Baseball Minutiae and Trivia Only

IN MEMORIAM — WILLIE MAYS

Q. Who is the only player to win four home run titles and four stolen base titles?
Hint: #1 He was indirectly named for the U.S.’s largest president.
Hint: #2 He once held the record for winning MVP awards with the most years between.
Hint: #3 He led the National League in WAR ten times.
Hint: #4 He led the majors in WAR eight of those times.
Hint: #5 He appeared and played in twenty-four All-Star games.
Hint: #6 Ted Williams believed that the All-Star Game existed because of him.
Hint: #7 His career All-Star Game records include most games, most at-bats, most plate appearances, most runs scored, hits, total bases, triples, singles and stolen bases.
Hint: #8 He is tied for the single-game All-Star records for stolen bases.
Hint: #9 He was the first player to be a two-time All-Star Game MVP award winner.
Hint: #10 He played in four MLB World Series, winning once.
Hint: #11 He twice played in tie-breaking, season-ending three-game series, winning both.
Hint: #12 He twice played in an NLCS, each time for a different team, winning once.
Hint: #13 He is the only player to have triples three times in a game and homered four times in another.
Hint: #14 He once led he league in oWAR and dWAR in the same season.
Hint: #15 Only he has hit twenty-two home runs in extra innings.
Hint: #16 He is unmatched by hitting at least one home run each in innings one through sixteen.
Hint: #17 He was the first player in his franchise’s history to win a league Rookie of the Year Award.
Hint: #18 He and a teammate homered in the same game sixty-eight times.
Hint: #19 He and a different teammate homered fifty times in the same game.
Hint: #20 He was the first player with back-to-back 30/30 seasons.
Hint: #21 He was the founding member of the 300/300 club.
Hint: #22 It was his fly ball that led Mickey Mantle to famously give chase and step on an exposed sprinkler head, tearing up his knee.
Hint: #23 He was professional at age seventeen when he helped his team win a championship.
Hint: #24 A three-time MVP says of him “There's absolutely no comparisons to me or anyone else to (him). (He), he's the greatest baseball player of all time.”
- Ans. Mays led the NL in HR in 1954, 1962, 1964 & 1965. He led the NL in SB in 1956, 1957,1958 & 1959.
- #1 Willie, a junior to his father “Willie Howard Mays”, whose name was a tribute to then President William Howard Taft.
- #2 Voted MVP in 1954 then in 1965.
- #3 Annual NL WAR best in 1954 (10.5), ‘55 (9.2), ’57 (8.3), ’58 (10.2), ’60 (9.5), ’62 (10.5), 63 (10.6), ’64 (11.0), ’65 (11.2) & ’66 (9.0).
- #4 See #3.
- #5 ASG 1954-73, + an extra played in each of 1959-62.
- #6 Williams quote was, “They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays.”
- #7 See ASG records @ Baseball Reference
- #8 Tied with Kelly Gruber, Roberto Alomar, Kenny Lofton & Starlin Castro w/2 SB in an ASG.
- #9 Was named ASG MVP in 1963 & 1968.
- #10 Was in the WS in 1951, 1954, 1962 & 1973. He also played in the 1948 Negro League WS.
- #11 Played in 1951 3 extra G vs Bro (was on deck when Thompson homered) and the 1962 3 extra G vs. LAD where his 9th-inning single in G 3 began the series winning rally.
- #12 Played in 1971 NLCS for SFG & 1973 NLCSfor NYM.
- #13 Hit 3 3B on 15-Sep-1960. Hit 4 HR on 30-Apr-1961.
- #14 Mays’s offensive WAR of 8.4 in 1954 led MLB. His defensive WAR of 2.0, led the NL the same season.
- #15 Here’s the list below:
Willie Mays-22
Jack Clark-18
Babe Ruth and Frank Robinson-16
Albert Pujols-15
Hank Aaron and Mickey Mantle-14

- #16 You could count on the Say Hey Kid to hit a home run in just about any inning.

Willie Mays holds the record for hitting home runs in the most different innings. Mays hit at least one home run in every inning from one to sixteen. His first-inning and sixteenth-inning home runs, both off Warren Spahn, are the most noteworthy. The one in the first inning was the first of Mays’s career, and the sixteenth-inning blast broke up one of the all-time great pitching duels and provided a 1-0 victory for Juan Marichal.
The following list shows the first home runs Mays hit in innings 1-13, and the only one he hit in innings 14-16. (The data comes from SABR’s Home Run Log.)
Inning
Date
Pitcher
Team
1
5-28-1951
Warren Spahn
Boston
2
6-6-1951
Willie Ramsdell
Cincinnati
3
4-18-1954
Carl Erskine
Brooklyn
4
6-27-1951
Don Newcombe
Brooklyn
5
8-30-1951
Vern Law
Pittsburgh
6
6-23-1951
Turk Lown
Chicago
7
6-18-1951
Joe Presko
St. Louis
8
6-17-1951 (1G)
Howie Pollet
St. Louis
9
7-22-1951 (1G)
Ken Raffensberger
Cincinnati
10
6-22-1951
Dutch Leonard
Chicago
11
7-4-1955 (2G)
Lino Donoso
Pittsburgh
12
6-4-1955
Warren Hacker
Chicago
13
7-3-1951
Jocko Thompson
Philadelphia
14
4-30-1954
Warren Hacker
Chicago
15
9-27-1968
Ted Abernathy
Cincinnati
16
7-26-1963
Warren Spahn
Milwaukee


- #17 Named 1951 NL ROY.
- #18 Homered 68 X w/Willie McCovey.
- #19 Homered 50 X w/Orlando Cepeda.
- #20 In 1956 & 1957, Mays had 36 HR + 40 SB & 35 HR & 38 SB respectively.
- #21 Mays combined his 660 HR with his 339 SB like no one else every had. Seven other players have now reached the 300/300 level.
- #22 Played for the 1948 Birmingham Black Baronswho won the NAL Championship Series over the Kansas City Monarchs (4-3-1), but lost to the Homestead Grays in the subsequent WS.
- #23 1948 BBB of the Negro American League.
- #24 Quote is from Alex Rodriguez.