A little Sox HR trivia

StupendousMan

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To distract us from the recent unhappy trend in the Red Sox record, I came up with a teeny little quiz, inspired by the question Jayson Stark asked today on "Mike and Mike" (which was "name the 3 active players who had 4 consecutive seasons of 40 HRs." I only named 2 of them correctly -- the answers to Jayson's question can be found at the end of this post.)

The three Red Sox players with the largest number of career home runs are Ted Williams, David Ortiz, and Carl Yastrzemski. Of course, some of Ortiz' home runs came when he played for the Twins, but I'll ignore that distinction, and just ask about any home runs these players hit.

Your job is to look at the graph below, which shows the annual total of HRs for each player during his active years in the majors, and identify which player is represented by "A", which "B", and which "C".

compare_chron_a.png



Think you know the answer? Good. If not, perhaps this next graph will provide extra clues. In the following graph, I show the same data -- HRs hit per year -- but this time, sorted by the number of HRs.

compare_sorted_a.png

Okay, got it?

The answers are:

A = Ortiz, B = Yaz, C = Williams

And the answers to Jayson Stark's question are

ARod, Pujols, Ryan Howard
 

ledsox

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Cool stuff.
Surprised that Yaz only topped 20 HRs 7 times. It's pretty amazing how similar the slope is on the 2nd chart between Ted and Papi.
As for the Stark question, of course I forgot about Howard.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Fun trivia for sure. I'm sure it's a by-product of the era, but it's incredible how consistently Ortiz has hit 20+ compared to how up and down the other two were, particularly through their 30s.

Who is who on the graph really isn't much of a mystery if you consider two things.
Ortiz holds the team's single season record for HR, so the only 50+ HR season is obviously him.
Yaz played the longest, so the one with the three extra seasons is him.
 

smastroyin

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While of course he also had variation in how often he was hitting HR, much of William's variation in totals is due to his partial seasons:

1950: Missed the second half after breaking his elbow in the AS game
1952: Korean War
1953: Korean War
1954: Broke collarbone in Spring Training
1955: Sat out a month as part of his divorce settlement

His only truly bad season (compared to his career, not league) was 1959. 52 and 53 are on SM's list because he appeared, but he had 12 and 110 PA in those years, respectively.
 

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Got this literally within a minute, did not need the second graph. Reasoning, which is nearly identical to Red(s)HawksFan:
Knowing Ted's War duties easily put him as C; smas mentions 1952 and 1953 for a small PA number, which came to me as an additional fact since I've been researching that era of Sox a bit over the summer. Meanwhile, Ortiz's 54 homer 2006 was a giveaway, so he was the only one with 50+, of those mentioned. After all, the only Sox with 50+ homers in a year are Papi and Foxx (in 1938, with 50). Furthermore, you could deduce Yaz's because of, as noted above, his longevity, compared to the other two.

Likewise, StupendousMan, got 2/3 on the Stark question, missed the last name. What one did you miss, if you don't mind me asking?
 

smastroyin

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I had a total mental block about Ryan Howard's name whenever I would do sporcle quizzes, after beating the block I never forget him :)
 

Sir Lancelotti

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One of my favorite trivia oddities, Sox have the only player in MLB history with a 30 HR season and less than 100 career total homers.

Butch Hobson
 

Flynn4ever

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Being of a certain age *ahem* I would be very interested to see Jim Rice's rise and fall in a similar chart. I recall that when he was young, none other than Hank Aaron said that he thought Rice had the best chance of any active major leaguer to break his record for career HR's. IIRC though, he fell off a cliff pretty hard. Interesting to see that he had a higher career OPS than Yaz, but then again so did Mo Vaughn.
 

Brian26

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Nov 16, 2015
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Great stuff. I guessed correctly knowing about Ted's situation, and just made good guesses on Yaz and Ortiz. I saw Yaz play at Old Comiskey in '83 as part of his farewell tour when I was 11 years old. I remember the White Sox fans giving him a nice ovation in his final game.
 

moondog80

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Not a trivia question per se but in 1983 Tony Armas hit 36 HR and 107 RBI and had still had a WAR of -0.9. That's gotta be some sort of record.
 

StupendousMan

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Being of a certain age *ahem* I would be very interested to see Jim Rice's rise and fall in a similar chart. I recall that when he was young, none other than Hank Aaron said that he thought Rice had the best chance of any active major leaguer to break his record for career HR's. IIRC though, he fell off a cliff pretty hard. Interesting to see that he had a higher career OPS than Yaz, but then again so did Mo Vaughn.
Ask and ye shall receive.

 

Philip Jeff Frye

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One of my favorite trivia oddities, Sox have the only player in MLB history with a 30 HR season and less than 100 career total homers.

Butch Hobson
Phil Plantier had 34 homers in 1993 in San Diego the season after the Sox traded him for nobody but ended up with only 91 career homers.
 

garlan5

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Phil Plantier had 34 homers in 1993 in San Diego the season after the Sox traded him for nobody but ended up with only 91 career homers.
always enjoy seeing his name pop up. watched him play in Lynchburg Va in the Carolina League and followed him to the major leagues. Oh and he's New Hampshire born MLB home run record holder, lol
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
Dave Kingman in 1986 says hello. 35 HR, -1.0 bWAR
Dante Bichette in 1999 says hello yourself. 34 HR, -2.3 bWAR.

More HR trivia:

what is the lowest career bWAR for any player with at least 100 career homers?

Mike Jacobs, 100 HR, -2.4 bWAR

what is the highest career HR total for any player with a career slugging percentage under .400?

Toby Harrah, 195, .395

who was the last qualifying player to have a slugging percentage over .500 with fewer than 10 home runs?

John Valentin, 1994, .505 SLG, 9 HR
 

Sir Lancelotti

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Phil Plantier had 34 homers in 1993 in San Diego the season after the Sox traded him for nobody but ended up with only 91 career homers.
Wow, correct you are, looks like that trivia was a bit dated. After his cup of coffee in 91 I had Plantier penciled in for Cooperstown, totally bought into the Gammons Sunday notes prospect hype, ditto Kevin Morton. I could have swore Nick Esasky and Davey Johnson were in the 30 homer season less than 100 career club as well but they were well over the threshold.
 

E5 Yaz

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Everyone knows Wade Boggs hit 24 home runs in 1987. The odd thing is that he never hit even half as many in any of his other 17 major league seasons. In fact, he only had one other season of double-digit home runs. (Ichiro has three)

Sonny Seibert had 6 home runs for the 1971 Red Sox -- including two in a 3-0 win over Baltimore -- and 6 others during the remainder of his career
 
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Al Zarilla

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Didn't Boggs muscle up the one year to prove he could hit home runs if he wanted to? Then, he went back to being a non home run hitter. Ridiculous thing is he hit .363 the 24 HR year.
 

E5 Yaz

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Only four of the Top 50 players on the all-time Red Sox home run list are still active.

Two are easy, one is pretty simple, the fourth takes some thought
 

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Ortiz, Pedroia, Ellsbury, one of Napoli or Saltalamacchia. I'll venture the former.

Here's mine: 460 players for the Red Sox have hit more than one triple with the club. Name the active 7, with exactly 2. Personally, five are doable, two are doozies, especially one of these immortals. Ellsbury leads among active Red Sox overall, Ortiz is second.
 
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Humphrey

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The list I saw should have had 2 #50s, Lepcio and Napoli, but only had Lepcio. In any case both had 53, Salty had 55.
 

garlan5

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Ortiz, Pedroia, Ellsbury, one of Napoli or Saltalamacchia. I'll venture the former.

Here's mine: 460 players for the Red Sox have hit more than one triple with the club. Name the active 7, with exactly 2. Personally, five are doable, two are doozies, especially one of these immortals. Ellsbury leads among active Red Sox overall, Ortiz is second.
if I read this right you want 7 with exactly 2 triples with the Sox only.. my brain isn't functioning well tonight... but here goes- Salty, Iggy? (hes prob got more), WMB, AGon, Shaw, A.J, Beltre, Napoli
 

Flynn4ever

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Ask and ye shall receive

Thanks so much stupendous, so I was right, he really did decline and decline quickly compared to our other three sluggers. An earlier, seemingly deleted post mentioned that Yaz had a better OPS+ than Rice, I really need to learn some new stats. The fact that I was a big Rice fan should point to me as a BA/HR/RBI type fan. I'll get there in retirement!
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
Ellsbury may join that club also but only needs a handful of homers to break 100. His power stroke seems to have almost completely disappeared though so maybe he won't get to 100.
He's got 4 years left after this year on his contract, so presumably they'll keep pushing his ass out there on a semi-regular basis for at least two or three of them. Playing half his games in Bidet Nouveau, it seems well-nigh impossible he won't hit eight more taters before he's done.
 

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if I read this right you want 7 with exactly 2 triples with the Sox only.. my brain isn't functioning well tonight... but here goes- Salty, Iggy? (hes prob got more), WMB, AGon, Shaw, A.J, Beltre, Napoli
Probably my mistake for not wording it well, but you've got the concept, dead on. In terms of names, you've got a few you didn't expect. Answers:
Beltre, Rusney, Jonathan Herrera, Iglesias, Brandon Moss, Hanley, Shaw.
 

garlan5

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Well i'll take my turn at a little trivia- I'll do it two ways. Name the top 5 all time games appeared in as a pitcher (Sox uniform only). Twist to it will be name 2 that are in the top 15 all time but still active in MLB.
 

Marciano490

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While of course he also had variation in how often he was hitting HR, much of William's variation in totals is due to his partial seasons:

1950: Missed the second half after breaking his elbow in the AS game
1952: Korean War
1953: Korean War
1954: Broke collarbone in Spring Training
1955: Sat out a month as part of his divorce settlement

His only truly bad season (compared to his career, not league) was 1959. 52 and 53 are on SM's list because he appeared, but he had 12 and 110 PA in those years, respectively.
I never heard that story. Can you elaborate?
 

Savin Hillbilly

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The wrong side of the bridge....
Well i'll take my turn at a little trivia- I'll do it two ways. Name the top 5 all time games appeared in as a pitcher (Sox uniform only). Twist to it will be name 2 that are in the top 15 all time but still active in MLB.
Just to be clear, you mean the Red Sox top 15 all time. At least I hope you do, because there are no active pitchers in the MLB all-time top 15.

I got four of your top 5 correct. I forgot
Timlin
. I would have guessed one of the active ones, but not the other.
 

Dollar

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A short and sweet trivia question:
Who is the only player who has hit more than 35 home runs in one season with the Red Sox, but is not among the top-50 in career home runs as a member of the Red Sox?

And similarly,
Who is the only player who has struck out more than 200 batters in one season with the Red Sox, but is not among the top-50 in career strikeouts as a member of the Red Sox?
 
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