Q. Which
American Association hitter, in 1882, played the fewest games in a season where
he had 100 hits?
Hint: His other
stats that were stratospheric and all league-leading:
.378 Batting average
.430 On-base percentage
.510 Slugging
.940 OPS and
223 OPS+
Hint: Five years
later, he would hit over .400, but finished 2nd to a superstar
Canadian.
Hint: His batting
prowess led to the prominence of the Hillerich & Bradbury Co. as a major
bat maker. In addition, he named each of
his bats and kept hundreds of them in his mother's basement.
Hint: He was
unnecessarily incarcerated in an insane asylum after his retirement due to
mastoiditis.
- 1882 = 69 G, 109 H
FCR - Rich Wolfe,
Scottsdale
Incorrect guesses: Dan
Brouthers, Harry Heilmann, Cap Anson, Mike Trout
TUESDAY
Q. Who do we
now know was the first-ever player to come to bat in the major leagues?
Hint: He went 2-for-4
in that game.
Hint: He and his
brother formed the first major league brothers battery.
Hint: He was the
first player to complete his major league career with exactly 20 seasons.
- 2B, leading off 1st inning 04-May-1871, The Cleveland Forest
Cities
vs. The Fort Wayne Kekiongas. KEK prevailed 2-0.
- Played 1871-1890 (Cap Anson also played 1871-90,
but did not complete his career then. He played 7 more years.)
FCR - Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect guesses: Ed Delahanty, George Wright, Harry Wright,
Jim O’Rourke
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the first major league player to
lead his league in triples and home runs in the same season?
Hint: He did it again eleven seasons later.
Hint: He was the first major leaguer to tally 100
career home runs.
Hint: He changed his name from so his mother
would not see his name in box scores.
Hint: He retired with more runs scored than games
played.
- Family name was "Stowe". It was a time when many mothers considered being
a ballplayer unsavory.
- Played 1,489 G, scored 1,495 R
FCR - Bill Deane, Cooperstown
Incorrect
guesses: Gavvy Cravath, Ty Cobb,
Roger Connor, Lou Gehrig, Sam Crawford
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was the first player to compile a 40-game
hitting streak?
Hint: He began this streak one game after the end
of a 20 gamer.
Hint: In a famous play, he was rounding third in
the top of the 12th inning when he was tripped by the third baseman.
Hint: Hall of Famer Wee Willie Keeler was the
best man at his 2nd wedding.
- His 42-game hitting streak in 1894 was a
record until 1897, and remains the 4th longest in history and the
longest by a right-handed NL hitter.
- On 22-Dec-1903, Dahlen went down the aisle a
second time, marrying Jeanette Hoglund. Willie Keeler was Dahlen’s best man.
FCR - Bill Carle, Lee’s Summit, Missouri
Incorrect
guesses: Wee Willie Keeler, Cap Anson,
Wilbert Robinson, John McGraw, Nap Lajoie
THURSDAY
Q. Who, if the research is correct, hit the
first home run in the history of the National League?
Hint: It was his only home run all year, but he
managed a batting average of .429 to lead the league.
Hint: One year, he had more than 140 hits in
fewer than 80 games.
Hint: His baseball contemporaries had the highest
of praise for him.
Hint: He retired to work for the Gas, Light and
Coke Co.
- HR in 18767
- 1875 = 143 H in 78 G
- “Orator” Jim O’Rourke called Barnes “the
greatest second baseman the game ever saw.”
In 1896, A.G. Spalding “declared Ross Barnes to have been the greatest
ballplayer in America,” and Tim Murnane said of Barnes: “His left-handed stops of hard-hit balls to
right field were the prettiest stops ever made on the Boston grounds. As a
base-runner no man of the present day is his equal, and as a batsman he must be
reckoned very high.”
- Worked in Chicago and was working for Peoples Gas, Light and
Coke Co. Coke in this case is industrial fuel.
FCR - Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Willie Keeler, Kiki Cuyler,
Billy Hamilton, Hugh Duffy
FRIDAY
Q. Who was the first person to play the shortstop
position, taking his place as a “short fielder”?
Hint: He helped found a bank in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Hint: He served in the Connecticut state legislature
in 1870.
Hint: His father’s practice helped him earn his
nickname.
- He played SS for the Knickerbocker club of New
York in 1849
- His father was the well-known physician Dr.
Daniel Adams, born in 1773; graduated from Dartmouth in 1797; received his
medical degree in 1799. Adams himself
followed with a medical degree from Harvard by the time he was organizing
baseball teams in New York.
FCR - Steve Berman, Bergenfield, New Jersey
Incorrect
guesses: John Montgomery Ward, Dickey
Pearce
SATURDAY
Q. Who was the first pitcher born outside
the U.S. to throw a no-hitter?
Hint: Only he threw more wild pitches than Nolan
Ryan in a major league career.
Hint: He’s one of the few who could have it both
ways.
Hint: He joined the Chicago Police Department
after 18 years of professional baseball.
- B. 30-Jan-1859 in Cork, Ireland. On 11-Sep-1882, pitching in the American
Association for the Louisville Eclipse, he no-hit the Cincinnati Red
Stockings
2-0.
- 343 WP; Ryan had 277. Mullane also holds the mark for the 2nd-most
WP in a season w/63 (which nonetheless pales in comparison to Mark Baldwin’s 83 in 1889 for the Columbus Solons of the AA.)
- On 18-Jul-1882, (and probably other times as
well) in the middle of his sophomore season, he pitched ambidextrously in the
same game. Mullane suffered an injury to
his right arm and managed to teach himself to throw left-handed. Mullane
resumed throwing right-handed once the injury healed, and he would even
alternate throwing righty and lefty in the same game, which was easy for him
since he did not wear a glove. Mullane would face the batter with both hands on
the ball, and then use either one to throw a pitch.
FCR - Larry Hayes, San Francisco
Incorrect
guesses: Bert Blyleven, Johnny Vander
Meer, Dolf Luque, ,Cy Young
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Whose records for number of seasons leading
National League shortstops in fielding percentage and assists did Ozzie Smith
break in the 1980’s?
Hint: He was the first native of what is now the
state of West Virginia to play in the majors.
Hint: He was almost universally considered the
greatest fielding shortstop of his day.
Hint: He led the National League in hits in
consecutive seasons.
Hint: In games played at shortstop, he ranks just
behind Phil Rizzuto and held the position of career leader in most games played
at short for 11 straight seasons.
Hint: His hitting performance in his rookie
season at just a tick over .200 wasn’t a good indicator that he would lead the
National League in batting at .336 over a decade later.
- Glasscock led in fielding % 7 times and in
assists 6 times.
- ML debut 01-May-1879; B. 22-Jul-1857 in
Wheeling, Virginia. Wheeling became part
of West Virginia when that state was carved out of Virginia 20‑Jun‑1863.
- “. . . one of the greatest players from a
fielding standpoint the game has ever known. . .” - The National Game.
- His .209 in 1879; hit
.336 in 1890 to lead the NL.
FCR - Daniel Wilson, St. Paul
Incorrect
guesses: Honus Wagner, Everett Scott,
Arky Vaughn, Marty Marion
SUNDAY
Q. Who was the first pitcher to earn 40
wins in a season for the franchise that became the Los Angeles Dodgers?
Hint: He was the first pitcher to earn 40 wins in
a season for the team that became the St. Louis Cardinals.
Hint: He was the first National League pitcher to
score more runs in a season than he allowed as a pitcher (minimum 50).
Hint: He was the star
pitcher on five league champions in a ten-year career.
Hint: He was also a star on offense. He once scored more runs than he allowed as a
pitcher in a season. In another he hit
more home runs in a season than he surrendered.
(Reasonable minimums apply.)
- He was the only
one, going 40-11 for the 1889 AA Brooklyn
Grooms
- His record was 40-13 for the 1885 St. Louis
Browns. In both cases his WAR was
twice as high as his next highest teammate’s.
[10.0/5.1
& 8.7/3.7]
- In 1892, scored 76 R; allowed 75. In 1887 he hit 8 HR, allowed 6.
FCR - Daniel Wilson, St. Paul
Incorrect
guesses: Old Hoss Radbourn, Tommy Bond,
Albert Spalding, Jack Chesbro
- 2009: Browning
- 2010: White
- 2011: Stovey
- 2012: Dahlen
- 2013: Barnes
- 2014: Adams
- 2015: Mullane
- 2016: Glasscock
- 2017: Caruthers
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Roger Kathmann, Cincinnati (after Adams)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Saturday - Players
who played in the 1800's who have been closest to being selected to the Hall of
Fame without making it.
Sunday - The
top vote getter's from the Eras Committee.
