NOTE: This week’s theme
and questions have been prepared by reader Mike Caragliano. For those not yet apprised of his renown, he
has been the SABR National Trivia Contest Individual Champion four (4!) times
and has six (6!) times been a member of the championship team. In 2012 in Minneapolis
he took home each title.
MONDAY
Q. With the
retirement of Adrian Beltre, who is now the active MLB leader in hits, games
played and at-bats?
Hint: He was already
the active leader in home runs.
Hint: …and RBIs.
Hint: Not to mention walks,
runs and extra base hits.
Hint: As for grounding into double plays… he’s
already the all-time leader.
- Pujols is currently sitting on these career
MLB-Leading numbers:
H:.......... 3,082
G:.......... 2,692
AB:...... 10,196
HR:........... 633
RBI:....... 1,982
BB:........ 1,279
R:.......... 1,773
XBH:...... 1,288
GIDP:....... 374 (…passing Cal
Ripken in 2017)
FCR - Tom Lee, Nashville
Incorrect guesses: Miguel Cabrera, Giancarlo Stanton, Matt Holliday
TUESDAY
Q. Who is the only active player with four batting titles?
Hint: He is the only other player to collect 50 doubles in a
season in the American League and the
National League.
Hint: By a razor-thin margin, he is the active leader in
batting average.
Hint: He started his major league debut hitless in his first
four trips to the plate, but ended it with a walk off home run in the 11th.
- 2011, 2012, 2013,
2015
- 50 2b in 2006; 52 2b in 2014
- Avg leader @ .3165
to Jose
Altuve’s .3164.
- Debut game 20-Jun-2003
FCR - John E. Ralston, Jr., Rockford, Illinois
Incorrect
guesses: Jose Altuve, Albert Pujols,
Ichiro Suzuki
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who is the
only member of the 500 home run club who never hit 30 home runs in back-to-back
seasons?
Hint: He hit his 500th on the anniversary
of his first.
Hint: The pitcher who
served up #500 is currently a major league skipper.
Hint: His acting prowess
landed him a killer role in Hollywood.
- The closest he came was 1973-75 w/32, 29, 36
respectively.
He led the AL in 73 &
75
- #1 = 17-Sep-1967; #500 = 17-Sep-1984
- Hypnotized to kill
Queen Elizabeth in the first Naked Gun movie.
FCR - John Rickert, Terre Haute
Incorrect
guesses: Manny Ramirez, Ted Williams,
Eddie Murray, Alex Rodriguez, Jim Thome
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was at
the epicenter of arguably the most productive single inning in American League
history?
Hint: He was the only
Minnesota Twin in uniform for all three of their pennant-winning seasons.
Hint: He broke
DiMaggio's streak... no, not THAT streak!
- AL champion MIN hit a record 5 HR in one inning 09-Jun-1966; his HR was the 3rd. The teammate who did likewise were Rich
Rollins, Zoilo Versalles, Don Mincher & Harmon Killebrew. Jimmie Hall’s double after the HRs made it a 22-total
bases inning.
- Oliva made the All-Star
team his first 8 MLB years. DiMaggio had made it the first 7 before WWII ended
his streak.
FCR - Laurel Prieb, New York City
Incorrect
guesses: Paul Molitor, Gene Larkin, Gene
Stephens, Dick Gernert, Billy Gardner, Gary Gaetti, Frank Quilici, Tom
Kelly, Cesar Tovar, Kirby Puckett, Rick Renick
THURSDAY
Q. What
one-time Cardinals switch-hitter homered in the game where Cal Ripken eclipsed
Lou Gehrig’s consecutive-games-played record?
Hint: He was once
traded for a Hall of Famer mid-season. By the next Opening Day, the team the
Hall of Famer was playing for then traded to acquire him, as well.
Hint: Though an
American citizen, he eagerly awaits Dominion Day every year.
- Bonilla’s 213th career HR on 06-Sep-1995
was just before teammate Cal Ripken went back-to-back to open the bottom
of the 4th. As the 5th
inning ended, Cal secured his 2,131st straight game.
- FLA acquired Bonilla from LAD for Mike Piazza in May, 1998. That November, NYM, who
now had Piazza, traded to bring Bonilla back to Shea Stadium.
- Canada’s approximate equivalent of the U.S.’s
celebration on the 4th of every July, is Dominion Day, sometimes
called Canada Day and is honored every 1st of July. (TOR
always looks very festive
that
day.) So why does Bonilla look forward to it you ask? That’s the day every year when receives a
payment of $1,193,248.20 US every year as he result of a buy-out
agreement reached with NYM when he separated from them. Many on both
sides of the border now just call it Bobby Bonilla Day.
FCR - Bill Helm, Cottonwood, Arizona
Incorrect
guesses: Fernando Tatis, Ted Simmons,
Kendrys Morales, Jim Edmonds
FRIDAY
Q. What Redleg
once swiped an eye-popping 88 stolen bases in his best season?
Hint: Appropriately,
he stole the first base ever stolen in an A.L.C.S. game.
Hint: In his lone
appearance on the mound in the majors, he fanned Reggie Jackson.
Hint: He played for
Billy Martin in three cities because, “…the little guy can beat you in so many
ways.”
- 88 SB for the Class
D Geneva
Redlegs, 1961
- Game One, 1969,Twins/Orioles
- Jackson K = 22-Sep-1968, when Tovar appeared at all nine positions.
- Quote is from
Tovar's SABR biography [See above.]
FCR - Jim Casey, Savannah
Incorrect
guesses: Vada Pinson, Rickey Henderson,
Bob Bescher, Dave Collins, Tommy Harper, Javier Baez
SATURDAY
Q. Who is on
record as the first little leaguer to make the big leagues?
Hint: Missed
milestones by THAT much!
Hint: The first
batter he ever faced had famously missed half a season four years prior.
Hint: The final major
league pitch he ever threw was also the very last pitch his battery mate caught
in the Bigs.
- Dates of his Little League career in Connecticut
were not available at press time. He
debuted in the majors 21-Jul-1953.
- He fell short of 100 career
wins and 1,000 career strikeouts by
one: 99 & 999 respectively.
- Eddie Waitkus had been the target of more than trade rumors.
- He and batterymate
Ed
Sadowski played their final MLB game 02-Oct-1966.
FCR - Tom Missett, Southington, Connecticut
Incorrect
guesses: Jerry Walker, Gene Conley,
Steve Carlton, Nick Buss, Rick Wise, Billy Connors
WEEKEND BONUS
Q. Which Cubs
infielder was the final major league batter that the late Jose Fernandez
ever faced?
Hint: He is a front-runner to replace a popular infielder
from the Island of Healing.
Hint: A post-season MVP award seems to help
scouts overlook his fielding stats.
- Vs. Fernandez
on 20-Sep-2016. Murphy grounded out.
- Jonathan
Schoop, native of Curaçao
(Vitamin C in the fruit there saved many a scurvied Portuguese sailor in the 16th
and 17th centuries, which explains ONE of the
theories of the origin of the island’s name.)
As a result, MIL
is looking at free agent Murphy to replace Schoop at second base.
FCR - John Hill, Atlanta
Incorrect
guesses: Javier Baez, Addison Russell,
Ben Zobrist
SUNDAY
Q. What Mets
hurler once quit on Davey Johnson and threatened to walk off the team?
Hint: He was one of
two New York hurlers to make his major league debut in the same game.
Hint: All-time win #2
was also win #4,000.
Hint: The last pitch
of his career resulted in his 1,000th strikeout.
A. JACOB
DeGROM
- managed a wood-bat summer league in 2009. DeGrom’s coach wanted to move him from
shortstop to pitcher and asked Johnson for help. DeGrom didn’t take too kindly to the
experiment and threatened to quit. New York Newsday of 10-Nov-2018 has the
full story.
- Opposing starter, NYY’s
Chase
Whitley, also made his MLB debut 15-May-14.
- DeGrom’s second
career win, on 08-Jul-2014
was the 4,000th all-time win for the New York Metropolitans franchise
- K’d the last batter he faced in 2018, Ozzie
Albies on 26-Sep, to
reach the round-number milestone.
FCR - Mark DeLodovico,
Rockville, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Ralph Terry, Jesse Orosco, Roger
McDowell, Rick Aguilera, Tom Browning, John Lannan
WEEKLY THEME – Players who collected a single Most Valuable Player Award
vote that prevented that year’s BBWAA honoree from being a unanimous selection.
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Mark
Kanter, Portsmouth, Mass (after prompt).
Caragliano
explains, “BBWAA is an important qualifier.
Votes for the MVP award were calculated differently before 1931.” I wasn't around in the 60’s, so, looking at
the decade, I don't know what shocks me more- that Carl Yastrzemski did not get
a unanimous MVP bid (it was a TRIPLE FREAKIN’ CROWN, for crying out loud!), or
that Zoilo Versalles almost did (man, how weak was the American League in
1965?)
Here they are, MVPs one tick away
from unanimity and the undeserving wretches who denied them that distinction.
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - Angels
first basemen/DHs who have won the MVP.
- Hall
of Fame caliber players who have been signed to onerous, budget‑busting
contracts
Sunday - Comeback
players of the year.
- MLB
Players of the Month
- All
were identified by Topps on “Rookie Star” cards
- One
player at each position in organizations where Billy Martin once managed
- All
“undeserving” winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award.
- Gold
glove award winners who lead the league in errors at their position
- Disputed
award winners
- All
comeback player of the Year at one point
Questions archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia home
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