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1. Dale Sams Posted: February 10, 2010 at 06:30 AM (#3457582)He made up for it by spelling Brye "Byre" a couple of times.
So far, he is the correct answer to no baseball trivia questions. There's nothing trivial about him. Still, I persist.
Dear Gene, I have six words for you:
Bunning
Short
Bunning
Short
Bunning
Short
If I recall correctly, another contemporaneous Carew quote was, "If McRae wants a batting title that bad, tell him he can have one of mine."
DB
Maybe it wasn't racism. Maybe they just gave the batting title to Brett because Hal McRae is an a-hole.
Short
Bunning
Short
Bunning
Short
You would think that God would know that this never happened. Mauch did tighten the rotation -- Short and Bunning both pitched 2 games with 2 days rest (1 less than normal in those days). The last three games of the season (the last two of which were wins) were Short, Bunning, Short but there was a day off between each game.
And Mauch's other choices were:
the 77 ERA+ Art Mahaffey whose arm was shot for good
Dennis Bennett
the just turned 19 yo Rick Wise.
Ray Culp was injured. Mauch gets a worse rap than he should -- it was not a totally unreasonable thing to do considering the circumstances.
AstroTurf
Funny thing is, no one talked about it at the time...
how can anyone take a professional writer seriously who spells flied, as flyed????
Well, he's not a professional writer. He's a blogger.
I've heard this story since I was a kid, and I always thought it had more to do with McRae being known around the league as a dick than racism. But who knows.
I actually saw two kids beating on a scarecrow with sticks yesterday. True story.
it was right at the intersection on the yellow brick road
Try Bob Watson instead.
or Ron Bloomberg
I'm not really going anywhere with this except to say that, wow, how did that happen? (oh, and if some bloggers out there don't even remember Canseco's chase for 40/40, there's no way to expect them to remember a Hal McRae/George Brett disputed batting title...)
There's a difference between remembering something and knowing it happened. It does seem odd that a guy who runs a Royals blog would be unaware of a disputed batting title between two of its biggest stars, even if he wasn't old enough to have lived through it.
Until Edgar came along, I think Hal had the most hits as a DH in history.
Besides being the first DH, was Bloomberg the answer to any other trivia question?
Watson is the answer to three.
who was the worst-fielding Jewish 1st baseman in MLB history?
Longest telephone toss by a manager (land-line division).
Of course it affects things.
It made it harder for my lily white self to get into a good school.
BA-ZING.
Dying, obviously, would be a strong contender.
The 1986 ALCS? Being accused of a racist conspiracy by Hal McRae? Maybe (once McRae launched the accusation) not having thought of conspiring to deny Hal McRae a batting title? 1964?
If any Primates happen to be dead, or have some connection to John Edward and have a chance to ask, could you let us know?
Lipman Pike had five errors in four games at first base. But that was 1871 - so he probably wasn't wearing a glove.
Funny thing is, no one talked about it at the time...
Some of us talked about it. When the Haiti-sewn balls were introduced in 1974, and power numbers plummeted, that was widely noticed. Then when Rawlings got the baseball contract in 1977 and offense (particularly power) rebounded, that was widely noted as well.
"Give an apparently common misspelling of Ron Blomberg's surname."
but the real drop in HRs was in 76--if you look at HRs/game thru the majors from 1970-79, you get
.88
.74
.68
.80
.68
.70
.58
.87
.70
.82
we had a discussion on this years back on rsbb, and someone was claiming that 1976 was an unusually mild (i.e. not hot) summer so the balls didn't carry
I know he scored the millionth run in MLB history; what're the other two?
hit HRs in 1st world series AB in both home and away ballpark
(that last one is a bit of a stretch)
He's the only one to hit for the cycle in both leagues? Really? (Or was he just the first...)
EDIT: Looks like Olerud did it too.
Besides the aforementioned cycle (yes he was the first), he's also the first African-American GM, which is probably less trivial than the other two.
It was a racially motivated misplayed fly ball, I'm sure.
OK. In that case, first black GM to win a World Series title.
That's because they wouldn't let some of us try. Anti-semitism.
But anyway, I don't remember hearing that Mauch conspired, I do remember (the story that) Brye was a ######## for misplaying a ball that had that sort of importance associated with it--i.e. it decided the batting title and set up all of this controversy. And by the way, I remember that there was talk even before Brye's misplay about whether "people" (the League, the Twins, whomever) wanted Brett to win it or McRae to win it. So it's not like Brye et al wouldn't have known that more than just the batting title was on the table. I heard of course that some people (such as McRae) had accused Brye of racism, but the word otherwise was that Brye probably wasn't a racist but just a dikchead. If Brye can't catch that ball he should be in Topeka, that sort of thing. This coming from a black man on the Royals.
P.S. I unfortunately did not see the play. I'd be 99 percent sure I saw a previous game in this series. (This happened in Minnesota, right? I think that's right.)
Yeah, this was a pretty big deal at the time. The Thrilla in Manila had been the previous fall. Jimmy Carter was elected in part based on the hope that he could and would be a civil rights reformer. I also find it pretty remarkable that anybody interested in the history of the Royals could have been ignorant of this story, but there it is.
My favorite Lenny Randle story, besides the Lucchesi deal. Lenny played football at Arizona State and in fact returned a punt for a TD against my team, the Minnesota Gophers. Anyway, I asked him why he had left college in favor of playing major league baseball. He said that college just wasn't the "real world."
In Philly that was certainly true. That was the first summer that I lived in an apartment and thus the first year that I had access to a swimming pool all summer. I went once -- and I worked second shift that summer so I could have gone swimming up to around 3:30 or so. It just didn't get warm enough for the water to be comfortable.
My ex-roommate visited in April that year and the temps pushed 90 degrees that weekend.
Rickey: Hey, I once played with a guy who hit a triple.
Olerud: Rickey, that was me.
True story.
I remember the play being talked about a LOT in the papers the next day (I was in NYC at the time), but, since there was no ESPN, no replays were easily available. TO THIS DAY, I've never seen a replay of it
EDIT: I also remember that there were various descriptions of what Brye did: "misjudged the ball" "shied away from the fence" "froze up"--I still can't get a feel for what actually happened
It was in Kansas City. Hence the speculation about AstroTurf above.
That is true, was the first black GM.
People sometimes overlook Lucas because, at the time, the Braves used the title, vice-president of player personnel instead of General Manager, but he had all the same duties that GM's have today.
In his career, Olerud hit 13 triples in 9063 PA, in 2234 G. He hit two of them in games where he hit for the cycle...
Sounds like Brye was just a terrible outfielder.
Just in case it was one of at least 756.
I was a Giants' fan, paying no particular attention to the Royals, and was well aware of it. It was thoroughly reported in The Sporting News, which was the closest equivalent to ESPN in those days. It would have been difficult to miss the story.
I've read about that day numerous times but can't recall ever hearing this side of it.
Then again, I didn't know the Mariners and Blue Jays were joining the league until I opened my first '77 Topps packs. I was sure I had some error cards that were going to be worth tens of dollars.
At least twice, apparently!
McRae used to be a dick rolling into second like a linebacker on double plays, but he wasn't disliked beyond that.
Brett "It Looked To Me As If Brye Let The Ball Fall On Purpose" - Montreal Gazette (1980)
Can you imagine being a 3B-man that is waiting for the throw from RF and big Frank, all 300lbs of him, is bearing down on the base while you are trying to watch the ball flight and big Frank coming right at you simultaneously?
If it were me I'd clearly be standing on the foul side of the base and looking to gingerly swipe Franks foot with my glove as he arrived. No way is my hand getting in between Frank and that base.
Willie Stargell hit 55 in 9027 PA. Of course, given that 46 of those were at home, I'm guessing Forbes Field might have affected that total a bit...
Mike Sweeney 5 5680
Mark McGwire 6 7660
Paul Konerko 7 6893
Mike Lowell 7 6254
Cecil Fielder 7 5939
Adam Dunn 8 5417
Mike Piazza 8 7745
Jason Giambi 9 8135
Jorge Posada 9 6312
Troy Glaus 10 5872
Mo Vaughn 10 6410
Jody Reed 10 5248
Alvin Davis 10 5010
I looked up Lombardi on Retrosheet, and noticed Lopat, and surfed a little--
Weird-- some guy I never heard of named Jim McDonald started and won Game 5 of the '53 Series, on the road, just after Brooklyn had tied the Series 2-2 with 2 home wins. McDonald pitched into the eighth, had only given up 2 runs going into the inning, and gave up 12 hits, but didn't walk anyone. The Yanks included him in the 15 player trade of Dec '54 to Baltimore, but then traded to get him back for Eddie Lopat the following July '55. Weird.
Dude, seriously, you didn't know this?
We are in an era of all-time low triples totals, and it's the slow sluggers whose triple output has almost entirely vanished. I attribute it to the following:
- More cautious baserunning, particularly in taking the extra base between 2nd and 3rd
- Bulkier, slower baserunners -- very few guys in the '50s were as big as any four guys on a modern team
- Truer bounces on better-maintained outfields and outfield fences
- Better-throwing outfielders, and better-throwing infielders making relays
- Better gloves receiving throws
All of which no doubt adds up to a higher quality of play per se, but also a less entertaining one in this regard. There is simply no more exciting play in baseball than the triple, and we get to witness it less today than ever before.
Oh, absolutely, that's another one. There just aren't the same kind of Death Valleys anymore that there once were in Griffith Stadium, old Yankee Stadium, or Forbes Field.
What I remember was the MSM going up i arms over 1977's HR surge and acting as though 1976 was normal.
A cousin of mine insisted at the time that Brye had not deliberately let the ball drop- if you were going to deliberately let the ball drop you wouldn't have made it so obvious... he thought the dude was more likely just day dreamin and not paying attention.
well, pardon me for livin'!! (as my grandmother used to say)
What McRae thought was racism might have been just plain old well deserved hate.
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