One-Day Special Recap: 120 Years of the Yankees, by ProkopJGS
Today we have a special guest recap from Sparky (ProkopJGS), a longtime Yankees fan. Could his knowledge of the Bronx Bombers pay off here?
I was a Yankee fan since birth in Connecticut in the 1960s, but my fervor for them really started when I was in high school in the seventies. Went to music school in Baltimore in the eighties so I saw a lot of Orioles games (especially saw one of Don Mattingly's grand slam homers). In the mid-nineties moved to the SF Bay Area (where I met my wife, a fervent Giants fan!) but still saw the Yanks play in Oakland. In 2020, amid the plague, I moved back home to Connecticut, the Venn diagram of baseball fandom (evenly divided between the Yankees and the Red Sox). So I was looking forward to this one all year, especially after watching them lose to the Angels Monday night after Othani homered in the eighth to tie and win in a walk-off in the tenth. But as I show even a little Schadenfreude towards all things Boston, my wife will say, "Sparky, your Pinstripes are showing!"Â
1. 1903-1912: In 1903, the New York Yankees (Highlanders at the time) were born when Frank Farrell and William Devery bought a floundering team and moved it to the Big Apple. What was that original ballclub (both location and nickname required)? No relation to the modern-day team of the same name.
My answer: Baltimore Orioles (Moneyed? - No)
CORRECT ANSWER: BALTIMORE ORIOLES
Post game: CA%: 67. That was fine gimme out of the gate...
2. 1913-1922: What Yankee first baseman, who led the American League in home runs in 1916 (an overwhelming 12) and 1917 (a staggering 9) and was an integral part of the post-Farrell/Devery rebuilding, is best remembered today in association with another Yankee he scouted and trained?
My answer: Wally Pipp (Moneyed? - Yes!)
WALLY PIPP
Post game: CA%: 52. Folks tend to remember Wally Pipp solely for complaining of a headache before a game in 1925 and was replaced by the young rookie, Lou Gehrig. But Pipp had a fine career before all that, respected by his peers.
3. 1923-1932: The 1927 Yankees were a fearsome bunch with the dreaded "Murderers' Row" lineup featuring Babe Ruth and his 60 home runs. Four of the hitters and two pitchers from that team would go on to the Hall of Fame, but it wasn't just players who received that honor - both the manager and the team president would also be elected to the Hall. Name either that manager or that president.
My answer: Miller Huggins (Moneyed? Yes!)
MILLER HUGGINS, ED BARROW
Post game: CA%: 47. I was almost going to put in Colonel Jacob Ruppert, since he was the owner of the Yankees in the 1920s (as well as running a brewery, producing Knickerbocker beer), but I went with the safer entry of Huggins. (Perhaps the Smith didn't notice but Col. Rupert is in the Hall of Fame as well.)
4. 1933-1942: Joltin' Joe DiMaggio's famous hitting streak lasted for 56 games in 1941 and may never be bested. Between 1941 and Paul Molitor's 39-game streak in 1987, what Red Sox player (ugh I KNOW), nicknamed "The Little Professor," came closer to the record than any other AL player, lasting for 34 games in 1949? First and last name required.
My answer: Dominick DiMaggio (Moneyed? - Yes!)
DOM (DOMINIC) DIMAGGIO
Post game: CA%: 45. Just like his brother Joe with Yankees, Dominic DiMaggio played his entire career with the Red Sox. There was a third, older brother in the Majors named Vince, who played his entire career in the National League. Casey Stengel once described the DiMaggio brothers, "Joe was a great hitter, Dom was a good fielder, and Vince was a good singer." There was almost a chance that the Yankees and Red Sox were going to trade Joe D. and Ted Williams. Luckily that never materialized...
5. 1943-1952: Casey Stengel joined the Yankees as manager in 1948. Before that, he was best known to Yankee fans for hitting game-winning homers in both Games 1 and 3 of the 1923 World Series - eventually the Yankees' first WS victory - as a member of what opposing team (both location and nickname required)?
My Answer: New York Giants (Moneyed? - No)
NEW YORK GIANTS
Post game: CA%: 49. Casey Stengel played from 1912 to 1925 for five teams in the National League. After his playing days, Stengel was a fair-to-middling manager for the Dodgers and Braves. He was managing the Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League in the late forties when he got the call to manage the Yankees for the 1949 season. Few gave him a chance. But he turned out to be fine manager, winning ten AL pennants and winning seven World Championships between 1949 and 1960.
6. 1953-1962: The Yankees were, shamefully, one of the last teams to integrate, employing their first Black player in 1955. What future AL MVP and 12-time all-star broke the NYY color barrier?
My answer: Elston Howard (Moneyed? - Yes!)
ELSTON HOWARD
Post game: CA%: 65. Yes, granted, the Yankees were near the last to integrate (only the Tigers and Red Sox took longer), but with Howard, a catcher, they were able to keep Yogi Berra's bat in the lineup while putting him elsewhere in the field and preserve his knees. He was the AL MVP in 1963. Although he finished his career with the Red Sox in 1968, he would come back to the Yankees as a coach. Howard passed away in 1980 and his number 32 was retired.
7. 1963-1972: The Yankees have retired far more numbers than any other team in baseball - so many that they have had to retire two separate numbers twice. One is, of course, #42. The other was retired twice in the same ceremony on July 22, 1972, for two players who primarily played the same position - what position was it?
My answer: Catcher (moneyed? - No)
CATCHER
Post game: CA%: 71. The number in question was 8 and the two players were Bill Dickey, who was a catcher with the Yankees in the '30s and '40s, and Lawrence Peter Berra, a fine catcher, hitter and philosopher.
8. 1973-1982: Most trades in sports occur when two or more teams swap around some combination of players, money, and draft picks. However, in 1973, Yankees players Fritz Peterson and Mike Kecich announced that the two of them had made a very different kind of trade. What, most notably, did Peterson and Kecich trade?
My answer: their wives (Moneyed? - No)
WIVES (SPOUSES)
Post game: CA%: 81. It was a little strange when I first read about it. Pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson were good friends and they did a lot of things together with their families. Eventually, the pitchers started to fancy each other's partners. In time, Peterson and the former Mrs. Kekich are still married, but the Kekich and the former Mrs. Peterson relationship eventually fizzled out. Supposedly there was going to be movie made on this episode but nothing as yet has materialized...
9. 1983-1992: What rhyming term refers to the unruly (and sometimes controversial) group of fans that has made the lives of opposing right fielders miserable since the early 1980s? You can find them these days in Section 203, but in the old Yankee Stadium they occupied sections 37 and 39.
My answer: The Bleacher Creatures (Moneyed: No)
BLEACHER CREATURES
Post game: CA%: 72. Bald Vinny and his crew introduce each position player after the first pitch of every home game, starting with the centerfielder, chanting each player's name repeatedly until they get acknowledged by him.
10. 1993-2002: What Yankee great from the '90s dynasty teams found a second life after baseball as a successful musician? His song "Go For It" hit #1 on Billboard's Smooth Jazz chart.
My answer: Bernie Williams (Moneyed? - No)
BERNIE (BERNABÉ) WILLIAMS
Post game: CA%: 82. (Highest get!) Lead centerfieldist Bernie Williams could do it all: switch-hit, patrol Death Valley (center field at Yankee Stadium) with ease, strum some tasty guitar. We have his first album and it's very nice!
11. 2003-2012: Though she started out in musical theater, playing roles including Dulcinea in a Broadway touring production of Man of La Mancha, what trailblazing woman assumed her most notable role (and most relevant to this 1DS) in March 2005?
My answer: Suzyn Waldman (Moneyed? - Yes!)
SUZYN WALDMAN
Post game: CA%: 44. Suzyn Waldman is the radio color announcer, working beside John Sterling on WFAN. She is one of two female announcers for the Yankees, along with Meredith Marakovits on the television side.
12. 2013-present: It's been a rough few years for our boys, but the future looks bright with players like top prospect Jasson DomÃnguez working their way up through the farm system. Jasson's out-of-this-world talent led to him receiving what nickname? You may answer in either English or Spanish.
My answer: Rocket Man (Moneyed? - Oh, heck, no!)
THE MARTIAN (EL MARCIANO)
Post game: CA%: 23. (The lowest get of the lot!) This was the only one I did not know at all, so wisely bypassed it. The Smith to this quiz stated that the ModKos for well seasoned Yankee fans would be a PG and delivered a great quiz.
FINAL SCORE: I moneyed wisely throughout. 11 correct, five moneyed (2,3,4,6,11), 412 points, 96%tile. I ended up ranked at 37, Casey Stengel's number. I will take that and show my 'Stripes proudly. If I had moneyed #5 instead of #6, I would have been ranked at 23, Don Mattingly's number.