Betcha didn't know

[Utter Chaos]

In 2008 Ted Lilly became the first regular season 17 game winner for a playoff team not to pitch in the post season since Kevin Millwood in 1998.

[RuthMayBond]

I probably just jinxed him, but Jacob Ellsbury has never made an error in the major leagues, switching between CF, LF and RF, 178 games, over 400 total chances

[ipitch]

Joe Blanton is the only player to hit a World Series HR for his first career extra-base hit.

[Tyrus4189Cobb]

The first recorded argument between an umpire and a player was in 1846.

[Dalkowski110]

Radar guns used for pitchers only measure the pitch 10 feet away from the pitcher's hand, after which point pitch speed rapidly decelerates. Nolan Ryan's "100 mph fastball," measured at 60'6", would register about 108-109 mph on a modern gun (Joel Zumaya's "record 106 mph pitch" only hit 93.4 mph at 60'6").

[highpockets]

Radar guns used for pitchers only measure the pitch 10 feet away from the pitcher's hand, after which point pitch speed rapidly decelerates. Nolan Ryan's "100 mph fastball," measured at 60'6", would register about 108-109 mph on a modern gun (Joel Zumaya's "record 106 mph pitch" only hit 93.4 mph at 60'6").

I did not know this and always wondered. Thanks, it's good to know.

[ipitch]

The only San Diego Padre to steal a base in July of 2008 was....






....Greg Maddux.

[Dalkowski110]

Here's one I bet no one knows. The fastest left-handed pitcher ever clocked is a now-forgotten Phillies pitching prospect named Dick Smith. In 1958, at Aberdeen Proving Ground in MD, he lit up a chronograph at 98.6 mph at home plate. Extrapolated on a modern radar gun, that's at least 103 mph and likely closer to 105 mph. Smith was added for some reason when Steve Dalkowski was sent for the first of two tests to have his fastball clocked. The first test was an abject failure (for Steve...not Dick) that resulted in Steve heaving about 100 pitches past the chronograph without a single one being clocked. Dick easily hit 98.6 mph. The second test, taken the day after Steve had started a game, resulted in a 93.5 mph reading at 60'6" (Shirley Povich reported this in the Washington Post before anyone questions me...I have a photocopy of the article where he says so in early 1963). However, Steve's fastball speed has often been misstated as 98.6 mph...Smith's speed. When I contacted and asked Dick Smith (who was VERY exacting in his details) about his own speed as opposed to Steve's, he said "he was throwing harder than I was."

Here's a link to this now-forgotten flamethrower's statistics...

http://minors.sabrwebs.com/cgi-bin/p...D=smith-015ric

[rbrittain56]

On September 1, 1963 Curt Simmons of the Cardinals tripled off the Phillies Chris Short, driving home Tim McCarver, who had singled. The 34-year old Simmons then stole home becoming, as far as I can tell, the last pitcher to steal home.

On July 16, 1904, Happy Jack Chesbro pulled off a "walk-off" steal of home in the 10th inning of a game against the Tigers, winning the game 9-8. Near as I can tell, it is the only time a pitcher has done this.

On June 2, 1950, the St. Louis Browns' Harry "Fritz" Dorish was the last American League pitcher to steal home, when he stole home on the end of a double steal in the 5th inning of a game against the Washington Senators.

[RuthMayBond]

On September 1, 1963 Curt Simmons of the Cardinals tripled off the Phillies Chris Short, driving home Tim McCarver, who had singled. The 34-year old Simmons then stole home becoming, as far as I can tell, the last pitcher to steal home.

Pascual Perez stole home in 1984, Rick Sutcliffe stole home in 1988, Darren Dreifort stole home in 2001.

<On July 16, 1904, Happy Jack Chesbro pulled off a "walk-off" steal of home in the 10th inning of a game against the Tigers, winning the game 9-8. Near as I can tell, it is the only time a pitcher has done this.>

Frank Owen stole home in the 9th & his team won by a run but I don't know if it was a walkoff. George Mogridge stole home in the 12th in a 1923 game

[rbrittain56]

Frank Owen stole home in the 9th & his team won by a run but I don't know if it was a walkoff. George Mogridge stole home in the 12th in a 1923 game

From the source's I have neither Owens' nor Mogridge's steal were walk-offs as they were both on visiting teams and therefore did not have the final at bat.

I did find out however that Owens stole home 3 times in his career.

I screwed up on the Simmons factoid, his was the last straight steal. Perez, Sutcliffe, and Dreifort steals were front ends of double steals.

[Gravy Train]

Vinny Castilla hit .304 with 40 HR and 113 RBIs in both 1996 and 1997. And I don't mean he had at least those numbers, he had exactly those numbers.

Twins 1B/DH Gene Larkin hit .266 in 1987, followed by .267 in 1988 and 1989.

[RuthMayBond]

Vinny Castilla hit .304 with 40 HR and 113 RBIs in both 1996 and 1997.

Adam Dunn has been pretty consistent with the HRs lately

[Gravy Train]

Adam Dunn has been pretty consistent with the HRs lately

You're right, 4 straight seasons with exactly 40. I tried to see if I could find out who has the record for most consecutive seasons with the same # of HRs, but I didn't have much luck. I imagine Dunn has the record for the 40 or more division.

[gojays]

You're right, 4 straight seasons with exactly 40. I tried to see if I could find out who has the record for most consecutive seasons with the same # of HRs, but I didn't have much luck. I imagine Dunn has the record for the 40 or more division.

Duane Kuiper had seven straight seasons with 0.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

The major league leader in triples hit at least 20 triples

in the 20s ... 8 of 10 years

in the 30s ... 4 of 10 years

in the 40s... 5 of 10 years, last being 1949

but from 1950 to 1995 (46 years) in only three years did a player lead the majors with at least 20 triples in one season ...

1957 Willie Mays (20)
1979 George Brett (20)
1985 Willie Wilson (21)

it has since happened 3 times in 13 years

Mookie Wilson used his nickname instead of his real name (William Wilson) to avoid confusion with the above mentioned KC Royal Willie Wilson, who had similar skills, age and color. Edgar Allen Poe once wrote a story about a man who was haunted by another man with then same name, same build and face. The two men's names? .... William Wilson

[Ubiquitous]

You're right, 4 straight seasons with exactly 40. I tried to see if I could find out who has the record for most consecutive seasons with the same # of HRs, but I didn't have much luck. I imagine Dunn has the record for the 40 or more division.

I believe Al Evans has the record with 6 consecutive years of hitting 2 homers.

Mickey Doolan almost went 12 years in row hitting the same amount of homers and if he had hit a homer in his last season he would have gone his entire career hitting the same amount of homers in each season. Unfortunately for him he hit an extra homer in three different seasons.

A bunch of players have 5 seasons in a row
Nellie Fox
Leo Durocher
Dick Padden, who probably has the worst name on the list but he also probably holds the record for most consecutive seasons from the start of one's career.
Ed Romero and various others

Dunn does in fact have the highest consecutive streak of 4 or more seasons with 4 seasons of 40 homers. Ken Boyer and Fred Lynn have the next most with 4 seasons of 24 and 23 homers respectively.

[Utter Chaos]

You're right, 4 straight seasons with exactly 40. I tried to see if I could find out who has the record for most consecutive seasons with the same # of HRs, but I didn't have much luck. I imagine Dunn has the record for the 40 or more division.

Hoyt Wilhelm had 0 home runs for 20 years in a row.

[Gravy Train]

Mookie Wilson used his nickname instead of his real name (William Wilson) to avoid confusion with the above mentioned KC Royal Willie Wilson, who had similar skills, age and color. Edgar Allen Poe once wrote a story about a man who was haunted by another man with then same name, same build and face. The two men's names? .... William Wilson

There's also a Smithereens song "William Wilson," although I sincerely doubt it has anything to do with Mookie or KC's Willie (even if the last line of the song is "William Wilson, let him run wild").

[9RoyHobbsRF]

These are fairly well known but I do find them interesting to this day....

1) Hank Greenberg once had 100 RBI's at the all-star break but did not make the AL all-star team (couple of guys named Gehrig and Foxx beat him out)

2) not only did Juan Marichal never win a Cy Young Award despite leading the majors in wins (by a large margin) in the 1960s, he never even received a single Cy Young vote in his entire career.

3) For five consecutive years, all of the major league Cy Young Award Winners pitched in the same home ballpark, which was a notorious pitcher's park

[RuthMayBond]

These are fairly well known but I do find them interesting to this day....

2) not only did Juan Marichal never win a Cy Young Award despite leading the majors in wins (by a large margin) in the 1960s, he never even received a single Cy Young vote in his entire career.

Not quite, but scarily close

http://www.baseball-reference.com/aw...71.shtml#NLcya

[RuthMayBond]

These are fairly well known but I do find them interesting to this day....

3) For five consecutive years, all of the major league Cy Young Award Winners pitched in the same home ballpark, which was a notorious pitcher's park

When was this?

[Buzzaldrin]

I assume 62 to 66.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

Not quite, but scarily close

http://www.baseball-reference.com/aw...71.shtml#NLcya

I guess I was talking about the 1960s, I actually picked up the fact from a Bill James book. I will have to go back and read the exact quote, but obviously he must have been refering to a specific time period.

Of course, he was comparing Marichal and his W-L record to Cy Young winners like Dean Chance, 1964 (Marichal 21-8, Chance 20-9), Sandy Koufax 1966 (Marichal 25-6, Koufax, 27-9), and Bob Gibson 1968 (Marichal 26-9, Gibson 22-9)

[9RoyHobbsRF]

When was this?

1962 Don Drysdale
1963, 1965, 1966 Sandy Koufax
1964 Dean Chance

The Angels played several years with Dodger Stadium as their home park and there was only one Cy Young Winner for the ML until 1967.