“We make men without chests and we expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and we are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful."- C.S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man
Friday, October 26, 2007
Sports Trivia
What athlete was a World Series champion, chosen for three MLB All-Star games, and a three-time NBA champion?
I had forgotten about this until reminded by a sports special today.
Gene Conley. Won a World Series with the Braves in '57 and won three championships with the Celtics in '59-'61. Was the winning pitcher of the '55 All-Star Game.
Probably the best two-sport athlete until Bo Jackson, who was good at both football and baseball, and Deion Sanders, who was a great football player and on about Conley's level as a basketball player as a baseball player. Conley was much better than Ainge who couldn't really play baseball at the professional level.
It is the 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee Braves World Series championship. Conley goes somewhat unnoticed since that '57 team had the NL Cy Young Award winner, Warren Spahn, and the NL MVP, Henry Aaron on it.
A great team, the '50s Braves, one of the great underachieving teams of all time. Not only Aaron and Spahn, they also had Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews (probably the greatest player never to win an MVP Award) and an impressive supporting cast (Joe Adcock, Del Crandall, Lew Burdette, Bob Buhl, Bill Bruton, and Johnny Logan). Yet they managed only two pennants and one World Series championship. It is puzzling why they kept losing to the Dodgers that decade, especially in '59.
The Dodgers had Drysdale then (and he was good in '59), but Koufax didn't really arrive until '62. The '59 Dodgers in particular were a team in transition. Drysdale was virtually their only good player at the peak of his career. Yet somehow they squeaked out a World Series. Apparently on sheer mystique.
I guess you're right about Koufax. Bob Uecker had a .429 career average against him. They may have been the only hits Uke ever got in the major leagues.
9 comments:
Danny Ainge?
No, but he was before your time. He was during your dad's youth.
Gene Conley. Won a World Series with the Braves in '57 and won three championships with the Celtics in '59-'61. Was the winning pitcher of the '55 All-Star Game.
Probably the best two-sport athlete until Bo Jackson, who was good at both football and baseball, and Deion Sanders, who was a great football player and on about Conley's level as a basketball player as a baseball player. Conley was much better than Ainge who couldn't really play baseball at the professional level.
It is the 50th anniversary of the Milwaukee Braves World Series championship. Conley goes somewhat unnoticed since that '57 team had the NL Cy Young Award winner, Warren Spahn, and the NL MVP, Henry Aaron on it.
Thanks, Andrew.
A great team, the '50s Braves, one of the great underachieving teams of all time. Not only Aaron and Spahn, they also had Hall of Famer Eddie Mathews (probably the greatest player never to win an MVP Award) and an impressive supporting cast (Joe Adcock, Del Crandall, Lew Burdette, Bob Buhl, Bill Bruton, and Johnny Logan). Yet they managed only two pennants and one World Series championship. It is puzzling why they kept losing to the Dodgers that decade, especially in '59.
Drysdale and Koufax.
The Dodgers had Drysdale then (and he was good in '59), but Koufax didn't really arrive until '62. The '59 Dodgers in particular were a team in transition. Drysdale was virtually their only good player at the peak of his career. Yet somehow they squeaked out a World Series. Apparently on sheer mystique.
Oh, Duke Snider and Gil Hodges were still okay in '59, but not at the top of their game anymore.
I guess you're right about Koufax. Bob Uecker had a .429 career average against him. They may have been the only hits Uke ever got in the major leagues.
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