Trivia titans clash over Negro Leagues quiz at June meeting

June 2024 Newsletter

By Gilbert D. Martinez

The June chapter meeting at Ryan Pollack and Lauren Cohen’s house featured a delicious sandwich platter with sides, desserts, live baseball broadcasts and a nifty Negro Leagues baseball quiz.

A dozen chapter members and guests talked about the strong start by the Yankees and Phillies and wondered if the Rangers and Astros have enough time to overcome slow starts and a string of injuries to each club’s respective starting rotations.

We also noted the recognition of Josh Gibson’s lifetime batting average (.372) that now sits atop baseball’s record book as MLB has fully integrated Negro Leagues records with MLB statistics.

The quiz, inspired by a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum by Raeanne and Gilbert Martinez and Ryan in April, sparked an epic clash of trivia titans, Jerry Miller and Jim Baker. After the regulation 20 questions (written by Ryan, Raeanne and Gilbert), Jerry and Jim found themselves in a tie, 11 points each.

This triggered a tiebreaker in which each combatant was tasked by Ryan to name a player enshrined as a statue on the playing field at the heart of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. First contestant to incorrectly name a player would lose the tiebreaker, Ryan declared.

Josh Gibson, Jerry said for his first guess (correct).

Satchel Paige, Jim countered (correct).

Cool Papa Bell, Jerry said (correct).

Bullet Joe Rogan, Jim offered (incorrect, but under his breath, Jim said Rogan ought to be immortalized as a statue!).

For a list of all players and executives on the Field of Legends, check out this entry on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro_Leagues_Baseball_Museum

And with that, Jerry outlasted Jim in a battle for the ages. Try your hand at Ryan’s quiz below. The answers follow the questions. (Note: Ryan deviated slightly for the tiebreaker depicted below.)

Many thanks to Ryan and Lauren for sharing their home with us for this month’s meeting!

This was the 211th consecutive month with a monthly meeting, a streak that dates to December 2006.

Very Difficult Trivia

Chapter member Tom Thayer shared on the chapter email list a novel question that he dubbed “very difficult trivia.” Tom said he would be very impressed if anyone knew the answer without looking it up.

“This position player was a rookie when he was 20 years old,” Tom wrote. “He played until he was 34. In his age 32 season, he set a new personal best in home runs. Not only was it a career high, but it was more than double the amount of home runs he had hit in his ENTIRE career up until that point.

“I am not aware of any position player with a similar profile – even approaching doubling his career home runs in a single season that late in his career. I know of another player who mid-career almost equaled his career home runs in a single season. And it is possible that there have been pitchers who have done this (i.e. had 1 career home run and then had a season with 2 late in their career).

“Who is this player? Tom asked, challenging chapter members.

After about 10 hours of nothing but crickets on the email list, Tom took pity on his fellow chapter members and offered additional hints.

“He was born outside of the U.S., though you can’t tell from his name. The high school from which he matriculated in New Hampshire is now a college. He missed part of one season due to a war effort. His nickname is the same as a Tim Conway character. He was the personal catcher of one of the greatest pitchers of all time. He organized one of the early ballplayer tours of Japan. He was a proponent of women’s baseball, arranging a women’s baseball tour of Japan and Korea. He later managed the Rockford Peaches (no word on his stance on crying in baseball).”

Various incorrect guesses were made such as Hack Wilson, while some chapter members investigated possible answers that didn’t fit the criteria upon further research.

The Tim Conway character hint prompted chapter member Mike McNulty to guess “[s]ome ballplayer nicknamed ‘Dorf.’”

Tom ruled that a correct answer (technically) and filled in the rest.

“The answer is Eddie “Dorf” Ainsmith,” Tom wrote. “I imagine most have never heard of him since he played over a century ago.

“He was born in Russia (nee Anshmedt) and grew up in Massachusetts. He graduated from Colby Academy (now Colby College) before beginning his pro career at the age of 17. For most of his career, he was a consistently bad hitter with an OPS+ around 60. He was Walter Johnson’s personal catcher – he caught more of Johnson’s innings (1271) than any other catcher.

“He served stateside in the WWI war effort in 1918, but that year was when his hitting started to turn around. He posted an 80 OPS+ that year and then 115 in 1919. However, still not much power as he only had 6 career HRs through 1920. He posted an 82 OPS+ in 1921 with 0 HRs. Then, in 1922 with the Cardinals (managed by Branch Rickey) he surged to 13 HRs, which was top 10 in the league. The Cardinals played in a hitting-friendly stadium, but not extremely so. He was 3rd on the team in WAR and out-homered slugging first baseman Jack Fournier. He only hit 3 more HRs the rest of his career.

“The women’s baseball tour of Asia was a failure with the lady ballplayers getting stranded – one of them was washed overboard when her family was eventually able to pay for her return.

“The closest analogue to Ainsmith in terms of power surges would be Ed Williamson. He had 8 career HRs until he was 26 yo (his 7th season) when he jacked 27 HRs for the Cubs, aided by a short RF. Ken Williams had 40 career HRs when he hit 39 in 1922. He was 32 yo at the time, but it was only his 7th season in baseball, with two of them just cups of coffee.

“Among more recent players, Bert Campaneris had 24 career HRs when he hit 22 HRs in his 7th season when he was 28 yo. Pitcher Mike Hampton had no career HRs when he joined the Rockies at age 28 – he hit 7 HRs in his first season with them.”

Tom shared with me that he has long been aware of Ainsmith because his entry is near the front of Baseball Encyclopedia. More recently, Tom said he dug deeper into Ainsmith’s career while working on a catcher database.

Thanks, Tom, for the challenging trivia question and thorough follow-up!

Research Spotlight

For the past five years, Jim Baker has dedicated himself to examining the best single-game offensive performances in baseball history using fantasy baseball stats. Tallying total bases, runs, RBI, walks, stolen bases (and hit-by-pitch), Jim has identified dozens of individual game performances that top his Big Game List. He has reviewed all four-home-run games and most three-home-run games. Now, he’s nearly done compiling his list.

Here’s the top eleven performances.

Pts	Player	Date	Notes	Team		Opp	W-L	Runs	R.A.	pa	ab	r	h	2b	3b	hr	rbi	bb	so	sb	cs
32	Shawn Green	5/23/02	4 HR, 6-for-6	Dodgers	@	Brewers	W	16	3	6	6	6	6	1	0	4	7	0	0	0	0
32	Mark Whiten	9/7/93	4 HR, 12 rbi	Cardinals	@	Reds	W	15	2	5	5	4	4	0	0	4	12	0	0	0	0
31	Scooter Gennett	6/6/17	4 HR, 10 rbi, 5-for-5	Reds	vs	Cardinals	W	13	1	5	5	4	5	0	0	4	10	0	0	0	0
31	Anthony Rendon	4/30/17	3 HR, 2b, 10 rbi, 6-for-6	Nationals	vs	Mets	W	23	5	6	6	5	6	1	0	3	10	0	0	0	0
31	Gil Hodges	8/31/50	4 HR, 9 rbi	Dodgers	vs	Braves	W	19	3	6	6	5	5	0	0	4	9	0	0	0	0
31	Tony Lazzeri	5/24/36	3 HR, 1 3b, 11 rbi, 2 GS	Yankees	@	A’s	W	25	2	6	5	4	4	0	1	3	11	1	1	0	0
30	Josh Hamilton	5/8/12	4 HR, 1 2b, 8 rbi	Rangers	@	Orioles	W	10	3	5	5	4	5	1	0	4	8	0	0	0	0
30	Fred Lynn	6/18/75	3 HR, 1 3b, 10 rbi	Red Sox	@	Tigers	W	15	1	6	6	4	5	0	1	3	10	0	0	0	0
30	Joe Adcock	7/31/54	4 HR, 1 2b	Braves	@	Dodgers	W	15	7	5	5	5	5	1	0	4	7	0	0	0	0
30	Walker Cooper	7/6/49	3 hr, 10 rbi, 6-for-7	Reds	vs	Cubs	W	23	4	7	7	5	6	0	0	3	10	0	0	0	0

“I have about 90 three-homer games to check,” Jim shared with me. “I am 100 percent certain none of them will impact the Top 10! (Very conveniently, all of the Top 10 games are 30 or more points.)”

“I just found two games where Sammy Sosa had three homers and was then taken out for his final plate appearance,” Jim wrote later. “I wonder why that happened. Surely everyone knows the record is four in a game and that less than two dozen guys have done it….”

The most recent occurrence of a big game to add to Jim’s list was Adolis Garcia with the Texas Rangers on April 22, 2023. His 29-point game ties for fifth on the list, just missing the top eleven performances.

Next meeting: San Antonio Missions game on July 14

After last year’s successful outing to a San Antonio Missions game in September, the chapter is scheduling another outing to Nelson Wolff Municipal Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday, July 14. The Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, the Missions will host the Amarillo Sod Poodles, affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. I have purchased two tickets in Section 200, Row V, Seats 11 and 12, which are shaded seats.

If you’d like to join us, please use the following link to purchase your own tickets: https://mlb.tickets.com/?orgId=53849&agency=MILB_MPV&eventId=19913&tfl=#/event/E19913/seatmap/?selectBuyers=false&minPrice=8&maxPrice=30&quantity=2&sort=price_desc&ada=false&seatSelection=true&onlyCoupon=true&onlyVoucher=false

Hope to see you at the ballpark next month!

Looking ahead, we’re hoping to have a Zoom meeting in August. We’re working on those details and will share them next month.

Negro Leagues Baseball Quiz

Ryan, Gilbert and Raeanne visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on April 19th. This quiz is inspired by their visit. Also: MLB recently integrated Negro League statistics into the MLB historical record. Was this decision entirely because of the visit of our three intrepid SABR members? Who can prove that it wasn’t? 

1. The Kansas City Monarchs brought what baseball innovation to the Negro Leagues in 1930?
2. This 19-year MLB pitcher, who led the league with a 1.085 WHIP in 1973 and is most known for his 8 seasons with the Red Sox in which he went 122-81 with a 3.36 ERA, is the son of a Negro Leagues pitcher.
3. In February 1920, owners met in this city to form the Negro National League.
4. This Texan (born in 1879 in Calvert, 90 minutes northeast of Austin) was nicknamed “The Father of Negro League Baseball” for his involvement in founding and administering the Negro National League.
5. This MLB great used a portion of his HOF induction speech in 1966 to advocate for the HOF election of Negro Leaguers.
6. This Negro League player and MLB scout / coach was the subject of Joe Posnanski’s 2007 book The Soul of Baseball. The player was inducted into the Hall of Fame as an executive 16 years after his death.
7. In what city did the Homestead Grays play the majority of their home games?
8. What did Satchel Paige nickname his favorite pitch?
9. Who was the owner of the Newark Eagles when they won the Negro Leagues World Series in 1946? 
10. This Hall of Fame third baseman, nicknamed “Hooks” and “Squat”, maintained a .319 batting average across 11 Negro League seasons. In 1947 he turned down an invitation from Bill Veeck to play in the Cleveland Indians organization. 
11. Which Negro League player earned the nickname “Pork Chops” because that was all he ate (along with french fries) while on the road?
12. According to his Hall of Fame plaque, Satchel Paige was said to have struck out how many major leaguers in an exhibition game?
13. Meiji Jingu Stadium, now home of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and subject to demolition in the next few years, is one of the few still-operating ballparks in which Babe Ruth played and hit a home run. Which Negro Leagues star was the first to hit a home run there in 1927, a year after the stadium opened?
14. Writing for the Daily Worker, New York City’s Communist Party newspaper, which columnist condemned racial discrimination in baseball in the 1930s and ‘40s, pushing Major League Baseball to integrate?
15. In 1948, this Hall of Famer, best known as a five-tool shortstop, played a handful of games at third base for the Memphis Red Sox while his son played short instead.
16. Three women played in the Negro Leagues, but this one was the only one who pitched. She said she learned her curveball from Satchel Paige. 
17. This first baseman hit .345 and slugged .589 during his long career that was spent entirely with one team. He played in a record 11 East-West All Star Games and was part of the second class of Negro League players to be inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972.
18. This Hall of Fame first baseman with an equine sobriquet, along with the answers to #10 and #15 above, formed the so-called ”‘Million Dollar Infield” on the Newark Eagles in the late 1930s.
19. Which baseball-loving rocker donated hundreds of baseballs signed by Negro League players to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, where they are on display?
20. Considered one of the most versatile players in baseball history, this Negro Leaguer played year-round in the U.S. and abroad. In the Mexican league in 1938, he threw what was likely the first no-hitter in the history of the league, hit over .300, and led the league in strikeouts.

Answers

1. Night games
2. Luis Tiant. LT Sr pitched for the New York Cubans, among other teams
3. Kansas City
4. Rube Foster
5. Ted Williams
6. Buck O’Neil
7. Pittsburgh
8. Bee Ball
9. Effa Manley
10. Ray Dandridge
11. Hank Aaron
12. 21
13. Biz Mackey
14. Lester Rodney
15. Willie Wells
16. Mamie “Peanut” Johnson
17. Buck Leonard 
18. George “Mule” Suttles
19. Geddy Lee
20. Martín Dihigo

Tiebreakers:

• The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is located at which KC historical district?
  • 18th & Vine
• What museum sits directly across from, and shares the same building with, the NLBM?
  • American Jazz Museum
• The NLBM concludes with a replica baseball field on which stand players and other key figures from NLBM history. Even an umpire. Whoever can name the most people on the field without getting one wrong – e.g. you get one wrong and you’re out — wins!
  
  You have 3 minutes to write down your answers, and then you have to read from your list!
  • Catcher: Josh Gibson
  • 1B: Buck Leonard
  • 2B: Pop Lloyd
  • SS: Judy Johnson
  • 3B: Ray Dandridge
  • OF: Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Leon Day
  • Pitcher: Satchel Paige
  • Batter: Martin Dihigo
  • Rube Foster
  • Buck O’Neil
  • Ump: Bob Motley