Q. Who is the
only Hall of Famer besides Babe Ruth to be the all-time career leader in more
than two offensive categories, as presented highlighted in gold on the main page of his
baseball-reference.com web site?
Hint: He leads in
other categories, but not ones appearing on the main b-r page.
Hint: He probably
doesn’t remember this, but he was born in the back seat of a taxi on a cold day
in a cold city.
Hint: One of his
major league teammates once admired, “It
wasn't until I saw [him] that I understood what baseball was about.”
Hint: Fans got
both more and less of what they had anticipated when he gave his Hall of Fame
acceptance speech.
- Also leads in
career lead-off HRs, SB in a season, CS in a season
- B. 25-Dec-1958 in
Chicago. The National Weather Service
reports that the high that day was 37°F and the low was 27°F, with a trace of
snow. (No mention of wind in the Windy
City that day, but gotta believe… )
- Absent from his HOF
acceptance speech were his trademark
self-references in third-person, his well-meaning malapropisms and his general
disregard for decorum. This was both a
disappointment and a relief.
FCR - Adam Balutis,
Arlington, Virginia
Incorrect guesses: Barry
Bonds, Pete Rose, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Rod Carew, Ty Cobb
MONDAY, MONDAY
Q. Besides
Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana, who is the only Triple Crown winner born
outside the United States?
Hint: He tied a
record once held exclusively by Mike Schmidt.
Hint: He was the first
National League player to hit a walk-off home run in his first major league
game.
- Won consecutive
MVPs as a third baseman in 2012-13. Schmidt has been history’s only back-to-back
MVP 3rd baseman for 1980-81.
FCR - Adam Balutis,
Arlington, Virginia
Incorrect guesses: Carl Yastrzemski, Nomar Garciapara, Albert
Pujols, Dizzy Dean, Fernando Valenzuela, Juan Marichal
TUESDAY
Q. Who is the
only player in history who can correctly claim that he hit 40 doubles, 20 triples
and 30 home runs in a single major league season?
Hint: He made a
habit of tilting his baseball cap over his left eye.
Hint: His family
was disappointed when he failed his television audition for a part on “The Munsters”.
- In 1928, helping the Cardinals to their 2nd-ever
pennant, he racked up 42 doubles, 20 triples and 31 home runs. He led the NL is the last two.
FCR - Dave Serota, Kalamazoo
Incorrect guesses: George Brett, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey,
Stan Musial, Albert Bell, Ken Hunt
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the first black coach in the
American League?
Hint: Popular lore has it that he was once a road
roommate of Ernie Banks.
Hint: He popularized the signaling to teammates
during play that there were two out by using his index and pinkie fingers.
Hint: Leaders in his home town refer to him as,
“Our Jackie Robinson”.
- NYY 1st B coach 1969-79
- Supposedly roomed with Banks when both played with
the KC Monarchs. Records don’t show them with the team at the
same time.
- Born and raised in St. Louis.
FCR - Adam Balutis, Arlington, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Roy Campanella, Larry Doby,
Monte Irvin, Buck O’Neill, Gene Baker, Minnie Minoso, Frank Robinson
THURSDAY
Q. What pitcher has a pitching Triple
Crown, 2 ERA titles, a World Series Championship and 6 All-Star Selections but
is not in the Hall of Fame (although qualified)?
Hint: He hit 99 career doubles in games he
pitched.
- {Kudos to readers who figured out that the
second hint was in error. Apologies to
the rest of you.}
FCR - Walt Cherniak, woodbine, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: All incorrect guesses forgiven
because of lax hint construction.
FRIDAY
Q. What Hall of Fame second baseman didn’t
deny the appropriateness of his nickname “Cocky”?
Hint: Ty Cobb, who seldom praised the efforts any
opponent, was often laudatory.
Hint: He was the first player from his franchise
to cop an MVP of any kind. He then twice
finished 2nd in MVP voting to players from the Hall of Fame’s first
class.
Hint: He is the only player to get his 3,000th
major league hit off a pitcher with the same last name.
- Quoting the SABR bio, written by Paul Mittermeyer, “An Ivy League graduate, Collins was one of the
smartest players of his day, and he knew it. Saddled with the nickname “Cocky”
from early in his career, Collins drew the resentment of teammates for his
self-confidence and good breeding that at times seemed as though it belonged
more in a ballroom than a baseball clubhouse.”
- MVP
in 1914 (4th
& final AL Chalmers Award); Finished behind only Babe Ruth in 1923
then behind Walter Johnson in 1924
in AL “League MVP votings. The current BBWAA system began in 1931.
- 3,000th H off Rip
Collins 03-Jun-1925
FCR - Cappy Gagnon, South Bend
Incorrect
guesses: Honus Wagner
SATURDAY
Q. Whose 1st-inning RBI single
was nullified by umpire Art Frantz because the pine tar on his bat exceeded the
18-inch limit?
Hint: He was endowed with a plethora of
sobriquets, including, but not limited to: “Tug”, “Tugboat”, “Squat”, “Squatty”,
“Squatty Body” and “The Walrus”. And
those were from people who LIKED him!
Hint: His rivalry with a certain other AL ROY
winner became the stuff of legend.
- Nullified single 19-Jul-1975
FCR - Gary Sarnoff, Arlington, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Walt Dropo, George Brett
SUNDAY
Q. Who hit more than 20 triples in his rookie
season?
Hint: He was the first 20th century
National Leaguer to have at least 200 hits in each of 4 consecutive seasons.
Hint: Only four players in major league history
have hit more doubles in a season.
Hint: His best year in college was as a pitcher
where he compiled a won-lost record of 23-4 with an ERA of 1.70.
Hint: He finished his playing career with Miami.
- 22 3b in 1926
- 200+ H 1927-30
- 62 2b in 1932 Doubles
leaders list
- Pitching record from East Central State
Teachers College (now East Central University) in Ada, Oklahoma in 1922.
- In 1946, played 62 G for the Class C Miami
Sun Sox
FCR - Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Willie Keeler, Tim Raines,
Rickey Henderson, Ichiro Suzuki, Chuck Klein, Luis Gonzalez,
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Who was the only person to be a player,
coach and final manager for the Sonoma County Crushers?
Hint: He once hit a hung slider that helped
extend a curse.
Hint: Sports Illustrated reported that he once
needed dental reconstruction surgery after biting into an overheated microwaved
doughnut.
- 2002 Sonoma
County Crushers (from m one-time home town, Rohnert
Park California) of the independent Western Baseball
League.
- It was his single off
Calvin
Schiraldi and subsequent score for NYM in the
10th inning of G 6
of the 1986 WS that allowed the game to continue, eventually leading to the
Mets victory.
FCR - Bob Flynn, Chandler, Arizona
Incorrect
guesses: Aaron Boone, Bucky Dent
SUNDAY FINALE
Q. Whose modern record for games pitched in
a season did Kansas City’s John Wyatt break in 1964?
Hint: His bespectacled face against a blue background
was the first baseball card I ever saw that I had bought with my own
money. I had never heard of him and worried
it was a mistake.
Hint: He started game one of the World Series
after having started zero games for his team during the season.
- Konstanty pitched in 74 G in 1950; Wyatt
in 81 in 1964.
- It was the 1961 Topps MVP series, #479. I later worked for a company that did
business with his sporting goods store and he graciously sent me a signed
autograph.
- G 1 1950 WS
FCR - Dave Johnson, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Incorrect
guesses: Ryne Duren, Hoyt Wilhelm, Joe
Black, Pud Galvin, Lindy McDaniel, Jim Brosnan, Hoss Radbourn
WEEKLY THEME – MVP's
who got swept in the World Series.
1914 Eddie
Collins
1927 Paul Waner
1928 Jim Bottomley
1939 Bucky Walters
1950 Jim Konstanty
1963 Elston Howard
1976 Thurman
Munson
1989 Kevin Mitchell
1990 Rickey Henderson
2012 Miguel Cabrera
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Timothy Kearns, Washington, DC
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Wed - players
with 9 or more RBI in one game
Extra - Each
participated in but failed to win lost World Series in the corresponding year.
- They
won their league MVP but they did not win the World Series that year as their
team came up short in the Fall Classic.
- MVP’s
that lost in the World Series
- They
all lost the World Series.
- They
all lost 4-0 in the World Series
- They
did NOT lead their league in RBIs despite having the most RBIs in one game that
season.
- All
played for WS team that was swept.
- Played
in but never won a world series
- Their
team didn't win the World Series that season!
- MVP
winners who lost the world series the same year.
- Didn't get an MVP vote the
season after winning MVP
- Year
player won MVP
- Win
a game in the World Series.
- They
all played in the WS that year but were all on the losing side.
- Players
who played on losing world series teams in a year they won mvp
- They
struck out three times in a World Series game
- They
were all MVP's that year and, except for Cabrera, it was their only MVP.
- Lost
world series the year of their achievement
- League
MVPs on World Series losing teams
- MVPs
whose teams lost the World Series.
- MVP
players who lost in the WS in their MVP seasons
- None
of them GIDP despite having at least 500 AB
No comments:
Post a Comment