Quiz – Power Hitters (solved) |

The players in this quiz include some of the great sluggers in baseball history. But, what is the career accomplishment of which only these players can boast?

Rk	Player
1	Hank Aaron
2	Barry Bonds
3	Mel Ott
4	Frank Thomas
5	Manny Ramirez
6	Albert Pujols
7	Carlos Delgado

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/1/2015.

Hint: an active player may join this group later this season.

Congratulations to David P and Scary Tuna! They teamed up to identify that only these players hit their 400th doubles and 400th home runs in the same season. More after the jump.

Here are those seasons featuring the double-400 milestones.

Year	Age	Tm	Player	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1966 ★	32	ATL	Hank Aaron	158	688	603	117	168	23	1	44	*127*	76	96	.279	.356	.539	.895	142
1998 ★	33	SFG	Barry Bonds	156	697	552	120	167	44	7	37	122	130	92	.303	.438	.609	1.047	178
1941 ★	32	NYG	Mel Ott	148	634	525	89	150	29	0	27	90	100	68	.286	.403	.495	.898	150
2003	35	CHW	Frank Thomas	153	662	546	87	146	35	0	42	105	100	115	.267	.390	.562	.952	146
2005 ★	33	BOS	Manny Ramirez	152	650	554	112	162	30	1	45	144	80	119	.292	.388	.594	.982	153
2010 ★	30	STL	Albert Pujols	159	700	587	*115*	183	39	1	42	118	103	76	.312	.414	.596	1.011	173
2006	34	NYM	Carlos Delgado	144	618	524	89	139	30	2	38	114	74	120	.265	.361	.548	.909	131

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/2/2015.

Evidently, it’s not possible to pull off this feat and have a bad season. So, Mark Teixeira is following the script with his dynamite campaign this year, reaching 392 doubles and 392 home runs with 58 games to go.

Year	Age	Tm	Player	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
2015 ★	35	NYY	Mark Teixeira	97	408	342	53	91	22	0	29	74	55	70	.266	.373	.585	.957	163

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/3/2015.

0 0 votes

Article Rating

20 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Joseph

9 years ago

The first thing I’m noticing is that they are all part of a larger group of 25 players who have at least 450 HR and 2B.

Does it involve those categories plus something else?

Author

Doug

Reply to Joseph

It does involve doubles and home runs.

Richard Chester

Is either David Ortiz or A-Rod one of the active players?

Reply to Richard Chester

Neither is the active player in the hint.

David P

Is the active player Teixeira, who could pass 400 home runs and 400 doubles this year?

Reply to David P

Tex is the active player referred to in the hint, and his proximity to 400 doubles and home runs is why.

So, the solution is ….

Scary Tuna

Reply to Doug

These players all reached 400 doubles and 400 home runs in the same season.

Reply to Scary Tuna

That’s it!

Scary good, Tuna!

Thanks, Doug.

And thanks, David P, for zeroing in on Teixeira’s potential accomplishment, without which there was no chance I would have figured out the connection.

Ah, I just noticed that I was given credit for helping solve this quiz. Honestly, I think I deserve 0.000001% credit. In fact, it was Joseph’s initial comment that got me to locate Tex. He was the one who identified homeruns and doubles as the key categories. So maybe mention Joseph as well?

I ran the PI for 400+ 2B and HR by age 35. There were 18 players on the list including the 7 players on Doug’s list. The only active player on that PI list is Miggy Cabrera. That’s as far as I was able to get.

I meant to say Miggy is the only active player on the PI list who is not on Doug’s list. It doesn’t matter anyway, Teixeira has been identified as the active player.

Kahuna Tuna

Most seasons between 400th home run and 400th double: Stan Musial, 7 (hit 400th HR in 1959, 400th 2B in 1952); Carl Yastrzemski, 6 (hit 400th HR in 1979, 400th 2B in 1973). Thome, Banks, and Ripken had separations of 5 seasons.

Reply to Kahuna Tuna

Can someone tell me why there are so many “tunas” on this site? 🙂 🙂

We’ve got Scary Tuna, Kahuna Tuna, and Tuna Tuna.

(oh and great research Kuhuna Tuna!).

AlbaNate

There’s definitely something fishy about it.

I was here as “Kahuna Tuna” when the site first got going, but I was away for a long time so I have no kind of claim. Scary Tuna has been a regular participant, apparently. Tuna Tuna seems to be a recent riff/sardonic comment on the tuna theme.

If the large-food-fish niche is getting too crowded, I can change my handle. I’ve been toying with a few other fish-themed names, of which Gar Sinister is probably the worst. q:-)

We used the term “Scary Tuna” occasionally back in the 80s. A couple years ago, my wife said something to me, and I responded “Scary Tuna!” Our kids couldn’t stop laughing, swearing none had ever heard the phrase before. Shortly thereafter, I came across HHS and needed a name so I could cast my first COG vote. It did sound odd when people addressed me as Scary in their posts, so I considered changing my moniker. After all, I’m decidedly NOT scary, nor do I like tuna, But since Kahuna Tuna has returned regularly, it’s been kind of fun to… Read more »

When our daughter was four or five she attended a birthday party where one of the dads provided the entertainment as “The Big Kahuna.” He was terrific. He introduced the group games, gave the rules, etc. using a ton of exaggeration and a goofy faux-islands accent. He really milked the rhymes—for the egg-carrying game he had everyone use a Kahuna spoon-a. (Groans all around.) Another game involved all the kids’ shaking a big tarp and trying to keep a small plastic fish bouncing in the air. This fish, he announced triumphantly, was no ordinary fish—it was “a Kahuna Tuna!” The… Read more »

Perhaps the next step is to see if any of them did it in the same game.

I just checked, none of them did it. Teixeira needs 8 more of each to do it, so he has a good chance to be the first one to do so.