Yankee4Life

10 out of 10, 33 seconds. A good way to start the month because it is going to end on a Tuesday and that always is a hard one for me. Here are the results for the month of November. Two points was the difference in this very close race in November and as you can see Jim actually won most of the days last month. I would love to see more people playing but I'm not asking anymore.

8 out of 10, 41 seconds. I missed one I didn't know and I missed one that I knew. 😠

Chick Hafey Chick Hafey was one of the first position players in the major leagues to wear eyeglasses. Problems with his eyesight did not prevent him from winning a National League batting title and being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Hafey broke into the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1924, and most accounts say he began using glasses in 1929. That followed about three years of problems with his eyesight that began in 1926. Problems notwithstanding, he hit over .300 in seven straight seasons (1927-33), both before and after he donned eyeglasses. Born on February 12, 1903, in Berkeley, California (for years he claimed 1904 to present himself as younger), Charles James Hafey was one of eight children. The family was sports-minded. An older brother, Albert, pitched in 1913 for Portland of the Pacific Coast League; later, two cousins, Bud and Tom, played in the majors. Chick was first attracted to football, often playing halfback. Chick’s interest eventually shifted to baseball, which he hoped to break into as a pitcher following his older brother’s path. Joining the Shattuck Avenue Merchants, a local winter team, Hafey caught the attention of a friend of St. Louis Cardinals general manager Branch Rickey, who asked a part-time Cardinals scout, a professor at the University of California named Charles Chapman, to check out Hafey. On Chapman’s recommendation, the Cardinals signed Hafey as a pitcher in time for him to report to the Fort Smith Twins in the Class C Western Association for the 1923 season. Although Chick Hafey was signed as a pitcher by the Cardinals, he never made it to the mound in a professional game. During his first spring training, at Bradenton, Florida, Hafey came under the watchful eye of Rickey while taking batting practice. As later recounted by Arthur Daley in the New York Times, Rickey watched Hafey launch several balls into a grove of trees deep in left field, and exclaimed, “By Judas Priest — who is that boy?” When told Hafey was a pitcher, Rickey decreed, “You mean he was a pitcher, from now on he is an outfielder.” And so he was. Hafey proceeded to hit a solid .284 for Fort Smith with 14 triples and a team-leading 16 home runs. Promoted to the Houston Buffaloes in the Texas League the next year, Hafey hit a resounding .360, earning him advancement to the Cardinals late in the season. Hafey made his major-league debut in a doubleheader against the Chicago Cubs on August 28, 1924. Facing veteran Vic Aldridge in the first game, Hafey went 0-for-4 as St. Louis lost, 5-2. He got his first major-league hit, a single, in the second game hit as the Cardinals lost, 8-3. Two days later, on August 30, he cracked his first major-league home run, a solo shot off fellow rookie Guy Bush of the Chicago Cubs. He also recorded his first major-league assist in the game. Hafey’s career usually centers on how well he hit — for consistency and with power. While hitting was a key part of his game, Hafey was considered a possessor of one of the most powerful arms in baseball. The box score for the August 30 game crediting Hafey with an assist also shows he took part in a double play. A runner tried to move up a base against a man who was originally signed as a pitcher. His ability to throw a baseball took on different dimensions within the game than originally anticipated. Hafey’s ability to throw would be compared favorably with later-day talents like Roberto Clemente and Carl Furillo. After his call-up Hafey hit .253 in 24 games as St. Louis finished a weak sixth. He showed power and the ability to drive in runs. Hafey made enough of an impression to begin the 1925 season with the Cardinals. By the end of June he was not hitting well — .219 on June 20, when he was farmed out to Syracuse in the International League. A month later fortune smiled on him as Cardinals outfielder Ray Blades suffered a leg injury Hafey was called up to replace him. Hafey never played in the minors again. In his first game back he went 4-for-5, and for the remainder of the season he hit well, finishing with a season average of .302. Until 1926 the Cardinals had never won a pennant, but that omission was rectified as they took the title by two games over the Cincinnati Reds. Hafey posted a creditable season, hitting .271, but with Ray Blades, Taylor Douthit, and Billy Southworth all hitting over .300, he was able to get into only 78 games. By the end of the season, with Blades out of the lineup with a knee injury, Hafey became the regular left fielder. In the World Series against the New York Yankees Hafey hit a disappointing .185. However, in the seventh game, made famous by Grover Cleveland Alexander’s strikeout of Tony Lazzeri, Hafey’s single in the fourth helped the Cardinals to score the three runs that stood up for a Series-winning 3-2 victory. The following winter was one of discontent for Hafey; He had surgery for a sinus problem. In a preseason assessment, The Sporting News wrote that both Hafey and Ray Blades “cannot be pronounced sound.” Hafey’s sinus troubles had begin to afflict him at the end of the season, and caused him to have “virtually no use of his left eye.” (That might have explained his poor batting during the World Series.) Physicians advised Hafey that while they repaired the condition, it would, “take time for the muscles of the affected eye nerves to come back.” Before the 1927 season he said, “My eyes have improved greatly since the operation, but the sight of my left eye is not yet strong and the doctor tells me I may have to take it easy this summer. Some days the left eye feels better than on other days. My right eye has practically been cured.” While he expressed optimism for full recovery, his subsequent career was plagued with health issues concerning his sight. Whatever the reason behind his ailment, Hafey was plagued by physical problems the remainder of his career. “Sinus surgery helped, and so did glasses, but often I’d have double vision,” he said. “Bright days bothered me. The cold climate, after coming up from Florida every spring, made the first month particularly tough and painful.” Hafey’s observation about the first month of the season being particularly hard for him is seemingly borne out by his career records. The lowest career average by month for Hafey was April, when he hit .278. Save May, when he hit .298, all other months were at or above the .300 mark. Most accounts date Hafey’s use of eyeglasses to the beginning of the 1929 season. While a player with glasses is not uncommon today, it was a major story in the late 1920s. Just a few years before, George Toporcer, a Cardinals utility infielder, had made baseball history by becoming the first major-league position player to use glasses. Hafey was one of the first regulars, if not the first, to don spectacles for a game. Over the years his preparation for the game grew more sophisticated. He used separate pairs of glasses for hitting and fielding as well as a “patent lambs wool filter” in his nose to ward off sinus infections. Hafey missed nearly a third of the 1927 season because of his various ailments. Still, in 103 games, he batted.329 and led the National League in slugging (.590) as St. Louis fell back to second place, a game and a half behind Pittsburgh. It was the first of the seven straight seasons in which Hafey batted over .300. The next four years Hafey was at the peak of his career as the Cardinals won pennants in 1928, 1930, and 1931. Three years in a row Hafey hit over .330 with 26 or more homers and 100-plus runs batted in. He was never in better form than in early July 1929, when he set a major league record (since broken) by rapping out ten consecutive hits. That his hitting was held in awe by opposing players is illustrated by a story, perhaps apocryphal, concerning Fresco Thompson, who played third for the Brooklyn Dodgers at the time. Hafey’s hits were often described as solid line drives. One day he ripped a ball off Thompson’s shin before it made its way into the outfield for an extra-base hit. On Hafey’s next at-bat, Thompson, still limping from his encounter with the ball played back — allowing Hafey to bunt for a single. After Hafey returned to the dugout the batboy greeted him with an ice cream bar in hand. The boy explained. “Compliments of Mr. Thompson. He said that if you bunt against him the next time, Mr. Hafey, he’ll send another one.” Hafey’s arm continued to command respect throughout the league. More than 50 years after the event, one of his throws still generated awe. During the final weekend of the 1928 season, the Cardinals led the Giants by two games with two left to play. With the Cardinals and the Boston Braves tied in the 11th inning, Hafey heaved a throw from left field to cut down the potential winning run, allowing St. Louis to take the game in 15 innings and clinch a tie for the pennant, which they won the next day. The Cardinals lost the World Series to the Yankees in 1928, and to the Philadelphia Athletics in 1930. Hafey did not do well in either Series, although he set a record for most doubles in a Series with five against the A’s, a record later surpassed. Hafey had signed a contract in 1928 for $7,000. In 1929 he got a raise to $8,000, and in 1930 to $9,000. Since he had done exceptionally well during those three seasons, he felt he deserved a substantial raise going into 1931 and asked for $15,000. Years later, Branch Rickey often mentioned how great a player Hafey was. “I always thought that if Hafey had been blessed with normal eyesight and good health, he might have been the best right-handed hitter baseball had ever known,” Rickey said. He also was highly complimentary of Hafey’s arm; he often described rifle-armed prospects by saying, “He could be another Chick Hafey.” But this latter-day adulation was not in evidence as the 1931 season began. He turned down Hafey’s request for $15,000, offering him a raise to $10,000. This offer was made after three seasons in which he batted .337, .338, and .336, and the Cardinals won two pennants. Rickey called Hafey’s request “outrageous” at a time the country was in the middle of the Depression. While that was true, it was also true that Rickey was extremely stingy when dealing with players, using every reason, legitimate or not, to hold their salaries down. After a protracted holdout, Hafey agreed to a contract for $12,500. By then the season had started. Rickey decreed that Hafey was not in shape to play and docked his pay $100 a day until Hafey was ready to play. It took 21 days for the Cardinals to determine that he was ready to play — and he lost $2,100. There was nothing Hafey could do about it short of quitting. When he got back into action Hafey took up his hitting where he had left off the previous season. By the end of August the Cardinals were well ahead of the Giants and Hafey, at .329, was among the league leaders in batting average. For the remainder of the season Hafey hit at a .435 pace. On September 19, he took the batting lead from Bill Terry. Terry had several good days and drew closer to Hafey. Against the Chicago Cubs on September 20, Terry had three hits in three at-bats before he “craftily called it a day” as John Drebinger of the New York Times put it, the implication being that he came out of the game to protect his average. Terry was then handicapped by the quirks of the schedule, which called for five straight days off during the final week of the campaign, with a doubleheader scheduled on Sunday, September 27, the last day of the season. Hafey’s season ended first. He played in a doubleheader against the Reds going 2-for-8 and finishing at .349. Terry went 1-for-4 in the first game of the doubleheader against the Brooklyn Dodgers and singled in his first at-bat in the second game, raising his average to.350. Knowing he was ahead of Hafey, Terry came out of the lineup to protect his lead. Unfortunately for Terry, the baseball gods intervened. After 3½ innings the second game was suspended because of a cloud cover over the field. Waiting for the weather to clear, the umpires failed to account for a restless crowd, which swarmed onto the field and forced them to call the game. The records for the second game were erased, Terry’s single with it. Both Terry and Hafey finished at .349. Carrying the numbers out an extra decimal place, Hafey’s average stood at .3489, Terry’s at .3486. There was some sentiment that Terry should share in the title because he had played in all but the last (canceled) game, while Hafey missed 32 games. National League President John A. Heydler ruled that Hafey had the higher average and was the champion. Overlooked in the matter was Jim Bottomley, Hafey’s roommate, who had finished at .3481. If Bottomley had made one more hit he could have won the title. Whether Heydler would have disallowed Bottomley because he appeared in even fewer games than Hafey (108 with 382 at bats) is a question that will never be answered. The World Series between the Cardinals and Athletics featured the two major-league batting champions for only the second time. The A’s Al Simmons had won the title in the American League. The 1909 batting champions, Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner, faced each other in 1909. It happened a third time in 1954, when Cleveland’s Bobby Avila and the New York Giants’ Willie Mays opposed each other in the World Series. The Series was dominated by the Cardinals’ Pepper Martin as St. Louis won in seven games. Hafey hit just .167 before being replaced by Ernie Orsatti, in the last game. He did not excuse his subpar performance, saying, “In a World Series a fellow naturally wants to do his best. Unconsciously he’s apt to press. Every attempt to improve makes matters worse. That’s the only explanation I can give and I think it’s the correct one.” Although he could not know it, Hafey had played his last games for the Cardinals. Contract issues with Rickey came to a head; this time Rickey decided it was time to trade Hafey. In light of having won the batting championship and being a member of the World Series winner, Hafey asked for $17,500 for 1932, which included the $2,100 he was docked for starting the 1931 season late after his contract dispute. Rickey, backed by club owner Sam Breadon, countered with an offer of $13,000 at a meeting with Hafey in Florida. This insulted Hafey. He hopped into his car, a 1929 midnight blue Auburn sedan, and sped home, “ninety miles an hour” as he described his dash across the country to California. When Hafey had not signed by Opening Day he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for pitcher Benny Frey, infielder-outfielder Harvey Hendrick, and cash. Hafey pronounced himself satisfied with the trade; he would receive a contract for $15,000. The Cardinals had rid themselves of what they perceived as a recalcitrant employee and were comforted by the fact that waiting in the wings to supplant Hafey for the Cardinals offense were first baseman Ripper Collins and a soon-to-be-called-up Joe Medwick. Hafey joined a club that perpetually languished in or near last place. In 1932 he followed up his league-leading average with a mark of .344, though he played in barely half the games. He was late reporting because of his contract dispute and later in the season lost more than a month during a bout with influenza. The Reds finished last. While Hafey hit well the next few years, his career had peaked; his average hovered around the .300 mark; home runs dwindled to just seven and 18 in 1933 and 1934. Despite this he was still recognized as one of the better players in the game. Cincinnati continued to finish last. In 1933 the first All-Star Game was played in Chicago as part of the World’s Fair. Players were picked by the managers and fans. Hafey was selected for the National League team and batted cleanup. His single in the second was the first hit in All-Star Game history. The aging Babe Ruth, chosen for the American League team less for his season statistics than for his reputation, highlighted the game with a home run, and with a runner on base in the eighth inning speared Hafey’s line drive that was headed into the stands. Hafey’s ailments subsided for a time. In 1933 and 1934 he appeared in more games than at any other time during his career, although he left the team several days before the 1934 season ended to have an operation on his sinuses. He was 31 years old in 1934 and indicated an interest in retiring from baseball to stay home with his family. He bought property in Walnut Creek, California, thinking of retiring there. But it was a passing sentiment, as he reported to the Reds for the 1935 season. In 1935 Hafey started off well and was hitting .339 in early May when he was stricken with the flu in Philadelphia. Ill for several weeks, he recovered and rejoined the team only to suffer a relapse. Continuing to feel ill, leery of entering a hospital so far from home, and most likely depressed, Hafey and Bernice decided it was best for him to go back California, where he hoped to regain his health. He did not play the remainder of 1935 or all of 1936. Hafey came back in 1937 but it was not satisfying. In and out of the Reds’ lineup, he played in only 89 games and hit .261 with no power. By the middle of September he was just pinch-hitting. He singled to drive in a run against the Cubs on September 27; three days later he unsuccessfully pinch-hit for shortstop Billy Myers. It was his last appearance in a major-league game. At the beginning of 1938 Hafey was reported a holdout; news articles reflected little desire for the Reds to sign him, and little desire on Hafey’s part to return. He and general manager Warren Giles of the Reds never agreed to contract terms; Hafey retired. Hafey retired with a lifetime batting average of .317, 164 home runs, a batting title, two World Series championships and having played on four pennant winners. Hafey enjoyed a quiet retirement as a rancher and for the most part passed from the baseball scene. Rarely did he leave his ranch; it took him several years to get down to San Francisco and attend a game at Candlestick Park. The game had changed; he was surprised when batters complained about being brushed back. “Even if a pitch is a little bit close, they start hollering now,” he complained. “In my time we were always getting knocked down and thought nothing of it. The Cubs had some real brutes. If you got a hit against Pat Malone, Charlie Root, or Lon Warneke, you could make a bet that the next time you came up you were going down.” Over the years several of Hafey’s contemporaries and teammates were elected to the Hall of Fame: Frankie Frisch in 1947, Medwick in 1968; other outfielders such as Heinie Manush, Goose Goslin, Lloyd Waner, and Kiki Cuyler from Hafey’s era were elected. In the late 1960s sportswriter Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch began writing articles complimentary of Hafey and suggesting that he be elected to the Hall. Hafey had drawbacks. Because of his illnesses he played in 100 or more games only seven seasons during his 13-year career. And he hit.205 in his four World Series appearances. In February 1971 Hafey received a phone call from Giles. Giles recalled, “The last time I spoke to Chick he turned down the salary I offered him.” Giles was no longer general manager of the Reds; he was chairman of the Hall of Fame Veterans Committee, and he had called Hafey to inform him he had been elected to the Hall of Fame. Giles noted that Hafey got quite a chuckle out of who called and the purpose of the call. The Veterans Committee decided, in a manner somewhat similar to that in selecting Sandy Koufax, to look at the brilliance of a career rather than hold back selection from someone whose achievements were limited by health issues. Hafey was elected to the Hall that year along with Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard, and Harry Hooper. Subsequently, many of the selections made by the Veterans Committee, especially during this era, were seen as acts of cronyism, that honorees owed their selection to having been teammates of committee members like Frankie Frisch and Bill Terry rather than being based on merit. Controversy over admission of players chosen in this manner, including Hafey, continues to this day. What gets lost in the continuing dialogue on this matter, at least with respect to Hafey, is that for several years he was one of the most respected players in the National League. He played on a par with the likes of Rogers Hornsby, Terry, and Waner — and that is what ought to be remembered.

10 out of 10, 36 seconds. Happy Friday! The first good day I had this week.

7 out of 10, 50 seconds. Well, I had my chance Jim and blew it. These damned soccer questions get me every time. And now we have two more days.

6 out of 10, 54 seconds. I blew it. I missed the last three in a row.

I'm sorry about that Jim. Maybe it's time for me to get my eyes examined once again. 🤥

What are you talking about and for what game?

6 out of 10, 63 seconds. Thank you for two baseball questions or else I'd really be in trouble. Saturday is the last day.

4 out of 10, 89 seconds. I had no chance today! 🙁

This is another tough one this month Jim!

Updated to 11-24 ...Hey! It was another great year of Yankee baseball and if it seems like this is a yearly occurrence of me lamenting how disappointing the season was you’re right. I will be doing that at least just for a little bit. Considering that they won the American League pennant there is a lot to be happy about. I'm grateful for a lot of things like Aaron Judge having another good year, Giancarlo Stanton's turnaround and Juan Soto's stable and welcome presence in the lineup. There was so much to like about this team because all you had to do was think about the 2023 Yankees and you can see the difference every time they took the field. As much as the eternal optimists out there can point out all the good things about them this year they cannot cover up their weaknesses and it was something that cost them the World Series. When they did not have a bat in their hand they looked very beatable. Each time a ball was hit to Gleyber Torres I expected him to turn it into an error. He, along with the rest of the team ran the bases like kids in their first year of T-ball. Fundamentals was something that other teams did. I saw teams that were in the Little League World Series tournament that had better work ethics than the Yankees. These guys were terrible at it but when it came to posing and bat flipping after a homerun and elaborate and customized handshakes they were second to none. I try to be positive about the New York Yankees but it is an extremely hard thing to do especially when you know Aaron Boone is still in the dugout and because of that nothing is going to change. ..Fan of the year Dept: For the first time in decades the award for the fan of the year in major league baseball does not go to someone from the cities of Boston or Philadelphia. Those two towns have habitually produced the most disorderly, drunken and violent fans in baseball. But not this year. A twenty-five-year-old Dodger fan celebrated a little bit too much during a gathering of hell-raisers in downtown Los Angeles after the Dodgers won the 2024 World Series. He somehow got his hands on some fireworks and if you haven't heard what happened you can probably guess. Remember when you were little and your mother used to say don't touch the stove because it's hot? Even though the stove wasn't on she wanted to get you into the habit of not touching it. Well, the same thing can be said if you ever plan on lighting a firework. If you have to light one, keep your hand away from it. Apparently no one told this guy because as soon as the firework went off so did two of his fingers and the meat portion between the pointing finger and the thumb area on his left hand. Since this happened he has already had two surgeries and is preparing for a third one very soon. The guy has a job as an oil driller but he is unsure if he is going to return to it. I bet his employers have a pretty good idea that he won't be. I am sure using the restroom will now become one of his biggest challenges. Either that or being able to count to ten. But his Dodgers won. At least he has that. ...A banana duct-taped to a wall sold for $6.24 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York last week by someone named Justin Sun, a Chinese collector and founder of a cryptocurrency platform. Sun explained that the piece he bought was not just artwork because it represented a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community and he believed the piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history. I'm sorry but I don't see it. It's just a banana that I want to have with my Cheerios in the morning and this guy thinks he has a Picasso. I thought the price of groceries was high but this is way out of my price range.It seems to me that this guy is trying to justify spending over six million dollars on a banana. I want to be a fly on the wall when he sobers up. They rebuilt Steve Austin for that same price and got a lot more out of him. But now that I think about it I need to get in touch with these people somehow. I have a twelve ounce bottle of water that I have sitting on my porch steps right now that I would like to sell. I am not greedy and not looking to sell it for as much as that banana went for. I'd be happy to sell it for half that much. Three million and it's yours. 🙂 ...This took place in Florida?, Dept: Usually you do not hear anything sane and reasonable coming out of the state of Florida but in this case that is exactly what happened. A Florida sheriff who was so tired of “bogus” school shooting hoaxes plaguing his county announced that he was going to be coming after the kids and the parents of the kids who did this prank. Fighting fire with fire is how he put it and I couldn't agree more. This guy was not fooling around. Florida law gives him the right to release the kid's photo and the video of them being arrested and the police report and for the parents he was going to come after them and charge them criminally or civilly for the cost of the investigation for endangering the child or endangering the welfare of the child. No matter what this will hit the family very hard in the pocketbook if their little angel decides to do something like this. Naturally not all people agree with this approach. Some believe the release of the video of the child being arrested and led to jail would be a form of "public shaming" where it would impact their lives. The way I see it, the kid's life was already impacted the second he picked up the phone or told people about a threatened mass shooting at school. Not just his classmates would be affected but the entire school and every single parent and teacher associated with that school would have their lives impacted also. When they want to commit or threaten to commit a crime like this then they should be able to accept all consequences of their actions. ...Are the Dodgers linked to every player that comes out of Japan now? Roki Sasaki is the latest out of Japan that the Dodgers have shown interest in and as soon and Sasaki converts the yen to dollars they’ll be holding another press conference. Why don’t they just sign everyone out of Japan and be done with it? And notice how no one objects? ...There is going to be a new woman’s basketball league that will begin play in 2025 during the WNBA’s off season. That means you’ll have more of a chance to meet women. Unfortunately your best chance at succeeding is if you are a woman. ...I have a lot of reasons to dislike the modern game of baseball because of the way it is played now as compared to how it was played when I was first introduced to it. I won't nitpick about all the new rules even though that has a lot to do with it. I think the biggest problem that I see is that there is an accepted lack of hustle by ball players on every single team in the major leagues. Some of these guys run so slow down the first base line that they make Gary Sanchez look like a track star. Here is a perfect example which happened at the worst possible time. The Houston Astros were about to be eliminated in their best of three wildcard series with the Detroit Tigers as they entered the bottom of the ninth down by a score of 5 - 2. The first two batters were retired and Astros final hope was with Mauricio Dubon but Detroit relief pitcher Will Vest got Dubon to ground out to second base to end the game. Houston was eliminated from the playoffs and Detroit advanced to the division series. But if you look at the way Dubon ran to first base it was almost like he was going through drills in spring training. That is how slow he was going. And again this was a playoff. I'm not saying if he busted it down the line that he would've been safe but you never know what is going to happen on any given play in baseball and what this guy did was quit before he got halfway down the first base line. So, I figured that the next day Dubon was going to get roasted. I checked the Houston newspapers and not one word was said about what he did. Nothing. Like it never happened. I checked the Detroit newspapers and while they were celebrating the Tiger victory, they too chose to ignore what Dubon did. No big deal! It's not important. That is the attitude that is around baseball and that is what I cannot stand the most about this game. If you don't run down the line you don't have to worry about anything. I grew up watching no-nonsense managers like Earl Weaver and Whitey Herzog and Billy Martin. There were many more but none of these guys would have tolerated anything close to what Dubon or any other players do almost daily. I cannot even imagine what Martin would have done to Dubon if he made the last out of the game like that. This is the same guy that sent Paul Blair out to right field in Boston to let Reggie Jackson know he was out of the game in 1977. Mauricio Dubon would not have been on the same team as Martin the very next year let alone the very next day. These guys make more money than the players before them but they are slowly ruining was once was a great game. ...A Rose by any other name, Dept: My view of Pete Rose changed as the years went on. When I was a kid it was just Rose the ballplayer and nothing else. And nothing else did matter. Kids at that time saw him on the Game of the Week and when Cincinnati was in the postseason and all we knew was what the announcers told us. I knew kids I was in school with that were Reds fans because of Rose. Hey, he ran everything out and always hustled the TV guys made it sound like he walked on water. That all changed during the 1980s when the whispers of his gambling problems became louder and louder until Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti suspended him for life for betting on baseball in August 1989. By that time I did not care. I am not sure but I think my disillusionment with baseball started around this time. Rose denied over and over that he did not bet on baseball and we did not find out until 2004 that he did in fact bet on baseball and on the Cincinnati Reds. During that time it was tough being a baseball fan especially if you were Yankee fan because they were at the bottom or close to it in the American league and I recall reading articles that if he was caught betting on baseball were any other players doing it too? And then a few years later the players strike came and the World Series was canceled. Pete Rose was someone that was a good player but when you took the time to really look into him you saw that the only good thing about him was when he had a bat in his hand. He gambled and gambled too much. He went to jail for tax evasion. He cheated on his wives and in the 1970s carried out relationships with underage girls. Talk about the bloom falling off the rose. But all people to this day want to talk about when you bring up what he did was his baseball statistics because somehow they think it explains everything. The only thing it explains was that he was very good at hiding who he was until he couldn't do it anymore. I won’t hide it. I respected him as a kid, grew to dislike him as I grew older, was entirely in Mr. Giamatti’s corner for suspending him for life and was happy every time an appeal of his went nowhere. I am however not happy he is gone because he did have a family. R.I.P. ... Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who thirty years ago drowned her three-year-old and fourteen-month-old sons into their car seats and let the car roll into a lake near her home was unanimously denied parole after she appeared before the board for the first time last Wednesday. First she lied to the police and said a black man carjacked her and kidnapped her sons and since this was South Carolina 99% of the people believed her. But as the police looked into it a lot of her story did not add up and when they confronted her she admitted to the killings. She checked all the boxes during her hearing. She was repentant and sorry. She wished she could take back what she did. She's a Christian and God already forgave her and most of all she cried and dabbed her eyes constantly. She's right about one thing and that God forgives but the state of South Carolina does not. Thinking about it, the safest place for her to be is behind bars. Remember the guy who shot John Lennon? Mark David Chapman is his name and next month it will be forty-four years that this took place. What if the parole board saw to it to give him his parole? He wouldn't last two weeks outside of jail because one or more crazed Beatles fans would literally kill him. If this woman received parole she just might fall down a flight of stairs two or three times until she didn't get back up. This is the problem with life in prison vs. death penalty. Eventually, the people who face the death penalty get the opportunity for parole. Her two children never had the opportunity to get out of the car. ...I took my what has slowly become my monthly trip to Walmart back on November 13th and by that time the entire store was more than ready for Christmas. I go there when they first open up the place at 6:00 a.m. for two reasons. First to avoid the crowds and secondly to avoid the children that are attached to some of them. They are loud, obnoxious and unruly. And the kids are even worse. Like I said, Walmart was ready. Anything that you wanted they had. Trees, boxes, bows, wrapping, and on and on. There was one full aisle devoted to candy. I’m not someone who hates this holiday but I do dislike how long it is played out. The Hallmark channel has been playing Christmas movies non-stop since before the World Series started and they won’t be finishing up with them until after the new year. I don’t care how much someone likes Christmas that is way too much for anyone. It’s like having a hot fudge sundae for one of your meals every day; it starts out well but then you are soon sick of it. I was able to fly around the store and get everything that I needed while avoiding the store employees that were busy stocking the shelves. I had a smile on my face because I was out of there before 7 a.m. and I knew I’d be home having coffee before the store started to become crowded. As I began to drive off something occurred to me, something so small but at the same time inescapable. Walmart was not playing Christmas music inside the store when I was there. Happy holidays indeed! ...This Thursday is Thanksgiving and for the rest of you not in the United States it just means that it’s just a regularly scheduled Thursday. There will be more football on TV over the weekend so if you forget to stop and get something to eat that’s on you. Wednesday morning I will be in line waiting for a bakery to open up with fifty or so strangers waiting to buy desserts for their families. Ironically I do this every year even though I don’t have any of the cakes or pies that I pick up. As usual there are three NFL games to keep half the household occupied because if everything goes to plan they’ll be asleep before the second game reaches halftime. That’s thanks to the Dallas Cowboys. More on them in a second. The first game which is on 12:30 p.m. ET on CBS has the Chicago Bears at the Detroit Lions and this is a Lions team that you usually do not see on Thanksgiving. That’s because they have a good team. The next game is the New York Giants vs. The Dallas Cowboys and that’s on 4:30 p.m ET on FOX. Having the Giants on is bad enough but combined with the Cowboys is like taking a valium with some NyQuil. Lastly the Miami Dolphins go to Green Bay to take on the Packers at 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC. If you survive watching all three games without having your wife, kids or any other member of your family bothering you then I want to shake your hand. And since the NFL does not know what too much of a good thing means they are going to have another game on the next day, Friday November 29th when the Oakland Raiders visit the Kansas City Chiefs. That game will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime. See what they did there? It’s a subtle way to get people to sign up and try out Prime. I’ll save you the trouble. Oakland will score less than ten points and they’ll lose. Have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving!

You should have done this at the start. There is so much information in these forums and all you have to do is make an effort.

10 out of 10, 36 seconds. One slight hesitation cost me dearly.

8 out of 10, 38 seconds. I got stumped on two but one of them I should have had. This one here I had no idea. These kind of questions get me every time!

It figures. But you don't so please do not put down someone else's work any longer.

Did you bother to check the 2k12\support section to see if your question was answered there because there is a good chance it was. You have been here fifteen years so you have had to see others given this same advice.

I suggest then that you release this instead of the hard work that eliamvpmod is doing. Thank you eliamvpmod for this. Hey Jim, we wrote that at the same time!

10 out of 10, 32 seconds. I really needed this one today.

6 out of 10, 56 seconds. Grasping at straws today my friends. Arjen Robben played for? Who the hell is Arjen Robben? Who was the coach of Steaua Bucharest in season 2004-05? Yeah, like I know. My guess was Joe Girardi. 😅

8 out of 10, 65 seconds. I needed this today because terrible Thursday is right around the corner! 😮

7 out of 10, 43 seconds. Thank you for some football questions. Which NFL team was coached by Tom Landry? Wow!

Oscar Melillo It sounds like a parody of Popeye, but the doctor was deadly serious when he told Oscar Melillo in 1926 that if he wanted to live he could eat nothing but spinach. Facing a potentially fatal kidney problem (Bright’s Disease), the 27-year-old Melillo wisely followed the doctor’s remedy and recovered from the disease, enabling him to continue his baseball career and live to the age of 64. Rather than having parodied Popeye in fact, Melillo’s story may have actually inspired it. The comic strip was created three years after Melillo’s diagnosis, by E.C. Segar, who may have known of the ballplayer’s story. Melillo reached the major leagues in 1926 after six seasons in the minors. He then played 12, through 1937, mostly as a second baseman. The first nine-plus were for the St. Louis Browns and the final nearly three seasons were as a member of the Boston Red Sox. He finished with a career .260 average, driving in 548 runs and scoring 590. Melillo then coached at the major-league level for 13 more years. Melillo was of slight stature, standing 5-feet-8 and weighing 150 pounds. He was born on August 4, 1899, in Chicago to Italian immigrant parents Maria Scaldaferri and James Melillo, a painter and shoe cobbler. Both had come to the United States from Tuscany in 1883. Oscar was the youngest of five children; his older siblings included Josephine, Munzie, James, and Rosie. He started a working life early, dropping out of high school almost as soon as he got there, “playing hookey and golf and baseball, particularly baseball.” He took a job in the office of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad, attending night school to take stenography, but too much teasing about being a “sissy” led him to apprentice as a tool maker at International Harvester in West Pullman, Illinois – certainly a more masculine-sounding job. He started playing baseball on weekends with the Alma Maters, the company semipro team. A connection to International Harvester dated back to his grammar school days. The company’s football team had a popular left tackle named Frank Fiske, whose nickname was Ski. Some of the other kids saw the way Melillo kicked the ball and helped pin the nickname on him. Years later, when he himself was working for the company, Oscar cheered Fiske on so much that his fellow workers started calling him “Ski” as well. Catcher Jake “Tomatoes” Kafora, who played in parts of a couple of years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, recommended him for his first job on organized ball, to manager Jack Sheehan of the Winnipeg Maroon. He signed with them in the fall of 1919. He played two years of outfield in the Western Canada League in 1920 and 1921. After the two years of Class B ball, it was on to Milwaukee, where he played four years (1922 through 1925) in the American Association, improving his average each year from .280 to .294 at Double A. His contract had been packaged as a late “throw-in” when the Brewers bought pitcher Eddie Schaack. Midway into his second year with the Brewers, he transitioned to the infield when the team’s second baseman, Fred “King” Lear, jumped the club to play with a team in the Wisconsin Industrial League. Oscar had played second base with the team in some postseason barnstorming in the fall of 1922, so he volunteered to take the job; shortstop Johnny Cooney seconded the notion, and he kept it. His final year with the Brewers, 1925, saw a .294 average, with 46 extra-base hits (13 of them home runs). Major league scouts were following him, and the Brewers reportedly turned down $50,000 in cash but accepted five ballplayers from the St. Louis Browns. Manager George Sisler was trying to strengthen the Browns’ defense and dealt for the second baseman that some writers were beginning to call “the new Lajoie.” With Milwaukee, Melillo had set a new record, handling 1,096 chances at second in 1925, and took part in 132 double plays. In the fifth game of the 1926 season, he took over late in the game for third baseman Gene Robertson and went hitless in his first major-league at-bat. His first hit came the next day, a double with a run batted in. His first game-winning hit came later in April, as he singled in the bottom of the 12th inning in a 2-1 victory over the White Sox. He didn’t homer often (22 in his 12 seasons); the first and only one of his rookie year was hit off Washington pitcher Dutch Ruether on June 18, tying the game in the eighth inning. His fielding won acclaim: On July 21 the New York Times wrote, “One reason the Yanks lost was Melillo’s beautiful stop of Keonig’s fast grounder near second, resulting in a double play of what should have been a base hit. Ruth’s homer followed immediately, but nobody was on.” Melillo appeared in 99 games in 1926,a year in which the Browns tumbled to seventh place after they finished third the year before. Melillo’s season had ended prematurely, after the August 9 game when he was hospitalized for six weeks with what was described as “complications due to a bad case of tonsillitis.” Indeed, he was only released at the end of October, after being diagnosed with what was termed kidney poisoning. For the season he batted 255 with 29 RBIs and 54 runs scored. His fielding was good – although he committed 22 errors, that was just two more than player-manager Sisler at first base and far fewer than Wally Gerber’s 37 at short. Following the kidney poisoning diagnosis, Melillo began his unusual diet. “They told me to eat nothing but spinach for the next few months if I wanted to live,” he said. “I tried to talk them into letting me have a steak, spaghetti, ravioli, or goulash once in a while, but they said nothing doing. When I told them I couldn’t stand the monotony of spinach three times a day, they told me I could have some variety by boiling it for breakfast, making a salad of it for lunch, and baking it for dinner.” Between meals, he was allowed to chew on raw carrots. It’s not surprising that he also earned the nickname “Spinach.” He was fortunate to survive, but there he was reporting to the Browns for spring training in 1927. He played all season long, getting spelled a couple of times a week while appearing in 107 games. He didn’t hit as well (.225), though, and his fielding suffered (36 errors, a .935 fielding percentage). Still, at the end of the year manager Dan Howley had him penciled in as his regular second baseman for 1928. In the spring, however, Otis Brannon played so well that he looked to have taken the position from Melillo by the end of March. Melillo had suffered some illness over the winter, so his stamina may not have been what it should have. There were several stretches in the 1928 season when Melillo had to sit out for a week or more. It was a disappointing year in which he struggled to play as regularly as he would have liked, and he only hit .189 in his 132 at-bats. Brannon hadn’t hit that well that season, either. As a result, the team pinned some hopes on prospect Eddie Grimes, and Melillo was seen as a reserve for the 1929 season – until that spring, when he proved himself and became Howley’s starting second baseman by Opening Day. On May 5, he had the only hit against Rube Walberg, denying him a no-hitter, but in general he started slowly, only really passing the .250 mark around the end of June. He had a strong second half though, finishing with a .296 average – well above the team’s .276 average – in 141 games, driving in 67 and improving in the field. St. Louis finished fourth, two games behind the Indians. Bill Killefer took over the helm in 1930, but the team sank to sixth. Melillo’s average dropped to .256 that season, although the team’s average was only .268. He played in all but five games, clearly having addressed his health issues. In 1931, Melillo had his best year, batting .306 and at times was among the league leaders in the early going, batting around .340 as late as mid-June. He drove in 75 runs. In the field, he handled 1,003 chances. He even placed eighth in the most valuable player voting, and earned an extra $3,000 thanks to a bonus for hitting .300 promised him by owner Phil Ball. In 1933, he set a career mark with 79 RBIs, in part on the strength of a .292 average. His fielding was excellent, at one point handling 316 chances without an error and setting a new record at second base with a .991 fielding percentage. Rogers Hornsby took over as manager about two thirds through the season, but the Browns finished last. They’d still never won an American League pennant. Not surprisingly for a last-place team, there were trade rumors throughout the offseason, and Melillo was often among them. He wasn’t moved, though, and played another full season in 1934. His average fell once more, down to .241. Though St. Louis climbed back to sixth place, Hornsby announced that for 1935 everyone was on the trading block. Joe Cronin had taken over as manager for the Red Sox, Tom Yawkey’s checkbook was open, and the Red Sox were looking for a second baseman. There were rumors galore during the winter, but nothing came of it until May 27. The two teams finally made a trade, with Melillo going to Boston and Moose Solters and a reported $25,000 in Yawkey cash going to St. Louis. Because of his inconsistently at the plate, his fielding was what kept him in the game. He played a deep second base and excelled at positioning himself well, anticipating the action – “playing the batter.” Hornsby wasn’t happy to give up so much on defense, but said he really needed a .300 hitter. Solters came through and hit .330 for him. Melillo had only been hitting .210 before the trade, no doubt a little preoccupied with all the rumors. After he landed with the Red Sox, he hit. 260. In Boston, he found himself with a home locker next to Lefty Grove. That presented an awkward situation because of a moment on August 23, 1931 when Oscar’s RBI double for a 1-0 Browns win had prevented Grove from extending his streak of 16 consecutive wins. Grove had never spoken to Melillo again, and didn’t for the first several weeks they were lockering neighbors. Finally, Grove relented and told him, “You’re eating with me tonight.” He was the starting second baseman in 1936, too, but appeared in only 98 games and hit just .226. He was 36 and perhaps starting to show his age, with a series of minor injuries that limited his playing time, though he did not miss any long stretches. A young ballplayer from Southern California joined the Red Sox in 1937: Bobby Doerr. It became Melillo’s job to tutor the promising prospect. It was predicted that he “may not appear in 50 ball games, but if Manager Joe Cronin carries out his plans the infielder will earn his salary.” It turned out to be Eric McNair who moved over from shortstop to second and handled the lion’s share of the action, while Doerr became accustomed to major league ball. Melillo appeared in just 26 games, hitting an even .250. In early December, Melillo requested and was granted his release so he could take up a job with the Browns as a coach under Gabby Street. Doerr said, early in the season, “I’ve learned more about second base just watching Ski these few weeks than I picked up in my whole three years on the coast.” He coached off and on through 1956, first with the 1938 Browns (managing the last 10 games of the season after Gabby Street left the club, finishing 2-7 with one tie.) He later served as a coach for the Indians under Oscar Vitt and Lou Boudreau. After the 1947 season, he was dropped from Boudreau's coaching staff at the insistence of owner Bill Veeck. Melillo spent part of 1948 managing in the Indians' farm system, but returned to Cleveland to serve part of the year as an aide to Boudreau for the 1948 world champions. After spending the 1949 season as a minor league manager, he coached under Boudreau in 1950, his final year with the Indians, then again with the Red Sox and Kansas City Athletics.

8 out of 10, 80 seconds. These questions were a struggle but not impossible but I should have done better. I can not get going this month.