Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - Power at the Corners, Up the Middle

The prize on the line here is, of course, a No-Prize and Fifty Million Batter's Box points, redeemable anywhere Batter's Box Points are considered legal tender.

This one is hard unless you cheat. Don't cheat. A wrong guess is better (and more fun) than a correct lousy stinking cheater's right answer.

Ready? ...

THE QUESTION: Recently, when Rod Barajas (yes, Rod Barajas!) hit his 20th homer of 2005, the Rangers became only the second team in baseball history to have their entire regular infield (including the catcher) hit 20 homers in the same season -- and just two other teams above those two have had the entire infield not including the catcher hit 20 bombs in the same season -- and that includes the 2004 Texas Rangers (when Barajas hit 15).

Without looking it up, name either of the other two teams and at least two of the four or five (the one including the catcher) members of that team's infield.

Posted by Mick Doherty on Wednesday, September 21 2005 @ 07:44 PM EDT.

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Smaj - Wednesday, September 21 2005 @ 08:25 PM EDT (#128533) #

Reaching from a foggy memory & guessing on this one:

Detroit Tigers Darrell Evans, Lou Whitaker, Tom Brookens, Trammell with Lance Parrish at Catcher????

Gitz - Wednesday, September 21 2005 @ 08:32 PM EDT (#128534) #

A Dodger team in the late 70s/early 80s would have to be one: Steve Garvey, Davy Lopes, Ron Cey, and, while I can't imagine him hitting 20 home runs, Bill Russell was the shortstop.

Mick Doherty - Wednesday, September 21 2005 @ 08:49 PM EDT (#128535) #

Gitz, no, sorry. According to BBRef, Russ never hit more than 7. He did hit those seven the same year Lopes had his only 20-homer season (28).

Smaj, by letter of the law as the question was worded, that's a correct answer ... but the 3B was Darnell Coles, not Tommy Brookens, for the '86 Tigers. Evans, Whitaker and Trammell are all correct.

The other one is MUCH harder, actually. And maybe I can give a hint ... three of the four infielders are in the Hall of Fame. The 3B is not (and of course, this is the half of the answer in which the C did not hit 20+).

Mick Doherty - Thursday, September 22 2005 @ 12:08 AM EDT (#128557) #

This thread has died out pretty quickly, so I'm thinking nobody else is going to take a crack at answering the "hard" part of the question. (Oh, Dave Till ... Mike Green. I had such high hopes for you two. And Magpie! Tsk!)

The other team to have all four infielders hit 20 homers was the 1940 Boston Red Sox. First baseman Jimmie Foxx hit 36, second baseman Bobby Doerr hit 22, third baseman Jim Tabor had 21 and shortstop Joe Cronin had 24. Tabor is the only one of the four not in the Hall of Fame. The Red Sox did not have a "regular" catcher that year. Gene Desautels and Johnny Peacock split the primary catching duties and combined to hit NO homers.

Mike Green - Thursday, September 22 2005 @ 03:48 PM EDT (#128611) #

Doerr/Cronin in the middle infield, that makes sense. Although it could just as easily have been Doerr/Stephens.

JC - Saturday, September 24 2005 @ 12:34 PM EDT (#128769) #

I had an answer to this as soon as I saw it, but to save myself potential embarrassment - I did check it before posting:

The 1996 Baltimore Orioles
http://www.bb-ref.com/teams/BAL/1996.shtml

C Chris Hoiles (25)
1B Rafael Palmeiro (39)
2B Roberto Alomar (22)
3B B.J. Surhoff (21)
SS Cal Ripken (26)

(as well as outfielders Bobby Bonilla and Brady Anderson, with 28 and 50 respectively.)

James W - Saturday, September 24 2005 @ 02:58 PM EDT (#128772) #

I'd imagine some of B.J. Surhoff's home runs came as an OF or DH, because when there was talk of Texas' infield all hitting 20, the only teams ever mentioned are the 1940 Red Sox and the 04-05 Rangers. The Orioles are never brought up.

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