OK, now that most of my south-of-the-border friends are well on their way to their annual food coma, and baseball’s “hot stove” is a few logs shy of producing any appreciable amount of heat at the moment, it is time to stimulate the synapses and try to stump the experts.
What experts are those?
Why, all of us, of course. I mean, why else would we be here if we didn’t love baseball, right? And in the act of loving baseball we usually gain a huge amount of knowledge and trivia about the game. Of course, in the view of George Will, “baseball trivia” is an oxymoron, because there is nothing trivial about baseball.
However, here’s your chance to show what you know, or perhaps what you think the rest of us might not. Bring out your most obscure baseball trivia question, or your favourite baseball factoid, or your weirdest baseball story. Dazzle us with brilliance — or baffle us with bullshit — your choice.
The biggest problem with making trivia-type questions challenging these days can be summed up in two words — teh interwebz. Google, Wikipedia and B-Ref make finding everything too easy, so try and restrain yourself from instantly searching out the answer and see what might be lurking deep in the recesses of your lizard brain. Alternately, try and come up with something that is not readily Googleable (is that a word?)
Shall we play a game?
Dammit, now I agree with George Will on two things.
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My work here is done.
/mic drop
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What’s the other?
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His wisdom on football.
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Agreed there. (Personally, I would make secularism a third.)
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Here’s a really easy one to start things off….
Every player that has led a decade in hits is in the Hall Of Fame, except for 3.
Pete Rose (1970’s) is ineligible.
Ichiro Suzuki (2000’s) is still active.
Who’s the third?
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Frenchy!
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Mark Grace.
Wasn’t this mentioned about a kajillion times when trying to disabuse Jack Morris supporters of the notion that leading the majors in pitcher wins in the 80s was some kind of special feat?
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I don’t remember, but it certainly sounds like something to beat Morris supporters over the head with.
I just know it because I’m a Cubs fan….the same way I know that former Cub Raffy Palmeiro had the 2nd most hits of the 90’s, which makes me wonder how much different the 90’s could have been at Wrigley.
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A certain favorite play of Hist’s leads this decade; dunno if it will hold up the whole decade, but he’s a very likely HOFer.
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Frenchy!
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Oh, duh, I missed that. Like I said, I don’t know if it will hold up; I’d guess either Trout or Harper at the end of the decade.
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Harper has no real shot at it, and even Trout seems like a darkhorse. Howie Kendrick (943 hits, 18th this decade) has nearly 200 more hits this decade than Trout does, and Harper is another 200+ further back than that.
I think I’d pick McCutchen, the only guy in the top 5 (1027 hits) who’s still under 30.
And I actually thought that Miggy was the current leader for the 2010’s….but he’s not. Miggy’s got 1111, the leader is sitting on 1140.
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True, but … Kendrick is likely not to play out the decade. Harper could be injured, true on him. And Cutch would be a good guess.
On Miggy, the online quiz I saw was created more than a year ago, so that’s what threw me.
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I wasn’t suggesting Kendrick was a contender for this particular title. Just pointing out a middling offensive hitter who has huge jump on both Trout and Harper. For that matter, Nick Markakis and Starlin Castro are both in the top 10 for hits this decade, and they aren’t likely contenders either.
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gotcha
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Oh, and is there anything similar on pitching wins by decade?
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Most impressive about Ichiro’s decade was he missed the first year. Essentially he spotted the 2nd place hitter (Beep Beep) a full year and still beat him by 90 hits.
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Indeed. Trout missed 2010 completely, and only had 27 hits in his cup-a-coffee in 2011. It’s just hard to see him making up that much ground on other elite players.
Lucky timing is a huge factor and for all of Trout’s skill, he doesn’t have that timing in his favor.
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Here’s my entry: Who is the most recent switch hitter to win the National League MVP award. How about the American League?
No looking it up…
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Without remembering for sure if he won one or not, I’ll guess Chipper for the NL and … Murray for the AL?
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Yeah, Chipper sounds right for the NL.
The only AL switch-hitter MVP I can think of at all right now just happens to be the answer to a tangential question to this one — Which two switch-hitters won the AL and NL MVP in the same year?
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Well, both were wrong, and doing teh Google afterward, the last AL winner’s a trick question. (No more hints.)
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Lefty’s is easy… it happened the year I was born… 1962. Mickey Mantle and Maury Wills.
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Right on that, but … that’s not the AL answer, as my “trick question” hint surely made clear.
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I know… I posed the question originally… and yes, it is a trick question of sorts.
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OK… the answers:
Last switch hitting NL MVP — Jimmy Rollins – 2007
Last switch hitting AL MVP — Vida Blue – 1971
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On the NL side, I’d forgotten about Rollins, in part … because he wasn’t really deserving.
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I must protest Vida Blue and his .294 OPS in ’71. You’re a cad, sir, using a hitting stat when your answer was a pitcher.
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1971 was pre-DH, therefore he WAS technically a hitter as well as a pitcher.
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OK, I feel like the oddball from work brought home to Thanksgiving by a sympathetic coworker who realized I was new in town and had no where to celebrate the holiday. I don’t know how the personalities integrate or any of the in-jokes. But if you’re going to play Trivial Pursuit, don’t you need to actually read the answers?!?
BTW I just read a story on Yahoo
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/ken-johnson-dies-at-82–was-only-pitcher-to-lose-nine-inning-no-hitter-012140618.html
Ken Johnson was party to an obscure fact I had no idea existed. If asked the question, I would have reached deep and come up with Harvey Haddix, which answer does not fit the question but is another example of how disappointing baseball can be even in view of brilliant performance.
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Who said (pitcher): “The doctors X-rayed my head and found nothing.”
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Dizzy Dean. Or Paula Deen. OR Dean Martin. Anyway, one of those Deans.
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I know it was Dizzy Dean but it also sounds like it could apply to Papelbon… or Schilling.
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Which brothers have the most career home runs?
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The Alous? Second guess is the Waners.
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Third guess is Cal + Billy.
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Close.
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Actually, it was Henry and Tommy Aaron. The DiMaggios are second
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Crap, yes. I’ve heard that before. … been a long time.
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Smells like another trick question to me….where all the HR’s are loaded up on one guy. Maybe something like Jose and Ozzie Canseco.
Did Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa have a brother that only got like 4 or 5 big league ABs?
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No, but thanks for the reminder… Bonds or Sosa never had a baseball playing brother… but Hammerin’ Hank did… Tommie Aaron. This now becomes my official guess.
I was gonna guess the 3 DiMaggio brothers — Joe, Vince and Dom.
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