Note: Items IN ALL CAPS AND UNDERLINED were
not in the original question
MONDAY (Monday questions not connected with this week’s theme)
Q. What
connects these players?
Ron
Darling
Sid
Fernandez
Charlie
Hough
Kurt
Suzuki &
Shane
Victorino
A. All-Stars who were born in Hawaii
FCR - David Washburn,
Marietta, Georgia
Incorrect: Hawaiians
to win a World Series; All Rule 5 picks; Gave up HR’s to Reggie Jackson;
Played on a pennant winner/playoff team; All played for the Mets; No longer
live in Hawaii
MONDAY II (Also not connected
with this week’s theme)
Q. Who is the only pitcher to lead both the NL
and AL in shutouts – in the same season?
A. CC Sabathia (C.C. Sabathia at the time)
in 2008 – 2 ShO in AL w/CLE then traded to MIL (which had conveniently switched
leagues 10 years earlier) and led w/3 ShO for the NL.
FCR - Ken Auerbach,
Bonita Springs, Florida
Incorrect: Rick
Sutcliffe, Randy Johnson, Bartolo Colon
MONDAY III (Once again not
connected with this week’s theme)
Q. Who set a
World Series record in the first modern World Series that has never been
broken? What is that record?
A. Tommy Leach
of the Pirates hit four (4!) triples in 1903 against Boston. Never equaled. It was
an 8-game Series, but he had his 4 by the 5th game. Deacon Phillippe’s 5 complete games in
the same WS also still stands. Also,
Brickyard Kennedy surrendered 10 runs in the 5th G.
FCR - Michael
Caragliano, Flushing, New York
Incorrect: Deacon Phillippe - 3 wins;
MONDAY IV (Still not connected
with this week’s theme)
Q. What two all-time
records were set in one game on 14-Sep-1987?
Hint: One has an
outside chance of being tied or broken, the other? Never.
I’ll stand by that.
A. In the
process of clobbering the visiting Baltimore Orioles 18-3, the Toronto Blue Jays
hammered ten (10!) home runs. No other
team has ever even hit 9 in a game.
Sensing a lost cause, Manager Cal Ripken, Sr. put future manager Ron
Washington in at short replacing Cal, Jr. and ending his consecutive-innings played streak at 8,264. Award-winning SABR researcher Trent McCotter
gives this account of Ripken’s accomplishment, which neither he nor his father
were aware of that warm night in the worst stadium in the majors: Ripken’s Record.
FCR - Adam Fung,
Toronto
Incorrect: Most total bases in one game (19 by Shawn Greene)
TUESDAY
Q. Who holds
the single-season record for most hits by a first baseman?
Hint: He is
widely believed to be the best player in the history of his franchise.
Hint: Ty Cobb
called him “the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer.”
Hint: Branch
Rickey was his mentor and coach in college.
- He put wood on the ball safely 257 times in
1920. The only better number at any
position is Ichiro’s 262.
- His best work was done for the St. Louis
Browns.
- Branch Rickey coached Sisler at the University
of Michigan.
FCR - Mark Pattison, Washington, DC
Incorrect guesses: Jimmie Foxx, Stan Musial, Cap Anson, Lou
Gehrig, Bill Terry
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the last active player from the
MLB original expansion?
Hint: The Angels shipped him to the Mets to get
pitching prospect Nolan Ryan.
Hint: A postseason, in-game tactical decision he
made, no matter how logical at the time, will haunt him forever.
- To pitch the 9th inning with a 6-5
lead, he summoned his closer, a man with 43 saves in the regular season that
year. That pitcher proceeded to walk the
best base stealer of all time and then, with one out, gave up a hit to another
future Hall of Famer. The 4th
batter of the inning, his team’s clean-up hitter, had won an RBI title and had
averaged 112 RBI over the previous 8 seasons.
Many eyes were on Fregosi to see if he were considering a pitching
change. No change was made and the
momentum of the continued unbroken. The
batter lined a 2-2 fastball over the left field fence for a 3-run home to win
the World Series. 1993 WS.
FCR - Chaunce Venuto, Tooele, Utah
Incorrect
guesses: Ed Kranepool, Bobby Valentine
THURSDAY
Q. Who is the Houston Astros’ all-time
career leader in both stolen bases and time caught stealing?
Hint: As a 20-year-old, he led the majors in
doubles. To show it wasn’t an
aberration, he did it again the following season.
Hint: In his first All-Star game start, he played
alongside Roberto Clemente in his last.
Hint: He was traded to the Reds for a player who
would become a World Series MVP.
- 487 SB; 149 CS
- 40 2b in 1971; 39 2b in 1972. Fourteen major league seasons later, he had never
reached those heights again.
FCR - Thomas Hablitzel, Hudson, Ohio
Incorrect
guesses: Craig Biggio, Joe Morgan, Jose
Cruz, Jimmy Wynn, Rusty Staub, Skip Jutze, Denis Menke
FRIDAY
Q. Which player had the highest batting average
in his final major league season IN THE 19TH CENTURY?
Hint: It was also his personal best career season
for doubles and RBI.
Hint: He was the first player to collect more RBI
in a season than the number of games he played… and he did it twice! (Reasonable minimums apply.)
Hint: His career was cut short for the same
reason that baseball lost J.R. Richard at his peak.
- .371 in 1890 in the Players League
- 1884 = 110 G/112 RBI; 1890 = 107 G/124 RBI
- Both were felled by stroke. Jeff Gray [Jeffrey Michael Grays] also suffered a
stroke just as he was hitting his stride.
FCR - Gary Moore, Walker, Michigan
Incorrect
guesses: Hack Wilson, Eddie Waitkus,
Pete Reiser, Kirby Puckett, Ted Williams, Juan Gonzalez, Lou Gehrig
SATURDAY
Q. Who received the first recorded
intentional bases-on-balls IN MAJOR LEAGUE HISTORY?
Hint: He is the only player to hit for the cycle
in a game where he pitched.
Hint: It was once believed that he threw 10 wild
pitches in a single game, but research has proved that to be no more accurate
than the Abner Doubleday myth.
Hint: He was one of the first BRTL players of
note in the majors.
- In the 9th inning of a 1896 game
with the Chicago Colts [Cubs], New York Giants team captain Kid Gleason, more than a decade
before he became a major league manager, instructed teammate Jouett Meekin to
throw 4 balls outside the strike zone to Ryan.
Ryan was enjoying his 8th of 12 seasons of hitting .300 or
better. George Decker, the next Chicago
batter, promptly struck out to end the game and a tactic was born. [See The
Cultural Encyclopedia of Baseball, 2nd
Ed., p. 488]
- Cycle as a P = 01-Jul-1891
- He batted right and threw left.
FCR - Daniel Wilson, St. Paul
Incorrect
guesses: Nolan Arenado, Guy Hecker
SUNDAY
Q. Who was the first Cincinnati major
leaguer to win more than one home run title?
Hint: He was an artist at the Strobridge
Lithographing Company throughout his baseball career.
Hint: He was the first player to hit for the
cycle more than once.
Hint: He did it in the span of a week.
- HR leads = 11 in 1884 & 13 in 1888 for the
Cincinnati Red Stockings of the American Association.
- Cycles:
12- & 19-Sep-1883
FCR - Michael Griffin, Southaven, Mississippi
Incorrect
guesses: Joe Start, George Wright, Harry
Wright, Lipman Pike, Johnny Bench, George Foster
WEEKLY THEME – Players
who hit their franchise’s first TWO cycles.
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Steve
Berman, Bergenfield, New Jersey (After Orr)
Incorrect theme guesses:
Monday - Theme
for this week is that there is not a theme.
Wed - Players
who hit for the cycle in reverse natural order: home run, triple, double,
single.
- Players
who led their league's fielding position in errors, assists and double plays all
in the same season
Thursday- Players who have hit for the cycle.
- Players
who were All-Stars at 21
- Players
who hit for the cycle more than once.
- Players
who have hit for multiple cycles on the same team
Friday - They
cycles that won games.
- Players
who have hit for multiple cycles, with singles being used to complete the cycle.
