Yankee4Life

I did come up with a question. How do you enable joystick sup[port in some games? Tony Larussa 3 and Oldtime baseball will not let me use one and I have DOSBOX for that.

It has been twenty-eight years since I was using DOS commands on a daily basis. You see back then computer users would have to switch between DOS and Windows and I liked DOS much better. Following Devlin's detailed and very helpful directions brought back some DOS memories and long story short I have all four versions working for me now. Thank you Devlin for this and your work on this. I was looking through some of the teams and they look outstanding.

My God I am getting close with his directions but I got to stop right now and take some Tylenol.

9 out of 10, 113 seconds. Yeah it looks like a good score but luck was with me today as I guessed on five of them and got them all correct.

Thank you and it is much appreciated. The first problem I had was when you had me type INSTALL from your directions. There is no file that says install. Then it went downhill for me.

The good, the bad and the ugly: First the good. Devlin was kind enough to upload these mods for us and by the look of those screen shots this is going to be a wonderful mod to play. The bad: I have DOSBOX and I have no idea how to to get this to work and I have read and re-read the directions. The ugly: I get so frustrated with myself when I can't follow computer instructions and the reason why is that I know it is user error and do not know how to fix it. If anyone knows how and has played one of these mods kindly let me know how you did it. Thank you.

10 out of 10, 44 seconds. I should be happy with this score but I could not get going today. Well Jim I took care of that! 😄

I'm close to it but a few preceded this game. Hardball 3 Tony Larussa 2 Hardball 4 Tony Larussa 3 Oldtime Baseball Hardball 5 I still play all of these games via DOSBOX and I love them.

Oh my God! 😲

4 out of 10, 116 seconds. Again they were merciful on me and gave me two baseball questions.

10 out of 10, 60 seconds. I needed a comeback today.

Yes, good idea. And thank you!

1 out of 10, 148 seconds. If they did not throw a baseball question at me I'd of been shut out today. Two where-did-I go-to-college questions, what is the largest Samurai sword and two cricket questions were what I was up against today.

Do you still have these mods you made Devlin? I'd love to use them in my Hardball 5 game. I still play it!

I don't know where to report an incorrect question because I got that question wrong too.

4 out of 10, 73 seconds. Like Laroquece said, oh boy. I did terrible. But look at this. I was screwed out of one question. They want to know who the pitcher was that Wertz hit the ball off of. Simple for me because I happened to listen to this game during the winter a few years back. It was Giants pitcher Don Liddle. He only pitched 1/3 of an inning and Vic Wertz was the only batter he faced. Marv Grissom came on to get the final 2 2/3 innings for the win. Get it right!! Thank you Retrosheet!

If you can't that is no problem. Both are good choices.

You don’t have to worry about have too many dynasties started and stopped because we’ve had many people in the past that seemed to start a new one every week or so. One guy used to start one so many times that we’d sit back and wait for him to scrap it and begin again. No kidding. Now, a simulated radio broadcast done by you? That would be interesting and it would promote your mod at the same time. I think it would be a very good idea. We had a guy named bhurst99 who had a Blue Jays video dynasty and he spent a lot of time on it. You can check it out right here. I do agree that the dynasties are a forgotten feature here but we have had some good ones at the same time. An audio dynasty has never been done here and I know you said video would take up too much space and that makes sense I did come up with two questions. First with the audio dynasty you will be having will you still have screenshots? That doesn’t take a lot of space and secondly when you are going to play a game where it could decide the division or pennant or World Series will you make a video there? Standout games like that. A pregame and recap show sounds good. Again, never been done in here. Fake sponsors? It depends on what team you will be using for your dynasty and then I can use my imagination.

James "Hippo" Vaughn Some ballplayers are defined by one moment. Jim “Hippo” Vaughn was such a player. Mentioning his name evokes a knee-jerk reaction from a knowledgeable fan: “Oh, yes, he threw the double no-hitter with Fred Toney in 1917.” This is unfortunate because that game is but one in the career of a pitcher whose overall performance was excellent. From 1914 to 1920, Vaughn was the best lefty in the National League if not in the game, but his short career leaves him just this side of the Hall of Fame. He began pitching professionally with Temple in the Texas League in 1906. He spent 1907 at Corsicana in the North Texas League, then moved on to Hot Springs in the Arkansas State League, going 9-1 and getting a shot with the New York Highlanders. He debuted with New York on June 19, 1908. His work for 2⅓ innings in two games showed some wildness with five walks, and he finished the season with Scranton of the New York State League, his 2-4 record offset by six complete games, a shutout, and a fine 2.39 ERA. Vaughn rejoined the Highlanders at spring training in 1910 and so impressed manager George Stallings that he gave Vaughn the opening day assignment. Lyle Spatz notes in New York Yankee Openers that at twenty-two Vaughn was, and remains, the youngest pitcher ever to start the opening game for the Yankees. He faced the Boston Red Sox and Eddie Cicotte on April 14 at Hilltop Park. After a rough start in which he gave up three runs in the first three innings and another in the fifth, Vaughn settled down, and he and Joe Wood (relieving Cicotte) pitched shutout ball until the game was called on account of darkness after 14 innings with the score tied 4-4. The game was an indication of good things to come. Overshadowed by Russ Ford‘s brilliant rookie season of 26-6 with a 1.65 ERA, Vaughn went 13-11 for the season with an excellent 1.83 ERA, 18 complete games, and five shutouts. Hal Chase became manager of the Highlanders late in 1910 and returned for the full 1911 season. Chase, like Stallings before him, was impressed with Vaughn and selected him for the April 12 opener in Philadelphia against Chief Bender. Both men pitched beautifully, with Vaughn winning a 2-1 decision and helping himself with a single. The rest of the season was a disappointment as Vaughn finished up 8-10 with a 4.39 ERA. Vaughn got into the opener in New York on April 12, 1912, against Boston and Joe Wood, recording the last two outs in the ninth inning after Ray Caldwell surrendered four runs, giving Boston a 5-3 win. From that point on, Vaughn was 2-8 with an ERA of 5.14 and a shutout, until June 26, when New York sold him to Washington for the waiver price. He did better in Washington, going 4-3 with a 2.89 ERA. Washington sold him to Kansas City of the American Association, where he finished the year weakly, 2-3 while giving up over five runs a game. The 1913 season found Vaughn back in Kansas City, where he recovered his form with a record of 14-13 and an ERA of 2.05 along with a no-hitter against Toledo on June 23. The Chicago Cubs took a chance on him that paid off immediately. He finished the season 5-1 with six complete games, two shutouts, and an ERA of 1.45. Sometimes a player, a team, and a city come together almost magically. Such was the case with Vaughn, the Cubs, and Chicago. He had found a home. Vaughn’s 1914 season was pretty much what the next six seasons would be: 21-13 with a 2.05 ERA. Indeed, looking at Vaughn’s numbers during this period is like looking at Warren Spahn‘s career over any half-dozen years — 17 to 23 wins, a high percentage of complete games, 260 to 300 innings pitched, good control, a decent number of strikeouts, and an ERA below the league average. Of course, Spahn did it more than twice as long. Vaughn’s 1915 showing was a bit off, 20-12 but with an ERA of 2.87 that was the worst of his prime years and the only season that he had fewer complete games (18) than wins. He slipped to 17-15 in 1916 but brought his ERA down to 2.20. As further proof of his consistency, he pitched four shutouts each season. Amid these good times, Vaughn married Edna Coburn DeBold on February 11, 1916. On a less happy note, sometime during these years he acquired the nickname “Hippo” that followed him all his life. Vaughn was a large man, about six-foot-four, with most references listing him between 215 and 230 pounds. There is some evidence that he weighed close to three hundred pounds later in his career, and his slow, side-to-side, lumbering gait didn’t help. What Vaughn thought of the nickname isn’t known. From 1914 to 1916, Vaughn was a very fine pitcher. From 1917 to 1919, he was a great one. The only National League lefthanders to put together a better string of seasons would be Carl Hubbell from 1933 to 1937 and Sandy Koufax from 1962 to 1966. In 1917 Vaughn established himself as a dominant pitcher. He started a career-high 38 games, completed 27 (also his best, equaling it in 1918), struck out 195 (career best), went 23-13, and topped it off with a sparkling 2.01 ERA. The highlight of the year came at Weeghman Park on May 2, when he and Fred Toney of Cincinnati both threw no-hitters through nine innings. Vaughn faced the minimum 27 batters, one baserunner caught stealing and two others erased on double plays. He struck out ten while walking two and allowing only Greasy Neale to hit a ball out of the infield. It all unraveled in the tenth. With one out, Larry Kopf singled to right. Neale flied to center for the second out. Then, in a moment of irony that occurs only in baseball, Hal Chase hit a hard liner that Cy Williams couldn’t hold. Kopf moved to third on the play. Chase stole second. Jim Thorpe then hit a slow roller toward third that catcher Art Wilson and Vaughn both chased. Vaughn caught up with the ball and seeing that he couldn’t get Thorpe at first, threw home to Wilson to catch Kopf trying to score from third. Wilson still had his back turned, and Vaughn’s throw hit him on the shoulder. Kopf scored easily, and Chase, thinking the ball had bounced far enough away, tried to score, but Wilson recovered the ball and tagged him for the third out. That was the final score, 1-0, as Toney retired the Cubs in the bottom of the inning. Christy Mathewson, who was managing the Reds and knew a bit about pitching, called it the greatest pitching performance he’d ever seen. Vaughn, for understandable reasons, didn’t like to talk about the game. The 1918 season began with Chicago in high hopes. The White Sox had beaten the Giants in the World Series the fall before, and Cubs fans figured it was their turn. They had good reason. Vaughn was coming off a great season, and the Cubs had acquired none other than Grover Cleveland Alexander from Philadelphia. Alexander started off well, but, as the Philadelphia front office cynically gambled would happen, was drafted into the army and lost for the season. Vaughn responded magnificently. He started off by beating the Cardinals on April 18, helping himself with two hits and scoring two runs. On April 24 in the Cubs’ home opener, Vaughn pitched a 2-0, one-hit masterpiece against the same Cardinals (Rogers Hornsby got the only hit in the second inning), striking out six and walking just two while letting no one get to second base. He came down with the flu in June, but the setback was temporary. Vaughn beat the Cardinals, 1-0, on another one-hitter on June 26. He shut out Cincinnati, 2-0, on June 29, and made the day a doubleheader sweep, having welcomed James Leslie Vaughn Jr., the Vaughns’ only child, that morning. Vaughn was unbeatable for most of the season, another example being his 1-0 win over the Giants as he drove in the only run of the game with a single in the twelfth inning. The season was shortened to 140 games and ended on September 2 as the government enacted a “Fight or Work” decree in support of the war effort. Vaughn tailed off a bit as the season wound down, but his exceptional work had propelled the Cubs to the pennant 10.5 games ahead of the Giants. Vaughn captured the pitchers’ Triple Crown, leading the National League in wins with 22 (against just 10 losses), strikeouts with 148, and ERA at 1.74. Equally impressive is his eight shutouts, which stood as the National League record for southpaws (tied with Lefty Leifield of Pittsburgh in 1906 and teammate Lefty Tyler in 1918) until Hubbell threw 10 in 1933. Vaughn didn’t let up in the Series against the Red Sox, but he had little luck against three excellent pitchers. Fellow lefty Babe Ruth beat Vaughn, 1-0, in Game One. Carl Mays, who would win over two hundred games in his career, took Game Three from Vaughn, 2-1. Vaughn then shut out another two-hundred-game winner, Sad Sam Jones, 3-0, in Game Five. His brilliant work included three complete games, three earned runs, an ERA of 1.00 — and a 1-2 record. The Cubs lost the Series in six games. Vaughn essentially duplicated his 1918 effort the next season, going 21-14 with 141 strikeouts, his usual four shutouts, and a 1.79 ERA. The Cubs, however, went 75-65 and slipped to third place. In hindsight, the 1920 season showed some signs that not all was well. The Cubs continued to decline, going 75-79 and finishing fifth, so Vaughn’s 19-16 record looked good in comparison. However, his ERA was a high (for him) 2.54, though near his career ERA of 2.49. His strikeouts fell to 131, slightly off his usual performance. What might have raised alarms was Vaughn’s giving up 301 hits in 301 innings, the first time he had surrendered a hit an inning since 1912. Nevertheless, no one thought the end was near. The 1921 season was a flameout as Vaughn went 3-11 with an ERA of 6.01. His demise as a major league pitcher came in a 6-5 loss to the Giants at the Polo Grounds on July 9. In the bottom of the fourth inning with one out Giant catcher Frank (Pancho) Snyder rocked Vaughn for a grand slam home run. The next batter, pitcher Phil Douglas, applied the coup de grace with the first of his two major league homers. Manager Johnny Evers pulled Vaughn from the game, and that was the end. What followed was a comedy of errors to all but the participants. The New York Times reported on July 11 that neither Evers nor anyone from the Cubs organization had seen Vaughn since the game, noting that he would draw a suspension if and when he returned to the club. Also in trouble was catcher Bob O’Farrell, who had been suspended for not following team rules. The Chicago Daily Tribune, having called Vaughn “A.W.O.L.” on July 11, noted on July 15 that he was back in Chicago. The Times followed up on July 20, saying that Cubs president William Veeck would trade Vaughn if he could get appropriate value for him. On August 1, the Tribune reported that Vaughn, “under indefinite suspension for failure to keep in fighting trim,” would probably wind up pitching for the Beloit Fairies, a semi-pro team owned by the Fairbanks-Morse “company.” A week later, on August 8, the Tribune noted that Evers having been fired, new manager Bill Killefer and Cub president Veeck were ready to reinstate Vaughn pending approval from Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Ignoring Killefer and Veeck, Landis suspended Vaughn for at least the remainder of the season. The Tribune of August 10 summarized Landis’ unique logic in suspending Vaughn, who had reason to believe he was finished as far the Cubs were concerned: “The judge in suspending the big pitcher declared Vaughn, after notification of his suspension by the Cubs, had signed a three year contract to pitch for the Fairbanks-Morse semi-pro nine of Beloit, Wis. . . . In so doing the judge declared Vaughn deliberately ignored his contract with the Cubs and aligned himself with an outlaw team which harbors ineligible players and plays outlaw clubs.” The Tribune summed matters up through understatement the next day: “The affair has been bungled.” And conveniently forgetting everything it had said on Evers’ behalf at Vaughn’s expense, The Sporting News on August 11 and 18 suggested that the Cubs’ fall was primarily Evers’ fault, that the players had had their fill of his “Old Crabbing Habits” (August 11) and were delighted to have Killefer at the helm! Several explanations arise, but none has ever been confirmed. The most common is that Vaughn had a sore arm, tempting given his age and the possibility that his weight had caught up with him. Too, the Cubs fell precipitously, going 65-89 and landing in seventh place under their new manager, Johnny Evers. Evers’ manic personality had helped the Cubs enormously in the glory years from 1906 to 1910 and the Braves in 1914, but it didn’t sit well when he became a manager as the team went 41-55 under him. Vaughn, a quiet professional who went about his business, seems to have found Evers particularly annoying and left the team late in June, official reports saying he had a sore arm. As for the Cubs, they did no better under new manager Bill Killefer, Alexander’s catcher in Philadelphia, going 23-34. The explanation that Vaughn had arm trouble loses a little credence in light of his performance with Beloit in the Midwest League-either an independent or even outlaw league, or most likely a semi-pro league-where he compiled an 11-1 record with 99 strikeouts against nine walks and an ERA approximated at 2.01. Of course, the Midwest League wasn’t the National League, so a pitcher with Vaughn’s skill and experience could likely have dominated over inferior talent even with a sore arm. In any case, reported the Tribune on January 13, 1922, the Beloit Fairies liked Vaughn well enough to give him a three-year contract. Vaughn would pitch in various minor and semi-pro leagues, mostly with Beloit, the Logan Squares of Chicago, and the Chicago Mills until 1937, when he was 49. Altogether, Vaughn went 223-145 in minor league and semi-pro ball, most of those decisions coming after he left the Cubs. With his major league record of 178-137, Vaughn is one of the very few pitchers credited with four hundred or more wins. Cy Young and Walter Johnson, of course, got theirs in the majors. The others — Alexander, Joe McGinnity, Kid Nichols, and Spahn — while getting some wins outside the big leagues still got the majority in the majors. It’s still an exclusive club. Vaughn considered making a comeback with the Cubs, but it never worked out. He pitched some batting practice, and that was it. Away from baseball, he was an assembler for a refrigeration products company. He spent his life in Chicago, dying May 29, 1966. Vaughn is clearly the best lefthander the Cubs have ever had. He threw hard, had good control, gave up less than a hit an inning, and was stingy with runs. His 151 wins is miles ahead of Larry French‘s 95. He won twenty games five times in seven years. No other Cub southpaw did it more than twice (Jake Weimer in 1903 and 1904). No Cub lefty achieved it after Vaughn in 1919 until Dick Ellsworth did so in 1963. No one’s done it since. Vaughn was an excellent pitcher for seven years and a great one for some of that time, but except for one day in 1917, he’s pretty much forgotten.

10 out of 10, 38 seconds. These questions today were like the Friday ones.

My apologies for not updating this thread since April but the FTP area here was having some problems and I could not store my photos. Fortunately Trues figured out what the issue was and he fixed it. I sincerely thank him for what he did. Frank Baker In an era characterized by urbanization and rapid industrial growth, Frank “Home Run” Baker epitomized the rustic virtues that were becoming essential to baseball’s emerging bucolic mythology. Born and raised in a tiny farming community on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Baker developed his powerful back, arms, and hands by working long hours on his father’s farm. Like the rugged president who defined the century’s first decade, the taciturn Baker spoke softly but carried a big stick — a 52-ounce slab of wood that he held down at the handle and swung with all the force he could muster. One of the Deadball Era’s greatest sluggers, Baker led the American League or tied for the lead in home runs every year from 1911 to 1914, and earned his famous nickname with two timely round-trippers against the New York Giants in the 1911 World Series. Baker later insisted that his hard-swinging mentality came from his country roots. “The farmer doesn’t care for the pitchers’ battle that resolves itself into a checkers game,” he once declared. “The farmer loves the dramatic, and slugging is more dramatic than even the cleverest pitching.” John Franklin Baker was born on March 13, 1886, the second son of Franklin A. and Mary C. Baker, on a farm just outside Trappe, Md., a tiny community located just a few miles east of the Chesapeake Bay. In 1905, Baker’s exploits with a local amateur team caught the eye of Trappe native Preston Day, who recommended the youngster to future major leaguer Buck Herzog, then managing a semipro outfit in nearby Ridgely. After looking Baker over, Herzog signed Frank to a $5 per week contract, and moved him to third base. The following year, Baker earned $15 per week playing for the semipro Sparrows Point Club in Baltimore, and in 1907 he turned down an offer to play in the Texas League and instead signed with an independent club in Cambridge, Md. At the end of the season he received a tryout with Baltimore of the Eastern League, but after Baker collected just two singles in 15 at-bats, manager Jack Dunn concluded that he “could not hit” and released him. In 1908, Baker joined the Reading Pretzels of the Class B Tri-State League, where he batted .299 in 119 games. In September, Connie Mack, the manager of the Philadelphia Athletics who was looking for a third baseman to replace the aging Jimmy Collins, purchased his contract. After batting .290 in 31 at-bats at the end of the 1908 season, Baker was handed the starting job at third base at the outset of the 1909 campaign. He was an instant success, supplying a much needed dose of offense to the middle of the Philadelphia attack. On May 29, Baker became the first man to hit a ball over the right field fence at the newly constructed Shibe Park, one of his four home runs for the season. For his rookie year, Baker finished with a .305 batting average and .447 slugging percentage, good for fourth best in the American League. His 85 RBI placed him third in the league, and his 19 triples led the circuit. The young slugger also proved himself to be a deft handler of the stick, finishing third in the American League with 34 sacrifices. A left-handed batter (though he threw from the right side), Baker positioned himself with his left foot firmly planted on the back line of the batter’s box, and his feet 18 inches apart in a slightly closed stance. At 5’11”, 173 lbs., Baker did not cut an imposing figure at the plate, but the ease with which he handled his famed 52-ounce bat spoke volumes about his physical strength. Asked to explain Baker’s power, Jake Daubert commented, “Frank Baker doesn’t look so big, but he has big wrists.” Observers noted that when Baker swung, he seemed to give the ball an extra push by violently snapping his wrists at the point of contact. Baker also acquitted himself well on the base paths and in the field, though, like Honus Wagner, he appeared clumsy in his movements. Bowlegged and husky, the lumbering Baker ran “like a soft-shell crab” according to one observer. Nonetheless, he stole 20 or more bases every year from 1909 to 1913, and in his rookie season he led all third basemen in putouts, an accomplishment he repeated six more times during his thirteen-year career. Baker’s outstanding rookie campaign was a major factor in the Athletics’ surge in the standings. Winning 27 more games than they had in 1908, the Mackmen finished in second place, just 3½ games behind the Detroit Tigers. In late August, the upstart A’s had actually enjoyed a 1½ game lead in the standings, before dropping three straight at Detroit’s Bennett Park. It was in the first game of this pivotal series that Baker was involved in one of the most controversial plays of the era, when Detroit superstar Ty Cobb spiked him in the forearm as Baker was attempting to tag Cobb out at third base. Frank had the wound wrapped and was able to stay in the game, but the play infuriated Mack, who went so far as to call Cobb the dirtiest player in baseball history. But a few days later, a photograph of the play taken by William Kuenzel of the Detroit News showed Baker reaching across the bag to tag Cobb, who was sliding away from the third baseman. The photograph vindicated Cobb, and led the Detroit Free Press to declare that Baker was a “soft-fleshed darling” for complaining about the play. Although he would continue to develop into one of the league’s best players, helping the Athletics win their first World Series in 1910 and batting .334 in 1911 with a league-leading 11 home runs, as a result of the Cobb spiking the mild-mannered Baker carried a reputation for being easily intimidated on the field. It was this alleged weakness that John McGraw and the New York Giants attempted to exploit in the 1911 World Series, with disastrous results. In the bottom of the sixth inning of Game One, the Giants’ Fred Snodgrass was on second and saw a chance to take third when Fred Merkle struck out on a pitch in the dirt. Following a strong throw from the catcher, Baker was blocking the base with the ball when Snodgrass went into the bag hard, spikes high, severely gashing Baker’s left arm. Initially signaling an out, the umpire called the play safe when he saw the ball rolling on the ground. The trainer came out to patch up Baker’s wounds, and the Giants went on to win 2-1. But the tone had been set, and Baker took his revenge with his bat. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth of Game Two, Baker came to bat with one man on base and two outs, facing Giants’ lefthander Rube Marquard. After running the count to 1-1, Marquard threw Baker an inside fastball, which the slugger blasted over the right field fence for a two-run home run. That proved the difference, as the A’s held on to win the game 3-1 and even the Series. The following afternoon, Giants’ ace Christy Mathewson carried a 1-0 lead into the top of the ninth inning, when Baker came to the plate and again smashed a home run to right field, tying the score. When the game moved into extra innings, the Giants once again tried to intimidate Baker. In the bottom of the tenth, Snodgrass again tried to take third, this time on a passed ball. Again, Baker blocked the base with the ball as Snodgrass came into the bag hard, spikes high, cutting into the third baseman’s arm a second time. This time Baker held onto the ball. The A’s went on to win the game in eleven innings, with Baker’s infield hit contributing to the winning two-run rally. After the game, a Philadelphia reporter approached the “battle-scarred hero,” observing the odor emanating from the bandages on Baker’s wounds. When pressed, Baker finally broke his silence, and blurted out, “Yes, Snodgrass spiked me intentionally. He acted like a swell-headed busher.” The A’s went on to win the series 4-2, with Baker leading his team with nine hits, five runs batted in, and a .375 average. His inspired play forever dispelled the notion that he could be intimidated on the diamond, but more importantly, Baker’s two dramatic home runs on consecutive days off two future Hall of Fame pitchers propelled him into the upper echelon of baseball legends. Henceforth, for the rest of his life and beyond, he would be known as “Home Run” Baker. The nickname would become something of a curiosity for future generations, weaned as they were on a version of the game where home runs were a routine occurrence. But in the context of Baker’s time, when it was only the rare slugger who could hit as many as 10 home runs in a season, the name connoted mythic power and strength. Despite his newfound fame, Baker remained a rugged individualist, retiring to his Maryland farm every offseason where he kept in shape by chopping wood and hunting for quail. Sportswriters who managed to track him down for a hot stove feature soon learned that the quickest way to get Frank to open up was to go hunting with him. “Frank is the best shot in Talbot County, and he’s wild about duck shooting,” one friend explained. “Whenever you look at him he’s either just shot fifteen or twenty ducks or is just going to, and he’ll call you blessed if you save him the trouble of bringing up the subject. After that he’ll discuss anything under the sun with you.” From 1912 to 1914, Baker continued to lead the league in home runs every season, and also collected his first RBI title in 1912, with a career high 130, and a second in 1913, when he drove in 117 runs. Continuing to rank among the league leaders in assists and putouts, Baker was also widely regarded as one of the game’s best fielding third basemen. His all-around superlative play helped the Athletics win two more AL pennants and another World Championship in 1913, with Baker once again torching the Giants with a .450 batting average, one home run, and 7 RBI in the five game Series. After the Boston Braves shut down Baker and the Athletics in the 1914 Series, Mack began selling off his championship team. Baker, locked into a three-year contract, attempted to renegotiate for a higher salary, but Mack refused. Both were stubborn men of principle and would not budge from their respective positions. Baker announced he would be perfectly happy back on the farm, “batting a few out with the boys.” Twenty-nine years old and at the peak of a Hall of Fame career, that is exactly what he did. In 1915 he played for the Trappe town team, the Upland club in suburban Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, and the Easton (Maryland) club of the independent Peninsula League. Many local towns held Home Run Baker Days, presenting their hero with gifts in return for his services for the day’s game. Under pressure from Ban Johnson, Connie Mack sold Baker’s contract to the Yankees for the 1916 season, ending the slugger’s lengthy holdout, but after a year’s absence from the major leagues Baker was no longer the dominant offensive force he had been just two years earlier. He put together four solid seasons for New York, but never led the league again in any significant offensive category. Despite his fading skills, Baker was admired by his teammates for his work ethic and imposing locker room presence. Though Baker never led the league in home runs while a Yankee, he still anchored an offensive attack dubbed “Murderer’s Row” before Ruth had even joined the team. In 1919, aided tremendously by the Polo Grounds, the Yankees smashed a major league-leading 47 home runs, 10 of which came from Baker’s heavy stick. Following the 1919 season, during the winter that New York became intoxicated by the news that Babe Ruth had been purchased from the Boston Red Sox, Baker was humbled by personal tragedy. An outbreak of scarlet fever struck the Baker home, killing Frank’s wife, the former Ottilie Tschantre. His two infant daughters also caught the disease, though they eventually recovered. Quarantined, paralyzed by grief, and preoccupied with taking care of his family, Baker announced that he had lost interest in baseball and would not play in 1920. But within a few months Baker was itching for baseball again. He played a few games for his old Upland club, and after a trip to New York in August, agreed to return to the Yankees for the 1921 season. The game was changing as Baker took on the role of a part time player, and his teammate, Babe Ruth, redefined the home run. Perhaps envious of Ruth’s fame, Baker bemoaned the “rabbit ball” that made the home run a more frequent occurrence. “I don’t like to cast aspersions,” Baker later confided to a reporter, “but a Little Leaguer today can hit the modern ball as far as grown men could hit the ball we played with.” Baker decided to hang up his major league spikes after playing in just 66 games during the 1922 season. He married Margaret Mitchell of Baltimore, and returned to his Maryland farms. Though Baker was looking to devote more time to his passions of family, farming, and duck hunting, he was pressed into service as player-manager of the Easton Farmers of the Class D Eastern Shore League in 1924. It was there that he discovered Jimmie Foxx. After Baker sold Foxx to Connie Mack, Baker was unceremoniously sacked as manager during the 1925 season, partly due to the “paltry” price he had received for the young slugger. Continuing to work the family farms while raising his four children, Baker also served his community on the Trappe Town Board, acted as tax collector, was director of the State Bank of Trappe, and was active in the volunteer fire department. He never lost his love for baseball and was an avid supporter of organized Little League when it began. Inexplicably, considering that for many years Baker’s record was the greatest of any third baseman in baseball history, enshrinement in the Hall of Fame eluded him. When finally selected by the Veterans Committee in 1955, the taciturn Baker responded, “It’s better to get a rosebud while you’re alive than a whole bouquet after you’re dead.” Humble as ever, in his later years the man who had first popularized the home run and helped his teams win three world championships told a reporter, “I hope I never do anything to hurt baseball.” His final totals were thirteen big league seasons, a .307 batting average, 103 triples, 96 home runs, 991 runs batted in and three World Championships.

5 out of 10, 80 seconds. These questions killed me today.

10 out of 10, 36 seconds. On Fridays you have to get a great score. It's handed to you. RBI is a very common abbreviation. What does it stand for? How many bases are there in a baseball field? Which of the following players won two Rookie of the Year Awards in the Major Leagues? These are three that I had.

Thank you. I was very lucky this month.

Thank you Jim. It was a close one.