MONDAY/TUESDAY
Q. Who is the only major league All-Star
ever to attend the University of Chicago?
Hint: When he was young, his father, and 8-year
professional ball player himself, had to pay
his son just to play catch.
Hint: As an adult, he reflected on his teenage
years, saying, “I thought talking to human beings was just something that could
make things complicated and unpleasant. So
I didn’t talk much. I just watched
people.”
FCR - Daniel Wilson, St. Paul
Incorrect guesses: Roy Henshaw, Charlie Gehringer, Curtis
Granderson
IN MEMORIAM
Q. Who was the first LDS pitcher to win an LDS
game in the National League?
Hint: He joined a very elite “club” by winning a
Cy Young Award in each league.
Hint: One of his former teams, the Philadelphia
Phillies called him, “…one of the most respected human beings ever to play the
game.”
Hint: He was elected to his third All-Star team
(of 8 overall) but did not play because a line drive which broke his leg four
days earlier.
Hint: Ten times in his 16-year MOB career his win
total was in double figures. Only thrice
did that happen in the loss column.
Hint: Twenty-three times have perfect games been
pitched. His was the 20th,
making him the only pitcher in history with a no-hitter in the regular season
and the playoffs.
- He was a member of the Mormon Church, full
name: The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints or “LDS”. Not only won
the first League Division Series game he ever pitched, but he threw baseball
postseason’s second ever no-hit game on 06-Oct-2010. [Note:
Jaret Wright was the first Mormon
pitcher to win an LDS game 02-Oct-1997 and did it in the AL.]
- Winners of a CYA in each league are:
Pitcher American League National League
[Martinez, Johnson
& Clemens won the award additional times.]
FCR - Frank Stephenson, Rome, Georgia
Incorrect
guesses: Dennis Martinez, Jim Bunning
WEDNESDAY
Q. In a poll of New York Yankee fans in the
1990s, who was chosen and the greatest Yankee first baseman of all time?
Hint: No one has ever had more at-bats in a
season without stealing a base.
Hint: Nor did he even attempt one.
Hint: He owned one of baseball’s better mullets.
- 1986:
677 AB, 0 SB, 0 CS (2 Orioles tie for 2nd place on that
list. Cal Ripken in 1983 and J.J. Hardy in 2012 each had 663
AB w/0 SB.)
FCR - Tom Brodkin, Lake of the Woods, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Jason Giambi, Joe Pepitone, Lou
Gehrig, Norm Siebern, Hal Chase, Tino Martinez, Chris Chambliss
THURSDAY
Q. Whose 46 home runs one season went
practically unnoticed even though it was not only his career high, but the most
anyone had ever hit in the history of his franchise?
Hint: It was 7 more than the next highest season
total by a batter in the 60+ years the team had been in existence a d that
total had been decades earlier.
Hint: He had gone on a winter tour to Japan with
the Dodgers in 1956 and later returned in 1969 to play for the Buffaloes.
Hint: He was not recognized as having led the
American League in RBI in his best season until almost 60 years after the fact.
- He hit his 46 HRs in 1961 when everyone was
focused on Mantle and Maris making a run at Babe Ruth’s previously impregnable
60. Harmon Killebrew also hit 46 that
year in the AL with perhaps even LESS public acclaim.
- In 2010, researchers from SABR found an error in the
game records from the 1961 season; an extra RBI had been credited to Roger
Maris, on a run which had in fact scored on an error, reducing Maris' total
141, dropping him into a tie with Gentile for the lead.
FCR - Rich Klein, Plano, Texas
Incorrect
guesses: Frank Howard, Norm Cash, Nelson
Cruz
FRIDAY
Q. Among active players, who has hit into
the most career double plays?
Hint: From the start of his career in the majors,
he didn’t fail to hit 30 home runs a season until his 14th year.
Hint: He has averaged 28 homers per season since
the streak ended.
Hint: He hit a grand slam and turned an
unassisted triple play in his first college game.
- 362 GIPD.
His 26 led the majors in 2017 and catapulted him past Cal Ripken’s
career 350 into first place all-time.
- 30 HR average 2001-2012 with a total of 475
during that period.
- Attended and played for Maple Woods Community College in Kansas City. This feat was in his FIRST game!
FCR - Mark Lewers, Blacksburg, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Miguel Cabrera, Willie McCovey,
Jim Thome
SATURDAY
Q. What former Tiger had a candy bar named
for him the season he led his league in slugging for the Indians?
Hint: He had been voted MVP of the Junior College
NCAA D-1 World Series.
Hint: Around his major league teammates, he was
known to wear a T-shirt announcing, “I’m
not very smart, but I can lift heavy things.”
Hint: When he hit for the cycle, he was the first
Indian to do it in 25 years.
- Considered a project my management when he
first came to the majors and sometimes called a donkey by teammates, those morphed
into “Pronk”, a nickname Hafner never found offensive. Pronk Bar; SLG .659 in 2006.
- Led the Tigers of Cowley
Community College of Arkansas City, Kansas to the NJCAA WS title in 1997. They won again in 1998, even though Hafner
had turned pro.
FCR - Larry Hayes, San Francisco
Incorrect
guesses: Rocky Colavito, Asdrubal
Cabrera, Albert Belle, Odell Hale, Earl Averill, Jim Thome
SUNDAY
Q. Who was the first Milwaukee Brewer to
appear in the All-Star Home Run Derby twice?
Hint: Only Randy Johnson made the pin stripes appear
longer.
Hint: He twice tied the Brewers’ franchise record
for home runs in a season.
Hint: He now coaches high school baseball in his
native state.
- HRD 2002 & 2003. Totaled 10 HRs in ’02 w/rounds of 6 & 4,
but was out quickly in ’03 w/a solitary shot in the first round.
- Played for NYY 2008, his last MLB
season. He was 6’7” compared to Johnson’s 6’10”, who pitched for NYY 2005 & 2006 .
- 45 HR in 2001 & 2003, tying Gorman Thomas’
45 in 1979. Price Fielder is the current
record holder.
- Coaches
now at Summit
High School in Bend, Oregon.
FCR - Adam Balutis, Arlington, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Prince Fielder, Greg Vaughn,
Corey Hart, Gorman Thomas, Rob Deer
WEEKLY THEME – Players
with 5 grand slams in a season
Slammer Year For Date Off WL
Gentile........ 1961...... BAL....... 09-May........ Pedro
Ramos.......... W
" Paul
Giel "
Hafner......... 2006...... CLE....... 01-May........ Brandon
McCarthy.. L
Mattingly...... 1987...... NYY...... 14-May........ Mike
Mason............ W
Sexson........ 2006...... SEA....... 12-Apr......... Danny
Graves......... W
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Mike
Caragliano, Flushing, NY (after Gentile)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Thurs - Hitters who led in RBIs only one time but with
140 or more RBIs
Fri - All Stars who never made a
fall Classic
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