Quiz – off-season blues (solved)

The off-season is upon us (sigh). Yeah, I know. It’s a letdown.

For some distraction, here’s a quirky bit of trivia. The players below have the only seasons since 1901 with a particular batting feat. And, if you look closely, only one of these players has had such a season in the expansion era. What is this feat that has become so rare?

Rk	Player
1	Nap Lajoie
2	Heinie Zimmerman
3	Babe Ruth
4	Tris Speaker
5	Ty Cobb
6	Zack Wheat
7	Bob Fothergill
8	Paul Waner
9	Mickey Vernon
10	Enos Slaughter
11	Keith Hernandez

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/31/2013.

Hint: each of these players accomplished this feat only once

Congratulations to Christopher Kamka! He correctly identified that these are the only players having a qualifying .300/.400/.500 season with an equal number of HRs and triples. Those seasons are after the jump.

Rk	Player	Year	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+	3B	HR	Age	Tm	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	RBI	BB	SO
1	Nap Lajoie	1901	.426	.463	.643	198	14	14	26	PHA	131	582	544	145	232	48	125	24	9
2	Heinie Zimmerman	1912	.372	.418	.571	169	14	14	25	CHC	145	619	557	95	207	41	99	38	60
3	Babe Ruth	1918	.300	.411	.555	192	11	11	23	BOS	95	382	317	50	95	26	66	58	58
4	Tris Speaker	1924	.344	.432	.510	141	9	9	36	CLE	136	575	486	94	167	36	65	72	13
5	Ty Cobb	1925	.378	.468	.598	171	12	12	38	DET	121	492	415	97	157	31	102	65	12
6	Zack Wheat	1925	.359	.403	.541	142	14	14	37	BRO	150	671	616	125	221	42	103	45	22
7	Bob Fothergill	1927	.359	.413	.516	139	9	9	29	DET	142	592	527	93	189	38	114	47	31
8	Paul Waner	1929	.336	.424	.534	133	15	15	26	PIT	151	704	596	131	200	43	100	89	24
9	Mickey Vernon	1946	.353	.403	.508	160	8	8	28	WSH	148	637	587	88	207	51	85	49	64
10	Enos Slaughter	1949	.336	.418	.511	144	13	13	33	STL	151	655	568	92	191	34	96	79	37
11	Keith Hernandez	1979	.344	.417	.513	151	11	11	25	STL	161	698	610	116	210	48	105	80	78

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/31/2013.

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Christopher KLamka

11 years ago

Batting Title Qualifiers with .300/.400/.500 with equal numbers of triples & homers

Christopher Kamka

11 years ago

I misspelled my own name earlier.

but the answer remains Batting Title Qualifiers with .300/.400/.500 with equal numbers of triples & homers

Voomo Zanzibar

11 years ago

Reply to Christopher Kamka

Klamka is Polish for doorknob.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Well done, Christopher.

And, welcome to HHS!

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

“The off-season is upon us (sigh). Yeah, I know. It’s a letdown.”

IT SUCKS DOUG!!!

I’m not going to make it to April, I’m really not.

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

Jim: Why don’t you take my advice of a few days ago and logon to youtube and search for game 6 of the 1952 WS in its totality. Game 7 too.

Joe

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

http://www.youtube.com/user/MLBClassics

I’ll just drop the link here for convenience. It’s awesome to be able to watch Koufax on film.

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Most excellent advice indeed Richard. Searching on animal names at BR.com has limited staying power 🙂

Jim Bouldin

11 years ago

I suppose if I can find enough amusements I might make it.

For example, typing “fish” into the search box at BR.com brings up the Miami Marlins’ team page, whereas typing “cat” does not bring up the Tigers page.

That oughta kill some time.

Joe

11 years ago

Reply to Jim Bouldin

My personal favorite for killing time is trying to find a player who hit his career triple slash line exactly in a season. I’ve found a bunch within a couple points of each stat, but none matching yet. If Ty Wigginton plays briefly and poorly next season (but with a few walks) and then retires, his 2004 season could be the one.

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Joe

Here’s a couple of close ones

Albert Pujols – CAREER .321/.410/.599, 2010 .312/.414/.596
Tris Speaker – CAREER .345/.428/.500, 1924 .344/.432/.510
Ted Williams – CAREER .344/.482/.634, 1947 .343/.499/.634

Williams had no fewer than 6 qualifying seasons with a batting average no more than two points off his career average.

11 years ago

Reply to Joe

I figured Steady Eddie himself would be a good place to start. I was right.

Career: .287/.359/.476
1988: .284/.361/.474
1978: .285/.356/.480

Fun game.

11 years ago

Reply to Joe

Hunter Pence this year had an incredibly similar line to his 162 game averages. His 2013 figures for at bats, plate appearances, hits, doubles, triples, homers, walks, batting average and on-base percentage were all within TWO (or two percentage points) of his 162 game averages. Runs and RBIs were within five of his averages.

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

@20/RJ, Eddie Murray in 1988 was also very close to his career 162 game averages. Slash-stats within 3 points; counting totals within five, except for runs and RBI. Of course, the 1988 Orioles were terrible offensively, the worst team in the AL (3.42 R/G vs. AL avg 4.36), so it’s not surprising he had “only” 75 R and 84 RBI. That’s still only 12 runs and 19 RBI less than 1987. There’s a _reason_ that he was nicknamed “Steady Eddie” :). Ripken’s runs/RBI totals took a similar drop (10/18). Just one of about 100 or so reasons why a batter’s… Read more »

donburgh

11 years ago

I have a suggestion for a distraction…

Some time ago, Andy was doing a post for voting on the ‘Mt Rushmore’ of each franchise. When Andy stopped writing, those posts also stopped, leaving the eight oldest NL franchises undone. Could one (or more) of the current writers complete this?

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to donburgh

Good idea, donburgh. Here’s another idea, don’t know if it’s good, but I’ve wondered how to propose it for some time: Right now there’s a kind of generalized debate going on at HHS concerning the relative merits of Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan. I think a more formalized, directed series of posts by two contributors giving contrasting or contrary views on baseball subjects—particular teams (the 2006 Cardinals, say), individual players (example: Shoeless Joe Jackson—how good was he really, independent of being banned?), particular managers, comparable players not usually discussed; etc.—would provide food for thought and comment for the rest of… Read more »

Darien

11 years ago

Looking for an offseason distraction? You could spend a few minutes perusing this utterly useless thing I made over the last few days. I made a full team — 25 players and a manager — out of players with one of their names replaced with the name of a Pokémon. I have no idea why I did this; I’m a horrible person, and it made me giggle. It worked pretty well, and with only one huge cheat! So here’s the list, for those who want it: C — Yogi Beartic C — Thurman Munchlax 1B — Lou Girafarig 2B —… Read more »

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Amazing. I have one addition:

Trainer – six game veteran Gus Ketchum.

Darien

11 years ago

Reply to RJ

I hadn’t considered trainers! Others:

Lou Brock
Vida Blue
Lance Berkman

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

I’m sure we can find a spot for two-time Gold Glover and World Series champion Pokey Reese.

Luis Gomez

11 years ago

Here´s another thing you can try, among the same lines. Put together an all-time team with a 30 man roster, but just one player from each franchise. Here´s my team. C Johnny Bench, Reds C Ivan Rodriguez, Rangers 1B Jimmie Foxx, A´s 1B Jeff Bagwell, Astros 2B Eddie Collins, White Sox 2B Roberto Alomar, Blue Jays 3B Mike Schmidt, Phillies 3B George Brett, Royals SS Honus Wagner, Pirates SS Cal Ripken, Orioles OF Babe Ruth, Yankees OF Willie Mays, Giants OF Ty Cobb, Tigers OF Hank Aaron, Braves OF Stan Musial, Cardinals OF Larry Walker, Rockies DH Ted Williams, Red… Read more »

brp

11 years ago

Create a team with your initials… gotta be easier for other people than it was for me. Thank goodness for Posey and DatDudeBP. Catchers Buster Posey – C/1B Babe Phelps – C Brayan Pena – C Infielders Boog Powell – 1B/LF Bill Phillips – 1B Brett Pill – 1B/LF Brandon Phillips – 2B Bill Pecota – 3B/SS/2B Babe Pinelli – 3B/SS Billy Purtell – 3B/2B/SS Outfielders Ben Paschal – OF Blondie Purcell – OF/3B/P Bubba Phillips – 3B/OF Rotation LHP Billy Pierce RHP Bob Purkey RHP Barney Pelty RHP Brad Penny RHP Bob Porterfield Bullpen LHP Bob Patterson RHP Bobby… Read more »

Richard Chester

11 years ago

Reply to brp

Here’s just my starting team:

C-Roy Campanella
P-Roger Clemens
1B-Rod Carew
2B-Robinson Cano
SS-Ray Chapman
3B-Ron Cey
OF-Rocky Colavito, Rico Carty, Roberto Clemente

oneblankspace

11 years ago

Reply to brp

Searching my initials of G H on baseball-reference yields a lot of players who are not specifically G H’s, like G.H. Ruth and P.G. Humber. Interesting that the Jerry Hairstons come up in that search even though neither is listed as a Gerald or Gerard. c – Gabby Hartnett 1b – Gil Hodges 2b – Glenn Hubbard ss – Granny Hamner 3b – Grady Hatton lf – Glenallen Hill cf – George Hall rf – George Hendrick dh – George Harper sp – Guy Hecker sp – Greg Hibbard sp – (George) Willis Hudlin sp – George Hemming sp –… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to brp

@22/brp, I don’t think it was any easier for me – at least you got someone to fill all the actual positions. I’ve got no catcher, no CFer (I don’t mean no regulars – NO ONE who is “LA” played a single game there), no real outfield or starter (unless you want to count Luis Aquino). What I do have is a team mostly named “Luis”. Oh, and two HOF shortstops: CATCHER (blank) FIRST BASE: Luis Alicia (2 games!) SECOND BASE: Luis Alicia (998 G0, Luis Aguayo (147 G), Luis Alerado (141 G) SHORTSTOP: LUKE APPLING (2218 G) over LUIS… Read more »

11 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Don’t have time to put together a full team but the EH’s will be led by three players between 20-30 career WAR: Elston Howard, Erik Hanson, and Earl Hamilton.

While my team may not be very good I am excited that I get to have Ed Head, Bunny Hearn (first name Elmer), Pink Hawley (Emerson) and Bubbles Hargrave (Eugene). I’m also hoping that no one will object to me claiming Egyptian Healy.

Meanwhile I remain hopeful that Eric Hosmer will someday be the first EH to crack the 30 WAR barrier.

no statistician but

11 years ago

Reply to brp

My initials being S F, I naturally waded into this pastime with low expectations, and found that I was aiming much too high. 17 of 29 choices were pitchers, most of whom pitched a year or so with negative WARs. Sid Fernandez on the mound—alone—with Silver Flint behind the plate, Scott Fletcher at SS, and Steve Finley in CF. Otherwise we have these immortals cluttering the bench: Sam Fuld, Sam Frock, Steve Foucault—who I guess wasn’t that bad, considering his pendulum—Stu Flyte, Stan Ferens, Steve Fircovid, Steve Filipowicz, Sam File, Shaun Fitzmaurice, and Showboat Fisher. An all-star team for interesting… Read more »

Artie Z.

11 years ago

Reply to brp

Listen to the guy with “LA” bellyaching with his two HOF shortstops 🙂

I didn’t really “search” for initials, just went down the list for last names beginning with Z and picked out the first names listed as beginning with A.

C – Alan Zinter
OF- Al Zarilla
SP/RP/RA – Adrian Zabala

Looking through all the Zs I find I can add one more:

Albert “Chink” Zachary – P

I think there are guys on the RC team who have had a month with more total WAR than my team.

Lawrence Azrin

11 years ago

Reply to Artie Z.

@28/Artie Z,

“Listen to the guy with “LA” bellyaching with his two HOF shortstops” – yeah, I kinda deserve that :).

I’m kind of jealous of Richard Chester in #23; now THAT’S a real team – three HOFers, plus everyone listed is an All-Star (at least). Of course Clemens can’t start every game.

I still can’t get over how most of the “LA’s” on my team were named Luis (or Luke).