OT: MLB Trivia
- Thread starter Colbert17!
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@colbert17 @Source @zappaa and anyone else. Here's a new trivia for you. Two all-time greats, HOF MLB, shared the same birthday and shared the same birthplace. Can you name them?
But Zisk did have over a ten-year career. He hit 207 home runs. Did you mean Augustine when you wrote Zisk above?
Would have been my brother Larry, I’ll ask him.
Me being in 6th grade watching Larry play, I remember Pete Helt…Morristown, Ed Halicki (pitched no hitter in big leagues)…Kearny, Al Sanarini (played on same Union team as Elliot Maddox)
And John Montafusco at Red Bank.
I have 4 big league home runs off of The Count….Larry got him in high school.
We laugh about it when we see him.
Zisk would have scored if he was one step faster Camden, and Augie would have been the hero….it was a joke
NJ had some high quality players then.
BTW, and it doesn’t change the point of your story but The Count played for Middletown. Next town over from Red Bank
Montefusco made a big impression when he came up with the Giants. He said that one scout had told him, "If wanting to make the majors was enough, then you'd have been in the majors long ago." I remember Ed Halicki's no-hitter; it was the second game of a Sunday doubleheader. (I lived in the Bay Area at the time.)
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Is it the most home runs by a player with a last name starting with Z?
That would be the home of the Smog Museum, Donora, PA.
Birthplace of Stan Musial and Ken Griffey, Jr. Both born on November 21 (I think).
I remember seeing something on the Smithsonian channel about the smog.
Mike Lum used to be the only answer….lol
I heard rumblings in clubhouse my old manager Chuck Tanner may have pinch hit for Hank.
Of course there’s plenty of reasons why someone would be pinch hit for that have nothing to do with game situation
The elder Ken Griffey was also born there. Here is a link about the Donora "Death Fog," which was in fact smog caused by emissions from steel mills in the valley that were trapped close to the ground by an atmospheric inversion. This incident helped lead to the enactment of modern air pollution laws. . https://www.aiche.org/chenected/2011/10/donora-death-fog-crisis-led-modern-air-pollution-laws
I actually heard this question before. I know some but not all.
Mike Lum
Lee May - one of my favorite players
Johnny Briggs - former Phil
Mike Hegan - former Yank prospect
He went to Par High. Joe Orsulak went to Par Hills.
Edit: Apologies, didn't mean to pile on. I should've kept reading the rest of the posts.
You never got to see Stan the man in his real prime Camden, as I obviously didn’t….some hitter!
You're right. I didn't. But even in 1962, when I was old enough to be a fan, he hit .330 in over 400 official plate appearances. Musial was 42 at the time. Jimmy Breslin records in his book "Can't Anyone Here Play This Game?" that Musial was particularly hard on the Mets that year, so NY fans got to see a lot of Musial at his best.
@colbert17 @zappaa ,
I used to think Mike Lum was the only answer too. Turns out it was Lum, Lee May, Marty Perez, Johnny Blanchard, Johnny Briggs, and Mike Hegan.
Camden, I know a man with your baseball knowledge would be very familiar with Harvey Haddix.
Harvey (The Kitten) was our pitching coach in Pittsburgh, our 3rd base coach was a cup of coffee ex-catcher named Joe Lonnett.
Harvey the pitcher pinch hit twice for Joe the catcher while the two were teammates with the Phillies.
You think Joe caught some flack over it and had his balls busted in our clubhouse?….lol
Harvey (The Kitten) was our pitching coach in Pittsburgh, our 3rd base coach was a cup of coffee ex-catcher named Joe Lonnett.
Harvey the pitcher pinch hit twice for Joe the catcher while the two were teammates with the Phillies.
You think Joe caught some flack over it and had his balls busted in our clubhouse?….lol
Went to a Christmas party last night in Wyckoff, father of my son's friend. He had redone his house which when he got the original blueprints, turned out the house used to be owned by Johnny VanderMeer.
Mike Lum. Wow. That’s a name. Think he was from Hawaii if I recall. Marty Perez a SS if I recall and may have played for Yankees for short time if i recall. The rest are very well known to me. Great question.
I’m quite familiar with VanderMeers exploits, but had no idea he was a Jersey boy….how bout that.
Yes, I am old enough to remember the 12 inning perfect game that Haddix lost in the 13th inning against the Milwaukee Braves in 1959. I looked it up just now, and was reminded that the perfect game was ended by a throwing error by third baseman Don Hoak on a ball hit by Felix Mantilla. Joe Adcock, the Braves first baseman, hit an apparent three-run homer, but Hank Aaron, who was on first, thought the ball had been off the wall, and so went only to second, and ran to the dugout after Mantilla scored. So only Mantilla's run counted, and Adcock was credited with a double. I have heard of a guy who was listening to the game on his car radio while he drove, got home, realized that the radio there wouldn't pick up the game, and ran back out to the car and listened to the rest. A Braves pitcher later told Haddix that the Braves had been stealing his signs throughout the game and signaling their hitters, but that Aaron refused to look at the signals.
A bit of trivia: The following year, Haddix was the winning pitcher of the 7th game of the 1960 series -- the game famous for Mazeroski's walk-off homer off Ralph Terry. I saw that and, as a Yankees fan, was crushed. (Mickey Mantle said that he "cried like a baby" after the game.) That was the Series in which Bobby Richardson was a slugger for the first and last time.
My dad hit the one hop smash to Rocky Nelson at 1st off of Haddix with men on 1st and third, one out, top of the 9th. Mantle instead of running to 2nd, dove back into first allowing the run to score from 3rd and tying the game.
Harvey always told me my had hit a waste pitch 5 inches inside, shoe top high…. He couldn’t believe my dad swung at it and hit, much less fair and hard
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Yes, I saw that live. I still can't believe that Mantle was able to dive back into first. The ball was so hard hit that Mantle didn't get a jump toward second. Rocky Nelson was playing first, (Nelson homered early in the game.), I wonder what would have happened if the regular first baseman, Dick Stuart (Dr. Strangelove) ,had been playing first. The ball would have bounced off him, your dad would have been safe at first, and there still would have been only one out.
Nelson stepped on 1st immediately, nullifying the force at 2nd, when Mantle slid back in to first, Nelson was shocked.
I’ve never seen a base runner ever do that since.
Ironically, had Mickey got himself into a rundown, the run from 3rd still would have counted since the force was off.
All true. Nelson made the wrong play. It would have been better either to have thrown immediately to the plate, or, probably better, thrown to second to start a double play. (Mantle had no jump, and your dad wasn't a speedster.)
Let me remind everyone that your dad hit a two-run homer in the 5th that gave the Yankees the lead for the first time.
The goat of the series really was Casey Stengel, who made the strange decision to start Art Ditmar in the first game. Whitey Ford pitched two shutouts, but had pitched the sixth game and so was unavailable even for relief duty in the seventh game. Perhaps the Yankees were justified in relieving Stengel after the season.
Stengel held a press conference after he had "resigned." He said, "They told me I have to leave because I'm 70 years old. I'll never make that mistake again!!"
When they asked the old professor what the Yankee management said to him his response was.
“They told me my services were no longer required”
Best hitter I ever saw Zap. Believe he only struck out over 40 times once in over 20 yrs. Think it was 41. Just killed the Dodgers. Got the nick name "The Man'" because when he came up the fans would say here comes that man again. I don't know how the right field wall was still standing when they left town. Of course he hit a bunch over that really high screen on top of the wall as well. And as Joe Garagiola said he would knock the 3rd baseman down.
Listened to that whole game perfect from KDKA living in upstate NY. Loved the "the Kitten". Also watched the '60 game you guys were posting about & remember the play. The Bucs were my team then.
KDKA was and is a "clear channel" station. That means it has the most powerful allowable signal and a frequency that is subject to little interference from other stations. It can therefore be heard a long way. So I'm not at all surprised you had perfect reception in upstate New York even though the station broadcastsfrom Pittsburgh. KDKA is among the oldest AM stations. Because of its age and reputation, it is one of the few -- maybe only --radio stations east of the Mississippi whose call letters begin with K. Generally, the initial letter K is for stations west of the Mississippi,and W for stations to the east.
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Thanks for remembering that. Bob Woods was a great announcer; I heard him the 1960 World Series. In those days, the local broadcasters did the radio during the World Series.
Bob Prince insisted on calling Clemente "Bobby". Supposedly Roberto didn't like that.