Did You Know....? (tickets, team, league, players)

[Ridgerunner]

Willie McCovey was called up in early August of 1959 and played in only 52 games but won Rookie Of the Year honors by batting .354 with 13 HRs and 38 RBIs. But did you know that he also won the Pacific Coast League's Triple Crown that year with .372, 29 and 92? Apparently the Giants were not very impressed because in 1960 they sent him back down to Triple A for 17 games.

[square peg]

Besides both finishing with 521 home runs, Willie McCovey and Ted Williams also homered in 4 different decades - along with one other player ...

Spoiler

Rickey Henderson

[Ridgerunner]

Joe DiMaggio still holds the record for the longest hitting streak at the Triple A level: 61 games. The minor league record was set by Joe Wilhoit: 69 games.

[square peg]

The first player to use a bat with a true knob (as we know them today) at its base was ... Babe Ruth. Hmmm.

[filihok]

Originally Posted by square peg

The first player to use a bat with a true knob (as we know them today) at its base was ... Babe Ruth. Hmmm.

I'm not sure that that is true

The Evolution of the Baseball Bat
This site says that knobbed handles existed in 1879.

Also there are photos such as this one of Nap Lajoie

That show a knobbed handle

Nap played for Cleveland from 1896 - 1914. Babe Ruth's first season was 1914 when he got 10 AB's for the Red Sox.

[paladinking]

all, i don't know!!! hah

[square peg]

I would say the end of Nap's bat is flared. The handle doesn't really resemble a modern one. Maybe there's a small knob, but it's kinda hard to say from that pic. Besides - my statement has to be true. I read it on the internet! And thanks for the link, filihok. I got my info from Snopes

But here's what I was talking about.

[Fred314X]

Did you know that Arthur "Candy" Cummings (a nice Brooklyn boy!) claimed he devised the curveball after throwing stones into the ocean from the beach at Coney Island, and watching the way they skimmed off the surface of the water?

Cummings also got his nickname from admiring teammates, who said, "He's the candy."

[Ridgerunner]

Did you know that when Ruth played sandlot ball at the orphanage he was a left-handed throwing catcher?

[jtur88]

Candy Cummings weighed only 120 pounds when he pitched in the major leagues. His height (5'9") was about average for a player in his day, but he was probably the lightest player to ever play in the majors.