For a quick holiday diversion, consider what distinguishes these players from among all others who played their entire careers since 1901.
| Rk | Player |
|---|---|
| 1 | Ethan Allen |
| 2 | Fernando Tatis |
| 3 | Tom Downey |
| 4 | Sherry Robertson |
| 5 | Lynn Jones |
| 6 | Hack Miller |
| 7 | Foster Castleman |
| 8 | Joe Pittman |
| 9 | Eddie Zimmerman |
Congratulations to John Autin! He correctly solved this New Year’s puzzle by identifying these players as non-pitchers born on New Year’s Day (early) who compiled more strikeouts than walks (eager) over their careers. To limit the list, those careers must have been of at least 100 games since 1901.
All were born on January 1.
You’ve got the “early” part.
But there must be something else, of course – there are 41 players born on Jan. 1 who played since 1901. Is there a furniture store named “Fernando Tatis”?
Don’t go to Hack’s for your new sofa- the name is all too accurate.
Miller has a couple of interesting distinctions.
– fewest career games with 200+ career RBI
– first post-1901 Cubs left-fielder with consecutive qualifying seasons batting .300 (only Riggs Stephenson and Billy Williams have also done so)
Cubs had one Hack on the roster for 35 consecutive seasons (1922-56) with Hack Miller, Hack Wilson, Stan Hack and Warren Hacker (and no overlap on any of those Chicago stints).
A wild cut: All were born or schooled in a city that has had professional baseball at some point.
All but Zimmerman were born in such a city — Tom Downey’s hometown of Lewiston, ME is one of three minor-league Lewistons, and Lynn Jones’s Meadville, PA is one of two minor-league Meadvilles.
John – But what about Fernando Tatis (born and schooled in the Dominican Republic)?
Bob Owchinko, was born on 1/1/1955 in Detroit and he’s not on the list. Even if we focus on hitters, Hank Greenberg was born on 1/1/1911 in NY, NY and went to school in the Bronx.
My guess is that they are all position players with at least 75 career hits and fewer than 6000 career PA.
Non-pitcher, more strikeouts than walks, 300+ PAs — That lands these nine plus Joe Martin. Adding a requirement of “more than one year played” would knock out Martin.
The 75 hit requirement would also knock out Martin.
Better yet non-pitcher, more SO than BB and more than 100 games played works.
John has got it (or, at least, he’s close enough).
The list are all non-pitchers born on Jan 1 with strikeouts exceeding walks in careers of 100 or more games since 1901.
Funny thing: Calling my first guess a “wild cut” helped me see what “eager” meant in the title. 🙂
They are listed in order of Games Played, so, no help there…