TRIVIA 2020

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.