Brought To You
By Jim Mol
What would you suppose was the average salary of the starting players for the New York Yankees at the beginning of the 2010 season? The answer is an astounding $7 million, the highest of any professional sports team in the world. Here’s another fun factoid about the Yankees that’s obvious when you think about it, but a great bar bet. With Babe Ruth having hit his last homer in pinstripes back in 1934, the Yankees are the major league team with the oldest franchise career home run record. The home run leader for every other big league team hit his last one more recently than that.
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College football boosters are known to be among the most rabid of any sports fans in the world, and the fanatics who follow Alabama’s Crimson Tide might just be the craziest. In the spring of 2010, an online auction was held to sell the Tide logo that was in the middle of the carpet in the Alabama locker room for four seasons, which measured just a few feet square. Any guesses on the winning bid? How about $15,200?
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At the 2010 French Open, a remarkable record of tennis legend Roger Federer finally came to an end. By losing to Robin Soderling in the quarter-finals, Federer ended his streak of reaching the semifinals in grand slam tournaments an amazing 23 times in a row. The co-runners-up for consecutive grand-slam semis are Rod Laver and Ivan Lendl, with just 10 apiece. By the way, with the loss, Federer fell just one week shy of breaking Pete Sampras’ record of 286 weeks as the top ranked player tennis player in the world.
In early June of 2008, Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves connected on career home run number 400, becoming only the third switch-hitter in major league history to go deep at least 400 times in his career. The other two actually topped 500. Any guesses? The all-time leader in home runs among switch hitters is New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle with 536. The other is fellow Hall of Famer Eddie Murray of the Baltimore Orioles with 504.
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Alonzo Shavers made a name for himself in football as a wide receiver and special teams captain for Ohio State in the mid-1990s. He made a name for himself in golf some 15 years later. Playing in a charity tournament near Pittsburgh hosted by NFL Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett in June of 2010, Shavers hit two holes in one on the front nine. According to Golf Digest, the odds of dropping two aces on the same round are 67 million to one. Shavers, a sports agent with a 10 handicap, won a car and a vacation for his double single.
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When it comes to college sports, everything really is bigger in Texas. In 2008, the most recent year for which figures are available, the University of Texas pulled in a total of more than $138 million in overall athletic revenue – nearly $20 million more than second-place Ohio State. And in a 2010 study by Forbes Magazine, the value of the Longhorns football program was estimated at almost $120 million, also tops in the nation.
A Major League Baseball inter-league game in June of 2010 featured a rarity that hadn’t happened in almost 70 years – two players with at least 5,000 career at-bats sporting career batting averages of at least .330. The two were Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners. The previous time that had occurred was back in 1942, when Joe Medwick and his then Brooklyn Dodgers faced off against Paul Waner and his then Boston Braves.
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Only one player in the history of the Professional Golf Association tour has shot rounds of 60 or lower twice in his career. Any guesses? Bobby Jones? Jack Nicklaus? Tiger Woods? No, no and no. The answer – surprisingly – is Zach Johnson, whose only victory in a major entering 2010 was at the 2007 Masters Tournament. Johnson notched his first 60 in the third round of the 2007 Tour Championship. He also shot 60 in the third round of the 2009 Texas Open.
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How long ago would you think the first professional football game was played, and where did it happen? Many fans are aware that professional football had its roots in Western Pennsylvania, but fewer know that the first game was played way back in 1895, in Latrobe, Pa., home of Arnold Palmer and Mr. Rogers. It is considered a professional game because the team representing Latrobe paid a quarterback named John Brallier $10 for expenses to suit up against the team representing Jeannette, Pa. Both towns are just outside of Pittsburgh.
At the midway point of the 2010 Major League Baseball season, New York Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano led the majors in batting average, led the American League in hits and total bases, and sported a whopping .614 slugging percentage. Only three second baseman in big league history ever carried a slugging percentage above .600 for an entire season – and none since the 1920s. They were Fred Dunlap way back in 1884, Nap Lajoie in 1901, and Rogers Hornsby, who topped the .600 barrier an incredible seven seasons in the 1920s.
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In July of 2010, Alex Rodriguez cracked home run number 250 as a member of the New York Yankees, thus becoming the ninth player to reach that milestone in pinstripes, the most of any team in major league history. The Boston Red Sox are second with six. In fact the Yankees franchise has to be considered king of the long ball period – the only one sporting five players with more than 350 career homers: Babe Ruth (659), Mickey Mantle (536), Lou Gehrig (493), Joe DiMaggio (361) and Yogi Berra (358). The only other teams with as many as four are the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs.
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Speaking of the Yankees and home runs, here’s a hint to the answer to this item: this player spent most – but not all – of his career in pinstripes. Here’s the question: Who holds the big league record for most career homers without ever posting a multi-home run game? The answer is Lou Piniella, who spent 11 of his 18 seasons with the Yankees and blasted 102 career home runs, but never more than one in any game.
How old is too old to become a first-time major league manager? On June 18, 1960, the San Francisco Giants fired Bill Rigney and named Tom Sheehan as skipper. Sheehan was 66 years, 2 months and 18 days old – the oldest rookie manager in big league history. By the way, the oldest manager period was Connie Mack – a still spry 87 in 1950, his 50th and final season as skipper of the Philadelphia Athletics. The youngest major league manager ever was Lou Boudreau – just 24 when he took over as player/manager of the Cleveland Indians in 1942.
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On that same date – June 18th – but 45 years later, in 2005, major league baseball raised another banner on behalf of old timers everywhere. That was the day when Julio Franco of the Atlanta Braves blasted two home runs in one game – at the ripe old age of 46. That made Franco the oldest player in major league history to go deep twice in a game, but not the oldest player ever to hit a home run. That distinction belongs to player named Jack Quinn, who was one week shy of his 47th birthday when he homered in 1930 as a member of Connie Mack’s A’s. Mack was a mere 67 years old at the time.
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From oldest to youngest. It’s not uncommon these days for young teenagers to catch the eyes of scouts in sports such as baseball, basketball and hockey. But get this: In June of 2010, the Ferrari Driving Academy recruited the two-time Canadian Mini Max division champion to come train at the academy. That might not sound unusual, but the champ, Lance Stroll, was 11 years old at the time.
