Q. Who holds
the record for the longest span between batting titles in the expansion era?
Hint: He is the
only player to hit three home runs in a postseason game that his team lost.
Hint: One season
he had more RBI than games played.
A. GEORGE
BRETT [SABR Bio]
- Won batting titles
in 1976 & 1990 for a 14 yr. span (Also won in 1980.) Tony Gwynn is next w/a 13-yr span.
- 3 HR = G 3 1978 ALCS vs. NYY. Brett hit lead-off that game and did all of
his damage off Catfish Hunter.
- In an injury-disrupted
1980 season for KCR he tallied 118 RBI in
117 G. He was voted AL MVP that season and became the only man to win a Most Valuable
Player Award for a Kansas City professional team until the Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes took home the NFL’s MVP
honors in 2018.
FCR - Darin Watson,
Overland Park, Kansas
Incorrect guesses: Willie
Mays, Tony Gwynn, Johnny Mize, Barry Bonds, Wade Boggs
TUESDAY — 07-Jul
Q. Whose .313 average
is the lowest to win a National League batting title?
Hint: He once fractured
his right middle finger by closing it in his Porsche’s door on the way to the
bank.
Hint: According to
Baseball Digest, he once sneaked into the Angels Spring Training camp to spy on
a Rod Carew bunting clinic.
A. TONY GWYNN [SABR Bio]
- Gwynn hit .313 in 1988 for SDP, the only major
league team he ever played for. 4 AL’ers
had higher averages that year.
- Car door accident = 18-May-1992 (Strange
because it was probably a trip he made quite often.) He missed 4 G as a result.
- Story in Baseball Digest of May 2000.
FCR - Fred Worth, Arkadelphia Arkansas
Incorrect guesses: Bill Madlock, Keith Hernandez, Rafael
Palmeiro, Wade Boggs, Terry Pendleton
WEDNESDAY — 08-Jul
Q. What Hoosier Hall of Fame hero hurler
holds the horrendous mark of 289 baes-on-balls surrendered in a single season?
Hint: The only trade in his career was when he
was swapped straight across for another Hall of Fame pitcher.
Hint: Unafraid of sticking to his principals, he
sat out two seasons over salary disputes and missed another due to a marital
dispute.
A. AMOS RUSIE [SABR Bio]
- 289 BB in 1890. (To be fair, he was just 19 years old and
threw 548 innings that season.)
- Was traded 15-Dec-1900 from NYG to CIN in
exchange for Christy Mathewson who was only 20 and had never played a
single inning for the Reds. Rusie almost
didn’t play for them either, totaling 22 innings and a record of 0-1.
- Missed 1896 and 1899 over $ disagreements with
NYG management and missed the entire 1900 season trying to salvage his marriage
with his wife, May. That effort was
successful.
FCR - Steve Newton, Newcastle, Delaware
Incorrect
guesses: Rube Waddell, John Tudor
MIDWEEK BONUS —
08-Jul
Q. Who hit the first home run in Baltimore
Orioles history starting in 1954?
Hint: He is one of just ten catchers to record
two unassisted double plays in their careers.
Hint: None of even the most diligent researchers
have found any evidence that he and Billy Martin ever exchanged holiday
cards.
A. CLINT COURTNEY [SABR Bio]
- On 15-Apr-1954, in the Orioles’ 3rd
game after their relocation from St. Louis, Courtney thrilled 46,354 home
opener fans by clouting the first-ever MLB HR in Memorial Stadium. He hit it off Virgil Trucks.
- Both were tough, hard-nosed, even pugnacious
personalities. There was no love lost between Scrap Iron and Billy the Kid. They clashed bitterly and often.
FCR - Mark Pattison, Washington, DC
Incorrect
guesses: Gus Triandos, Ray Boone, Jim Gentile,
Sherm Lollar, Matt Weiters, Rick Dempsey
THURSDAY — 09-Jul
Q. After Tommy Holmes in 1945, who was the
next left-handed batter to compile a 35 game hitting streak?
Hint: He attended a high school whose alumni include
19 major leaguers and a combine 31 All-Star Game selections.
Hint: In one game where he didn’t think his
team’s pitcher was getting a fair strike zone, he disguised himself as the ball
boy, took some new balls out to the home plate ump and pled the case for his
pitcher.
Hint: He has participated in seven no-hitters. He was on the winning side in four of them.
A. CHASE UTLEY [BR Bio]
- 35 G streak in 2006
- Long Beach Polytechnic in California. (Dirt-bag adjacent?)
- It was as a Dodger that Utley asked Blue to
give a more just strike zone to his teammate Clayton Kershaw
- Present in 7 No-Hitters:
29-May-2010:
Roy
Halladay’s perfect G against FLA
while PHI
06-Oct-2010:
Roy
Halladay’s postseason
no-hitter vs. CIN while PHI
25-May 2014: Josh Beckett no hitter against the PHI while on PHI
01-Sep-2014: PHI combined
no hitter against the ATL while
on PHI
25-Jul-2015: Cole
Hamels no hitter against CHC, on
DL with ankle injury, but in PHI dugout
21-Aug-2015: Mike
Fiers no hitter against LAD while
on LAD
30-Aug-2015: Jake
Arrieta no hitter against the LAD
while on LAD
Utley was the last out in the Beckett no
hitter against LAD (K) and then the last out with the LAD in the Arrieta no
hitter (K again)
FCR - Matt Clairmont, New Minas, Nova Scotia
Incorrect
guesses: Ken Landreaux, Vada Pinson, Lyman
Bostock, Frank Robinson, Stan Musial, Jimmy Rollins, Tony Gwynn, Rod Carew
FRIDAY — 10-Jul
Q. Which player’s career batting average not
only leads every active player at his position, but is in the all-time top ten
for that position?
Hint: A prestigious award once named for a Hall
of Famer is now more appropriately awarded in honor of his name.
Hint: His likeness on the grounds of his home
ballpark is made of an entirely different material from the ones his team had had
erected for the five statues of its Hall of Famers.
A. BUSTER POSEY [BR Bio]
- Posey is one of just 7 catchers
who have caught over 750 games and maintained a .300+ career batting average. He won the batting title in 2012, his MVP year.
- In 2019, this prestigious award, given to the
year’s top collegiate catcher, became The Buster Posey Award on its 20th
anniversary. Posey, a 2-time
All-American at Florida State University, was chosen to be honored because the
award’s previous namesake, Hall of Famer Johnny Bench, great as he was,
never played college baseball. Posey was
not only a great college player (a shortstop), but he was recognized as Academic All-American of the Year with his 3.8 GPA at
Florida State.
- SFG’s Oracle Park sports 5 bronze player
statues: Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey, Willie Mays and Gaylord Perry. The life-size “statue” of Posey
is made up of Legos!—more than 15,000 of them. (Trend-setter?)
FCR - Mark DeLodovico, Rockville, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Ty Cobb, Jose Altuve, Charlie
Gehringer, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Miguel Cabrera, Joe Morgan
T.G.I.F. BONUS — 10-Jul
Q. Who was the first ETC. for TEC?
Hint: According to a teammate, he once did much,
MUCH more than just merely “calling his shot“.
Hint: He was one of the few who befriended the
young rookie Ty Cobb.
A. GERMANY SCHAEFER [SABR Bio]
- Schaefer was the Cubs’ 3B the very first time Tinker - to
- Evers - to - Chance manned their famous positions together Saturday, 13-Sep-1902.
- According to Davy Jones, Schaefer
melodramatically predicted his pinch-hit, game-winning walk-off HR on 24-Jun-1906. Jones
immortalized the tale in the seminal baseball book The Glory of Their Times like this: “Germany announced to the crowd: ‘Ladies and
gentlemen, you are now looking at Herman Schaefer, better known as “Herman the
Great”, acknowledged by one and all to be the greatest pinch-hitter in the
world. I am now going to hit the ball
into the left field bleachers. Thank
you.’”
Facing Chicago’s ace lefty Doc White, Schaefer proceeded to hit the first pitch
into the left field bleachers for a game-winning homer. As he made his way around the diamond, Germany
is said to have slid into every base, announcing his progress as if it were a
horse race as he went around: “Schaefer leads at the
half!”
and so on. After hook-sliding into home,
he popped up, doffed his cap, bowed, and said, “Ladies and Gentlemen,
this concludes this afternoon’s performance. I thank you for your kind attention.” Newspaper accounts of the game confirm the
dramatic baseball details but only some of the fanciful embellishments offered
by Jones.
- Teammates in Detroit in 1905, Cobb hit .238 during his abbreviated rookie
campaign while Germany stroked .244. Cobb didn’t have many close friends on his own
team, but the fun-loving and hard-playing Schaefer was one of the few. In a caption under Schaefer’s photo in Cobb’s 1961
autobiography, Cobb writes, “…He was my teammate and a great pal.”
FCR - Rich Klein, Plano, Texas
Incorrect
guesses: Sam Crawford, Eddie Collins, Bobby
Lowe, Babe Ruth, Hughie Jennings
SATURDAY — 11-Jul
Q. Who was the first American ex-major
leaguer to play professional baseball in Italy?
Hint: He was at bat at Shea Stadium when its
power flickered out—and stayed out for two days.
Hint: He was famous for his speed, but it didn’t
translate into base stealing.
A. LENNY RANDLE [SABR Bio]
- Played for the Nettuno team starting in 1983 when he won the league’s
batting crown with a .477 mark. Randle later managed and co-owned the Nettunesi
– which have captured 17 Italian Baseball League titles and are known as “the
Italian Yankees”.
- The power failure was part of the scary New York City blackout of 1977. Lenny claims he had just hit a ball through
the infield right when the lights went out, robbing him of a base hit when the game was suspended. The score book tells a different story.
- Among players with 250 career SB attempts
since 1951, Randle’s “success” rate (58.2%) is the 3rd worst all-time, behind only Dave Parker (57.7%) and
Pete Rose (57.1%).
FCR - David Krassin, Los Angeles
Incorrect
guesses: Mike Piazza, Joe Pepitone, Ron
Swoboda
WEEKEND BONUS — 11-Jul
Q. Who used a glove tailor-made for a
previous major leaguer who was BBTB?
Hint: He has pitched for five different major
league team in four seasons.
Hint: He never failed to strike out as many as he
walked in any season in the Bigs.
A. PAT VENDITTE [BR Bio]
- Venditte could pitch with either arm and used
the glove design that had originally been made for Greg Harris by Mizuno.
- Though truly “armbidextrous”, major league batters
had little trouble hitting him from either side of the plate. Career ERA finished at a not-horrendous 5.03.
- Career SO/BB tally is 53/28.
FCR - Frank Stephenson, Rome, Georgia
Incorrect
guesses: Jim Abbott, Sammy Stewart
SUNDAY — 12-Jul
Q. Who was made famous partly because he
never saw a strike in his debut at-bat in the majors?
Hint: The day after his debut, he hurled a challenge
at Bob Feller, saying, “I don’t think he can pitch to me.”
Hint: His team’s owner called him “a corker”.
Hint: He struck out looking in his final public
at-bat.
A. EDDIE GAEDEL [SABR Bio]
- Was walked (not intentionally) 19-Aug-1951. He was
promised additional at-bats, but none ever came. “I still got my contract and Bill Veeck told
me they would use me again.”
- The Browns next faced Feller 07-Sep and got shut out by the future Hall of
Famer righty. Gaedel, however, was not
in the lineup that day…or ever again.
- Bill Veeck meant that
Gaedel was a gamer. The dictionary
definition of corker is “an excellent or astonishing person or thing”.
- In a G 2½ later between 2 Sycamore, Illinois
amateur teams, Gaedel was brought to bat.
Umpire Paul Lund called him out on 2 pitches delivered by the opponents’
Gene Davis.
FCR - David Paulson, Columbia, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Tommy Byrne
WEEKLY THEME – Players
who helped bring about a change in baseball’s rules.
Brett............... Illegal
bat use no longer is grounds for declaring batter out, his ejection from the
game or for allowing the opposition to protest
Courtney........ Catcher
glove size limits
Gaedel............ Player
contracts must be ratified by commish before they appear in a game
Gwynn............ Batting
average championship can be won by adding enough imaginary hitless games to
bring the player into qualification
Posey.............. Catcher
home plate positioning/protection
Randle............ Players cannot alter path of
ball in any way
Rusie.............. Home
plate to pitching rubber distance increased to 60’6”
Schaefer......... Cannot
steal a base you have passed
Utley............... New 2B slide rules
Venditte.......... Pitcher
must indicate which hand he intends to use to pitch to each batter
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Robert Charkovsky, Ashton, Maryland
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Monday - First
names from the musical “Hamilton”
Tuesday - Players
who won batting titles in multiple decades
- Players
since 1900 to win a batting title with an average of .390 or higher
- Players
who have won 3 or more batting titles
- The
players with the highest single season batting averages since Ted Williams
batted .401
- Third
baseman with the highest lifetime batting average
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