Q. What famous
Cuban scientist/author is responsible for some of baseball’s most interesting
and controversial discussions this century?
Hint: He was the
first visiting player to hit five home runs in a season in SkyDome.
Hint: He also hit
25 home runs in a season in SkyDome as a non-visiting player.
FCR - David Krassin,
Los Angeles
Incorrect guesses: Kendrys
Morales, Carlos Delgado, Rafael Palmeiro
TUESDAY
Q. Whose record
for home runs in a rookie season did Aaron Judge sail right through in 2017?
Hint: He was a
pitching star in college.
Hint: He was the
fist player to hit 30 home runs in each of his first four seasons in the majors.
- Hit 49 HR in 1987; Judge hit 52 in 2017
FCR - Naftali Greenwood, Kiryat, Israel
Incorrect guesses: Adam Dunn, Dave Kingman, Wally Berger, Frank
Robinson
TWO-SDAY
Q. Who is the only American League outfielder to win the All-Star
Game’s MVP award twice?
Hint: He was the
first player with 150 home runs and 150 stolen bases before his 26th
birthday.
Hint: Only Ty Cobb had accumulated a higher WAR
at the same age.
FCR - Dan Silverberg, Aventura, Florida
Incorrect
guesses: Ken Griffey, Jr., Alex
Rodriguez, Eric Davis, Mickey Mantle, Tony Oliva
IN MEMORIAM
Q. Who was the first woman to pitch in the
Negro Leagues?
Hint: Her diminutive height, (actually average
for a woman of her day) led to her commonly-used nickname.
Hint: In a three-year stint for Hank Aaron’s old
team, she racked up a record of 33-8 and added a batting average of .262.
Hint: She was the star of a Negro League Panel
held at the 2009 SABR Convention in Washington, DC.
Hint: After her professional baseball career, she
attended nursing school and, in her words, “Became a nurse for 30 years.”
Hint: A baseball field in the DC area bears her
name.
FCR - Jeb Stewart, Birmingham
Incorrect
guesses:
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who sported the highest uniform number
of any player on the Chicago White Sox in 2017?
Hint: His mother chose the number so that people
would remember it.
Hint: In the 2013 World Baseball Classic, he was
a standout for his country, hitting .383 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI.
Hint: He once destroyed some incriminating
evidence by eating it.
Hint: His childhood nickname “Pito” has not
followed him to the major leagues.
- Didn’t want to be caught with a forged
passport, so downed it with beer on a flight to Miami.
FCR - Jess Forrest
Incorrect
guesses: Manny Ramirez, Melky Cabrera,
Harold Baines
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who leads his 50+ year-old franchise in
career home runs, but never was selected to an All-Star team.
Hint: He never played for any other team in his
major league career of more than a decade.
Hint: He is also their career leader in
bases-on-ball and runs created.
Hint: He presented flowers to five mothers and
their children before an American League game on Mothers' Day 2006.
- 299 HR
- 970 BB; 1,206 RC
FCR - Steve Cardella, Sacramento
Incorrect
guesses: Rob Deer, David Wright, Jimmy
Wynn, Dave Kingman, Troy Glauss
THURSDAY
Q. Whose record did Tim Salmon tie when he had
hit 13 hits in the space of 3 games, among non-Hall of Famers?
Hint: Although actively courted by pro football
and pro basketball, the money offered by a major league team made it an easy
decision.
Hint: He once played on a team with Ted Williams
as a teammate and Babe Ruth as the manager.
Hint: Two years after leading the league in RBI
and total bases, he was traded for an eventual Hall of Famer. (Other players were involved on both sides of
the trade.)
- Sorry.
Hits, not homers. (Sorry. Not blaming this on weapons-grade pain
meds. Blaming it on industrial-strength pain meds!)
- Played with Williams and Ruth – [From SABR
Bio: “Dropo played in Fenway Park almost six years before his
major-league debut – and played on the same team as Ted Williams, with Babe
Ruth as his manager. On July 12, 1943, a
group branded Ruth’s All-Stars played an exhibition game at Fenway against the
Boston Braves to benefit the war effort. There weren’t enough available major
leaguers to fill the All-Stars’ roster, so a call was made to Fort Devens.
After his sophomore year at UConn, Dropo had joined the Army and trained at
Devens. He and some others traveled into Boston. He was 0-for-2 in the game,
but helped complete a double play at first. Dropo, Williams, Dom DiMaggio,
Ruth, and company beat the Braves, 9-8.”
FCR - Dave Serota, Kalamazoo
Incorrect
guesses:
FRIDAY
Q. What bespectacled All-Star was Billy
Pierce’s regular golfing partner after their playing days?
Hint: When he hit 30 home runs in each of his
first two full seasons in the majors, he was the first to do so in a
generation.
Hint: Opie once sang about his home town.
- They played golf together right up until the
end of Pierce’s life.
- 35 HR in 1983, 32 in ‘84
- Born in Gary, Indiana, the subject of a song
in “The Music Man” belted out by Winthrop Paroo played by Ron
Howard who was Opie on “The Andy Griffith Show”.
FCR - Kellen Nielson, Blanding, Utah
Incorrect
guesses:
SATURDAY
Q. Who is the only American League player
to homer in the first at-bats of his first TWO major league games?
Hint: He only had two additional home runs the
entire rest of that season.
Hint: He had an 88% success
rate stealing bases while playing NCAA baseball.
Hint: He has an unusual oral superstition that
relates to his performance during games.
- HRs: 13-Aug-2016 & 14-Aug-2017 [Reader Doug Greenwald
pointed out that the Cards’ Keith McDonalds also homered in his first at-bats of his first 2 major league
games,
hence the late specification of AL for Judge.)
FCR - Nooooooooobody!
Incorrect
guesses: Turk Wendell, Mark Quinn,
Tuffy
Rhodes
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Who joined Harmon Killebrew as the first
American League teammates to both hit a grand slam in the same inning?
Hint: Killebrew said of him, “He wants to win at
everything—cards, ping pong, handball or baseball. He wants to be the first on the airplane and
first on the bus.”
Hint: His manager said of him, “[He] was my
leader on the bench, a beautiful buffer for me.”
Hint: His owner said of him, “[He]’s got the best
arm on this club since Jackie Jensen.”
- Manager quoted was Billy
Martin
- Owner quoted was Calvin
Griffith
FCR - Craig McGraw
Incorrect
guesses: Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, Rich
Rollins, Dave Winfield, Fernando Tatis
SUNDAY
Q. Who was the penultimate Cuban national
to come and play in the majors without having to defect?
Hint: He was the first player from his team, but
not from his franchise, to win a league batting title.
Hint: His is the only retired Cuban native with a
career batting average above .300 (200 G min.)
Hint: Due to an unhealed thumb sprain, his at-bats,
far more than those of his contemporaries, resulted in bats flying into the
crowd or toward players and coaches on the sidelines.
- Bert Campaneris was the very last
non-defect Cuban immigrant. (Many have
been non-defective, but that’s a whole ‘nother question.)
- Won the AL batting title with MIN in each of his first
two full seasons in the majors, 1964
& 65. [Mickey Vernon, Buddy Meyer and Goose Goslin won batting titles
when the Twins were the Washington Senators (1901-1960)].
FCR - David Johnson, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Incorrect guesses: Roberto Clemente,
Zoilo Versalles, Minnie Minoso, Rico Carte
SUNDAY FINALE
Q. Who won the National League Comeback
Player of the Year Award the year after leaving the Cubs as a free agent and
then, as a Dodger, making the All-Star team and helping them reach the
postseason?
Hint: He led the league in hits and triples in
his first full season. Never led in
either category again in his 14-year career.
Hint: A Texas rookie knocked him off the coveted Double
Unique list, after being on it for a decade.
Hint: His dad would reward him with a quarter
every time he got a hit, but docked him half a buck whenever he struck out.
Hint: He shares an unusual distinction with Don
Mattingly that both would wish away if they could.
- Nomar and Donny Baseball starred for their
teams for many years, yet those teams only won the World Series after they had
left the team.
FCR
- Dan Silverberg, Aventura, Florida
Incorrect
guesses: Rick Monday, Dusty Baker
WEEKLY THEME – American
League Rookie of the Year winners with 30 home runs in their rookie seasons.
Player Year HRs
Abreu............. 2014..... 36
Allison............ 1959..... 30
Canseco......... 1986..... 33
Dropo............. 1950..... 34
Garciaparra.... 1997..... 30
Judge............. 2017..... 53
Kittle............... 1983..... 35
McGwire......... 1987..... 49
Oliva............... 1964..... 32
Salmon........... 1993..... 31
Trout............... 2012..... 30
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Jack
Sullivan, Louisville
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Tuesday - Players
implicated in enhanced performance/steroid investigation.
- Stars who
Admitted Steroid/PED Usage
Wed - ROY
winner that led the league in RBI at some point
- Right
handed AL ROY winners
- Unanimous
AL ROYs
Sat - Rookies
of the Year that throw and bat right and are 6' 2'' or taller.
- Rookies
of the Year who hit 30 or more Home Runs
Sun - AL
Rookies of the Year, batted and threw right handed, had at least 28 home runs,
over 90 RBI's their rookie year and never accused of steroid use.
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