20 Questions – Who Am I?

73 Replies

I have a player in mind. Your job is to guess who he is. To help you guess, you can ask me questions. But, only objective questions and only questions that can be answered Yes/No.

You have to get the answer within 20 questions to win. All questions, whether good or bad, count towards the 20 total. So, be careful to word your questions correctly.

Congratulations to bstar, who solved the quiz on the 10th question. The hints were a 10-year player who played entirely since 1961 and who ranked first (best) in one career statistical category and last (worst) in another, both among players who played only in 1961 or later. The answer is Greg Minton, who played from 1975 to 1990, and ranks first in HR/9 ratio and last in SO/BB ratio (both for min. 1000 IP) among pitchers who have played only since 1961.

Some examples of good questions:

Did this player ever lead his league in home runs in a season?
Did this player play primarily in the National League?

And, examples of bad questions:

Was this player a good hitter?
What was the principal team this player played on?

To get you started, I’ll give you a few hints. I am a player who:

played my entire career in the expansion era (1961 to present)
played for more than 10 years
ranks first (best) in a common career statistical category among all players who also played their entire careers since 1961
ranks last (worst) in another common career statistical category among all players who also played their entire careers since 1961

So, who am I?

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Neil L.

11 years ago

Doug, with trepidation, I’ll use up a question …. Am I a pitcher?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Yes.

Neil L.

11 years ago

I’ll spend one more question and then I’ll turn it over to better baseball minds than mine.

Did I ever throw a no-hitter?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

No.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

S**t, I mean, sugar. I thought I had a lead…. back to the drawing board.

bstar

11 years ago

Did I play over 50% of my career in the National League?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Yes, I did.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Doug, you know this is going to tantalize Internet baseball stat freaks all night long.

(Please, don’t count this as a question.) 🙂

Darien

11 years ago

I ask, also with trepidation: am I retired?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Darien

Answer is Yes. Question count is 4.

Darien

11 years ago

I ask, also with trepidation: am I retired?

I’m getting a ton of errors trying to post this; if it double-posts, I apologise. Please count it as only one question due to technical complications. Probably PEBKAC-related. 😀

Neil L.

11 years ago

Yes, Doug, I was shut also…. Andy needs a more robust provider.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

…. oops, shut out ….

Neil L.

11 years ago

OK, guys, the next question has to be frickin’ good. Who wants to ask it?

The meter is running at 4 questions.

Now, Doug, no pressure, but you said “common” career stat.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Yes, that I what I said – front and center on B-R player main page.

Not sure if I should count that as a question. Thinking …

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Aw, geez, cut me some slack…..

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Okay, okay. Still at 8 questions.

@tranquil_serene

11 years ago

Is the statistic winning strikeouts and you are Nolan Ryan?

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to @tranquil_serene

Tranquil… I asked if he had a no-hitter.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to @tranquil_serene

No, the statistic is not winning strikeouts.

And, I am not Nolan Ryan (but I won’t count that as a question 🙂 ).

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Thanks, Doug, and by the way great blog. ~sucks up~

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

BTW, tranquil. What, exactly, are “winning strikeouts”?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Seems we may be back. Sorry for the technical difficulties.

At this point, 4 questions have been asked and answered. It’s been determined that I am a retired pitcher who never had a no-hitter and who played over half my career in the NL.

@tranquil_serene

11 years ago

I missed/skipped the nono question. Sorry about that.
Were you predominantly a relief pitcher?
(and without burning it- lefty or righty need to be asked )

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to @tranquil_serene

Right-handed reliever. So, we’re up to 7 questions.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to @tranquil_serene

Doug’s lips are sealed ….. until a real question is asked.

bstar

11 years ago

Were you a left-handed pitcher?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

No, not a left-handed pitcher.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Does your leading those two categories apply only to those who played entirely since 1961?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Question 8.

Yes, exactly what it says in the post.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Stop wasting questions, JA. 🙂

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

I respectfully disagree that my question was answered in the post. It was implied, but not stated definitively. For instance, if I said that Cy Young had the most wins of anyone who pitched solely in the dead-ball era, that would be a 100% true statement — but my specifying the time boundary would imply that someone else who pitched later had more wins, which of course is not so.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Okay, John.

To clarify, this player ranks first in one category and last in another, among all pitchers who pitched ONLY since 1961, and not before.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Doug, it seems to me that all you’ve done there is repeat what you said in the original post. It’s moot now, but to put my question another way: Is there anyone who pitched at least some of his career *before* 1961 who is better than the mystery man in either of the two referenced categories? For example, Goose Gossage leads in, say, relief wins since 1961. But he does not lead all-time. The time boundary specified in your initial statement implied that said pitcher was NOT the all-time leader. But I have seen people make subtly misleading statements in… Read more »

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Yes, there are players who pitched before 1961 who are ahead/behind Minton in those two categories. Since 1920, Minton ranks 16th in best HR/9 (most recent better than Minton was Al Hollingsworth, 1935-46). In SO/BB, Minton ranks 100th worst. Among the 99 worse than him is Turk Lown, who pitched from 1951-62.

So, that is why I phrased it the way I did. I thought I had specified it unambiguously. Certainly wasn’t intending to be tricky.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Doug @53, may I ask whatever brought Greg Minton to mind as a subject for you trivia quiz?

You were doing some obscure fiddling with the Play Index? 🙂

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Minton came up in the discussion around the Mel Parnell post I did a few weeks ago. I remarked on Parnell’s good HR/9 and poor SO/BB. Except that Andy corrected me by observing that the league average SO/BB at that time was only a bit north of 1.

If you look at the 99 pitchers I mentioned @53 that have a worse SO/BB than Minton, a large proportion are pitchers from the 40s and 50s.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Minton also comes up as #2 since 1961 in a more esoteric stat, lowest % of hits allowed that are XBH (it’s on the More Stats tab, under Ratio Pitching). He’s the tiniest fraction of a percentage point behind Ron Perranoski, whose career begain in 1961. So that’s another reason for choosing 1961 as my cutoff – in case the questions led towards Ron as a possible answer.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Oddly, I think it was at this same exact time that I revisited Moon Man’s player page also.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Perranoski is second behind Minton in HR/9 since ’61. Here’s the only three under 0.40 HR/9:

1. Greg Minton 0.34
2. Ron Perranoski 0.38
3. Kent Tekulve 0.39

Perranoski was a little before my time. Was Ron a submariner?

Neil L.

11 years ago

Darn, the twittosphere is lighting up over this one ……..

Author

Doug

11 years ago

At this point, 8 questions have been asked and answered. It’s been determined that:
– I am a retired right-handed relief pitcher who never had a no-hitter and who played over half my career in the NL.
– Also, the statistic that I lead all pitchers in is not Strikeouts, and is on the B-R main player page.

bstar

11 years ago

Does anyone besides Doug know what the qualification is as far as IP for relievers? I think I’ve got a really good guess

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

bstar, what do you mean by “qualification”? Please elaborate.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

How many IP to qualify as a leader in a rate category? Is it 1000 IP?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Answer is yes, 1000 IP, the default value for career pitching stats in P-I.

Up to 9 questions.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

If you want to rephrase that somehow, I can answer it.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

bstar, I respect your knowledge…. phrase your guess as a definitive question.

bstar

11 years ago

I think I’ve got this: Is it Greg Minton, the leader in HR/9 but worst in SO/BB since 1961?

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Bingo. Way to go, bstar!

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Thanks. I knew Minton had the HR/9 title; finding what he was worst at took a little longer.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

bstar, you rock!! ~bows to bstar~

How did you know it was a reliever…. oh, you’re a Braves fan. 🙂

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Somebody asked about the reliever part earlier, Neil.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Darn, got all excited and missed that answer, bstar.

Your “real” life exists in the baseball blogosphere! 🙂 Well done!

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Thanks, Neil. Minton also holds the post-deadball record for consecutive IP without allowing a HR. He went over 3 full seasons(269.1 IP) before giving up a dinger to John Stearns on May 2, 1982.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

The HR by Stearns that ended Minton’s streak: (a) was one of four he hit that year in 392 PAs; (b) was his only career hit off Minton in 8 PAs; and (c) came with 2 outs in an inning prolonged by an E6 (em>thanks again, Johnny Disaster). The floodgates thus opened, Minton gave up 2 more HRs in his next 4 games — a 2-out walk-off by Rusty Staub, and a go-ahead 2-run shot by Gary Matthews. And yet … Despite giving up 5 HRs, ’82 was by far Minton’s most valuable season — in fact, it’s #8 all-time… Read more »

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

According to Wikipedia, Minton suffered a devastating leg injury in ’79 and was forced to alter his high-leg-kick delivery. After that, batters had a lot of trouble getting any lift on his sinker.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Doug, post a spoiler alert in the header to this blog and let people scroll through the answers for themselves.

Neil L.

11 years ago

John and bstar, do either of you have a chat sidebar on your screens?

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Neil L.

Neil, Andy disabled it as it was causing problems with the site.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Thanks, for the info. No real-time chat. I missed the notification about the disablement.

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Kind of ironic that the only thing working on the site was causing everything else to die. The “parasitic” chat function.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Hey Doug, do you think it would have been better if I would have posted the answer in a remote place(like the Chat Room available on the toolbar) and had you check to see if I was right? That way, everyone else could have continued to guess. I feel like I brought the party to a crashing halt in a way.

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Stop basking in the afterglow of your triumph, bstar.

Hey Doug, without chat, this blog might catch up to Graham’s
for most comments.

Bstar, this site gets addictive, no?

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

It was a serious question. But yeah, I’m a baskin’!

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Had you done that, b, how could we be appropriately impressed? 🙂

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

Now, if you solve the next few quizzes in similar abrupt fashion, we may have to figure out some sort of Harrison Bergeron handicaps for you. 🙂

(I’m going for the record in consecutive smiley comments, by the way.)

Author

Doug

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

I don’t know. If someone gets the answer, I can take a break from the computer screen so my wife doesn’t nag me anymore. 🙂

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to Doug

Then maybe I did you a favor! 🙂

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

I miss me some chat right now. They’re restarting the Braves-Rockies game. If the Braves hold on(it’s 12-9 right now), this will be the third straight game Atlanta has overcome a 5+ run deficit to win the game. No idea if this is searchable on the P-I, but that’s got to be close to a record.

Editor

John Autin

11 years ago

Reply to bstar

How ’bout those Bugs Bunny breaking balls from Livan?

Neil L.

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

JA, it wass gratifying to see the Mets’ pen hold up today.

bstar

11 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Livan gets his first save ever in his 495th career game. Disregard comment #59, the Braves have overcome a 5+ run deficit to win 3 of the last 4 games, not 3 straight.