Q. Who was the
first player to have a two-home-run game twice in the same World Series?
Hint: He replaced
Rod Carew at first base when Carew injured his thumb.
Hint: Less than a
week into taking Carew’s place, he hit grand slams on consecutive days.
Hint: He hit only
one additional grand slam in the other 772 games of his major league career.
FCR - Duncan Crowl,
San Juan Capistrano, California
Incorrect guesses: Gene
Tenace, ,Kent Hrbek, Wally Joyner
TUESDAY
Q. Of the first
28 winners of the American League Rookie of the Year Award, who was the
youngest?
Hint: He retired
before his tenth season when it was discovered that he had crushed vertebrae as
a result of a childhood football injury.
Hint: Even before
he joined the majors, he planned to replace a player at his position whose Hall
of Fame career was winding down.
- Won the award a few days shy of his 22nd
birthday. It took until Eddie Murray in
1977 to find a younger AL ROY.
- Retired before the 1966 season when 3 crushed
vertebrae were found.
- He had interest from many MLB teams, but
really wanted to be a Yankee and figured that SS Rizzuto was on the downside of
his career.
FCR - Mike Rainey, South Jordan, Utah
Incorrect guesses: Fred Lynn, Gene Tenace, Roy Smalley, Bill
Skowron, Gil McDougald, Curt Blefary, Tom Tresh, John Castino, Jackie
Jensen, Lou Whittaker, Mark Fidrych, Bob Grim, Tony Conigliaro,
WEDNESDAY
Q. Who was the first Oakland A’s player to
win a Gold Glove Award?
Hint: He once tied a Hall of Fame catcher for the
league lead in triples. By a
considerable margin, it was the career high for each of them in that category.
Hint: He hit the first home run ever in Seattle’s
King Dome.
- GG 1974-76
- Both he & Carlton Fisk hit 9 triples in 1972. Rudi had as many as 6 one other season. Fisk topped out at 5 in his next-best triples
season.
FCR - Tom Galligan, Baton Rouge
Incorrect
guesses: Bob Stinson, Bert Campaneris,
Rick Monday, Bill North, Mike Heath, Catfish Hunter, Alfred Griffin
MIDWEEK BONUS
Q. Who was namesake to a comet?
Hint: He was their manager when a franchise won its
first World Series title.
Hint: He hit a home run in each of his first two
World Series games… of his 2nd World Series.
Hint: He played only 164 in the minor leagues and
was the league MVP by the end of his 4th year in the majors. It was not the only MVP he would win.
Hint: Of his 1,452 games in the in the field majors,
he played 1,451 at catcher.
- Mickey Mantle, “The Commerce Comet” was named
for Cochrane.
- Played for PHA 1925-33, MVP in ’35. Played for DET 1934-37, MVP in ‘34*. [Cochrane was 1st in the voting,
but teammates finished 2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th
& 14th.]
FCR - Mike Anderson, Maumelle, Arkansas
Incorrect
guesses: Roy Campanella, Mike Scioscia,
Yogi Berra
THURSDAY
Q. Whose three triples in the first-ever
modern World Series put him only tied for second?
Hint: He worked both sides of Boston during his
career.
Hint: He claimed to have 23 siblings.
Hint: In spite of being a devout churchgoer, he
was known for womanizing and was once threatened by a jilted lover intent on
shooting him.
Hint: He ended his career as player/manager after
just 40 games.
- He tied teammates Buck Freeman ad Freddy
Parent, but Tommy Leach had 4 3b’s for the Pirates. Boston, however, prevailed.
- Played 4 years for BSN and 6 years for BOS. Now the Braves and Red Sox, both team had
different names during his day.
- He was reported to have paramours in cities
around both leagues.
- Committed suicide by drinking acid during
spring training of 1907.
FCR - Paul Nielsen, Bowie, Maryland
Incorrect
guesses: Buck Freeman, Jimmy Collins, Tommy
Leach
FRIDAY
Q. Who holds the record for most career runs-batted-in
in All-Star competition?
Hint: He became a spokesman for the U.S.’s
largest retailer after his retirement as an outfielder?
Hint: He maintains a presence at an airport in
Arizona.
Hint: He made big impressions at All-Star games a
half century apart.
- 12 AS RBI
- Sear & Roebuck took advantage of his fame
and his love of fishing to sell its fishing gear and other sporting goods.
- He has been partially cryonically preserved at
a private company adjacent to the Scottsdale Airport.
- He famously homered off Rip Sewell high-arc
eephus pitch in the 1946 mid-summer classic and was brought onto the field in
Boston before the 1999 ASG and was surrounded by adoring major leaguers. Both game in Fenway Park.
FCR - Robert Reuther, Pittsburgh
Incorrect
guesses: Willie Mays
SATURDAY
Q. What future Milwaukee infielder labored
for three years as a backup for the Dodgers before winning a starting position?
Hint: As a starter he was first or second on his
team in WAR four out of the next five seasons.
Hint: On his next team, he placed second and
third in WAR in his three seasons there, after the last one garnering him the
only MVP votes of his career.
Hint: He once homered in the 20th
inning of a game to put his team ahead for good.
- Backup for LAD 1962-64. Was a starter for the Senators 1965-69. Their
record was not as good as the Dodgers’.
- For WAS he led in WAR in 1967-69 and was 2nd
in 1965, topping such notable teammates as Frank Howard, Mike McCormick and
Camilo Pascual.
- 2nd in WAR on the 1971 CAL and 3rd
there in 1972, landing a humble 26th of the AL players receiving MVP
votes
that year.
FCR - Kevin Mix, Chicago
Incorrect
guesses: Joe Adcock, Eric Young, Sr.
SUNDAY
Q. Who received the first baseball
scholarship at the university now reigning as basketball champions?
Hint: He replaced the man who was the first
National Leaguer to hit a grand slam in the World Series.
Hint: His career as Red Sox manager was
scandalously brief. (Maybe HE would have
taken Pedro out?)
Hint: He was the first player to collect four
hits in a game in the Kingdome.
- Received the first scholarship at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville, his hometown. UVA won the NCAA basketball crown in April
this year.
- He was hired and replaced as BOS manager during spring
training 2002. He was replaced as
manager by Grady Little.
FCR - Mike Sparks Sarasota
Incorrect
guesses: Don Zimmer, Joe Kerrigan, Dave
Wallace, Butch Hobson, Bobby Valentine, Grady Little
WEEKLY THEME – Notable
players who whose last career at-bats were home runs.
Name HR Date Career HRs Off
The complete
list was compiled by Bill Deane with assistance from Bob McConnell,
Dave Smith and David Vincent.
First
Correct Respondent to Identify Theme – Patrick Ray, Paradise Valley, Arizona
(after Kubek!)
Incorrect theme
guesses:
Tuesday - Players
with four or more home runs in a single World Series in a losing effort.
- Ballplayers
named after famous people.
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