TRIVIA 2020

22/30, made some dumb choices

https://www.mlb.com/news/active-home-run-leaders-quiz

27/30

a couple of blind guesses that got lucky w/some of those rebuilding teams

24

lol marlins

24/30. Got the Jays one right, although I had to think about it a bit!

25/30, a few lucky guesses--missed the Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Mets, Rays, and Rangers. Yeah, the Jays was hard.

22/30

i got the cardinals question wrong

;(

26... perfect until the marlins and then STL NYM and TEX fucked me up

25/30. I mostly just went with whoever’s been on the team longest.

things i didn't know about macho man randy savage:

Baseball career
Savage was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals organization as a catcher out of high school.[15] He was placed in the minor leagues to develop, where he mostly played as an outfielder[16] in the St. Louis Cardinals, and Cincinnati Reds farm systems.[5] Savage was 18 when he began playing minor league baseball; one of his teammates on the 1971 Gulf Coast League Cardinals was Larry Herndon who was also his roommate.[15] Savage would swing a bat into a hanging car tire as a regular training exercise in order to strengthen his hands and make sure he utilized his legs during swings. The technique was so effective that Herndon adopted it and used it during his own career as a baseball coach.[15] Savage injured his natural (right) throwing shoulder after a collision at home plate, and he learned to throw with his left arm instead. Savage's last season was 1974, when he played for the Tampa Tarpons.[16] He played 289 games in four minor league seasons, batting .254 with 16 home runs and 66 RBIs.[15]

Oooooooooh yeeeeeeeaaahh

Got this from a FB baseball group--I didn't know the answer, but I have a feeling it's a well-known question.

Who played for both the Pilots and the Mariners in their first games?

hint: His son played ~1.5 seasons for the Mariners as well.

You've got it. Also won an ERA title with a not-Seattle team.

I'm trying to remember him in Ball Four, and I think I can just vaguely recall one or two mentions.

The RadioShack (!!!) Trivia Question of the 2001 All-Star Game was: "Who are the 3 players still active from Cal Ripken's first All-Star Game in 1983?"

Can you get it?

— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) April 1, 2020

I guessed 2... but full disclosure I had to check that one of them ever made an all-star game and sure enough that was his only appearance.

No idea on the 3rd, even after scanning the rosters!

rickey, rickey and rickey

Yeah, the other one was my guess as he had a juggernaut career spanning 4 decades.

there have been 4 teams which had 3 different position players put up 7+ fWAR in a single season. what are they?
(hint: obviously one of these teams is the cardinals. sorry. i can also give you the decades for each of these 4 seasons, if wanted)

One of them must be a Gehrig-Ruth team, since there were so many seasons where those two did it.

For the Cardinals, I'll guess it's a Pujols-Rolen-Edmonds team, although I'm not sure if there was a season where they were together.

Man, I'm good.

I don't think the Big Red Machine ever extended beyond Morgan/Bench, although Rose may have edged over 7.0 somewhere in there, so that's my third guess. Fourth would be the 2001 Mariners.

was thinking one would be griffey/a-rod/edgar but gar only put up 7 once, before a-rod debuted

before his first full season, rather

those three did combine for 24.8!!!!!!!!!!!!! in 96 though

didn't happen with the killer b's or bash bros, though biggio and bagwell both had 8+ in 97

Not any of those Reds teams either...I don't think the '98 Yankees; they were deep, but I don't think they had huge star seasons in their everyday lineup. Maybe one of the A's teams from around 1930?

the 27 yankees are incredible for this - ruth/gehrig/combs combined for 32.3........ and combs was still under 7

Oh--then I was wrong about the '27 Yankees. Combs is at 7.0 on Baseball Reference...and I see now the question has to do with Fangraphs.

spoiler alert

it did happen 2 years later - ruth/gehrig/lazzeri did it with exactly 10 fewer WAR than the 27 trio (7.8/7.3/7.2)

what bums

Hey, trivia guy, we need two more answers.

This gave me much to ponder on my morning walk. Possibility, which I will check after posting--wondering if Bonds/Kent/fluke-season Rich Aurilia were in alignment?

Online version is Thursday night. Register here: https://t.co/HOspy6gXGu pic.twitter.com/lPy66C1Pnp

— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) April 19, 2020

see thread for example questions

(xpost) No on Bonds/Kent/Aurilia, at least on Baseball Reference. '29 Yankees, '04 Cardinals...

The St. Louis hint makes me think it's a red-herring, like the Blues or something.

errr Browns

Hey, trivia guy, we need two more answers.

shit, sorry! i thought i had this thread bookmarked, so when it didn't come up i assumed no one cared about the trivia question. OOPS!

you've got 2 of the 4:

1929 Yankees (Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri)
2004 Cardinals (Rolen, Edmonds, Pujols)

the other two are much more difficult. i'll give you two clues, once for each:

1) post-war 1940s league champion featuring a top 10 joe posnanski player
2) while mantle and maris were hogging the attention, this team with a pair of slugging outfielders was...also playing (alex trebek i am not)

1) post-war 1940s league champion featuring a top 10 joe posnanski player

evil hint, had to figure this one out through blunt force

and i got the last one, mostly through cheating, but i've never really been good with the early 60s.

None of the Williams-Red Sox, Musial-Cardinals, or Mantle/Maris-Yankees teams check out on Baseball Reference.

those were my first two thoughts

the second one is 1961 but not expressly mantle/maris, as hinted

and only one of the 2 teams passes the threshold in rWAR

Okay, now I get it--'61 Tigers.

Going through Fangraphs is too much work; is the other one a Williams or Musial team?

nope!

it's really hard. it would be astounding if you got this (or anyone else).

all three of the players' first names are three letters long.

and the legendary top 10 player was a 42-year old at the beginning of his MLB career

Ah

Joe/Ken/Lou...?

i'd never even heard of ken keltner

Me neither

1) post-war 1940s league champion featuring a top 10 joe posnanski player

That's what threw me: you don't say so, but I mistakenly assumed the Posnanski guy was one of the three players.

jim abbott listened to treefingers for the first time and, honestly, he hated it. he didn't understand what was even going on and why it was taking so long. but on the third and fourth listen, something changed, and so he retired again

The best he could was good enough

Turned up on my FB feed (from MLB's FB page): the 15 African American pitchers to win 20 games. Here's the link if you want to check yourself (I glanced at the post before trying it myself): https://www.facebook.com/mlb/posts/pfbid02vFMJgGhradC5fUcMLfcen5cSSYQ7TrjdnT5tAwD3SK1C4tH6Kq7PefRAaN8Bi6w4l.

Stealing this from FB: of the 33 players with 3,000 hits, which five never had a 200-hit season?

Answer: Anson, Yaz, Murray, Winfield, Henderson.

ted williams?

still seems crazy tho

oh shit ted didn't even get to 3000 hits; he sucked

Nice question, I only got two right (the first and fourth you listed).

Impressed that you got the first one, one I never would have gotten. I saw the answers concurrent with the question, so didn't get to try it. I think I might have gotten the last three with enough thought--last two for sure--but never would have guessed Yaz, who I would have just assumed got 200 hits in '67. Pretty sure I knew Williams wasn't a 3,000 hit guy because of the two Ws, walks and wars.

Who made the last out in Johnny Vander Meer's second no-hitter? (One or two of you may have seen my FB comment--don't answer.)

(Needless to say, someone famous.)

BR Walk-off asking the real questions

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAwXAAA-uUr?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAYXgAAseEK?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAyXYAACB3J?format=jpg&name=medium
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_pxCAWXoAAtK8o?format=jpg&name=medium

I must have known this long ago and forgot: Randy Moffitt, first-round pick of the Giants in 1970 who went on to have a decent career splitting the closer job with Gary Lavelle for a few years (both played for the Jays, too), is Billy Jean King's brother. Still alive.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of this--lifted from FB--but: who was the only player to play alongside Vlad Guerrero Sr., Craig Biggio, and Dante Bichette?

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/veresda01.shtml

Only one MLB player who started his career before baseball was integrated is still living: Tommy Brown, who was 16 when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944 and is now 96.

Source: https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/Oldest_Living_Baseball_Players.php

Monthly pub trivia tonight. My teams always finishes second to the same team (we've beaten them once). Had a chance to win tonight if we'd gotten the final question right (they didn't either but still won). Category was "Unbrekaable Records": Joe DiMaggio's hit streak happened during which three months?

We guessed June/July/August; it was May/June/July. Great question.

teams = team

Not a question. The Grid led me to look up Mike Bordick today. He finished his career with 1,500 hits, 500 walks, and 800 strikeouts.

Is there a general thread for posting odd or interesting stat-related stuff from the past?

Fluke of the calendar, but caught my attention:

MLB Hits Leaders - Past 10 Decades

2010-2019: Robinson Cano - 2,624 hits
2000-2009: Ichiro Suzuki - 2,244 hits
1990-1999: Wade Boggs - 1,999 hits
1980-1989: Wade Boggs - 1,821 hits
1970-1979: Pete Rose - 2,251 hits
1960-1969: Pete Rose - 2,090 hits
1950-1959: Willie Mays - 1,805 hits
1940-1949: Stan Musial - 1,589 hits
1930-1939: Paul Waner - 1,814 hits
1920-1929: Rogers Hornsby - 2,043 hits

Jesus, that's obviously wrong...averaged 262 hits per season! Sorry, don't shoot the messenger.

Looking at the comments, apparently that's not the only error in there.

MLB.com features Sporacle along with Immaculate Grid...I rarely open it up, but this one's interesting (I got 19/25):

https://www.mlb.com/fans/trivia/name-that-baseball-player

I got 8. But that was also from having terrible luck with my guesses (which was most of them)

I got 13. There’s a fun reference to Buster’s legal name in this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZS9fmkY184

Only player to knock in 100 (season) for both the Jays and the Expos? Never would have got this.

Tony Batista

i did so poorly on this that i'm not even going to tell you my score: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZFFVtw2f0b-S0KC7ccWwJyInUPT1N_ygC6FygFRo4uCjXew/viewform

(from The Athletic's 2024 Baseball Trivia Quiz)

13/50. I knew the first one right away at least.

25/50--went fast, intuitive guessing (I knew maybe seven or eight for sure through elimination).

17/50 but maybe only knew 2-3 w hi certainty

25/50. I also went fast, with mostly intuitive guessing. Cool quiz though.

15. yikes

The most amazing stat you'll hear today: Babe Ruth hit more HR during Jimmy Carter's lifetime (430) than any currently active player (Giancarlo Stanton, 429).

Drew Davis
‪drewdavis71.bsky.social‬

The MLB career home run leaders when Jimmy Carter was born on October 1, 1924:

1 - Babe Ruth 287
2 - Cy Williams 173
3 - Rogers Hornsby 141
4 - Roger Connor 138
5 - Sam Thompson 126

(xpost) I had to really think about that for it to make sense (eventually it did).

Another one (a guy in the comments verified the math):

https://i.postimg.cc/26n6q5P3/rickey.jpg

Two possible answers for a second baseman (and possibly/probably a third active player):

https://i.postimg.cc/T1VN3gdk/quiz.jpg

(Of the players listed, there are other possibilities--I can think of another catcher and two other third basemen who would work.)

So… this is the highest WAR by position, for players that have played for only one team?

If that’s correct, I’m actually not certain who the answer is… maybe Whitaker? Fox? Collins? Banks?!

You're on the right track: one team/MVP/HOF. So Robinson and Gehringer, with Altuve a possibility down the road.

Wow I was pretty off on most of those guys

Oh ya, Gehringer looks like the answer with Whitaker the runner up

Who threw the first-ever CG shutout against the Jays?

Fergie Jenkins!

i saw that too!

https://cooperstownersincanada.com/2025/04/24/april-24-1977-fergie-jenkins-threw-the-first-shutout-against-the-blue-jays-at-exhibition-stadium-2

Good reader question from Posnanski's column today:

Not counting players who've won an actual (seasonal) Triple Crown, eight others have won a career TC, leading all three categories in different years.

-- four are in the HOF
-- three are PED players who would be in otherwise
-- one is neither; who is it?

He is a post-expansion player everybody knows well.

Andrés Galarraga

The guy with the question missed Albert Pujols--someone else.

i remember seeking out the ]show hidden text[ starting lineup figure just so i could put him sideways in a weird way

He was one and done when he came up for the HOF, which makes sense: good raw totals, but the mitigating factor of Coors during his prime barely had him nudge above 30 WAR.

Who is the only player to hit more than 90 HR for both the Mets and the Yankees?

Maybe this is an easy one for those of you based in NY, but I couldn't come up with it.

Link to the player's BR page when you want the answer.

thought strawberry may have cranked out some more HRs at the end with the yankees but nope!

Curtis Granderson? Haven't checked yet.

Gold star for robot boy!