Sunday, October 23, 2016

Oct 17-23, 2016 - Players with 11 or more triples in a season when they didn't steal a single base.

MONDAY
Q. What Georgia peach hit 3 home runs in a game a record 6 times in his career?
Hint: He was the first National League position player to be runner-up in the MVP balloting in consecutive seasons.
Hint: He was the first league home run leader in consecutive seasons with more homers than strikeouts in each of those seasons.
Hint: He was cousin to Babe Ruth's second wife.
- Six 3-HR games:  For STL: 13-Jul-1938; 20-Jul-1938; 13-May-1940; 08-Sep-1940.  For NYG:  04-Apr-1947.  For NYY:  15-Sep-1950.
- 2nd in MVP voting in 1939, behind Bucky Walters; in 1940 behind Frank McCormick.
- 1947 - 51 HR’s, 42 K’s; 1948 - 40 HR’s, 37 K’s.
- Claire Merritt Ruth, the Babe’s 2nd wife; relationship with Mize explained here.
FCR - Kellen Nielson, Blanding, UT
Incorrect answers:  Mel Ott, Rogers Hornsby, Ralph Kiner, Duke Snider, Hack Wilson, Stan Musial
TUESDAY
Q. What Illinois native once had, in a single game, twelve runs-batted-in?
Hint: He once led his league in home runs and triples in the same season.
Hint: He was the first player to emerge from a team's minor league farm system to win an MVP award for that team.
Hint: He had a signature pose of tilting his hat over his left eye and was seldom seen without a smile on his face.
- 12 RBI 16-Sep-1924, born in Oglesby, Illinois.  He passed the record of 111 RBI in a game held by Hall of Famer Wilbert Robinson 10-Jun-1892.
- HR & 3b lead in 1928 w/31 HR & 20 3b
- In 1920, played for teams at D & A levels; in 1921, played the  entire season at A level; in  1922, played 119 games at AA level before being called up to the majors on 18-Aug--1922 to begin his 16-year Hall of Fame career.
FCR - Steven Coleman, St. Charles, MO
Incorrect answers:  Mark Whiten, Tony Lazzeri, Joe Medwick, Ryan Howard
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who led the American League in hits the year Joe DiMaggio compiled a 56-game hit streak and Ted Williams batted .406?
Hint: He was the only 20th century player to have five hits in his first Major League game.
Hint: He continued his strong debut hitting .526 adding 15 extra-base hits through his first 14 games.
Hint: His career was divided in two by World War II.  The first half had him looking Hall-of-Fame ready.
Hint: At the Battle of the Bulge, he suffered frozen feet and he was never the same.
- 218 H in 1941
Ed. Note:  Travis' four most similar players, and 5 of his top nine, through age 27 are Hall-of-Fame players. This would suggest the kind of career Travis was in the middle of when he left for war. However, the list of could-have-been-a-Hall-of-Famers is much longer than the list of actual Hall-of-Famers.
FCR - Bob Flynn, Gilbert, AZ
Incorrect answers:  Ty Cobb, Johnny Pesky, Luke Appling, Jose Altuve, Arky Vaughn, Travis Jackson
THURSDAY
Q. Who was the last manager to lead the Washington Senators to a 100-loss season?
Hint: In his managing job immediately prior, he had led the team to consecutive pennants.
Hint: Never a big man, he had been planning a career as a jockey.
Hint: He was a mystery guest on the TV show "What's My Line".
- 1955 WSH = 101/53
- Won NL pennants with BRO in 1952 and 53.
- Officially listed at Height: 5' 5", Weight: 146 lb.
- WML on 28-Sep-1952; Scroll to 19:10 through 22:43.
FCR - Michael Green, Las Vegas
Incorrect answers:  Bucky Harris, Mickey Vernon, Gil Hodges, Ted Williams
FRIDAY
Q. Who is “El Oso Blanco”?
Hint: Was out of baseball, depressed and “thought about suicide every day” for several years before making a major league team.
Hint: This was after he had walked away from his baseball scholarship at Texas A&M.
Hint: He hit 9 home runs in his first month in the majors.
Hint: His 20-game hitting streak was the longest by a catcher since Jason Kendall’s.
- Spanish for “The White Bear”
- 1st 9 HR in April 2013
- 20-G hitting streak 2014
FCR - William Dickerson, Atlanta
Incorrect answers:  A.J. Pierzynski
SATURDAY
Q. Who was the majors’ first left-handed-throwing catcher since Jiggs Donahue in 1902?
Hint: He remains the only National Leaguer to hit home runs in 8 consecutive games.
Hint: He sprinkled his remaining 19 home runs that year over the other 140 games he played that season.
Hint: In so doing, he broke the then MLB record of 6 games held jointly by two Hall of Famers and another slugger who ought to be in the Hall.
- He was put in as catcher for the Cubs in the 9th innings of 2 games in 1958:  20-Aug and 21-Sep, for a total of 6 batters.  According to baseball savant and loyal reader, Cappy Gagnon, Long used his first baseman’s mitt to perform his duties behind the plate.
- 8 HR’s 19-28-May-1956, victimizing such great pitchers as Warren Spahn, Carl Erskine, Lindy McDaniel , and Curt Simmons during that streak.  Four days after the end of the streak, he took Spahn deep again.
-  6 G with HR’s = Ken Williams (1922), George Kelly (1924) and Lou Gehrig (1931).
FCR - Tom Kennedy, Houston
Incorrect answers:    Benny Distefano, Joe Wall, Del Ennis
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Who was the first native of Canada to be selected to a National League All-Star team?
Hint: He had double-unique status for a decade.
Hint: Future National League President Warren Giles once delivered this pronouncement to him in person:  "Son, you've got a lot of ability, but you'll never be a ballplayer. You're too small."
Hint: Upon showing up for his first assignment with Louisville, he was mistaken for the batboy.
-  All-Star team in 1945.  Game not played due to World War II.
- The majors had never seen another Goody or another Rosen.  He was therefore “Double Unique” for almost exactly 10 years until Al Rosen’s debut.
- Giles was, in 1932, the business manager of the Rochester Red Wings.  The 5’ 6”, 160 lb. Rosen had been invited to a tryout camp of theirs when this stinging assessment was delivered.
- Rosen debuted with Louisville Colonels of the American Association in 1933.
FCR - Jim Bernardinucci, Sewell, NJ
Incorrect answers:  Fergie Jenkins, Rusty Staub, Claude Raymond, George Selkirk, Ozzie Smith, Larry Walker, Sherry Robertson, Jeff Heath
SUNDAY
Q. What second (and often third-) string catcher was a catalyst for the Washington Senators third pennant?
Hint: A future Hall of Famer was born in the same city he was, just eight days earlier.
Hint: In his rise through the minors, he had seasons of hitting .406, .354 and .380.
Hint: In his second (albeit shortened) season in the majors, he hit .410.
Hint: In his only qualifying season with more than 100 games, he hit .304.
- Bolton hit .410 in 33 games, mostly late in the season, in 1933 for WSH.
- HOF Luke Appling, was born in High Point, North Carolina on 02-Apr-1907; Bolton, same place, but on 10-Apr-1907.
- Hit .406 for the 1928 High Point Pointers; .356 for the 1929 1929 New Haven Profs; & .380 for the 1930 Chattanooga Lookouts.
- Hit .410 for the 1933 Washington Senators.
FCR - Jim Casey, Savannah, GA (Jim admits, “It's scary that I didn't even have to think about this answer.”)
Incorrect answers:  Luke Sewell, Earl Sheely, Muddy Ruel, Moe Berg
THEME FOR THE WEEK - Players who hit 11 or more triples in a season where they had exactly zero stolen bases.
Player
3B
SB
Year
Tm
16*
0
1938
STL
  ''  
14
0
1939
STL
13*
0
1955
PIT
11
0
2015
HOU
11
0
1940
WSH
11
0
1938
BRO
11
0
1936
SLB
11
0
1935
WSH
11
0
1926
CIN

None of them even had more than one attempt.

*Led the league that year
First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Jim Turner, Tallahassee (after Bolton)
Incorrect theme guesses:
Monday   - HOFers who missed seasons because they were in the military.
Tuesday   - Sounds like meet me in St. Louie at first base.
Saturday - Teammates of Ernie Banks
 





Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)