Monday, November 28, 2016

Nov 21-27, 2016 Dodgers' starting line-up for the first game Vin Scully broadcast 18-Apr-1950

MONDAY
Q. Who was the first black player to win an MVP Award?
Hint: He was also the first black player to win a Rookie of the Year Award.
Hint: The first player of any race, for that matter.
FCR - Wayne Strumpfer, Sacramento
Incorrect answers:  Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe

TUESDAY
Q. Who was the first black pitcher to win an MVP Award?
Hint: He was also the first black pitcher to win the Rookie of the Year Award.
Hint: The first pitcher of any race, for that matter.
FCR - Kellen Nielson, Blanding, Utah
Incorrect answers:  Joe Black, Vida Blue, Bob Gibson, Satchell Paige, Al Downing

WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the second black player to win an MVP Award?
Hint: He was also the first black player to win multiple MVP Awards.
Hint: He suffered severe burns when a hot water heater exploded in his face prior to Spring Training of the first season he won an  MVP.
- 1951, 53 & 55 NL MVP
FCR - Lincoln Mitchell, New York City
Incorrect answers:  Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Larry Doby, Frank Robinson

MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was the last Dodger to lead the majors in stolen bases before the team switched coasts?
Hint: He served in the Navy during WWII.
Hint: He finished in the top-10 in MVP voting eight times.
Hint: Although known as a middle infielder, he played 115 career games at third base.
- 1952 NL SB ldr w/ 30, eight more than AL SB ldr Minnie Minoso
- Naval service 1943-45
- 2,014 G @ SS
FCR - Andy McCue, Riverside, California
Incorrect answers:  Pete Reiser, Jim Gilliam

THURSDAY
Q. Who had the greatest influence on Tom Seaver’s career, according to Seaver himself?
Hint: He was stationed at Pearl Harbor and Okinawa, among other posts, during WWII.
Hint: Long before Tony Gwynn, he used game film to correct problems with his swing.
Hint: He was a Gold Glove winner for the first three years it was awarded.
- Hodges was Seaver’s manager with the Mets 1968-71
- Chuck Dressen showed Hodges film of at-bats where Hodges would bail out on inside pitches. Hodges changed the position of his back foot, correcting the problem and leading to his success as a batter.
- 1957-59 Gold Glove 1B
FCR - Bob Flynn, Chandler, Arizona
Incorrect answers:  Sherm Lollar, Roy McMillan, Ted Williams

IN MEMORIAM
Q. Who threw the pitch that resulted in the home run called “the shot heard ‘round the world”?
Hint: An All-Star pitcher with a 12-year major league resume, had led the league in win/loss percentage just two years earlier.
Hint: He and the hitter of the home run eventually became friends. In 1991 and 2001, they toured the country together for the 40th and 50th anniversaries of "The Shot”.
Hint: His son-in-law is a former major league manager,an All-Star in his own right.
Hint: A few years ago, he discovered that his mother was Jewish and some of his relatives had died in the Holocaust.
- 03-Oct-2016 play-off game won by Bobby Thomson’s home run
- 1949 record of 13-5 or .722
- Branca & Thomson together
- Son-in-law is Bobby Valentine
FCR - Richard Marston, Newport Beach, California
Incorrect answers:  

FRIDAY
Q. Who was the only player to hit 40 or more home runs every year from 1953-57?
Hint: He missed the 1945 and 1946 seasons in military service, but made his major league debut the following spring.
Hint: Hall of Famer George Sisler helped him learn the strike zone.
- HR’s 53-57:  42, 40, 42, 43, 40
- Dodgers coach Sisler worked with Snider in spring training, 1948 to limit his overswing.
FCR - Rick Tharp, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Incorrect answers:  Ted Kluszewski, Ralph Kiner, Henry Aaron, Hank Sauer, Willie Mays, Eddie Mathews

SATURDAY
Q. Whose 667 at-bats in a single season was the high mark for any National League player from 1937 to expansion?
Hint: For 4 consecutive seasons, he was in the Top Ten in outfield assists, including leading the majors one year.
Hint: Between 1951 and 1970, no National Leaguer “enjoyed” a season with more GIDP than the one he had in the mid-1950’s.
Hint: In his career, he threw out 7 eager runners who had rounded first a little too widely.
Hint: Hardly slow, still his nickname was based on a snail.
- Led majors in outfield assists in 1951; top ten in 1948-51
- 27 GIDP in 1956
- Called “Skoonj”, derived from one of his favorite foods—the Italian seafood dish scungilli, the edible part of an aquatic snail, called whelks in the U.S.
FCR - Michael Green, Las Vegas
Incorrect answers:  Richie Ashburn, Pete Rose, Bill Bruton

WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Who shared the so-called first interracial handshake with Jackie Robinson?
Hint: He was the eleventh and youngest son of Slovak immigrants.
Hint: He hit the first pinch-hit World Series home run in National League history.
Hint: The quality of his bat strokes contributed to what he ended up being called.
- Shuba shook Robinson’s hand in Montreal in a famous 1946 photo at home plate following a Robinson homer.s.
- PH WS HR 30-Sep-1953 off Allie Reynolds
- He earned the name "Shotgun" from a Birmingham, Alabama sports writer who said the balls coming off his bat sounded like shotgun blasts.
FCR - Rich Klein, Plano, Texas
Incorrect answers:  Ralph Branca, Pee Wee Reese, Erv Dusak, Gene Hermansky, Elmer Valo, Harry Walker, Eddie Stanky, Andy Pafko, Billy Cox, Andy Pafko, Chuck Essegian

SUNDAY
Q. What rookie’s debut game was of historical significance for reasons that would not be evident for several years?
Hint: His first major league hit was off future Hall of Famer Robin Roberts, it was his 2nd at-bat.
Hint: He became the first of the heirs-apparent to Pee Wee Reese at shortstop for the Brooklyn Dodgers when he was voted the International League MVP and led the league in hitting in 1949.
Hint: He eventually became the Miami Marlins manager.
- First game 18-Apr-1950
- Managed the minor league Miami Marlins 1964-65
FCR - Frank Workman, Lake Forest Park, Washington
Incorrect answers:  Don Zimmerman, Jeff Torborg, Hank Sauer, Jim Gilliam, Dick Williams


THEME FOR THE WEEK - Dodgers starting lineup on 18-Apr-1950, the first game Vin Scully called for the Dodgers.

First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Joe Ullian, Santa Barbara (after Morgan)

Incorrect theme guesses:
Monday   - First black major player to win league award as best and/or lead league in a category (such as Monte Irvin, RBI's, 1951).

Tuesday - Rookies of the Year winners who eventually became an MVP winners
  • "The Brothers of Summer."

Wed - Black major award winners
  • Dodger African-American players who won postseason awards
  • Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer

Thurs - Players on the Dodger pennant winners from 1949-1956.
  • Starting lineup for Dodgers in game 1 of the 1955 Series.
  • Military players.  career interrupted by military service
Friday - Wins Above Replacement leaders for the Brooklyn Dodgers
  • Dodgers who lived in Brooklyn
  • guys who played for the Dodgers in both Brooklyn and in LA

Sat - Brooklyn players who were on the field when the shot heard around the earth was hit

Sunday - Starting lineup for Dodgers in Shot Heard Round the World game.
 

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