Quiz – Curious Connection (solved)

37 Replies

These batters are connected by dint of a certain career batting accomplishment that only they have achieved since 1946. What is it?

Hint: Derek Jeter could be the next player to make this list.

Congratulations to RJ! He correctly identified that these are the only players since 1946 who were active leaders in career GIDP without leading the majors in that category in any season. More after the jump.

Since GIDP were consistently recorded starting in 1933, these are the active career leaders in GIDP, showing also when each was the seasonal major-league leader.

	Career	Season
Ernie Lombardi	1933-47	1933-34, 1938
Joe Medwick	1948	none
Bobby Doerr	1949-51	1947, 1949
Bob Elliott	1952-53	none
Sid Gordon	1954-55	1951
George Kell	1956	1944
Del Ennis	1957-58	none
Stan Musial	1959-63	none
Joe Adcock	1964-66	none
Dick Groat	1967	none
Hank Aaron	1968-76	none
Brooks Robinson	1977	1961
Carl Yastrzemski	1978-83	1962, 1964
Rusty Staub	1984-85	1977
Ted Simmons	1986	1973
Jim Rice	1987-89	1982-85
Dave Winfield	1990-95	none
Eddie Murray	1996-97	none
Cal Ripken	1998-2001	1996
Julio Franco	2002-07	1986, 1989
Ivan Rodriguez	2008-11	1999
Miguel Tejada	2012-13	2006, 2008-09

Derek Jeter, who has never had a season leading the majors in GIDP, currently ranks 3rd in career GIDP among active players, but is only 5 behind Miguel Tejada and only three behind previous seasonal leader Paul Konerko. If he stays healthy, I would expect Jeter to play considerably more than either of the players ahead of him, so he could well be on this list by season’s end.

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Steven

10 years ago

A base hit in their final ML at-bat?

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Steven

Nope.

Lots of players have done that.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

“achieved since 1946” — Since Medwick only played through 1948, am I right to conclude that your cutoff takes in only the year in which they reached some final total(s), rather than the entire period during which those were amassed?

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

The cutoff refers to the time the career achievement occurred.

But, the career achievement includes a player’s entire career, not just the portion after 1946.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Clusters of games played, probably means nothing: 4 guys with 2,900+ games, and 5 with 1,900 but less than 2,000. And Jeter in between with 2,602. I’m flailing.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Nothing to do with games played.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Does it have anything to do with not receiving many BB?

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

No it doesn’t.

bstar

10 years ago

I can’t get anywhere on the quiz, but two interesting things about one of the quiz players, Bob Elliott.

His total of 131 walks in 1948 is the highest seasonal total for any player who only had one season over 100 walks without having another (his second-best BB total was 90).

Also: I never would have guessed him, but Bob Elliott led the National League in hits (1563) during the 1940s.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

And RBI too, by a healthy margin (8% more than 2nd place Bill Nicholson, 19% more than 3rd place Dixie Walker).

Lawrence Azrin

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

The 1940s as a decade have some unexpected leaders in almost every category, since a lot of the best players, such as DiMaggio, Williams, Mize, missed three full years (1943-45) due to WWII. Several missed _more_ than three years (Feller, Greenberg).

Rogers Hornsby (2085/20s) and Pete Rose (2045/70s) are the only two to have 2000+ hits in a specific decade.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Elliott and Marty Marion are the only 2 players with 100+ games played in each of the 10 years of the 40s. Elliot had the most total games played for both leagues with 1455.

bstar

10 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

LA: Ichiro had 2030 hits in the 2000s. And he only played nine of the ten years in that decade (2001-2009).

I thought I knew everything about my boy Dale Murphy, but I don’t recall knowing he led the NL in hits in the ’80s. Murph’s total of 1553 is the lowest decade-leading total for either league since Jake Daubert paced the NL in the 1910s with 1535 hits.

10 years ago

Anything to do with grounding into lots of double plays?

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

Yes.

Luis Gomez

10 years ago

Is it when they became the all time leaders in GIDP?

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

On the right track.

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

All of the players have been the active leaders at some point. Just got to work out what separates them from all the others that have also been active leaders since 1946…

Mike L

10 years ago

Doug, why 1946 instead of 1948, and boy, that Ernie Lombardi could really fly….

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Mike L

No reason other than post-WWII is a convenient cutoff point.

If I use 1901 or 1920 or 1946 or 1961, those are natural cutoff points that people recognize, which is better (I think) than picking another year that will get people wondering “Why then?”

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Durn. Thought I had something, along the lines of, these guys were the active GIDP leader without ever having more than 25 in a season, whereas all the other active leaders had a season of 26+.

But Winfield had one year of 30.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

You’re closer than you know.

Luis Gomez

10 years ago

They were the all time leaders in GDIP without leading his league in any season.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to Luis Gomez

SO close, but not exactly.

Aaron, Adcock and Ennis (twice) all led the NL in GIDP.

10 years ago

I think have it. They were all the active leaders without ever leading the MAJORS in a single season (something that doesn’t show up easily on the player page).

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

That’s it.

Well done, RJ.

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Thanks Doug, fun quiz. BTW it’s a “he”. 🙂

10 years ago

On the subject of Joe Medwick, I suspect his leading the league in 12 categories in 1937 is a MLB record. I found three others who tie him: Rogers Hornsby (1921), Stan Musial (1946) and Ted Williams (1949). (There is Ross Barnes with 14 categories in 1873 in the National Association.) Medwick’s achievement stands out as unusual though, given the paucity of black ink throughout the rest of his career.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

If you count Caught Stealing, Snuffy Stirnweiss led the AL in 12 categories in 1945.

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Snuffy’s 18.3 WAR for his first three seasons is 7th all-time.

23.6 Ted Williams
20.8 Mike Trout
20.7 Albert Pujols
20.0 Even Longoria
19.0 Paul Waner
18.4 Eddie Mathews

Only Trout had less PA
(by a lot)

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

I was wondering what to make of Stirnweiss’ impressive start to his career, coming as it did during the war years of 1944-45. The following article seems to think that he was the real deal during those seasons, even adjusting for the quality of competition:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/snuffy-stirnweiss/

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

I’ll need a lot of selling on Stirnweiss, although I haven’t read the article yet. Two things stand out to me: 1) He was an ordinary hitter in his last two years at Newark, age 22-23. This was 1941-42, before the big wave of players going in the service. He did swipe an amazing 73 bags in 1942, but in batting, he was nowhere near the leaders in important stats. 2) In his two big MLB seasons, 1944-45, he was an outstanding hitter — but far more successful against the weaker teams. For those two years combined, out of 51… Read more »

bstar

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

The article isn’t that convincing, John. (IMHO)

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

I think that H.T. article on Stirnweiss used a fatally flawed method. He shows that Snuffy’s drop-off from 1943-45 to 1946-47 was vastly greater than that of a control group, and concludes that Snuffy’s decline was thus more suggestive of “a genuinely huge peak and sudden decline that just happened to coincide with the war and its end,” rather than just feasting on weak competition. In fact, very few hitting stars at 25-26 have a steep and permanent decline thereafter, absent an injury. But that’s the least of the study’s problems. The control group was “the 18 players who were… Read more »

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

The first game I remember seeing occurred in 1947. I remember nothing about the game but I do recall an event which took place before the game. There was a 60-yard dash between Stirnweiss (who was probably the fastest runner in the AL after George Case) and footballer Buddy Young. Young was a star halfback for the University of Illinois and later starred in the All-America Football Conference and the NFL. At 5-foot-4 he was one of the smallest players. Of course Young won, he was the current world record holder for the distance. He got $500 for the effort.… Read more »

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Almost identical spread for pitchers:

22.0 Dwight Gooden
21.7 Vean Gregg
21.6 Pete Alexander
21.0 Tom Seaver
19.1 Ted Higuera
18.8 Eddie Rommel
18.6 Curt Davis
18.3 Eddie Plank and Tommy Thomas
__________

Gregg and Alexander did that in the same years 1911-1913.

For the rest of their careers:

3.1 Gregg
95.4 Grover

jajacob

10 years ago

Quick scan of Konerko reveals he has the most PA’s with less than 10 SB and Triples. The next one has only 5939 PA’s.