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M-I-C, SEE THAT BALL LATER, K-E-Y, WHY? CUZ HE'S A SLUGGER
Q: What is the longest home run ever hit?
-- Brad Durham
A: Not surprisingly, Mickey Mantle holds the record for longest ball ever hit. The Mick was widely renowned for his tape-measure blasts, but this one took the cake. The date was September 10, 1960, and the powerhouse Yankees were at Briggs Stadium in Detroit to play the Tigers. Righthander Paul Foytack was pitching to Mantle in the seventh inning. He fell behind 2-0, never a good idea against the best switch-hitter in history. Sure enough, Foytack’s next pitch turned around in a hurry. The ball sailed high into the air, and just kept going. It rocketed high over the right field fence, passed untouched through a network of light fixtures, and flew out of the park at a height of at least 440 feet. The moonshot eventually landed in a lumberyard across adjacent Trumbull Avenue. Incredulous observers estimated it at 634 feet, the longest blast ever recorded. Even with the andro-enhanced bombs being hit today, no one has duplicated the Mick’s incredible feat. Of course, home run distances are not measured scientifically, so the 634 foot number may not be entirely accurate.
Q: Who holds the world record for the fastest pitch ever?
-- Craig Stevens
A: Just as Mickey Mantle is the king of mammoth home runs, Nolan Ryan is the king of blazing fastballs. In addition to his prodigious strikeout totals, Ryan also heaved the fastest pitch ever thrown in a major league game since the advent of radar guns. On September 7, 1974, in a start against the Chicago White Sox, one of his pitches was clocked at 100.8 miles per hour. Only imaginary Met prospect Sidd Finch has bested that mark.
Q: What pitcher was a 20 game winner on three different teams?
-- Gene
A: It is tough to win 20 games for three different clubs, because pitchers that are good enough to have at least three 20-win seasons are usually coveted by their original team. However, since 1900 four hurlers have pulled it off. If Roger Clemens continues at his torrid pace (15-1 as of this writing), then he’ll join this select group.
Joe McGinnity won at least 21 contests each season from 1899-1906, the first eight years of career. In 1900 he went 28-8 for the Dodgers, then was 26-20 for the Orioles (who later became the Yankees), and two years later won 31 for the Giants.
Grover Cleveland Alexander was one of the greatest pitchers in history, having won 373 games in his 20-year career. He led the league in victories four of his seven years with the Phillies, but his incredible right arm could not make up for drinking and attitude problems, and he was shipped to Chicago’s North Side. In 1920 he won 27 for the Cubbies, but moved on again in 1926, this time to the St. Louis Cardinals. The next year he won 21 for them, the last of his nine 20-win seasons.
Next to a certain Mister Ruth, Carl Mays was the best of the Red Sox players shipped to the Big Apple in the fragmentation of the 1910s Boston dynasty. After winning 20 a couple of times in Beantown, he won 26 and 27 his first two years in New York. In 1924 he was dealt to Cincinnati, where he again notched 20 victories. Though Mays was a good pitcher, he may be most famous for causing the only on-field death in baseball history. On August 16, 1920, Mays’s submarining fastball caught Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman square in the head, killing him the next day.
For a man who won over 300 games, Gaylord Perry toed the rubber for an awful lot of teams. He began what seemed like a happy marriage with the Giants in 1962, and won 20 for them twice. In 1972 he went 24-16 for Cleveland, and tallied another 20 wins for the 1978 Padres. Over the course of his career he threw for a total of eight clubs, and visited Texas and Seattle twice.
Q: Who was the first Latin American player in baseball?
-- gglenn8
A: When Jackie Robinson broke into baseball in 1947, Latin Americans had already been playing the game for decades. Colombian-born Luis "Jud" Castro was the first. The 25-year-old second baseman played in 42 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902, and never again played in the majors. Though his story is less well known than Robinson’s, one can assume that his nickname is a sign of acceptance by his teammates.
THE BIG TRAIN AND THE BIG UNIT ARE THE TWO BIGGEST JOHNSONS IN HISTORY
Q: Has any pitcher ever had the most strikeouts and fewest walks per game in the same season?
-- Bob Hamel
A: Two marks of a great pitcher are the power to blow the ball by hitters, and the control to make them swing at those heaters. This is a rare combination, found in only the best of the best. Bob Feller and Nolan Ryan regularly threw smoke, but were often near the top of the league in walks. Robin Roberts and Greg Maddux displayed pinpoint accuracy, but weren’t the hardest throwers in the world. All four are, or in the case of Maddux, will be, Hall-of-Famers. So, if a pitcher can excel in one area and still be considered an all-time great, a pitcher who excels in both must be one of the most dominant ever.
Only one man has led his league in most strikeouts per game and fewest walks per game – Walter Johnson. Johnson’s 1913 was without a doubt one of the top three seasons for any pitcher in history. He struck out 6.3 batters a game, which was high in those days, and gave up fewer than one base on balls. In addition to the aforementioned stats, the Big Train led the league in wins (he went 36-7), win percentage (.837), complete games (29), shutouts (11), innings (346), fewest hits per game (6.03), total strikeouts (243), opponents’ batting average (.187), opponents’ on-base percentage (.217), and ERA (1.14). Whew. Pedro Martinez, slowly moving into the upper echelon of greatest pitchers in history, almost matched Johnson’s feat two years in a row. In 1999 and 2000 he whiffed the most hitters per game, but lost close races to Gil Heredia and David Wells, respectively, for fewest walks per contest.
A: Ed Ott had the shortest name in major-league history. Ott caught for the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1970s, and had his best season during their 1979 championship run. He was not related to Giant great Mel Ott.
Q: What manager was ejected from the most ballgames in a season? In a career?
-- Anthony Ventarola
A: John McGraw was the original manager they loved to hate – arrogant, abrasive, and argumentative. Leo Durocher probably learned his bad boy ways from McGraw, who was his manager for his first two seasons in the bigs. McGraw brought a lot of aggravation to his players (they were often the target of opposing fans’ rocks and bottles), but also a lot of victories. His gruff style did not prevent his Giants from capturing 10 pennants and three championships. However, the umpires were not as forgiving as his players. During his 33-year managerial career McGraw was ejected from a whopping 131 games, or four per season. He set the single-season record in 1905, getting tossed 13 times.
BACK THEN, ICE CREAM CONE CATCHES HAD TO BE MADE WITH AN ACTUAL ICE CREAM CONE
Q: How do errors today compare with the 1800s?
-- Chris Z.
A: In the early days of professional baseball, fielders did not use gloves. All plays had to be made barehanded, easy fly balls and scorching line drives alike. There was no rule specifically forbidding gloves, but they were considered “sissy” devices. Supposedly, the first man to don a glove was St. Louis’s Charlie Waitt in 1875. Waitt wore a street-wear leather glove on one hand to protect it while fielding the ball, inspiring other players, and later Michael Jackson, to do the same. Before that point, every ball put in play was an adventure. Teams averaged over eight errors per game, and killed their hands in the process. By 1880 that number had been cut nearly in half. Still, gloves offered only meager protection, and no actual fielding help. Over the years, those thin leather gloves slowly evolved into the tough, padded hide gloves we have today. In 1920, spitballer Bill Doak approached a baseball glove manufacturer about designing a custom version that would have a pre-made pocket (before that, gloves developed a pocket through wear and tear) and webbing between the thumb and index finger. And so the modern glove was born.
The impact of Doak’s design was not immediately felt, as errors per game were only slightly lower in 1930 than they were in 1920. However, defense was gradually improving. The 1940 Cincinnati Reds were the first team to sport a fielding percentage of .980 or better. In 1947, for the first time ever, no team had more total miscues than games played. Today errors are at an all-time low. Teams average only 0.7 a game, and there have been teams that total less than 100 every year throughout the ‘90s. Last season the Cleveland Indians, featuring a fantastic middle infield of Omar Vizquel and Roberto Alomar, led the majors with 72, good for a measly 0.44 per contest. Compare that to the league-leading 1877 Louisville club, which committed 4.5 a game, or 10 times as many.
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