MONDAY
Q. Of
the original five Hall of Fame inductees, who had the most votes?
Hint: His
percentage of votes remained the highest for any player for 56 years.
Twint: This
“Peach” was probably not so sweet.
First
Hall of Fame election, 1936 (226 votes):
|
Ty Cobb
|
222
|
98.23%
|
|
Babe Ruth
|
215
|
95.13%
|
|
Honus Wagner
|
215
|
95.13%
|
|
Christy Mathewson
|
205
|
90.71%
|
|
Walter Johnson
|
189
|
83.63%
|
-
In 1992, Tom Seaver established the current record w/98.83%; Nolan Ryan had
98.79% in 1999; & Cal Ripken Jr. had 98.53% in 2007, the only ones
eclipsing Cobb’s mark.
-
Cobb was known to irascible, even violent
FCR - Victor
Piacentile, Yorktown Heights, NY
Incorrect answers: Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson,
Walter Johnson, Cy Young
TUESDAY
Q. Who
was the first player to be voted his league’s Most Valuable Player while
playing for two different teams?
Hint: His
second win was without the hindrance of being a player/manager.
Hint: He
played for eight more seasons, but never received another MVP vote.
Twint: He
is the only modern St. Louis Cardinal to hit .400 in a season.
Twint: He
did it three times.
-
From 1930 to 1937 he concentrated more on his field management duties
-
Hornsby
hit .401/.424/.403 in 1922/1924/1925
FCR - Victor
Piacentile, Yorktown Heights, NY
Incorrect answers: Frank Robinson, Alex Rodriguez, Nap Lajoie,
Lou Boudreau
WEDNESDAY
Q. What
fleet-of-foot centerfielder did Joe DiMaggio say he would make the world
forget?
Hint: This
same centerfielder met with Willie Mays the day after “the catch” in the 1954
World Series as the media reminisced about his similar fielding style in the
same park 45 years earlier.
Hint: The
American League President (and founder) hired a private investigator to
substantiate claims about the player’s gambling habits.
Hint: The
report came back that he did indeed gamble, but always legally.
Twint: He
holds at least two career records that most baseball cognoscenti deem
unbreakable.
Twint: He
was paired with and compared with Ty Cobb for most of his life.
-
Speaker played a particularly shallow center field, making up the distance back
to the fence with his remarkable speed. Joe
D. mimicked this style, mostly successfully.
-
1954 meeting:
-
Ban
Johnson ordered the tail of Speaker.
-
Speaker’s 792 doubles are likely unassailable.
Current leader David
Ortiz is more than 200 behind. Even
more impressive are Spoke’s 449 outfield assists. Current active leader is Carlos
Beltran with 139.
-
Both came from the South, both cared little about teammates or fans and both played
baseball as if their hair were on fire.
FCR - Richard
Tharp, Rockville, MD
Incorrect answers: Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, Wee Willie Keeler, Al
Gionfriddo, Mike Donlin, Red Murray, Earl Combs
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Whose
record for number of times leading his league in bases-on-balls did Barry Bonds
break when Bonds did it for the twelfth time?
Hint: In
four additional seasons he finished in the top ten.
Hint: He
had more than 100 the season before he retired.
Hint: He’s
tied with Paul Molitor and Rabbit Maranville for career steals of home.
Twint: No
position player outranks him in career WAR.
-
Ruth still holds the record for leading the majors the most times.
-
Scored 104 times in 1934.
-
Molitor, Maranville
and Ruth
all stole home 10 times
-
Career WAR of 163.1. Bonds’s
number is 162.4 in second place.
FCR - Bill
Deane, Cooperstown, NY
Incorrect answers: Ted Williams, Rickey Henderson, Lou Gehrig,
Mickey Mantle, Rod Carew, Jimmy Johnston, Enos Cabell, Max Carey, Jackie
Robinson, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Wilbert Robinson, Gene Tenace,
Lou Brock
THURSDAY
Q. Whose
.313 average is the lowest ever to win a National League batting title?
Hint: He
and Ty Cobb are the only batters to win three straight batting titles twice in
a career.
Twint: Vin
Scully once called his son the fastest man in the majors.
Twint: His
life was exemplary except for the one thing he begged us all not to copy.
-
Hit .313 in 1988 (I think Orel
Hershiser lowered the average of everyone in the league that year.)
-
1987-89 & 1994-97; Cobb did it
three times
-
Son Tony Gwynn is
still one of the fastest runners in the game.
-
Died 16-Jun-2014 from cancer caused by chewing tobacco
FCR - Timothy
Kearns, Washington, DC
Incorrect answers: Terry Pendleton, Pie Traynor, Stan Musial,
Pete Rose, Honus Wagner, Rogers Hornsby, Bill Madlock
FRIDAY
Q. Who
held the record for most career doubles by a right-handed batter until Craig
Biggio passed him in 2007?
Hint He
was the youngest Phillie to collect 100 RBI in a season.
Hint: He
once received a bases-loaded, intentional base-on-balls.
Twint: His
modern single-season batting average record was set in the first year of
existence of the American League.
Twint: It
still stands.
-
Biggio
ended with 668 2b and is 5th on the all-time list. Lajoie’s 657 are at 7th place.
-
127 RBI at age 22 in 1897
-
BLIBB 23-May-1901, 9th inning, called by Hall of Fame player/manager
Clark
Griffith in the 9th inning to preserve the victory for the White
Sox. The White Sox
that year won the first-ever American League pennant and Lajoie, playing for
the Philadelphia
Athletics, won the Triple Crown with a BA of .426! (Not a typo)
FCR - Dave
Goss, Wind Gap, PA
Incorrect answers: Richie Ashburn, Ed Delahanty, Mike Schmidt,
Dick Allen, Chuck Klein, Bill Nicholson
TALKIN’ BASEBALL BONUS
Q. Who
is the only American League batter to have a season with no fewer than 40 home
runs and 220 hits?
Hint: His
record of 17 strikeouts in a single game remains unchallenged by any other
pitcher from his school.
Hint: His
first career stolen base didn’t come until his third season, but was a steal of
home.
Twint: He
was a Greek.
Twint: He
was German.
Twint: He
was first scouted by a Canadian.
-
1930: 41 HR, 220 H
-
17 K for Columbia University 18-Apr-1923 (the same day that Yankee Stadium
opened) vs. Williams College
-
1st SB 24-Jun-1925
-
Honorary member of Sigma Nu at Columbia when his mother worked there as a maid. The frat boys called young Lou "Little
Heinie". Phi Delta also claims him. However, knowledgeable sources tell us Gehrig
was initiate # 338 of Phi Delta Theta's New York
Delta Chapter, Columbia University.
-
Born to first-generation German immigrants.
-
First determined scout was Toronto native Arthur Irwin
who had spent 13 years in the majors.
FCR - Walt
Cherniak, Woodbine, MD
Incorrect answers: Jim Rice, Babe Ruth, Chuck Klein
SATURDAY
Q. Whose
253 hits in a season by an American Leaguer were second only to George Sisler’s
257 until Ichiro Suzuki passed them both in 2004?
Hint: He
rebutted critics of his batting stance with, “I’ve studied movies of myself
batting. (I’m)…swinging in a proper line
over the plate.”
Hint: He
was glad he never played for the Giants.
Hint: He
once homered and singled in a single World Series inning.
Twint: One
year he hit .392 but didn’t even lead his own league.
-
253 H in 1925, his second season in the majors
-
He resented the epithet “Bucketfoot Al”, invoked because his forward (left)
foot pointed directly at third base until the pitcher released the ball. His stats seem to indicate that this was a
perfectly appropriate stance.
-
As a minor leaguer, he expressed interest playing for John
McGraw, but later admitted that he and Mugsy probably would have clashed.
-
2-H inning, 7th inning 4th G 1929 WS 12-Oct-1929
-
Hit .392 in 1927, but Harry Heilmann of the Tigers hit .398 that season.
FCR - Joe
Matocha, Meriden, CT
Incorrect answers: Honus Wagner, Rod Carew, Stan Musial, Lefty O’Doul
SUNDAY
Q. In
the Top Ten batting average seasons in the history of the Detroit Tigers, there are only two names:
Ty Cobb and ____________?
Hint: Only
Cobb had more hits in a season as a Tiger, but very few of his were “leg” hits.
Twint: How
many N’s?
|
Rank
|
Player
|
BA
|
Year
|
|
1
|
Cobb
|
0.420
|
1911
|
|
2
|
Cobb
|
0.409
|
1912
|
|
3
|
Heilmann
|
0.403
|
1923
|
|
4
|
Cobb
|
0.401
|
1922
|
|
5
|
Heilmann
|
0.398
|
1927
|
|
6
|
Heilmann
|
0.394
|
1921
|
|
7
|
Heilmann
|
0.393
|
1925
|
|
8
|
Cobb
|
0.390
|
1913
|
|
9
|
Cobb
|
0.389
|
1921
|
|
10
|
Cobb
|
0.384
|
1919
|
N.B.: Norm Cash is #26 with his .361 in 1961
FCR - David
Lippman, Newark, NJ
Incorrect answers: Lefty O’Doul, Sam Crawford, Charlie Gehringer,
Al Kaline, Norm Cash, Hank Greenberg, Miguel Cabrera, Harvey Kuenn, Mickey
Cochrane
ONE MORE
Q. Whose
record for most consecutive games with an extra-base hit did Chipper Jones tie
with a home run on 16-Jul-2006?
Hint: Six
of the managers he played for in his 20-y ear career are now in the Hall of
Fame.
Hint: He
once had more than 130 RBI in the same season he was in single digits in home
runs.
Twint: It
was the same year he won the MVP.
Twint: Only
one other time in Hall of Fame career did he reach the 100 RBI mark.
-
Record for consecutive games with an extra-base hit: 14
-
HOF Mgrs: Bill
McKechnie, Pie
Traynor, Frankie
Frisch, Leo
Durocher, Casey
Stengel, Joe
McCarthy
-
Sophomore season 1927, he led his team in AB, R, 2b, HR, OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+. He also led the NL in PA, 3b, RBI & BA
and led the majors with 237 hits.
FCR - Bob
Flynn, Chandler, AZ
Incorrect answers: Pie Traynor
WEEKLY THEME – Modern era Hall of
Fame batters who, while qualifying for the batting title, hit for an average of
.350 or better in at least a half a dozen seasons.
Player .350
X Team(s)
*Hit
.349 in 1932
First Correct Respondent
to Identify Theme – No
one
Incorrect theme guesses:
Wed - Players who were
leading vote getters in the 1936 HoF vote (the first one that took place with
Ruth, Cobb, Johnson , et al).
- Players whom
were part of the first two Hall Of Fame classes
- Players with
lifetime batting averages above .340
Thursday - Highest
lifetime batting average for those who played in the 1920s
Questions archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia home page: https://sites.google.com/site/tnfotobbpics/home/horsehide-trivia
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