Dave's Baseball, Ghost Pepper Style 7 Quiz

Answer: Athletics

The Philadelphia Athletics had a gem of a pitching staff in 1931. They were led by the arms of Lefty Grove (31-4), George Earnshaw (21-7), and Rube Walberg (20-12). The Athletics won 107 games against only 45 losses in the season and went to the World Series but lost to the St. Louis Cardinals four games to three. The Baltimore Orioles were the first team in history to have four 20-game winners. In 1971 they had Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally, and Jim Palmer who all won at least 20 games in the season. The Orioles went 101-57 but lost the World Series to the Pirates four games to three.

The first NL team to have three 20-game winners was the Chicago White Stockings in 1886 (John Clarkson with 36 wins, Jim McCormick with 31 and Jocko Flynn with 23).

Answer: Jack Clements

Clements began his career with the Philadelphia Keystones of the Union Association in 1884. Midseason he slid over to the National League with the Philadelphia Quakers. He played with the Quakers/Phillies 14 seasons until 1897 when he moved to St. Louis Brown territory. Jack was not only the only left-handed catcher to play behind the plate in 1000 games, he was the only left-hander to even play in 300 games.

He played behind the plate in 1076 games. The law of physics dictate that a left-handed catcher is taboo, unlike the preferred left-hander at first base. Clements never led the league in any offensive category and retired in 1900 with the Boston Beaneaters and his .287 career batting average. Jack died in 1941 at the age of 76.

Answer: Fort Wayne Kekiongas

The Fort Wayne club was in their first season of professional baseball in the new National Association in 1871. After their season ended 7-12, all the players quit the team and the owner shut the franchise down. Six of the Kekiongas' seven wins were at the arm of pitcher Bobby Mathews. Even with only seven wins for the entire season, they finished in seventh place of nine teams.

The Philadelphia Athletics won the first NA pennant with their 21-7 season record.

Answer: Pete Gray

Gray didn't play professional baseball until after WWII. In the second World War Pete became an amputee with the loss of his right arm. Even after returning home he tried out for the St. Louis Browns of the American League in 1945. Owner Bill Veeck hired him as an outfielder. Gray batted left, threw left, and fielded left.

In his only season of baseball in 1945 he held up his own by playing in 77 games, having 51 hits including six doubles and two triples with a batting average of .218. He walked away from baseball after that. Pete died in 2002 at the age of 87. Abbott who lost part of his right arm debuted as a California Angel on the mound in 1989.

He finished fifth in the Rookie of the Year voting, then finished third for the AL Cy Young Award in 1991. Jim retired in 1999 with a 87-108 career record over 10 seasons.

Although Hugh Daily was nicknamed "one arm", he lost his left hand before playing in early baseball. Hugh played in the National League, Union Association, and American Association in six seasons from 1882-1887.

In 1884 he led the UA with 483 strikeouts.

Answer: Fred Thayer

Baseball pioneer Harry Wright came up with the first mouth protector for catchers in the early 1870s which consisted of nothing more than a wide rubber mouth piece. Catchers did not like it because it prevented them from talking and heckling the batters. Thayer never played professional baseball but modified a fencing mask for a catching friend Alexander Tyng in 1876. Tyng made only two errors behind the plate in his first game with the mask, an almost impossible feat in early baseball. After Thayer's mask appeared in the Spalding catalog in 1878, the A.G. Spalding Company purchased the patent from Thayer due to the mask's popularity. Spalding later modified the mask again with what was called 'dog skin' to help insulate the metal from the catcher's face.

The mask went through five changes throughout the 20th Century at the hands of the Spalding Company.

Answer: Louisville Colonels

The Colonels were in the American Association in 1889 when they went a pathetic 27-111 for a last place finish in the league 66.5 games behind the AA pennant-winning Brooklyn Bridegrooms. The Colonels went through four managers in the season but only the last manager change seemed to help in the name of Jack Chapman.

In the 1890 season the team went 88-44. The first team in the National League to lose 100 games was the Pittsburgh Alleghenys in 1890 who went 23-113. The first American League team to lose 100 games was the Washington Senators in 1904 who went 38-113.

Answer: Ned Hanlon

Hanlon managed in 19 seasons from 1889-1907. He managed teams in three different leagues but mostly the Baltimore Orioles and the Brooklyn Superbas of the National League. With Ned at the helm, his teams won five NL pennants, three with the Orioles and two with the Superbas. Hanlon's career managerial record was 1313-1164. Edward Hugh "Ned" Hanlon died in 1937 at the age of 79, then was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a manager in 1996.

Answer: Cleveland Indians

In 1929 before Major League Baseball mandated that all teams have numbers on their jersey, the Yankees assigned numbers to each player on the team in according to their batting order. In 1929 the Bronx Bombers' batting order was outfielder Earl Combs who led-off and wore number one, then infielder Mark Koenig with the number 2, then the great Babe Ruth who wore number 3, and their clean-up hitter was the immortal Lou Gehrig who wore number 4.

The Yankees put the numbers on their players two months prior to the 1929 season, and the Cleveland Indians put numbers on their jersey one week prior to the 1929 season.

The Yankees were anxious to be the first team to display the numbers for an entire season. However, on opening day the Yankees were rained out, leaving the Indians to be the first team to display their player numbers. On July 16, 1929, the Indians with their new numbers beat the Detroit Tigers 5-4.

Answer: Shibe Park

The ballpark was Shibe Park, new home of the Philadelphia Athletics on April 12, 1909. It first opened with a capacity of 20,000 fans but increased as the seasons went on. Behind the huge dome stood the office of owner Connie Mack that looked down on to the field.

In 1909 the Athletics finished in second place behind the Detroit Tigers but then came back to appear in four World Series in the next five seasons from 1910-1914 while winning three.

Answer: Boston Red Sox

Most teams would be more than happy scoring 17 runs in a game, but the Red Sox blew the doors wide open on June 18, 1953. The Red Sox were playing host to the Tigers, but not being very good hosts. Boston hit Tiger pitcher Ned Garver up for three runs in the second and two runs in the fifth to chase him from the game.

In the seventh inning the Red Sox sent 23 batters to the plate and ate up three Tiger pitchers in the names of Steve Gromek, Dick Weik, and Earl Harrist while scoring 17 runs. The final score was Boston 23, Detroit 3. Strangely enough, both teams hit only one home run each in the game.