I have no idea who was on the '53 Committee on Veterans.

It's worth mentioning, though, that the 1953 might have been the first convening of the literal Veterans' Committee, but the "Centenial Commission" elected Hall members in 1937 and 1938, while the "Committee on Old-Timers" elected members from 1939 through 1949.

Any hints on the opening salvo?

Charlie Gehringer was one. I have no idea who the other two were. I don't know old baseball players unless they were relatively famous in some capacity.

I'm sure one is that guy who put almost all his teammates from the 30's into the hall, but my mind is a complete blank on his name. From the Cardinals I think... Argh, hate brain cramps.

Wasn't the Cardinals guy who but in all his teammates Frankie Fritsche (sp?)?

I'm drawing a blank on the others even though I just read Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame last summer.

My guess for the 3rd player is Bill Terry

I believe Frisch did not join the Committee until some time later, and so I will guess, instead, Joe Cronin.

We've stalled slightly, so I'll throw another out there to kick-start the thread. I read this the other day and had no idea: Name the former LA Dodger (now deceased) who is generally credited with inventing the "high five."

gv, you keep askin' the questions that I just happen to know! Why weren't you writing the questions on my SAT?

Anyway, to give someone else a chance here, I'll add a hint ... this guy was not a terribly accomplkshed ballplayer, but became very, very widely known for a social cause after he retired, though it was not -- and some would argue could not have been -- one he publicly supported while playing.

I swear Mick, I'll stump you SOME day. It may take some time, but I'll stump you! That you had Carroll Hardy within five minutes was impressive.

That would be former L.A. Dodger Glenn Burke, who came out of the closet a few years after he retired. His life after baseball was really sad and tragic.

All right, I'll ask one. Which franchise got to 100 wins quickest, and in which year of its existence?

One hour later and no guesses. Too easy or too hard?

I'll guess the Cincinnati Reds. I don't know how many games they played in their first year, but I know they were a powerhouse, so I'll say they hit 100 wins in their first year.

Nice try, Matthew, the Reds won 55 of 80 games in their first season, didn't really play enough games for 5 or 6 seasons, and didn't win 100 until 1940.

The franchise we're looking for is much newer.

My first thought was AZ, though I have no idea if they've gotten there ... I think they did in The Last Year of the Yankee Dynasty.

Kansas City was better, quicker and longer, but never hit 100, I don't think.

Oh, you mean 100 *in one season*. I thought you meant 100 wins, total, in the history of the franchise.

Mick's got it. The Snakes won 100 in the 2nd year of their existence, 1999. The team with the best record in the the first year of their existence since 1910 would be the Los Angeles Angels of Albie Pearson.

Okay, here's mine. Trick question? You decide.

Of all the major league players in history with the first name "George" (There have been more than 300), which won recorded the most victories as a pitcher?

I include that last part so nobody gets smart and answer that George "Sparky" Anderson had more than 2000 wins.

I'll guess Babe Ruth.

No, but you're on the right track.

Very, very tough question, Mick. Tom Seaver.

George Sisler pitched too, didn't he? I have no idea how many wins he garnered, but if Ruth was on the right track, I'll venture Sisler.

Craig knows his pitchers...

Heh. Good old Total Baseball. I knew it was a trick question, and just started from the top of the wins list looking up anyone whose full name I didn't know. I didn't even know Seaver's first name was George!

I guess Tom Terrific works better than Gorgeous George, anyhow.:)

Four men who were 6'5" or taller are in the Hall of Fame. Name them.

Nice question. I checked out Georges on bb-ref after I guessed, and had come to the conclusion it was George Uhle. Seaver's name didn't come up in the search.

I was thinking to myself, "Craig Burley will answer this one." I should've called it.

Matthew, I checked the "George" search on BBRef, too, curious to see if it would come back, and was actually surprised it didn't. I've never been able to figure out their algorithm.

if Ruth was on the right track, I'll venture Sisler.

Just to clarify, I said Ruth was the "right track" because he shared in common the fact that George was not his commonly used name and that he freaking owned New York when he played there, and is best known as playing there. Both also essentially finished up with Boston, but that just occurred to me now,

BBRef's search functionality searches on all the names in a player's common name (the big, bold one at the top of the screen), plus all the "Names and Misspellings" that you see in tiny letters near the very bottom of the page. For example, if you search "gearge", all the Georges come up.

As for George Uhle, he wouldn't be the guy. Uhle won 200 games, but "Wabash George" Mullin won 228 games in the deadball era, mostly for the Cobb-Crawford Tigers.

Here's four guesses for Craig's HOF question:

Dave Winfield, Willie McCovey, Ferguson Jenkins and crazy Jim Bunning. They all seem tall, but I'm pretty bad at estimating height, so I could be way off.

Thomas has already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Winfield was 6-6, Jenkins 6-5, so those are two.

Bunning was 6-3 (but yes, seemed very tall) and "Stretch" McCovey 6-4.

I'll throw Jim Palmer and Steve Carlton into the mix. They're both tall, but are they tall enough?

Not quite, gv! Palmer was 6-3, if memory serves, and Lefty was 6-4.

Connie "The Tall Tactician" Mack? (I realize that "tall" in that era probably didn't mean TALL.)

As usual, I looked up the answer. It's two pitchers, one right-handed and famous, the other left-handed... and not so famous.

We seem to have moved beyond the opening question, but I pulled out some dusty books and was intrigued by the answer. The three former players on the 1953 Veterans Committee were Charlie Gehringer, Branch Rickey and Shag Shaughnessy.

Rickey is famous for his career in management. Francis J. Shaughnessy was the GM of the Montreal Royals in the early 1930's, then was President of the International League from 1936-50. During that time, of course, Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier with the Royals, and then with Rickey's Dodgers. Shaughnessy was a member of the first group of inductees into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

Excellent job by Brett. Yes, it was Shag Shaugnessy, Branch Rickey, and Gehringer.

Connie Mack was 6-1. Tall for the late 19th century, but not that tall.

One is Don Drysdale.

I had to look up the other one, so I won't give it away.

My first guess would've been Steve Carlton, but that's already out there, and he obviously doesn't fit the "less well known" flag Brett tossed on the field.

Growing up in Cincinnati in the Don Gullett, Future Hall of Famer era, I heard a lot about another former Reds lefty named Eppa Rixey, which is the only reason I know he's in the Hall of Fame off the top of my head, and that DOES qualify as "lesser known." But I don't recall specifics about his height. If he's the guy, I cede my next question to gv27, because he's bound to ask something I know the asnwer to!

Obligatory emoticon --> :-)

Rixey is one, yes, and I just realized that there are five, not four. :)

The fifth, incidentally, is Negro League legend Smoky Joe Williams. And the third was indeed the 6'6" Don Drysdale.

I'll leave the next question as a tossup for whoever wants to ask one first.

I have shutouts on my mind this morning, so a simple one:

Who was the last pitcher to throw ten shutouts in a season?

Brett,

I went to my dusty books, but I didn't need a book all that dusty. The surprising answer is John Tudor! Would not have guessed.

I'll throw a question out there.

In the '80s (there's your hint), there was one ALCS game in which the starting pitchers were both future Jays.

And also in the '80s, there was one ALCS game in which a former Jays pitcher got the start against a future Jays pitcher.

Name the four postseason starting hurlers.

For the first one I'd guess Clemens vs. Morris.

For the second, hmmm, Key vs. Morris (wag)?

You're getting warm, NDG, but you're not quite there. Remember, Key was a Jay throughout the '80s.

Yeah, I was pretty sure of that but I couldn't think of anyone else (and I didn't want to do any searching ... the only real way to answer trivia ;).

My recollection from the late 80's is that Clemens and Dave Stewart had a long history against each other; I'll pick them from the '88 LCS.

For the second one, I'll guess Doyle Alexander vs. Frank Viola in 1987.

Brett's second pick is exactly right. Frankie Sweet Music defeated Downtown Doyle 8-5 in Game 1 of the '87 ALCS.

In 1988, Dave Stewart faced Bruce Hurst twice. So there's still one '80s matchup out there. Hint: It was a deciding game.

How about '84? Jack Morris vs. Bud Black?

Aagh! Matthew E, you have bested me. I missed the Morris-Black matchup entirely.

I was thinking Candelaria-Clemens in '86. But your answer is, of course, also correct. The floor is yours.

What future longtime Blue Jay was mentioned in passing in Jim Bouton's classic 'Ball Four'? And, according to the reference, how does one pitch to him?

(Note: Phil Niekro may have been a Blue Jay, but he was not a longtime Blue Jay.)

Nobody wants to give this one a try? Really?

Matthew, I actually read this pretty recently. I'm going to take a wild guess and say John Mayberry.

It's Buck Martinez. I didn't answer the question because I can't remember what they say about him.

It's Buck Martinez. I didn't answer the question because I can't remember what they say about him.

Right. The specific passage goes like this:

"At the meeting before the twi-nighter against Kansas City, Joe Schultz asked if anybody knew anything about John Martinez. Silence. "Well," said Joe Schultz, "we'll just zitz him. Up and at 'em men, and let's win two tonight." One of these days I'll find out how to "zitz" a guy. It sounds like a valuable pitching weapon."

Pray continue.

"Zitz" means seat or sit in Yiddish and probably German. I would guess to "zitz" someone means to put him on his seat. Beats "knock down pitch", doesn't it?

We stalled out on the trivia, so I'm going to ask a new question to get things moving again.

Jud Wilson was a fearsome lefthanded-hitting third baseman who played for some of the best teams of the 1920s and 1930s, including the Baltimore Black Sox, Homestead Grays, and Pittsburgh Crawfords. Twice Wilson was the batting champ of the Eastern Colored League (.373 in 1923 and .469 in 1927 for Baltimore) and twice the stolen base champ (including 20 in just 58 games in 1929).

Wilson -- a flat-nosed, top-heavy man with a massive upper body -- was one of the roughest characters to ever play the game. His resume of mayhem included punching out a white catcher on the field during a barnstorming game, and hanging brand new teammate Jake Stephens out of a 16th floor hotel window by his ankles to wring an apology out of him. None of this stopped Stephens from later describing Wilson as one of the game's all-time greats.

Now to the question : Wilson was widely known as "Boojum" (sometimes rendered as "Bojung") Wilson. Where did the nickname come from? Guesses are encouraged!

The only thing I know named "Boojum" is a weird desert tree, that takes its' name from an odd-looking thing described by a famous author (Rudyard Kipling I think).

A boojum is a type of snark, as described in Lewis Carroll's poem 'The Hunting of the Snark'. A snark is something that can be safely hunted, but if the snark turns out to be a boojum, it can make you softly and silently vanish away.

Here is a picture of the boojum tree, which takes its name from the Lewis Carroll poem Matthew E referred to. I'm guessing Matthew E's got it. Craig?

An excellent guess from Matthew (I knew one of the literary types would reference "The Hunting of the Snark") but sadly incorrect.