Baseball #5

April 11, 2011

Daniel Gould to Jim Driscoll

Hi JD;
 
Unfortunately, I was unable to download the classic b/w photos. Pity. Pity, because I still refer b/w photos to color.
 
Hey, again, thanks for the comments on my writing. I added your name to my "3D List" mailings. It is not required reading; you will not be tested, but sometimes it is fun to read even when you have no idea what I am talking about. Of course, I often have no idea what I am talking about. But that's another story.
 
I am forwarding a photo taken of me at a recent gallery opening. You will note the cap I am wearing. It is my private joke. When the weather is miserable here, I wear the "Detroit" cap so as to remind myself: Better here than there!
 
I love baseball statistics. Who was the youngest player to have the most hits in his first five games  of a new season? (Two were triples and his first time at bat, in the new season, he hit a three run homer.) This is indirectly a trick question, but only after you say uncle will I reveal why.
 
Sincerely;
 
Dan

April 15, 2011

Daniel Gould to Jim Driscoll

Hi JD;
 
My sleeping cycle is interrupted several times during the night---prostate. Sometimes I fall directly back into sleep. And sometimes I lay awake, tossing and turning, for a hour or two. During these restless periods, I ponder things. I have been pondering how many hits without any run being scored---earned or unearned---in one inning.
 
My latest scenario is: Three infield hits. A runner is picked off. One out. Another infield hit---the infield grass is as high as corn, in August, in Kansas. Another pick off. Two outs. And still another infield hit---the home team can't afford a lawnmower. Then the final out. Five hits and no runs.
 
I have yet had an answer to who is the youngest player, in major league history, to have had 10 hits in the first five games of the season?
 
Oh, yeah. There is a question I keep forgetting to ask. You went through 12 years of lower school without missing a day. You came close in, I think, the eighth grade when you broke your arm during the lunch period. But, by the time we lined up to return to afternoon classes you was standing there ready to go. How many days of work did you missed during your 30+ years at GMAC?
 
Sincerely;
 
Dan.
 

April 15, 2011

Jim Driscoll to Daniel Gould  

UNUSUAL Q.  !!!  

I was not aware I went thru 12 years without a sick day.   As I recall, I broke my leg on Ascension Thursday and was laid up....I believe I was in the 5th grade. 

I remember staying on my grandfather's front porch at 1032 Maryland and some classmates coming by to sign my cast.  I believe I was off a couple of weeks.  

However, other than that, I had a pretty good track record.  It continued at GMAC.  However, 3 months into my employment, Aug, 1965, I had a strangulated hernia, was off 4 weeks, with full pay and medical coverage.  I vowed to do my best to make it up to my employer, and maintained perfect attendance during the last 30 years of work, in L.A.  

The last off day I took, and I believe that was in Detroit, was one day my little Tim, whom I was raising alone, was sick, and I had to stay home with him!

But how do you remember this stuff???  

OK...the BB quiz.....the answer s/b 6.  The scenario you gave was close to one of the correct situations. 3 infield hits, pick-off, hit, pick-off, hit.....then the batter hits #6.  It's a hit because the ball hits a unner in fair ground.  The runner is out.  The play is dead.  The batter technically gets credit for a single whenever his batted ball hits a runner on the basepaths in fair territory.  

You could also have this hit baserunner occur 3 times in a row after the initial 3 hits....unlikely, but possible. 

I don't know the rookie with 10 hits in his first 5 games?   FRED LYNN???  

April 16,

Daniel Gould to Jim Driscoll

Hi JD;
 
Hmmmm...I have no doubt you would remember a broken leg. In fact, it happened to me in the 5th grade. I had went to the old Alamo movie theater---it had been converted into an ice skating rink---and, my first time up, on skates, and not more than two or three seconds into trying, down I went. Leg, broken in three places. Of course, the incident changed my life. Until then, I had been a indifferent student. During the three weeks I missed of school I decided to get serious.
 
As to you, are you sure you never broke your arm or wrist? I would have sworn that at the end of the year school awards---both grade and high---you were presented with a certificate for perfect attendance.
 
As to how I remember all this trivia...Well, I just assume that my memory is as good---or as bad---as everyone else's. However, during the last few years, I have reconnected with  people that I have not been in contact with for 30 years of more and they have been "stupefied that you remember an incident I have not thought about in years. In fact, reading your piece was like reading fiction." Of course, there is the negative side. A former lover, from my Chi-Town days, denied having told me something that I had asked about. She said it never happened. Then, a few weeks later, she e-mailed to say, "Your remember too much!" There's that.
 
As you have probably determined by now, I DO have a problem with the English language. I tell people, I don't know the difference from a split infinitive and a dangling participle. And, a few years back, I took out my old college handbook, to the English language, to look the two up. Well, yes, I could understand them, but it just doesn't seem to come natural to applying the principle. People tell me I am a good writer, but I think that has to do more with the fact that I have a good memory and can explain a subject very well. Ah, the mysteries of the brain.
 
Well, I was pleased that I at least came close to the correct answer as to how many hits were possible in one inning without a run scoring. As to my question...As I said, in a way, it was a trick question. It happened this year. Starlin Castro, the rookie shortstop for the Cubbies. He really appears to be a natural. He is batting about 350 as of now. He came up last year and played about 100 games and batted 300. I love following such players throughout their career. However, I worry too. So much can happen. Injury. Look at Kerry Wood---now back with the Cubs---in his second start back in 1998, he struck out 20. A few months into the season, he threw out his elbow. He never came back as a starter, but has become an effective reliever. Then there is the other side of the coin. Living style. Daryl Strawberry is the perfect example---not to mention Tyson. Talented, but with personality flaws.
 
Castro is being nurtured carefully. Last year, Soriano, let him live in his condo in Chi. This year, his parents have taken a house in Chi to be with him. His mother cooks the Dominican Republic specialties and probably keeps him under her thumb too. 
 
Sincerely;
 
Dan
 

Photo: Starlin Castro