TRIVIA 2020

22/30, made some dumb choices

https://www.mlb.com/news/active-home-run-leaders-quiz

27/30

a couple of blind guesses that got lucky w/some of those rebuilding teams

24

lol marlins

24/30. Got the Jays one right, although I had to think about it a bit!

25/30, a few lucky guesses--missed the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Mets, Rays, and Rangers. Yeah, the Jays was hard.

22/30

i got the cardinals question wrong

;(

26... perfect until the marlins and then STL NYM and TEX fucked me up

25/30. I mostly just went with whoever’s been on the team longest.

things i didn't know about macho man randy savage:

Baseball career
Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals organization as a catcher out of high school.[15] He was placed in the minor leagues to develop, where he mostly played as an outfielder[16] in the St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds farm systems.[5] Savage was 18 when he began playing minor league baseball; one of his teammates on the 1971 Gulf Coast League Cardinals was Larry Herndon who was also his roommate.[15] Savage would swing a bat into a hanging car tire as a regular training exercise in order to strengthen his hands and make sure he utilized his legs during swings. The technique was so effective that Herndon adopted it and used it during his own career as a baseball coach.[15] Savage injured his natural (right) throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead. Savage's last season was 1974, when he played for the Tampa Tarpons.[16] He played 289 games in four minor league seasons, batting .254 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs.[15]

Oooooooooh yeeeeeeeaaahh

Got this from a FB baseball group--I didn't know the answer, but I have a feeling it's a well-known question.

Who played for both the Pilots and the Mariners in their first games?

hint: His son played ~1.5 seasons for the Mariners as well.

You've got it. Also won an ERA title with a not-Seattle team.

I'm trying to remember him in Ball Four, and I think I can just vaguely recall one or two mentions.

The RadioShack (!!!) Trivia Question of the 2001 All-Star Game was: "Who are the 3 players still active from Cal Ripken's first All-Star Game in 1983?"

Can you get it?

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) April 1, 2020

I guessed 2... but full disclosure I had to check that one of them ever made an all-star game and sure enough that was his only appearance.

No idea on the 3rd, even after scanning the rosters!

rickey, rickey and rickey

Yeah, the other one was my guess as he had a juggernaut career spanning 4 decades.

there have been 4 teams which had 3 different position players put up 7+ fWAR in a single season. what are they?
(hint: obviously one of these teams is the cardinals. sorry. i can also give you the decades for each of these 4 seasons, if wanted)

One of them must be a Gehrig-Ruth team, since there were so many seasons where those two did it.

For the Cardinals, I'll guess it's a Pujols-Rolen-Edmonds team, although I'm not sure if there was a season where they were together.

Man, I'm good.

I don't think the Big Red Machine ever extended beyond Morgan/Bench, although Rose may have edged over 7.0 somewhere in there, so that's my third guess. Fourth would be the 2001 Mariners.

was thinking one would be griffey/a-rod/edgar but gar only put up 7 once, before a-rod debuted

before his first full season, rather

those three did combine for 24.8!!!!!!!!!!!!! in 96 though

didn't happen with the killer b's or bash bros, though biggio and bagwell both had 8+ in 97

Not any of those Reds teams either...I don't think the '98 Yankees; they were deep, but I don't think they had huge star seasons in their everyday lineup. Maybe one of the A's teams from around 1930?

the 27 yankees are incredible for this - ruth/gehrig/combs combined for 32.3........ and combs was still under 7

Oh--then I was wrong about the '27 Yankees. Combs is at 7.0 on Baseball Reference...and I see now the question has to do with Fangraphs.

spoiler alert

it did happen 2 years later - ruth/gehrig/lazzeri did it with exactly 10 fewer WAR than the 27 trio (7.8/7.3/7.2)

what bums

Hey, trivia guy, we need two more answers.

This gave me much to ponder on my morning walk. Possibility, which I will check after posting--wondering if Bonds/Kent/fluke-season Rich Aurilia were in alignment?

Online version is Thursday night. Register here: https://t.co/HOspy6gXGu pic.twitter.com/lPy66C1Pnp

— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) April 19, 2020

see thread for example questions

(xpost) No on Bonds/Kent/Aurilia, at least on Baseball Reference. '29 Yankees, '04 Cardinals...

The St. Louis hint makes me think it's a red-herring, like the Blues or something.

errr Browns

Hey, trivia guy, we need two more answers.

shit, sorry! i thought i had this thread bookmarked, so when it didn't come up i assumed no one cared about the trivia question. OOPS!

you've got 2 of the 4:

1929 Yankees (Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri)
2004 Cardinals (Rolen, Edmonds, Pujols)

the other two are much more difficult. i'll give you two clues, once for each:

1) post-war 1940s league champion featuring a top 10 joe posnanski player
2) while mantle and maris were hogging the attention, this team with a pair of slugging outfielders was...also playing (alex trebek i am not)

1) post-war 1940s league champion featuring a top 10 joe posnanski player

evil hint, had to figure this one out through blunt force

and i got the last one, mostly through cheating, but i've never really been good with the early 60s.

None of the Williams-Red Sox, Musial-Cardinals, or Mantle/Maris-Yankees teams check out on Baseball Reference.

those were my first two thoughts

the second one is 1961 but not expressly mantle/maris, as hinted

and only one of the 2 teams passes the threshold in rWAR

Okay, now I get it--'61 Tigers.

Going through Fangraphs is too much work; is the other one a Williams or Musial team?

nope!

it's really hard. it would be astounding if you got this (or anyone else).

all three of the players' first names are three letters long.

and the legendary top 10 player was a 42-year old at the beginning of his MLB career

Ah

Joe/Ken/Lou...?

i'd never even heard of ken keltner

Me neither

1) post-war 1940s league champion featuring a top 10 joe posnanski player

That's what threw me: you don't say so, but I mistakenly assumed the Posnanski guy was one of the three players.

Keltner's probably most famous now for Bill James's Keltner HOF test.

http://www.cooperstowncred.com/statistics-glossary/keltner-list/

the satchel paige clue was kind of evil, sorry

i've never really been good with the early 60s.

same here

I know Ken Keltner bcz he made a defensive play said to have ended DiMag's 56-game hitting streak

On August 20, 1938, as part of a publicity stunt by the Come to Cleveland Committee, Indians' catchers Frankie Pytlak and Hank Helf successfully caught baseballs dropped by Keltner from Cleveland's 708-foot-tall (216 m) Terminal Tower.[3] The 708-foot (216 m) drop broke the 555-foot, 30-year-old record set by Washington Senator catcher Gabby Street at the Washington Monument.[2]

I know that story but forgot KK was part of it

the marlins have thrown six no-hitters

wtf

This is probably already a well-known question, and the answer should be obvious because the wrong answer is too obvious: who was the first major leaguer to hit 66 home runs?

you mean the first to hit 66 home runs in a single season? so...there was sammy sosa in 1998 of course. but is it answer mark mcgwire (who hit 70 that year), if he reached 66 home runs first? or is the trick trick question that it was sammy sosa, if he hit 66th before mcgwire did? i don't remember

^posted from my computer while logrolling down stairs^

sosa held onto 66 for 45 minutes before mcgwire caught him

Yes. I'd completely forgotten that--Sosa had the lead for an hour. (Got that from the ESPN documentary.)

I'd estimate that the HR leaders this year will have less than 23 HRs for the season. Trivia: When is the last time that happened? (Hint: it was a tie)

i think i'm wrong, but is it 1919? my reasoning is that 1920 is the year that babe ruth really broke out in a monstrous way (54 HR?) and the rest of baseball hadn't quite caught up yet. but maybe the year before that?

after that. to clarify, I mean in either league

my revised guess is 1981!

Yeah, the AL leaders only had 21 that year. Strike season, yada yada.

Armas OAK 22
Evans BOS 22
Grich CAL 22
Murray BAL 22

Grich did it in the least appearances with only 325 AB

most HR 60 or fewer games

Player Year Games Team HR

Matt Olson 2017 59 OAK 25
Gary Sánchez 2016 53 NYA 20
Aristides Aquino 2019 56 CIN 19
Rhys Hoskins 2017 50 PHI 18
Troy Glaus 2004 58 ANA 18

Matty Olse! I love that

So which uni numbers have seen the most value in MLB history? Uni numbers, ranked.

(wear 13, cowards)

MORE-> https://t.co/TxU2SrJP1j pic.twitter.com/SDtosahjQm

— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) July 16, 2020

why are there 2 points at zero? did someone generate 4 WAR with a uni that said 0.1?

0 and 00 are counted as different numbers

I Want To Believe

https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/eddie-gaedel-jersey.jpg

damn you ottovino

Players to homer in consecutive games for the same team with more than two years between them:

1. Hank Greenberg (1941-45)*
2. Joe DiMaggio (1942-46)*
3. Harry Chiti (1952-55)*
4. Yoenis Céspedes (2018-20)

*Gap was due to military service.

Source: STATS, Inc.

— Anthony DiComo (@AnthonyDiComo) July 25, 2020

The starting 4 infield of Vlad Guerrero Jr., @doinitBIGgio23, @BoFlows, and @travis_shaw21 consists of all sons of former @MLB players. This is just the 2nd time in big league history this has happened (Van Slyke, Hairston Jr., De Jesus Jr., Gordon on 6/1/12).

h/t: @EliasSports

— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) July 25, 2020

just came across ken reitz, a third baseman who hit .260/.290/.359 over 1300+ games, primarily with the cardinals in the 70s. career bWAR: -3.1

best tidbit is that he was the starting 3B for the NL all-stars in 1980 -- a season in which he was worth -0.6 bWAR -- ahead of ray knight and mike schmidt, who hit .286/.380/.624 with 48 homers that year to win the first of his three MVPs. reitz went 0-for-2 and schmidt never got in the game.

i remember Reitz, and possibly ridiculing my Cardinal fan cousin re his abilities

I'm buying some Sports Illustrateds from a friend to fill gaps; who was the first baseball player on the cover in the '80s?

Either Pops or The Cobra...?

You're close in that Stargell shared the last cover of the '70s with Terry Bradshaw (co-Sportsmen of the Year). It was a player who was like turning the page from the previous decade; he would be a name all through the '80s, and provided one of the decade's two or three signature moments.

rickey on his way to stealing 100?

He got his first cover in '82.

Nolan Ryan?

Not Ryan...If you think of the decade's two or three most famous moments, you should get it.

george brett

bill buckner through the legs
the pine tar game
kirk gibson 1988 WS homer

?

ozzie smith's NLCS HR in 1985 ("go crazy folks, go crazy!" call by jack buck) is a famous one in cardinals lore, but i don't think it surpasses any of those in terms of fame

Has to be a rookie Gibson. I can’t imagine Buckner on the cover.

Gibson.

KM's three signature moments are exactly the three I had in mind--so it comes down to Gibson or Brett.

Bizarre thing I found out: in '81, SI used an identical Brett/Schmidt cover twice.

http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/tAUAAOSwMnJc9b8y/s-l500.jpg

Those aren't alternate covers...okay, duh, I just realized; that was the strike year.

81 strike broke my heart. That is the last run of the Big Red Machine, they somehow had best record in baseball and missed the playoffs. That's so totally Cincy.

You'd think this would be easy, but my first four guesses were wrong: who are the four players who hit HR at 19 and after turning 40? (From a FB group.)

Of the four, only one is obvious.

hmm

guesses:

alex rodriguez

not sure if they played when they were 19:
ted williams
barry bonds

not sure if they played when they were 40:

mel ott

A-Rod is the easy one. (So easy, he wasn't one of my guesses...) The other three, no.

yarg, i missed another kind of obvious one that i almost mentioned (an old schooler)

Bonds went to college (ASU) so nope.

I was thinking Rickey, Hornsby & Cobb but those are way too obvious so I really have no idea.

I had no idea A-Rod was still playing at age 40!

Meaning you checked? Cobb, yes, the only one I got right--I actually don't he's obvious. My joke on FB was that those were the only two homers he hit, spaced 21 years apart.

"don't think"

barry, mel ott?

No to both.

A-Rod, Cobb, two more (neither in the HOF).

wait, neither one in hall of fame?

...oh shit! i was thinking babe ruth was an answer, because he played when he was 19. but he didn't hit a HR that year.

Somewhat misleading--one may end up there. (The other a Veteran's Committee-type guy whose moment has passed.)

ok, I have some time now and I was pretty damn close with my incorrect guesses!:

Rickey: first HR came at age 20, last at 44
Hornsby: first HR came just after his 20th birthday (+17 days), last at age 41

one of my other guesses was close too (KGriffeyJr), but just checked and he had no HRs in his final season as a 40 year old.

I still have no idea who the other ones are.

One of my incorrect guesses, Kaline, was close at the other end: hit his first HR at 18, his last two months shy of 40.

Also guessed Aaron: last HR at 42, first one a little over two months past his 20th birthday.

Beltre, another incorrect guess, wasn't quite as close: first at 19, but his last was seven months shy of his 40th. My fourth, Yaz, wasn't close: 44 (!) when he hit has last, but his first didn't come till he was almost 22.

julio franco?

should have been andruw but alas

Someone else guessed him...no. I'm going out for a bit; let me know if you want the last two (or, it's searchable on Google).

The other two (the only time I will ever use this): Rusty Staub, Gary Sheffield. The second might make you think "Yeah, of course"; I doubt anyone would think of the first.

That was a good question. Had me sifting through my memory banks for sure.

Most HR under each president

Biden: tied at 0
Trump: Trout 134
Obama: Pujols 272
W Bush: A-Rod 364
Clinton: Griffey 351
HW Bush: McGriff 137
Reagan: Schmidt 259
Carter: Schmidt 152
Ford: Schmidt 87
Nixon: Aaron 218
Johnson: Mays 181
Kennedy: Killebrew 139
Eisenhower: Mathews 313

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) January 20, 2021

i was hoping, and phew:

Most HR under each president:

Truman: Kiner 294
FDR: Foxx 353
Hoover: Ruth 182
Coolidge: Ruth 289
Harding: Ruth 119
Wilson: G Cravath 106
Taft: F Schulte 47
Roosevelt: H Davis 59
McKinley: B Freeman 46
Cleveland (both): S Thompson 85
Harrison: H Stovey 51

Who will lead Biden’s?

— Jeremy Frank (@MLBRandomStats) January 20, 2021

Juan Soto

That's neat...Best matches: Ruth/Hoover (roaring '20s), Griffey/Clinton (harder to explain...dot.com boom, home-run boom). Weirdest pairing: McGriff/H.W. Bush.

Crime Dog : War Criminal

My guess for Biden: Acuna

I found this fun, hope you will, too!

Longest gap between plate appearances in batter vs pitcher matchup since 1990:

6,233 days: Gary Sheffield vs Roger Clemens

Faced each other on July 25, 1990 (MIL/BOS)

Next time they faced off? Aug. 18, 2007 (DET/NYY)

(h/t @EliasSports)

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) February 10, 2021

Interleague didn't start until 1997

...so I feel like that anything prior and after should be treated as Different Times.

Fact is still fun motion denied

this was posted to reddit, thought i'd share here:

There's a group of six players who all have something that only they have in common. I'll give you five of them, you try to answer with who the sixth player is and what it is they share.

Hank Aaron
Barry Bonds
Rickey Henderson
Mickey Mantle
Jim Thome

First thought was "power/speed?" Nope, Thome doesn't fit. "Late-career accomplishment?" Mantle doesn't fit.

so - if it helps the 6th person is Lance Berkman

I looked, still no idea.

Has to do with home runs

I feel like there are some edge cases having to do with switch-throwers but I'm too lazy to look up the #s rn lol.

You’re close!

Haha, no I saw the answers but felt like the list was incomplete because it doesn't include such edge cases^^.

I looked at the Reddit thread. I could have sat here for five years and not figured that out--an easy concept, but the kind of lateral thinking I'm not great at.

I’m terrible of keeping track of who’s right or left and would have never gotten it.

I was doing one of those Sporacles (still around)...Only franchise without a 200-hit guy?

Must be one of the more recent expansion teams ... Diamondbacks?

Yes, but not them--Luis Gonzalez had ~210 hits one year.

That one was so popular, let me try another. It's a long answer...Posnanski has a piece today that lists the HR leader for each letter in the alphabet. As an example, the easy first one: A = Aaron.

If you try it, here's a link to the piece where you can check your answers:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/all-time-homer-leaders-by-letter?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

i am ready to humiliate myself, going with my gut, no googling, 5 minutes or less

B is for bonds
Canseco
Dimaggio?
E
F
Gehrig
Hodges
I
Jackson
Killebrew
L
Mays
N
Ortiz
Pujols
Q
Rodriguez
Sosa
Thome
U
V
W
X
Yount
Zobrist

ugh, so many obvious names now that i look at the list, haha.

zero N position players in the hall of fame!

There's a good joke in Posnanski's piece having to do with your 'R' guess.

xpost

lol at me getting R wrong, too. 5-year-old me is astonished that i was wrong on this

reading through the piece now

Having said that, your guesses are better than mine would have been.

full circle, speaking of N's not in the hall of fame, I think graig nettles might be a good example of a guy who played with too many different teams

i guess, looking at his (fangraphs) stats more closely, a lot of value was derived from his superior defense at 3B, while the offense was merely consistently above average. HOF voters seem to discount that pretty commonly

Nettles did play for a lot of teams, more than I would have thought (6). Not sure if that'd be a factor with him, though; his identification with the Yankees is pretty strong (and his years there far outnumber anywhere else).

When Tracer posted something on another thread suggesting he'd always identify McGwire with the A's, I was surprised when I checked and saw that, indeed, such a high percentage of his games were played in Oakland (1329/1874). Shows how much he did, and how much press he got, during his St. Louis tenure.

re: that list my only humiliation is that I couldn't think of anyone for W

I'm just glad you guessed the right Willie M. for M.

(And I don't mean McCovey...)

there are many good M options, it turns out

mccovey, mcgwire, mantle...I thought about Murray and Mathews too!

musial too, as the link points out

i think harmon killebrew was kind of my grade school baseball flex. no one i knew had any clue who he was. i'd be like, "yeah, 573 home runs. that's FIFTH all time", and they would just kick me in the balls so hard

My favourite thing in the whole piece, right up there with Prince and Cecil tied in HR and Griffey/Musial's birthplace:

H: Ryan Howard, 382; Frank Howard, 382

This is definitely my favorite letter. It thrills me that two gigantic men named Howard, playing in different times and different places, climbed and climbed and, in the end, met at the top of Mount H.

“D” surprised me!

My reflexive guess was DiMaggio too, even though I knew he was under 400.

For what it's worth, the previous answer was the Rays: Aubrey Huff's 198 hits is the most in franchise history. Here's the Sporacle:

https://www.sporcle.com/games/smyth/mlb_hit_leaders_by_team

I missed five or six.

Oops, wrong Sporacle:

https://www.sporcle.com/games/Ben/ss_team_hits_leaders

Jesus the barves have a record on the books from 1894!!!

Haven't had a chance to try/read, but Joe. P's most-pitcher-wins by letter:

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/most-wins-by-letter?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The three 300-game winners I guessed were all wrong.

I was a surprise!

the letter "I"

i was a surprise, it's a me, mario!

I love the gap between #1 and #2 for the Ys.

trying to think of who would be #2 there...chris young? it would help if i could think of a single non-Young Y pitcher.

YES

That's amazing...I probably would have guessed Yastrzemski.

i got 12 of those. very proud of getting "I"!

one to ponder:

what was the last team that had more triples than home runs in a full season?

had to be pre-deadball...
maybe the Cobb/Crawford/Heilmann(? not sure if all three played together) Tigers?

post-deadball! i was kinda shocked

it's post-expansion, even

like post-most-recent-expansion?! i might have guessed the 80's at some point. i know there was one year where Rollins and Reyes both had a shitload of 3b, but i don't see either of those teams having fewer HRs. just trying to think of modern teams that were known for speed and not-much power... Royals from about7 years ago comes to mind...

this is what i'm doing now instead of sleeping

ok, post...1977 expansion

KM's question, so I'm going to guess the '85 Cardinals.

ah 80's! that's a good guess. put it up on the board!

Close, but not quite: 59 triples, 87 home runs.

They had more wins (101) than HR, that might be unusual.

sorry for trivia overload, but i just learned the SFG almost moved to toronto! while reading up on h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Major_League_Baseball_expansion :

On January 9, 1976, the National Exhibition Company, owners of the San Francisco Giants, established an agreement in principle to sell the franchise to a consortium owned by Labatt Brewing Company, Vulcan Assets, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce for C$13,250,000.[11] The Giants had failed to repay a US$500,000 loan from Major League Baseball, and had experienced declining revenues since the relocation of the Kansas City Athletics to Oakland in 1968.[11] Of the sale price, US$5,250,000 was to be placed in escrow to "meet certain possible obligations with respect to the transaction", especially the lease of Candlestick Park, which would expire in 1994.[11]

The new owners of the Giants, led by Don McDougall, would move the team to Toronto pending approval from the other eleven National League teams, which would be sought on January 14 at the Winter Meetings of General Managers in Phoenix. The team would be known as the Toronto Giants[11] and would begin play during the 1976 Major League Baseball season. The deal was scuttled by a Superior Court of California, which issued an injunction blocking the sale on February 11, 1976; the injunction was requested by the city of San Francisco on January 10.[13] The National Exhibition Company eventually accepted a purchase proposal from Bob Lurie in a deal brokered by George Moscone, the Mayor of San Francisco.[13]

The American League provided an opportunity for a Toronto franchise, and two groups bid for the rights to franchise ownership in the city.[10] Ultimately, an ownership group named Metro Baseball Ltd. consisting of Labatt Brewing Company, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Imperial Trust won the bid for a franchise fee of C$7,000,000.[7][14][15][12]

xpost

clemenza, your instincts are good regarding the cardinals, as i learned about this Triples > HR season while watching this 1991 game tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uie2bTBErw8

but no, it's not the cardinals. the 1991 cardinals team did come close to achieving the feat, however, with 53 Triples and 68 Home Runs

i'm going to be very sad when i run out of random old baseball games on youtube to watch

answer to the triples > HR question:

1979 astros

I was sure it was the '85 or '87 Cards, and if not them, one of those late 70's or early 80's Royals teams? I wasn't close to thinking of the right answer, but having seen it then of course it makes perfect sense.

shows how much has changed, i guess. 85/87 cards were too early for me to have but the fuzziest memories of, but i remember the (also extremely weak) '91 cardinals so well, watching every single game i could. now, it's kind of unfathomable for a team to have more triples than HRs.

just checking for 2021, the highest ratio of triples to homeruns was...

overall for baseball (2021), there were 671 triples and 5,944 HRs, for a 0.113 ratio.

the pirates came in highest (or worse), with 35 triples vs 124 HRs (.282). ARI was next highest, with 31/144/.215.
on the other side, the blue jays had only 13 triples vs 262 HRs, putting them at 0.050.

Checked a few early HOF'ers (Cobb, Speaker, Sam Crawford) and, as expected, they all had more career triples than HR--many more. I suppose that, on a timeline of when they played, Ruth was the first HOF'er with the reverse.

i know it's impossible, but i wish there was crystal clear, HD footage of one game of 1890s-era baseball. the spitball, drinking and smoking, the murder of the home plate umpire, everything

Rod Carew has to be the last HOF'er with more triples than HR (119-92). Gwynn, Boggs, and even Ichiro all had more HR.

Gwynn and Boggs weren't know for speed tho. Thinking to the "hall of very good", no one comes to mind for me. i checked Lofton and he was also HR>3b

tim raines
113 triples, 170 HRs

oh wait, I KNOW

THE WIZARD

69 triples, 28 HRs (and every single one of those the best moment of the day)

Great! Should have thought of him. He'll surely be the last, unless there's some sea-change. My first guest, by the way, was only half-a-century off: Paul Waner, who retired in '45. Then I found Nellie Fox, then Carew.

"He'll surely be the last"

see, i doubt that! i think of billy hamilton, especially - someone who would be so valuable, considering his speed and defense, that he could be HOF worthy - if ONLY HE COULD HIT AT ALL! but i can easily imagine someone like him coming along that is an above-average contact hitter with zero power and just flies around the bases

however, it should be noted that i'm always rooting for this kind of player to exist, even among minor league prospects i follow. i think it's the most identifiable kind of player to me

or relatable, i meant

juan pierre: 94 triples, 18 homers

Brett Butler 131:54

Willie Wilson: 147:41

but hall of famers, no

though i guess butler and wilson came a lot closer than i thought!

I don’t think either got many votes.

That's it--there'll be lots of players who do it, but I just don't see anyone who'll be HOF-bound. If you don't hit at least a few homers today--10+ a season, say--you have to do a whole bunch else well to keep a job: hit for a high average, get on base a lot, not strike out, steal bases, play a key defensive position well. To end up in the Hall, you'd have to do them exceptionally well.

Having said that, Ichiro came very close: 96 triples, 117 HR. If his career hadn't partly been spent in the PED era, maybe those numbers would be reversed.

with ichiro, there's also the 1992 (?! - amazing to imagine him playing pro in 1992, at 18) to 2000 stats, where he was hitting 15-25 HRs a year while usually putting up around 5 triples or so per year.

also one sort of gets the sense that ichiro *could* have hit more homers if he'd wanted to -- he just didn't bother

i mean, not really, but still

They always said the same thing about Carew and Boggs, too (don't remember specifically hearing it about Gwynn). Carew had a couple of years where he hit 14, Boggs had his big year with 24 (a huge HR year across both leagues, it should be pointed out), and Gwynn got up to 16 and 17 late in his career (same caveat: outset of the PED era). Who knows?

I’m trying to think of what active players have succeeded the best with a 3b>hr ratio. Jarred Dyson is the only guy that comes to mind, but I’m sure there’s a better example.

Posted those two questions in a FB group, and someone responded with this piece:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29222915/tim-kurkjian-baseball-fix-hard-believe-history-triple

In 1943, Stan Musial had 20 triples and 18 strikeouts.

By the way: I was looking at the '79 Astros, and they didn't have a single player hit 10 or more HR. Has that been done since? They had a winning record, too. And two players who were at the opposite ends of player evaluation in the earliest Abstracts: Jose Cruz (sabermetric hero) and Enos Cabell (sabermetric villain). And, except for walks--a big "except," I know--their '79 batting lines were virtually the same.

Jayson Nix was a blue jay?!

Most times retired by each given fielder, MLB history:

𝙱. 𝚁𝚘𝚋𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚘𝚗
𝙱𝚘𝚐𝚐𝚜 𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝

𝙰𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚒𝚘 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚎
𝙿𝚞𝚓𝚘𝚕𝚜 𝚁𝚘𝚜𝚎 𝚈𝚊𝚣
𝙰𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚗

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) March 10, 2022

the wording of this is a little unclear, but for example, this means that albert pujols has hit into more outs to 3B than any other player. interesting that hank aaron popped out to catcher so much! (also, of course, he had a hell of a lot of PAs, as did rose...all these guys did, obv)

you know it had to happen.... interestingly doesn't include WAR as a category

WARdle #3 - 4/8

⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

https://wardle.app

lol of course. (got it on my 8th try)

NL starting lineup, 1969 All-Star game (with manager, no pitcher):

https://phildellio.tripod.com/lineup.jpg

I got the three obvious ones plus one more, then accidentally looked at the list of names before trying any more. I think I would have got 7 or 8 out of the 9.

Here are the answers, you can check them yourself: Red Schoendienst, Matty Alou, Don Kessinger, Hank Aaron, Willie McCovey, Ron Santo, Cleon Jones, Johnny Bench, and Felix Millan.

i don't know the answer to this, but what is the team (which team, which year) that had the most hall of famers on the roster at the same time? I'm assuming the 1927 yankees are way up there. But what about the modern era? is it some 90s or early 2000s yankees team?

current cardinals team has about 3. pujols (100% hof), yadier molina (98%, i am not saying he deserves it, please don't throw things at me), arenado and goldschmidt (i can imagine both making it, i can imagine neither one making it. let's say one of them makes it), and wainwright (i think he still has very little chance, but if he did manage to put in a couple more strong years before retiring, he might have a veteran's committee chance in like 40 years)

These are the some of the teams I'd check:

'27 Yankees
'30 A's
'41 or '47 Yankees
'55 Dodgers
'67 Cardinals
'70 Orioles
'75 Reds
'98 Yankees

'98 yankees are surprisingly light! jeter and a late-career tim raines on the batting side, only rivera on the pitching side, i think? in addition to those three, they had kind of astounding number of hall of the very good kinds of players - david cone, david wells, paul o'neill, bernie williams, knoblauch, strawberry

'55 dodgers seem to have 6:

jackie robinson, duke snider, campanella, pee wee reese, and now gil hodges. only one pitcher (a young koufax) unless you also count nutrition shake expert tommy lasorda

The most I found was the '55 Dodgers with seven: Robinson, Campanella, Snider, Reese, Hodges, Koufax, and, with 4 GP and zero PA, Tommy Lasorda (Walt Alston would make eight, plus one or two in the front office, probably). But the real answer, according to a Reddit thread, is nine:

1) "The Yankees from 1928 had 9 HoFer's: Earle Combs, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Babe Ruth, Bill Dickey, Leo Durocher, Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, and Stan Coveleski. Their manager Miller Huggins and President Ed Barrow are also inductees."

2) "It's the 1931-33 Yankees with nine: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Red Ruffing, Bill Dickey, Joe Sewell, Tony Lazzeri, Herb Pennock, Lefty Gomez and Earle Combs."

Yeah, even the best modern teams seem to max out at three or four, with lots of borderline guys who missed.

'75 reds (3) joe morgan, johnny bench, tony perez. no pete rose, because betting on baseball is not allowed in stadiums that do not have official partnerships with daily fantasy baseball betting

'70 orioles (3) frank robinson, brooks robinson, jim palmer

'67 cards (4) orlando cepeda, lou brock, steve carlton, bob gibson (cepeda and brock probably should not be in the HoF. tim mccarver and curt flood probably both should be, for non-playing reasons. I feel like mccarver had a 50% hall of fame playing career and a 75% broadcasting career, and his longevity and counting stats put him over the bump)

(it's very possible i'm miscounting on some of those - just scanning the rosters and going off of memory)

Same numbers I had, I think. The Orioles really surprised me--they only won one WS, but from '69 to '71, they were as good as it gets.

The mid-'90s Braves have four (the big three starters plus Chipper), and could easily end up with six (McGriff and Andruw Jones).

I’m not sure how easy McGriff and Jones will be.

Jones, maybe, but I agree with Posnanski that Baines' induction makes McGriff's a certainty next time he's eligible.

"McGriff will surely be elected by a veterans committee the very first year he is eligible.

He has to be elected by the veterans committee. I mean, you simply cannot vote for Baines and not vote for McGriff. It would be like voting for a Jack in a game of poker but not voting for a King. Baines and McGriff were both left-handed power hitters who played for a very long time and posted wonderful career numbers...it’s just that McGriff was better than Baines in just about every way."

https://theathletic.com/2276390/2020/12/22/the-outsiders-no-23-fred-mcgriff/

Letting baines in opens the door for literally hundreds of players. I can’t make much sense of a lot of the things they do, so I don’t feel like any player is a lock with these guys. For sure McGriff is better, but does it matter tho them?!

Yeah, electing baines was like eliminating the filibuster

You could project a bit (a lot) with the 2019 Astros: Altuve, Correa, Verlander, Cole, and Greinke.

I'm not totally sure why he zeroed in on McGriff--their careers weren't aligned on a timeline, and McGriff only DH'ed ~200 games--but maybe their reputations figured in: good guys who weren't PED users.

I think the Astros would have produced a few for sure, it'll just be a matter of how the scandal is viewed down the road for the hitters.

Pujols' 3000th game had me looking at the career-leaders list...If you assume that Players A, B, and C would be in the HOF if not for PEDs; that Player D would be in if not for his fondness for playing the lottery, and that Players E and F will sail in, there are only two guys in the Top 30 who aren't in the HOF and aren't going in, either. Both are post-WWII.

1. Although half of all MLB commissioners have been lawyers, who was the only commissioner to have served on the bench as a judge?

2. What American League owner and labor lawyer made his fellow owners crabby when he declared during the 1994-95 baseball strike that he would not field a team with replacement players?

3. Name the third-year law student who, in 1978 accepted an offer to manage in the minor leagues after graduation, saying he'd "rather ride the buses in the minor leagues than practice law for a living." Though not all his decisions have been uncontroversial, this one worked out, as he became a major league manager later the following year and went on to win three World Series.

4. With great concern for judicial comity, Senator Chuck Schumer asked this Supreme Court nominee, a Mets fan, whether they would be able to get along with another Justice who was a noted Yankees fan. Name both Justices.

5. "Kranepool flies to right. [REDACTED]."

Thus read an apocryphal note passed to Justice Potter Stewart during oral argument. Ed Kranepool did not in fact fly to right that day, and an actual note from a clerk to the justices placed what political news—redacted above—ahead of a score of Mets 2, Reds 0 in the deciding game of the National League Championship Series.

6. According to a 2009 essay in The Baseball Research Journal, baseball was the most referenced sport in federal and state judicial opinions in the previous century or so. What sport, perhaps more associated with the executive branch, was the second most referenced?

7. In 1944, Jackie Robinson was brought to trial on charges stemming from his refusal to move to the back of a bus in Texas, but unlike Rosa Parks just over a decade later, he did not face his charges in a state court system. In what type of court system was he charged?

8. While many categorized 1995-era replacement players pending settlement of the strike as "bush league," "bushier eyebrows" were cited in newspaper reports as a distinguishing feature of the 2020 evolution of what major league mascot, pending settlement of a copyright lawsuit?

9. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred left the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in 1998 to work for Major League Baseball, which was one of its clients. What other — arguably more valuable — asset did the firm transfer to its client two years later?

10. Congratulations, you've just gotten a federal appellate clerkship! Not only are you off to a great start for your legal career, but you're also working somewhere where you can attend big-league baseball games. Unless, that is, you're in one of the two circuits whose seats are not the home of a major league team. In one of these cities, you can at least go see the Flying Squirrels of the AA Eastern League, but the other city lost its AAA Baby Cakes after the 2019 season. Name either city.

11. In arbitration, when a panel of arbitrators is unable to reach an agreement on an issue, they may submit the issue to an independent party to resolve it. What is the title used to refer to such an individual?

12. A legal appeal, unlike checked swing appeals and replay reviews, generally consists of a review of the application of law to facts, rather than a review of the facts themselves. What baseball procedure, abolished in 2020, took place "when a manager claims that an umpire's decision is in violation of these rules"?

i got seven right : /

Don't answer if the same list showed up on your FB feed...Rickey Henderson is #1 on the list of most times on base (H + BB + HBP) in the '80s (both leagues). Who's #2

First guess would be Boggs but his career only started in '82, so it's probably someone who played more throughout the decade. Ripken or Yount?

schmidt?

None of them (Boggs #4, Schmidt #9, Ripken lower). The answer surprised me: someone who many (me included) think should be in the HOF but isn't. American League outfielder.

My first thought was Tim Raines.

Willie Randolph??

Good guess on Randolph: 10th. (Raines 8th--might have guessed higher.)

Here's the answer if anyone wants to peek: Dwight Evans. Only 53 times-on-base behind Henderson.

where is willie wilson on the list?

Ripken is 18th (and last) on the list with 1,971--I added up Wilson's totals, and he's presumably next with 1,967. Not too fond of walks...

Evans being only a few dozen behind Henderson is kind of amazing. Respect to Dwight Ev.

Was gonna do Dwight E. but didn’t want any confusion

Full list:

1. Henderson
2. Evans
3. Murray
4. Boggs
5. Murphy
6. Yount
7. Hernandez
8. Raines
9. Schmidt
10. Randolph
11. Whitaker
12. Brett
13. Trammel
14. Ozzie
15. Baines
16. Winfield
17. Downing
18. Ripken

who is the only player in the career top 10 for HRs and Doubles?

bonus: who is the only other player in the top 15 for the same categories?

bonus: who is the only other player in the top 15 for the same categories?

change to: "who are the only other two players in the top 15"

(i was manually checking for this and knew i'd fuck it up sorry)

I guessed Pujols for top 15 and Ortiz for top 15, I always remember those dudes who were ripping 45+ doubles the same season they were hitting the same number of HR. Not sure on the second top 15.

Sorry pujols top 10!

Aaron? Palmeiro in Top 15 for both?

god, i have really fucked this up, big time. i am unable to complete basic comparative tasks.

Pujols: 5th in HRs, 5th in doubles
Aaron: 2nd in HRs, 13th in doubles

I thought Ortiz made the cut, but he's at 17th for HRs, 12th in doubles
Palmeiro is a good guess! he falls short in doubles (21st) but is 13th in HRs

I can’t be bothered to frame this as trivia - but I only just now learned that Lonnie Smith once bought a gun with the intention of shooting his ex-manager!

"Besides having a reputation as an erratic, reckless left fielder, how else did Lonnie Smith display erratic and reckless behaviour in his everyday life?"

“Lonnie Smith was never accused of having a gun for an arm in left field - but in what instance did he actually have a gun?”

Very basic question, but I checked all five trivia threads and it's never been asked: the eight father-son combinations who were struck out by Ryan. (I got three, had one wrong, then checked--I probably would have gotten one or two of the remaining five with a little effort.)

That’s an interesting one

i struggle to think of 8 father-son combos, period. all the ones i can think of are the big obvious ones

bonds, griffey, alou...

How did i forget bonds?!

ripken!

or wait...was there no ripken sr? i know his brother, billy (just because of his naughty bat)

I should have mentioned that three I got were really obvious: Bonds, Griffey, and a third HOF'er. Not Alou--not on the list I found; that does seem like it might be wrong--or Ripken. I don't think Cal Sr. ever played in the majors.

Boone?

That was one of my incorrect guesses. Of the remaining six...

One HOF'er (son)
One HOF'er (father)
One future HOF'er, probably (manager)
Two good careers (the two fathers)
One not especially notable combination (both father and son)

Pretty vague, I know. This is all according to a tweet; other sources say there are only seven in total, so this guy may have a mistake on there.

one thing i'll add: one father/son combo consists of two sons. (i gave up and looked it up – three answers i would have never guess as i was not aware of the father son-ness)

ahh ok Tito and Terry Francona for one, then.

Yes--I never would have gotten that in a million years.

I thought for sure the Alous, but Ryan had gone back to the AL by the time Moises broke in.

Here's the link if you want to check: twitter.com/theaceofspaeder/status/1086315158375489537?lang=en (if that embeds, look away, look away!)

i didn't know about several of those father/son combos, and i always forget about the alomar family

here's a fun one. what player was taken off the field on a stretcher ELEVEN TIMES - six times while conscious, five times unconscious?

trivial hint that won't be helpful: he's the #1 player comp for julio rodriguez this year (which means he was very, very, very good)

I don't know how this squares with your clues, but the hardest one to me is the W's even more than the S's. I think W's son is all but forgotten now.

oh, my trivia question is totally separate from the father/son question, sorry! just something i learned earlier this morning and wanted to share.

on the father/son question, i didn't even know that the W, P, or S players had family that also played

Crossed wires, got it...Fred Lynn for your question? Fred was banging into walls daily.

I don’t think there is a “P” in the father/son thing?

according to the tweet clemenza posted a bit upthread, there is

and no on fred lynn! didn't know he was a wallbanger. but you're on the right track - it's an outfielder

There is a 'P' on the tweet, yes--that might be the extra one, as most other sources say there were only seven combinations he struck out.

I checked on the answer to KM's question, and it's a player who Lynn was often compared to; found two or three pieces that mentioned them in tandem.

Oh wow. I hadn’t gone by the tweet - I had googled it after I gave up and landed somewhere else that didn’t have “p”!

even more trivia! was just reading about Jayson Werth and learned that he is the grandson and nephew of one of the father/son combos that ryan struck out!

I was curious about the P combination--may as well say: Tony and Eduardo Perez--so I checked out Ryan's game logs.

On April 27, 1968, in his fifth game ever and fourth start, Ryan struck out Tony Perez the first time he faced him. I assume he struck him out a few times after that. (They usually were in different leagues, but not always.)

On August 10, 1993--more than 25 years and seven presidents later--in his 802nd game, and sixth-last start ever, Ryan struck out Eduardo (in his rookie season) the first time he faced him.

Next bit of trivia: name the seven presidents Nolan Ryan struck out.

joe dimaggio struck out a president

or wait, no he didn't. somehow i was jumbling jfk, jackie, marilyn monroe, and joe dimaggio in my head

More like a president struck out Joe DiMaggio, then, eh?

this is open-ended "trivia", because i only know of a few examples off hand and i'm curious who else did it.

tom seaver, in 1975, requested that his salary be decreased from 173K to 139K, because he didn't feel like he had performed well enough in 1974 to earn it.

stan musial, in 1960, requested that his salary be reduced from 100K to 80K, because he didn't like he had performed well enough in 1959 to justify it.

i'm not sure if seaver intended to or not, but both reductions were 20% pay cuts.

have any other players done this?

Hard to think of any other examples. There was that time Andre Dawson wanted to sign with the Cubs and it was a blank contract situation, where he told them they could just fill in the salary for whatever they felt was appropriate for a one year deal. So they wrote in $500,000.

But that was a weird situation heading into the 1987 season, collusion etc, and he signed a much better deal the year after that.

Swear I read about an example of this just the other day--I just have to get through the clutter in my brain to remember who it was.

from r/baseball, i thought this one was good (should be easy for you lot):

73 Phil Niekro
52 Tim Wakefield
43 Hoyt Wilhelm
38 Charlie Hough
32 Wilbur Wood
30 Joe Niekro
24 Dutch Leonard
24 Tom Candiotti
18 Felix Hernandez
18 R.A. Dickey

Name the stat

hit batsmen?

that's a good guess, and maybe right?

what's throwing me is king felix. did he throw a knuckleball?

well for Niekro i know that's how old he was when he retired but the other guys don't line up with that

I’m out of my depth in this thread but dying to know what Felix has in common with the knuckleball guys!

so is this a top 10 list and the numbers are their career totals? or is this just a random pull of some stat for a bunch of knuckleballers plus king felix?

maybe... most wild pitches in a season?

i think that's one of the mysteries of the trivia question!

dutch leonard's presence is also throwing me a bit, because it means it would have to be some sort of stat that goes back to the old timers era

(if that's a top-10 list)
xpost

maybe... most wild pitches in a season?

thought this might be right, because 18 is the highest number of WP's that Felix threw in a season. but phil niekro topped out at 19 in a season (in 1967)

it's got to be something along those lines

Didn't Felix throw a "slow curve" sometimes? It could be a list of "most pitches thrown under 50 mph in a season"?

its a top ten, yeah. wild pitch is along the right lines

HBP was my first guess, but that's not right

Passed balls?

please expand

PB + WP (season)

PB and/or WP + X + X (career)

or* not and/or

but Felix had 156 WP's in his career?

X are added conditions (one stat but also this and also that put together) i hope i'm making sense lol, you guys'll get it

oooh, gotcha!

maybe X is with the bases loaded or a runner on third?

basically, most runs scored on the pitcher via passed ball or wild pitch?

no, getting closer

Most strikeouts where the batter reached base via WP or PB or dropped third strike (catcher error) or ...?

bingo

i think most strikeouts while allowing a runner is the best way to put it

so wp/pa would be inferred

wp/pb*

easy counting stat one:

starting w/Sammy Sosa's 66 HR season and going down from there, only one number hasn't been the final total of home runs for any batter in MLB history. what is that number?

Iirc it was in the 50s…

59? I know Howard hit 58, not sure about Stanton or Greenberg.

Stanton and the Babe hit 59

51

johnny mize hit 51 HRs. for some reason i always remember that.

55 HRs?

plus Cecil Fielder, Andruw Jones, Willie Mays, and Ralph Kiner!

55 is correct

53 wasn't landed on til Chris David did it (and Pete Alonso did a bit later), and 57 was first landed on by sluggin' Luis Gonzalez

*Davis

A-Rod also hit 57

Judge was the first to hit 62

FB wall this morning--surprised me. Team with the longest stretch since they had a 40-HR guy (I've lost the post now, but I think it was almost 10 years longer than anyone else).

(Should a true trivia question have a fixed answer? The answer to that one will change when this team gets their next 40-HR guy.)

Are we talking 20+ years?

Believe it or not, coming up on 50.

I guess this team moved into the #1 slot when Soler finally hit 40 for the Royals.

Is it the Pirates or am I blanking on one of their guys who hit 40?

Very good--Stargell in '73 (also hit 40 doubles that year, the first 40/40 guy, I think).

for some reason i was thinking pedro alvarez hit 40 at some point for the pirates, but not quite. josh bell also came quite close in recent years

some specific-ass trivia, but here we go

of pitchers with more than 100 PAs in a season since 1900, who was the only pitcher to hit .400 or better?

even more specific: who were the only two pitchers since 1950 to hit .350 or better (again, at least 100 PAs in the season)

hint: you've heard of all three

I got nothin'...While you mull over KM's question, try this: most career HRs by first letter of first name. I'll hide the answers here: twitter.com/CodifyBaseball/status/1622077683575422983. Don't bother with Ruth; he's counted as Babe rather than George, so he's not on the list. Home run range of answers: 27 (U) to 762 (B).

i ran across that one the other day, so i'll stay mum.

here are the answers to my silly question:

walter johnson, 1925, .433 in 107 PAs
don newcombe, 1955, .359 in 125 PAs
catfish hunter, 1971, .350 in 109 PAs

I should have had the middle one; first and third, no chance. (Thinking the third is an anomaly? I don't recall him ever being mentioned as a great hitter.)

Minus his big season, .204 lifetime--still pretty decent for a pitcher.

i didn't realize don was such a good hitter! he put together some excellent seasons in 58 and 59 as well, hitting well above league average

Somehow I did know he was really good. .268/.336/.361 for his career, hit .300 or better six times. Sent up to pinch-hit 88 times.

Sent up to pinch-hit 88 times

damn, that's impressive. now i want to know the record for THAT, heh

i saw a mention of jim abbott's no-hitter today and took a look at the arc of his career. i didn't realize quite how good he was at his peak (1991: 18-11 with 2.89 ERA and 5.5 fWAR, 243 IP, and very good in 1992 as well), but also how bad things got in the late 90s. his ERA was 7.48 in 1996 (he went 2-18 for the angels) over 142 IP. i checked, and yes - that is the highest ERA for a pitcher who has thrown 140+ innings in a season since integration

and he was 28 during that season! he retired, took 1997 off to listen to ok computer, and then came back for 2 more seasons before retiring for good at age 31. what happened to him?

there was no coming back again after Kid A

jim abbott listened to treefingers for the first time and, honestly, he hated it. he didn't understand what was even going on and why it was taking so long. but on the third and fourth listen, something changed, and so he retired again

The best he could was good enough

Turned up on my FB feed (from MLB's FB page): the 15 African American pitchers to win 20 games. Here's the link if you want to check yourself (I glanced at the post before trying it myself): https://www.facebook.com/mlb/posts/pfbid02vFMJgGhradC5fUcMLfcen5cSSYQ7TrjdnT5tAwD3SK1C4tH6Kq7PefRAaN8Bi6w4l.

Stealing this from FB: of the 33 players with 3,000 hits, which five never had a 200-hit season?

Answer: Anson, Yaz, Murray, Winfield, Henderson.

ted williams?

still seems crazy tho

oh shit ted didn't even get to 3000 hits; he sucked

Nice question, I only got two right (the first and fourth you listed).

Impressed that you got the first one, one I never would have gotten. I saw the answers concurrent with the question, so didn't get to try it. I think I might have gotten the last three with enough thought--last two for sure--but never would have guessed Yaz, who I would have just assumed got 200 hits in '67. Pretty sure I knew Williams wasn't a 3,000 hit guy because of the two Ws, walks and wars.

Who made the last out in Johnny Vander Meer's second no-hitter? (One or two of you may have seen my FB comment--don't answer.)

(Needless to say, someone famous.)

BR Walk-off asking the real questions

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAwXAAA-uUr?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAYXgAAseEK?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAyXYAACB3J?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAWXoAAtK8o?format=jpg&name=medium

I must have known this long ago and forgot: Randy Moffitt, first-round pick of the Giants in 1970 who went on to have a decent career splitting the closer job with Gary Lavelle for a few years (both played for the Jays, too), is Billy Jean King's brother. Still alive.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this--lifted from FB--but: who was the only player to play alongside Vlad Guerrero Sr., Craig Biggio, and Dante Bichette?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/veresda01.shtml

Only one MLB player who started his career before baseball was integrated is still living: Tommy Brown, who was 16 when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944 and is now 96.

Source: https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/Oldest_Living_Baseball_Players.php

Monthly pub trivia tonight. My teams always finishes second to the same team (we've beaten them once). Had a chance to win tonight if we'd gotten the final question right (they didn't either but still won). Category was "Unbrekaable Records": Joe DiMaggio's hit streak happened during which three months?

We guessed June/July/August; it was May/June/July. Great question.

teams = team

Not a question. The Grid led me to look up Mike Bordick today. He finished his career with 1,500 hits, 500 walks, and 800 strikeouts.

Is there a general thread for posting odd or interesting stat-related stuff from the past?

Fluke of the calendar, but caught my attention:

MLB Hits Leaders - Past 10 Decades

2010-2019: Robinson Cano - 2,624 hits
2000-2009: Ichiro Suzuki - 2,244 hits
1990-1999: Wade Boggs - 1,999 hits
1980-1989: Wade Boggs - 1,821 hits
1970-1979: Pete Rose - 2,251 hits
1960-1969: Pete Rose - 2,090 hits
1950-1959: Willie Mays - 1,805 hits
1940-1949: Stan Musial - 1,589 hits
1930-1939: Paul Waner - 1,814 hits
1920-1929: Rogers Hornsby - 2,043 hits

Jesus, that's obviously wrong...averaged 262 hits per season! Sorry, don't shoot the messenger.

Looking at the comments, apparently that's not the only error in there.

MLB.com features Sporacle along with Immaculate Grid...I rarely open it up, but this one's interesting (I got 19/25):

https://www.mlb.com/fans/trivia/name-that-baseball-player

I got 8. But that was also from having terrible luck with my guesses (which was most of them)

I got 13. There’s a fun reference to Buster’s legal name in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZS9fmkY184

Only player to knock in 100 (season) for both the Jays and the Expos? Never would have got this.

Tony Batista

i did so poorly on this that i'm not even going to tell you my score: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZFFVtw2f0b-S0KC7ccWwJyInUPT1N_ygC6FygFRo4uCjXew/viewform

(from The Athletic's 2024 Baseball Trivia Quiz)

13/50. I knew the first one right away at least.

25/50--went fast, intuitive guessing (I knew maybe seven or eight for sure through elimination).

17/50 but maybe only knew 2-3 w hi certainty

25/50. I also went fast, with mostly intuitive guessing. Cool quiz though.

15. yikes

The most amazing stat you'll hear today: Babe Ruth hit more HR during Jimmy Carter's lifetime (430) than any currently active player (Giancarlo Stanton, 429).

Drew Davis
‪drewdavis71.bsky.social‬

The MLB career home run leaders when Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924:

1 - Babe Ruth 287
2 - Cy Williams 173
3 - Rogers Hornsby 141
4 - Roger Connor 138
5 - Sam Thompson 126

(xpost) I had to really think about that for it to make sense (eventually it did).

Another one (a guy in the comments verified the math):

https://i.postimg.cc/26n6q5P3/rickey.jpg

Two possible answers for a second baseman (and possibly/probably a third active player):

https://i.postimg.cc/T1VN3gdk/quiz.jpg

(Of the players listed, there are other possibilities--I can think of another catcher and two other third basemen who would work.)

So… this is the highest WAR by position, for players that have played for only one team?

If that’s correct, I’m actually not certain who the answer is… maybe Whitaker? Fox? Collins? Banks?!

You're on the right track: one team/MVP/HOF. So Robinson and Gehringer, with Altuve a possibility down the road.

Wow I was pretty off on most of those guys

Oh ya, Gehringer looks like the answer with Whitaker the runner up