Quiz – Shawon Dunston Trivia

That’s Shawon Dunston on a 1997 Pacific Silver card, showing him in action for the Giants in 1996.

In 1997 the Chicago Cubs reacquired Dunston and, for the first time in his career, played him at a position other than shortstop. Shawon played a few games in left field in ’97, played a bit in both the infield and outfield in ’98, and then played mostly in the outfield after that.

The quiz has been solved. Congratulations to Richard Chester.

As mentioned, Dunston played in San Francisco in between his stints with the Cubs. The Giants would reacquire him twice more in subsequent years. Don’t know if that’s a record, but three separate stints with the same organization is probably pretty unusual.

But, I digress. Back to that 1997 season. In that year, Dunston accomplished something that had not been done for 75 years, and which has not been done since. What was it?

0 0 votes

Article Rating

76 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

solace

12 years ago

Tony Fernandez had four seperate stints with the Jays.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to solace

Surely, that must be record. But, nothing to do with the quiz.

BTW, I noticed that Dunston had separate stints with 3 different clubs – Cubs, Giants and Cardinals. Who knew Dunston was the kind of guy you just can’t get enough of?

Cory Atchason

12 years ago

Reply to solace

rickey henderson had four stints with the a’s

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to solace

Sorry if someone else already brought this up in a later comment but Bobo Newsom spent 5 tours of duty with the Washington Senators and 3 with the St. Louis Browns plus 2 each with the Dodgers and the Athletics

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Hartvig

That has been discussed before on the old B-R blog because I remember somebody making a joke about the Senators having a uniform-in-waiting for Newsom.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Bobo Newsom and the Washington Senators – I remember from many years ago the great line about him, “name the Senator who served more terms as a Senator than Strom Thurmond”.

It is from Roger Angell’s brilliant collection of essays for the New Yorker, “Five Seasons”.

bstar

12 years ago

It’s got to have something to do with his only 8 walks. More than 500 at-bats, less than 10 walks?

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

On the right track.

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

The only fella with 500PA and less than 10BB in 1922 was this fella. Maybe the answer is somewheres here:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/collish01.shtml

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

They both had as many CS as BB.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

No. Nothing to do with steals or caught stealing.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Getting warm.

The guy in Voomo’s post #26 is one of two guys in 1922 who did what Dunston was the next to do in 1997.

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Collins had as many triples as BB, while Dunston had more Homers than BB.
That’s interesting but that’s not the answer.

They did both have more ERRORS than Walks.
Picciolo of course did that, but never with 500 PA.

Voomo Zanzibar

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

George Burns also did that in ’22.
I’d be surprised if it was THAT rare, though.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Sorry. None of those things.

bstar

12 years ago

He hit .300 with only 8 walks?

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

That isn’t what I was looking for, but it is close.

Nobody’s done that since Dunston, and last to do it before him was Tuck Stainback (got to be on the All-Name team) with the Cubs in 1934.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Do you mean 75 years from 2012 or from 1997? In either case 1934 does not work.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

75 years from 1997.

That’s why bstar’s guess is wrong.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

You’ve got me confused. First you say it was last done in 1922 and then you say it was last done in 1934.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

Oops. I think I misunderstood your statement in post #6.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Doug

In post #6, when I said “nobody’s done that”, the “that” I’m referring to is hitting .300 with 8 or fewer walks.

For this quiz, Dunston is the first person to do this since 1922.

And, it does have to do with walks.

Kevin B

12 years ago

Harold Baines had three separate stints for the Orioles and the White Sox.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Kevin B

Thanks.

The quiz answer though is related to bstar’s posts @2 and @4.

DaveR

12 years ago

His OBP is only 12 points higher than his BA. Is he the worst with over 500 plate appearances?

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to DaveR

This is a response to post 9. He holds the record for lowest OBP for a qualifying .300 hitter.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to DaveR

It is correct that Dunston’s OBP is the lowest for a qualifying .300 hitter since 1901. But, it’s not the smallest gap between BA and OBP for .300 hitters (Candy Lachance had an 11 point gap in 1901).

In any event, it’s not the quiz answer.

bstar

12 years ago

More GDP(9) than walks(8)?

nightfly

12 years ago

I am not having any luck with the PI; unable to confirm, but is Dunston the only batter with PA >= 500 and GIDP > BB?

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to nightfly

No. There are 53 seasons like that. Several players (not Dunston) have done it twice. Pudge Rodriguez has done it 3 times.

Insert Name Here

12 years ago

75 K’s, 10 or less walks?

Insert Name Here

12 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

Oops, make that less than 10 walks. He had exactly 75 K’s, 10 BBs in 1995.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Insert Name Here

Interesting thought. That has been done 6 times, all since 1996.

3 times by Miguel Olivo, once each for Dunston, Mariano Duncan and Pudge Rodriguez.

Sorry, that’s not it.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Good thing the Shawon-o-meter wasn’t hooked up to the number of walks he had.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Ha-ha! The Shawon-o-meter!!! I haven’t thought about that in twenty years. What was the genesis of that, do you remember, Timmy? I’m thinking he started off with a really low BA and the Shawon-0-meter was measuring every uptick in his average(by a fan in the left-centerfield stands).

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

That’s exactly right bstar! Shawon started off slow and then some guy in left center started the SHAWON-O-METER. Every time Dunston got a hit Harry would check the SHAWON-O-METER and say “.267 and riiising!” It was awesome and made me not want to go to work. I loved Cubby baseball back then. I still love it, but it’s different.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Looking at game logs, Timmy, I’m convinced that was the magical 1989 season, with Don Zimmer managing and the Cubs with the rookie duo of Dwight Smith and Jerome Walton. Dunston was hitting below .200 as late as June 3 but got it up to respectability by year’s end. Yeah, the Braves were in the sh*tter that year so I watched just about every game that year and loved it. Magical team.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

That was a great year, Dwight Smith and Walton had career years sadly, although both went on to fairly long careers. Dwight Smith just seemed like the nicest guy in the world, always happy and ready to hit.

bstar

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

The Cubs are my second favorite team, but as far as particular seasons go, the ’84 and ’89 Cubs are in my top 5. Great fun. I still think they got hosed bad in ’84 when the undeserving Padres got to play the last three games of that 5-game series at home because of no night baseball in Chicago.

bstar

12 years ago

Comparing Irod’s 9 walk year with Dunston’s, I will take a final stab and guess 8 walks or fewer and 70+ runs scored.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to bstar

Nice try, but not it.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

More than 500PA and 8 or fewer BB.

Brandon

12 years ago

Greater than ten HR with less than ten walks?

DaveR

12 years ago

You guys realize he walked just ONE time the last three months of the season? Sheesh. This guy was swinging at warm-up pitches, I’ll bet.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to DaveR

Yet, in 1989, Dunston walked 30 times, including 15 times intentionally.

But, in his last 7 seasons, Dunston had 40 walks total, and zero freebies. 13 of those 40 (almost 1/3) came in the just the first of those 7 seasons.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Seems I may have you stumped.

At the risk of giving it away, the answer is about Hits and Walks, and nothing else.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

How about a hits/BB ratio of > 18 for 500 or more PA.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

So close.

Think about another way to say almost the same thing.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Actually, Richard, I’ll give it to you.

Not exactly what I had found, but it does meet the specified criteria.

Author

Doug

12 years ago

Congratulations to Richard. In 1997, Shawon Dunstan became the first player since 1922 to qualify for the batting title with a season where his Walks total was less than 6% of his Hits total. Two players did this in 1922, Shano Collins, whom Voomo identified, and Bert Griffith. Griffith was the last player to have Walks of 5% of Hits or less – 8 players did this from 1901 to 1922. Since Dunston, the only player to register under 7% was Pudge Rodiguez in 2007. Richard formulated the same idea a bit differently, with the result that his query picks… Read more »

Dr. Doom

12 years ago

At first, I had wondered if it had to do with the difference between hits and walks. Then, I looked up Pudge to double-check. In 1999, Ivan Rodriguez had 199 hits, 24 walks. That’s a difference of 175. My guess is that that’s the all-time record. Anyone with a PI subscription care to check it out? Do they let you do arithmetic searches on there? If not, I suppose one could take all seasons of 175+ hits, sort them by fewest walks, and copy-paste into excel, and re-sort by the difference. Anyway, if there’s anyone who has both a PI… Read more »

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Dr. Doom

I did some quick research, a difference of > 175 has occurred frequently. Kirby Puckett in 1988 had 234 hits and 23 BB for a difference of 211. I will try to do some more research after I eat my breakfast.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

As for the greatest difference of {Hits – Walks}:

AL SIMMONS, 1925 {253-35} = 218
Ichiro Suzuki, 2004 {262-49} = 213
George Sisler, 1920 {257-46} = 211
Napolean Lajoie, 1901 {232-24} = 208

At first I thought it would be Willie Keeler’s 1897, but that was only 204 (239-35).

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Also in 2001 Suzuki had 242 H and 30 BB for a difference of 212.

31 players have accumulated more than 231 hits and 27 of them have a difference of greater than 175. Makes sense because the more BB you get the fewer opportunities there are for a base hit.

nightfly

12 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

Now THAT would be an interesting list… guys with 200 hits and 100 BB in a season. By the look of it, only 12 guys have ever done that.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to nightfly

Without looking it up, it seemed like Wade Boggs did it every year in the mid/late 80s, but it was “only” four times.

Nightfly, could you favor us with the list of 200 hits/100 BBs? I’m guessing that Lou Gehrig (6) did it the most times.

nightfly

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I’m brand-new to the PI subscription, so if this doesn’t work, please let me know. This should be the link to the list, sorted by name.

http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/ne9Vr

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Indeed, Lawrence, Gehrig has as many “200/100” seasons (7) as the next two players combined (Boggs 4, Ruth 3).

Two have 2 such years, Musial and Helton (the last to do it, in 2003).

One suchy year: Bernie Williams, John Olerud, Hank Greenberg, Jimmie Foxx, Hack Wilson and his 1930 teammate Woody English, Ty Cobb, and Billy Hamilton (1894).

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Well done, Nightfly!

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Anyone know the backstory on Woody English? His age 24 and 25 seasons had him on track for the HOF (5.9 and 5.3 WAR). But he never came close to replicating those seasons.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Woody English had 755 PA in 1930 and that was a record until Frank Crosseti broke it in 1938 with 757 PA. English is one of the few players to win a suit by hitting clothier Abe Stark’s advertising sign at the base of the RF wall at Ebbets Field.

Richard Chester

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Make that Crosetti.

Hartvig

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I would have guess that Richie Ashburn was on the list but the closest he got was in 1958, his last 200 hit season (215) when he also drew 97 walks. In this 3 seasons with over 100 walks he never exceeded 180 hits.

nightfly

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I would never have guessed Todd Helton would have done it, much less more than once.

There are so many fun quirky things on this list. For example, Cobb stole 96 bases the year he did this. The rest of the list combined only totals 144 steals. Yet there are twelve years of 40+ HR, as well as five other 30+, a 25, and two 24s. People seem much more willing to challenge the speed guys rather than the power guys.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Getting further off on the {Hits/Walks} tangent, Lenny Dykstra in 1993 led the NL in both categories. The only others I could find who did this were Ty Cobb (1915), Rogers Hornsby (1924), and Yaz (63).

It doesn’t happen very often for the obvvious reason that as you get more of one category, you have less opportunity in the other category.

Editor

John Autin

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

Ed @56 — I have no explanation of Woody English’s 1930-31 seasons, but I’m more impressed (in a way) with his 1929 season: 131 runs scored, 72 OPS+. That’s the lowest OPS+ ever with 125+ runs.

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

John – It’s also the second highest number of runs scored for a player with 0 or 1 home runs. Eddie Collins holds the record with 137 runs scored and 0 home runs in 1912.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

I ask this question in all seriousness and hope the baseball community can help. I am a die hard Cubs fan and have suffered as such. Now Theo Epstein is our new GM and I think the Cubs will be much better for that. My question, did Theo miss the Red Sox meeting with the President because of political reasons? I understand that a goalie for the Bruins made no bones about not wanting to meet President Obama recently and in my opinion that is a huge mistake. If Epstein did the same thing, as a GM I think it… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Timmy Pea,

I’m not sure what that “flaw” is. I think that the “Tim Thomas snubbed the President” story was vastly overblown. It became a political hot potato because he explicitly expressed his political views; if he’d kept quiet this was a non-story.

If a player turns down a chance to go the White House and meet the President, well, I think that they are missing a great life experience, but I wouldn’t hold it against them. He had no obligation to attend that I know of. Neither Thomas nor Epstein needs to explain their absence.

MikeD

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

What and when did Epstein miss a meeting? I can’t imagine ever passing up a meeting with the president no matter what side of the aisle you sit on. Plus, Theo was a lifelong Massachusetts resident and comes from a family of Hollywood writers, a combination that would suggest he’s more left leaning than right. More importantly, people of rank and power try not to alienate either side. For example, most people think George Steinbrenner was a hardcore Republican because he got into trouble early on by making illegal donations to Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. In reality, Steinbrenner came from… Read more »

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to MikeD

MikeD,

I believe that Epstein and other members of the Red Sox front office (Luchino?) campaigned for Obama in 2008, if that answers your question.

There was also an NFL player (Mark Schlereth?) who refused to meet President Clinton after his team won the Super Bowl. Boy, people gotta make everything that happens in public life a political statement.

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

I was just hoping some Sox fan or anyone really could say that he missed the meeting because of something besides politics. I would never miss a chance to meet the President or go to the WH. I think the guys that don’t go are making a mistake, but I respect their choice. However being a GM or team prez and not going bothers me more.

Lawrence Azrin

12 years ago

Reply to Timmy Pea

Timmy Pea, 1) I agree with you, I personally would never miss a chance to meet the President or go to the White House (like that’s gonna happen soon, ha ha ha…), whomever was the occupant at that moment. 2)Also agree, if someone refuses the visit, I don’t hold it against them. 3) So WHY would a GM or team president not going to the WH bother you? Are you holding them to a higher standard than the players? I understand your reasoning, but do not agree with it. #72/Fireworks – Thanks for filling in the Mark Chmura (sorry, wrong… Read more »

Timmy Pea

12 years ago

Reply to Lawrence Azrin

I am holding a GM or team prez to a higher standard, yes. Depending on the reason of course. Our institutions rely on a certain amount of respect for our system to survive. Epstein is still a young man so we’ll see what happens. I did think he handled the Francona situation about as bad as anything I’ve ever seen. I had the chance and the urge to flip off John Kerry’s tour bus on I-29 in 2004 one time and I passed it up.

Fireworks

12 years ago

@Azrin Mark Chmura didn’t want to meet Clinton after the Pack won the Super Bowl. Said something about family values. Of course when Mark was targeted by his vindictive 17-year-old babysitter on a rape charge that several of her peers undermined at trial as an attempt to get Chmura, leading to his acquittal, Mark had to reveal that he, a married man, attended a party with high schoolers (which his accuser also attended–that was the night if the supposed crime IIRC) where alcohol was being consumed and got into a hot tub with teen girls wearing only tighty-whities. Always found… Read more »

topper009

12 years ago

I think Shawon Dunston hit like almost .800 his senior year of high school and that made him the #1 pick. I also remember hearing Mark Grace (most hits in the 90s) say he would have to brace himself and sometimes use 2 hands to catch Dunstons throws from SS. Best arm he’d ever seen.