****Remember, try this without research. Release your inner James Joyce and show us your stream of consciousness as you decipher the answer. Add to that the teachings of Myagi: patience. If you don’t get the answer right away, give your brain a chance to work if for no other reason than to stay in the discussion. You may not have THE answer, but you might prompt another reader by asking the right question.
By Chas
There aren’t that many major league players who were born in North Dakota. Only 15, in fact. I’m the all-time leader among players from my home state in runs, hits, doubles, triples, RBI and stolen bases. Only Travis Hafner has hit more home runs, and only he could potentially challenge some of my other marks.
I’m not North Dakota’s favorite son, however. That would be a guy who wasn’t even born in the Peace Garden State, but there’s a museum in his honor in Fargo nevertheless. His family moved there when we he was 10, and since he held a record that was revered for a long time, I’m not surprised they make a bigger deal of him than me.
But, I was a pretty big deal too. I earned varsity letters in three sports other than baseball in high school. One of those sports was track and field, where I won state titles in the 110 and 300-meter hurdles. We didn’t have a baseball team, so I played American Legion ball instead.
I went to college out of state and was a two-sport star there. In fact, I was a member of a national championship team in a sport other than baseball.
It was at the professional level where I earned my baseball glory. I was a member of the first (and only) World Series championship team for the franchise who drafted me (first overall), and who I played most of my career with. I batted .352 in that postseason (25-for-71 in 16 games), with 2 HR, 7 RBI and 14 runs scored, and even recorded the final putout in our Series clinching game.
My career didn’t quite live up to the potential of a first overall pick in the draft. I had my best season at age 26, leading the league in hits, finishing second in batting average and notching over 100 runs and 100 RBI. I never came close to matching those numbers again. However, I am the only player to win a particular award at two entirely different positions in my career.
Who Am I?
Time to formulate a list of team which have only won one World Series title.
Are we talking about the ever versatile Nebraska Cornhusker punter and LA Angels 1B/Outfielder Darin Erstad? The clues seem to fit, although I had no idea he was from North Dakota.
Wally that would have been my guess too. But what other teams have won only one World Series? Anaheim, Arizona..Is Atlanta on that list? I can only remember them winning once.
“His family moved there when we was 10” – way to get into character!
Ha! That was a typo, Bill. Are you suggesting I was making fun of the way people from that part of the country speak? 🙂
Smitty — The Braves as a franchise have won more than 1 WS. Milwaukee Braves count, too.
As do the Boston Braves: https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1914_WS.shtml
I was half awake when I read it Chas, and it cracked me up. I thought maybe you were giving 110% for this one, you know, for the gipper and all.
Good call Wally. I was just stuck running through the lineups of the Royals team that won the WS in the mid 80s and the Twins from a few years later.
If I remember correctly, Erstad started in the outfield with the Angels and had to be convinced to move to first base in an attempt to keep him healthy. Like Chas said, he never quite lived up to his billing, but had a quality major league career.
Definitely played baseball with a football mentality. Never was afraid to get dirty, which probably led to a lot of his injury problems.
Casey, I hope you found quickly that the Twins own 2 WS titles, right? ’87 and ’91.
I coulda swore we had a trivia question to which Darin Erstad was the answer not too long ago … or am I imagining things? (again)
Smitty … good point … Erstad was always a hustler … I enjoyed watching him play … kinda like Pete Rose, but not quite the hitting talent … nor the gambling issues.
Of course you know that Darin Erstad is the correct answer.
Wally, there was some trivia question (probably over a year ago), but I think it was about Todd Helton, although I’m not sure. Anyway, for that reason, I wondered if this question might be too easy. Either way, I thought it was either going to be really easy or really hard.
Roger Maris is the guy with the museum in Fargo, btw.