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Monday, February 28, 2022

Randy Hundley Makes Giants Look Bad

 

TRIVIA WINNER: Congrats to Steve Bailey of Rochester University, who correctly stated the batter Cesar Tovar struck out in the game where he played all nine positions, was Reggie Jackson. The Prize: Starbucks Gift Card.

NEW TRIVIA CONTEST:  By answering the TRIVIA QUESTION CORRECTLY you are automatically entered into a weekly drawing for a Starbucks Gift Card.  YOU MUST ENTER VIA THE EMAIL AT THE END OF THIS COLUMN. Don't forget to put your mailing address in with the answer so if you win we can send you the gift card in the mail.

Just a note to add; If you look at the top right hand corner of the side bar you will see a link to daily sports scores. We made an agreement with Baseball 24 in a mutual sharing situation. Hope its helpful to fans of several sports.

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NEW TRIVIA QUESTION:   Randy Hundley caught two no-hitters. Who were the two pitchers? 
 
ANSWER to the Trivia question in the previous column: 
Cesar Tovar struck out rookie outfielder, Reggie Jackson in the game where he played all  nine positions in a nine inning game. NOTE: The only other player to play all nine positions in a game was in the game as well; Campy Campaneris of the Athletics.

Few people remember when the San Francisco Giants had too many good players at a key position, they traded off one of them who would become an outstanding major league player with the Cubs. Randy Hundley was signed originally by the Giants. However, they also had Tom Haller up front, Dick Dietz waiting in the wings and a very capable Bob Barton on the bench. Quite frankly, they needed pitching more than an up and coming catcher. A two fold mistake for San Francisco.

 After a couple of cups of coffee in 1964-1965, Hundley was sent packing to Chicago along with Bill Hands for Lindy McDaniel and outfielder Don Landrum. McDaniel had one great season, Landrum was pretty much finished and Hands would win 92 games for the Cubs. He won 20 in one of those seasons. Hundley nearly was voted Rookie of the Year in what turned out to be a terrible trade for the Giants and a steal for Chicago.

Hundley started immediately with 19 homers and a .236 average. Defensively he would have better seasons and in fact was one of the best defensive catchers in the NL in the era. His 16 Passed Balls probably kept him from ROY honors. He went on to become an all-star and won a  Gold Glove. He never approached double figures in PB's again.

He would play 14 seasons in the big leagues including 10 with the Cubs. Three times he hit the double figure mark in homers and while he never hit for average, his mainstay was handling Cubs pitchers. Many of them won 20 games with him behind the plate, including Hands and Fergie Jenkins.

TRIVIA CONTEST; After reading this column you can enter the weekly trivia contest for a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card. Enter via the following email. Send 1) your answer to the trivia question at the top of the column, 2) your name, address and email so where we know where to send the card if you win 3) any comment you have on the column. One winner will be selected at random each week based on correct answers with the odds being based on the number of correct entries.  Please cut and paste or enter the following email into your email system.
                             SEND YOUR ANSWERS TO; brillpro@gmail.com  
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