Welcome back to MLBbro.com’s first-ever baseball trivia contest.
Last week, we posted some trivia questions that dealt with the rich history of the Negro Leagues, MLB, and beyond from past and current eras. We’ve given y’all one week to get your answers ready.
Now, today we reveal the answers. Let’s go!!!!
Question 1
This MLB stolen base champion was a two-time all-conference selection while serving double duty as a punter and kicker. He also played on a national championship team at the same college. Who is he?
Answer: Vince Coleman
While at Florida A&M, Coleman played baseball and football for the Rattlers. Serving as a punter and kicker, the Jacksonville native was a two-time All-MEAC selection for both positions in 1980-81. His game-winning 34-yard field goal was the margin of victory when FAMU upset the Division 1-A Miami Hurricanes in 1979. A year earlier, Coleman was a member of the Rattlers’ NCAA 1-AA National Championship team.
Coleman’s football prowess came following the success of his cousin, Greg Coleman who was also a punter at Florida A&M in the 1970s and went on to a 12-year career in the NFL. Vince would be signed by the Washington Redskins as a free agent but quit after a week of training camp because the team wanted to convert him into a wide receiver.
That same year, Coleman was drafted in the 10th round of the MLB Amateur Draft by the St. Louis Cardinals. During his baseball days at FAMU, he set the all-time single-season stolen base record for the Rattlers, with seven steals in a single game and 65 steals in 1981.
He also led the NCAA that season in both total steals and stolen base percentage. As a major leaguer, Coleman stole over 100 bases in each of his first three seasons, making him the only player in the 20th century to post three consecutive seasons of 100 or more steals and the first player in Major League history to steal 100 bases in the first three seasons of their career. He finished his career with 752 steals, sixth most in MLB history.
Question 2
Which player was the first black pitcher to throw a no-hitter in MLB history?
Answer: “Sad” Sam Jones
In a career that spanned from 1947 through 1964, Jones pitched for eight teams with the Negro Leagues and MLB. the Ohio native began his professional career with the Cleveland Buckeyes. In 1949, he was signed by the Cleveland Indians and would make his major debut in 1951.
Following the 1954 season, Jones was traded to the Chicago Cubs in a deal that involved future Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner. During that first season in Chicago on May 12, 1955, Jones would no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates at Wrigley Field. He became the first black pitcher to toss a no-no in MLB history.
He achieved this after walking Gene Freese, Preston Ward(who was then pinch-run for by Roman Mejias) and Tom Saffell to begin the ninth inning. Jones then left the bases loaded by striking out Dick Groat, Roberto Clemente, and Frank Thomas in succession. During his career, Jones led the NL in strikeouts, and walks, three times: in 1955, 1956, and 1958.
One other significant note during Jones’ career. When he entered a game on May 3, 1952, 39-year-old rookie Quincy Trouppe, a Negro League veteran, was behind the plate. Together they formed the first black battery in AL history. Both Jones and Trouppe were briefly teammates for the Cleveland Buckeyes.
Question 3
Who is the only player to homer in the MLB All-Star Game and the Negro League East-West All-Star Classic?
Answer: Jim “Junior” Gilliam
While playing for the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1950, Gilliam homered in the East-West Classic for the East in their 5-3 loss at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
It was Gilliam’s third and final Negro League All-Star Classic appearance. A year later, the native of Nashville was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Two years later, he would make his MLB debut taking over second base from Jackie Robinson, who was shifted to the outfield and third base.
He led the NL Champs with 125 runs scored and his 17 triples led the league as Gilliam would earn Rookie of the Year honors, as well as The Sporting News’ Rookie of the Year Award.
In 1956, Giliiam was named to his first NL All-Star team and was tabbed a second time in 1959. In the second All-Star Game of that season played at the Los Angeles Coliseum, Gilliam connected off Billy O’Dell in the AL’s 5-3 win. Gilliam played his entire MLB career for the Dodgers until he retired in 1966.
Question 4
When Willie Mays hit his 600th career homer in 1969, he was pinch hitting for a player who would eventually become a perennial All-Star and a World Series champion. Who is he?
Answer: George Foster
Known more for his time with the Cincinnati Reds, Foster made his MLB debut with the Giants as a 20-year old in September of that season. On September 22, the future Hall of Famer pinch hit for Foster and connected for his 600th homer off Mike Corkins in the Giants’ 4-2 victory at Jack Murphy Stadium.
After serving as the fourth outfielder in San Francisco for the initial part of his career, Foster was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1971. The rest as they say is history. By 1975, Foster would become one of the main cogs of the Big Red Machine.
For the next seven seasons, Foster was a 5-time All-Star, a 2-time World Series Champion as well as the NL’s MVP in 1977. That season, Foster was just the 10th player in major league history to reach the 50-homer mark, and the first ever Cincinnati Reds player. His 149 RBIs also led the majors. He finished fourth in the NL in batting, missing the Triple Crown by .018 behind Pittsburgh’s Dave Parker.
Question 5
Who is the only black catcher to ever win the Rookie of the Year Award?
Answer: Earl Williams
Ironically, Williams never played the position until he reached the majors in 1971 with the Atlanta Braves. The Somerset, NJ native began the season as the club’s fourth outfielder but injuries and retirements led to Williams ascension as Atlanta’s newest backstop.
After playing first base and third base most of the year, on May 23rd in a game against the New York Mets, Williams would make his professional debut as a backstop. He would make his first start behind the plate on June 20 against the Cincinnati Reds. He ended up appearing in 72 games at catcher, committing eight errors and catching 28% of potential base stealers.
Although he never developed into more than a poor defensive catcher, his offensive numbers – a .260 batting average, 33 homers and 87 RBIs – were enough to earn him 18 of 24 first place votes.
Williams also became the first Brave to win the Rookie of the Year Award since Sam Jethro in 1950 when the franchise was in Boston. The other first place votes went to Philadelphia outfielder Willie Montanez.
Bonus Question
What is the historical significance of September 1, 1971, and its impact on the game of baseball?
On this date, the Pttsburgh Pirates fielded the first all-Black lineup in MLB history in a 10-7 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
THE LINEUP
Rennie Stennett 2B
Gene Clines CF
Roberto Clemente RF
Willie Stargell LF
Manny Sanguillén C
Dave Cash 3B
Al Oliver 1B
Jackie Hernández SS
Dock Ellis P
Five of those players — Clines, Stargell, Cash, Oliver and Ellis — were African American. Clemente hailed from Puerto Rico, Sanguillén and Stennett from Panamá, and Hernández from Cuba.
With the MLB season winding down and conversations on division winners and wild card participants becoming the dominant conversations through September, sometimes an interesting conversation sparks needed research.
During a Tampa Bay Rays/St. Louis Cardinals game last week, MLBbro legend Vince Coleman was invited to be a part of MLB Tonight “Clubhouse Edition” on MLB Network. Coleman talked about his exploits of swiping bases during his time in the late 1980’s and how a MLBbro icon was a major influence to his success.
Vince Coleman stole 109 bases in 1987, a mark that hasn't been approached since 😳
The game of baseball has changed over the past decades. Gone are the days of speedsters swiping bases while driving pitchers crazy like Coleman joked with CC Sabathia about. Gone is the science of studying pitchers for tendencies to take advantage of.
Most importantly the green light to attempt steals is gone by way of waiting for the power hitters to get a chance to impact the game with the long ball.
It’s easy to link Rickey Henderson and Vince Coleman because they are all over history with triple digit stolen base totals.
Just look at today’s leaders in stolen bases this season as of August 15th, 2023.
Ronald Acuna Jr. (Atlanta Braves): 55 bases, Esteury Ruiz (Oakland A’s): 46 bases, Corbin Carroll (Arizona Diamondbacks): 36 bases
Corbin Carroll is a rookie, and his 36 stolen bases has him on the inside track to NL Rookie of the Year Award. Seems impressive right? Okay…let’s go back in time to the mid 80’s and look at Vince Coleman.
Afterwards, the perspective of how the game has changed over the last 40 years.
How is Vince Coleman not a Hall of Famer?
As a 10th round pick of the Cardinals, minor league teams were calling 911 from all of the bases our MLBbro legend was stealing.
In 328 minor league games, Coleman stole 289 bases before being called up to St. Louis.
That’s when the story begins…
In 1985, Coleman won the NL Rookie of the Year Award with an absurd 110 steals along with a .267 batting average, one homer 40 RBI and 107 runs scored. Our MLBbro legend became the first rookie to ever steal AT LEAST 100 bases.
Here’s more about the Rookie Repo Man in 1985…
He had more stolen bases than Rickey Henderson that year…30 more steals.
Had a 81.5 percent success rate.
His total represented more than 12 of the 25 teams in baseball at the time.
Here’s the comparison of our MLBbro to the MLB average that season.
Vince Coleman: 110 — MLB team average: 119.
Averaged 0.73 per game…for the whole season!
The man did not fall into a sophomore slump either.
Not only did Coleman make history by stealing over 100 bases as a rookie, but he went on to be the first player to steal 100 or more bases in three consecutive seasons which was his first three through 1987.
Vince Coleman played 13 years (1985-1997) finishing with a .260 batting average, 28 home runs, 346 RBI, 849 runs scored with 752 stolen bases. The two-time All-Star led the NL in steals six times.
It’s easy to see why Vince Coleman used Rickey Henderson to study. After all this MLBbro icon is known as…” The Man of Steal”.
Rickey Henderson…the Gold Standard
This MLBbro icon is the stolen base king holding the MLB stolen base record with 1,406. Since passing fellow MLBbro icon Lou Brock (938 steals) in 1991, Henderson sits miles away from the competition.
He’s the only MLB player who has passed the 1,000 stolen base threshold.
Like Vince Coleman, Rickey topped triple digits in stolen bases but look at the longevity.
Henderson led the league for almost half of his 25 year career, doing it 12 times. The 12th time was at age 39!
He topped the 40 steal mark (Remember today’s standards!) 17 times…the 50 steal mark 14 times and 75 or more seven times.
If any player has a chance of topping this man’s record, they can start by trying to steal 30 bases in a season over four different decades. (Henderson had 33 in 1979 at age 20 and 31 in 2000 at age 41).
What sets Rickey Henderson apart from Coleman’s exploits is the combination of speed and power. Rickey Henderson is the only player to reach 100+ steals while hitting double figures in home runs. Plus, the “Man of Steal” was known for those leadoff homers!
Henderson was considered one of MLB’s most complete baseball players. The Hall of Famer was a ten-time All-Star, and the 1990 AL MVP. He led the league in runs scored five times, walks four times and hits once. He hit .300 or better eight times and finished in the 3,000 hit club with 3,055. He’s second all-time in walks behind fellow MLBbro icon, Barry Bonds.
Despite Vince Coleman being a stolen base legend (sixth all time!), he’s the only player on the all-time leader board not in the Hall of Fame.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities [HBCUs] have become more than just a sanctuary for Black collegiate student-athletes. It now appears that Major League Baseball is ready to visit those athletic programs for players who have been previously overlooked.
HBCU Swingman Classic & Ken Griffey Jr.
The first HBCU Swingman Classic on July 7, will feature 50 HBCU Players during MLB All-Star Week’s first pitch in Seattle with Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. as its catalyst. MLB’s Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities (RBI) program has also produced several Black American Major Leaguers – including former pitcher C.C. Sabathia and current Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford. However, this will be the first time that MLB has literally put its money where its mouth is to give aspiring talent from HBCUs their own all-star showcase.
“I could never fathom this happening,” said former Southern University’s legendary coach and College Baseball Hall of Famer Roger Cador. “I had been working with [MLB Chief Baseball Development Officer] Tony Reagins and we had been trying to do something like this for the last three years.”
“But it wasn’t until Ken Griffey, Jr. along with [MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred] came along and gave their support that the idea became reality and it’s something that will be around for years to come”.
MLB appears to understand there is something unsettling about the dwindling numbers of Black American players as the game continues importing most of the new generation of stars from the Dominican Republic and Asia.
However, some of the greatest Black Knights in the history of baseball have ties to HBCUs. For example: Larry Doby, who played at Virginia Union University, was MLB’s second Black American player with the Cleveland franchise debuting 11 weeks after Jackie Robinson.
MLB Has HBCU Roots
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer Lou Brock – a multiple world champion and one time MLB all-time stolen base leader – is a graduate of Southern University. Joe Black, the 1952 National League Rookie of the Year with the Brooklyn Dodgers, graduated from Morgan State. The 1969 World Series MVP Donn Clendenon from the “Amazin’ New York Mets is a Morehouse man. Vince Coleman, Marquis Grissom, and Andre Dawson would be statistically one of the greatest outfield combinations of all-time and they all played at Florida A&M.
HBCU Players In MLB Draft?
Texas Southern junior outfielder Johnathon Thomas was the first HBCU baseball player taken in the 2022 MLB First-Year Player Draft. He was selected in the 19th round with the 561st overall pick by the Washington Nationals. Those who follow the prospects in their organization feel that with the talent pool of outfielders already there he faces a difficult battle trying to make the show.
Nonetheless, this is one of the showcases giving HBCU baseball programs a stage to evaluate prospects with support from MLB. In addition to being a platform for MLB scouts, the game’s most valuable player will earn a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal from T-Mobile to immediately enter the new world order of capitalizing on marketing and commercial advertising deals.
“I don’t know if we’ll get the type of players we once did, ” Cador said.
“But I’m thinking with this All Star Game and the NIL money we may be able to make up some ground on bringing mid-level players back to Black colleges.”
Cador is to HBCU baseball what the late Eddie Robinson was to Black College football at Grambling. He took a non-existent program and won 14 Southwestern Athletic Conference and two HBCU National championships in 17 seasons. Cador also had 62 players drafted and 11 All-Americans including 2003 Golden Spikes Awards winner Rickie Weeks who was the second pick in that year’s MLB Draft. Weeks played 14 years with the Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Tampa Bay Rays.
Earlier this year, the Black College World Series was played in Montgomery, Alabama featuring HBCU players from NAIA and NCAA Division II Schools that was scouted by Major League Baseball clubs also. However, that was a survive and advance series with a championship in the balance.
It’s one of several efforts, including the Andrew Dawson Classic, being played that give Black college players an unprecedented stage to display their skills before scouts and talent evaluators.
Florida Memorial (22-24) beat Albany State (39-11) 5-4 in a 19-inning championship game at Riverwalk Park – home of the Class AA Montgomery Biscuits – who are an affiliate of the Tampa Rays.
As a sobering reminder of the plight facing Black American players on MLB rosters today, the 2022 World Series marked the first time since 1950 that didn’t feature any U.S. born Black players which was just three years after Jackie Robinson broke the game’s color barrier.
With several new rules in place, both players and fans have gone through an adjustment period throughout the beginning of the 2023 season.
Aimed at speeding up the pace of play while also adding excitement to the game, so far these rules have done exactly what they were designed to do.
But of them all, the new stolen bases rule has caused a bigger stir than even the pitch clock rule.
“Stolen bases. It’s a joke,” said starting pitcher Blake Snell. “Can’t throw no one out. You have to be 1.2/1.3 [seconds] to the plate.
If you pick twice, they’re getting crazy jumps and leads. Stolen bases are a joke. And the bases are closer. The game was made perfectly and they changed the game.”
While the bases are indeed bigger, Snell highlighted the biggest advantage runners now possess. Before this season, a pitcher could throw over to first as much as they’d like.
Although this may not have been aesthetically pleasing for casuals, it was commonly referred to as simply “keeping a runner close.”
Under the new rule, after two pick-off attempts or “disengagements”, if a pitcher doesn’t pick a runner off with their third move, an automatic ball is called.
For example, if a pitcher steps off once and throws over another time to the same baserunner, he has exhausted his two free attempts.
Naturally, speedy runners have been able to take advantage and have done so at an extremely successful rate.
According to The Athletic, entering May 1, the average stolen bases per game is 1.8, up from last years 1.4. This is the highest number of stolen bases per game since 2012, and the 79.4 percent success rate is the highest in over 100 years.
Two of our favorite MLBbros have made sure to join in on the base stealing this season.
Baltimore Orioles center fielder Cedric Mullins’ 11 stolen bases are the most to start the season by an Oriole since fellow MLBbro Corey Patterson swiped 13 bags to start the 2006 season.
He is currently tied for sixth in the league with Miami Marlins center fielder Jazz Chisholm. Chisholm has only been caught stealing twice while Mullins has yet to be caught.
Headed into Monday night, no runner has been thrown out more than twice.
Even with the rules adjustment, it’s still too soon to declare a stolen base renaissance.
Although attempts will certainly rise (especially if the success rate remains as high), there has been a complete philosophy change throughout baseball that has devalued the stolen base. Teams are built to stack baserunners and use extra base hits to drive them in, not sacrifice outs for one extra base.
The current state of the stolen base is exciting, but when you look at the totals from the stolen base era, the numbers don’t seem real.
Here are the top five single-season base-swiping totals from MLBbros in the modern era.
Rickey Henderson – 1982: 130 steals, 172 attempts
The most stolen bases ever in a single season, this may be one of the most unbreakable records in baseball.
Lou Brock – 1974: 118 steals, 151 attempts
What’s most impressive about Brocks’ 118 steals is that he was 35 years old that season.
Vince Coleman – 1985: 110 steals, 135 attempts
Vince Coleman – 1987: 109 steals, 131 attempts
Coleman appears back to back on our list, with these two seasons representing 34 percent of his career stolen base total.
Hall of Famer Andre “Hawk” Dawson, prolific base swiper Vince Coleman and five-tool force Marquis Grissom were all HBCU products from FAMU who became historically-influential MLBbros.
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