Q. Who is the
only person to manage the same franchise in two different countries?
Hint: A half
century earlier, he became the first ever unanimous Rookie of the Year.
Hint: He later
earned a unanimous MVP.
FCR - Sarah Grynpas,
Toronto
Incorrect guesses: Felipe
Alou
TUESDAY
Q. Who won
batting titles in 4 out of 7 seasons, but didn’t win the MVP until his teammate
won the batting title in the 6th year of that run?
Hint: He received
MVP votes in 12 out of 13 straight years and won a Gold Glove 12 consecutive
seasons.
Hint: He left us
with a very round number.
- Batting titles in 1961, 64, 65 & 67. MVP in 1966.
Teammate Matty Alou hit .342 to his .317 and finished 9th
in the MVP voting.
- MVP votes in 1960-72, excepting 1968 when he
led the NL in intentional walks. Won GGs
1961-72.
- Final career hit total = 3,000 , achieved on 30-Sep-1972.
(He played ½ inning in RF on 03-Oct-1972.)
He perished in that off season.
FCR - Joe Merth, Grove city, Ohio
Incorrect guesses: Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn, Ozzie Smith, Wade
Boggs, Larry Walker, Willie McCovey
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the first National League player
to amass 30 home runs before the All-Star break twice? (Not in the same
season. That would be a record.)
Hint: He is the last player in his franchise’s
130+ year-old franchise to lead the league in runs batted in.
Hint: His 60 career home runs against the New
York Metropolitans has never been equaled.
- Hit #30 on 10-Jul-1971, ASG 13-Jul-1971; Hit #30 on 22-Jul-1973, ASG 24‑Jul‑1973.
Mark McGwire did it 4 times: 1987, 1997, 1998 &
2000. Sammy Sosa did it in 1998 & 1999. Barry Bonds did it in 2001 & 2003. Willie Mays almost qualified, doing it
in 1954 and then by the 2nd ASG of 1962.
- 119 RBI in 1973
FCR - Steve Murfin, Olney, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Tony Perez, Barry Bonds, Mike
Schmidt, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Albert Pujols, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron
THURSDAY
Q. Who was the second player, after Frank
Robinson, to be named Rookie of the Year in the National League and later win
an MVP in the American League?
Hint: His nickname is the same as a movie that received
the Oscar for Best Picture just over a decade ago.
Hint: His career slugging percentage is higher
that those of Ty Cobb, Willie McCovey, Eddie Mathews or Harmon Killebrew.
Hint: He was on the Hall of Fame ballot 14 times,
never receiving more than 19% of the votes cast.
Hint: Any answers that involve the word “Richie”
will be marked incorrect.
- “Crash”, also the title of Allen’s autobiography and
the title of the 2005 Best Motion Picture, release in 2004.
- Career SLG % = .534
- A reading of “Crash” will explain why “Richie”
is hereinafter forever inappropriate. He
was never "Richie". That name was forced on him by a racist
Philly media. When he protested (Who wouldn't), they doubled down so then
HE looked petty, when it was actually the other way around.
FCR - Sarah Grynpas, Toronto
Incorrect
guesses: Frank Howard, Miguel Cabrera,
Orlando Cepeda, Vladimir Guerrero, Mark McGwire, Josh Hamilton, Gary Matthews
FRIDAY
Q. Who was the last player to homer twice
in a single game off Sandy Koufax?
Hint: He is tied with three 500-HR Club members
for most career homer off Koufax.
Hint: He has a brother who is famous for NOT
making it to the majors in spite of having the talent to do so.
Hint: He hit over .375 in his first complete
professional season.
Hint: Not meaning to be too personal, but he’s
been my favorite player since the Eisenhower administration.
- Youngest brother Juan Rojas Alou stayed home
and concentrated on his education, partly as a result of military upheaval in
his home country, the Dominican Republic and partly to honor his mother’s
wishes who did not want to lose her last child to baseball in the faraway U.S.
- Hit .380 in 119 G w/ the Class D Cocoa Indians of the Florida State League, leading the league,
having started the year w/9 ABs on the Class C 1956 Lake Charles (LA) Giants of the Evangeline League.
- First heard his name called by Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons on KSFO in the summer
of 1960. He seemed very comfortable with
his Hall of Fame teammates. He played
then like he too was a future Hall of Famer.
FCR - Thomas Lewis, Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
Incorrect
guesses: Hank Aaron, Bob Uecker, Ernie
Banks, Willie Mays, Tom Paciorek, Willie McCovey
SATURDAY
Q. What future former Yankee was the only
A's player to collect a stolen base against the Reds in the 1972 World Series?
Hint: Six different Reds stole at least one base
in the same Series
Hint: He is the only player in the modern era to
pitch in the majors the season before he won a National League batting title.
Hint: He struck out Willie Stargell to begin and
to wrap up his pitching career.
Hint: Management claimed that soggy conditions
held him up.
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- 1972 WS
SB = G 2 15-Oct-1972. Played for NYY in 1973.
- On 26-Aug-1965,
on the wrong end of a blowout in Pittsburgh, Manager Herman
Franks put Matty in to pitch in the 8th inning. He struck out Hall of Famer and future
teammate Willie
Stargell in each of the innings he pitched.
- In the now legendary 9th inning of
the 7th game of the 1962 World
Series, with NYY ahead 1-0, Matty bunted his way aboard. The next two batters struck out*. Willie Mays then hit a double to RF, where
the outfield grass, still wet from previous rains, prevented the strong liner
from going to the fence. Many people, to
this day, think Alou could have, should have scored the tying run, being one of
the fastest runners on the team. Several
factors, however, held him at 3rd: A.)
Third base coach Whitey
Lockman was known to coach by the book, conservatively.
B.) Roger
Maris, the Yankee’s RF was known to have an accurate rifle arm on throws
from the outfield.
C.)
The next two batters in the line-up were among the most dangerous
hitters of that era, Willie
McCovey followed by Orlando
Cepeda.
After a conference on the mound, the Yankees
decided not to walk McCovey who then famously lined out to Yankee 2nd
baseman Bobby
Richardson to end the Series.
Lockman said he’d hold up a runner in that situation, “1,000 times out
of 1,000.” Giants manager Alvin
Dark and even opposing manager Ralph
Houk agreed that, “Matty would have been out by a mile.”
*Matty’s brother Felipe
was the first of these two K’s and to this very day regards that failed at-bat
as the most regrettable moment of his entire career.
FCR - Barry Nelson, Guilderland, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Reggie Jackson, Mike Hegan,
Rickey Henderson, Bert Campaneris, Catfish Hunter
SUNDAY
Q. Who was the first native of San Pedro de
Marcoris receive a Hall of Fame vote?
Hint: He was the first player to be selected to
the All-Star team via write-in.
Hint: He was arrested and beaten by police,
causing that city's mayor to suspend the officers involved and publicly declare
the incident “blatant brutality”.
- HOF vote 1985 s
- ASG
1970
- Beating administered by the police of
Atlanta in 1971. Quote from Atlanta
Mayor Sam
Massell, the most recent white Mayor of Atlanta. He was the city’s youngest ever mayor and the
first Jewish mayor of any major U.S. city.
FCR - Adam Foldes, New York City
Incorrect guesses: Juan Samuel, Tony
Fernandez, Pedro Guerrero, Orlando Cepeda
WEEKLY THEME – Top 7
MLB batting averages of 1966, the first time the top 7 were all men of
color. Ironically, Robinson is the only
entrant from the American League, but his number was enough to help him to the
AL Triple Crown.
1. M. Alou .3421
3. Carty .3263
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Richard
Giovanoni, Morton Grove, Illinois (after first Alou)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Tuesday - A regular and WS MVP
- Managed in the
Puerto Rican winter leagues
- Major league
leaders in hits in 1960s
- Players with
the most hits in the 1960s
Wed - Hall
of Famers who played in the 1971 World Series.
- Hall
of Famers who were on players/managers/coaches in the 1971 World Series
- Players
who won the MVP after finishing in the top 10 and missing at least 3 times.
- Most
home runs in the 1960s.
- World
Series MVP’s
- NL
MVP winners who have also been World Series MVP winners during their careers
- Multiple
ASG appearances and who were World Series MVP’s
- All
time HR leaders by Pirates?
Thur - Hall
of Famers who played in the 1971 WS.
- Players
who played in the 1965 All-Star Game.
Friday - Led
league in total bases only one time
