MONDAY — 02-Nov
Q. Who was a
bullpen stalwart for two separate National League franchises in their years
when they won their first World Series?
Hint: Willie Mays
was pinch-hitting for him in Mays’s last MLB appearance.
Hint: His son is married
to one of the most beautiful, talented and successful women in country music.
A. TUG McGRAW [SABR Bio]
- 1973 WS game 3 10th
inning 16-Oct-1973
- Son Tim McGraw (a
country star himself) is married to Faith Hill.
FCR - Dan Greder, Ames,
Iowa
Incorrect guesses: Clem Labine
TUESDAY — 03-Nov
Q. Who
surrendered Babe Ruth’s 700th home run?
Hint: He (not
Ruth) was the first pitcher ever to be replaced on an All-Star team due to
injury.
Hint: He is the
only pitcher to turn in three 20-win seasons for the Tigers in the 1930s.
Hint: During one
five-year span, he took four no-hitters in to the ninth inning, including a
perfect game, but never got a no-hitter.
A. TOMMY BRIDGES [SABR Bio]
- In the t3rd at Navin Field in
Detroit, 13-Jul-1934, Babe Ruth took Bridges deep to RF for his 700th
for a 2 R HR that was eventually the winning margin in the game. Ruth would hit only 8 more AL homers.
- Replaced by Vern Kennedy for the 1936 game. (Neither was going to start ahead of Lefty Grove
anyway.)
- Won 22, 21 & 23 G for DET 1934, 35
& 36 respectively.
- No-hit threats were from 1929-1933.
FCR - Steve Newton, Newcastle, Delaware
Incorrect guesses: Willis Hudlin, Schoolboy Rowe, Hal Newhouser,
Dizzy Trout
WEDNESDAY — 04-Nov
Q. What cervid-nicknamed rookie was the
first modern-day player to rap out more than 210 hits in his first full season
after playing in Toronto?
Hint: Later, he lead the American League with
what everybody then thought was Ty Cobb’s career batting average while doing it
for two second-division teams.
Hint: He was a college punter for the Buffaloes
but settled down and focused on baseball for the Pioneers at Tennessee’s oldest
college.
A. DALE ALEXANDER [SABR Bio]
- 215 H in 1929 for DET. 1st season in MLB. In 1928, He
played for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the AA International League. Nickname = “Moose” [6’3” – 210 lbs.]
- Led the AL w/.367 in 1932, dividing the season
between DET (5th place)
& BOS (8th place
[out of 8]) 23 G to 101.
- Played football for the Buffaloes of Milligan University near the tri-cities area of eastern Tennessee. Subsequently, he played baseball at Tusculum College,
now Tusculum University before going pro.
FCR - Steve Klitzner, North Miami Beach
Incorrect
guesses: John Olerud, Darin Erstad, George
Sisler
MIDWEEK BONUS — 04-Nov
Q. Whose cumulative National League ERA was
second only to Pete Alexander’s during the climax years of the Dead Ball Era?
Hint: He won an off-season, distance-throwing
contest against other elite major leaguers.
Hint: His teammate, legendary multi-sport athlete
Jim Thorpe drove in the only run in his ten-inning no-hitter. That game itself is now something of a
legend.
A. FRED TONEY [SABR Bio]
- Toney’s aggregate 2.10 was second only to
Alexander’s 1.57 from 1915 to 1919.
- In a January 1912 Chicago tournament that
measured other baseball skills, Toney’s baseball throw was 392’.
- Toney’s 1-0 no-hitter on 02-May-1917, was against Hippo Vaughn who himself threw a
no-hitter, at least through 9 innings. Thorpe’s swinging bunt was
the difference, but the combined ERA for the game that day was 0.00, the cumulative
BA was .033.
FCR - Ken Kirk, Corning, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Christy Mathewson, Herb Pennock,
Hippo Vaughn, Carl Hubbell
THURSDAY — 05-Nov
Q. Which player collected the most career American
League hits without ever scoring a single run in that league?
Hint: In one game when he was playing for the
Braves (actually, their ancestors), he was struck out by the great Christy
Mathewson. On the swinging third strike,
he lost control of the bat, flinging it toward the mound. The Hall of Fame pitcher calmly picked up the
projectile and threw it over to his first baseman, John Ganzel.
Hint: Because he was one of the National League
players who felt he might do better in the newer American League, he made the
jump to the AL just three days after his last NL season ended.
A. GENE DeMONTREVILLE [SABR Bio]
- 13 H from 1903-04 over 16 G and 56 PA
- Slippery bat game, 01-Jun-1901.
- Played on NL teams from 1894 to 1902 then
“jumped” to the 1-year old AL Washington Senators.
FCR - Warren Kent, Whitehall, Michigan
Incorrect
guesses: Bobby Lowe, Cy Young
FRIDAY — 06-Nov
Q. Which player made his major league debut
after manager John McGraw traded Hack Wilson to help make
room for the newcomer?
Hint: He (Not McGraw; not Wilson.) had worked in
coal mines beginning at age 11 and toiled 12 years in the mines before earning
a shot with the Giants.
Hint: In one three-year span of his career, he
hit 125 doubles, breaking Tioga’s single-season record along the way.
- On 8-Aug-1925, McGraw sent Wilson to the independent Toledo Mud Hens in exchange for Webb.
Webb made his debut 13-Aug-1925.
- Webb earned between 5¢ and 8¢ an hour working
part-time in the mines but started making considerably more than that playing ball
for semi-pro teams in his area.
- 1930-32 = 125 2B, playing for BOS & DET. In 1931, Webb hit an eye-popping 67 doubles,
a record for one season which still stands today. He passed “Tioga” George Burns’s record of 64
set just 5 years earlier. In fact, Webb passed
Burns during a double-header on Webb’s own birthday, 17-Sep-1931. Webb tied Burns’s record in the 1st G, passed it in the 2nd. No one else has even hit more than 60 for
over 80 years.
FCR - Frank Ittner, Atlanta
Incorrect
guesses: Mel Ott, Ross Youngs, Jimmie
Wilson, Joe Medwick, Casey Stengel, Hugh Jennings, Fred Lindstrom, Jimmy
Johnson, Bill Terry, Billy Herman
SATURDAY — 07-Nov
Q. What two-way player was the first to
collect one hundred career pinch hits?
Hint: As a starting pitcher, over a seven-year
period he racked up more than 150 complete games, during that run leading the league
three times and the majors twice.
Hint: Four times he tied for the best fielding
percentage in the National League at 1.000%.
- Lucas pinch hit 474 times over his 15 seasons. His 116 base hits as a pinch hitter is the
most ever for a player whose primary position was pitcher.
- 151 CG for CIN 1927-33
- He posted perfect 1.000 percentages in 1926,
1928, 1930 & 1933.
FCR - Thomas Nester, Dix Hills, New York
Incorrect
guesses: Jim Lemon, Wes Ferrell, Bucky
Walters, Willie Smith, John Smoltz, Don Newcombe,
Doc White, Don Drysdale, Lon Warneke, Frenchy Bordagaray, Rube Waddell
WEEKEND BONUS — 08-Nov
Q. After the Yankees’ Wally Pipp led the
American League in home runs two years in a row, who was the Philadelphia A who
tied for the honor the following season, outdistancing the National League
leader by almost 40%?
Hint: He took over the American League lead in
outfield assists from Tris Speaker and led the league two years in a row.
Hint: Branch Rickey said his talent was
comparable to that of Ty Cobb.
Hint: For college, he attended Washington.
Hint: An experienced telegraph operator, he once overhead
it being tapped out that he was being put on waivers.
A. TILLIE
WALKER [SABR Bio]
- Walker tied Babe Ruth for the 1918 AL HR lead
w/11 ea. Gavvy Cravath of PHI led the NL that year
w/8.
- Although Walker led in OF assists w/30 & 27
in 1914 & 1915, the major league leaders in that category for those seasons
were Federal Leaguers Chet Chadbourne and Benny Kauff respectively—during the
only 2 years of the FL’s existence!
- Rickey said that it was Cobb’s effort that
separated the two players.
- Washington College Academy was a private
Presbyterian affiliate in Limestone, Tennessee.
It was a junior college in the early 20th century but
abandoned its college curriculum to focus on secondary education in the 1920s.
- Walker said that he had been present when his team
manager handed a message to a telegraph operator one night. Owing to telegraphy experience from a boyhood
job, Walker heard the Morse Code and realized that the telegram was requesting
waivers on him.
FCR - Lee Dembart, Hollywood, California
Incorrect
guesses: Al Simmons, Ken Williams, Gavvy
Cravath, Socks Seybold, Braggo Roth, Danny Murphy
SUNDAY — 08-Nov
Q. Which Arkansas native pitcher didn’t
make it to the majors until age 31 but retired with more than 100 wins and 100
saves?
Hint: His nickname played on his late start in
the big leagues, but he led the majors in winning percentage and shutouts one
season and three times received MVP votes.
Hint: He once pitched ten scoreless innings in
relief to win a game.
Hint: On his way to a complete-game victory one
afternoon at Fenway Park, a seagull who had overestimated his own strength,
lost grip of a fish and it landed on the mound behind the unsuspecting hurler.
A. ELLIS
KINDER [SABR Bio]
- Career
102 W, 104 S (though the saves were backward-measured since the Save was
not an official stat until 12 years after Kinder retired).
- His young teammates on the Browns called him
“Old Folks”. His .793 W-L%
and 6 ShO were MLB bests in 1949 and he was named The
Sporting News “Pitcher of the Year” and earned his highest MVP finish (5th).
He also received MVP votes in 1951 (7th))
and 1953 (11th).
- Kinder was pitching for SLB against his future
team when a three-pound smelt fell from the sky. Kinder picked it up by the tail, calmly
walked it over to the side and completed his victory over BOS. Newspapers speculated that his cool demeanor
in an awkward situation, in part, influenced the Red Sox to trade for Kinder
for the following offseason.
FCR - Jesse Asbury, Norman, Oklahoma
Incorrect
guesses: Dazzy Vance, Hoyt Wilhelm, Charlie
Hough, Sal Maglie
WEEKLY THEME – Players
of note who died in Tennessee.
Player Date died City
Alexander................... 02-Mar-79.................. Greeneville
Bridges........................ 19-Apr-68.................. Nashville
DeMontreville.............. 18-Feb-35.................. Memphis
Kinder.......................... 16-Oct-68.................. Jackson
Lucas........................... 09-Jul-86................... Nashville
McGraw...................... 05-Jan-04.................. Brentwood
Toney.......................... 11-Mar-53.................. Nashville
Walker........................ 21-Sep-59.................. Unicoi
Webb.......................... 23-May-65................. Jamestown
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Randall Chandler, Germantown, Tennessee
(After Alexander)
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