Obscure sports trivia

Another good guess.

The guy he's tied with fits the title of this thread.

 

I looked up Johnson. He had 21 Ks in his first two starts in 1993, 20 in '96, 24 in '99, 23 in 2000 and 20 in '02.

In 1999, he followed a 9-strikeout game with four in a row of 10 or more. In 2000, he opened the season with nine double-digit strikeout games in his first 10 starts. He repeated that in 2001 with 9 double-digit games -- including a 20-strikeout game -- in his first 10 starts.

 

It was Karl Spooner of the 1954 Brooklyn Dodgers. Another pitcher they ruined young.

Branca. Newcombe. Erskine. Spooner. Palica. Labine. Banta. Podres. Black. Bessent. All washed up by age 30 at the latest, by overwork or mismanagement. I'd throw Billy Loes in there too, but he was just lazy.

 

That's it.

From Wikipedia:
Spooner made his major league debut with the Dodgers on September 22, 1954 at the age of 23.[2] He allowed only 3 hits, all singles and, struck out 15 batters, setting a Major League Baseball record for most strikeouts by a pitcher in his major league debut.[4] He broke the record of 13 strikeouts set by the New York Giants’ Cliff Melton on April 25, 1937.[4] J. R. Richard tied the record in his major league debut in 1971.[5] Spooner also set another record for pitching debuts by recording six consecutive strikeouts, striking out the side in both the 7th and 8th innings.[4] Pete Richert (1962) is the only other pitcher to strike out six consecutive batters in his Major League debut.

Four days later, Spooner beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 1-0, striking out 12 and surrendering 4 hits.[1] Although he only started two games for the Dodgers, Spooner, compiled two complete game shutouts, throwing 18 innings, giving up 7 total hits and no runs. His 27 strikeouts in two successive games was a National League record (not just for rookies) and was second only to Bob Feller’s 28 on the major league list.[4]

However, during spring training prior to the 1955 season, Spooner entered a game without warming up properly. A severe arm injury was the result, after which Spooner was out of action until May 15, then made a comeback, appearing in 29 games with the Dodgers that year, but with only fairly mild success. Initially used as a spot starter, Spooner was moved to the bullpen after two poor starts. He was added back into the rotation in late June, removed from it at the end of July, and was then given some spot starts in August and September, finishing the season at 8–6. He appeared in his final major league game on October 3, 1955 when he started game 6 of the 1955 World Series.

 

Just FYI: It wasn’t his major league debut because he’d made six relief appearances previously, but Feller struck out 15 in his first career start, a 4-1 complete game win over the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 23, 1936.

Alas, he only fanned five in his next start.

 

Maybe obvious, but how many post-season hits does Mike Trout have?

 

Same number as Ernie Banks and Ron Santo?

 

Worse.

One.

 

How is that worse? Didn’t Banks and Santo have zero?

 

It’s worse because it means he actually played in the postseason and didn’t do shit.

He went 1-for-12 in three games against Kansas City, though he did walk three times and scored a run.

 

name the only NFL running back to rush for more than 5,000 career yards, but never average more than 4.0 yards per carry in any season. Some hints: he did go for more than 1,000 yards in one season, played in two pro bowls and was mostly his team’s starter for his career.

 

My off-the-top-of-my-head guess would be Ottis Anderson.