Q. What
pitcher’s record of 749 complete games is likely never to be challenged?
Hint: He faced
29,565 batters in the majors—another record.
Hint: His 7,356
innings pitched seems pretty safe too.
Hint: On the down
side, he did lose more game than anyone ever.
- Lost a record 350 G.
FCR - Vince Guerrieri,
Elyria, Ohio
Incorrect guesses:
MONDAY BONUS
Q. Who is the
winningest pitcher never to throw a no-hitter?
Hint: He was named
for and played by a president.
Hint: He was the
first native of Nebraska to be elected to the Hall of Fame.
- 373 W (tied for 3rd
all-time. Had 4 1-hitters one year
(1915), but no no-no.
- Named Grover
Cleveland Alexander, (nickname Pete came during his
career) he was born 26-Feb-1887, almost the exact middle of the administration
of U.S. President Grover Cleveland. In a biographic
film on his life and
career, he was played by actor Ronald Regan
who became the 40th U.S. president.
FCR - Francis Manion,
Bardstown, Kentucky
Incorrect guesses:
TUESDAY
Q. Who is the only pitcher in the storied
history of the New York Yankees to notch 20 wins in four consecutive seasons?
Hint: Only Jack Morris has a higher career ERA
among Hall of Fame pitchers.
Hint: He won 5 of his 6 starts in a World Series
opener.
- 20, 20, 21, 21 W in 1936-39 respectively
- 3.80 ERA (Morris = 3.90)
FCR - Sarah Grynpas, Toronto
Incorrect guesses: Whitey Ford, Allie Reynolds, Roger Clemens,
Catfish Hunter, Robin Roberts, Lefty Gomez, Waite Hoyt, Lefty Grove, Herb
Pennock
TUESDAY BONUS
Q. Who is the last National League hurler
to post six straight 20-win seasons?
Hint: The most wins he was ever credited with in
one year, however, was in the junior circuit.
Hint: His father was in the Black Panthers.
- 1967-1972 he won 20, 20, 21, 22, 24, 20
respectively.
- 25 W for TEX
in 1974 (His W.A.R. that season was more than twice that of his teammate who
won the AL MVP!)
- Father played for a Canadian Negro semi-pro
team called the Chatham Black Panthers.
FCR - Lincoln Mitchell, New York City
Incorrect guesses: Warren Spahn
IN MEMORIAM
Q. Who was the recipient of the first ever Cy
Young Award?
Hint: He is still
the only National League player to win Rookie of the Year, Cy Young Award and
MVP during his career.
Hint: He was the first black pitcher to appear in
an All-Star game.
Hint: He had been teammates with Hall of Famers
Mule Suttles, Ray Dandridge, Larry Doby, Monte Irvin and Willie Wells in
the Negro Leagues.
Hint: He also played with Larry Doby in Japan
after their MLB careers.
Hint: He admitted that his drinking was the
reason he did not end up in the Hall of Fame.
Hint: He was told by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. how
he and other African American players helped prepare the country for the civil
rights era.
Hint: Maury Wills credited him with saving his
life after Wills had gotten into drug abuse.
Hint: He and Wills eventually had bridges at the
Los Amigos Country Club named after them in honor of their work with recovering
drug addicts and alcoholics.
- NL ROY 1949;
NL
MVP 1956; MLB Cy Young Award 1956
- He replaced Warren Spahn after 3 batters in
the 1949
ASG and got an RBI in his first AS AB.
- Los
Amigos Country Club, located in Downey, L.A. County.
- Dr. King had stayed at his home in Los
Angeles.
FCR - J.P. Wanamaker, Binghamton, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Bob Gibson
WEDNESDAY
Q. Whose career record for most career
bases-on-balls surrendered did Nolan Ryan break?
Hint: His name contradicts his ultimate
achievement.
Hint: He played in the World Series twice in the
1950s, but neither time was with or against the Yankees.
Hint: He identified Yogi Berra as the batter he
least liked to face.
- Wynn walked 1,775 batters in his 23-year
career. Ryan passed that number in 1981 the
added 1,000+ more to set a record many now consider unbreakable: 2,795.
Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro have both since passed Wynn’s number, but
nobody is close to Ryan’s total.
- His 300th win was late. (Almost didn’t get it. CHW released him in 1963 just short of 300 W. His old team of 9 year, CLE, charitably picked
him up and started him against Kansas City on 13-Jul-1963.
Wynn won his 300th to finish the year 1-1 and to finish the career 300-244.)
- He was w/CLE in the 1954 WS
vs. NYG and w/CHW in the 1959 WS
vs. LAD. The NL team prevailed both
times.
- Berra homered off Wynn 11 times, but Mantle
took him yard 13 times, the most home runs Mantle hit off any pitcher.
FCR - Larry Farin, Plano, Texas
Incorrect
guesses: Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, Bob
Lemon, Herb Score, Hoyt Wilhelm, Nolan Ryan
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was the first native of the great
Commonwealth of Virginia to be inducted into the Hall of Fame?
Hint: In the 20th century, only he
lost more National League games than Warren Spahn.
Hint: He was once traded for an NFL Hall of
Famer.
- HOF in 1963
- Career record 266-251 (all NL).
- On 22-Nov-1920, PHI traded
him to CIN
for Greasy
Neale and Jimmy
Ring.
FCR - Joe Haardt, McLean, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Pud Galvin, Warren Spahn, Cy
Young, Robin Roberts, Phil Niekro, Steve Carlton
THURSDAY
Q. Who was the last player born in 1899
to throw a pitch in a major league game?
Hint: He was the first pitcher to surrender four
home runs in a single World Series game.
Hint: The 3rd of these homers is
better known than the pitcher himself.
Hint: He still leads his 140+ -year-old franchise
in pitching wins, games played, innings pitched and batters faced, among
others.
- B. 17-Mar-1899; MLB Career = 18-Apr-1923
– 02-Sep-1941
- HR X 4 = 1932 WS,
G 3
- 3rd NYY HR of G 3
was Babe
Ruth’s “called shot”.
- 201 W, 605 G, 3,137.1 IP & 13,266 BF, + +
+
FCR - Vince Guerrieri, Elyria, Ohio
Incorrect
guesses: Charlie Hough, Waite Hoyt, Jack
Quinn, Burleigh Grimes, Tom Zachary
FRIDAY
Q. Who was the losing pitcher in Cy Young's
511th and final career win?
Hint: His 72-year-old record for fewest walks
surrendered in a season by a qualifying pitcher was broken Bret Saberhagen.
Hint: He was the first rookie to start the 7th
game of a World Series.
Hint: He was one of the principals of the A-B-C
Affair in 1926.
- Young’s 511th on 22-Sep-1911
was a complete game shutout. Young lost
his final 3 G.
- Adams’ 15 BB in 1922 was bested when
Saberhagen walked 13 in 1994.
- Started G #7 on 16-Oct-1909. He also finished, throwing a 9-inning shutout.
- On 11-Aug-1908 players Adams, Carson Bigbe and
Max Carey asked owner Barney Dreyfuss to keep assistant Fred Clarke off the
bench. Adams & Bigbee are released. Carey is waived to the Brooklyn Dodgers. All well described here.
FCR - Madison McEntire, Bryant, Arkansas
Incorrect
guesses:
SATURDAY
Q. Who is the only pitcher in the modern
era to win 20 games in each of his first three major league seasons?
Hint: Led the majors in ERA in his rookie season
in the middle of the Deadball Era.
Hint: Born outside the U.S., he finished his
schooling in bookkeeping, yet began his professional career working for his father
as a plasterer.
Hint: His brother came up to the majors and
joined him on his first team.
- Won 23, 20 & 20 in 1911-1913. (“Modern era” = 1901-present)
- ERA of 1.80 for CLE in 1911 [Walter Johnson
was next at 1.899)
- Born 13-Apr-1885 in Aberdeen,
Washington on a sparsely populated bay on the Pacific. Washington didn’t become a state until
11-Nov-1889.
- Dave
Gregg w/CLE 1913
FCR - Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Dizzy Dean, Christy Mathewson, Harry
Coveleski, Pedro Martinez
SATURDAY BONUS
Q. What former New York Mets pitcher is the
only native of the state of Georgia to ever throw a perfect game?
Hint: He dropped Scott Boras to become his own
agent.
Hint: He and a fellow Detroit Tiger were the first
21st century teammates to form a battery in the All-Star Game..
- B. 10-Nov-1964 in Savannah,
Georgia; Perfecto = 28-Jul-1994
- He and Ivan Rodriguez were the AL ASG battery
in 2006,
innings 1 & 2
FCR - Patrick Ray, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Incorrect guesses: Michael Fulmer, David Wells. David Cone,
Denny McLain
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. What future former Arizona Diamondback
was the first pitcher to win his first eight (8!) postseason decisions?
Hint: He made his major league debut replacing an
injured teammate with whom he would later make a TV commercial.
Hint: His brother would later lead the majors in
innings pitched for teams in two separate countries.
- 8-0 from the 1998 ALCS through the end of the 2000 ALCS.
- Debut 03-Jun-1998;
TV ad
FCR - Larry Hayes, San Francisco
Incorrect guesses: Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling, Joe Kuhel
SUNDAY
Q. The Washington Senators of 1918 only hit
four home runs, just one more than the ”Hitless Wonder” White Sox of 1906. Only one of the four, however, was hit at
home. Who, on the last day of that
season, finally homered at home?
Hint: He had actually been on that 1906 White Sox
team and was the winner of the first game ever in White Sox postseason history,
beating his opponent on the mound who went on to become a Hall of Famer.
Hint: He averaged exactly one home run per season
for his 16 years* in the majors.
Hint: He was the first pitcher in the 20th
century to participate in ten double plays in a single season.
- Home homer:
02-Sep-1918
- Beat Mordecai
Brown in G1 of
the 1906 WS.
- 10 DP in 1905.
* Altrock pitched 16
years in the majors, but his whole career was 19 years.
FCR
- Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Walter Johnson, Ed Walsh
WEEK’S
FINALE
Q. Whose side-armed, one-finger knuckleball
allowed him a career at baseball’s highest level?
Hint: Although he didn’t throw his first pitch in
the majors until he was almost 35 years old, racked up over a thousand inning over
the batter part of a decade.
Hint: He made a living as a barber before, during
and after his playing career, which was not
related to the fact that he once led the majors by hitting the most batters.
Hint: He played for two different Boston teams in
the same league.
- Debut = 30-Apr-1938
@ age 34 yrs. 294 days.
- Career spanned 1938-46 w/1,250.2 IP.
- 11 HBP in 1942 for SLB
FCR
- Patrick Ray, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Incorrect
guesses: Mordecai Brown, Sal Maglie,
Eddie Cicotte
WEEKLY THEME – Forty-year-old
pitchers who hit triples.
Batting
pitcher Date Age Team Career Triples
Adams............. 21-Aug-1923.............. 41.......... PIT............... 15
Alexander........ 22-Jun-1927............... 40......... STL.............. 13
Altrock............. 30-Sep-1924*.............. 47........ WSH............... 1
Gregg............... 18-Jul-1925............... 40........ WSH............... 2
Hernandez....... 04-Aug-2006.............. 40......... NYM............... 1
Jenkins............ 03-Sep-1983.............. 40......... CHC................ 6
Niggeling.......... 12-Jun-1944............... 40........ WSH............... 1
Rixey................ 23-Jul-1933............... 42......... CIN................ 4
Rogers............. 11-Jun-2005............... 40......... TEX................ 1
Root................. 28-Aug-1939.............. 40......... CHC................ 7
Ruffing............. 27-Sep-1945.............. 40......... NYY.............. 13
Wynn................ 06-Jul-1960............... 40........ CHW............... 5
Young.............. 15-Aug-1910.............. 43......... CLE.............. 35
*He
then scored his team’s only run that G.
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Larry Hayes, San Francisco (after Hernandez)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - Pitchers
who have won at least 300 games & lost 200
- Hall
of Fame inductees present at the first Cooperstown induction ceremony in 1939
- All-time
wins list
- Pitchers
who won 300 games
- 300
game winners who played at least one game in the field
- Pitchers
with at least 350 wins
- Pitchers
with the most career wins.
- HOF
Pitchers with 300+ wins, 200+ losses, 400+ complete games and 2000+
strikeouts
Tuesday - Pitchers
who don’t use their real names
- Pitchers
with 20+ win seasons with at least two different teams
- Most
innings pitched by decade
- Pitchers
with the most shutouts in a season
-
Wdsday - Players
known by nicknames that had little (if anything) to do with their real names
- Multiple wins
and ERA leaders
-
Thurs - Pitchers
with most losses by decade
- Most
innings pitched by decade
Sun - Something
to do with pitching in their 40’s
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