It might not be a great Birthday Team, but imagine the behind-the-scenes reality show featuring Canseco, T-Plush, and Sean Casey.

C: Fred Carroll
1B: Sean Casey
2B: Gil English
3B: Greg Dobbs
SS: Bob Gilks
LF: Angel Pagan
CF: Tony Armas
RF: Jose Canseco

SP: Joe Magrane
SP: Chuck Stobbs
SP: Steve Sparks
SP: Brett Cecil
SP: Pete Burnside
RP: Hal Reniff

Spare outfielders: Nyjer Morgan, Tony Plush
Brother: Ozzie Canseco

The Washington Times article claims the 1857 baseball had originally been owned by a man who, at age 13, was the Intermountain's bat boy. I'm skeptical teams had bat boys as early as that -- I suspect amateur teams in 1857 only had one bat to begin with.

The Orioles have demoted Brian Matusz to the minors again. They have to be starting to seriously wonder at this point if he's ever going to live up to the potential they clearly feel he has.

Up at THT, historical item notes that 40 years ago today Jim Kaat broke his hand sliding into second base, ruining what was looking like the best year of his career. The DH came one year too late for him.

Games of the Day will be up shortly, but for now, let's put a trivia question out there.

Joey Votto, who is creating all kinds of lovely trivia opportunities this year, is currently leading the National League in both doubles and walks. His margins are 7 doubles and 8 walks, so it seems pretty likely that both will hold up. If these advantage do both persist until the end of the year, it will be only the twelfth time in MLB history that the same player has led his league in both categories.

Two of these seasons were before 1900; the player who produced both of them will be a bonus answer. So, from 1901-2011, name the eight players who combined for nine seasons of leading their league in doubles and walks simultaneously.

Ruth, Williams, Joe Morgan, Wade Boggs?

Dan Brouthers for the pre-1900?

Barry Bonds seems like an obvious guess.

Yaz did it.

I'll go for the obvious first. Ted Williams?

The ball is ten inches in circumference, an inch larger than the regulation one of the present time, and is covered with one piece of leather. It was used in the game between the Intermountain team, of Boston, and the Portland, Me., team, September 9, 1857, the first championship game ever played, which was won by the Portland club, 47 to 42.

It was the first game in which the nine inning rules prevailed, and the first one in which the ball was pitched instead of tossed. The game was played on the Boston Commons.

Wonder what happened to the ball...

2 more games were lost yesterday in the bottom of the 9th yesterday without the visiting teams' closer appearing in the games. By rough count, that makes about 6 million times so far this season. It's funny how these guys get anointed based on their mentality being suited to succeed when the game is on the line, but then they are not used when the game is most on the line.

Edgar Martinez?

Game of the day (yesterday): Giants 4, Reds 3. Figures, I ask a Votto-themed trivia question and he misses the game...

Cincinnati's Bronson Arroyo worked through a bit of early trouble in this game, issuing one-out walks in both the first and second innings, then serving up three consecutive two-out singles to Ryan Theriot, Melky Cabrera, and Buster Posey to produce the game's first run in the third. Giant starter Ryan Vogelsong, meanwhile, was immaculate through the same three innings, not allowing a baserunner until he hit Brandon Phillips with a pitch with two out in the fourth. He didn't allow a hit until Ryan Ludwick led off the top of the fifth with a single - but then he promptly allowed a second, and this one was a 2-run homer by Todd Frazier, which gave the Reds the lead.

Arroyo faced San Fran's 2-3-4 hitters again in the bottom of the fifth, and again they gave him trouble. Theriot started with a one-out double, and Cabrera singled him home to tie the game. Posey was then hit by a pitch, and Arroyo retired the next two hitters to keep the game tied. Arroyo worked around another hit in the sixth, and Vogelsong gave up a one-out single to Ludwick in the seventh; rather than allow history to repeat itself, he proceeded to walk Frazier before setting down the next two hitters to preserve the tie.

Logan Ondrusek entered in relief for Cincinnati in the seventh, and had just as much trouble with the Giants' 2-3-4 hitters as his predecessor. Theriot walked to lead off the inning, Cabrera bunted him to second (really? The man is hitting .352), Theriot took third on a wild pitch, and Posey singled him home to put the Giants back on top. Pablo Sandoval then ended the inning by grounding into a 6-4-3 double play. Sergio Romo pitched the top of the eighth and stranded a leadoff walk; Sean Marshall worked the bottom, put runners on the corners with one out, and allowed neither of them to score.

The game was already quite exciting at this point; thanks to a relatively weak field, it would have been a contender for GotD had the Reds gone quietly in the ninth. Fortunately, they did not.

Jay Bruce led off with a single against Javier Lopez, who had been inserted specifically to face him. Santiago Casilla came in to pitch next, and the results were much the same: singles by Ludwick, Frazier, and Miguel Cairo, who was Votto's substitute for the day. That sequence tied the game and loaded the bases, still with nobody out. Ryan Hanigan struck out, which brought up the pitcher's spot. Had Votto been available, it would have been a lovely time to use him; instead, the Reds were left with Wilson Valdez, who also struck out. Zack Cozart ended the inning by lining to first, leaving the bases loaded and the score tied.

Naturally, the Reds were once again left to face the Giants' 2-3-4 hitters. Equally naturally, Jose Arredondo retired Theriot and Cabrera easily, requiring only 5 pitches between the two of them. Posey, however, lifted a ground-rule double to right, and after an intentional walk to Sandoval, Angel Pagan doubled the winning run home.

Giant hitters outside of 2-3-4: 5/24, 2 2B, 0 R, 1 RBI, 2 BB (1 IBB), 1 SH, 2 SB, 1 GDP, -.071 WPA (and it's only that high thanks to Pagan's double)
Giant hitters inside of 2-3-4: 7/11, 2 2B, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 SH, .611 WPA

Williams did it (twice, 1948 and '49). Yaz in 1963, Boggs in 1988.

No to Ruth, Morgan, Bonds, and Edgar. Also no to Brouthers.

I guessed Ferris Fain, which was wrong, but oddly enough Fain did once lead the league in doubles. He never led a league in walks despite a couple of walk totals above 130 (among the highest ever at the time). But that's what you get for playing in the same league as Ted Williams :)
Edit: And Eddie Yost, now that I look at it more closely ... Fain also finished behind Eddie Joost in 1949. They were teammates – talk about clogging the bases.

But that's what you get for playing in the same league as Ted Williams :)

That it is. Williams only led the league in doubles twice, but since he led the league in walks just about every time he played a full season, he got to be the only two-timer on the list (since 1900).

Rocky Colavito? Rod Carew? Roy Cullenbine? R.C. Pro-Am?

One of these days guessing Roy Cullenbine will get me somewhere.

And damn, Eddie Yost once led the league in doubles, but contrived not to lead in walks that year for once in his life ...

Frank Thomas? Gehrig? Rose? Speaker? Musial? Trying to think of guys who either hit a ton of doubles and weren't afraid to take a walk.

I'll toss Tris Speaker and Lou Gehrig out there.

For recent guys, I'd imagine Jeff Bagwell is on there. Craig Biggio, too?

I was trying to think of guys during my fandom who might have done it, Bagwell was my second guess and he came close in 1996. Thinking about it more, it's damn hard to lead the league in walks during Bonds' career if you ain't Bonds.

So...AL guys...how about the Big Hurt?

Ron Santo is also wrong, though he once led the league in triples and walks in the same season. This is an interesting trivia question, for sure.

Mantle?

Edit: Nope. How about Hornsby?

Ron Santo is also wrong, though he once led the league in triples and walks in the same season. This is an interesting trivia question, for sure.

So did Mantle.

Game of the day (last year): Giants 4, Tigers 3.

Brennan Boesch did not start this game. He entered as a pinch hitter in the eighth, and stayed in to play left. And he posted one of the more whiplash-inducing batting lines I can remember: 2 AB, 0 R, 1 H, 0 RBI, -.439 WPA.

The pre-Boesch start to the game was quietly eventful. Brad Penny started for the Tigers, and allowed a double and a bunt single to the imposing combination of Aaron Rowand and Emmanuel Burriss. With runners on the corners and no outs, Pablo Sandoval flied out to foul ground in left, and Rowand broke for home and was thrown out. Burriss, having taken second on the throw home, advanced to third on a wild pitch, but was left there when Aubrey Huff flied out. Compared to that top half, Madison Bumgarner allowing two-out singles to Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera is pretty tame.

Two more Giants reached in the second inning, Nate Scheirholtz on a hit and Brandon Crawford on an error, before Penny rallied to strand them. From there, the game settled into a more conventional form of pitcher's duelhood - two perfect half-innings, a one-out single in the Detroit third, a one-out single and two-out walk in the San Francisco fourth. The scoreless tie finally broke in the fifth, when Rowand singled with one out, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on Sandoval's double. Penny stranded the Panda on second, then worked around a leadoff hit in the sixth; Bumgarner did the same in the bottom of the inning, helped by the fact that after stealing second, Austin Jackson was thrown out going for third as well.

Penny was pulled at the beginning of the eighth for Lester Ontiveros, who struck out the first two hitters he faced before allowing a hit to Schierholtz and a walk to Crawford. Bill Hall grounded out to leave both runners on and bring the Tigers to the plate. Bumgarner recorded a groundout before walking Brandon Inge. With the tying run on base, he was lifted for Sergio Romo, who coaxed a flyout from pinch-hitter Andy Dirks. Romo was then removed for Javier Lopez, which prompted Boesch's insertion; he singled, moving Inge to third and spurring Brian Wilson to emerge from the Giant bullpen. Ordonez greeted Wilson with a game-tying single; he and Boesch then moved up a base each on a wild pitch; since Wilson was still ahead of Cabrera 1-2, he was allowed to finish the at bat instead of putting him on, and Cabrera lined out to leave the go-ahead runs in scoring position.

That was a good inning for Boesch - a key hit in a rally that produced his team's first run and tied the game.

Jose Valverde entered for the ninth; he plays for the home team, so he gets to do that in tie games despite being the closer. Of course, since it was a non-save situation, he was doomed to fail. Chris Stewart led off with a double, and Rowand singled him to third. Burriss struck out, but Sandoval hit a ground-rule double to put the Giants on top, and Valverde unraveled from there. He was instructed to intentionally walk Huff and load the bases. Cody Ross popped up for the second out, but Schierholtz and Crawford both worked to earn walks out of length plate appearances (8 and 10 pitches, respectively), each forcing in an insurance run. Hall grounded to first, but the damage was long since done; the Giants led 4-1.

Wilson, of course, remained in for the ninth. It would have been a save situation if he were coming into the game now, but since he'd entered in the eighth, it didn't qualify. Presumably, that's why he gave up hits to Victor Martinez and Jhonny Peralta, followed by a one-out walk to Alex Avila that loaded the bases and a hit to Inge that brought in a run and convinced Bruce Bochy to replace him with Jeremy Affeldt. Dirks welcomed Affeldt into the game with a grounder to second that Burriss promptly botched, allowing the inning's second run to score and putting the tying run 90 feet away with the bases still loaded and one out.

Enter Boesch. On a 1-2 count, he lined the ball up the middle; Crawford snagged it out of the air and stepped on second, for a game-ending double play. Since bases loaded, one out, down by 1 in the ninth actually has the home team favored to win 54% of the time... yes, this would be where the enormous negative WPA figure comes from.

Mo Vaughn or David Ortiz? I feel like it'd be wise to guess Red Sox.

Going back...Mike Schmidt or Ty Cobb?

Ed Delahanty walked off a train and hit doubles...did he walk on the field too?

George Brett, Eddie Matthews, Chipper Jones, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi?

OK, catching up again. Thomas, yes (1992). Musial, yes (1953); he's kind of the anti-Williams here, in that he led the league in doubles all the time, so he just had to lead in walks once to pull it off. Hornsby, yes (1924).

Colavito, Carew, Cullenbine, Speaker, Gehrig, Bagwell, Biggio, all no. Yost, Mantle, and Santo don't read like official guesses, but they're also no's.

How about Eric Chavez? I know he led the league in walks once, and he seems like the type who'd hit a lot of doubles.

Giambi, yes (2001).

Vaughn, Ortiz, Schmidt, Cobb, Delahanty, Brett, Mathews, Jones, and Sheffield, no.

I'll probably try to come up with a few more of these leaderboard crossovers for future trivia questions, but it seems like doubles and walks will be one of the less common ones. League-leading totals in both categories seem to come from very different kinds of hitters.

Giambi brings us down to one post-1900 guy, and the pre-AL answer is still out there as well.

Game of the day (yesterday): Giants 4, Reds 3.

By blowing the save (a would-be 5 pts) and vulturing the win (10 pts), Casilla gave my fantasy team a three point victory for the week.

Ross Barnes

Ross Barnes

Bingo - 1873 and 1876. Unsurprisingly, he's the only player whose league-high doubles totals exceeded his league-high walk totals (31 and 21, respectively, compared to 20 both years).

I'd never heard of Barnes, but reading his line I probably should have. What's his story?

What about Dewey? Playing in that park I wouldn't be surprised if he snuck a doubles title in there.

Ed Delahanty walked off a train and hit doubles

Coincidentally (and not ironically), he walked off the train 109 years ago today.

Wonder what happened to the ball...

A 1915 article mentions that it "is, or was, until recently, in the possession of" somebody in Emporia, Kansas, but it doesn't say what happened to it. The article talks about a ball from 1862 being the oldest one in existence.

Evans, no.

Barnes was the unquestioned master of the fair-foul hit; a ball that landed first in fair territory and then rolled foul was considered in play until after the 1876 season. The HOM folks will tell you (probably correctly) that he was also a fine defensive player, and that he also had injury troubles after that year, so it's impossible to say whether his sharp decline was entirely due to the removal of the best weapon in his offensive arsenal, but that's at least a big part of it.

I know Billy Hamilton walked a lot and obviously had tons of speed. Thus making him the Rickey Henderson of his day, so I suppose he preferred to hit a single every time up and then steal second.

I'd never heard of Barnes, but reading his line I probably should have. What's his story?

He was excellent at taking advantage of the fair-foul rule, which said that any ball that lands in fair territory and then rolls foul is a fair ball. The often-told story about him is that his career fell apart when that was outlawed, but it was probably (also?) an illness. Wikipedia link.

Either way, he's often overlooked because his career as a superstar-quality ballplayer was over before the National League began.

Hamilton, no (Rickey, also no).

No other guesses? I can assure you that everyone reading this thread has heard of the remaining correct answer.

Oh, of course. Andy Allanson.

Oh, of course. Andy Allanson.

How ever did you guess?

Edit: Just so we're clear, Allanson's career highs of 11 doubles and 25 walks did not, in fact, produce any appearances atop league leaderboards.

J-Rob?

J-Rob?

Assuming this is Jackie Robinson, no. Assuming it's anyone else who could conceivably be referred to by that nickname... also no.

The remaining answer is the most recent player on the list.

You're a jerk. You jerk.

Oh, of course. Andy LaRoche.

The remaining answer is the most recent player on the list.

Why, Joey Votto of course.

Frank Tanana?

Why, Joey Votto of course.

Indeed. He did it last year.

You're a jerk. You jerk.

More or less, yeah.

Just noticed something I never noticed before: when they stuffed the All Star ballot box in 1957, the one Red regular the Cincy fans didn't elect was George Crowe, and he ended up leading the team in both homers and RBIs.

On the Jays broadcast today, they mentioned that Dirk Hayhurst is going to be co-hosting a daily one hour baseball news radio show in Canada. I don't listen to the radio so I'm not too interested, but it'd be great if Hayhurst did well and Wally Pipped Pat Tabler on the Jays TV broadcasts.