Just reg'lr trivia?

[Redsfan1507]

Wasn't Brock a Cub then ?

 

[Redsfan1507]

484 is a poke, but isn't as far as you think. I hit a foul ball in high school estimated at 505. Drew a walk on the next pitch. Odd, the longest homer I ever hit was only about 400. I've seen dudes hit softballs a lot farther.

 

[JohnU]

484 in the Polo Grounds was less of a poke than a freak event. Anybody who didn't try to pull the ball down the lines was destined to be part of the Willie Mays fielding play of the week.

Brock's was off Al Jackson to what the box score called "CF-RF" ... so that would have been a poke.

Aaron's was a grand slam, btw, off of former Reds "prospect" Jay Hook.

Jackson was 8-20 that year.
Hook was much better at 8-19.
Roger Craig was 10-24.
Bob Miller 1-12.
Craig Anderson 3-17.

Gotta say, that was a durable staff.

They did have one guy with a winning record (5-4) ... Ken McKenzie.

(That accounts for 35 of the team's 40 wins, if you do the math.)

Marv Throneberry is considered their No. 1 first baseman. Ed Bouchee is also listed ... as is THIS guy.
Guess who that was and win the Choo Choo Coleman bobblehead.

If Choo Choo Coleman was with the Reds and batted second, it would be Choo followed by Choo Choo.

 

[BigDDude]

Marv Throneberry is considered their No. 1 first baseman. Ed Bouchee is also listed ... as is THIS guy.
Guess who that was and win the Choo Choo Coleman bobblehead.

Some old Dodger guy, that just can't seem to get himself elected to the H.O.F.....


Other notables - Don Zimmer, and a young kid named Kranepool, who would play a fair amount of games for the Amazings. And, a "never was" pitcher called ( not sure if it is his given name ) Vinegar Bend Mizel.


AND, last but not least, the only guy to ever get traded for himself - Harry Chiti.

 

[BigDDude]

Ed Bouchee is also listed

Better late than never.......

Did this guy have a kid named Bobby, who was considered somewhat "special"?

 

[JohnU]

Better late than never.......

Did this guy have a kid named Bobby, who was considered somewhat "special"?

I would not know about any sons he might have had.
He was a fairly pedestrian first baseman for a lot of years, mostly with the Phils.

Yeah, that guy who can't make the Hall ... he's a Hoosier. We take pride in our stars.

 

[JohnU]

Some old Dodger guy, that just can't seem to get himself elected to the H.O.F.....


Other notables - Don Zimmer, and a young kid named Kranepool, who would play a fair amount of games for the Amazings. And, a "never was" pitcher called ( not sure if it is his given name ) Vinegar Bend Mizel.


AND, last but not least, the only guy to ever get traded for himself - Harry Chiti.

Mizell, also known as Wilmer. Served in Congress for a time.
Kranepool was pretty good, all things considered.
I thought Greg Belden was also traded for himself.
A lot of that crap happens in the indy leagues ... putnables* who end up being themselves at the end of the season.

*PTBNL.

 

[JohnU]

Old-time stats are interesting on a lot of levels.

The 1906 White Sox, pennant and W.S. winners over the 116-36 Cubs ... committed 243 errors that year and hit 7 home runs. I'd guess some of those dingers were inside the porkers. Team batting average of only .230.

Truly the dead ball era. The Cubs had 20 HR and made 194 errors.

Reds finished 51.5 games back of the Cubs, in 6th place.

Wow, win 96 games and be 20 games back. Tough luck for the GI-ants.


1906 National League Season Summary - Baseball-Reference.com

 

[BigDDude]

Old-time stats are interesting on a lot of levels.

The 1906 White Sox, pennant and W.S. winners over the 116-36 Cubs ... committed 243 errors that year and hit 7 home runs. I'd guess some of those dingers were inside the porkers. Team batting average of only .230.

Truly the dead ball era. The Cubs had 20 HR and made 194 errors.

Reds finished 51.5 games back of the Cubs, in 6th place.

Wow, win 96 games and be 20 games back. Tough luck for the GI-ants.


1906 National League Season Summary - Baseball-Reference.com

I love your posts John, always have. Keep up the good work, and keep teaching us things we did not know about this great game of ours.

 

[JohnU]

I had occasion last winter to do read about the 1944 St. Louis Browns. I got stuck on some of the details and went from there.

I honestly believe that if I could go back in time to special moment, it would have been the weekend the Browns won that pennant. Just looking at the box scores just boils up excitement.

Those guys had to SWEEP the Yankees that weekend ... and hope the Tigers lost a game to the last-place Senators. Can't get no better'n nat.

Top it off with the fact that they already knew they'd play the Cardinals, who won something like 105 games that year and had clinched about 3 weeks earlier. They played in the same ballpark.

 

[BigDDude]

I had occasion last winter to do read about the 1944 St. Louis Browns. I got stuck on some of the details and went from there.

I honestly believe that if I could go back in time to special moment, it would have been the weekend the Browns won that pennant. Just looking at the box scores just boils up excitement.

Those guys had to SWEEP the Yankees that weekend ... and hope the Tigers lost a game to the last-place Senators. Can't get no better'n nat.

Top it off with the fact that they already knew they'd play the Cardinals, who won something like 105 games that year and had clinched about 3 weeks earlier. They played in the same ballpark.

I wish someone could just make these trips in the way back machine a bit easier. What I am thinking, is that it is high time for another "Ball Four", or some such book to be written. I would love another peek into MLB, and into a particular team and season.

 

[JohnU]

The story I wrote (no, I didn't sell it yet) was a time travel yarn about a guy who wanted to go back and see first-hand, the 1944 Browns. I had a lot of fun creating the romance of that. He actually makes two trips, and meets a woman ... blah blah blah ... as well as other things that don't all deal with the game.

Trying to create street life in a place is pretty hard. Just try to imagine what would have been going on the day of a game. The new ballparks don't have those smells or sounds ... they just don't. I tried to find it when I was in Cincy a couple of weeks back ... and they do a nice job ... but it's still Yuppie Heaven. I wanna smell diesel fuel from the buses, and peanuts ... and cigar smoke (from a distance on that.) Maybe someday someone will develop an "app" that you can open up and sniff, kinda like the perfume ads in the women's magazines. "Smells like the street outside Ebbetts Field!"

I had another idea when it started and it changed, as novels do. The premise originally was that if you were to go back in time and actually OWN the Browns, say... in 1939 ... and you knew which guys inevitably who would be big stars ... you could turn the Browns into a great ball team. You'd sign Feller and DiMaggio, maybe work a deal to get Ted Williams ...

 

[BigDDude]

The story I wrote (no, I didn't sell it yet) was a time travel yarn about a guy who wanted to go back and see first-hand, the 1944 Browns. I had a lot of fun creating the romance of that. He actually makes two trips, and meets a woman ... blah blah blah ... as well as other things that don't all deal with the game.

Trying to create street life in a place is pretty hard. Just try to imagine what would have been going on the day of a game. The new ballparks don't have those smells or sounds ... they just don't. I tried to find it when I was in Cincy a couple of weeks back ... and they do a nice job ... but it's still Yuppie Heaven. I wanna smell diesel fuel from the buses, and peanuts ... and cigar smoke (from a distance on that.) Maybe someday someone will develop an "app" that you can open up and sniff, kinda like the perfume ads in the women's magazines. "Smells like the street outside Ebbetts Field!"

I had another idea when it started and it changed, as novels do. The premise originally was that if you were to go back in time and actually OWN the Browns, say... in 1939 ... and you knew which guys inevitably who would be big stars ... you could turn the Browns into a great ball team. You'd sign Feller and DiMaggio, maybe work a deal to get Ted Williams ...

Knowing full well that I am, and there is no denying it.........

I thought I was baseball driven/interested/obsessed....

You have it bad my friend, and, it's a good thing.

 

[JohnU]

Sadly, a thunderstorm watch is keeping me from going to Gary tonight.
Or not. I've driven over there in the rain, wondering why I was going.
Hey, you get to the ballpark and chat with other people at the ballpark.
Sooner or later, they take the tarp off.

 

[JohnU]

I loved writing this:

A guy trying to get a hit

 

[BigDDude]

I loved writing this:

A guy trying to get a hit

Nice. It gives you the feel of an at bat for sure.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I was always looking for gas. Unfortunately, the slider looks just like a fastball until you're toast. I was a catcher. Always talked up the hitter and the ump on D, but never heard a word a catcher said when I was in the box when I was going good. Like someone turned off the hearing aid. Worked great until pitchers really started throwing the slider, and my right shoulder was falling off. Then I could hear the kid in the 18th row screaming for I've cream. Focus abandoned my like a bar girl.

 

[JohnU]

The ugliest uniforms ever?

I recall the Padres and the Pirates looking like mustard and the Indians looking like tomatoes.

Aside from this Orioles joke, not so much about the four guys pictured.

 

[Redsfan1507]

4 20 game winners- 71 Orioles I think. Palmer, Cuellar, McNalley, Dobson. Didn't harm them that manager Earl Weaver hated the steal, small ball , Palmer and relivievers, with Frank & Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Don Baylor, Buford thumping the ball, and some guy named Davey Johnson, Paul Blair and Mark Belanger picking D in the middle. They had a great team from late 60's thru the mid 70's. Schooled the Reds in 70.

 

[JohnU]

Orioles were one of the teams that had forward-thinking front office people. Weaer knew the sort of team he needed and went out and got it.