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Trivia #4  |
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Babe Ruth led the American League in Slugging Percentage every
year from 1920 to 1931, except for 1925, the year he was seriously
ill and later suspended.
A couple of those years, Ruth nosed out
teammate Lou Gehrig by the slimmest of margins:
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1927 |
1930 |
| Ruth |
772 |
732 |
| Gehrig |
765 |
721 |
Gehrig was also the runner-up in 1928 and 1931.
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Q1A |
A) Who led the AL in Slugging Percentage in 1925? |
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A1A |
Ken Williams of the St. Louis Browns led the AL in 1925 with a .613 Slugging Percentage. Williams led the AL in Home Runs in 1922, the year Babe Ruth missed the first month of the season due to a suspension. Williams was having his best season in ’25, when a serious beaning resulted in his missing a significant number of games. |
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Q1B |
B) Besides Lou Gehrig, two other American Leaguers were runners-up in this category three times in the time period under discussion, 1920-1931. Who were they? |
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A1B |
Harry Heilmann of the Detroit Tigers was second in Slugging Percentage in 1921, 1923, 1924. Al Simmons of the Philadelphia Athletics was second in 1925, 1926, and 1929. |
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Q2 |
Babe Ruth led the American League in Walks seven times in the 1920s.
(He also was the leader in 1930, 1931, 1932, and 1933.) One other Yankee led that category in that decade of the `20s. Who was he? |
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A2 |
Whitey Witt led the AL in Walks in 1922 with 89. Each time Ruth led the league, he had well over 100 walks. His 1929 season stands out as a real anomaly. He had 499 at bats and hit .345, yet he had only 72 Walks. |
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All numbers are taken from Total Baseball.
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Trivia #3 Answers
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Q |
In the early 1920s, the St. Louis Browns were know for their fearsome
hitting outfield of Kenny Williams, Johnny Tobin, and ‘Baby
Doll’ Jacobson, as well as first baseman George Sisler. The
Browns were often thought to be short on quality pitching, after their
ace hurler, Urban Shocker.
In 1922 the Browns came within one game of the AL pennant ands
led the league in hitting with a .313 batting average. They also
led with a Slugging Average of .455. Who led the league in pitching
that year, with the lowest Earned Run Average? |
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A |
Surprisingly, the St. Louis Browns led in
pitching too, with a 3.38 ERA, a shade better than the Yankees’
3.39. Besides Urban Shocker’s 2.97:
Hub Pruett 2.33 Ray Kolp 3.93
Rasty Wright 2.92 Billy Bayne 4.56
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Q |
After the 1919 season, the cash-strapped St. Louis Cardinals borrowed
$10,000 to buy this future star from the minors. The expense convinced
Branch Rickey that he had to move forward with his concept of the
farm system, whereby
a smaller-market and less wealthy team could be competitive, by owning
minor league teams. Who was he? |
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A |
Jesse “Pop” Haines. After his
21-5 season in Kansas City in 1919, he went on to win 210 games for
the Cardinals, second only to Bob Gibson. He was elected to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1970. |
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Q |
Who was the first homegrown St. Louis Cardinal star, the first man
who came up through Branch Rickey’s farm system? |
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A |
2. ‘Sunny Jim’ Bottomley. He
joined the Cards from Syracuse in 1922, and in his first full season
in St. Louis, 1923, he hit .371. He went on to win the National League
MVP in 1928, when he hit more than 40 doubles, 20 triples, and 30
home runs. Bottomley debuted with
the Cards on August 18, 1922. The very next day, another Cardinal
farm prospect made his first appearance, Ray Blades. |
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Trivia #2 Answers |
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Q |
A number of Yankee managers lived to a ripe old age: Clark Griffith
(died at age 85), Roger Peckinpaugh (86), Bob Shawkey (90), Joe McCarthy
(90), Bill Dickey (86), Johnny Neun (89), Bucky Harris (died on his
81st birthday), Casey Stengel (85), and Ralph Houk turns 84 on August
9th. A number of Yankee managers were not nearly so fortunate. They
all passed away before their 60th birthday. How many can you name? |
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A |
Frank Chance, Yankee manager 1913-14 Died
at age 47
Wild Bill Donovan, Yankee manager 1915-17 Died at age 47
Miller Huggins, Yankee manager 1918-29 Died at age 51
Note: Miller Huggins was born in 1878, not in 1879 or 1880, as
many record books state
Johnny Keane, Yankee manager 1965-66 Died at age 55
Dick Howser, Yankee manager 1978, 1980 Died at age 51
Billy Martin was 61 years old when he died. |
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Q |
One member of the 1927 New York Yankees had been on the roster
of two other World Series teams. Who was he? |
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A |
Pitcher Walter ‘Dutch’ Ruether’
was a member of the 1919 Cincinnati Reds and the 1925 Washington Senators.
He beat Eddie Cicotte of the infamous Chicago Black Sox in Game 1
of the 1919 Series. He did not pitch in the ’25 Series, though
he did appear once as a pinch hitter. He was a decent hitter, as reflected
in his .258 career batting average. |
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Q |
As a Yankee manager, Miller Huggins (1918-29) managed twelve future
Hall-of-Famers. How many can you name? |
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A |
Besides Rogers Hornsby, whom Hug managed
as a St. Louis Cardinal, Miller Huggins managed as Yankees the following
future Hall-of-Famers:
| Frank Baker |
Earle Combs |
Bill Dickey |
Leo Durocher |
Lou Gehrig |
Waite Hoyt |
Tony Lazzeri |
Herb Pennock |
| Babe Ruth |
Dazzy Vance |
Stan Coveleski |
George Halas |
Vance was a Yankee early in his career (1915
and 1918), though he did not win
a game. Coveleski ended his career as a Yankee, with a 5-1 record
in 1928. Future football Hall-of-Famer George Halas appeared briefly
for the Yankees in 1919 (hit .091) |
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Trivia #1 |
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Q |
Two members of the great 1927 Yankees were also members of the World
Champion Philadelphia Athletics of 1913, 14 years earlier. Who were
they? |
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A |
Pitchers Bob Shawkey and Herb Pennock. The
two youngsters pitched for the A’s in the regular season, but
neither appeared in the 1913 World Series. The Athletics beat the
New York Giants 4 games to 1 and used only three pitchers, Chief Bender,
Eddie Plank, and another youngster, Joe Bush. Bender won two of the
four games. |
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Q. |
In 1921, the Yankees had on their roster all the men who led the
American
League in home runs for the past decade, 1911-20. Name these
sluggers and the years they led the AL. |
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A |
Frank ‘Home Run’ Baker won
the HR crown (as a Philadelphia Athletic) in 1911
(with 11), 1912 (with 10, tied with Tris Speaker), 1913 (with 12),
1914 (with 9)
Wally Pipp won the HR crown (as a Yankee)
in 1916 (with 12) and 1917 (with 9)
Babe Ruth won the HR crown as a Boston Red
Sox in 1918 (with 11, tied with Tilly Walker) and 1919 (with 29),
and as a Yankee in 1920 (with 54)
The missing year, 1915? Braggo Roth (who
split the season between the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland
Indians) led the league with 7. In 1921, Roth’s last year
in the majors, he hit .283 for the New York Yankees
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