#117: Elmer Riddle

Elmer Riddle

I) Elmer Riddle --> '49 Pirates --> Murry Dickson, Ed Fitz Gerald, Ted Beard

I'm going to go off on a tangent here for a moment. Whenever I start one of these, I check the player's teams to see if I've connected them before, especially their last year. I was a bit surprised that after all these posts, This will be my first team from 1949. It made me wonder how many other years I'm missing. I decided to check. From 1910 to present, the following years have no representation:

1912, 1916, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1925, 1931, 1932, 1935, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1948, 1949, 1955, 1956, 1981

1981 surprises me. I may have to target that one. The rest are from over 50 years ago, so I'm not surprised. Anyway, back to our chain.

II) Beard --> '58 White Sox
II) Dickson --> '59 Kansas City Athletics
II) Fitz Gerald --> '59 Washington Senators
II) Fitz Gerald --> '59 Indians

OK, The '59 Athletics are connected, so I know I can go there. I also have the '57 White Sox connected, so I'm sure I can follow that path as well. I'm going to try Fitz Gerald and see if I can get to Stairs quicker.

II) Fitz Gerald --> '59 Senators --> Jim Kaat
      III) Kaat --> '80 Yankees --> Rick Cerone

Easy enough.

1. Elmer Riddle played for the 1949 Pittsburgh Pirates with Ed Fitz Gerald.
2. Ed Fitz Gerald played for the 1959 Washington Senators with Jim Kaat.
3. Jim Kaat played for the 1980 New York Yankees with Rick Cerone.
4. Rick Cerone played for the 1992 Montreal Expos with Matt Stairs!

Degrees of Matt Stairs: 4