[Previous trivia thread: https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=24231]
OK, here's one.
I was called the "Minor League Babe Ruth." Like Ruth, I started out as a pitcher and won 108 games pitching for the Oakland Oaks, including four seasons of 19+ wins. Major league scouts recruited me, but my best pitch was the outlawed (by MLB, not by the PCL) spitball. And overuse caught up with me, and I couldn't pitch any more. In a photo with me, Gehrig and Ruth, I was clearly the largest player.
I held the minor league career home run record of 432 until very recently. I played mainly on the Oakland Oaks and hit more than 30 home runs most seasons, hitting 54 one year for the Baltimore Orioles when they were in the International League. I hit for a career .341 average with a .925 OPS. Like Ruth, I swung a heavy bat, 44 ounces.
In my only season in the major leagues as a 32 year old, I hit .319/.387/.538/.925 and was fourth in the NL in home runs. But I was such a poor fielder, the Phillies wouldn't bring me back, and no other team would hire me. I played in the minors until I was 38, although statistically speaking, I fielded .974 as a first baseman with three errors all season. I was also so obnoxious, that an umpire hit me with his face mask, opening up a gash that required 12 stitches.
In 1984, the Society for American Baseball Research (Sabremetrics) voted me the most Outstanding minor league ballplayer in history. After my retirement, the Oakland Oaks brought me back to celebrate me as the "Mightiest Oak of All Time." They expected 6,000 people, and 12,000 showed up, 15 years after I last played for the Oaks.
Who am I?
OK, here's one.
I was called the "Minor League Babe Ruth." Like Ruth, I started out as a pitcher and won 108 games pitching for the Oakland Oaks, including four seasons of 19+ wins. Major league scouts recruited me, but my best pitch was the outlawed (by MLB, not by the PCL) spitball. And overuse caught up with me, and I couldn't pitch any more. In a photo with me, Gehrig and Ruth, I was clearly the largest player.
I held the minor league career home run record of 432 until very recently. I played mainly on the Oakland Oaks and hit more than 30 home runs most seasons, hitting 54 one year for the Baltimore Orioles when they were in the International League. I hit for a career .341 average with a .925 OPS. Like Ruth, I swung a heavy bat, 44 ounces.
In my only season in the major leagues as a 32 year old, I hit .319/.387/.538/.925 and was fourth in the NL in home runs. But I was such a poor fielder, the Phillies wouldn't bring me back, and no other team would hire me. I played in the minors until I was 38, although statistically speaking, I fielded .974 as a first baseman with three errors all season. I was also so obnoxious, that an umpire hit me with his face mask, opening up a gash that required 12 stitches.
In 1984, the Society for American Baseball Research (Sabremetrics) voted me the most Outstanding minor league ballplayer in history. After my retirement, the Oakland Oaks brought me back to celebrate me as the "Mightiest Oak of All Time." They expected 6,000 people, and 12,000 showed up, 15 years after I last played for the Oaks.
Who am I?
Audaces fortuna iuvat
