Obscure triva

Several years ago George Will wrote a baseball quiz for Time Magazine and one of the questions was: Who was the only Major Leaguer to wear the name of his hometown on his jersey? Well I'll give you the answer that Will gave: Bill Voiselle 96 because he was from 96 South Carolina and he wore number 96 for a while. But there are actually two players who wore the name of his hometown on his jersey. I know because I saw one of them with my own eyes. Who is the other player who wore the name of his hometown on his jersey?

Hint: he played more recently than Voiselle 1942-1950

Don't guess Darryl Boston was from Boston. ha

John Boccabella, born in San Francisco played for San Francisco in 1974 (but I don't suppose that counts as the answer to this quiz )

Bill

Well here's the answer: Dick Allen
In 1977 when Allen played for the A's he wore number 60 and instead of Allen on the back of his Jersy it said WAMPUM because he was from Wampum, PA. I was sitting behind homeplate at the Colleseum with some friends in 1977 and they announced "now batting for Oakland Dick Allen" and he walked up to the plate wearing #60 with WAMPUM above the number and we all just looked at each other. Who or what is WAMPUM? None of us knew he was from Wampum, PA and there was no internet or smart phones to look up what Wampum meant. Well a couple of days later I looked him up in the Baseball Encylopedia. I think most us remember the big thick book. There it was Born: Wampum, PA. As Casey Stengel said "I don't know but you could look it up"

http://90feetofperfection.files.wordpre ... ampum1.jpg

Here's a photo as proof.

One of my father's favorite trivia questions was the Bill Voiselle/96 SC one, so for his 96th birthday, I wrote to the 96 SC chamber of commerce and they sent him a bunch of things, including a Bill Voiselle bio, and a souvenir 96 license plate.

hotcorner4444 wrote:

One of my father's favorite trivia questions was the Bill Voiselle/96 SC one, so for his 96th birthday, I wrote to the 96 SC chamber of commerce and they sent him a bunch of things, including a Bill Voiselle bio, and a souvenir 96 license plate.

That is way cool! And thanks for the Dick Allen pic.