Obscure sports trivia

This question got me looking up the career of Frank "Home Run" Baker, who led the dead-ball league for several years in the 19-teens. He and Wally Pipp led the Yankees to the Series in 1921 and 1922. Baker, Pipp, Roger Peckinpaugh and Ping Brodie were the original Murderers Row. But apparently Baker set no records despite his nickname.

 

Eddie Mathews is the best Astro with more than 300 career homers question on IG.

 

He earned the nickname for hitting two crucial homers in the 1911 Series win over the New York Giants. He was the cornerstone of the Philadelphia A's $100,000 infield.

 

Roger Peckinpaugh is an IG favorite of mine. Part of a collection of odd names from the 1924 Senators that check a lot of boxes, along with Muddy Ruel, Nemo Leibold, Goose Goslin, Doc Prothro and a few others.

 

Heading farther down the Wiki rabbit hole, Bodie (not Brodie, sorry) is supposed to have inspired Ring Lardner's essay, 'You Know Me Al."

 

Rusty crossed my mind, but I figured he had spent the late part of his career as a pinch hitter, and wouldn’t have been able to reach 300. Looking him up now, I see he had 292 HRs.

Instead, I picked:

Spoiler

Jimmy Wynn

 

He would have been another of my guesses.

 

Ping Bodie's birth name was Francesco Stephano Pezzolo. He became Ping Bodie for the way the ball sounded when it came off his 52-ounce bat (Ping), and Bodie for a town in California where he once lived.

 

My first guess for the Astros would have been Jimmy Wynn, the Toy Cannon.

 

Jeff Bagwell hit 447. But he's the obvious pick, which isn't what you want with IG.

 

I was thinking Glenn Davis or maybe Cesar Cedeno, but neither of them even got to 200. The Astros had so few power hitters in the 70s and 80s that it's hard to think of an obscure one for them.

 

Hence why I put in in the Spoiler.