Q. Who is the
only member of the 500 home run club who stole home at least 10 times?
Hint: He fell just
shy of joining the 500 strikeout club.
Hint: He once had
a season with a qualifying ERA of 1.75 yet got not a single Cy Young Award
vote.
Hint: The next
season he led the entire majors with 35 complete games and still—not a single CYA vote.
- Ruth’s 10 steals of
home was confirmed by the research done by Bob Davids, founder of SABR. His 10 career steals of home totaled more
than those of Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock and Tim Raines combined (9).
- When he pitched,
Ruth struck out batters 488 times.
- His ERA of 1.75 led
the AL in 1916, but the Cy Young Award began only after Cy Young’s death in November
of 1955.
FCR - Mike Sparks,
Sarasota
Incorrect guesses: Willie
Mays, Lou Gehrig
MONDAY MORE
Q. Who was the first
twentieth-century player to hit four home runs in a game?
Hint: Quoth he,
“In the beginning, I would make one terrible play a game. Then I got so I’d make one a week and finally
I'd pull a bad one about once a month.
Now, I’m trying to keep it down to one a season.”
Hint: Only he
exceeded 400 total bases in a season five (5!) times.
Hint: He was the first
player to lead his league in home runs twice in years where he had more home
runs than strikeouts.
A. LOU GEHRIG [SABR
Bio]
- 4 HR/G 03-Jun-1932. 3 other Yankees homered that day too.
- Gehrig’s seasons of 400+ TB =
447 in 1927;
419 in 1930;
410 in 1931
409 in 1934; and
403 in 1936.
- In 1934, he had 49
HR & 31 K. In 1936 he had 49 HR 7 46
K.
FCR - Naftali
Greenwood, Kiryat, Arba, ISREAL
Incorrect guesses: Ed
Delahanty, Gil Hodges, Ty Cobb, Jimmie Foxx, Ken Williams, Chuck Klein
LABOR DAY BONUS
Q. What
glamorous New York player passed away in Hollywood?
Hint: He once hit
three triples in a game.
Hint: He was the first
athlete to be awarded the Presidential Medal for Freedom.
Hint: My mother
once got him to sign her menu as they sat at adjacent tables in a restaurant.
A. JOE DiMAGGIO [SABR
Bio]
- Did at age 84 in
1999 at his home in Hollywood,
Florida.
- 3b X 3 = 27-Aug-1938
- PMOF by
Gerald Ford 10-Jan-1977. Some readers
informed us that Moe Berg was given the award earlier,
in 1945. Reader Steve Berman added this:
|
Recipient
|
Year
|
|
Sport
|
President
|
|
Robert
J. H. Kiphuth
|
1963
|
|
Swimming
|
Kennedy
|
|
Jesse
Owens
|
1976
|
|
Track
|
Ford
|
Perhaps the only correct wording would be, “He was the first baseball Hall of Famer to be awarded the
Presidential Medal for Freedom.” [sigh… ]
- Menu/autograph
event at a restaurant somewhere in the East Bay circa 1975
FCR - Jerry Miller,
Liberty Hill, Texas
Incorrect guesses: Marvin
Miller, Jackie Robinson, Casey Stengel
TUESDAY
Q. What
Maryland-born Hall of Famer was “discovered” by another Maryland-born Hall of
Famer?
Hint: He was the
first American Leaguer to collect nine (9!) RBI in a single game.
Hint: He came
within .003 of winning a Triple Crown in each of consecutive seasons.
Hint: By 1941, he
had played in 100% of every All-Star Game ever played.
A. JIMMIE FOXX [SABR
Bio]
- Home Run Baker
[B. Trappe, MD, 1886]
made scouts aware of Foxx [B. Sudlersville, MD,
1904].
- 9 RBI G 14-Aug-1933
- BOS’s Dale Alexander
took home his only batting title when he hit .367 in 1932. Foxx hit .364 that year while winning the HR
& RBI titles. In 1933, Foxx took all
3.
FCR - Charlie Riordan, Bethesda, Maryland
Incorrect guesses: Babe Ruth, Al Simmons, Charlie “King Kong”
Keller, Billy Herman, Mel Ott
TUESDAY TWICE
Q. Who was the first player to have a
string of five consecutive years each with 100 runs batted in?
Hint: One amazing season, playing in a scant 102 games,
he amassed 187 hits, 114 runs, 32 doubles and managed 42 walks and managed to
squeeze in 13 strikeouts.
Hint: Not only did he not win the National League
MVP, he didn’t get a single vote!
Hint: There may not be a better mustache depicted
on any other Hall of Fame plaque.
A. SAM THOMPSON [SABR Bio]
- 100+ RBI = 1892-96 W/PHI
- 1894 was his amazing season (but not his only
one and he was not the only one). In
fairness, many major leaguers had offensive explosions that year, the pitching
distance being 10½ '
farther from home plate than it had been the year before.
- 1911 is considered the first year that any
sort of MVP was awarded. Thompson played
his last season in 1906.
FCR - Dave Washburn, Marietta, Georgia
Incorrect
guesses: Cap Anson
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who is the only batter to exceed 60 home
runs in three separate seasons?
Hint: You’ve got to admit, he’s got skin in the
game.
Hint: Was passed by a recent Hall of Fame
inductee on the career home run list.
A. SAMMY SOSA [SABR Bio]
- 1998 = 66 HR; 1999 = 63 HR; 2001 = 64. His timing couldn’t have been worse all three
seasons. He finished behind McGwire’s 70
* 65 & Bonds’s 73 respectively.
- Has undergone skin bleaching program
with interesting results.
- Sosa’s career HR total of 609 was bested by
new HOFer Jim Thome, who finished at 612
FCR - Naftali Greenwood, Kiryat, Arba, Israel
Incorrect
guesses: Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was the first major leaguer born in
Norway to lead his league in games played in a season?
Hint: Possibly the best slugger never to make an
All-Star team.
Hint: He is the only Cleveland Indian to exceed
400 total bases in a season.
Hint: He no longer drives in the jov lane.
A. HAL TROSKY
[SABR Bio]
- Born in Norway, Iowa. Played in 154 G in 1934 & 35. (FYI: 13
additional states have towns named Norway.) Mike Boddiker attended High School in tiny
Norway (pop. 500+)
- Never an AS because he played 1st B
in the AL at the height of the careers of Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx and Hank
Greenberg.
- 405 TB in 1936
- Born Harold
Arthur Trojovsky.
FCR - Mike Sparks, Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Nap Lajoie, Jeff Heath, Albert
Belle, Al Rosen
THURSDAY
Q. Which Hall of Famer had 100 RBI at the
break one year, but didn't make the All-Star team?
Hint: One season recorded a record eleven multiple-home
run games.
Hint: Another year, he and three of his teammates
each had at least 200 hits.
A. HANK GREENBERG [SABR Bio]
- Greenberg didn’t get his first RBI until
20-Apr and yet had amassed 101 by the end of play on 07-Jul-1935. The All-Star Game was
played without him the next day in Cleveland before a record attendance
of 69,812. That record stood until the
game was held there again in 1981 when 72,086 showed up. (Greenberg didn’t play
in that one either.)
- 11 multiple-HR games in 1938, on…
1.
25-May
2.
24-Jun
3.
09-Jul
4.
26-Jul
5.
27-Jul
6.
29-Jul (That
looks like a pretty good week!)
7.
19-Aug
8.
11-Sep
9.
17-Sep
10.
23-Sep
11.
27-Sep
One additional day like those and he would have tied Ruth w/60.
- in 1937, these Tigers tallied these numbers
of hits Gee Walker 213
Charlie Gehringer........... 209
Pete Fox........... 208
Greenberg........... 200
FCR - Leonard Epstein, Dallas
Incorrect
guesses: Juan Gonzalez, Hack Wilson, Lou
Gehrig, Jim Thome, Jimmie Foxx, Vern Stephens
FRIDAY
Q. Who is the only player to have walk-off hits
against both Dennis Eckersley and Mariano Rivera?
Hint: He has the most career grand slams of
players born in Latin America, the final one, notably, hit on his Bobblehead Day. [Please ignore the improper
antecedent.]
Hint: For eight consecutive seasons, he was in
the Top 10 in MVP voting in the American League, 3 times in the top five. He did however win he Silver Slugger for the
last 8 of those 9 seasons.
A. MANNY RAMIREZ
[SABR Bio]
- Homered against Eckersley [The coiner of “walk-off home run”.] on 16-Jul-1995
(Notice Eck’s expression.) Manny walked-off
Rivera 13-Apr-2001 w/9th-inning
2-run, walk-off single.
- 21 GS.
The only two players with more are Lou Gehrig w/23 & A-Rod w/25, both
born in New York City. Interestingly
enough, Manny was born in the Dominican Republic, but grew up in New York City. Final GS (#21) was 22‑Jul‑2009 on Manny Ramirez Bobblehead Day at
Dodger Stadium. (er… One of them, anyway. He had four [4!] Dodger bobblehead days.)
- SS awards 1999-2006, playing for CLE & BOS.
FCR - Mike McCroskey, Sugar Land, Texas
Incorrect
guesses: Roberto Alomar, Albert Pujols,
Sandy Alomar, Jr., David Ortiz,, Rafael Palmeiro
SATURDAY
Q. Who was the first American League player
to win the batting championship the same year his team won the World Series?
Hint: He and a Hall of Fame teammate each scored
two runs in a single World Series inning.
Hint: He was the quaternary victim in a celebrated
pentad of K’s.
Hint: He played college football before focusing
on baseball.
A. AL SIMMONS [SABR Bio]
- 1930 = Won batting title hitting .381; A’s
beat STL in WS 4-2.
- In the 4th G of the 1929 World
Series, he and Jimmie Foxx both scored twice in the bottom of the 7th. The Cubs used 4 pitchers that inning. The A’s went in to that inning behind 8-0 in
the game. The inning (and game) ended
10-8 in favor of Philadelphia.
- Pitching in his home park in the second ever major
league All-Star Game, Giants’ pitcher Carl Hubbell famously struck out Babe
Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Simmons and Joe Cronin in consecutive at-bats. They were the final batters of the first
inning and the first two of he second inning.
Bill Dickey broke the string with a single before Hubbell ended the
second whiffing his counterpart, Lefty Gomez.
- Played football for Stevens Point Teachers
College, now the University
of Wisconsin at Stevens Point.
FCR - Tony Hughes, Woodbridge, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Joe
Cronin
WEEKEND EXTRA
Q. Who is still the only slugger in National
League history to bang out 400 total bases in a season thrice?
Hint: No outfielder in the modern era has ever
had more assists than he did in his second full season.
Hint: No National Leaguer in the modern era has
ever crossed home plate in one season than he did that same year.
Hint: In that same season, he also led the majors
in games played and doubles while hitting .386 and homering 40 times. These feats, however, did not help his team
finish anywhere but last place, 52-102, 40 G out of first place.
A. CHUCK KLEIN [SABR Bio]
- TB = 445 in 1930 (4th all-time);
420 in 1932; & 405 in 1929.
- 44 OF A in 1930
- in 1930, he had 156 G and an amazing 59
doubles, for the hard luck Phillies. Understandably, they drew fewer than 300,000
fans the entire season, also last in the league. Although in regard to ticket sales, the spectacular team
across town may have been part of the reason.
FCR - Naftali Greenwood, Kiryat, Arba, Israel
Incorrect
guesses:
SUNDAY
Q. Who holds a record, achieved during Babe
Ruth’s career, that Ruth said would never be broken. (So far… Ruth was right.)
Hint: Not only has it been a record since then,
savvy SABR researchers found that the record was even greater than previously
believed.
Hint: He was dismissed by a Hall of Fame manager
who claimed he lacked a certain body part.
Hint: He is the ultimate qualifier for this
week’s theme.
A. HACK WILSON [SABR Bio]
- 191 RBI in 1930, thought for many years to be
190.
- John McGraw complained, with some justification,
that Wilson had “…no neck!”
FCR - David Wise, Hyde Park, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Earl Webb, Owen
Wilson, Lou Gehrig
WEEKLY THEME – Batters
who had at least 160 RBI in a season.
Batter #RBI Year Club
163 tc 1933* PHA
175 LL 1938* BOS
173 LL 1930 NYY
185 LL 1931 NYY
166 tc 1934 NYY
184 LL 1937 DET
165 1927 NYY**
162 1931 NYY
165 LL 1895 PHI
tc = Won the Triple Crown
*Won
the MVP
LL = Led
league
**World
Series champions
Note: Wilson’s 191 is the all-time record for
a single season. Babe Ruth accurately
predicted that his HR record would fall before Wilson’s RBI record would. Klein’s total that same year was for a
last-place team.
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Dave
Washburn, Marietta, GA (following Thompson on Tuesday!)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - Murderers’
Row HOF’ers
- Yankee
hall of famers in uniform number order
- Murderer's
row struck out by Carl Hubbell
Tuesday - Yankee
players with monuments in right field
- Yankee
retired single digit numbers
- Yankees
in some way involved in acting or movies
- Players
on 1937-1939 Yankees, most consecutive World Series games won
- 1938
NY Yankees starting lineup
- Retired
#s by the Yankees
- Members
of the 1st AL All-Star team
Wed - The
top single-season RBI leaders
Thurs - Players
with 400 total base seasons
Sat - Urban
players who made the HOF
Questions archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia home
page: https://sites.google.com/site/tnfotobbpics/home/horsehide-trivia
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