Sunday, March 24, 2013

March 18-24, 2013 Rookies of the Year who won league MVPs before their 500th MLB game


MONDAY
Q.         Who is the only major leaguer to be featured on three separate issues of U.S. postage stamps?
Hint:     Yes, Yogi.  He was safe.
Hint:     To cap his collegiate career, he won swimming championships and reached the semifinals of a national tennis tournament.
Twint:    He was the first ever BWAA Rookie of the Year.
A.         Jackie Robinson (Stamps in 1982, 1999, 2000; ROY 1947)
FCR -    Paul Hirsch, Danville, CA

TUESDAY
Q.         What Yankee holds the major league record for the most hits in a ten-year period?
Hint:     He had seven hitting streaks of 20 or more games.
Twint:    He scored three runs in the final game of the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
A.         Ichiro Suzuki (2,244 H 2001-2010)
FCR -    Richard Nicholson, Richmond, VA

WEDNESDAY
Q.         What three-time All-Star is known as “Laser Show”?
Hint:     Various sources disagree about his height, but none argue that he’s not under 5’10”.
Twint:    Ian Kinsler & Andre Ethier were two of his teammates at Arizona State.
A.         Dustin Pedroia (Is listed by MLB at 5' 8". USA Today gave his height as 5' 7".  The NCAA gave his height as 5' 8".
FCR -    Jerry Mora, Prescott, AZ

EQUINOX EXTRA
Q.         Who is the only player to win the ALCS MVP award while playing for the losing team?
Hint:     He played football and baseball in college, in both cases for coaches enshrined in their respective Halls of Fame.
Twint:    To this day, he feels a certain fondness for Giants pitcher Atlee Hammaker.
A.         Fred Lynn (Hit .611 in the 1982 ALCS; Played at USC for John McKay and Rod Dedeaux.  McKay was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1988.  Dedeaux was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame in 1970; Hit the only GS in ASG history off Hammaker in 1983.)
FCR -    Bob Wilber, Spokane, WA

THURSDAY
Q.         Who begs Kate Upton to allow him into the Perfect Club?
Hint:     The Panda would probably have let him in.
Hint:     In eight seasons in the majors, he has yet to be on the Disabled List.
Twint:    His union rep father negotiated his first contract with the Tigers.
A.         Justin Verlander (Club scene; Pablo “Panda” Sandoval tripled off him in the All-Star Game and homered off him in the World Series in 2012.)
FCR -    Paul Hirsch, Danville, CA

FRIDAY
Q.         Who has amassed four of the top seven season home run totals for his team in his brief nine seasons with the team?
Hint:     One season, only he an Albert Pujols received MVP votes in the National League.
Twint:    His namesake (but no doppelganger) is a character with questionable character on The Office.
A.         Ryan Howard (2006 NL MVP voting; The Office’s Ryan Howard)
FCR -    David Krassin, New York, New York

SATURDAY
Q.         Who was responsible, according to a well-publicized fan vote, for the "Most Memorable Moment" in MLB history?
Hint:     Alex Rodriguez shows no interest in breaking one of this guy’s biggest records.
Twint:    He owns and runs, with his brother Billy, a highly successful baseball academy.
A.         Cal Ripken (Moment2,321st consecutive game played, a record at one time held by Lou Gehrig and universally considered unbreakable; A-Rod is only 1 HR short of Ripken’s record for HRs hit by a SS, but has expressed that he’s now happy at 3rd; Ripken Baseball)
FCR -    Matthew Repplinger, Denver, CO

SUNDAY
Q.         Whose explosive entrance into organized baseball likely kept Hall of Famer Ray Dandridge from ever reaching the majors?
Hint:     He helped keep a teammate’s drinking problem under control by giving him a bottle of Old Crow every Monday.
Twint:    He never led the league in runs-batted-in, but ranks eleventh on the all-time list.
A.         Willie Mays (Dandridge would likely have been called up to the Giants, but management feared having “too many blacks” and chose Mays; w/1,903 RBI, his 11th-place position seems secure for years to come; Jim Ray Hart’s alcohol situation was cleverly regulated as Mays tried a modified version of the method he has witnessed Leo Durocher use on Dusty Rhodes.)
FCR -    Fred Brillhart, Mechanicsburg, PA

EX-POST FACTO BONUS
Q.         The Dodgers have had sixteen players win the Rookie of the Year Award.  Who was the second ever?
Hint:     Although a pitcher in the U.S. he had a successful season in Japan as a first baseman and outfielder.
Hint:     Maury Wills credits him with his turnaround when Wills was fighting drug addiction.
Twint:    His career winning percentage is better than those of Addie Joss, Carl Hubbell, Bob Feller and Cy Young.
A.         Don Newcombe (ROY 1949; 1962 for the Chunichi Dragons; W/L % .623)
FCR -    Chuck Durante, Dover, DE

APRÈS-SKI
Q.         Who continued a strong school tradition begun by Mike Fuentes and Mike Loynd?
Hint:     His call-up accelerated the trade of the league’s best catcher.
Hint:     His injury was one of the most devastating that a World Series champion team that any team suffered this century.
Twint:    He has two World Series rings and has yet to appear on a team that has lost a post-season series.
A.         Buster Posey (Fuentes and Loynd won the Golden Spikes Award for Florida State University as did Posey in 2008 [as also did J.D. Drew in 1997]; The Giants traded Bengie Molina to Texas on 01‑Jul‑2010 for Chris Ray and a minor leaguer named Michael Main—none of the three played in the majors last year; Posey’s leg was broken 25‑May‑2011 in a collision at the plate with Scott Cousins.)
FCR -    Stephen Klatsky, Washington, DC


WEEKLY THEME – Rookies of the Year who won league MVPs before their 500th MLB game

Player              ROY           MVP            G
Howard             2005           2006           266
Lynn                 1975           1975           160
Mays                1951           1954           306
Newcombe        1949           1956           219
Pedroia             2007           2008           327
Posey               2010           2012           308
Ripken              1982           1983           354
Robinson          1947           1949           454
Suzuki              2001           2001           157
Verlander          2006           2011           232

First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Gregg Gaylord, Chicago, IL (after the Pedroia Q.)


Horsehide Trivia blog has the questions and answers from this week as well as from previous weeks:  http://horsehidetrivia.blogspot.com/



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