Other than Babe Ruth, what member of the Baseball Hall of Fame wore #3 for the New York Yankees?
Joe “Ducky” Medwick, who was assigned the number in spring training when he tried to catch on with the Yankees in 1947 – before the Yanks retired the number
What ballplayer is not credited with leading the league in batting despite having the highest batting average and qualifying for the batting championship under the rules of the time?
Taffy Wright, who batted .350 in 1938, leading the AL and qualifying because he had played in 100 games. However, he only had 263 at bats. Jimmy Foxx – who came to bat 565 times and batted .349 was declared the winner.
What member of the Football Hall of Fame gave up a home run to Babe Ruth when he hit 60?
Ernie Nevers.
What player played on a baseball all-star team, a world series championship team, and an NBA championship team?
Gene Conley. Conley was a four-time all-star for Milwaukee and Philadelpha, won a world series with Milwaukee in 1957, and won three NBA championships with the Celtics
This player played all seven games of a seven game world series as starting shortstop, a position he had only played nine games at in the preceding season and never before at the major league level.
Mickey Stanley, 1968 Tigers. The Tigers had four good outfielders and a truly abysmal hitting shortshop (Ray Oyler, of the .175 lifetime batting average and who an appalling .135 in 1968), so manager Mayo Smith had Stanley try out at short toward the end of the season and made him his starter for the series.
Gabe Paul was like any other general manager of that era. If you made enough trades you were gonna get snookered eventually. He and Joe L. Brown the GM of the Pirates made a lot of trades with each other, the best for Paul was Don Gross (who?) for Bob Purkey who I think won twenty games for the Reds or Redlegs. The worst for Paul won the 1960 pennant for the Pirates who gave up Frank Thomas and 3 others you never heard of for Don Hoak, Smokey Burgess and Harvey Haddix. Thomas was injured and his career was effectively over shortly after the trade. Interesting that the Reds win the N.L. pennant (1961) as soon as Paul leaves.
Some more Fun Baseball Trivia. Let’s do home run hitters.
Barry Bonds is of course now the all time home run champ. However, Henry Aaron still holds the record for the most homers hit with one franchise - he hit 733 homers as a Brave (and 22 as a Brewer.)
But here’s a trickier one; who is the all time home run champion among players who hit ALL their home runs for one team?
What player only played ten major league seasons, but led his league in homers seven times?
Then there’s this other player who only played 11 seasons, and only hit 119 home runs… but won six home run titles. Who is he?
What unique home run accomplishment would you associate with these names: Ernie Whitt, Lloyd Moseby, George Bell, Fred McGriff, Rance Mulliniks, and Rob Ducey?
Prior to Mark McGwire, who was the only player in organized North American professional baseball to officially hit 70 or more home runs in one season?
What was Sadahuru Oh’s career home run total? What was his season best?
Ironically, Oh retired the same year as Japan’s all-time #2 home run hitter, Katsuya Nomura. (Pitchers must have been overjoyed.) Nomura hit 674 homers in a career almost 3000 games long. What is that accomplishment so remarkable, in Nomura’s case?
Hey, we’ve already mentioned George Bell. What do Bell, Dmitri Young, and Tuffy Rhodes have in common?
Name two players who have won home run titles in both the National and American Leagues.
Why did Babe Ruth really hit more than 714 home runs?
[QUOTE=RickJay]
Some more Fun Baseball Trivia. Let’s do home run hitters.
Barry Bonds is of course now the all time home run champ. However, Henry Aaron still holds the record for the most homers hit with one franchise - he hit 733 homers as a Brave (and 22 as a Brewer.)
But here’s a trickier one; who is the all time home run champion among players who hit ALL their home runs for one team?
Mike Schmidt, Phillies
What player only played ten major league seasons, but led his league in homers seven times?
Ralph Kiner, Pittsburgh
Prior to Mark McGwire, who was the only player in organized North American professional baseball to officially hit 70 or more home runs in one season?
In 1954 at Class C Roswell of the Longhorn League, Joe Bauman hit 72 home runs
Name two players who have won home run titles in both the National and American Leagues.
4. Players for a Canadian team (Toronto) who hit homers off Canadian-born pitchers (Jenkins, possibly?)
10. I believe that back then, if a game was suspended by darkness and ended in a tie, the game didn’t count; I imagine Ruth probably hit several homers during such games.
Wanna take a hack at my question, speaking of home run hitters?
The rules of the time didn’t count walk-off homers as home runs unless the bases were empty. Otherwise, you got credit for the number of bases needed to score the runner (e.g., if there’s a runner on first and you hit it ouside the park, it was a triple). Ruth had 3 or so walk-off homers that were thus counted as lesser hits. There was a suggestion these be counted as home runs, but no one liked the idea, so they remained as they were.
Barry Bonds is of course now the all time home run champ. However, Henry Aaron still holds the record for the most homers hit with one franchise - he hit 733 homers as a Brave (and 22 as a Brewer.)
But here’s a trickier one; who is the all time home run champion among players who hit ALL their home runs for one team?
Answered: Mike Schmidt, who hit 548 home runs, all with the Phillies.
What player only played ten major league seasons, but led his league in homers seven times?
Answered: Ralph Kiner.
Then there’s this other player who only played 11 seasons, and only hit 119 home runs… but won six home run titles. Who is he?
Answered: Gavy Cravath, who was, incidentally, the first 20th century player to hit 20 homers in a season.
What unique home run accomplishment would you associate with these names: Ernie Whitt, Lloyd Moseby, George Bell, Fred McGriff, Rance Mulliniks, and Rob Ducey?
In September of 1987 they combined to hit ten home runs in a single game, for Toronto against Baltimore (Whitt hit 3, Bell and Moseby 2 each.) It is the only time in major league history a team has hit ten home runs in one game.
Prior to Mark McGwire, who was the only player in organized North American professional baseball to officially hit 70 or more home runs in one season?
Answered: Joe Baumann.
What was Sadahuru Oh’s career home run total? What was his season best?
868 and 55.
Ironically, Oh retired the same year as Japan’s all-time #2 home run hitter, Katsuya Nomura. (Pitchers must have been overjoyed.) Nomura hit 674 homers in a career almost 3000 games long. What is that accomplishment so remarkable, in Nomura’s case?
He was a catcher!
Hey, we’ve already mentioned George Bell. What do Bell, Dmitri Young, and Tuffy Rhodes have in common?
They are the only three players to hit three home runs on Opening Day.
Name two players who have won home run titles in both the National and American Leagues.
Answered: Fred McGriff, Frank Robinson and not yet named, Sam Crawford.
Why did Babe Ruth really hit more than 714 home runs?
Answered: Walk off hits only counted to the base needed to officially end the game.
Besides being among the greatest home run hitters of all time, what do Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays have in common? (Hint: it has nothing to do with their home run numbers)
Each one ended his career in the same city he began it in–but for a different team: Ruth–Boston Red Sox, Boston Braves; Aaron–Milwaukee Braves, Milwaukee Brewers; Mays–New York Giants, New York Mets.