Dave's Baseball, Ghost Pepper Style 6 Quiz

Answer: John McGraw

Paul Richards set the American League season record while at the helm of the Baltimore Orioles in 1956 after being ejected 12 times. McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31 seasons. In 1905 he was ejected 13 times setting the NL season record. The four managers listed total a ton of career ejections, including Bobby Cox who set a career National and Major League record with 132 ejections. Weaver set the American League career record when he retired with 98.

Answer: Earl Hamilton

Hamilton was a St. Louis Brown in his second season of baseball in 1912. On September 10th, he hit three Detroit Tigers in a row by the names of George Moriarty, Baldy Louden, and Donie Bush. The Browns lost the game 9-1. Hamilton hit only nine batters in the entire season while going 11-14. Earl retired in 1924 as a Phillie along with his 70 career hit batsmen after 14 seasons.

Answer: Philadelphia Athletics

Johnson was a career Washington Senator in 21 seasons from 1907-1927. Walter threw a Major League record 110 shutouts in his career. An amazing 21% of all his shutouts had the Athletics on the receiving end. He threw for three Triple Crown Awards and won two American League MVPs in 1913 and 1924. 'The Big Train' was inducted into the Hall of Fame along with Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, and Honus Wagner in the first-ever Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1936.

Answer: Bo Jackson

All four greats played in both leagues but never received the all-star status in both. Jackson was the first to receive the All-Star honors in both leagues. Bo made it to All-Star status in his fourth season with the Kansas City Royals in 1986. He finished 10th in the MVP voting for the season. With the pigskin in his hands he won the college football Heisman Trophy while at Auburn University in 1985, then as a Raider in 1989, was selected to the NFL Pro Bowl. Jackson was originally drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but never played for the Bucs.

He spent only four seasons in the NFL, all with the Raiders until a hip injury curtailed both careers.

Answer: Cleveland Indians - Detroit Tigers

In 1960, the Indians were 95 games into the season with Joe Gordon at the helm. Cleveland traded Gordon to the Tigers for manager Jimmy Dykes in one of the strangest trades in baseball. Gordon had managed the Indians in three seasons prior to the trade with Detroit, then left the Tigers after the 1960 season. Joe managed the Athletics and Royals for one season each after that before retiring.

The Tigers' Dykes was in his 18th season when the trade took place. He managed mostly with the White Sox. Jimmy stayed with the Indians after the trade and retired after the 1961 season.

Answer: Ed Reulbach

Reulbach was in his fourth season with the Chicago Cubs in 1908. Pitching both ends of a double-header on September 26, Ed blanked the Brooklyn Dodgers in both games. Earlier in the 1906 World Series he threw a one-hitter against the White Sox in game two. That World Series record was only surpassed by the Yankees' Don Larsen who threw a perfect game in the 1956 series.

He was the last surviving member of the 1908 Chicago Cub World Series Champions when he died in 1961 at the age of 78.

Answer: Joe McCarthy

In addition to McCarthy leading the rest on the list, he led all managers during the 20th Century. McCarthy never played the game but managed for 24 seasons at the helm of the Cubs, Yankees, and Red Sox. Amazingly, Joe never had a losing season in his entire career.

His big run came with the Yankees from 1931-1946. McCarthy took his Yankees to eight American League pennants and seven World Series Championships. He also helmed the Cubs to a National League pennant in 1929. McCarthy's win-loss percentage during his career was .615 in 3487 games. McGraw went .586 in 4769 games. Alston was with the Dodgers and had a .558 rating in 3658 games. Stengel had a higher win-loss record of all the others with the Yankees, but his .623 record was ruined in four seasons with the Mets while losing 404 games.

Answer: Honus Wagner

All these fleet-footed greats stole home twice in a game, but it was Honus Wagner who beat them to the plate by more than a decade. Wagner was with the Pirates in his second season in Pittsburgh 1901 after coming from the defunct Louisville Colonels. On June 20th, he stole home twice against the last place Cincinnati Reds. Wagner batted .353 and had 49 steals along with 194 hits in the season.

He helped his Pirates win the NL pennant over the runner-up Phillies. Larry Doyle of the New York Giants stole home twice in 1911. Joe Jackson of the Indians was next in 1912, then Eddie Collins of the Athletics in 1913. Ty Cobb never stole home twice in one game although he set a career record of stealing home 54 times.

Answer: Pumpsie Green

The team was the Boston Red Sox. The team owner Tom Yawkey was still in his own world of anti-negro in Major League Baseball. Even under pressure he gave tryouts to both Jackie Robinson and Sam Jethro in 1945 but passed on them both. The tryouts were all eye-candy.

The Red Sox organization was finally sued by the NAACP and eventually forced the last team in baseball to hire a black player. That player was Pumpsie Green, and in 1959 had finally totally integrated Major League Baseball. Green debuted in a Red Sox uniform on July 21 and was inserted as a pinch-runner against the Chicago White Sox. Green played second base in limited time for the rest of the season. Pumpsie played with the Red Sox in four seasons, then played his final season with the Mets in 1963. Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green was the last link to break the prejudicial covert ban in Major League Baseball.

Answer: Bobo Newsom

Newsom had been in baseball for 12 seasons in 1943 and in his third stint with the Washington Senators. After wearing the number 21 and 12 in his two previous tours with the Senators, he went to the number 00 after being traded from the Dodgers midseason 1943. Newsom pitched for 20 seasons and retired in 1953.

He was in the top five of the MVP voting twice. One of his career highlights was pitching a World Series shutout against the 1940 Tigers. Lawrence Norman "Bobo" Newsom died in 1962 after being diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 55.