TRIVIA 2020

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.