Boston Red Sox Quiz: 1) Name the only two to hit 50 home runs in a season. 2) Name the only three to drive in 150. 3) Name the six who have 1,000 RBI in a BoSox uniform. Answers below.
A Big Night at the Plate
Texas Rangers’ slugger Josh Hamilton became just the 16th player in baseball history (14 since 1900) to hit four home runs in a game, going 5 for 5, to boot, and setting an AL record with 18 total bases in the Rangers’ 10-3 win over the Orioles. Hamilton, of course, is just lucky to be alive as he continues to battle drug and alcohol addiction.
“I think about what God’s done in my life, everything I did to mess it up,” he said. “To finally surrender everything and pursue that relationship with Christ on a daily basis and understanding when I don’t pursue it, I end up messing up. Understanding that what I’m doing and what God’s allowed me to do, coming back from everything I went through and allowing me to play the game at the level I play it, it’s pretty amazing to think about.”
All Hamilton has done thus far in 2011 is hit 14 home runs and drive in 36, while batting .406 in the Rangers’ first 30 games.
Against the Orioles, Hamilton had four, 2-run homers, with Elvis Andrus on base all four times. His 8 RBI were tied for third-most in a four-homer game, trailing Mark Whiten’s 12 in 1993 and Gil Hodges’ nine in 1950.
4 HR in a game – AL History
Josh Hamilton…2012 Rangers
Carlos Delgado…2003 Blue Jays
Mike Cameron…2002 Mariners
Rocky Colavito…1959 Indians
Pat Seerey…1948 White Sox
Lou Gehrig…1932 Yankees
This is the first year in MLB history with both a four-homer game and a perfect game (Chicago White Sox hurler Philip Humber).
Hamilton’s 14 home runs in the Rangers’ first 30 games is a franchise record as well.
Ball Bits
–Philadelphia pitcher Cole Hamels drilled Washington Nationals phenom Bryce Harper in the back on Sunday night, and then after the Phillies’ 9-3 win, Hamels admitted as much.
So, for this rather stunning bit of candor, Hamels was suspended five games.
–Meanwhile, Bryce Harper has become an even more valuable commodity for the Nationals with fellow outfielder Jayson Werth going down with a broken wrist that will keep him out of the lineup for 10-12 weeks.
So if there was any thought of sending Harper back this year for more seasoning (not that there was even before Werth’s injury), that’s out the window. It seems unlikely Bryce Harper will ever see the minor leagues again. [And he’s doing just fine thus far…9 hits in 30 at-bats, .300, with six doubles.]
–Shu, Pirates fan, apprised me of the fact the Bucs had just 78 runs through their first 28 games, a 2.78 average. Were they to continue that pace, they’d score 450 runs for the season. Consider that in 1968, the Year of the Pitcher, the Chicago White Sox had the fewest runs scored in baseball with 463, while the Dodgers and Mets had just 470 and 473, respectively.
The above was my own research, but Tom Singer of MLB.com notes that the Pirates’ pace is the worst in all of baseball, including the minor league, and that no team has averaged as few as 2.79 runs per game since the 1942 Phillies’ 2.61.
Update: On Tuesday, the Pirates defeated the Nationals 5-4 in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the ninth. So…after 29 games, the run scoring average is up to 2.86, or 463 runs over the course of a season.
—Andy Pettitte is making his return to the Yankees on Sunday against the Mariners. It will be his first big league start in 18 months, since taking a loss in Game 3 of the 2010 ALCS.
–San Francisco Giants reliever Guillermo Mota was suspended for 100 games, becoming just the third major league player penalized twice for positive drug tests. The commissioner’s office said he tested positive for Clenbuterol. In November 2006, Mota was suspended for the first 50 games of the next season.
Manny Ramirez and catcher Eliezer Alfonzo are the only previous players to twice test positive. If a player tests positive a third time, they suffer a lifetime ban.
—Albert Pujols’ batting average is down to .190 thru Tuesday’s play, with one home run and 9 RBI in 30 games. Overall, his Angels are just 13-18.
Monday Night
For New York Mets and Rangers fans, Monday night was incredible. Within one minute of each other, the Mets’ Jordany Valdespin had his first major-league hit, a 3-run homer in the ninth to propel the Mets to a 5-2 come-from-behind victory over the Phillies and Roy Halladay, while in Madison Square Garden, the Rangers pulled off a spectacularly dramatic win over the Washington Capitals, 3-2 in overtime, as Brad Richards tied the game with just 6.6 seconds left in regulation (as Valdespin was homering), and then Marc Staal won it just 1:35 into overtime. Yes, Mets/Rangers fans were frantically flipping back-and-forth. Personally, I missed the home run at the moment it occurred, hoping against hope that the Rangers would tie in the waning seconds.
Of course in Game 3 of their series against the Caps, the Rangers won in triple overtime, so within a week, the team has registered two of the five or so most dramatic wins in their history.
As for the Capitals, talk about going from hero to goat, such was the case of Joel Ward, who with just 22 seconds left in regulation was banished to the penalty box with a double-minor for high-sticking, which meant that Ward not only gave the Rangers life in regulation, but because it was a double-minor he had to start out the overtime in the box as well.
It was Joel Ward, of course, who scored the Caps’ overtime winner in Game 7 against the Boston Bruins. Ward sat stunned at his locker after the loss on Monday.
By the way, should Rangers-Caps go seven games, that bodes well for the New Jersey Devils, who ousted the Flyers, 4-1, on Tuesday. No NHL team has won the Cup after playing 14 games in the first two rounds as the Rangers or Capitals will have done should Washington prevail Wednesday.
[In the West, the Phoenix Coyotes reached the conference finals for the first time as they’ll face off against the Los Angeles Kings.]
The Future of the NFL
“Do football players die younger?
“A records-based study of retired players conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) concludes that they have a much lower death rate than men in the general population, contrasting the notion that football players don’t live as long….
“Hall of Fame guard Joe DeLamielleure, 61, said he’s not convinced. ‘I think it’s bogus. Just think of the guys who have died before they got into their 60s or 70s. Don’t tell me we live longer. I don’t believe it.’
“Of the 3,439 former players in the study, 334 were deceased. Based on estimates from the general population, NIOSH anticipated 625 deaths. The results, completed this year, came from further research after a study requested by the NFL Players Association was completed in 1994.
“Yet the results also revealed that nearly 38% of deaths from the pool of retirees – who played at least five seasons between 1959 and 1988 – were linked to heart disease.
“Even so, NIOSH concluded in the study that the risk of dying of heart disease for the retirees as an overall group is lower than that for the general population.”
But despite the above, the NFL is in serious trouble. I’ve written it’s inevitable that one Sunday we are going to witness a death on the field.
“The concussion lawsuit doomsday scenario for the NFL, the one being talked about privately at every level of the sport, from owners to agents to even players themselves, goes something like this.
“There are approximately 1,700 former players who have sued the NFL. Their cases continue to weave through the judicial system.
“Over a period of years, as the games go on, testimony is taken and arguments made. Players tell stories about being sent back into games despite memory loss or losing consciousness. The suicides of former players are discussed. The letters CTE [Ed. chronic traumatic encephalopathy] become as associated with football as NFL. Names like Junior Seau and Dave Duerson are talked about in detail. The story of the day Andre Waters shot himself in the head is told. Emotional testimony is given. The games go on, and so do the court fights for years. And years.
“Meanwhile, to limit potential legal exposure, there are more changes on the field. Hard hits are limited even more. Fines and suspensions increase. The violence of football, the staple of many diets of the American sports fan, is drastically reduced. There is talk in some media outlets that football is losing its grip as the top sport in the country.
“More players sue. Judgments are handed down. Few million here. Tens of millions there. There is another suicide. And another. By the year 2020 the legal losses are staggering, maybe in the billions.
“But by then the damage is already done. The NFL isn’t necessarily concerned about the lawsuits bankrupting the league. That’s of course a worry. The larger concern is that the suits cause such negative publicity and erosion of the brand that advertisers flee, networks bail and the most relevant sport this society has followed since baseball’s heyday loses that relevance….
“It is hypothetical, but it’s also not totally implausible.”
Freeman doesn’t bring up my theory, that one day a player is sent back into a game with his brain already scrambled, he gets another vicious hit to the head and we all watch as he’s carted off…brain dead as we learn later that same day. Then what?
[Separately, former New York Giants wide receiver Stacy Robinson died Tuesday. He was 50. Robinson played on the Giants’ first two Super Bowl teams and finished with 48 career receptions for 749 yards and seven touchdowns. No cause of death has been announced.]
–Having trouble getting into the NBA playoffs because my Knicks never had a chance against Miami, though I have caught a fair amount of the Celtics-Hawks series, with Boston up 3-2. No doubt, Al Horford is critical to Atlanta’s success. In the West, Chris Paul is playing inspired ball for the Clippers, but you know my feelings about him. I’m the lone Demon Deacon fan who prefers to root for Jeff Teague (thus the reason why I’m watching the Hawks).
–This is the week of the Players Championship, the “5th major” as some like to say, and once again Tiger Woods is in the spotlight, though this time because of his very poor play since he won at Bay Hill in March. In the past few days, various figures have had a field day analyzing Tiger.
Like Peter Alliss, longtime broadcaster who was just inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, who said Woods “is gone at the moment.”
Nick Faldo said, “He just doesn’t have the self-belief, the self-confidence that he obviously had as the Tiger of old.”
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee said Tiger should fire swing coach Sean Foley and go back to Butch Harmon. “(But) I know he’ll never do that because he’s letting his ego get in the way of common sense. He would rather prove to people he’s right than to be right.”
In 19 full-field events since he began with Foley, Woods has one win and just four top 10s.
No one expects anything of Tiger at the Players. And few now expect him to get the five majors he needs to surpass Jack Nicklaus’ 18.
–Tom Callahan of Golf Digest has a story on Doc Giffin, Arnold Palmer’s personal assistant since 1966. Giffin tells of his position as tour press secretary for the PGA, which Giffin took on in 1962.
“That first fall, at the Orange County Open in Costa Mesa, Calif., 28-year-old Tony Lema was looking for an official PGA victory to go with the unofficial Sahara Invitational he won a month before. ‘There were three or four writers in Costa Mesa, total,’ Doc says, ‘and a cooler of beer for refreshments. I think Charlie Curtis was there for the [Los Angeles] Times. After the third round – I remember it so well – Lema dipped into the cooler, held up a bottle of beer and said, ‘If I win tomorrow, men, we’re having champagne in here.’’
“A light bulb came on over Doc’s head. ‘I went and hunted up the club manager,’ he says, ‘to make sure we were prepared.’ Lema beat Bob Rosburg in a playoff, and the writers had their wine. ‘After a couple of the guys wrote it that way, ‘Champagne Tony’ was off and running.’ In quick order, Lema struck a deal with Moet and won a slew of tournaments like the Crosby (including a couple where Palmer finished second) plus an Open Championship at St. Andrews by five strokes over Jack Nicklaus.”
But it was the day Doc joined Arnie, July 24, 1966, that Tony and Betty Lema were killed when their light plane crashed into the Lansing Sportsman’s Club golf course in Illinois.
—Jeff Gordon is 23rd in the standings thus far in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, which at this stage in the season means he needs to not just get a bunch of top fives, he needs to win some. Gordon has just two top-10s in the first 10 races.
—Manchester City only needs to defeat relegation-threatened Queens Park at home next weekend to ensure its first Premier League championship since 1968. That will be quite a scene there, assuming they prevail. Manchester United is likely to finish tied in points, but falls well short to City in goal differential, the tie-breaker.
—Bob Stewart, the television producer who invented a number of leading game shows, died. He was 91. Among his long-running hits were “Password” and the “Pyramid” franchise, as well as “The Price Is Right” and “To Tell the Truth.”
“As Mr. Stewart himself put it, in an interview for the Archive of American Television: ‘Once you cause somebody at home to talk to the set aloud, even by himself or herself, then you’ve got a good game show. You want them to say, ‘It’s number 2! It’s number 2! It’s number 2!’ before the moment of truth comes out.’
“Mr. Stewart was standing in front of a store window in Manhattan in 1955, listening to people wonder what a piece of furniture costs, when the idea for ‘The Price Is Right’ popped into his head…
“Another of Mr. Stewart’s game shows had a similar genesis.
“ ‘Bob walks into a crowded elevator and thinks to himself, ‘What are their occupations? What does he do? What does he do? What are their stories?’’ [Fred Wostbrock, co-author of “The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows”] said. That was the start of ‘To Tell the Truth,’ in which three people, all claiming to be the same person, try to befuddle a panel of four celebrities.”
“Violet D’Mello’s 60th birthday celebration turned gruesome last Saturday when she was mauled by a pair of Cheetahs during a trip to a South African game reserve, according to a report by ABC News.
“Violet and her husband Archibald were on vacation from Scotland when they visited the Kragga Kamma Game Park in Port Elizabeth and were allowed to pet two brother cheetahs, Mark and Monty, the report said.
“But one of the animals grabbed an 8-year-old girl by the leg, and Violet tried to stop it, according to the report. After the girl ran away, both cheetahs turned and attacked Violet for more than three minutes while she tried to play dead, the report said.
“ ‘I just remember…something biting my head and dragging me down,’ Violet D’Mello said.”
Thankfully, despite losing a lot of blood and receiving multiple stitches on her thighs and scalp, Violet survived.
Needless to say, Archibald and Violet are rather angry, seeing as they were told the situation was safe.
—Maurice Sendak, the great children’s book author and illustrator, died at the age of 83 of complications from a stroke. Sendak revolutionized children’s books as his kids acted like jerks (or, as an official obituary put it, “misbehaved”).
“Rarely was a man so uninterested in being loved so adored. His books sold millions of copies and his most curmudgeonly persona became as much a part of his legend as Where the Wild Things Are, his signature book.” [AP]
Sendak was indeed a terrific illustrator and took pride in his work as a craftsman. “I feel like a dinosaur. There are a few of us left.”
Born in 1928 and raised in Brooklyn, his memories were clouded by tales of the Holocaust as his Jewish-Polish immigrant parents received word of atrocities and the deaths of relatives and friends.
—Will Ferrell is hosting “Saturday Night Live” this week.
–For those of you who watched last Sunday’s episode of “Mad Men,” the Wall Street Journal reports that the usage of the Beatles’ song “Tomorrow Never Knows” from the “Revolver” LP cost the show about $250,000, or five times the typical cost of licensing a song for TV. The surviving Beatles, along with Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, signed off on it. “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner has tried multiple times before to get approval for Beatles songs.
Top 3 songs for the week 5/11/74: #1 “The Loco-Motion” (Grand Funk) #2 “The Streak” (Ray Stevens…oh, it was big in my high school at the time) #3 “Dancing Machine” (The Jackson 5…blows)…and…#4 “The Entertainer” (Marvin Hamlisch) #5 “Bennie And The Jets” (Elton John…one of my 2 or 3 faves of his) #6 “The Show Must Go On” (Three Dog Night…sucks) #7 “Tubular Bells” (Mike Oldfield…eegads…) #8 “TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)” (MFSB featuring The Three Degrees) #9 “(I’ve Been) Searchin’ So Long” (Chicago…not one of their best) #10 “Midnight At The Oasis” (Maria Muldaur…incredibly stupid lyrics…but musically like the tune)
Boston Red Sox Quiz Answers: 1) The only two to hit 50 homers are David Ortiz, 54 (2006) and Jimmie Foxx, 50 (1938). 2) Only three to drive in 150: Jimmie Foxx, 175 (1938); Vern Stephens, 159 (1949); Ted Williams, 159 (1949)*. 3) 1,000 RBI: Carl Yastrzemski, 1844; Ted Williams, 1839; Jim Rice, 1451; Dwight Evans, 1346; Bobby Doerr, 1247; David Ortiz, 1051.
*That was a helluva hitting display by Williams and Stephens in 1949, but the Red Sox finished second at 96-58, one game behind the Yankees. The Red Sox scored 896 runs, with Bobby Doerr also driving in 109, so the three combined for nearly half the runs (and actually accounted for more than half the RBI). Stephens and Williams also had 82 of the team’s 131 home runs (39 Stephens, 43 Williams).
Also, when you have a moment, go to baseballreference.com and look up Jimmie Foxx. Talk about some amazing numbers, including on-base percentage.
