The Annual George Will Baseball Trivia Quiz

It's time for the annual re-post of a George Will column.  Don't worry, it is only baseball trivia:

"There'll be two buses leaving the hotel for the park tomorrow. The 2 o'clock bus will be for those of you who need a little extra work. The empty bus will leave at 5 o'clock." -- Dave Bristol, Milwaukee Brewers manager, 1972
WASHINGTON -- Everyone needs extra work to prepare for the season. So, name the player or players who:
1) Is the fourth (the others are Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays) with a career .300 average, 500 home runs and 100 stolen bases.
2) Played in the most wins.
3) Was the last to get 3,000 hits without winning a batting title.
4) Got 30 homers and 100 RBIs in a season for five different teams.
5) Struck out three times in a game just once in 13 seasons.
6) Hit .461 at home but .286 on the road.
7) Was the last person to enter September batting over .400.
8) Led his league in hits for three different teams.
9) Hit .408 in a season but lost the batting title.
10) Hit at least 40 doubles in 10 seasons.
11) Was the first 40-year-old with a 100-RBI season.
12) Is the most recent to win consecutive MVP awards.
13) Had the most career homers (399) without a 30-homer season.
14) Has the highest career batting average among players with at least 300 homers.
15) Is the only non-Yankee with 500 home runs and three championships.
16) Are the four right-handed hitters to lead the major leagues in hitting at least three times.

17) Are the two pitchers to have 300 more strikeouts than walks (not counting intentional walks) in a season.
18) Was the only batter to average 200 hits per season in his first 14 seasons.
19) Holds the career record for doubles.
20) Were the three pairs of rookies of the year who were later enshrined in Cooperstown.
21) Holds the record for most four-strikeout games.
22) Struck out in a record 37 consecutive games in a single season.
23) Was the first to win three MVP awards.
24) Are the two third basemen with 500 home runs.
25) Was the first to get 3,000 hits in the 20th century.
26) Had 999 walks with three starts to go in his career and did not reach 1,000.
27) Were the only two to bat cleanup in a World Series at age 20.
28) Led his league in RBIs in 2014 while batting second.
29) Although not in the Hall of Fame until 2017, reached base more than Jeff Bagwell, Roberto Clemente and Tony Gwynn and had five seasons with at least 30 doubles and 70 stolen bases (Ty Cobb had only three).
30) Was the only player with at least 100 triples, 150 homers and 600 stolen bases.
31) Was the only 300-game winner between the world wars.

32) Threw a no-hitter with no walks and 17 strikeouts.
33) Scored the most World Series runs.
34) Was the first White Sox player to be MVP.
35) Won 25 or more games three times in the 1960s but never won a Cy Young award.
36) Won the most ERA titles.
37) Is the only catcher to win three batting titles.
38) Led his league in batting average his first two seasons.
39) Had three seasons with 40 or more homers and fewer strikeouts than homers.
40) Was the Hall of Famer who hit into a record four triple plays.
Bonus question: What manager said, "Our phenoms aren't phenomenating."
Answers (after the jump):

NASA Photo of the Day

November 13:

Super Moon vs. Micro Moon
Image Credit & Copyright: Catalin Paduraru Explanation: What is so super about tomorrow's supermoon? Tomorrow, a full moon will occur that appears slightly larger and brighter than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully illuminated phase occurs within a short time from perigee - when the Moon is its closest to the Earth in its elliptical orbit. Although the precise conditions that define a supermoon vary, tomorrow's supermoon will undoubtedly qualify because it will be the closest, largest, and brightest full moon in over 65 years. One reason supermoons are popular is because they are so easy to see -- just go outside at sunset and watch an impressive full moon rise! Since perigee actually occurs tomorrow morning, tonight's full moon, visible starting at sunset, should also be impressive. Pictured here, a supermoon from 2012 is compared to a micromoon -- when a full Moon occurs near the furthest part of the Moon's orbit -- so that it appears smaller and dimmer than usual. Given many definitions, at least one supermoon occurs each year, with another one coming next month (moon-th). However, a full moon will not come this close to Earth again until 2034.

Is it just me, or has this Super Moon hype seemingly come out of nowhere in the last few years.  I don't remember hearing about this phenomena in the past.  I remember recent hype about eclipses, planetary alignments and meteor showers being similar to past buzz, but I just don't remember the Super Moon hype before about 3 or 4 years ago.  Oh, wait, here is some data:



So the first real mention of a super moon took place approximately 2 months after this blog started.  How did we get by without hyping the size of the full moon prior to 2011?

Punctuation, charted

Wired:

If you want to see somebody overuse punctuation, look at this guy [thumbs pointing at chest].

Procrastination

Who renewed his professional engineering license 26 hours before it expired? This guy! Why? Probably because he completed his 30 hours of continuing education about eight hours before that.

Where Did Your Christmas Tree Come From?

Vox:

Christmas trees are grown commercially in 44 states. But in most places it's a tiny industry, and production hovers in the thousands and hundreds of thousands. Only four states produced more than a million Christmas trees in 2012. Oregon was the top Christmas tree–producing state, with more than 6.4 million trees produced in 2012.

The Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association — which is a real organization that exists — estimates that the Christmas tree industry generates $110 million annually in revenue for Oregon. Ninety-two percent of Christmas trees produced in the Pacific Northwest (both Oregon and Washington) are ultimately exported out of the state, with the biggest customer being California. Only 4 percent make it all the way to the East Coast.
North Carolina was the second-largest producer of Christmas trees (4.3 million), followed by Michigan (1.7 million) and Pennsylvania (1 million). Overall, 17.3 million Christmas trees were produced in 2012.
The three best-selling species of Christmas trees include the Fraser fir (7.6 million), noble fir (4.9 million), and Douglas fir (3.9 million). North Carolina is the leading producer of Fraser firs, and Oregon is the leading producer of both noble and Douglas firs. An estimated 60 million to 70 million Christmas tree seedlings are planted yearly, and the industry employs on average at least 100,000 people.

I think the last year I got a tree was 2007.  I'm pretty sure that one came from North Carolina, and it was a Scotch Pine.  I'm not surprised Scotch Pine isn't included amongst the most popular trees listed above.

What's On The Side?

FiveThirtyEight looks at the regional differences in Thanksgiving meals:

Going deeper, the Southeast is the definitive home of canned cranberry sauce; respondents from the region are 50 percent more likely to pick that over the homemade variety. The Middle Atlantic states disproportionately have cauliflower as a side — 17 percent in the region versus 9 percent nationwide — while Texas and central Southern states see cornbread as far more necessary than the rest of the country, with 40 percent of respondents from those regions having it at dinner, compared with only 28 percent of the nation.
The Southeast prefers their carbs in the form of mac and cheese — 35 percent of respondents in that region include the dish on their Thanksgiving menu versus 20 percent of the country overall. Meanwhile, New England is losing its mind over squash, with 56 percent demanding it on their table, compared with only 18 percent of the nation as a whole. This is, by far, the most confusing finding of this whole pursuit. Did Gronk endorse squash or something?
What about dessert? Every region enjoys pumpkin pie. But beyond that, there are three Americas: The America that disproportionately has apple pie (New England and the Middle Atlantic), the America that has pecan pie and sweet potato pie (the assorted South), and the America that consumes cherry pie (the Midwest and West).

Wait, there are people who don't have rolls with Thanksgiving?  People eat squash?  I thought it was for decoration.  And don't get me started on salad.

Playing For A Spitter

Michigan State and Indiana are battling for The Old Brass Spittoon:

In 1950 MSU football had just come off a 36-33 emotional victory over Notre Dame and were looking to avoid a letdown against Indiana the following week. Knowing this, junior class president Gene McDermott wanted to play his part in keeping the Spartans from falling trap to Indiana.
McDermott and class secretary Virginia O’Brien hit the town to find something that would rile up not only the football team but the student body heading into the Indiana matchup. Inspired by the Little Brown Jug, which University of Michigan and Minnesota play for, the two wandered into an antique shop in Lansing.
McDermott spotted the spittoon and thought it would be perfect for the rivalry. Inside the spittoon was a note that said the spittoon was in use during the 1800s at a trading post around what is now East Lansing. As the story goes, residents of both Michigan and Indiana would pass by the trading post and use the spittoon while hunting and fishing in Michigan, therefore becoming the basis for the reasoning behind the Old Brass Spittoon. The spittoon was cleaned up, and bought for $25 by McDermott.
However, for it to become a rivalry trophy, Indiana had to first accept the challenge of playing for it. McDermott sent a telegram to the Indiana Student Senate telling them about the new found trophy. Their reply?
“We the students of Indiana University hereby accept your challenge.”
The challenge had begun and the Old Brass Spittoon was born. Engraved on the outside of the spittoon are the words:

“ ‘The Old Brass Spittoon’ ”

Inaugurated by the students of

Michigan State College and Indiana University

November - 4 - 1950

Since then, Michigan State has kicked Indiana's ass to the tune of a 44-15-2 record.

Geodetic Nerdiness In A Video

Vox:

Do you realize how tiny Greenland really is? The most common type of map hugely distorts its true size, as this GIF by Tom Phillips shows. It starts showing how Greenland looks on a Mercator projection, but then Phillips drags the shape down to reveal Greenland's true size.

Ironic how all the largest countries also look even bigger due to Mercator projection.  People who study geodetic science make me look cool.

Happy Birthday, Sis

In honor of my sister's birthday, which nearly coincides with the Bicentennial:



200 from Vince Collins on Vimeo.

U. S. International Communication Agency (formerly know as the Information Agency) grant project - an attempt to liven up the otherwise banal and uneventful "Bicentennial" celebration.

What AT&T's Mobile Network Doesn't Cover

AT&T has been advertising on Reds games that its network covers 97% of the nation's population.  Another way of looking at that is that they don't cover 9.6 million people.  Which is more than the number of people in New York City (8.5 million).  Or almost the population of North Carolina or Michigan (9.9 million).  Or nearly the combined population of Wyoming, Vermont, District of Columbia, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine  (9.87 million).  Looking at it that way, that is quite a few people.

Canada Loves Poop

So says The Atlantic (Ralph Waldo Emerson would be proud of the publication he co-founded):

The French love the heart emoji.
Canadians prefer pizza—and the pile of poo.
And Americans? The land that gave the world the iPhone, the Declaration of Independence, and the Kinsey Report prefers emoji that depict technology, royalty, and… eggplants. 
These preferences were revealed in a new report from SwiftKey, a software company that makes keyboards for iOS and Android phones. The report describes global trends in emoji usage and breaks them out by country and by language. Like nations themselves, it seems, emoji usage is also shaped by culture, climate, and geography.

Yes, this post is useless, but I really wanted to publish that headline.

The Most Distinctive Job in Each State

Vox:

Texas is full of oilmen, and Kentucky and West Virginia are big on mining. That's pretty obvious, but some states have disproportionate employment in less intuitive categories. New Hampshire is all about forest fire prevention, Missouri likes to split rocks, and Mississippi is for upholsterers....
On a technical level, what this map looks at are location quotients. These are calculated by the Labor Department's Occupational Employment Statistics operation every few years. The most recent one was completed in May of 2013. The way it works is you look at what share of people in Massachusetts are Industrial Organization Psychologists. Then you look at what share of people in America are Industrial Organizational Psychologists. The ratio between the two is the location quotient for Industrial Organization Psychologists in Massachusetts — 8.18, as it happens.

It makes sense that Wisconsin would have a disproportionate share of animal breeders (with a large number of dairy farms, there would be a sizable number of artificial insemination technicians), Iowa would have the highest percentage of soil and plant scientists and Washington would have the most aircraft manufacturers per capita, but I'm surprised that Indiana, despite the nickname of Purdue University would have a disproportionate number of boilermakers.  I'm guessing it has to do with the steel mills in Gary, Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor maybe.

Where People Really Like College Football

Who'd have guessed, the South and the Midwest:

I'm surprised Ohio isn't bright like Nebraska.  Buckeyes fans here are like cockroaches in the South.

Pumpkin Production

From USDA:

Pumpkin production is widely dispersed, with crop conditions varying greatly by region. In 2013, U.S. farmers produced 1.13 billion pounds of pumpkins. Illinois remains the leading producer of pumpkins, with a majority of supplies processed into pie filling and other uses. Supplies from the remaining top five States are targeted toward the seasonal fresh market for ornamental uses and for home processing.

Demand for specialty pumpkins continues to expand as consumers look for new and interesting variations. Retail prices in 2014, on average, were down compared with last year’s average (September-November). Specialty varieties with wholesale prices reported in 2014 include Big Mack pumpkins (a giant variety), Fairytale (deep ribs, mahogany color), Knucklehead (medium size, upright, with lumps of various size and color on the skin), and heirloom varieties.

Production

U.S. pumpkin planted area, total in top six States: 1/
2011: 50,900 acres (17,400 in Illinois, 7,200 in Michigan)
2012: 53,800 acres (20,400 in Illinois, 6,800 in Michigan)
2013: 53,200 acres (20,400 in Illinois, 6,600 in Michigan)

U.S. farm value of pumpkin production, total in top six States: 1/
2011: $113 million ($24 mil. in New York, $22 mil. in Illinois)
2012: $149 million ($33 mil. in New York, $33 mil. in Illinois)
2013: $150 million ($47 mil. in Illinois, $30 mil. in California)

U.S. pumpkin production, total in top six States: 1/
2011: 1.07 billion pounds (0.52 bil. in Illinois, 0.17 bil. in California)
2012: 1.24 billion pounds (0.56 bil. in Illinois, 0.19 bil. in California)
2013: 1.13 billion pounds (0.55 bil. in Illinois, 0.19 bil. in California)

U.S. pumpkin production, top six States, 2013: 1/
Illinois: 547.6 million pounds
California: 194.7 million pounds
Ohio: 100.4 million pounds
Michigan: 97.8 million pounds
New York: 96.0 million pounds
Pennsylvania: 94.2 million pounds

U.S. pumpkin yield per acre, top six States, 2013: 1/
Illinois: 27,000 pounds
California: 33,000 pounds
Ohio: 16,500 pounds
New York: 16,000 pounds
Michigan: 15,500 pounds
Pennsylvania: 14,500 pounds

Share of U.S. pumpkin area harvested for the fresh market, in top six States, 2012: 2/
Illinois: 23 percent
California: 99 percent
Ohio: 97 percent
Michigan: 88 percent
New York: 96 percent
Pennsylvania: 97 percent

Prices
U.S. farm price for pumpkins: 1/
2011 average: 10.60 cents per pound
2012 average: 12.00 cents per pound
2013 average: 13.30 cents per pound

U.S. wholesale price for pumpkins, week ending October 11, 2014 average: 3/ 4/
Howden-type (Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins): $136.14/36” bin
Pie-type: $244.50/ 36” bin
Miniature, orange: $16.22/1/2 bushel carton
Miniature, white: $16.08/1/2 bushel carton
Heirloom varieties: $193.50/24” bin

U.S. advertised retail price for pumpkins: 4/
2013 average: $5.07 each
Sept. 5, 2014: $3.76 each
Sept. 12, 2014: $5.30 each
Sept. 19, 2014: $4.07 each
Sept. 26, 2014: $3.94 each
Oct. 3, 2014: $3.94 each (22 percent below 2013 average)
Oct. 10, 2014: $3.62 each (29 percent below 2013 average)

Sources: 1/ USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Vegetables. Data provided only for top six States. According to the 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture, these States accounted for approximately 50 percent of U.S. total pumpkin area. 2/ USDA, NASS, 2012 U.S. Census of Agriculture. 3/ Simple average of all quoted markets (excluding organic) for the listed type and container. 4/ USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service, Fruit and Vegetable Market News.

I knew none of that. 16,000 pounds per acre at 13 cents a pound sounds pretty good.

It's A Start

The Cincinnati Bengals have started the season 3-0, and are undefeated in September for the first time in seven seasons.  That year they finished 8-8.  Hopefully  this season will go a little better.

I think we could use some music.

Little Liza Jane

I haven't been to a wedding up in God's Country in a while, and I am a ridiculously terrible square dancer, but for some reason, this song has been stuck in my head all evening. "Oh little Liza, little Liza Jane. Oh little Liza, little Liza Jane."  Enjoy.

Last Night's Full Buck Moon

Christian Science Monitor:

If skies are clear in your part of the world tonight, you’ll be able to see something called a “Full Buck Moon.”
That’s a full moon rising and setting at the time of year when bucks – male deer – typically begin to grow their new antlers, starting with velvety bumps on their foreheads.
“Full moon names date back to Native Americans, of what is now the northern and eastern United States,” explains SPACE.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao. “Those tribes of a few hundred years ago kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon. Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred.”
The full moon names and dates for 2014 include: Full Wolf Moon Jan. 15, Full Snow Moon Feb. 14, Full Worm Moon Mar. 16, Full Pink Moon Apr. 15, Full Flower Moon May 14, Full Strawberry Moon June 13, Full Buck Moon July 12, Full Sturgeon Moon Aug. 10, Full Harvest Moon Sept. 8, Full Hunters’ Moon Oct. 8, Full Beaver Moon Nov. 6, and Full Cold Moon Dec. 6.
July’s full moon was also called “Thunder Moon” because it occurred at the time of year when thunderstorms are frequent.

I generally only see these names in The Old Farmer's Almanac.

The Joy Found In Doing Something Well

Bill Simmons has a very enjoyable piece about LeBron going back to Cleveland, his place as one of the greatest basketball players ever, what makes him so great, and why the move makes sense in that light.  Here's a sample:

I have caught LeBron in person maybe 50 times. My favorite night happened in Game 4 of this year’s Eastern Conference finals against Indiana, right after Lance Stephenson stupidly challenged him. LeBron said he didn’t take Lance’s buffoonery personally, only we knew that he did. Unlike Jordan or Kobe before him, he didn’t respond by dropping 50.
Instead, he strolled onto the court, figured out exactly what the Heat needed, then gave them exactly that for three incredible quarters. There wasn’t a single moment, for two solid hours, when anyone thought Indiana had a chance. His numbers weren’t mind-blowing: just 29 points and nine rebounds through three quarters. But he dominated the proceedings in every conceivable way. You never forgot he was out there, not for a second. He made the correct basketball decision every time, even something as simple as “I should push the pace right here” or “I’m just gonna assume that Norris Cole is in the left corner even if I can’t see him, so I’m going to throw a 50-foot pass over my head to that spot and hope he catches it.” He didn’t waste an ounce of energy. Over everything else, his efficiency was positively eerie.
During the third quarter, I texted a friend that “this was an all-time non-signature signature game, he’s made like 13 incredible plays.” Almost on cue, the man made two more, including an insane full-court push that finished with a reverse dunk in traffic. Like Magic before him, LeBron loves playing at home — loves seeing the arena covered in white, loves looking out at the fans after big plays, loves stomping around and screaming and feeding off the noise. He’s been great at basketball for years and years, but now he’d figured out the sport itself. He reached that final level. This was art. This was genius plus performance.
In an underrated movie called Six Degrees of Separation, Will Smith plays a scam artist who infiltrates the lives of four different wealthy families in Manhattan. He insists on cooking dinner for one of those families and makes them an amazing meal. Later, when the wife (played by Stockard Channing) is trying to convince Smith’s character to give himself up to police, he remembers that dinner and says it was the greatest night of his life.
You guys let me use all the best parts of me, he tells her.
That’s how I felt about LeBron in Game 4 of that Indy series.

I went into work this morning, and read this while I was killing time.  Then I went out and took a walk around the shop to see if there were any problems or screw ups I might have to deal with before I left for the day.  As I was going back toward the office, I stopped and talked to one of the weld inspectors.  He is the guy who gets called out to do the important fixes when things are screwed up, whether it is cutting apart bad weld jobs and fixing them, or cutting holes for bearings when the pre-programmed holes don't work out.  But most of his day is spent keeping the other welders working, looking at drawings and helping get those guys' work set up, then inspecting their work to see if it meets our quality standards.  He told me that this morning he was actually in a booth welding.  When he first said it, I thought maybe he was making the point that it was somehow crazy that things were so disordered that he wasn't doing his job, but instead doing somebody else's work. That's because normally our conversations center around how insanely chaotic our workdays are. Then he made the comment that it was so nice being in there by himself, turning off the radio, and just welding.  I think he used the word peaceful to describe it.  I was immediately reminded of the above article.  Clearly, he really enjoyed just welding-being there by himself and doing what he does very well.  That made me think about what I would consider the skill which I do best (which obviously isn't writing).

[Warning: major nerd content and much inane bragging after the jump]

Field of Dreams To Be Immortalized in Butter

Well, not quite immortalized.  Des Moines Register:

The "Field of Dreams" will now be immortalized (at least until it gets mooshed up and stored for next year's sculpture…) in a field of butter.
The Iowa State Fair announced that the butter cow will be sharing her refrigerated stall with a sculpture that "features elements from America's favorite past-time of baseball and the rural Iowa landscape" and celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Iowa-based feature film.
While there's no doubt that butter is pretty much one of the best inventions ever, the iconic butter cow and her butter compatriots have not always been universally appreciated. Last year, an animal rights group snuck in to the John Deere Agriculture Building and vandalized the old gal with blood-red paint. But quick-thinking fair folks capitalized on the publicity and created "Butter Cow Security" T-shirts.
And butter Michael Jackson never even made it on to the 40-degree stage. People weren't crazy about the King of Pop's alleged sexual misconduct with children and the idea of sculpting MJ was nixed in favor of the less controversial Neil Armstrong (still got a moonwalk in there though).
"Field of Dreams" is probably a safe choice though. It seems unlikely that the movie that gave us baseball, father-son reconciliation and "Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa," all in two hours will foment any anti-butter-sculpture revolution.

Well, that gives me something to look forward to in the first week of August.  Also, for a bonus, historical butter cow and lard sculpture photos.  One of my favorites:

The Mushroom Capital of the United States

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania:

The countryside around Kennett Square in Pennsylvania’s semi-rural Chester County is well-known for its thoroughbred horse farms, its rambling estates where scions of industry and retail still ride to the hounds and its fresh-vegetable producers who supply local farm-to-table restaurants in Philadelphia and Wilmington, just across the state line in Delaware.
But a grittier agricultural industry dominates the region: mushrooms. Kennett Square is king of fresh, commercially-grown mushrooms. Not only is mushroom farming the leading agricultural pursuit in Chester County, the area is also the largest producer of fresh mushrooms in the United States.
Chester County’s 61 mushroom farms account for 47 percent of total U.S. mushroom production, according to Pennsylvania’s Agricultural Development Council. This means over 400 million pounds of mushrooms valued at $365 million, with an overall contribution to the local economy of an estimated $2.7 billion. The industry directly employs almost 10,000 workers, mostly from the area’s large Hispanic community.
The landscape surrounding the region is dotted with single-level cinderblock buildings — variously called mushroom “barns,” “houses” and “doubles” — where the mushrooms are grown. The roads themselves hold a vehicular menagerie — flatbed trucks carrying baled hay for compost coming from as far away as the Midwest, dump trucks carting steaming compost to and from the barns and, of course, panel-bodied trucks racing to deliver just-picked mushrooms to nearby processing facilities. And when all that compost is being turned and is particularly ripe, winds carry that particular, rank aroma that says, “You’re in mushroom country.”
The bulk of the mushrooms produced in the area are in the Agaricus family – the ubiquitous white and brown buttons plus the large portobellos that have become popular grilled-steak substitutes of late. The region also produces what are called “specialties” or “exotics” – shiitakes, oysters, maitakes, beeches, enokis and pom poms. (Unfortunately, wild porcinis and morels have never been tamed.)

It surprises me that nobody has been able to domesticate morel mushrooms.  They are selling in the local grocery for $50 a pound.  Every time I think of mushroom farms I think of Travis Tritt's song, "Lord Have Mercy On the Working Man."