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(Entry No. 3)
Name This Week’s Mystery Player!
How well you do know your old-time players?
Each week, I’ll post an old-time ballplayer and you can test your knowledge of “the old days” of baseball. Some of them will be easier than others, so it’s time to put your thinking caps on!
My goal in 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, 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 Identity: Wally Berger
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. And I might even add my own personal comment or two about him.
SEND ME YOUR ANSWERS VIA EMAIL RATHER THAN POSTING!
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. At the end of the week, I’ll post the names of everyone who got the correct answer.
Send to me at: Livac2@aol.com.
Last week’s entry, Al Simmons, was perhaps a little too easy for our readers, many of whom are sophisticated students of baseball history. This week’s Mystery Player is a bit tougher. So give it your best shot!
This week’s mystery player (from Wikipedia):
Today’s Mystery Player was one of the National League’s top sluggers of the early 1930s. In his initial 1930 season, he hit 38 home runs, a record for rookies which stood until 1987. He also led the league in home runs and runs batted in in 1935 despite the Braves having the fourth-most losses in MLB history, and went on to become the seventh NL player to hit 200 career home runs. He was the National League’s starting center fielder in baseball’s first All-Star Game.
One thought I’ve always had about this player is that he was a very good player on some very bad teams…some of the worst teams in baseball history. Here’s his career stats:
In 1350 games over an 11-season career, he posted a .300 batting average (1550-for-5163) with 809 runs, 299 doubles, 59 triples, 242 home runs, 898 RBI, 435 walks, .359 on-base percentage and .522 slugging percentage. Defensively, he recorded an overall .975 fielding percentage playing at all three outfield positions and first base.
If you’d like to take a stab at identifying this player, please send me your response via email: Livac2@aol.com.
But feel free to leave any personal thoughts, reflections, or general comments you might have about him.
Last Week’s Mystery Player: Al Simmons
Congratulations to Terry Farmer as the first to correctly identify last week’s mystery player as Al Simmons (his second win in a row!).
Click here to see previous Mystery Player entries
Never realized he played center.
So as to give everyone a chance to guess without the player’s identity being immediately revealed, I’m now asking you to send me your answer via e-mail instead of leaving your answer in the comments section. The names of those who have already responded have been recorded.
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).
Send your answers to me at: Livac2@aol.com.
Clues made it too easy.
Hal Trosky.