(Entry No. 8 )

Can You Name This Week’s Mystery Players?

How well you do know your old-time players?

This week I thought I’d try something a bit different! Instead of just one Mystery Player, today we have an entire group!

Some of you are aware of my love for old-timers’ games, so that’s why I chose this one. And with tomorrow being Christmas, I thought I’d send it out a little earlier. 

My goal with this feature is to shine our baseball spotlight on some very good players from days gone by who have been overshadowed by the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Speaker, Hornsby, Grove, Greenberg, Robinson, Paige, Gibson, and Williams, among many other superstars the game has produced. Hopefully, we can give them a little exposure before they are totally lost over the passage of time. 

Player Identities: Back Row, L-R: Duffy Lewis, Eddie Collins, Roger Bresnahan, Clark Griffith, Bill Klem, Red Murray, George Sisler. Front Row, L-R: Honus Wagner, Frankie Frisch, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Tris Speaker.

As always on Baseball History Comes Alive, we can have some fun while enhancing our baseball history learning experience. Each entry will include a short description of the player and highlights from his career. Some of the entries might require you to do a little research on your own. I might even add a personal comment or two about him.

So as to give everyone a chance to guess without the player’s identity being immediately revealed, send me your answer via e-mail instead of leaving your answer in the comments section. Send your answers to me at: Livac2@aol.com.

This week’s Mystery Players (Information from one of my previous posts):

(I’ll give you Babe Ruth, but you’ll have to work for the others!)

It’s from the ***** game played on ****** at *******. The game was organized by the New York Journal American newspaper to ******. The event featured entertainment and comedy from such 1940s stars as Jimmy Cagney, Ethel Merman, Cab Calloway, and Milton Berle. But the main attraction was an exhibition game featuring some of baseball’s biggest names, including seven of the then twelve living members of the Baseball Hall Of Fame and three of ‘The Five Immortals’ of the inaugural Hall Of Fame class of 1936, including Babe Ruth and *****, and *****. The baseball All-Stars defeated the U.S. Army New Cumberland Reception Team 5 – 2. The army team was aided by ballplayers Hank Greenberg, Johnny Beazley, Danny Murtaugh, Billy Hitchcock, and Enos Slaughter (none of them in the photo).

There are twelve ballplayers in the photo. How many can you get? I’m giving you the Bambino, but you’ll have to work for the rest! Don’t think you have to get them all. Just give it your best shot.

This week’s bonus questions:

1. What was the name given to the game and the purpose of this game?
2. What was the date?
3. Where was it played?
4. All but two are in the Hall of Fame. Which are the two not in the Hall?

If you’d like to take a stab at identifying these players and the bonus questions, please send me your answers via email. But feel free to add any thoughts or personal reflections you might have about him in the comments section below.

Send your answers to me at: Livac2@aol.com

AT THE END OF THE WEEK, I’LL POST THE NAMES OF EVERYONE WHO GOT THE CORRECT ANSWER, INCLUDING THE WINNER (THE FIRST ONE TO GET IT RIGHT).

Last Week’s Winners:

Last week’s entry was a bit harder than I realized. But congratulations to Paul Doyle as the first to correctly identify last week’s Mystery Player as:

Danny MacFayden

Answers to the Bonus Questions:

His nickname was Deacon because of his serious demeanor. He was a member of the 1932 World Series champion Yankees, but didn’t play in the World Series. The featured photo was from the historic collection of Charles Conlon.

Congratulations to the following who all identified the Mystery Player correctly. You guys really know your old-time baseball!:

Paul Doyle, Terry Farmer, Don Stokes, Fred Holbrook, Kevin Barwin, Michael Keedy.

The following identified the Mystery Player correctly and also correctly answered the bonus questions correctly:

Paul Doyle, Terry Farmer, Michael Keedy

Do you have a favorite player in mind you’d like to see featured as the Mystery Player?

If so, just drop me a line. I’ll even credit you as the one who suggested him. Feel free to add any personal thoughts about him or why you would like to see him featured. I’m looking for guys who are not obvious, but are not impossible to identify either.  Livac2@aol.com.

Click here to see previous Mystery Player entries