MONDAY – 27-Jul
Q. Which Hall
of Fame mound a artist pitched in four consecutive World Series openers?
Hint: He broke
Babe Ruth’s favorite pitching record.
Hint: He holds the
current record for most complete-game shutouts for his franchise.
A. WHITEY
FORD [SABR Bio]
- In fact, he did it twice!
=> Starting P in G 1 of WS in 1955, 1956, 1957 & 1958 and then again in 1961*, 1962, 1963 & 1964, the 8 starts done
under 3 different managers. Besides
these 8, Ford was the starting P in 14 additional WS Gs.
With no WS pitching assignments between these,
he had totaled 29⅔ consecutive innings
without allowing a single run, earned or otherwise.
Ford eclipsed Ruth’s mark by cobbling together.33⅔ straight
scoreless WS innings. The consecutive mark
that had by then stood for more than 40 years, like this:
Without postseason work besides these, Ford had 33⅔ innings.
The consecutive unscored-upon World Series innings was a record
Ruth was said to have treasured more than he did his 60 HR in a year. Both marks fell in 1961.
- Ford spun 45 career
shutouts for his only ML team, NYY. Red
Ruffing and Mel Stottlemyre, (w/40 apiece) had the next most among Yankee
pitchers.
* Ford was named MVP of this WS. Mickey Mantle said that this was the strongest
team he ever played on.
FCR - Evan Thompson, Mesa
Incorrect guesses: Waite
Hoyt, Greg Maddux, Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez
TUESDAY –
28-Jul
Q. What former
Cy Young Award winner was the first pitcher to win the Comeback Player of the
Year Award, all the more significant since it was the first year it was given?
Hint: The only
year he received Cy Young Award votes was the year he won the award.
Hint: That same
year was the only one of his sixteen seasons in the majors when he was selected
to the All-Star Team.
Hint: He played
his entire major league career with the same franchise.
Hint: He was a
successful D-1 assistant college coach after his playing career.
- MLB CYA in 1960. The
Sporting News “Comeback Player of the Year Award” is the oldest of these
three award with the same name given a player in each league with a Comeback
Player of the Year Award beginning in 1965.
Law was the first ever NL winner.
- In 1960 he was chosen to play in both All-Star
games and while he saw limited action in the first game, he was the winning pitcher in the second, beating Whitey Ford.
- Joined the coaching staff at Brigham Young
University as a pitching coach and tutored Jack Morris among other successful pitchers.
FCR - Warren Kent, Whitehall, Michigan
Incorrect guesses:
WEDNESDAY –
29-Jul
Q. Who was the first player to win a Gold
Glove award while playing for the Yankees?
Hint: He was the first pitcher to win eight
consecutive Gold Gloves.
Hint: He was the only pitcher to win the American
League’s Most Valuable Player honor between Hal Newhouser and Denny McLain.
A. BOBBY SHANTZ [SABR Bio]
- GG for P won for all MLB in 1957. Next Yankees to
win were in the following season: Norm Siebern won his only
GG (as an outfielder) and Shantz repeated.
- GG winner 1957-1964. His last 2 were for the National League teams
he pitched for. Only Greg Maddux (13),
Jim Kaat (12) and Bob Gibson (9) won more consecutively.
- Newhouser was the AL MVP was in 1945 (again) and
McLain won in 1968. Shantz won the honor
in 1952 for PHA by posting league-leading totals in wins (24) and WAR
(9.4). He also led the league in win/loss
%, WHIP, fewest walks per game and best strikeout to walks ratio.
FCR - David Ramsden, Barcelona
Incorrect
guesses: Randy Jones, Cliff Lee, Bob Turley,
Mike McCormick, Johnny Sain, Ron Guidry, Billy Pierce, Spud Chandler, Allie
Reynolds, Whitey Ford, Jim Kaat, Tug McGraw,
MIDWEEK BONUS – 29-Jul
Q. What six-time All-Star’s record did
Trevor Hoffman break for most career relief appearances for one club?
Hint: In his third season, he led all major
league pitchers in appearance and tied a record by appearing in nine straight
games.
Hint: It remains a matter of speculation whether
a certain cartoon character was named for him.
- Face appeared 775 X in relief for PIT from
1953-68. Hoffman went to the mound 902 X
for SDP in the same number of seasons 1993-2008. If MLB had started the trend of naming awards
sooner, Hoffman very well could have won the Roy Face Award.
- PIT had just agreed to sell Face to the DET for $100,000—a tidy sum that he was well worth
even at age 40. PIT management knew,
however, that Face couldn’t be placed on the Tigers’ roster until 01-Sep when it
came to light that Face was just one game short of Walter Johnson’s all-time
record of 802 G with 1 team. The, in a
nice gesture, on 31-Aug-1968, the night before, the
Pirates’ manager Larry Shepard moved starting pitcher Steve Blass to play left
field after he retired the lead-off hitter to begin the game. Face entered at that point, retired Felix
Millan on a groundout before exiting the game with the record in hand and
turning it back over to Blass. Before the game was completed, Face’s departure
was officially announced. [Note: It was Carl Taylor who got the Midnight Graham
treatment in that move.] Mariano Rivera
is the current record holder with 1,115 G for the NYY (1995-2013).
- In 1956, Face appeared in a career-high 68
G, only starting in 3 of them. He also
had 68 G in 1960, leading the NL. His nine straight relief appearances G (03-
through 13-Sep-1956) was later bettered by Mike Marshall who relieved in an amazing
13 straight (17-Jun to 3-Jul-1974) when he was with LAD.
- The beanie-wearing son of The Jetsons family was Elroy. The series debuted in prime time in September
1962 well after Face was an established major league star.
FCR - Barry Nelson, Guilderland, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Craig Lefferts, Rollie Fingers,
Al Hrabosky, Dennis Eckersley, Lee Smith, Francisco Rodriguez, Rich Gossage,
Dan Quisenberry, Kent Tekulve, John Franco
THURSDAY – 30-Jul
Q. What All-Star, solid twenty-year MLB
veteran and one-time Angels hurler surrendered Willie Mays’s 400th
career home run and Ernie Banks’s 400th career home run?
Hint: Apparently something of an expert in round
numbers, he also surrendered Stan Musial’s 2,000th career hit.
Hint: He was required to report for military
service three weeks before his team experienced their first postseason in 35
years.
Hint: He is the only major leaguer born in Egypt.
A. CURT SIMMONS [SABR Bio]
- Mays’s 400th (of 660) on 27-Aug-1963; Banks’s 400th (of 512) on 02-Sep-1965.
- Musial’s 2,000th (of 3,620) H on 09-Sep-1952.
- Reported for duty in mid-September 1950.. He
was on a ten-day pass from the Army, but was reduced to the role of spectator
after Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler ruled him ineligible for the Series.
- Born in Egypt, Pennsylvania. Pop. 2,391 as of 2010.
FCR - Paul Nielsen, Bowie, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Robin Roberts, Frank Tanana
THURSDAY BONUS – 30-Jul
Q. Who managed the team whose first home
World Series game in 27 years was postponed by force majeure?
Hint: He is the last pitcher to lose at least 20
games in each of consecutive seasons.
Hint: He was the last former pitcher to manage a team
to the World Series in the 20th century.
Hint: As a pitcher in the majors, he had suffered
through a personal 18-game losing streak, and changed his uniform number to break
the 90-day winless skein.
A. ROGER CRAIG [SABR Bio]
- Game 3 of the 1989 WS in San Francisco was
prevented from starting by the Loma Prieta earthquake. It was so powerful that it measured 6.9 on
the Richter Scale and caused more than 60 deaths and incurred more than $5,000,000,000
worth of damage.
- Lost 24 G in 1962 and 22 G in 1963 for NYM,
the only 2 yrs he played for them. He
only had one other season with double-figure losses and that was 11 in 1956 for
BRO.
- Mgr of ’89 SFG when they lost to OAK.
- On 9-Aug-1963, Craig made a desperate attempt at changing
his run of bad luck by changing his uniform number from 38 to 13. At the time, he
was one loss shy of the major league record of 19 consecutive losses in a row
which led to this desperate action. It
worked! He won the game. He recalled that, “11 of those times it took a
shutout to beat me.”
FCR - Roy Glasser, Valrico, Florida
Incorrect
guesses:
FRIDAY – 31-Jul
Q. Whose MLB record for most strikeouts
thrown by a pitcher in a World Series game did Sandy Koufax break in 1963?
Hint: He threw two career no-hitters, the first
with only one runner reaching first base and just two reaching in the second
one.
Hint: After his playing career, he coached a
college team in his home state to conference championships four times and one
time the team reached the NAIA World Series.
A. CARL ERSKINE [SABR Bio]
- Erskine had 14 K against NYY in G 3 of the
1953 WS. Mickey Mantle and Joe Collins
each stuck out 4 times that day.
- Erskine’s 1st no-hitter was on 19-Jun-1952, relief P Willard Ramsdell reached on a walk
for the Cubs’ only baserunner. On 12-May-1956, only Willie Mays in the 1st &
and Al Dark in the 4th reach base
- Erskine coached baseball at Anderson
College
for 12 seasons, including four Hoosier
Conference
titles.
FCR - Elliott Frankfother, Rock Falls, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Carl Hubbell, Rube Waddell,
Whitey Ford, Allie Reynolds, Howard Ehmke, Joe Wood, Clem Labine, Vic Raschi
T.G.I.F. BONUS – 31-Jul
Q. After Boo Ferriss in 1945, who was the
next pitcher to start his career with consecutive shutouts?
Hint: He suffered the loss in the first major
league game ever played in Southern California.
Hint: He was the last American League pitcher to
lead the league in saves before the save became an official statistic.
A. AL WORTHINGTON [SABR Bio]
- 2 ShO = 06-Jul-1953 & 11-Jul-1953. He
also only gave up a stingy one earned run apiece in each of his next two
starts.
- He put the L in LA = 18-Apr-1958
- Had 18 saves for MIN in 1968.
FCR - Rick Tharp, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Incorrect guesses: Art Fowler, Herb Score, Karl Spooner, Clem
Labine, Ed Roebuck
SATURDAY – 01-Aug
Q. Which pitcher earned his first career W
in the Philadelphia A's very final game before moving to Kansas City?
Hint: He gave up the first triple ever in Wrigley
Field.
Hint: He once sued a beer company because they
mis-identified him in a television ad.
A. ART DITMAR [SABR Bio]
- Finale PHA game = 26-Sep-1954
- That’s be Wrigley Field in Los Angeles = 06-May-1961. 3B by
the Angels’ Leon Wagner.
- He sued Anheuser-Busch for $500,000 when a
1980s Budweiser commercial incorrectly named him as the pitcher who gave up
Bill Mazeroski's 1960 WS-winning HR. He
was offered a modest settlement, which he refused, then lost the lawsuit.
FCR - Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Ralph Terry
SATURDAY BONUS – 01-Aug
Q. What pitcher surrendered Hank Aaron's first
home run in a major league uniform?
Hint: He was the first pitcher to win a game
against the Los Angeles Angels.
Hint: He led the American League with victories
in relief one season.
Hint: One of Theodore’s best buds was obviously a
fan.
A. IKE DELOCK [SABR Bio]
- On 14-March-1954, Aaron got into his first
major league action during a Spring Training G. His opportunity came because Braves incumbent
LF Bobby Thomson had shattered his ankle sliding into second the previous
day. Delock became the first of over 300
major league pitchers to unsuccessfully try to get a pitch past the quick
wrists of Aaron.
- Delock’s W = 15-Apr-1961, a shutout
- Had 11 W in relief in 1956.
- In a memorable scene from an episode of the
popular 1950s-1960s sitcom “Leave it to Beaver”, The Beaver’s friend
Gilbert emptied his pockets to pay for a soda and out spilled several baseball
cards including those of Casey Stengel, Don Larsen, Whitey Herzog, Willie
Kirkland and ...Ike Delock. “Leave It to Beaver” season 5, episode 6
(“Wally’s Weekend Job”—aired Veterans Day 1961).
FCR - Steven Wright, Naperville, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Larry Sherry, Vic Raschi, Hoyt
Wilhelm, Jerry Cassale, Art Schallock
SUNDAY – 02-Aug
Q. Who was the winning pitcher in the final
second All-Star Game?
Hint: He had the honor of surrendering Ted
Williams’ 2,500th career hit and Carl Yastrzemski’s first major
league hit.
Hint: A major league Rookie of the Year and an
ERA, shutout and strikeout leader both later followed him attending his high
school in suburban Detroit.
A. RAY HERBERT [SABR Bio]
- Was the W P 30-Jul-1962, the 2nd ASG of ’62, and the last time
(of 4) that 2 ASGs were held in the same year.
- Williams’ 2,500th H = 02-Jun-1959 (Was then lifted for a pinch-runner.); Yaz’s 1st
H = 11-Apr-1962 (Yaz was then CS for the 3rd out.)
- Chris Sabo (1988 NL ROY) and Frank Tanana (Led AL in ERA & ShO in 1977 & led MLB
in K in 1975 in spite of Nolan Ryan being his teammate.) are also alumni of Detroit
Central Catholic HS
in Novi, MI.
FCR - Joe O’Neill, London, ON
Incorrect
guesses: Bob Miller, Juan Marichal, Dick
Radatz, Bob Turley, Robin Roberts
WEEK’S FINALE
– 02-Aug
Q. Whitey Ford holds the record for most career
victories by a World Series pitcher. Who
was the losing pitcher in the first of those?
Hint: He is the only pure reliever (no games
started that season) to throw nine full innings of relief in a shutout victory.
Hint: In high school, he had a Division-1
university basketball scholarship offer.
- Robert John “Bob” Miller, who didn’t make it
through the 1st inning of 07-Oct-1950, the final G of the NYY sweep of PHI in 1950. The
Phillies phranchise began in 1883 and not until 1980 did they win even a single
postseason series.
- When SP Curt Simmons had to leave with arm
stiffness after surrendering a lead-off single, Miller came in and tossed his
“phantom shutout 30-July-1955. He appeared in 40 G in 1955, exclusively in
relief. Research results here.
Note: A half a dozen other P threw 9 relief innings
in ShO wins—(famously Ernie Shore/1917, but also Jesse Haines/1921, Earl Whitehill/1923,
Cy Moore/1933, Charley Schanz/1944 and Neil Allen/1988), but all six also made
starts in those seasons.
- Received his scholarship offer to play
basketball with the Titans of the University
of Detroit. But the 6’3” Miller’s
possible collegiate basketball career was derailed by WWII. After the war, Miller did enroll at Detroit,
but chose instead to concentrate on his studies and baseball.
FCR - Steven Wright, Naperville, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Jim Konstanty, Joe Black
WEEKLY THEME – The living
former major league pitchers, at least ninety years old and with 250 games in
their careers in the majors.
Player Birthday Age* Games
Shantz............... 26-Sep-25......... 94y + 311d........ 578
Miller.................. 16-Jun-26......... 94y + 047d........ 261
Erskine............... 13-Dec-26......... 93d + 233d........ 360
Face................... 20-Feb-28......... 92 + 264d.......... 853
Ford.................... 21-Oct-28......... 91y + 286d........ 500
Worthington........ 5-Feb-29.......... 91y + 179d........ 602
Simmons............ 19-Mar-29......... 91y + 075d........ 609
Ditmar................. 3-Apr-29.......... 91y + 121d........ 289
Delock................ 11-Nov-29......... 91y + 265d........ 329
Herbert............... 15-Dec-29......... 90y + 231d........ 408
Craig.................. 17-Feb-30......... 90y + 267d........ 368
Law.................... 12-Mar-30......... 90y + 143d........ 516
*As of 03-Aug-2020
First Correct
Respondent to Identify Theme – Robert Charkovsky, Ashton, MD (After Law)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - Pitchers
born in the city for whose team they later started a WS game
Tuesday - Cy
Young Award Winners during 1956-1966 when the award was combined and given only
to one major league player
- Something
to do with the 1960 World Series
- Pitchers
in the 1960 World Series
- Still
living players who saw action in 1960 World Series
Wed. - Pitchers
who got a hit in the 1960 World Series
- Former
20-game winners who pitched in the 1960 World Series (Friend, Haddix, Terry,
Turley the others
- WS
MVPs
Thursday- Living nonagenarians who pitched for World
Series champions
- Oldest
living players to have pitched in an all-star game.
Fri. - Pitchers
from World Series Champion teams that are currently living and over 90 years of
age
- Pitchers
that were on teams that defeated the Yankees in the “dynasty years”
- Players
who pitched in the deciding game v Yankees when Yankees were defeated
- Pitchers
in their 90's who pitched in the World Series
- Baseball’s
oldest living pitchers with at least 100 wins
- Oldest
living pitchers who pitched in the World Series
- Living
pitchers who are at least 90 years old and pitched at least 10 years in MLB
Sat - Pitchers
from the 1950s who are still alive
- 90+
year old living pitchers with > 75 wins
Sun - Must
have something to do with the oldest living former pitchers
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