MONDAY
Q. Which Hall
of Famer hit safely in all 14 Opening Day games he played in?
Hint: His three
most popular nicknames reflect his physique, his relative youth upon breaking
into the majors and his dogged devotion to the game.
Hint: Seattle
doesn’t claim him, but he did play for the pilots.
A.
TED WILLIAMS [SABR
Bio]
- Played and hit in
Opening Day games in 1939, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57 & 1960.
- “The Splendid
Splinter”, “The Kid” & “Teddy Ballgame”. He was also regularly called “Thumper”.
- Flew for the U.S in
WWII and Korea, but the Seattle
Pilots didn’t exist until 9 years after he’d retired.
FCR - Dennis Cullen,
Durham
Incorrect guesses: Ken
Griffey, Jr., Lou Piniella, Tommy Davis, Don Mincher, Gary Carter
TUESDAY
Q. Who was the
first major leaguer to ground into more than 30 double plays in a single
season?
Hint: He played
1,865 games at second base without ever playing a different position.
Hint: Fourteen
times he didn’t get into the Hall of Fame.
One time he did.
A. BOBBY DOERR [SABR
Bio]
- He had 31 GIDP in 1949 to pass Ernie
Lombardi’s 30 set in 1938.
- All games were with BOS.
- HOF in
1986 via the Veterans Committee
FCR - John Null, Sugar Land, Texas
Incorrect guesses: Nellie Fox, Bill Mazeroski, Alan Trammell,
Luke Appling, Ryne Sandberg, Joe Gordon
WEDNESDAY
Q. What pitcher’s record did CC Sabathia
equal by starting 100 games before his 24th birthday?
Hint: He had thrice led the league in pitching
victories and four times led the majors
in strikeouts, both before even turning 23.
Hint: Only he and Virgil Trucks have no-hit the
Yankees at Yankee Stadium.
A. BOB FELLER
[SABR Bio]
- Bob Feller’s for CLE. Feller had 175. Sabathia had 114.
-
- No-hit NYY 30-Apr-1946. (He walked 5 & K’ed 11.) Trucks did it 6 years later.
FCR - J.P. Wanamaker, Binghamton, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Juan Marichal, Walter Johnson,
Dwight Gooden
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was the only player to play in every
World Series between the Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers?
Hint: Only Frankie Frisch played in more World
Series games for a National Leaguer.
Hint: He was offered the Dodgers’ manager job
before it was accepted by Walter Alston.
A. PEE WEE REESE [SABR Bio]
- Frisch has 50 WS G, Reese played in 44.
- Managerial offer after the 1953 season. Reese opted to continue playing instead. He played 5 more seasons and was top 10 in
MVP voting in 3 of them.
FCR - Lincoln Mitchell, New York City
Incorrect
guesses: Duke Snider, Leo Durocher, Yogi
Berra, Gil Hodges, Phil Rizzuto, Carl Furillo, Billy Herman
THEARLY-URSDAY
Q. Who was the only left-hander to earn twenty
pitching victories in a season for the Yankees during the 1950s?
Hint: He didn’t have back-up quite as good when he
managed.
Hint: He is on a very short list of men who
pitched in five consecutive World Series.
Hint: He was famous as a soft-throwing
junk-baller who relied on finesse and it served him well.
A. EDDIE LOPAT [SABR Bio]
- Was 21-9 in 1951, the only season he won
20. Whitey Ford didn’t win 20 until the
1960s.
- He managed 2 terrible Kansas City A’s teams to
a .421 record.
- He pitched in the World Series in 1949-53.
FCR - Barry Zamoff, Washington, DC
Incorrect
guesses: Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi,
Whitey Ford, Bobby Shantz, Bob Grim, Bob Lemon
THURSDAY REGULAR
Q. Who is the only player to win multiple
batting titles for the original American League Washington Senators?
Hint: He had one title in each of his stints with
the team.
Hint: In those same seasons, he led the league in
doubles, the first time leading the majors.
Hint: He also served two stints with another
American League team.
Hint: No other non-Hall of Famer ever played more
games in the majors without playing in the postseason.
A. MICKEY VERNON [SABR Bio]
- Totaled 2,409 G.
FCR - Mark Kanter, Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Incorrect
guesses: Sam Rice, Goose Goslin, Cecil
Travis, Roy Sievers, Pete Runnels, Harmon Killebrew
THURSDAY FURTHER
Q. Who was the first player to have played
for both World Series teams that same season?
Hint: There is no record of his playing tennis or
football professionally.
Hint: He once led the league in pitching win
percentage with fewer than 20 wins.
A. JACK KRAMER [SABR Bio]
- Tennis champion
by the same name had a career that closely paralleled pitcher Kramer’s
chronologically. Football player Jack Kramer was a
pro in the mid-1940 and later a broadcaster.
- .783, 18 wins in 1948 for BOS. He led them to within 1 G of the AL pennant.
FCR - Howard Johnson, Norman, Oklahoma
Incorrect
guesses: Bill Bonham, Willie McGee, Sal
Maglie, Lonnie Smith, Jim Thorpe, Hank Borowy, Bengie Molina, John Denny
FRIDAY
Q. Who took advantage of the “war years”
(i.e., 1944-45) by leading his league in each season in plate appearances,
runs, hits, triples and stolen bases?
Hint: He also finished in the top 5 in MVP voting
each season.
Hint: He made the All-Star team only after all
the other players had returned from the military.
Hint: He is the last Yankee to hit 20 triples in
a season.
- His production those years was
impressive indeed.
- AS 1946. Got himself a hit and a run.
- 22 3b in 1945, which led the majors. He was who ended George Case’s streak of 5 consecutive
seasons leading the AL in SB.
FCR - Naftali Greenwood, Kiryat, Israel
Incorrect
guesses: Ben Chapman, Charlie Keller
END-OF-MONTH SPECIAL
Q. Who was the first manager of the first expansion
team?
Hint: Claimed he learned a lot from Leo Durocher.
Hint: He referred to an All-Star third baseman who
later became a major league manager as “…the greatest third baseman I ever
saw…” [NOTE: This clue was improperly worded, but is now
correct as stated here.]
Hint: Once, when trying to put his team’s
unfortunate ERA into perspective, said, “It’s not big if you look at it from
the standpoint of the national debt.”
A. BILL RIGNEY
[SABR Bio]
- Managed the Los Angeles Angels, signed the 2nd
week of Dec-1960.
- His comment was about the Giants’ Jim
Davenport from when Rigney managed them.
- Rigney managed the Minnesota Twins and gave
this answer to a poorly-posed question from a reporter about the team’s
no-all-that-bad ERA. In fact, Jim Perry
had won the Cy Young Award
under Rigney in 1970 w/MIN.
FCR - Herb Whalley, Houston
Incorrect
guesses: Billy Cox, Alvin Dark, Casey
Stengel, Cookie Lavagetto, Yogi Berra, Don Zimmer, Jim Fregosi, Charlie Dressen
SATURDAY
Q. Who is the only National League third
baseman to take home three World Series championship rings in the 1940s?
Hint: His throwing was disfigured in a coal
mining accident when he was a boy
Hint: He was 3 times an All-Star and 5 times he
received MVP votes.
Hint: In his entire career, his team never
finished lower than 2nd place.
Hint: Twice he led the team in WAR.
Hint: He played for only one franchise in his career
and for only 9 years, but had teammates who were NL MVPs a total of 5 times and
played with 6 who would become Hall of Famers.
A. WHITEY KUROWSKI [SABR Bio]
- The way it mended may have even given him an advantage.
- Only once did STL end a season more than 5
games out of 1st.
- Led them in WAR in
1945 & 47
- MVP teammates were Mort Cooper in 1942, Marty
Marion in 1944 and Stan Musial
in 1943, 46 & 48. HOF = Johnny Mize, Stan Musial,
Enos Slaughter, Billy Southworth, Red Schoendienst, Joe Medwick
FCR - Robert Osman, Great Neck, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Pepper Martin, Red Schoendienst,
Marty Marion, Pepper Martin
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Who was the first National Basketball
Association player to enjoy a career in the majors?
Hint: He was the first and for a long time the
only basketball player at Ohio University to have his number retired.
Hint: He made an immediate impact in baseball,
leading the National League in plate appearances as a rookie and receiving
Rookie of the Year votes.
Hint: He was the only major league batter who
ever faced pitcher Stan Musial.
A. FRANK BAUMHOLTZ [SABR Bio]
- He played 2 seasons for the Youngstown Bears
of the National Basketball League during the 1945–46 season then the Cleveland Rebels
of the Basketball Association of America during the 1946–47 season. The latter was the precursor of the NBA. Records carried over as the organization
changed its structure and its name. His
basketball performance both in college at Ohio and in the pros was solid,
but baseball turned out to be a better choice.
- His number 54 hangs in in the rafters at The Convocation Center
on campus.
- Placed 5th behind Jackie Robinson
in the first ever Rookie of the Year voting. He went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI in
his major-league debut.
- He reached 1st base off Musial
when Solly Hemus booted his ground ball.
FCR - George Curcio, DeLand, Florida
Incorrect
guesses: Frank Howard, Dave DeBusschere,
Vic Janowicz, Mike Schmidt, Dick Groat, Gene Conley, Bill Sharman, Harry Craft
SUNDAY
Q. Who was the first manager to play Frank
Howard at designated hitter?
Hint: He was in uniform for the Cardinals for
three National League pennants.
Hint: He managed a major league franchise for the
only season they played with that name.
Hint: He played three games for a team that won
its only pennant. They lost all
three. He did not see postseason action.
Hint: His cousin once led the majors in sacrifice
hits.
Hint: His two years of law school didn’t help
that much with physics when he said to his player, ”Well, boys, it’s a round
ball and a round bat and you got to hit the ball square.”
A. JOE SCHULTZ [SABR Bio]
- Schultz managed the Tigers in 1973, Howard’s last team
in the Bigs. His 1st DH AB,
however, was 12-Apr-1973 under
Billy Martin who preceded
Schultz, but this is a Sunday question, so threw a curve.
- He managed the 1969 Seattle Pilots
to a 64-98 record. They moved for the
1970 season to Milwaukee, became the Brewers and went on to win division titles
in both major leagues.
- Hitting record for 3 G in 1944 for
the Browns shows he went 2 for 8.
- His cousin, Hans Lobert, led the majors with
38 sacrifice hits for PHI in 1911.
- The quote was wisdom imparted to his young
charges on the Pilots.
FCR - Dave Serota, Kalamazoo
Incorrect
guesses: Whitey Herzog
WEEK
FINALE SPECIAL
Q. Whose upcoming birthday was the prompt
for this week’s theme?
Hint: He was a basketball and baseball star in
high school.
Hint: He turned down a basketball scholarship to
a D-1 college, playing for a legendary coach, because he refused to quit
drinking and smoking.
Hint: He ended up quitting both and going there
anyway, but not with a scholarship.
Hint: In the U.S. army, he landed with the Allied
Forces in Normandy during the D-Day invasion and quickly rose to the highest
rank possible without being an officer.
Hint: He earned a Purple Heart when he stepped on
and detonated a land mine in France.
Hint: He led teams of epidemiologists in Iran and
Libya after World War II.
Hint: He was at the first major league game I
ever attended.
A. DOUGLAS
c BROWN, my dad. His 100th
birthday is later this month. (The small
c with no period isn’t a typo!) Multiple Sclerosis claimed him before his 55th
birthday.
- Basketball scholarship offer was from BYU. Basketball Hall of Famer Stan Watts
was the head coach.
- First MLB game for both of us was 19-Apr-1961 at
Candlestick. It was not warm. The Reds looked like
pennant winners.
- Iran 1952-53; Libya 1954-59
- High school graduation picture – 1935 Springville (Utah) High School
- High school graduation picture – 1935 Springville (Utah) High School
FCR - R.D. Lerner, Silver Spring, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Warren Spahn, Bert Sheppard
WEEKLY THEME – Players turning
100 years old this year.
Player 1918
Brown 30-Dec
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Andrew Milner, Bryn
Mawr, PA (after Doerr)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Tuesday - Player who played their entire careers with the Red
Sox and whose # is retired by them.
- Red Sox Hall of Famers
Wed - Oldest-living
Hall of Famers who were 90 or more at the time of their passing
- WW II veterans in the Hall of Fame
- Hall of Famers born in 1918
- Hall of Famers who served in each branch of
the military
- Military veterans in the HOF
- The last surviving Hall of Famers who had
played in the 1930s
- All played for one team, all WWII Veterans,
all born in 1918, all played in a World Series
Thurs - Most
games played by position (including LHP Lopat and RHP Feller) in 1940's and
1950's
Fri - MLB players born in Ware, MA
- 40s and 50s players, who perhaps did something
common in an All Star game
Sun - Players born in every month of 1918
- MLB players who served in the armed forces
during the WW II and/or Korean eras
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