Quiz – Old-timers and one other guy (solved) |

All of the players in today’s quiz were active before the end of World War II. Except one, who needs no introduction. But, what season feat have only these players accomplished in the history of major league baseball?

Rk	Year
1	Candy LaChance
2	Jake Daubert
3	Duffy Lewis
4	Ripper Collins
5	Larry Gardner
6	Red Rolfe
7	Billy Johnson
8	Enos Slaughter
9	Cal Ripken
10	Hank Greenberg

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/25/2013.

Congratulations to Bix! He correctly identified that only the players in today’s quiz have played every inning of every game at one position, including the post-season, for a World Series winning team. Only Billy Johnson did this to start his career. Among this year’s playoff teams, only Prince Fielder and Joey Votto played every game, but neither played every inning (resting your regulars for the post-season is evidently a more recent strategy).

Here are the seasons for our quiz players.

Player	Year	Age	Tm	G	PA	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+	Pos
Candy LaChance	1903	33	BOS	*141*	579	60	134	22	6	1	53	28	56	.257	.303	.328	.631	85	*3
Duffy Lewis	1912	24	BOS	154	667	85	165	36	9	6	109	52	76	.284	.346	.408	.754	111	*7
Jake Daubert	1919	35	CIN	140	613	79	148	10	12	2	44	35	23	.276	.322	.350	.672	104	*3
Larry Gardner	1920	34	CLE	154	683	72	185	31	11	3	118	53	25	.310	.367	.414	.781	103	*5
Ripper Collins	1934	30	STL	*154*	662	116	200	40	12	35	128	57	50	.333	.393	.615	1.008	158	*3
Hank Greenberg	1935	24	DET	152	710	121	203	46	16	36	*170*	87	91	.328	.411	.628	1.039	170	*3
Red Rolfe	1939	30	NYY	152	731	*139*	*213*	46	10	14	80	81	41	.329	.404	.495	.899	130	*5
Billy Johnson	1943	24	NYY	155	655	70	166	24	6	5	94	53	30	.280	.344	.367	.710	107	*5
Enos Slaughter	1946	30	STL	*156*	685	100	183	30	8	18	*130*	69	41	.300	.374	.465	.838	133	*9
Cal Ripken	1983	22	BAL	*162*	*726*	121	*211*	47	2	27	102	58	97	.318	.371	.517	.888	144	*6

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 9/30/2013.

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Brian

10 years ago

Since I know that Candy LaChance had a fairly lengthy consecutive inning streak, and Ripken has the longest in history, I’m going to venture an educated guess…

The only 10 players in MLB history to play every single inning of every single game during a season.

Reply to Brian

Fairly sure this is wrong, because I’m sure there have been numerous players to do this.

Author

Doug

It’s close, but you’re missing a wrinkle or two.

Bix

Including the postseason, it looks like. Which you may well have covered by “saying every single game”.

Reply to Bix

If that is the answer (including postseason), I will have to say that it didn’t cross my mind, so I can’t say that I intended “every single game” to include postseason.

Maybe it is “played every single inning in every single game and won the World Series in the same year?”

Even closer.

One other little wrinkle, though.

Reply to Doug

While playing only one position?

That’s it. Well done, bix.

Editor

birtelcom

Hideki Matsui in 2003 played 163 games for the Yankees in the regular season (the Bombers had a game declared a tie due to rain that season), plus 17 post-season games for total of 180 regular and post-season games. I’m pretty sure that’s a record. Votto could in theory get up to 182, and Fielder get up to 181, this year.

Richard Chester

Reply to birtelcom

Closest I found were Juan Pierre with 179 games in 2003 and also Luis Gonzalez in 2001.

Including the post-season, Matsui started his career with 551 consecutive games played. He actually appeared in no. 552 at home but it didn’t count because he failed to make it out of the top of the first inning (an obscure rule made more obscure for not making any sense).