MONDAY — Dec 28
Q. Whom
did Alex Rodriguez tie for most home runs ever hit in the month of April when
he clobbered 14 in 2007?
Hint: He
still holds the National League record for most RBI in a season by a rookie.
Hint: He
is the only player in major league history to bat at least .300 with thirty or
more home runs and 100 or more runs batted in every one of his first ten
seasons.
Hint: He
is the all-time leader in a dubious category, but there’s little shame in it
since the next four players behind him are all first-round Hall of Famers.
A. ALBERT PUJOLS [B-R Bio]
- One year earlier Pujols hit 14 HR in Aril of 2006.
- 120 RBI in 2001
- It’s true. You could look it
up: Pujols. He hasn’t hit .300 in any of the 10 seasons
since.
- Pujols is the all-time leader in GIDP at 399. The next four are Cal Ripken (350),
Ivan Rodriguez (337), Hank Aaron (328) & Yaz (323).
FCR - Tony Hughes, Woodbridge, Virginia
Incorrect
guesses: Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Willie
Stargell, Hank Aaron, Mel Ott
TUESDAY — Dec
29
Q. Which
American League star was banned from his county fair as a youngster because he
won so much at the booth where bottles are to be toppled by thrown baseballs?
Hint: He
was intentionally walked three times during a high school state playoff game,
once with the bases loaded.
Hint: He
is the only American League player whose Rookie of the Year election was
unanimous and whose AL Most Valuable Player election voting two seasons
later, was also unanimous.
A. MIKE TROUT [B-R Bio]
- Mike Trout and his brother Tyler used to
attend the Cumberland County (New Jersey) Fair when they were younger. The fair, naturally, had games of skill, one
of which was the well-known game where fair goers throw baseballs at stacks of heavy
metal bottles to knock them down. Mike
played the game so often and was so good at it that fair officials banned him
because he kept winning all of their prizes.
- Cherry Hill East, the opponents, explained
their strategy. Their coach in an interview
with the local newspaper said: “…if we
want to move on we can’t let Mike Trout beat us, so we had talked that over and
that’s what it came down to, let’s just walk him every single time he comes up.” They did and they lost to Trout’s Millville
High, 11-5.
- ROY in 2012; MVP in 2014. Trout won additional MVPs in 2016 & 2019.
FCR - Alexis Voulgaris,
Old Greenwich, Connecticut
Incorrect guesses: Bob Feller, Ichiro Suzuki, Kyle Lewis, Cal
Ripken, Frank Robinson, Bryce Harper, Fred Lynn, Jose Canseco, Mickey
Mantle, Jose Abreu, Jeff Burroughs
WEDNESDAY
— Dec 30
Q. Who is the last National League pitcher
to strike out more than 300 batters in a season?
Hint: He is the National League’s all-time
leading pitcher in Adjusted ERA+. (= ERA
adjusted to reflect home ballpark and league environment.)
Hint: He was in the top five in Cy Young Award
voting for seven straight seasons.
Hint: In career Hits per Nine Innings Pitched, he
trails only Nolan Ryan and is just ahead of Sandy Koufax.
A. CLAYTON KERSHAW [B-R Bio]
- 301 K in 2015 for LAD. (In 2018, WSN’s Max
Scherzer had exactly 300 K.)
- His career number is 158, behind only Mariano
Rivera’s 205.
- Top 5 CYA voting = 2011-2017
- H/9 IP => Ryan 6.5553; Kershaw 6.7741;
Koufax 6.7916
FCR - Kevin Decker, Hillsborough,
New Jersey
Incorrect
guesses: Randy Johnson, Max Scherzer,
Curt Schilling, Steve Carlton, Greg Maddux, Justin Verlander, Pedro Martinez, J.R.
Richard
WEDNESDAY BONUS
— Dec 30
Q. Which All-Star first baseman has only
popped out to first base once in 7,595 career plate appearances?
Hint: He has thrice
been in the top three in MVP voting.
Hint: He won the
Tip O’Neill Award seven times in eight seasons.
A. JOEY VOTTO [B-R Bio]
- From a stat tracked by FanGraphs: On 17-April-2019, Dodger reliever Pedro Baez
finally induced Votto to pop out to first base.
Votto has only had 20 infield popups over his entire 14-year major
league career.
- MVP in 2010 (A single 1st-place
vote for Albert Pujols kept this vote from being unanimous.); Finished 2nd
in 2017 to Giancarlo Stanton in one
of the closest votes in MLB history; and finished 3rd behind Bryce
Harper’s unanimous vote in 2015. Votto has also received MVP votes an
additional 5 X.
- Won the Tip O’Neill 7 X 2010-2017, losing only to Justin Morneau in 2015.
FCR - Steven Glassman, Warminster, Pennsylvania
MIDWEEK BONUS
— Dec 30
Q. Which All-Star third baseman is married
to a police woman who was once the Playboy magazine “Playmate of the
Month:?
Hint: The Dirtbags
were the only four-year school to offer him a scholarship to play for them.
Hint: He was the Most Valuable Player of the famous
Cape Cod League.
Hint: Not everybody thinks that his hirsute demeanor
ameliorates his otherwise incontrovertible public demeanor.
A. EVAN LONGORIA [B-R Bio]
- Jaime Faith Edmondson married Longoria 31-Dec-2015. They have 2 children.
- Played
for the Long Beach State Dirtbags, which is the alma mater of Jason Giambi, Troy Tulowitzki and 5 additional players who became major league
All-Stars.
- Longo played 2nd base
for the Chatham
A's in the Cape
Cod League. After leading the league in home runs (9), RBI
(35), slugging percentage (.500) and extra-base hits (16), he was named the
league's Most Valuable Player.
FCR - David Skelton,
Woodway, Texas
Incorrect guesses: Justin
Turner, Aaron Boone, Mike Piazza, Kevin Youkilis, Mickey Vernon
THURSDAY — Dec 31
Q. Who has hit more career home runs in the
majors than any other Jewish player?
Hint: He helped his country reach the semi-finals
of the World Baseball Classic.
Hint: He was voted Rookie of the Year and later
won his league’s MVP, but by a more comfortable margin.
Hint: He was offered baseball scholarships by D-1
schools but chose to accept an academic scholarship instead.
A. RYAN BRAUN
[B-R Bio]
- Braun finished 2020 w/352 career HR. He passed Hank Greenberg in 2019.
- Team USA reached the semi-finals of the 2009
WBC with Braun on the team.
- Braun out-polled COL’s Troy Tulowitzki 80% to
79% for 2007 ROY honors. When he was named NL MVP in 2011, he had 388.0 MVP voting
points to Matt Kemp’s 332.0.
- Attended the U. of Miami on academic
scholarship, but also played baseball there.
FCR - Jeff Kallman,
Las Vegas
Incorrect
guesses: Hank Greenberg, Shawn Green,
Ian Kinsler, Kevin Youkilis, Alex Bergman
FRIDAY — Jan 01
Q. Who is called America’s First Baseman in
spite of being, according to one sportswriter, the most overlooked, ignored,
underappreciated and forgotten superstar in the game?
Hint: He hit more home runs off two-time Cy Young
Award winner Tim Lincecum than any other batter.
Hint: He helped lead his baseball team to the
national high school championship.
A. PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT [B-R Bio]
- MLB’ Terrence Moore writes here about Goldschmidt.
- Took Lincecum deep 7 times. Timmy was Goldy’s fave in this regard.
- Goldschmidt was a teammate of future
MLB pitcher Kyle
Drabek at The
Woodlands High School in Texas, helping the school’s team win the 2006
national high school championship. Drabek
was drafted in the 1st round of that year’s June MLB draft. Goldschmidt was taken in the 49th round! They were also later teammates on ARI, but
only for a single game.”
FCR - Preston
Salisbury, Starkville, Mississippi
Incorrect
guesses: Freddie Freeman, Ryan Howard,
Paul Konerko, Fred McGriff, Joey Votto, Anthony Rizzo, Todd Helton, Albert
Pujols
T.G.I.F. BONUS
— Jan 01
Q. Who is the youngest player to rack up a
total of 100 career home runs for the Colorado Rockies?
Hint: He gets his hair cut at an exclusive
Hollywood hairstylist called The Arena who gives an individualized haircut
called the Arena Do.
Hint: He helped his country win a World Baseball
Classic.
A. NOLAN ARENADO [B-R Bio]
- His 100th HR was 08-Aug-2016 off Cole Hamels.
Arenado was just 25 years, 3 months, and 23 days old at the time.
- There is no such place.
- The U.S. won the 2017 WBC despite Arenado’s
slashing just .161/.212/.290 with a tournament-worst 11 Ks and a “golden
sombrero” in the semi-final versus Japan.
FCR - Mike Eisenbath,
St. Charles, Missouri
Incorrect guesses: Larry Walker
SATURDAY
— Jan 02
Q. Which pitcher was the first in more than
ninety years to make four straight starts against the same team?
Hint: Late in his rookie season, he struck out
the first eight batters he faced, tying the major league record.
Hint: Only Tom Seaver, Justin Verlander and he
have won Rookie of the Year honors and more than one Cy young Award.
A. JACOB deGROM [B-R Bio]
- He faced MIA on 9-Aug, 19-Aug, 26-Aug & 31-Aug-2020, with no other appearances
in between, posting a 1.50 ERA with a tidy 36 Ks in 24 IP. NYG’s Freddie Fitzsimmons last did this in 1929. He squared off against CIN on 30-Jul, 02-Aug, 09-Aug & 13-Aug.
- On 15-Sep-2014, he fanned the first 8
Marlins he pitched to. P Jarred Cosart (career .121 BA)
broke the skein with a single to right. Record
originally set by Jim Deshaies of HOU in 1986.
- ROY in 2014; CYA in 2018 & 2019.
FCR - Jeff Cohen, Wantagh,
New York
Incorrect guesses: Fernando
Valenzuela, Kerry Wood, Zack Greinke, Roger Clemens
WEEKEND BONUS — Jan
02
Q. Who re-branded himself the same year
that his team did the same thing?
Hint: That same year, he hit a home run off a
slow-ball pitcher that left his bat at 122.4 MPH, the fastest exit
velocity to date.
Hint: No current player has signed a lengthier
contract than his.
Hint: He had two infield hits in his major league
debut game.
A. GIANCARLO STANTON [B-R Bio]
- In 2012 Stanton put “Michael” & “Mike” on
the back burner and began to use his given name “Giancarlo” full time. 2012 was the last year that the Marlins
claimed the whole state and presented themselves as the Miami Marlins.
- HR was off Colorado’s Jaime Moyer 21-May-2012, the fastest during the
ESPN Home Run Tracker Era (2006-2014). Thin
air didn’t help as the game was played in Miami. Since the advent of the MLB StatCast Era in
2015 (which measures the exit velocity of all types of hit balls, not just home
runs), Stanton has also posted the fastest EV—122.2 MPH on a ground ball single
01-Oct-2017.”
- Bryce Harper’s 13-year contract with PHI
matches Stanton’s for the longest contract in baseball history.
- Over his 11-year career, he’s averaged less
than ten infield hits per season
FCR - Jesse Asbury,
Norman, Oklahoma
Incorrect
guesses: Melvin Upton, Bryce Harper, Mookie
Betts, Bobby Bonilla, Carlos Gonzalez
SUNDAY — Jan 03
Q. Who was the first center fielder to win
the coveted Platinum Glove Award?
Hint: He is an active supporter of the LGBTQ
community.
Hint: His defensive prowess led to his nickname.
A. KEVIN KIERMAIER [B-R Bio]
- PG in 2015; MIN’s Byron Buxton won 2 years later. LF Alex Gordon has won twice.
- In the immediate aftermath of the horrible events that happened in Orlando at
Pulse night club, Kiermaier and his team of Tampa Rays honored victims and
their families by wearing “We are Orlando” shirts.
- Nicknamed “The Outlaw” for stealing so many
would-be hits. He didn’t exactly coin it
himself, but almost. (Article “The” omitted on his B-R page.)
FCR - Sarah Grynpas,
Toronto
Incorrect
guesses: Andre Dawson, Andruw Jones,
Yadier Molina, Matt Chapman, Justin Upton, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adam Jones, Byron
Buxton
WEEKLY THEME – Players
active in 2020 whose team career WAR scores are in their franchises’ Top 5
all-time, although in a couple of cases, they are now with a different
organization (…as presented in Baseball-Reference on each team’s main page. Just click below for each visual.)
Player Team Position
Arenado.................. Rockies............... 4th
Braun..................... Brewers.............. 3rd
deGrom..................... Mets................. 4th
Goldschmidt...... Diamondbacks......... 2nd
Kershaw................. Dodgers.............. 1st
Kiermaier.................. Rays................. 4th
Longoria.................... Rays................. 1st
Pujols.................... Cardinals............. 4th
Stanton................... Marlins............... 1st
Trout........................ Angels................ 1st
Votto......................... Reds................. 5th
First Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – [Nobody]
Incorrect theme guesses:
Tuesday - Most hits through 1,000 games
- Players who hit 250 (or more!) homers
before age 28
- Rookies with 30 HRs and BA over .300
- Active players with the highest career WAR
- People who will never win a World Series while
playing for the Angels
- Highest WAR for Position Players
Wed - Active players with a score over 100 on the
Hall of Fame Monitor
- Active 3-time major award winners
- Active WAR leaders
- Los Angeles Sports Greats of the 21st Century
- Best player at their position in 21st century
by WAR
- The active leaders in WAR
- 50 WAR in the 21st century
- Active players with career WAR above 50
Thursday- Top 50 draft picks
of the 21st century to win an MVP
Friday - I Am Second baseball roster
- Jewish MVPs
- Jewish All Stars
Sunday - Highest paid players in baseball
- Players who won both the ROY and MVP
If you know someone who would enjoy receiving Horsehide
Trivia, please refer them to this site:
This week’s quiz archived here: http://horsehidetriviA. blogspot.com/
Horsehide Trivia encourages independent research.
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