Sunday, April 28, 2019

2019-04-22 Four home runs in a game plus an All-Star Game home run


Q.        Who is the first National League Rookie of the Year Award winner to later lead his league in stolen bases for four consecutive seasons?
Hint:     No one has more career stolen bases in All-Star games.
Hint:     He was the first player to get 200 hits after his team moved to a new city.
Hint:     Two seasons later, he led the majors in hits.
A.         WILLIE MAYS  [SABR Bio]
-  NL SB leader in 1956, 57 & 58. His 27 in 1959 led the NL, but Luis Aparicio stole 56 bases in 1959 for CHW and took them to the WS. Aparicio also led the majors in SB an amazing five times!. Vince Coleman is the only NL ROY to lead ML 4 times.
-  6 ASG SB
-  208 H for SFG in 1958
-  190 H in 1960 led MLB
FCR - Larry Lamb, Oakwood, Ohio
Incorrect guesses:  Lou Brock, Maury Wills, Jackie Robinson, Luis Aparicio, Bert Campaneris, Sam Jethro, Kenny Lofton, Tim Raines, Ralph Garr, Tommy Harper

TUESDAY
Q.        Who is the only member of the 400-home-run club with more than ten steals of home?
Hint:     For each of thirteen straight seasons he batted in more than 100 runs.
Hint:     He once explained, “In the beginning I used to make one terrible play a game.  Then I got so I'd make one a week and finally I’d pull a bad one once a month.  Now I'm trying to keep it down to one a season.”
Hint:     Amazingly, he was not elected to the Hall of Fame the first time he received votes.
A.         LOU GEHRIG  [SABR Bio]
-  Stole home 15 times, hit 493 home runs
-  100+ RBI 1926-38
-  Received 22.6% of the votes in 1936 (Not only was he still active that year, he won the AL MVP!).  Entered the Hall via Special Election in 1939.
FCR -  Victor Piacentile, Yorktown Heights, New York
Incorrect guesses:  Dave Kingman, Alfonso Soriano, Willie Mays, Alex Rodriguez, Jimmie Foxx, Joe DiMaggio, Barry Bonds

WEDNESDAY
Q.        What first-round Hall of Famer has been a vocal advocate for an electronic strike zone in major league games?
Hint:     He once homered off brothers in the same game.
Hint:     He was the third player inducted into the Little League Museum’s Hall of Excellence.
A.         MIKE SCHMIDT
-  Went public with this view in 2014.  He is not alone.
-  On 17-Apr-1976 had HR off the Cubs’ Rick and Paul Reuschel.
-  LL HOE induction 1991 w/Nolan Ryan.  Tom Seaver had been inducted in 1988.
FCR -  Pat Ray, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Incorrect guesses:  Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine

THURSDAY
Q.        What Princeton man had his record for National League grand slams broken by Willie McCovey?
Hint:     Though it has been approached, no one has ever broken his MLB record for sacrifice flies in a single season.
Hint:     While managing in the majors, he once dissuaded a drunken and disconsolate player from a suicide attempt.
A.         GIL HODGES  [SABR Bio]
-  Born in Princeton, Indiana, Hodges hit 14 grand slams over his 18-year playing career.  McCovey hit his 15th on 19-May-1974.  McCovey’s 18 is still the NL record.
-  Hit 19 sac. flies in 1954.
-  He saved pitcher Ryne Duren from doing something un-doable.
FCR -  Lawrence Creeden, Boulder City, Nevada
Incorrect guesses:  Eddie Murray, Dave Sisler, Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott

FRIDAY
Q.        Who was the first player in the expansion era get seven hits in one game?
Hint:     He believed that his uniform number was more suited to a rookie.  The organization agreed and assigned him number 6.  It no doubt helped as that same year, he led the majors in slugging with a number that began with 6.
Hint:     A few years later, he played the full schedule of games at his outfield position without a single error all year.
A.         ROCKY COLAVITO  [SABR Bio]
-  7-H G 24-Jun-1962.  It was a 22-inning G.  He got up 10 times.
-  Originally assigned #38 and played with it on his back 1955-57.  Received #6 for the 1958 season.  Slugged .620, beating out NL MVP Ernie Banks by 5+ basis points.
-  In 1965 w/CLE he played 162 G, had 256 chances, made 256 outs.
FCR -  Phil Williams, Charlotte, North Carolina
Incorrect guesses:  Rennie Stennett, Cesar Gutierrez, Tony Oliva, Al Kaline, Roger Maris, ,Stan Musial

WEEKEND (One question only)
Q.        Who holds the Cincinnati franchise record for most total bases in a single game?
Hint:     Only Babe Ruth and he have hit their 20th home run of the season in the same game where they pitched.
Hint:     He is in the super-exclusive Double Unique Club.
A.         SCOOTER GENNETT
-  Hit 17 total bases were on 06-Jun-2017 against STL.
-  On 14-Aug-2017, he pitched the bottom of the 8th in a blowout G surrendering a 2-run HR to JASON (Not Gordon) Heyward.  In the prior ½inning, he blasted his 20th HR of the season.
-  In the long recorded history of the major leagues, there has never been another player named Gennett and there has never been another player who went by Scooter*.
FCR -  Sarah Grynpas, Toronto
Incorrect guesses:  Mark Whiten, Darrel Chaney, Ernie Lombardi, Walker Cooper, Woody Woodward, Cy Seymour

*Baseball-reference is my standard for Double-Uniques, as I explain in the header of the D-U site.  Rizzuto is—and was—Phil.  "Scooter", his nickname, was used far more after his career than during.  Similarly, Goose Goslin is still a Double-Unique because Gossage is "Rich" (as he insists now more strongly than when he was a rookie.) and "Goose" is his nickname.  Also, Pee‑Wee Wanninger’s hyphen keeps him on the list.  All of which, I know, I smugly failed to mention the first time.

SUNDAY BONUS (Not part of this week’s theme)
Q.        Which was the first World Series where each team had its league’s batting champ and RBI champ?
Hint:     All those players in the question are now in the Hall of Fame.
Hint:     They were inducted in the same year
Hint:     The managers of both teams are in the Hall of Fame.
Hint:     Both managers entered the Hall of Fame in the same year.
Hint:     Due to infrastructure issue, the Series was not televised.
A.         1909 WORLD SERIES
-  Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb were the league leaders in both categories.  [Cobb hit .377 and knocked in 107 runs.  Both measures led the majors, as did his Triple-Crown-clinching 9 home runs.  Wagner’s stats were .339, 100 RBI.]
-  Wagner & Cobb were inducted to the Hall together in 1936, the Hall’s first “class”.
-  Managers Fred Clarke (PIT) and Hughie Jennings (DET) were elected posthumously to the Hall in 1945, but not actually inducted until 2013.
-  Television wasn’t invented until 1927 and the first televised major league ball game wasn’t until 1939.
FCR -  Pat Ray, Paradise Valley, Arizona
Incorrect guesses:  1946, 1956, 1963



WEEKLY THEME – Players who hit 4 home runs in a single game AND homered in an All-Star game.


Name                    4 HR G          ASG HR          ASG Venue                              Off
Gehrig............... 03-Jun-1932...... 1936......... Braves Field (Boston).................. C. Davis
                                                      1937......... Griffith Stadium (DC)                           Dizzy Dean

Hodges.............. 31-Aug-1950..... 1951......... Briggs Stadium (Detroit)............. F. Hutchinson

Mays................. 30-Apr-1961...... 1956......... Griffith Stadium (DC).................. W. Ford
                                                      1960b....... Yankee Stadium (NY).................. W. Ford
                                                      1965......... Metropolitan Stadium (KC)........... M. Papas

Colavito............. 10-Jun-1959...... 1959b**.... L.A. Coliseum.......................... Roy Face

Schmidt............. 17-Apr-1976...... 1981......... Cleveland Stadium.......................... R. Fingers

Gennett............. 06-Jun-2017...... 2018......... Nationals Stadium (DC).................. E.Diaz

**Only one here to do both in the same season.  (And it got him no better than 4th in the 1959 MVP voting, behind a trio of pennant-winning White Sox future Hall of Famers.)


First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – R.D. Lerner, Silver Spring, Maryland


*     Incorrect theme guesses:

Monday  -  Hall of Famers with the arm of Ramon Laureano, the power of Joey Gallo, the speed of Byron Buxton, the hand-eye coordination of Mike Trout and the fielding prowess of Andrelton Simmons.

Wed        -  Players with 4 home runs in a game
               -  Players with 4 home runs in a game at least 300 HR in their career
               -  Players who have multiple time MVPs in the Hall of Fame

Thurs      -  4 home run/game men who also played on a World Championship Team during their career

Fri           -  Players who hit 4 home runs in one game in the 20th century
               -  Players with 4 HR in one game plus hey have hit more than 350 career home runs
               -  Players with 4 HR in one game plus hey have hit more than 370 career home runs

Sat          -  4 hr/game guys, team won the ball game and scored double figure runs
               -  Hit 4 HR in a game and in the All-Star Game the same year

Sunday   -  The only players to hit their four home runs in a game in an even numbered month- April, June, August. All the others were in an odd numbered month – May, July, September (none in March).
-                     -  All on the road










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