by Wally
Pinch hitting for the WAI again on short notice. Here we go …
I grew up in the land of Paul Bunyan and later became known as one of the best and most versatile players of my era. I played in two World Series, but my team won only one of them. But I guess I played really well in that one since I was named World Series MVP.
Versatility aside, you could probably say it was on offense where I made my mark as a Hall of Famer. I’m one of only four players in major league history with at least 3,000 hits, a .300 lifetime batting average, and 500 stolen bases. The other three are Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner and Eddie Collins. But I distinguish myself from that group since I played in the DH era and I’m the only one of the four to hit at least 200 home runs.
As a seven time All-Star, I played with several Hall of Famers, but only two of us wear the same cap in Cooperstown. Who Am I???
Played in the DH era, but was versatile, so not likely a DH himself. DH era but not necessarily an ALer. 3000 hits, 500 SBs, and .300 average and versatile. Was Pete Rose ever a Series MVP? IDid he hit 200 HRs? think Bench was MVP when the Reds won in 1975. Lots of HOFers on that team, but I would have thought most wore Reds hats. Maybe Rose didn’t. At any rate for lack of any other, he’s my guess.
Bonehead me!!!! Pete Rose is NOT in the HOF. Oh well.
So how about a Minnesota Twin? Isn’t that the land of Paul Bunyan? Rod Carew? Did he get 200 HRs or 500 stolen bases. Kirby Puckett? same questions. But I am going with….Puckett.
So Carew was Latin American, and Puckett was a big city boy, I think (Chicago?). So I have redirected my thoughts towards a team in 2 World Series, one a win and one a loss. KC Royals? George Brett? If I keep on listing players I am bound to stumble on the correct answer. And why do these thoughts not occur to me until AFTER I post?
I was going to do a WAI this afternoon, but to be honest, I’m glad Wally beat me to it.
Land of Paul Bunyan is Minnesota, right? Versatile player in DH era with some power and speed. Only one of two players from his team in the Hall of Fame, no that narrows it down.
Could it be Paul Molitor? Can’t remember if he won a World Series MVP, but he and Yount are the only two Brewers in the Hall of Fame, I think he’s from the upper midwest and the rest of the criteria fit, I believe…although I’m not positive he reached 500 SB.
I like Chas’ guess much better than my multiple failures. Pays to have some knowledge of baseball, to be sure.
Pete, as usual, your passion was compelling, but your accuracy was … well … kinda like Nuke Laloosh’s. 🙂 But at least you were hunting in the right league … the AL.
Puckett was indeed a Chicago-area boy … I believe he starred at Triton JC before being drafted. George Brett? To my knowledge he played almost exclusively at 3B in the bigs (maybe a little 1B/DH), plus he and brother Ken are SoCal boys and of course George was not terribly fleet of foot (although he was a very good baserunner). 201 SBs in his career which isn’t too shabby. Of course, if it was Brett, I woulda thrown something in there about a “sticky situation” … if you recall the “pine tar incident”. The KC Royals made it to one WS and of course they won it vs the Cardinals.
Chas gets the helmet sticker!! Paul Molitor is the correct answer. He was born in St Paul, went to HS there and starred for the Univ of Minnesota. (Given the Minn connection, I was half expecting to get some Dave Winfield answers). Molitor also ended his career with the Twins. But his best years were with Milwaukee first (with Robin Yount … the only other HoFer wearing a Brewer cap) and then with Toronto. He helped the Brewers to a World Series in ’82, but they lost the “Suds Series” to St Louis. He was the WS MVP in ’93 when he batted .500 in the 6 game series and Toronto beat the Phillies in dramatic fashion on Joe Carter’s famous walk-off HR. Molly played 2B, SS, 3B and then quite a bit of DH in the second half of his career. To no surprise, he was a first ballot HoFer.
Chas … sorry if I jumped the gun. I figured that once it got to be 10am Central that you were somehow incapacitated for the day. If you’re planning to do afternoon submissions, that would be good to know and I’ll keep my gun in the holster.
The first name that popped into my head was Winfield, so sorry for not showing my stream of consciousness.
As I was writing that I was thinking Winfield, but knew, despite his speed, he didn’t have anywhere near 500 SB (not to mention he didn’t bat .300 lifetime), I thought of Yount. I knew he wasn’t the right answer, but thinking of him led me to Molitor.
No problem on jumping the gun, Wally. I usually do them the night before, but had some unexpected craziness last night, so I told Casey I’d try to get to it this afternoon. So, like I said, I was kind of relieved that you had already done it.
OK, Chas … so I take it that the plan is still to have these generally posted on Wed mornings, assuming no extraneous circumstances. I will refrain from posting anything until we get to 2pm and there’s nothing here. (And then we will also post a missing persons bulletin so we can find you to make sure you’re alright ) 😉
Thinking of changing my Pine name to Luke Laloosh!
BTW, I think the Royals lost to the Mike Schmidt-led Phillies of 1980.
Holy crap, Pete … you shot me down! You’re exactly right. KC is 1-1 in World Series play. I “Nuked” that one 🙂
Apologies for the error …