Thursday, October 26, 2006

'06-'07 Quiz II

In the Quiz I comments, AJM provided a link to a picture of Kevin Seitzer. That picture was taken during a three-game series in which the Royals were the visiting team. The next road series the Royals played that season was against a team that featured a player who Roger Clemens said he hated to face. Name him.

(Note: Not all quizzes will involve Kevin Seitzer. Nor will they all require the use of retrosheet.org.)

(New rule: Once you give an answer, you can't make another guess until at least one other person has taken a shot at it.)

Comments:
I'm going to go with The Governor, Jerry Browne.
 
Incorrect.
 
Okay, I have my second guess all teed up and ready to go once someone else takes a shot.
 
Cool. This brings up an interesting point. If this were the last quiz, and you were within four points of first place, and the person in first didn't know it either, and you made your first guess, and no one liked you, everyone else could all just not guess, shutting you out. Stuff like that. But all a person would need is one other person to like them and put in a phony guess. Or create another account. I will be monitoring possible scams closely.

I may also make the rule that you can guess twice in a row as long as 24 hours passes between your answers. In fact, there's a rule, that's a rule.
 
I'm gonna go with Paul Molitor; furthermore, I think the picture was taken on August 17, 1987 at Texas Stadium in the third inning; Seitzer hit into a fielder's choice, reaching first, Brett walked, pushing Seitzer to second (where I think he's running from) and Danny Tartabull hit a grounder to short (the ball in front of Seitzer in the photo) which forced Brett 6-4 at second to end the inning.
 
Matty, look at that pic again, only think less when you look at it.

Molitor: incorrect.
 
Okay, now that I control the board again, Alex, I'll go with:

Who is Pete O'Brien?
 
Nope.
 
Jack Morris.
 
Harold Baines.
 
No on Morris. (I'm looking for a guy Clemens hated to face, like, in a pitcher/batter kinda way, not in a back alley kinda way.)

No on Baines.
 
Chet Lemon.
 
Ruben Sierra
(ps: are family members allowed to play?)
 
I'm gonna go with Sweet Lou Whitaker.
 
Last three answers: incorrect. This is fun.

Family members: Allowed to play.
 
Gene Petralli?
 
Cecil Espy. And this is getting so NOT fun...
 
Petralli: CORRECT.

I was gonna say, "Actually, it was Geno Petralli." But in retrosheet it calls him "Gene." He was always called Geno, on broadcasts and baseball cards, but either way, that's the guy I was looking for. Cousin Kara gets it, on her second guess!

So, the picture was taken in the August 7-9, 1987 series at Fenway. It's a March '88 book, so '87 would be the last year the photo could've been taken in. Seitzer was wearing the Dick Howser patch on his right sleeve, which the Royals wore from June until the end of the season in 1987. The right field wall and foul line/pole tells us that it's Fenway Park, so it had to be the August series, since that was the only time they came to Fenway after June that season. (The actual moment of the pic is debatable: fourth inning of game 2 or 1st inning of game 3. I'd say the latter, if someone held a gun to my head (unlikely--I really hope no one would commit a murder based on this).

Anyway, the next road series the Royals played was in Texas. Geno Petralli was on the team. He, and others, did well against Clemens. But, on the back of an old baseball card, there were two categories: "loves to face" and "hates to face." Clemens put, I believe, Mark McGwire for "loves," and the light-hitting Petralli for "hates." It's funny to look at each Rangers game he played in against the Sox. Every time you see a couple of hits, inevitably they were off Roger. (Note: Now that I think about it, the card company may have just decided, based on stats alone who each pitcher "loves" and "hates" to face. The logistics of asking every single player these questions may presented difficulty. Then again, this little categories thing may have only been on Roger's card, used to show the irony that such a good picther would do great against a good hitter, but bad against a bad one.) Just in case it was the company did decide for him, AJM gets .4 points for guessing a player from the right boxscore right away. 4.6 points go to Kara.

I'm still trying to figure out Matty's first answer. He said the pic was taken in Texas. Maybe he meant the series I was referring to was Texas, as he got the right date of that. But why would that lead to a guess of Molitor, who wasn't on the Rangers, or Royals or Red Sox for that matter? I guess it doesn't matter now.
 
I initially thought the photo was taken in Texas, before I looked closely enough at the photo...KC's next series was at Toronto...oh never mind...enough with the Seitzer. I'm sick of him.
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
Holy crap, I'm psyched! I narrowed it down to the Rangers but it seemed like someone guessed almost every decent guy on the team and they kept coming up wrong... I was even a little embarrassed to pick Petralli but the avg. against Clemens was good so I went with it.
 

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