Q. Who is the
only player to win an MVP playing for the St. Luis Browns?
Hint: Ichiro broke
his record for most hits in a single season.
Hint: No first
baseman has ever had a higher season batting average.
- 1922 MVP. The Browns existed for just over 50 years but
Sisler was their only MVP.
- Sisler’s record of
257 H stood for more than 80 years until Ichiro Suzuki stroked 262 in 2004.
- Hit .420 in in his
MVP season of 1922.
FCR - James Higgins,
Bethesda
Incorrect guesses: Roy
Sievers, Dick Sisler, Rogers Hornsby, Vern Stephens
TUESDAY
Q. Who won the
first Chalmers Award in the National League?
Hint: The honor
was due in part to his becoming the first player to have twenty doubles, twenty
triples, twenty home runs and twenty stolen bases that year.
Hint: He was the
first to play in the modern World Series the same season he won his league’s
home run title.
- Chalmers Award,
first MVP of any kind was awarded in 1911
- In 1911 Schulte hit
30 2B, 21 3B, 21 HR & had 23 SB. 3
other players have done it since.
FCR - Mischa Gelman, Pittsburgh
Incorrect guesses: Honus Wagner, Nap Lajoie, Willie Mays, Rogers
Hornsby, Casey Stengel, Frank Schultz, Joe Medwick, Buck Freeman, Jake Daubert
WEDNESDAY
Q. Whose .353 batting average is the
second-highest single-year mark by a switch-hitter in modern National League
history?
Hint: The last time anyone on that team had more
hits than he did that year, was 1971.
Hint: Among switch-hitters, only he and Pete Rose
have more than one batting title.
- McGee had 216 H in 1985. Joe Torre had 230 H in 1971. Only one STL player has even reached 200 in a
season since ‘85—Albert Pujols w/212 in 2003.
- Also won in 1990 batting .335 for STL even though in his
final 29 G that year, he played for OAK having been traded for
Felix Jose, Stan Royer.& minor leaguer Daryl Green.
FCR - Mark Pattison, Washington, DC
Incorrect
guesses: Steve Garvey, Ralph Garr,
Mickey Mantle, Joe Torre, Al Oliver, George Davis, Frankie Frisch, Chipper
Jones, Rod Carew
THURSDAY
Q. Who is the only player to switch-hit
home runs in a game three times in a week?
Hint: He fractured bones in his lower back while
deer hunting in the offseason.
Hint: His Astro teammates elected him to be their
representative during the 1994 players’ union confrontation with ownership.
- Fractured 3 lumbar vertebrae falling from a
deer blind between the 1999 & 2000 seasons.
He only played in 59 G in 2000 for HOU and was traded after that year.
- He was loved and respected by teammates and
fans alike.
FCR - Rich Wolfe, Scottsdale
Incorrect guesses: Craig Biggio, Lance Berkman, Kevin Bass, Jeff
Bagwell
FRIDAY
Q. What former Orangeman basketball player set
a record for pitching appearances, toiling for a bunch of parvenus?
Hint: He ran an eponymous sporting goods store
for years.
Hint: Even his teammates didn’t know his real
first name.
Hint: He is a member of a Hall of Fame honoring
athletes of his national heritage.
- Played basketball at Syracuse University 1936-39. His 74 pitching appearances were a modern record
until broken by John Wyatt in 1964 with the A’s of Kansas City.
- According to Mary Konstanty, her husband
opened Jim Konstanty Sporting Goods in 1947 in Oneonta, New York because he was
not sure he could make a living as a pitcher.
He ran the store with her help during his career and then managed it
until 1973. [I worked for a ski binding
company 1964-69 and Konstanty was one of our better customers. ~dbb]
- In 2008, Konstanty was inducted into the National
Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame, calling him baseball’s first superstar
reliever.
FCR - John Burbridge, Seven Valleys, Pennsylvania
Incorrect
guesses: Jesse Orosco
SATURDAY
Q. Who set the major league record for
consecutive games saved at 32?
Hint: In his best year, he threw the final
pitches of the division-clinching game, the League Championship Series-winning
game and the last game of the World Series.
Hint: He appeared in the World Series in
consecutive seasons, but on different teams in separate leagues.
Hint: He was originally scouted as a third
baseman but made the majors as a pitcher.
- It’s been broken since then of course with the
record currently being held by that menacing-looking Canadian, Eric Gagne…w/84 straight saves
w/o a blown save 28‑Aug‑2002 — 05-Jul-2004.
- 3 final pitches for DET’s championship year of
1984.
FCR - Dave Raglin, McLean, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Wade Davis, Trevor Hoffman,
Eric Gagne, Jonathan Papelbon, Rick Aguilera, John Wetteland, Rollie
Fingers, Bruce Sutter, B.J. Ryan, Brad Lidge
SUNDAY
Q. What catcher won the MVP with 99% of the
voting shares in a year where he didn’t lead the league in a single important offensive
or defensive category?
Hint: He did earn the assist on the most
meaningful caught stealing in baseball history.
Hint: He and comedian/violinist Jack Benny
attended the same high school, only two years apart.
Hint: In his 21-year career in the majors he had fifteen
different managers, including himself twice.
Of those, nine are now in the Hall of Fame.
- MVP 1926. In the NL that year, he finished 10th
in WAR for position players, 10th in Defensive WAR and tied for 6th
with teammate Rogers Hornsby in BB w/61 and didn’t crack any other top 10.
- He threw out Babe Ruth trying to
steal 2nd
to end the 1926 WS and earn STL its first championship. Babe’s reason for trying makes some sense,
but according to O’Farrell, “I had him out a mile at second.” He received the pitch from a Hall of Famer,
threw to a Hall of Famer who then tagged out a Hall of Famer: Alexander => O’Farrell => Hornsby => Ruth,
all on the first pitch of the at-bat and the last one of the WS.
- His HOF Mgrs:
Roger Bresnahan, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Branch Rickey, Rogers Hornsby,
Bill McKechnie, John McGraw, Bill Terry & Frankie Frisch. He also had 29 teammates who are now in the
Hall.
FCR - Steven Wright, Naperville, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Jim Hegan, Mickey Cochrane, Gabby
Hartnett, Yogi Berra, Bill Krieg, Al Lopez, Walker Cooper
WEEKLY THEME – MVP
winners who received no other MVP votes other than in the year they won.
Yr Lge Player Team
**Won World Series
*Won pennant
’96 Padres won the NL West
’11 Cubs and ’22 Browns each finished 2nd
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Sarah Grynpas, Toronto (After McGee)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - Hall
of Famers who had non Hall of Famer brothers play in the majors
- Players
whose first name ends in "s" for no apparent reason.
Wed - MVPs
with 18+ triples in their award-winning season.
- League
MVP's for either St. Louis or Chicago teams
Sunday - Detroit Tigers who won the MVP the year the team won the World Series
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