Sunday, December 3, 2023

2023-11-27 Lifetime World Series ERA under 1.00 with 30+ WS innings pitched

MONDAY  — 27-Nov

Q.  Who is the only player who pitched more than a thousand major league innings with a lifetime qualifying batting average over .300?

Hint: #1  He received a hero’s welcome in Japan.

Hint: #2  His many endorsement deals contributed to his already substantial baseball salary.

A.  BABE RUTH   [SABR Bio]

-  Ans.  Career IP = 1,221⅓.  BA = .342

-  #1  Ruth visited Japan in a 1934 exhibition tournament.  His career guaranteed his warm greeting in baseball-mad Japan.

-  #2  In 6 separate seasons, his annual salary with NYY was $52,000 which he liked because it meant that he was making $1,000 a week all year.

FCR -  Bill Henry, East Greenwich, Rhode Island

Incorrect guesses:  Walter Johnson, Bob Lemon, Shohei Ohtani, Lefty O’Doul, Al Spalding, Christy Mathewson

 

 

TUESDAY —— 28-Nov

Q.  Who is the only player to receive a higher percentage of Hall of Fame induction votes than Derek Jeter?

Hint: #1  He finished more major league games than Cy Young himself.

Hint: #2  His ERA+ is the best all-time.

A.  MARIANO RIVERA   [SABR Bio]

-  Ans.  Jeter’s 99.7% HOF vote in 2020 passed the previous mark received by Ken Griffey, Jr. in 2016, but fell short of Rivera’s 100%.

-  #1  Young’s 833 G finished include his 749 CG & 84 G he finished for someone else.  Rivera’s numbers come together a bit differently as he had 0 CG (He only started 10 G.), but he finished an incredible 952 G.

-  #2  Rivera’s 205 ERA+ might never be caught.

FCR -  Phil Hertz, Kamuela, Hawaii

Incorrect guesses:  Tom Seaver, Greg Maddux

 

 

WEDNESDAY  —— 29-Nov

Q.  Which BRTL moundsman was the first to rack up fifteen strikeouts in each of nine games?

Hint: #1  No one else has as many consecutive National League ERA titles as he has.

Hint: #2  Although he didn’t play in the minors, he was briefly a Bearcat.

A.  SANDY KOUFAX  [SABR Bio]

-  Ans.  Koufax struck out at least 15 in a G 8 X in the regular season &, historically, once in a WS G.  With 29 such games, Randy Johnson is now the all-time leader. 

-  #1  His season ERA was the best in the NL in each of his last 5 seasons, 3 of those years also leading the majors:  1962-66 (2.54, 1.88, 1.74, 2.04, 1.73).  No AL pitcher has ever strung together five consecutive ERA crowns.

-  #2  Koufax played basketball for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats… and baseball.

FCR -  Tom Galligan, Baton Rouge

Incorrect guesses:  Dazzy Vance, Randy Johnson, Lefty Grove, Clayton Kershaw, Greg Maddux

 

 

THURSDAY  — 30-Nov

Q.  Which former Cincinnati Reds player was the first person posthumously elected to the Hall of Fame?

Hint: #1  Of him, it was said that, “(He) talks like a Harvard graduate, looks like an actor, acts like a businessman and impresses you as an all-around gentleman.”

Hint: #2  No National League pitcher had a season with more wins in the Modern Era.

Hint: #3  Four times in seven seasons, he led the majors in shutouts.

A.  CHRISTY MATHEWSON   [SABR Bio]

-  Ans.  Mathewson was pitching for NYG & finished his career in the majors with a complete G W w/CIN on 04-Sep-1916(2).  While serving in the U.S. Army in France in WWI, Mathewson was accidentally gassed during a training exercise.  He spent the next 7 years battling tuberculosis & died 07-Oct-1925.  The 1st Hall of Fame ballot was in 1936 when he was elected as part of the inaugural class.  A teenager at Bucknell University, he was class president, played on the school's basketball & baseball teams & as a drop-kicker on their football team, was selected as a Walter Camp All-American in 1900.

-  #1  Quote is from Homer Croy, a Grantland Rice contemporary    .

-  #2  He won 37 G & 1.43 ERA led the NL in 1908.

-  #3  He led MLB w/SHO in 1902, 05, 07 & 08 (8, 8, 8, 11)

FCR -  Mark Pattison, Washington, DC

Incorrect guesses:  Amos Rusie, Jim Bottomley, Bucky Walters, Addie Joss, Dolf Luque Ewell Blackwell, Morgan Bulkeley, Eppa Rixey, Randy Johnson, Tom Seaver, Paul Derringer Dazzy Vance, Orlando Cepeda

 

 

FRIDAY — 01-Dec

Q.  In the history of the San Francisco/New York Giants, who accumulated the most career strikeouts for a left-handed pitcher?

Hint: #1  He was the career home run leader among all active pitchers when the designated hitter rule was fully adopted by the National League.

Hint: #2  This Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year developed an on-field, once eponymous, procedure.

A.  MADISON BUMGARNER   [B-R Bio]

-  Ans.  Bumgarner passed the legendary two-time MVP Carl Hubbell (1,677 K), finishing with 1,794.

-  #1  His 19 HR led all pitchers active at the end of the 2021 season.  His résumé includes a notable grand slam—one hit in the same G where his battery mate, Buster Posey, also hit a grand slam, Sunday afternoon at AT&T Park 13-Jul-2014.

-  #2  The action of clearing one’s nostril  by closing the other and expelling excess mucus , known in the vulgate as a “snot rocket”, was for a time in the 2010s called a “Bumgarner” for his mid‑game practice of it on national television including during the World Series.

FCR -  Michael Schneider, Wilmington, Delaware

Incorrect guesses:  Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, Steve Carlton Carl Hubbell, Warren Spahn

 

 

SATURDAY — 02-Dec

Q.  Who was the first left-handed pitcher to win three games in one World Series?

Hint: #1  Two years later, he led the league in ERA, shutouts and strikeouts.

Hint: #2  Of the qualifying pitchers active exclusively between World War I and expansion in 1961, no one had a lower career ERA (minimum: More rhan 1,500 innings).

A.  HARRY BRECHEEN   [SABR Bio]

-  Ans.  Brecheen won G #2, 6 & 7 of the 1946 WS.  Had there been and WS MVP award, it certainly would have gone to him.  Note that lefty Nip Winters won 3 G in the 1924 WS 22 years before Brecheen’s feat.

-  #1  Led NL in ERA (2.24), shutouts (7) & strikeouts (149) in 1948.  He also led in ERA+(182), FIP (2.47), WHIP (1.037), HR9 (0.2), SO9 (5.7), SO/W (3.04) & led  MLB in WAR for pitchers (8.7) !

-  #2  Brecheen’s career ERA is 2.92 for his 12 seasons.  He edged Carl Hubbell (2.98) for the honor.

FCR -  Tony Hughes, Woodbridge, Virginia

Incorrect guesses:  Whitey Ford, Mickey Lolich, Lefty Grove, Johnny Podres, Vida Blue, Babe Ruth, Sandy Koufax, Christ Mathewson, Hal Newhouser, Carl Hubbell

 

 

SUNDAY  — 03-Dec

Q.  Who was the losing pitcher in Babe Ruth’s first postseason game appearance?

Hint: #1  Four seasons later, he (not Ruth), pitching for the same team, won his 1st postseason G, going the distance & giving up no earned runs.

Hint: #2  An above-average hitter, he pinch-hit five times in his fourteen-year major league career.

A.  SHERRY SMITH   [SABR Bio]

-  Ans.  In the 14-inning G #2 of the 1916 WS, no relief pitchers were used.  Ruth pitched all 14, giving up only an IPHR in the 1st frame.  Brooklyn’s starter, Smith, matched him, surrendering only an RBI by Ruth in the 3rd.  However, with 1 out in B14, the Sawks cobbled together the winning R.

-  #1  In the 1916 Fall Classic, pitching for BRO, Smith got the assignment for G #3 & pitched 9 strong innings against CLE’s Hi Myers.

-  #2  Smith hit .233 w/6 HR, 10 triples, 24 doubles & 60 RBI as a batter during his career in the majors.

FCR -  Jason Winston, Riverside, California

Incorrect guesses: 

 

WEEK’S THEME – Lifetime World Series ERA under 1.00 with 30+ WS innings pitched

 

Name              ERA                             WS                   IP

Bumgarner...... 0.25.......................... 2010, 12, 14............. 36

Brecheen......... 0.83.......................... 1943., ‘44, ‘46......... 32⅔

Ruth................. 0.87.............................. 1916, ‘18................. 31

Smith............... 0.89.............................. 1916, ‘20.............. 30⅓

Koufax............. 0.95....................... 1959, 63, 65, ‘66.......... 57

Mathewson...... 0.97....................... 1905, ’11, ’12, ‘13..... 101⅔

Rivera.............. 0.99............ 1996, ’98, ’99, ‘00, ’01, ’03, ‘09........................ 36⅓

 

Bold = Won WS

Aqua = WS MVP

 

First Correct Respondent identifying themeRonn Tarter, Cary, North Carolina (after Koufax)

 

 

Incorrect theme guesses:

 

Tues    -  First Hallof Fame inductees

            -  Yankee pitchers in the Hall  of Fame

 

Wed     -  Pitchers who had immaculate innings in the World Series

-   Youngest players to be elected to the HOF

 

Thurs   -  Pitchers with post-season ERA under 1.00

 

Fri        -  Pitchers who pitched Game 7 of World Series on two days rest or less

-   First-ballot Hall of Famers

 

 

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