|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
KeithJackMacAlbert
Starter
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Location: South of Missouri, North of Arkansas
|
 Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 2:54 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
I found 5 counting the original Browns and Perfectos.
Eddy Stanky, Joe Cunningham, Cupid Childs, Denny Lyons, Pete Browning
_________________
He's a freak. There's no awe in his eyes. - Fernando Vina on Albert Pujols
FIRST RULE OF MLB - Rule 1.01 - Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires.
REMOVE THE DESIGNATED HITTER FROM MLB! |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:04 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| KeithJackMacAlbert wrote: |
I found 5 counting the original Browns and Perfectos.
Eddy Stanky, Joe Cunningham, Cupid Childs, Denny Lyons, Pete Browning |
Yeah, that's right. (I wasn't counting Lyons or Browning, since they never played for the 'Cardinals'.) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
KeithJackMacAlbert
Starter
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Location: South of Missouri, North of Arkansas
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Cupid Childs wasn't a "Cardinal" either. He was a "Perfecto" the one and only year they were the "Perfectos" - 1899
_________________
He's a freak. There's no awe in his eyes. - Fernando Vina on Albert Pujols
FIRST RULE OF MLB - Rule 1.01 - Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires.
REMOVE THE DESIGNATED HITTER FROM MLB! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| KeithJackMacAlbert wrote: |
| Cupid Childs wasn't a "Cardinal" either. He was a "Perfecto" the one and only year they were the "Perfectos" - 1899 |
You're right... my mistake. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Wed Feb 21, 2007 3:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Next question:
This ex-Cardinal was scolded by an umpire for using incorrect grammar during an at-bat. Who was the ex-Cardinal and who was the umpire? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 10:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
| GumbyMan wrote: |
| This ex-Cardinal was scolded by an umpire for using incorrect grammar during an at-bat. Who was the ex-Cardinal and who was the umpire? |
The Ex-Cardinal was Jack Clark (another one of my all-time favorite Redbirds), and the ump was none other than the notorious Don Denkinger, and it happened while Jack was a Yankee.
OK, this is really obscure, but I think it's interesting. I remember reading this story back when it occurred, but could only find one reference to it online, but thought it was worth sharing. I especially like the type of watch he was given as a gift, mentioned in the story. (I was telling a co-worker of mine about this, and it prompted him to buy this gift for me.)
.....
While visiting St. Louis last month, Don Denkinger received two things he never saw coming. The first was a new watch. The second was a standing ovation.
He was speaking at a 20th anniversary dinner for the Cardinals' 1985 World Series team, a benefit for the Whitey Herzog Youth Foundation. Bob Costas was the emcee, Denkinger the guest of honor. The longtime Major League Baseball umpire and Waterloo resident says nobody told him he had to address the crowd some 600 guests until he showed up. So he winged it.
He thanked Herzog and Costas and the foundation for inviting him. He dusted off some old jokes, his favorite anecdotes from 31 years of service to baseball. He recounted a time he was behind home plate while Jack Clark, then with the New York Yankees, was batting.
At one point, Clark turned and asked, "Where was that pitch at?"
"Jack," Denkinger teased, "don't you know you're not supposed to end a sentence with a preposition?"
Clark asked for a timeout and stepped out of the box.
"OK," the first baseman replied, "where was that pitch at, (expletive)?"
"That knocked them out," Denkinger, 69, says with a soft chuckle. "I left 'em falling out of their chairs. It was wonderful. It was . . ."
Cathartic?
A pause.
"No," he finally sighs. "Not really. It was really only my second trip to St. Louis. It's not that I don't want to go to St. Louis; I just don't have a reason to go to St. Louis. It's a great place, a great town. Great people. The Cardinals just have this big following."
A following with whom, 20 years down the road, Denkinger is slowly, finally, making peace.
On Oct. 26, 1985, at Royals Stadium, the St. Louis Cardinals led Game 6 of the World Series, 1-0, in the bottom of the ninth. Denkinger was working along the first-base line. Kansas City's Jorge Orta slapped a grounder between first and second. Clark, then playing first base for the Cardinals, fielded it but was slow getting it out of the glove. Pitcher Todd Worrell ran to cover the bag.
The throw was a little wide and a tad high. Denkinger had set himself in a bad position he overran the play and wasn't sure that Worrell's foot was touching first base.
He called Orta safe. Replays showed that not only was Worrell's foot on the bag, but the throw beat Orta by a full step.
The Cardinals pretty much imploded from there. Kansas City won in improbable fashion, 2-1; The next night, the Royals crushed St. Louis, 11-0, to take the championship, and furious Cardinals fans made Denkinger the scapegoat.
A St. Louis disc jockey gave his home number and address over the air. Callers threatened to come to Waterloo and burn down the house. Letters threatened far worse.
When Denkinger arrived home after the Series, he found police cars stationed on both ends of his street.
"I think some of the (threats) were from people involved in the gambling side," Denkinger says now. "Somebody thinks they've got a sure thing and the money's in and then it backfires, they've got to have somebody to blame it on.
"I didn't tell him to spend his money foolishly. I didn't tell him to spend his money on the Cardinals."
Time heals. The passion and pain give way to perspective. It wasn't Denkinger's fault that Vince Coleman was hurt. Or that Clark couldn't handle Steve Balboni's popup. Or that Cardinals catcher Darrell Porter got his signs crossed.
Still, Denkinger screwed up, no question. He admits it. He's never run from it. Ever.
When he agreed to sign autographs at a card show in St. Louis last October his first appearance in the city since the '85 Series he told himself: No matter what they ask for, no matter what they request, I will do it with a smile.
And he did. Even when a man dressed in Cardinal red walked up to Denkinger's table and asked if he would write:
To Dave,
I blew it.
- Don Denkinger
"I didn't back off one step," Denkinger says. "I was getting paid to do this. Whatever made them feel good. I know I missed that play. Life goes on."
Denkinger, who retired in 1998, still splits his time between Waterloo and his winter home in Arizona. He still golfs like crazy, even though drives come a little shorter off the tee. He hasn't changed. We have. ESPN Classic recently featured Denkinger as the subject of its "The Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame . . ." series, in which long-standing fan assertions or myths are refuted. A feature on his place in baseball lore is scheduled to run tonight on HBO Sports' "Costas Now."
"My wife asks me, 'When is it going to stop?' " Denkinger says. "I said, 'I guess when I stop picking up the phone and talking to people about it.' They just keep throwing it up to you. It's something you just can't forget."
You ask Denkinger why he hung on to all those angry letters over the years. He says he thought, at one time, about writing a book. Now he's not so sure.
Some wounds are better left closed.
"There's really no animosity here toward him anymore," assures Al Hrabosky, the Cardinals' former pitcher, television analyst and St. Louis sports icon. "Don's probably harder on himself than most of the fans."
But not all. An instant after the Herzog Foundation presented him with that gift watch, Denkinger flipped open the box. That's when he noticed something different about the face. The numbers were inscribed in Braille.
link |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Next question:
After establishing himself as one of the best players at his position after only one year in the NFL, the Cardinals signed this player. He was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Who was he? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
Sammy Baugh
January 23, 1930: The Cardinals sign Sammy Baugh to a contract. Baugh was the number one overall pick in the 1937 NFL draft. After establishing himself as one of the best quarterbacks in football while playing for the Washington Redskins during his rookie season, Baugh decided to give baseball a try. He had been a star in both football and baseball at Texas Christian University. Baugh played in 53 games for the Cardinals' minor league clubs in Clumbus and Rochester in 1938, but hit only .200. He returned to football, and had a career that lasted until 1951. Baugh was in the first class of 16 inductees in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963.
- Cardinals Journal, p. 293
 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 7:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
Next question:
This player was signed as a catcher by the Cardinals after an open tryout. After three years in the Cardinals farm system, he severely injured his throwing arm, and was released by the Cardinals. He refused to quit baseball and learned to throw with his other arm. He played in the minors for two more years before giving up baseball, after which he achieved ten world championships and world-wide fame in another sport. Who is he? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
KeithJackMacAlbert
Starter
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Location: South of Missouri, North of Arkansas
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 8:24 am Post subject: |
|
|
If you are using the term "sport" very loosely, I will embarrassingly admit that I think I know the answer.
Randy "Macho Man" Savage ???
_________________
He's a freak. There's no awe in his eyes. - Fernando Vina on Albert Pujols
FIRST RULE OF MLB - Rule 1.01 - Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires.
REMOVE THE DESIGNATED HITTER FROM MLB! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:35 am Post subject: |
|
|
| KeithJackMacAlbert wrote: |
If you are using the term "sport" very loosely, I will embarrassingly admit that I think I know the answer.
Randy "Macho Man" Savage ??? |
Yes! Aka Randall Maria Poffo, and...
...The Destroyer
...The Executioner
...The Spider
...Bone Saw
(I almost put the word 'sport' in quotes in the question, but thought that might make it too obvious.  )
"Randy Poffo was a two-time All-State catcher at Downers Grove North High School near Chicago. He was the only player signed out of a 200-player open tryout by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1971. He batted .286/~.430/.492 in 35 games for the GCL Cardinals. In 16 games at catcher, he was error-free.
He returned to the GCL Cardinals for the 1972 season and hit .274/~.371/.393 in 52 games, mostly in the outfield. He made the Gulf Coast League All-Star team in the outfield, one of six outfielders chosen; teammate Jerry Mumphrey was also selected and would go on to a fine career. In 1973, Randy hit .344/~.459/.508 in 25 games as a DH for the GCL Red Birds. He also played that year for manager Jimmy Piersall with the Orangeburg Cardinals in the Class-A Western Carolinas League, hitting .250/~.374/.405 in 46 games, again mostly at DH. Poffo credits Piersall and his fiesty personality for teaching him how to be aggresive and how to fight. He suffered a severe muscle tear and ligament seperation in his throwing arm and was released by the Cardinals. Instead of retiring because of the injury, he taught himself to throw left-handed.
The now-lefthanded Poffo returned in 1974 with the Cincinnati Reds. He played for the Reds' Florida State League affiliate, the Sarasota Reds and had a career year in power though his OBP and average fell significantly. He batted .232/~.309/.358 in 131 games, mostly at DH and occasionally in the outfield or first base. He finished third in the league in RBI (66) and tied for fifth in home runs (9), only three less than Eddie Murray hit as a full-time player in the FSL that year. Only Gary Roenicke and Billy Baldwin drove in more runners in the FSL; Murray trailed Poffo by 3. He was released by the Reds. (Note: Poffo is still listed as a right-handed throw by the TSN Guide that year).
Poffo signed with the Chicago White Sox for 1975, but was released at the end of spring training. He decided to call it quits for baseball.
Overall, Randy batted .254/~.351/.392 in 289 games. He stole 21 bases and drove in 130 runs in 869 AB. "
link
......
- When Poffo played for the St. Petersburg Cardinals minor-league baseball team in 1971, one of his teammates was Keith Hernandez. The team was managed by Jimmy Piersall.
- His name change from Randy Poffo came at the suggestion of Georgia Championship Wrestling booker Ole Anderson, who said that the name Poffo didn't fit someone who "wrestled like a savage".
- His first wrestling character was similar to Spider-Man.
- During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he also became known for a supposed friendship with Hogan that quickly developed into a very open (and unscripted) rivalry after Savage accused Hogan of sleeping in Elizabeth's bed during a road trip. Savage and Elizabeth were divorced on September 18, 1992. Savage and Hogan have a strained relationship to this day. It has been speculated that Savage punched Hogan in the face just prior to WrestleMania IX, causing Hogan to have a swollen eye during the event. The story was found to be untrue and Hogan's swollen eye was due to a jet-ski accident.
- Savage has never been able to defeat Hulk Hogan in any type of match, with the exception of a series of countout victories in the mid-1980s on the house show circuit and a disqualification win on WCW Monday Nitro in 1998.
- Savage's ring entrance music in the WWF was Pomp and Circumstance, known best as the theme played at high school graduations. Because the song was in the public domain and therefore could not be copyrighted by the WWF like most themes, Savage was able to bring it with him to WCW and used a rock version of the theme for much of his early to mid-WCW career.
- Savage also angered many in the early 1980s by regularly giving out the phone numbers and home addresses of wrestlers in rival companies.
- Savage's two WWF and four WCW World Heavyweight Championship reigns were all ended with Savage losing the title to either Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair.
- In a WCW video about his career in WCW, he admitted to never liking Diamond Dallas Page. He later admitted that he had changed his mind and thought he was a stand up guy.
- In 1995, Savage pushed for WCW to place his father, Angelo Poffo, in its Hall of Fame. Commentator and wrestling legend Gordon Solie opposed this decision, because he felt wrestlers (or in this case, family of wrestlers) should not be asking for spots in the Hallin this case, especially, since Poffo did not have much of a career in WCW. Poffo's induction went on and Solie left the company shortly after.
- In 1998, Savage accepted an award from Harvard University's humor society Harvard Lampoon as Man of the Year.
- On the June 20, 2006 episode of ECW on SciFi, Jack Black's character, Nacho Libre was parodied by a masked "luchador" going by the name "Macho Libre." This spoof was played by Tony DeVito. He cut a promo imitating Savage and was then interrupted by The Sandman, who made quick work of the overweight luchadore to get the pinfall.
link |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| What player was fined $5,000 after two obscene gestures to the crowd on a "Ladies' Day" game in Busch stadium. The following day the player agreed to seek psychiatric help and was hospitalized and treated for what was diagnosed as depression. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
KeithJackMacAlbert
Starter
Joined: 22 Dec 2004
Location: South of Missouri, North of Arkansas
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 1:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Garry Templeton ...... now consider this.......... a finger brought us Ozzie.
_________________
He's a freak. There's no awe in his eyes. - Fernando Vina on Albert Pujols
FIRST RULE OF MLB - Rule 1.01 - Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires.
REMOVE THE DESIGNATED HITTER FROM MLB! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| KeithJackMacAlbert wrote: |
| Garry Templeton |
Yup. And, it's quite possible that if this one event hadn't occurred, Ozzie might have gone on to have a great career -- with the Padres.
"August 26, 1981: Whitey Herzog fined Garry Templeton $5,000 and suspended him indefinitely for making obscene gestures at the fans during the game. Before the game, Templeton said that he was too tired to play, but Herzog put him in the lineup at shortstop anyway. Templeton responded with a halfhearted effort. In the first inning Templeton struck out, but Giant catcher Milt May dropped the ball. Templeton jogged slowly toward first before veering toward the Cardinal dugout. The crowd began booing, and Templeton responded with his middle fingers raised. After two similar gestures later in the game, Templeton was ejected by umpire Bruce Froemming prior to the fourth inning. As Templeton got to the Cardinal dugout, Herzog grabbed him by the shirt and backed him against a wall before players swooped in to break up the scuffle. A day later, Templeton agreed to seek psychiatric help and was hospitalized and treated for what was diagnosed as depression. He returned to the lineup on September 15, but his absence probably cost the Cardinals a berth in the postseason."
- Cardinals Journal, p.594
From Whitey's perspective:
"The Wizard turned out to be one of the most important people in my life and my career, and certainly in St. Louis Cardinal history, which make it funny to remember how Number One's journey to his final baseball destination began. That moment took place at a weekday home game at Busch Stadium in 1981, in front of 13,000 horrified Ladies Day fans who, if they'd heard of Ozzie Smith at all, probably thought he was an extra in a Judy Garland movie. That was when my shortstop at the time, Garry Templeton, pulled a stunt that was as far from Ozzie Smith, or anything he'd' ever do, as a person can get."
"I'd started to realize something was screwed up with the best player on my team (and maybe in baseball) a few weeks earlier. I was sitting in my office after the game one day when Garry sauntered in, plopped himself down and started spewing some foolishness I could not believe. "I don't want to play day games after night games anymore," he said. "I'm too tired." Now here's kid with as much God-given ability as any player alive, the kind you see once or twice a generation: speed, arm strength, good bat, wonderful hands on grass *and* turf, everything in the world but home-run pop. I don't mind telling you that the first year I had him, Garry was the only guy I went to the winter meetings knowing I would not trade.
"But here this kid has already told me he hates playing in Montreal, he don't like playing in the rain, he don't like batting against certain pitchers. Leave aside the fact that he's twenty-two years old, and I've got guys in their thirties, like George Hendrick, playing every day and never saying a word about it. I'm looking at a starting shortstop--a guy I'm paying $667,000 a year--who doesn't want to play half the !@#$! games. I said, "What's the matter with you? You're *tired*? Get your !@#$! rest!"
"Those 1970s Cardinal teams were a shaggy-!@# bunch and, like I've said, the St. Louis fans never did warm up to 'em much, but Templeton's antics pushed them over the edge. They could see he was dogging it on ground balls, pulling up short on the bases, and generally acting like he didn't give a !@#$ about baseball or them and didn't care if they knew it. And in that Ladies Day game, he jogged to first when he should've been sprinting, and the crowd started booing up a storm, and at that moment, Garry turned to the fans, stuck his middle finger in the air, and grabbed the family jewels and gave 'em a good, hearty shake.
"You couldn't keep me off the field. I went out and got him, dragged him into the dugout and would have done God knows what if a bunch of cooler-headed people hadn't intervened and pulled us apart. I'd never been so mad at a baseball player. After that, I didn't give a !@#$ how much talent he had, it was only a matter of time before he was a former Cardinal shortstop."
"It turned out to be a key moment in Cardinal history."
Whitey goes one to say...
"[Garry] went on to play for my old friend Dick Williams, a great manager and baseball man, and in time, he really straightened himself out. He led the Padres' come-from-behind playoff win over the Cubs in 1984, when they went on to face Detroit in the World Series.... Garry and I talked some over the years, and I know that the player I had to trade--the guy I put on the disabled list as having a "chemical imbalance"--was never the real Garry."
- Whitey Herzog, You're Missin' a Great Game, p. 96
Last edited by GumbyMan on Tue Feb 27, 2007 9:01 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
GumbyMan
Veteran
Joined: 21 Jun 2005
Location: Tulsa, OK
|
| Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 3:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| If someone else wants to post a trivia question on this thread, feel free. I'll post more, probably no more than one a day, but others feel free to post anything you find interesting. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
|
