 1968

Fri           -  Pitchers whose first names start with P and won 100 or more games

Sun         -  Pitched a no hitter and 3 consecutive shutouts
               -  Pitched complete game after pitching no hitter



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