Obscure sports trivia

Did a quick check, I think he only was in three (all losses though).

 

David Justice?

 

Ty Cobb or Eddie Collins?

 

I’m still intrigued by “changed how the game is played.” I’m not the historian some here are, but baseball’s still roughly the same game is it ever was, no?

I guess Ted Williams changed how defense is played, sometimes.

The emergence of the bullpen changed the game, but that’s more how it is managed than played.

Maybe I’m missing something right in front of me, but that’s got me all messed up.

 

The answer is Fred Merkle, who was on losing World Series teams in 1911, 1912, 1913, 1916 and 1918 with the New York Giants and in 1926 with the New York Yankees, although he did not play in the 1926 World Series.

How did he change the game?

Before his 1908 "boner," base runners routinely did not advance all the way to the next base on a game-winning hit, even when a force-play situation was in effect. The force was not enforced by the umpires in such situations until the famous 1908 game against the Cubs, when Merkle failed to advance to second on what should have been a game-winning base hit, and was ultimately ruled out after a big fracas (Merkle Bonehead Play - BR Bullpen).

From that point on, players made sure they advanced to the next base in such situations. His mistake changed the way the game was played.

Al Bridwell, the guy who drove in what was supposed to be the winning run, later said he wished he had struck out and saved Merkle the grief that followed him until his dying day.

 

Well, aside from Reese, I found a second guy with six losses. Won’t name him, because I don’t see how he changed the way the game was played, nor do I feel he was more famous than Reese, so maybe there is another player?

EDIT: Elston Howard: 55, 57, 60, 63, 64 with the Yankees and 67 with the Sox.

 

Ya know, I thought of Merkle and figured it might be one of those McGraw Giants players. But I didn't realize how he changed the game in this way.

 

Heard this last night as the Dodgers and Rockies slogged through a slugfest, one of two nine-inning, four-hour games Monday.

How many four-hour, nine-inning MLB games were there between 1900 and 2010?

How many have there been since?

 

Yes, for as great as they were, the Yankees lost a lot too. Mantle, Ford, Richardson and Howard all lost five times. But, unlike Merkle, they also played on series winners.

 

misread...didn’t realize you were looking for a guy who went o-6.

 

Who is the last player to bat .400 for an entire season in professional baseball?
Parameters: not a guy who batted .400 in double A for 110 games, but then .200 or something in another league, which would bring the season down to under .400. This has to be .400 for the year across all games. Minimum of 100 games played, to exclude guys who got injured or were playing short seasons.

Hint: astros chain in the 1960s; didn’t have much of an MLB career, but ended up being an NFL referee for almost 20 years.

 

I wasn't.

Just was sort of surprised that those Yankees lost almost as many WS as they won. Ford won in 50, 53, 56, 58, 61 and 62 (he missed 51 and 52 in the Army), so he only finished 6-5. Mantle won in 51, 52, 53, 55, 58, 61 and 62, so he finished 7-5. I thought they were much more dominant, but losing one they should have won (60) and then losing two more at the end when the team was old (63-64) really changed the dynamic.

And they were 2-3 feet away from losing in 62, too.