Quiz – HOF Sluggers … and some other guys (solved)

33 Replies

What do three HOFers have in common with several other less celebrated players? In fact, all of them share the distinction of a certain seasonal batting accomplishment of which no others can boast. What is it?

Congratulations to Voomo Zanzibar! He knew that these players have hit the most home runs in a season from each of the nine batting order positions.

The list of players is after the jump.

  1. Del Crandall
  2. Kevin Elster
  3. Jimmie Foxx
  4. Troy Glaus
  5. Howard Johnson
  6. Eddie Mathews
  7. Mark McGwire
  8. Alfonso Soriano
  9. Hack Wilson

Here are those record home run seasons.

Rk Player Split Year G HR GS PA AB R H RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Alfonso Soriano Batting 1st 2006 131 39 131 610 541 102 159 81 58 130 .294 .368 .588 .956
1 Eddie Mathews Batting 2nd 1959 145 46 145 668 582 117 180 114 78 70 .309 .392 .601 .994
1 Mark McGwire Batting 3rd 1998 152 69 152 678 506 128 150 145 162 155 .296 .469 .745 1.214
1 Hack Wilson Batting 4th 1930 155 56 155 709 585 148 207 191 105 84 .354 .453 .721 1.174
1 Jimmie Foxx Batting 5th 1932 154 58 154 702 585 151 213 168 117 96 .364 .470 .749 1.219
1 Troy Glaus Batting 6th 2000 134 39 134 567 473 102 135 85 93 143 .285 .404 .605 1.009
1 Howard Johnson Batting 7th 1987 124 28 123 505 437 68 117 81 61 90 .268 .362 .503 .866
1 Del Crandall Batting 8th 1955 114 22 109 428 384 48 93 55 33 50 .242 .300 .464 .764
1 Kevin Elster Batting 9th 1996 146 21 145 557 479 72 123 92 50 130 .257 .323 .459 .782
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/21/2016.

The seasons by Mathews, McGwire and Foxx figured prominently in the team records below.

Rk Team Split Year HR PA R H 2B 3B RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB
1 BAL Batting 1st 1996 45 794 149 192 42 3 103 98 106 .288 .390 .562 .953 375
1 MLN Batting 2nd 1959 47 721 126 193 19 8 117 81 75 .306 .386 .586 .972 369
1 STL Batting 3rd 1998 71 742 136 164 22 0 154 176 167 .295 .466 .718 1.184 399
1 OAK Batting 4th 1996 61 720 137 173 31 1 142 123 141 .296 .424 .666 1.090 389
1 PHA Batting 5th 1932 58 705 152 214 33 9 168 117 96 .364 .470 .747 1.216 439
1 CIN Batting 6th 1956 47 655 88 165 20 0 115 54 88 .282 .348 .556 .904 326
1 OAK Batting 7th 1996 37 678 88 155 25 1 101 66 127 .260 .341 .491 .832 293
1 TOR Batting 8th 2010 34 624 74 137 26 1 90 40 134 .242 .297 .471 .768 267
1 BAL Batting 9th 1987 24 618 79 129 21 2 58 54 110 .233 .303 .409 .711 226
1 BOS Batting 9th 2003 24 657 89 167 37 1 93 48 119 .284 .338 .472 .810 278
1 CLE Batting 9th 2005 24 627 82 160 36 3 69 45 133 .282 .338 .483 .821 274
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/1/2016.

Big Mac, with 52 home runs in only 130 games, was also a primary contributor for the 1996 Athletics in claiming two spots in the above table.

33 thoughts on “Quiz – HOF Sluggers … and some other guys (solved)”

  1. Voomo Zanzibar

    Stabbing at what could be a swerve of a piece of it:

    They all had season in which they batted no higher than .212 with no more than 74 PA.

    Reply ↓
  2. David P

    Is it something that was done during a qualified batting season? Crandall only had 3 of those so that might help narrow things down.

    Reply ↓
      1. Richard Chester

        But they did not have to be qualifying seasons, it just turned out that way. Crandall had 5 qualifying seasons.

        Reply ↓
        1. David P

          Yeah that part threw me off a bit. That, plus I always think that “qualified for batting title” means 502 PAs. So I skipped right by Crandall’s ’55 season.

          Reply ↓
  3. no statistician but

    Doug:

    This quiz is a stinker. The odd men out here are are Crandall and Elster. Crandall didn’t strike out much and had three or at most four qualifying seasons which look almost identical to one another. Elster showed no power except in one of his two qualifying seasons, but at least he struck out quite a bit. You ought to be able to compare their few qualifying seasons and come up with some idea, but it’s beyond me. Looks like a Richard Chester special.

    Reply ↓
  5. Voomo Zanzibar

    Most HR in a season from each batting order position.

    Elster in the 9-hole in 1996:
    21 HR

    Crandall from the 8-hole in 1955:
    22 HR

    HoJo from the 7-hole in 1987:
    28 HR

    Glaus from the 6-hole in 2000:
    39 HR

    Foxx from the 5-hole in 1932
    58 HR

    Hack from the 4-hole in 1930:
    56 HR

    McGwire from the 3-hole in 1998
    69 HR (happy birthday today)

    Mathews from the 2-hole in 1959
    46 HR

    Soriano had 1-hole in 2006.
    39 HR

    Reply ↓
          1. Richard Chester

            Voomo, you did a great job. Everybody else had the same hint. BTW if Foxx had been hitting third or fourth when he hit 58 HR he would have had an extra 18 to 36 or so PA and a much better chance for 60 HR.

          3. John

            Connie Mack was a very very strange dude. He gutted his 1914 AL Champs immediately, claiming he couldn’t afford to pay them what they wanted, and finished last 7 straight years. The Federal League went out of business after the 1915 season, and a lot of really good players were available very cheap, but he chose to stay in last place. At the end of that, he paid $100,000 (or whatever, a colossal sum now, all the moreso in the 1920’s) for Lefty Grove and some others, was the Series again, and gutted the team again. Again, claiming he couldn’t afford to keep them. Finished last several straight years again, out-St.-Louis-Browning the St. Louis Browns. He liked to have his “kind of people” on his team. Myself, I like to win.

          4. no statistician but

            In reply to #s 12, 15, 16:

            The A’s lineup had Mickey Cochrane batting third, Al Simmons fourth, Jimmie Foxx fifth, not exactly a stupid or quirky arrangement when you consider that the previous year Cochrane batted .349, OPS .976; Simmons .390, OPS 1.085; Foxx .291, OPS .947. Foxx was only 24 years old in 1932, whereas the others were 29 and 30. The lineup had worked for three consecutive pennant winners, too. In ’32, despite Foxx’s 58 dingers, the team finished a distant second.

          5. Doug Post author

            Mack was running his team as a business and selling his assets when their value was at a maximum. When his team was winning pennants, Mack wanted to cash in before those assets started to decline in performance, and value.

            In modern terms, Mack was trying to win with young, less expensive talent and stay away from pricey free agents on the wrong side of 30.

          6. David P

            NSB – I agree that it the beginning of the year, it made sense to have Foxx bat 5th but at some point during the season you’ve got to move him up in the lineup.

            And look at the following year. In 1933, Foxx hit 4th for the first 17 games. He was then dropped to 5th for the next 60 games.

            Who batted 4th during this time? Ed Coleman. Coleman was a 31 year old nobody who had about 40 games of MLB experience when Mack decided to bat him 4th and Foxx 5th. That’s very weird.

          7. John

            You make a good point, nsb, but I was not referring to his obvious talent as a manager. It was more his quirky psyche on how he obtained/retained his players. After the 1915 season, he could have gotten a large number of very good players cut loose by the FL cheaply, but he didn’t. That is all I was trying to say.

    2. Dr. Doom

      This answer is awesome, but got me thinking about some of the other big HR seasons, and why they weren’t on here.

      Bonds in ’01 hit 66 from the 3rd spot, 6th from the 4th spot hit 6, and his other came as a PH, batting 9th.

      McGwire is probably the weirdest. He batted 3rd all but three games in ’98. Once, he batting 9th (PH). But his lone HR from another spot came from batting FIRST. He actually led off the game twice for the Cards in ’98, once homering, and doubling the other time. Maybe the Cards could’ve used that 1.000/1.000/3.000 slash every day at the top of the order. 🙂

      Sammy Sosa, as you know, hit 60 HR three different times (1998, 1999, 2001). Interestingly, he was never a PH batting 9th in any of those years. He did, however, have substantial PAs from the 4-hole each of those three years. In his famous ’98, he hit 17 HR batting 4th. In 2001, he hit only 5, but managed his most HR in one lineup spot, hitting 59 from the third position in the order. 1999, though… well, that’s unique in the annals of baseball history. Sosa was the only player to hit 30 HR from TWO different batting order positions. He hit 31 batting 3rd, and 32 batting 4th. This is a record we’ll never see beaten (as that would require 30 HR from THREE different batting order positions; much like Johnny Vander Meer’s consecutive no-hitters, it may be tied, but never broken).

      Maris in ’61 hit 57 of his HR from the 3rd spot. I think people pretty famously think of him as the third batter in ’61, with Mantle the cleanup guy. Maris also hit a pair from the 4th spot. His other two came from his second-most-common batting order position in 1961 – the 7th spot! Didn’t see that one coming – and I’ve watched 61* a few times.

      Babe Ruth in both ’21 (59 HR) and ’27 (60 HR) batted exclusively from the 3rd spot. He held the records from that position prior to McGwire, and along with Bonds and McGwire hit 60 HR from one position in the batting order.

      Reply ↓
      1. oneblankspace

        MCGwire’s appearances in the 1-hole were essentially first-inning pinch-hitting appearances on the road after he had hit #62. The crowds in the other cities wanted to see him, and LaRussa wanted to give him the day off. He might have DHed had that been an option.

        Reply ↓
        1. Dr. Doom

          That’s what it seemed like. It reminds me of how Lou Gehrig got a couple of “starts” at “shortstop” in order to keep his streak alive, batting in the first inning and then sitting down.

          Reply ↓
  6. Voomo Zanzibar

    On 7.13.34, Gehrig started at 1st, played one defensive inning, singled to lead off the 2nd, then came out.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET193407130.shtml

    The following day, the 14th, was the “start at SS”.
    He led off the game with a single, at was PR for by Rolfe.

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET193407140.shtml

    The following day, well rested, he went 4-4 with 3 doubles:

    http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET193407150.shtml

    Reply ↓
        1. Luis Gomez

          I ask because it was hard to believe that a batter could do so much damage from the 7th spot in the order, and not be moved up. That’s were I was wrong. I never imagined that all those homers were hit by so many batters.

          By the way, DD, I’v been reading the MVP re-voting project, I haven’t voted yet but I will as soon as I make a full return to this site.

          Reply ↓
          1. Richard Chester

            Records for players hitting from the #7 spot (400 PA min.):

            Stat…..#……Year……Player
            R………83……..1933…..Pinky Higgins
            H………177…..1933…..Pinky Higgins
            2B…….34……..1933….Pinky Higgins
            3B…….17……..1921…..Charlie Grimm
            HR……28………1987…..Howard Johnson
            RBI……111…….1938…..Ken Keltner
            BB……..83……..1925…..Willie Kamm
            BA……..361……1923…..Charlie Grimm
            OBP……422……1930…..Gabby Hartnett
            SLG…….636……1930…..Gabby Hartnett
            OPS…….1.058….1930…..Gabby Hartnett
            SB………28……….1913…..Jack Graney
            SB……….28………1923…..Cliff Heathcote

  8. Richard Chester

    Here are the starting players who batted 7th for the 1996 A’s listed by number of games:

    Steinbach-26
    Plantier-25
    Giambi-20
    Brosius-15
    Stairs-15
    Williams-15
    Young-9
    Spiezio-7
    Lovullo-7
    Lesher-6

    Reply ↓
      1. Richard Chester

        The list in my post #28 was extracted from BR’s Batting Order page for the 1996 A’s and evidently only the top 10 starters are listed in the summary column at the bottom of the page. In reality a total of 19 players batted from the #7 position of whom 15 started at least 1 game.

        Reply ↓

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