The Pecan Park Eagle

Monte Irvin, Baseball Hall of Fame, 1973.

This little quiz focuses upon Hall of Famer Monte Irvin as the key to all its answers. If you are a deep water port baseball fan, it will be tough. If you are a casual fan to a non-fan, it will be impossible. Either way, don’t take the test, or yourself, all that seriously. Life isn’t fun for self-important people. And who needs that plague in particular or those boring people in general?

Just have fun with it.

The answers to this quiz are below. I wrote it honor of Hall of Famer Monte Irvin’s appearance and discussion at our December 2009 meeting of SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research. We didn’t get to the quiz until last night at our January 2010 meeting. Unfortunately, I neglected to bring the answer sheet with me, thus causing me to into brain-freeze on a couple of the answers until I got help from some of the members who hung with me long enough to take the test. I think that’s what Wee Willie Shakespeare had in mind when he came up with the phonetic expression, “hoisted upon my petard.”

This petard is a booger if you don’t have the answer sheet handy, but that will not be a problem here. The answers really are listed below. Just try to resist scrolling too fast past the opportunity of giving the quiz your best shot.

Before you take the quiz, please make a note of the built-in clue. Since I originally wrote the quiz to honor Monte Irvin, the answers to the ten questions, in order, are each preceded by the letters of his first and last names: M-O-N-T-E  I-R-V-I-N. These letters each represent the first letters of the last names of each person that is the answer to each specific question.

Got it? Good! Here is the question that applies to each of the ten “Monte Irvin” statements: What is the first and last name of the person we are talking about here? Remember, his last name will start with the bold-typed letter that precedes that particular statement. One more small hint: Each answer will contain the name of a Baseball Hall of Fame member, going all the way back in some cases to the 19th century.

M. He was no Bugs Bunny, but he had a lot of staying power.

O. His quirky batting style only got him into the Hall of Fame.

N. It’s not how fast you throw, but what happens when you do.

T. He was last National Leaguer to hit .400 in one season.

E. In 18 years, he played every field position and hit .303 life.

I. His middle name is Merrill, but call him “Mr. Murder.”

R. “The Hoosier Thunderbolt” won 31 plus, 4 straight years.

V. Reached the HOF with only 197 wins from 1916 to 1935.

I. Invert Route 66 upside down for his MLB career HR total.

N. Won 30 plus 7 times and won 361 games in MLB career.

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ANSWERS:

M. Rabbit Maranville

O. Mel Ott

N. Phil Niekro

T. Bill Terry

E. Buck Ewing

I. Monte Irvin

R. Amos Rusie

V. Dazzy Vance

I. Monte Irvin

N. Kid Nichols

Monte Irvin Notes: During his eight season MLB career (1949-56), Monte Irvin compiled a career slugging average of .475 and a career batting average of .295. His best season for a high batting average was 1953 when he hit .329. On February 25, 2010, God Willing, Monte Irvin will celebrate his 91st birthday.

Early Happy Birthday # 91, Monte Irvin, and thanks too for all the happy memories you’ve brought to us by your willingness to spend time with our SABR group. As a piece of baseball history, that two-hour DVD we did of you and Larry Dierker with interviwer Dave Raymond at our December 8, 2009 SABR meeting is a treasure that reaches far beyond all of our lifetimes as an item of historical value.

I’ve something different for you this morning. It’s just a little ten question baseball history quiz. It’s really not all that hard. Just pay attention to what you are being asked and what you see. If you’ve followed baseball at all, and if you’ve done any baseball history reading, you should be able to get all ten answers right.

Have fun:

1. Frank Mancuso and Bobby Bragan were only two of the 37 major league catchers to receive for this starting pitcher over the course of his MLB career. Who was he?

2. He and Al Benton were the only two pitchers whose MLB careers spanned the eras of both Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle. Benton actually faced both Yankee legends. This second man just never got a chance to face Mantle. Who was he?

3. This man and Jack Powell are the only two pitchers in MLB history to have won more than 200 big league games and still finished their careers with a sub-.500 winning percentage. Who is he?

4. Who was the last big league player from the 1920s to still be playing at that level in the 1950s?

5. In poet Ogden Nash’s “Lineup for Yesterday,” he is the only player mentioned who didn’t make it to the Hall of Fame. Who is he?

6. What pitcher won 30 games for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League back in 1933?

7. He pitched for 9 distinct MLB franchise clubs over the course of 17 changes of big league team affiliation during his career. Who are we we talking about here?

8. He won exactly 20 games in a season twice as a big league pitcher, but he lost exactly 20 games in a season three times as a major leaguer. Who was he?

9. He is the only pitcher to play for one big league club on five separate occasions? Who is he?

10. He and Ray Kremer of the 1930 Pittsburgh Pirates are the only two big league pitchers in history to win 20 games and still post Earned Run Averages of over 5 runs per nine inning game over the course of a single season. Who is he?

When someone has posted the winning answers to all ten questions below as a comment on this quiz, I will confirm the winner with a comment post of my own.