Sim's Done! Opening Day is Next!

Game Date:  Mar 31 2031

Signings:

• Appalachian signed P Chad Harrison to a 1 year extension for $500k
• Mepkin Abbey signed RP Ray Lewis (Atlanta), 1 yr/$690k
• Appalachian signed SP Dale Long to a one year, $610k extension.

Significant Injuries:

• Philadelphia C Jesus Duran has a fractured thumb which will cost him five weeks.
• Brick 1B Martin Cox inflamed his elbow while trying to win a prize by knocking down all the bottles at the county fair.  He may have won a prize, but he (and Brick) have lost two weeks.

Answer to Trivia Question:

There is only one player who has exactly the same number of hits for a franchise as the number of games he played for that franchise (with a minimum of 1000 games for that franchise).  Who is the player and which team?

The answer is Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Gordon.  Gordon played exactly 1000 games for the Yankees and had exactly 1000 hits for the franchise. 

There are several players who are close, but just miss the 1000 game/hit requirement:

George Stovall (Cleveland) 955 games/hits
Pete Runnels (Washington Senators) 921
Bill Sweeney (Boston Braves) 902

Other Hall of Famers who did this (again without the 1000 game minimum) are:

Andre Dawson (Red Sox) 196 games/196 hits
Hughie Jennings (Brooklyn) 188
Al Simmons (Boston Braves) 93
Tony Lazzeri (New York Giants)  13
Flick Elmer (Philadelphia A's) 11
Roger Bresnehan (Washington Senators) 6
Mike Piazza (Florida) 5  (remember that week?)
King Kelly (Boston Reds -- American Association) 4
Dizzy Dean (St. Louis Browns) 1*
Jack Chesbro (Boston Red Sox) 1
Jesse Haines (Cincinnati) 1 

* Dean was retired and a broadcaster for the Browns in 1947.  The Browns were awful (as they usually were) and Dean had commented on the air that he could pitch better than the current staff.  Management took him up on his offer and allowed him to pitch the final game of the season.  Dean proved his point by throwing four scoreless innings and rapped a double in his only time at bat.

(Just to be clear -- I did know about Gordon, but not all the others.  I certainly don't know everyone's stats off the top of my head.  It helps to download a database and know how to write a SQL query.)

Next sim:  Monday night -- a one-day sim to take us to Opening Day.  I expect Opening Day to be simmed on Wednesday (with the regular sims being on Wednesdays throughout the season).  I will confirm with tomorrow's post when the actual Opening Day sim will be.