July 11, 20223 yr I'm reading Roger Angell's biography of David Cone, and out-of-nowhere, Chapter 14 has nothing to do with Cone. Chapter 14 ("The Four-Forty") is all about a trivia question that fascinated Angell and the other New York writers... I'm updating to add 4 players who have qualified since the book was published in 2001: Quote Who are the 14 MLB players with 4 letters or fewer in their surnames who have hit 40+ homers in a season? The most obvious one is Babe Ruth. The least obvious is Wally Post -- hit 40 for the Reds in 1955. Will leave the rest to you chucklefucks... Edited February 26, 20241 yr by Beau Vine
July 11, 20223 yr Author 12 minutes ago, You don't know me said: Sammy Sosa and Adam Dunn come to mind. Big Donkey hit 40 5 years in a row, 6 total, finished with 462, but never finished higher than #21 in MVP voting. 12 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said: George Bell Wow, didn't expect Bell off the board so soon. 47 in 1987 (a fluke year for a lot of guys); his next highest was 31.
July 11, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Helobious said: Jimmie Foxx & Willie Mays are another 2 easy ones. I am disappointed that I missed those.
July 11, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, Beau Vine said: Big Donkey hit 40 5 years in a row, 6 total, finished with 462, but never finished higher than #21 in MVP voting. I think the high strike outs hurt him. His best years were kind of prior (at least I think) to analytics really becoming an important part of baseball. ETA: Playing for Cincinnati didn't help him either. That's probably the biggest issue. Edited July 11, 20223 yr by You don't know me
July 11, 20223 yr lee may and jimmy wynn got really close but didn't make it. fisk had 37 in a season. josh bell also had 37. albert belle should've changed his name. johnny mize is my contribution.
July 11, 20223 yr nelly cruz is another. wouldn't have thought about him, but the 4 players since 2001 made me think.
July 11, 20223 yr Derrek Lee. Carlos Lee topped out at 37. Jeff Kent also topped out at 37. Edited July 11, 20223 yr by WBT
July 11, 20223 yr 1 minute ago, henrygandorf said: ty cobb and pete rose had 40. total. for their careers. probably. Cobb had 46 INSIDE THE PARK HRs....117 total.
July 11, 20223 yr Johnny Mize with the NY Giants should be another. missed that HG already named him. Edited July 11, 20223 yr by BillyGoatHill
July 11, 20223 yr 5 minutes ago, BillyGoatHill said: Jermaine Dye If he went almost DH-only, probably could have squeezed a couple extra years. OPS last 6 seasons... .793 .846 1.006 .804 .885 .793 But he played 133 in RF that final season, it was real bad.
July 11, 20223 yr I was sitting here still racking my brain but that's 14 named: Ruth Post Sosa Dunn Bell Foxx Mays Ott Rice Mize Cruz Cash Lee Dye
July 11, 20223 yr Author 1 hour ago, dcar00 said: 1 hour ago, WBT said: Derrek Lee. I thought these and Dye were the three really difficult ones. My hint for Cash was going to be "Post, TX."
July 11, 20223 yr Author 38 minutes ago, WBT said: I was sitting here still racking my brain but that's 14 named: Ruth Post Sosa Dunn Bell Foxx Mays Ott Rice Mize Cruz Cash Lee Dye
July 12, 20223 yr Cash was a damn good all around ball player. when he retired his 377 home runs were the 4th most by AL left hander behind Ruth, Gehrig, and Williams. his 61 season was pretty crazy but kind of lost to history because of another thing going on...
July 12, 20223 yr Soto should one of these years. Josh Bell maybe. CJ Cron is only a little off the pace to do it this year.
July 12, 20223 yr 2 minutes ago, WBT said: Soto should one of these years. Josh Bell maybe. CJ Cron is only a little off the pace to do it this year. Yeah, I was going for rampant homerism but Cron seems like a decent bet.
July 12, 20223 yr Author 2 hours ago, petscii said: There was also 11 seconds where I thought Frank Thomas's last name was Hurt.
July 12, 20223 yr Author Editing for clarity... OK, since y'all think you're so fucking smart, try this one on... There are 6 guys in MLB history since 1940 who won the MVP without 1) getting any MVP or CY or RoY votes in previous seasons, or 2) winning any other major awards (GG, SS, etc.) or 3) playing in the ASG in previous seasons. Who are they? Not counting Lynn and Ichiro, who won as rookies. I'm arbitrarily throwing the 1940 cutoff because MVP voting was so absurd in the old days (Ruth won 1 MVP and received votes in only 2 other seasons). Actually, I'll give y'all one: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/konstji01.shtml Now that he's out of the way, the other five have occurred during my lifetime. Edited July 12, 20223 yr by Beau Vine
July 12, 20223 yr Miguel Tejeda? And some guy named Kevin Mitchell. Legit never heard of him. Edited July 12, 20223 yr by Helobious
July 12, 20223 yr Author 37 minutes ago, Helobious said: Miguel Tejeda? And some guy named Kevin Mitchell. Legit never heard of him. Is this another Dale Murphy bit? And it's neither of these guys. I edited the question to make it clearer -- Mitchell is a pretty good guess, but he finished 3rd in RoY. Tejada got MVP votes the two previous seasons. You're looking for dudes who basically just came out of nowhere to win the MVP. Take a look at the Konstanty b-r page I linked -- you're looking for someone who has nothing in the awards column until "MVP-1." Edited July 12, 20223 yr by Beau Vine
July 12, 20223 yr Is Vida Blue one? That's about only guess I got...I probably have never heard of the people who have done it
July 12, 20223 yr Beau is old, but probably not 1959 old. Thought Maris might be one, but they had two ASGs back then, he made one before MVP.
July 12, 20223 yr this feels like a willie hernandez situation though the question is very confusing to me.
July 12, 20223 yr Cecil Fielder? Did he win the MVP his 50HR season? Seems like he never won one but worth a shot.
July 12, 20223 yr 9 hours ago, Helobious said: And some guy named Kevin Mitchell. Legit never heard of him. then you never played the (really shitty) RBI Baseball 2. he was the only guy that had any pop. 10 hours ago, Beau Vine said: Editing for clarity... OK, since y'all think you're so fucking smart, try this one on... There are 6 guys in MLB history since 1940 who won the MVP without 1) getting any MVP or CY or RoY votes in previous seasons, or 2) winning any other major awards (GG, SS, etc.) or 3) playing in the ASG in previous seasons. Who are they? Not counting Lynn and Ichiro, who won as rookies. I'm arbitrarily throwing the 1940 cutoff because MVP voting was so absurd in the old days (Ruth won 1 MVP and received votes in only 2 other seasons). Actually, I'll give y'all one: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/konstji01.shtml Now that he's out of the way, the other five have occurred during my lifetime. does the bolded mean ever in the career, or just before the MVP?
July 12, 20223 yr My first thought was Terry Pendleton, but it looks like he won a Gold Glove or two before ‘91.
July 12, 20223 yr 9 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said: Googling kinda defeats the purpose. And not Tejada. Didn’t google, just looked up mvp winners on bref and clicked around on guys I’d never heard of. Although I do remember Tejeda when he played. He was in that kickass HR derby with Berkman in Houston in 2004.
July 12, 20223 yr Just looked up MVP winners, pretty much negates the point. Edited July 12, 20223 yr by shadow_operative2.0
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