Obscure sports trivia

Longtime Fordham University baseball coach and graduate manager of athletics Jack Coffey not only has the school’s baseball/football field named after him, but he also is the only player in Major League history to have been a teammate with these two Baseball Hall of Fame legends during the same season. Who are these two HOFers?

 

Vin Scully and Frankie Frisch?

 

Good guess but no. Neither HOFer went to Fordham, or any college for that matter.

 

Looking at his career, figured it out right away. Good one.

 

Paying it off now after nearly 24 hours, Jack Coffey was teammates with both Ty Cobb (Tigers) and Babe Ruth (Red Sox) during the 1918 season.

 

Also with Harry Heilman on the Tigers, who is in the HOF, and with Carl Mays and Stuffy McGinnis on the Red Sox, both of whom had solid HOF cases but won't ever make it.

They only played 128 games, because of the war.

 

Who received the most overall votes, regardless of position, in the balloting for the first All-Star Game?

 

I will pick the obvious answer of Babe Ruth.

 

No, Al Simmons of the hometown Chicago White Sox.

Game of the Century—First All Star Game (chicagology.com)

 

Thanks for the link — of course the first all star game basically started as a newspaper promotion!

Looks like The Babe did hit a home run in the game.

 

I believe he hit the first All-Star homer.

 

And career .147 hitter Lefty Gomez drove in the first run.