Tuesday Trivia: Home Runs in all MLB parks
 

Who was the 1st MLB player to hit a home run in every Major League ballpark that was in use during his career?


WHOOPS-Meant to post this in Watercooler Sports Talk Section.

Frank Robinson or Fred McGriff

just guesses.

I guessed Barry Bonds. I looked it up and would not have guessed the right answer.

First clue: he became the first player to become a play-by-play broadcaster. He was a radio play-by-play guy for 17 years, the same length as his MLB playing career.

Ralph Kiner? I don't know if he played in both leagues but he hit home runs and broadcast for the Mets from 1962 on, along with Lindsey Nelson and Bob Murphy.

My right answer is also wrong, then. I thought I read Mike Cameron.

From your clue, is it Rizzuto?

Good guesses, but this guy was more of a radio personality than a tv guy.

I had to look it up because I thought it was Ichiro but that was wrong. Crazy.

I am out I thought it would have be Ralph Kiner but interested to see more clues or the answer

That's a good one...

I thought about Frank Robinson as he hit a couple hundred homers for the Reds and Orioles and would have gone deep in every MLB park in his day. But when I saw the clue about announcing I knew it wasn't him. I guess it isn't Uecker!!

I definitely need more clues if someone else doesn't swoop in and figure it out.

More clues
 

To give you a sense of the time period in which he played/lived, he sold Babe Ruth a $50,000 life insurance policy while a player (he had a second job as many did back then). The beneficiaries were Mrs. Ruth and their adopted daughter, Dorothy. That same year, he trailed only Babe Ruth in on base percentage. Babe's was .545 and his was .481


Another clue: His 1960 Fleer card actually had a picture of his teammate Larry Woodall on it. The error wasn't discovered until 2010, showing that even some of the greats can be forgotten to time. The two do look slightly similar, but not enough to justify the mix-up.

Are you sure about this? When I looked it up the answer was a much more modern guy.

It has happened a few times during the course of baseball's history.

In the early times, it was hard to accomplish the feat, as there was no interleague play, and players were seldom traded to a different league.

But every time a new stadium is added, the record can be set again, as the record in question is to homer in all MLB stadiums that were in use at the time the player is playing in.

I'd be happy to send you my source via PM.

I get it, but I will show you what I found suggesting that the more modern guy was the FIRST to do it.

Bobby Murcer?

Ahhh! Now I know who it is for sure!!! And the data is verifiable.

I love this stuff. I run a Fantasy League and just for fun, each week I will post some fun facts or trivia questions about baseball. I will probably use this one sometime this year.
Thanks,
Bob

Its not Bobby, but another good announcer guess. As one of the clues states, its a guy who was a contemporary of Babe Ruth. They actually were both rookies in 1914.

Waite Hoyt? He was better known as an announcer than player, and would've known Ruth.

Never mind... After I guessed I checked. The guy didn't hit a single home run his entire 21 year career......

He could be the answer to another trivia question - What HOFer who played 20+ years never hit a home run?

The non-home run hitters makes for its own trivia:http://research.sabr.org/journals/non-home-run-hitters

Waite Hoyt is one of only 10 players (maybe more since the article was written) to have over 1,000 at bats and to never hit a home run. Other players on the list include Don Sutton, Iron Man Joe McGinnity, and the worst offender, William (Bill) Holbert, who is the only player to crack 2,000 at bats and still never have a home run. Holbert, a 19th century catcher had 2,335 at bats.

FYI- Waite Hoyt is the answer to another kind-o-cool trivia: Who has played with the most Hall-of-Famers? 36!!

Ruth's OB% was .5445 in 1923 and Cristobal Torriente was 2nd at .4809. Ruth's next highest OBP was .532 in 1920. My source is BBR.

Mark may be the first and last person in history to guess a guy with zero home runs in response to a question about home run hitting prowess. You can't make this up. I think the reason it's a hard question is that back then, there weren't a lot of trades and not that many players played in both leagues?

He played for a lot of different teams, I am not surprised. Plus, a lot of underserving guys from the 30s made the Hall.

I'm sure you know this, but Torriente was in the National Negro Leagues.

For this trivia, I'm just including the American/National League of MLB.

But yes, I meant .545 for Ruth’s OBP% in 1923

Final clue?
 

The player in question died of lung cancer at age 56 in a Detroit suburb on July 9, 1951, three days before the All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. The game began with a moment of silence in his honor. Ty Cobb, who visited his old teammate in the hospital, told his friend that he had earned election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, which gave him much joy. But it wasn’t true. He wasn’t elected until the following year, posthumously, on his 12th ballot.

I was able to find the name after the Fleer card clue. Fun trivia, that took some searching and reading to get the answer. Underrated player for sure.

I wasn't familiar enough with the early announcers... But the Cobb clue reminded me of a tribute CD John Miley put together featuring this guy.

Most surprising thing, to me, is the guy hit all his homers in one of the leagues in one season, at the tail end of his career.

Yeah that surprised me too, although I guess it was only 8 parks total and back then you played a lot of games against each team.

I never knew he played elsewhere...and wasn't aware of his broadcasting career.

Nice one!


I guess the natural follow-up questions would possibly be:

Who was the first player to homer in all the National & American League parks during his career?

and...

Who has homered in the most different (not counting remodels) MLB stadiums?


.

Harry Heilmann
 

So when Harry Heilmann was claimed by the Cincinnati Reds off waivers in 1930, he homered in the 8 stadiums in the National League, adding to the 8 he had hit in as a Tiger in the American League. Doesn't sound so difficult to hit a home run in all 16 parks, yet it hadn't happened in the first 27 years that the American League was considered part of MLB along with the National League.

As pointed out, it goes to show how few people played in both Leagues back in the day.

A few other tidbits about Harry Heilmann:
1) He succeeded HOFer Sam "Wahoo" Crawford in right-field for the Tigers.

2) He held the Major League record of 134 hits on the road in 1925 until Ichiro Suzuki passed it in 2004 with 145.

3) He hit batted over .390 4x, leading the league each time. His .403 in 1923 was ten points ahead of Babe Ruth. Ted Williams' .406 in 1941 is the only .400 average in the American League since Heilmann.

4) His career batting average of .342 ranks in the top 20 and just .0005 points behind Babe Ruth.

5) Heilmann's nickname was "Slug"

6) Heilmann took public speaking classes and had to learn to read the ticker tape since radio announcers did not broadcast from away games in those days. He used his imagination to make the game interesting and build excitement for those away games, where messages he received might simply say, “single to left.”

7) During World War II, he traveled to the Middle East as part of a baseball group entertaining troops.

wow I learned alot

thanks

Great Trivia

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Every thread needs a card.
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.342 lifetime BA, but the metrics aren't that kind to him.

Hall of Fame Statistics
Black Ink
Batting - 25 (97th), Average HOFer ≈ 27
Gray Ink
Batting - 244 (33rd), Average HOFer ≈ 144
Hall of Fame Monitor
Batting - 192 (50th), Likely HOFer ≈ 100
Hall of Fame Standards
Batting - 57 (47th), Average HOFer ≈ 50
JAWS
Right Field (9th):
72.5 career WAR | 47.4 7yr-peak WAR | 60.0 JAWS | 5.5 WAR/162