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Welcome to the New “Mystery Player World Series Tournament!”

Spring Training for the 2022 major league baseball season may be delayed, but not here on Baseball History Comes Alive! Our Mystery Player “Regular Season” tournament is well underway.

Here’s What It’s All About!

There’s nothing like a little friendly competition to get the juices flowing! As I mentioned, I’ve decided to turn the weekly Mystery Player game into a three-round tournament.

To use as much baseball logo as possible, I’ll be referring to each of the three rounds as the East, Central, and West Divisions. The divisional play will consist of six weekly entries. Each division winner and one wild card player will advance to the four-player Mystery Player World Series tournament!

East Divisional Play, Week Three

Player Identities: Eddie Collins and Heine Groh

We’re currently in Week Three, with competition for the East Division championship. After six weeks, I’ll announce the East Division winner. Then we’ll start over in the Central Divison, followed by the West Division. If the same player wins more than one division, the second-place player will advance to the World Series.

To mix things up a bit, I’ll be throwing some “curves”: the posting of each weekly entry will always be on the weekend (Friday to Sunday), but the time will be varied and unannounced…I’ll be “mixing it up,” so that no one will be sitting on my “fastball” anticipating the post at a set time!

The weekly entries will go out automatically to all the subscribers of the Baseball History Comes Alive website, so you don’t have to do anything…just be ready each weekend!

And to be clear…the tournament is “open book.” Feel free to use any resources you want. As always, the underlying objective is to enhance our knowledge of baseball history while having some fun with a little competition.

Tournament Prizes

The winner of the tournament will receive a $25 Amazon gift card and a complimentary copy of my new book, soon to be published, The Best of Baseball History Comes Alive. The runners-up will also receive complimentary copies of my new book.

Tournament Scoring

As each round progresses, I’ll keep a running tally of players’ scores and weekly standings. Scoring will be as follows:

Three points: The weekly winner – the first player to correctly identify the Mystery Player(s) and answer all bonus questions correctly.
Two points: All the other players who correctly identify the Mystery Player(s) and answer the bonus questions correctly.
One point: Players who correctly identify the Mystery Player(s) only.

Participation will be open to all readers of Baseball History Comes Alive and our Old-Time Baseball Photos Facebook page. Also, please extend an invitation to any friends or relatives who might enjoy playing.

So as to give everyone a chance to participate without the player’s identity being immediately revealed, send me your answers via e-mail instead of leaving your answers in the comments section.

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

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“The Mystery Player World Series Tournament!”

Let’s Play Ball!

East Divison, Week Three

This week’s Mystery Players (from Wikipedia):

For today’s Mystery Player quiz, we return to the Dead Ball Era, with two prominent players from that great era of baseball.

Mystery Players on the left played as a second baseman in the major leagues from 1906 to 1930. A graduate of Columbia University, he holds major league career records in several categories and is among the top few players in several other categories. In 1925, he became just the sixth person to join the 3,000 hit club – and the last for the next 17 seasons. He is the only non-Yankee to win five or more World Series titles with the same club as a player, and has played on a total of six World Series Championship teams.

Mystery Player on the right played as a major league third baseman, spending nearly his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds and New York Giants. He was the National League’s top third baseman in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and captained numerous championship teams. He was an effective leadoff hitter, batting .300 four times and leading the league in doubles twice and in hits, runs, and walks once each.

Who are the Two Mystery Players?

This week’s bonus questions:

What year was this photo taken? What was the occasion?
Why do you think these two players were put together for this photo?
What was the nickname of the player on the left?
The player on the left was a member of the famous ____________ infield of the ______________ (team).
The player on the right was known for using his famous ______________ bat.

Good luck!

If you’d like to take a stab at identifying these players, 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. Remember you don’t have to answer everything to submit an answer. Just give it your best shot!

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

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Last Week’s Results for East Division, Week Two:

The Mystery Players were

Joe Girardi, David Cone, Don Larsen, Yogi Berra, David Wells, and Joge Posada.

Answers to the Bonus Questions:

These were the pitcher-catcher battery combinations of the three Yankee Perfect Games. Don Larsen is the only player to pitch a Perfect Game in a World Series. David Wells’s nickname is Boomer. David Cone is the Cy Young award winner. Yogi and Posada are honored in Monument Park.

Congratulations to:

Paul Doyle

He was the first to identify last week’s Mystery Players correctly and also answer all the bonus questions correctly. He receives 3 points.

The following also correctly identified the Mystery Players and correctly answered the bonus questions, receiving 2 points:

Terry Farmer, William Carter, Nick Snider, Ed Cassidy, Everett Shockley, Steve Falco, Tom Marshall, Cary Seidman, Russ Bravender, Bob Rambo, Al Citro, George Curcio, Mike Bresina, Patricia Hanson, James Pearn, Kevin Barwin, Michael Keedy, Mark Moreno, Bill Cunniff.

The following identified the Mystery Players correctly but not all the bonus questions, receiving 1 point:

Fred Holbrook

Current Standings:

Click on this link to see where you rank in the current race for the Eastern Division title after two weeks of play.

Appeal Plays: If you think I’ve made a mistake with your score, you can request an appeal, just like an appeal in a major league game. Send me your appeal request at: Livac2@aol.com. It won’t go to New York, but I’ll address the issue as fairly as I can…and probably quicker than most major league appeals!