This quiz is about players with a connection to another player. There are two lists of players with each player in the first list matching a player in the second. Your job is to figure out the connection.
Congratulations to No Statistician But! He knew that the matching players were teammates in a season when both (or all) hit their 300th home runs. Those details are after the jump.
Here are the two lists. Every name in list A matches one in list B, except for one list A name that matches two in list B. The two lists comprise all of the players with the connection, so there are no other players that could be added to either list.
So what connects the players in this quiz?
| Player List A | Player List B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moises Alou | Edwin Encarnacion |
| 2 | Jose Bautista | Steve Finley |
| 3 | Lance Berkman | Shawn Green |
| 4 | Jermaine Dye | Paul Konerko |
| 5 | Troy Glaus | Carlos Lee |
| 6 | Luis Gonzalez | Derrek Lee |
| 7 | Ron Santo | Albert Pujols |
| 8 | Alfonso Soriano | Ivan Rodriguez |
| 9 | Billy Williams |
Clue: Larry Walker and Ron Gant came close to being another match.
Bautista and Encarnacion this season became the 7th set of teammates to accomplish this feat in just 12 years, after happening only once in the 71 prior seasons back to 1934 when Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig became the first set of teammates (and first two players on any team) to both reach 300 career home runs.
The other matching teammates are:
- Santo/Williams – 1971 Cubs
- Gonzalez/Green – 2005 D-Backs
- Alou/Finley – 2006 Giants
- Glaus/Pujols – 2008 Cardinals
- Berkman/C. Lee/I-Rod – 2009 Astros
- Dye/Konerko – 2009 White Sox
- Soriano/D. Lee – 2010 Cubs
The clue of Larry Walker and Ron Gant almost doing this refers to both of them hitting number 300 for the 2001 Rockies, but Walker doing so after Gant had moved on to play for the A’s.
Jermaine Dye and Paul Konerko hit their 300th home runs back-to-back leading off the second inning of Chicago’s 10-6 win over the Tigers on Apr 13, 2009. Three years later, Konerko and teammate Adam Dunn would both hit their 400th home runs.
The 2009 Astros became the only team to have three players reach this milestone together when Lance Berkman, Carlos Lee and Ivan Rodiguez all hit their 300th home runs before I-Rod was traded to the Rangers on August 18th.
Obviously it has to do with teammates at the time (example, Santo and Williams, Joey Bats and Double E)
That is correct.
The clue may be helpful in solving the rest, since those two were teammates so briefly.
All the players seem to have at least 300 home runs. Could the matches relate to passing that mark in the same season on the same team? I’ve tracked a couple where that seems to be the case, but don’t have time work it all out.
That has to be it.
Gotta be it….or…..two players on the same team having the same number of career homers at the same time, but at least 300 career homers.
That’s it, nsb.
The seasons are:
Santo/Williams – 1971 Cubs
Gonzalez/Green – 2005 D-Backs
Alou/Finley – 2006 Giants
Glaus/Pujols – 2008 Cardinals
Berkman/C. Lee/I-Rod – 2009 Astros
Dye/Konerko – 2009 White Sox
Soriano/D. Lee – 2010 Cubs
Bautista/Encarnacion – 2016 Blue Jays
Walker and Gant both hit number 300 for the 2001 Rockies, but Walker’s came after Gant had moved on to the A’s.
The devaluation of home runs show s up in this set of pairings. Two HOFers, one sure thing in Pujols, one likely in I-Rod, and maybe a couple of possibles among the rest. Every player with 300 HRs who played prior to 1950 is in the Hall. Sixty-eight of the 85 who currently have between 300 and 400 are not, and only five of those, Sievers, Adcock, Hodges, Colavito, and Cash—all memorable players— appeared in the 1950s.
Hodges belongs in the HOF, and a case can be made for Adcock and Cash. I wish someone would kindly explain to me why Gil Hodges is not in.
John:
I think Hodges and the Hall is a subject discussed here in the past, and maybe if the site revives a little someone might archive it in a way to track down old topics, but—here’s my take: 1) There are already four Dodger players from his era in the Hall, and he isn’t on a level with them; 2) He’s not that distinguishable from other slugging first basemen of his era—Sievers, Kluszewski, Adcock, Wertz—and later guys like Cash. 3) Statistically, his WAR is too low, just as his BA was too low for earlier voters. 4) His playing career was a little short, and the years he spent in the military were capped by a year in the minors, so it’s hard to give him much extra credit for time lost. 5) His managing career, with the exception of the Miracle Mets in 1969, doesn’t add much. He led poor to middling teams to poor to middling finishes.
His popularity with fans was enormous, too, and that might actually have worked against him with some HOF voters who sensed a disparity between his image and his level of play.
I think most people consider him to be hovering on the outskirts of the Hall, not someone who belongs inside, in spite of the fact that he was a better player than the usually mentioned gang of suspects elected in some dubious Veteran’s Committee votes. Unfortunately, he’s one of fifty or more with that distinction, and more come along as the years pass.
Well, at least it’s a reason. Thank you. (I started following baseball in 1969, and I’m a life-long Cubs fan. In spite of 1969, I still think he belongs in the HOF!)
But certainly not as a manager.
A note to everyone.
If you want to find an old post that you remembered was related to some topic under discussion, they can be found using the Search feature in the top right corner of the screen.
The Search will find posts (articles) with the selected text but, unfortunately, does not search text in comments.
Well, Dye and Konerko hit their 300th in the same game – back-to-back, for that matter. Could that be it? Hitting milestone HRs in the same game?
CC Sabathia just achieved something rare.
6 IP
7 ER
12 SO
That many runs and Ks with no more than 6 IP had been done two times before:
Cole Hamels
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI200607240.shtml
Curt Schilling
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199706280.shtml
Somehow he did it with only 98 pitches.
No one had achieved that with more than 10 SO, and that only twice, both last year.
Noah Syndegaard (in only 4 innings!)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SDN/SDN201506020.shtml
Henry Owens
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201508160.shtml
And that came one day after Michael Pineda had five scoreless frames before a rain delay, but the Yankee bullpen coughed up a 6-0 lead, surrendering 12 runs.
I was wondering when the last time a bullpen had been so ineffective in supporting a scoreless 5 IP start. Don’t know the answer, but it might have been in 1995 when the Tiger bullpen gave it up in a 13-1 thumping by the Orioles.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET199509210.shtml
Of course, the Yankees should be familiar with this type of game. They were the opportunists less than a year ago when they bludgeoned the Mets by an 11-2 score after Matt Harvey departed the game.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN201509200.shtml
The other thing about that Yankees game is that they had 3 different relievers give up 4 runs while recording 2 or fewer outs (Swarzak recorded 2 outs, Warren 1, and Shreve 0). Wonder if that’s happened before? I’m guessing that would be really difficult to figure out.
Not a good guess David P. It’s happened on 3 other occasions in the searchable era:
Cards (vs. Pirates) 8-6-1959
Giants (vs. Expos) 5-7-1997
Red Sox (vs. Indians) 4-10-1977
Richard – From now on, I’m just going to assume that you can figure the answer out. 🙂
But I’m definitely curious as to how you did it???
Reply to David P. post 17.
Set the BR PI as follows:
Game Finders Player Pitching
# of players matching criteria for a team game
Reliever
Runs greater than or equal to 4
IP less than or equal to 0.2
Get Report
These PI runs are basically logic problems.
In that Red Sox-Indians game the 3 pitchers all pitched in the same inning. The score was tied 3-3 going into the top of the 8th. The first reliever was Bill Campbell who surrendered 4 runs and retired 1 batter. Next was Jim Willoughby who gave up 4 runs and retired no one. Then came Tom House who gave up 5 runs and retired 1 batter. Finally Tom Murphy came in and got the last out. The Sox scored 6 runs in their half of the 8th. The Indians won 19-9.
Ah, I always forget about all those other search parameters!
Okay, here’s a (hopefully) more challenging logic problem for you. That was the Indians second game of the season. Dave LaRoche won that game, also won their first game, and lost their third game.
Have any other relievers been involved in the decision for their team’s first 3 games of the year?
Reply to post 20. The PI shows LaRoche as the only one to do it.
On 9-15-1923 Syl Johnson of the Tigers pitched 6 scoreless innings against the Senators. He was pinch-hit for in the top of the 7th. The score at the time was 8-0. Against relievers Earl Whitehill and Ken Holloway the Senators scored 2 runs in the 7th and 7 in the 9th to walk away with a 9-8 victory. That’s not the last time it happened but it was the largest deficit that was overcome that I could find.
On 4-11-11 the Blue Jays led the Mariners 5-0 after 5 innings. Jesse Litch had pitched 5 scoreless innings and left the game. The Jays scored 2 more runs in the top of the 6th for a 7-0 lead. The Mariners were held scoreless in the bottom of the 6th. They then scored 8 runs in the last 3 innings for an 8-7 win. You can use the PI by using the Player Pitching Game Finder and set it to Team Lost, as Starter, R = 0 and IP = 5. Then scroll down the results list until you find a game in which the winning team scored 7 or more runs. You can also do it using IP = 6 or more.
Indians catcher Roberto Perez has 15 walks and only 6 base hits. The only non-pitchers to have 75+ PAs and more than twice as many walks as hits are:
Larry Schlafly in 1907: 103 PAs, 22 walks, 10 hits.
Sammy Strang in 1908: 80 PAs, 23 walks, 5 hits.
Gavvy Cravath in 1909: 77 PAs, 20 walks, 9 hits.
So Perez could end up doing something that hasn’t been done in over 100 years.