As I mentioned in part one of our all-time hit leaders trivia contest, I had a significantly easier time naming the greatest hitters of the 16 National League teams than I did with the American League. I actually got 13-and-a-half right, so I feel somewhat redeemed from my previous, shameful 6-for-14. Why the half point, you ask? Read on and let’s see how you do.
Arizona Diamondbacks: I’m not sure whether it’s easier or harder to guess the all-time hits leader for teams that have only been in existence a short while, but this one I got right. One need only look back to the 2001 World Series and the man who won it for the D-Backs with a walk-off base hit, Luis Gonzalez, to come up with the right answer. Gonzalez has 1337 career hits with Arizona.
Atlanta Braves: Okay, if you didn’t get this one right, I would stop watching baseball entirely. Or maybe just pick up one of the best sports autobiographies ever written: I Had a Hammer by Hank Aaron, who finished his Braves’ career with nothing shy of 3600 hits.
Chicago Cubs: I know, I know. You guessed Ernie Banks, I guessed Ernie Banks, making us both wrong, sort of. If you guessed Ryne Sandberg, you’d also be wrong. He’s 4th. Major League Baseball actually lists Cap Anson as the all-time Chicago hits leader with 2995. Anson played with the Chicago White Stockings and Colts back in the 1800s. But you know what? I’m feeling generous and am going to give myself a point for guessing Banks, and you should too. After all, I was thinking Cubs and there STILL has been no greater Cub than Mr. Baseball, who finished his career with 2583 hits.
Cincinnati Reds: Duh, Pete Rose. Professional baseball’s most famous gambler finished his career as the all-time hit leader with 4256, 3358 of which came in Cincinnati. Anyone care to take a stab at number two on the Reds’ list? Barry Larkin, of course. Dave Concepcion is number three by the way.
Colorado Rockies: Another expansion team, another easy one. Todd Helton is Colorado’s all-time hit leader with 1257. I mean the guy hits .375 like it’s nothing. Who else could it be?
Florida Marlins: Okay, I missed this one. In fact, I couldn’t even name someone who had played his entire career with the Marlins. The name Jeff Conine kept popping into my head. He’s actually number two and former Red Sox hero, Mike Lowell is third. But the correct answer here is Luis Castillo, who finished with 1273 hits as a Marlin.
Houston Astros: Again, not too much history here. I actually nailed number one, two and three on this list in perfect order. 1) Craig Biggio – 3060 2) Jeff Bagwell – 2314 3) Jose Cruz – 1937. I’m currently giving myself a huge pat on the back.
Los Angeles Dodgers: Okay, I struggled with this one, which is amazing considering it’s one of the most storied franchises in the National League. I kept thinking of all their great teams, knowing it could have been any one of a handful of players. I went ahead and guessed Steve Garvey, which is partially correct as he is the all-time hit-leading LOS ANGELES Dodger. The hit-leading Brooklynite of all time is Zack Wheat who played for the Brooklyn Robins back in the 10s and 20s. He had 2804. The all-time hit leading DODGER of all-time is Pee Wee Reese with 2170. Garvey is actually fourth on this list with 1968. I’m giving myself half a point.
Milwaukee Brewers: Robin Yount, 3142. Who else could it be?
New York Mets: I actually nailed this one too. Any guesses, Mets fans? It’s Ed Kranepool with 1418.
Philadelphia Phillies: Okay, like I said, the National League is considerably easier. Every baseball fan knows Mike Schmidt is Philadelphia’s all-time hit king with 2234.
Pittsburgh Pirates: If you don’t know the story of Roberto Clemente, Google it immediately. His career was cut short at exactly 3000 hits when the plane he was on, which was carrying aid to Nicaraguan earthquake victims, crashed. He was only 38 years old. Clemente batted .317 lifetime and is still considered the greatest Pittsburgh Pirate ever.
San Diego Padres: Tony Gwynn with 3141. No other Padre is even within 2000 hits of him. On a side note, Gwynn also consumes that many calories for breakfast.
San Francisco Giants: Another simple one. The answer here is Willie Mays, who ended his career with 3187. He played six years in New York before the Giants moved west for the 1958 season. Who knew you were in for a history lesson?
St Louis Cardinals: Another meatball. Stan Musial. 3630. FYI, Albert Pujols is halfway there.
Washington Nationals: Okay, the Nats used to be the Montreal Expos. Knowing that, you could only come up with one of three names: Andre Dawson (1575), Tim Raines (1622) or the actual all-time hit leader Tim Wallach (1694).
If you did better than 20-out-of-30, I commend you on your encyclopedic knowledge of the diamond. Perhaps you should become our next commissioner.
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I did worse somehow in the NL. I guess that just proves that I’m an AL guy since some of the NL ones were some softball lobs…
Looking forward to the all-time homerun leaders for each team. Seriously.
Chap…
I’m an AL guy too so it surprised me that I did better with the NL hit leaders.
There just seemed like a lot of no-brainers out there.
Do me a favor. Don’t tell me which ones you missed.
Han…
You know I get paid by the hour, right?
I did better in the National League also.
That’s probably because I was a Reds fan when I was a kid. Their spring training home was in Tampa and my dad took me to a lot of games. Btw, I took full credit for the Steve Garvey pick, you did ask for the Los Angeles Dodger’s leader. Even so I didn’t do as well as I thought I would. Thanks for letting me play along.
Chris
Pretty impressive list of players and stats. But come time to look over it all you can say these are stats that matter. HR’s something now of a misnomer in the steroid era .
Clemens and his lawyer Rusty Hardin are deserving of one another. There’s a preponderance of evidence to suggest Clemens lied but Hardin are simply going on about him doing HGH. The case is now about him lying to Congress which is definitely a “no no ” . Or haven’t the two of them begun to realize that as of yet ?
tophatal ……… 🙂
Chris
Here’s another reason why the Vikings’ front office and their coach Brad Childress can’t be taken seriously and why the Favre fiasco now borders on being a complete farce !
tophatal …….. 🙂
Chris
Clemens’ lawyer Rusty Hardin is a bigger d_ck wad than I thought ! He’s kidding himself if he thinks his client is still innocent . Not with the preponderance of evidence gathered by the Justice Dept . I’m not talking about anything from McNamee or Pettite but the lies he’s told to federal investigators and Congress. They’ve learned from the mess of the ongoing Bonds’ trial which’ll resume in March 2011 and has already cost the taxpayer upwards of $15 million .
How deep is the trench that has been dug by ” Rocket” ? Ten feet or more do you think ? If so there’s some crap and bulls_it that I’d also like to throw in it !
tophatal ……… 🙂
Did this piece within http://mvn.com originally and some of the responses there make me think that there are some anally retentive people in the world . Here is the piece in its original format within my site .
I’m Sorry Tony But You Just Might Be In The Minority Of One !
tophatal …….. 🙂
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow But Sometimes It’s For The Best ……..
tophatal ……. 🙂
Aer…
I had fun with it as well.
And isn’t Steve Garvey one of the first guys we ever saw using hair gel?
Was that guy’s hair ever out of place? He was impervious to hathead.
As you mention, Al, baseball has quite the predicament on its hands. There are going to be a LOT of baseball players of this generation kept out of Cooperstown.
Clemens, I fear, will be just one of them.
Al…
I’m not sure what to make of this whole Favre-Childress thing or why that story keeps leaking out.
So what if they don’t get along? They aren’t the first QB-head coach to not see eye to eye and they won’t be the last.
Not everyone has to have the loving, tearful relationship of a Kurt Warner and Dick Vermeil.
Favre calls the plays in crunch time anyway so who cares?
Al…
I’m not sure who’s been advising Clemens this whole time but it’s probably a little too late for him to backtrack now.
And as usual, I’m behind on my reading. Busy week of work.
But I’ll be over to check out your latest soon.
Chris
Rusty Hardin is a great lawyer if you want to be got off on a traffic ticket or some misdemeanor but this is big boy’s sh_t we’re now talking about. I wouldn’t trust the advice he’s giving Clemens or Clemens , himself. He threw his wife under the bus during his testimony to Congress by saying that she’d been using HGH. So what do you expect ?
Half the offense are distrusting of Childress and if they should fail then expect Zygi Wilf to perhaps fire the entire coaching staff with Childress in tow.
I feel sorry for Harvin but this is one of the reasons why I don’t feel that the NFL and NFLPA is completely cognitive of when it comes to health related issues of the players as they tend to gloss over it all.
tophatal ………… 🙂