That's hilarious, thanks. Just got Clarence Thomas wrong. Correct answer: Lou Pinella, because they both "provided some punch to their respective franchises" (uh, okay), and because controversy has followed them. I intuitively guessed Joe Pepitone, because in Ball Four he put a piece of popcorn under his foreskin.
― clemenza, Sunday, 4 March 2018 19:54 (six years ago) link
My own question: the two HOF pitchers who each won a Cy Young but never got a single Cy Young vote in any other season.
― clemenza, Sunday, 13 May 2018 14:21 (six years ago) link
Eckersley and Drysdale?
― Van Horn Street, Sunday, 13 May 2018 14:45 (six years ago) link
Drysdale's one of them (half of his prime coinciding with a teammate's...). With the other guy, it's not really a meaningful measure--a lot of his career is pre-CYA.
― clemenza, Sunday, 13 May 2018 15:42 (six years ago) link
Think I found it - Dean Chance
― timellison, Monday, 14 May 2018 04:51 (six years ago) link
Chance is one of a number of pitchers who won a Cy but never got Cy votes in any other season--think I spotted at least 10. I was looking for the two HOF'ers, though.
― clemenza, Monday, 14 May 2018 05:15 (six years ago) link
Early Wynn
― timellison, Monday, 14 May 2018 05:36 (six years ago) link
Speaking of whom, some awesome home movie footage of him warming up in his last year (starts at 1:17):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FHafsz-p-k
― timellison, Monday, 14 May 2018 05:41 (six years ago) link
Yes--Early, part of the original Jays' broadcast crew. (He probably would have received Cy Young votes in '52 and '54 if the award had been around...Hard to say; there was only one award for both leagues, and he didn't receive any votes in '56 for a season that was better than either of those.)
― clemenza, Monday, 14 May 2018 12:23 (six years ago) link
i have a bit of baseball trivia in my own neighborhood, maybe mentioned here before: the owner of a pizza joint we sometimes grabs a couple pies from (and who's usually still behind the counter most nights) is one of a dozen or so people in MLB history whose sole career hit was a home run. I believe he went 1-4 total across a few games during his cup of coffee.
https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/st-louis-cardinals-san-francisco-giants-doug-clarey-one-done-092215
― omar little, Monday, 14 May 2018 17:46 (six years ago) link
Keith McDonald had 3 hits, all homers, in his 8 game career: http://www.baseballroundtable.com/keith-mcdonald-2018-paciorek-award-winner-made-a-career-out-of-going-yard/
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Monday, 14 May 2018 18:42 (six years ago) link
yeah but how is his pizza
― obviously DLC (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 15 May 2018 02:57 (six years ago) link
six players in (known) history have played with more than 700 different teammates. edwin jackson is now second, with 763. name any of the other five and guess the leader:
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 14:50 (five years ago) link
A few guesses: Bartolo, Julio Franco, Ted Lyons, Phil Neikro.
― clemenza, Friday, 29 June 2018 18:44 (five years ago) link
for longevity and multiple teams, Rickey Henderson comes to mind
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 June 2018 18:50 (five years ago) link
rickey is indeed one of them. (and also one of edwin jackson's teammates). none of clemenza's are.
i would never have gotten the number one guy, but the others are known guys who played fairly recently. one of them is canadian
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link
is octavio dotel one of them?
― challops trap house (Will M.), Friday, 29 June 2018 19:46 (five years ago) link
Orosco?
― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Friday, 29 June 2018 19:46 (five years ago) link
steve pearce maybe as of today?
― challops trap house (Will M.), Friday, 29 June 2018 19:47 (five years ago) link
i rmeember thinking "i hope pearce plays for the red sox one day so he can be a trivia question about players who have played for the entire AL east" and sure enough! dunno how to look it up but i wonder if any other players have played for every team in a division...
― challops trap house (Will M.), Friday, 29 June 2018 19:49 (five years ago) link
steve pearce *is* about to complete his AL East collection in just six years, which is sort of impressive
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 19:49 (five years ago) link
eric hinske was close, but never got to baltimore
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 19:50 (five years ago) link
not orosco either, although two of them (besides rickey) did play for the mets
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 19:53 (five years ago) link
was dotel one of them tho? i feel REAL good abt that one
― challops trap house (Will M.), Friday, 29 June 2018 20:16 (five years ago) link
(also i have no other guesses if colon isn't in there)
― challops trap house (Will M.), Friday, 29 June 2018 20:17 (five years ago) link
dotel is a good try; he's in the high 600s
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 20:24 (five years ago) link
As far as I can tell, new Boston 1B/OF Steve Pearce will be just the 5th player to play for every team in a division, with Kelly Johnson (AL East), C. Izturis (NL Central), Mark McLemore (AL West), Steve Finley (NL West).— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) June 29, 2018
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 21:02 (five years ago) link
Also Matt Herges in the NL West. (Thanks to Rob Morse of the Yankees' PR dept. for the correction.) https://t.co/KYOKvl5qnm— Tyler Kepner (@TylerKepner) June 29, 2018
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 21:24 (five years ago) link
1. Terry Mulholland 791 (11 teams)2. Edwin Jackson 763 (13 teams)3. Matt Stairs 725 (12 teams)4. Rickey Henderson 725 (9 teams, not counting the A’s four times)5. Carlos Beltrán 719 (7 teams)6. LaTroy Hawkins 703 (11 teams)
(Octavio Dotel 654 (13 teams))
― mookieproof, Friday, 29 June 2018 23:05 (five years ago) link
whoa, weird to see Beltran in there
― Karl Malone, Saturday, 30 June 2018 00:31 (five years ago) link
My guesses weren't very good--all I thought about was longevity, overlooked the multiple-teams factor. Ted Lyons spend hit entire career (21 seasons) with the White Sox. I think I may have actually been thinking of multiple-teams with him but got him confused with Bobo Newsom.
― clemenza, Saturday, 30 June 2018 12:30 (five years ago) link
spend hit = spent his...
Weird question, in that technically there's not a correct answer. But there's a link on Baseball Reference for "Historical Deadline Deals" where you can look at all the transactions on July 31 year-by-year. There's one year where I think there's an unmistakable spike in the number of transactions, and from that point forward it's never not an exceptionally busy day again.
What year? (Recent enough that you might have been aware of the spike at the time.)
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 15:45 (five years ago) link
I remember Randy Johnson getting traded literally minutes before the deadline in 1998, for whatever reason that year really stands out for me.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 18:10 (five years ago) link
It was '95. Till '86, there are annually one or two transactions on July 31. There are four in '87, and it stays in that range for the next few years. In '95, there are suddenly 10 deadline transactions, and it's stayed that way ever since (with a high of 20 in 2015).
http://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/transactions.cgi?month=7&day=31
I don't know what brought on the change. You had a couple of expansion teams added in 1993--that was probably a factor. (I'd discount 1994 because of the impending mid-August strike.) Past that, I don't know, but something changed.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 19:08 (five years ago) link
It must have been the wild card -- more playoff spots, more teams looking for help at the deadline, more deals.
― NoTimeBeforeTime, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 20:14 (five years ago) link
more delusions, more trades
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 20:15 (five years ago) link
Wild card, of course. Duh...(Assume the spike would have happened a year earlier if the strike hadn't been looming.)
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 20:17 (five years ago) link
juan soto can become the fourth *national league* rookie to hit .300/.400/.500 (minimum 250 PA) since 1945
name the other three
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:12 (five years ago) link
First two guesses: Pujols and F. Robinson.
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:14 (five years ago) link
pujols is correct!
the other two are harder -- one was in the 70s, one was earlier this century
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:16 (five years ago) link
Yeah, just looked up Robinson--monster year, but short on the slash stats.
.290/.379/.558, 38 HR, 143 OPS+ (lower than Soto right now...).
― clemenza, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:18 (five years ago) link
Scott Rolen? Bellinger?
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:24 (five years ago) link
i guessed buster posey, but he came up a little short in OBP. i cheated and looked up the 2000s answer and never would have guessed it, ever
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:29 (five years ago) link
...or the other one, from the 70s.
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:30 (five years ago) link
yeah, the other two are pretty obscure -- and neither won rookie of the year!
bernie carbo, 1970austin kearns, 2002
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:34 (five years ago) link
austin kearns, 2002: .315/.407/.500, monster defense in the OF
2002 NL rookie of the year Jason Jennings: 16 wins
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:37 (five years ago) link
bernie carbo, 1970: .310/.454/.551 in f'in 1970 hitting environment
1970 NL rookie of the year Carl Morton: 18 wins
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:39 (five years ago) link
wins: forming the primary element of terrible arguments since before john smoltz was even born
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:42 (five years ago) link
morton was at least fairly close in WAR; jennings was not
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 8 August 2018 21:43 (five years ago) link