Quiz – HOOT Players (solved)

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The players in this quiz had an unusual game accomplishment, made more unusual in the context of their careers. What is the quirky game and career feat achieved by no other retired players since 1916?

Earl Averill

Bob Johnson

Hint: figuring out what HOOT means may help you solve this quiz.

Congratulations to John Autin! He correctly identified that some of these players hit for the cycle in their only 4-hit game (ergo, it Happened Only One Time). The others hit for the cycle and had a namesake with only one 4-hit game. See the comments for my mea culpa.

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John Nacca

10 years ago

Well, since Valent never played in the post-season, we can eliminate any “playoff” exploits.

John Nacca

10 years ago

I noticed both Valent and Hickman have hit for the cycle in their careers (both with the Mets). Does it have anything to do with that?

John Nacca

10 years ago

Add Hundley and Salkeld to that cycle list, so that obviously has something to do with it.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Nacca

You’re on to something.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Looks like they all hit for the cycle.

John Nacca

10 years ago

HOOT could mean “Homered Only One Time”……Hall only hit five in his career, none off anyone special (his cycle homer was off Jim Deshaies).

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Five of those 8 had a cycle in their *only* game of 4+ hits (Hall, Hegan, Hundley, Salkeld, Valent). Hickman cycled in his *first* 4-hit game. But I got nothin’ on Averill and Johnson.

Nor on HOOT. “Had Only One Triple” doesn’t work, even on a seasonal basis.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Of course, it would help if I had the right links.

Try again. I think you’ll get it pretty quickly.

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Sorry guys! I botched it. Undone by players with the same names. John mentioned the correct answer, so I’ll give it to him. The idea was HOOT (Happened Only One Time) meaning players who hit for the cycle in their only 4-hit game. As John identified Salkeld, Hegan, Hall, Valent and Hundley did this. I goofed on the others. – Earl Averill Sr. hit for the cycle. His son had one 4-hit game. – Jim Hickman of the Cubs hit for the cycle. Jim Hickman of the Robins had one 4-hit game. – Indian Bob Johnson hit for the cycle.… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Credit John Nacca for nailing the cycle angle. Once he mentioned Valent’s cycle (which I, as a Mets fan, should have recalled), it was a logical progression to the fact that Valent had only one year with more than 50 PAs, and then the chips started to fall.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

BTW, 5 of those 8 players had close relatives in MLB:

Earl Averill, Sr. — father of Earl Averill, Jr.
Indian Bob Johnson — brother of Roy Johnson
Randy Hundley — father of Todd Hundley
Mike Hegan — son of Jim Hegan
Bill Salkeld — grandfather of Roger Salkeld

Throw in the 2 Jim Hickmans and Albert Hall/Al Hall, and it was an accident waiting to happen. 🙂

Richard Chester

10 years ago

I noticed that Bob Johnson played 13 seasons in the majors and had an OPS+ of 125 or more in each of those seasons. If I have done my work correctly he is the only player to have had a career of at least 13 seasons with 125+ OPS+ in each and every season of his career, regardless of the number of PA. BTW running the PI shows him with 12 such seasons but his home page shows 13.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Richard Chester

That astonishing consistency earned Bob Johnson a spot on the Lou Whitaker All-Stars, of course. In 11 of those 13 years, his OPS+ was between 125 and 147; his only real outlier was a WWII year. As I noted in his LWAS passage: – Johnson didn’t crack the majors until age 27, then posted 13 straight years between 3.0 and 6.5 WAR, and was gone. – Out of 141 players with at least 10 years of 3+ WAR, only Indian Bob never had a season *under* 3 WAR. – Over his first 10 years (1933-42), Johnson ranked 3rd overall in… Read more »

Author

Doug

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

his only real outlier was a WWII year.

True enough, but it was also his first season playing at Fenway. His 40 doubles that year were his best total since his rookie season, and almost double the mark of his previous season in Washington. Methinks the right-hand batter turned a lot of fly outs in Griffith Stadium into green monster doubles.

Those 40 two-baggers are tied for 7th most among players aged 38+. Of the 21 batters to record 3 WAR in their final season, only Ted Williams and Barry Bonds were older than the 39 year-old Johnson.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Doug

Methinks the right-hand batter turned a lot of fly outs in Griffith Stadium into green monster doubles.

A reasonable surmise, yet the splits say otherwise, at least over his whole career. Johnson’s rate of doubles per AB was just slightly lower in Griffith than Fenway, 6.9% to 7.1%.

He did have his best overall career numbers in Fenway (OBP and OPS), but Shibe produced his best HR% and ISO. Johnson pretty much raked everywhere but Yankee Stadium.

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

Finished his career at age 45, for the Tijuana Potros.
Most accomplished Potro is franchise history.

4.4 career WAR per year?
That is Whitaker ages 21-36

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

Bob Johnson was also a victim of bad timing. Five years earlier, he’d have been part of the 2nd A’s dynasty (3 straight pennants, 2 WS titles), and might even have helped them make it 4 straight.

Five years later, he could have been with the post-WAR Red Sox, who played .613 ball over 5 years but came out with just one pennant.

On such random things turn Hall of Fame decisions.

bstar

10 years ago

Reply to Voomo Zanzibar

57 WAR from Bob Johnson while only playing from age 27 to 39 is a ton. Only 31 position players have done better than that. 25 reside in Cooperstown. The others are Bonds, Rose, A-Rod, Chipper, Edgar, and Ichiro.

Voomo Zanzibar

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

When we get to 1905 I’m voting for Bob Johnson.
His 57.1 WAR is tied with… Mariano Rivera.
_______

(and, not to look ahead or anything, but 1903 might be our most loaded ballot:

Gehrig
Gehringer
Hubbell
Paul Waner
Cochrane
Lazzeri
Travis Jackson
Babe the Lesser

and the guy who invented the sports
drink:

Steve Swetonic

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

Voomo, you might enjoy this sports page from The Daily Times of April 26, 1943, which includes a brief obituary for Jim Swetonic, brother of Steve and a minor-league player:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1996&dat=19430426&id=X6AiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bK8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=5309,4044919

You’ll especially like the banner headline, but there’s other fun stuff.

Richard Chester

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

2@#

I don’t know about Voomo but I sure liked the banner headline. And they were calling the “balata” ball the “deadwood” ball at the time (see column 1 of that page. And it looks like the Dodgers were the first team to go back to the unused 1942 balls.

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

@JA, I liked the story about the ballpark in Hartford, Connecticut where the nearest fence is two miles away in left field.

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to bstar

RJ @25 — I still say Clemente makes that throw on one hop. BTW, from 1938-47, no Hartford player hit more than 15 HRs. Their yearly HR leaders hit 5, 15, 8, 13, 4, 9, 9, 6, 12 and 10. In 1948, the legendary minor-league slugger Joe Baumann (337 HRs in 1,019 games) played in Hartford, his only documented year in the high minors. He hit just 10 HRs in 277 ABs, which probably killed his one shot at the majors. Baumann spent the next 3 years in semi-pro ball, then signed with the class-C Longhorn League, and averaged 55… Read more »

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

I was thinking of Lou Whitaker All-Stars the other day when looking at Matt Holliday’s stats. Holliday has been consistently good to great his whole career. Obviously he’s not done it for long enough to be considered a true LWAS, but his WAR levels for the nine years between the ages of 25-33 (his entire career minus his rookie season) are comparable to Whitaker’s in the same period: – 39.9 WAR for Holliday vs 41.5 for Lou. – One season of 6 WAR apiece. – Five seasons each between 4 and 5.9 WAR. – Three each between 2.7 and 3.9… Read more »

Editor

John Autin

10 years ago

Reply to RJ

RJ, Matt Holliday is certainly on the LWAS ballot. Tremendously consistent batter; in 8 of 9 qualified seasons, his OPS+ was between 137 and 151.

There’s another active guy in contention. He has 11 seasons between 3.0 and 5.9 WAR, tied for the active lead in that freak stat — but unlike Derek Jeter, this guy has no seasons of 6+ WAR, and no qualified years less than 2 WAR. Any guesses? Hint: he made a spectacle of himself in last year’s postseason.

10 years ago

Reply to John Autin

That would be Torii Hunter (I always have to double check what the correct number or r’s and i’s are in his first name).