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March 2021

Since the inception of baseball’s amateur draft, there have been several players who were drafted both by professional baseball teams and by teams in the National Football League. The list includes John Elway, Tom Brady and Troy Aikman, among others. However, very few players who were drafted by both baseball and football teams have actually played in Major League Baseball and National Football League games.  Of the five former professional athletes listed below, four have played in both MLB and NFL games.

Which of the following did not play both in Major League Baseball and in the National Football League?

(a) Josh Booty   (b) D.J. Dozier      (c) Dave Winfield     (d) Deion Sanders     (e) Bo Jackson


February 2021

In the 1997 World Series, the Florida Marlins defeated the Cleveland Indians in seven games to win the World Championship.  The winning pitcher for the Marlins in the decisive seventh game was right-handed relief pitcher Jay Powell, who had been a first-round pick of the Baltimore Orioles in 1993.  In total, an extraordinary 28% of the players who saw action for the Marlins during the 1997 regular season were first-round picks.  By comparison, only 18% of the players on the 2019 World Champion Washington Nationals and only 12% of the 2020 World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers had been selected in the first round.

Which of the following key players for the 1997 Florida Marlins was not drafted in the first round:

(a) Catcher Charles Johnson    (b) Outfielder Moises Alou  (c) Third baseman Bobby Bonilla    (d) Pitcher Alex Fernandez


January 2021

In the four World Series that have occurred since 2016, the winners of the Most Valuable Player Award for the fall classic have been Corey Seager (Dodgers, 2020), Stephen Strasburg (Nationals, 2019), Steve Pearce (Red Sox, 2018) and George Springer (Astros, 2017).  Three of these four MVP winners were selected in the first round of baseball’s amateur draft.

Of the four players, who was the only one who was not a first-round pick?

(a) Seager       (b) Strasburg        (c) Pearce        (d) Springer


Brooks Kieschnick, Rick Ankiel and Adam Loewen rank among the most versatile players in the history of major league baseball.  Kieschnick, drafted as an outfielder by the Chicago Cubs in the first round of 1993, played six seasons in the major leagues and appeared in 56 games as a position player and another 74 games as a relief pitcher.  The St. Louis Cardinals drafted Ankiel as a pitcher in the 2nd round of 1997.  In 11 seasons in the major leagues, Ankiel appeared in 51 games as a pitcher and 536 games as an outfielder.  Loewen, drafted as a pitcher by the Baltimore Orioles in the 1st round of 2002, played in the major leagues for five seasons, pitching in 63 games and appearing in 11 more as a position player.

(1)  Of the three players, who had the lowest career earned run average?

(a) Loewen    (b) Ankiel    (c) Kieschnick

(2)  Of the three players, who had the highest career batting average?

(a) Loewen     (b) Ankiel    (c) Kieschnick


December 2020

Led by their youthful outfield of center fielder Fred Lynn and right fielder Dwight Evans, both 23 years old, and 22-year-old left fielder Jim Rice, the Boston Red Sox enjoyed a banner year in 1975. The Sox won a total of 95 regular season games and went on to play the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. Lynn hit .331 for the season, Rice batted .309 and Evans hit .274.  Scouts Joe Stephenson and Mace Brown received much of the credit for Boston’s success. Stephenson had signed Lynn and Evans; Brown signed Rice. On September 21, Rice suffered a broken left hand when he was hit by a pitch from Vern Ruhle of the Detroit Tigers. The injury ended Rice’s season.

When the World Series opened on October 11, who was Rice’s replacement in left field?

(a)   Bernie Carbo      (b) Juan Beniquez      (c) Carl Yastrzemski      (d) Tony Conigliaro


In 1973, Bill Livesey, later to be scouting director for the New York Yankees, was the coach of the Falmouth Commodores in the Cape Cod League. Among other responsibilities, he had to recruit players for his summer team. One of the players that Livesey enlisted was an infield prospect from Frostburg State University in western Maryland. The infielder played well for the Commodores that summer, leading the Los Angeles Dodgers to draft him in the fourth round of 1974. The player would spend eight years in the minor leagues but never reached the majors. However, after his minor league career, the one-time prospect turned to managing. He has managed professional teams for 23 seasons, 13 of them at the major league level. In 1998, he led the Chicago Cubs to a record of 90 wins and 73 losses and second place in the National League Central Division. In addition to the Cubs, he has managed the San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds.  Who is the former player and manager?

(a) Jim Riggleman   (b) Manny Acta   (c) Buck Showalter   (d) Kevin Kennedy


November 2020

In the 1986 draft, the San Francisco Giants drafted a catcher out of Coastal Carolina University in the second round. Two days after the draft, Giants scouts Mike Toomey and Jim Fairey signed the catcher at a Howard Johnson’s Motor Inn in Elmira, New York. The player reported to the Class A Clinton (Iowa) Giants to begin his pro career and began perfecting the skills that would lead Toomey to describe him as “an excellent catch-and-throw guy” who possessed “survival skills with the bat.” In his second season of minor league ball, the catcher hit .267 in 98 games, earning a September call-up to San Francisco. The catcher would play 13 seasons in the major leagues with three clubs. His best year came in 1993 with the Giants when he hit .275 in 130 games and won the Gold Glove Award.  Who was the catcher?

(a) Bob Brenly    (b) Kirt Manwaring   (c) Bob Melvin     (d) Mackey Sasser


Ben Cherington, general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, got his start in baseball as a summer intern with the Boston Red Sox in 1995. Cherington’s job was to file scouting reports, arrange lunches for scouts, and make sure there was water on the field when prospects came in for workouts.  On one occasion, three or four days before the 1995 draft, Cherington was on the field to watch the pre-draft workout of a highly touted hitter from Puerto Rico.  Cherington distinctly remembers that the player struggled during his workout and had trouble getting the ball out of the infield. After the workout, Cherington noticed that the player’s magnet had been moved down quite a bit on Boston’s draft board. Unlike the Red Sox, the Kansas City Royals saw a lot to like in the player.  The Royals drafted him in the second round of 1995 with the 49th overall pick.  The player would go on to play 20 years in the major leagues and finish his career with 435 home runs and a batting average of .279.

Who was the player?    (a) Carlos Baerga    (b) Carlos Beltrán    (c) Bernie Williams   (d) Álex Ríos


October 2020

Over a career in baseball spanning more than six decades, Roland Hemond has been involved in scouting and drafting a legion of players who had a significant impact on the game. In his role as scouting director for the 1966 California Angels, Hemond drafted a pitcher from the University of California who would win 130 games during a 12-year major league career. As a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1975, the pitcher played the entire season without a signed contract and, in a landmark arbitration decision, was declared to be a free agent after the season. The pitcher then signed to play for the Atlanta Braves in 1976. At the time, the Braves were a woeful but entertaining bunch. Instead of wearing their last names on their uniforms, the players wore their nicknames, which included “Cannon” (Jimmy Wynn), “Bird Dog” (Vic Correll) and “Wimpy” (Tom Paciorek).  Braves owner Ted Turner nicknamed his free agent pitcher “Channel.” When combined with the pitcher’s uniform number (17), the nickname made him a walking advertisement for Turner’s cable TV SuperStation.

Who was the pitcher drafted by Roland Hemond?    (a) Dick Tidrow      (b) Ken Tatum        (c) Joe Niekro         (d) Andy Messersmith


September 2020

Veteran baseball executive Roland Hemond got his start sweeping out Bulkeley Stadium in Connecticut before home games of the Hartford Chiefs. Hemond wouldn’t need his broom for long. In relatively quick succession, he became front office intern, scouting report typist, scout, assistant scouting director, scouting director and general manager. By September 1970, Hemond was the general manager of the Chicago White Sox and preparing for his first amateur draft with the White Sox, scheduled for June 1971. The White Sox held the number one pick. Future Hall-of-Famers Jim Rice, George Brett and Mike Schmidt were among the prospects available. Under Hemond=s direction, the White Sox selected another player, a much-heralded catcher who had drawn comparisons to Johnny Bench for his defense and batting prowess. While playing for Peoria Central High School in 1971, the catcher had slugged a gargantuan home run that traveled out of the ballpark and landed on the second deck of a swimming poolnwell over 400 feet from home plate. Contract negotiations with the catcher proved difficult, however, leading a somewhat incredulous Hemond to tell reporters, “He wants more than $100,000 and he wants it now, not spread over 30 years.” Ultimately, the Sox failed to sign the catcher. It was the first time in the history of the draft that an overall number one pick declined to sign.

Who was the catching prospect?  (a) Danny Goodwin   (b) Ray Fosse    (c) Terry Kennedy     (d) Ed Herrmann


The California Angels held the number one overall pick in the 1995 amateur draft. The Angels scouting director, Bob Fontaine Jr., had a difficult decision to make. Fontaine was the son of long-time baseball man Bob Fontaine, who had been a scout, scouting director and general manager. The elder Fontaine had schooled his son well. In 1995, the choices available to Bob Fontaine Jr. in the draft were enticing. There were two right-handed pitching prospects, hard-throwing Kerry Wood and former Cuban star Ariel Prieto, plus a catcher, Ben Davis, whom Baseball America had tabbed as the best high school catcher since Dale Murphy. Ultimately, Fontaine choose a versatile college outfielder who had drawn comparisons to Roger Maris. Like Maris, the prospect was a power hitter, hailed from North Dakota and had been a high school football star.

Who was the outfielder whom the Angels selected with the number one pick in 1995?
(a) Tim Salmon   (b) Garret Anderson   (c) Geoff Jenkins   (d) Darin Ersta


Before embarking on a career as a baseball scout for the St. Louis Cardinals, Mercer Harris was an infielder in the Cardinals system. His minor league playing career spanned eighteen years, from 1930 to 1947. After retiring as a player, Mercer turned to scouting.  While working for the Cardinals in 1952, he signed a pitcher from Morgan, Georgia who would have an unremarkable eight-year major league career. Pitching mostly for the woeful Washington Senators, the pitcher finished his career with 19 wins against 29 losses and a 3.77 earned run average. However, during the 1962 season, the pitcher struck out 21 hitters in a 16-inning complete game victory against the Baltimore Orioles. The feat still stands as the record for most strikeouts by a pitcher in a major league game.

Who was the pitcher?   (a) Bennie Daniels   (b) Pete Burnside    (c) Tom Cheney   (d) Jim Hannan


August 2020

Eligible for the amateur draft in 1981, this player was passed over by all 26 major league teams, despite a favorable evaluation by scout Billy Blitzer, who was then working for the Major League Scouting Bureau. The player would go on to play for 16 seasons in the major leagues, during which he hit 287 home runs and was named to six all-star teams. The player played his high school ball less than two miles from Yankee Stadium but drew little attention from scouts other than Blitzer.  Blitzer attributed the lack of interest to the fact that the player rotated among several different positions in high school, filling in wherever his coach needed him to play.

Who was the player?  (a) Bobby Bonilla     (b) Cecil Fielder      (c) Devon White     (d) Fred McGriff


Drafted by the Washington Senators in 1969, this player began his professional career amid much fanfare.  The Senators’ chief scout, Jack Sheehan, gushed that the player had the best power of any 18-year-old he had ever seen.  Washington’s manager at the time, Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams, was even more effusive, calling the player “the best 18-year-old hitter I’ve ever seen.”  The player made his major league debut with the Senators on July 20, 1970 but was sent back to the minors after hitting only .167 in six games.  At the time of the demotion, Williams said the Senators were sending the player back to the Triple-A Denver Bears “to heat his bat and cool his head.”

Who was the player?      (a) Ken McMullen     (b) Jeff Burroughs        (c) Mike Epstein     (d) Toby Harrah


July 2020

From 1961 to 1974, former major league pitcher Randy Gumpert was a scout for the New York Yankees. In 1970, Gumpert recommended that the Yankees sign a pitcher from the University of Pittsburgh. The Yankees used their 30th pick in 1970 to select the pitcher, who made his major league debut on September 5, 1972. The very next day, the pitcher began classes at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. For the next six years, the player pitched for the Yankees and, later, the Pittsburgh Pirates during the baseball season and attended medical classes during the off-season. He received his medical degree in 1977 and retired from baseball after the 1982 season to work full-time as an orthopedic surgeon.

Who was the pitcher?      (a) Doc Cramer      (b) Dock Ellis        (c) Doc Edwards      (d) Doc Medich


In 37 years as a scout for the New York Yankees, Paul Krichell signed more than 200 players who went on to play professional baseball, including Hall-of-Famers Lou Gehrig, Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford. One of the players whom Krichell signed for the Yankees was an infielder who would win the American League batting championship in 1945 with an average of .309. The feat was particularly notable because, in the years between 1910 and 2019, only one American League batting champion (Carl Yastrzemski, 1968, .301 average) has finished the season with a lower average.

Who was the Yankee infielder who won the 1945 batting championship?   (a) Frankie Crosetti   (b) Joe Gordon   (c) Snuffy Stirnweiss   (d) Phil Rizzuto


June 2020

Veteran scout Ray Bellino played 13 seasons as an infielder in the minor leagues. His glove was his calling card.  A defensive wizard but weak hitter, Bellino struggled to hit above .220. His defense carried him to Triple-A, where he played for six seasons. Bellino retired as an active player after the 1964 season without ever reaching the majors. After his playing days, Bellino managed in the minor leagues for four seasons and then embarked on a lengthy career in scouting. The most notable player whom Bellino signed was a pitcher who was the ninth overall pick in the 1994 draft. While playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts in 1994, this pitcher faced basketball Hall-of-Famer Michael Jordan five times during Jordan’s season as an outfielder with the Birmingham Barons. The pitcher reached the major leagues in June 1995 and would spend ten seasons in the big leagues.

Who was the pitcher signed by Ray Bellino:     (a) Javier Vazquez     (b) Dustin Hermanson     (c) Jaret Wright     (d) C.J. Nitkowski


Atley Donald had a 29-year career as a scout, working from 1946 to 1975. Before turning to scouting, Donald enjoyed an eight-year career as a pitcher with the New York Yankees. Working primarily as a starter, Donald compiled a career record of 65 wins and 33 losses. He was a key contributor to three consecutive pennant-winning Yankee teams, 1941 to 1943. During his time as a scout, Donald signed pitcher Ron Guidry and catchers Clint Courtney and Jake Gibbs, among others. Donald also signed a player who, on April 6, 1973, became a footnote to history as the first-ever designated hitter in the American League.

Who was that player?:   (a) Bobby Grich      (b) John Mayberry      (c) Ron Blomberg      (d) Don Baylor


May 2020

One of three brothers to play in the major leagues, this player hit 351 home runs and batted .292 during his 15-year career.  Like his two brothers, the player was signed by veteran scout John Ogden. A former major league pitcher, Ogden had cultivated a strong friendship with the player’s mother. During his playing days, Ogden had pitched to Babe Ruth.  According to Ogden, this player was the only batter he ever saw who hit a ball as hard as Ruth did.  The player was once asked to compare playing on artificial turf with playing on real grass.  An avowed horse enthusiast, the player replied, “If a horse can’t eat it, I don’t like it.”

Who is the player:     (a) Felipe Alou        (b) Ken Boyer      (c) Dick Allen


In 13 major league seasons, this Brooklyn Dodger had a lifetime batting average of .324. In nine of his seasons, he hit .300 or better.  After his final season, the player became a scout and, for a period of 20 years, he scouted for several different major league teams.  In spite of his outstanding credentials as a hitter, the player is best remembered for his role in a play in which the Dodgers ended up with three runners on third base.

With one out and the bases loaded, the player hit a ball off the right-field wall at Ebbets Field. The player touched first base, then second, and headed for third. As he approached third base, he found two other teammates already occupying the base. The incident gave rise to a popular joke in which the straight man says, “The Dodgers have three runners on base.” The comedian then replies, “Which base?”

Who was the player/scout?  (a) Babe Herman    (b) Don Zimmer  (c) Carl Furillo    (d) Lefty O’Doul


April 2020

This former pitcher played for 18 seasons in the major leagues and was a five-time American League all-star.  No slouch at the plate, he had 81 runs batted in and hit five home runs during his career, including a grand slam against the New York Yankees in 1960. After his playing days, he was a scout for the Oakland Athletics and discovered outfielder Jose Canseco while Canseco was playing for Carol City High School in Opalocka, Florida.

Was it:  (a) Bill Monbouquette      (b) Pedro Ramos      (c) Camilo Pascual        (d) Virgil Trucks


Yankees scout Dick Groch, assigned to scout in the Midwest, watched [this player] participate in an all-star camp held at Western Michigan University. Though Yankees officials were concerned that [this player] would follow his girlfriend and attend college instead of signing a professional contract, Groch convinced them to select him, saying, “the only place this kid’s going is to Cooperstown!”  Who is this player?