Remembering Hall-of-Famers Tom Seaver and Lou Brock and discussing the tightening playoff race dominated our conversation at the monthly meeting on Saturday.
Fourteen chapter members and guests enjoyed hearing from one of the Hornsby Chapter’s newest members, Joe Gallagher. He had a long career in baseball broadcasting, serving as a producer for the New York Mets television and radio broadcasts and NBC’s Game of the Week in the 1960s.
Joe also shared his memories of Seaver and Brock. He remembered how the Mets had long struggled since their inception in 1962, but when Seaver arrived, he said that changed the culture.
“We’re not accepting losing,” he recalled Seaver saying on a broadcast. “We have to learn how to win.”
Joe said he was impressed with Seaver’s determination to win from the start of his career.
For Brock, Joe remembered an impressive home run he hit to the center field bleachers at the Polo Grounds. Many of us have seen the video of Willie Mays and his famous over-the-shoulder catch in the 1954 World Series, so it was fun to imagine Brock’s blast.
We’ll endeavor to include more of Joe’s memories and experiences in future meetings. You can read more about Joe’s extensive career in this profile written in 2018 by The Quadrangle, the student newspaper of Manhattan College, from which he graduated in 1949: https://mcquad.org/2018/04/27/joseph-gallagher-49-highlighting-the-former-sports-editors-astounding-career/
Monte also shared that he saw Brock’s 3,000th career hit in August 1979 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.
We started off the meeting by remembering Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died the night before the meeting. We shared some interesting stories, including one in which her clerks had beaten the clerks of a fellow justice in fantasy baseball. You can read more about that at this link: https://clcjbooks.rutgers.edu/books/notorious-rbg-the-life-and-times-of-ruth-bader-ginsburg/
We also talked about a photo that Jeff Idelson, former president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, shared on his Twitter account from when Ginsburg once paid a visit.
Because Cy won last month’s quiz, he was imbued with the power to create this month’s quiz. He focused on team and league leaders in a variety of categories with an eye toward asking questions about teams popular in our chapter. Congratulations to Dan for winning Cy’s quiz with 28 total points. Jim was second with 22, and Ryan P. was third with 17. Your humble reporter achieved double digits with 11! Try your hand at Cy’s quiz below (answers are followed by the questions). For his impressive tally, Dan’s gets our hearty (virtual) handshakes and congratulations, and the honor to create next month’s quiz.
We also polled the meeting attendees on a variety of baseball questions. Everyone thinks the Dodgers are destined for another National League pennant, while the group favored the Rays (55%) over the A’s (27%) and White Sox (18%) to win the AL pennant.
Among second-place teams, the group thought that the favorites to win the World Series were the Yankees and Padres.
Of the wild card teams (entering play on Saturday, Sept. 19), the group thought the Indians (45%) were most likely to surprise the world and win the World Series, with the Phillies (27%), Blue Jays (18%) and Reds (9%) trailing in the poll results.
We also asked the group to pick one of the new baseball rules to retain for next season and beyond. Overwhelmingly, by a 75% vote, the group chose the universal DH rule over the other rules such as the runner-on-second-for-extra-innings rule (17%) and the seven-inning doubleheader rule (8%). No one supported continuing the expanded playoffs implemented this season.
This was the sixth consecutive month we’ve met online on Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic. It was also the 166th consecutive month in which the chapter has had a meeting.
The next Hornsby Chapter meeting will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, via Zoom. Information about the meeting will be shared via our email list in early October. Hope to see you there!
Teams and league leaders quiz
All questions worth 2 points except where noted.
By Cy Morong
- Who was the first Astros player to win a batting title?
- Who is the only Mets player to win a batting title?
- Who was the most recent Yankee to win a batting title, prior to 2020?
- Who won the most batting titles as a member of the Cardinals?
- Who was the most recent member of the Indians to win a batting title, prior to 2020?
- Since 1900, who is the only member of the Cubs to win back to back batting titles?
- Who was the first Ranger to win a batting title? (since 1972)
- Babe Ruth had 10 HR titles as a Yankee. Who is second on the Yankees in HR titles?
- Who was the first White Sox player to lead the AL in HRs?
- Who was the last Cardinal to win a HR crown before McGwire did it in 1998?
- Who is the only Cub to win 3 straight HR crowns since 1900?
- Who was the first Oriole to lead the AL in HRs (since 1954)?
- Who was the first member of the Red Sox to lead the AL in HRs more than once?
- Who was the last Brooklyn Dodger to lead the NL in HRs?
- Who was the first Astro pitcher to lead the NL in strikeouts?
- Who was the first Dodger to lead the NL in strikeouts and ERA in the same year?
- Besides Tom Seaver, name either one of the two Mets to lead the NL in strikeouts more than once.
- Who was the first Oriole to lead the AL in ERA since 1954?
- Who was the first Boston pitcher to lead the AL in ERA?
- Since 1920, who is the only Indians pitcher to win 2 ERA titles?
- Name any 5 Rangers who led the AL in HRs, RBIs or AVG since 1972 (1 point each for a max of 5).
- Name any 5 White Sox players who led the AL in HRs, RBIs or AVG (1 point each for a max of 5).
Answer Key: Teams and league leaders quiz. All questions worth 2 points except where noted.
- Altuve
- Jose Reyes
- Bernie Williams
- Musial (7)
- Avila
- Madlock
- Julio Franco
- Mantle 4
- Melton
- Mize
- Hack Wilson
- Frank Robinson
- Ruth
- Duke Snider
- J.R. Richard
- Vance
- Gooden, Cone.
- Wilhelm
- Cy Young
- Garcia
- Hamilton, Young, Franco, AROD, Juan Gonzalez, Sierra and Burroughs
- Allen, Abreu, Anderson, Thomas, Appling and Melton
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