MONDAY
To throw out the first
pitch in our 20th Anniversary Celebration, Abbey Garber of Dallas
sent in what is probably my personal favorite and, although long, it’s perfect
for a Monday:
Q. Name the players, by position, who have
won a league MVP in consecutive seasons:
Hint: You must exclude Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols
and Miguel Cabrera from your answers.
Hint: There remain exactly and they fit nicely
into ten positions on the diamond.
A. 1b Jimmie Foxx 1932-33 PHA
2b Joe
Morgan 1975-76 CIN
3b Mike Schmidt 1980-81 PHI
SS Ernie Banks 1958-59 CHC
C Yogi Berra 1954-55 NYY
LF Dale Murphy 1982-83 ATL (Only qualifier in LF both years.)
CF Mickey Mantle 1956-57 NYY
RF Roger Maris 1960-61 NYY
DH Frank Thomas 1993-94 CHW (Only qualifier at DH both years.)
FCR - Michael McCroskey, Sugar Land, Texas
Incorrect answers: David Ortiz
TUESDAY #1 from Jim Casey in
Savannah. He “Tuesday’ed” it up with
some generous hints.
Q. What team in the modern era, for one
full season, had a starting outfield of Hall of Famers?
Hint: All 3 had at least 500 AB's.
Hint: Two could have come from an aviary.
Hint: All 3 were at least sinister, but only one
was completely gauche.
Hint: Two served with the team through all 3 of
their World Series appearances, one just spent one season there late in his
great career.
A. Washington Senators 1927, Goose Goslin, Tris Speaker, and Sam Rice.
- Goslin 581 AB; Speaker 523 AB, Rice 603 AB
- “Goose” and “Grey Eagle”
- All batted lefty; Goslin was, um… different
- Goslin and Rice were with the team in 1924, 1925 & 1933. 1927 was Speaker’s only year as a Senator.
FCR - Kellen Nielson, Blanding, Utah
Incorrect
answers: Musial , Schoendienst and
Slaughter; Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia A’s,
TUESDAY #2 offered by
multiple-time SABR National Trivia Champion Michael Caragliano of Flushing, New
York.
Q. This Los Angeles-based southpaw twirled
the first MLB no-hitter in Dodger Stadium.
[N.B. Michael didn’t list any
hints, so we hope these are helpful.]
Hint: It was his first career no-hitter in the
majors.
Hint: The game was played at night and lasted just
over two hours.
Hint: He was pitching for the home team.
Hint: The team he beat wore uniforms trimmed in
orange and black.
Hint: He walked four batters that day including
last year’s RBI champ.
Hint: The last out was a batter who would lead
the majors in strikeouts the following season.
A. BO BELINSKY
- On 05-May-1962, he no-hit
the Baltimore Orioles 8
weeks before Sandy Koufax no-hit the
execrable Mets in the same park on
30-Jun.
- It was Belinsky’s first and only MLB no-hitter.
- Game time:
Exactly 2:00 hours.
- His team the Los Angeles Angels, in
their second year of existence, would finish a strong 3rd in the AL,
10 games behind the Yankees.
- Struck out Jim Gentile whose 141
RBI tied Roger Maris for the lead
in 1961.
- Last out was Dave Nicholson whose 175
K’s in 1963 led the majors by a wide margin.
FCR - Chuck Durante, Dover, Delaware
Incorrect
answers: Clayton Kershaw, Sandy Koufax,
Dean Chance
WEDNESDAY #1 Larry Farin from Plano, Texas wants to know
if we can…
Q. Name the pitchers who have won a Cy
Young Award in each league.
A. Pitcher Year AL Year NL
- GAYLORD PERRY 1972 w/CLE & 1978 w/SDP
- RANDY JOHNSON* 1995 w/SEA & 1999 w/ARI
- PEDRO MARTINEZ* 1999 w/BOS & 1997 w/MON
- ROGER CLEMENS 1986 w/BOS & 2004 w/HOU
- ROY HALLADAY* 2003 w/TOR & 2010 w/PHI
- MAX SHERZER 2013 w/DET & 2016 w/WSN
*Also finished 2nd
multiple times.
FCR - Andrew Distler, New York City
Incorrect
answers:
WEDNESDAY #2 Andrew Distler of New
York City asks:
Q. Who are the only 3 pitchers to lose Game
7 of the World Series, the year after WINNING Game 7 of the World Series?
Hint: 2 are National Leaguers
Hint: 2 are Hall of Famers
Hint: 2 are college alumni
A. WALTER JOHNSON (Won in 1924; lost in 1925.)
LEW BURDETTE (Won
in 1957; lost in 1958.)
BOB GIBSON (Won
in 1967; lost in 1968.)
- NL:
Burdette & Gibson
- HOF:
Johnson & Gibson
- College:
Burdette & Gibson
FCR - Bill Deane, Cooperstown
Incorrect
answers: Whitey Ford, Johnny Podres, Ralph
Terry
WEDNESDAY #3 is from wordsmith Diane Firstman, of Forest
Hills, New York:
Q. Matt Nokes and Randy
Nosek share some history with Jarred Cosart and Jason Castro. What ties
them together?
A. They are the only
starting batteries in MLB history who last names are anagrams of each others’.
FCR - Larry Creeden, Boulder City, Nevada
Incorrect
answers:
THURSDAY #1 Trivia champ Michael
Caragliano has another good one for us.
Q. This Hall of Famer collected 41 career
pinch hits, the most all-time by a New York Yankee.
Hint: [Mike offered none, so we’ll let you work it
out. It’s appropriate for a Thursday.]
A. RED RUFFING
FCR - Joel Lipman, Wilmington, Delaware
Incorrect
answers: Johnny Mize, Johnny Blanchard,
Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle
THURSDAY #2 sent in by Madison McEntire, Bryant,
Arkansas:
Q. Who is the only Braves player besides
Hank Aaron and Chipper Jones to homer in more than 15 consecutive seasons?
Hint: The precise wording of the question is
important.
A. WARREN SPAHN
- He hit 35, second all-time for a
pitcher, but spaced them out carefully, smoothly over 17 of his 20 years as a
Brave, 1948-64. He never hit more than 4
in a season, but always got at least one during that stretch.
- The wording of “more than” is key here because
Eddie Mathews homered in
exactly 15 straight seasons for them.
FCR - Scot Matteson, Shawnee, Kansas
Incorrect
answers: Eddie Mathews, Babe Ruth, Dale
Murphy
THURSDAY #3 FROM Jim Nelson, Port
St. Lucie, FL has long like this one (You’ll see why.):
Q. Who was Tom Phoebus' catcher when he
threw a 1968 no-hitter for the Orioles against the Red Sox?
A. CURT BLEFARY
- Only 8% of Blefary’s career games were at
catcher
FCR - Bill Deane, Cooperstown
Incorrect
answers: Andy Etchebarren, Gus Triandos,
Clay Dalrymple, Elrod Hendricks, Vic Roznovsky, Larry Haney, Johnny Orsino, Elrod Hendricks
THURSDAY #4 New reader Bill Hays from Herrin, Illinois s suggested this one:
Q. Who are the only two left-handed Hall of
Famers to pitch for the Cardinals?
Hint: Shouldn’t need any.
A. STEVE CARLTON and STAN MUSIAL
- Musial pitched to exactly one batter 28-Sep-1952 and threw
exactly one pitch.
- This pitching appearance occurred as a
publicity stunt during the last Cardinals home game that year. Cardinals’ player/manager Eddie Stanky had a
reluctant Musial pitch to the Cubs’ Frank Baumholtz, runner-up
to Musial for the NL batting title, .336 to .325. With Baumholtz batting
right-handed for the first time in his career, he hit Musial's first pitch so
hard that it ricocheted off the shin of 3rd baseman Solly Hemus and into the
left field corner. The play was ruled an error. Musial thought it should have
been a clean hit. Hemus was later
Musial’s manager for 3 seasons. Stan never pitched again.
- The participants
later set up the consulting firm of Stanky,
Musial, Hemus & Baumholz for the purpose of explaining baseball to
Polish grandparents.*
FCR - Jeff Fink, Howell, New Jersey
*Unverified
Incorrect
answers: MarK McGwire
FRIDAY #1 Rich Lerner, Silver
Spring, MD wants to see if we know…
Q. Who was the only player to drive in at
least 150 runs in a season between 1950 and 1995?
Hint: He did not have a brother who played in the
majors.
Hint: Every player but him with 143 RBI or more
in a season during that period was rewarded with an MVP award.
Hint: His own teammate won the MVP the year of
his high rate of production.
A. TOMMY DAVIS
- 153 RBI in 1962
- Also led in batting with .346 and hits with
230.
- Teammate Willie Davis is not
related.
- Teammate Maury Wills was MVP that year. Davis came in 3rd behind Willie Mays.
FCR - Jack Moore, Richmond, TX
Incorrect
answers: Manny Ramirez
FRIDAY #2 Here's my trivia question.
Thanks--Barry Sparks, York, PA.
Q. Who did historian Peter Morris say was
the first manager to make extensive use of computers in his decision-making
process?
Hint: In 1983, he used an Apple II computer
loaded with pitch-by-pitch data. He was heavily criticized for his use of
computers.
Hint: He was one of the first people to use a stop-watch
to time pitchers and catchers.
Hint: He was a strong advocate of the stolen
base. He managed an A-level minor league team to set a modern day minor
league record for stolen bases in one season.
Hint: He aspired to be a professor of literature.
Hint: Although he hit only 26 career home runs,
he did hit three in one game.
Hint: He said the highlight of his playing career
was setting a major league club record for consecutive errorless games at third
base.
A. STEVE BOROS
- SB record w/1974 San Jose Bees 372
SB; 9 players in double-digits and another 6 with more than 5.
- 3 HR 06-Aug-1962, 2 of them
off San McDowell
- Errorless streak w/CIN in 1964: From his first game of the season 12-May through 03-Jul, his 50th
game.
FCR - Scott Matteson Shawnee, Kansas
Incorrect
answers: Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox, Mike
Hargrove
FRIDAY #3 Mark Hayne,
Dumfries, VA wrote to us saying, “Hoping that it has never been asked, here is
my favorite:”
Q. He
is the only modern-era pitcher to toss 3 complete-game shutouts while facing
the minimum 27 batters.
Hint: His
first was a 2-hitter where he retired the first 19 batters. Both base-runners
were erased by double plays. Known as a fast worker, his team won 14-0 with 19
hits and 25 total base runners (2 walks and 4 hit batters) in a game that
lasted only two hours and 31 minutes. (I was at that game!)
Hint: His
other was a no-hitter where he allowed only one base-runner with a walk.
Well-known for his ability to hold runners, he promptly picked the runner off
first base.
Hint: His
last, a perfect game, came almost 5 years to the date after his first (5 years
and 2 days).
A. MARK
BUEHRLE
- 2-hitter:
21-Jul-2004
- No-hitter:
18-Apr-2007
- Perfect game 23-Jul-2009
- Toronto reader David Matchett says he can "match it" (OK then, enhance it.):
“This brings to mind another Buehrle game. While with the White Sox in 2007 he faced off against
the Blue Jays in Toronto. No Jays'
player ever actually occupied a base.
How? Aaron
Hill and Frank Thomas hit solo HRs and the other
24 batters were retired in a 2-0 Jays win! Roy Halladay and 2 relievers, Casey Janssen and Jeremy Accardo, combined for a shutout. And John McDonald batted 9th and
went 0-2 despite playing the full game because the Jays didn't have to bat
in the 9th . They only had 26 plate appearances! The game lasted
1:50 and I was home by 9:15. One of my
favourite games ever.”
FCR - Scott Matteson Shawnee, Kansas
Incorrect
answers: Roy Halladay, Sandy Koufax, Jim
Bunning
FRIDAY #4 Richard
Noonan, Central Islip, New York say this is one of his favorites.
Q. Who had the highest ERA for a 20-game
winner?
Hint: The other two seasons where he won 20
games, his ERA was much more respectable.
Hint: Even in the three seasons where he lost 20 games, his ERA was much better.
Hint: His final ERA after 430+ career decisions
was under 4.00.
A. BOBO
NEWSOM
- 20-16 in 1938 w/5.04 ERA
FCR - Mark DeLodovico, Rockville, Maryland
Incorrect
answers: Wilbur Wood, Phil Niekro
FRIDAY #5 Benson, Nebraska’s
Ray Gehringer wonders if we’re ready for this one:
Q. What two famous future Cardinals played
second base for Fordham University?
FCR - Cappy Gagon, South Bend
Incorrect
answers: Red Schoendienst, Rogers
Hornsby, Richard Cardinal Cushing, Babe Young
SATURDAY
Adrian Fung, Toronto gives us this one:
Q. What player, twenty-four years after his
Rookie of the Year Award, saw a player from his hometown also win Rookie of the
Year at the same defensive position and in the same league?
Hint: He is a 4-time World Series winner: 3 as a
player, 1 as a coach, and was born on the same day of a Warren Spahn complete-game
World Series victory in 1957.
Hint: In his fourth full season in the majors, he
led all AL shortstops in defensive games played, putouts and errors committed.
Hint: In his last ever MLB game, he was on the
actual playing field (not in the dugout nor bullpen) when one of the two World
Series-ending home runs in history was hit.
- Griffin, 1979 TOR; Angel
Berroa, 2003.
Both AY ROY SS from Santo
Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic.
- 1982: 162 G, 319 PO, 26 E
- On-deck
when Joe
Carter hit 3R HR for Toronto to win 1993 WS.
FCR - David Krassin, New York City
Incorrect
answers:
SUNDAY The loquacious Walt
Cherniak, from Woodbine, Maryland give us a true Sunday question:
Q. Name the only three switch-hitting,
African American catchers to play in the major leagues:
Hint: One played 100% of his MLB games at catcher,
but the vast majority of his professional games were played in the Negro
Leagues and the Mexican League. He’s
also a double-unique.
Hint: One played all but one of his MLB games at
catcher and that game was at DH
Hint: The third played 92% of his MLB games at
catcher with the majority of the remainder at DH. He also played for 7 teams in the majors in a
7-year career.
Hint: Yes, we recognize these as virtually
useless hints though perhaps interesting.
A. - QUINCY
TROUPPE
(6 games
in 1952)
- IKE
HAMPTON (1974-79)
- MARCUS
JENSEN
(1996-02)
FCR - Rick Tharp, Gaithersburg, Maryland
Incorrect
answers:
WEEKLY THEME – 20th
Anniversary Celebration
Questions archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia home
page: https://sites.google.com/site/tnfotobbpics/home/horsehide-trivia
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