Q. Who was the
first Jewish player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Hint: He received
his military discharge 05-Dec-1941. He reenlisted
two days later.
Hint: No other
American League right-hander has ever collected more RBI in a single season.
- In 1937, he had 184
RBI and finished 3rd in AL MVP voting. A player he frequently knocked in won the
award.
FCR - Benjamin Chase,
Huron, South Dakota
Incorrect guesses:
TUESDAY
Q. Before Tony
Gwynn, who was the last National Leaguer to amass four batting titles?
Hint: His hard
slide into second sent a perennial All-Star shortstop home for the rest of the
season.
Hint: He once
shared an award with a player with whom he almost
shared a name.
- Won the NL batting title in 1975, 76, 81 &
83.
- In the 3rd inning on 24-Sep-1987, attempting to break
up a double play, Madlock slid wide into 2nd causing Tony Fernandez to land on his elbow
on a wooden Astroturf connector. Details
here: Fernandez breaks elbow
FCR - Thomas Howell, Reno
Incorrect guesses: Lip Pike, Stan Musial, Pete Rose, Roberto
Clemente
WEDNESDAY
Q. What former Lion is now the head
baseball coach at Pacific?
Hint: At Stanford, he won the Johnny Bench Award
though he never played a single game at catcher in the majors.
Hint: His home run helped the Indians defeat the
Yankees in a postseason series.
- Played on the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization, but was released in
due to injury. Has been head coach at
the University of the
Pacific
in Sacramento since 2017.
FCR - Larry Hayes, San Francisco
Incorrect
guesses: Boone, Brian Billings, Jason
Castro
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. What manager guided the St. Louis Browns
to their only pennant and to only the second World Series ever played entirely
outside of the Eastern Time Zone?
Hint: He spent 99% of his 20-year major league playing
career at catcher.
Hint: One of his brothers had exactly one at bat in
the majors. His other brother made it to
the Hall of Fame.
- Played in MLB 1921-1939, 1942 w/1,562 of 1,580
C @ C.
FCR - Tom Kennedy, Houston
Incorrect
guesses: Zack Taylor, Walker Cooper,
Billy Southworth
THURSDAY
Q. What shortstop/third baseman was the
fifth player to wear uniform #8 for the Baltimore Orioles?
Hint: He was discovered by Carl Hubbell who
frequented a bar where his father moonlighted.
Hubbell even drove the young prospect to Florida for a tryout.
Hint: He played on a team in the military where
one of his teammates was Eddie Matthews.
Hint: His cousin pitched for the Giants in the
World Series and even got a single off a Hall of Fame pitcher.
- Wore #8 for BAL in 1958. It had been worn by Dick Kryhoski (1954); Kal Segrist (1955); Jim Pyburn (1955, 56, 57); Buddy Peterson (1957)
- Cousin Slick Castleman pitched 4 innings of
relief in the 6th and finals G of the 1936 WS, hitting a single off Lefty Gomez.
FCR - David Serota, Kalamazoo
Incorrect
guesses: George Kell, Jerry Adair, Cal
Ripken, Ron Hanson, Mark Belanger, Andy Etchebarren, Kal Segrist, Brooks Robinson,
Willie Miranda, Luis Aparicio
THURSDAY BONUS
Q. Who caught the most famous home run ball
hit in the expansion era?
Hint: He shares a nickname with a recent
aeronautic hero.
Hint: In the arcane statistic of Total Zone Runs
by a Catcher, he tied with Duke Sims and Elston Howard one season for third
place in the American League.
- Bullpen coach for TOR in 1992 & 93. Was in the bullpen on 23-Oct-1993 when Joe
Carter ended the Series with a long fly ball to left field bullpen and Sullivan was there to snag it.
- TZR as C = 3 in 1965, a stat published by baseball-reference and derived from Baseball
Projection.com’s
“Stat Directory”.
FCR - Frank DiPrima, Morristown, New Jersey
Incorrect
guesses: Sal Durante, Tom House, Jim
Pagliaroni, Buck Rodgers, Haywood Sullivan
FRIDAY
Q. Who won the Most Outstanding Pitcher
honor at the 2012 Junior College World Series?
Hint: He was a Natural.
Hint: He caused a eleven-year-tenured pitching
coach to be fired.
- Tigers pitching coach Chris Bosio was fired due to a
potentially insensitive comment he made referring to Stumpf as “Spider Monkey”
due to the faces he makes while lifting weights. This was overheard and reported. Stumpf says that, to the best of his
knowledge, his nickname was never “Spider Monkey”.
FCR - Joseph O'Neill, London, Ontario
Incorrect
guesses: Roy Hobbs, Steven Strasburg, Mark
Appel, Keaton Steele
SATURDAY
Q. Who, in his only major league game,
pitched 5⅔ inning of a loss for the 1999 Reds?
Hint: It was, however, the starting pitcher Ron
Villone who took the loss despite only throwing ⅓ inning. (In that ⅓ he did face 8 batters and
surrender 4 runs.)
Hint: This former Tigers was drafted by the
Tigers and played for baby Tigers, but never for the Detroit club.
Hint: He had also been drafted by the Yankees, but
since it was only in the 14th round, he chose to wait.
- Drafted by DET in the 1st round (16th
overall) of the 1992 MLB June Amateur Draft from the LSU Tigers.
- Drafted by NYY in the 14th
round of the 1989 MLB June Amateur Draft.
FCR - Jesse Asbury, Norman Oklahoma
Incorrect
guesses: John Smoltz
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. What 33-year-old rookie pitched two
scoreless innings of relief in the Cardinals’ 1954 season opener?
Hint: Five years earlier, for the Indianapolis
Indians, he won the final game of the Junior World Series for manager Al Lopez
against a team manned by 24 future major leaguers.
Hint: It was the AAA Indians’ first championship in
more than two decades.
Hint: He spent fifteen years in the minors, three
years in the military, and four months in the majors.
- The 1949 Indy Indians included people who
would be in uniform 50 years later. They
beat the Montreal Royals.
- 3 years in the military opposing the Axis
Powers in WWII.
FCR - Nels Johnston, St. Thomas, Ontario
Incorrect
guesses:
SUNDAY
Q. What three-year starter at quarterback at
a Big Ten school was drafted in succession by the Mets, the A’s and the Red Sox?
Hint: It was only with Boston that he saw major
league action.
Hint: He attended but didn't make it out of an
NFL training camp. He did, however, play
for his local USFL team.
Hint: He is now the Athletic Director at the
college where he was the baseball coach for a decade.
- 5-Jun-1979
Drafted by NYM in the 20th
round of the amateur draft. Did not
sign. 06-Jun-1983 Drafted by OAK in the 6th
round of the amateur draft. Did not
sign. 17-Jan-1984 Drafted by BOS in the 3rd
round of the January Secondary amateur draft. Attended Michigan State.
- Went to camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Played for the USFL's Michigan Panthers.
- Head baseball coach at Alma College in Michigan from 1997—2007. Became A.D. in 2007.
FCR - Nobody
Incorrect
guesses:
WEEKLY THEME – First
player born in each decade of the 20th century.
Player......................... D/o/B.................... MLB Debut
Luke
Sewell............... 05-Jan-1901......... 30-Jun-1921
Hank
Greenberg........ 01-Jan-1911......... 14-Sep-1930
Royce
Lint.................. 01-Jan-1921......... 13-Apr-1954
Foster
Castleman...... 01-Jan-1931......... 04-Aug-1954
John
Sullivan............. 03-Jan-1941......... 20-Sep-1963
Bill
Madlock................ 02-Jan-1951*....... 07-Sep-1973
John
Leister............... 03-Jan-1961......... 28-May-1987
Rick
Greene............... 02-Jan-1971......... 19-Jun-1999
Ryan
Garko................ b.02-Jan-1981...... 18-Sep-2005
Daniel
Stumpf............ 04-Jan-1991......... 16-Apr-2016
*Same day of birth as Jim Essian and Royle
Stillman
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – John
Michael Pierobon, St. Petersburg, FL (after Garko on Wednesday)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Tuesday - Players
who played for the Pirates and won a statistical title elsewhere.
Wed - Players
with over 400 career hits who were born on Jan 1 or Jan 2.
- Select
players born in order from January 1, January 2, etc.
