Obscure sports trivia

Just finished part I of the Connie Mack biography, through the 1915 season. It's an amazing book. The A's were the class of the American League. Eagerly awaiting part 2, which will include the 1929-31 dynasty, and then how the franchise fell off so badly the historically awful Phillies were able to consign the A's to Kansas City.

The A's also had the $100,000 infield, one of the best, if not the best, in MLB history through 1930 or so.

 

Do you remember the game that the Orioles put him in to catch?

It was in the 80s, I may have some details wrong. They were playing the Jays.

The Orioles used a bunch of pinch hitters etc to tie the game late, I assume bottom of the 9th. As a result they had no catcher going into the top of the tenth with Tippy Martinez on the mound.

The lead off Jay reached first. All the speculation was that he would steal since a backup IF was behind the plate. Martinez picked him off.

Second batter also reaches first, one out. Martinez picks him off.

Third hitter - reaches first, picked off. Nobody got a chance to run on Lenn.

So what happened in the bottom of the tenth? Sakata hit a walk off HR.

Edit: Jays actually got a HR in the top of the 10th; Ripken tied it with a solo shot and final was 7-4. Martinez got the win despite not retiring any of the 4 batters he faced.

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/aug...inez-picks-off-three-blue-jays-in-one-inning/

 

I went to a Portland Beavers doubleheader sometime in the late 1980s, maybe 500 fans. We all got hammered and then I went down and got Lenn Sakata's autograph I can't remember who he was playing for, Maybe Tacoma), and told him he was one of my favorite players. He looked at me like I was crazy, then I told him I liked him because he played at Gonzaga and he just laughed. Beavers games were a lot of fun, for the few who cared.

 

Does it have a lot of background on his life and history, or is it mostly play-by-play of each season?

 

Tons of stories about his family, his growing up, his time in the minors and majors, lots of anecdotes about his personal life and teams, etc. It's a fantastic read, if you're an old-time baseball geek like I am. The author is Norman Macht.

And players back then were not that much different than players today. They bitched about low salaries, management, the reserve clause, loved the Federal League because it increased wages, etc. Walter Johnson made 7K in 1912 or so. That was still the minimum salary for MLB players into the early 1960s.

 

Thanks for the answer. I was looking up the book myself. There's actually three separate books with three different eras, which is nuts when you think about it.

It looks interesting, and I'm thinking about buying one. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't just stuff (Frank Baker's nickname was Home Run!) that I already knew about.

 

I had not seen the next two editions. Thanks for the tip. There are tons of books about the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn, but precious little about the relocations of the Giants, A's, Braves and Browns.

 

I had a book from years back called, I think, Twilight Teams”, which focused on teams in their last season before relocation. It was by a guy who I don’t think was a regular writer, and was ridden with typos and errors. It was an interesting topic, but really needed an editor.

One thing I found in testing was the Braves were actually in spring training when it was announced they were moving. They went to play an exhibition as the Boston Braves and came back to their spring facility as the Milwaukee Braves. Supposedly, you could see the outline of the B on their caps with the M over it.

 

Sort of like Seattle, went to spring training as the Pilots and left as the Brewers. Selig supposedly wanted the Brewers colors to be the same as the old minor-league team there, but they had to retrofit all the blue and gold Pilot gear and just kept the colors.

It's really hard to believe that no local ownership could be found in Seattle in 1970. That franchise was undercapitalized from the start and never had a chance. Much like the Mariners, until the Nintendo guys took over.

 

fantastic reads. Have them in my baseball library.

 

Just ordered volumes 2 and 3 on Amazon. Can't wait to read them. I have a blue Philadelphia A's cap and it's one of my favorites. Mack was friends with Branch Rickey. He should have retired and hired Rickey run the team in 1950 after Rickey left the Dodgers, instead of Rickey going to Pittsburgh. He definitely stayed too long at the fair and it cost him the franchise.

 

Complete random and obscure, what is the record for strikeouts by two teams in a nine-inning game?