TRIVIA 2020

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.

Keltner's probably most famous now for Bill James's Keltner HOF test.

http://www.cooperstowncred.com/statistics-glossary/keltner-list/

the satchel paige clue was kind of evil, sorry

i've never really been good with the early 60s.

same here

I know Ken Keltner bcz he made a defensive play said to have ended DiMag's 56-game hitting streak

bingo

i think most strikeouts while allowing a runner is the best way to put it

so wp/pa would be inferred

wp/pb*

easy counting stat one:

starting w/Sammy Sosa's 66 HR season and going down from there, only one number hasn't been the final total of home runs for any batter in MLB history. what is that number?

Iirc it was in the 50s…

59? I know Howard hit 58, not sure about Stanton or Greenberg.

Stanton and the Babe hit 59

51

johnny mize hit 51 HRs. for some reason i always remember that.

55 HRs?

plus Cecil Fielder, Andruw Jones, Willie Mays, and Ralph Kiner!

55 is correct

53 wasn't landed on til Chris David did it (and Pete Alonso did a bit later), and 57 was first landed on by sluggin' Luis Gonzalez

*Davis

A-Rod also hit 57

Judge was the first to hit 62

FB wall this morning--surprised me. Team with the longest stretch since they had a 40-HR guy (I've lost the post now, but I think it was almost 10 years longer than anyone else).

(Should a true trivia question have a fixed answer? The answer to that one will change when this team gets their next 40-HR guy.)

Are we talking 20+ years?

Believe it or not, coming up on 50.

I guess this team moved into the #1 slot when Soler finally hit 40 for the Royals.

Is it the Pirates or am I blanking on one of their guys who hit 40?

Very good--Stargell in '73 (also hit 40 doubles that year, the first 40/40 guy, I think).

for some reason i was thinking pedro alvarez hit 40 at some point for the pirates, but not quite. josh bell also came quite close in recent years

some specific-ass trivia, but here we go

of pitchers with more than 100 PAs in a season since 1900, who was the only pitcher to hit .400 or better?

even more specific: who were the only two pitchers since 1950 to hit .350 or better (again, at least 100 PAs in the season)

hint: you've heard of all three

I got nothin'...While you mull over KM's question, try this: most career HRs by first letter of first name. I'll hide the answers here: twitter.com/CodifyBaseball/status/1622077683575422983. Don't bother with Ruth; he's counted as Babe rather than George, so he's not on the list. Home run range of answers: 27 (U) to 762 (B).

i ran across that one the other day, so i'll stay mum.

here are the answers to my silly question:

walter johnson, 1925, .433 in 107 PAs
don newcombe, 1955, .359 in 125 PAs
catfish hunter, 1971, .350 in 109 PAs

I should have had the middle one; first and third, no chance. (Thinking the third is an anomaly? I don't recall him ever being mentioned as a great hitter.)

Minus his big season, .204 lifetime--still pretty decent for a pitcher.

i didn't realize don was such a good hitter! he put together some excellent seasons in 58 and 59 as well, hitting well above league average

Somehow I did know he was really good. .268/.336/.361 for his career, hit .300 or better six times. Sent up to pinch-hit 88 times.

Sent up to pinch-hit 88 times

damn, that's impressive. now i want to know the record for THAT, heh

i saw a mention of jim abbott's no-hitter today and took a look at the arc of his career. i didn't realize quite how good he was at his peak (1991: 18-11 with 2.89 ERA and 5.5 fWAR, 243 IP, and very good in 1992 as well), but also how bad things got in the late 90s. his ERA was 7.48 in 1996 (he went 2-18 for the angels) over 142 IP. i checked, and yes - that is the highest ERA for a pitcher who has thrown 140+ innings in a season since integration

and he was 28 during that season! he retired, took 1997 off to listen to ok computer, and then came back for 2 more seasons before retiring for good at age 31. what happened to him?

there was no coming back again after Kid A

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.