MONDAY – Mar 30
Q. Which of the
Fighting Illini alumni was the last player-manager to lead his team to a World
Series championship?
Hint: The year he
was the league’s MVP, he drove in more than 100 runs while striking out fewer
than ten times.
Hint: Three times
he had exactly 45 doubles in a season.
Two of those led the majors; the third on just led his league.
Hint: The one year
he hit more than 45 doubles, he only led his own team and not by that much.
- CLE WS champs in 1948. He had attended the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
where he was captain of both the basketball and baseball teams.
- MVP in 1948 w/92% of the 1st-place votes. His combination of 100 RBI with fewer than 10
strikeouts in a season puts him in extremely exclusive company in
the Modern Era.
- 45 2B in 1941, 1944
& 1947, topping the majors in ’41 & ’47 and leading the AL in ’44. In 1940, his 1st full season, he
hit 46.
FCR - Michael Green,
Las Vegas
Incorrect guesses: Bucky
Harris
TUESDAY – Mar 31
Q. Who stole
home more times in one season than any other National League player in history?
Hint: First time
the Dodgers won the pennant with that team name, he led them in WAR.
Hint: His Hall of
Fame manager said, "[He] just might have been the best ballplayer I ever
saw. He had everything but luck."
- Quote from Leo Durocher
FCR - Mike Eisenbath, St. Charles, Missouri
Incorrect guesses: Jackie Robinson, Maury Wills, Zack Wheat,
Babe Herman, Duke Snider, Jake Daubert, Max Carey, Dixie Walker
YADSENDEW – prA-10
Q. ?”larutaN ehT” yrots s’dumalaM dranreB
rof noitaripsni eht saw reyalp hcihW
Tnih: .“ssenisub eth ni namesab tsrif tseb eth edart
t’nac yehT”, gniyas, detsetorp ybsnroH sregoR reganam emaF fo llaH sih, mih
edart ot ton tnemeganam ecnivnoc ot gniyrt nI
tniH: .maet sdiK zihW suomaf eth fo rebmem
tnatorpmi na saw eH.
tniH: .nemesab tsrif fo eriatsA derF eht” mih debbat
setammaet sih, sseworp evisnefed sih rof noitarimda erecnis nI”
- .tolp s’dumalaM fo trap yek a—negahnietS nnA htuR dlo-raey-91 ,rerimda decnalabnu na yb tohs saw suktiaW
- .edart suktiaWeht gnidrager denipo eh nehw
reganam sbuC remrof eht yllautca saw bysnroH.
- .seillihP 0591 gnimrofreprednu ylsuoiverp eth ot
nevig emankcin eth saw “sdiK zihW”
- .esab tsrif ta saw he elbaulav who wenk
setaemmaet sih,ti ees syawla t’ndid tnemaganam fi nevE
FCR - Tom Lewis, Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania ainavlysnneP
,slliM hpulG ,siweL moT
Incorrect
guesses: Dick Sisler, Jimmy Piersall,
Eddie Miksis, Roy Hobbs, Moe Berg, Ted Kluszewski, George Sisler, Richie
Ashburn
WEDNESAY – Apr 10
Q. Which
player was the inspiration for Bernard Malamud’s story “The Natural”?
Hint: In trying
to convince management not to trade him, his Hall of Fame manager Roger Hornsby
protested saying, “They can’t trade the best first baseman in the business.”
Hint: He was an
important member of the famous Whiz Kids team.
Hint: In sincere
admiration for his defensive prowess, his teammates tabbed him “the Fred
Astaire of first basemen.
- Waitkus was an shot by an unbalanced admirer, 19-year old Ruth Ann Steinhagen, a key part of Malamud’s plot.
- Hornsby was
actually the former Cub manager when he opined regarding the Waitkus trade.
- “Whiz Kids” was
the nickname of the previously underperforming 1950 Phillies.
- Even if
management didn’t always see it, his teammates knew how valuable he was at
first base.
FCR - Tom Lewis,
Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania
THURSDAY – Apr 02
Q. Who was called “too small for a pitcher”
by his high school coach, then switched to the outfield and eventually to third
base where he played well enough to be given a “day” in his honor at Yankee
Stadium?
Hint: He hit a three-run home run in the nightcap
of his “Day”.
Hint: His first year in the majors was so
impressive that he landed fourth in that year’s MVP voting.
Hint: He lost his place in the lineup and
eventually on the team with the arrival of a highly touted infielder who was
voted Rookie of the Year.
- The emergence of rookie Gil McDougald in 1951 made the 32-year-old Johnson
expendable for the Yankees.
FCR - Elliott Frankfother, Rock Falls, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Gil McDougald, Tom Tresh, Bobby
Richardson, Tony Lazzeri, Andy Carey, Joe Sewell
FRIDAY – Apr 03
Q. Who was the only player whose uniform
number was also his hometown?
Hint: He was one the Braves who fans often got
instead of rain.
Hint: In his first full season in the majors, no
other pitcher placed higher in MVP votes.
- Warren Spahn and Johnny Sain were the front half of
the Boston (now Atlanta) Braves’ rotation in 1946-51. Spahn became the winner of more career games
than any left-hander in history and Sain was a 3-time All-Star. Positions 3 & 4 at the back end of the
Braves’ rotation were occupied by several hurlers, notably Bill Voiselle
and Vern Bickford. They were both solid
but didn’t give Braves fans the feeling of confidence that Spahn and Sain did
and so the famed rhyme “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain” was introduced into
popular culture. This saying was actually
truncated from a poem composed by Gerald Hern, sports editor of the Boston Post
and published 14-Sep-1948 in full as:
First, we’ll use Spahn,
Then we’ll use Sain,
Then an off day,
Followed
by rain.
Back will come Spahn
Followed by Sain
And followed,
We Hope,
By
two days of rain.
The couplet strongly
implied that a soggy delay was the best approach until these two star Braves
hurlers could get back on the mound and take care of business. Surprisingly however, the winning percentage
for the 1948 Braves was actually LOWER when Spahn and Sain (a combined 39-27, .591)
started a game than when the other pitchers on the staff (mostly Voiselle and
Bickford) started (52-35, .598). These
other starters had nothing to apologize for, but no rhyming scheme leapt to
mind.
- In 1944 NL MVP voting, Voiselle at 21-16 w/3.02
ERA & 161 K tied w/CIN’s Buck Walters for the league’s MVP.
FCR - Elliott Frankfother, Rock Falls, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Johnny Sain, Lew Burdette, Warren
Spahn, Vern Bickford
SATURDAY – Apr 4
Q. Which Red Sox BLTB pitcher was in the
top ten in American League MVP voting in his first two years with the team?
Hint: He led the majors his sophomore season with
a winning percentage north of .800.
Hint: He made the All-Star that year but did not
see action in the game. Four of his
teammates not only made the team and played—they constituted half of the starting
American League’s position players in that game.
Hint: He became one of the country’s most
successful college baseball coaches and administrators.
- His rookie record of 21-10 earned him 4th
place in 1945 AL MVP voting. In his semi-pro playing, while rehabbing from
a accident, he became very proficient as throwing with either hand.
- Even better with a 25-6 record in ‘46, he came
in 7th in that year’s MVP voting,
behind
his MLB-leading winning pct. of .806.
- Headlining the 1946 AL ASG lineup were Ted
Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio. This game was played in Fenway and the Red
Sox-led AL team clobbered the NL’ers, 11-0.
- Enjoyed considerable baseball success at Delta
State and Mississippi State universities, the latter being his alma mater.
FCR - Elliott Frankfother, Rock Falls, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses:
SUNDAY
– Apr 5
Q. Which one-time Brave’s twenty-win rookie
season helped his team win their fourth World Series championship in the modern
era?
Hint: He won half of the games necessary to
defeat the Yankees.
Hint: He only had one season under .500 in his
entire career
Hint: After his baseball career, he forged a
successful business career and he was even elected to the city council of the
city where he grew up.
- Only when he dropped the last decision of his
career, did he fail to win more in a season than he lost: 1941 (1-0), 1942
(21-6), 1946 (7-5), 1947 (2-0), 1948 (0-1).
- His post-baseball business career began with
the Falstaff Brewing Company of St. Louis, for whom
he was general manager of his hometown Nashville branch beginning in 1950. He later purchased the distributorship and ran
the company until 1972. He served on the
Metropolitan Nashville Council and as a councilman
from 1974 to 1976.
FCR - Elliott Frankfother, Rock Falls, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Johnny Antonelli, Tom Glavine, Denny
Neagle, Lew Burdette, Warren Spahn, Bob Buhl, Denny Neagle, John Smoltz
WEEKLY THEME – Players
voted "Rookie of the Year" by Chicago Baseball Writers prior to the
initiation of the BBWAA rookie of the year award (1940-1946)
In 1940, the Chicago Chapter of the Baseball
Writers Association of America decided to honor the owner of the White Sox by
bestowing the J. Louis Comiskey Memorial Award upon the top rookie in the
Majors. This practice continued for
seven years, with four National Leaguers and three American Leaguers receiving
the award. In 1947, the Chicago Chapter relinquished
its autonomy, inviting all members of the BBWAA to vote on the outstanding
rookie award.
Year Player Team League Pos WAR
1940........ Boudreau............... CLE.......... AL................ SS. 63.0
1941........ Reiser.................... BRO......... NL............... OF. 24.4
1942........ Beazley.................. STL.......... NL............... P...... 4.5
1943........ Johnson................. NYY......... AL................ 3B.. 14.2
1944........ Voiselle.................. NYY......... NL............... P.... 12.3
1945........ Ferriss.................... BOS......... AL................ P...... 8.6
1946........ Waitkus.................. CHC......... NL............... 1B.. 14.1
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Sarah Grynpas, Toronto (after
Reiser!)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - HOF
player-managers
Tuesday - Guys
who retired shortly after getting hit in the head with a pitch
- Players
playing in the first al and nl games featuring black players
- The
games that Doby and Robinson broke the color barriers for their leagues
Wed - Ballplayers
who played themselves in movies
- Players
who had very promising careers, beset by unusual or unforeseen injuries
- Players
whose careers were shortened by injuries
- Players
with just one 100+ run season, a year his team won the pennant
